I bought a bunch of the Park M8 threaded hooks earlier in the year with the intention of making my own rail system – they’re still in the packaging.  Winter project I reckon.

I guess that could work if discrete events at national level also became part of a wider continental series.  Might squeeze entries somewhat mind and then you’ve got the same problem trickled down.

Unfortunately, at an organisational and event level, those are all very separate events organised by separate organisers. It almost works at WC level but the logistics are ridiculous and the events are almost certainly better when DH and XC events are at different venues.  At least the DH can be on a Sunday when that happens.

Oh and the national series already exist – it’s this Continental layer that doesn’t.

nickc
I’m not sure how many people are going to be banging on the doors to take on that job
There’s always going to be a steady stream of kids lining up to be the next DH winner. It’s not the work of genius to see that the groups of people that will benefit the most from that are the Teams that get invited to take part in the world cup, and the national bodies interested in the next round of the Olympics. It shouldn’t be beyond their wit to organise themselves accordingly, especially as the bones of a format has been handed to them on a plate.

Yes there will “always”? be a bunch of youngsters that want to race DH, that genie’s out of the bottle.  Yes there is a possibility that the invited teams may, like in F1, be in a very privileged position to exploit that status and make money from sponsorship opportunities born from the fact that they’re on TV 15+ weekends a year. But it’s expensive to do on a truly global scale in a way that the bike industry probably can’t support currently, certainly not outside the top 3 or 4 teams.

It’s all running before we can walk right now

I’m not sure where you’re going with the national bodies and the Olympics . . . .

I’m sure there’s an opportunity but doubt it’s worth the risk vs reward for the organiser on a “continental” scale.

They’re proposing that these series exist but when they talk about “we” what they mean is “you” as in someone else, they’re going to let market forces and the wider DH race community sort that one out . . .

They don’t “feel they should be involved” or some words that mean the same

How’s a Continental series going to work anyway? 80% of World Cups are in Europe (mostly France) and most of the entrants too. This **** about 5 from each continent isn’t even going to cover the UK each year let alone France and the other European countries.

Trouble is I doubt that WB are going to be making a significant amount of money off the back of DH. Very few from the MTB community will admit to have signed up for a sub and they’re going to need viewing figures to sell advertising.  It just feels really ill conceived.  How long before the exec. responsible loses confidence and it all falls down?

weeksy
The riders want a decent salary.

And who’s going to give them that? Because it sure as **** ain’t going to be WB or the UCI and all the teams are doing is paying out to be part of the show.  WB and Chris Ball keep telling us they’ve invested heavily, but how much of that has been in setting up the broadcast vs on the actual sport and it’s participants. The only visible changes have been the change to stick markers from tape and the addition of the stupid course pillows.

The riders would race anywhere on anything so long as it was timed and WB are exploiting that need to race to create a show and line their own pockets.  If this change had happened organically over a number of years it would have been manageable but this change everything and hide it behind a paywall approach has p*ssed everyone right off. Fans, (most) riders and teams alike.  The only person I’ve heard talk positively about it is Bruni and that’s because he’d like to be paid like contemporaries in other sports.

There was definitely some room for improvement but this was too much too soon and it’s alienated the natural fans and annoyed the participants.  It’s a good job the racing hasn’t suffered and that there’s a lot of content being generated in other channels.

I’d have gone for a Peter Powell as I loved mine as a kid in the 70s as my kids now do theirs.  we’ve got a power kite but it’s ****ing terrifying/hilarious to use so the smaller more manageable one comes out more often.

Reminds me, we ought to get it out.  I’m not sure we’ve used it this year which is a shame.  No Welsh “beach” holidays this year means it hasn’t got much of a look in.

nealc
Well this technophobe is really outdoing himself today. All ordered – let’s see what turns up! The thread may get a hilarious update!

Many thanks for the help everyone.

best of luck.  Personally I’d rather remove a body part than use Sketchup so I reckon you’ve done well.  So long as it previews ok on the website, you should be ok. Hope it turns out as you expect.

cp

I start at £85/hour and generally expect a min. 1 hour.

Holy ****! I should have charged more when i was freelance.  Hell, I should go back to being freelance!

i think we’ll have to wait until it’s a post Farage world before we can start to think about rejoining. He’s too powerful a personality with too many actually powerful (rich & influential) supporters to make it work.

nickc

‘settled’ and so recently

The referendum was 8 years and 5 prime ministers ago! I’m sure we now have all the evidence we need that it was a bad decision and that it’s time to turn things around.

I know Starmer’s terrified of the lexiteers (and Farage) but FFS man, grow a pair.

sillyoldman

Funn’s own pictures of the product show it mounted in line with HTA, and with the bar markings centred on the stem face plate markings which put the bars in line with HTA as all other brands seem to do.

Funn Upturn High Riser Handlebar (funnmtb.com)

sillyoldman
That doesn’t appear to be universally agreed.

Well if you don’t agree then that’s not universal but . . .

The dimensions of angle and sweep are given relative to vertical as it’s the only constant. (head angles are all different) so bars are defaulted to vertical.  Therefore a vertical bar is at neutral reach.  If you’re angling your riser back to match the fork angle you’re going to be very uncomfortable.

ocrider
Surely it’s an obligation to use the official name for the venue every… single… time, because they’ve paid to host the race?

I was about to say that the Peyragudes bit doesn’t feature on any of the UCI info but checking the UCI website it seems that it does.

Doesn’t change the fact that it was annoying and should have been dropped for 90% of the times he said the venue name. I shouldn’t dislike him, he’s very knowledgeable and has been around a long time but, by god he’s dull.

Those aren’t high rise bars, these are high rise bars!

DEITY ::: HIGHSIDE 80MM RISE HANDLEBAR – DEITY | Premium Race Goods (deitycomponents.com)

80mm And they’re great! Takes some getting used to the way they look mind.

sillyoldman
Tall bars or spacers both reduce reach. If you roll the bars forward to be steeper than HTA, then you’re increasing effective stem length to offset the reach reduction.

Spacers yes but bars don’t reduce reach so long as you orientate vertically – it’s the stem location that varies the reach and if you’re comfortable with changing the sweep you can vary the reach slightly by angling the bars fwd or back.

M23 heading for the ferry end of July we get off for a wee stop at a small services at a junction with roundabout.  Leave the services to get back on and the exit slip is completely blocked off and the detour is over 30 minutes through the next town. No prior warning and this on one of the busiest tourist routes on one of the busiest weekend of the year when everyone is going to have worked out their route and time planning based on a couple of 10 minute stops.  We weren’t late for the ferry but we couldn’t get on the earlier one that we’d hoped to.

Great racing – watched the Juniors live then caught up with the highlights later.  Shame about Tahnee getting the rain/fog as it would have been good to see her win again but the men’s race was pretty spectacular.  Good to see Reece Wilson back to form.

I was getting more than a bit frustrated with Ric however just call it Loudenvielle FFS – no one one needs you to say Peyragudes every bloody time.  We get it, you did your research but the race is Loudenviele, just ****ing leave it!

Glad it’s not just me that finds the use of the word (even if it’s appropriate – in France) thoroughly pretentious.

The support for the Tories will return because people will forget just how bad they actually are/were and will migrate back to the bucolic paradise, post WW2 world of that they like to evoke. That and the bull**** suggestion that if you work hard you can be just like them.  And that Labour will steal or your money and give it to others.

The Tories simply appeal to our selfish side.  That’s pretty much all they have to do.

I imagine they’re great to take the donkey work out of filling a large inflator reservoir (mine’s a converted fire extinguisher) – might have to get one.

WTF is a bidon?

My Keewee Chromo 8 is in the garage. I’ve built it up as a bit of a restomod with more up to date parts and I bloody love it.  It doesn’t get ridden much because bikes have changed and the shape feels weird now,  It’s a bit short at the front long at the back.  BITD it was the longest most stable bike imaginable, but now, it’s shorter overall than my trail/enduro bike.

Re the Aireal hubs – I’ve also got a set of those from Topshelf – they are lovely things and mine are also going strong on my DJ Curtis.  Nicely quiet things they are.

mahalo
I still find it incredibly exciting to watch, especially at the sharp end (how can you not be blown away by Pierron’s winning run at Les Gets!?) but Its definitely lost its edge without Warner, and the tracks are becoming more and more less interesting, but the racing is great, its just being let down by the coverage.

One thing is for sure tho, never miss Wyn TV from the pits afterwards – that is primo content!

Agree with most of that, .though for balance I did watch the Hardline coverage with Warner commentating and thought he was a bit much but maybe he was over compensating a bit. Wyn’s stuff is superb – watched his post Worlds interviews last night and was really impressed with the interaction and depth of interest.  He’s obviously well loved throughout the sport and it really shows in how people respond to him.

Love it  I watch a  lot of the Vlog stuff on YT from Bernard and the likes and love Cathro’s inputs. It’s the only sport I actively seek out to watch and think it’s pretty special. I will admit to watching the race on Saturday slightly behind and did FF through a lot of the more unremarkable backmarkers but I did want to get to the result.

Since it went to Discovery I haven’t watched anything live as  some kind of protest at the attempted monetisation of it and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.  If they start supporting the sport, the teams and the riders in particular I may change my mind but for now it feels like they’re just trying to milk everyone’s good will and enthusiasm. Most of these riders would race if they had to pay for it themselves and there was no publicity.  Let’s face it that is how everyone started.  Disco trying to make it a TV friendly cash cow without the investment in the sport or the participants seems, well wrong.

Do I talk about it much on here? not a lot but then I don’t talk about it much anywhere else.

The BBC coverage was great except for the slightly vague male presenter (who was he?) and them missing the one key bit of the race but I guess that was the feed rather than their editing. How were they to know that that at the exact moment they cut away to show the podium would be when Bruni binned it? Tracey was a great addition and spoke with actual experience of the sharp end of the sport rather than the pre-prepared script the guy seemed to have.

Would love to see more of it on the BBC. As someone above said, it would make a great Ski Sunday style magazine programme. Though we’d probably all hate it.

I’ve made some spring adapters so I could fit a Cane Creek spring to ,my Ohlins shock and a chain guide spacer because I got fed up of it spinning on the bodged washer setup.

For the Cane Creek fender – surely it’s just a matter of making an adapter for one of the other universal fit ones rather than print the whole thing.  I can’t imagine that PLA would be the right material to make one from. Especially 3D printed.

Monday was a bit much for me I had to switch to R4 – I’ve realised that apart from a few tracks, that I can’t stand reggae.

Grimly has been ok, certainly better than I’d expect from a Radio 1 breakfast host but I do miss LaLa.  Hope she gets better and comes back soon.

RustyNissanPrairie
Opened the thread hoping Guy Garvey pretentious hour had been canned. It spoils my Sunday afternoon tinkering and fettling sessions.

Love GG and find him far from pretentious but each to their own.

One thing that’s always got me is “The Rebel Dread” has anyone else ever heard anyone else refer to them in in the same way? IE I’m Don Letts, also known as . . . . ” as if that means anything to anyone. Thankfully I can’t stand reggae so avoid the programme but can’t swerve the trailers.

That’s horrid on many levels

He’s come a long way from this

p4pb247358.jpg (400×600) (pinkbike.org)

spooky_b329
One rugged waterproof socket standard with an intelligent voltage sensing charger and in years to come you’d be able to leave yours at the office (and share with colleagues) and your other half’s at home etc etc

Sounds like Nokias in the 90s – change is constant and nothing lasts forever.

sharkattack
20mm front axles on everything.

15mm should never have happened.

+1 Well said sir. All the other standards have at least some merit – the 15mm hade no sense when there was already a perfectly suitable (and better) standard available and in use on all DH forks.

ayjaydoubleyou

might have been a good idea 15 years ago, but given where we are now with existing products, cant we just standardise at 110×15?

No.   It didn’t make any sense then and it makes no sense now.  Tough **** to all those companies and individuals that adopted it. You can all buy another wheel when you change fork.

martinhutch
HP can’t even make a functioning printer, let alone control the weather.

I’ve just had to wrestle with an HP Plotter and was thinking exactly the same thing. I’d sink HP if I could.

make a call to Johnny Smith and get him to do it as part of his barn fird series – a Moke will be pretty interesting and current as they’ve just launched a new electric version.  Watch a few of the series for ideas of what could be needed.  Fortunately it’s a clockwork car so shouldn’t have too many issues. Might want to check the distributor and give the points a clean

Take a foot pump –  the tyres will be flat.

Oh and you’ll need imperial sockets/spanners for most stuff. These were built in the dark ages.

Just be careful for it not to be your only card – the chip is the wrong end of the card and the strip is too close to the edge for the French pay at pump fuel stations. I had to use my regular bank card for those.

A lot of it will be welcomed by your local bike charity – if you’re near Cheltenham, Stratford or Manchester  these guys are great – Our Charity Bike Shops | Cyclists Fighting Cancer (cyclistsfc.org.uk)

OK I’ll concede that If the rear brake is locked the chain can go tight if you inadvertently pedal forwards against it and yes O-Chain will give you some cushion in this situation but seriously, this isn’t what it’s designed for and do people really need to lock the back wheel up all the time?   Remember – skids are for kids.

GeForceJunky
Go ride your favourite downhill with no chain and you’ll find out.

Not the same thing. At all.

Removing the chain removes both the weight of the chain, the dynamic effects of it flapping about and some additional damping caused by the clutch/spring mechanism in the rear mech. All these will make the suspension more active.

For O-Chain to be claiming that that’s the effect it gives is ridiculous.

Stevelol
I have one on my Stumpy as I find it gives a lot of feedback through pedals when locking rear up on really steep trails, combined with stfu chain silencer it’s a really quiet setup, 6° setting.

If you’re locking up – of course you’re going to get feedback – the whole bike’s jumping about.  I quite like the STFUs but I can’t see why you’d run both.

In some ways I love O-Chain as it shows that the POE arms race is ridiculous but otherwise (IMHO) it’s snake oil.