You could always just slap an aero disk jacket on there:

http://www.bike-science.com/products/aerojacketdiscwheelcovers

It’s not going to be as fast as a £1900 Sub-9, but then neither is a Chinese copy…

This made me smile when I saw it in the Wanted classifieds 😀

I’m listening to the new FabricLive album by Jack Beats and its really, really good. Here’s a track from near the end of the album – not a big fan of the original but this remix is hot.

Di2. Once you’ve used it, you won’t want to go back to mechanical.

In particular, front shifts are *lovely* with the electric mech 😀

I’m going to go with brakes and recommend Just Riding Along – had a really nice pair built over a year ago and they’re still going strong.

Really good guys to deal with, quick responses to website queries or phone calls.

Agree with cp above – you shouldn’t need music, you should be concentrating on form. Especially if you’re still in the hydrophobic spider stage of swimming 🙂

For the record: I do listen to music when swimming. I use a waterproof’d iPod shuffle with short cord headphones – this one: http://waterfi.com/waterproof-ipod-shuffle
However I only use this for long sets when I want to zone out – for tech swims I’m busy working on my stroke.

CRC do ’em aswell: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brand-x-outer-ring-bolts-narrow-7075-alloy/rp-prod19227

R3s are lovely, but why not an S3 instead? Just aesthetics or is this a bike you expect to do more climbing on?

SXSW ?

Sadly not, I was out there for work last summer and got reminded by the angry chicken tower at the top of the page 🙂

Austin’s mighty owl building sees all

Echo chambering here, but I’d sort out the family and then get myself a couple of places to just do what I love – skiing, biking, sailing, summer place in Ibiza.

Then I’d spend my time being ripped and doing fun stuff, possibly on a boat.

Hit the 2048 tile with a score of 20316. Thank god, I can get back to work 😀

Ditch the 11 and go for a 12-28 with no change in RD.

^^ This is the right answer.

Brakes: always been Shimano, ever since my first discs (XT 4-pots – still got them and they’re still working 🙂 )

MTB gears have been SRAM 9-speed for the last 7 years, felt more ‘positive’ than Shimano at the time I tried each of them out. Quite fancy trying some newer Shimano but SRAM XX1 is lovely…

Roadie was SRAM, but they don’t do electronic shifting yet. So it’s all been swapped out for Dura-Ace Di2 – absolutely fantastic groupset!

Busted 😳 😉

I stopped about 2 mins from the end of the loop – that’s after the main climb back, on a flat section back into the main demo area. I didn’t stop during the proper bits of climb as I wanted to see how the bikes went uphill as well!

Surprised by your feelings towards the solo, maybe you prefer a bike to feel plush and flatten the trail

I do – that’s why I was testing FS bikes. If I didn’t want to smooth the trail out I’d ride a hardtail 😀

As I said – the Solo was good, but not sufficiently better than my Tracer2 to warrant spending £1.5k+ changing the frame/forks/wheels over. I think the shock was definitely set up less well than the Bronson – as I said, it felt a lot harsher than the Bronson even with 5″ of travel. And it wasn’t as fast or as fun as the Carbine 29!

You should try a SC Tallboy

I’d definitely like to – if I managed to get another demo day I’d probably go Tallboy C, Carbine 29, Stumpy Evo 29, Enduro Evo 29, Yeti SB95 and see how I found them. FTR all the bikes (bar the Carbine 27.5) were runnign short stems (50-60mm) and 750mm bars.

So that’s why I’m crap – thank god, I thought it was me.

Don’t worry, you’re probably a great rider. Your bike is shit though 😉

This kind of front-end setup is very personal – another rider might well have complained that the bikes had bars that were too wide and forks that were too heavy, compared with a narrower bar and some Float 32s / Revs. For me, personally, I found the (relatively) narrow bars and less solid front end stopped the Carbine 27.5 from really shining.

Cammer: Intense don’t do an XL – just S, M, L. You might get away with the large carbine though – definitely worth a go!

Kimbers: exactly what I thought. I was quite surprised by the build, especially given the (more XC-oriented) Spider had a single ring and wider bars.
SC are supposed to have short top tubes – but there’s only a 0.5″ difference between SC and Intense TT lengths, so you’d hopefully be able to compensate in the stem if you needed to.

In terms of suspension designs – I really like the way VPP rides, and I thought the SCs would be amazing, so made sure I got them in first. Then after the Carbine 29 I had the choice between trying something else (I’m a fan of the FSR link too, and I wanted to try the Yeti as I’ve never ridden their suspension setup) or trying the shorter-travel 29er.

I’d still like to try a newer FSR and the Yeti, if I’d been able to stay around for the Sunday I would’ve definitely had a go round the different bikes on test.

Thanks for the feedback all 🙂 I tried to be as objective as possible (even towards the clown wheels) and I was genuinely surprised. I really expected to love the Bronson / 5010, but the Carbine 29er blew me away.

In terms of sizing – I’m 5’10”, with long arms / short torso for my height. I ride a medium Intense at the moment, which has a 23.5″ top tube – the SC frame sizes have 23″ for the medium and 24″ for the large, but I could definitely feel that half an inch. Climbing on the medium SC felt a little cramped, the large SC felt much better but was ever so slightly stretched for my liking.

Re: Spider vs Carbine, the difference is 5.5lb vs 5.8lb (according to Intense’s website), and 4.5/5″ vs 5/5.5″. Both the ones I rode were set up in the longer travel modes, so 5″ against 5.5″. Not much in it tbh!

Sweaty and dehydrating, in a good way! I rode my first 650b and 29er at the Leisure Lakes demo, which may have been a bad thing from my wallet’s point of view 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/leisure-lakes-demo-day-26-vs-275-vs-29-non-flaming-content

I had the same problem with 2x Garmin soft straps. Like MSP, I switched over to a polar strap with the Garmin remote module on it – that fixed things up and ended up with a much steadier reading.

Yeah the wheel size thing is my only worry – I’m going to try and demo a 26/27.5/29 in the Santa Cruz and Intense ranges as I’ve only ever ridden 26s before.

Not sure about the overall weight, I’d be buying it frame only as I’ve seen one in this genius colour scheme 😀

How about missing safety features? For some reason my petrol gauge lights up before I run out of petrol, but my oil gauge will only light up AFTER the oil level has gotten so low that the engine is shagged.

WHY THE **** DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER??? Useless piece of **** indicator!

The full discussion is over on Mumsnet apparently

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a1988081-How-many-tenths-in-1-5

One thousand posts 😯

As per scuzz’s post – my 4890 needs 2x 6pin PCI-e power inputs, and is a dual-slot card. But it’s also very powerful and very quiet 🙂

Was looking for ~£30 posted?

I can do you an ATI Radeon 4890 if you want? I’ve had it running with two monitors with no problems, and it’s pretty quiet with the non-stock cooling. Have been meaning to ebay it for a while since I’ve upgraded, just not got round to it yet.

It’s this one: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?psn=000101&pid=259&lid=1

Let me know if you’re interested 🙂

Thanks for the pointers folks – will have a look and post something up here and on BikeRadar in the next day or so.

Meantime – Buzzard, have replied to your mail 🙂

How on earth has this thread not devolved into silliness yet? I’ll get thing started… 😀

[list]
[*]DON’T waste money on expensive iPods. Simply think of your favourite tune and I hum it. If you want to “switch tracks”, simply think of another song you like and hum that instead.[/*]
[*]SHOES last twice as long if only worn every other day.[/*]
[*]EMPLOYEES: Only use the loo at work. Not only will you save money on toilet paper, but you’ll also be getting paid.[/*]
[*]SCROOGES: Save money at Christmas by returning last year’s cards to the sender with the simple inscription “Same to you”.[/*]
[*]SHOPPERS: Take one grape to the till. It won’t register on the low-tech, insensitive scales so you will get it for free. Repeat this procedure 100 times or so and you have yourself a free bunch of grapes.[/*]
[/list]

I’d have thought a ‘distracting’ light would be a good thing. Better than a SMIDSY anyway 😛

Not being funny – I know little to nothing – but I’m sure I’ve seen bikes just parked up at the side of the road. I think they had maybe the padlock-through-disc thing going on, plus keys to start it.

Is it comically naïve to think that’s good enough? Serious question, I’m considering a motorbike and have nowhere to store it – so should probably think about making it secure 🙂

Roadies:

NYOOOOOOWWWMMMM

MTB:

My Zipps and Chris King R45s both needed new freehub bodies to move from Shimano 10 to 11 speed. That’s not much help wrt Fulcrums though 😛

As DanW says – presence of a spacer behind your current 10-sp cassette is probably the best indication of whether it’s 11-sp compatible.

Yep – short 2 hour blast on the roadie before breakfast, then we’ll crack on with present opening when my sister and her fiancé arrive. Quietest day of the year, it’s positively a pleasure to be out on the road 🙂

I’ve considered it, but not going to get a xBone or PS4 until:
– I know which system my mates are getting
– the bone’s hardware issues are all sorted out

Until then I’m happy to stick with AC4 and GTA5 on my 360 🙂

MisterP – got a link for that mix? 😀

I’m on the Black Sun Empire fabric promo mix at the moment: http://www.fabriclondon.com/blog/view/audio-black-sun-empire-fabriclive-promo-mix

I was going to say “maybe, depends on the router” – but then you mentioned the type 🙂

Apparently yes, you can. See here: https://community.bt.com/t5/Other-BB-Queries/Using-and-external-hard-drive-with-Home-Hub-3/td-p/330681

I had my boots fitted by S&R in Covent Garden a couple of years ago. Great service – the guy who fitted me was French and had skied for a long time, so I came away with a very comfy pair of boots.

It might be worth just popping in tbh – you can always speak to someone and see if they come across as “experience and capable” or “disinterested college kids” 🙂

Only 6700cc? 😛

Dodge Tomahawk – Viper engine in a motorbike (well, ish!).

I have been recommended Monkey Shoulder – it’s a blend but apparently very good. Will give it a try over Christmas.

I picked up a bottle of this going through customs last week. Not worth it for £30, tastes like a middle-of-the-range blend IMO. I’ll stick with whatever’s on special in Waitrose from now on!