Looks like they have the next hour to finish their current lap: https://twitter.com/Team_JMC/status/556753175735451648

I’ll second A History of the World in 100 Objects and 99% Invisible. Both ace.

Night Vale Radio is often really good, funny horror. If you’re interested in videogames, A Life Well Wasted is excellent too, though there can be years between episodes.

Yep, that’s him :)

The “but we’re not racist/sexist/homophobic/etc.” conversation is one I’ve had a lot through work and non-profit organisations I set up, when talking about inclusivity and diversity. People’s idea of racism is generally that it’s a malicious act rather than (also and independently of that malice) a general systemic condition, and if they don’t harbour or see that malice, they see nothing wrong. Individually, there often isn’t but socially there often is.

The Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh is a really great introduction to the kind of everyday issues faced by someone in a minority (relative to society or just a given group of any size), some of which may seem trivial but all of them are a continuous drip drip that mounts up over time.

When I was 20, I was an internet arsehole who thought positive discrimination was an unfair load of bull****. More than a decade working in an industry completely dominated by white men like myself has thoroughly convinced me otherwise.

If you have access to a mac, Adze Lite is a fairly good, free GPX editor.

I’ve not used it a massive amount, but I needed to split a long ride in two for Strava when an errant point in the middle screwed it up with some ridiculous stats. Did the trick.

DazH up to 11th!

(click for big)

The Basin Stone:

Gaddings Dam:

and a big panorama of Walsden:
http://puu.sh/eEHTf/125921e4dd.jpg

(Phone didn’t really do it justice, the light went from golden to deep indigo under the bigger clouds).

tl;dr: Superstar hubs seem good, check carefully when it comes to rims though. Don’t compromise on wheels.

I bought a set of superstars just under two years ago, they needed a little truing when they arrived but were within a mil and lasted well. The Switch hubs are still going and it’s only during a second winter that the bearings are getting a bit rumbly. Last summer, the back rim did not come back from a holiday in good nick (it was a weeny XC one though), so I rebuilt them with Spank Subrosas.

Chrome
Rocket Player for music
Lookout antivirus
Prey for device security
3G Watchdog if you need to keep an eye on how much data you’re using.
Tweedle if you use Twitter
Airdroid for file transfers
Super Hexagon

Oh, and torch apps are useful, but check on the permissions any given one needs. There are loads out there and they can be a bit dodgy.

@sazter that’s really nice work!

Do your insurer have some kind of weird classification for it, or is insuring it just like any other camper?

If it’s DHL, could take ages, they’re awful. I’ve found Bike Discount brilliant, but the last time I ordered from them, DHL sat on it for a while once it got to the UK, then a driver falsely logged a delivery attempt, then their customer service told me it was with parcelforce (it was never with parcelforce), then… etc. It took them four “delivery attempts” before anyone actually knocked on the door.

Also bought some rims off ebay, sent from Germany via DHL. They arrived a week later than me or the seller expected.

Cougar:

Personally, I’m holding out for a HD remake of [Day of the Tentacle]

Not many details, but Double Fine announced in December that they’re working on a special edition of DotT:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/08/day-of-the-tentacle-special-edition/%5B/url%5D

Tripods are probably next in glasgowdan’s sights.

@glasgowdan @wallop @globalti etc.: this is what you spend your lives giving a **** about? Really? :-)

Hope M4s here, and they squeal for the first few rotations when wet, then stop until they’re wet again. I tried red rubber grease between the pads and pistons, made no difference.

We used Chiliblast PCs for a festival last year; not sure what model but they were good and dependable.

A few games programmers I’ve known swear by https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk . Even if you don’t get one from them, it’s a good site for poking around with specs and prices.

I’ve never had an inkjet I haven’t wanted to smash within a month. The last one I had, I slam dunked and it was sweet relief.

Buy a laser printer. The toner doesn’t work out that expensive per page, it’ll print fast and it won’t stop working if you leave it a month. I’ve had a cheap Dell 1130 (when Curries were selling them off for £30) and traded up to a Samsung M2020 with wifi; both have been dependable and easy.

If you shy away from laser printers thinking they’re more expensive, whatever the difference in price it’s well worth it in terms of how much less painful they are to own.

:)

Col du Solude is also a really great ride around there, with some excellent views. The topmost section is gravel though, and if you descend from Villard Notre Dame, take a very bright light because the tunnels are pitch black with some nasty potholes and drainage channels.

Yeah, point it a bit further down. It’ll still be visible ahead but not shine directly into people’s eyes.

Getting dazzled used to happen all the time with oncoming cyclists when my commute went through a few dark areas between Derby and Nottingham. Very occasionally as they got close I had to stop until they’d passed because they had such nuclear lights stuck on their handlebars.

Likewise, on country lanes I’ve been flashed by a car a few hundred metres away because I had an XM-L2 torch on the bars and forgot to put it on a lower setting. It’s really easy to dazzle people with modern LEDs.

Deffinetly try and go after the snow has cleared, Alp Duez is really tough but it’s not the most scenic climb, you’d want to tie it into something like Col De Sarenne, I wouldn’t fancy those smaller high altitude roads in the snow.

I did exactly that ride last August. The road surface coming down from Col du Sarenne is pretty crappy, I found it okay due to MTB but the roadies I was with hated it. Also, beware of crosswinds as you exit the tunnels descending on the D1091. They blew me a foot towards the edge, a mate on deep section carbon rims went four feet sideways in front of me towards a very big drop.

Go a little beyond cheap and you’ll get much more comfortable goggles made from softer, more flexible plastics.

I have Von Zipper Bushwicks, which are double lens and not eye-wateringly expensive. They cost me about £35, and lenses have ranged from £12 – £25 depending on what they are. A transparent lens with pegs for tear offs was at the cheap end of that from ebay.

They’re cylindrical lens goggles, so less fancy than the spherical types, but on trails I don’t think you’d benefit as much from the extra peripheral vision as much as you would on a ski slope.

YGM Kevin. I have a great cheap light but I don’t trust the included battery or charger a fraction of the distance I could throw them.

I live somewhere steep, and 36-22 with 11 – 34 is fine.

I should’ve gone 11 – 36, but misread something about my mech not working properly above 34t. I find 34 okay with a double though.

Draftsight is great for 2D/2.5D once you’re used to it.

If you want an entire CAD/CAM toolchain, even with paid software I’m afraid OS X is disappointing. There’s way more software out there for Windows, so if you want to do 3D, I’d look into bootcamp, Windows and probably Solidworks.

Oh, yeah! Good point gofaster, I forgot about that, even though I do it every time I travel: Bit of paper between keyboard and screen to stop those tiny key shaped scratches from appearing within a year or so.

If you’re taking bikes, look for a local band van company, they’re the best source for renting ones with crew cabs. Me and some friends used Gigwheels in Manchester this last summer to get four people with eight bikes to the alps and back.

Factor wear and tear into your rates, keep regular backups, put an SSD in it if you can, and use a backpack to carry it.

I used to do a 20 or so mile commute with mac laptops that belonged to work, and they tended to have lifespans of 2 years or so before something major needed replacing (usually the logic board rather than a HDD, and the superdrives tended to die quickly). That combined a lot of air and rail travel too, as well as more or less continuous use, so hard to say exactly what contributed most wear and tear.

The download worked for me in Yorkshire.

I’d recommend GoPro’s own software for their footage, as it’s decently put together compared to any other free video editors. Also, not everything else can handle default GoPro frame rates. They use a weird one of 47.95FPS; not all video editing software can handle that and if you screw up any frame rate changes with other software the results can look balls.

Without image stabilisation, chest done right gets way better footage than bars. Wear the mount very tight; I see way too many videos where it can wobble vertically.

Angle: You’ll get used to the angle after trying to shoot a few times, and after you’ve got it right once you’ll be able to eye it and get good shots. Helps to have a mate watch you roll around a bit and tell you if it’s about right. Wide angles are quite forgiving, just make sure it’s pointing over the bars rather than at them. If it has wifi you can check your framing then and there.

DrP – Member
Meh…got a locksmith out for £50…. All done. I asked him if he snaps it -said yes, but with a ‘special tool’!

Oh, yeah, I remember now. What a bunch of theatre.

I’d probably replace a spoke that’s that kinked. Ideally you want all of the spokes taking some load rather than others compensating for a loose one, but if you’ve flattened a part of the rim that might be tricky.

The ding is probably fine, but if you use a tool to straighten it, bear in mind you won’t get it perfect, and protect the surface of the rim with something like a rag or some rubber.

If it’s a cheap one, you can pull the bezel off the handle, get some molgrips on the end of the lock and flex it until it snaps in two. The pictures here make it obvious:
http://www.upgrademylock.com/home-security/threats/

And that’s why you should replace it with a good one that has anti-snap and anti-drill features.

There’s probably no way to tell from the outside if it has anti-snap, anti-drill, etc. If it doesn’t snap in the right place, you can probably still drill it but it might take ages if it has countermeasures for that.

That was brill, thanks again for organising Gaz!

Don’t worry about slicks. The contact patch on <25mm tyres is so small that no surface tread pattern really adds any extra grip/ability to eject water/etc., it just makes people feel better about buying them.

When I used to go with a friend, it took at least three trips round FTD+Monkey to shake his Decathlon special to pieces.

Yes. Housemates too.

I had to be really strict on some one year. Two of them worked in retail, so tended to have weekdays off and need to make trivial conversation. I shouted at them both once because, between them, they interrupted me every fifteen minutes for a few hours straight.

The only way I found to explain it to them was the way a friend put it: “Interrupting someone who works with information or does something creative is like walking into a bakery and turning all the ovens off”. I ended up with the rule that headphones on = working.

It’s great when you’re around and can be really helpful with something. It’s awful when the people around you take that for granted and assume you’re available just because you’re around.

I thought droppers were a swanky waste of money before I moved to Calderdale. After trying one here I never want to ride without. Depends what kind of trails you’re riding though.

spudly1979 – Member

Not had the lev long enough to comment on maintenance issues, although my mate has had a couple of minor bits, mainly around the cable stretching.

Likewise on both of those things. It’s a lovely bit of kit, but on the second ride I noticed the lightweight cable thing they ship had stretched about 5mm. A friend rode with a Lev in all conditions for a year and it did eventually stop working, but after a service it was good as new.

I went for Lev over a Reverb because of cable actuation rather than having to bleed hydraulics, and the cable entry point. Also, I recently got to see a brand new Reverb get stuck up halfway through a ride, then kind of start working again, then become stuck all the way down within a day.

colournoise – Member
Leant against a single, quite small rock.

This is a lovely shot colournoise. Did you mess with the colours much? (Also, Marz 55R’s: Snap! :) )