I quit.

Agreed. A sense of empathy to the workload of others is required; the new ‘new’ way of working has resulted in back to back meetings, more pressure to deliver, and a general feeling of etiquette has gone out of the window.

For example, when in my last role, when I was last in the office, now two years ago – if I had a back to back meeting in a meeting room, I would need a gentlemans break, I’d need to get a glass of water – or simply walk from one meeting room/building to the other. All of this meant that I’d need at least 5 mins between meetings – so I’d either finish early – or be late to the next. In every case, nobody batted an eyelid if you slipped in late (unless it was an exec meeting, to which everyone prioritised).

Now, we have org knobbers sliding into your 15 min diary gaps carefully crafted for all of the above – or even taking your lunch breaks without a care to whether you’ve had 5 meetings back to back since 9am.

So yeah, sometimes my camera is off – I’m probably making a cup of tea, or maybe loading the washing machine, or in some cases, dropping the kids off at the pool during a ‘listen in only’ call (don’t do what one of our PMs did and forget to mute).

Finally: cameras on – it is exhausting, more so than actual f2f – so bear this in mind. In addition, if you want them to focus on you, you MUST provide for additional time for them to do their ACTUAL jobs. Think about how long the meeting is – is it an hour? Why – is there an agenda? all of these ettiquete things help people be prepared, engaged and ready to contribute.

Nothing worse than rocking up to meetings that add zero value, have no agenda or any intended outcome. Also – always shorten the meeting time by AT LEAST 5 minutes to allow people a small break.

Its not rocket science really – but to even be asking the question suggests that the OP needs to spend a little time on their empathy – every employee will have different needs and working styles to work at their best – one size never fits all.

@walleater said: I don’t know what the pricing of Bontrager aluminium wheels is like in the UK, but over here they fit into the ‘quite cheap and quite good’ category. A few issues with the hubshell ring drive spinning in the hub and ideally they’d have a 32h option but they seem to hold up pretty well for ‘normal’ riding.

I’ve had both and if people suggest Hunt rims are soft then Bontrager are even softer. I have had several sets of the Bonty comps and they’re like cheese. I literally threw away the rims and just kept the hubs in the spares box.

I had a set of Hunt Trail Wides and besides one dent which was rider inflicted, they were great – ran true and smooth for a good year without any intervention. Only reason I’m not using them now is I’ve moved from 27.5 to 29″.

Now on my 29 bikes I have a set of Hunt XC Race on my XC bike – but for my big boy bike, I went EX511 on i9 Hydra – mainly so they were fit and forget.

I’ve been happy with Hunt – would recommend.

Ignoring the horrific taste in grips (I have now realised my error, removed said grips and banished them to the back of the parts box), this is my beautiful ‘happy place’.

When the bluebells appear, it feels like nature is coming out to play, and the burst of colour is like a drug for the back of the eyeballs.

I would say that in a van, it’s easy to install and place a sub. As already mentioned, the challenge is to not overwhelm the acoustics given it’s such a large space – unless you are separated from the rear?

The main reason for a sub is not to throw huge bass out, but to separate out the different frequencies that a speaker has to try and output. Often the standard speakers are standard 1 way – no matter how big they are (often 6×9 in a van), they have to try and deliver low and highs from one driver. Irregardless of how good it is, you’ll always have a muddy sound.

If you look to put co-axials in the door, you’re not needing to run components in, so that’s your first thing to consider – a co-axial will deliver a tweeter AND a mid – leaving your sub to be driving the lows.

The next thing is to consider the head unit – presume you’ll need to run an amp? Would expect the standard head unit will be integrated so won’t have a sub out – so you’ll be needing some way to split the signals (which is usually an amp) – if you’re using an aftermarket headunit, pay attention to the impendance output – pairing the output to the speakers correctly is important.

Either way, investment here ALWAYS pays off. I have a 2011 BMW 5 series and that came with the base sound system which was shite – 4 x 1 way speakers and two subs under the seats. No real amping at all as it was done by the OEM head unit. After upgrading the rear speakers to co-axials (they’re in the roof at the back, so no components), fronts to components (only 4″ so limited on what I can do) and then replacing the 8″ subs with beefier, lower ohm versions, and then an inline plug and play amplifier (also slotted in a Apple Carplay upgrade and reversing camera also).

Instantly the sound stage and power was hugely improved – and the bass far FAR deeper. Probably cost about £700 but it makes listening to music something I really enjoy in the car now.

Do it if you can.

Thanks wzzzz – its a little bit of an experiment and will be a parts mule, so I’m absolutely in no rush or want to pay half its value in shipping – so fingers crossed I have the same experience as you :)

Dragging this thread up again. I’ve ordered one of these at a solid £195 and it had so say shipped on the slow boat. I’m in no rush, so was happy with the ‘free shipping’ method.

However, the Airwolf store got in contact today trying to convince me to pay an extra $130 for DPD shipping to get ‘no taxe’s, no customs problem’ and faster shipping.

Aside from the fact that it shows in AliExpress that it has already shipped – anyone else had similar experience?

Thats the one that I had seen too @argee – but I’d read a couple of reports that they didn’t fit well, and to be honest, at nearly £100 delivered, you could probably buy a set of complete L&R lever units anyway – keeping the spare lever for the inevitable tumble (mine is typically hitting a tree).

Agree with @argee – M8100/8120 and M8000/8020 are not interchangeable – but I am aware that SLX M7100/7120 ARE compatible with XT M8120/8100…

I’ve lost count how many hours I’ve spent on this – what should be a £20 part replaceable after a crash suddenly becomes verrrrry expensive.

Whatever you do choose, if you use Shimano M8120 levers, be aware that spare lever blades are impossible to find – so if you clout a tree and bend the cheese like levers, then you’ll be searching for a new entire lever.

Seems that COVID has killed the Shimano spares supply line and its impossible to get the blades. There are aftermarket blades out there but they look a bit suspect and are huge money – might as well just try to buy the unit.

I love my M8120’s – love the feel and all the power I need – way better than the Guides I had before, that being said, I’ve not tried Codes – but I prefer the idea of mineral oil over DOT 5 (ruining my paint).

I hear very very good things about the after sales support of Magura with spares seemingly easy to get – as such I think my next set of brakes will be Magura MT7s.

So I’m on my last day of isolation from contracting what appears to be normal ‘vid, and my partner seemed to avoid it, got her booster on Sunday, and then today, she’s tested positive after starting to feel symptoms yesterday.

So my questions are these:

1. I’m reading you can still test positive even after a booster, but it may not be quite as severe – or you might not even know which is providing symptoms; the jab, or the ‘vid – either way, a negative/positive PCR is the only thing that gives the truth?
2. My ‘vid PCR didn’t come back as Omicron – given that not at labs can identify it, I’m assuming either they didn’t test (although I’m in Bristol, so would hope/expect they did) – or I didn’t have it. Can you get normal variant ‘vid, and then in quick turn after recovering contract Omicron (my booster is booked mid Jan)?

The previous Trek Top Fuel (2020/2021) was capable of a 130mm fork, so Trek have been taking the Top Fuel that direction for a while.

The additional 10mm reach, 1.5 degree slacker HA and steeper seat tube I think completes the transition away from the Top Fuel previously being their ‘race bike’ – the S’Cal is that now.

I brought my 2020 Top Fuel wanting a fast XC bike that could handle some gnar – and I’ve been incredibly pleased with it. Not wanting to annoy the niche haters, but fitting out my Top Fuel in full #downcountry spec made it capable of keeping up with bigger bikes. A decent set of tyres and inserts meant that, like a hardtail, skill suddenly becomes the limiting factor.

I’m intrigued to ride the new TF, but they’re huge money now and I’m not sure I want to move so far away from the steeper angles I have on my 2020 model. Certainly, a shock tune, a set of 130mm forks with 35mm stanchions and decent tyres, and really, there isn’t much difference. Consider that the 2020 TF came with a 70mm stem – so any shorter stem will bring it in line with a 2022.

I would love the little compartment tho – although I have one on my Slash and I’ve still not worked out what to use it for.

Drove in France in August and got flashed by a sneaky camera hidden on a side road. Not seen a thing; the recent outcome of Brexit means there is no replacement for the sharing of DVLA data yet – so no way for them to send a fine.

However, get knobbled by the local gendarme and you’re in for an expensive afternoon.

Also the same in Croatia when I got stopped (along with my BIL in the car ahead) for mistaking 120 km/h for 120 mph >whistles innocently<. Thankfully having two Croatian ladies in the car who were locals meant we got out of a very serious fine and ban…

@stevextc – is the lever blade compatible? I’m not looking to replace the entire assembly – just the blade.

Dragging this thread back to the top again – this is relevant to me.

Having already snapped one lever blade, and had to buy a new lever unit just to get a new blade – I’ve gone and twatted another blade and whilst it bent back, I expect it’ll snap if it’s hit again.

As such, I’m on the hunt for replacement lever blades.

This thread here: https://www.mtbr.com/threads/shimano-deore-xt-m8120-lever-blade.1147545/ talks about compatibility between lever units – with some useful tips (I’ve copied some of the text):

1. You can buy aftermarket lever blades from a company called Flo Motorsports – your mileage may vary tho on whether you think the price and lever is worth it
2. The lever blades from the 7000/8000 and 7100/8100 series are interchangeable left to right so long as you use the correct side’s spring. It’s the spring that makes the “member unit” side specific not the lever itself.
3. The lever blades from the 7000/8000 series cannot be used in stock form with the 7100/8100 series body. They are taller and will not fit into the perch unless you take some material off with a file (see photos). This worked out extremely well and I was able to use an old blade from a broken 7000 series lever in my 7100 series body. I only had to carefully file a small amount of material off of the top and bottom of the blade where it slips into the perch

I also read somewhere that the Shimano SLX M7000 lever blades were compatible…as per https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/68908/will-an-shimano-m8000-brake-lever-blade-fit-a-m8100

I would recommend some proper mouthwash rather than go in for the toothpaste. You’ll struggle to get more punchy than the likes of Euthymol and Marvis – and many of the stronger ones don’t include flouride. I’ve tried all these and they just don’t really last (especially once you’ve had that espresso).

CB12 is considered the king of decent long lasting mouthwash; its expensive, but bloody hell does it work, and lasts for several hours until your next swig.

My dentist’s recommendation is that as we’re working from home more, we’re drinking more coffee and tea, so therefore having a mouthwash on hand to swill out with afterwards is not a bad thing.

You should probably be swilling with a mouthwash 3-4 times a day – just before brushing, during the day and then just before brushing at night. In addition, do NOT mouthwash just after brushing as you’ll wash off the flouride in the toothpaste – and don’t swill with water either – just spit.

ETA: Just saw your above message, in that case, ignore me :)

An oval AB PVD oil slick fan here – have it on my Trek Top Fuel and I can’t say that it has done anything negative to the suspension action, or the way it rides.

If anything, its made it an even better climber. No dodgy knees either.

Shame about everything else about my body creaking away, but that’s not the fault of the oval ring.

@jp4urio I wouldn’t go so far as to say that – they’ve left a huge amount of wood on the ground and where it’s steep and techy, it means any crash is fraught with danger as you’ll inevitably land on a log or sticks that are very pointy.

I know this, mainly as one of the ‘new’ trails has caught me out twice last week and resulted in my very ungraceful double somersault OTB and a snapped brake lever.

I’ll be getting back to figure out the lines (as its one of those trails where knowing them means it’s easier to slither down), but the ruts down them are massive given all the rain in the last couple of months.

The tech level on those new trail lines has definitely gone up significantly – you need to pay attention.

@cogglepin 😳 yikes!

@dyna-ti – my noddy google self diagnosis which I know doctors hate is that 6mm is on the limit of where they intervene – using said shock wave type approach. However I read that it requires admission to hospital overnight for some reason, which I guess at this current time is something they don’t want to do with such limited space and the risk of COVID transmission.

I’ve been given diclofenac, although only 10 – 2 down, 8 left to use. They’re magic. They only gave me codiene phospate, which doesn’t really touch the sides (no pun intended).

I read also that 6mm was the limit, a doc mate did remark that was a punchy size to pass, so I guess I need to sit it out unless the urologist calls me back in when he’s meant to follow up.

There’s definitely lines appearing in Picnic bench but they’re pretty lethal at the moment and seem to not have any flow because of the need to traverse all the tree waste.

Seems to be two distinct lines, one which seems to follow the WC line is an off camber rooty bit of fun with a couple of very natural berms – but given I piled in without knowing what was there, it wasn’t easy to ride. A bit of line walking would make it better – but its almost impossible to walk back up.

I noticed a trail further along that seems to track the old ‘left of the bench’ trail at the bottom, but that appears to just be a properly steep slidy rooty slide of 20ft or so – didn’t look all that pleasant – and didn’t have a distinct line out.

The bigger problem with these trails is that they look horrific against the already horrific looking felled areas – and would need work to make them flow. I would wager that any trail building would be a no no, so who knows what will appear over the spring.

Nearly everything is ruined now to some degree either through the felling or just sheer weather and wetness. The Muddy Rut climb is basically 100ft of pure shoe eating slop, and fundemntally breaks any chance to loop some fun trails.

I use both Keychain and also LastPass. Originally I started using LastPass years ago, before Keychain was as polished as it is today.

The challenge with Keychain is that you can’t use it on your work laptop if its Windows, say. Therefore, I use LastPass plugins in the browser for the eleventy billion logins I use at work.

I agree on the LastPass reocmmendations – I recently started using it for storing everything important. Vodafone have also decided to ok using it internally as well, which should validate it’s capability and security.

The random generator for passwords in the browser is very useful – once you twig how it works.

Trek Top Fuel meets those requirements and Trek seem to hold good stock of them.

I have one and I love it – may replace it for a Transition Spur, but for the moment it meets my ‘XC with some serious gnar when required’ needs.

29lbs fully built with proper tonka tyres, 26lbs with fast light tyres .

Well came in here, and disappoint.

Thought we were gonna discuss the Trek Y5-0

I’ve tried a few different options – my Top Fuel came with the Bonty 2.4 XR4 tyres which were pretty good, fast but ultimately fragile as anything.

I moved to a Minion DHR Exo up front in 2.4 guise and a Specialised Slaughter Grid – that combo gave for a really nice balance in speed and grip – the Slaughter held on in the winter slop waaaaay more than it ever should have.

In full #downcountry style, I’ve now moved to a set of Vittoria Mazza Graphene 2.0 Trail tyres. These actually roll pretty well given they stick to wet stuff like shit to a blanket. Their grip over wet roots is out of this world, and have transformed the steep descending braking grip of the bike massively.

Just a few options to consider from one end of the scale to the other.

Why not a Trek Top Fuel?

Can be built up whichever way you want – I rode it initially as XC racer, but as I realised how capable the bike is, I literally stopped riding my Remedy and went ‘downcountry’ with the Top Fuel.

As it stands now, its 28lbs ish including enduro spec tyres, inserts, pump & bag etc. Has dual lockout which I use a lot.

Generally available in stock

Yes. /skulksoffintothebushesagain

Took a moment to stop and grab a photo of the bottom of Picnic Bench – for those who know, thats the WC line on the left.

Can’t say we’ll see it lasting for much longer, unless the FC are going to look the other way and allow the more established trails to remain and be fixed.

Also noticed last night that they’ve taken a digger to Pill Path and scraped out all the mud and deeper puddles. Whilst its great (although still pretty muddy) it did strike me that if they make it tooooooo clean, we’ll have another Bristol/Bath bike path situation on our hands. Least when its muddy, the scotes tend to not want to hang around.

Can anyone who works with the FC actually explain how they can justify their complaints about bikes damaging the local environment, sensitive areas and so on (if we exclude the shit trails that shouldn’t be built) – some of these trails have been there for years and not moved etc.

I’d like to understand how they can, with a straight face, make these complaints whilst a huge caterpiller digger traipses through the woods, literally ripping up trees – invasive or not.

If someone could share a real reason, and also explain why it is the case we can’t go back in and find a compromise whereby we can build a eco-sensitive trail that suits everyone, in a safe way, I’d really appreciate it!

Seems to work in Canada and the US quite happily, with trail builders actually working to some degree of governance and training in many cases – so why can’t we do similar in the UK where we can have some decent trails routing around the fledgling new trees etc.

I’m genuinely stumped (no pun intended)*.

*well, maybe a little.

Ugh. Having lived in BS9 myself and been victim to exactly the same type of hit – through the roof, angle ground the various serious locks etc, and then f’d off with 10k’s worth of bikes, I know that pain well – you have my thoughts :(

I’ll keep an eye out, but I’ve never seen any of the bikes I’ve had nicked again – I’m sure they’re shipped off out the country as parts.

This one KILLS me. Just so powerful:

Google are starting to really clamp down on storage across their products.

I’m a product manager for a global telco and am responsible for the Microsoft and Google cloud products – so when they killed G Suite recently and replaced it with Workplace I has quite the ‘WTF?’ moment.

Reason being is that there appears to be no other reason than to copy Microsoft’s Office product in terms of product feature laddering and pricing, but also they removed the unlimited storage in Drive that was available in G Suite Business.

That was one of the major selling points (as it was easy to explain to a customer as a salesperson) and meant customers didn’t have to worry about storage limits.

They’ve ripped that out of the new Workspace Business SKUs and replaced it with 30GB, 2TB and 5TB respectively (IIRC). Some Workspace Enterprise SKUs retain unlimited storage, but you pay for the pleasure.

This and the Google Photos annoucnement smacks of someone in the finance organisation in Google realising that this (free storage) isn’t sustainable as a revenue model and they’re prepared to take the heat and remove it in order to start realising some revenue. Most hyperscalers are realising this as they realise that spiralling costs of cloud datacentres mean they need to limit things.

They’ll be fine, but it is an arse.

@chipsngravy – perfect!

Even available in flouro pink for the full ostentacious look (which I have obviously just purchased).

Thanks all!

@kiwijohn – that’s exactly the same situation as me, although I hadn’t considered it before that my hip bag might be doing it. I might look to offload msot/all its contents to a strap and wetbag on the frame, and then see how whether it still happens.

However, I’m encouraged to see that others have tackled this issue also, so I’ll consider some of those links and report back.

And no, I’m not going back to shorts, at least, until the warmer weather – the fact I don’t spend ages washing mud off myself – I just strip the trouooosers off before I head inside.

Also, bear in mind that Wheelies are VERY good at valuing your bike at very high value. I had a final payout of around £10k for bikes pinched – they do new for old valuations with no real receipts needed – they were happy for me to send pics of the bikes and all the components so they could verify ownership.

This worked very well for a parts bit special Cotic I built for next to nothing – I ended up with it being valued at £2,500 as the RRPs at the time for everything (XTR, Fox, DT Swiss etc) was so high.

So as long as you’re happy with the valuation, ask for the cash alternative and take a view on whether it covers replacing what you had previously.

They will, but you have to be insistent to get a cash settlement as they don’t like it.

So much so, they remove I think around 10% or 25% of the final value (% value IIRC – it was nearly five years ago for me when I did it).

It was enough for me to double check the prices of what they had in stock, beut bear in mind that they don’t allow insurance replacement bikes to come from the ‘on-sale’ range.

Given all their pricing is full RRP, taking the haircut is worth it to go directly to your LBS :)

I also did the Minipresso to Nanopresso upgrade route. My Minipresso started to spill through the seals under pressure – probably more to do with my grind than a failure of the minipresso.

However, the nanopresso can handle twice the pressure apparently and with the barrista add on, its great. The extra pressure means that you can get a far more consistent and richer crema, and as mentioned, yes, its a bit of a faff, but when you’re out camping or in the middle of nowhere, its bloody lovely.

They do not damage thru-axles btw – in fact, they work really well – load is spread across the whole thru axle.

The 565 fits 15/20mm out of the box – and adjust to your hearts desire (based on how tight you want it).

Should also come with a 9mm QR adaptor which works really well should the need arise.

I am a big fan; I’ve had them for years on different cars and they’re absolutely rock solid. I’m always a little nervous of the normal ProRides as they rely on clamping the frames, and I always wonder how much stress they put a frame under – especially if you’re leaning into a fun set of corners, say.

Although putting wheels in the boot is a bit of a dirty job, you can shove the wheel in a wheel bag if you must. Getting the bike on the roof is no harder than ProRides – you just have to watch for dropping the forks onto the roof – but the knack is to make sure the rear wheel strap is ready to take the rear wheel, and then slide it all up in one motion.

I have 4 now on my 5 series and all the bikes go up there – even the kids. I just know that the bikes will be properly solid when I’m driving along. Even at 3 figure speeds (in Germany, obviously).

They rarely appear 2nd hand on eBay, so you may need to bite the bullet and go new at ~£155.

Well recommended in my book.

I’ve 160mm on my #downcountry and its perfect – no need for 180mm unless you’re lobbing yourself down something that gets you to the top on a chairlift.

My larger trail bike came with 180mm on the back, but I have no doubt it’d be fine with 160mm in the UK.

Just get on and ride the thing, you’ll be fine.

If anything, with a 180mm/160mm setup, put a four pot caliper up front, and if you’re really worried, one on the back – but it just means you’ll find it easier to lock up – no bad thing, but not neccessarily needed.