Sounds like a place worth a visit. I have a kinda hankering to find out if a USA Strat is worth the dollar over my old mexi.

If you’re ever in the Bath/Frome area, drop in and try one.

JP

Yep – Deore 4 pot on my Mega. Fit some Saint sintered pads when the originals wear out and you’ve got a totally reliable but very powerful brakeset for very little cash.

JP

You sound like every music shop owner’s dream customer.

JP

All of these restrictive ideas that the more self righteous STW members have suggested sound a lot like fascism. Is that what you really want, or are you just looking for a replacement for religion?

JP

Maybe tested it in a warehouse/completely different setting then got it home to find it sounded nothing like he thought it would? Can see how that would work, like car park testing bikes.

I don’t think he has that excuse – he brought his own AVRI Tele to test it back to back with the ones he was looking at. At one point he even had his own guitar and one of the Teles on his lap at the same time, swapping between them back and forth.

As my father once said to a similarly annoying customer years ago – ‘There should be a law protecting people like me from people like you!’

JP

Hold on, I thought you sold coffee. Confused.

4 different businesses spread over a couple of warehouses. Coffee is one of them; the others are guitars, harmonicas and chess sets. I’m involved in the first three, but not the last one, which is my business partner’s original business.

JP

rOcKeTdOg

Subscriber

I’d like a Mustang with a maple fret board please. Will only test play for less than an hour. Can you help?

Maybe. Let me talk to my business partner – he sources everything. The only thing we’ve got anywhere near that at the moment is a 1963 Jaguar, but there’s always new stuff coming in.

JP

I did, once, have to ban someone, though, who bought a total of 15 harmonicas over a two week period and kept exchanging them.

I don’t know anything about guitars so have no business on this thread but I know that’s one dirty bastard. Don’t you sell things you suck/blow with a returns exemption like M&S undies? I’d imagine Anne Summers has similar exclusions….

They were all unused – that’s the only way they can be exchanged, unless they’re faulty.

JP

Vitus Sentier VR, Nukeproof Scout.

JP

He bought a Thinline Tele with TV Jones pickups.

We’re pretty much an online business (several businesses, really), so thankfully don’t get too much of this sort of thing. I did, once, have to ban someone, though, who bought a total of 15 harmonicas over a two week period and kept exchanging them.

JP

“If your Death Grips are adding 10mm to your bars you’ve not installed them properly – you need to whack them with a rubber mallet to get them on fully.”

I’ve hit enough Deathgrips hard enough with enough mallets onto enough handlebars to know they add 5mm onto each end of the bar!

Well, I’ve just measured my bars with Deathgrips on and they’re still 800mm, like they were with the last pair.

JP

He was looking at guitars in the £1500 to £2800 range. I don’t understand what he was trying to ascertain; even the most picky pros we’ve sold to haven’t spent more than an hour comparing guitars.

JP

Wind Hill has several trails that are suitable, and there’s Ashton Court/Lea Woods about 20 miles away if you want something a bit easier.

JP

He’s a great pop musician. Taupin, on the other hand, is a terrible lyricist. Weird, really.

JP

It’s got nothing to do with height – if you look at the pro DH riders, many of the women ride with wider bars than the men.

I’m 5’9 and ride 800mm bars and they’re spot on for me. I’ve got pretty narrow shoulders and the extra leverage of wider bars makes a big difference for me on technical stuff and rock gardens.

If your Death Grips are adding 10mm to your bars you’ve not installed them properly – you need to whack them with a rubber mallet to get them on fully.

JP

Your other option is to ride the harder stuff. There’s nothing too difficult in the red/black territory apart from 50 Shades and some of the pro line bits.

JP

If something we sell is genuinely faulty then I’ll refund the cost of the item, original postage and return postage. If it’s a change of mind/etc but not faulty I’ll refund the cost of the item.

JP

I’d try the Assegai if I were you – it’s better than the Magic Mary in the dry and wet. Even in quite thick mud it’s great.

JP

Could be tempted to try the bigger Mary then just for a giggle – I’ll go and see how much that weighs in comparison to check it’s not a boat anchor etc or that it costs like £60 – would prefer not to pay that much for a tyre ideally (which can be a problem with Maxxis).

Out of the Michelin tyres –
Which is actually softer / grippier, the magic-x or the gum-x? I’ve seen conflicting comments on that.

The Gum-Xis meant to be softer. The Magi-X is slightly harder but also slower rebounding (which usually happens when the tyre is softer. Neither is particularly soft, though.

If you really want to try one, I’ve got a Magi-X Wild Enduro that’s done about 100 off road miles and is about 1/6th worn, which you could have for £15.

JP

Wild enduro don’t work with 30mm rims

contradicts most of the reviews…also my experience of running them on 30mm rims.

They definitely didn’t work well on my 35mm Hope rims – subjectively and objectively (have quite a few timed runs to show this).

JP

I’ve ridden all of those tyres, but not in all formats.

The Wild Enduro is my least favourite – it was prone to letting go suddenly and was never very confidence inspiring in the wet. This was the Magi-X on the front.

The Magic Mary in SG ultrasoft is a great tyre – much better than the Michelin in the wet and better damping. The latter is more a consequences of the casing, so I’m not exactly comparing like with like.

The Assegai is better than both of them – it’s very predictable in the dry; much more so than the DHR even. In the wet it totally rocks – just got back from Wind Hill, which was muddy as hell, yet over the rooty stuff on some of the blacks it was totally sure-footed.

The caveat here is that I’m using the DH casing Maxxgrip, which is quite heavy (1320g on my scales). The Exo/Maxterra models are lighter but you give up quite a bit of damping/grip. I don’t really care about uphill speed so am willing to make that compromise.

JP

For example Telecaster. Great guitar would pick it over a gibson and its spendy enough. BUT. Leo Fender designed it to be mass produced using standard dimension timbers and using repeatable techniques for hand or foot operated machines (fretting). Gibsons… A bit shit way to heavy BUT have a prestige. How about PRS?

Hmmm. We’ve got a 63 Telecaster in at the moment, but also have lots of Les Pauls of various vintages (nothing quite equivalent, though). I’d definitely take the Tele, irrespective of value.

PRS – they’re weirdly soulless – they should be great, but I’ve never played one that I really liked (and they’re a bit too muso for my tastes anyway).

JP

Much the same as in the summer for me: Wind Hill every weekend and the occasional visit to BPW or Triscombe. Pump track sessions during the week.

Wind Hill holds up really well in the wet – especially the black runs. Won’t be doing much riding in Rowberrow, though, until we have at least a week or so of dry weather (so probably next summer, then).

JP

Can’t say I’ve noticed the sizing being out. Are you sure they really are XXL? Perhaps they’ve been mis-labelled, or maybe you’re just a freak of nature.

JP

I think what he did was an incredible achievement but this is very different to running indoors. The other marathon runners must be pretty miffed;

1. Carbon fibre plate in his shoes Nike shoes that could potentially return 4% more energy on rebound.
2. changing pace setter formation which significant lowered wind drag for him.
3. Pace setting laser.
4. No water stops required, which must have knocked easily 15 seconds off.
5. car providing wind break.
6. flat continuous circuit.

This is like the leader of the Tour De France tucking in behind the TV car for the whole race and finishing significantly ahead to the rest of the pack….

1. Are these shoes not normally allowed? If so, it makes no difference
2. Aero drag at this speed is nowhere near as significant as at cycling speeds

Your last point is not a valid analogy – the aero advantage from tucking behind a car at TDF bike speeds is in a different country to that experienced when running.

JP

Only five of the 51,363,611 5k parkruns completed have been faster than @EliudKipchoge’s target pace

Try running at 13.1mph, it feels like your almost sprinting !!!

Fastest I’ve done a mile at was at 12mph, which is around 5 minutes, and that absolutely killed me. Can’t believe he ran faster than that for a whole marathon.

JP

Dyfi?

JP

There’s a powder coater in Midsomer Norton that has done a few bikes, including one built by a friend of mine. Finish was excellent.

Wouldn’t want to powder coat an aluminium frame, though, if that’s what you’re considering.

JP

Not much there for work/cultural stuff. You’d be better further north, nearer to Bath and Bristol.

JP

Nukeproof Horizons are better and often a little cheaper.

JP

Or you could just buy some decent Nespresso compatible pods that are compostable.

JP

Some good bits of the south west are cheap (compared to London/South East). Wells and Frome, for example, are nice towns that aren’t too expensive and are within 30 minutes of Bath and Bristol.

I wouldn’t want to live much further south than this – as it is I can get to Wind Hill in 30 minutes, Mendips in 15, BPW in an hour and a half and Triscombe in an hour. London is only a couple of hours away, Bristol is a great city these days for eating/drinking/cultural stuff and we’re only an hour from the Dorset coast. Go further into Devon/Cornwall and it can be a bit isolating.

JP

Cougar

Subscriber

… I’m rather thinking this needs its own thread. There’s thread drift and then there’s continental drift.

I’ve always wondered why this forum has such an unusually restrictive approach to things that don’t really matter in the slightest, like a bit of thread drift. It’s an internet forum; you’re not co-chairing a sub-committee for the implementation of administrative procedures in local government FFS!

JP

No, but I bet the drop in the value of sterling does.

JP

The force of the loons is strong in this thread.

Why do you lot always want to ban everything? Worse than that, you want to ban everything and make some really self righteous justifications for banning it.

Personally, I think there are bigger issues than a few cars parking on pavements.

JP

countrybumpking

With 11 kids I’m not surprised you don’t use names! Seems unfair to favour 1-8 and 10, you should spread yourself more thinly 😉

Lol!

JP

I’m looking to replace my 3yr old Nobby Nic’s – Woburn rider too – with something grippier and similarly fast rolling.

Choose one – you can’t have both.

JP

NX has more range but the cassette is a boat anchor. SLX shifts better, but doesn’t have the very lowest gears.

JP

There is not majority support for Brexit across the UK – all the polls on how the UK would vote if the referendum were run again show this. Current support for the Tories is traditional Tory voters and leave voters. Labour’s lurch to loony left policies, and lack of a clear commitment to remaining mean that liberal (small ‘l’) remainers like myself will not vote for them.

It’s really not that difficult to understand.

JP

Just because somewhere is a chain, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

If you’ve ever worked in the catering industry you’ll know that this is generally not true. There are many reasons most chains are bad, and the primary one is that the need for standardisation has a hugely detrimental impact on the quality of the food and the care taken when preparing it.

Most (but not all) chains are basically ‘heat it up’ places. There are exceptions, of course, but this is the general rule.

JP