I thought that the hub internals in roval wheels were made by DTSwiss and were pretty much the same as DT240s – is that not right or is it just the rear hub/freehub bits which are DTswiss-made?

I saw one of the co-designers on the news last night (Tom Piper). He was extremely eloquent and talked about remembrance and the ephemerel nature of the installation. I can’t find the interview on the BBC news site, but if it pops up it’s well worth watching.

Don’t often bother, but when trying to get fit I sometimes do a lunchtime ride whilst listening to a 60-minute podcast of fatboyslim playing at some closing party for an Ibiza club. 15 minute warm up, 3 flat-out laps of an XC circuit in the woods behind work and then enjoy the silence on the way back to the office.

Edit; the opening speech sample from Abduction is now stuck in my head “we’re not dropping out here, we’re infiltrating and taking over”…. yeah

That reminds me of certain things I once had to do to avoid compiler optimisations – basically splitting up C increments/decrements into seperate lines of code with pointless assignments in between them to actually make the required increments/decrements work.

Reading the comments thread on stackoverflow has also reminded me that one of the UKs larger sports retailers is currently using systems that contain a number of comments along the lines of
//TBtodo – check that this works :oops:

*Narrows eyes*

You’ve missed out the closing bracket of the if on purpose haven’t you?

Isto,

That stackoverflow thread is the funniest thing I have seen for a long, long time.

Thanks!

It doesn’t save much weight, but I found that when running 3×9 with 44/32/22 up front I never used the very top gear and was often changing between 44 and 32.

I went to 2×9 by taking off the 44, and changing the 32 for a 36. Less front changes, same granny gears and I much prefered it.

As you only need a 36t middle and some short chainring bolts, it’s easy to try.

Still there OP? Anyway, I can’t help much with how training changes over 40, as I’ve only been riding/racing since hitting 40.

But if you already know a bit about training, try reading Joe Friel’s blog. He’s recently been writing a fair bit about “older” athletes, although he seems to be focused on hos own ae group (over 50)

Is it secret?

Is it safe?

I thought the normal way was to cut to same width as the exterior rim width before fitting, so that there’s a small amount up the rim walls (there’s an article on Pinkbike with pics). I’ve got two turns on the front, and three on the back, as my back tyre is getting baggy. Probably be in trouble if I buy a new back tyre!

I thought I’d seen something about these recently : Bikeradar review which says that if there isn’t a date code stamped inside, they’re from a shonky first production run and will fall apart (but can be warrantied.
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/clothing/shoes/product/review-giro-terraduro-48935/

I’m 179cm, so right on the Specialized M/L boundary (32″-ish inside leg, normal-ish arms, slightly poor flexibility).

I have a L (19″) Crave, and it fits well. Feels good to ride (not at all barge-like) and riding small sizes feels a bit cramped.

The top-tube feels high when standing on the ground, but I’ve never had any problem bashing my bits during planned or unplanned dismounts.

Worth mentioning that the latest Specialized hardtails all have quite short stems, so comparisons with other makes frame geometry may not quite make sense.

I’d say XL, but he needs to sit on it to be sure!

Take a run up. It’s always harder when you start on the brink.

Help other people when you don’t have to.

Always place as much gear as possible just before topping out on seacliffs. (For Pembroke/Swanage/Gogarth, “just before” is about 2m from the top).

Experience is what you get from surviving when things go wrong.

Just people I know (and only about 10)

I started following pros, but I mostly use a phone and it cluttered up the feed too much.

Not sure how I compare, most people I follow are in a different country to me. I have the most KOMs, but only because I live somewhere where not many people are on Strava!

OMG!!!!1111 The tyre logos ARE NOT LINED UP. He will DIE OF SHAME!!!!

Actually that looks pretty good. He’s a lucky lad to have that at 12. Fork looks a bit wierdly big – 120mm or just a small frame?

http://www.sportive.com/sportive-calendar/all

Actionsports also do their own “Atmosphere SL” rims which are very similar to Crests (tubeless ready, within 15g weight and a mm or so difference in the dimensions). Full wheelsets are around 50€ cheaper compared to Crest wheelsets.

But my limited German-googling hasn’t found much in the way of reviews or feedback for these. Anyone got any info?

I thought that the Strada bars were a compact shape (like Deda RHM bars) rather than a traditional bend (like Rotundos)

I’m currently not enjoying the ergonomic bars I have and am considering a cheap set of Deda RHM 02 bars just to see if I like the shape, although looking at the reach and drop I think they’re pretty much identical to the Planet-x Strada bars. Hmm.

The Anthem 29ers look ugly, but that’s much nicer!

Apart from the colours… good luck with choosing a bottle cage.

I’d be interested to know how it rides.

Specialized do this in the US, not sure they bring it to Europe though

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/crave/crave-sl

I’m clearly with the majority on here in considering that branded Chinese products (from companies with a track record and good customer service) are no more risky than western branded products.

On a slightly different note, what about obviously fake products – things like the carbon bars labelled Bontrager or 3T that some times pop up for “it can’t be genuine” money on ebay?

More or less risky than unbranded/Chinese branded bars??

(I don’t have any, I’m just curious about the hierarchy of risk perception :-) )

Print a small cow and give it to a colleague as a present to leave on their desk.

Then every day print a very slightly smaller one and swap it without them knowing.

You mean these?

http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/exotic-carbon-fork-2-broken-terrible-customer-service-555457.html

Although that doesn’t really prove anything. I’d be surprised if there was a product that no-one has ever broken and then complained about.

Erm, hang on…

How do you know that buying from an unknown source is increasing your risk? It just increases your perception of risk. Look at the story over there >>>>>>> Orange have recalled forks because the steerer was detatching from the fork. You’re basically saying it’s lower risk to buy an Orange fork than a Chinese one, in this instance that doesn’t appear to hold water.

The Orange recall is actually a good example of the reduced risk in buying from a named and accountable source. Orange have identified a manufacturing problem and done something about it. The overall risk in buying an Orange fork is less, because there is an extra layer of post-manufacture quality control.

I have never seen a recall notice for any non-branded parts. Because after they have your money they don’t really give a shit.

2013 Sunn catalogue is here : http://issuu.com/cawdel/docs/catalogue_sunn2013_1__copy (I think the geometry is on page 14)

Sunn did go into liquidation, but seem to be back around judging by the rather bonkers concept DH bike they were showing at the Roc d’Azur salon: http://www.mtb-check.com/fr/le-retour-de-sunn-avec-un-concept-dh/

I wouldn’t rule out the mainstream brands. Specialized, Trek and Scott all do racy HTs with reasonable frames, although fork and wheels might be on the lardy side.

Edit: Hang on, if you’ve a decent prts bin then why not consider a Chinese carbon frame and a fork in the sales?

Double edit: Why not buy this fork and take a risk on the frame that comes free with it? http://www.actionsports.de/en/components/frames/mtb/11289/droessiger-29er-alu-hardtail-frame-kit-h-29lite-with-rock-shox-reba-rl?c=407

Huge wild boar, twice.

Probably not actually huge, but when a large black thing bolts out of a ditch 2m away at night then they look pretty huge.

I have better lights now.

I have nothing useful to add, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to post this:

I’m pretty sure the Specialized/Roval ones do – certainly the ones I have do (but I’m not sure that they are Roval as they were given to me by a nice specialized dealer out of his spares tray)

you’ll be asking that they find a way to exclude those expats who watch via VPN from abroad next

Well, they did turn on geolocalisation for the CBeebies pages last week, although this really only excludes the children of freeloading expats.

Or like this if we’re talking fatbiking

I can’t justify over $100 for a jersey, even though I think that some of them that I’ve been eligible for look pretty good.

However, I might be tempted by the t-shirt for this one:
http://www.strava.com/challenges/ride-for-challenged-athletes

It’s the only challenge I’ve seen that actually has some worthy real-world side effects.

Are they more difficult to set fire to?

Carbon Cathars?

Are they more rigid in the face of persecution compared to ordinary Cathars?

Hit refresh and you can see the Kudos ticking upwards!

Everyone’s seen this already, yes?

I thought that sektors were pretty much the same outers and slightly cheaper/heavier inner bits?

Bit like the difference between sids and rebas (i.e. not much)

Is that segment data glitchy, or is there really a 43.5% bit in the middle???

Edit – no idea about pacing, but as you’ve ridden it before you should be able to use the strava effort comparison to see how the fastest riders have gone

Some hate it, but this has transformed my riding more than anything else

This any good?

http://www.blavet.com/IMG/pdf/carte-circuits-vtt.pdf

There seem to be a few FFC VTT sites around there – they can be a bit mixed (i.e. dull trails) but usually provide a good starting point for getting out and starting to know an area a bit

More info here : http://sitesvtt.ffc.fr/trace-vtt/