A DCD?

I was bought a watch from the more tasteful end of the G-Shock lineup as a leaving gift from my last employer.

I was shocked to be told later – whilst delving about in mud up to my elbows trying to attach a rope to a half buried Land Rover – that I was wearing a hundred quid’s worth of watch. Seems like a ridiculous amount of money to have strapped to my wrist. So much so that I hardly wear it now.

This thread has shocked me.

For me, riding is like being in a bubble. The world and all associated nonsense are a hazy memory. It’s wierd, real life just seems so far away.

Without that escape I struggle to find sense out existance.

how do you get to Dam Flask from Ringinglow???

I wondered the same actually – And then to ride above rivelin after Dam Flask? Would all be a bit tarmaccy to link that lot up wouldn’t it?

has been wearing the same overalls since the days when he serviced Wellington bombers.

Haha, that’s the sort of mechanic you want! Far more useful than the grunting stoner teenagers more often found in the back of bike shops these days.

Glad you had a fun weekend. I was out in the area myself – hope cross, mam tor, pindale, shatton etc. Was nice and dry for the time of year. Very windy atop mam tor eh :o)

Am yet to ride Jacob’s ladder, must try that one.

That sir, is a bloody nice bike.

I’ve been using a hivis Altura Nightvision since last summer for daily commuting and can totally recommend it.

I heard about it at the last minute (finger on the pulse over here or what) so I looked at the online timetable and ticked a few of the things I’d like to see but everything seemed to clash with everything else and it all was a little complex, so I decided not to bother. Now I regret it.

If it’s been sprayed with a hose, leave it on the bike and blast loads of GT85 into all the pivots and then manually force the mech in and out through it’s entire swing until it moves freely.

As stated above, there’s little to go wrong with a front mech and it probably won’t need replacing unless it’s really shagged.

Replace the cable and give everything a good clean and lube. My commuter front mech stops dowshifting about once a fortnight from all the road grime and I only clean it when I finally get bored of downshifting with my foot 🙂

Lovely machine.

That’s nice – the British press making a joke out of the death of someone’s brother/dad/son/husband.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1238496241108506429

Tyres at the base of a lampost.

Nah, that still happens. I saw that up the top of Fox Hill yesterday evening, and I saw a hula hoop at the base of a bus stop sign on Herries Road on my way in this a.m.

I saw an unravelled .mp3 file in a hedge the other day. Ones and Zeros all tangled up.

Hope Valley on sunday so long as this stupid cold I’ve caught from the fat lazy unhealthy slobs at work doesn’t turn into anything worse.

Looks like a lot of fun :o)

clearcoated.

Sweet. Looks ace 🙂 Cheers for the linky.

I love that ad and the bike also. I want an 80s suspension BMX right lots now.

To avoid having your reg number snapped by an average-speed Panopticon, you could closely tailgate a Pantechnicon.

I can recommend Maxxis Medusa. Used them through this winter with good results.

Or they could be running the MTB versions with long pull (V compatible) levers like these.

Though it looks like JTEK make both right hand and left hand versions.

http://jtekengineering.com/AeroBrake.htm

I know I know, nobody’s listening anymore…

Found that product above – the shifter monted brake lever.

It’s called the HED Third Brake Lever

One side only by the looks of things, so no good for my use. Shame they don’t do Third and Fourth Brake Levers.

This guy has come up with a half-decent solution too.

http://sweetbike.org/?p=180

Anyone know anything about the arrangement at the front of the aero bars on this page?

It appears to combine bar end shifting and braking at the same point.

if you want to use bar-end shifters having a brake-lever anywhere near there is going to cause cable issues

Hmm, didn’t think of that.

would STIs not work for you?

STIs would work but for the cable direction being wrong, no? And they’d also have redundant hoods at the bar tops which I’d like to avoid if possible cos I’m a bit of a ponce who cares about looks.

Drop bars, STIs and ride on the hoods would seem the easiest solution to this!

When my bullhorn-stubborness gets me nowhere that may well be the solution I’m forced to settle on.

I think the cable will still come out the wrong end of those won’t it

Yes, unfortunately 🙁

Alternatively, you could stick flat bar levers on the right way round and see how that feels, you’d be pulling them in a slightly different direction, but it might just work.

That would be an interesting thing to try, s’pose it relies on me other none-braking fingers not getting in the way…

Is that what you’ve done with those Salsa things, JoB? Mounted them with the lever blades pointing skyward?

Just for info, I need the ends of the bar available for mounting bar-end shifters on/in.

I’m currently running a Roadrat with flat bars and bar ends. Over the last six months I’ve found the only time I use the flats is to get to the brakes and shifters. So the idea with bullhorns is that I can get all my controls up where my hands are…

Couldn’t you just use a normal flat-bar lever? I guess it’d mean cables going out in a funny direction though. You can get flat bar levers that pull road bike amounts of cable.

Yeah, that would be cool except the cable exiting forward. I’m after a tidy setup ideally, routing the cables under the tape. If it’s not going to work then I don’t mind a bit of a messy setup, but if the right kit is out there I’d rather use that 🙂

Or alternatively, you used to be able to get normal road levers without hoods

That’s the ideal situaion to be honest – proper road bike levers without hoods, that don’t spit the cables out all over the place.

As soon as I left the office yesterday and looked at the back of my ‘rat I realised what a numpty suggestion I made 🙂 Of course you can’t mount the canti stud brackets the opposite way… duh

I can’t remember what the canti stud mounts look like off hand as I use discs on mine, but if *it is* being caused by the distance from the canti studs to the rim, can’t you swap the direction round so they’re mounted to the frame the other way?

Jimmy Krankie.

It’s folk buying the stuff they used to drool over when it was new. A ridiculous thing to do if you ask me. On that subject, anyone got a pullshock Yeti Lawwill 6 going? Will pay no more than forty thousand pounds.

ARE THESE PEOPLE INSANE?

Good lord, I’d be embarassed to be seen on such a machine. What a ridiculous thing. Looks like they got the perspective wrong when they built it. I can only assume it’s the Vitus M.C.Escher limited edition.

But if it’s cool, then it’s cool and I must be a square.

Being a Sheffielder I’d never seen any of these ‘fixie’ types. I’d read about the phenomenon but not put a great deal of thought into it.

Then last weekend I visited a friend in London and we had a walk down Brick Lane and the surrounding area. Oh my. Never before have I seen such a bunch of ridiculous gayers on ridiculously inappropriately specced track bikes doing rubbish wheelies.

Each to his own like, but bloody hell what a bizarre trend.

I wouldn’t get a SSC one – the last friend of a friend of someone’s brother I know on a forum I used to read who bought one caught instantly on fire, was smashed limb from limb and catapulted into deep space and back through time into the early stone age, and a 50 square mile perimiter has been set up around where it happened which won’t be safe for anyone to enter for 50,000 years.

Oh, actually my employer did try to introduce the cyclescheme and sent an email round saying how it would work and askign if anyone would be interested.

The staff reacted in much the same way I would expect someone might react had someone just pissed on their kids.

Pathetic, fat, lazy losers.

I have a pretty self-serving attitude at my place of work to be honest. I’m one of 3 or four regular cycle commuters out of 150 staff, which means we always have space to store bikes and kit, and the rush for the showers (though I don’t bother to be honest, I never deal with customers) is never bad.

If everybody started cycling in the demand for what little facilities we do have would be huge, and things would start getting out of hand.

Therefore, in a purely selfish way, I’m happy to be one of a tiny minority 🙂