Not for a long time, though it was one of the last sources of news left in my general progression of starting to doubt all news organisations. Not in a JHJ way – no conspiracy. Just that most newsrooms have also spent decades straight being hollowed out by market forces, sinking any time there was to fact check, papers firing their longstanding investigative reporting teams, etc.

I highly recommend reading Flat Earth News if you want to understand a bit more about the industry and why it functions the way it does.

Yes, and the lower you go the more noticeable it gets.

I eventually flat spotted the rear one through ProCore, but that was down to being really stupid on some of those square edged bits of pack horse at the top of Pendle Hill. Nothing makes a wheel indestructible ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tightened the spokes and it’s still going.

The lightweight version of the Quest tyres they ship on them won’t last anywhere rocky, but £209 is silly cheap for this wheelset.

ITUO: Not the cheapest, but much cheaper than most known brands. They ship with good batteries, and are available in the UK from Bright Bike Lights with some warranty backup.

I reviewed the Wiz20 for Singletrack a couple of years ago, and I’m still using it as a bar light. Hasn’t ever given me a whiff of trouble; much better and more reliable than all the Solarstorm/Jexree/etc. stuff I was messing about with before.

It appears to be the $6900 “VIP” edition.

Belter. Torrential rain materialised as we got onto the Mordor traverse, then at the least sheltered point:

Hope your bike’s sorted quickly Steve.

In! As long as I can get a lift :D

Hope you’re feeling better Dunc.

I’m in!

Spent a couple of months wondering where a lapel mic had gone. It was in a small tin, which I found in the bottom of the woodburner a few weeks back after burning a load of cardboard :(

jimdubleyou – Member
I use Grand Perspective for locating massive files.

Second this, it’s great: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

If you download the free version from SourceForge, you might need to ctrl+click>open before OS X will let you run it the first time.

Not bought any as I don’t have kids, but Amplifi were showing body armour for kids last time I chatted with them. Might be worth a look.

I went to a nice, chilled out village primary school. Nothing really that major happened, and I was especially regarded as a quiet, sensible kid by the grown ups, but thinking back I was usually the one to have a terrible idea then egg a load of other kids on into something like sharpening our pencils on historic monuments, or stringing a kid up between two trees with some rope we found.

That kid was annoying enough that we got away with it despite being caught shortly after with his clothes. I can’t remember the far fetched excuses we made up for having an extra uniform, but we got the teacher laughing and the whole time we could see him behind her, freed and belting across the playing field towards us.

It can mean a lot of things, but “anonymous sources” or “sources close to [x]” are a go to for publications that want to (for instance) publish speculation, or distance themselves from something that would be libellous otherwise.

dangeourbrain – Member
If i read that right – “They’ve learned” but been unable to get comment from mojo?

That’s almost certainly correct. I exchanged emails with Chris yesterday afternoon, and there’s nothing to be said in public right now. To absolutely clarify: I also don’t know any more than any of you.

Anything you read such as that second Cycling Industry piece is just flimsy speculation. I’ve been enjoying some of the more elaborate theories in this thread though :D

vinnyeh – Member
Singletrack now seem to have picked up on this story.
Proof that somebody there reads the forums.

It was Barney who tipped me off to this thread, and I’ve given appropriate credit to Earl now :D

We’re trying to find out more directly from Mojo.

Not out tonight because I’ve spent the past few days feeling like shite and randomly falling asleep like an octogenarian. I think I have a

He went in the Red Lion, which has this Yelp review from 2011: “Great if you like punch ups”

The pub the old git ran into didn’t seem enthused when I told them he’d been kicked out of the Church Inn and started throwing stuff at cars. I hope no one ended up decking him, he seemed like he was having a bad time and probably just needed someone to sit and listen when he sobered up.

dazh – Member
We’re you following me? Sorry about the funny route home. I got north of the m60 and realised I had no idea where I was so kept going!

Yeah for a bit, we turned off at Rawtenstall though. Google Maps kept trying to put us on routes with closed roads… that were helpfully marked on Google Maps.

Do you think we can manage a 21 pinch flat salute for Jason?

dazh – Member
Arrgh! I’m supposed to be wining and dining a new recruit Monday night

Bike ride, a pint and crisps. Tell them that’s always what’s done with newbies.

Newark probably worth a look if you go east (I seem to remember it’s good for antiques if you’re into that), and plenty of nice small villages on the way to it, but I’d side more with pnik’s suggestions of Derbyshire – much more interesting landscapes over that way.

Southwell is Southwell to the locals, SUTHUL to most people with a Nottingham accent. My brother lived in Southwell for a few years recently; he said the night life was largely bored middle class people on coke.

It’s not necessarily the same shite in a different place, especially if you’re contracting. At least, I find the shite more interesting as a freelancer, and when someone casually asks you to do an extra load of something like data entry, you can respond “Sure! That’ll take [this much time] on top of what we agreed and it’ll cost [discouragingly high amount]” :D

I’ve fired two clients in six years, both nightmares but not so bad I couldn’t wait until the work was done.

I did this and have been freelance for six years (edit: I wanted to walk out, almost blew my top one morning, but gave it a week to simmer, handed in my resignation with a formal complaint, and loaded remaining holiday into the month notice period).

In my case, it was a bad situation: Small company, I only answered to the MD, he had no scruples, was widely disliked in our field, and we didn’t like each other at all. The years since have been up and down, with a couple of really difficult ones, and a couple of really brilliant ones. I don’t regret leaving, partly because I do a lot more mountain biking now :)

Sometimes freelancing sucks – you’re either stressing about getting work, or stressing about getting it done. Because it depends on other people, the process of bringing a job in also tends to take much longer than you expect.

Recently I’ve been discussing boom and bust productivity with other freelancers too – we have days with loads of momentum, work late, then get much less done for a few days and feel like shit because we can’t sustain superhuman velocity. Better to pace yourself even if the coffee’s got you motivated…

Knowing you I don’t think you’ll have massive problems with that kind of time mismanagement ( :D ), and with your skills I expect you’d get pretty decent day rates.

As well as the obvious, these are the things I end up using most:

Speed clamps
Long spirit level
A 1m metal straight edge
Combination set of small impact driver and drill – a luxury, but not changing bits for an entire job is such a nice one.

I’m currently running a Sunrace 42t 10 speed with an SLX mech+goatlink. Shifting is a bit clunky but it works fine.

Yellow for the UKIP combo.

damascus – Member

The problem is when you puncture what do you do with the huck norris that’s covered in sealant?

So far, I’ve bunged an anchovy in the tyre. Not slit one badly enough that I needed to use a tube in years. If that did happen, I’d fold the Huck Norris up and put it in the plastic bag I keep in my pack just for carrying anything messy. You could also fold it up and tape it to your top tube if you didn’t have a pack.

I filed a review but I’m not sure when it’ll be published. In summary: Yes, it works, I’ve bashed rims hard on waterbars without damage thanks to it. Every impact cuts it a little though, so you’ll need to replace eventually.

(Bookmarking because I want to hear about this – I think I know the part and have seen two different approaches to undoing it in SRAM’s videos).

Also worth bearing in mind they’re more accurate around the middle of their range than at either end of the scale.

johnnyboy666 – Member
Oh and leave your torque wrench on it’s lowest setting when not in use.

Yeah. That I didn’t know to do this with the Halfords one for the first ten years I had it was why it was such a surprise to find it still calibrated. Must have a very sturdy spring in it.

I use torque wrenches on most bike things now – as a teenager I way over-tightened everything, and nowadays I find that if I go by feel I under-tighten. Where the bolt is on the bike and how I have to orient my arm to get to it make a massive difference to how much torque it feels like I’m putting in. 15Nm on a seat rail clamp feels more like 25Nm does on a different part of the bike.

I have a Sealey one for lower torque ranges, and a Halfords jobbie from the late 90’s for 20Nm up. Both have been good. The Sealey one is easy to take apart and service; the Halfords one would require drilling out a rivet.

I taught myself how to calibrate them after the Sealey one got dust in and stopped clicking – it’s simple maths and there are plenty of decent videos on youtube. You’ll not get it as good as a lab that certifies them, but you’ll get it close enough it definitely won’t round, snap or strip anything. I checked the Halfords one at the same time and was surprised that after 18 years or so it was within 10%!

(edit: wait, emoji break posts?)

dazh – Member
The giant bird was last seen on the PBW near Walsden….

I looked that image up on the Tod chat FB group, apparently that’s one of a couple of Emus that live there, and are (reportedly) friendly. The Rhea is on Blackstone edge and is apparently dangerous! It’s like Jurassic Park round here.

Good to see you all, and nice to meet you Phil!

I got a few photos too; linked because I’ve left them enormous:
Sunset above the White House
Sunset from Mordor
Blurry panorama
Pre-ride ride with Daz

Look out for giant birds. Last sighted on one of our routes:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/bird-5ft-tall-can-run-13195705

tomparkin – Member
Any recommendations for other awesome coaches in the North West appreciated, but in the meantime I’ve got a couple of hours with WeRide booked at Northern Grip, so hopefully get some good pointers there too

The locals I know of still coaching in Calderdale are Chris Kilburn (Whoosh MTB) and Andrew Mee (Ride With Mee).

One other thing I haven’t seen in this thread yet: Along with all your technique, body position etc., good fork setup makes a bigger difference than you might expect to the way the back wheel of a hardtail behaves. I didn’t realise quite how much until I did back to back fork testing with Wil at BPW and Lee Quarry, but proper setup and certain forks I preferred led to a lot less rim dinging on the same bike and trails. Sounds like you’re already making good changes there, but it’s worth carrying on with the experiments and getting that dialled right in.

This is the home fix, which should help you make a decision:
http://forums.mtbr.com/components/ks-lev-diy-cartridge-rebuild-899659.html

Step 5 tends to be the most annoying one.

OP, I did exactly the same as you about 8 years ago – had been away from MTB for a long time, bought a Hardrock Sport Disc and used it for everything. Putting a Recon on the front gave it a bit more life but I guess straight steerers are much harder to find now.

I went to a Blue Pig with 160mm forks after that, and it was great for a few years, but nowadays I’m finding I don’t seem to need more than 130mm travel on a hardtail, so just built a Morf.

I’d say think mostly about where you’re riding. The Hardrock was great around Nottingham and Cannock Chase, but wouldn’t have been suited to the kind of riding I do in Yorkshire. If I was on the South Downs all the time, I probably wouldn’t be riding anything as slack as a Morf.

It’s worth asking people who’ve set up companies locally to you, because service/shitness can vary massively from branch to branch.

The name doesn’t necessarily mean much in terms of service. I’ve had good experiences with banks that friends have had bad ones with elsewhere, and vice versa.

Northwind – Member

Which for me is just basic usability, so it can **** off.

Yeah, it’s dismaying, probably an indicator of worse to come, and why I pretty much just use puush now.

Agh, I was hoping it was dead. Trying to look at a bigger version of any image on PB is the worst of any image host.

If you just need to throw an image up for the forum, imgur and puush are both better than PB or Flickr.

imgur’s gone a bit guffy with URL obfuscation and more pestering to sign up, but both allow hotlinking, make it easy enough for someone to view a larger image, and puush is still pleasingly barebones.