Tend to agree with Herman ^^ here. Having a cool name is one thing, but it’s all about the product. Lots of obscure business names end up being ‘cool’ only due to the strength of the product. I mean ‘Adidas’?

Also, if the market for bike pictures goes down the toilet and you end up taking wedding photographs just to earn a living, then you won’t be wanting an overly specific name that you’ll have to change, re-do the website, business cards etc etc. Using your name is the most adaptable option.

mesmerizing video…

Spoke: pictures worth 1000 words.

Some great advice here. I also recommend a foam roller. Has helped alleviate my back pain and worked wonders for ITB as well.

Hotmail wentdown for about 14 hours yesterday[/url] for a lot of people, including mine. Mine’s back up now, but I’d imagine many are still affected.

I’ve built a few bikes now. That Icetools set looks good for a starter – but @mangatank is right, get a good rubber mallet. Essentially what you also need is:

* A good set of allens (for most things)
* A pedal spanner (makes life so much easier than adjustable wrench)
* Good padded gloves – so you don’t cut your knuckles open when removing pedals, cassette or BB
* Cable cutters (gear cables and housing – you need a clean cut)
* Screwdrivers
* Chain tool
* Tweezers (used these many times when things get dropped inside tubes, or when pads need replacing)
* Appropriate cassette tools (lock ring tool + chain whip + large adjustable spanner for leverage)
* Appropriate BB tools (external BB wrench for example)
* Chainring bolt spanner (or something that works for holding them while you use an allen key – I’ve had success with a chisel before)
* Tyre levers, spoke key, etc
* A star nutter setter is useful and hard to bodge one
* Crown race setter (easily made from old plastic pipe)
* Headset press (easily made from bolts and washers – see Youtube or Ebay)
* Pipe cutter (for cutting fork steerers, seat tubes, handle bars – makes a much neater job than hack saw)
* Hack saw – sometimes need this to finish the job
* Acres of grease (worth getting a gun)
* Degreasers and cleaners
* Teflon lubes and regular lubes
* A large parts bin and an endless supply of rags
* Lots of cable ties – get long thick ones as well as short, thin ones.
* Finally, get a bike stand, makes life soooo much easier. I got a good folding one off Ebay for £40.

Some of that may not apply if you are doing SS of course. As you’ll probably know, you’ll need SS compatible frame dropouts and you may need cassette spacers to get the chainline right, or use a chain tension device. If using a rigid fork, I’d get one that compensates for the suspension travel so your frame geometry is correct.

As people have mentioned, the biggest issue when building bikes is compatibility of components – so look into that before you buy anything. So many different sizes and standards. For example, Shimano shifters not working with Sram rear mechs, or BB/ crankset compatibility. Plan out the bike before you buy, basically. Books are useful, but Youtube is defo your friend.

It’s a lot of fun though 🙂

Not sure what you do, so from a purely living and cycling perspective – I’d go for something south of Richmond Park – positioning you nicely for the various parks round that way, the Thames path, the Grand Union canal at Brentford, plus the riding out to the South Downs and train links or easy driving to Dorking or Swinley, as well as the easy access into central London. So anywhere from Merton round Sutton up to Twickenham. I think you’d be able to get a (fairly nice) 1 bed for 1K in that area.

Break of dawn – sunrise – sundance. Cut La Roc Mix – who managed the Bentleys!

In “Reply”, click on “Video”
An applet appears. Paste the link into this box. If it’s https, remove the s so it’s just http.
Click OK….

time for some old skool drum slaps…

Crikey,
Thought this thread had died.
Air>Fire
tune is HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE ‘FIRE’ (MR SCRUFF MIX)

I’ve been having the same problem. The simple solution is overshoes, but they get shredded quickly and the strap-under-shoe isn’t ideal. They also look a bit daft IMHO.
I was hoping the Vans Waterproof Switchback would be the answer (half duck-boot affair) – are those the ones you mean Northwind?
Otherwise I’ve considered getting Goretex boots, or Nike Air Force 1 waterproof boots re-soled in Stealth. All a bit pricey though.
If only Teva or 5.10 made a flat MTB shoes that were GENUINELY waterproof when riding through puddles, I’d be happy. So strange that they can’t seem to get it right, even on £90 shoes.

EDIT – @ratadog – those Inov8 look interesting. How stiff is the sole? Also, anybody know how they get re-sole a raised tread like that with Stealth rubber?

…unless I’m reading this wrong and the ‘DH zone’ will actually contain those runs separately… *fingers crossed*

Can anyone see what’s happening at the Labrynth? Looks like possibly going in at the end of deerstalker and doing a portion of the labrynth? But then it looks like it goes in and turns right (whereas the labrynth is on the left).

Think that’s right.
Here’s the (incomplete)[list]old map[/list]
Here’s the [list]new map[/list]

Looks like Babymaker and that rather fun downhill run next to it are to be bulldozed, which is a shame.

Depends what you need. If you need it now, get a GD. If you can wait 4/5 months, you can wait for the KS Lev to land in the UK. Looks awesome. The GD is quite a bit lighter iirc, but fugly cable routing compared to LEV.

The Killing (we watched the US version)
The Wire is a must
Sleeper Cell
Jericho – terrible in every possible way, but still strangely addictive.

Reading between the lines, it looks like a long term money spinner for the crown estate while attempting to keep it all under their control. Sounds like someone’s realised they could be making a lot more money out of it than they are. Part of its charm was that it wasn’t a trail centre.

There could be some advantages, but as someone once said, the art of diplomacy is telling someone to go to hell and making them think they’ll enjoy the journey. And this sounds like a very diplomatic press release. Hoping to be proved wrong.

Damn, and I was about to smugly post a tune that linked ‘Attack’ ‘Four’ and ‘Terry Callier’ all together. Ah well.

You find people and machines in factories…

Spoke to the missus about this a while back. She used to work in Forensics. It’s possible the police station wouldn’t have spit kits to hand (but likely they will, for themselves). She thought it was worth a try as you may get a conviction and compensation – especially if caught on camera or by witnesses and even more so if accompanied by any other type of assault. The police hold large accounts with the forensic services and put all kinds of samples through every day. The person would need to be on the database – that’s correct. But still, if it’s just popping into the local plod office for a yay or nay, I’d do it.

Plod would use resources of DNA testing on a minor assault?

Stechford woman jailed for spitting on driver of Number 14 bus in Lea Hall

Spitkit convicts cyclist

go straight to the police

they can take a swab for dna, its assault iirc?

All correct. If you ever get spat on, it’s assault – head to nearest police station for swab.

RIP Terry.

Better at rolling over big rocks and more momentum. Sounds like they should be good for downhill to me… More so than XC even.

@Rorschach – best gif on STW for a long time 😆

Oh no, not again…
Totally agree with jameso though. The tests are pretty pointless. Even if you had the same rider on two bikes, the one he rides first might be given an advantage or disadvantage, depending on how tired he gets and whether he’s had his Weetabix. And anyone can post quite different times on every run down the same trail on the same day. That fact that the first three riders in the Olympics, from a field dominated by 29ers, were all on different wheel sizes shows that it’s the rider, not the wheel, and that all these wheel sizes are perfectly valid sizes to have as a bike wheel. But it also shows, I think, that most of the claims are just pure marketing bull. If wheel size doesn’t make a difference, how else do you sell it? So it’s really just personal preference – and the power of suggestion.

OK So, lots of people ride 29er and find it better – especially the taller amongst us. I think we can agree on that?
29ers are being heavily marketed with various claims by the manufacturers that they ‘wheel-out’ (ho ho) with every new product. I think we can agree on that?
I think there are three types of people who buy any product. 1 – People who generally find it better. 2 – People who’ve been sold on the marketing and 3. People who don’t want to feel left behind by the trends.
So, if enough people find them good, and enough people are persuaded by the marketing, the 29″ domination becomes self-fulfilling. And before anyone mentions supply and demand – it’s the job of marketing to create new demand where there was none before.
Personally, I don’t care what bike you ride. I’m short and find 29ers unwieldy and even ungainly. I moved from BMX to MTB and had to adapt, took me a while to regain bunny hop height etc. I tried a Spesh 29er at the cycle show, as well as a 26″ Kinesis and a couple of 26″ Pivots. The Spesh felt dreadful – didn’t help that they hadn’t bothered putting decent pedals on it. I can jump and flick my road bike even – mainly because it doesn’t have wheels/rubber the size and weight of mill stones. No doubt they’ll make a 29 bike I can jump and flick with ease one day – but it will cost 5K and still look like I’m a kid on my dad’s bike.

Anyway, my point here is that I’m sticking with 26″ out of preference. My concern, and that of many I assume, is that companies like Specialized will stop making 26″ altogether and others will follow suit. So I’ll be a dying breed finding it hard to find parts and being laughed at at trail centres on my ‘kid’s bike’ 😆
People can laugh at me all they want – but I’ll need the parts! So, I think the reaction you’re experiencing if defensiveness, IMHO.

Halfords chain cleaning tool and Fenwick’s foamer for me.

Cattle amuse your Mrs as well.

just as crazy is the reverse of that notion – that you and everything around you, no matter how solid you perceive it to be – is mostly nothing – mostly gaps between particles.

I’m afraid even the concept of ‘nothing’ is now in question, as Prof. Jim explained in this excellent two-parter, if you can find a recording somewhere!

^^ That’s actually a very good point. Maybe all the train line cable theft experts will be heading to North Devon with cutting gear 😆

Great photos. Really like the last one in particular. 🙂