F-Stop Junkie

To be fair to the FIA, if you have teams using over 100 engines per season, isn't it obvious that something's wrong? Does it detract from your enjoyment knowing that the engines from Australia will be in the car in Malaysia? Of course not. Just like it doesn't matter if they rev to 18k or 20k. The test for the engineers (which is also relevant to road cars) is to derive both power and reliability. It's easy to make a grenade engine for qually, but what's the benefit? They are racing tyres? Remember that since Michelin pulled out, everyone has had the same Bridgestones, so it's been the same for every driver. Those with more feel and more ability were able to outbrake slower drivers. The point of grooves was to slow the cars down in the corners, as speeds had reached a point where gravel traps were just too small for the potential speed of the cars. It worked in slowing the cars down, but now the revamped aero and control tyres mean we can go back to slicks, which can only be a good thing. I do agree that the FIA is largely a clusterf**k of giant proportions. They have done some good stuff, but the quicker Max goes, the better. Ummm, again I'm not quite sure what your point is. The S2000 touring car rules are very, very restrictive (after all, the cars would go a lot faster if they didn't have tiny 2 litre engines), and Moto GP have gotten rid of rider electronic aids which will slow the bikes down. And last time I checked, F1 races are - usually - decided by who finishes first...

Umm, the missionaries? I think they went round the world actually trying to convert the local people! That's worse than just putting up religious buildings because there's a community in place who want it... And you can say things to ~urgh~ a coloured person, just nothing that denigrates them as a race. This may include - but is not limited to - calling someone with a turban as 'towel head'. You can say many things to them, as they can to a white person, which are not racist. To live in a multi-cultural society where you sometimes have to be a bit mindful of what you say is surely better than large scale, institutionalised racism? Replace 'coloured person' with trials rider, and surely you can see the situation a little better? Wouldn't you rather have a world where people accept trials riders and not chase them away or complain about them? Do you think people would be more tolerant of trials riders if they knew more about us?

URL? I've got a few choice things to say... PM me if you don't want the whole world to spam it and make a bit of a mess...

In all my discussions with Orange at the time (I had some input into the development, along with Petr Kraus and Kris Leeson, and also wrote all the marketing words for it) they were adamant it had a 74 degree head angle. I've never quite believed it, but it had a reputation for having a slacker head angle than may actually have been true. I was certainly asked if I wanted to go to the factory and have it proved for me...

I don't believe any forum rumour. Plus anything can be copied, but it's a question of understanding...

Nah, Vettel's brakes were fine, in fact he braked earlier than Kubica. They were pretty much side by side, and Vettel even was on the grass to try and avoid him. However, Kubica squeezed him on the exit, effectively turning in on him. 50:50 fault, racing incident. It's only Vettel's honesty that got him the penalty.

Why would Vettel's brakes be cooling?

No he didn't. He put his hands up and said the collision with Kubica was an avoidable accident which wouldn't have happened if he hadn't sent one up the inside. Kubica kept his mouth shut, and the stewards gave Vettel a penalty when it should have just been a racing incident and nothing more. The team were fined $50,000 for telling Vettel to carry on with a broken car.

I've never, ever seen any trials bike made to the same level as an Orange Zero. The downtubes were stunning, but I don't think they ever really had someone who engaged with them to sort of geometry, engineering, and positioning of the bike in the range. It's almost like they had something great, and weren't quite sure what to do with it (or handle consumers who emailed them photos of dropping off a phone box, then complained to their parents their expensive bike had broken riding off a kerb, who then rang Orange to complain...) And they were made in the UK. I had a new chainstay fitted to mine after some dumb chain suck clearage went horribly wrong... Ali, you're the man for the job!

And with all the money that Honda gave them...

Just wait till the new laws get passed, then we'll do the same Well, it was me who banned Mike, though I didn't mean to do it for three years, which is why I've fixed my mistake and the account is now active again. Just to point out, this is nothing against Mike, Dave or anyone else. It had been brought to my attention this had been happening for an extended period of time. Mods will take the same action against any other users found doing the same thing. it's one of the central principles this forum, you post on your account. You are liable for what happens on your account. It's not correct to use other people's accounts, and it's confusing to users who don't know who's friends with who. It doesn't matter if you're Dave or anyone else. If you use someone elses account you and them are liable to get banned. It's not hard to remember an email address and password. Even if you forget, there's a forgotten password option.

DHCP is not issued from the default gateway (although it can be), as the default gateway is an IP (and hence network layer), where as DHCP is on the application layer sitting on top of UDP. DHCP uses broadcasts to find the server. Assuming your uni question is based on a client and server on the same subnet (and it's reasons like this you shouldn't try and get a forum to do your uni homework ), then all that needs to match is both IPs need to be within the same subnet mask, otherwise they'll discard packets. DNS servers don't need to match, default gateways should - but if both devices are within the same subnet then that will be a given. If you're setting up a network with Microsoft file and print sharing (and God help you if your uni is advocating that) then the workgroup names need to match.

There's definately ideal muscle types to have as a trials rider, but there's so many factors that go into riding that it can't simply be broken down into one or two key elements. Road riding is largely down to who has the biggest engine (and with a PB at a club 10 of 28:30, mine's pretty rubbish!), but those who are physically more adept will rise to the top. In trials I've seen big guys do as well as short guys. The technique is so adaptable that - as long as you have a decent level of fitness, most riders can do most things. Those who are heavier on fast twitch muscle will ride differently to those who are made of more slow twitch fibre. It's a bit like comparing a dragster to a rally car. Oh, and getting quite OT.

Surely there's two questions here... Competition riding is one thing. Clothing is function first above everything else. There's nothing less fun than riding in wet jeans at the end of a tough day. Riders in competitions are bound by the route, but are inventive for sure. Street riders tend to wear very different clobber as fits. Who cares if there's a bit of a Ribo or Monty boot sticking out from under the bottom of some jeans? What matters is function - as to whatever suits the rider. And how can people complain about trials riders nicking tricks from BMX? Every sport nicks tricks from others. Watching riders like Lenosky and Chase mix bits of slopestyle, trials, BMX, all sorts. That's life, that's progression. The alternative is that you start saying you can't do certain tricks because they've already been done. Ultimatley what makes BMX companies able to do the things they do is the fact they have money. Lots of money. There's several BMX magazines, people make decent DVDs which sell in numbers, and lots and lots and lots of bikes and accessories are sold. Trials companies, even the biggest ones, don't have that sort of cash to support riders. There also arn't the big show case events which gets coverage, which gets sponsorship dollars, and attracts new riders. Trials clothing may not be the coolest stuff around, but that's because no-one makes trials aligned clothing which works for the mass market. Again, it's volume, it's availability, it's all of those things. Go back to 2000-2003 and trials was genuinely huge. The simple reason was lots of coverage. Many, many pages in MBUK, segments in big selling videos, and lots of riders doing trials one way or another. People would queue for hours to see the trials shows at Bike, and you'd get people spectating at Nationals to see those stars. Then the media coverage all but stopped. The bulk of what's in MBUK is centred around the Ashton/Diamondback line up. There's very limited trials coverage in mainstream videos. The trials community is very inward looking, and self-serving. There's few who try to break outside of that. Where are the interesting videos, let alone commercial DVDs? Who's approaching magazines with ideas for features? Who's trying to get that recognition one way or another?

... months. As Martyn Ashton was there, it'd likely be either Steve Behr or Robin Kitchen - neither of whom are on here. I'd guess the London ride would be in the issue of MBUK out in April...

The fisheye is back Who was snapping? Guessing it was Robin Kitchen if there's a lightstand?

Proper bikes for sure! Paul Thomson took those ones from Bike 2001. There's a Section7 video from that show too, which he edited on my parent's landing while I wrote up the news from the show on the desktop That Brisa B26 was the best riding bike I ever tried, the Orange Zero was also very special...

The fact that you list Josh 'Mindless Hucker' Bender at the top of your list somewhat invalidates the rest of your post... It has? I thought trials was invented by [insert TGS rider I've never heard of here] Christ, I'm such an old man these days

Bless you kids, you'll never see what makes Ryan a legend (and incredibly nice in real life) The reason he rides an old school bike is that it works best for his sponsor as Norco don't make anything long and low. Anyway, if it was holding back his riding, I'm sure he'd do something about it...

Don't forget about voltage differences where ever you're going, plus the different ways you might have to connect it up to a TV. Do France now have PAL compatible tellys, or are they still SECAM? Anyway, why not leave the Xbox behind and spend your evenings going out, seeing stuff, interacting with the locals? Or if you're a night owl, read?

There's nothing wrong with people investing their money as long as: They know about the basics of investingThey know the area they're investing inThey can afford to lose all the money To know nothing about investing, and putting it in a long term, low risk known stock is good. To put it into a company on the verge of collapse/takeover/who knows is very risky. Yes, now is a good time to invest, but it's also a turbulent time. Banks especially are going through the wringer and the number of banks I'd invest in at the moment is very, very limited. Anyone who has a significant profile in retailing is also not in the best shape. Who knows what the landscape will be like on the other side. You'll see more big names fall, but back the right one and they could come out stronger.

Or... The only need to go down 35p for you to have lost £500 (plus fees). But what if they're going up when you have to sell? At what point do you sell? What if the pensions problems get too big and they collapse? Only gamble with money you can afford to lose...

The video rocks! Mostly because I'm in it (sort of), and it's the only time I'll ever be in a Tartybikes (sort of) video...

Coke works on a big franchise system. Each market has a bottler responsible for that market, but Coke syrup is provided from the US and then mixed with water and fizzied locally instead of shipping water round the globe. The difference in water, sweetner and so on is what makes Coke in different areas taste different. Look at the label when you buy a can (usually in some dodgy kebab shop) and you'll sometimes find a non-UK address on the side.

Sorry? I think you'll find that Schwepps (or whatever they're called now) are an entirely different (and much smaller) company than Coca-Cola. Schwepps may act as a bottler for Coke in the UK though.