Tomm

Put some extra screws in first. It can only sag if each wood:wood interface is allowed to pivot. If you put extra screws in (E.g. at the top / bottom of each slat, make sure there are at least 2 screws) then it can't twist. YMMV

I've seen that somewhere before. It's half a car as a trailer. Well chavvy. That's a good shout actually. They look fairly 'normal' in the right colours. Will have a look around. I kind of want something posh, like a BMW/Audi. They just don't seem to make the exact model I want. If it wasn't for the boot space issue I'd have loads more options. Maybe I'll have to relax that a bit...

Cotic BFe? That's what I'd get. You have to bear in mind that geometry changes dramatically on a hardtail. If you hit a large drop and bottom out your forks, you can expect a big change in headangle. E.g. If the head angle is 68 degrees at 140mm, with the forks compressed it's going to be more like 73 degrees, considerably steeper and you'll get into trouble if you hit something at that stage. On a full sus you don't get such a pronounced change like that. Cotic reckon the Bfe is just about OK with 160mm forks. I reckon this would be stupid for the above reasons, but it's happy with 140 at any rate. http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/136858/ lol

Definitely not impossible. My Civic with an Audi exterior and interior trim, plus some better suspension would tick all the boxes. I would quite like a clio and in retrospect I could have got one for significantly less than the Civic, might have been a good decision. But it would be a downgrade in terms of size / features / reliability so aside from being something different there's not much benefit in changing IMO. Anyone driven an Audi A4 (B7) quattro? Or A3 with Quattro (I know it's a different system)? Something like the 2.0tfsi.

Throw some car suggestions at me: I've got a civic type r currently (newest style/FN2) which I actually love. It's fast, reliable and so nice to chuck into corners. However I'm thinking of changing it to something (slightly) more grown-up - The Civic is faintly chavvy, plus the ride is terrible. Basically, I want something that's similarly nice to drive/string together bends. I don't do a massive mileage (9k last year) so petrol is fine. Small (ish) Big boot (to fit a mountain bike(s)) Nice lively drive Quick without being silly / super expensive BMW 1 Series is probably top of the list (120d/123d/125i) but whilst the coupe looks nice, it's not got a huge boot. The hatch looks... Bad. Not sure I could live with something so ugly. I was looking at Audi A3/S3 but sounds like they're not quite as sharp through the bends as the Civic. My girlfriend's got a golf and the steering is so vague compared to my Civic. I don't want that. Volvo C30 definitely an option although the boot is pretty small, and I can't really find any info on how it drives. Anything else I should consider?

I did a bit of a search of the giffgaff forums - sounds like a few people have been busted for tethering. I doubt they would be able to tell for simple HTML data, but if your iPhone was downloading eg flash data that would be suspicious to anyone looking closely. I doubt it would get flagged up unless you used load of data. Hmmm. Might get a 3 sim then. O2 is definitely free tethering (on my contract at least), although it's only up to the 500mb/month limit. It's fine because I only do the tethering very occasionally, but it's a great feature to have. Does your phone allow Xbox gaming? That's insane.

Bit of a random question - with O2 I can use my iPhone as a personal internet hotspot - it just lets you do it whereas on other networks you're expected to pay for it. Anyone know what the deal with giffgaff is?

Did you like shoot that garage owner in the kneecap or something? Progress seems much quicker recently.

What's the point in having an iPhone without internet? That's just silly. I'm capped to 500Mb/month, and looking at my usage, I've used about 4 Gb in a year. Which would suggest that 250Mb might not be enough (for me). I don't really watch a lot of videos whilst out and about, no streaming music etc. Just going on the internet really. And obviously I have WiFi at home which doesn't affect the allowance. I'll probably get a GiffGaff sim when my contract expires next month.

I fully understand why it happens. I just don't think it's a very good model for our society to live by.

Amazing!

To be fair I'd probably mock you too. There's just so much more you can do with an up-to-date phone. I probably spend at most 25% of my iPhone time making calls and texting.

What I find bizarre is how nothing is built to last any more. If I bought my first phone 12 years ago, and work out the number of phones I've had during that time it probably comes to at least 10-15, each lasting less than a year on average. My iPhone 4 is coming up to 2 years old which makes it practically old fashioned. Similarly, my games console will soon be out of date, my laptop's getting slower compared to the competition, and there's probably 5-6 other items I own which go out of date and 'need' replacing every couple of years. It's weird. If you bought something (anything) in 1975, you probably expected it to last more than a couple of years.

How old are you? I only got a mobile phone about 12 years ago, pretty much no one had them until around then (give or take a couple of years). And now Ive got a GPS/wifi/bluetooth touchscreen internet browsing/video watching slab of awesome in my pocket. Modern life rules. P.S. If anyone's reading this from like 2050, yeah I'm aware what I've said sounds horrendously dated.

Yeah I keep hearing Netflix has a much bigger library in the US. The films can be a bit lacking sometimes but there's enough good tv on there to last me a while. I've almost finished watching 4 seasons of prison break, and I've got 24 lined up when that's finished. Suspect ill stay with Netflix for a little while longer at least. I like the way it syncs nicely between my laptop/Xbox and puts you back where you left off, too.

That's a rather large assumption, given that there isn't really an atmosphere on the moon. For all intents there's a vacuum so no atmosphere to slow you down. I think this means acceleration would be virtually linear, no terminal velocity. It also means your parachutes would be rather useless. EDIT: Oh wait, we've got an artificial atmosphere within the building? Ignore me... 20mph seemed a bit slow, I think you mean 20m/s v^2 = u^2 + 2as v^2 = 0 + (2 * 9.8m/s/s * 19.5m) = 382 v = approximately 19.5 m/s = approximately 43.5 mph.

It needs bleeding. Apparently the front hole gives a linear stroke rate, whereas the rear setting gives a more progressive rate (stiffer towards the end of travel). I dunno whether you'll actually notice a difference, but try it out.

You're such an ass. Guy just posts a (completely reasonable) little remark, and you have to turn it into some bollocks about how you're so much more knowledgeable and awesome (See also: The entire last month's-worth of this thread). I don't really use my moderator powers any more but you tempt me out of retirement every time you open your keyboard face. Cool it or next time I'm not going to be as restrained.

Could you scrape the paint off? Would be quicker than sanding.

That looks sweet. How much did that cost? And how do you clean it?

What Danny says. You can't really tell the difference between a barely-used cassette and a completely nailed one, especially not in pictures on eBay etc, so you're most likely going to get ripped off. The only time I'd ever buy a used one would be off a mate and I knew it had only done a few miles. If you want to buy new stuff, Rose is usually pretty cheap for drivetrain stuff. 100% legit. http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/products/bike-parts/gearshifts/rear-derailleurs/?brand=764&page=2&viewtype=list&count=16&order=dprice#anchor_products

You can put it up or down without stopping. Sounds simple and a bit pointless but it really changes the way you ride, I love it. Best bike invention of the last 5 years for sure.

I don't understand why since I hate most French cars but I absolutely love those Clio 172/182s. They just look well fun.

It's more about the pressure difference. My Shock pump can do 250 psi (Reverb seatpost), good luck doing that with a track pump! JT, never ever try and let air out of forks/shocks without a shock pump on hand. It'll end in tears when you let all the air out and make the bike unusable until you find a pump.

There are plenty of guides around, the Superstar ones are cheap but I've got an MRP taco-style one on my DH bike which is pretty nice. Superstar don't do ones with an inbuilt bashguard unfortunately, otherwise I'd have gone for that - they seem great value.