Can members of the public put anything they like up on Wikipedia without any kind of vetting or verification?

How’s your gear cable? I’ve found that 10 speed systems are very much more sensitive to dirty or worn cables than 9 or 8 speed.

Walking home here just outside Southampton. The rain’s stopped for now but if the BBC rainfall radar is to be believed the worst is yet to come.

Can’t you sort it out? It’s your perfect weather

But it’s not your’s. You’ll go straight to the pub.

Wifey and the boy are off to the footy. But I’m the taxi driver.
I’ll make up for it tomorrow.
I see Phil’s lot are going from Ringwood way on Thursday. Worth joining them or doing our own thing as usual?

I was asked to change my day off this week so today I’m sat here watching the rain through the doorway at work and tomorrow I’ll be out in the sun. Yippee.

Have you seen the forecast for tonight Ciderboy?

We bought ours from a local independant showroom that had what we wanted at a good price and looked competent.
We handed over a deposit and a motorbike of mine that the owner agreed to buy and waited. And waited. And waited.
It was only when I went in while the owner was out and mentioned what had (hadn’t) happened to his wife who worked part time there that we finally got our kitchen, and the motorbike back as that hadn’t been fully paid for.
By that time we had been washing up in the bath for two months since we’d ripped the old kitchen out in preparation.
A couple of months later we found out that the owner had been taking full payment in advance from customers at circa £10k a time and moved to Spain with that money and his girlfriend, leaving his wife and kids to fend off the bailifs and irate customers.

I know my Dad doesn’t like the stuff but I think my marmite……….

Most of my driving is leisure as I walk or ride to work. I wouldn’t stop having days out with the family or friends as they are pretty much priceless, but I’d be more likely to cook at home or take a picnic rather than stop at a pub or cafe if the fuel cost was a lot higher.

Me – LBS, Wifey has a small bakery.
I’ve been selling less bikes but the workshop has been busier than ever this year.
The bakery is on the up since Sainsbury opened a ‘Local’ next door in the summer. They seem to have smartened up the area and given more people reason to stop and take notice.

Couldn’t get mine to even start to go up tubeless on a DT Swiss 29er rim. Tried rimstrip and compressor but it still just flopped about.

Anyone get a copy of ‘Bike’ magazine in the late summer (that’s the motorcycle one)? They had a big feature about petrol price and supply. According to those in the know it’ll be sometime in 2015 that demand will outstrip available supply and that’s when we’ll see the serious price hikes.

Remembered too late to edit that my first quote should be:

We ride for a bit
We stop for a drink
We ride home
Seemples

Intended to be read in a humourous meerkat style.
I’d hate for someone to accuse me of not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

For the benefit of Lucien

The last post of mine that you took offence to was:

We ride for a bit
We stop for a drink
We ride home

The actual destination had been mentioned in the first post on that now deleted thread.

My reply to your rant went something like this:

I believe my post accurately describes the spontaneous nature of our rides. If you require something more structured or rigidly planned then there are other groups within the club that would most likely better cater for your needs.

I challenge you to explain how you see that as being

“up your own ar*e”

[thread back on course] I’m with flap-jack on this one. Noel’s vocals are just a bit too sanitised. [/thread back on course]

If you think this place is bad you should go on AOL and read the comments following any story about Katie Price. There are some truly vile people out there with far too much time on their hands.

Membership of most formal clubs or organisations includes 3rd party liability insurance doesn’t it?
Perhaps someone else can tell us if those policies are ever claimed upon.

A small levy on all bike sales would be the most manageable solution although probably not the most popular.

How do you legislate against the kind of chav who ‘borrows’ his Mum’s bike then rides round blind corners on the pavement without lights?

Why don’t ducks fly upside down.

Because they’d quack up. Boom boom!

You could get some inspiration here[/url]

or

here[/url]

or just play their feeds.

Crud guards?

Spending a couple of years self employed shold be compulsory, then people would know when they’re well off.

Baked bean car — does what it says on the tin.

Our ’99 1.0 just gets on with being a workhorse and keeps on doing it with minimal input from us. The only problem we’ve had is the windows coming detached from their supports and failing to wind up again.

The Killers — Great Big Sled

This one could be a bit marmite though:

people are beginning to realise Christmas shouldn’t just be a spend-frenzy

If this is true I wonder which retail chains will be going belly up in the new year?

Probably because the weather’s been far too nice to feel Christmassy. At least it has been here darn sarf.

The one in the OPs link looks about the same size as a porthole on a ship so a very rough comparison might be to close your curtains in another room to about 6 inches gap and see how light it is then.

Surely there would be scope for the designers to include a larger collector area and some clever optics to increase the amount of light fed down the tube. I concede that that might cost rather more though.

Pernod

I was out there last night (Monday) on foot with my son for his cubs night hike and I’ve got to say it was pretty busy.
I walked with them for a half mile but soon had had enough of 25 shouting 8-10 year olds and torches being shone in my face. Unlike previous years no other parents tagged along so I cut off to follow some tracks I’ve ridden and find a bit of peace and tranquility. After a hundred yards I was passed by a group of four cyclists (2 on Cube and Specialized, all wearing hi-viz jackets). Not long after that there were a couple of runners with head torches, one of which may have been Ayups. Lastly , on the way back to the car park there was a lone rider on what looked like a full suss Marin.

yes its buckland rings.

Sorry Bazzer but you’re being a bit too idealistic there. In the real world it just doesn’t happen like that. There’s just too many people out there for whom the only thing that matters is the number after the pound sign. It wouldn’t be a cost effective use of my time to spend too long persuading people to buy something that I’ve had to drop the price so far on that I’m only making pennies doing it. The knock on effect would be that word would soon get round and everyone would expect me to work for next to nothing.

When I’ve got a workshop full of repairs waiting to be done I will politely apologise to people for not having the time for a long conversation if I feel they are just wasting my time and I have promises to keep that I made earlier in the day

Teamhurtmore, the price rises over the last couple of years are usually blamed on the currency exchange rates. Suppliers have to forecast demand 9 months in advance so they’re more likely being over cautious than deliberately restricting supply. Given the small size of my shop and it’s location in a satelite (dormitary) village to a larger town, I don’t stock any bikes over about £650.

Bazzer

Any LBS could sell online but it would require a big investment in a complex website, purchasing and staff to stand any chance of competing with the existing players. Also, I prefer to see my customers and talk to them.

From an LBS point of view.

Over the last couple of years I have seen my trade bias shift far more towards servicing than sales.

There is little point in me stocking anything much high end as if I did I’d still have most of it a year later and only be able to sell it for less than I’d have bought it for. I regularly have to apologise to customers for only being able to show them catalogue pictures of the products that would fit their requirements. I’d love to have a shop full of all the best stuff but if I did I’d eventually have a museum rather than a shop.

The big online retailers are always going to be able to offer the cheapest prices because they have the buying power to get their stock cheaply — just like Tesco. Also, how much do they have to pay the staff who put your shiny new parts in cardboard boxes and tape them up?

The majority of my customers think £500 is a lot to spend on a bike and as long as the supermarkets etc continue to to sell cheap bikes I’ll continue to make a living patching them up. It’s always refreshing to have more enthusiastic and discerning customers in the shop but round here they are too few to be a significant part of my business model.

+1 for Drumlanrig. There’s some cracking woodland trails there. Rik’s hire bikes are good too.

Count me in for both. I now live just outside the Forest and grew up on the Island.

I would like to add that not all the forestry workers are anti bikes. There have been several times on my midweek rides that I’ve passed some of them on cheeky trails with nothing being said. I get the impression that a good few of them are sympathetic to cycling in the Forest but know better than to shout about it in front of their bosses.

Mostly it’s been the retired set that have had a go at me out there. On one occasion I passed a group of ramblers with a cheery wave and a “good morning”. Most of them returned the greeting with smiles and just one at the back having a grumble.

Hose and a brush when I get back from a ride. Leave overnight to dry then wire brush the chain in the morning and lube with a thick wax motorbike spray lube.

Just checked your first post and I could be wrong about the adaptor. The Mono Mini is an early brake and most likely IS mount. If so you will need a +10mm IS to IS adaptor, although this may also foul the frame mount. In that case you will need a new caliper for the brake.

Substitute the 180s in my last post for 160s. 140mm is smaller than most folks use these days, particularly on a 29er.

If you already have a 160mm disc you will need a 180mm disc and 180mm IS to Post Mount adaptor.
Another possible fix would be to add a link to the chain and run the rear wheel further back in the drop outs and the caliper further back in the mounting slots.

Looks like you’ll need an adaptor and the next size up disc.

Strangely the article doesn’t mention the possible impact on the Forest of the point to point races that are allowed to be held annually.
In these, huge swathes of Forest are opened up as car parks, which is an open invitation for anyone with a 4×4 to practise their off road driving skills. Then you have huge numbers of riders on horses charging across the Forest flat out.
That’s not a problem is it.