So which material gives the best balance of light weight, impact resistance and flexibility of manufacture?

Actually, don’t tell us, go on Dragon’s f***ing Den, you’ll make a fortune! 🙄

aknobhead – Member
You don’t think there might be some other design requirements for planes?

Possibly, like low weight, structural strength, ease of moulding/manufacture, flexibility, the ability to control flex/rigidity… Absolutely nothing like bikes, eh? What point are you so desperate to make but so unable to put across?

aplonker – Member

Where exactly is your evidence for:

Carbon is THE BEST material to cope with sharp impacts, y’know, like people firing bullets at planes, and bullet proof vests…

It might damage, but it’s far less likely to suffer catastrophic failure than alluminium or steel. Fact

Erm… The fact that it’s the favoured material for making things that need to withstand sharp impacts? 🙄

I kept turning my radio down so I could hear what you were saying… Then I realised it was your radio. Probably best leave it off in future… 😉

A very weak fairy liquid solution in a spray is best. Squeegee it all out eave it to dry a while though.

compositepro – Member

firing bullets at carbon panels?

I believe they use bullets in the theatre of war. And whilst I can’t be certain, I would expect some of those bullets to hit the carbon fibre sections of military aircraft and vehicles.

And again, I’m guessing, but they’d be pretty well f**ked if they failed catastrophically after one bullet.

But hey, I’m no expert.

It’s quite comical really, listening to some of the bollocks people “assume” and the urban myths. I particularly liked the “I seem to remember someone saying they degrade 10% after 30 years”… 😀

Even the head honcho of carbon production at Trek plays his cards close to his chest, so what are the chances of a bunch of IT nerds that ride bikes once a week being able to speak with any authority??

As for carbon being “easy to repair if you’ve got a curing oven”, good luck with that! The Trek guy very eloquently explains exactly why carbon frames shouldn’t be repaired unless under exceptional circumstances.

Frame tubes are designed to flex in certain directions. If you build up an area with a patch, you affect the tube’s ability to flex in the correct way, thus putting excessive loads on the unrepaired areas.

Imagine mending a fishing rod in this way – you’d end up with 2 VERY vulnerable and highly stressed areas on either side of the patch.

As for carbon being particularly vulnerable to sharp impacts? Nonsense. Carbon is THE BEST material to cope with sharp impacts, y’know, like people firing bullets at planes, and bullet proof vests…

It might damage, but it’s far less likely to suffer catastrophic failure than alluminium or steel. Fact. ;o)

Njee, that was almost funny once a few years ago… 🙄

But over time, they go soft/delaminate, you can get water/salt incursion between layers and/or through the resin. the resin might not be uv stable and it certainly wont be corrosion proof and will degrade with water/salt sunlight exposure!

How can a material that’s impregnated with resin be susceptible to water ingress? And why would salt be a problem to a inert substance like carbon?

Sounds to me like you’re taking your limited knowledge of alloy/steel bikes, a few urban myths, a little supposition and basing your arguments on that!

The head carbon guy from Trek is interviews in CW this week, you might want to read it. He has developed carbon for the US military for 30 years. His opinion is that a carbon frame will NOT degrade at all unless it suffers significant impact damage.

emsz – Member

What was wrong with Trudy?

I just facebooked her… She’s a hound…

It largely depends on the calibre of the agent and how they put the offer forward. I offered 20% less on a house recently, the vendor was insulted but the agent persuaded them to make an offer on the property they wanted and see if it could be made to work. That property ended up falling through, so subsequently mine did.

At the moment, nothing is shifting and everyone thinks their own property is worth more than it is. If they can haggle a similar drop along the chain, then things will keep moving.

Arm yourself with LOTS of comparables, nethouseprices and zoopla are good, but as was mentioned earlier, always start with a positive: “We love what you’ve done with the decor, we’d be happy to move straight in as it is… But, similar properties have sold for a lot less” etc etc…

(My brother is a regional manager for a large estate agency, so his coaching was very useful throughout the house buying process!)

Saw this and thought it looked like a steal…

Cube Attempt

i wonder how much weight they had to ad to get it abouve the UCI minimum weight

Probably not much, weight isn’t the main aim of a TT bike, so they tend not to use the lightest carbon/layup, and making a bike so aero adds a lot of material.

Very nice looking bike though, looking forward to seeing the Katusha squad’s TTTs this year. I’m still leaning towards the P5 though, mainly for that paint job! It’s stunning!

Ribble are brilliant if you like doom-blue frames with cheap looking paint jobs, not to mention atrocious customer service! I would never buy a bike off them.

The Dolan seem far better finished – Merlin do them so you can get good discount and aftersales service.

Here’s mine…

I notice she suffers from one of those “illnesses” that regularly crops up with people like that, y’know, the ones that are very difficult for a doctor to disprove… Illnesses that you can claim are debilitating with little or no evidence to the contrary… Illnesses that seem to affect quite a few people of the hard-working persuasion who seem to manage or treat the symptoms enough to hold down regular employment without any difficulty whatsoever…

Y’know, like agoraphobia, anxiety, ME, back pain, asthma…

Just sayin like…

I couldn’t get it in the house so I drew it through the window…

Brakes don’t work unless your wheels are on the ground.

Doggers don’t welcome sweaty-balled mountain bikers.

What’s your budget? I built a Dolan Prefissio for a winter hack. I bought it frame only but they do full builds.

It has pannier braze-ons as well as taking full mudguards.

I was surprised at what a compliant frame it is – a lot of aluminium frames, particularly budget/winter/audax frames can be a bit numb…

nickf – Member

Shibboleth – it does come across as a bit Austin Powers, don’t you think?

Yeah baby! 😉

Alpin obviously has nothing to add to this discussion… 🙄

Quite a coincidence that this thread has arisen at the moment. I had a regular “fun buddy” that I had a great time with for about a year. A complete sexual free spirit, 24 years old, and enjoyed the company of other girls as much a men which made for some rather entertaining encounters.

Had to draw a line under it as she moved back to New Zealand last month, but to be honest, it was just in the nick of time as I got the feeling she was getting a bit clingy. Not sure whether it was a case of cold feet about moving home or what, but I didn’t want to be the reason for her staying, no matter how good the nooky was!

More recently embarked on a similar arrangement with a girl that works for a client (not in a position that would ever cause problems) who has been a friend for a few years. She had come out of a LTR recently and constantly complained about how much she missed the regular sex. She instigated a NSA arrangement, and all was fantastic – 22 years old, body of a model and a rather unabashed attitude to sex.

We talked about ground rules, no hassle, walk away if anyone got emotionally attached, our friendship comes first etc, etc…

Anyway, after a great weekend, she’s contacted to say her head is a mess and she’s not sure she can carry on.

So no, in my experience (the above and a couple of others in the past), few women can maintain a sexual relationship without getting emotionally involved… Bugger. 🙁

Out of sight, out of mind. But if an employee wore short sleeves and displayed tattoos, I’d ask him to cover them.

If he wouldn’t, I’d find a way of sacking him. Or just bully him until he quit.

I generally think it’s possible to spot a tattooed person anyway, they tend to be a bit thicker than average, so it’s highly unlikely they’d be working for me. Same with gingers.*

*None of this is particularly true, but I might as well give the STW How Very Dare He Squad something to wring their hands about.

I wouldn’t give a job to a man that is planning to still be wearing the same tie in 40 years time, I think it shows a distinct lack of foresight and adaptability.

By the same token, I would overlook someone stupid enough to indelibly inscribe a hackneyed piece of clip art onto their skin.

I just LOVE tattoos, especially those really infantile desperate-to-be-part-of-a-niche pseudo quirky humourous ones that will look even more completely ridiculous in 20 years time when the ink has faded into an unrecognisable amorphous blob on sagging, wrinkled skin.

I’m also a dab hand with Photoshop, so happy to help… In fact, why don’t you let me give you a job and I’ll train you up on how to do it yourself? 😉

SaxonRider – Member

I am, possibly for the first time in my life, genuinely jealous. Congratulations, and may you enjoy it for many years.

Thanks, I hope I will! It’ll be a real labour of love but I’m sure the benefits of owning and enjoying the woodland will far outweigh the amount of work involved. Plus, it’s doing fine without any input, so it’s not like it will suffer from neglect if I choose to do very little to certain areas.

Herman, I’ll tell you when it’s all gone through. Don’t want to tempt fate 😉

Grant, it’s Ribble Valley in Lancashire.

I did think about a jump/pump area, but really, I’d like to keep it as natural looking as possible and make it a nice place for the kids to explore and play.

Just been for another mooch round, there’s a waterfall with arouns 5ft drop into a pool, so there’s certainly potential to do something like a micro hydro.

Might be something to look into in the future! Plenty more jobs to be cracking on with… 🙂

+1… I have 2, a Park Tool one for fettling, and one of those that holds the bike under the BB and downtube for washing duties. Couldn’t manage without either!

I love the area, and plenty of good riding close at hand, so I’m not hell-bent on creating my own little trail centre. I’m thinking more along the lines of a summer house like this[/url], natural-looking steps and paths, fire pit, tidy up the banks of the brooks so the kids can dip nets for minnows etc… Plenty of birdboxes, low fencing so the deer can continue to mooch round. It’s going to be magical! 🙂

Yunki, sorry, you know my employment policy regarding tattoos!! 🙂

NBT, it was quite a find – I recently had a similar house purchase fall through which was very disappointing, but this place is far better, so I’m chuffed to bits!

This place is Ribble Valley, so 15 minute ride to some great Pennine hills and fells, 50 mins from the lakes and half an hour to Manc. Should be moving in mid Jan… Sooo excited about seeing the woods evolve through spring and summer, it’s going to be brilliant! 😀

Titusrider, that looks amazing! Thanks for the link, Sue too, that looks like it might be a great help…

The house will be home to me and my bikes! I’ll upload some pics of the wood…

philconsequence – Member
if you’ve seen what Jedi has built in such a small space you should have no problems thinking of some trail ideas for the land!

As anyone who rides with me knows, I don’t do ‘shore!!! 😯

The thought did cross my mind Matt! It fairly rips through, so would power a turbine no probs!

Cheers Boxelder, I’m definitely going to join…

I think that’s quite funny! :o)

I’ve gone down the root of good quality bib shorts and leg warmers for off road (started a thread about it the other day) because I’m always ripping the knees on bib knicks.

I’ve gone for Endura FS260 – the quality and value is fantastic. I have Rapha and Assos kit for road biking, but I really don’t think it’s worth spending that much for off road kit.

Shimano XT everything apart from chain (SRAM) and sometimes cassettes.
The lads I ride with that use SRAM always seem to have the most problems, and not just early wear and tear.

They always seem to smash shifter levers and rear mechs when they crash – maybe I’m better at crashing, but XT stuff seems to last forever on my bikes.

Ultegra on the road bikes, hopefully Dura Ace on the next… Shimano just works, faultlessly.

Chains a shite like…

Funny as hell! You guys crack me up! How much did you pay Zaskar?