monkeyseemonkeydo

I've always assumed that's mainly because he's Austrian...

Anything politicians say is probably a lie. Anything Trump says isn't even worth reading or listening to because he has the IQ of an orange, ironically. Anything Russia, Iran or any other effective dictatorship say is probably a lie. It's a tricky one though. Just to pick on conspiracy theories the issue is usually that the people pushing them are basically completely engrossed in their belief of what they're saying. Sure they're trying to provide evidence for what they're saying but they're looking at things through rose tinted glasses and so can sometimes blindly believe something or otherwise don't question things enough. It's the difference between a true academic researching a topic, looking at both sides of an argument in fine detail and someone who wants to believe what they're writing without really looking at the alternative. It's hard to say how I approach things without an example so here's one: The recent Iranian plane crash. Crash happens hours after the Iranian strike on US bases. Unfortunately coincidence very possible. Saw some of the data from the flight tracker- aircraft still climbing (so under power), no distress calls, didn't try to turn around, data just suddenly stops. Conclusion: bomb or less likely a missile. Iranians say oh no no no, wasn't terrorism they just had an engine fire and were trying to return to the airport. Oh and we're not going to let the US or international authorities get the blackbox and we've already bulldozed the site. At the same time low and behold images of the guidance system from a missile have apparently been taken at the site (but impossible to corroborate). Now I'm 90% sure it was a missile and 24 hours later the US are saying they have evidence of missiles being fired and an aircraft being hit. Another 24 hours later and Iran admit that they shot the aircraft down by accident. It's almost laughable that they think that they could cover this up and people would believe their initial story but there you go.

Fairly sure that's not really the case with Danny (with respect to Santa Cruz). He had hundreds of millions of views from his video on his Fourplay/Skye. Any bike company would give an arm to be associated with someone so imaginative, talented, successful and also just a thoroughly nice guy. He's a sponsor's wet dream!

FreeCAD is another option for CAD software. I haven't tried it myself as we get Solidworks at work but I've read pretty good things about it

I know what you mean but I get the feeling Danny could wake up tomorrow with no sponsors at all and just go back to working in a bike shop and still ride in exactly the same way and still push out brilliant videos regardless of whether there was money in it and always have a smile on his face. Maybe I'm wrong but with Fabio I feel that he's been pushed (by himself? His dad? I dunno) to be a professional Red Bull athlete from a young age and it's all about the hits, the fame and the money above all else. My gut tells me he's never done a normal day's work in his life... Maybe that's just the grumpy old man in me strongly disliking 'influencers', hashtags and clickbait etc. though!!

There is free 2D CFD software out there but I can't think of anything that would do 3D which is probably more what you're after. I'm sure you know what you're aiming for though- general 'slipperiness' is always good; if it looks right it's probably 80% there; minimising frontal area is important; enclose wheels as much as possible (interestingly the top solar challengers are now 4-wheel steer so that they can both minimise steer angles all round to reduce how much space there needs to be around each wheel (effectively halfing the required opening and wheel shroud width at the front while slightly increasing the rear end) and also deliberately crab the cars to minimise any drag induced by oncoming wind direction). You should also look into creating a simple disc shroud for each wheel as although they'll be in relatively still air the system will be more efficient if you reduce the rotational drag of the wheel by hiding the spokes. Obviously for that one minimum weight is also important... Edit: Actually, I've just checked and although I thought OpenFOAM was just a meshing program it looks like it offers a complete package which is worth checking out. You'd probably need to do the CAD elsewhere but once you have a model OpenFOAM might be worth looking at.

Looks like a slightly tweaked Stitched 360.

Korma. Lol. Try Comer

Christ I look young...

Pics so we can be the judge...

If you're fairly new to trials then my guess is that you're using muscles in a new way and what you're describing is a soreness due to these muscles being pushed a bit. The result of that is that your body should work to build those muscles so that it's better prepared next time. Trials uses your shoulders a lot and if you stick with it you'll find that your arms and upper body in general should develop well to cope with what you're doing. In terms of technique it definitely looks like you're a bit too upright and could do with lowering the front more and leaning back to compensate. If you haven't seen it already check out AliC's video:

How did you get such a flawless finish?

Andy P used to ride Stealth hubs I think and he never seemed to have much issue with them. Not sure how often he changed it though...

What sort of axle is it running? Looks like a bolt through from the pic.

I thought it must be possible! Dude doesn't know what he's talking about! Is that running a non boost chainring? Not quite sure where those come into play and whether you could offset some of the chainline issues by running the 'wrong' chainring?

Haha, nah you're ok!! Having said that I'm still not convinced that adding a 3mm washer on each side of the hub and a 3mm shim between the rotor and the hub wouldn't fix the boost/non boost thing? For calipers to work without being boost specific the rotor must sit at the same position relative to the frame and on a boost bike that's just 3mm further from the centreline than a non boost hub surely? I queried that with CK as well and his response was negative but I'm not sure he quite got what I meant.

Apparently not "Sorry to say that short of buying new hubshells and axles, our ISO hubs aren't convertible to Boost. The hubshells for boost hubs are physically bigger and so shimming your hubs won't place your rotor into the correct position."

Sounds good! Slightly annoyingly (at least annoyingly tempting) our cycle to work scheme has just increased the voucher limit to £2500! The Whyte's got Chris King hubs though (and the bike's non-boost so anything new won't be compatible) so I'm being restrained for now! I've also just ordered a second hand oval chain ring to give that a try too as I've never used one.

As an alternative to buying a new bike (not usually an issue for me but we're trying to afford a house extension at the moment so I'm trying to be restrained!) I've been messing around with my 2015 Whyte T130 Works SCR. I was originally looking at whacking a 29" wheel on the front to play 'mullet bike' while slackening the head angle but that was going to cost a bomb (£500+ on forks, £50+ on rim plus spokes, £30 on a tyre) so ended up over-forking the stock 130mm Pikes to 150mm. That's brought the head angle from 67.5 to 66.8 or so but has the added effect of raising the BB height so yesterday I made some offset brass bushings that in theory should drop the head angle down to around 65.8 and drop the BB height back down to near stock. Anyone else messed around with things with good or bad results?!

I'm not convinced but it depends what you want it for. As a mountain bike I'd say steer clear. V-brakes, WTB velociraptor tyres (those came on my GT in 1998), old school cranks and gearing etc. It's old enough that the BB could be seized in there, bearings in frame and wheels might be knackered etc... For a run about or a bike to roll to the pub on fair enough but for anything more proper I'd be looking elsewhere.

I'm not so sure Sergi's one is a 5. It's kind of up for interpretation. If you look where his back wheel lands on both attempts it's shifted left and well within the gate. In the absence of tape (and keeping in mind that he didn't break the flag) I don't think anyone would be bothered by that if it wasn't for the Jack controversy...

I've been using that Carnac for 3 years now and really can't fault it. Would happily buy another (and am tempted to get another for £13 for when this one needs replaced!).

Youtube? Dougie Lampkin!

Yes Ali! Awesome riding and so nice to watch. The precision/perfection of your videos put so many others to shame! Naming no Fabio names...

Cheap as chips Carnac XC for me. £13 and almost identical to a Fox Flux... Edit: I was screwed over paying £20 for mine! Edit 2: More colours available for the On-One XC which is identical: https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/HEOOXC/on-one-xc-mtb-helmet