As an old git with worn out joints I find that riding s/s actually helps alleviate knee pains – honest

Tout terrian do a high quality disc only rigid fork for about £100 (see bikefix.co.uk)specifically designed for touring/commuter use

Yes Scapin is a MTB (Nope) – no problems with dents etc in 3 years use

I ride a Rocky Ridge and have own Ti hardtails as well – in tests the RR is always praised for having a more forgiving ride than other Alu hardtails of the hardcore variety – you might want to assure yourself that you really are going to get a significantly better ride quality from a Ti frame before you lay out the money…

I think my Scapin is Columbus Spirit – v light for a steel frame and pretty stiff – but not the most comfy I’ve riddden though.

Schwalbe Marathon Supremes for me – really nice ride quality -don’t know if as puncture proof as heavier duty Marathons but I haven’t had a flat so far

Well subjective I know but I’ve owned 2 853 MTBs (Rock Lobster and Blizzard), an 853 ‘cross bike and an audax bike that was 853 main tubes and stays and 1 Scapin MTB built from Columbus Spirit and the latter just feels a much livelier ride than any of the other 4 which all feel too much like an alloy frame to me – and yes there is a big difference in ride feel between alloy and steel in my experience

Don’t know why eveyone obsesses over 853 – there are other and IMHO better steel tubesets out there, Columbus Spirit for example

Please point me to anywhere you can get Pro2 built up on Olympics for 300 – my LBS is quoting $375

Who were behind her?

Quite a lot of people I guess – that’s how you get elected
in a a democracy….

sorry – gone now.

A great leader (unlike the policy-lite drongos we have to put up with these days). More integrity in her little finger that the rest of parliament put together these days (and a mean downhiller in her prime I’m told)

Hope she gets the state funeral she deserves.

If the BNP ever did get into a position of real power in this country it would be (initially at least) through the ballot box.

Those who already vote BNP and those who may in future are not going to be deterred from doing so by organisations like the UAF – the fact that a few upper middle class students fancy a spot of “not tolerating” the BNP before they get nice jobs in banking doesn’t really help the millions of ordinary working people losing their livelihoods and putting up with poor schools, health care, transport and local services every day – address that and the BNP wouldn’t have a chance, insult people’s democratic opinions whiel ignoring their problems and the BNP will be well on their way to British parliamentary success.

Not mine but there is (or was) a gorgeous Chromag Samurai in Ralphies in Taunton for a grand – looked unused to me and kitted out with Pikes, Hope Pro 3 AM, Sram X0 etc etc

According to their spokeswoman (killing time before daddy gets her a nice job or internship by the sound of things) UAF don’t believe in free speech if your views are contrary to theirs – not sure who’s the fascist here…meanwhile lets talk about the thousand of workers at LDV and the C&G who lost their jobs this week – what are the UAF or any of the parties that fund it doing for them – nope I reckon the ruling class still hasn’t got it.

Terms like right wing and fascism aren’t really that useful now- but “National Socialism” does pretty much sum up the BNP as they espouse fairly socialist economic policies within a nationalist rather than an international world view – I’d say they are much much nearer to aspects of “old” Labour (including the racism albeit undisguised) than to the Conservatives.

My understanding of the term Fascism involves authoritarian state capitalism (I think originally applied to Mussolini not Hitler) effectively turning the country into a giant corporation- as such you could argue that New Labour is closer to being a fascist party than the BNP are….

An inevitable result as a significant minority feel that the major parties (Shimano and SRAM)no longer offer transmissions to meet their needs…

Unsurprising result and I suspect just a foretaste of things to come in a general election. The major parties have all abandoned the ordinary working class people of this country to pusue global capital and indeed have largely abandoned policies of any nature (how many on here for example could describe the differences between tory and labour education policy?).

From what I can see, large numbers of white working class people are now willing to overlook certain aspects of BNP policy in order to vote for a party whose other policies probably resemble ” old labour ” more than any other current party.

so someone starts a thread because they are concerned about some of the comments on stw and it gets closed because of the comments on stw?

Ah I get it.

“As opposed to all those black Anglo-Saxons?

Sorry – WASP tautology is a pedant’s hot button.”

Not sure if you are correct in your pedantry – depends on whether the lack of a comma between White and Anglo Saxon was intentional – if White is used as an adjective to describe Anglo Saxon then it is tautology, as all Anglo Saxons were white (as far as I am aware) however if white and Anglo Saxon are both being used as adjectives to another noun then it is not tautological as not all whites are anglo saxon…

If you are running v brakes at least there’s less than 100g difference between triple butted P2 and RC31s and some of those “generic” carbon forks are getting on for 1kg.

I’d go for P2s light, cheap and don’t break…

I’ve got two – but they are nothing special imho – at Merlin’s discount price they are a reasonable buy but even at that price there are plenty of worthy competitors out there for similar or less money – let alone at list price – I can’t understand for example why a Handjob is nearly half the price of a Blizzard – both Canadian built out of a high (but not the very top) quality steel.

I think Solidlights (1203d) beat you to it about five years ago..

I’m friends with a few gays and like the people but cant stand what they do.

You sound like a nice guy Sam – you sure those gays are friends of yours…?

As you obviously think it dangerous for the population to make their own mind up rather than have people like you tell them what to think and as you are quite happy to label people on this forum who you know nothing about as racist simply for disgreeing with you, I’m afraid Ernie “mate” you do come across yourself as a prize fascist and condescending attitudes like yours are exactly why people will vote BNP.

I would have thought that reading a party manifesto before coming to your conclusion is the essence of what democracy is about – or perhaps, as I expect, the poster simply prefers his own flavour of totalitarianism to democracy…

I’ve also had a pair shear off mid way through one of the legs – I certainly wouldn’t use them for anything other than the mildest XC

Two observations:

I will refrain from commenting on the BNP as I don’t actually know what their policies are (say on education or tax) – I presume all previous posters have familiarised themselves with the BNP manifesto before coming to their conclusions…

The BNP do however appear to be convenient bogeymen to deflect public opinion away from the disgusting shambles that the established parties have got us and themselves into. I would have thought that the scale of the cynicism and at times possible outright criminality exhibited by our current elected representatives far outweighs anything the minority parties have been guilty of to date…

IMHO LBS are useless for planned purchases – its the unplanned ones where they come into their own. In the last year alone in mine I’ve found: latest XTR dual control levers for £25 new and boxed (!!!!), Shimano R099 road shoes for £25 ditto, and a complete early 90’s Kona Explosif for £100…

Don’t try and pull them off you’ll leave bits of them in you – they have corkscrew shaped mouthparts and you basically have to unscrew them (anti clockwise ) pref using one of those hooks but you can just about do it with tweezers .

what about Marin Rocky Ridge or Voodoo Bakka – funnily enough Im selling one of each…

rigid steel forks are still way lighter than suspension – TB project twos come in at under 800g for example

I owned a Dean Scout for a couple of years. Beautifully made and lovely to look at but to be honest nothing to justify the price tag in terms of ride quality.

I’d go for high end steel every time.