Orange. (Not red).

It’s not just you. It’s a perfectly legitimate way of enjoying your books.

I had LOTR on the shelves for 10 years before I read it, and when I was ready, I read it.

My Blur, Peru, at 4300m

1969 (?)

Reading through the spec-lists above, I’m reminded of the famous Henry Ford quote: If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said “a faster horse”.

The fact a frame is built in the UK would be a tie-breaker. It would have to be of same quality and price as a British designed Asian built frame. I would not pay extra just because is was entirely built in the UK. As far as I’m concerned Cotic and Dialled Bikes are British for example. Hope Technology is the “design model” fantastic products and customer service, the fact they are British built is a plus but not the deciding factor in of itself.

I see from posts above that I’m perhaps not the target market as there is no way I’d pay £600-£1000 for a hard tail frame.

Well put.

All things being equal I’d prefer a British made product, I’d perhaps pay a very small premium for it but not much. (We all live in a globalised economy and there’s no point pretending otherwise).

The Soul proves there is a market for steel HT frames at what I would consider a ‘premium’ price, and I’d think that’s the price point you would need to aim for.

I do place some value on the fact that the Soul has British DNA – it was designed in the UK, and for UK conditions (rather than for instance California!) – plus support is on the end of the phone. So I guess it could be argued I already paid a premium for the UKishness of my Soul.

Hope that helps, and if you believe in it, do it.

Lunchtime bump.

I like reading about kit, all kinds.

People just need to chill out and enjoy the read I think, there’s to much thinking too hard. It’s just bike riding, I don’t believe there’s any hidden agenda and I really doubt anyone’s making gazillions here.

s2a how do you differentiate a ‘periodical’ from a ‘magazine’?

During the winter I asked several times at Leith Hill Tower for tomato and lentil soup but was told they don’t do it any more. But if I’m wrong I’m also delighted, it was just the thing on a cold wet winter’s ride.

(Surrey Hills are magic, don’t tell anyone!)

I do carry a pump, two in fact. Last night the tyre held air for about 10 min. before going super bouncy and soft and then unrideable.

And on my Crests they take a tube easily too so there’s no big risk running them tubeless.

The sidewalls are a bit porous but mine sealed after a couple of days/reinflations with some sploshing about of the fluid. They’ve been on several weeks/rides are are good now.

They go like stink and are light as …, I’m happy with the choice, but I wouldn’t use them anywhere rocky.

(My rims are Stan’s Crest).

Cotic Souls are orange. Highlight with Raceface SixC bars with orange flashes, and a charge spoon Ti in black (reddish orangey logo). Everything else black (actually I have a Ti post).

Done.

Thx folks.

I gave up at page 169, as a piece of writing it’s somewhere down there alongside “what I did on me summer holidays”.

I’ll get the DVDs.

Horses for courses I guess… millions of people seem to have enjoyed it!

it’s here https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/20950148-segment-matching-issues

Second, we make sure that at least 75% of the data in between matches the segment data.

How do they define a ‘match’? There’s the rub.

I murdered myself last night on a climb, and it didn’t pick it up, thats using a garmin and importing it via the strava website. I was gutted…

What’s the usual accuracy of GPS on a Garmin, or smartphone? (Garmin say within 15 metres http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/).

And Strava must have some kind of parameter built into the code to define when two tracks within a certain degree of closeness are, or are not, regarded as riding the same segment.

I guess if for some reason the trace recorded doesn’t pass near enough to the ‘official’ start/end point, the segment won’t get credited.

It’s just a toy IMO.

As long as it’s a public segment then I think as other people load rides it’ll start using it – not sure if it processes all historical rides to match the segment or just new ones, tbh.

I don’t know about ‘all’ however I have created segments that I have then seen back-filled with historic data.

gribble, jambo: ta. I’m at the point where “saving the cost of a Garmin” is getting me halfway to the cost of a new iPhone!

Can anyone tell me how long an iPhone 4S lasts from full charge while running Strava? Ie how long a ride can it record?

My old 3GS lasts about 2hrs 45 then conks out.

I enjoyed Titus Groan (Gormenghast) – it’s a dense read, like the richest of fruit cakes, and I took it a nibble at a time. But what it had in spades, that the written GoT lacks for me so far**, is what I could call atmosphere, and the plot of Titus is virtually a side-effect, an inevitability, of that atmosphere.

LOTR was that way too, though an easier read (with judicious skipping of the silly songs).

Horses for courses though, it’s all good fun.

** still early days tho

Thx all. I think I’ll get the DVDs and read something else.

As for Bran leaping around the rooves of Winterfell, that’s straight out of Titus Groan/Gormenghast. Now, there’s a read.

I think I’ve answered my own question, there’s not much point reading a TV script that’s been filmed anyway, and there are lots of other great books that haven’t.

was thinking of giving Game of Thrones a whizz next … that or whatever’s up next in Aubrey/Maturin.

previous was Grossman “Life and Fate”, chewy in places.

JG Farrell “Troubles”.

Me and Wife came up with ‘Moon pig’ while at Uni, but we figured no one would actually buy a greeting card on line so didn’t pursue it…

Often it’s more about the execution than the idea.

This is another reason you should not be put off and should do it anyway.

You can’t in practice protect an idea, and it’s most likely you’re not the first to think of it anyway.

You may be able to get a patent for a process, but you’re patent’s not worth much unless you can afford to protect it. Noone will do that for you.

You can protect a brand or trademark, and that can be worth something if it has ‘traction’, particularly if a bigger business wants to get into that market but your traction is blocking them, or if it’s quicker to buy you than build their own (they may have their own competitors on their tales tails so need to move fast).

Strava, Facebook, Ebay, these are all examples. They probably weren’t the first at what they do, and there’s nothing they do that in essence isn’t easy to copy, but doing that won’t work because they already have traction. Everyone uses ebay because everyone else uses Ebay and have no reason to switch.

Your idea is almost certainly doomed to failure.

Do it anyway, it will lead you places you can’t predict when you start.

Not useless: handy for fast trailside repair of broken chain.

But not as adaptable as Powerlink.

The road climbs are humbling though, i think i’m 800th or something up Box Hill!

Yeah ain’t they. I thought hoping for top 50% on the ZigZags wasn’t ambitious, turned out I am 700/1000. Only 30s to drop for top 50%, it’s doable! Again again again!

re private area: since I ride in all directions, I didn’t use home as the centre, I used a nearby bike shop with a 1 mile circumference which my home and neighbourhood falls under.

hugor, could be they rode it on a ‘private’ ride.

I can’t find a way to make segments I haven’t ridden.

Benefit of using a phone app is no faff with file synching and uploading, its all done for you. Disadvantage is elevations are wrong as they are taken from a db not barometer. Doesn’t bother me, it’s a toy not a serious training tool.

My and my riding buddies are having lots of fun with segments, suspect we’ll be doing hare and hounds soon to make for exciting finishes.

I set up a segment so I could name it. Lots aren’t set with their ‘proper’ names, shame as trail naming is an art.

Some numpties are making segments of cheeky trails, dodos. Stop it.

I spent some time in hospital due to a nasty biking injury that nearly cost me a hand. The surgeons told me mountain bikers were their third largest patient group, after footballers and motor cyclists.

I have friends who happily run Mud X year round on 26″, tho I switched mine for Rocket Rons and notice a big difference.

The front steers.

The back pushes.

Back I would think, that’s where most of your weight is. I’d guess this theory is supported by some folk running bigger on front than back, but never vice versa.

Spent several years in Chamonix, missed the Surrey Hills.

To make an outstanding local riding area requires several ingredients: geography (obviously, and hilly forests are perfect IMO), proximity so no travelling time to ride, legal access to enough to be worthwhile, and enough community for the trail network to develop and evolve. It’s a rarer combination than one would think.

You would not be stupid buying a Soul but I’m sure you would not be stupid buying a Piglet either.

I betr you’d have as much fun on either.