The current model and the one I’m using has been out only after June of 2012.

Apparently the old ones were quite bad but Bontrager still decided to use the same model name.

I was told to get XR4 Team issues by those in the know and haven’t been disappointed. They are very good tyres based on the shortish time (about 10hrs) I have on them and they do roll nicely considering how well they grip.

My previous experience with Bontrager tyres was with Jones AC which were really crap in all respects.

Couple of things come to mind:
– cumulative training load can easily creep up too high, depending other stress factors in your life (if you are on your 20s forget this). 2 rest days may seem like a lot but I’d add longer rest periods or really light weeks every 3-4 weeks.
– gym routine should be changed every 3-6 months, focus on different fitness are (strength, power, speed).
– think what are your goals? The current plan is bit of everything mixed up and this will make any gains quite slow.

Hard to give specific advise over the ‘net but I’d monitor overall fatigue carefully and would drop gym visits to 1-2 each if gym is supporting activity to Karate / cycling.

Just try to sneak into any large IT corporation, if you are barking psychopath with basic Powerpoint skills and enjoy wearing a suit you’ll be a manager or director in a year.

(+15 years in the industry myself and some things never change…)

Going back every time the Reverb breaks and during winter. Other than those reasons no chance of going back to normal post on a trail bike.

Rapha Backpack. I use almost as daft Patagonia pack with suits, sports jackets and goretex.
Fashion critics will receive adjustive therapy with hammer to vertrebrae and discs to help them understand why backpack is better for injured spines like mine.

Yes. Many time. The seats give me backache. The seats in Audi A4s do too and I don’t want one of them either.

I DON’T WANT A SKODA
I DON’T WANT AN AUDI
Audi has optional sports seats available which are really excellent even for my blown back – all the demo cars we tried had them so I thought they standard equipment. The day when car was delivered it was quite a shock what the hell was wrong with seats and who had stolen all the adjustments. Standard seats are bearable but far from great.

Mates tell that G-forms are very comfy when they fit, I’ll have to try them at LBS some time.
I have the POC 2.0 knee pads and RaceFace Charges, POCs are much more protective but they are also much bigger and more restrictive.
The RaceFace Charge series are probably the most lightweight knee pads out there but they are really more like arm/knee warmers with strip of kevlar sewn on. They will not do anything to soften any impacts but I’m only hoping that they will prevent some of the cuts and abrasions.

In IT it has been quite interesting place to be and it used to be difficult to get hold of mates who changed jobs before Linkedin. Now it also very common to see flurry of “xx has joined talent pool / xyz professionals” just before the layoffs in respective companies.

At some point B will suffer an injury or will burn out and will regain fitness again.

(I’m closer to A now but have been more like B in the past. Still trying to recover fitness after couple of injuries )

Good or bad, they have different last from other Spesh shoes so try them first.

Internal Affairs (original) – Main characters were well played
Grosse Point Blank – 80s music, violence and comedy
Immortal – Based on Enki Bilal comics, far from perfect but I like it’s madness
Executive decision – Best Steven Seagal movie ever
Bubba Ho-Tep – Crazy characters and plot

I use wired hifi headphones for music in addition to Jabra headset, for me this is better combination than all in ones. If music would be priority I’d get wired closed Sennheisers with mic, can’t recall the model # but they fit comfortably and the sound was great.

I have used Jabra GO 6470 and Pro 9470 a lot during last 3 years and rate them highly. My 6470 started requiring recharging after 2 hours after 2 years of use, I changed to 9470 which lasts through the brain-eating full day telcos without charging (I don’t).

9470 has useless touchscreen dock while newer models have replaced that with simple 3 button dock and if you don’t need mobile phone connectivity you can use even cheaper 930 series. I don’t connect my mobile to it anymore, it is often useful to mute the mic on the Lync session and take other calls at the same time.

These seem to be in stock at bike-discount.de for 119€ for Shimano and Sram versions.

Some useful advice here http://www.greatsaunas.com/plans/build_sauna.cfm

Sensible info in general but I disagree about floor drain being optional. Heavy water throwing can get the stove so cool that not all water will vaporize. But your habits may be different, I only know who we do it here in F-land.

Oh and the difference between wood and electronic stove is not only the warming up time, it’s mostly about the air circulation as the wood burning stove will draw some air to stove unlike electronic one. Typically the best sauna experience is in old wooden ones which have enough air circulation and not too much insulation.

How the hell do they stop/slow down on them things?

I would love to give them a try on some of the bike paths through the forests round here, but I don’t see quite how they work.
If you mean the red ones above they are sissy models with front brakes. Most roller skis do not have any brakes but the wheels are slower than inlines. For emergency braking you’ll have to do V or T-braking.

I have never understood the appeal of skateboards, snowboards andother skill/trick sports, with bikes, inlines and skates you can really move and feel like going somewhere.

Changing to SLX double ring version was really massive upgrade from XT triple, apart from that I haven’t really noticed much difference in front mechs.

On my son’s bikes (20″ and 24″ wheels) I have added old pair of Magura HS33’s which are big improvement over V-brakes and added a pair of those plastic platform pedals. Same stuff is now used on a second bike (24″) but I think something has to be done for suspension fork, it actually has correct spring but no damping at all.
Can you still get those elastomer thingies like in old suspension forks? Adding some foam mat or similar stuf to other (empty) leg might help a bit with pogoing…

One of the mentioned bikes was ridden several hundred hours per season by lightweight rider, maintained religiously and it still ate axles and bushings, other ones were ridden more casually and yet required more maintenance than some other bikes. Other thing is the bit artisan way of delivering the bikes… Meaning those AC linkage mounting position changes and very fast changes to models so that you’ll get slightly different bike than guy who ordered same frame as you a week ago.
Still good bikes and touches like der hanger offset to match the exact frame are really nice touches.

I don’t know anything about Litevilles but I’ll have to say that Nicolais have quite disappointing bearing system in the main pivot.

For my mates riding a lot they have had to replace every moving part 2-3 times per season and even for normal riders the lack of maintenance will result in worn axles and shot bushings in a lot shorter time than other brands. Somehow this bearing problem is not mentioned often in the discussions but I think there was 4 Nicolais in our group a while ago and now there is only one…
Nicolais do look cool and custom geo options are nice.

Beautiful machine on it’s own. In reality a mess of external devices and miles of cables for every device. In addition to looking out of place with current line of brushed aluminium devices…

Good news, I recall some discussion about WCA’s injuries late last year when I had my leg in a cast. 7,5 months after incident I can do most stuff I did before but strength and endurance are only about 60-70%, there also some aches more or less daily even on the healthy leg.
And yet my accident was very minor one compared to WCA’s. I hope you have a speedy recovery, toes included.

Hmmm, seems that I have praised them earlier… Currently my opinion is that for the price (1/3 of Fox and way below RS) I think they are good, on an absolute scale just about OK. Mine were warrantied for creaking CSU which was apparently very uncommon for them.

Having more “ventilated” shorts under will help with temperature control. Endura mesh undershorts (hate the chamois though) and Rapha merino boxers work for me in warm weather, for really hot weather there is no alternative to wearing only lycra.

Fill the cavities where rails with glue or silicone putty or something.

This will be temporary fix (works couple of months) but I haven’t found other options. All of my Bel-Airs (3!) have started creaking at some point.

Seems like OP has confused 2 things: need for extra protein and need for sports nutrition products.
Sure you will need 1) exercise and 2) proper diet for muscle growth. However, there is zero need for protein shakes, bars and such – most people can get enough protein from good, balanced diet.

Having a protein shake or bar after exercise is proven to be beneficial but it it much less significant than proper exercise, proper diet and sleep.

Plastic flat pedals from CRC are working pretty well for my kid, they are grippier than basic pedals but do not cause major damage due plastic spikes.

Hope has interesting idea, will be be interesting to hear how it works.

At this point there are several options for Shimano MTB Press fit standard:
– Shimano BB91 (cheap)
– SRAM GXP BB92 (expensive)
– RaceFace X-Type (mid price)
– Enduroforkseals SS or Ceramic models (mid to high price)
– Chris King Press fit (not yet available, high price expected)
– Hope (mid to high price depending if tool is included)
– Token Press fit (cheap)
– Superstar (cheap)
(Cheap is a relative term here, maybe around £20-30?)

I don’t know if any of those are really bombproof but there seems to be enough mfgrs to ensure that my bike will not be obsolete in next 3-5years.

>Without trying to be glib, I would replace with adaptors and a ‘normal’ BB
AFAIK there is no adaptor for Shimano Press fit BB’s (BB92). Even if there would be adapter my Pivot would only fit weightweenie type square tapers as alternative – the bb is not just a hollow tube.

Chris King was supposed to deliver Pressfit BB early this year and there are also Enduroforkseals models available as well. I have no experience with these but handful of Shimano ones, they have 3 year warranty after all…

Polaris AM 1000 trousers?
Anyone with experience on these?
I had RaceFace Ambush pants which have very stealth look but found them feeling bit too restrictive on the bike and the stretch mesh part on the lower back too drafty.

Forget all tuning advice above – it’s the PGP encryption which is slowing the disk writes massively.

In use MS Bitlocker feels much faster than previous systems with Pointsec and PGP disks. Security might be better with other than MS solutions but I don’t care as Bitlocker is approved by my customers.

Ergon BX3. It is not too big to bother on shorter rides and the load is held very stable. It is also the first pack which puts the hip belt on my hips – the height adjustment system is very good.

shame they are still made of crap materials and rust like no bodys business….. same with UAZ’s

So the build quality is not as awful as back in the day?
I haven’t sat in one after ´90s but I can still remember the smell and feel of the steering wheel and other controls.

“4×4” as category name is just very baffling for me, lumping in Cadillac Escalades and Lada Nivas in the same category?

What about this: http://www.lada.de/ (yes, it is in German)? Real 4×4 which would make Jimny look like posh Chelsea tractor… :D

mmannerr – why would anyone do a full on ABS stop in any conditions never minds snow or a wet road with lots of standing water on it?

Other option being hitting a moose or pack of deers? I have done full ABS stop several times in different conditions and probably will be doing it again in the near future.

Only problem is that if there is a loose snow layer on top of ice the ABS may get confused – on those situations studded tires and locking brakes would be better.

On the other comments, most current ABS systems manage to keep the car straight in situations where tyres on the other side of the car on slippery surface and other side is on grippy surface. That is something which is beyond any drivers skills.

Cant seem to find any comparative data on stopping distances on a cold wet road at 30mph…. Wonder why.

How about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elP_34ltdWI

What are folk doing driving at 20mph on sheet ice and 30mph on a road covered in snow?

Here in Scandinavia they could be fined for causing trouble by driving too slow on main roads…

All this talk of braking distances – emergency braking aside, do people really actually use their brakes when driving on snow covered roads or ice?

Of course, it is no issue on winter tyres.

So, these countries where winter tyres are the norm, do they commute as long and as far as we do? How does the volume of traffic on the M6 or M25 at rush hour compare?

Interesting question. Quick googling seems to indicate about 45-70 minutes average commuting time for UK and about 30-45 minutes on this winter tyre requiring country’s capital.

Traffic volume seems to be about half of M25 and massive traffic jams are not as common here. Some freaky weather patterns will cause trouble couple of times a year but normal winter weather (-10C, snow on the road) does not really cause problems.

I haven’t seen sheep exercising and sweating for fun like humans do? Maybe it is time for the merino debate again.

Anyway, “Sports wash” type detergents really do work wonders on smelly synthetic baselayers. For my use it is usually enough to use them in maybe on every third wash to keep them odourless. Then again I’m using mostly Craft baselayers which can be washed in 60 and 90C temps.