I ride in a full face all the time now. I don’t buy the ‘prefer to hold something back with an open face rather than ride at 10/10ths in a full face’ – sometimes you have a big crash when you’re not even trying or riding anything technical.

As an example of this, my biggest accident was one day when last summer when I was riding some middling difficulty trails (probably equivalent to the reds at BPW). It was hot and I thought I’d just wear my open face, as I knew the trails well and they aren’t massively hard. Had a big off somewhere innocuous and smashed my face into the ground.

I don’t find my full face to be too hot most of the year – it’s only really sweaty over 20 degrees. A ProFrame or similar is a fair bit cooler.

JP

Jumping is a basic skill. I never mentioned pro level riders just basic bike handling skills.

The way you’ve extrapolated my point to Sam Hill and Loic Bruni is laughable – well it made me laugh!

That use of the possessive apostrophe is very clunky even if it is technically correct – 4/10 must try harder.

Well, using the possessive with gerunds features in the writing of almost all of the great writers of the Twentieth Century. But, then, what do they know, in comparison with your towering intellect?

Have you not flounced yet? Or is this an encore?

JP

I taught secondary level English back in the late 90s. I don’t know anyone who did the PGCE at the same time as I did who is still teaching, if that tells you anything.

I found teaching way too much like being at school. In fact, it was much worse than being at school, and I didn’t enjoy secondary school much at all. In hindsight, I don’t know what I was thinking.

I’ve also taught in HE and FE and they felt like escaping from prison in comparison to being in a school.

JP

On the other hand you get magazines/websites where the journos are gnarcore enduro-bunnies, but can’t write fur toffee.

There we go again with the thinly veiled insults towards more skilful riders. Most ‘average to decent riders’ can jump, well the ones I know can.

There are decent writers at STW. Not sure you’re best placed to judge good writing with such appalling spelling though…

WTF is ‘fur toffee’ sounds rank.

As I said on the thread on the story itself, the notion of a journalist’s having to be a pro level rider to justify being allowed to review a bike is laughable. Taking the line of thought that only someone who can push the bike to the absolute limits can comment on its handling inevitably leads to the conclusion that only Sam Hill or Loic Bruni are sufficiently qualified to do so, and then only while they’re winning.

Pinkbike has more in depth reviews, but they are somewhat flawed, in my view, by certain of their writers’ constant need to frame their reviews within their own rigid (and sometimes ill conceived) notion of what constitutes correct geometry.

PS: I’ll pre-empt any criticism of my use of the apostrophe on the word ‘journalist’ by suggesting that you investigate the use of the possessive with gerunds.

JP

Yes – you are mad. I’ve driven a few and they’re generally quite dull, although they do waft along. They share GM parts, but I think it may get harder to source specific items in the future.

JP

Plays almost as well as the Gibson Les Paul Customs we have.

My busking mate has a Gibson Les Paul. Neither of us like it but having paid 2500e for it he can’t bring himself to sell it at a loss. I”m suprised the Tokai doesn’t play better than the Gibson. Even the pickups in the Gibson, 58s I think, are muddy and dull compared with the Duncan Pearly Gates I’ve got in one of my guitars.

Les Pauls are very year specific (especially recently). The 2002 standard we have in is pretty nice as was the Custom Shop that’s just been sold. I have played some duds from Gibson, though.

JP

^JP do you have any more details if it’s for sale? I’ve wanted a nice Japanese LP Custom for ages. Imo current Gibson quality is rubbish and would always take a MIJ “knock off” over one.

Lovely looking acoustic you have there 🙂 I’ve always wondered if I should get a proper nice acoustic. I almost never play my old Crafter but can’t tell if that’s just because it’s not a hugely inspiring guitar to play, or if I just prefer electrics.

Home

It’s not my business, but belongs to my business partner (in the coffee business) – we run a few different online businesses from his warehouses.

JP

If anyone wants to try the Colonna capsules and doesn’t want to fork out for 40, we sell them in 10s and I can do a little discount for STW members. DM me if you’re interested.

One thing to point out is that they change all the time; the batch we’re getting in on Monday will be different coffees from the ones we had a month ago. It’s also worth mentioning that the rare coffees are significantly better than the foundation and discovery, but you do pay a premium for them.

JP

Just got back from a day there. We easily managed 8 runs without any effort, plenty of faffing and a longish lunch. Rode mainly reds and blacks and had plenty of breaks, often between trails. If you were really on it you could easily get in 12 or more runs in a day.

I’ve been there around a dozen times and the uplift felt quicker to me today than before – there was no longer than a few seconds’ wait in the queue. The new vehicle is quite slow, but we were only on it once, and there was never a time on the other 7 uplifts that we were stuck behind it.

The food offering was pretty poor, with the cafe shut, but I guess the toasties, jacket potatoes and pies that they did have were probably the sort of tat that the cheapskates who complain about the standard menu love.

JP

We’ve got a really nice Tokai Les Paul copy in. Plays almost as well as the Gibson Les Paul Customs we have.

JP

We had an intern who used it. His diet consisted of the following:

Free Waitrose coffee and sometimes a pastry for breakfast.
Nothing all day, except for possibly some popcorn or Haribo.
Huel for his evening meal.

Needless to say, he was possibly the most unhealthy looking person I’ve met. He was also a complete loon.

JP

This, of course, is all academic as we’re not going to be leaving on 29th March.

JP

As stated Pro Cycle hire is good – used them for Ironman Mallorca, as it was easier and cheaper than taking by own bike on the plane. It’s around £30 a day for something reasonable; more if you want something fancy.

JP

I really don’t understand what you’re arguing here

Makes two of us. What are you trying to say?

It provides the main case against him. He’s quite a poor thinker, really

So he’s a poor thinker. And? Who cares? The only people who ever bring up Dawkins are theists looking for something to pick apart. No atheist on STW ever floated an argument of “yes, but Dawkins says…” It’s a straw man.

If we’re going down the pedantic route here then I have to call you out for being factually incorrect – I’m not a theist, as clearly stated in my original post, nor am I using Dawkins as a straw man. I was merely comparing the posts on this thread to his writings.

JP

I lived there for 4 years. If you don’t mind being 15 minutes by tram from the centre, try Buitenveldert and the area surrounding it. There’s a Novotel near to the RAI exhibition centre and you can get the number 4 tram, or the metro straight into the centre from there pretty quickly. Not the prettiest part of the city, but it’s probably not booked up.

JP

So, describing Richard as “shrill” isn’t part of your complaint about how he “conducts” himself?

What’s wrong with the way he “conducts himself”, then?

Yawn. I don’t want to reiterate what has already been written before, but read the Guardian article I posted. It provides the main case against him. He’s quite a poor thinker, really – his God Delusion is a bad imitation of Bertrand Russell’s Why I am Not A Christian.

JP

The fact that Dawkins has taken to describing himself latterly as agnostic changes nothing about the way he conducts himself.

It’s still irrelevant as you’re

not stating that all atheists should be lumped in with him.

N’est-ce pas?

The “attitudes displayed on this thread” will be fewer in future thanks to one poster’s decision to hurl personal abuse at the moderators via email. STW’s owners don’t have many red lines but that’s one of them, it’s a zero-tolerance policy.

I really don’t understand what you’re arguing here – if it’s a point of semantics, please look up the list of fallacious arguments.

JP

AdamW

Member

Hold on a second. Someone mentioned Dawkins.

I think there is a rule that *requires* the use of the word “shrill”. Usually used when someone cannot argue their point but still requires to be offended by facts and logic and stuff. Or something.

Did you read my post at all, or are you just making assumptions?

JP

I don’t think I’m factually incorrect to say that Dawkins approaches his own particular branch of atheism

I’ll stop you right there as being factually incorrect. Dawkins identifies as agnostic, not atheist.

In any case, he doesn’t represent non-believers any more than Westboro represents Christianity. See what I said earlier about vocal minorities. He’s a handy poster-boy for believers to use to attack atheists, is all.

The fact that Dawkins has taken to describing himself latterly as agnostic changes nothing about the way he conducts himself. It’s a funny kind of agnostic who devotes so much of his energies to the task of decrying theists.

Aside from this, I was merely comparing the attitudes displayed on this thread to those of Dawkins, not stating that all atheists should be lumped in with him.

JP

jj,

to follow the small minded Dawkins-style route of decrying religion, whilst simultaneously being completely ignorant of its history and impact on your life today is moronic.

You realise that you’re decrying a man who thinks that e.g. quotes from the king james bible are a massive contribution to the richness of the English language and recommends that people should study religion to appreciate facts like that?

(Thats a longhand way of saying that you are fractally wrong.)

These discussions tend to end up looking a bit like this:

Every single monotheist on earth is an atheist about 99.9% of all of the gods from all of history except one.

This is a position that deserves respect and consideration for reasons which remain undefined.

Every single atheist on earth is an atheist about 100% of all of the gods from all of history.

This is a position that deserves distain and accusations of extremism, for reasons which remain undefined.

Makes perfect sense to me…..

I don’t think I’m factually incorrect to say that Dawkins approaches his own particular branch of atheism with the kind of zeal that is just as excessive and negative as the theists he despises for doing the same. He also has an unwillingness to accept the limitations of empirical science (read Popper for a nice summary of these limitations) and a purely materialist philosophy, that is, perhaps, typical of biologists, who believe that they have answered most of the larger questions of their area of study, and, who seem to extrapolate from this that they understand everything. I doubt you would find many astrophysicists, or particle physicists with the same degree of unshakeable belief.

I think this review provides some interesting points on the “New Atheists”:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/31/four-horsemen-review-what-happened-to-new-atheism-dawkins-hitchens

JP

There’s some real nonsense on this thread, and it betrays the ignorance of those who seem to blame religion for every wrong in the world.

I should preface this by saying that I am not a theist, and have a healthy dislike of many of the organised branches of religion. However, to follow the small minded Dawkins-style route of decrying religion, whilst simultaneously being completely ignorant of its history and impact on your life today is moronic.

JP

I’ve done 8 runs in a day with a long lunch, lots of faffing and not trying to get on the first or last bus. What on earth are you lot on about? You can easily do 10 runs in a day with the new hours. Does anyone really need more than that?

JP

mashr

Member

Vitus and Nukeproof are good for this too. From what I can make out, the Nukeproof Digger is a Vitus Energie with 650b wheels, wider bars and a £500 price increase

Different head tube lengths, reach and wheelbase in some sizes suggests you’re wrong there.

JP

I’d be wary of rental DH bikes myself.
no idea what BPW or anywhere around that area’s rental bikes are like but a lot of the rental DH bikes I have seen elsewhere are often low end models, not always all that well looked after and rarely ever set up for the riders weight nevermind any other aspect of set-up.

Where have you ridden the SX Rayban?
Interesting bike for sure.

BPW DH bikes are Trek Sessions. Not top line, but decent. My mate hired one last time and they changed the rear spring and set up the fork for him, so I’d say you’d get a reasonable idea of how a a DH bike rides there if you hired one.

JP

You could also fit the FAST Yari UP damper, which gives independent control of low and medium speed compression damping. £230 at TF.

JP

Wow – the loon fringe is out in force on this thread.

You’d have have to be crazy to run a business of this kind and not have some sort of disclaimer to protect you from litigation. If you think you can’t why don’t you just set up your own little bike park, let it be a free for all and see how well you get on?

Fining people riding on the trail without a pass is probably a result of people taking the piss. It’s a business FFS, and they have to have some mechanism to deter people from just turning up and riding without paying.

The food is decent for the money. If you don’t like it you can sit in your car. They have a limited footprint and really can’t be expected to accommodate people who aren’t paying for food.

Also – no one is forcing you to ride there.

JP

Casino Royale is the best recent one because it’s the only Bond film for several decades that’s largely followed a Fleming novel (with a few changes, but the overall plot is fairly true to the book). Die Another Day is indeed the worst.

Unfortunately, the screenwriters, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, really aren’t very good; they gave us the terrible Brosnan films and nothing else of any note. For some reason they have been commissioned for Bond 25 as well. Yawn. Shame Danny Boyle was let go, as I think he would have made a difference.

If I were in charge I’d reboot it and set it back in its original time. Dispense with all of the unbelievable gadgets and go back to basics.

JP

Technique is everything – it’s much, much easier when you’r creating less drag.

JP

Almost any car will take a bike. Managed to get my old bike in my Lotus Elise a few years ago (although I had to have the roof off, and the experience was highly uncomfortable). Question is – do you need to take anything else? My Mega fits quite comfortably in my old Fiesta, but it does need the front wheel removing and the rear seat being put down.

JP

Cheers – PM sent.

JP

(Full disclosure – my business sells these, but if there were any other roasters doing decent pods we’d sell them too – we just haven’t found any yet).

Rave started selling some fairly recently.

I know that Rave is popular on some of the home barista sites, but I don’t really rate their coffee. It’s OK, but just not very exciting.

JP

Drac

Subscriber

Staresso out performs the aeropress.

To be honest all filter methods are much of a muchness, apart from the stove top pot, which tends to make quite bad, over extracted coffee due to the fact that it applies too much heat for too long to the grounds. What is more important than method is the quality of your coffee, the grinder and your recipe.

JP

So the Bedminster one? I think their burgers are hard to beat if you like dirty burgers.

JP

Yes – really good if you like that sort of thing. Which one are you going to?

JP

Of all the Santa Cruz bikes I see at Wind Hill each week (and there are lots) I don’t think I’ve ever seen an alloy one.

As an aside, I’m always amazed at how little exclusivity they have, given their price and status. Guess they’re the Porsche of the MTB world.

JP

If you’re only having a few cups a week it’ll have gone stale before you finish it.

Yep, thats why I was looking at the pod route.

Excuse my ignorance but do those Nespresso machine make a full mug of coffee or do they just do espresso-size shots?

They can make longer drinks – called a lungo. The only decent pods available at the moment are Colonna – the long versions of these make a decent coffee.

(Full disclosure – my business sells these, but if there were any other roasters doing decent pods we’d sell them too – we just haven’t found any yet).

JP

l0key

Member

If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it, simple.

I love these self righteous posts that crop up regularly on STW. It’s worth remembering that most people couldn’t afford to buy a house without borrowing, or a decent car, or plenty of other things, including higher education these days. Or perhaps we should return to the Victorian era where only the wealthy owned decent properties?

JP

^^ But surely the braking force required to stop the bigger/heavier wheel is still only a fraction of the force needed to stop the rider and bike weight in total?

If that’s the case then the larger wheels aren’t a big factor?

It’s nothing to do with weight – it’s the extra torque created by the larger diameter wheel that means you need bigger brakes.

JP

Cheers.

Wondering what the trails are like in the snow – can’t imagine the technical stuff would be much fun, with hidden rocks, etc under the snow.

JP

You can use the Deore 4 pot calipers with standard Deore levers – that what I’ve done and it works perfectly. £70 for a set front and rear from Germany.

These were my upgrades, starting with M6000 Deore:

203 rotor on the back (already had 203 on the front) – this cost about £20 for a Shimano rotor and a cheapish adaptor.

Better pads – tried Shimano sintered, but found Ubderbike Kevlars pretty good (opinions vary on these, I know, but I found them very good).

MT520 4 pot calipers – this made the biggest difference, but mainly in modulation and consistency.

Replaced standard pads with Saint sintered ones – again, quite a big difference.

When using Saint pads there’s not much difference, IMO, between these brakes and Saints. They don’t have the cooling fins, and the finned Saint pads don’t fit without modification, but the D type non-finned Saint pads work just as well unless you’re heading to the Alps.

JP