A few couple of points:

The number of Mystic Meg level predictions on here is laughable. Pretty much everything anyone, economists et al, has predicted over the last hundred years has been wrong. I wouldn’t have any faith in anyone who claims to know what’s round the corner.

Every thread like this also seems to result in several forum members (you know who you are) thinking it’s their big chance to do some left wing proselytising, which is very tiring. The Tories have many faults, and I would never vote for them, but the oft-repeated notion (on STW) that they’re part of some sort of capitalist conspiracy to enslave the poor is the sort of thing I’d expect to hear from a sixth form Socialist Worker seller, not a sensible adult.

That is all,

JP

Charger is better over longer runs – the YariUp is open bath with the attendant issues that brings. Only ridden the FAST briefly, and it’s a doddle to fit, but went with the Charger myself, as I was more bothered by damper performance on long runs than the ability to tune low, mid and high speed compression independently.

JP

When I raced I nearly bought a Seven; ended up with a race-spec, but road legal Elise instead.

The thing that put me off Seven style cars was the lack of any crash protection – even with a roll cage they don’t look like they’d be good in a crash (your right arm sticks out the side of the car!)

I’d consider something like a Fisher Fury, but as with any of these minimalist cars, you’ve got to be pretty dedicated or have loads of free time to get the most from them. Otherwise they’ll just sit in your garage running the battery down (like my Elise eventually did, after 8 years of ownership).

JP

Never got on with them myself – I’ve never had a tyre feel like it’s got so much grip then suddenly break away with no warning. They also had a funny feeling over roots that I can only describe as being a bit like driving a car with lots of negative camber on the front suspension on a bumpy road.

However, some good riders I know absolutely love them. Magazine tests have also been love/hate, so I can only think that they work better on narrower rims (under 30mms) and are too square and unpredictable on wider rims.

I run Assegais now and find them so much better everywhere.

JP

Kelvin – I didn’t realise that you were a noted epidemiologist and an expert in these matters. I’ll be sure to take everything you say as gospel in future.

JP

I’m a liberal (note the small little) and have voted Liberal, but I find their policies increasingly at odds with the fundamental tenets of liberalism.

The tuition fees debacle should have been the last straw for me, but the lack of other options meant that I still voted for them in the last election.

What I’d like to see is a party that was evidence based with its policies; I despise the way that political dogma on both sides of the spectrum is the main driver of policies.

JP

Deore 4 pots are much better with Zee levers. Not sure why, but I’ve tried both with fresh bleeds and the Zee levers feel more powerful.

JP

TiRed – why does the BMJ state that COVID can only explain a third of the excess deaths in nursing homes then?

I’m not pushing any theory here, I’m just puzzled as to why this is happening.

As to how I know a few people in coroners’ offices – my businesses, and those of my main business partner, over the years, have brought me into contact with a wide range of people, many of whom I have maintained some form of contact with.

As an aside, one of my business partners nearly died from COVID19 (he’s been interviewed for various press articles, and is on Desert Island Discs this Friday, weirdly enough) so I’m not some sort of COVID denier.

JP

I should add that the BMJ has stated that only a third of excess deaths in care homes can be explained by COVID, so please find a better counter argument than this.

JP

I like the ad hominem attacks here – very mature.

I have no interest in conspiracy theories – I just think it’s ridiculous to take everything at face value.

Here’s an article from an NHS doctor (yes, I know the website it’s published on will be decried, but you can also look at the doctor’s own blog, which says the same):

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/490006-death-certificates-covid-19-do-not-trust/

Excess deaths is a red herring – there are all sorts of reasons that there might be more deaths than usual at the moment, particularly given that visits to A&E are miraculously low. Just think about it for a minute.

I know of several instances where deaths have been marked as COVID when the tests came back negative. I’m not making this up and I don’t believe it’s some sort of wide ranging conspiracy – it just undermines my faith in the data.

I note that in the chart showing deaths on today’s briefing the headline is ‘deaths where there was a positive test for COVID’ yet at the bottom of the graph it elaborates ‘where COVID was mentioned in the death certificate’. These are being conflated yet they self evidently aren’t the same thing.

We’ll see what happens in the end, but a year from now, when we find that the overall death rate over the year is relatively unchanged from the 5 year I’ll be back to remind you all how wrong you were.

JP

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but now I’ve seen a few doctors commenting on it online I think it has more legitimacy than just what I’ve heard from friends who work in coroners’ offices: many of the deaths attributed to COVID19 are at best pure guesses, at worst highly misleading.

Identifying the cause of death is not an exact science when there is no post mortem, but at one point nearly everyone who died in a care home setting was apparently being classed as COVID19 death.

It’s worth remembering this when looking at the data; they are somewhat misleading,

JP

You can pedal up at BPW, but it will compromise your runs back down unless you’re super fit, especially if you want to do one of the longer black runs.

JP

More travel is nearly always better. Most head angles are too steep anyway, and the few mms added to bb height are negligible.

JP

It’s money and the money needed to support your lifestyle.

I have friends who are very successful musicians, but most of their income comes from syncs and royalties these days, as streams pay nothing and actual sales are very low. I suspect Snoop is the same – he’ll make most of his money from royalties, and even then, he’ll have to give a large portion to his record company/management/taxman.

De Niro is more of a mystery; I can only imagine he has a very expensive lifestyle.

JP

Maguras have a flimsy lever and the lever arc is all wrong, as the master cylinder is mounted in a very strange position compared to other brakes. Surprised no one has mentioned this.

JP

Maxxis make good MTB tyres but rubbish car tyres. If you’re looking for cheap tyres that grip reasonably well then Toyo T1Rs are decent enough; they’ve been used as the control wet tyre for quite a few race series and I used them as my wet tyre when I used to race.

JP

If you take this sort of reductionism to its logical conclusion you’d not class anything as essential.

I’m not sure how driving somewhere makes any difference to the spread of the virus, unless you’re planning on licking people along the way. I am sure that the virtue signalling lockdown fascists will be along soon to attempt to justify their own narrative.

JP

This place seems to be full of weird OCD types.

JP

You can change the lowers for about £300, but it’s really not worth it – there’s no way a 29 inch front wheel is worth losing at least 20mm of travel for.

JP

I don’t understand people who think they’re over-biked – just find better trails and/or ride faster. Unless you always ride from your house and are limited to bridleways, you can nearly always find challenging stuff within a reasonable distance.

JP

All of the job titles bandied around here sound like high scoring bullshit bingo phrases. I pity you all.

JP

They’re not a chocolate bar, and by all objective standards they are terrible, but I can’t help but love a jam Wagon Wheel.

Lindor bars are good, as are all of grab bag versions of Cadbury’s bars,

JP

Not really worried about drag. More worried that my 35mm rims will square them off too much.

JP

We import loads of different stuff – DM me if you want.

JP

I don’t think it would be enough to make a difference for you. My mates who are around your height tend to ride bikes with 500mm reaches. That said, my oldest friend rides a 460mm reach bike, is 6’4 and seems happy enough.

JP

Not been to Flyup, so not me, I’m afraid.

Actual reach is less than 5mm, but when you factor in the lower stack height with the spacers removed, you end up with a greater distance between bb and bars without being any further over the front wheel.

JP

Yeah – front end felt way too light with the higher stack. It felt weirdest on jumps. Strangely, the front suspension felt amazing with the higher stack.

JP

So, I note that the code that Ferguson’s team wrote which was used for the models to justify the lockdown strategy has been described as a buggy mess. No wonder he has a track record of making terrible forecasts (swine flu, BSE, etc).

Thoughts on this? (article is only on The Telegraph at the moment, but I’m sure other papers will pick it up soon).

JP

Opposite end of the country, unfortunately. Thanks for the offer though

JP

Cheers – useful to know.

JP

My mate’s lad (10) has a Commencal Clash, which is really nice. I think it was 1700 for the 24 inch version, but you can get bigger wheels.

JP

I’m not saying you need to have the same width as downhill riders, you doofus – I’m pointing out that ideal bar width is not positively related to rider size. I could have picked women enduro racers as another example, but I thought it was pretty clear what I was trying to say. Obviously not.

JP

Bar width doesn’t relate to size – many of the women on the DH circuit run wider bars than much bigger men.

I’m not massive in the shoulder/upper body area and have found that I’m faster with 800 mm bars than narrower ones, especially in technical terrain. The wider bars make the bike feel more stable when you’re getting pitched around. Someone who’s bigger/stronger can probably get away with narrower bars.

I remember the terrible advice in the late 80s to cut bars down to shoulder width, which as a slight 13 year old meant about 550mm, so I’ve always been sceptical when people say your bars are too wide.

JP

Nukeproof ones work ok and are pretty cheap. I’ve had a few offs whilst wearing them and they don’t completely protect you, but they certainly help.

JP

Read the Shimano literature – it’s got 90% of the power of the 520, not 90% more!

JP

Those figures are nonsense – it’s just a cheaper version of the 520.

JP

OK – for those unconvinced, let me give you an example of one of the many anti competition things Amazon does:

You have a product that starts selling well on Amazon Marketplace. Suddenly Amazon blocks you from selling it, then requires you to jump through hoops to get the product back on to the Marketplace (this includes sending documentation detailing from whom you bought the product). The reason for being blocked will be at the least spurious, at the most a downright lie.

In the meantime, Amazon has used the information you supplied to them to buy direct from your supplier. Then, when your listing finally gets back online, guess who now has the Buy Box? Even if you undercut them on price, their listing gets precedence.

We know that they do this because they’ve done it to us. With one of our companies, though, we are the manufacturer and retailer (under different company names) so we were able to tell Amazon to go forth and multiply when they blocked our listing then tried to buy the same product from us.

This is just one example of their practices. There are many others.

JP

Amazon is an awful company and Bezos is worse than almost any other CEO.

I won’t go into detail here, but I’ve seen practices (whilst working with them) used by them that are not even borderline anti-competitive/illegal, yet there seems very little that you can do about it. They really need to be broken up as they are now seriously abusing their position.

Much of what Amazon provides is actually through third parties (my businesses sell through seller fulfilled Prime, for example). I’d suggest seeing who is actually fulfilling your order then going direct to them; it will usually be cheaper, as Amazon takes a 15% cut on any items sold through marketplace, which has to be found frome somewhere.

I’d really like to organise a global don’t shop on Amazon day, but I think it would be hard to gain traction with it.

JP

Cheers guys.

If do remember doing an oil change on some Bombers, bolting it all back together, then realising I’d put the lowers on backwards. Doh!

JP

No – I think that there are often unreasonable expectations on here.

There will always be occasional issues with stock levels being wrong – especially when you’re dealing with the volume of orders CRC are. Mistakes happen.

I guess you lot are all perfect and nothing ever goes wrong at your workplaces then?

JP