F-Stop Junkie

I agree. I'm now on my second pair of these, and will buy a third when my current ones break. They're discreet, block out ambient sound well, and sound fantastic. They feel a little at first, but now I can't go back to normal earphones. These are even better than my Sennheisers or MoS DJ headphones.

QUOTE(deanie-b @ Apr 25 2006, 04:43 PM) ←If you look at some of the arguments that do occur on this forum, They start (usually) with one person expressing his views, and another disagreeing and basically just trying to be an utter twat. But one person can't have an argument. Normally some well intentioned person makes a comment, the second party had a go at them for it, then the first person thinks "I'm not having this" and has a go back. Sometimes the first person just has to step back and say "I was just saying what I thought" and leave it at that.

I think 29ers are the way forward for trials. Imagine what you could role over with that! How does it ride Tom? I'm tempted to swap out my Inbred for a 29er, being a larger gentleman.

But what about the positive aspects of religion? Bringing people together, working to help charitable causes, helping people lead lives with a sense of morals and purpose. What about providing comfort for those who have lost a loved one? Not everyone will feel the same way, but some people find it very comforting to think that someone they knew has gone to a good place. I think we live in enlightened times, but everyone still has to find their way in life. Some turn to self-help books, some to their parents, and others to organised religion. Every person has to have some form of idol or person they look upto and emulate. For a young child it may be an older sibling, for others it may be a sporting hero or a celebrity. People need to find a way through life, and if religion helps them then that's a good thing. We tend to be bombarded with religious fanatics, especially those in the middle east, for whom religion isn't an inward, personal thing, but tool used to show superiority over others. The news shows the latest bombing or war, but never the collections of the local parish which help the elderly through the winter, or help pay for treatment of the sick. After all, C of E isn't really very sexy. The most worrying thing I've seen recently was on Morgan Spurlock's 30 days. He was asking people on the street questions about the muslim faith. One that kept coming up went: "What's the first thing you think of when I say Muslim?" "Terrorist"

Woody, it takes a man to stay around and says he's sorry. Thanks for also PM'ing me and doing the same. All I can say with the arguments that start here is that it takes two to tango. Most people on here don't say something to get a reaction, they say it because they're being helpful. If someone is just being stupid, ignore them, don't react, and instead listen to those who are trying to help. Also remember that any forum has people who turn up, cause trouble, then clear off. It's natural for regular members to be a touch wary until they know you're a good, genuine guy. Just gotta play nice, and let people get to know you. Looking forward to more photos and improvements... Keep that shutter speed up!

Don't believe something you've posted about yourself?

He's 30.

You know the expression 'you can give it out, but you can't take it?' Click Here.

A flash gun capable of shooting around rain droplets? I'm not expecting a shift in physics here, I'm more worried about them landing on my lens. If I see a drop like that, I bin the shot, the end. I certainly don't show it to anyone. I don't give a monkeys arsehole if you're using a D2X, a coolpix, or a disposable camera. Just because you have a nice dad who lets you borrow his cameras doesn't make you a good photographer, any more than owning a Koxx XTP makes you Vincent Hermance. A good photo is a good photo irrespective of equipment. I've seen some cracking shots from cheap compact cameras, and I've taken appaling shots with my gear. I'm also incredibly proud of shots I've taken on film with a camera body which currently fetches about £50 second hand. Photos for me are all about emotional connection with a rider. I know some use them as a record of big moves or whatever and that's fine, but when you have a sidehop shot where the rider's face is obscured by his tyre. Look at the images I posted of Phil Feeney, I took several and I posted the one where his face was visible because you could see the detirmination in his expression and his crazy hair. That's what I'm talking about. It's taking a good picture, and lifting it upto a great picture. I take pride in my pictures, as do many people on here, and when someone show's a similar interest, I try and help them. I don't use terms like chromatic aberration to show off. I also spell it properly. If you want to talk tech, fine. On the whole you have used low shutter speeds which means a lot of the riders are blurred, your fill flash ratio has given you white balance problems, your pictures lack colour saturation and contrast, and your post processing methods have lead you to post big, badly sharpened, heavily compressed images which do nothing to flatter the image you've taken. Oh, and just because photoshop tells you an image is 49MB in memory, doesn't mean that's the output size. It's nice to hear good things about your pictures, but it's also worthwhile taking criticism and coming back with better images in the future. Not deleting all your pictures and storming off in a huff.

Quite the opposite, I'm all for other people taking photos. Some folk on here have blown me away with their work, and that's what pushes me to raise my game. The way I look at it is, I'm one of the few people here giving constructive criticism. It's the ying to the 'nice pix m8' yang. I'm willing to hold my work up to the same criticism. I'm not going to blast some kid who's taking a few pics of him and his mates for a laugh, but when someone like Mr Woody comes along with his big pro camera and some interest in what he's doing, I'll be more critical because I think he can use that to enhance his work in the future. Or he can spit out his dummy. It's upto him.

Really? I had it down as a little p&s. That surprises me, given how I'd always held the Nikon flash metering in high regard. Surprised it can do such a bad job.

Sorry, but these are pretty bland shots. Some have got water drops on the lens, others show really bad fringing and low saturation. Plenty are just dull shots. Where's the colour? Where's the blood flow in peoples faces? Heck in some shots, where are the faces? I think it's fair to say that you've heavily compressed these, but why post a large, compressed image? Why not post a smaller, less compressed one and give the detail a chance to come through? Your composition is also very odd, almost like you were taking photos of the buildings, and the riders got in the way. What equipment did you use to shoot these with? Photography may be subjective, but most of these are just wrong.

Wayne, there will always be bitching and what have you. This is especially bad in the Internet era. Look at BMX, there's brakeless, pegless, street, racing, and always some forum numpty who'll tell you which way is right, and how the others are wrong. "instead the sports always in disrepute and always bitching going on." The sport is in disrepute? With who? I don't see that at all. Sure, people have done things which others don't agree with, but that happens everywhere. Nothing has happened to bring down the whole reputation of the sport as a whole. And even then, amongst who? The other competitors? No-one else has heard of, or has any kind of impression of, competitive trials. It's not a question of being inwardly united, that has nothing to do with how we're perceived by the public. It's making people realise that it's a good sport for the public to watch, that it's a competition (not just kids mucking about on bikes), and that the people doing it are international athletes. Man in street doesn't care about singlespeeds and UCI rules. They care about something that is entertaining for them. At the moment, there is no public interest. The only way that we can gain any is by approaching local media a month before hand, getting local riders to trail the events and persuing follow-up coverage. We can at least then build up riding communities around these events. How much marketing do you do for the Tykes Wayne? For local series, it's an even bigger reason because you can continually supply the local media, you can increase your rider numbers, and create a bigger scene. It's even more valuable for the Tykes, YMSA and Hampshire series than it is for Torquay where the UK scene visits once a year. "the problem lies where you want "one" person to do it, others will try do it themselves too, and all becomes way too comlplicated" Not at all. If there is one person on the comittee who is actioned with looking at, and monitoring, marketing then they can be kept informed of who gets what coverage to make sure there isn't duplication. They can also hold marketing information (info packs, photog contacts, results) centrally and have access to rider details based on licence application. Then in the run up to the Addingham round, they get in touch with you, you say that the local media are coming along, and everyone is happy. For the Devon round, they see that no media coverage is in place, get a local rider or two to attend a photoshoot, and make sure the local media have appropriate information. This also works because people follow personalities. They don't know who you or I are, but if Mat Hoffman decided to ride a trial, there'd be huge media coverage. It's getting people behind a person, even if it's "Local rider Wayne Mohamet is going up against Britain's top riders in this weekend's National Champs event in Silsden". It's local interest. Gets 'em every time. Getting trials into general cycling events is great, but we need to keep up the education side of it. At the Cycle Show competitions, at least you have a commentator to guide people through. At Rugog farm, it could easily appear as a load of people jumping about on silly bikes in a corner. It will no doubt be a well run trial, but if an XC rider freewheels past and can't understand what's going on and who are good riders to watch, then it could be anyone. Heck, Ot Pi and Jesus could be riding, and 99% of the non-trials riders present wouldn't know. I'm very much in favour of integrated events. Don't forget that way back when, mountain bike events used to require all riders to do XC on the Saturday, trials sunday morning, and then downhill on the Sunday afternoon. We need (the comittee? Clubs?) to maintain a level of education of the public. Keep them aware of what they are watching, and what it means. Maybe then we can start to attract more riders into our sport. I've been in trials 11 years, and I've seen it grow substantially, the competition scene embrace UCI rules, media coverage drop substantially, and rider numbers drop. There are less general manufacturers making trials bikes now, less riders at competitions, but still a large desire amongst a group of people to ride trials. Heck, I remember Addingham in '99 and him signing autographs at a comp while he was chatting with me!

Without wishing to get too far off topic, trials will never be big, because there's almost no-one marketing it. Without Martyn Ashton, it would struggle to get into MBUK, and without that it would be dead. MBUK/The Bike Show is the only outlet which has really given trials a chance, and I realise this has now been joined by NASS and the Cycle Show, but without MBUK trials would not have had the push it has and a lot of us wouldn't be here doing trials at all. Almost no-one in Torquay knew the trials national was on because no-one told them! Same goes everywhere in the country. The only way that this would ever change would be if we had a Tony Hawk or Mat Hoffman figure who the mainstream accepted and would follow. This would then be followed by others, more people would go to events, more bikes would be sold, more riders would turn pro and make good money, and more sponsors would come in to the sport. Instead very little is done to promote the sport outside of our little world where we sell products and events to each other. The biggest form of promotion we get is MAD shows, Onza shows, Ashton's demos, Ben Savage riding at the RPM show, etc... To the outside world though, trials is impossible, especially when you try and do it on a £70 Halfords special. Trials bikes are so specialised that they don't appeal to the majority of parents, where as a skateboard is a lot cheaper, and anyone can easily get on one and try to do an olly or a grind. 'True' trials competitions are also too slow and difficult to televise for the likes of the X-Games. What suprised me most was the World Motorcycles Trials champs last year at Hawkstone Park. It seems to me that motorcyclists are a lot more inclusive and aware of other forms of motorcycle sport than their own. People live and breathe motorbikes and will visit MotoGP, trials competitions and MX all in the same year because they all ride motorbikes. They've all followed Dougie Lampkin - to greater or lesser extents - and they understand trials rules. Ask the majority of mountain bikers about trials and they'll have heard of the Martins, but they'll call us trick riders. Very few understand sections and dabs. I'm sure if they were aware of when and where events were, more may try and watch events, but then again trials competitions are very hard to follow for the casual observer. It's tough to tell who's riding which category and how they're doing. Not a biketrials problem, just a problem with trials unless you have wireless score thingies and a big display board.

Not quite, Pixar has been bought by Disney. Jobs, as owner of Pixar and all round Mr Nice Guy, has been given a position on the Disney board, and a big chunk of Disney stock.

Forbes 2006 rich list gives his wealth as $50bn

I actually found I have a cameo in Edit6. As found somewhere on trialsshack...

Both Microsoft and Apple are publicly owned. Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Steve Jobs will be paid a salary as they are employees as well as shareholders. On top of this they will get other benefits (profit shares, free travel, medical cover) and huge chunks of share options. They will also get options on shares, allowing them even great profit potential. Steve Jobs is rich, not because of a huge bank balance, but because of the portion of Apple and Disney that he owns. Same will Bill Gates and Microsoft. Someone like Paul Allen (Microsoft founder who sold all his Microsoft stock when he left the company) actually does have a huge pile of cash, as well as how own basketball team (The Seattle Sonics) as well as the largest privately owned boat in the world. Billg is the current richest man though. Facts and figures here.

Mike or Chris possibly. Rob Poyser is someone else... Read my post further back in the thread.

Supercycles will still exist, as the owner of Guess, DDG, Onza, Tensile, etc... They won't sell direct to the public. Moore and Large will handle distribution of Onza and Tensile. If a shop wants them, they go through Moore & Large. If you want them, you have to find a shop which stocks them. Supercycles will still take care of product design, development and manufacture. This includes team sponsorship, and events like the Cycle Show. The actual shop is being rented out to Raleigh for them to turn into a flagship Raleigh store. Any questions?

If you're on a budget, either stretch to an Avid Mechanical for £50 or so from CRC, or stick with a single Magura.

Who, or what, did you think he was? I know Johnny Herbert has done a turn as the Stig as well. If I had a posh car that went on Top Gear, I'd demand to be the Stig too!

No such thing really. Everything may look in focus, but it's never really the case.

The only problems with this is that lenses tend to be less sharp 'wide open' and stopping down to F8 will certainly give sharper pictures. Also if the autofocus is inaccurate or focuses on the wrong point, the whole image will be out of focus. This is less of a problem with a compact digital camera as the sensor size is small, and hence depth of field is huge in almost any situation. You would use the mode to control depth of field, or basically how much is in focus.

So if 24" bikes became the most popular style of bike, would you then say that 24" wheels should be allowed in the stock class because they're most relevant to most riders?