Argh! This makes me so mad. Why is this kind of thing happening? What goes through the mind of those responsible?

Sounds like you’re bang in the middle of the Apple target market then.

lol you’re probably right.

Personally I’d rather have a high spec Specialized than a mediocre Santa Cruz, but I’m not much of a brand tart!

The thing is, the mediocre Santa Cruz won’t be mediocre. It will still be a great bike and more than enough bike for many, many mountain bikers. Many people will value the brand/image of the SC above the incremental improvements of the objectively better Spesh, which they may not even notice or need. Same thing with Apple and no doubt countless other premium brands who make stuff that isn’t objectively better than the competition.

Making a good product is more than just making a good product. A bad product well marketed will always be more successful than a better product badly marketed.

Skim-read the last couple of pages to catch up. Nowt new over previous Apple threads, so I will contribute what I’ve contributed before :-)

I use Apple iMac/MacBook and Windows 10 laptops. I like both and both frustrate me from time-to-time, although I confess that “go-slows” are much more common on my 2011(?) iMac than my newer-but-much-cheaper Dell laptop.

The thing is, I’m sat at my 2011 iMac and it still looks great, the keyboard feels great and the trackpad is as fab as it was the first day I used it. I’ve never had that sense of pleasure-to-use with any Windows machine. Maybe a similar priced “premium” Windows machine would be just as awesome – and I do like the look of the Surface Studio – but Apple have just hooked me in with their marketing, making me believe they have the premium products. It’s been said above, but the other thing I love is knowing that if a need a thingy, I just get the Apple thingy, rather than have excessive and confusing choice. For some people that’s a bad thing; for me it’s a positive. It makes me a bit sad when Apple rumours suggest a product line being cut.

<Bike analogy alert>For similar reasons I’d rather spend big bucks on a Santa Cruz rather than the same amount on a Trek or a Giant, even though the latter might objectively be better bikes</Bike analogy alert>

I’ll admit to being an Apple fan. It started with an iPhone (which was superb and really did “just work”) and has since moved on to iPads, iMacs, MacBooks and Apple TVs. I’d like to say I like them because they just work, but recent experience of freezing iMacs and MacBook buttons that don’t seem as responsive as they used to be is tainting that view.

What they continue to do well, is make hardware that is quite simply a joy to use. Using the ubiquitous car analogy, I know a Skoda will objectively do everything I need, but driving a Porsche gives me what I want.

Announcement expected at 1000.

BBC saying the meeting of Buckingham Palace staff is at 10am. No suggestion of a public announcement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39801908

I like to use them just so that when a walker confronts me, I can tell them I have exactly the same RoW as they do.

You need to be a bit careful with this argument. Many of these paths are on Open Access land which has rights of ways on foot but not on bike. Even then it gets a bit confusing:

But you can use access land for horse-riding and cycling if:

[*]the landowner allows it
[*]public bridleways or byways cross the land – horse riders and cyclists can ride along these
[*]there are local traditions, or rights, of access[/*]

I’m sure there are example of were trespass became a “tradition of access” (Kinder Scout?), but it sounds like an ill-defined can of worms to me.

On the key of an OS map, the black dotted line is under the “ROADS AND PATHS” SECTION, which includes motorways, A roads, B roads etc. This section also states “Not necessarily rights of way”.

You dont see many of them in England though I expect.

Not hard to find a few on my local OL24 OS map of the White Peak and I’ve noticed quite a few in the Lakes too. I guess they’re just the passage of many, many feet (not necessarily human).

Nowt wrong with Vestax IMHO

Solidly built and sounds OK, but I never satisfactorily got the cartridge stable enough for scratching and the pitch control was poor; there was far too big a delay between small changes on the pitch slider and an actual change of pitch. Beat syncing was much harder on the Vestax PDT-5000 than on the SL 1200/1210s.

Is the upshot that, unless you pay for Veloviewer or Strava Premium, you can’t play on this thread? :-(

Me neither Legend, me neither. Is it a Premium thing?

Jealous

One of my life mistakes was buying some Vestax that the DJ shop told me were as good as 1210s.

Thanks for this feedback everyone. All useful stuff. Keep it coming.

What do you do to gather lots of mud in your kneepad?

In winter my knee pads will often come back covered in mud splatter. I imagine that mud splatter will get stuck in the knees of the Trail Skins.

In the interest of balance, I’ve got over my frustration about this. I have a 4 year old bike with 26″ wheels, a double chainring and my dropper post isn’t even stealth (shock horror). I love my bike more than ever. It *used* to be frustrating when my bike was new and obsolete but now it’s old and obsolete I’ve got over myself :lol:

Is it the spin cycle rather than the temperature that does the damage?

Have you considered Endura Singletrack pads?

I think I tried them ages ago and didn’t like the fit. I’ve tried loads on and the 3 above are the ones I like; just need to pick one :-)

Actually that’s a very good point Del. My old D30 pads had a removable D30 piece and they then got thrown in the washing machine. It looks like more modern pads are not machine washable, which is a shame.

I quite like stickers on a custom build. Shame this got nicked.

stilltortoise by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

I’ll watch this with interest. I replaced a Reverb recently due to two big scratches put on the old one (my fault entirely). The old one had been faultless for the 4 years I’d had it. The new one is doing similar stuff to Iain’s.

the chinstrap should be done up tight so you cannot eat while wearing it

Try telling that to the pro tour

do bottle mount users not find their bottles being shaken out of the cage on rough bits ?

Yes. I’ve ridden with bottle mount users and had to retrace our route to retrieve escaped bottles and it used to happen to me in the old days. Other people may not have this problem.

If my local town had the love for cycling and the accompanying infrastructure that other European countries have, I’d be less bothered about wearing a helmet and telling my kids to wear a helmet when commuting and pottering around town and country. Unfortunately, we are a country where cyclists have to share the highways with anti-cyclist road users.

As for cycling as a sport rather than a means of transport, some of us are steady pootlers on relatively easy terrain whereas others push a bit closer to the limit and falling is part of the game. I’d be picking myself off the floor a lot more slowly – if at all – if it wasn’t for helmets.

We don’t have to wear helmets for driving our cars, but we do have to wear helmets when racing our cars around a race track. One is a means of transport and the other is a sport, with different levels of acceptable risk. Similar differences exist with cycling, but we constantly bundle all types of cycling together as one.

Regardless of all that, I use this photo and my (hazy) memory of this crash to remind me why I prefer to wear a helmet.

Broken helmet left by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

It’s not hard to find Labour’s Top 10 pledges (“policy ideas”) on the Labour website. Dazh has found 11 :-) I’m still gobsmacked that Labour sent a completely unprepared MP onto Radio 4 who didn’t mention one of these. Maybe they’ve all been instructed to keep quiet when asked about policies (as opposed to pledges) until the manifesto is out. If that’s the case, best to keep them locked away rather than make an idiot of themselves (and Labour).

@kimbers – Grum is saying the policies are there for all to see in the public domain.

And yet it’s all Corbyn’s fault that no-one knows what his policies are. Hmmm….

It’s extremely important as a leader to make sure your team understand where you’re going and how you want to get there. Referring once more to the car crash Dawn Butler interview on PM last night, she failed to talk about policies despite being asked – politely – several times. If your team can’t articulate policies effectively, you have to have a bit of a look at your leadership. A completely wasted opportunity, and I hope for Labour’s sake it is not as damaging to them as it felt whilst I was cringing listening to it.

that was a real car crash interview by dawn butler

Understatement. That was possibly the single worst interview I’ve had the “pleasure” of listening to. Radio 4’s PM is a key political radio show, so why roll out an MP to be interviewed who has neither the skills nor knowledge to negotiate relatively tame questioning. Do Labour even realise how damaging this buffoonery is to hopes of swaying undecided electorate? I tell you; it sways them the wrong way.

Not used Windows Movie Maker since XP days, but I loved it. It’s simplicity was a huge plus, since it focuses you on the process and skill of editing the raw footage into something watchable rather than relying on lots of fancy transitions and other effects. The former is a skill and very enjoyable, the latter is often lipstick on a pig (and bad lipstick at that!). It’s amazing how even badly shot footage can be made into something watchable if you concentrate on telling a story via the editing.

Hmm, reading all the comments above is making me wonder if my calliper is leaking too :-?

Thanks dashed. I’m not far from Stockport.

When I started climbing (early 1980s) it was common practice to make your own cord loops for loose nuts and hexentrics.

In the old days, climbing shops would routinely cut cord to length for hexs, Moacs etc and tie the knot for the customer. I guess you can’t do that kind of thing any more :-)

On a related topic, is there somewhere that will take in old climbing equipment for recycling? Like many on this thread I have a box of (unused) climbing equipment that I don’t want to simply put in landfill.

Enjoy…and take your lightest bike. You will be carrying or pushing it more than once ;-)

Lakeland hike-a-bike May 2016 by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

Lakeland hike-a-bike May 2016 by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

More photos

for you lot who are 80% single ring, what do you do on the other 20% of your rides? ;-) :lol:

OP, I did this route last year, but starting (and finishing) in Staveley which makes it 31km. Strava tells me I was riding for 3hr 23m and total elapsed time (with sandwich and photo stops) was 4hr 47m. Plenty of hike-a-bike. You’ll still be doing the hardest half so draw your own conclusions :-)

I’ve got over 20 sets of contaminated pads.

I’ve put pads in the oven and that’s sorted them out a treat (along with the cleaning of rotors and addressing any other root causes, naturally). Never even occurred to me that it might cause a problem with the oven, but then I’m only doing 1 set at a time.

You can get a complete SLX brake set for around £100 if you shop around which, unless you have a particularly cheap source, is a lot cheaper than 20 sets of brake pads. I don’t like throwing things away that might be mendable, but I’d have long since given up with your brakes. Life’s too short.

[EDIT] are you sure the callipers are leaking? Could it be a bit of careless GT85 getting on the rotors? I also find my brakes get squeaky and less effective, but it seems to be related to not riding enough. Ride more and the problem sorts itself out ;-)

Black? Black is so yesterday ;-)

These make me feel like a superhero :lol:

Climbing up to Addlebrough by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

I haz XTR and it shifts 4 at time (I think), awsumz

I’ve had SLX, XT and who knows what else and they all shift 4 gears at a time, but I’ve never found it as convenient as dumping a chainring. For the record I did used to ride 1 x 9 and I did miss the gears, but I appreciate the range of ratios on a 1 x 11 is much broader now. I’ll try it one day, but for now it’s a big cost to solve no appreciable problem; I’d rather spend the money on a riding holiday :-)

just twist and drop half a cassette, fairly easy

This is where I have my doubts. I have always found jumping to a smaller chainring quicker, easier and less likely to miss a gear than climbing up the cassette. I might try it when my current drive train wears out, but I’m not sure it solves a problem I have just yet :-?

lol bull for the trail/enduro bike and the XC bike

I wasn’t sure what to select there, I must admit :lol:

For those who have gone single and are happy, do you ever miss the ability to quickly dump gears? I love that on a double when approaching a suddenly very steep and/or very technical climb that requires me to lose a load of gears quickly. I think I’d miss that.

OK for me Convert

The whole notion of demoing bikes is one I believe in, but it has its pitfalls. I remember demoing an Orange 5 back-to-back with a Yeti ASR-5. On paper the Yeti was the one I thought was the bike for me, but the Orange was the one that I had the most fun on. The thing is, I’d done a reasonably hard 90 minutes on the 5 before having a go on the Yeti. Would I have come to the same conclusion had I ridden the Yeti first?

The lesson: don’t beast yourself demoing a bike and then go straight out and demo another, and wonder why the second demo feels hard work :lol: