FFS, get a life people. People use terms that they perhaps shouldn’t; people use terms that may be deemed offensive to some other people. Personally I swear copiously – it gets me through particularly troublesome points when simple ‘cor blimey’ won’t do; it may offend people so I try to keep it to myself.

Personally, I’ve decided that I find the word ‘fork’ offensive to my sensibilities – you may not know but I injured myself on a fork when I was a child and am now very sensitive about it. So if you say fork in a thread then you’re offending me.
Oh, you don’t like that? Because fork means something completely different to you? Funny that. Personally I have always known ‘jey’ to mean uber-keen cross-country type who’s much faster than me on a bike. If you interpret my using ‘jey’ as some kind of insult, then my apologies – I have never used it to denigrate.. Unfortunately I won’t be changing the way I think to take that into account. On the other hand, I realise that ‘gay’ as a derogatory term is not on.

doh – I hadn’t actually seen the ‘how gay are you’ thread before I posted. Not that it looks like it’s being offensive…

Personally this smacks to me of Sachsgate – 3 people complained at the time, then the Daily Mail told the world, and 15,000 people who hadn’t even heard the show were OUTraged….

c_g: I wouldn’t say (IMO) that it’s necessarily an age-related thing – if your sunnies have a dark tint then it’s not very surprising that your eyes take a while to adjust to being under trees, where the combined effect of shade and tint would mean it’s very dark indeed!
You didn’t say whether you were already using transitions, though? Personally I’ve been reading up on Spesh’s Adaptalite lenses – they’re supposed to be very good and very quick-changing, although the darkest tint is perhaps not as dark as some dark-only lenses.

But Hobo – finbar, will etc’s points still stand – ‘jey’ is not the same as ‘gay’. ‘Jey’ to me is some nutter XC type in lycra with shaved legs, regardless of sex or sexuality.
‘Gay’ is something different; personally I don’t recall ever seeing it in a thread as an insult or derogatory term; I also don’t recall anyone getting stressed, anxious or insulted by seeing it. IME, of course

Does the Mmmbop really come with two steerer tubes? If so, I’d get that, and sell the spare for a bit of cash

Do Thors reduce to 120mm – I didn’t think it was possible?

Yeah, the two-part element was a bit unfortunate, but then the Shield does work better (IMHO) as hour-long shows.
And personally I thought Mackey’s ending was fantastic – essentially it’s like hell for him, with the other strike team members where they are (because of him), and him being shown how the lights work…
But the last series did feel like it was just building towards that, really, with the story sometimes getting very complex just to put certain characters in particular spots (eg Mackey trying to speak to ICE about Corinne). And in fact, series 6 was essentially just teeing up the plot ready for Season 7 to kick off.
Still amazing TV, though, and even in some of the weaker spots (Season 2 had a mid-season break, FFS, with some weird flashback episode!) I’ve never found it less than utterly compelling.
Next on the PVR is the Wire! :)

um… I’m honestly not trolling here, but how about waiting until you CAN afford it, then buying it? Much of the reason the property market is in such a mess is because people were able to get mortgages that they shouldn’t’ve, rather than simply being told ‘you can buy it when you can afford it’.
You KNOW it’s the sensible thing to do, and that it will be on the market again in the future; there is NO point mortgaging yourself to the hilt and praying that you can make the sums add up afterwards. Worst case, you lose the lot; rental yields are falling (as people who own places try to rent them out rather than sell), and there’s still no sign of stability in the market, or indication that mortgages are going to get any cheaper any time soon.

mmm…. The ‘groupset’ idea doesn’t work quite as well for SRAM (in its current state) as for Shimano – SRAM as a brand is just one small part of the whole range, with most riders knowing the brakes better as Avid, the cranks as Truvativ, the forks as Rockshox etc. Does this mark a move towards a single unified brand structure for SRAM?

As for the 10 speed, what does it mean for wheel building? And what’s the spread of sprockets?
Personally I’m unconvinced; you would think that the tolerances involved have to reach a logical limit when it comes to wet mud. Plus I reckon that the majority of those going for 2×10 will have come from 2×9 setups, as it’s less of a mental shift.
But I’m far from an expert, and interested to see how it flies!

Ugh – I only reluctantly read daily newspapers, because there’s less and less actual news that they report.
Sun/ Star – baps and how those nasty immigrants are stealing our jobs, explained with pun headlines
Mirror – not so many baps, trying to be more serious, but still got the pun headlines.
Mail – no baps, but those immigrants are stealing our jobs and should be shot, the whole lot of them, no understanding of civilisation
Express – Diana and Elvis live on, working in a diner somewhere.
Times – like the Sun, same proportion of actual vs ‘sleb’ news, slightly longer words, more graphics illustrating stories about how immigrant doctors are a liability.
Independent – has ‘sleb’ editors (eg Bono), single issue front page about how the people of the world are ignoring the plight of some long-lost tribe in outer mongolia. More actual news, but very bleeding-heart.
Guardian – thinks it’s the title of choice for the meeja set. Tries to be trendy; pages 2-6 generally devoted to how scientists have discovered water slides off ducks’ backs like, well, water off a duck’s back. Rather than ‘sleb’ news, prefers double-page profiles of slebs, including Whoopi Goldberg (twice in two weeks). Can’t seem to have a single story without typos.
Telegraph – for the ‘mature’ reader; its readership is dying at an alarming rate. Formerly ‘true blue’ political stance (immigrants are bad, mm’kay) but now surprisingly relevant given how quickly Labour is going from bad to worse.
FT – world news from the point of view of the reader having a financial investment in every country and company in the world. Very intelligent, and yet rather tedious, no sports or pleasurable element. Weekend edition is a little less serious, like a grown-up Sunday Times.
As for me, I read the Grauniad on Saturdays (really, there’s less news and more carp every week); Observer occasional Sundays (probably the best of the lot). Used to read the FT, still read the Economist; used to be a media researcher. :)

B, definitely, but with C tendencies.

I have no idea what this is about…

This thread has got me thinking now – my Racing JAckets just don’t cut the mustard when it comes to venting, and fug up like…. a very foggy thing. I’m tempted by the Spesh ones (possibly Berms) but can’t find many reviews. Opinions?

***** me – £699 for a VN-made Ti456? Where were you 3 years ago when I wanted a Ti frame at that price? Or last year when I spunked a grand on a Cotic?
Get your act together!! ;)

er…. dunno. Depends on a few things – how high does your headset stack (or is it internal)? Do you want spacers between headtube and stem? And so on and so forth. Best bet would be to measure it if you have the previous forks setup, see how much you need. But assuming standard headset and a couple of spacers, I would say ‘not quite’.

Orr…. Pro 2 new wheel on the front, s/h Hope XC on the rear?

How are the trails around the Holmbury/ Pitch area at the moment? The underlying problem is that the area’s just too popular given the trails there!

19lbs? Ooof – that’s skinny! It’s only corrected for 100mm travel at the front though (personally I’d prefer more) and those wheels look…. dangerous. I’d still love to wake up with it next to me though! :)

Not yet, but it’s on my wishlist on amazon!

Apparently sperm whale vs giant squid is an epic battle; unfortunately nobody’s yet sold them on the benefits of selling their bouts on Sky Pay per View…

Perhaps old news, but frankly rather cool news too! And an interesting review, thanks! :)
There’s (at least) one Nokia handset that also has a music player on board, too, so it’s essentially everything you need in terms of music, web, GPS route planning and GPS route mapping.

The only concern I do have (apart from the fact that I probably don’t want the actual phone features of it…) is battery life. I would worry that I’d be stuck in the middle of nowhere, with the cloud closing in, and my phone dead because it’s drained itself using GPS (which is very battery-intensive).

1. Ridden a full-susser (true!)
2. Gone to Antarctica
3. is between me and a willing female accomplice

My Cotic Soda! Having tried on Ti hardtail (Setavento, Rohloffed) that just didn’t excite me, it was a bit of a gamble to buy a Soda with no test ride. But it just works and is chuffing great!

Ixus seems to set the benchmark, although bear in mind that most of them are ‘only’ 35-105mm zoom.
I went for a Panasonic FX500, partly ’cause it’s not an Ixus, and also because it has a wide angle lens (25mm) and a decent zoom (5x), as well as some manual control. I’m impressed so far, especially for under £200.

Possibly a combination of blood sugar low plus coming down from the endorphin high?

Personally I find it makes me quite chilled and cheerful, but then I never knacker myself out too much when riding.

Still looks like a man…

Again a bit off the original topic, but I’ve found Gore RideOn cables (the ones with full liner) do fit through conventional stops. As with the Nokon ones, the idea is that the outer is reasonably conventional, while the inner is actually an inner with an inner lining. The only point I did have a little squeeze was getting it into the rear mech.

Good call!! I guess there’s not many on the market, so the secondhand market is slim pickings

right, got to switch over for the footy now. Come on City!!

I have to agree, though, that one good ride will get you back into it again. Or I found splashing some cash on a new part got me back out there, if only to justify spunking that much money on it…

er… decent bottom bracket for square taper is… (drum roll please) £15. Middleburn cranks can be had for £120 including spider but excl rings.
You are right about the weight though – RS7s are quite solid.

113, I think?

£77 for the RS7s, which is sweet! Obviously the spider adds more, but all in for under £120, I think. In fact it’s making me think of going for RS8s (although the silver might clash with my Ti frame ;) )

Ah, so now in context! If I buy a new set of RS7s (mmm… yummy) or possibly RS8s, is it worth going for the Duo, or just sticking with a normal spider?

Yes – that was the place I was thinking of!! And ‘nothing like £100’ –
I thank yew!

Although obviously spiders etc are rather more. Boo.

lister – is the bust wrist preventing your normal entertainment then??
;)

I have no involvement in this whatsoever, but I have to ask. Is he just Dave Hinde in disguise??

<runs away quick>

I dunno, about a 5? Surprisingly, as I have to wait until Wednesday to find out if I’ll still have a job. MAybe a 6, partly because someone bought cakes and the Windies are doing the ole’ calypso collapso routine. Rock on!

Now THIS is the kind of discussion I was wanting last night. Certainly I was sat there (by myself, hunched over like Charlie Brooker) thinking ‘maybe I’m weird, but Yasmina’s not bad’

How about with XC717s – what kinda price can they be found for?

lol – couldn’t sell a fire extinguisher to a man on fire…