And I don;t think I’ve had much of a ‘sheltered musical existence’.

I do think jazz is shite though, albeit innovative pretentious shite

Arcade Fire?

Lifer + 1.

I’d heard about how good they were for ages before I finally got round to listening to them.

They are just boring.

WTF! Are you listening to the same band?

The first two albums are anything but boring and there are very few other bands out there producing anything anywhere near as original and innovative. Try listening to the neighbourhood tracks from Funeral- each is completely different but equally brilliant, tell me what’s boring about those? You may not like their music but to say they are boring is just ignorant. You must be listening to some pretty special stuff if Arcade Fire bore you.

For what it’s worth I love the Suburbs too, it takes a few proper listens which might be more than some can handle without writing it off as boring. It is much more subtle and does not have the same anthemic standout tracks but as a single cohesive work I think it just about beats the first two albums.

I wonder what general opinion would be if external BBs were the traditional solution and then someone came up with the revolutionary idea of putting the bearings nice and safe on the INSIDE!!!

All my bikes are HTII but I’m relatively new to riding. Does seem like common sense though that progress should be working towards more reliable products not the other way.

Only real advantage to HTII I can see it that it’s dead easy to take the cranks off.

Just to give a bit of positive feedback, I bought some Kyle Straits from these guys, they were the cheapest I could find online and arrived within a day or so.

+1 for Nant G. Everything else is child’s play by comparison.

putting asside all the opinions we have such as yes id lend one or yes id give one free or even yes id fix the bike for them which in most cases id do myself. who believes like me that if you are a cyclist then its YOUR responsibillity to carry atleast enough gear to get you on your way with out relying on others to bail you out. im not talking about having 5 punctures in one day and running out of tubes or even making the mistake of forgetting to take all you gear. im talking about the ones that dont/ didnt bring anything hoping someone elses hard earned cash can be pished away giving your gear away to them. why is it karma then. also if it were that you ever needed help from a stranger in most cases it would be for this exact reason, run out mid ride or frogot by accident. not couldnt be arsed to buy it.

you wouldnt go running with no laces in your shoes or swimming with no trunks hoping some one would sort you out so i feel im right thinking the same about bike gear.

drac. if i sounded arrogant i apologise but there are to many tight gits out there hoping the world will do them a favour everytime they ask and it wont in my book. ive given tubes and chain links and even once a

You have a pretty low opinion of people, just give him the tube.

alleged drug dealer dies during police raid

every death’s sad, and all but …

he has been murdered by the state, I’d say that’s pretty sad.

Wow. Just keep on throwing money at it, you’ll get it right in the end.

Why so coy? If you tell us what forks they are someone might be able to help…

I think people get too hung up on wanted branded seals, bearings etc. They can be sourced for a fraction of the price if you just measure the dimensions and look on the web. I’ve used simplybearings.co.uk before for 32mm seals for rockshox forks that cost around £2 a pop if i remember correctly.

I’ve used theses guys a few times and they have been great…. http://senditnow.co.uk/index.epl

It’s a flat rate of £10, £11 or £12 (+VAT) depending on how quick you need to send something. And you can send anything up to 30kgs I think.

Rangers path is amazing.

I’ll echo what 16 stone pig says about the path (or not) over the ridge back to Llanberis, we missed it and ended up pretty much at the bottom before realising. The technical section of rangers ends very obviously and the terrain flattens out. After a while you go through a metal gate and you need to climb up over a grassy back shortly afterwards. There’s just a wooden post to sign it and it’s barely visible when coming down the hill.

Don’t think your 100% safe with tubeless, those rocks are bloody sharp and put a lovely tear in my back tyre ended up having to stick a tube in!

I was out around Hayfield last weekend and it was getting pretty muddy with the snow thawing out especially over broad clough above Kinder Res it was axle deep in places.

Yuk. Its too tall and the centre of mass is too high.

Nany Gwythern DH track in N wales is uber-tech. Especially when the track turns into a muddy stream.

I just give them the full beams. Childish I know but thoroughly satisfying.

Thanks for the info guys, much obliged.

Being a cheapskate I’ll print off a screenshot from streetmap, should do the trick.

Webcam looks all clear, can’t wait!

Onzadog from speaking to people it’s all about llanberis up and rangers path down, supposedly super tech and pretty steep with not too many walkers to get in way. Llanberis path is supposed to be best save for dusk when most of the walkers have started to make their way back down.

black eyed peas actually used to knock out some really good hip hop a long time ago. It was when that hag fergie came along that things went bad.

I’ve got the Kyle Straits and think they’re brilliant. They stay put in a crash and the additional foam bits above and to the side of the main cup give excellent protection. They are barely noticable and don’t fall down when pedalling. Also the new colour in black with purple trim look ace!

That’s not very sporting of them is it!

Here: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=13595

9 & 10 speed compatible rear mech.

Get a DX and stick the battery inside a sleeve of old inner tube, zip ties either end and you’re away. There’s a how to on bikeradar for an improved bar mount too which works fantastically- just search the forums.

You’d be a mug to buy anything else, especially as you’re just starting out.

I don’t get it.

The way I see it is that if 9 and 10 speed cassettes are the same width. Mechs move uniformly across this width and all the shifter does is divide that space up into 9 or 10 equal segments. Therefore the mech doesn’t matter.

I’m pretty sure the 105 mech on my dh bike is a 9 or 10 speed.

Unfortunately I think the GP profession attracts the doctors who are either not good enough or are too lazy to succeed in proper specialities.

I’m biased because a couple of people close to me have had some terrible experiences with GPs recently, one of whcih ended up hospitalised for a couple of months and will probably never recover fully from a heart infection that could have been nipped in the bud had the GP listened early on. Dr Google managed to get the right diagnosis!

The GPs, especially those partnered ones are a huge drain on NHS resources and are effectively just an expensive triage service.

B is excellent for covering up the number plate to protect against speed cameras.

Trimix you just need to go a bit faster matey. Speed is your friend.

Eat loads of garlic and you will never get ill. Fact!

Aren’t the new Argyles basically the same as Pikes?

In was in the same boat about a year ago. New to riding and with £1000ish to spend. Chose the Marin Rocky Ridge and have not looked back since. For the money the spec blows everything else out of the water and the bike itself seems to be able to handle anything you can throw at it. I’ve taken it on downhill days, dirt jumping and long xc and trail centres and am yet to find it’s limits.

Some great deals on 2010 models at the moment

Don’t be convinced to spend a wad on some over priced boutique brand and end up with a poorly specced machine!

It’s because road cycling is BORING

I don’t know any snowboarders who actually mean it, although it seems that many skiers genuinely have an issue with snowboarders.

ie the chip on the shoulder.

One of the joys of being a snowboarder is winding up the skiers.

Mate I have no desire to be a boarder as I spend most of my time way off in the back-country in places your average skier/boarder cant get to & its taken me years to get the skills I need to be able to do that.

Fair enough, I wouldn’t want to re-learn something either.

Most skiiers though will at least admit that a snowboard is a far superior vehicle for sliding down a powder covered hill.

There’s a natural hierachy of cool and everyone knows it. The lower down the hierachy your chosen sport is the bigger the chip on your shoulder but the fact remains.

In basic terms it goes something like this:

1. Surfing
2. Skateboarding
3. bmx
4. snowboarding
5. downhill/ dj / freeride mtb
6. climbing
7. skiing / bodyboarding / rollerblading
etc etc etc

Of course with so many niche sports these days like wakeboarding, kitesurfing, microscooters and so on the hiearchy is probably more of a web.

Ultimately everyone wants to be a surfer really, it’s simple and pure but difficult to master. Apparently surfers want to be fishermen but thats another story.

disclaimer: I’m not saying all of these lower sports aren’t fun, just not as cool as those above them.

Ohh! Look at the +48hr map on the surface pressure charts! Looks nasty!

Then look at the progression of the strengthening wind speeds here

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_wind.html

as you go through the week……

But as wind generally blows from a high pressure to a low pressure, and there’s a big high to the south of us, we get a southerly wind, which is warmer, so the temperatures stay decent for the time of year, watch them rise as we go through the week here

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_temp.html

Taaa-Daaaaaaa!

Just a guess here but because the high is over the Atlantic does that mean that the winds will be bringing wet weather, whereas if the high was over france/spain we’d be staying dry?

Skies just want to be snowboarders. Some can admit it others can’t. Snowboarding has saved skiing from dying on its ass. Everything that’s cool about sking these days has been plagerised from snowboarding. The fashion, style, the tricks. Skier kids even say they’re going ‘riding’ now. Pathetic. The only original thing a skier ever came up with was the ubiquitous iron cross and lets face it that one got boring five years ago.

CO2 cannisters do the trick buddy.

09 Marin Rocky Ridge.

Thanks, I’ll give them a shot

I think it did originally but it seems to have worn off. I’ve been through all of the tech docs on shimano’s site and none of them seem to be the same. It came of an 09 Marin Rocky Ridge

TJ I’m with you on this but your stats are useless. We need to know how many people were perfoming household tasks/ driving cars / cycling etc to get a meaningful rate of injury which would be neigh on impossible.

I don’t think this argument can be won either way to be honest, but ulitimately as you say we are all indiviuals and know what we are doing so all these preachers should butt out.