Since before STW was STW. (Go-far) – so >10 years.

No idea.

Oh yeah!

One of my first proper rides out with SPDs, got to stalling point on a real steep climb, wobbled over the edge and rolled down the hill – very similar to your second ‘incident’. Dick Barton will recall it…

My old Manipoo Shermans had a sort of lockdown that removed the softest 2″ travel (of 5″) but was only controllable from the top cap. The number of times I rode into DH sections with them locked down, no way to unlock them without stopping, and ended up with numb hands – I never learnt!

Those were forks I hated, so a big fat un-recommend for old Manitous.

There was one of these on my old commute. Whilst you do have the right of way, it’s not worth dying for.

Refreshingly, some drivers would give up their right of way for oncoming cyclists on the way home.

Grassy Ass?

You can easily ride from Dumfries to Mabie. I’ve investigated Edinburgh to Dumfries by train. It either is pricey and needs pre-booking (by taking the main line to Carlisle) or lengthy (go via Glasgow and take the local to Dumfries) And forget it on a Sunday…

seem to make seatposts look tatty after a couple of months

Do you choose black anodised posts and put your saddle up and down frequently? I used to find that made mine look tatty pretty quickly…

I love my Easton EC90 Zero. I bought it (when I had more spare cash) and I was rebuilding an alloy framed SS. Now it’s on the steel ss. I love the clamp for adjustment, it’s very similar to the Thompson setup.

Is it more comfortable than the previous aluminium one? Not sure, I changed too many parts at the same time to do a proper comparison (wheels, tyres, saddle).

andytherocketeer – Member
Tends to be quite sandy dust here. Leave it to dry. Then attack it with a soft brush and a toothbrush to get in all the nooks and crannies, with a Dyson to suck up all the mess.

Hehehe – I used to do that in the flat when the missus was out. Hardwood floor and a dustpan and brush made it easy. It was either ‘dry clean only’, or washed if it was sharing the back of the car with luggage. Now I have no car… :-)

Hmmm – interesting. Surely a dab of Olbas Oil on the upper lip would be just as effective if that is the reason?

I thought I recalled that breathing through the mouth rather than the nose stimulated the sympathetic nervous system, and started the ‘fight or flight’ effect. However, I can’t remember exactly and haven’t been able to google it successfully, only finding non-medical pages, e.g.

The nervous system is also effected by the way we breathe. Breathing through our mouths will trigger our sympathetic nervous system, which is intended to kick in when we are in danger and need to run or fight. It is a stress response

http://jasonalangriffin.blogspot.com/2011/04/close-your-mouth-for-health.html

Somewhere above Tignes. (It’s rubbish – don’t go.)

Me Ma tried to buy hers back when she had a minor shunt in the snow this winter. Chassis was damaged, high mileage ~5 year old peugeot 307 cc.

Basically, they would not consider it either, and there was nothing that she could do. She whinged a bit on the phone and got another £100 or so from them, as did my Dad when an old car got a rear end in traffic. He argued that it had just had several hundred quid spent on it the day before in the garage. He got a bit more back.

However, when my Dad had his Pinzgauer 4×4 written off (by a silly speeding bint understeering across a freshly stoned road), the insurance sent it to auction, where the garage/mechanic who did all the work on it bought it. So I suspect it might be a case of knowing where an insurance company will auction it off and taking your chances.

I blame modern cars and crumple zones…

I would say Haynes manual but I guess all they say these days is ‘Take to dealer. Have them plug laptop in. Pay fortune.’

Not used Ebay for ages – I assume it’s down to someone adding bids iteratively to see where reserve price is, and the current high bid is the reserve rather than the starting price?

I grew up just west of there (Darvel). Did a few rides in the forest abin Dungavel Prison as was.

The moorland out that way is as supertacky suggests – very boggy! I used to be able to ride there a few times a year when it was baked solid, otherwise it was just depressing. Plenty of dull fireroads to cover ground quickly, but not a whole heap of (ridable) singletrack.

I was glad to move away in riding terms!

That woodpecker pic is awesome!

Are you sure it’s the fault of ‘slack angled gravity sledges’? Tyre treads should give them away.

One of the worst corner cutting riders I know is a proper fast XC whippet… One of the reasons he’s so fast round a race course is he doesn’t ride a fair proportion of it… :evil:

Yep – they are generally rated up to a max size. If they break if you go over that is another matter…

By ‘The Collective (All 3)’ I assume ‘The Collective, Roam and Seasons’?

‘Virtuous’ is pretty good, made by the same gang as, and before, VAST. Has a similar selection of riding to VAST (although not quite as good), and not DH racing.

Don’t get ‘This is Australia’. It’s poo.

Unfortunately for me and my bank balance, I discovered that Assos stuff fits me rather well. Now they’ve just started making one of their bib-shorts in a longer leg, I can see some debit card spanking coming on.

Assos’ rain jacket wasn’t much good though, despite being super packable it was just too delicate for anything other than emergency use. Thankfully I had only paid 25% RRP… :-)

Do you feel like the 150 Talas is flexy? Is the 15mm QR bolt through version? If it is, you’ll get some, but not a massive amount of stiffness by going up to a 20mm axled 36.

10mm extra travel and a little more stiffness doesn’t sound worth shelling out for a new fork (to me), unless you can sell the original on for loadsa money and get a great price on a 36…

If you’re wanting to change it because you’re riding at the limits of the 32 Talas, then switching to a beefier fork may mean you’d be able to hit stuff loads faster and kill the back end/wheels/other. :D

Obviously it’s going to slacken the head angle and add some weight, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with running more travel at the front than the rear. Running more travel than the frame was designed, or warrantied, for is another matter…

I’m long and thin too.

Currently got the Endura Equipe Helium. It’s fairly thin and light – packs down into a pouch which just fits into an XC/Road jersey pocket. It may not qualify as a ‘decent waterproof jacket’ like a full on Goretex lined number, but does a good job of keeping the rain off and it’s cut well, proper length sleeves and a dropped tail for the road bike.

fasthaggis – I used to run mine that way round too. I had one of the old Surly tensioners that came with a ‘push-up’ and a ‘pull-down’ spring. I used to drop the chain though, I couldn’t get the tension high enough to deal with the excess chain my frame ended up with.

If its a 1/8″ chain, u gotta have a 1/8″ front ring

I’d disagree – been running an 1/8″ chain for years on a 3/32 Middleburn Uno ring, without any problems.

I was riding the road he died on, just a few miles further up, yesterday afternoon. It’s a belter of a road, so it’s not totally surprising that someone might want to take a performance machine at high speed along it.

I have a 2010 Genesis iO too, and love it. No idea what it weighs, I started building my SS as uber-light, but found I preferred it a bit beefier as it was a handful in the rough stuff. Probably about 24lbs at the moment with Magura Menja’s and carbon bits.

…the police manage to train their horses to work in riots…?

And why oh why can I no longer find the software downloads page on the Apple website any more?!?! That used to be quite good. Have they tried (and failed) to integrate it totally into app store?

D’you mean http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/%5B/url%5D?

An irritation I have on the local trails here (Eastern USA), most riders are fine, but some see the “no horses” sign as a challenge. Just yesterday I found huge hoof prints up a section of singletrack we built last autumn. It was made narrow as it’s a shared-use – hiking/biking trail. Horses don’t like to be on the hillside edge, so will move out a foot or two, right into the soft shoulder of the trail – destroying it in places. I find it hard to treat a user group with respect when some of them have disregard for the sustainability of the trails.

In general though, most of the riders stick to the wider trails, and there are so many cut-offs that it’s easier to divert and ride around them then try to pass them. And all the riders I’ve spoken to have been very friendly, but as a group we always get off the bikes, and talk to the riders/horses.

But if I ever catch horse riders on the “no horses” trails it’d be a different story…

Got a bit carried away with the gold though…

I don’t think that’s OTT goldness, looks pretty sedate, with the exception of the stem, possibly.

I got me some cheapy Sennheiser CX300 IIs, (now superseded with Sennheiser Eco) I’m no audiophile, and can quite happily listen to music on any quality equipment. I like them, they fit me well, and the sound is good. They do a pretty good job of overcoming ambient noise, so I generally only have one in when walking down the road. And they were cheap as chips.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-Eco-Ear-Canal-Headphones/dp/B000S8EUNM/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

Floor looks a bit dirty and your wallpaper’s peeling.

Plenty of ticks out in the undergrowth here in Eastern USA. Got one yesterday, hidden under my watch strap, which I have to say I just ripped out with my fingernails.

The locals tell me that infection normally only occurs after about 24 hours of attachment; get em off before that and they think all will be well… Having said that, most of the riders here have had/have Lymes disease.

Whilst it is satisfying to ride to, round and from Glentress, depending on bike choice it can be brutal. I did it years ago on a 6″ Giant AC with a 22:32:Bash set-up. Not much fun, mainly from trying to keep in some sort of aero-tuck on the road to not feel like a sail, whilst spinning out on a few road sections.

You may well find someone able to give you a lift on here – I have posted threads/comments to that end when I had no car, and met some good friends who were willing to pick up a random bloke off of the internet… 8O

Edit: “a few road sections” not “most road sections”. Who am I trying to kid…

I’m in a similar situation, no need to do anything means I quite often do nothing;

Get out for an early morning ride/run/walk, but not so far that you’re knackered for the rest of the day.
Force yourself to get out of the house for any reason, taking a letter to the post-box, grabbing a sandwich etc. This helps me break the monotony.

I heard from a reliable industry insider that a certain someone who rides hops his bike over stuff got a 3 year £135k contract to give him some wings…

Here’s a very quick colour swap – I removed a few of the reflections, but not all of them…

The Magura one that carlosg describes is awesome, and it is better than the generic shock pumps. You still lose a whisper of air when unscrewing a normal one. Closing the lever on this type avoids this.

The Magura and Topeak pumps had a provision on the pump chuck to minimize air loss at the Schraeder valve when removing the pump. We think that this is a great idea

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/review-pumps-co2-inflators/shock-pump-shootout_620.html

IIRC a 9 speed mech will work just fine on an 8 speed block as the overall shift is the same, it’s the shifter which is the difference (and yes, the cassette rings and the chain are thinner) Chain rings. Hmmm. Modern rings will work with both 8 and 9, but older stuff might be a bit too thick to take a 9spd chain.

If you have lots of play in the mech, that could certainly cause mis-shifts and mis-indexing. However, with the shift from 4th to 1st being so hard, and assuming the mech has enough clearance from the cassette (b-screw), I’d go for something being wrong in the shifters/cables.