Automotive Silicone Hoses | Universal Silicon Pipes | Tubes For Cars (autosiliconehoses.com)

You’ll probably need a T-piece connector, 15/45degree elbow, beaded hose joiner, and some hose clips.

Or just keep bodging the original one.

There are multiple solutions, some involving technology (a crash detector isn’t outside the realms of possibility, live tracking which notes when someone stops, etc) and some are administrative (you assume everyone is still racing until you are informed they aren’t and if they suddenly drop from 7th to 97th you expect an update from the team).

I’ll go through the list of technology that I’ve personally witnessed cause issues.

I’ve seen a race organiser spent a lot of time dealing with somebodies partner, as their crash detector had been activated during an event with little phone coverage, and the partner was continually hassling the organiser to find their partner, despite nobody having reported anything, and marshals failing to locate anybody at the apparent crash activation spot. Turned out the rider had crashed, was fine, but due to lack of phone coverage only the crash activation came through, and no more tracking.

Now repeat that at an event with several hundred riders all with crash detectors, and crash detectors become a wall of noise.

Trackers can be more useful, but add in failed trackers, poor reception, poor accuracy (especially during bad weather), and additional cost, and for most events, the risk assessment doesn’t stack up in their favour. Ask any participant if they’d be willing to pay at least an extra £10 on their entry to cover the cost of a tracker on a fairly well contained event, and you probably won’t have many takers. Anybody who really wants tracking, can use their phone with an app of their choice.

As for monitoring race positions, people drop positions for numerous reasons. On a large event, you could quite easily tie organisers in knots trying to monitor such a thing.

I’m not trying to dismiss your concerns, which I share, but there is a limit as to what event organisers can practically do, while still making events viable.

Having just read the Blick timeline, I’d say the organisers have done everything they practically could have, short of starting to track riders every movement, but trackers add an additional cost, require monitoring, and on what is a fairly tight event are likely to cause more issues than they solve.

Having been involved with many events, unless there is some specific reason to be concerned about a participant being missing (such as their team/family raising a concern), the time you would start to be concerned is when you have a DNF not accounted for, and given the timeline, that would appear to be when Muriel was found.

You could argue a concern could have been raised after the missed split point, and maybe it was, but it could easily end up with nobody knowing or being able to do anything. Organiser would try contacting the team/support if none of the officials or vehicles had seen anything, but the team may be busy with other riders, and just assume the rider was making their own way back, or had been assisted by somebody else.

If every organiser triggered a search before they were confident a participant was missing, then there would be a lot of wasted searching done, as 99% of the time, the participant will likely have given up, and just not bothered telling anybody.

I’m aware the 3 peaks CX made an example of three guys who went AWOL a few years ago. They make a very big thing about making sure everybody was accounted for, with very clear briefings that if you retire for any reason, make sure you notify an official. They had mountain rescue out searching the segment where 3 riders were last checked in, just for the riders to eventually be contacted sitting in a pub. And that is not uncommon. I’ve even seen organisers getting an earful of abuse for phoning emergency contacts, as the organiser should have been telepathic enough to know that the participant had retired, despite not being told.

But on the flip side, fell running went through a major change of attitude a while a go, due to an incident where the organisers had gone home, and were contacted several hours later by a concerned wife asking if they knew where her husband was. He was eventually found down a banking just out of sight of the marked route, having been missed by the sweepers. The organisers knew he was a DNF, however they had just assumed he’d given up, made his own way home, and didn’t bother making any enquiries.

Most likely a wiring a fault if the tank/pump has been changed, or even just a fuse.

£120 for just a printout of codes is why the motor trade has such a rubbish reputation. I’d be wanting at least a basic diagnosis, with an indication of the probable fault (if it’s wiring, you can be into how long’s a piece for string time lengths!), especially on a system that only has 3 wires, that should only take minutes for a competent tech to test the wiring on.

I’d guess that the issue is a build up of dirt on the pistons, or you’ve used something that has caused the seals to swell.

The phenolic pistons eventually get a layer of dirt building up on them, which will cause them to stick. You can clean them in situ by pumping them out one at a time, dribbling a little brake fluid on to them, and wiping them with a bit paper towel (I usually wrap a bit paper towel around a flat screwdriver, so I can wipe all around the piston). Then dribble a bit more brake fluid over the piston and pump it back in. I usually repeat it at least a couple times per piston.

You should only ever use DOT fluid, or silicon near the pistons. If you’ve ever used something like GT85/WD40, then chances are the seals have swelled, and no amount of cleaning will cure the problem.

Personally, I’d buy a seal kit and a set of the new stainless pistons, however for the cost of a hope service, unless you really like fixing your own stuff, it’s probably just as cheap to pay for the Hope service.

I’ve just done a quick check on the prices, and for a V4 caliper, it’s nearly £40 retail for new pistons and seals just for one caliper, and that’s without the bore cap tools (although with a V4, IIRC there is enough room to get the pistons out through the pad slot)

TINA that 12.5% in from the edge is the correct limit, but anybody inspecting a tyre will usually only check the centre, unless there is a reason to check nearer the edges.

The comment about main circumferential grooves, is because that is where you measure the tread depth. Any grooves across the tyre are rarely at full depth, and don’t count for tread depth.

If you’re ever in any doubt as to where it should be measured, look for where the tread wear indicators are moulded into the main tread.

Out of shape is fairly specific, and should only apply to obvious tread deformities, which would indicate the tyre carcass is failing. Uneven wear isn’t out of shape.

I’ve heard the 100k figure from somebody with connections to a few teams, and their take is how many bike companies can afford that, let alone justify it?

They could only think of 8 or 9 at most who could afford 100k, but can they justify it?

100k is a lot of money that could probably be spent on more effective marketing, and that’s before you consider the cost of actually running a team, especially when large parts of the bike industry are still struggling to make a profit. Ditch the whole WC circuit, and you’re probably going to save 300k+ for any reasonable team.

@mtnboarder they’re not running at the moment. Last conversation I had regarding them with FLS was a few months ago.

They’ve not been forgotten about, but the relative FLS staff had been very stretched due to the other major things going on at Glentress, although things were improving and they had been hoping to get them started before the summer. However FLS have been very quiet lately, and I’ve not had any chats with them for a while to find out what the current status is.

Participation is definitely down significantly.

Looking at the recent Tweedlove International race in June, they had about 250 entrants.

I’m not sure where you got the 250 number from, but there were nearly 400 people started on the day.

However to use that as a basis for a discussion about numbers, TweedLove have largely bucked the trend among similar organisers in terms of maintaining entry numbers since Covid. Nobody really knows the reason the exact reasons why, other than they’re good events, but some of the other organisers I’d say have had equally as good events, just without the non-racing bits, yet some of those event numbers have noticeably dropped.

I think the big driver is people just don’t have money, so they are prioritising which events they do. If you still want to do and can only afford one or two events, do you do one or two proven events with a good track record of people having fun, or risk an event with a patchy record?

Forestry Commission in the valley are apparently very difficult to work with. The trails on the inners side for example get zero maintenance. There’s been a couple of high profile digs of very short sections, but general necessary maintenance is zero from the forestry commission. Adrenaline Uplift have been pushing for ages to take on some of that work and the forestry simply won’t allow it. I get the liability angle, but it’s not an unsolvable problem. It just seems like a lot of barriers to getting the work done.

The trail fairies are no more. TVTA have a very limited number of trails they’re allowed to work on.

FLS are a typical public body, with lots of hoops to jump through, some quite restrictive rules, and have been short staffed for the past few years, however Adrenalin have been doing maintenance work on the main DH tracks for a good few months now.

Trailfairies do still exist, just not been on due to a shortage of staff.

TVTA do seem to be in a bit of disarray just now due to a few reasons, but their remit is limited to trails that they have adopted, but adoption on any further trails in the near future isn’t likely to happen.

<em style=”box-sizing: border-box; –tw-border-spacing-x: 0; –tw-border-spacing-y: 0; –tw-translate-x: 0; –tw-translate-y: 0; –tw-rotate: 0; –tw-skew-x: 0; –tw-skew-y: 0; –tw-scale-x: 1; –tw-scale-y: 1; –tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; –tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; –tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; –tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246/0.5); –tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’; background-color: #eeeeee;”>Didrounds up in scotland. PMBA also shut up shop last week.

Not quite yet. PMBA’s final round is in just over a week at Ae, in the form of the first BC sanctioned National Champs since the de-affiliation quite a few years ago (I can’t actually remember if there was a sanctioned National Champs at that time…)

Kev has put a lot of work into the whole re-affiliation with BC, so I think it’s only fair that he gets to run the first one. Although I don’t think even he was planning on it being his last ever event.

I hear what he says about the local authority being short sighted, but from their side, their budgets are so squeezed right now, there are L.A.’s that are going bankrupt

Neil wasn’t really criticising the council, as they have generally been supportive of events, and provided funding and help where possible, but his dig was aimed at select councillors, who basically don’t like bikers.

To give an idea of what Neil was up against at times, the Community Council Leader once said that “TweedLove brings nothing to the community and doesn’t benefit local businesses”.

If the vehicle has a full O-license, then it should normally be parked at the registered operating centre.

I can’t remember the rules around restricted O-licenses though.

However it might be exempt depending on how it’s actually used, or they may just be running without an O-licence, in which the DVSA/local Traffic Commissioner will be very interested.

There’s a few people offering them on eBay for not much money. If you’re stuck, or want what I think is a better design for popping pistons out of E4s, PM me.

I shopped at the old store for years and not once was I ever I been told “I’ll come back to take the tag off after you’ve paid.”

I think that’s standard Tesco policy. Last time I was buying something tagged, I asked for the tag to be removed, and the woman said she wasn’t allowed to remove it until I’d paid for it.

The water content of Adblue isn’t the big issue, the highly corrosive nature of it is.

A hundred ml is likely to get caught by the fuel filter, but it may eradicate the lift pump before it all gets caught.

Going by the photos in the article, and the FB video, I wouldn’t really say they’ve destroyed 50 trees.

They’ve cut down a few smaller trees, cut branches off some, and cut into the bark of some. They’ve only destroyed the ones they’ve cut down. And even then, thinning out some of the smaller trees in that type of woodland will help the remaining trees.

It certainly looks like the work of kids, who likely had no idea it was a badger set, and probably even less that they’re protected.

However it feels that article was written to try and maximise negative exposure of trails in that area.

For those who aren’t aware of the local issues with those trails, there were some locals very against the new trails.

they had plenty of opportunity to at least try and box it in

Box it it in?

You do realise cattle will climb/jump over a vehicle?

I don’t understand why a vet with a tranquilliser gun wasn’t called

Because tranquiliser darts don’t work like they do in the movies.

You need to inject the correct amount of drug, it doesn’t work instantly, if it only partly works it can make things far worse, and as Bruk has mentioned, very few vets are actually qualified and have the equipment. And I’d very much doubt those vets would even have access to anything capable of stopping such a large animal, as it’s not exactly a regular requirement to tranquilise several hundred kilos of animal from a distance.

And as has been said, accurately shooting such a large moving target isn’t simple, or without other risks.

The only practical option is usually containment, but doing that in a built up area isn’t easy to do. Lots of people seem to think rampaging cattle are an easy thing to handle, but you’re talking animals who will quite happily jump over or ram there way through gates/fences/walls/cattle grids if they want to, and have a surprising amount of stamina for something that is usually fairly docile.

For some reason I thought that you were based north of the border.

A quick google for “Hand Clinic Manchester” has thrown up a few results, one of which is based in a Spire hospital.

One of my mate’s dad had this issue, but on both hands, and it was really getting him down as it really limited what he could manage to do, and he kept injuring them more getting them caught on things.

Bruce where are you based?

If Fife/Edinburgh, my dad got his Carpal Tunnel operated on by this group https://fifevirtualhandclinic.co.uk/ (he was referred to them due by the NHS due to waiting list times, so didn’t pay for it)

They’re Fife based, but my Dad got operated on in Spire Shawfair, and said the surgeon done a far better job than the NHS one did on his other hand.

When do all the UCI coverage rights come back round for bidding? is it at the same time or staggered?

Agreement was 5 years with a 5 year extension option covering everything UCI World Series related IIRC, and this is year 2.

Every plan/drawing we can find though shows the band hall and surrounds as within the boundaries of the original property

It could be that way to effectively act as ‘ransom strip’, to ensure any change of use/redevelopment could be controlled by the original landowner. You may find that the details are in the deeds of the original property.

If you want something that will just work, then at the moment you’ll struggle to beat Bambu. It is essentially a proprietary eco-system, but it’s an eco-system that works well.

If you want something that can be made to work well on a budget, but require a bit understanding and time to get working well, I think Creality Enders are still hard to beat. Enders have probably the most options available, with lots of people knowledgeable about them.

I’ve personally got a Bambu X1C (P1S is the far more economically viable option for an enclosed printer, it’s just that I wanted the hardened nozzle/extruder for some experimentation), along with two Ender 3s that have had various upgrades. I should really sell one of the Enders, but I’ve just not had the motivation/time to give it a clean and list it anywhere.

I guess no one will know what the course is yet.

I’ve known for the past 3+ months 🤐

Although I did have to check yesterday as I’d forgotten how many stages had been agreed on 😏

Where you take demo bikes isn’t policed.

The demo loop is more for those who don’t really know the area, and is selected to provide a mix of different types of trails, on trails where permission has been granted, aren’t being used for something else during the event, and don’t go near any contentious areas/trails.

I can say that all GT trails that have been mentioned so far in this thread, will not be open for demo purposes.

And it’s not Plan B, it’s B Side.

and never talked about the war. Must have been horrendous.

My grandad (my mum’s side) was the same. All the family know is that he served in Burma, and had a few medals, which he only ever wore at remembrance. He apparently despised people who wore their medals at other times like some sort of trophy to be proud of.

My other grandad was a farm worker and only parent, so he was never called up.

One of my distant* relatives done that exact job many years ago, and most of the drivers were of that old enough to retire, but still had/wanted to work age.

From what I remember, it wasn’t exactly a hard job. Typical chauffeur job. Turn up on time, make sure the car is clean, be presentable, only talk when spoken to, and never hear anything that’s said in the vehicle. And spend a good part of your day sat around doing nothing.

*Husband of my mum’s cousin IIRC. You know, one of those relatives that only those who actually pay attention to the family tree, know the relationship.

On that engine, given that there’s no other obvious leaks, there’s a good chance its the EGR cooler assembly starting to leak.

Most coolant will evaporate off initially, then it’ll start dripping onto the starter motor, so the actual leak has to get pretty bad before it’ll drip on to the ground.

And it’s a horrendous thing to change.

They’ve obviously f****d something up for it to fail like that.

But for information, you don’t need to take the sump off or drain the oil to do the main wet belt. It’s all done via the front cover, so if there’s no belt degradation, then there’s no need to remove the sump.

The oil pump is also driven via a wet belt, but there is no official service interval for them, and I’ve never heard of one failing, and there have been other engines that have had a belt driven oil pump before the EcoBlue engine.

However, I’d guess they never even removed the water pump, as you wouldn’t go to the hassle of removing it, just to refit it with a new gasket. You do however need to drain the coolant to get the front cover off.

Welcome to the world of inaccurate bushing sizes.

A key thing with polymer bushes, is that the sizes are only accurate when fitted in an accurate bore, so the size/play you’ve measured is about right for a non-fitted bush.

Profin will likely supply Igus G bushes (nothing oil filled, just generic hard wearing dark grey polymer), and having tested various Igus bushings, G tolerance is around 12.73/4. Igus bushes are officially meant to run on 1/2″/12.7mm bar, but not with zero play. Igus J (low friction/beige colour) is even worse, with fitted dimension coming in around 12.75-8mm.

Have you tried regreasing the pedals? Or even trying a different set of pedals?

If it’s a plastic housed shimano pressfit, then it’s unlikely to creak.

Is intense going to have much of a world cup budget? I’ve stopped riding at trail centers, but I’ve only seen one intense frame in the last 4 years

I don’t think many manufacturer’s have much budget just now, just lots of unsold stock.

However Intense are now distributing directly within the UK, and have had a big push to get bikes into local shops over the past year, whereas the previous distributor wasn’t really doing much to push the brand in the UK.

I did consider a Tracer, but they’re still fairly conservative geometry wise, and I prefer more slackness with long travel, so bought something else instead. And they only come with a 5 year frame warranty.

The fact Kia are paying for a hire car, and still can’t supply the part, really does mean they can’t get one.

Usually as soon as a hire vehicle is added to the equation, manufacturers will move mountains to get the part, as hire cars cost them money. It’s cheaper for them to express courier a part halfway around the world, than it is to pay for a hire vehicle. Some manufacturers have even been known to send somebody out in to the car park to strip the part of an already built vehicle to avoid hire costs.

Wouldn’t it be right to say that the SNP’s incompetence compounded the issues with ferries?

Given it’s a Renault, it’ll be a Service Vehicle Now message, which means there’s a fault, not that the vehicle needs serviced.

Chances are the flat battery disrupted module comms, which would trigger various fault codes. Being left switched off will have allowed everything to shut down, then power up as expected and start working normally again.

Taps can’t go in squint if their is a thread, they follow the existing thread

It’s quite easy to cross thread large taps, especially those with fine threads, like bottom bracket taps.

I’ve got a pair of BB taps, and I always get nervous using them until I’ve got them in a few threads and I know that they’re in straight. However if they do cross thread, you’ll feel them go tight, and unless you really try forcing them through, at most you should only damage the first few threads, which can usually be salvaged.

On modern cars, don’t connect the black negative lead on either vehicle to the battery, connect to a good earth instead.There is usually a metal post or strip by the terminal for this purpose. Otherwise sensitive electronics can be damaged.

There are two main reasons you should use an earth point, and not directly onto the battery.

First is if the battery has been gassing, then a spark in that area can cause an explosion.

Second is that should you put the positive jump lead onto the negative battery post or an earth point, you only short circuit the jump leads if you try connecting the second/negative one to an earth point. If you were to cross the leads directly onto the battery, then you risk reverse polarising the flat battery. If you reverse polarise a vehicle battery, then lots of usually very expensive things can get damaged very quickly.

.. so my totally unproven theory would be the batteries gone flat on the ramps, they’ve jumped it the wrong way round, and now this has happened.

Or , Halfords have killed the ECU by attempting to jump start it incorrectly and now it won’t hardly run at all.

If that was the case, it would not have ran fine for a few days. It would most likely never have even started again.

The major issue with the 7 stanes has been a lack of resources.

The entire east region (Newcastleton across to Inners) has only had one and half dedicated trail rangers for the past several years. Combine that with numerous storms, the GT Masterplan, Forest Lodges, the world champs, and felling work, it’s left very little man hours to handle much else than essential work. There’s also a current issue with a lack of chainsaw operators to deal with wind blow (The change of structure from FCS to FLS, means trail rangers are no longer allowed to operate chainsaws, so all chainsaw work has to be referred to forest operations)

The success of the master plan (aka increased car parking revenue) means there is now another trail ranger being trained, and there is a contract and budget in place for targeted maintenance with an external company.

I’m currently involved in some event trail work there, and I do think the outlook is looking the best it’s done for a few years, however it’s going to take time.

Deliverance is due to be felled in the coming months, and there is hope that it’ll be easily salvageable once the wind blow is off it.

Boundary trail has pretty much been written off beyond 5 Year Plan. There’s too much wind blow to consider clearing just the trail, and forest operations have no current plan to fell that block. Once it does get cleared, if there was to be a trail put back in, it would likely be a new build.

There are some concerns over how the new trails will hold up, especially the as dug ones if we get prolonged dry weather. However there is a maintenance plan in place, but I think those involved are waiting to see how they hold up before doing anything.

And Trailfairies should be starting again soon, with a project to improve the entrance to one of the off-piste trails.