Well flamejob, we can't all behave in socially responsible ways.

I suppose you're not wrong tazzy… that might explain it eh!

But I think Wales is the best part of the UK… I live in Glasgow at the moment, but you mark my words, I'll live in Wales sooner or later.

Unfortunately, you, like most people, are not thinking about the total impact of a product, in this case, a car.

To produce a car requires the raw materials to be extracted or produced: rubber, steel, plastic, material for the seats, etc. This is energy intensive.

Then it is put together, again, requiring machines and tools and more energy. Then it is driven on roads, again requiring energy to build and maintain.

Then, there is the petrol, the production of the petrol, from extraction, refinement, shipment, distribution.

Then there is the final disposal of the car.

These are externalities. People aren't used to looking at a product with this holistic viewpoint, considering it's impact from cradle to cradle. A car that produced no CO2 while driving would still have far more environmental impact than a human walking to work. Electric cars, hybrids, these are all environmental dead ends, that assuage people's deep guilt, but still destroy the planet.

I've not even mentioned the social destruction of the automobile, because I've just had my dinner and it would make me feel sick. Cars are inherently un-ecological, and fudging about their CO2 emissions is just pathetic.

I have one in each ear. Mine aren't tunnels through, they are strips of bone, about 1cm round, so not massive like some people's. I'm going to find some bigger bits soon though. It's a fascinating feeling having something poking through your skin, at least something that's supposed to be there, not a stick when you fell off at Fort William…

Piercing is something that every culture in the world partakes in. That's quite amazing really, I think.

I much preferred Martin Eden. I think it's great that you are bringing in stuff like this into your lessons. Bamboozle their minds, expand their literary horizons!

I'm also 5' 8" and I ride a small Simple, with a 70mm stem. I find it great, especially on the technical singletrack and blasting downhills. I also sometimes think a medium might be better on long days, but I'd never get it because for me the top tube is already as long as I'd ever want, and, crucially, it rides so bloody well.
Amazing bike.

I'll chip in with my usual Cy-adoration: I ride a Simple, which has the same geometry as a Soul, and it is, frankly, the best hardtail I've ever ridden, probably that I ever will ride.

Olly, you're not looking at this right.
We need to sell the Tower® to finance our underground monkey wrench vanguard. Then, when we have a network of bicycle riding revolutionaries underground in the media, armed forces, police, banking sector and political systems, we can rise up, crush the system and start an anarco-permaculture commune system, dismantling businesses, reclaiming society and implementing an immediate, real green economy.

I'm footloose and fancy free, so I'm lucky I suppose. The lies, the corruption, the environmental degradation and the false 'green' policies (electric cars anyone?) all make me so angry. I've pretty much decided that I will break away as far as I can from their world of money, growth and business.
They'll never take me alive.
STW revolution FTW!

Don't fly, you'll be destroying the environment. Cycle somewhere.

Bikes are great aren't they?

mk1fan – you mentioned adding another hole to give you a 1" drop. Is that all it takes to make a single drop into a multi drop? is it that easy?

Do people think the 1" drop in the multi posts is worth it? It seems to me that it would slow down the process of dropping the seat out of the way? Is it useful, or one of those things you think will be great, but turns out not to be?

You may have to up your budget considerably due to your hatred of outsourcing. You certainly won't be able to get it for "a lot less". Frames made outside of Taiwan are pretty expensive normally. You will have to look second hand.

Please don't get that gym membership and drive your car!

You'll find the mudgaurds help hugely at keeping you dry and shite free. With nice bright front and rear lights, a reflective jacket and maybe some sealskins type waterproof socks, you'll find that cycling isn't that bad in bad weather.

I have a buff which I really love to use as a neckwarmer and on downhills I pull it up to cover my nose and mouth, I find it keeps the face that bit warmer on a chilly descent.

I've never learnt to drive, never will. I live in a city though, so it's not too hard. I need to get a trailer for those times when I just need to carry a bit more stuff, like bags of compost for our new garden and things like that. But apart from that cargo aspect, I never have a problem living without a car.

Every time a thread like this pops up, I feel compelled to chime in with:

I love my SImple! It is the best riding bike I've ever had, it's great.

Thankyou Cy!

Mogrim, it's not like we're going to have much in the way of resources to protect… Britain will not really be one of the winners of climate change and peak oil, unless we radically change our direction right now.

Vote Green, the only people that give a shit if the planet survives into the future. Defence, economy, none of that matters if there are no resources left, colossal pollution and sea level rises forcing mass migrations, along with food shortages and no transport.

I well loves cheeky chav girls dun I…!

Surly make one, called the torsion bar I think. You can get it from wiggle.

I liked the simplicity of it. I can't see if it has disk mounts though, which is something I'd really like.

I'm not sure anything to do with the 'auto' industry can ever be environmentally friendly, unless of course they close down their industry completely. But still, that will never happen, so it's good that workshops like this are happening and industry are thinking about this.

That sounds wonderful Graham. I'm really excited about oil running out, and cars becoming less usable. I feel that all the benefits of public transport far outweigh the negatives. I will never have a car. I think that private vehicle ownership is partly what destroys a real sense of community, and a scheme like the one you suggest wound help engender that again.

I'd quite like that actually. I only have a street bmx, but it does have a brake, would that be alright? I think it may be a bit far for me to cycle there too.

I reckon Clink's got the right idea. If you want something like it but with different dropouts…get new dropouts! 😉

I'm glad you were all fine, I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been.

I hope this isn't inappropriate, but…

I do feel that cars are inherently unsafe, relying as they do on the vagaries of road conditions, driver skill/concentration/patience, and a little driving test to keep them from flipping upside down at 70 on a motorway with two kids in the back. I recognise that some people can't live without their cars in our car-society, but with all the deaths, the accidents and the pollution they cause, surely we must be able to see that there has to be a better system of transport, city and intercity.

Anyhoo, take care of yourselves out there everyone!

Hasn't the frame got those DMR Swopouts that would've allowed you to run horizontal dropouts and do away with the gash tensioner?

Haugh Woods and West Woods have some great riding, they are a short ride from Hereford. I'm from Hereford originally, and that's where we loved to ride most. Also, think of trains to Ludlow, and then you've got Bringewood. Or just past that, Craven Arms and Hopton Woods, and past that Church Stretton and the Long Mynd. All really great places to ride. It's a great area to live for riding. Have fun!

Well yes, maybe, but the question stands!

God aren't derailleur gears rubbish? When will we get our international standard centrally mounted gearbox from Shimano?

No one in BMX uses screw on freehubs. No one really uses them in MTB. White, Paul, and Phil Wood are just reactionary. Get a Hope, they rule. 😉

I cannot recommend saving up for a Cotic Simple enough. I love mine so much, it's great. With good tyres and pikes it just rules. It beasts up the hills, is great on singletrack and the downhills and is so, well, simple. I think I'm going to do the mega next year on it…

Then ban running too! Bah, I'm a fascist aren't I? 🙂

I reckon that xc courses should be full on technical. Why not, this is supposed to be mountain biking, not cyclocross.

If riders can't ride it because they don't have the skills because they are roadies who got lost, then tough, MTFU.

If riders can't ride it on their 20lb carbon hardtails with 24" wide flat bars, then, well, they should change their bikes to something resembling a real mountain bike so they can.

Maybe more riders would get involved with it the various series then.

I have a Pro II trials on the back of my Cotic Simple. I really like it. It is loud, but its fun pumping round trails like that. I like the build, everything has lasted fine, it looks nice and its made in the UK. Oh and the bolts are great on horizontal dropouts. Yeah, thoroughly recommended.

Just shows the way our society clamours for the illusion of safety, in environmentally destructive and socially repulsive metal shells. Fight them everyone, send your kids to school by bike. Cycle Proficiency Training? My Dad did that for me, does that count?

SpeshPaul, I was riding where I was deliberately to stop people overtaking me. But that doesn’t stop idiots with a ton of metal and testosterone from trying.

When you drive, can you hear other road users about you from within your metal shell, with the sound of the gratuitous power of your engine? If you have the radio on too, listening to The Archers?

Cyclists are road users, and the ability to hear or not (through headphones or deafness) should not influence their safety, nor a judge’s decision to let off yet another driver that has slaughtered one more cyclist in one more ‘accident’, one more RTA.

Just this morning I was smashed off my bike into a parked car by a boy racer who just drove on, apparently oblivious. I was riding (without headphones) about 2/3rds of the way across my lane to block cars from overtaking me in the narrow inner city road I was riding on. But boy racer decides there is just enough room to overtake me, and accelerates alongside, sees a car in the opposite lane, pulls in and smashes me off.

I’m sorry, but car drivers are all idiots, polluting and murdering, and being able to hear them or not won’t stop them murdering you regardless.