aener

I might even wait until the very last minute in case what other people put out makes me realize I need to up my game, blitz a few last minute lines and upload at 23:59 on the 30th

A few days before the deadline.

I've finished... again.

I don't have a day job to quit, at the minute. I always give positive advice. It's just that you usually tend to see it as a personal attack instead. (That's excluding the times I'm sticking up for someone against one of your onslaughts of bullshit.)

You've hardly been riding it long... [Edit: New] chains stretch pretty quick, but not that quick. To be brutally honest, as inadvisable as half-links are, people do make them out to be worse than they really should. You'll be fine running it until the chain stretches enough. If it's that far down, can you not put the extra link in? (Take half link out and add a full link.)

Completely unhelpful, but we were riding Llandegla the other day, and as crazy as it sounds, I've never seen a mouse in real life before. A woodmouse ran right across the trail underneath me. They're too f**king cute. So glad I didn't smoosh it.

Um... Also - I thought you were a fan of the stronger, heavy parts from the old-school days? If that's the case, you'd be better off with some '06 Adamant bars or something akin. You'd be much better off financially, and psychologically, if you're worried about snapping them. Bars are one place I wouldn't want to skimp weight on. Y'know - the heavier bike you ride, the more of a man you are - or so I hear it told (admittedly, from a hugely unreliable source). Finally, you're very defensive about your riding - or it sounds like it from the "I hope you release a video". Do you actually realize what he was saying? You shouldn't run carbon bars for the same reason I shouldn't. We're both fat ass bashers, and we both fall off. If you gouge carbon, it can weaken it, and if it gets bad enough, snap off with either very little, or no warning whatsoever. When they do snap, the ends are very nasty. Much nastier than alloy. Whilst it could've been phrased more eloquently, he wasn't straight up saying "you're too shit to have carbon bars", which is what your reaction makes it sound like you think he said. All he said was that carbon bars are probably not for you.

Yeah. They were the old dates. Need to confirm entry by the end of this month (August), and submit video by end of next (September).

I rarely ride on my own. Lucky enough to have a fairly dedicated bunch of riders in the area. I do occasionally, but I don't enjoy it nearly as much. I tried a few solo-rides in big cities like Leicester, Leeds and Bradford, and I was forever worrying about people nicking my bag etc. I don't like riding with people watching at the best of times, but it's FAR worse when alone. If I'm going to ride alone now, I go somewhere there's either no, or very few people around. Rocks are better for this. Music can help, if you can get over not hearing the noise of the bike. I tend to find I end up more "training" or "drilling" than actually having fun, but as it's not very often it's not too bad.

Amazing. Love your riding so much. You should put out videos more often, even if you do find them disappointing. ...No-one else does

There was quite a lot of up/gap to fronts in the latter half of that video It's not fair that you get to have alllllll that riding, whenever you want. Too massive.

Really enjoying 35ish at the minute. Used to run them a fair bit harder to roll faster, but a bit of squidge makes static moves nicer/easier but it's still firm enough not to roll/deform.

26 is already too big

...That's what I just asked! Main reason why not is expense. Gonna have money, but liquid cooling seems a lot of money when there might be ultra-quiet fans on the market.

I'm soon to start work, which means I'll finally have some money to spend on things other than the bare essentials of life. The thing that bugs me the most at the minute is the volume of my PC. It's just about loud enough that when listening to music with a high dynamic range, the noise of it obstructs the quietest parts. It's got three fans: case, PSU and CPU. I've tried disconnecting the case and PSU fans momentarily to determine which is the loudest and it made next to no difference, so it's gotta be the CPU fan. On reading some reviews, the "silent" fans sold aren't actually that quiet, so I'd like to know if you guys have any suggestions in that area, or if the results will always be disappointing and I should look in to liquid cooling. Ta! Edit: On reading that back, I thought I should clarify - by "noise" I don't mean a buzz or rattle. It's an airflow noise. Would I be Ok to take the CPU fan off and boot up for a very short time to see if that's what makes so much racket, or would it start getting very hot very quick? (Hardware n00b. Sorry.)

Never, ever get a welded stem. They're just dangerous.

Agree with Ali on the bike-noise front - but otherwise awesome!

Yep.

Boring old Google search, for me.

They snap. Usually on big front-gaps when you really don't want them to

To an extent, yeah. Lighter clothes will make a difference (I know for sure that I ride better in shorts over jeans, though that could be to do with range of movement too), but shaving a bit of body fat won't do much. There's quite a difference between the weight your legs have to push up a jump, and the weight of the object you have to drag up it with you. Not really sure how to explain it, so hopefully having it pointed out to you will flick a switch in your head and you'll get what I mean

If you're looking for yet more savings, once you've opened out the headtube, you could enlarge the purge holes in the top and down-tube. Same goes for the bottom of the downtube and top of chainstays if your tooling can fit inside the BB somehow.

...I'm confused. Last I heard, to enter the comp you had to do your own edit. Did that change? Ignoring that.. SWEET. 1:38 was just the best.

If that's a drawing from Josh, then I stand corrected. I was only running the numbers through my head, and they didn't seem to add up. The geo in that diagram should ride pretty nice, but I'm a fan of short stays. 350 all the way, for me

That won't work. The reach is a result of the front end being combined with the HA. You can't specify lengths that won't fit together. Ie. A 1000mm WB frame with a 72HA will have a certain length reach (according to BB rise and CS length), but you can't specify you want that same length reach on a bike with the same geometry except for a 73HA. It physically can't happen. My reach is 595. Your CS is 5mm longer than mine, and wheelbase 15mm longer (making front end 10mm ((or very very nearly, anyway)) longer). With that wheelbase and head angle, the reach would be more than 600mm. It'd be more like 610. Seeing as the wheelbase doesn't effect the ride as much as the reach - if you're settled on a 600mm reach, just tell whoever builds the frame you want a 600mm reach with a 73 HA, and let the WB be whatever it works out at. It's easy enough to work out, if you wanted to know, but just thought I'd mention it. Edit: Pro diagram: This is what'd happen if you adjusted the reach around the WB. If you adjusted with WB around the reach, the reach'd stay the same, and the wheelbase would shorten. Second way is better, in my opinion. Getting the reach you want will make more difference than a specific wheelbase with a slightly too long reach. You should take in to consideration the stem, too. If you want the same bar position but quicker steering, you can run a shorter and steeper (or shorter with more stackers) stem and steepen the head angle. You need to know what you want, really. Else just go with a geo of a frame you know you like.