OK!

1. Dog is coming wherever I go!

2. LOL

3. I’m not into surfing, but bouldering around the sea cliffs / boulders could be a shout

For any brand, proposition, service or product to be successful it has to meet three criteria:

Desireability, Viability, Feasibility.

Desireability – people want it.

Viability – people will pay for it and that will cover the cost of running it.

Feasibility – you have the capability to deliver it.

Enduro racing has generally waned in mass Desireability – it’s become old hat and not the new trendy thing anymore.

The lower numbers, and rising cost of everything needed to run the events means the cost is significant magnitudes higher than 10 years ago. People are less willing to pay to ride trails that are free to ride any of the other 364 days of the year, which can now be easily navigated through TrailForks, compounded with that lower desireability, means it’s very hard to make a profit out of Enduro racing so it’s become non-viable.

Due to the lack of profit to re-invest in the business because of this non-viability, the capability to deliver an enduro race is massively reduced as we can’t pay for all the staff needed. Which means it’s not feasiable to put on enduro races at the scale they were previously.

All of this has been pretty clear and predictable for a while now.

What survivor brands do in situations like this is re-look at the strategy – starting with Desireability. There’s no point making something more feasible or viable if no one wants it. This is where many brands go wrong, they tinker with how they deliver the same thing, instead of innovating the business itself.

In the coming years we’ll see innovation in the types of events that are put on, testing the waters to see what people actually want after more than a decade of the same kind of thing on the same kind of trails with the same kind of people.

Then we’ll see innovation in new business models that will turn a profit, with some building new, exciting brands around that changed proposition and business model.

Nothing ever stands still – the end of something now is the beginning of something brand new tomorrow.

I’d be interested to know why being the UK Ambassador for the brand requires setting up a ltd company.

Did Simon mean he was going to be UK Distributor?

Those WTB Macro tyres look like a Maxxis Rekon. Except almost double the price :|

Range – approaching 1000m doesn’t feel great to me.  I reckon on 1200-1400 from my Rise.  I’d be really disappointed if I was redlining at 1000.

It’s really hard to compare range on eBikes, especially between motor manufacturers. My Rise settings at max are likley different to your Rise settings on max. Which means our range will be different to each other too.

Benji…. maybe it’s worth quoting not the ‘Max’ or ‘Eco’ mode, but the Torque NM and the Wattage settings for the mode recorded. They can then be compared regardless of brand.

It’s still a bit of a crap shoot, temperature, body weight, incline etc… all have a huge impact on battery life. It would be great to see a universal measure at some point that’s useful in the real world at comparing battery life. Lumens and hours work perfectly for torches….so….

Scroll down to the comments, there’s a comment from a Kona employee. It looks BAD. https://bikerumor.com/what-happened-to-kona-bikes-sea-otter/

@Benji … What grips do you immediately switch out to?

Are there people who ride bikes that don’t know what faffing means?!

Eating properly and losing weight is EASY if you eat low calorific density foods.

Essentially you want to eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg that is full of water. Things like fresh meats and fish are also great.

It’s really obvious, but you need to make yourself feel ‘full’ with the least amount of calories. Being hungry, is different to feeling full. People need to learn when they actually need to eat, and when they don’t.

I eat 1500 calories a day at the moment, and have done so for a couple of months. All that has changed is eating nothing I don’t prepare myself, and halving my portion size. For example, I still will eat a burger, but I won’t have chips, or something with it.

And don’t eat anything that is pre-made, which obviously includes anything processed in general.

If you don’t have control over what’s in the end product you eat, you’re not trying hard enough.

You just need to have a good 5 main meals, breakfasts and lunches you know how to make and have the ingredients in for.

Anyone who says they can’t lose weight, or eat healthy and they eat crisps, chocolate, tinned soups, cereal bars, cereal, or anything that has more than a handful of ingredients or are full of carbs or sugar – then again, you’re not even trying.

No one needs to eat/drink Huel. Just make breakfast or lunch the night before work. Or take apples, grapes, berries and some fat free yoghurt.

Any short-cuts to eating well aren’t going to work long-term. Everyone needs a sustainable way of maintaining a healthy diet, and that changes with thinking that food NEEDS to take zero time to prepare, and come in a pot, or a bag, or a wrapper or a tin.

Nothing to see here, just a hardtail for £5.5k.

I can’t believe how desensitised everyone has become to this.

It’s ok though, it says ‘gravel’ on it.

 

 

You didnt need to do SO much work, just need to check here:

https://www.scamdoc.com/view/1628632

Is there a platform like Melodics that is great for guitarists and learning stuff with feedback? Melodics is great, but it doesn’t actually have the tabs of the real guitar playing, it’s dumbed down. 

Melodics basically has a massive bank of real songs, you can play along where it shows you which notes to play, and gives you feedback on timing, accuracy etc…

I’ve had my Park Cable cutters for more than 15 years, and they still cut like new. They’ve had a well used life. Totally worth the money.

My one of these lasted a couple of years before the seal went. I suspect it was due to the way you’re forced to hold the pump them inflating, which is the grab the dial, and when pumping it then rocks against the shaft putting pressure on the seal.

It was ok. It looks nice. But the basic ones you get with a fork are much nicer to use and last longer.

The high bottom bracket thing – I remember riding a bike with a very high BB, and it felt like you were being tipped over into switchback corners. The lower BB felt like you had less weight higher up, so had a slower tipping into corners. I can’t see why a longer bike negates that – and I’d love for it to do it!

Can someone explain what’s going on that would make a higher BB better in corners? (I was going to write ‘more stable’, but maybe that’s the problem – I’m thinking about it all wrong, and it’s not about stablity at all?).

Convex pedals are dumb.

As it’s been mentioned a few times here, where’s the evidence that either supports, or doesn’t, trans athletes competing with cis athletes with no advantage?

There’s lots of interesting studies about online forum segregation, a couple that are of interest in validating some of the assumptions in this thread below my synthesis:

My Synthesis: The more relavant the threads, the more engagement and conversation happens. Which suggests if women do have their own spaces, they will likley interact more.

There are a few other studies that caution segregation can cause echo chambers to form, and that stereotypes can become overly enforced – as some discussion moved out of general, open forums, is not seen by the other sex – meaning a lack of awareness and the opportunities for shared learning are missed. For example, the issues around cycling and periods/menopause etc.

For me, I’d intepret this as a trade off between the purpose of the forum – is it about generating and exchanging conversation, or is it about raising awareness of often unsaid issues?

The final point that’s raised is one of segregated forums tending to become more hostile in nature – that’s dealt with by good moderation, and as the studies are largely focussed on political forums – I’d suggest this is less of an issue with a cycling forum.

Links to interesting studies:

‘The Dynamics of Message Selection in Online Political Discussion Forums: Self-Segregation or Diverse Exposure?’ by Hyunjin Song, Jaeho Cho, and Grace A. Benefield (2020). This study found that people tend to self-segregate in online political discussion forums, meaning that they are more likely to read messages from people who share their political views.

‘Ideological Segregation Online and Offline’ by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro (2011). This study found that people are more likely to interact with people who share their political views online and offline.

‘Disclosure of Gender Identity in Internet Forums: A Case Study of Saudi Arabian Forum Communication’ by Nadia A. Al-Sharif (2013).

‘The Role of Segregation in Online Communities’ by Daniel A. Greene and Joseph B. Walther (2015). This study examined the role of segregation in online communities. The researchers found that segregation can lead to both positive and negative outcomes. On the one hand, segregation can help to create safe spaces for people who are part of marginalized groups. On the other hand, segregation can also lead to echo chambers and make it difficult for people from different groups to understand each other.

‘The Effects of Segregation on Online Political Discourse’ by Thomas J. Johnson and Natalie Jomini Stroud (2017). This study examined the effects of segregation on online political discourse.

‘Is the owner of the lane actively marketing it?’ No. I’m close to the owner, and she doesn’t want overnight stays at all. We encourage people to stop by for a break on their walk or ride, paddle in the stream, park up for a walk etc. We have some benches in place for that reason too.

And yes – it’s on a pretty large subscription site, I think it’s more than 5 million users in the UK.

If the people who have been trashing the local ‘beauty spot’ discover it, it’s going to be a nightmare. This is where Open Access is a PITA, as it is absolutely great for getting out in the wild, but it has very little protections for the cases where it causes issues for landowners – it’s all guidance and recommendation.

We’ve looked in the laws about the land, and largely we can’t do much – even if it is in clear conflict with the open access rules (too close to homes, too close to wildlife and nesting birds, too close to a water course etc.)

It’s more the advertising of a place that’s 10m from our house. It just feels wrong. I’m sure no one would want a green outside their house being put on a parking app, and it being sold as a great place for 5 or 6 campervans to stay!

Surely a con is the near £600 price tag. For a seat post.

Where you can get the same functionality for less than £100 from Brand-X.

It’s not the same, of course, but it’s absolutely a negative. Until there’s mass adoption the price of wireless is still gonna be eyewatering.

YES UABU.

It’s the childminders house and life. If you don’t like the situation, you can move your kids to somewhere else. If you raised it as an issue with her I suspect she would be surprised.

Border Collies are amazing dogs. They have no ‘breed tendency’ toward being aggressive at all. If you’ve experienced aggressive toward human collies, they’ve either been mistreated, trained to be aggressive, or have very little contact with humans.

They can get frustrated if not exercised and kept mentally stimulated – but it’s just a matter of training and looking after your dog. This is true of all dogs.

It sounds like you’re wary of some dogs yourself and have passed this onto your kids. They pick that stuff up.

This is a great opportunity for them to experience a dog from a puppy, and to learn they are animals to be respectful of and can make your life more fulfilling, and are not to be feared.

Again, your choice – it’s her life, and her business, if you don’t like it, you have the choice to take your business elsewhere.

Yes, all of that is true.

Maxxis hasn’t actually branded or named their dual compound tyres, so they’re just referred to as EXO/TR by distributors or shops.

MaxxSpeed is faster rolling than MaxxTerra is faster rolling than MaxxGrip is faster rolling than SuperTacky.

MaxxSpeed is rumoured to not be 3 compounds, even though it’s 3c branded.

What I can’t find out anywhere is if MaxxSpeed has harder compounds than TR/EXO. They’re going to be around the 60 mark, but it feels like a secret

Cheers – Offset bushings just do the pin hole offset, which allows you to adjust the gemoetry of the bike by a degree or so. Doesnt help with the sideloading issue.

The other link from dhsignit sounds perfect, although I want to see some cut-through photos of the detail. On the face of it, they look like a normal DU bush and pin!

£175 knife and you stick into soil (lots of small bits of stone)!!

I came to the comments to find this post. Someone spent ages sharpening that knife, and then it’s poked into soil😬😬😬😬

Should have gone to Aldi. 😁😁😁😁😁

I did some back to back testing with a 35mm OneUp stem and carbon bars (the comfiest 35 bars you can get, and then 31.8mm Spank Vibrocore bars, and then 35mm Spank Vibrocore.

The result…

The 31.8 Vibrocore were head and shoulders the winners.

The OneUp came second, and the 35mm spank third. So I suspect the Vibrocore helps but the size makes the real difference to comfort.

Marketing making us buy inferior products? Never.

Let’s do this! £120 for fork tokens that are probably printed?!

Could you just drill a load of holes in your current fork tokens?

Looks like someone accidentally dipped the back end of that Nduro in yellow paint. Shame, it was looking nice until then.

Also, randomly generated passwords aren’t exactly the best choice for passwords. Computers are great at tumbling through letters and numbers. You’re better off with a pass phrase.

Harry and Megan.

You also missed Mark predicting the downfall of Twitter, and the rise of distributed platforms like Mastodon:

There will be a slow transition away from platform based, so called communities and back towards real, and in many ways more independent platforms out of a realisation that the big tech companies are not in fact there to help us connect, but to exploit us for ad impressions.

He’s right, just the timing will be a bit later than 2022.

Pffft. £4.5k for a hardtail with rigid forks?!! That’s how much my Orbea enduro eBike cost me! And that has two suspensions, an uppy downy bum, and a lot more rubber.

Beeeeee…jessus.

Well this is weird – I may have an even better one:

‘Slide a Pool Noddle onto a Curtain Rail.’

Which is about how you can cut up a pool noodle to keep your curtains from bunching up.

Some people need to ride bikes more.

– You either enter as the sex you were born as.
– Or you create another division for people who do not want to enter as the sex they were born as.
– Or you only have a single category.

This is a pretty balanced response. There’s competitive fairness, and participatory fairness – and it appears they are mutually exclusive when considering trans atheletes. Based on how sport is something that we all start from a level playing field, and then train to get better – competitive fairness has to come first.

The additional option would be to change the name of Men’s and Women’s to something gender neutral, and more based on attributes, e.g. Low Testostorone and High Testostorone. Which then bases category on physical capability, and not gender.

OK….. so what makes this bike so *IMPORTANT* compared to something like the Orbea Rise?

<scrolls down page>
<More scrolling>
‘Oooh, under £8k for Shimano SLX build that’s a bargain’.

<Checks self>
‘What have I become?!!!!!’

Working in branding and marketing for well known consumer brands (not flexing, but flexing) – That statement is for your internal stakeholders and for investors. There should have been a customer-facing statement that was less full of purpose-driven language that people who ride bikes don’t give two hoots about, and one that was about what the brand is going to be in the next 5 – 10 years.

You know, we’re going to fully embrace the 39″ wheel, and hamster power.

He liked that birds are light and can fly

Sounds like the kinda guy you want running a milion dollar business.

You got me.

Where do I sign?

Were your bikes outside? If you’re at any event and not able to be with your bike, it has to be in a van or in a car, or in your pod.

It’s so much easier to steal a bunch of £8k bikes than it is to bother stealing a car.

Even if you’ve got a lock, they’re not safe in the back of a car or van, or on the roof.

The best thing to do is imagine your bike is a briefcase full of cash to the value of your bike.

Now, where would you leave it overnight?

Can confirm the Specialized Boomslang pedals are not good for the UK weather. And they’re a bit of a pain to service with their own proprietary tool needed to undo them.

Better off with some DMR Vaults or Burgtec Penthouse. Penthouses will last forever on one set of bearings. Vaults will need constant servicing, but as long as you expect it, it only takes ten minutes and they’re so grippy you could ride in Crocs.