I’d love something like that – if there was one in the London area I’d be there all through the winter.

No, it’s not as good as getting out for a proper ride but when it’s cold and I leave work at half 5 in the dark in December, I don’t always want to go on a night ride. Being able to ride some jumps in somewhere warm and lit would be right up my street.

Reminds me of an old indoor skate park up near Mold that let MTBs in in the early 2000s. Fantastic fun.

Pizza Express from the supermarket are awful!!

I’m quite partial to the Waitrose own-brand range – ham & mushroom / pepperoni / hot pepperoni are all good.

I did – moved from a 16″ Chameleon to a 16(?)” Soul.

Much preferred the Soul – the longer top tube felt lots more roomy (and more comfortable for me – I’m 5’10”), and you gain a lot of bump compliance moving away from the Chameleon’s box seatstays.

I’m now running the soul with Fox36s, 50mm stem, 2.5″ tyres and it is a hoot.

Chameleon:

Soul:

Hah. The physical demands of a full day’s uplift are enormous, more than any XC ride I’ve ever done.

Damn straight. I’ve ridden Cwmcarn all day on my DH bike riding up and then running the DH track, and all day on the uplift just riding the DH down. Far more tired by the end of the latter.

Kimbers where did you find the carbon Havocs? I can’t find anyone selling them in the UK yet 🙁

Was up there yesterday on high rollers – at the end of each run my tire was one big slick. Definitely need spikes and lots of skill if it has been raining recently, if it’s dry then it’s much easier and more enjoyable.

As above, lock-ons are fine but be aware you have to use the ODI-supplied collars (as these tighten the collars *around* the bars).

If you use ones which tighten by driving a grub screw into the bars then you’ll cut into and deform the carbon fibre.

Good: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=40450
Bad: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=39599

Would have passed the bacc. Although the range of subjects required is very similar to what my school prescribed as core subjects – at GCSE, everyone did Maths, English Lit, English Lang, double/triple science and a foreign language (so only the geography/history missing).

That Radio 5 caller is terrible though – it’s fine to be passionate about something but you need to be able to articulate your point if you want to argue about it. I think Gove comes off quite well from that interview, although I don’t necessarily agree with his policies.

I’m up for this – not particularly overweight but could do with motivation turning that flab to muscle!

First weigh in tomorrow then?

I think this depends on the type of programming you do – if you work in a company that bids for outsourced programming work then yes, you may have issues competing with the India/Asia. The best way to counteract that IMO would be do demonstrate that the quality of your output is higher (i.e. worth the extra outlay).

The IT company I work at produces software for general consumption by the telecoms industry – we’re a direct vendor, rather than a company who supplies outsourced IT expertise. As such, we’re not in a position to be affected by the outsourcing you’re talking about – we’d be more likely to have to compete with vendors in the same market space.

So I guess if you want to worry less about programming as a viable career, work at a company that produces software products rather than one that bids for outsourcing contracts.

Gas mark 9 fixed the squealing on my XT M765s. Definitely worth a shot before buying new stuff.

Wow, and I thought my V70 was an anomaly. Currently getting 25MPG out of a ’98 V70 AWD. Any ideas what I can do to lift this up (I’m using Shell V-Power to get more heft out of the engine if that’s relevant)?

Thanks for the thread – my washing machine is connected in the same way and is doing the same thing. I will try the hot wash tonight!

I use on of these in my Volvo estate:

http://www.mtb-direct.co.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi?item=ITEM071229131813&sort=p_asc

Essentially a big tarp, but with eyelets and suckers to secure it to the inside of the car. It’s fairly big too, there’s enough leftover material to fold back over the bikes to protect the tailgate.

As long as the train can get you into town, it’ll be fine – weather is looking warmer tomorrow.

If you’re worried you can check the TFL site for travel updates before heading off: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/tube/default.html

If you already have a bike that fits you, why not buy a turbo trainer?

Easton do:

DH (225g, 711mm): http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=47037

XC (155g, 685mm): http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=52680

New lever blades :bling:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/BrandCategory.aspx?BrandID=639&CategoryID=107

Magowen100 – that’s exactly the kind of bike I’m after as well!

My mate has one and loves it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinlc/sets/72157625353580204/

And the build pics here are pretty much perfect – decent groupset, disc brakes, drops, slicks. I reckon that’s around £1400 of build kit… will have to see if Santa is feeling generous 😕

Edit: VVV You’ll notice I didn’t mention the saddle in my ‘perfect’ list 8)

If you liked the Intense 5.5 why not try a Spider 2? 4.5″-5″ travel.

I particularly enjoyed the following line from Ron:

Black wood. 10 inches. Nothing special.

Yes
Obtainium in the US (was out there anyway)
~£150 I think (was a while back)
No performance change, just reduced weight (sub 37lb DH bike 🙂 )

Fox Float 36RC2s, lowered internally to 140mm. Running them on my Soul and they are great, much more controlled than the pikes they replaced.

You don’t ‘need’ 250GB, but it is massively useful:
– installing games to the disk makes playing a much nicer experience
– the xbox runs quieter (even the new ‘quiet’ versions only have quieter fans etc – not a quieter drive)
– you need space for any DLC you plan to buy (e.g. extra Guitar Hero tracks, Call of Duty map packs)

4GB is not enough IMO, 250GB is plenty, 120GB is a great compromise (but not sure if they make 120GB versions any more).

Ericemel I’d be keen to hear the specs too – I’ve got a media centre system sat in the front room that’s missing a few key features. If I can add a tuner card and some other bits to get it 100%, I’d be very pleased 🙂

Like Chicksands but greener?

Seems a bit close to Chicky tbh but variety is the spice of life and all that 🙂

Is that 180mm on the front then? How’s it handle, ok with the slacker angles?

Yeah it does seem a bit odd at first – my PC with 4GB of memory has 3.5GB “in use” most of the time!

These articles explain it in a bit more depth if you’re interested:
ARS (blunter): http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/behind-the-windows-7-memory-usage-scaremongering.ars
ZDNet (more words): http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-memory-usage-whats-the-best-way-to-measure/1786

You should be fine with 1Gb of RAM. Windows 7 aggressively uses as much memory as you have available, so looking at the “memory in use” of machines with more RAM than yours is not a valid basis for saying “Win 7 needs X Gb of RAM”.

Ride Hard, Ride Clipped In.

What sort of work placement is he after – a year-long thing or just some summer work?

The IT company I work for has offices in London and Edinburgh and are quite accommodating for the right graduates, and offer both year-long placements and vac work – drop me an email if you’re interested…

When I broke my iPod Classic screen I used these guys: http://www.ukipodrepairs.co.uk/

Cheaper than Apple and great service – I posted it to them on Tuesday and had it back working on Thursday morning.

I’ve just got an iPhone and apart from PvZ and Angry Birds I’ve been playing a lot of:

Dungeon Hunter (Diablo-alike)
Wolfenstein 3D (FPS goodness)
GeoDefense (Tower defense game)

All three have free trial versions available 🙂

EDIT: Oh yes and of course you can get both Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2 – both are classic adventure games that you really should play if you haven’t previously.

I’m in the same boat but want 36 Float RC2s in 160mm – which are now *so* last year and can’t be had anywhere 😡

8 miles, 35mins so ~13.5mph. That’s on a Soul with 150mm on the front and 2.5″ High Rollers 😈

On the way back though I often try to wheelie / manual the whole way, which takes more like an hour 😛

@bigyinn: 2.5″ High Roller @ 25psi. Nice big contact area so easier to keep your balance than a skinny tyre at high pressure 😛

It would help to know what your current system specs are so we can work out whether you just need a few bits or, as Jamie suggests, buying a new base unit would be more economical.

The new Turner RFX :drool:

As featured on STW: http://www.singletrackworld.com/2010/09/interbike-2010-turner-bikes-and-belt-drives/

(and a nicer pic on PB 😛 http://www.pinkbike.com/news/turner-rfx-interbike-2011.html )

I’ve downloaded all the recommended apps so will spend a week trying them out and see which I prefer. Thanks for the input everyone 🙂

As above, try and see if it feels comfortable. For me, 685mm (normal eastons) is too narrow, 710mm (easton cnts) feels pretty good, 760mm (nukeproof) is a bit too wide, so going to chop them down.