Would also say of my close riding group in the last 12 months, The three people on Transitions have all broken them, and all waited months for replacements.

I know of a couple of Patrols that have broken at the same place on the chainstays. 2017 models, I believe.

JP

are all pro-Brexit, anti-Johnson,

If they are pro brexit who are they pro if not Johnson, Farage? Rees Mogg?

That should have read ‘pro remain’ doh!

JP

I’d be looking at something with a coil shock at 100kgs. Friends who are that sort of weight have been much happier on coils than air shocks.

JP

So who set the cost to pitch for Xmas market? Bet it is the council.

Of course it is. Councils tend to be greedy with these sorts of things. For your £12K in Bath you don’t get power (extra fee) or get to be in the same place as previous years, so people can find you easily again (extra fee), or even be in one of the higher footfall areas (extra fee).

JP

Christmas market pitches are incredibly expensive in most places. Bath is £12K for a food pitch for 3 weeks. Ergo you need to sell food at inflated prices to make any money.

JP

For comedy value it has to be Spencers of Wells. It’s a small grocers, of the kind that are meant to be open early until late, 7 days a week, yet, in reality, it is only open from 10-4 on weekdays and closes for lunch for an hour.

It’s also opposite a medium sized Tesco and three doors down from a Spar.

I’ve never seen anyone go in there, and all of the products in the window have faded through age. Half of the signs in the window are for brands that no longer exist (Rowntree, Fry’s Chocolate, etc).

I have no idea how it survives, but it is an amazing relic.

JP

What is it about Invasive Alien Species that is pertinent to certain countries, but detrimental to others? This is my thing so I am genuinely interested?

Can’t recall the exact details to be honest, but he’s always ranting on about it when he’s trying to justify Brexit. It was some sort of plant and involved ponds IIRC, but he seemed to have a good case.

I think it’s very hard to argue with the fact that too much is decided at the EU level. Article 13 is a prime example.

JP

It’s funny that people are always pointing the finger at shadowy figures who apparently are making money from Brexit/Johnson/Tories, yet all the people I know personally from this sort of world (a couple of hedge fund managers, former CEO of a major bank, etc) are all pro-Brexit, anti-Johnson, anti-Trump. They’re also anti-Corbyn, but that’s a different story.

JP

And if the licence fee goes, so does Channel 4 and S4C

A friend’s dad was on the board of S4C when I was at university. I remember there being a story in the Welsh press about him being paid £120K a year for 1 day a month. And that was in the early 90s. Not sure if that’s a great use of licence payer’s money, tbh.

JP

I’ve got 20KGs of various beans form Gardelli coming in this week.

I have bought beans from JJprestige and they have been excellent, but you are looking at the best speciality beans available so not at the budget end.
I’m happy to pay for quality though as I can buy a mixed lot from my favourite roasters (gardelli, Collona, roundhill)

Don’t forget to DM me when you get stock!

Cheers!

Should be in on Friday – was roasted today. I’ll drop you a line.

JP

Hasbean and Peter James are both good choices.

I’ve got 20KGs of various beans form Gardelli coming in this week. He was the world roasting champion last year and buys only the best green beans. I’d definitely put Gardelli at the top of the best roasters in the world, and I’ve tried coffee from hundreds of roasters over the years

Only downside is that it tends to be a bit pricey, but I can do an STW discount if you’re interested – DM me.

JP

tpbiker

Member

As long as Lewis Hamilton doesn’t win then I’m all good. An odious man who’s success is 95% down to the car he drives.

So you know him personally do you?

You obviously know nothing about motorsport, so I’m guessing no.

JP

kelvin

Subscriber

Which rules and regulations are we dumping?

What has immigration “outwith” the EU, into the UK, go to do with the EU?

Before I say this, I should reiterate that these aren’t my views, in case this gets taken out of context.

Regarding non-EU immigration, I’d imagine they are referring to the migrant crisis in the Middle East and the subsequent migration through EU countries to the UK, and/or pressure put on the UK by the EU to take more migrants.

One of my friends was an advisor for an MEP. His problem with the EU is that MEPs would regularly be required to vote on things about which they had no understanding, and were given very little time to gain any understanding due to sheer volume. Article 13 is a good example, but there are loads of others, including one about invasive species – a regulation that apparently was pertinent to certain countries, but detrimental to others, yet was implemented throughout the EU.

JP

Time to move on.

For sure.

So, what exactly are we aiming to replace our membership of the EU with?

What’s going to change for the better after we’ve left, that couldn’t be achieved without giving up EU membership?

(Still feels like it’s July 2016 to me.)

I’ve got quite a few friends who’ve been heavily involved in the leave campaign. Some have direct experience of working in the EU as an organisation. I don’t agree with them, but these are the main things they think we’ll achieve by leaving:

Lower immigration from within and outwith the EU.
Fewer rules and regulations forced on us by an outside body. I have to say that I do agree with them on this – MEPS are constantly voting on new EU wide laws that often don’t make any sense when applied to a specific country.
Less interference by lobbyists.
More accountability.

As I said, these aren’t my views, but, even as a staunch remainer, I can see that some of them make sense to some extent.

JP

It’s funny how eco-warriors have taken on many of the most negative aspects of religion: asceticism (I must restrict myself from these terrible pleasures, such as cars, heating and ample food); eschatology (the world’s going to end in an inferno); and mortification (I must suffer for my sins against the environment).

If people could avoid relentlessly pursuing this sort of cultish proselytising and instead focused on solutions that didn’t involve taking society back to pre-industrial levels of development then we’d be in a much better situation.

Technology has repeatedly been able to solve humanity’s problems, yet is viewed in the most pessimistic light by most eco types. If you don’t accept this, consider, like an MP did in the late Victorian era, just how many horses the population of London would now require had the internal combustion engine not been invented and productionised. Let’s just say the streets would not have smelt good. Ultimately, a technology that the Victorians hadn’t even foreseen circumvented a prospective problem.

This is just one example of hundreds where technology has provided a solution to a seemingly impossible problem. It is worth remembering, in all this self-flaggelation, that human beings are nothing if not ingenious, especially when there is necessity involved.

But then, I’m an optimist, unlike all the doomsday members on here, who, presumably were building bunkers in the 80s to protect themselves from the cause du jour back then.

JP

RicB

Subscriber

Although if you had a car garage fit a £90 part you’d probably pay £140; everyone seems to value trained bike mechanics a lot less

The huge difference in the running costs of a commercial garage compared to a bike workshop makes this a rather naive statement to say the least.

JP

I was fine with people bringing bikes in to my coffee shop. Not sure I’d have felt the same if it had been a clothes shop or similar.

JP

mooman

Member

Is it the end of this thread?

Will those here who have whinged and moaned for the last 3 years finally accept they lost .. twice!

or will they call for a Peoples Vote on the General Election result?

I think that we can finally admit that there is a majority of morons in this country. Whether we actually leave still remains to be seen.

JP

There’s odds of 10:1 available at the moment on a Labour minority government. Several of my political friends are taking a punt on that.

Personally, I think the polls are way out of kilter and we’ll see another hung parliament.

JP

We’re going to be right back where we started before all this happened, amusingly.

JP

Lazer Phoenix Plus isn’t much more, but is fully ASTM certified, and pretty light.

JP

There’s a tendency amongst left leaning Brits (myself included) to see Finland as a political utopia. It has a much better education system than the UK, and, when I’ve visited, everything seems to work well.

However, a Finnish friend of mine recently moved back there with her family, after living in the UK for 20 years, and she was able to give a less rose-tinted view of the country. Taxes are very high and so is the cost of housing, and almost everything else. The net result was that she and her husband had to work longer and harder for less money and the overall quality of life was actually lower than they enjoyed in the UK.

They ended up coming back to the UK after a year and are now much happier.

The grass isn’t always as green on the other side as you might imagine.

JP

endoverend

Subscriber

Now this is flipping ACE. Where can one go live where this could become the commute to work? Looks to have a lot of pace on at some points, lever on right looks like gear lever so am thinking 70/80mph….

250cc gearbox carts can top 140mph. It’s difficult to tell the speed from the footage, but it looks faster than 70.

JP

I grew up there and my family still live there. There’s quite a bit of stuff that used to be fun on an early 90s hardtail, but would be pretty boring on a modern bike.

The better stuff was:

Hillhead to Mansands – turn left just past the old garage (now houses) on the lower ferry road and follow the path down to Mansands.

Southdown to Mansands – go up Southdown Hill then follow the path down towards Mansands when the road finishes.

Churston Woods – a few drops and tracks hidden in the woods. Not sure how this has held up as many of the trees were felled last year.

Berry Head – cheeky bit of singletrack in the woods where the third fort was planned to be built in the 18th century.

Pig Track from the halfway along Kennels Road down to Greenway.

If you want more technical stuff and/or jumps, I’d head to Scadson – near Cockington.

JP

If you listen to many older people from northern colliery towns, you’d have thought that the past in these places was some sort of industrial utopia that the Tories destroyed in the 80s.

Read JB Priestley’s travelogue, Journey Through England, which is a book that strongly influenced the creation of the welfare state, and you’ll find that the opposite was true. These were grim, depressing places in the 1930s; they’ve just traded one type of grimness for another.

JP

Because religious intolerance is unforgivable

But racism is OK now is it??

So, we’re now forbidden from making any generalisations about any groups or things? Funny, because that sounds quite fascistic to me.

JP

You’re going to drop a fair bit off the BB and make the head angle slacker. I don’t think it would work, but you might like it.

If you want a 27.5 frame just buy one – there are some deals on 2019 Nukeproof Mega frames and they’re not much different for 2020.

JP

I was going to recommend an 84 Chateau Margaux, but then I saw the budget.

I’d suggest going to your local indie wine merchant and seeing what they recommend. You might need to stretch the budget a little bit, but you’ll get something more interesting than bog standard supermarket wine.

JP

Good point well made.

Devil incarnate indeed….

Maybe not. Monbiot, on the other hand, is a supremely annoying, virtue-signalling hypocrite, so I’m not certain that his endorsement is worth anything.

JP

It’s worth remembering, though, that being pro-EU is analogous to saying that you’re pro-parliament; it’s a system, not a political movement. Just because it’s currently dominated by a left of centre agenda doesn’t mean that this will always be the case.

I’m a staunch remain voter, but I can see significant flaws in the EU: it’s bloated, corrupt and generally places far too much power in the hands of people who don’t really know what they’re doing. I know a couple of people who have worked within the organisation, so this is not based on tabloid nonsense.

Personally, I’d like to see us remain in a reformed EU.

JP

Small businesses won’t pay more corporation tax, because it’s paid on PROFIT after costs such as salaries. So the only way they will pay more tax is if they are using bonuses and dividends to pay less tax than they should in the first place.

You really don’t understand this do you? We pay significant sums in corporation tax every year, and we’re a very typical small business with 4 employees. The notion that small businesses wouldn’t be affected by an increase is nonsense. The only businesses not affected are large organisations that can afford to use arcane offshore structures to stop paying any corporation tax at all.

If corporation tax were reduced to a sensible level we’d probably re-invest our additional revenue, primarily in creating jobs, thereby generating income tax revenues, or increase dividends, which would also generate tax income. Larger companies would also be less likely to try to avoid paying the tax if it were set at a lower level. But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good ‘all companies are evil and should be taxed to death’ doctrine, shall we?

JP

I’m out – was idly flicking through the radio stations when on it came.

As an aside, regarding the video – why George went on a group skiing holiday with his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend is something I’ll never understand.

JP

It’s not that difficult to understand working class Tory voters:

Many will have memories of the terrible Labour government of 74-79. Corbyn’s Labour, with its nationalisation agenda and general left wing stance will remind many of these voters of this era.

Others will see a lack of fiscal responsibility. The Tories can be just as reckless, but as they are generally perceived as being more careful with spending (which does have some historical precedents) they are more likely to get away with it in voters’ eyes.

Aspirational working class types will also not vote Labour, almost as a matter of principle. Ditto many of those who have risen to the ranks of the lower middle class.

JP

Nukeproof Reactor?

JP

Bit of a brat. Dad is not a nice man. Good driver but overrated IMO, and not a sportsman in the traditional sense (witness all the moving round in the braking zones, etc).

JP

What does it teach you that is as important as how to decide how your country should be run? I honestly don’t know, and I have an A in GCSE Geography.

How it should be run in relation to the rest of the world we live with, geography defines nations.

The lack of attention given to that is again, a very British disease – probably because we are islanders. A shame, because we used to have a strong culture of geographical mindset during the enlightenment.

I’d certainly say it’s more important than media studies or philosophy at GCSE level, maybe History and Geography could be rolled into one subject as they complement each other so well.

Philosophy is the source of critical thinking; lumping it in with media studies does it a gross disservice.

JP

I think the whole state education system is structured poorly. The independent sector has pre-prep (little ones) prep (years 3-8) and senior (years 9-13). This stops the issue of throwing 11 year olds in with 16 year olds, which is never good.

JP

It’s funny how up in arms some people on here get about stereotyping, yet they find it perfectly OK to stereotype all drivers as selfish [insert pejorative noun].

JP

Deore 4 pots – loads of power every time, no variable bite point, super cheap.

Charger 2.1 damper turned my Yari into a Lyrik for £160

Madision Roam jacket for £30 from Biketart – absolute bargain.

JP

Edukator

Member

Your first and third posts here, Sui:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/we-will-reach-out-to-you-tomorrow/

Rather than being admirative of a non native speaker following language trends faster than yourself you take the Micky.

Wow! If you find those comments offensive you must exist in a constant state of high level agitation at the world.

JP