me too on tuesday night – fell in love with bikes again after a summer of surfing/SUP/Kitesurfing. Off out tonight as well and locked in for a Wales trip soon.

Yay for bikes!

I think I *might* have one of those in the tool box – not needed so you can have it if you like.

Gents! Gents!

I completely own up to not having the rad skillz need for tough, techy stuff. My OP was more of a technical interest. I’m sure some people could get down stuff that would make me cry on their pinarello dogma. Well done. My point was more to do with whether the same rider could do it quicker on a slack HA bike with very little travel.

consensus is that slack is useful for slow, on the brakes steep descents. No?

molgrips – I think that’s the cookie. As I said, my mind was just wandering a bit last night and wondered what the consensus was on importance of maintaining a slack HA on steep techy stuff.

why are you pitching your weight forward in this situation? keep your weight centred, as the terrain gets steeper this involves moving your arse (COG) behind the saddle

I’m not. even putting weight further back when on super steep stuff will still mean more weight on the front – you can only get your weight so far back as arse (COG) is stopped by rear wheel.

The crux of my argument is that a steepening head angle is undesirable on slow, steep descents. Low speed compression doesn’t sort this as it’s a weight distribution thing.

wouldn’t a beefier version of the spesh brain work in these circumstances?

yossarian – Member
how did the track team bend the rules? Genuinely interested.

one of the team deliberatlely fell off after getting off to a dodgy start. if you fall off very early in a race you are allowed a re-start. so he did it.

probably counter balanced by the 2 harsh decisions against Penders.

They didn’t do anything wrong, They just used the rules.

Don’t hate the players. Hate the game!

I think board does a fine job vs Ed Leigh who really doesn’t know anything.

As for Boardman not knowing anything – really? I’d not fancy anyone on here’s chances in a mtb trivia quiz.

good race, good course, and great to see thousands of fans on the course cheering them round.

Gutted for killeen – I hope his injury isn’t too bad.

Just trying to stand out from the 2 sheets of A4 Cv that most people have. I agree – self promotion isn’t my fave thing to be honest, but needs must.

On that note, anyone want to gizza job? 😉

given the forecast, I envisage a day like the 2010 big dog – very muddy (esp on the otherside of the A27) and slippy. but no great difference from previous years.

Looking forward to it! (as Jim_kirk said, please bring humour. it’s only bikes)

🙂

couldn’t she get one of these to go with the ipad?

http://www.pinnaclemicrogb.co.uk/newcart/dsku.php?g=K39357US&m=Kensington+Technology

I would say it certainly is a job – it’s a noble one don’t get me wrong and I know how hard teachers work. My [point is that if you live in the south east, and are a teacher, your wages don’t really reflect the skill set/training/investment.

I know I’m i the south, but I grew up in in the north. I can promise you, plenty of shitty places to teach in the south as well as the north – maybe Dave should pay more for people to teach in failing schools (does this happen already?).

aye it’s a tricky one – there are so many what ifs that there are always going to be winners and loser whatever decision is made.

is it fair that a person doing the same job, often in more challenging areas gets paid less? What if they want to retire nearer to family in Surrey?

No, it’s not, but unfortunately that’s life – employers have long been linking cost of living to wages – plenty of industries where people working harder for less because of where they live.

I fear it’ll mean more strikes, though it’ll be hard for the unions to get a unified voice among it’s members when some could stand to do better than others out of pay reforms. it’s not a “we’re all in it togetehr” issue like pensions.

not an easy situation for anyone.

it’s hard to fault the logic – is it fair that a teacher based in surrey, for instance should enjoy a poorer quality of life than one based in cumbria.

kimbers – Member
tieing earnings to local cost of living

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17411117

seems to me that poorer areas will end up with lower quality staff, teachers being a prime example

So using your logic rich areas currently attract poorer quality staff. Really?

Well I’ve had shimano and avid pads fall to bits too. shit happens.

All I’m saying is that my experience with SS has been good, and the pads (which I have been using for years now) have been great apart from one set about 3 years ago.

Anyways. This have been done to death.

jumpupanddown – Member
If I did that with my LBS I’d get laughed out of the building
youre LBS sounds shit

You’re telling me your bike shop would happily replace a set of pads with 4 months wear in them? Really?

Your local bike shop sounds unusual.

Can’t fault them. I had some pads fall to bits about four months after I bought them (came off the backing) – sent them an email to let them know really – got a reply saying to send the pads back and they would replace.

If I did that with my LBS I’d get laughed out of the building.

so, follow the returns policy, as per the distance selling rules. then, complain on a public forum if it doesn’t go to plan.

Oh, one more thing. Please, please could you learn to use paragraphs? reading the OP gave me a proper head ache.

impressive.

48 right now – isn’t whats considered safer to be under 72?

I don’t think I’ve ever topped 55.

my housemate does it – started as a tester a few years ago, he’s well into it and now runs a team of UA testers. so yes, it can lead to better things, but generally it’s boring, monotonous – and bizarely bloody hard to get into.

The bugger is that the industry are able to employ people on fairly shitty conditions (it took my mate 3 years before he got a full time contract).

still, it’s a job, s not to be sniffed at.

10pmix – Member
Lost on me. Just some bloke riding no handed pretending to do stuff on a bike that can’t be done in reality and somehow claiming this means he lives on a bike…er.

Imagine making a movie about something wasn’t possible or likely to happen. It’ll never catch on. :-/

Edit:

I loved it.

@apushbikerider

general banter and the odd insightful comment.

but generally just dross.

wot TJ said

I had quite a bit of head scratching before finding the spacer underneath the kitchen table.

work fine once back on!

never again will I try to get a partner to ride. The thing is with bikes is that I like the effort, and the challenge, and getting out of breath, if i’m not doing that then it’s not really what I’m there for.

Nothing wrong with having separate interests, I for one will be keeping Bikes just for me (unless they already ride as fast or faster than me, which, in fairness wouldn’t be that difficult).

Wot flashy said.

it’ll be half that price at some point in the near future.

about 90 minutes down here on the south coast and first time I’ve been cold in ages – had to ride properly hard for 20 minutes before I warmed up, and even then my feet were completely numb for the rest of the ride.

however, fast fast fast! no bike cleaning, and a nice warm feeling now. I’m a happy, sleepy chap 🙂

Whippet

This would seem to fit the bill?

Surrounded By Zulus – Member
Publicity stunt.

exactly this. nothing else. A political motive to give him the knighthood and a political motive to strip him of it.

As titles don’t really mean much to me then it really means bugger all that it’s been taken away.

What does irk me a little bit is that the stripping of his title has become a whitehall priority – SURELY these people have more important things to do? think of the time, manpower and money poured into deciding what to do with his knighthood.

It’s hardly going to act as a warning to other bankers. I bet the less scrupulous ones won’t sleep for weeks…..jeeez!

how about this?

http://www.brightonbigdog.com/

not sure where you are in the UK, but combined with a weekend in sunny brighton, the big dog is hands down the friendliest, funnest mtb event I’ve done (i’m biased, obviously).

lots of good feedback on here for it.

beer served at the finish line too – works for me!

cool. deffo not the battery. was hoping it would be easier with my tiny engine!

Oh well, scraped knuckles, here we go.

Update.

got annoyed with mega brake rub at lunchtime yesterday poopping down the shops.

took pads out, rubbed braking surface on the curb for a bit (amazing how quickly they wear down on an abrasive surface)

pads back in. all working perfecto.

peaty used to run a 140 on the back didn’t he?

didn’t seem to slow him down much.

wot stumpy said – in engineering terms 0.9mm is a gaping chasm.

shim, or don’t bother (I’d take the former option TBH)

yes.

or you can make your own mount out of some 22m pipe clip – dead secure and cost you about 50 and a couple of zip ties.

had both over the years.

SRAM jockeys are terrible, no idea why they would make jockey wheels out of something so fromage – like.

I like the shifting though, very crisp, very nice.

That said, recent Shimano stuff I’ve tried is equally nice.

Not much to pick between them really. Which isn’t that surprising….

I know both well – I looked after them both for a ski holiday company years ago.

Borovets = poorer infrastructure – older lifts, older hotels, cheaper, fewer russians, more prostitutes, but sort of fun in a way. not a bad place, but certainly not that great for skiing to be honest.

Bankso = better skiing. newer hotels, more expensive. better lift system – all lifts are modern four or six packs. can be a bit busy queuing at the bottom of the mountain in the morning at the gondola (only way to get up the hill). realistically, neither are amazing and can be skied in a day. BUT, if theres a dump of snow it’ll be great fun.

Bulgarian food generally is served warm rather than hot – most restaurants and hotels will accommodate british tastes if you ask for food to be served hot. i found the food to be very good on the whole, lots of stews, dumplings etc. heavy winter food which sounds fine to me when I’m in the mountains.

neither is that cheap any more unfortunately, but, it’s cheap and cheerful and does what it says on the tin. friendly locals too and some good nightlife in Bansko (but you’ve got to go looking, which is part of the fun!)

Don’t go expecting 3 valleys of dolomiti superski and you’ll no doubt bump into some sound people and have a bloody good holiday.

One other thing to note is that ski schools are actually VERY good, far better than anything I’ve experienced from the likes of ESF.

Hope that helps!

TandemJeremy – Member
CF tends to fail catastrophically

I won’t have Captain Flasheart being talked about in this manner. He’s a thoroughly stand up chap.

Please explain to me how a LBS is somehow less of a Capitalist Enterprise than CRC etc?

They have a different model. no one is saying that a bike shop is a charity, but they stock kit for you to try on before you buy, at significant extra cost to them than running a warehouse in Northern Ireland.

Part of the risk they run is that they are used as a ‘try before you buy’ free service before people go to CRC/wiggle for the cheapest price. Really they are at the mercy of their customers.

I’m not saying what you’re doing is wrong, Elfin, it’s just that striding in and demanding the cheapest price in the UK in a LBS when they have a completely different cost base and massively less buying power than the big boys isn’t that fair.

Me? I buy my sundries (tubes, tyres etc) from the bug boys – I know enough about bikes to know what the kit will do and what to buy – I don’t need a LBS for this service.

I do buy clothing etc from a shop, because I need to know if it will fit and can’t be arsed playing returns tennis via post with CRC.

I just think that the practice of taking up a shops time when you have no intention of buying when they could be spending time with a genuine customer is a bit harsh. so I’ll stand by what i sad, elfin, you’re being harsh.

Elfin, I’d say that’s a little harsh – I’d probably ask the question re price matching before using their facility to try equipment for size.

at the end of the day a LBS does provide a service in that you can touch, see and feel the products before you buy, and this is a more expensive way of selling something. As the retailer, they just have to hope that some of their customers put a value on this service. A bike, a jacket, helmet & shoes is a much more personal item than an electronics item, otherwise you’d not have gone in and tried it free of charge.

We get this a huge amount in my trade, with customers calling up, gleaning all the information they can from us and then taking their custom elsewhere to save (often a paltry) amount of cash.

Consumers need to put a value on good service. They will miss it when it’s gone (the amount of CRC bashing threads lately is a testament to this).

I’ve always been dissappointed in the cost of things like jockey wheels. BBB worked for me though. cost a tenner or so – wheels seem much more hard wearing than the SRAM versions too.