My predictions:

Ireland too strong for Scotland playing a forward based power game around slow ball – hope I’m wrong. I’d love to see a Glasgow style running rugby fest give Scotland the win.

England to just edge France after a close match.

Wales end up comfortably beating Italy probably after not really playing for at least a half.

Ben Kay looked distraught during the post match analysis!

wrecker – Member
Tigers are complete gash at the moment.
Anyone see the sarries vs toulon game? Wondering how Lozowski got on at 15.

Yes – good game despite the low score; some massive hits!

Lozowski was steady – ran the ball back a few times – was on the end of a a massive hit from Bastareau but was up pretty quickly.

Glasgow are playing well but Leicester are absolutely woeful.

Anyone else think the Toulon hooker dived over the sale prop (Longbottom?) and that should never have been a yellow car?

Neutral but that’s twice (last was against Saracens) I’ve seen Sale hard done by with a Yellow card they didn’t deserve in the last 10 when (arguably) on the verge of creating an upset.

Shocking first half from Leicester in Paris – hard to see them coming back from 22 – 3 down!

Agree that’s ridiculous – the laws (or “guidelines”) have become completely farcical.

Further update here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-38483180

As I’ve said before I don’t believe rugby can withstand this level of slow motion video refereeing and remain a viable game. If you looked at every tackle and ruck in slow motion from every available angle I reckon you could find around 5 red cards a game using the current criteria.

The drive for player safety is laudable but unachievable via penalisation imo when players are constantly getting more powerful and a slip means that a legal hit into the chest / ribs becomes an illegal hit to the head. I think a better solution would be to force players to become less powerful by making the game more aerobic – if everyone lost 5-10 Kg to allow them to perform for longer at their anaerobic limit I suspect we’d see less injuries.

This might be useful:

https://gravitykids.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/pedals-for-kids-options/%5B/url%5D

ctk – Member
I am in a similar dilemma myself and am either going to buy a used Islabike or a used cheaper bike to upgrade/ weight weenie but I’d be buying a Ridgeback/Carrera for £50ish so plenty of cash for upgrades.

By the time you are spending £200 I think you might aswell just go the whole hog and get the Islabike.

Ah yes but that “for just £200 more” logic leads you here:

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/products/bikes/item/beinn-20-large

then here:

http://earlyrider.com/collections/all-bikes/products/belter-20-trail-3

then here:

http://earlyrider.com/collections/all-bikes/products/belter-20-trail-3s

then (assuming you limit yourself to hardtails) ultimately here:

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/products/bikes/item/beinn-20-pro-series-5

and you’ve spent a grand.

I also think to take 2.6Kg of your £50 Ridgeback / Carrera to get to the Verenti weight you’ll need to spend more than the £120 difference unless you’ve got some carbon 20″ forks in your parts bin.

It’s just possible I’m over researching this though… can you tell I’m off work for half term?

ctk – Member
You’d think they’d be able to get a bit closer to the Islabikes weight wouldn’t you? Where is the Islabike saving all that weight?

Good question – looking at he spec it’s not frame, gears or brakes so I suspect it must be handlebars (steel on the Verenti), chainring, seat post, wheels and possibly tyres and pedals?

letmetalktomark – Member
1300g seems like a lot to try and loose from the build but 600g may be possible

Agreed – the steel handlebars seem a good place to start.

What age will the rider be? I ask as we are soon to be looking at 20” bikes …….

6 1/2 with a very competitive / jealous 4 1/2 year old little sister who will be inheriting a Cnoc 16 vice her Cnoc 14.

One disadvantage with the Verenti is they don’t do smaller 20″ bikes like Frog and Isla – I’d have liked to potentially get them both 20″ bikes around the same time.

I think overuse of the TMO and replays is ruining the game – Rugby Union just can’t withstand the scrutiny of every split second player decision being judged from multiple angles by the TMO.

I suspect the majority (if not all) yellow cards given this weekend were technically correct within the laws of the game but many were unnecessary, pedantic and only visible after repeated slow motion replays. This ruins the flow of the game for both spectators and players and feels, to me at least, as counter to the ethos of the game.

I’d rather see the TMO only called upon by the referee where a try is in doubt (and then only sparingly) or the ref has seen an incident, is sure it’s serious and need to review it.

TJ – agree it’d be interesting to see Watson get a Scotland call up; is he in the international set up at all?

Thought this may have caused more comment…

If more forces adopt it then riding (or indeed driving) with a camera will become worthwhile as it’ll ensure dangerous drivers are removed from the roads.

Poncho and return the other waterproof top and you won’t need the shorts?

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/900-city-poncho-yellow-black-id_8354731.html

Good match and Edinburgh deserved the win.

I thought the ref did his best to ruin it though with some bizarre decisions, overuse of the TMO and a ridiculous amount of yellow cards for some quite minor incidents.

We need to clone Nigel…

Great first half from Edinburgh. Some excellent turnovers really exposing Quins.

TJ – I see what you mean about Watson – a classic specialist openside; a rare thing in the NH these days…

Just saw that – really sad news.

What a game! Real edge of the seat stuff at the end – well done Sarries for holding on.

Not sure what’s going on with 1/2p’s footwork – think I’ve seen him slip more in this game than the combined total of every previous game I’ve watched.

Still playing in mouldies when he should have moved to studs / blades?

Not normally a Sarries fan but they’ve just put in a sublime first half performance against Toulon – ran in 3 great tries and made some world class players look pretty ordinary.

Worth turning on for the 2nd half if you’re not already watching!

Is that true for all the CTC trails – Stoughton, Rogate etc?

Trailseeker – Member
I can’t recommend a Mudhugger – on slow wet climbs I was getting a wet back mudhugger needs to be about 20mm longer on the 26″ wheel version.
But about a week after discovering this, a small branch jammed between the guard & tyre & broke the cable ties – I ended up with on of these:

I’ve got both and whilst they’re both relatively effective the MH is better IME – the zefal doesn’t really work for tyres wider that 2.2 / 2.3 (dependent on brand) whilst the MH works for every width. I have broken the MH cable ties in a crash but it was big enough that I had other concerns at the time and it’s easy enough to carry a few spare cable ties…

So, in summary for me the MH is the better buy.

What percentage of riders do you think could ride even 50% of that? There seem to be lots of places where you need to be really going some to clear the next jump but the run in is massively technical – just looks to be a recipe for lots of pain for most mortals?

What hubs are they?

I was going to ask has an adaptor fallen out but the above is more likely…

Has anyone tried the recent Alpkit offering?

Mid price range at £100ish – I’d link if I could get their website to work…

Not sure if they’re anymore reliable than standard chinese fare but at least you know the warranty / customer support will be excellent?

Possibly slightly off topic but are there many cycling specific jackets using Polartech Neoshell? I haven’t come across any apart from the ruinously expensive jacket linked above.

I’ve a ski jacket / soft shell made of this material and it’s the most breathable bit of kit I own. I run really hot so very rarely wear any form of shell when on the bike unless temperatures are in the low single digits and there’s significant windchill.

I am tempted by the Chimera of a breathable , hardwearing, waterproof mtb soft / hard shell; I suspect something made out of Neoshell with clever vents (like the one Chips reviewed – although I don’t think Gore Pro shell is as breathable?) would be the best technology can manage at the moment.

the-muffin-man – Member
How do surfers manage to get back in against currents? Is a surfboard a lot easier to paddle? Can it be taught or is it just experience?

Yes it’s much easier to paddle a surfboard as they’re designed to be paddled. Body / Boogieboards are designed to be used with fins like these: fins.
It’s virtually impossible to manoeuvre a bodyboard or catch an unbroken decent size wave without fins – once you get some you can paddle around like everyone else. It sounds like you got caught in a rip – easiest thing to do if it happens again is try to move at 90 degrees to it – if you don’t have fins you can do a sort of side stroke using the board as a float which will hopefully get you out of the rip. It might be better to either take some lessons or stay out of surf deeper than waist height if you’re unsure of what to do?

I snapped mine playing rugby just over 6 years ago when 37. I was able to go on a family skiing holiday and snowboard (it was my rear leg) 3 weeks after doing it and was back on the bike within about 6 weeks. I did it in Jan and was able to ride the SDW that Summer. The club I was playing for paid for rehab and specialist advice and I did eventually (Dec) have it reconstructed as it still felt pretty unstable. I did lots of “pre-hab” work before the operation to build the hamstring which helped recovery post op but it still took longer to recover from the op than the original injury – the knee was ok but the hamstring (which is where they take the graft from) took a while to stop spasming / tearing every time I ran. Again the club paid for lots of rehab and a residential course that really helped – I’ve pretty much got full functionality back now although it can still be sore if I push it. I suspect that’s more to do with other damage I did to the PCL at the same time.

My advice would be to do lots of rehab, see what functionality you get back and take it from there. The rehab won’t be wasted even if you decide to go for reconstruction as it will reduce recovery time from the op. One other consideration is ensuring you get a surgeon who specialises in knees – not sure how easy this is on NHS but if you’re going privately your Physio should be able to reccomend someone with a decent record.

Very good!

Donated – best wishes for a full a recovery as possible.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/36628592

Japan playing glorious rugby. Simply glorious.

Concur – sublime.

Black Catting

Mine’s a panther…called midnight…

I make that a 263g saving which assuming your original figure was correct equals roughly a £ a gram which is the old weight weenie truism?

wrecker – Member
Currently Farrell is undroppable.

That’s surely indisputable? Noticeable that Ford also seems to be improving whilst on tour – perhaps being away from a toxic club environment is helping?

Today was very much a victory for the forwards and the defence and whilst I don’t wish to take anything away from a great team effort both the conditions and the ref helped. Saying that, EJ is a great tactician and maybe he’d have had a different game plan (or even team) for different conditions.

We still seemed to overrun the ball on the odd (once, twice?) occasion we passed the ball down the line; surely a top 5 international backline shouldn’t keep making this schoolboy error? Agree with the general comments on Brown – you can’t fault him for effort but he missed a couple of high balls, is generally half a yard too slow and virtually never passes; great D though which is maybe why he’s still there?

Joubert’s random ref decision making generator isn’t doing my blood pressure any good…

Come on Wales!

It worked better once they swapped Farrell back to inside centre – and iirc that’s the key defensive decision making position (at least from first phase) for that system.

As someone who isn’t a fan of either Farrell or Haskell (for different reasons) I have to say they both had absolutely storming games. Haskell even gave a decent pass rather than just smashing it up into contact!

Were England running a combined rush / drift defence? I’ve played in teams that used that and it works really well if you get it right but can take a while get new team members up to speed; that said you’d have thought a pro would grasp it pretty quickly. Also makes you look pretty stupid if you get it wrong…