tartan pixie

Need to buy an angle grinder to grind my rims and was gonna get some cheap tat like this: cheap grinder Are there any probs with cheap grinders and what sort of discs are people using on them?

No i didn't keep tightening it but did go for quick a ride on it with the snapped lever. (It's a new bike i couldn't help myself ) Checked the documentation and there's no suggested torque setting, anyone know what i would set the torque wrench at? If the clamp snaps before the bolt strips it's a shitty design. If the clamp snaps when the bolt is no where near stripping and lots of other people say 'yeah that happend to me too' then it's definately a shitty design. Anyways i've taken it back to the shop who are going to send it off and see what they can do. Quick plug for Gear Bikes on Gordon Street in Glasgow cos one of the guys has offered to lend me his spare magura it it's sorted

Pic of the fracture surface: Hopefuly they'll just replace it, cheers for the help.

Finally got myself a proper trials bike, an onza zoot. Was setting it up for my 1st ride and this happened as i was adjusting the brake lever: The bolt isn't particularly tight and hasn't stripped or anything so i'm guessing it's a manufacturing fault. Has anyone had the lever crack like this before? Will be taking it back to the shop tomorrow if anyone's got advice on waranties etc. Loving the feel of the bike but can't go on a proper ride till the lever's sorted

Most of the biggest shareholders are banks, pension funds and insurance companies so recession is likely to mean your parents pension gets screwed and you have to bail them out. The insurance companies have been some of the fastest movers on global warming as they are the ones who have to pay up when things go wrong and they are already refusing house insurance etc on the basis of sea level rise and other global warming factors - if these kind of people refuse to take your money you know something's up. The image of global warming causing some crazy end of the world scenario is pretty stupid but so is doing nothing, the intergovernmental panel on climate change and new scientist are good if you want to cut through the propaganda. The earth does go through warmer and cooler phases with previous greenhouse periods lasting a mere snip in geological time, like 250,000 years or so, however the cooling process is triggered (in part) by phytoplankton blooms using up all the oxygen in the oceans and increased acidity in the water which kills off sea life while on land decreased drinking water kills off land creatures. This disruption of the food chain is a major part of how the planet returns the carbon (living things) to the earth where it eventually gets stored underground as oil. We should have the technological prowess to get round much of this however accelerating the process is pretty stupid and if people are forced to consume less due to recession then it's because we've previously consumed and populated at a rate that is unsustainable. Oil companies are owned by shareholders and controlled by market demand, i'd wager that most people who feel uncomfortable about the actions of the oil companies don't realize that when you buy an insurance policy, open a bank account or get a pension you have effectively bought a share in an oil company. Their horrific involvement in Nigeria and elsewhere is sanctioned by us and they have autonomy because of the illusion that you are only the small person and can't do anything when in fact we own them. The big institutions are only as foreward thinking as the people who fund them so think financial, think ethical. Guess i'll keep riding my bike and being hopeful

Is there any advantage of the isis system over 4 bolt with a splined bb? I run a race face crank/bb on my freeride bike (splined 4 bolt) and it works brilliantly so is there a good reason for people running chainrings that need a chain whip with scaffold pipe to remove? 3 weeks till i can afford my new bike, i'll give you some peace from the stupid q's after that.

Cos it's such a pain to get to the decent mtb spots from the center of glasgow if you're an eco head like me who refuses to buy a car. Started trials about a month ago and am really enjoying the over enthusiastic noob phase

Some quick sketches: 1st 3 pics Got quite a bit of experience to make complex designs in monochrome so any help with ideas and i'll be happy to photoshop it. Idea 1: Shilouette of man doing huge gap over line of big breasted women Idea 2: evolution of man - monkey to trials monkey Idea 3: No Deng in no smoking sign style Idea 4: Bike chains - lots of scope here, words, faces, bikes, etc Idea 5: Heart with a trials frame through it like an arrow. Anyways don't need payment, there must be other folk on this site with a few image skills so surely we can make a decent T?? Working stupidly long hours next few days to get myself a new bike but if this thread continues i'll produce some work next week

+1 I'm intrigued to know what kind of video or comp event would inspire people? The combination of having fun and pushing the bounds is much harder to achieve now because the bounds of cycling have been pushed so far that only the serious can reach them, that and the media folk that filmed chainspotting and wrote MBUK have also grown up so that the 'serious' guys with the distribution links are doing the vids and the staff at MBUK can be to some extent be summed up by the difference in Rob Warners column to what he was writing 10 years ago. I could dig up a thread like this from a number of disciplines, like folk in the mtb scene reminiscing about the original malverns events where i remember more people knowing about team shopper in the fun event than who won the mens xc but hey sports grow up and that's a good thing. The fun is still there and seeing the man Ashton in magazines is a major factor in me getting back into bikes after nearly a decade away from it. So if the masters of silly are now thinking about having grandkids what are we expecting from the new kids to keep us entertained? Things i'd like to see: One of the bicycle police doing trials Pedalo trials Unexpected things, eg someone's lining up to do a trick then suddenly jumps off their bike, grabs a tree branch and does a monkey impression. (It may not be trials but doing this in a way that makes people laugh takes balls and talent) Cream egg competition - 5 cream eggs are placed in a row and you've got to back hop onto each of them then scrape the goo off your wheel into some scales with a tyre lever. Person with the most goo wins. Just some silly ideas - what would make you laugh / inspire you?

Thx, all clear now

Being a relic from back in the day i think of cranks as having a square taper and 5 bolt chainring mounts, the isis system seems nice and i understand the principle of bolting the cranks onto a splined axle but could someone please explain how the chainring and bash plate are fitted? Are these splined too and just slip on between the crank and bb or do they thread on to something? I've been looking at pics of chainrings on tarty and in the wiki but they've all got 5 bolt holes in them so i'm guessing i've missed something.

Do people think 24" are a pain to get parts for and do you think the situation will get better or worse. Would you consider a 24" if you were getting a new bike?

Where were you mate?? If you or anyone else is about tomorrow (Wed 6th) we could try again for 13:00, George Square? Edit for typo Re edit: We met up so no ride tomorrow if anyone else's reading this

Ugh, bin bags will rip in no time, i use pipe lagging instead, it's cheap, strong, light, can be found at most builders merchants and might stop you from ruining your fave t-shirt. Also tape the cranks inside the chainstays (and if you have deraileur gears take the whole dropout off and tape it in there too). Then find a couple of old axles and place between the dropouts so that your stays and forks won't get bent inwards if it's sitting under 200kg of luggage in the plane hold, if you don't have spare axles some sturdy plastic pipe cut to length and secured with tape should do. Common sense should say what to do with bars/stem etc, just make sure nothing's got any leverage to bend anything else and get some fragile stickers from the person at the check in desk. A big roll of bubble wrap is a winner when packing bikes Often people who loose luggage didn't think about the handlers when they booked the flight. If you've got to change flights make sure you've got a couple of hours sitting about in the airport so that if the handlers have a problem they still have time to get your bags transfered. If it's that important to have your bag then don't book it right through, collect it at each stop and book it on to your next flight, this way you'll spot problems much earlier though it is a slightly extreme thing to do.

Works for me, I'll be easy to spot as the guy making an idiot of himself on a mtb.