Have a look at the work coming out of the Yellow Blaze studio for how tattooing can look. Good tattooing is art, plain and simple. That it ages as a person ages only adds to the story. (Err, maybe not at work, or with small children / maiden Aunts about tho' – just in case. It's entirely professional, and the online versions of the photos are moderated, but some shots might be suggestive of [the horror of] nudity).

Years ago I used to see an old fella at the back end of Exeter, walking back out of town with his shopping. In the summer he'd be shirtless, and he was covered in old, blown out and faded sailor tattoos – straight-up, traditional stuff from flash sheets, almost no colour, just faded to that blue colour they go when they bloom. I dunno how old this guy was, late 70's, 80's perhaps, but there he was, and his tat's were part of his story, whatever that was.

Now, those tat's could well have been done just down the road, but equally, they could have been done in countless ports over decades, every one with it's own story.

The work looked like it'd have been nothing particularly special at the time: There was nothing custom about it, it all looked like it went in where there was space, straight as it came off the sheet … but that's to completely miss the point.

He'd had them done, and they said something about him: Annoyingly I never did stop and talk to him about them, and I wish now that I had – he might well have told me to clear off, but he might have been up for a chat …

For all I know he could have come to hate them, and all they stood for, but I'd be very willing to bet that couldn't be further from the truth.

It'd been great to have photographed him and his work, there was a real sense of the roots of tattooing right there – both in the work itself, and the motivation to curate it, and to continue to display it.

Just sayin' that's all

:wink:

(Only a view of course, rather than any objective statement of fact, but bigger tattoos look much better than small ones: lil' tattoos always seem to look a bit lonely somehow).

Plus I don't know any shamans any more, so would be unable to get them to eat it then drink their pee.

Isn't it Reindeer you need to do the mushroom-toxin-filtering out malarkey, then drink their wee, or did I fall for a horrid ruse at boarding school perhaps even involving a pantomime costume?

:wink:

Ha – easy.
My very favourite is this one … (but I'm very fond of my others too)

sparkingchains – Member

Interesting handle bar choice on the Altitude!

Thanks, … an' very comfy they are too!
:D

On the odd occasion I'm not driving for work, this is usually my short-haul commuter.
It's built to be comfortable to ride whilst wearing smart office attire.

Next upgrade … H-bars!

Does 130mm count as long-travel these days?
I dunno, it's hard to keep up.

:-)

My Kona SS is 34:20, the old 1980's Raleigh and the Pompino SS's are both on 42:18.

Ha ha, that's perfect MTG!
:P

Well posted, I was trying (and failing) to remember where I'd seen it posted …

I use Cane Creek V aero levers on my drops with BB7's, and run full length Goodridge outer cables to stiffen the feel, and it works well. They natively pull enough cable. I run cross-top levers too, but that won't (or shouldn't) make a significant difference.

No STI options there of course, so I run bar-end shifters.

Some kinda remote reservoir lever arrangement for running hydraulics on drops would be great wouldn't it … but I can see it being a bit of an adventure to make / operate efficiently on the scale of bicycle brakes.

William Morris has much to say that is relevant here (although I suspect that he didn't have bikes specifically in mind when he said it :wink: ) –

Principally – "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful".

I will concede that he has a beard however, which may suggest a bias.

Ok, I'm adding this too now – I like the look of stuff like the Singular Swift, the Thorn Sterling, and the Jones steel frames too, for the same reasons … Skinny, stipped out/down and functional, just like a bicycle should be.

Good LBS's are a national treasure – and my LBS is great.

I use them for all kinds of stuff they don't normally have to try to get, and they'll happily try to get hold of whatever random nonsense I want – If they can't there's no messing about pretending the supplier is out of stock et cetera, they'll just say they can't get it.

If your LBS is crap they deserve to fail, but if they are giving it a go, help support them. The few quid extra you'll maybe spend flows back down the line in time, you'll get loads of advice, and / or discounts will start to appear on your invoices … ;-)

Online is all fine and dandy, and I use the big stores for stuff I can't source via my LBS, but they'll be no good on the day I need a BB faced, or a bearing pressed out, or someone to hunt down an ancient obscure part …

Some of the ANT mixties[/url] are pretty little things …

[/url]

I've just swapped out my XT pods for Dura-Ace bar-end on SJS brackets to fit my Titec H-bars – Works a treat! I like the friction option too.

… as fitted to:

@ rOcKeTdOg

If I'd have known you posted on here I'd have said hello properly.

;-)

Great thread!

Agreed ^, it's a Steatoda and probably a S. nobilis.

They are common, shy and cautious (to the point of scared) spiders, so unless you poke at them, or encounter one unexpectedly, they won't bother you, and we can co-exist quite happily.

I have lots of them living here – they've been here for years, and live quite happily in the conservatory eating other insects that fly in … They have never bothered me once.

They are web spiders, so they'll sit in the corner and wait for stuff to get stuck. I find I have to rescue bees quite a lot from their webs. The bees get stuck, but thrash the web so much the spider keeps out of the way (fearing for it's life no doubt), but they are strong webs, so the bees often can't free themselves either.

I've never heard of their bite being any worse than a wasp sting, and I can only recall perhaps three documented bite cases in the last 20+ years. I think the hospitalised bloke above might have had underlying conditions, (or some kinda allergy), plus wasn't there some doubt as to exactly what he'd been bitten by?.

The majority of other UK spiders are poisonous too, but, as avdave2 says, these are one of the only spider species that can break human skin.

Spiders are very useful to have around tho', so if this one is safely out of the way, I'd leave her be.

You might like to point her to this article for a good, sensible, reassuring view of them:
http://naturenet.net/blogs/index.php/2007/05/02/steatoda

The angle of your shot gives a great look to the marking … (but it does carry on, and over the back of the abdomen in a similar way).

When I'm not on a clipped-in bicycle, I've ridden most of this summer in sandals.
It's great if you can live with the risk to catching your toes on things – but when that's been that's too stupid / too likely I've been riding in cycle shoes without cleats, or just bumming around in old skate shoes.

Stainless all the way. I pretty much only ever use stainless now.
Aluminium bolts are just weirdly wrong.

+1 on the weight saving tip of having a dump before you ride too.

:D

Baboons would need to be just a notch below the tiger as a apex dispenser of justice, given that they are pretty intimidating creatures and always have at least a hundred of their equally tough friends with them.

… they also have pretty massive jaws, with huge bite force. Although some of the hominid primates are larger of course, none of them have a muzzle like that.

Hmm maybe try growing a big beard, and riding a skinny, steel tubed, fully rigid SS in sandals, as a way of drawing attention to yourself, and that way you might be the one being asked questions of, (rather than trying to start something / anything).

If it doesn't work out as planned, or the questions don't go the *right* way … at least you'll have discovered something about yourself.

:wink:

Curiously there's no mtb in any of these …
:wink:

Peregrine on Dartmoor.

Peregrine elsewhere on Dartmoor.

Peregrine at the ends of the earth.

Poking about in the lanes near home on my (retired) Duncon.

MBK looking at Dartmoor.

… everything else is in the woods, or in deep, ancient holloways and farm / back-county lanes …

Ahh, bigger tyre clearance too, I missed that bit.
Oops …

Husky 346XPG, 15 inch bar.
Proper training, and decent PPE.
Run it on Aspen 2T from the start, and use the Stihl biolube for the bar.

I used to get lots of problems with pins & needles and poor feel in my hands from using my previous Husky 'farm' chainsaw, but the vibration isolation in the 346 is 100x better, and really works to take the edge off.

It's a great saw, lots of power and a good kilo lighter than the 357, which'll make a difference at the end of the day. You'll still cut pretty significant sized rounds with it.

There is no such thing as a small cut (unless you slip when sharpening it), but the right PPE can make a significant contribution to the outcome of any accident. No PPE, or the wrong PPE isn't any use (the trench in my shin is a constant reminder of that … :?)

If you work safely, plan the job, keep the site clear, think about what you are doing, and are properly trained (stuff like not using the tip et cetera), they are as safe to use as anything else is. Ideally, you'll need other stuff too, a sharpening kit, and a couple of wedges will start you off. A good splitting maul makes a big difference too – they are expensive as mauls go, but the Granfors Bruks splitting maul is a fantastic tool.

Comparison of frame builders: Stuff like changing dropouts, or adding / removing cable stops and rack-mounts the like, and then, the quality of their powder-coating / refrub.

Look at stuff like quality of the work, turnaround times, customer service and the like.

(Declaring an overtly personal interest in the outcome :D ).

Err, ok, I know I'm a recluse, and not really upto date with things, but is a disc fork on the Pompino a newish idea? I've been running mine with a PII fork (and 160mm BB7) for ages …

(Picture on request).

:wink:

Riding in sandals is comfortable too, cough cough, so my err, friend says.
I've also heard that rigid forks are the way to go too …

You can stop working in IT eventually too, although you don't ever say that you have 'given up', just that you are not working in IT at the moment …

Welcome to the future …
Enjoy your fuel / utilities whilst they're still there …

Entirely unrelated, but I have a vivid picture in my mind of a bloke on a GSX1100S radically reverse steering it through a race-track bend somewhere and wondering how it didn't fall off the face of the earth (given that they didn't handle *that* fantastically reliably anyway).

Having seen it, and being young and very likely to heal much more quickly, I tried to corner like that on my [similar enough :wink:] GS1000, and was greatly surprised at just how well it worked, and just how much it freaked people out who'd not seen it before. Properly done it was great, but it always felt like a horribly thin line, and I dread to think now, what would have happened if you'd had to recover from it, you'd not really stand much of a chance of getting it back.

Anyway, funny how these things come back to you … I guess that'll happen more and more as I get older, the line between what I can remember, and what I think I remember getting more and more opaque … I'll start rambling and telling dull stories about the time when … et cetera.

@bertberr:

You should have just had an e-mail in the inbox listed in your profile.

:wink:

I faced this very question back along, and having looked and thought long and hard about both, I eventually made my choice based on 4 things – and that's the 4 rack mountings tapped in on the back of the Genesis … (which might seem an kinda odd thing to base a bike on, but I like the versatility, and there was pretty much nothing else to split them for me (colour being kinda irrelevant)).

It's a 17.5 (I'm 6'), and it can be in S Devon if you want a look.
I [probably] should mention that I've got some H-Bars on order for it for next week tho'… :P

Not the best picture ever I grant you…

I can't give you an objective opinion, as I've not ridden the Soul (and I've not really had much chance to push this one much yet :? ("real-world" eh!)). I do know mine needs lighter tyres that those tractor tyres fitted, but I guess it'll be winter in a scant few months, so they might stay on. Clearly that's not a frame issue tho' … :roll:

I find I'm leaning towards a fully rigid and ss (re)build for it tho' … but that's only because I'm still not sure that I actually believe in suspension and/or gears.

I dare say the thought has never entered your mind, but I can happily confirm that a 200TDi engined 110 Defender is a terrible choice for any sort of commuting whatsoever (when I bought it I only worked 15 minutes up the road, so 'twas neither here nor there).

As a consequence … I've hired loads of stuff lately, and have been most impressed with the Golf I had last, which I think was a two litre diesel, not many toys, but extremely comfortable (I thought).

Doesn't everyone hear cows first thing in the morning?
I'd think 'twas odd if I didn't hear them, or the sheep, or the chickens/geese …

:?

I find the best way is to start by track-standing at lights, right at the very front of a line of traffic on a busy main road at rush hour. End of the day is best, as everyone is scratchy from being at work, and just wants to go home.

The key part is to start to wobble and loose confidence in your ability to hold the track-stand for the remaining 1.5 seconds 'till the lights actually change, which of course, has the effect of making your hitherto working fine track-stand now useless, so you need to put your foot down, but almost magically you find you now can't disengage from your cleats, leading to the inevitable and stupid position of laying down in the road on your side, whilst still attached to your bicycle laughing like a maniac at the absurdity of it all, whilst the drivers behind either honk at you, laugh, or sometimes even get out to see if you have hurt yourself.

I'm actually now quite scared of being pulled down (another) inordinately steep and rocky bank into an very overgrown, stream-cut gully 100's of miles from anywhere whilst still attached to a bicycle (like last time), so I try to avoid crashing by not tempting fate by being clipped in, riding off-road.

Cthulhu.

Beard = tentacles.

130mm Sherman's on the Genesis.
Zero on the rigid (29er) forks on the Kona – I was riding that one on 100mm Manitou's but fancied a change …

6ft, 11.5 stone'ish – which sound pretty normal to me (ok, it is normal to *me* of course, but it's pretty average I'd guess).

I'd probably save that .5 stone if I shaved tho' (with it being niche an' all).

:wink:

Me too, but it was already way too hot by 0800.

I had a 1992 Kona Fire Mountain in black.
Worse bike I've ever owned, couldn't wait to get rid of it.

:wink:

I have been known to still ride it very occasionally …

(Taken last week).

It originally looked like this one.

It's been wearing a set of 100mm Manitou's for a while, but it's not long gone back to rigid forks (tho' now it's on 29er PII's, not the 26 inch versions).

It looks lovely, but blimey, it must have been baking up there today, plus there's not much by way of shade either on that bit to take the edge off the glare.

I do like Hambledown, coming off the ridge, down past the last bit of woods and out through that tiny little hamlet is good alternative run, if a bit shorter than down to the stream and out to the Widecombe road.