Mark W

The geo was a bit different though - shorter rear end (think they were 362mm, whereas the Python was 370-something-mm), and the wheelbase is a little longer. I used to ride one back when they were new and really liked how it rode. Nice and stiff, good geo, just generally a decent frame. Not the lightest frame ever but it should last

The haircut is part of his act though, so that's not going anywhere. His history doesn't really suggest that: "Mr. Johnson’s tenure as mayor produced other costly failures, such as the “Boris bus.” Mr. Johnson vowed to revive the classic model and even brought back onboard ticket sellers, despite warnings from transport officials that the plan was not economically viable. Within a few years, the onboard ticket sellers were scrapped, the open-air doorways were sealed shut, and the “Boris bus” came to be known mostly for its sweaty, saunalike interior, not to mention the 300 million pounds, or about $375 million, it burned in the public purse." -- "He also pursued a plan to build a “garden bridge” over the Thames, which ended up costing £50 million without a brick ever being laid." -- "...then there were the three, 25-year-old German water cannons that he purchased in the name of dispelling possible rioters. He went forward with the purchases despite warnings from experts that they were ill suited for London. Theresa May, then the home secretary, soon outlawed them, and they were finally sold last year as scrap at a £300,000 loss." -- "“He liked to fly by the seat of his pants on things like this, and he was more than happy to bluff or lie,” said Jenny Jones, a London Assembly member... Mr. Johnson, at that time already being discussed as a future prime minister, seemed enamored of the status and power of City Hall, but “bored with the whole concept of politics and taking responsibility,” Ms. Jones said. “I wouldn’t trust him to feed my cat.”" -- Things like that just don't really fill me with confidence when we're talking about something as intricate and detailed as Brexit. He did have some success as Mayor to be fair, but still, he doesn't really seem to be the person you'd really want dealing with high level negotiations with people who already think he's a bullshitter and a liar (the same people he's already damaged relationships with during his time as foreign secretary too). But yeah, we'll see. We're pretty f**ked whatever happens - if they end up losing their majority through MPs resigning or defecting it'll just force a general election, and it's not like we've got any decent alternatives. I don't see a second referendum happening, so it seems that it's either a slightly tweaked Brexit deal that we've already got on the table, or no deal.

True true. When you're looking at the prospect of Jeremy Hunt running the country as being a "preferable" option you know things have slid quite a bit. The thing I don't really get about the whole Brexit deadline thing is that BoJo says he wants to be out on the 31st Oct come what may, even if it's a no deal. It sounds like a majority in parliament are going to do what they can to stop him being able to push through no deal, but I don't really get how that stops it from happening? If the default position is that at that time/date we're no longer in the EU, parliament voting to stop no deal doesn't really prevent that outcome happening. If the inference from that is that it means he has to find an alternative, there's nothing actually saying he has to so again they could vote to stop a 'no deal' scenario but it would be worthless if that's what he wants to have happen. Inaction is as good as action from his position. Fun fact - it's almost five years to the day that a trio of reports pointed out that the plan for the 'Boris Island' airport was f**king stupid and would never work, although only after Boris had spent millions in planning fees.

Well, there you go.

Buy the Federal FTS DVD/get hold of a copy from your local shop/whatever. It's really, really good. Without sounding wanky, it's got the most cohesive branding of any BMX project I think I've ever seen. It's also nice to see someone who's using an upside down tripod as a steadicam film better than all the f**ks with four-figure fancy electronic stabilisers and the latest jazzy 4k cameras.

Yeah, that's always fairly mind blowing. It's even down to the same way that (from my understanding of it) there's no one universally accepted theory for why the shape of wings produces lift for planes. I assumed that was all done and dusted, but seemingly not. Related to the transistors thing though, from that article I linked to: "When they analyzed it, they found that the seawater had dissolved components of the volcanic ash, allowing new binding minerals to grow. Within a decade, a very rare hydrothermal mineral called aluminum tobermorite (Al-tobermorite) had formed in the concrete." It's extremely unlikely the Romans would have known that was the specific process, but it worked and they went with it.

Tangentially related to this, was listening to a podcast last night and they happened to mention accounts from Anglo Saxons who first moved down from further North in the UK into areas that the Romans had left, and essentially inherited all the buildings and infrastructure they'd put in place. The designs and materials (specifically the concrete) that the Romans used was so far advanced compared to the techniques the Anglo Saxons were using they couldn't work out how it was possible, and some people at the time put forward ideas about the buildings having been made by giants and stuff like that. Related to that: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/why-modern-mortar-crumbles-roman-concrete-lasts-millennia Again, not throwing judgement one way or the other, just seemed like a relevant example of how perspectives can change on things.

Yeah, seems to be the case. So bizarre. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_RzRj4U4AAHIg9?format=jpg&name=900x900 Wut.

They do say history is cyclical, I guess. Punz. Much like Leeson's hands were tied in one way, I suppose Crewkerz's'zs's are in another with those weird offset AS30 BB shells and cranksets they have to use nowadays. Cheers for the clarification Ross Good to know what the deal is finally!

Does anyone know the reason for them doing that setup? I only found out about it after someone I knew had to send their frame off to Leeson to have a new BB fitted, but didn't know what the thinking was behind it.

Madison's own-brand shorts are really nice and you can sometimes get some mega deals on them. They're cut a bit higher in the back, so even if your top is a bit short you should still be covered. As Forteh says though, proper riding gear tends to be cut much better these days so it's worth looking at a generic jersey (haven't tried them myself, but if their shorts are anything to go by the Madison jerseys will probably be decent) and seeing how that fits you. They're not full skin-suit so you can still have a fairly casual look, but with better fit/materials.

Those pizzas. So good... There's a small-ish shop just up the road one way, and a bigger Tesco (from memory, could be a Sainsburys?) the other way so you've got options. It's a bit of a faff to get to them compared to just going to a food van, but if you forget anything you might need you'll find them there.

Depending on how old the tyres are, some fresher ones might be a good shout. Not so much just for pure grip's sake, but when I bought my Mk2.5 that's a bit newer than yours, the tyres on it were ancient and had properly gone off. The lack of grip wasn't that much of a problem, but the ride was shocking. They weren't supple at all any more, so felt pretty harsh, and if you went over any change in road surface it felt like poops and got a bit loosey goosey. I change to some Michelin Pilot Sports as I'd had them on my old Mk1 (it was literally the same set that I'd had on my old Mk1 as it happens) and the feel of the car was so, so much better. My car had had a couple of very careful owners who didn't put much mileage on it, so I think because of that they simply hadn't needed to change the tyres. If you got yours from someone similar it might be worth seeing if you can find some decent cheap-ish tyres out there. I wasn't really that bothered about what I had, but I was able to get hold of a set of the Michelins cheap for my original Mk1, and then got another set cheap from a similar source - they're a spec tyre for Ginetta racing, so they'd done one brief track session but other than that were brand new. Should be the same size as what's on your car, so might be worth a look to see if you can find some. Can't remember off the top of my head, but I think the latest set I got were Pilot Sport 3s. I don't have much to compare them with, but they seem really nice to me

Probably just my salty old dude mindset kicking in, but I've learned that's not really how things really work. I quite often see people saying "We all ride bikes so we should all get along", but that's akin to saying "We're all football supporters, we should all get along" or "We all drive cars, we should all get along" - it's clear that isn't the case for them, and it isn't really the case for us just because someone else happens to ride a bike similar to us. I used to want to be happy families with everyone (honestly, haha) and tried to do that, but as time goes on you realise that it's better to nurture the relationships that actually bring some form of value to you and not to bother forcing things with those that don't just because they happen to have a shared interest. It'd be cool if everyone who rode bikes was great to hang out with and it could all be one big happy family, but f**k me there are some c**ts out there who happen to ride bikes. Obviously I'm not saying to not bother trying at all with people, but it's just not worth getting too down about if you can't make a friendship happen with someone who's clearly a dickbag. It'd be interesting to know which person it was you're talking about just to see where they fit in with my experiences in a way. As before, if they're willing to hang all this on the basis of you not liking how Ashtons ride (for the record, the original Ashtons felt really nice but I don't think I really rode one of the Ashton/DB ones that felt particularly good - haters gonna hate), they're probably not that much of a loss to you. Just remember that there are plenty of other people out there who are fun to ride with, and focus on them Oh - and regarding the other people he was with thinking ill of you, I know of a guy who used to be the Big Deal out of a group of riders. He was a proper sourpuss and basically hated almost everyone/thing, but the people he was with were aware of that and although they listened to what he said didn't necessarily take it on board. Chances are if that person has been that weird with you, it's not the first time they'll have seen him act like that or be like that so they won't take it too seriously.

Sounds like a dickbag. He's no loss to you - if people are willing to get that shitty about so little, they're not worth your time.

14mm piston for the rear Racing Line said that the Nano was more suitable for a front brake with the FL/14mm brake being better for the rear. You don't need any hose insert for the Magura hoses (or any rim brakes hoses as far as I know, they're more of a disc thing). If you've got an M8 shroud and an olive on the hose already you should be able to just route it straight into the Racing Line lever.

I think the basic premise was that your steerer would snap off quickly enough that whether you over rotated your bars wasn't a problem. That was the "Monty Steering Stop System". Think it was basically just a threaded hole in the steerer that you tightened a bolt or something into that then mashed into the frame and stopped the forks from rotating fully? Not sure on the details as I never saw it in person, but that was the premise. Monty's SSS also fits in with that Magura setup of drilling holes in things in places I wouldn't really want to drill holes in things

They still seem to sell alright to be fair. They've sold out of them pretty quickly the past few years, and that isn't because they're just getting small batches made. Although it does seem like it's just a matter of time until we've all become sponsored by Maestro and there's a global shortage of 4-bolt to V-brake adaptors, for now I'm not even really sure how someone could buy one even if they wanted to. Crewkerz have the benefit of being well established with shops around the world, running their own webshop, having a team who get good results at comps and put out some good clips, etc. They're obviously doing reasonably well in that they managed to buy out Ozonys. No doubt once Maestro get a bit more established and buying one becomes easier they'll potentially take some sales away from Crewkerz, but Crewkerz have got a really good reputation for building strong, stiff and fairly light bikes, and as a result they'll still be desirable for some riders out there. You can never really underestimate the Carthy effect either - if he wasn't running those Breath black and white bars before, they wouldn't have sold any of them...

What Ben said. You'll need an M8 shroud and an olive for attaching the hose to the lever, but aside from that you're all good. All the slaves out now are based around the same dimensions so they're all interchangeable.

Admittedly you didn't quite go as direct as "f**k you", but "Pot, kettle, black" does spring to mind

To be fair, Sick's social media attitude was pretty good. I can appreciate they rubbed people up the wrong way, but in all honesty being able to respond to some questions as honestly as they did would be dreamy... I agree that they dropped the ball on whatever has happened with Marino, but in general their ethos/ideas were sound. They were clearly into/passionate about what they do, but as with the issues they faced with importing the ti frames they had made a while back they were possibly a little naive with how they did things. They had the 'wrath of the cycling community' from the get-go, even before they did anything other than show a prototype, so I think they're probably fairly used to it.

Are you using an IS to Post adaptor of some sort, or is it bolted straight onto a post mount? EDIT: Just clocked your other thread about it. Was pretty much what I thought it would be, and the advice in that thread is correct

From the horses mouth: "Entry is via the Scottish Bike Trial Club Facebook page, indicate “going” and jobs a good one."

In thrilling conclusions news, took Nic's car to the garage I normally go to. They drove it, jacked it up, immediately said they could see the wheel bearings were f**ked, replaced them and now the car is fine. Funnily enough, it didn't need a new gearbox. Surprise surprise.

It's not the orange it used to be - the latest version of it is fairly red. He's been on that new version for a couple of months now. I quite liked the concept, they used it for some pretty interesting cuts. The logo stuff isn't the most subtle thing in the world, but hopefully once the initial splash is done it'll become a little lower profile. We'll see... Riding wise it was cool too. Good mix of stuff. That frontflip too - hot diggidy.