You won’t do so well if you crash into anything in your AX though

Meh. Follow that logic and we’d all drive tanks. Or those things which make Hummers look small. But yes, it would have been ended in any crash.

Ah but Rick, the AX had a large enough hole in the floor to allow you to give it some Fred Flinstone as well!!!

Git! I’ll have you know that car was pretty quick. 1.4 with none of that fancy computery nonsense to bog you down. What is it that you drive again? A popemobile?

Just looked up the book weight of my old AX – 632kg! No wonder it felt much lighter than my Polo, and substantially faster :-(

I’d agree with you Capn, but as the rules allowed it, AND I had just broken my previous fun bike I was going to take advantage of it.

Either an employer allowing it or tax fraud. Either way, that’s a part of the reason that BTW is doomed. There is no possible excuse for buying such a bike on a cycle to work scheme. Stop taking the piss, folks. Buy something that you’ll use to ride to work, a nice, basic commuter will do it for (almost) everyone.

Employer had a consumer credit thingamy so could go over the £1000 limit. And as I said, I commuted on it, and if you want to get all picky on the rules, I reckon I did manage at least half of its journeys to work that year. I had other mountain bikes to go around AND could find fun trails to commute on.

So nya! :-)

The ad-hoc trials section was a hit with the spectators.

I would use a £1500 Specialized Tarmac Comp in the summer (BTW scheme purchased) and during the worst of the winter last year, a £3500 Bionicon Ironwood (also BTW purchased) Normal winter weather bike was a £400 Langster though…

Would a cable swage work? Generally they’re used for putting a loop in a cable, but an appropriate sized one could be trimmed to fit maybe?

Or something like this?
(can’t link to the picture but…)
http://www.tecni-cable.co.uk/3mm-A2-AISI-304-Stainless-Steel-Single-Shank-Ball-Terminal-100-206-644

edit: Or this one fits a 1.0mm to 1.5mm cable…
http://www.tecni-cable.co.uk/Support?id=984

I’m one of the riders Kaesae is referring to in his post – testing some wheel bearings in the USA. It’s early days yet; I changed the bearings in my Eno which lasted 3 months to some he supplied. (Yes the ENO is not very well sealed, but we don’t ride in the wet…)

Not ridden them yet, but it’s hard to fault a guy who’s prepared to send you free bearings all in the name of research.

With regards Hopes, I only ever ran front Pro 2’s, which had pretty small bearings to accomodate the 20mm axle – bearings ran sweet for years. What Esher Shore said makes a lot of sense…

Clipped a snake – it appeared in the trail, I tried to hop it and mistimed it. Guy behind me said it moved pretty sharpish so hope no much damage was done :-(

Plenty of dopey deer around here too. They often won’t move very fast/far so have had a few close calls on tight singletrack. It’s also pretty scary startling timid autumnal ones who move en masse across the trail at high speed.

Had a bat in the pus night riding as well. Not pleasant.

So all QR forks are created equal messiah? You seriously believe that there is no difference in stiffness between any QR forks? SID vs Pace/DT?

And I don’t recall ever having a QR come loose if it was done up properly in the first place…

I found that the goose we ordered wouldn’t fit in our oven with it’s legs attached, because it was long and thin. Turkey being plumper fits in small ovens better!

The goose tasted wonderful, and the drained fat* does make great roast tatties, but there wasn’t a whole lot left over.

*You MUST remember to allow the fat to drain out…

Maguras for me too! Not noticed a diving problem on my 07 Menja 100s. I’m sure I saw them rated as the stiffest around when I was researching them – I bought them cos they were dirt cheap!

My other bikes had a set of Maxle Boxxers and a set of X-Fusion Delta 8’s with about 45mm stanchions and a 35 bolt in hub. I don’t notice the Maguras flexing.

Nah, don’t think they are V2 rotors. I bought the set of Mono M4s about 4 1/2 years ago with 203mm floaters on them – same design as these, then bought a 160mm rotor about 2 years back for the above build. I just got the shop to order a floating rotor :-/ I have one of the newer saw toothed rotors on the front wheel, but no way of swapping for compatibility unfortunately…

I think the only problem you’d face is clearance from the rivets – I know my old 203 floaters wouldn’t clear my Formula brakes, ergo I think the old Mono M4s have plenty of clearance.

One plan might be to give Hope a phone tomorrow – I’ve phoned them with compatibility questions in the past and they’ve been very helpful.

The model number of the rotors?

EDIT: Can’t find this design on the Hope site any more, and see to be generally discontinued, but http://www.cyclesportsuk.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=3668 lists them in Gold

These ones fit mine.

(inappropriate brake for the bike, but it was what I had spare…)

As a young un’ – I don’t have much past to draw on. My parents owned rubbishy cars*.

As the slightly faster version of my first car;

or a friends parents’
(in red)

or my old boss’

(she sold it without letting me know :-()

* My dad still owns one of these which I DO get to drive when I go back home… :)

Endura Equipe Helium. Good weather protection and packs small.

It is cut very snug however – suitable for XC whippets and Roadies

That guy in the forecast video often does the local forecast on Accuweather for us in Delaware – he’s normally massively funny, but that one is superb!

scaredypants – Member
Oh, thank god. I’ve been worried sick

Rare to have a genuine LOL, but that pleased me immensely!

‘This is Australia’ is rubbish. You can save your money on that one. :-)

I thought it stood for ‘Raising And Giving’?

Fan-euro-tastic!

Did the Bionicon survive?

(Mine broke in Tignes)

Gah – too slow!

Well there’s the ‘note on the rules’ that’s been a sticky for weeks?

I get the feeling that USA is just as fragmented as anywhere else. Here (Mid-Atlantic USA) is 29er central! 90% of the bikes on the trails here are 29ers and 75% are hardtails. (The trails here are far more ‘technical’ than most stuff I rode in 7 Stanes/Lakes/Peaks/Dales in a different way. Trails here are tight but flowing, short sharp technical climbs, rooty in places, massively rocky in other places.) People don’t ride in the wet for reasons already dealt with.

However, people who have ridden in New England, or the West Coast say 26er full sus bikes are the choice there, and it sounds pretty similar to the UK, trails are ridden all year round. The USA is a big place…

The difference in rider style between Inners/GT (my old stamping round) and here is night and day. But I wouldn’t want to ride my UK bike on these trails any more than I’d want to take my SS down the north side of Nan Bield.

Hmmm. Now I did like going to the Hub when I lived in Edinburgh, but, IIRC there were excellent trails there BEFORE the Hub turned up. So saying they built the place is not entirely true. Sure, they have helped make the entire experience work, but look at Innerleithen. I’d go to Innerleithen over Glentress most trips when I had the choice, because the trails are better.

Development is not NEEDED to make a great ride. Great food is not NEEDED to make a great ride. Great trails make great rides.

Secondly, I know people who have worked for the Hub, and to be honest, it seems from their account that the girls’ attitude to the staff is quite different to the persona they show to the public.

I have an address of his from 2003*. However, I’m not going to give it out on a public forum, so if you NEED it, then email me.

Email in profile.

*of course, useless if he’s moved in the last 7 years…

I might be able to help.

Email in profile.

You’re going to struggle with the smoke with the transparency it has. I trialled a plug in which claimed to be able to remove the background through soap bubbles in the air. It failed to be that good.

I have never found anything as good as hand drawing in a clipping path with the pen tool, but I’ve been limited to hard edges (bikes mostly, about 3-5 hours per bike…). Would it possible to add the smoke back onto the image once clipped out? Might be easier than trying to extract just the smoke…

how can it tension without a spring??

The DMR STS just bolts in place. When the chain stretches, slacken the bolt, move it tight, tighten bolt. You don’t need a spring.

DMR STS, although it does need to have the roller modified to run a 1/8″ chain.

I tried a Surly Singulator and the old rear mech. trick, but as I needed a lot of slack taking up, the sprung ones just didn’t work for me.

I’ve had no problems with the life of my LD1100, so unfortunately I can’t compare it to anything else as I’ve not needed to replace mine!

cirlam – just tried sending you one, but it tells me that you’ve already registered… :-)

I’ve got 8 invites here as well.

Last winter I rode in the snow and got stopped by a Sky News roving reporter with camera crew

Not sure it ever made it to the news. Would have been funny to see, I was on my 8″ travel bike with DH tyres, and a Gore facemask (the Hannibal Lecter style one) and my hair had frozen…

Now I’m in America and I’m missing all the snow :-(

Hmmm, not sure my efforts from way back warrant a public showing, but anyway… This was a small video I edited together at uni for our AU mart, made up of lots of tiny clips shot over the winter 02-03.

Shot in 2003 on a £50 Mustek GSmart Mini 2 camera with no viewfinder or screen, flash memory, tiny resolution. All handheld and I think was 10fps, so it’s really, really shocking quality.

Oh blimey – I’ve got one I shot on something like that back in 2003. Probably buried away on a HDD somewhere…

I’d recommend not skimping on comfort for lightness!

I built a pretty light SS a few years back, got it down to 18lbs with Pace RC31 Ti forks, V brakes, skinny thin tyres, weighing bars and stems to get the lightest in the shop etc…

It was awful. Seriously. It went up hills like nothing else, but coming down I couldn’t keep it on line – every little bump seemed to throw it around. Gradually I swapped to suspension, disc brakes, chunkier tyres etc – and it was a much better bike. Then I bought the iO frame and it’s a superb bike. And I’ve no idea how much it weighs.

I just used a burger press from Lakeland and 100% beef/lamb/pork mince, or beef with chopped sunderided tomatoes, or lamb with mint, or lamb with toasted cumin, or pork and apple.

I never got one with adding breadcrumbs or egg or the like. Just pressed them firmly, they held together on BBQ fine.

As you’re getting excited about going to Morzine, how about a full-face lid, or some really nice knee and/or shin pads?

Pimptacular flat pedals?

Or, how about asking for a TFtuned/Mojo service for the forks (and shock)?