@idlejon

It’s not like they are short books that can be finished in an afternoon.

Errrrr, when i was running through banks books for the first time, i used to actually set aside an entire block of time to finish, cover to cover in one hit, the only one i’ve had to put down and restart the following day was The Algebraist.

Some of them have required me to sit on the sofa for over 12 hours with only comfort breaks.
As above though, Feersum Endjinn was a short book (relatively) that took a lot of reading.

@weeksy

they were IMO absolutely terrible, mixed up, convoluted and absolute rubbish

OK, so you couldn’t follow the storylines, nevermind.
I think Shakespeare is terrible, i don’t go burning them, or slagging them off.

A bit of Sam Vimes going on here i guess, always a couple of drinks too knurd.

It’s probably been said on this thread already, but a drop bar gravel bike is what probably what 50% of road bike buyers *actually* need. Lower gears, mudguard clearance, not particularly head down/arse up, disc brakes, rack mounts. Those buying 23/25mm tyres, massive gears etc. It really isn’t needed for what a lot of people (outside of road clubs/chaingangs/racing) actually do. And in a lot of cases, they’re really not pleasant to ride.

Similar with a straight bar gravel bike, a HUGE chunk of mountain bikers would probably be better off on a (relatively) skinny tyred, rigid (or slightly bouncy) bike. Because they don’t need (or even make use) of massive tyres, 100+mm of suspension (at both ends), massively overspecced brakes and so on.

On the flip side, it keeps a lot of shops in business selling and then looking after these bikes.

The logical conclusion is that there isn’t one. It’s all completely illogical and keeps the money in circulation.

I recently pinked a brand new prototype engine to death.

Bad calibration kills engines.

Opening up the hood to see what had happened was interesting!

When do you think that current version will be working better

A couple of years after the revolution.

but what they are permanently short of are volunteers

All of this, my ex volunteers to run sessions helping to educate/integrate immigrants into society, mostly women from places like Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia who have arrived with little or no idea how things work here. Each session she does is over subscribed by (at least) 1000%.
They have facilities, materials, advertising, waiting lists. But only 3 people who run the sessions across an entire region. The state does a lot (language lessons, college courses, accommodation, job hunting) but getting someone to explain how to arrange a mobile phone contract, contact a plumber, get a season pass for the train or bus, submit tax returns, get a library card, where to get swimming lessons, register for a doctor, get COVID tests and so on is really flipping difficult.

I smoked a joint on the way to a University entrance interview … it was a bit strange. I thought it was just an open day for some reason, forgetting that this Uni claimed to interview every candidate! Turned up in the department and noticed i was the only one in Adidas Sambas and jeans. Private school kids in blazers etc. Then it dawned on me.

I turned up to one still drunk from the little “getting to know you” buffet the night before, which turned into leaving a nightclub at 2 am and then having to find our way to the hotel…

I got an unconditional offer. The guy interviewing looked in a worse state than i felt.

I went somewhere else though.

Banned by the UCI and probably a liability for the sort of courses we are seeing in XCO racing today (and for the last ~10 years).

Edit:- just checked UCI regs and they don’t appear to have explicitly banned the outer bar ends, just the inner ones.

4.1.040
During MTB races no traditional road handlebars may be used.
Clips-on extensions or inner bar ends are forbidden but traditional bar ends are
authorized.

Even so, there’s always the odd person who feels like their contributions haven’t been recognised when the updated salaries are published.

They get a chance (everyone does) to argue the toss if they feel they’ve been overlooked.

That sounds crap!! Allow all the mediocre workers to vote to undercut you! No thanks

Depends if people understand why they get paid what they get paid and what the route for getting paid more is.

The mediocre (and worse) people that worked for me in the last tech team lead role i had understood exactly why i was moved into that role, and why i got paid more than them. Several actually asked the manager to put me in that role, as it benefits them as well.

I provided chances to stretch themselves with increasingly more complex tasks and more responsibility, get trained (and coached) in new skills and (eventually) get paid more/promoted or move on to other roles.

If your company doesn’t have that sort of structure and ethos, it won’t work.

Obviously can’t do it in all fields, because not all fields attract the sort of person who plays well with others.

Or just have a proper licence, with a test, and fines/points for not following rule 1.

Though, some of the breeding stuff that goes on terrifies me.
A neighbour had a show dog, best in class, won trophies and suchlike.
Poor thing was so inbred it was permanently in pain. Had problems walking and died at about 4 or 5 years old. The “usual” lifespan for a dog like that, or one with a bit of mongrel in it would be more like 12-15 years.

Yes and no. Bikes vibrate when you ride them, and you don’t need an engineering degree to work out what vibrations do to bolts.

I’d expect at least a year before a lightly used and correctly assembled bike would need anything more than a clean.
Hell, my race bikes have gone almost that long without having anything other than consumables replaced. (Yes, i have an engineering degree. And a string of bike mechanicing related qualifications.)

Most of the provisos in manufacturers instructions (check after 4 weeks/100 km etc) are arse covering exercises. If they are seated/greased/adjusted/fitted correctly in the first place, they are an irrelevance. Unfortunately, most people who assemble bikes aren’t interested in doing it right, just quickly.

Bonus points if you BBQ in those conditions

I BBQ all year round, coldest (so far) is -16 and i had to shovel the snow off the deck first.

You’re basically after a caravan which has the 4 seasons certification, I forget its name off my head but most modern vans in the past 20ish years will meet it normally

Not even in Scandinavia unfortunately. If you get one that’s supplied locally, it’ll have it (my tiny 4 berth does, electric underfloor heating, over specced hot air and water heater, extra insulation etc).
But a lot of people import them from germany, as they are a lot cheaper and (unsurprisingly) not very well insulated or specced in heating terms.

It’s a pita to bin a mouse/keyboard when you lose a dongle 🙁

I must be getting yours then, i have more dongles than devices…

I went from K270 to K800 when lockdown kicked off.
Feels a lot better and haven’t had a single complaint about it, think i paid about £60-70 with a mouse (that’s still in it’s box, as i use a trackball).

The (terrible) estate i was brought up on had a patch of about 80-100 timber framed houses with brick and timber facing. Built in the early/mid 70s.

They have almost all had serious structural problems over the last 10-15 years due to corners cut with materials and building processes, a quick squizz at the street my mate lived on (which used to have about 30 of the timber framed houses on it) shows that about a 3rd of them have been knocked down and replaced.

Another friend from the estate who bought one of the timber framed houses round the corner in the late 90s is now stuck with it as they paid the going rate at the time (something like 160 grand), and now can’t give it away, it’s only the plot that has any value now. So they are just in an endless cycle of opening bits of the house up to repair the latest damage, until it falls down. (I have a vague recollection that one or two actually did fall down, but can’t find anything to confirm.)

IIRC is was some sort of low quality wood/poor insulation/damp getting in everywhere issue.

As an aside, the place i live now has a good number of wooden houses, mostly pine with key structural bits in oak, even wooden shingles on one or two of them. The only ones that have any issues are those which have been left locked up and empty with no power or maintenance for a couple of decades.
Most of them were built in the 1920’s when the village was founded, but there are two houses that have been here since the late 1800s, they’re still in very good condition.
And they are still building new timber framed stuff here (completely built from timber even).

This is an initiative that started over here.
They do three or four runs a week in the nearest town.

https://www.goplogging.org/welcome

I’ve never understood why companies don’t operate a simple pay band structure.

We do, 7 or 8 bands i think. Takes you from shop floor operator to a sort of lower management grade. They have parallel bands in different parts of the organisation, Senior Engineer is the same band as Senior Sales Exec or Senior HR Officer. 25000 direct employees in 13 or 14 countries IIRC.

The further up you go, the less manageable it is. My grade covers from about 38k to over 65k.

On the plus side we have a fairly/moderately well explained way to get more pay, become a subject matter expert, do extra training, get a qualification, move into a specialist or core competency area.
Eventually you’ll tick enough boxes and you’ll get promoted (which brings another payrise).

Alternatively, you could just sit around and wait. Or transfer somewhere with a weighting (that they’ll take off you when you transfer back).

Oh, everyone in the country can find out exactly how much i earn. It’s all online.

I have a 6 person, standing room plus bedrooms thing (really only good for 4 or 5 at a push) that was bought when the kids were small.

Far far better than the 4 person tunnel tent we started off with. Technically big enough, but only enough space to sleep (uncomfortably) for a couple of nights before either attempted murder or serious damage occurred. Preschoolers need a LOT of stuff, and space. And a box of toys, and fluffy

Had 4 *adults* in the same tent for a week of MTBing without any issues except the snoring, farting and early morning fug.

Used to be quite a common mod over here for city bikes, get a bottle crate and zip tie/bolt it to the rack.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer caught on and changed the design to a segmented one, so instead of one big space for 20 bottles to neatly fit into, you now have 20 little, bottle shaped spaces, rendering the crate useless for anything else.

its an e-bike if that helps

Ahh, all sorts of weird specs on those.

I’d reread the terms and if there’s no mention of needing to be built (rebuilt?) by a professional, either reject it as not fit for purpose (what’s the latest terminology?), or insist on a free repair.

Have seen some shady companies claiming that bolts sometimes “just come loose”.

Not if they’ve been fitted properly…

PDI – Pre-Delivery Inspection.

Perhaps this is one of those things but the retailers blurb suggests you just need to twist the handlebars round and you are good to ride.

I’ve had two of these, one of them had (from memory)
– loose brake caliper.
– three of the four stop screws were adjusted such that the mech didn’t move far enough.
– both cables incorrectly adjusted (only had access to 9 of 11 gears at the back due to stop screws and cables).
– top shock bolt was only finger tight.
– headset bearing upside down.
– hose nut on one brake was finger tight

All but the top shock bolt i fixed before the first ride. The shock bolt i fixed after the first 100m off road.

The blurb from the manufacturer says turn bars, fit wheels and pedals, then ride.

The detailed blurb in the manual that comes with the bike has a HUGE list of things that need to be checked before the first ride, and they recommend a professional mechanic does it…

(the other bike just needed tyres turning round and all the lock nuts (2x disc 1x cassette) tightening properly.))

Also, what bike with a 90 quid chainset still has nuts on the rear axle?

Same here, my 1×11 experiment started with a cheap steel 1x ring (more likely optimsed for a singlespeed), switching to a NW has eliminated the (off road) chain drops i had.
The ex has doubled up, chain guide and NW.

I reckon on 20 hours of riding minimum for anything that changes ergonomics of a bike.

Was about 5 seconds for me going to 165. Admittedly, 170/175 was noticeably and uncomfortably too long.

@BruceWee

The 1 litre bottle of mineral oil I bought years ago is still sitting there half full while I throw away any remaining DOT fluid if it’s been open more than 6 months.

Unless you’re leaving the bottle open near a direct source of moisture, you’re just throwing away money. The amount of moisture in a closed bottle is miniscule. Even when you open and close it a handful of times a year it’s not likely to add a measureable amount of water to the oil.

@thols2

Some Shimano brakes even had a built in system to spray fluid onto the pads.

And some SRAM brakes have a built in system to allow the lever to go all the way to the bars without actually squeezing the pads against the rotor. That cuts down on noise too. Except for screaming.

@spin

Perhaps because their range is a strange 50:50 (ish) split between genuine outdoor clothing/equipment and fashion items?

Doesn’t that seem to be the trend for most outdoor brands?
Make your name on mountain/arctic exploration, sell massively expensive and capable gear to actual proper outdoor adventurers, then eventually create a cheaper range to sell to people walking the dog in Kent. Eventually realise you make more profit selling the cheaper range then change your focus completely.

Go bankrupt or get bought out by a venture capitalist, because your reputation for high end kit is gone, because you don’t make high end kit anymore.

My commuting costs are less than the difference between payments on the mortgage here and the mortgage i would have to get (probably have to triple it TBH) to live somewhere within cycle or bus commuting distance of work.
Fuel, tyres, time, parking, maintenance, tolls, etc. the ex and i worked it all out, on a spreadsheet…
Oh, i’d still need a car even if i moved.

Actually, i could probably get away with doubling the mortgage, downsizing massively and/or living somewhere less than ideal. Can you imagine living somewhere with trucks driving past and shaking your home? Horrific. How could anyone make a conscious decision to live like that?

Or i could rent, but that’s going to be double the mortgage payments, unless i want to share a bedroom with my kids…

FWIW. housing where i live has doubled in price (give or take) since we did the calculation. In the city it’s gone up near enough twice that much, a friend at work has just bought a 100 sqm flat in a nice area for the equivalent of half a million quid. Last time it sold it was £140000 (2007).

They have an issue with noisy neighbours already.

Is anyone else using a bit less throttle?

Yes, generally rolling along at speed limit +5kph (so an indicated 105kph for most of my journey) also using the ACC and not overtaking anything except trucks (which are doing 95).
Wasn’t going much faster than that before TBH. Speeding tickets are expensive over here, so is fuel, there’s also no traffic so you don’t gain a huge amount by rushing everywhere.
Seeing around 60mpg (4.5l/100km) on a tank if i do a full week of commuting and not much else, if its WFH and lots of little trips as well it’s more like 48-50mpg (5.5-6l/100km). That’s in a large estate car, a fair chunk less than the official figures either way.

Somebody must surely have modelled the outcomes of reducing the national speed limits by 10mph or so?

Yeah, it’s significant. Some countries have already reduced speed limits on certain roads to do this (amongst other benefits, noise, accidents.)
Bigger savings from not driving like dickheads though. Some of the autonomous drive simulations reduce consumption by 15% compared to a normal driver doing the same journey in the same time, if you use all the predictive stuff that’s already available (traffic lights, roundabouts, speed limit changes) you can get more than 5%. It all adds up.

I’m still not convinced by G1000 for proper outdoor work

I’ve got two or three of their jackets/smocks, one i’ve had for over 15 years that gets used for commuting type cycling in the winter and garden work etc. It is G1000 and quite waterproof once it’s been waxed, and only needs redoing a couple of times a year (takes 20 minutes or so) wouldn’t fancing riding hard in it, as it might be “breathable” but its also pretty substantial! For sort of flat bar sightseeing/heavily laden tourists on their cast iron kalkhoff e-bikes in torrential rain. I can kind of see the point…

The heavy duty front and lightweight back has been done before though, lots of training jackets in the 80s/90s had that horrible foamy plastic insulated front and a lighter weight fabric ish back. Before the advent of proper tech materials.

Once had a long drive in the rain and had a lot of water get inside the frame.

Frames are basically a load of holes held together by tubes. I doubt i’ve ever finished a rainy ride without a couple of cupfulls of water inside the frame… (except those frames with decent sized drain holes.)

Just realise every time you get up in the morning that half the population are below average intelligence and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Like the guy who “won” the bidding on the last bike I ebayed… Brand new, but my situation had changed and it wasn’t needed, so I put a reserve on it. If it got less than that, I decided to stick it in the attic until I found a use for it.

The kid who “won” had a bid around half my reserve (and a quarter of what I paid for it, which was significantly less than retail). Then proceeded to message me on an almost hourly basis for 3 days telling me I had to sell it to him because he’s got the winning bid and it’s the law and is in eBay’s terms and conditions, then that his dad would come round and sort me out and take the f**king bike. Then claiming it was used and abused (most of it was still in packaging from delivery) and it was only worth what he’d offered so I should sell it to him and he’d get his dad’s card and pay immediately. After he’d already threatened me.

So I reported him to eBay and got the account closed.

I found a good use for the bike about 3 years later, still in use today.

I wonder if he even has enough mates left to fill the place?
Apparently his partner left him last year, and i reckon half of the council that are telling him to tear it down are in the rotary club. And the other half are in the golf club.

A second question, given that you can find a 20H disc hub, how good is the spoke bed?
You’d probably need nipple washers to spread the load to stop your not very many spokes pulling through.

TBH, I’d probably sell them on, or build a shiny shiny rim braked classic for riding to the cafe on the rare days you get sunshine.

I’ve kept my classic 853 for just that purpose. All chrome and flashy paintwork, classic box section tubular rims and so on…

Looks like one of those tatty “sports centres” with a couple of banged up Novas out the front with bean can exhausts, suspension on the bump stops and 5 spotty chavs in each one.

Another tank in the back of a van and a pump?

Yup, they caught some guys near my dads house a few years ago, maybe last time the prices spiked?
One of the tanks in the van (think they had two or three 1000l IBCs in the back) had sprung a significant leak…

Depends how many spokes, less spokes, more risk.

@LS @nickc
We had a variation of that a few years ago.

Actually stopped by a dog walker, on private land, when riding there with the landowner and his son.
He was nice enough to let them carry on with their walk though.

(They did actually know each other, but not well enough to know that a) he was a keen MTBer and b) that they didn’t have the landowners permission.)

How far “back” do you mean?
Have seen some people who are over the rear axle going down a gentle slope. You’re not one of them are you?

My ex left the roof bars (standard square ones) and 3 bike carriers (598) on her car for over 3 years, then took them off last summer. Instant addition of 150km range per tank. About 10%.
She only carries bikes on the roof about once a week (when she picks the kids up from mine). The rest of the time it’s one or two bikes that usually go in the boot (for security) unless they are filthy. So maybe 200 journeys, 150 or more of which could have been done with a simple folding tow bar carrier.

Having seen the effect on the official WLTP testing with and without roof bars (Aero ones) and knowing how unrealistic these test cycles are, i use quick release aero bars and if i don’t need them, they’re stood in the corner of the garage!

I changed a headset on one last year.

Took nearly 2 hours, and a brake bleed. Thankfully it was Di2, so didn’t need to re-cable/index as well.

I counted 19 bolts that needed either removing or loosening.

The originally planned replacement headset (same as the original) wasn’t fitted in the end, i took one look at it and realised if i fitted the same PoS, i’d have to change it again this year.

So it’s got a 75 quid headset, with stainless bearings, “proper” lip seals and about half a litre of marine grease slathered all over it.