teamhurtmore – Member

Have you been on holiday Julian?

Twice since the Stephen fry article, on my luxuriant public sector worker wages. :P (in fact i recently discovered that my union owns and runs its own holiday resort in Croyde. With a hefty discount for members. Perhaps we should have gone there.)

Happily i managed not to use the internet during both times, so missed the dail mail ban.

No Daily Mail

I’m sorry but we don’t allow direct links to the Daily Mail on our website as we find it an abhorrent publication.

For an explanation of why this is we can’t think of a better illustration than Stephen Fry’s personal account of his dealings with this publication here. We would encourage you to read this before continuing on to the Daily Mail website.

If you still want to visit the Daily Mail website your can use this link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-128712/MPs-pensions-25.html

The above link has a nofollow attribute applied.

Chapeau, stw! :lol:

20 or 30 years ago the smartarses on here would have been boasting about the wisdom of sacificing take home pay for an excellent pension and earlier retirment age, not unlike how people in the motor trade do with their poor basic rate but bonuses and excellent company cars, and people in the bike trade do with trade discounts. Now people seem to be ridiculed for having the temerity to question it when their employer changes/reduces their orginal package of employment/renumeration/retirement. Hmmmph.

I don’t think I’ll purchase another Chinese made “lifestyle” pair. Are these fakelys coming from the same Chinese factory? Don’t know, I would need to see a pair of fakelys up close but they could be rejects?

Houns, I lurk on a lego forum, and since lego stated getting some parts and especially minifigures and hats/hair pieces (for the little lego men, not full size people!) made in china, the volume and indeed the quality of counterfeit lego has increased considerably.

However I’ve recently bought a pair of two faces, which are made in china, and I have to say I am less than impressed with the quality, one of the lenses have recently loosened in the frame.

For some unfathomable reason (I am sure not ecological!) China also has limitatons on the types, blends and grades of plastics that can be imported as raw material for use in their factories: the ABS used in Chinese-made legit lego is inferior to that used by lego everywhere else (denmark, hungary, mexico etc); I wonder if there is a similar issue with Chinese-made legit oakleys?

I was getting disillusioned by all the limited editions of oakley stuff too until I found an advert for the “Radar Path France” in Rouleur today. :D

CaptainFlashheart – Member

Try here – http://www.counterfeitshit.com

I own a pair of real oakleys and no fakelys BTW.

But the fakelys everyone bought from that oft-used purveyor of ‘bastid lights’ are probably not crap enough to make your site flashy: The quality of the fake splitty-openy ones (and indeed the hard case they come in) is quite extraordinary. And fwiw someone pointed out on the last thread about this that it is harder and more expensive to make plastic or polycarbonate lenses that don’t filter UV.

It makes one wonder whether the fakelys were another example of the factory employees subcontracted to produce real ones continuing work after hours using some of the same moulds/tooling etc… (this happens for all sorts of other brand-name/high-end stuff, even lego!) And it makes you wonder how much the middlemen, shop fronts and warranty is really worth on a pair of genuine oakleys.

I own a pair of real oakleys and no fakelys BTW.

Lansley to COnservative MP’s last night:

I will stand up for the role of lobbyists; they do an important job, representing wide views to Government to assist informed and considered policy making… it is not my job, nor the job of Government, to control the lobbying industry; nor to create a burdensome and bureaucratic monster.

Exactly what or rather who is this bill really for then?

An article in the 20p independent yesterday says there already was a cap of sorts on lobbying costs. In which case the case for a ‘level playing field’ grows rather weak.

The more I think about this the more it also smells of Lynton “I am an advisor not a tobacco company lobbyist, honest Dave” Crosby trying ot have his cake and eat it. :evil:

Ton, get the dude to email you some snaps of his tour, photoshop your face onto his body and claim it was you on tour using a rack. ;)

Measure it and ask your local fasteners supplier.

I live near a Cofast[/url] who have boxes and boxes of all sorts of permutations of metric bolts right there on the shelf including ones with an unthreaded ‘shoulder’ like shock bolts. Last time I went in amongst other bits and bobs I got a handful of stainless m5 with half unthreaded half threaded for a quid.

On that basis I can’t imagine a single long-ish stainless m6 or m8 bolt being any more than a quid, iirc cofast have a minimum ‘line price’ of a quid so you might even end up with three or four costing you the same as a single one.

To be fair lobbying either political party in the run up to an election is pretty much a waste of money – just hold on and see who wins.

Ah but you can in effect ‘lobby’ the electorate in the later stages. It is quite conceivable that someone the size of say the NSPCC could swing a quite a few voters if something big enough to do with children became an electoral ‘issue’. Likewise greenpeace/FOE if there were big green issues swinging voters left or right. And that would be most inconvenient for the politicians…

I am reading this book at the moment.

He is pretty scathing about these buildings in London which get nicknamed by the architect/builder (and not the people. IIRC the Gherkin is a genuine nickname, the other recent ones are fabricated) and then ‘marketed as such: “Oooh look, our building is like a giant shard, we’re like sooooo quirky!”.

The trade union bit is clearly very timely given all this strathclyde/Unite business, and being clear exactly whose interests a trade union might be upholding in lobbying an issue. Personally and as a bleeding heart lefty-union member I can understand this bit and the ‘headline’ of it seems pretty sound. I would point out however that Union money is infinitely more transparent than the money used by big business to lobby government though, and I don’t expect much will change in light of this part.

But this bit:

-introduces a statutory register of consultant lobbyists and establishes a Registrar to enforce the registration requirements
-regulates more closely election campaign spending by those not standing for election or registered as political parties

The idea would seem* to be noble: there has been much consternation about politicians ears being unfairly bent by big business who then influence manifesto/poliicy in ways the actual voting public do not necessarily want or in many cases understand. As such, the more money and resources you spend the more likely you might be to get what you want done even if you have only have your own vote come election day.

So the principle of capping the amount big business can spend on lobbying (and diverting politicians’ attention and concerns away from what the rest of the electorate wants) seems sound.

However, where do you even strt to draw the line? Shall we limit profit-making plc’s lobbying but not trade unions? Or stop the unions too but not charities? What about clubs and societies with many members but not registered as charities? What about churches and religious groups? What about groups of militant atheists too? ( ;) )

The possibility with the white paper as it currently reads is that if you are caught spending too much money or using too much of your resources on lobbying too close to an election you can be gagged and prosecuted under criminal law.

At best this part if the bill seems a an ill-thought-out and overly blunt way of trying to make a level playing field for smaller groups to be able to lobby ‘as much’ as big business does. (ie no-one can do very much at all)

At worst it seems like a cynical and undemocratic attempt to be able to silence troublesome charities and groups that embarass politicians closer to election time (so of course 38 Degrees are quaking in their organic handmade hemp shoes ;) ), without addressing the core issue which is that lobbying by charities and non-prioft organisations/clubs is already very transparent and measurable, whereas big business we know little about the mechaincs and money, and will probably continue in the shadows heavily protected by expensive lawyers, loyalities and politicians in their pockets.

Teh pretty sickening irony is that this bill is being seconded/supported by Andrew Lansley, who having had the bejeesus lobbied out of him in private before and shortly after the last election, been the darling of private health and pharma companies for years, and who of course started off the health and social care act, is on course for a hugely paid board position in a private health provider once he quits politics.

The ‘walkie talkie’.

[/url]The rather famouls Odeillo Solar Furnace. (BTW its ace, go an visit it.

What kind of sheltered and unscientific life the architects of this building must lead. :?

I confess,the day before yesterday on the way home I deviated off the shared use path and onto the road to avoid a pedestrian deafened by headphones weaving across the generous four feet afforded to pedestrians and cyclists for that 1 mile stretch. I will now go and reflect on my actions and order an air zound.

Sorry, dead link at the bottom shoud be this: http://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2013/08/22/still-too-many-questions-around-non-party-campaigning-rules/%5B/url%5D

The way lobbying reform is heading, your local authority can ignore London Cycling Campaign for a whole year before elections too (and have them prosecuted if they campaign too hard/expensively). http://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2013/08/22/still-too-many-questions-around-non-party-campaigning-rules/%5B/url%5D :evil:

Graham, oh yes it was in the UK. She and her friend pointed their speed, (and the lack of impact on traffic and the guidance not to use shared use paths at that speed) out the the officer at the time but he seemed unconvinced. They both complained, (about the same incident) one girl got a really helpful response from one duty sergeant who is apparently coming to our local monthly cycling/council liaison meeting, and the other got a different sergeant who couldn’t see anything wrong whatsoever with the traffic officer’s view or actions. :?

jam bo – Member

yep, because it has to be stupid steep before I cant ride 34-36 up there.

But its not always about what gear you can push for a short time. What’s your heart rate like gurning up a hill at 34-36 just before you have to get off and push? Not an issue on sub-6 hour rides for me (even on a singlespeed all over dartmoor innit) but I can see why someone looking at 12-24 hour rides would like to invest in gently spinning up steep climbs at walking pace (definitely more energy efficient than pushing your bike if you know how to spin gently and efficiently) to stave off the bonk a few hours later. As far as I can tell that’s what the spinners on here are after.

Not for me and my budget though: I have a rarely-used-but-enough to-keep-on-the-bike granny ring and a front derailleur that will basically outlast all the rest of the drivetrain, -quite a bit cheaper too!

My mrs and her roadie mate recently got pulled over by traffic poilce for not using a cyclepath: riding on the road not the badly-maintained (random patches of tarmac, random 10″ ‘sinkhole’ where it goes over a railway, tree roots lifting tarmac) shared footway/cyclepath on the opposite side of the 40mph dual carriageway. (not especially busy, they were doing 25mph) :?

…is this the beginning of another stw bromance thread? :D
The sun glinting off your top tube and your go-pro winking invitingly at me…

Looking forward to see the split and to see how my MP voted.

@ THM, The rather useful Public Whip website has it. Link to which Conservatves and Lib Dems voted against. There is a link somewhere on there to show what everyone voted or didn’t…

My MP, (a former whip in a seat so safe that a gibbon would get in as long as it had a blue tie on) rather predictably voted with his party.

Google singletrackworld+mark+anthony or singletrackworld+activesport first!

iirc activesport’s definition of “in stock” may mean they have it in stock, but it also might mean that they think they can order it in from distributor within a week or so. Definitely worth phoning and checking they have it first -if no one else has it in stock it is possible that fishers are out of stock too and activesport will be no more likely to get you one any time soon than any one else (and by the last few threads on here, they will properly give you the runaround and a load of excuses based somewhere within the possibilities of the bike trade but not necessarily true for your case ;) )

The one you speak of will be for mounting an older style IS caliper onto a post mount fork.
Try looking for one the other way round, ie post to IS.
The hope model for this is an “A” (and has a big capital A etched on it) click this for piccy but anything that is described as ‘Front 160mm post to IS’ will do as the Hope ones are a bit nice (cnc machined rather than cast like most others) and therefore a bit expensive.

I have 2 sets of lights giving way to main/larger roads within 200m of my rode to work: just these 2 can add anything between 0 and 4 minutes to my commute time. Decent tailwind up 1k 13% hill take a bit off again though. Basically for a given level of fitness, the weather and traffic/lights can vary my average time plus or minus 20% Not to mention that work is so uphill that the ride home is typically 60% of the time it takes to ride in. :lol:

This is cheap at the upgrade distribution ‘outlet’.

The only downside is it can unscrew the valve core – Continental are a particular problem.

Although I have also just bought a couple of conti tubes as spares. :?

no big hard talk

I think we should all take a guess at what you did/what happened.

And a speculative well done on getting your bike back too.

johnnystorm – Member

Not half as odd as the spec sheet.

I thought jagwire front mechs were all the rage now. ;)

Just got to finish my pint of lunch

I’ve still got 2 more pints of lunch left in the fridge, which I will enjoy for my tea. Buuuuurp! :D

Nick- i overheard talk of 3000 pints consumed this weekend. Does this mean that apart from yours, they sold 2950 to the rest of the BBB?

Paint wears off easily and has a normal headtube. But it has a nicely long top tube, long stroke shock, 30.9mm seat tube, rides nice with 120mm fork, climbs and pedals really well. Like a ‘small’ heckler or so says a mate who had a heckler back along. The mud clearance is just fantastic too though I am not sure that was a priority when/where they designed it. If you buy a new one you also get replacement bearings free for life and the one time we have done this they turned up no questions asked (I properly mashed the inside seals on the old ones getting them out with my ghetto split collet removing thing) and super quick too.

theflatboy – Member

If you’re saving for a new bike is it really going make that much difference if you just go 650b? Genuine question – you might even prefer it!

Perhaps the OP is planning on building his own fork and wheels onto a new frame. Still that way it will get with the trend of low bb’s and big mud clearance. :lol:

Thanks to the legendary accuracy of Strava for Android, I recently logged a ride which took me from what I experienced from the saddle as an hour and a bit round my local woods all the way to Belgium, and then a 50k or so loop around goodness knows where in Wallonia. I logged 600 or so kilometres and an average moving speed of 540something kph.

I left it up there for a few days for posterity then deleted the ride as in the “Dirt Search”, my 450k cross channel/trans europe dash had put me into the top five amongst some proper off road hard men. :lol:

Now I am back to about 15mph ave for a 2-3 hour ride on road bike in hilly devon/dartmoor, and usually just inside top 35%/bottom 65% of the segments round here.

anyone just have r4 on? Theresa May didn’t really say anything at all did she? It was like listening to the ‘comment’ section of the dail mail read by the home secretary. :?

aracer, I think you need to post a link to the planning application so ninfan someone can arbitrarily take the opposing view to yours and argue it all over again on here. :D

BTW friend of my wife’s works in planning for our local authority and says it’s very rare indeed (at least in Jannersville) for the planning committee vote to go against the reccommendations of the council officer from planning department who reports/comments on the application. If that was the case too then double well done.

Stupidly narrow bars (under 750mm)

Gotta give those broad shoulders room to move properly.

t’wife runs a bit and raves about these “yurbuds”. YEPMV (Your earhole profile may vary) but they are her most staying-put ones so far.

Avid brakes.
Press fit/bb30
Gxp cranks
that giant tapered headset ‘standard’ (do they even make it any more?)
Proprietary rear shocks (eg spesh brain, that trek/fox one with the pivots in the middle of the air can)
integrated headsets(bearings go straight into frame with no external or semi-integrated cups) on mountain bikes.

I will also approach with caution:
wierd wheels with unusual spokes
rear ends with no replaceable hanger
rear ends with ludicrously expensive replacement dropouts (intense, newer yetis etc)

On a slight tangent, I wold be most impressed with a bike manufacturer that invested a tiny bit in supplying with the bike a spare hanger and a couple of sets of pre-cut helitape for areas where its extensive r&d has revealed cable rub to be an issue. It baffles me that they spend so much on r&d, marketing, teams etc but are too bone idle or cheapskate to do this on a bike that retails for a grand or five. :?

The Formula warranty/disclaimer blurb is a masterclass in management of liability for mechanical failure and accidents. (fortunately the uk distributor/warranty is pretty fine in my experience of 2 failed levers on brand new and not-so-new brakes) I have used centerlok shimano rotors on my old k18’s a few times and they were fine. FWIW formula rotors are really nice and although the law of diminishing returns for money spent very much applies, they are lightish and stop and cool pretty well.

I’ve recently bought an 8 year old scandium road bike (Salsa Campeon) and although its light and comfy, I would imagine that it is hard to sell a road bike like that competitively at that sort of price point (apart from the scandAl, iirc they were all at the expensive end of alloy frames) these days, when you could just source a carbon one and put your brand on the downtube, or god forbid design it yourself.

I would love a go on a juan solo, I always keep an eye out but haven’t seen one come up for sale for ages.

[professional bias] stsyemic therapy is spendy but great! [/professional bias]

If you have fallen out so badly with your folks and it was a long time coming/brewing, it’s worth looking at how/why -with all the goodwill (and determination not to be your mum/dad!) in the world you could still end up repeating some of the patterns (therapist will call these ‘scripts’ or ‘circularities’) with your own kids that are the roots of you falling out with your parents.

glupton1976 – Member

If you’d take your car to a garage to get serviced and it was stolen while it was at the garage – whose insurance would you expect to claim off?

Comparing apples with pears ^^

Imagine your ‘bike-in-for-repair’ is a sewing machine, laptop or armchair in need of re-uphosltering, not a motor vehicle with its own entirely separate insurance regulations and policies/brokers/underwriters.