Bird is an option – forgot about that.

JP

I’ve got family on the island so have been there at most points in the year. It’s variable in November – it can be nearly as bad as the UK or it can be 20 degrees. Days are a little bit longer (I think it got dark around 5.30 when I was there one Christmas).

JP

They love the black trails at Wind Hill. Might be because I’m always the first one there on a weekend and they’ve not got used to bikes at that time in the morning.

Much worse was a deer that ran in front of me there the other day.

JP

Both my kids went through plenty of this at a CofE primary school and have come out fine. Come to think of it, so did I, and spells at Sunday School.

They’ve also come out of trips to mosques without becoming jihadis, and various other temples/places of worship without falling foul of any evil plot. They are, however, better informed about major world religions than I am.

If you feel your kids are prone/susceptible to being brainwashed by this sort of thing then the solution may be to broaden their knowledge and experience outside of school

This ^

JP

Fire road is the quickest way. According to various e-bike riding people I’ve spoken to you’ll get about 6 complete runs from a full battery. Maybe more if you’re economical with the power.

JP

For camping I grind my coffee on my EK at work, then vacuum pack it. Make it with a V60 when needed. Tastes pretty good.

JP

Deore 4 pots are dirt cheap if you buy from Germany and are significantly better than the 2 pot brake (speaking from experience of both).

JP

No high horses here; I just think it’s daft that we now seem to get weather warnings for anything that isn’t light drizzle. If it’s over 20C for a couple of days there’s a warning, if there’s the equivalent snowfall to a summer’s day in Finland there’s a warning, if there’s a mild wind… you get my drift.

It seems like the Met Office trying to justify its own existence.

JP

What happened there? I know it rained, but why were plenty of the people who are good in the wet (Hart, Atherton, etc) so far down?

JP

Have a look at the Lazer Phoenix Plus. I don’t know how small they go, but they’re ASTM certified, under 1000g and relatively well ventilated. Can be had for under £60.

JP

It is moronic – it was never necessary in the past, why is it suddenly needed now?

JP

OK – interesting stuff – thanks.

Still not decided what to do, though.

JP

Wind Hill has 3 more technical, less jumpy lines – one red and two black. Plenty of roots, step downs and some slippery corners in the wet.

The Mendips as a whole is quite XC, but I ride specifically in one place – Rowberrow – where there are loads of off piste tracks that have been created over the years. Most are very rooty and very slippery in the wet. I want as much front end grip as possible here, as they don’t dry quickly.

You’re right on the jump trails at Wind Hill – low pressures aren’t needed and high pressures help speed.

JP

The storms are named to raise public awareness.

We’ve been through this many times.

🤦

That might be the case, but it doesn’t stop it being moronic. We’ve got to a situation where we’re so risk averse that the Met Office is issuing warnings every ten minutes for what often amounts to little more than the typical weather for the UK.

JP

Friend of mine has the Race model. It’s a lovely bike. Quoted weight seems about right, and the spec is good for the money. He’s much faster on it than on his old bike (a 2 year old Trance Advanced).

JP

loss of grip?

do you honestly really need all that much grip for trail centres n bike parks?
I wouldn’t even be using a soft compound tread for BPW.
Overly soft exos squirm like **** when pushed hard cornering.

Windhill (from what i’ve seen) I’d be running 40psi+ and as fast rolling rear as I could.

The Mendips aren’t a trail centre or a bikepark and that’s where I ride the most. Your impression of Wind Hill is probably warped by watching videos of the jump lines – it’s not all like that.

JP

I can’t see any Exo+ tyres for sale yet, but yes, that might be an option.

JP

It’s not all uplifts, though. Most of my riding is on the Mendips and at Wind Hill, where there’s a fair bit of riding uphill involved.

JP

Is it worth the loss in grip from having to run higher pressures, though?

Cheers,
JP

My riding mate is 6’6 and has convinced himself that his Commencal Meta XL is too short for him (reach of 482). He certainly seems to be further forward on the bike than me (5’9 on a medium Mega with a 435 reach). What do you lot reckon? He’s looking at a Bird or a Geometron, but do you reckon he really needs to change?

JP

I get the odd customer like this. Had one today who ordered something on Monday to go to him in the US and he desperately needed it for Friday, despite the fact that he knows we’re based in the UK, the delivery method states 3-5 days and Friday is a non-working day. He then proceeded to throw all of his toys out of the pram.

I don’t know why people expect everything to be instant; it’s actually a miracle that most orders get to people on time, given all the potential issues along the way.

JP

I assume you would all be the same sort of nutters who were building bunkers in the 70s and 80s, or preparing for the end of days in the medieval period. Humans love a good apocalypse yet are stunningly bad at accurately predicting them.

Before you start heckling me, I’m not denying climate change is happening, or that it’s an issue. The destruction of society by the measures proposed by the self appointed eco warriors just doesn’t sound like a great solution, though (just as an example, have they ever thought what would happen to the economies of countries reliant on tourism if air travel were seriously limited, as they propose?)

Malthus was wrong, as was the nameless Tory MP from the Victorian era who extrapolated from contemporary data that London would be 6ft deep in horse excrement by the end of the 20th Century, yet most of the apocalyptic predictions are based on the same flawed logic. People have been predicting peak oil for about 30 years now, and no, it hasn’t happened (check out a graph of Brent crude over the last decade if you don’t believe me (warning: this requires a basic understanding of economics).

And if you want to talk about overpopulation you should, perhaps look into what contemporary demographers are actually saying about population growth (clue: it’s not what you learnt in geography at school 30 years ago):

https://medium.com/s/story/by-the-end-of-this-century-the-global-population-will-start-to-shrink-2f606c1ef088

We’re in a transition zone at the moment between two ages – ultimately technology will provide the solutions rather than our returning to some dark ages style subsistence society.

JP

93 degrees is the industry standard for specialty coffee – I’m not sure what your point is. If you entered the World Barista Championship you would find that the machine would be set at this level.

OK. When I was last at the WBC, the barista gets to choose his or her temperature, between 90.5 and 96 degrees. This is then set and verified by an appointed person from the sponsored machine manufacturer. I do not know of a single barista worth his salt that does not fiddle with the temp to bring out the best in every coffee. That and grind are crucial, hence the need for a decent grinder.

And back to the OP’s question. You can fit an off the shelf PID easily and it will improve the small espresso machines drastically.

EDIT: Oh, it’s para 4.1 of the 2019 rules if you’re interested.

Sorry – I didn’t realise that I was conversing with an armchair expert.

You’re correct in that a temp range is now allowed in the WBC (it didn’t used to be). You’re totally wrong about every barista messing around with temperature – I know for a fact that Colonna and Smalls, fort instance, have been running within 1 degree C of 93 for most of their time in operation. But then what does a 3x WBC finalist know, compared to a home enthusiast?

To be honest you lost all credibility when you mentioned dark roast coffee, but I’ll let that go.

Please feel free to correct me if you are a coffee professional; from your tone I suspect you aren’t, as it’s always the home enthusiasts who get so combative about this sort of stuff.

JP

93 degrees is the industry standard for specialty coffee – I’m not sure what your point is. If you entered the World Barista Championship you would find that the machine would be set at this level.

JP

The ‘By Shimano’ bit will be whatever was entered into the manufacturer field by the person who set up the listing.

My businesses sell a large proportion of their stuff through Amazon, but personally I would always buy elsewhere. They’re a nasty organisation and you can generally find the same items cheaper on other websites (mainly because they charge such crazy fees for independent retailers to sell via their marketplace platform).

JP

For me the sweet spot has been a 160/170 bike. It only feels slow on the sort of old school XC stuff that I don’t ride anyway. It climbs almost as well as a shorter travel bike but is much more fun on the descents.

JP

What type of PID is it? If you’re using a light roast coffee then you need to get it to keep the brew boiler temperature at 93C.

As to the actual PID settings to achieve this, you’re best going on one of the home coffee sites and getting your instructions from one of the enthusiasts on there.

JP

^ Gah! don’t come around here with your “facts” and “expertise”!

Whats your opinion on the sage/breville models – are they any good? Including their grinder?

I really want a Rocket, but I think one that’s a bit more user friendly (and a bit less flash) might get a bit more use from Mrs B

The Sage models are a step up from the Gaggias and suchlike mentioned on here. I’m not a massive fan of in built grinders, as you can’t control dose, and grind quality is never as good as a decent separate burr grinder. There’s not much else around at that price that’s any better, though.

As an aside, if anyone is at Wind Hill on weekdays, feel free to drop in to my warehouse for a (free) coffee – we’re only 10 minutes down the road and have a full coffee bar upstairs.

JP

This matters because temperature is one of the factors that has a great influence on espresso extraction. When it’s all over the place you’ve got very little chance of being able to consistently produce a decent espresso.

*heathen alert*

i think, unless you are a raging coffee nerd, the above may not be noticeable to most. Its like saying the milk frother is rubbish – if it froths milk what more is there?

My wee cheapo one produces better coffee than all but hte nerdiest of coffee shops. Which for me is perfect. the milk froths and the coffee is tasty and hot?? people that come round comment on how nice it is.

i’m not in a competition so what more does one need?

This said, your grind quality will make far more difference than your machine

I’d also question this as i’ve now stopped using my burr grinder for a quicker blade grinder as i really didnt notice any difference (apart from the noise from teh blade grinder and time it took to get a usable batch of coffee to put in the machine)

If you’re happy with what you’re producing then that’s fine.

However, if you really can’t taste the difference between coffee made using a blade grinder and a burr grinder then I have to question your ability to judge coffee objectively. It’s a bit like saying you can’t tell the difference between a £100 Halfords BSO and Santa Cruz Nomad. If there really wasn’t a difference, do you think people in the coffee industry, like myself, would spend thousands of pounds on grinders? I’d be quite happy to sell my EK43 and spend the money on bike stuff or a holiday if that were the case.

As for milk steamers, they are generally poor on home machines. They lack power, which means that you can struggle to mix the steamed and frothed milk together properly. Because of this, when you try to pour latte art you’ll get a load of think hot milk coming out of the jug first, followed by a mound of over frothed foam. Again, if this is what you like (and it’s what you’ll get in most chain coffee shops), then that’s fine, but it doesn’t taste as good as properly steamed milk and looks terrible.

It is possible to properly steam milk on machines like the Gaggia Classic, especially if you change the wand to the Sylvia one, but it’s much harder than on a commercial machine. I know this because I’ve trained scores of people over the years, both in my shop and on their home machines.

JP

As a Liberal voter in all of the elections when I’ve actually lived in the UK, I thought they did an exceptionally poor job as part of the coalition.

I was working in the university sector during this period and witnessed firsthand how the saddling of students with the crippling debt levels that came with the trebling of tuition fees resulted in staggeringly little improvement to learning and teaching.

Instead we saw a zero sum game pissing contest between universities as to who could waste the most money on pointless building projects, senior management pay and ill advised forays into overseas provision. In short, it’s been a complete disaster, and there’s a massive public funding black hole coming when the highly optimistic repayment forecasts are, inevitably, not met.

Still, at least they’re not 19th Century throwbacks or Marxist loons.

JP

The problem with home machines is that, with the exception of the pricier models, they’re always horribly compromised. As a simple rule, small, cheap machines will have virtually no temperature stability. This matters because temperature is one of the factors that has a great influence on espresso extraction. When it’s all over the place you’ve got very little chance of being able to consistently produce a decent espresso.

I’d look for the machine with the biggest boiler you can find, as boiler size greatly improves thermal stability. The downside is that they take longer to build up to steam pressure when you want to steam some milk (this is why commercial machines have separate brew and steam boilers, or, on older or cheaper commercial machines, a large steam boiler and heat exchanger driven groupheads).

I’d also look for something that takes commercial sized baskets – either VST or IMS. Pressurised baskets are absolute rubbish, and cheap, non pressurised ones aren’t much better.

This said, your grind quality will make far more difference than your machine, so you need to budget for a good grinder. Espresso, being extracted at high pressure in a short period of time, is much more fussy about grind consistency and fineness than other brewing methods.

JP

Nukeproof Horizons win all the tests and are the best all rounders IMO.

JP

What’s the end goal? It’s a long time since I taught (TEFL or state school) but I recall that there were limited career opportunities in TEFL teaching in the UK, and teaching outside the UK, like I did for a few years, was never really a long term proposition.

As an aside, I had a PGCE and EAL experience before I taught in schools outside the UK. Not having a specific TEFL qualification didn’t seem to make much difference. This was 15+ years ago, though.

JP

If you want numbers, according to my data I’m hitting 39km/h before the first of the three bigger tabletops on Emperu at Wind Hill. That’s landing quite far on the downslope, which is a jump of several meters, without needing to pop a huge amount.

JP

You can’t really put a number on it – depends on the rider. As an example, at Wind Hill the good kids can clear the bigger doubles and tables without needing much speed. Whilst I can clear them as well, I need a lot more speed as my technique isn’t as good.

JP

Deore 4 pots have had no problems from my perspective (and not heard of any, and I did a lot of research before buying them). I chose them over Zees and Saints because they were less likely to be problematic. It’s a bonus that they’re incredibly cheap.

Friends of mine have had nothing but trouble with various types of Guides (jamming pistons, losing fluid, inconsistency) so they were definitely not on my shortlist.

JP

You can make any sport silly by applying reductionism.

My favourite is rugby – a sport where one of the main objectives is to kick the ball out of the field of play, and where more time is spent with the ball either invisible to spectators or no action actually happening than play occurring.

JP

It does take unpressurised baskets – lots of info on the web 👍🏼

It looks like it does, but they’re a weird size and almost certainly crap. I wouldn’t touch anything other than a VST or IMS Precision basket and they don’t make them in that size IIRC.

JP

Doesn’t take proper baskets – only pressurised ones, which seriously limits its appeal.

Always amusing to see the specs on home machines – ’15 bar professional pressure’. I haven’t used more than 6.5 bar for 5 years in my shop or in the warehouse and I don’t know a specialty coffee shop in the country that uses more than 9.

JP

My daughter never slept during the day. Always slept fine at night. Don’t worry about it.

JP