AdamR28

Sweet! Keen to see what you think

Firstly let me say that the idea of these discussions at this point (for me, at least) is to try and find rounded evidence / commentary around the subject, in order to make myself (and others?) better informed. I am not trying to change anyone's mind or 'be a conspiracy theorist'. I completely agree with you there, but IMO that works both ways (eg. how do we know what's written on any website is the truth?). It can be 'certified' by whatever organisation, but how we know that is correct? Someone somewhere pays for every research study to be done. I agree with you there. I'm interested to find out what you think the government is interested in achieving, if you've considered it? I've thought about this quite a bit and my (admittedly naturally skeptical) brain hasn't come up with many positive options. Ha! I have to agree that Peppa Pig is probably pretty reliable as far as things go. The fullfact site certainly does paint a poor picture of Dr Vern, eh! I try to question the motives of any source of information, since IMO that is the very 'base'. It doesn't look like Dr Vern is out to make any money from this, and the way he has been shut down (if that is true...) certainly makes that impossible. So I guess he could be a psychopath? I couldn't see another reason for him to be so motivated in what he does - but willing to listen to ideas. It would be a very intelligent trick to write articles about how to spot a psychopath and be one yourself: https://www.vernoncoleman.com/istonyblair.htm Equally looking at FullFact, it is a charity which made £280k profit last year (£2m turnover), after 4 of the 11 officers drew personal benefits of more than £60k each (no corporation tax to pay as a charity too, of course). Approximately half of their funding comes from Google / Facebook / Whatsapp, with another 20-25% of it coming from another charity which made £5.4m profit in 2020. FullFact is a decent business. I'm not saying this source cannot be trusted, but working back to base motives it makes me question the reliability. I do agree with all of the above. Confirmation bias works both ways too, I'm sure you'll agree. So if you look at it from the other side, there are a lot of people 'dying from Covid' where there is no substantiation of the connection between the disease and the death. I haven't read about his thoughts on AIDS or masks causing cancer, but I can see on the face of it that degrades his trustworthiness, definitely. I can imagine a link between masks and cancer (breathing in tiny particles of plastic) but unsure how one could claim AIDS is fake. His website includes a page which pulls together non-biased information from normal people - which I thought was interesting, that's all. I know I fall on the 'wrong' side of this compared with the masses, but in many ways wish I didn't. It makes you feel uncomfortable being 'the odd one out'. Honestly I am not sure where the truth is in this and I don't think we'll ever really know, but I'm trying to explore all the options. The whole thing just feels... weird.

His site is very much at one end of the scale, granted, but it raises some interesting topics IMO. That was my point. His collection of links to 'normal' people's negative experiences of the jab is extensive. As with all these things it is for the reader to separate the wheat from the chaff and make up their own mind. Mainly I find it odd that our government doesn't classify Covid as dangerous, and hasn't since March 2020.

Indeed. At best, this is illogical.

Hmm. Honestly haven't much personal experience of inserts - but yes, you'd need a very wide one for such a rim. Perhaps there's a fatbike one that will fit?

Vernon Coleman's website is an interesting read. Examples... https://vernoncoleman.org/articles/here-proof-covid-19-was-downgraded-march-2020 --> https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid https://vernoncoleman.org/articles/how-many-people-are-vaccines-killing https://vernoncoleman.org/videos/vernon-colemans-wednesday-review-episode-three https://openvaers.com/index.php

No Way! Pun intended.

Aahhh, memory lane... Also just found out that Hans Rey is actually called Hansjorg. Mind blown. See also: sub 1.4kg frame in 1994. Double blown. Oh and check out those fork dropouts, adjustable offset / trail!

Nice work Dave! Looks really neat and using old knackered stuff is always a win I ended up taking a flap disc to my dropouts and they came out nicely. Just a little shaping to break up the industrial look... Then I lobbed some paint on. Its impossible to get a good representation of the colour indoors using a phone, but its an orange clear coat over a coarse metal flake base. Need to order another can to finish off the orange, but I'm looking forward to seeing what its like in sunlight once the lacquer has been applied. In theory should be like this...

I have (this is a front V1 but they are all the same in this respect). Drilled a new valve hole for Presta, glued the join.

Good call! May even get away with just wrapping a layer of tape around and using that as a cut line... we'll see tomorrow. Always fancied it on the old frame but never got round to it.

Yeah man. Did the same sort of thing on a previous frame and it's worked out well. In some cars they do similar things - such as use the engine block itself as a 'stressed member' (eg. effectively part of the chassis) - so I figured if the caliper has to be there anyway it might as well do two jobs... Thanks I had actually. Not sure how I'd do it neatly... perhaps a 1mm slitting disc in the grinder, then tidy by hand. One to ponder this evening!

New frame, ready for paint. Reynolds 853 front end, 631 head tube, Columbus stays, home made dropouts. Came out at 1.98kg, which is very light for a modern steel 29er.

Good news! We all have brain farts like that sometimes! Here's one of mine from yesterday that nearly caused enormous trouble...

Nice work - should do the job perfectly! I have a few 6 Bolt 44mm PCD sprockets kicking about if you want them. Probably got 20T and 18T at least.

Sorry guys, been busy with another part of the same project... but I have started on the spoke-making jig. Spoke progress will resume once the frame is finished, unless I get annoyed / bored with it in which case I'll come back to the spokes for a bit! Full build thread here: https://www.mtbr.com/threads/diy-steel-29er-singlespeed-frame-build-arse-29er.1196810/

Ceeway if you're getting a full tubeset - loads of choice, good service! https://www.framebuilding.com/ Bear Frame Supplies just for head tubes and BB shells: https://bearframesupplies.co.uk/ I've got a couple of spare (bought for practice welding but didn't use them in the end) ~600mm long, 0.8mm wall, 28.6mm OD 4130 tubes if any use - only cost me about £8 so happy to move them on at that price. PS: http://www.bikecad.ca

Welcome to the world of even more fun and less maintenance @monkeyseemonkeydo I started on 32:20 but now on 32:18. Most people say 32:16 is a good place to be, but not sure if that is bravado! This is with 26" wheels. General rule is to add 1 tooth to the rear for 650b, 2 teeth for 29er. Its pretty hilly round here, every ride is more than 1000ft of climbing per 10 miles to give you an idea, but everything is cleanable if you do your best BMX race start impression on the very steep stuff You need a bit of time to retrain your brain mostly - at first it feels really weird grinding away at super low cadences, but eventually you learn that you can grunt it out. Trials helps a lot I think, as you have good low speed balance while standing up and good core strength to keep the bike pointing where you want it to. Momentum is everything and pedal strikes are killer. Higher speeds - I find it absolutely fine 99% of the time and keep up with geared mates with no issue. You learn to carry momentum better on the flatter / slightly downhill stuff, and you'll find yourself sprinting at short sharp climbs rather than going into autopilot and shifting up the cassette. The only time I find it a bit lacking in speed is really fast, smooth, slightly downhill sections - you simply can't spin your legs fast enough to get any drive. A small trade-off IMO. I love it so much I'm building another (with big dirty wheels this time)! https://www.mtbr.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.mtbr.com/attachments/screenshot-2021-11-15-at-19-13-21-luddite-ss29-png.1956965/ https://www.mtbr.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.mtbr.com/attachments/20211116_061444-jpg.1957113/ https://www.mtbr.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.mtbr.com/attachments/20211117_170334-jpg.1957326/

I think it's correct to say the vaccine does 'work' in terms of reduced transmission - the reading I've done from sources I trust seem to all come up with this conclusion. By improving immune response this will reduce significance of symptoms, eg. less coughing, so less transmission. However... As Anal alluded to, I believe there are still a significant number of vaccinated people who are 'worse' spreaders than many unvaccinated citizens though, whether that's their lifestyle choices, state of health or their feeling of invincibility due to having been jabbed. In this case, I don't think it's fair or reasonable to impose isolation on a group of people simply because they have not been 'fully vaccinated' or don't show 'signs of increased immune response'. Availability of immune response is a moot point if you don't need to use said response. It's like saying we all need to go around wearing a full face helmet in case we walk into a lamp-post. Examples... Person A got Covid last year and nearly died, but now is double vaccinated, has a BMI of 35, aged 55, lives with partner and 3 kids all of whom are at high school, works in an office with 100 people, shares a desk with 3 others, goes out for a meal twice a week then to the pub after with at least 4 mates, takes the tube to work, nips to Subway every lunchtime for food. Even with '73% reduced risk of transmission' and '60% reduced risk of hospitalisation' (or whatever the latest version of the stats says.........) I would place good money on Person A having an increased risk of transmission and hospitalisation over unjabbed Person B who is 28 years old, lives alone, has never had Covid, works in an office with only 2 other people, never goes to the pub, goes out for a meal once a month with their partner, rides a bike 3 times a week on the moors, has a BMI of 23, commutes by bike or car and does their food shopping online. I know there are too many variables to calculate a 'risk factor' per person, but to me it should be innocent until proven guilty rather than the other way round.

I'm not sure where you would draw the line though. Resting heart rate of under 50? BMI of under 23? Able to run 3 miles? Never go to the pub or a shopping centre? All of these would be viable indicators of reduced risk compared with the average citizen, IMO.

Have had a couple of rear Super Deluxe before, one on an Orange Four (obviously single pivot) and another on an Identiti Mettle (linkage), no problems / nothing to report on either. Are you already maxed out on volume spacers?

More faffing... Decided I didn't like the twisted spoke in the end. Felt like it was a bit brutal on the spoke when forming the eye, and the thick to thin section felt wrong (stress riser). Had a mini failure at just over 200kg where the solder started to 'peel' away too. I hadn't prepped the spoke at all (normally I would sand it down with 120 grit and degrease with acetone) which is the likely culprit, but belt and braces... Ended up making a hybrid of the 'in line' eye from way back and the twisted one, which puts the silver solder more in shear than tension, and ensures the two lengths of spoke are touching for a good distance to allow proper soldering. Decided to go straight for a destruction test, so loaded the bugger up... BANG. Sapim spoke snapped at the first thread. This was at just under 150kg, so 300kg in the rope one. The rope held fine but the eye stretched a bit, necked down to 1.4mm from 1.8 at the very bottom. If any of these spokes see 150kg even momentarily during their life I'll be surprised, so that'll do me. Then went on the destruction testing warpath, and loaded one up to 115kg and attacked it with a file. The failure is actually quite boring, the strands just gradually detangle and the bury splice slips. At this point I'd put 20-25 firm strokes across the rope with a coarse round file, and it was still holding over 80kg. So I'm happy the odd rock strike won't cause issues! Need a new jig for the new eyelet type now...

Tempering could be possible, I need to read up on that... I did just test another soldered eye though and it was absolutely fine. I think the main problem was me being a butcher! I tried a straight spoke early days with a long rolled thread and no glue - it pulled out easily. I also tried gluing with the same rolled thread: CA pulled out (perhaps didn't get it soaked enough), epoxy 'skipped' on the rolled thread and then the rope started breaking at the end of the spoke - I'd even tapered it to reduce the stress riser. I am talking 200kg+ here though. One thing that might make enough difference, my rope is 2mm (though it measures at 2.2mm). The stuff Berd use is 1.5mm (have read that this measures up at 1.8mm), so perhaps the 'clamping' of the finger cuff trick is higher with the smaller rope. The jig... probably easier if I take a video, ha. It actually happens without any grunting somehow! You're not wrong about the nice finish of the silver solder. A lovely contrast to anodised aluminium and high tech rope.

I do! (Well, sort of, it's just a bag of bits now). It was just the rear one. I seem to remember either the bonding failed between the shell and flanges, or the carbon sleeve split - I think the 200mm rear disc I was using at the time didn't help things!

Haha. Well, thanks... I don't think this is out of the realms of a regular DIY-er, just I tend to go a bit to far with these things. More nerding here (Berd's patent): https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=10661598 - they do use cyanoacrylate to glue the spoke into the rim end. Scary. @Ali C, the patent only covers the USA and it would make an interesting video... just sayin'...