Crikey Damitamit! That’s a bit organised! I’m expecting mine to come out around the 7.5kg mark, but it’s not really built with an eye on weight. It’ll feel sprightly after my old bike!

I just use an inline adjuster for the front mech. The rear mech has an integral barrel adjuster.

I don’t know what seat post to go for – there’s a 3T Dorica for 40 quid, but it’s alloy, or a carbon Giant SL once that I’ve found for £37.

The 3T is actually lighter, but I’m concerned about putting an alloy post in a carbon frame. Are there any potential issues with corrosion damaging the carbon?

Don’t want to spend much as this is meant to be my cheap thrash-n-crash crit bike!

This thread is useless without pics…

This is what I plan to do with the cat that craps in my garden and killed a Bullfinch last week. I intend to snare it, gaffer-tape/zip tie all its legs together for safety, then shave its torso, draw a large target on its flank in permanent marker, and then release it with a rifle bullet attached to its collar. If that doesn’t get the message across to its owners, there’s only one other solution.

So, what build is everyone going for? Mine is just a straight parts transplant from my Giant TCR, so Ultegra/Dura Ace mix with Ultegra wheels, Easton bars, 3T ARX stem, SLK saddle and I’m yet to decide on a seatpost – probably something cheap like a Deda or a 3T Dorica.

Would like to get a pair of 60mm carbon tub rims on Novatecs from China, but I could do with those being 11-speed compatible, and none of the suppliers seem to be using 11-speed Novatecs yet…

What are others planning on hanging from these frames?

I believe their consignment arrives tomorrow and they’re going out on overnight couriers. So expect Friday or Monday delivery.

(posted on Bike Radar)

Apparently there’s a generation of young men who feel that the appropriate way to round off an energetic bout of coupling is to withdraw at the last minute and give their companion a ‘hot monocle’.

On the flipside, there’s a generation of young women that are well up for threesomes and let you put it up the wrong un.

So, the jury’s out as far as I’m concerned… Swings and roundabouts, innit.

40 in December, max heart rate is 195bpm… I generally get to 190 most rides, I ride 3-4 times a week.

I’ve never heard a wren make those road traffic noises before…

I’ve heard those Dolans get uncomfortable after and hour or two in the saddle – can anyone confirm?

On the contrary, I had my concerns about going back to aluminium after riding carbon race bikes, but I was surprised how comfy it is.

It’s a fairly long wheelbase, and perhaps it helps that mine is built with handbuilt Open Pros, but it’s a very comfortable bike to ride. Kept me getting the big miles in this winter, I love it.

No amount of cleaning will stop white bar tape looking like gray bar tape after a few rides.

I have the Fizik stuff, looks as good as new… It’s a ‘leathery’ finish though. The suede-like ones go mucky quickly…

Cif cream. Works a treat.

You have mail Rocketdog!

Err I hope you’re trolling, if not maybe have a think about many of the young fit athletes that died in their sleep.

Very lazy post Fuzzy! If you can point me in the direction of deaths caused by EPO, that would be great. And when I say caused, I’ll need to see proof that EPO actually caused it. But you won’t find that, you’ll find a load of articles about 7 cyclists dying in a 1-year period. But even that won’t do, because there was no proof that those cyclists took EPO.

If someone came to me now and told me I’d lose my job – a job I’d worked my balls off all my life to achieve – and that I’d never get another job, unless I took EPO… I’d take EPO.

It’s naive to think that they can stamp it out.

Anywho, EPO isn’t a ‘bad drug’, it improves the body and makes it more efficient.

I don’t see these guys as villains, they’re just ordinary, vulnerable human beings doing what they need to do to protect their livelihoods.

Rocketdog, you’ve just cost me 500 quid! 🙁

However, I’d been looking at getting a Hong Kong Fuey frame for not much less, and I’m sure this will be better.

Anyone want to by a Giant TCR C3 M/L?

Another DHB hater here – very poor quality fabric, stitching all came undone… Utter rubbish.

My favourites are Castelli – you really don’t know you’re wearing them, they’re so comfortable. The fabric is lovely and soft, seems to stretch more than others, and the “Kiss” pad is excellent – it feels really thin at the edges but has padding in just the right places.

Other than that, I like the Endura FS260s above, I use their shorts and bib knicks, and the quality is excellent. The pad feels a bit bulky off the bike but it’s comfortable.

D) Dolan Prefissio.

I have the matt black/white version and it’s lovely – I actually look forward to riding it.

Not when there’s a customer service problem.

Those Planet X carbon frames… I hear they’re just off-the-shelf “open mould” frames from China that anyone can buy much cheaper if they go direct. Same with the wheels… Apparently, there’s no design input from Planet X at all!

(that ought to do it…) 😉

Hmmm… Or what if 2 birds pooed in a cup?

I like the way it’s managing to make part of a femur and the clavicle of a small mammal hover round the top of the maple syrup bottle. A genuiney bone-a-fidey talent.

I’ve tried squirrels – I shoot about 3 or 4 a week in my wood… They’re a bastard to skin – it’s a proper 2-man job, it doesn’t just ‘peel’ off like a rabbit’s pelt.

All the meat is on the back legs, so I trimmed them, made a stock from the carcass and braised the thigh meat in the stock. Just enough to fill 2 small ramekins, topped with little puff pastry lids. Delicious.

Badgers are related to weasels… I can’t imagine them being particularly tasty…

The Cull Will Go On… Too Much Love Will Kill Badgers… We Will Cull You… Erm… Who Wants to Love Forever?

Nobody else thing that “Shooting Badgers” would be a great name for a band?

Not as good as “Stabbing Beavers”…

Might go for strong money… But I’m sure Jim has a nice semi that he’d like you to get his hands on…

nothing tastes worse than a disgruntled Hereford

Oh, I think you’ll find Aberdeen Angus that has been ‘dissed’ tastes appalling. And there’s nowt worse than disenfranchised Limousin!

I’ll agree with you about feed quality, but happiness making better meat? That’s just marketing bunkum designed to lure those “heart’s-not-in-it” vegetarians that like the smell of frying bacon back into the fold as soon as they grow out of their silly fussy eating stage. 😉

And it’s something that I have thought about quite a lot. I do eat meat, but I expect that when I do eat it the animals have been kept in good conditions and treated with respect during their lives.

I’m sure beef cattle really value being treated with ‘respect’! 😉

that comment’s made me sad.

if you treat choosing to kill anything en masse with the same amount of emotion as you do closing a gate someone left open then there’s a problem, imo.

What a daft thing to say! It may come as a surprise to you, but farms actually breed real live animals, en masse, purely so they can kill them, dismantle them and sell them in little plastic shrink-wrapped trays.

As a humourous aside, my local Wildlife Trust (with which I’m involved) organised a demonstration with Brian May. They asked everyone attending to wear black and white as a show of support…

I had to ask if the dress code was wise under the circumstance!

I knew you were foundering… 🙄

But yeah, you must be right…..’cause you’re so clever !

I’m waiting for you to prove me wrong Ernest. That’s how these things work: I make a point, you, having a differing opinion, try to debunk my assertions and offer evidence to prove YOUR point.

You managed the first bit, but you really seem to be struggling with the second. Come on, speak up old chap…

Oh I see, he didn’t mean a problem for society as a whole, but in certain individual cases.

He should of made that clear, given the ample opportunities he had.

I didn’t make the distinction Ern. There isn’t one. I think you’re foundering a little there, have you reached the limit of your intellect? If you want a distinction, racism on a “society level” only affects a small minority of the population, thereby one could argue that it’s not as big a problem as the Guardianistas like to suggest.

If you weren’t so hamstrung by cerebral mediocrity, perhaps you’d be able to point me in the direct of examples that regularly occur in the UK where racism or bigotry causes equally horrendous problems…

I can’t argue with your insightfulness… Although I feel strangely compelled to try…

Not at all, very average in fact. But I’m not stupid enough to think that the problem of false allegations of racism and bigotry is as serious as racism and bigotry itself.

I’m finding it very difficult to give your self-proclaimed average intellect the benefit of the doubt. If fear of accusations of racism undermines the criminal justice system allowing certain sectors of society to commit the most appalling crimes unchecked, then it’s a MASSIVE problem.

Can you show me examples of actual racism that are worse? Thankfully, racist murders are actually so rare that the names of victims are often household names, like Stephen Lawrence for example.

Unlike the names of Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers.

You are getting back to your point that the police, according to you, in one particular case didn’t do their job properly. That doesn’t prove that false allegations of racism are as much of a problem as actual racism, as you absurdly claim. It just proves that the police, allegedly, sometimes don’t do their job properly.

Not the sharpest tooth on the sprocket, are you Ern. The Police DID do their job properly, they even compiled a huge, damning report about the abuse. But, for fear of being branded racist, it seems that this report didn’t see the light of day.

One has to point the finger of blame at the left-wing do-gooders that have created an atmosphere where the writers of this report were fearful of making it public! (That would be people like you…)

“Why” my big fat hairy arse.

Don’t you dare point that big fat hairy arse at me Darcy! 😉

Getting back to your point, whilst falsely accusing someone of racism or bigotry is clearly unacceptable, it is not a problem comparable with actual racism or bigotry and the hate crimes associated with these attitudes, and for you to claim that it does, as you have, is utterly absurd.

I suppose it depends on your own values and perception of “what is a fricking problem”, Ernest.

Personally, I’d say 2 murders and hundreds of young girls brutalised, abused, assaulted and sold on for sex is pretty problematic.

In fact, I’m struggling to think of anything on the other side of the coin that happens on a regular basis in this country that could be considered worse.

So no, it’s not utterly absurd at all – your stance looks far more absurd to me.

My handwringometer just had smoke coming out the back of it.

Why? Is it wrong to acknowledge that Asian communities have a tendency towards following Islam? Is it wrong to acknowledge that they prefer cricket to darts?

Junkyard, we can all play your silly game of denial, here, watch this:

Children as young as 11 were targeted by mainly Asian staff

Yes, I would suggest that the distinction lies between immigrants and 2nd generation Britons of Asian descent.

I am sure there were claims but that does not mean it is true-

Claims from within the force. Denied by senior officers who are trying to avert a PR disaster.

So that is suppressed then

See previous answer. 🙄

Did you notice that 50 out of 54 were white

Yep, I make that 8% that weren’t white. A figure that I’m quite convinced is skewed due to the Police/CPS reluctance to pursue cases against Asian gangs for fear of being branded racist.

Easy, isn’t it. 🙄

If you’ve got issues with how the police in Blackpool conducted their investigations then that is a completely separate matter.

No it isn’t! It’s EXACTLY the matter I was referring to! You can say the Police were at fault, but certainly since the Macpherson report which Grum mentions, Police are terrified of being branded racist. That isn’t the fault of the Police, and it’s unfair to brand them “spineless” – the Police Service isn’t there for the purposes of ‘derring do’!

Society is at fault, for perpetuating an atmosphere where it is deemed racist to acknowledge that birds of a feather often flock together, and that racial trends, whether criminal or cultural, are an intrinsic part of this multi-cultural society that we’ve created and it would be folly to ignore them, even worse to deny them.

Also, there will always be some tit that brakes too hard, can’t hold his line and swerves without warning. DON’T RIDE ON HIS WHEEL!

If nobody seems to be riding on your wheel, you ARE that tit! 😉