w00dster has it right. I worked with some of the last of the last mandatory military service in Europe – Italian Army. A few young lads working for me were essentially conscripts. They were only there because they couldn’t get the exemptions the brighter or richer families could wangle.
They were only any use for low level jobs and nothing that is military in nature. The cost of building a training and support system around them was not worth the return. So, a massive waste of time, effort, resources and money for no real result.

Given the current economic crisis, a more modern version of the American New Deal from Depression era might be worth looking at.

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR
Subscriber

mleh, I don’t post there any more, it’s too cliquey and I got even more grief on there than I do here 😂

mleh cliquey. That’s an understatement for the ages.

Yes.

Also, we’ve never stopped mentioning it and laughing about it since, so that helps.

You don’t need a mudguard.
My mate did that in 1992 on his Muddy Fox Courier. Crotch of his jeans caught between the wheel and the frame.
It’s 2020. He’s never done it since.
Learning.

People are mostly horrible.

chrismac
Subscriber

As a very distant observer I don’t understand what’s going on, Clearly the cop was wrong and has been rightly arrested and charged. I don’t understand why that then turns into riots. If people want to protest peacefully then great, let them as they have the right to do so but why the violence, why the looting? As others have said the USA appears very divided but that seems to be more on wealth than race

This isn’t the only time this has happened. This happens a lot more than you see reported. It turned into mass protests.
Some of the violence comes from those protesting. Some of the violence comes from others attaching themselves to the protesting for other reasons. Some of the violence comes from the police. There’s more and more news coming through of groups, some right wing, whose people have been out there mixing it up. In my local city there’s footage of a group of white men armed with rifles out last night. Friends in the city say those protesting largely went home, and they saw lots of young idiots taking advantage of the situation after that. Police are using baton rounds, mace, tear gas, armed vehicles etc and very aggressive tactics.
Why can’t America be divided on wealth AND race? Seriously, I never appreciated the racial aspect until I lived here.

I used to hang around here a bit in ye olde dayes – working from home means I’m visiting again.

Currently living in Richmond VA. Quite a lot of trouble over the weekend, from windows smashed to a bus and buildings set on fire. There are hundreds of legitimate reasons for people to protest about race and violence and they range from casual to systemic.
Moving here from the UK blew my mind on a lot of levels. Seeing police with almost no skills between “shout” and ‘shoot” is so different from British police and their methods. A potentially armed population does change things, but not that much.
The institutionalized racism isn’t always obvious to a white man who didn’t grow up here. Some is, some isn’t. I’ve worked to treat living here like a field trip and never stopped trying to learn. In some ways, America is quite like the UK. In so many other ways the differences are astounding. A lot of the problems here are the same as others around the world. A lot are uniquely American, and America has layers upon layers to try and get through, and not everyone wants to get through them.
Police brutality, especially white police on black citizens, is endemic and has been for decades.

More or Less, BBC R4, with a good bit about kids and schools from Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter.

LINKY

You’ve gone soft in your old age!

I really liked my Alpkit Fat Airic. They have changed the names but still looks like good value stuff.

If you can get hold of one, a Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL2. Big enough for me at 6’7″ sharing with my 10 year old both on inflating sleeping mats.

I suppose I class as an old timer around here. Hello Juan. Not been on here in forever, popped on for a look this evening.
Been living in the US for nearly 6 years now. Still riding. Glad to see others are, deeply saddened to see those who have recently left the big old bicycle family.
Jiggles to those who jiggled.

I tried it the old way years ago soaking newspapers and putting them through a press. Not very good at all. You’ll be hard pushed to get the paper dense enough to be worth the effort and subsequent short burn time.

I got Sora to build a 25 year old frame up.
I bought a new steel frame and moved all the Sora across because it works very well indeed.
If you think you’re going to get that much more out of a better level, go for it. However, if you’re comparing new Sora with a few years old 105, you’ll be happy enough.

As a taller rider I’m delighted. I can spend less time looking at the other fashion variable of shorter seat stays since a steeper seat tube won’t see my bum somewhere over the rear axle with the seat up.

I’m not in any of the photos any more.

You’ve moved on haven’t you? You’ve found other people.

*sniff*

I miss this.

As mentioned up there, do it all as a DC system and you don’t lose anything in converting from Dc to AC back to DC again. 12v DC is nice and easy and there’s lots of 12v DC LEDs out there.

Might be a daft question but do you have a spot for the solar panel(s) that faces the right way and is not shaded?

Patagonia has long fought with the demands of growth as a company, globalization and reducing their corporate impact on the planet. Read ‘Let My People Go Surfing’ to see that Chouinard was making the effort long before anything like greenwashing hit the industry.

Their down comes through a Traceable Down Standard – their in-house developed system to ensure no force feeding and good animal husbandry.

We need more big companies doing the right thing. That really makes an impact.

Here. Stack and reach for many of the bigger bikes out there:
http://forums.mtbr.com/clydesdales-tall-riders/stack-reach-charts-pretty-much-all-xl-bikes-1043334.html

I think a lot of this comes down to technique and people compensate for poor technique by jacking the front end up high.

Nonsense. Quite a lot of this comes down to some of us having to ride bikes that were never designed for taller people. The geometry and frame proportions don’t really work at extremes.
Also – personal choice and personal physiology. Otherwise everyone (including DH racers) would be riding slammed stems with flat bars. They don’t.

You could go for a Ribble winter frame:
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-winter-audax-7005-frameset/%5B/url%5D

A friend of mine about 6’5″ has one and it does him really well for commuting.
I don’t know how Soma frames cost out in the UK these days, but I ride a Soma ES and it is lovely.

Go for additional joists at 90 or stilts. Ensure your eaves are vented (if they already are) and blow in the cellulose insulation. Easy to do, no irritation, more effective than rockwool. Rigid insulation in the attic is bonkers and far more expensive than it needs to be effective in that role.

If really grippy shoes and pedals cause you problems then clipless is likely to be a whole lot worse.

Mr Turner should get back to operating his bike company. I’d have bought a Sultan from him when I snapped mine earlier this year. Unfortunately he’s phased out the old model and doesn’t even have the new one in production yes and it doesn’t look remotely soon either. I’ll buy from someone else then.

Before you think about anything with renewables or storage you need to drive down your energy consumption first. Spend your money on insulation and airtightness first, then think about grid-tied renewables. Batteries don’t make sense for the vast majority of consumers.

Given that we’ve got suspension and air in our tyres and a bit of flex in our bars, I’m not looking for a lot of (any) flex in my stem.

Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

Worse than anything else on this list. Seriously, you lot are way fussy or you HAVEN’T SEEN THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD!
It is without doubt the worst 90 minutes or so I have spent with my daughter.

Both together. Retains balance, provides greater stopping power, reduces chances of skids.

The frames have a lifetime warranty, right?

Nope – 2 years.

Best damn bike I’ve ever ridden. I snapped the frame on mine earlier this year. I’d had it from new in 2009 so it had a good run with my lardcore riding style. I hope you find it rides as well as I found mine did.
There’s a new geo Sultan in the pipeline and there are rumours that it might not actually be carbon.

Bootleg of Nirvana playing the Newcastle Mayfair in 91 just as Teen Spirit broke big.
The tall bloke with the big hair and glasses in front of Cobain? Me – first security barrier I ever worked. Spent the night half watching the band, half keeping the unwashed hordes from getting on stage.

I now live in Virginia where it’s hot from June to September. It’s not much difference in tyre sealant to the UK – perhaps a little more used over a year.
People just notice their poor maintenance when it is needed ;)

Topeak Hexus II. Recommended to me by a bike mechanic, only bought a 2nd one to have one for each bike. Enough to get hold of when you need it, compact enough for riding with.

Reach actually tells me pretty much nothing at all. IME, more often than not a large reach is the combination of a not-very-long top tube and a steep seat angle, both of which are precisely what I don’t want.

Most of the cycling industry (eg Cervelo), specifically tri and road, disagree with you.
If you have a particularly out of proportion femur length I could see why you need your seat an unusually long way behind the BB. I have very long legs and have never failed to get my knee over the pedal spindle through saddle adjustment alone on any bike (that fits me and that I’m not trying to force a fit) without a layback seatpost. Seat tube angle is part of it, but stack and reach are prime.

so the genesis tour de fer has a longer toptube than your bike then?

Like I said, use Stack and Reach and then you can compare bikes – but the Tour de Fer does seem to be a long bike, but that seems fashionable for gravel bikes.

Use Stack and Reach to make meaningful comparisons. My (massive, unrideable by most anyone else) Soma ES has a 618mm Effective Top Tube and I’m pretty sure you’d not even be able to throw a leg over that.

Most of the research has been done for you – and you’re not that tall:

http://www.cyclingabout.com/list-of-xxl-xxxl-bikes-for-tall-cyclists-62-63-64cm/%5B/url%5D

They are for triathletes and those sort of chaps who need their tanning time. Obviously, both groups should be avoided at all costs.
You don’t want to appear as if you are one of ‘them’ do you?

Unless you leave close to a decent coast, ie Cornwall, Devon, Wales or west/north Scotland

Depends what you mean by ‘decent’. The Northumberland coast gets some of the most consistent surfable swell in the country (I met the Masters student who did the measuring). You won’t progress if all you do is surf on holiday.

Get some UK lessons first otherwise you’ll be gutted to spend all that quality warm water time floundering and falling off. It’s like scuba diving – get the learning out of the way at home so your money is spent on the good times.

Yeah – you’re all amateurs

There are a couple of commercial firewood producers near me who have this sort of pro setup. I just rent a splitter for 2 x days per year and that has me done for the winter with a wood stove.

Don’t. They are mostly awful. Buy a decent usb battery that can give a couple of charges instead.