F-Stop Junkie

Sorry Tomm, but Rock Shoxs are the absolute mutts at the moment. While people over at Singletrackworld have been having lots of problems with Fox forks (such as air mixing with the oil) Rock Shoxs are pretty mutch bullet-proof. Pikes if you want burly (I love mine), or Revelations if you want something lighter and more XC. You can buy Revs from TF Tuned with the correct spring for your weight at no extra cost.

You hope people will pay you for taking photos? There is *no reason* to go with Canon or Nikon, other than what works best for you or if you _need_ tilt and shift lenses. Why not go with a D200? Heard nothing but good things about those. Given that Joe is a professional photog, and deals with photo people on a daily basis, I'd give a lot of consideration to what he says. If you're shooting for a big agency, then go nuts and buy whatever they say. I'm sure the pay cheques and comission will more than cover it in the long run. Meanwhile just worry about getting the best out of what you've got. Oh, and spend money on glass, not bodies.

Tsk, you can't just say random things! It's a game with a rich cutural heritage that's been played and enjoyed by nobility and the chattering classes alike. It was played during the Blitz to keep up the spirits of those in air raid shelters, while German efforts faltered due to the ultimate failure of Der Mornington Strasse as a suitable alternative after learning of it's existance from captured members of the French resistance who'd play Moanington Crescent through messages left in hiding places, and thus pre-empting primetime sitcoms by many years. Time team recently unearthed a medieval version played by land owners using counties, but it ended in tradegy when a recurring triple play was misinterpreted as a lunging rollover, and that's why Prince Charles owns most of Cornwall now. The earliest example is from interpreted Egyptian texts which show the problems of playing in a desert. The egyptian rulers would have music playing while indulging their love of pyramid, pyramid, sphinx, though this was the total length of the game as they then ran out of things to identify. If this wasn't bad enough for the watching slaves, it was accompanied by Colin Sell on the piano.

Ooooh, a crafty one here! The mall!

Definately a big thanks to Sue and Charlie for another great event. So good to see so many other riders there! Did anyone loose a crank bros multitool? I found one next to my car after the MJ Cycles mob had left...

Isn't sheperds bush a fosbury bypass? In which case Charel is trolley'd! Easy, elephant and castle!

Following a chat between myself, OBM, Dan, Andy, Ms Prawn and some other folk, the musical comedy thread. Fresh from the Now Show - Mitch Benn! Size Zero and I May Just Have To are great examples of the big man's work. He's upto four albums now - first being half stand up and half songs, while the last three have been made with his backing band The Distractions. A great mix of comedy about music as well as musical comedy (if you see what I mean). If he's playing a gig near by, go see and buy CDs. I have some 'unpublished' tracks from the Now Show too, if anyone fancies... Ok, and I've just come across a ton of his stuff on YouTube The Tea Party, Coldplay Now, The granddaddy really is Tom Lehrer, which really still stands up if you're of an academic or liberal bent. In Concert was the intro for a lot of folk, and good it is too! For those with more classical leanings, Victor Borge puts an unusual spin on opera and classical music. Accomplished, but very funny. In an 'if you liked that, you'll also like this' fashion, Monty Python fans are able to continue to indulge with new material from Eric Idle including live albums and all sorts. Ummm, who else... Tom Wilson or now does musical comedy stand up too! Oh, and Bill Bailey has a proper album out, but quite a lot sounds oddly familiar... Right, collective TF conciousness, who else should be considered? Amatuer transplants I seem to remember?

Well I've just heard that Barry, Graham, Tim and Humph (no word yet on Samantha...) will be back Monday at 6:30! Life is good! No website yet, but I'm sure it'll be listenagainable for those unable to be poised by the wireless. Now, if you've understood that, hug the aging Trials Forum membership like a long lost friend and join with me. Just to note; Jubilee is wild, the Fosbury bypass *is* in play, and cross-parallels will be trolley'd. Clapham North

I'm in the middle of selling the 20mm F1.8 Sigma and it's a great lens. Why not go for the Tamron 28-75 F2.8? It's only two thirds of a stop slower, but bright as heck all the way through! Bump the ISO up a stop (which is not a problem with Canon dSLRs!) and the lens is still fast enough to use the high accuracy AF sensors.

Remember that an image appears on film or sensor upside down. If the point where the lines crossed was on the sensor, then all you'd see would be a white dot rather than an image! I think these days the idea of a lens being a certain physical length to contain a certain focal length is daft because of advances in lens design, glass technology, etc...

It's all a bit of relational values rather than anything actually specific or interesting. As Bongo said, it's simply the distance from the film (or sensor) plane to the rear nodal point of the lens. It's not important, but an interesting bit of trivia. Now, for a bonus point, can any one a) say where F numbers come from, and why aperture values are called stops?

I don't worry about safety because I think I'll crash, I worry because I'm not the only person on the roads. Between idiots worried more about their choons than the road, the rep with phone in one hand and A-Z in the other, and the lorry driver with limited visibility I want to be as safe as possible just in case. I've done my share of stupid stuff when I was young, but I'd hate for my girlfriend to be in a crash and I'm sure she feels the same way. I don't do now what I did then, but it's always been that way. It's true that youth is wasted on the young.

What I outlined is what I look for in a car. I want something exciting, but I also want it to be safe, reliable and comfortable. I appreciate that everyone will have comprimises to make to find their ideal (be it higher costs for faster cars, less practicality for sports cars, etc..) but safety is one thing I wouldn't be happy comprimising on. Race and rally cars don't count. I don't think my Focus is exceptional because Marcus Gronholm stepped out of a big accident on a rally. The caged Mini I'm helping build has far more strength in the cage than the body shell, but then it's a silly FIA-spec multi point weld in jobby. Remember that EuroNCAP tests are done into a concrete block at 40mph. These days if you crash into a 'soft' car it'll help protect the occupants of the Mini and limit damage to both cars. There are too many factors in an accident to say 'Minis are safe because people crash them without injury'. Drum brakes better than badly setup disc brakes... One generalisation followed by another. You don't know the condition of the BMW brakes, how hard the driver was trying to brake, etc... The Mini steering does have better feel without a doubt, and I've said that before. I've driven Minis far faster than 30mph, and the steering certainly needs more effort than my Focus, but not a massive amount more. As you slow it naturally gets heavier though, and on increased lock. TF member in sticking to speed limits shocker... Depending on engine and gearing, I've been on the motorway at the speed limit with pretty high revs, and lumps and bumps (of which there are plenty, obviously your Mini rides better than the ones I've tried!) like the joints on the M69 for example, do buck the car around. Partly because of the suspension, but also due to it's small size and light weight. Cult being the word. It's like anything which has a fanatical following, the owners overlook the faults. Trials bikes objectively are rubbish bicycles, but they're great for what we do, and we overlook the lack of gears, seats, etc... I've said many times in this thread that Minis are very fun cars to drive, and I've been involved with many over the years. They're much better than other cars of their era without a doubt but they're of their era. As I've said before, I'm not anti-mini, I just want people on TF to have a balanced view and not just think of them as perfect cars when they're not. BTW, I don't like the insinuation that I don't want to be part of the driving experience. I adore cars in all their many and varied forms. I've gone to race meetings, the Festival of Speed, and I'm off to the Nurburgring in the summer. I love the feeling of a car as it undergoes weight transfer through a corner, or balancing a car over bumps and crests on roads I know well. My Focus gives as much involvement as I could ask for a car in it's class, but again it's down to comprimises.

As I said before, I realise they're great fun, but looking around on here it's easy to think they're reliable, safe and refined. They're only reliable if you know what you're doing and prepared to get your hands dirty (though relatively easy to work on!). I'm not a mini fan by any stretch, but they're not bad cars at all!

The problem with considering mini enthusasts as a definitive sample of all minis on the road is somewhat flawed. It's like looking at all trials bikes on TF and seeing that 10% have saddles, therefore 90% of all bikes in Britain don't have saddles... Doesn't quite work. I concede that modern tyres are better than old tyres. I was thinking last night after our little debate, and if I ever win the lottery I'm paying for a standard 1986 Mini Mayfair in good condition to be crash tested head on. Then a second off-set crash test. If it's not that expensive, I think I could easily spend six months crash testing old cars for no other reason that I'd like to.

Source?

It's another rant, but it's far too easy to get and keep a driving licence. People who care about driving will maintain and improve their skills and planning as they drive, those who don't forget everything they've learnt as soon as they've passed, then reverse into small children, and panic when in the fast lane in the M1... I admit it's a bit grown up, but I'd rather err of the side of safety when surrounded by distracted Mums and men with small willys in 4x4s. Even the safest driver can end up involved in a crash, even if they didn't cause it.

I realise I'm going against the mini fans here, not to mention a group of people who ride bikes that could hardly be described as comfortable Modernised minis will be more than £700, plus 1275s will not be the cheapest insurance groups. The steering is heavy, it's not a PAS issue, but it's also not helped by some people fitting smaller sporty steering wheels. Oh, passive safety isn't about having a car which will stop you getting into problems in the first place (try here instead) because someone not paying attention or going too fast in a Mini will have an accident. Especially with the tiny drum brakes behind 10" wheels compared to discs and modern tyres on a more modern car. The lack of a collapsible steering column means in the event of a head on crash, there's a real chance of having a big steel spike through your chest. Minis were never crash tested as far as I can find, but the Metro (or Rover 100 on the EuroNCAP website) scores 1 out of five, and that was supposed to be the mini replacement - it was horrid though. Just to illustrate, a Focus: A Rover Metro:

If I may offer a little balance here... Minis are 60s design and engineering, which means they are pretty much as advanced as an HB pencil. The steering is very direct, with good feel, but the wheel is at the same angle as a double decker bus, and steering is very heavy indeed. The suspension is very basic and lacks control and travel, which does mean a go-kart feel but also bumpy rides. Gear boxes are also fourty year old designs, so can be clunky and inprecise. The low power and bad ride means motorway journeys are tiresome, and the lack of sophistication on older cars means that they can be unreliable compared to a new car (A friend's Mini used to cut out in the rain for example...). Oh, and they rust, badly. Oh, and the engines are pretty low powered, but then there's relatively little weight to move so that's ok. My biggest problem, and the reason why I'd never own a standard mini, is that they're built to 60s safety standards. They don't have crumple zones, survival cells, collapsible steering columns - or even laminated glass in some cases. Ok, you might not be going quickly, but Land Rover vs Mini isn't going to be pretty. I'm not anti-Mini, I've been to Mini shows, and driven a few and even helped restore a couple (including a caged example in the works with a 1.4 K-Series under a flip front), but TF is a pretty pro-Mini place, and I wanted to give the downsides others might not! You wouldn't get me out of my Focus into one...

I went looking for your wagon Bongo. Wasn't sure where you might have posted it, tried SIDC and saw a car with an obvious number plate

You are joking, right? That link for satellite Internet access is intended for small office, not mobile connections. Using a service like Inmarsat's RBGAN will cost you £400 + VAT for 68Mb of data if you go the prepaid route. And you'll need to carry a satellite dish with you the size of a small laptop - which costs upto £1400 + VAT if you go prepaid. Go for Web 'n' Walk Pro with a 3G phone or PCMCIA card. Some that T-Mobile do offer HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access) going upto 1.1mbps if you're in a suitable area.

I - and many folk I know - find cars almost exclusively through Autotrader. If you're buying 'ordinary' cars then Trader is the place to be. If it's fast, sporty or special then Pistonheads/Specialist forum. Or both.

I wouldn't pay for the Autotrader mag these days, everyone just looks on-line! It's dead cheap for web only.

Nope, Martin Hawyes & Martyn Ashton. You kids have got no sense of history

You do know the song credits are at the end of the programme?