robgclarkson
in much the same way that *some* British people like to buy British products because it means British people have been employed and your money is being spent in Britain… Spurcycle is an American company touting it’s Americaness i guess (probably)

Yeah I get that, i’d actually rather pay slightly more & get something that supports local business / suppliers etc etc, what I meant was that the article kinda reads like “it’s made in Asia – so it’s shit” irrespective of the fact the Asian factories are knocking them out for 1/10 of the price, there’s probably not a huge difference in quality of materials / manufacturing skill.

The Japanese “Crane” branded ones are supposed to be extremely well made, they do one with a topcap mount which is snazzy

As well as the Spurcycle-esque polished brass one for £20 (they also do an exact copy I think, for about £17)

I’ve got a set of the Aerotrack on my commuter laced up to Novatec disk hubs (32h) – been faultless over the last 2-3k miles although when researching them I did read some reports of a few cracking round the spoke holes when under high tension, not the widest compared to the current crop but have used them with 32c tyres quite happily. I’m sure they’re actually the same as the Aerorage, just with the brake track anodized / painted.

J

I got one of the cheap copies from ebay for a couple of quid – works fine, if it breaks it’s no big loss & I probably wouldn’t buy another – I wouldn’t however spend £50 on the original one, so from that point of view it’s never been a lost sale to Spurcycle, i’d have picked up the least offensive looking cheap-ish alternative.

On that article linked up there ^ they sold 10000 on kickstarter at $50 each = half a million dollars, why they didn’t spend a couple of grand on a simple patent that would have at least prevented Amazon selling the knock offs is beyond me… the partnership with Chris King is a good ideal for them though – if they started knocking them out full scale with colour co-ordinated bits like the rest of the CK range everyone with £1k worth of perfectly colour matched hubs/headset/bb etc. would be falling over themselves to pick one up.

The article also emphasizes Spurcycle’s proud claim that all of their parts are sourced / machined / assembled in the USA, as though the entire continent of Asia is incapable of producing quality manufacturing. At least none of the components in the knock off bells have been touched by a gun toting, climate change denying, white supremacist, flag waving Trump supporter (probably) :lol:

Only time i’ve ever had it, was due to not effectively tightening the cheap qr skewers on a bike – they had a really particular “bite” point & anything else meant they ended up too loose (which was obvious) or too tight & the lever wouldn’t completely close (so, again ended up too loose – felt tight until you cycled down the street wondering why your steering felt weird).

We stayed in Taormina for a few days last year, well – halfway between there & Castelmola really (Jim Kerr out of Simple Minds owned the place – great views) nice but was hoaching with loud American tourists, the film festival was on so it was pretty busy – didn’t think it was too extortionate & there were plenty of nice little bars & restaurants tucked away to avoid the crowds.

As a surprise the missus booked me a tour round the rather picturesque Godfather film locations in an immaculate old Fiat 500 with absolutely no f**king brakes whatesover, which was “interesting” – if you’re a fan of the films that’s a good way to spend half a day, some of the little villages up the hills are lovely.

Didn’t think driving was too mental – we quite fancy going back & driving round the island staying at a few different “out of the way” places.

M&S ones are pretty good – some of the fabric they use on the Collezione or whatever ones are really nice, also have a look at the Moss Bros 1851 range – I got one from there for my wedding last year after looking around for months for something that fit right, if you time it right M&S and Moss have really good sales too but the popular sizes vanish pretty quick.
J

Conversely, mine arrived this morning & it’s a bit tight under the arms, but fine everywhere else – think the size up would be fine under the arms but too loose everywhere else :lol:

molgrips
I googled fna-fna cheese.

Post the first image that popped up :wink:

I suppose I knew what was coming, “the base model will be perfectly fine” said no person ever in the history of stw :lol:

I remember having a look for the UK pricing of the ’17 Jamis bikes as some looked pretty tidy – Evans are showing the 27.5+ Dragonslayer Pro but the cheaper one has disappeared from their site, no sign of the 26+ version at all… wondering if it’s the same frame with the same kit, just very slightly different wheels – the dropouts might suggest so…

Sorry for the mild derailment – i’m looking at one of the 21.5″ models for the house, would only be used for email / web / photo type shenanigans, although the missus is a graphic designer so it might be called on for some photoshop / design type stuff (nothing too heavy) – at that screen size is it worth deviating much from the base spec? If we went up to the 4k one it’s only another couple of hundred clams again for the 27″ which has a better spec in addition to the screen… although of course it’s still a £600 jump from the base spec…

Cheers
J

Elite Ciussi gel look good on metal frames – I have one on my commuter & it looks “right” even has red & white accents for the frame:

I think the Ciussi Inox stainless one might be a bit retro for your bike, I have one on my modern steel road bike but i’m tempted to try these for size instead, don;t think they do a black one though:

In case it helps, i’m 5’7″ / 38″ chest / 73kg & have a small MT500 which is snug, remember trying one of these on before & would have needed the medium (which i’ve just ordered)

J

We should petition the beeb to have a fundraiser

She’d be better off in a nice little retirement village somewhere, housework must be a killer…

Arses – bindun…

Joebristol – yep the handling was “interesting”, I stuck slightly longer forks on it (100/120 can’t remember) to slacken & raise the front slightly – actually rode ok as long as you kept your arse on the saddle & didn’t try anything steep too quickly… early Klein produced ones came with a rigid fork iirc but Trek apparently didn’t think they’d sell that way & the fluorescent pogo stick / space hopper hybrid was born :lol:

Some nice steeds on here – I do like a retro mtb thread!

I sold this a year ago, always wanted one & ended up hardly ever taking it off road… because it was terrifying & tried to kill you at every opportunity, it was fast though :lol:

This stuff?

looks like B&Q have it for £8 – not much dearer than the random budget stuff i’ve seen & the reviews are all glowing – like my chain will be 8)

Cheers!

What type of degreasers are folk using in these chain cleaners? Fairy / Stardrops / random citrus bulk degreaser / expensive “bike specific” brands?

I used to do the white spirit in a jar, but the shed is inaccessible just now due to advanced tetris-like cramming of a barbecue / lawnmower / asociated crap etc. etc. and if I leave it in the house it’ll end up in tears (mine)

J

Cheers for the summary edlong – clears up a few things, I admit I had the tax angle wrong – I suppose many people still think of charities as organizations run by skilled volunteers with a bit of spare time out of the goodness of their hearts, like all the tradesmen from DIY SOS etc. instead of being run like like a corporation, but yes, obviously given the scale of the operation those are the necessities given the turnover & scale of the operation.

£400 for a repair would put me right off – I picked up a new 931 frame for that on ebay recently, might be time to start looking around for a replacement – especially as you can’t see the inside of any of the other tubes even once you’ve had it stripped – it’s a tough call… if you really like the frame though & find somewhere that can replace ST for substantially less, you could always have it powdercoated instead of paint to save a bit more cash getting it back on the road again.
j

nealglover
I’m not sure you understand how the income tax system works.

It’s impossible to give money to charity, and somehow be better off financially than you were before, no matter how good your accountant is.

Ok… I certainly don’t remember insinuating that people are making money from the donations, as you seem to imply & what i’ve been trying to determine is if there’s any mechanism / loophole / clever tax deferral system whereby a company (not private individual) can offset corporation tax (or anything else) against charitable donations? For years there’s been whispers regarding tax loopholes for charitable donations, so can you or anyone tell me, absolutely categorically – from a qualified financial background in tax matters if that’s the case, or has it ever been the case?

Tried to have a look through the UK Gov tax site, but it’s slightly vague…

“Donating money
Your limited company can pay less Corporation Tax when it gives money to a charity or community amateur sports club (CASC).

Deduct the value of the donations from your total business profits before you pay tax. “

Hence the mild confusion

footflaps
And by completely wrong, you mean people who are choosing to give vast sums of money to charity?

Yes. As I already said… who gives “more” & should be praised for their efforts, some millionaire chucking a few grand in instead of that 1960-odd chateau margeaux they really wanted or the old biddy who has just had her ‘leccy cut off as her last fiver went in instead of buying a powercard?

Who most deserves a commendation for their donation?

Obviously sentiment doesn’t add £££££ to the total, but it’s become a complete cock-waving contest & that little picture up there sums it up for a lot of people.

in exchange for not very much, a Charity gets a huge cash injection it wouldn’t otherwise see. Would you rather they spent it on yachts and gave nothing to Charity?

Of course not – that’s a rather mean spirited insinuation, my point was if the country’s rich have to be swayed into donating their spare wads of cash to charity by the associated high value “perks” of said donations, it leaves a slight bitter edge to the whole transaction – like if they wouldn’t bung a few quid into the poppy appeal tin if there weren’t any poppies left…

maccruiskeen – thanks for the clarification on the company tax charitable donations thing, wasn’t sure what the limitations were.

J

footflaps
They’d just change the tax rules to accommodate. It’s a complete non issue.

That’s a fair point, sadly I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen

How anyone can moan about raising money for Children in Need is beyond me……

I’m certainly not moaning about raising money for children in need, just the hero status attributed to the completely wrong set of people, it’s no skin off their noses – admittedly they do raise a fair chunk of cash, so fair play for that.

J

the-muffin-man

…and the specialist care side of things have generally been provided by charities. The NHS can’t be all things to all people, charities have to fill in the gaps, and were doing so long before the NHS existed.

Yep, totally agree – i’m not saying charities shouldn’t get donations, they need everythign they get – just that some people are being heralded as saints when they’re not actually putting their hands in their pockets, it’s money they wouldn’t have had anyway – just that now a charity (a very good one) has it instead of the government. It’s the hard up 72 year old from the arse end of some council estate that’s given her last fiver instead of putting the heating on that should be given a luxury weekend away & waited on hand & foot by a michelin starred team of chefs.

J

Flaperon
£1.1m directly to Children in Need will probably be better spent that £1.1m to the taxman.
Round my way things like hospitals and schools are funded from general taxation.

Exactly my point – what would happen if everyone who could, simply donated all their taxable income to the charity of their choice instead of into general taxation & get their name in lights and a luxury weekend break for being so “generous” with money that might otherwise been allocated to a new children’s hospital, cycling infrastructure (stop laughing) or palliative care facility?

Although, granted – 1.1m to children in need probably would be better spent than the governments’ latest vanity project for megacity 1… :lol:

I find the sizing fine too – it’s certainly not Castelli :lol:

I have one of these in small – great bit of kit, fits great & i’m 5’7″ / 38″ chest – I do like tops quite close fitting though, could wear the medium quite comfortably too as I seem to be right in the middle of the s/m sizing

J

I know it’s all for a good cause, and the poor celebrities are giving up their precious time etc. etc. however the sceptic in me wonders how much of these charitable donations are paid through a company & deducted from their tax liability… wonder if anyone’s ever submitted an FOI request to see where the % of donations come from – personal or business accounts?

Obviously if I ran a company that could bung half a million quid to charity instead of the tax man, i’d certainly be tempted to bid for the private Take That gig & have them play to absolutely nobody in a rancid barn.

Also, being preached to by rich celebrities – many of whom employ all manner of financial jiggery pokery to avoid paying as much tax as possible – to give generously gets slightly tired after a while.

P-Jay
Sister in Law competed at a very high level, and couches at an elite level and can’t.

I’m a professional coucher – some weekends I barely get off the thing, I can’t planche either so tell her not to worry about it, I don’t think all the couching lends itself well to acrobatic side pursuits 8)

I’d opt for stripping it before deciding on any further action too – I had an old frame blasted & chemically cleaned a couple of years ago prior to a new lick of paint & it there was a bit of corrosion along one of the stays that was completely invisible from the outside, mine was fixable pretty easily but if your ST has got that bad there’s a fair chance that whole junction has started to deteriorate to some degree… you should be able to get it stripped for about £20-£30 to see what you’re dealing with – good luck!

Meanwhile in the real world, 12 points of note from the last week or so…

1. The homelessness charity Shelter reported that 120,000 children will spend this Christmas homeless, and that the new lower Tory benefit cap will end up impoverishing an estimated 319,000 children. If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s crystal clear now that Tory austerity policies end up economically punishing children for the “crime” of being born into poor families.

2. The Tory assault on children’s rights suffered a setback in the House of Lords where peers voted against the Tory plan to allow local governments to opt out of child protection measures. This Tory effort to build a “bonfire of children’s rights” is clearly designed to make the privatisation of child protection services more appealing to corporate outsourcing giants like G4S, Capita and Serco. This vote in the Lords is more of a setback than a defeat though because Tory ministers can always simply reinstate the clause to scrap child safety standards when the child and social work bill returns to the House of Commons.

3. The latest figures from the Trussell Trust food bank showed that the increase in food bank dependency in the UK is still continuing. The charity handed out a record number of food parcels in 2015-16 and their evidence shows that two of the three leading causes of food poverty were benefit delays and Tory welfare cuts, accounting for over 40% of referrals between them.

4. A long-awaited report from the United Nations absolutely hammered the Tory government for their savage mistreatment of disabled people. Not only did the report find that Tory welfare cuts have disproportionately impacted disabled people and hindered their rights to live independently and be included in their communities, the report also found that disabled people in Britain have suffered a barrage of right-wing anti-disability propaganda that has routinely portrayed disabled people as “dependent or making a living out of benefits, committing fraud as benefit claimants, being lazy or putting a burden on taxpayers”.

5. Theresa May’s government suffered a humiliating setback in the Supreme Court where the High Court ruling that Tory “Bedroom Tax” discriminates against disabled adults and children was upheld.

6. The Brexiter argument that the collapse in the value of the pound has been a great thing for exports took a massive blow when it was revealed that the UK trade deficit has widened significantly to £12.7 billion. Not only did the vast gap between imports and exports grow dramatically, the volume of UK exports actually fell by £200 million. The Brexiter argument that a collapsing currency is great for the economy is utterly daft because the UK continues to import vastly more than it exports, but when the economic evidence shows that the collapse in currency value has coincided with a significant decline in exports, even the argument that it’s good for the export sector begins to look incredibly weak. Even though the economic evidence shows that this Brexiter delight at the collapse in the value of the pound is misguided, we can look forward to Theresa May and the Tories continuing to spread the ludicrous myth that a weak currency is good for our (import dominated) economy.

7. The Bank of England responded to Theresa May’s ignorant blame-casting rhetoric at the Tory party conference by releasing a report on the relationship between inflation and interest rates that demonstrated that Theresa May simply doesn’t know what she’s talking about when it comes to monetary policy (which is no surprise given the economically illiterate myths about monetary policy spread by her predecessors Cameron and Osborne).

8. The Institute for Fiscal Studies identified a £25 billion black hole in the UK public finances.

9. The Crown Prosecution Service are considering a “corrupt practices” case against the Vote Leave mob (which included high profile Tory government ministers like Boris Johnson) for lying to the electorate over claims like the “Let’s give the NHS the £350 million a week …” lie and their false claims that “Turkey is joining the EU”.

10. Theresa May visited India in order to beg for some kind of trade agreement with them, but ended up getting her ear bent about her obstructive attitude towards Indian migration and the “detrimental” immigration policies she implemented during her time as Home Secretary. Additionally Theresa May didn’t even bother to schedule a meeting with the Indian conglomerate Tata to discuss the ongoing crisis in the British steel industry while she was in India.

11. After returning from her failure of a trip to India Theresa May continued the Tory policy of sucking up pathetically to the Chinese communist government, even allowing herself to be lectured about the importance of “mutual trust” by the Chinese when one of the contractors they lined up to build the UK’s rip-off nuclear infrastructure for us has been charged with nuclear espionage in the United States!

12. The hope that the Tories are finally going to bin their economically ruinous ideological austerity agenda in order to pursue a sane investment led recovery strategy took another blow with the announcement that the rail electrification project for the South West of England has been indefinitely suspended.

link

Sorry, couldn’t resist :wink:

duckman

Is it not a wee bit posh for that?

You’re right – the phallus as a symbol transcends class, having a downtrodden farmer deposit a tank of slurry up the wall would be more apt :wink:

I give it 2 days before Turnberry has a big walloper spray painted on it.

Well, maybe near snappage was a slight exaggeration but the park one I have flexes enough below 5nm that it’s pretty difficult to gauge how tight the bolt is – when I tried a mini torque wrench with a 3mm bit I was surprised how much tighter it should have been, and explained why my bars used to creep forward over a few days commuting leaving me stem-gazing Alla Froome :lol:

What footflaps said – check the quantities on the ingredients list for the natural v flavoured ones, then go & invest in some of aldi or lidl’s nesquik analog :wink:

I’ve thought about it too haviong both undertightened & also snapped one due to overtightening… the 3mm ones that came with my last X2 are worse, an allen key almost snaps before you get anywhere near tight enough, got a shot of a mate’s torque wrench that uses bits instead & it’s never moved since. Unless you really want new bolts i’d get hold of a torque wrench & do it that way as the flex in a small allen key makes it feel like you’re overtightening.

If you do really want new shiny bolts, these’ll do shiny

I have a good salary, and yet I wouldn’t want to support 4 kids on it, as it would make money tight. So, you know, I’ve decided not to have 4 kids..

You know, there’s probably a percentage of folk struggling on benefits that may once have enjoyed a much better salary than you and easily afforded a big house, 4 kids & 5 holidays per year until some terrible chain of events, illness / death in the family / redundancy / mental health issues / all of the above turned everything on it’s head – benefits don’t just apply to those folk you see on the TV documentaries… although, yes there are some that sadly see a large family as a source of income, they probably should keep it in their pants.

the hustler
Benefits should be for those in need not a lifestyle choice, tbh I dont think any ‘benefits’ should be cash, it should all be via voucher for necessities,I susprct there would be far fewer benefit ‘claimants’ this way.

It’s popular suggestion – if I was geniunely hard up I wouldn’t give a monkey’s if I was given cash in the bank, or a voucher to be spent only on food / necessities (ie. no fags / booze / scratchcards) but the government would probably manage to **** that up by putting the voucher scheme out to tender so that they were only redeemable in certain shops – let’s face it – probably ones that the government top brass have a shit load of shares in.

So, we’d probably end up with the situation where people struggling with addictions etc. would flog them at below face value for cash to spend on booze / fags / scratchcards / drugs anyway & their kids would be worse off than before.