The Debonair spring made a noticeable difference on its own – definitely worth doing.

JP

Thanks – I’ll have a look for something like that.

JP

They grip well but are bloody heavy in DD or DH casing. Exo+ will be lighter but I think you’d probably want DD for Ard Rock.

JP

Nothing wrong with the remote that comes with it. Just replace it when/if you break it/wear it out.

JP

My Deore 4 pots have been flawless, as have those of many other people I’ve met online and in the real world. All my mates who have Guides/Codes, on the contrary have had problems with them.

JP

One feature of most civilisations has been eschatology (as demonstrated earlier in this thread). I wonder why humans always need to think that we are approaching our extinction?

JP

Some terrible advice on here. Amsterdam is an amazing city – lived there for many years, so I think I have a better overview on it than some on here who obviously haven’t seen it properly.

If you’re driving I’d park on the road in the New South near the WTC and get the number 5 tram into the centre.

There’s loads more to do in Amsterdam in comparison to the other cities/towns mentioned (with the exception of Rotterdam, which is large but nowhere near as attractive).

I’d head to the Jordaan for sightseeing, have a drink at De Jaaren and maybe take in a museum at Museumplein before a wander through the Vondelpark,

JP

Bigger rotors give you better braking, no argument.

JP

As for wouldn’t sell the non original owner anything when he rocked up with a busted frame? That’s not warranty. Original owners pay full price and crash replacement is part of the deal. Your friend bought a second hand bike and cracked the frame? Then expects a brand new frame at crash replacement cost? You don’t see a problem here?

No -he said that SC wouldn’t even sell him a rear triangle, which is a bit off IMO.

Never been a fan of SC myself – they’re definitely overpriced but also incredibly ubiquitous.

JP

Nukeproof Horizons.

SEOT

JP

matt_outandabout

Subscriber

Shredders be shredding, I’m sure!

I’m wondering what Haas’s involvement / take on this is.

Given that the CEO is a convicted felon I’d think they probably say business as usual.
They’re a joke team IMO.

JP

€140 on Bike Discount if you’re OK with Charger 2. €200 for Charger 2.1.

JP

Just get the Charger 2.1 damper – it’s not expensive if you shop around (Bike Discount is usually cheap) and it’s a better damper all round.

Jp

I like my Mega and the 2020 290 looks like it might be rather good when it’s released. I’ve also been impressed with my mates’ Commencal Clashes.

JP

Universities aren’t great places to work – bureaucratic, useless management and limited mobility especially if you’re an academic. Can’t believe I lasted a decade.

Stats can be manipulated, so don’t put too much trust in them – as an example I did some work on NSS, DLHE and entry quals that raised my employer by around 15 places in the ST and GUG guides. When I left and no one took over this work they went back down (muppets!)

Don’t be fooled by nice buildings or people offering you the moon on a stick – look instead at staff student ratios, contact hours and destinations upon graduating.

JP

It’s been pretty loud so far (we live 4 miles from the site).

Lots of our friends are there, either working or as punters, but I think if I went I’d want to come home each night; the toilets are so bad I avoided taking a shit for 5 days the last time I was there, and it’s impossible to get any sleep – alright for one night, but by the fourth day you’re half dead.

JP

Loads of nonsense written about public/boarding schools here.

I’ve taught in most sectors – state, independent, FE and HE, and my wife works at a public school, so I think I have a fairly broad view of the education sector.

Most of the assumptions here are based on outdated notions of the independent education sector. Similarly, much of the research is either outdated or is extremely partisan; social science and education academics often approach their research from a less than impartial viewpoint. (Before I get lambasted for this, I should point out that I worked in the HE sector for over a decade and saw this sort of thing firsthand, both through my job and my education postgrads.)

When my daughter reaches secondary school age, I think either send her to a state school with 30 in a class, or my wife’s school with 12. I can’t see any reason to pick the former.

JP

The wide slot is near the front on most of the trailers.

JP

Friend of mine is quite senior in a major tobacco company – he believes that the vaping market will be so heavily controlled in the next few years that it will be dominated by the big players (ie tobacco companies) who can afford to get through the regulatory hurdles.

JP

I suspect that there has been quite a bit of dodgy stuff going on in the EWS for a while now, which is why they decided to get into bed with the UCI and make use of their drug testing protocols.

I’m not entirely convinced by this particular situation – it’s funny how no one ever says ‘it’s a fair cop’ – there’s always a story, often involving doctors and mistakes.

JP

Modern cars are much heavier everywhere – just look at the thickness of the doors on a 205GTI compared to a modern car and you’ll see how these were well under a ton, which is unheard of these days outside of Lotus.

I competed in club level motorsport for many years and had some one to one tuition with Chris Hodgetts, who was British Touring Car Champion twice in the 80s. He said the Cosworth in RS500 form was the hardest car he’d ever raced, as the tyres were very narrow by modern standards, there was loads of turbo lag and the power was immense (I think easily 500bhp in race tune).

I’ve driven quite a few fast Fords and many of them were terrible. The Escort and Fiesta RS turbos had awful toque steer and turbo lag. The Cosworth was nicer to drive, but still had awful power delivery. The Escort Cosworth was better, but it was still laggy in original form (solved a little bit on the later models with a smaller turbo, IIRC, at the expense of tunability). My dad ran a Focus RS Mk1 for a while, and that was much quicker than the figures suggested. You had to be cautious in the wet, though – boot the throttle and it would change lanes on its own.

A modern Focus RS is probably the nearest thing to these – a bit lairy and not totally refined.

JP

Charger 2.1 RCT3 is about £170 on Bike Discount at the moment.

JP

Why do these threads always attract the nutter/angry contingent?

A few points:

The new vehicle didn’t seem particularly slower overall than the Transits when I was last there.

Riding up is a fairly boring and miserable experience unless you’re a Lycra type and/or STW pootler on the descents. It’s not a loop, so unless you like riding up the same bit of track 7 times in a day I fail to see why you wouldn’t get an uplift.

If there were some sort of conspiracy to slow the whole system down I doubt BPW would have spent considerable effort and time widening the access road recently.

JP

Where’s the angry Northerner from here who thought that this was all part of some sort of BPW conspiracy to slow down the uplift system?

JP

Don’t get the traffic thing – its all done on bikes round here.

JP

Hightower was the most disappointing bike I’ve ridden. It was a top spec model with carbon everything and only felt good when going uphill. Everywhere else it felt like it had way too much anti-squat.

JP

Giant UK were hopeless when a friend’s carbon Trance that was only a few months old and immaculate developed a crack that was clearly a manufacturing defect. They only gave in after he contacted head office and made a massive fuss.

JP

All seems very unlikely.

JP

Switching to forefoot running solved all of my problems, including shin splints, ITB issues, etc. Nothing else, including stretching, foam rollering, different shoes, made any difference at all.

JP

To be honest, CRC sells a huge volume of kit; it’s unsurprising that things occasionally go wrong.

I run an ecommerce company and customers often do the most annoying things. My particular favourite is when they return an item but don’t include any details of who sent it or what the issue is/what resolution they want.

I’d be willing to bet that many of the issues with CRC are not as wholly their fault as indicated in threads like this one, or TrustPilot reviews, for example, and I wouldn’t give them too much weight when considering where to buy online.

JP

I’ve never understood why people like SC so much – every one I’ve ridden has had far too much anti-squat and they’re hideously overpriced considering they’re built in the same factories as pretty much everything out there.

JP

Boris is the fall guy. Election/2nd referendum coming this way soon. We don’t leave.

JP

DHF Exo Maxterra not WT on the rear. After a DD HRII it rolls so much faster but still grips well.

I’m not convinced with the WT tyres – they’re quite a bit heavier than the standard ones and I think are overkill for the rear.

JP

10mms won’t ruin the handling. It’s not even 10mm when you take into account sag. The extra BB height will be much less than that – probably only 4mm once sagged.

I did 170 to 180 on my Mega and couldn’t tell the difference in terms of handling.

JP

73mm.

JP

If your bike’s too much for the trails you ride then why don’t you seek out more trails that make it come alive, rather than looking for a different bike?

JP

I’ve used my BrandX dropper for 18 months and have never touched the cable in any way. And that’s all off road amounting to 100km vertical.

JP

I don’t rate the DHF or DHR as better than the Magic Mary SuperGravity. They’re also really heavy in DD and WT form.

JP

My 8 year old daughter loves watching the re-runs of Buffy. I thought they might be a bit scary for her but she really likes them and they are quite brilliantly written.

Scooby Doo Mystery Inc is also a hidden gem – don’t be fooled into think that it’s anything like the originals; there’s even an episode where Scooby plays the role of Nico in a pastiche of The Velvet Underground. Loads of other moments like that which must be way over the heads of the general audience.

JP

Gene Haas did time for tax evasion – not exactly a squeaky clean background.

JP