^ +1

Plumbers ptfe thread tape on the bb cups if your convinced it’s the cups moving in the frame.

We used to joke about one service company’s recruiters hanging around outside Barlinnie…
I subsequently worked for them 😆

The ex-submariners I worked with were a great bunch… the manager must have chosen well.

A few things to consider…

The money is not as good as you would expect, unless your able to offer specific in demand experience and expertise. Menial work is especially not well paid at present and competition for such work is high.

To get into much of the low level menial work your expected to train yourself and put yourself through the relevant courses… this is great for the company’s offering the courses but in no way guarantee’s you work (This is a bug bear of mine… some of the Muppet’s I’ve seen pass these courses have no place being in a chopper or on a platform/rig).

Being away from home on platforms or desert camps does not suit everyone. Many people only last a hitch or two when they discover that it’s hard/boring/not-paved-with-gold/interferes with personal life etc. Can be like prison… or worse if your stuck in a Saudi land camp for two months with no english speakers!

Nepotism is rife and in my experience a lot can be about who you know. If you can get a way in through a friend/relative/referral it can help a lot. Some companies like to employ ex-forces. I can think of one company who had many ex-submariners as service hands… the bloke in charge came from that background and used his contacts to fill positions. Another company was mostly ex-forces aircraft mechanics.

I look back and wonder how I got in? I have a degree in engineering, and my way in was to take a technical, but low paid job, with a mental amount of travelling to crap holes of the world for a few years. I was young and single at the time… no way would I do that now.

As above… not much call for bus drivers… but there will always be demand for mechanics.

It can pay to think laterally and take a long term view when looking for work. The oil companies themselves pretty much only go graduate or experienced hires so you have to go for service companies. Competition is high for the good offshore roles and companies will often promote good staff from within. i.e. you have to prove yourself in the base before you get considered for out into the field… although if your too useful in the base you’ll never be allowed to go.

Good luck.

I used to live in an old converted barn at the bottom of “Hangmans hill”.

The corner of my living room would occasionally smell strongly of wild garlic. There was no wild garlic near and this would happen at any time of the year.

For the first couple of years all was well and I lived there on my own with my stereo and bikes. Once I put a TV in that corner things got a little odd. I used to have to make sure I turned the TV off at the wall or it would occasionally turn on through the night, then the stereo started doing the same. It takes two buttons to turn the CD player on and I became meticulous about turning it off out of habit.

When visitors came round I sometimes asked them if they smelled anything funny in that corner… and only a couple of times did I get told wild garlic… and when they smelt it I would go and see if I could too and usually I could.

The strangest things that happened though where items moving around the living room. Go to bed with everything in it’s usual place and come down in the morning to find something you hadn’t moved in the middle of the coffee table.

And then there was the cat… normally a very normal cat but he always avoided the TV corner, and if the wild garlic smell was present he would arch his back and heckles up backwards away from the corner of the room.

I’m sure there are rational explanations like faulty remote control buttons. Electrical sockets causing a wild garlic type smell, forgetfulness about moving stuff… and an ex-farm-cat that was a bit inbred and daft (but he never moved stuff as he was always locked out of the living room at night).

I liked the mystery and missed it when I moved. No more wild garlic smells, TV and stereo never come on anymore, I’m clearly not as forgetful as stuff never moves about… the cat was always daft though.

I’ve got one of those NukeProof axles which I have used to swap my Hope Pro2 EVO wheels between my bikes (one QR one 12×135). The only problems with it are that the little sections on the end which fit in the dropouts are pretty small so it doesn’t look that secure (I’m sure it’s fine), and that it’s made of steel so weighs nearly half as much as the whole rear hub (200g).

To be honest I’ve never used it other than for popping a wheel in to check the set up or for storing a wheel in the frame. For riding I’d much rather take the cassette off and swap the proper end caps over rather than carry around that much excess weight… yes it’s weight weenie but 25g vs 200g… and considering the efforts we make elsewhere leaving that in there is a little daft.

My advise – buy the proper adapters and a chain whip and cassette remover.

Side note – 12×135 is fine with a Hope Pro2 EVO hub… but, if your hubs not EVO the axle may break (and I have read of EVO’s breaking but I’ve yet to do/see it myself and I broke many non EVO’s).

The not so shiny ones get me going too… the scout ones were always beaten up and that was part of the charm.

I try and get out the door “BEFORE THE KIDS WAKE UP”

Not this one then.

I don’t know who Tom Robbins is

I wouldn’t take “Tom Robbins” too seriously but it’s a thought provoking quote from the following book.

“When we’re incomplete, we’re always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we’re still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on–series polygamy–until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.”

? Tom Robbins

This reminds me I’ve got to build a compost heap frame 😥

Beautiful Navajo silver bracelet for my wife… what was I thinking.

That will depend on if you ride like TLR or if you like it GNAR!

The AM is a lot of bike… it can be built light and trail riding friendly but at its heart is a doonhall eating beast that wants unleashed. IMHO etc.

I’ve not ridden a mega etc but ive had my AM for two years and I still love it.

Had a few Firestone Walker’s yesterday afternoon. The Double Jack was awesome. I tried a sample of the Beastie but for pudding I had an awesome Brewdog Imperial Red. I love the strong barley wine and double/triple IPA style beers.
Firestone Walker

The one I have the problem with is a 2.4 black chilli tubeless variant

Well… your tougher than me then 😈

I’d try returning it if it looks good other than where it doesn’t… and you say it’s only done 50 miles so should be looking fine.

I think juan is talking about how merlin/crc/etc can often sell stuff online cheaper than your LBS can buy it at “trade” from Madison.

Good work sir… a couple more for you.

Clean inside of tyre first – scrub or use meths etc to degrease to help the sealant.

If you have the time leave the tube in overnight to set the tyre shape prior to attempting tubeless.

Maybe it’s just the angle/view in that pic that makes me think that?

I re-look and I’m not so sure now 😳

That front end is unfeasible high with that fork, spacers, stem and bars.

Looking at the pictures I’m struck by the height of the bottom bracket due to the lefty and the use of a layback post. Both of these will have the effect of shifting the riders weight even further back and risk compromising the handling… causing wandery climbing… and then you have the long stem and high bars. I realise that fit and feel are a very personal thing but to my eye that does not look like it is going to ride very well.

I hope you get it to work for you.

I thought this an interesting read.

http://blog.btr-fabrications.com/?p=126

I was nearly sucked into the low-profile-pedal-snake-oil but went for DMR Vaults which I think are great. The big platform is brilliant despite the odd ground hit, and the bearings seem to be good quality. Ed-the-beard did a u-tube thing on how to service them which will be handy one day 😆

I’ve managed to mis-shape one non UST 2.4 RQ but it had a very hard life before it happened. The UST one I have seems much more robust and got a hammering on cactus and rock strewn shuttled DH trails in Phoenix last year.
I’ve also manage to cut/slice a few non UST sidewalls open. I really like the feel and weight of the non UST tyres though so it’s a risk I carry. For most of my riding they are the best tyres I have ever used, but if I was doing shuttles or planning to do a load of DH tomfoolery I would go with the UST’s or something tougher

First proper ride on my new to me 16″ Ragley Mmmbop yesterday (yes it’s not steel it’s alloy, but with 2.2″ tyres at 25-30psi it feels great… and it’s chuffin light… and cheap).

The 36’s are shortened to 130mm travel to keep the front end and bottom bracket low… it’s a bike that wants to be taken out into the woods and treated very roughly… loved it.

If wl hadn’t posted that I wouldn’t have known about it… so thanks wl for posting it as I like knowing about it

I love Aviemore but I could go somewhere much better for what MacDonald and Hilton charge.

Gore make the best winter gloves I have owned. But none of them are proper waterproof as you always get some water in them somehow on long wet rides. My solution is to wear a pair and pack another. When I turn for home and/or want to be warm on go the fresh gloves (and hat) so my hands are comfy for the last bit of the ride.

Driest trails I’ve seen since March 😀

Sanny. I can’t see many folk wanting to do such a huge loop. The parts that would cause me concern are
1.Glen Doll to Glen Esk. Road to the Clova Hotel. Up to Loch Brandy is cool and on to Muckle Cairn starts out okay but the path gets ratty nearer Skuilery. It reforms nearer to Inchgrundle (Loch Lee) but it’s never great fun.
2. Mt Keen to Aboyne, to Ballater, and up to Loch Muick is/would be a boring end/start (I rode some of the Deeside way with my little kids last weekend 😆 ).

I can answer the Glas Maol question for you marionheck. I’ve been up there form the Glen Isla side on a bike. Parked at Auchavan and rode up to Tulchan Lodge and up the Glas Burn path to Monega. I fancied going past Tulchan lodge and up Shanovan Hill as it looks more rideable but there was a shooting party at the Lodge and I decided I’d rather avoid them. First part of the Monega path is very steep but it gets rideable as you get higher, and once on the plateau it’s an easy scoot to Monega, Little Glas Maol and Glas Maol itself. We then scooted round on a well defined path to Cairn of Claise (and I wanted to go on as the path goes round to Tuirc and get a gander into Kander [because it’s fab] but nobody else wanted to as the wind was picking up). From Claise we went to Druim Mor to pick up the path marked “Caderg” and what’s called the “Forest of Cairnlochan”. I like techy stupid steep paths and on the map this looks like it would fit the bill, but it’s possibly one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done on a bike. One day I’ll go back and do it again… there almost is no path, it’s f*&^ing steep, and there are great big sink holes and tree stumps and all sorts of other crap hiding in the heather. Hilarious!
As a big ride it was remarkably short with only the one monster climb and stupid descent, but there are heaps of variations you could do. I’d like to go back but on the rare days I get into the hills at the moment I can think of umpteen better route’s to do.
Coming down the Monega path we went up would be fun.

Different garden.

Most of those are herbs not weeds.

unklehomered is very close 😀

and mr_mills got the other one 😀

So the answer is.

stem
saddle
grips
chain device
seat post qr
discs
pedals
forks
headset
Frame

Dammit… you’ve found some that I had forgotten about which means there are 10 differences 😳

Interesting… worth a like just so see what else they get up too… and I need a new hardtail after killing my Troof 😛

+1

This stuff from the local garden centre worked for us.

Genesis Core 24… looked awesome in Bothy Bikes a few weeks ago… but nae cheap 👿

I like the fact that I am made up of 0.000000000000001% something… and the rest of me is nothing.

We read it first time round TurnerGuy… and those of us that have used them for years have either been effected by this terrible O-ring design thing or not.

None of my four experienced any problems despite seeing use on 80, 140, and latterly 160mm forks… I’m not easy on kit and a number of the frames and forks were broken in that time.

I’m not a fan of Muc-off and just use water. But it’s muddy where I live so my bikes tend to get a hose-job after almost every ride. My Chris King’s have been fine with that… Cane Creek’s rusted solid in a month, an Acros lasted 6 months, FSA Orbit MX and extreme needed greasing every year, as did my Hope.

I remember Jedi had problems with his 1.5 CK headset but mine have been no problem.

Yep… I’m a fan of Chris King headsets. The less I have to approach my bike with a hammer the more happier I am.