Kona Honzo. Like all the others, just less expensive…

I have 2 friends who rag the hell out of their Honzos and they love them. Big fun bikes.

I’ve spent most of my career working in logistics and a lot of that working in the IT side of things. It’s great that businesses invest in new systems to improve their efficiency and service. It’s utter pants when those businesses don’t invest in business continuity or manage change effectively. That’s when they develop reputations that are very hard to shake off.
I do hope Planet X get through it. They do seem to want to do the right thing.

It depends on what you want out of it. I have friends who are out there now and they are making the most of it. His wife can cope with the restrictions placed upon her (not driving, covering up etc etc) but I know women who couldn’t cope with that aspect.
Compound life is a small bubble and you have to grit your teeth and get on with living in a very local village for very local people, behind a fence.
Many go out there with a 5 year plan but get sucked into the expat lifestyle. If you have a plan and can stick to it, it can be a winner. You will be taking those 5 years out of your life to do it.
The bigger the city, the bigger and more fervent the religious police force.

76 quid from Above and Beyond if you really want one. Free delivery too.

As I currently reside in the USA, I’ll be interested to see whether any companies come out with a new Horst rear suspension for next year (now that the Specialized patent is expiring).

I used to dive all the time with a G Shock on and nothing ever happened to it.

It is easier to have something waterproof at a greater depth as the pressure will be pressing it all together that much harder.

Nobody has mentioned 650b. It’s the big wheel for little people!

Seriously – a lot of ‘I own a 29er’ advice, but it might be worth you at least trying a 650b rather than listening to people who own a 29er.

Disclaimer – I’m mahoosive and ride a 29er.

The Turner Sultan is 125mm travel. I’ve seen longer forks on them.

Lenz do a couple of bikes.

Intense do the Carbine and the Spider.

What’s the current alternative to a Cannondale tourer or road frame these days?

I fancy trying a Soma ES when I save up a bit more cash.

http://www.somafab.com/archives/product/es

It’s all ‘own brand’ down there. So I’ve heard. For the poor little people. Good stuff is always on the higher shelves.

If we weren’t tall, you little people would have to be angry about something other than your lack of height.

BTW – ‘Large’ and ’58cm’ aren’t even on the lower end of tall.

Other than that awful agricultural clatter, Hope / Flows are your best option.

Definitely not worth it, unless to sell for scrap copper.

I only said ‘mostly’ because if the site were to be perfect, it could work. Chances v v low of course.

I thought that was the building from Ghostbusters for a second then.

No, but it is in Only Fools and Horses.

mini wind turbines

Mostly not worth it at all.

A minority group has now gained massive publicity for their minor publication. Well done them for manipulating the media to carry their message.

Insulating your floor will save you more than any dabbling with turning things on and off.

You’ve not mentioned what your energy sources are for heating and cooking – gas, elec? What’s your boiler system? Have you got an aerator on your shower? Extractor fan that is timed or running on a humidistat? Tumble dryer? Are the walls cavity and insulated?

FFS. All shoes have different stiffness in their soles. If no stiffness were needed in flat-pedal shoes, we’d all be riding in 1980s Vans or Converse.
I would like to find a shoe with less flex than my current pair, not an attempt to replicate my near-rigid clipless shoes.

Stiff shoes for flats sort of defeats the point of running flats.

Not really. It’s still my feet that I’m putting on pedals and I like a little bit more support. I have size 12 feet so there is a lot of foot not on the pedal.

Oh look, one of the aforementioned twunts.

It’s OK. Your mass-produced t-shirt, mass-produced jeans and mass-produced trainers make you look like an individual :wink:

I only read the Morning Star and vintage copies of Razzle that I keep in a hedge

You live in 1985 and I think I used to deliver your copy of the Morning Star :D

Ahh, hedge porn. Something the internet has ruined for the kids of today.

If you work out how much it would cost for laundering (your electricity, your detergent, your machine wear and tear, your time for ironing etc) then your current price probably isn’t too bad for dry cleaning.
Some cleaners have memberships available and it really drops the price.

Woke up and it was raining. Rubbish.

Had to take daughter to pre-school. Fighting local traffic is poop.

Having to dig through loads of boxes in the garage just to find everything I need because we’ve not long moved house and haven’t got enough of the renovation finished to unpack everything. Grrrr.

Putting stuff where I know I can find it. Tedious.

Packing the car so I can spend the next 2 days in the Blue Ridge Mountains (yes, those ones) and get qualified as a ride leader here in the USA.

BRILLIANT!

Soob

I was going to give this a go but decided to leave the country instead. I heard good things about the bearings and seals:

http://www.mountainbikecomponents.co.uk/items.asp?CategoryID=237&Name=Hollowtech+II+bearing+upgrade

I hear someone claims to have invented suspension for bicycles. How can that work?

Has anyone on this thread actually ever read a copy of Playboy?
It certainly hints at more than it shows / says.
I’m not saying it’s a good or a bad thing, but in the context of what is out there (and what was out there pre-internet), it is barely registering on my giveatossometer.

Idiots

They mostly don’t.

Wander around the centre and wonder at humanity whilst counting your own blessings.
Then get the hell out and never return!

only a fool would argue that is it natural for our planet to have a petroleum based economy with the resultant C02 surge in a such a short period

Don’t you dare bring sensible comments like that to the table.

Some love from t’other ‘merican bike website

http://reviews.mtbr.com/video-ed-oxleys-bizarre-vain-vagrant-an-amazing-piece-of-mountain-bike-film-noir

equally macabre and kind of awesome

There was a recent thread about this – and very few good experiences. I’m always happier to let someone else snag the house by living in it first!
Off plan and first built means a building site around you and no idea when that will end – well, once they sell all of them of course, but how fast?

Artsy short film that happened to have a bike and some bike riding in it.

Having a rock-climbing, Mexican-wrestling-mask-wearing Yoda barman was, well, artsy.

As long as he enjoyed making it.

They don’t have to serve you. We only have your word, we don’t know if the pub has had a warning for serving people too pished etc etc.

Manager did their job. Get over it.

It was never free. You paid for it somewhere along the line. This just breaks it out and you can see it.

Again, as all these ‘meat produces X amount of CO2’ stories, it seems to fall foul of the problem if identifying the source of the meat – for example intensively reared and cereal fed American beef had a very different CO2 profile from extensively reared grass fed british beef cattle.

A quarter of all UK beef is imported. It might not be grass fed. Those UK grass fed cattle are also fed soya and corn, a lot of which is imported, some from Latin America. Some may well be GM.

It is something like x8 the energy to produce 1lb of beef compared to 1lb of chicken.

It isn’t a non-story. You can get far more output from far less input with other meats and way more with crops.

Only joking

I agree! Damn those former colonies for aspiring to have our lifestyles. Earthen shelters and shacks are more than good enough for the likes of them! Foreigners and their uppity ways – harrumph.

This bothers me a lot.

It used to bother me more than it does now.

The Western world needs to use less energy. It also needs to use energy in a more even way across the 24 hr period – largely because this prevents the need to spool up additional capability to meet the spikes (7am / 7pm). It happens that this is to the advantage of those that generate electricity, therefore they will modify consumer behaviour to help things along. Economy 7 was the same thing – just a bit more blunt. It works with cars (fuel tax, congestion charges, tolls) and trains (off peak fares).
It will also drive change in electrical goods and house automation. There will be appliances that will be programmable to avoid peak times etc. The manufacturers will make stuff when there is a market, and that market will be when peak pricing really gets going.

Rumbling Kern. The single best spot on the entire Northumberland coast IMHO.

Go South and see something of Tyneside and Newcastle. A bit of time wandering around Tynemouth (castle and priory, WWI gun emplacements, beaches, surfing, mouth of the River Tyne with ships, piers etc), up the river to Newcastle – all a short drive from most of Northumberland.

Eventually it will all be smart metering. It isn’t like they charge you for more than you use – it’s a meter.

Overall, they will go a long way to reducing energy consumption, and therefore pollution, so in the big scheme of things, they are good.

i can already hear the impatient angst ridden stamping of activity sandals and the rustle of beige action slacks

They would express their displeasure if only they could get their phones out of the Next cargo pants leg pocket quick enough.