monkeyseemonkeydo

Was seriously considering spending £2k+ on a new bike but decided that actually I'd be doing it for the sake of it so instead spent ~£250 on the Meta to bring it a bit more up to date. Changed to 1x10 setup with an SLX Shadow+ rear mech, SLX shifter with display removed, XT 11-36 cassette and Superstar 34T narrow wide ring up front. While I was at it I also upgraded from Avid Juicy 5's (running on 185s) to SLX brakes with RT76 rotors, upped to 203 on the front and 180 on the rear. Final change was that I've been messing round with my home made dropper for a while but wanted to try a remote system and since the Meta has a 27.2 post the options are limited. Thought I'd try the cheap option of a TMars Gravity Dropper copy for £47 which so far seems pretty good. The reviews were a bit mixed but mainly were either 'great for the money' or (reading between the lines) 'I have no idea how to work a spanner, set up a cable brake/gears and take my bike to a shop to fix a puncture'. As some people said the lever seemed a bit dodgy so I immediately paired the post to a slimmed down Suntour remote lockout lever which seems to work just dandy. After fitting the Superstar ring I wasn't too happy with the chainline so added some spacer chainring bolt things I had which seemed to work a treat. Puts the ring chain close to the pivot cover things but still clear so no worries. Final note to self: when fitting a new chain to a full sus bike as well as setting the length relative to the worst gearing set up also remove the air from the shock to see how the suspension acts on the chain length. Oops.

That picture of Mark is well out of date. He appears to have undergone valmorification since then!

Pics or it didn't happen. That must be a bloody torture to ride!

Is this being run alongside the Waterside mototrials club or the Waltham Chase guys or similar? All previous years have had the moto as the 'main event' with us cycle guys messing around in between. The moto boys also did the course set up in previous years making it to suit their riders ability (which ranges from little kids going over sleepers to national level riders doing big stuff.

Can someone please remind Abel about the existence of gravity? I mean f**kin' 'ell!

That's still shit though. ISIS, BB30, Hollowtech, Icetech all good. Narrow wide or thick thin? Come on bike industry!

Talking of goats, anyone else got goat simulator? Quite amusing. Talking of narrow-wide have they seriously not thought of a better more catchy name than that for the technology?

Expecting delivery of a 34T superstar in the not too distant future and am going 1x10 on my Meta with a clutched rear mech. 11-36 cassette should just about be ok I think...

Dak Roche doing what he does: http://offthewall.tv/video/dak_down_under?channel=BMX

That's more like it:

You big tease, you.

be careful ignoring it though- Have you seen any of the 'Parking mad' TV stuff where people are stopped via ANPR and asked to pay like £600 charges or have their car removed from them? Not sure if those are only for council enforced tickets or whatever but you don't want to be on the end of that bill with no options. Did you continue communication after the £10 offer or just ignore it?

Have you cleaned the area yet? Clean her up and take some pics!

Or Red Bull.

Lol and jam.

Fair do's!

If you can't spell Irn Bru you have no place giving advice . My thoughts (Scot living in Engerland with folks still up in NE Scotland) are that the potential risks of going independent far outweigh the possible benefits. As it is Scotland are already able to have a pretty good say on some fairly major elements of their governance and it seems to me that it's just King Salmond wanting more and more power that's driving it with absolutely no real answers to the important questions being raised. As an adopted Sassenach I also feel that really if Scotland want to vote about splitting up the UK then Wales, NI and England ought to have a say too.

The thing is Danny himself calls them stunts doesn't he?...

Nah. Sister's in Singapore and likes to be kept up to date with how my little one's doing so sending little voice messages, videos and pics taken on the phone makes so much more sense to just keep up to date between Skype calls or whatever. Same goes for my mum and dad at the other end of the country. I see them maybe 3 or 4 times a year but Whatsapp makes it easy to let them know (and see) what Finn's been up to much easier than with texts or MMS or whatever.

For text messages sure but not for sending videos or photos. They're different.

Surely they're both basically identical for purely texting but the difference comes when you start sending pictures, video or sound files at which point there's no comparison because text can't cope with that and MMS messages (in my experience) are slow, unreliable and expensive.

Muel: have you ridden a 'proper' modern bike? You really ought to get yourself a test ride on an mt-09 or a KTM 690 or something rather than playing around on these old dangerous things!

Will the freewheel be held on by fairy dust? *gentlydoesit: The freewheel ought to slide on to the spline with a fairly snug fit (like sprockets/cassettes on hubs) and a lockring would then tighten up against the freewheel to stop any lateral movement.

All the post mount ones seem to be black but I couldn't find anyone selling a black IS-IS one... meh.

So because Hope stupidly don't offer their +20mm disc adapters in anodised black I bought an unbranded one for £9 on eBay. Bad choice. Thankfully noticed some noises and a bit more flex than expected so found that it was trying its best to become a pair. Stupid Hope.