You’ll find that pretty much all the bar and restaurant staff are on a pliss poor wage and tips are the only way to make a ‘living’.

Where we go in New Hampshire, wages of 5$ per hour were I believe, quite goods. So yes ‘everything’ is cheap out there, including the staff.

If you really want to wind the Yanks up, tell them to stop moaning about how expensive their petrol is. – I guarantee you’ll get a jaw drop when you tell them we pay about $6 a US Gallon

If HTII then I’d say yes.

Ladders

Have to disagree. Like flange I now have DA on my winter bike.

Previous winter frames needed deep drop calipers and the ‘Ultegra’ equivalent jobs were 5hite in comparison.

Capt J

Can we tempt you with better STI’s? 😉

elliott-20

Haven’t died yet.

Okay that’s definitely food for thought. Just let me know if you do.

I’ll see what I can do!

I can’t remember if 9 speed chains are wider overall or whether it’s the inner dimension. Either way no probs with 50 miles of riding so far.

Hunt down a pair of 2ndhand Dura Ace 7700 or 7800 calipers on your preferred online tat bazaar.

You WILL notice a performance difference over 105/Ultegra.

Mike

I noticed that a couple of guys I ride with have Ay ups but god their
website is confusing! – I think I’ll ask the guys next time I see them.

Shortcut
I chatted with someone (Del??) from 4 4ths at the Army Enduro and liked the look of the kit. I guess you’re talking about the Exodus light?

I did this commute on my new full suss on Tues.

Quite often do this route but big difference on Tues was that ended up greeting a Senior Director whilst still in my bestest mud splattered lycra 🙄

Jerry was working on IR in the latter stages of the war.

Sat Nav and real time aerial reconnaissance would have made a huge difference.

martymac
i vaguely remember a quote from the first gulf war when someone official pointed out that they would aim for a particular window in a building, as opposed to ww2 when they would aim for ‘hopefully’ the correct side of town country, army.

FTFY

But returning to the air to mud theme, how about A10 Warthogs?

[edit] beaten to it by SBH

Surfer

Yep my winter bike was back out today, including overshoes 🙁

Fuzzy

I reckon Vachery was more or less perfect for such things.

Swim, run and cross bike leg in a private estate and loads of things for family and spectators to do in the arena.

Pretty sensible start times (for the competitors :wink:)

Dunsfold Airshow on in the background, complete with Vulcan and Red Arrows fly pasts 8)

Run and cross courses were pretty flat and as I said, it made a good cyclo cross course.

Only real downside was the couple of quagmire muddy sections which were a shame, especially with the cracking weather.

I trust you already have mudguards? If not budget in £30+ for a set on top of whatever shoe combo you look at.

I reckon I’ve coughed up about £6K on bike toyz this year. Really don’t want to do the maths on that thanks!

I’ve just put a 10sp XTR double on my new wagon with 9 speed mechs, shifters and chain.

Haven’t died yet.

Good job it wasn’t his Cube frame from last year 😉

Sorry Mark 😆

Nick

How did we manage to make a 1ft high hump look like a rad gnarr downhill?

http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?l=euIWeawG&pictureid=12476689499

Was it your awsum bike skilz or my photographistery 😉

Raw Energy Pursuits are a good crowd and this event did appear to go well. Whether it makes any money is another matter.

Can we post pics of you here when they’re live? 😉

Nick

All the shots will be up on SSP[/url] as soon as.

I know the organisers and after my reccie, I said to Mark D that the bike leg was only 10K. He said they had tweaked it down but Mick D, the other organiser wasn’t aware of this……..

I rode my brand new full susser on Sun and literally made a right mess of the muddy bits 2 miles in!

I recently got some Flakjackets with a plain Transition tint to see how I’d get on with ‘cycling glasses’. – Seem fine on the road though do seem to collect sweat more than usual glasses.

However my biggest issue is I’ve dropped them once and put tiny dings on the front surface. Spunking £200ish for prescription transitions is a lot of dosh especially if they’re going to struggle with the abuse of off road riding.

Has anyone had their lenses hard coated, and if so is it any good?

Hadn’t appreciated twas a smallish area, but good luck with small machine sanding.

Definitely +1 million to knee pads and if you can, a dust extractor / vac is going to very handy in keeping things clean as you go.

I’m new to Strava and quite like trying to find challenges to test myself.

I know a fair few of the guys on my regular routes so if I feel competitive, it’s good to ‘race’ them.

Couple of weeks ago I rode in with a mate and with his help set a PR on one climb. We then have a nice speedy descent that I lead him out on and then watched him crank it up to claim my KOM.

Works both ways.

Oh and being fit doesn’t necessarily mean being the quickest. I’m well off the pace on pretty much all the techy trails I ride but it’s good to practise.

big_scot_nanny – Member

Jesus Christ m1kea, that is a shit load of equipment!
I bow out, my willy is smallest.
But I still think filters are poo!
Ah ha aha ha aha ha ha ah hah…..

😆

Well I do have to compensate for various inadequacies! 😆

Last time I hired a 500 f4 I nearly gave myself a hernia by filling up one of my camera bags 🙄

42lbs of bag and gear for an afternoon at Marwell Zoo 🙄

Capn S

Good to see you’ve gone with some redundancy / security options.

The only ‘frotto bag I have is one of their tripod cases. Well made so no reason for their other offerings to be rubbish.

Christonabike

I certainly wouldn’t fancy trying a small 1/3 1/2 sheet handsander like that. Even a hand held pro grade belt sander would be a mission.

How about an alternate approach?:

If you could lift all the boards, why not get them put through a planer / thicknser? – Tres drastic I know but you’d be able to do the boards in one pass each.

Forgot to add, Canon say their L lenses need a front filter to complete their weather sealing capabilities.

BBSB, Yoss

😆 😆

I’ve built three bikes this year;

a new time trial wagon
a carbon HT
and a alu full sus

None were tested beforehand though ironically I did have test rides of a SC Blur TRc and Giant Anthem X1

The TT and full sus were frame only and the HT came straight from CRC.

Come to think of it, all my previous purchases have been without a test ride.

big_scot_nanny – Member

m1kea- I am into optics, both Telescope and camera. The amount of shit you have to do to the front element of a lens to visibly degrade performance is staggering. (same with telescopes and main mirrors/eye pieces etc)

Kev

I haven’t stumped for any big whites but I do have a bit of camera kit knocking about

I shoot runs, triathlons and so on part time and it really doesn’t take much rain or mud splats to affect your image quality and work flow.

If it’s likely to be a wet event, I’ll take at least three cleaning cloths to try and keep the front element clear and that’s with camera covers and so on.

Loving the comments here guys. 8) 😆

If you look at the EXIF data of the picture it was taken with a Olympus compact with a telephoto focal length of 120mm.

Despite partaking of such stupidity as this…..

I sure as f… wouldn’t be strolling around open ground with a loose big cat.

This is Tiny at WHF about to have lunch

Looks like I’m outnumbered on the pro filter front!

I guess you lot only shoot in your gardens or at the merest hint of a rain cloud, go inside? 😉

Oh and on a connected note, I heartily recommend lens hoods, again as a extra level of protection and also to reduce flare etc.

Any tips?

Get someone to do it for you!

One and only time I sanded floor boards was a bit of a disaster.

Seriously loud bit of kit and it clearly was me as I destroyed a couple of the sanding belts (and that sounds like the end of the world when they go).

A mate had no such problems when he came round and we got the lounge done in 1/2 day iirc.

You might want to collect the dust and mix it with PVA to seal any joints, holes etc.

Preparation is key here.

Just to counter big_scot’s pov I’m a big advocate of lens filters (protection, UV or whatever).

As I’ve said before, I’ve been covered in enough mud, rain, snow, sweat, beer etc to want an extra layer of protection on my glass.

YMMV

Higher speed cards only really come into their own when you’re downloading from them (with the right card reader).

Nowt wrong with buying the fastest but I’d actually suggest spending your pennies on two of your chosen card size. What would you do if you lost that one big card?

As for bags, there’s waaaaay to much choice to be able to give a particular recommendations.

Well if you’re in to your DIY, how about a Festool?

Cheapest machine starts at £320

(I’ll get me coat coat now…..)

Never been but Blenheim has a selection of races and events – http://www.rttc.org.uk/Home/tabid/36/itemid/3151/Default.aspx

Still flatly refuse to believe that 3:14 for 100 miles as that’s an average of 30.91mph

binners – Member

You’ve the option of some sun, but you’re going to opt to get rained on for a week instead?

Do you want to come and stay in my house for a week, and I’ll go on holiday for you

PMSL 😆

After all my fretting this became moot when Evans swapped me some tapered 120 XX SIDS in exchange for 480 of the Queen’s English pounds.

Now of course as it’s a Bank Holiday it’s now plissn down so I’m unlikely to get the new wagon built for a test ride today.

Err that smashes Kevin Dawson’s CTTC 100 mile Comp Record of 3:22:45 set in 2003 so I don’t think so.

Sure that wasn’t for 100 KM instead of miles?

4:14 I can believe but would still be a cracking time.

Comma spray grease

Managed to speak with the shop again and…..

Silver bush/reducer onto the fork first. Crownrace with blue seal on top of that and then the bottom bearing will sit on that once assembled.

Obvious when you think about it 🙄

Will still leave a bit exposed to the elements but the cost saving on the fork isn’t to be sniffed at.

Cheers for the help guys

Coulda

The blue seal is on the CC crown race.

Could just run the reducer bush on the fork without the bottom race? – Not something I’ve ever done but then I’ve never been in such a position.

Frame is a Devinci Dexter – Taking a complete punt on this!

Cheers fellas

The headset is a Canecreek and if I put the bottom race on the crown, it’s a nice snug fit

Adding the reducer bush comes up with

Which when plonked on the crown race, leaves a gap of at least 1mm for crud to get in to.

That definitely isn’t right / good.

crotchrocket – Member

is the answer “it’s for roadies who want to be different and arn’t actually competitive on a road bike”?

For clarity: I don’t beleive this, I overheard it in a conversation on the interwebs

The guys I know who Cross can regularly knock out 21 min or faster 10 mile TT’s and do all sorts of (road) racing. Age ranges from early 30’s to mid 50’s.

I’ve never done a cross as a) I’m too lazy, b) I don’t have the requisite competitive spirit and c) don’t want my legs ripped off and shoved down my throat for 60 mins of ‘fun’.