Duncy H

I'm looking to buy a Canon 135mm f2 and 15mm f2.8 fisheye soon. Anywhere people would particularly recommend for buying lenses? Likely go down the used route.

Doesn't really bother me when. I may have to bail on actually driving on track, Im not going to really have a suitable car for it and now looks like I'm moving to Canada in summer so I'm saving like mad. I'm well keen to come hang out and take photos though.

If there's any pics of mine you'd like to pick out I'll happily share what settings/setup i used and run through my editing process. I 99% of the time just use lightroom as it usually does most of what i want to do to photos. Mainly played around myself to learn it while getting a few tips off my mates and my dad as well as watching youtube videos. If you pick a photo and create several copies of it and edit each one differently it is a good way to learn and see a side by side comparison.

Love the look/feel of that shot, I'll add a few to liven it up. Last two are shot with the little Canon Eos M.

I had a trip down to Le Mans in roughly 2004 when I was much younger. Can't remember much except I enjoyed it a lot. We somehow managed to get into the main pit grand stand but I never had a ticket. Mostly we were around that part of the track, I can remember being amazed by it at night.

Found a pic of the lap time board from last time.

Think I may have a photo of the lap times board somewhere, think I left an hour or so before most of you guys though.

I'm dead keen for TFTD2. Should we start a new thread?

Well, I am 50% guilty and my employee is 50% guilty too. All fun and games, ah well.

Some stuff went down at our Christmas do (only had it this week) and it's making for a lot of hard work to sort out and settle down.

I don't think I've rode since the start of 2013. I like others pumped in a lot of time riding trials in my youth, both moto and cyclo, if I remember right I sold it to get some funds so I could ride the Scottish Six Day trial but never got round to buying another. Keep getting temptations every now and then to buy one but I know it would just probably end up sitting there gathering dust. Since been on season long mountain bike trips and will be doing so again this year so still have an element of bikes to be involved in. I lurk here quite a lot actually but never really post that much. Generally just lurk in chit chat/bike chat, I just can't brake the habit of having a nosey through t-f.

I'm quite lucky in that sense that I've never really bought any camera gear apart from my 50mm 1.2 and 5d III as my dad always had gear I could borrow. I am planning a couple of trips this year. One or both is going to be long term, to Canada again and New Zealand. The only equipment I have that I can take out is my 5d and the 50mm. I was considering purchasing a 135mm f2 and a canon 15mm fisheye f2.8 to go with it. Is that a good idea or should I get a zoom wide angle like a 17-40mm?

I noticed the difference most when I was out in Canada and all my pals had a 5d and I just couldn't capture the same image as they could with my 7d. So I bit the bullet and bought one there (much cheaper) and never looked back. Not really shot many photos with it for a while though. Got a few fun work projects coming up that will sort that out though.

Enjoyed taking a look through that, thanks for sharing! Recently shot a few biking pictures with the little canon eos m. It's very handy for being small and lightweight so can go in my bag. If anyone could share some opinions on steadycams I would really appreciate it as i've been given a project/work that involves shooting a video. I have one at the moment but it is a total nightmare to balance and I usually end up giving up before getting it set up. Ideally around the £50 mark but will spend more and to suit a DSLR. Cheers.

I was very close to purchasing a canyon before I bought my bronson. They are super value for money but their customer service appears to be rather shocking. By that I mean the lead times for bikes to arrive, by reading the forums people keep getting promised dates for dispatch which change everyweek. People have been waiting since August and been told their bikes will arrive in January. Also the after sales service doesn't seem so great neither as in it takes a long time to deal with warranty claims. For example, a few of the models I were looking at cracked in previous years. If you were to send it off to them they appear to currently take at least a month before they even look at it and even then the outcome usually seems to be pretty harsh. My opinion from the great deal of reading and info I've dug up on them is that the company has massively grown beyond their capabilities and so essentially they take a long time to do anything. They do offer some really good value for money bikes however if you're willing to wait.

I'm up in Falkirk next Tuesday evening working and have a few free days after until Friday evening when I've got to be back in Sheffield. I've been considering bringing the mountain bike up with me and riding for a couple of days. I had considered heading up to Aberdeen where I can stay with my sister for nothing too if there's anything up that neck of the woods. So basically is there anywhere people would particularly suggest to ride essentially between Sheffield and Aberdeen that would be worth a visit this time of year. More than happy to travel if it means some epic riding. Cheers

I'm keen, I don't mind when so long as I have enough notice to sort out cover for work. Not sure what I'd end up doing it in. Currently driving a two and a half tonne Nissan navara, that would be amusing!

I used to strap mine to the underneath of my top tube, not sure if it'll fit as nice on my new bike yet, I always mounted it on the bars.

I've used the chinese lights mentioned by ross and they are great, incredibly bright and last a decent amount of time. Seeing as they're so cheap I always carried a spare with me but I never had an issue with mine, (they can be bought as a pair for roughly £20). That's not to say I haven't heard of friends having issues with theirs but I don't use lights too often, and only really for pitch black trail riding.

Yeh that set up should work just fine i would think, you'll probably get away with your chainring bolts too as the smaller rings tend to have a built in thread in them.

I'm pretty certain they are 104bcd. So basically you'd need a 104bcd front sprocket which would sit where the middle ring is. Seeing as you have a 32t centre sprocket I'd suggest going for a ride and using only the middle ring and see how you get on with it. You may also need some different chainring bolts that are narrower. What rear mech do you have?

To get the right chain length I've always gone with the technique of putting the chain on both of the largest rings (avoiding the rear mech) and adding two full links to that chain length. It's usually there or there abouts with that method. So at the moment your chain is likely optimised to go in both of your large cogs which will be a big spread.

A clutch mech makes things become a lot quieter obviously by not allowing the chai to rattle about as much. Running a triple setup generally means a lot of noise cause of the longer chain mostly amongst other things. Covering your seat stays and chainstays can help make bikes a whole heap quieter too. Wrapping them with an old inner tube can be a cheap way of doing it. Or layering up some bar tape on there followed by another layer of something like stronger tape can look a bit neater.

Not really much for me to add after what's already been said. I reckon you'll be aiming for something like a 32t on the front. I've ran 32t front with ten speed 11/36 on the rear for a year or so and that was an ideal set up for here up north where there's big hills ha. I dropped to 30t while I was in whistler but that's because xc involves riding up a mountain ha. Even with the 30t up front it didn't lack too much for high speed laps in the bike park. Having said all that my new ride has sram 11 speed which is a very impressive setup so far.

My new ride, picked up a bit of a bargain at Peatys bike bonanza.