oh – never heard of that! Will try it

On the dropouts?
Crank bolt torque on the drive side is fine; non-drive I need to put threadlock on it as it keeps loosening up (twice on my last ride). But all good thoughts and I’ll try them. Thanks

Another vote for Gore Ride-Ons – I set mine up sometimes last spring and not had to touch them since. The only potential downer is that if you have to change your shifters, you could have to re-cable the whole length (which is a bit pricy with Gores)

Fast Show (and Harry Enfield before that) were utterly fantastic; I guess the only problem is that they were so successful that other series started imitating them, and so they’ve perhaps aged somewhat.
I thought Big Train was great, although not quite as good; to be honest I was quite a fan of Naked Video on BBC2 back in the day.
More recently, Man Stroke Woman is not bad, but quite patchy

Sorry, should’ve said I’d seen the SKF ST BBs at rjc-xtreme. They’re about £65, but as far as I can make out they’re quite heavy?
I’m really torn here, tbh. My current UN73 is creaking like a creaky thing when applying any pressure on the pedalling, and I haven’t had more than a year. Plus my current Turbine cranks are slightly iffy, with the non-drive taper a bit worn :(

SKF do square taper BBs, too (imported by Middleburn, apparently); I think they’re mainly for tandems, but if they’re anything like the SKF ISIS BBs they should be quite good (right?)

Just watching the last 5 laps on my PVR. That overtake at the end of the 3rd-last lap was absolutely mindblowing – pulling his knee in and then laying his bike down in front of Lorenzo…

Worth taking to your LBS to ask them to do it for you?
Unfortunately my square taper cranks tend to wear at the tapers, so if I got a Royce and RS7s, then definitely worth getting it right!!

d@mmit! I posted but the forum lost it…
I was looking at this combo, as my UN73 has died and my rather old Turbine cranks are getting a bit waggly on the axle :(. Thing is, while the RS7s can be had for £100 or so, the BB will set you back at least another £110. :(

Ah, beat me to it! I was jumping around my living room watching the last 5 laps; I have a good mate in Barcelona who must be raging right now…

Yes – rjc-xtreme sell them

Amos – if I see you I’ll let you know. I’m on a Cotic Soda, white Revs, er…. generally looking a bit shambolic.

Swinley tomorrow morning, marathon training Sunday. Haven’t taken the bike out for a month or more :o so I suspect I’ll be massively unfit and hugely unskillful…

rogerthecat – good taste. I went to a Turner/ Whistler/ Monet exhibition in the Tate a couple of years back, which highlighted their very similar phases, and all their variations of the sun setting through the smog over the Thames are amazing, with gold and yellow fading into purple…

D@mn, meant to ask: my Seiko needed the movement replacing last year, at a total cost roughly equal to the value of the watch. With the more pricey watches, is this also the case?

Lots to think about, thanks guys. Think I need to go and find a decent store to check them out in the flesh, as it were…

I’m liking the look of some of the Ebels, actually… :)
Although I wonder whether the black case and strap that I like will really still tickle my fancy in 10 years…
If I do go down this route, it’ll be watch > bike > car

I reckon up to a couple of grand, realistically. In theory I could *spend* more, but not sure I’d want to wear it…

George Lamb!!
Oh wait, time for my medication.

That’s better.
Valentino Rossi has to be up there (based on public persona)

One word of warning though, don’t go for a banana hammock. It’s really not what I was expecting, and while I do sleep in mine, it doesn’t give me all the support I hoped for…

Another one here. I had Octalink for a while – it came standard on my old Kona – and the splines wore away. I ride goofy-footed, so the non-drive crank loosened off.
But the two bikes I’ve built since (4 years now) have both had square taper, with some secondhand Turbines that I picked up on here. I had one non-drive crank round off its tapers, so now use judicious amounts of threadlock and retighten occasionally. No worries.
In fact, it works so well I’m struggling to justify some RS7s (even at £100) to myself. Booo!

According to the bumpf, 11-34 at the back and 3 rings up front will be too much for a Shimano medium-cage mech, and you should go for a long-cage mech instead. But I’m running 11-32 (I think) and 3 rings at the front with a medium-cage rear mech without problems. It’s doable, I think you just need to be a bit more careful when setting up chain length etc.

gusset
flange.
Both hugely enjoyable words to say – I dunno why, they just feel good – but they sound like they should be banned…

Yeah, I pollinate all mine by hand. I do also get problems of flower drop, so now I’m more careful when pollinating, making sure to hold the flower at the stem rather than just slapping the cotton bud about. And yep, v low effort!

Got myself a Forerunner 405, and the Cowon has 25GB of music I need to catch up on :)
One thing I do struggle with is slowing myself down – I went for a 4 miler tonight and 8:30mins/ mile felt slooooooow. Will have to work on it

I did a 10k race last Monday in 49minutes, which apparently puts me on for a sub-4 hour marathon. Which sounds nice, and certainly something I’d like to achieve…

lol @ stilltortoise.
er… replacing my Setavento with a Soda. Still Ti hardtail, not much change in geometry or weight, but boy it’s so much more fun!! Looks pimpier too :)

Ride faster, then the snakes won’t have time to bite your tyres…. or somesuch.

I tend to mince around trails on my HT (out of the saddle on roots, rocks etc), and have my tyres pumped up to ‘not much give when I shove my thumb in the sidewall’ and haven’t had a puncture for a looong time*. Since I switched from Fire XC Pro tyres, which ripped the valves off my inner tubes, a couple of years ago, I think I’ve had one or two punctures, tops.

On t’other hand, my regular riding buddy stays in the saddle for all gnarly stuff and runs his tyres pretty low pressure (and has some fairly chunky Specialized rims) and is forever getting pinchflats.

* touch wood

Hi Roberto – sorry about that! I’ll email you, but sorry if it sounded negative.
If you read some of the threads (search for ‘IWH’) you’ll see there’s been a couple of guys on the classifieds run off with people’s cash, and I couldn’t see if you’d sold much on there before. If that makes sense.

Apologies again, I just wanted to be certain you weren’t some dodgy guy from Nigeria before pinging you about your wheels!

Actually, thinking about it, MrCrushRider is spot on – I actually used chopsticks to support my chili plants. Doh!

Not sure how useful it is, but I have a chili tray. I started by planting some seeds from supermarket chilis, then added some Wahaca ones and some Thai chili seeds into normal compost. Lots of water, south facing window and voila – I have a jungle of chilis! I live in a flat, though, so I’m happy to keep them at their current size (about 30-45cm tall) is fine for me! In fact, when they stop fruiting this time around (I have about 20 chilis ripening) I’m looking into how to prune them.
I have found that up to this height they seem to be able to support themselves just fine – the main trunk grows steadily more ‘woody’, and the main branches grow thicker too. In theory if they have a good enough root network (and a deep enough pot) they *should* be fine, but if you’re using grow bags that may not give the support they need.
Personally I love growing chilis – they’re low-effort and very satisfying!

OK, so question still stands! :)

Cheers, will have a scout.

I saw this a few weeks back. Tried to subtly elbow the better half to get her to pay attention, but she was having none of it. :(

Also (in the interests of equality) bizarrely saw an ad for Gillette to blokes explaining how to shave one’s area. It was a little reminiscent of those Vic Reeves-voiced Virgin Atlantic in-flight safety videos…

see the other thread that’s busy at the moment. He’s a posh TV chef currently sharing a train carriage with another stwer… :)

Parma Violets and celery. They just don’t go well together

Mojo, all the way. After all, with bikes being very much a ‘luxury’ item (as in you buy because you like it, not because you need it), you might as well get a bike that you lust after! :) As long as it rides as well, obviously

Sorry, back up a bit here. Jeremy Beadle’s DEAD? 8O I did not know that

Stone Roses – I was just the right age. Radiohead, back when my friends were banging on tediously about some band with a new album called the Bends, and before they turned utter pump.
To be honest, until I went to university I didn’t exactly follow much music; now I can’t move for CDs…

Oof, aP, that’s gotta hurt the wallet! I’m only -6, and the superthin lenses I get to stop my glasses looking like NHS specials* aren’t cheap. Do you wear contacts?
*-I had many years of being beaten up for wearing NHS specials as a kid… :(