stumpy01 – Member
I struggle to believe that anyone out there would spend that sort of money on cycling kit – especially as it doesn’t look any better than stuff you can get at a fraction of the price.

it’s not cycling kit, it’s Paul Smith clothing (with associated prices) that’s been designed to cycle in and turn up at your destination looking smart*

*open to interpretation

i’m about the same height as you and the 56 is spot on for me, but then i’m different to you

what trend/direction is it going then?
the same way it’s been going since the year dot, certain human beings will always push themselves to go bigger/further/faster/higher, it’s what we (or they to be more truthful) do, but as has been mentioned above enough Rampage competitors have walked away when feel it’s dangerous for them when others have been happy to carry on

if riders want to do this kind of thing i will watch, in slack-jawed awe, are *you* going to stop watching because you think it’s too dangerous and someone’s going to get hurt?

hora – Member
Its only going to end one way.

it’s only going to end one way if you’re supercilious enough to think the riders are cow-witted idiots just throwing themselves off cliffs in the vain pursuit of cash rather than skilled athletes that have practised their tricks over and over and over and enjoy pushing themselves that little bit further each time because it’s a large part of what makes them tick

they’re savvy enough to know what their limits are without you telling them what’s dangerous like their boring Dad that gets a bit scared going down a hill on a road bike

hora – Member

Almost killed riding to the shops? A lorry intentionally tried killing us on the motorway on Sunday- I didnt chose or ask him to do that. Theres a difference fella.

congratulations on spotting my point, i’d rather die doing something i chose to do than at the hands of someone else

all riders have the choice whether or not to do this sort of thing, plenty in the past have walked away when they perceive the risk/reward stakes to be skewed the wrong way – for them, there will always be someone more skilled or ballsier, most probably younger following up behind, it’s part of the progression to how Rampage has got to where it is now, it’s the same for every other ‘extreme’ sport

people will be doing crazier stuff next year, someone might hurt themselves

i nearly died riding to the shops for a pint of milk

you can get inserts for use on carbon bars that aren’t strengthened for bar ends

Specialized for one, do them

]MidlandTrailquestsGraham – Member
If another manufacturer’s team wore blue jerseys with their logo in red on a cream stripe, that would be plagiarism, or copyright infringement.

If they put some stars on their jerseys, it wouldn’t.

it’s hard to copyright a combination of colours, or a pattern, but you can easily plagiarise something

as in the Rapha/Torm jersey instance someone can copy your ‘Thing’ that’s been around long enough for people to recognise it as your ‘Thing’ and you can be a bit peeved that someone’s nicked your ‘Thing’ and do something about it.
it also works with stars on a jersey

and from the other side, any designer with any integrity will say, ‘that looks a bit like that, i won’t do that, i’ll try a bit harder’

what makes the Singular jersey recognisable is the colour, and combination of colours, you don’t necessarily need to see the logo and lettering once you know it’s Singular, the visual imprint has been made

they have a particular blue, with that cream and red, a mix that no-one else has, which is why it works

that’s design for you

MidlandTrailquestsGraham – Member
But you knew it was me, JoB.

i had to ask ;-)

MidlandTrailquestsGraham – Member
Most team and club jerseys are a mess of colours and get lost in the overall mess of colours in a bunch.
Vegan Runners was already an established “brand” so it made sense to copy (with their permission ) their two bold colours with just two words in clear text.
Like the bloke on a building site who stands out because he’s wearing a camouflage jacket while everyone else is wearing hi-viz, it works.

i’ve been past you on a race course and i’ve stood by the side of a trail and watched you go past, it’s a dark jersey that’s hard to see in the woods with a green band that blends in with leaves and the lettering is too small to read when it’s moving, it doesn’t work

you need a designer

MidlandTrailquestsGraham – Member
Funny you should mention that lemonysam, as I designed this.

Although it was blatant plagiarism.

and we’re back at the start of the thread

;-)

if you’re not bothered by gear-changing constantly and can anticipate the trail ahead so negating the need for instant panic shifts then bar-end shifters are fine, people were doing it for years before STIs arrived after all

Gevenalle[/url] offer a third option

damn

i give it less than 2 minutes before someone posts a picture of that squirrel in a disc rotor

be a man and don’t

there should be an allen bolt in the middle that you just undo a bit

a quiet gem

l’esprit d’escalier

literally in your case

yes you can, the threads for a freewheel and fixed cog are the same

you’ll need to put a lockring on there as well as the cog will unscrew when you stop pedalling, and you’ll need to Loctite the lockring on or similar as it will be using the same thread and want to undo as well, a proper fixed hub has a stepped-down and reversed thread section for the lockring to prevent this

they call it Suicide Fixed for a reason, but as you’ve got a back brake it’s less of a problem

DaveyBoyWonder – Member
WTF would anyone want a saddle thats going to last 50 years?! I can’t see a 30 year old buying one for their rad enduro machine thinking “ooo, thats money well spent because it’ll still be lovely when I’m 80”. Sorry, I just don’t get Brooks stuff at all. It belongs in the 1940s. Same as Pashley bikes. I’m massively dissappointed when Pashley tried to enter the modern age with their TV series stuff they didn’t progress from there. Instead they scrapped it and went back to making heavy bikes for middle aged women to flaunt around on in Cambridge and Oxford

because Brooks and Pashley have rad enduro riders as their target market don’t they

a vast amount of the bags, jersey and jackets that you think are just souvenirs with the Brooks name on are modern interpretations of old Brooks products that the new owners Selle Italia found in old catalogues and decided to re-introduce in an attempt to revitalise the brand, a business decision that has worked quite well really.

bent udder – Member

I’ll probably go for cheap and cheerful cartridge bearing rear and a slightly more spendy front.

i’d go for the more spendy rear myself, fronts are easy to find and cheap anyway, the rear has a lot more work to do so a decent long lasting one is a better investment IMO

i’ve got a Goldtec on the rear of the SSCX and it’s performed flawlessly through several years of crud, even went from a 120mm rear end to a 130mm one with a simple axle swap
WI freewheel

front is an old XTR hub that was in the shed :)

spectators are frequently injured watching pro road racing, there have even been a few deaths

riders have also been injured clashing with errant spectators

this is you first time watching road racing, yes?

xcretro – Member This makes financial sense to me. TBH some of the cassettes/chains have streched/worn certain sprockets as I tend to use the smallest 3 or 4

you’re not getting your money’s worth, if you used the full range of the cassette they could last about 60% longer

gears that work, brakes that work, inability to carry a mate down the Rec., bell – not a Chopper

how long is a piece of string?

how tall is she, what’s your budget?

there’s often no need to get a WSD frame, by studying geometries and using shorter stems a decent fit can found with a normal frame

Northwind – Member
jonba – Member
only do it to those of the same standard. If you are being lapped, move over.

How do you know?

oh, you know :-)

i like it because i’m not very good and it’s an absolutely ridiculous thing to do whilst you’re doing it but the best fun in the world when it’s over

have a nice meal of what you’d normally eat the night before, same again for breakfast, take a water-bottle, with energy stuff in it if you use energy stuff, have some cake at the end and a nice meal in the evening with a beer

you’re speaking to all the wrong roadies, all the ones i know ask where you went and comment on the nice lanes

unless you were just broadly generalising to make some sort of internet point

you’d be hard pushed to get 25mm tyres and Crud guards in there, it’s tight as it is with 25s in the rear

it’s racey, that’s for sure, a carbon post might help a bit

the Basketmakers Arms on Gloucester Rd is my default proper pub in central Brighton

it’s a long walk to Rottingdean

it rides depending on how the manufacturer wants it to ride

not being facetious, it can be made to ride stiff and harsh, it can be made to ride soft and comfy or a mix of both, much like any frame material really

the train option will be easier logistically as you won’t have to get a train from Eastbourne to Brighton.

getting the train to Falmer and picking up the SDW from there cuts out a fair chunk of the Brighton-Eastbourne section of the SDW, if you were to start your ride from the Dyke which would be the natural jump point from Brighton, making the ride about ten less miles. this may be desirable to you however.

Patcham would be easier, but that’s a drag up to the SDW as well, but everywhere’s a drag up to the SDW as it runs along the top of a ridge of hills, mostly.

the ride up from Brighton to the SDW at Devil’s Dyke is a long drag, but there’s a bike lane (off sorts) all the way up Dyke Road and once you’ve breached the by-pass there’s a off-road gravel path all the way there.
if coming from London you could get off at Preston Park, one station before Brighton, and head up to Dyke Road from there, that would save you the mess of getting out of Brighton town centre.

an alternative would be to get the train to Shoreham-by-Sea, take the traffic-free and flat Downslink path north and the pick up the SDW where it crosses the Adur, there’s the long drag up Truleigh Hill as a nice warm up then.
it adds 4 miles and 4 hills to the route compared to starting the SDW at the Dyke though, this may be desirable to you however.

depends on the other brand, i ride a 56 in most cross frames (5′ 10″ andabit) and they have a 560 or thereabouts TT, the 550 of the 53 would definitely be short for the size

i’d agree with Kona

they probably know best too

ignore internet anecdotal advice and go and see a proper physio that understands cyclists