djb

Everything you could ever want know about how to build a wheel using the standard 3 cross lacing pattern for a 36 hole wheel: http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html As for doing the dishing just get it to a reasonable tension, stick it in your bike and dish it so it's even between the stays/fork legs. Something else to bare in mind, if you have a different rim and/or hub to your last build you will need to buy new spokes. Even if the build is exactly the same unless you really have to use the old spokes I would strongly advise against it especially if the rims are brand new. The old spokes will have stretched unevenly, especially the rear ones, making it nigh on impossible to get even tension around the wheel ultimately resulting in a sub-optimal strength build. Believe me, i've tried using old spokes and the wheel would never stay true, the small saving (36 spokes is only £8 from CRC) is really not worth the extra hassle. Hope that helps Daniel

If I can get a mate to do one journey i'd be up for a coast ride one day and a ride in the city another but am not overly fussed about two days in the city. I got some Pashleys in the end, more than I wanted to spend but they're damn nice and Leeson's service is fantastic. I don't know how many of my mates will be able to come but I should have at least one tag along!

Yeah, I do know Adrian. We rode together in the city a while back when he had his old school Giant, don't know any other riders though. I've got his number so i'll get in touch nearer the time to confirm things.

I'll almost certainly be able to do this, it's been a while since i've been into the city and I can feel it calling me! Either Saturday or Sunday is fine by me but there's little point being in the city too early on a Saturday since it's always so busy. As for the MacDonalds debate the only one left I know of is in Chapelfield, as far as i'm aware both the one near Topman and the one opposite Jessops have been closed down a while. I may also be able to do Cromer on the Monday but it's my bro's birthday and he's away all weekend so we may be doing something special ? Keep the thread updated and i'll say for definate when I can ride nearer the time. (You can add me to msn but i'm rarely on there, my addy is the_vertically_chalanged@hotmail.com) Daniel

I'm from Dereham right in the centre of Norfolk. There's a good half dozen riders here but all excpet oneother than me are occasional riders with all of us at the uni or full-time work age. I met up with you the once in the city but have been so busy with uni work and other commitments that i've only been riding Dereham recently, that does mean i'm getting a bit bored now and need a change of scenery so when the summer comes i'll be well up for some roadtrips especially once my month of exams is over and my mates are all back in town. I'll try to remember to put a post up if I plan on venturing anywhere and maybe we can get a big ride going like the ones I remember way back when. Daniel

Problem sorted - I spoke to the computer shop where I bought the card and he suggested downgrading the driver, I installed one from almost 2 years ago and everythings peachy now. Bit strange to think the updates mess things up but that's just typical of IT stuff I guess. Cheers for all your suggestions guys

Because i have an nvidia card the ATI Tool doesn't let me do anything other than scan. Is there anything else I can use to underclock my card temporarily to see if it solves the problem without killing frame rate? Where can i find out how hot the card is running?

Right, i've downloaded that ATI Tool and set it to scan but it's finding nothing. What are these Artifacts it looks for and why would they be causing the problem? Also, Neil, I know my graphics card is now old but I wouldn't say it's 'pap' and it certainly shouldn't be chalanged by games as old as GTA III surely? On another note how would I tell if my PC is overheating, or do I just change the fan/add another one and see what happens? Cheers for the help so far EDIT: Now I understand what that ATI Tool is doing I can say it definately is finding artifacts (though it says no errors found which was confusing me). So is this a curable problem or is it new card time?

I'm having issues with certain games not appearing as they should, it's like pieces of the image are missing so the computer just fills in the gap with a random coloured block. Crappy description I know but the picture shows what I mean, that big blue triangle above the car at the bottom should obviously be the road. It's not just GTA it does this with but the other higher end games that I have, Flight Sim '04, Civ 4 and Max Payne 2 are also affected pretty bad. I know it doesn't look that bad but the blocks sort of flash on and off reappearing in different areas and it different colours and really mess with my head. I have no idea what could be causing this but have updated my graphics driver and installed the latest directx and any game patches that have been released but with no change. If anyone could give me a cure i'd really appreciate it. Oh, and my computer spec: AMD Sempron 3000+ 2GHz 512MB RAM GeForce FX5700VE 256MB Cheers, Daniel

Assuming this is still happening where and when is everyone meeting? Also, any idea how late you'll be riding 'till?

you got any invites left? if so could you wing some my way: d.j.b@dsl.pipex.com the_vertically_chalanged@hotmail.com Daniel

I'm free all that week and am well up for riding there again. I may be able to get a few mates to come along as well depending on what day you choose. Have pm'd you my number.

Tom's right, all Giro helmets sit a bit high. I tried loads of helmets from different manufacturers before deciding to get my E2 and found that Bell helmets sat the lowest and looked a better fit but were actually quite uncomfortable. Met helmets also sit lower than Giros but again I couldn't find one as comfortable as the E2. You're best off trying some other manufacturers, different makes seem to fit some people better than others. Don't be sucked in to looking good though, remember the helmet is to save your life, it's a bonus if you can look good wearing one.

back when i first started in the late 90s they were called rock wall drop offs, god knows why but back then every trick had a crap name. They were in one of Ashtons how to sections in MBUK with him dropping off the edge of a quarter pipe. Seem to remember it got a maximum difficulty rating too

cool, i'll get an email off this afternoon. Did you get yours free or was it a crash replacement kind of deal?

Snapped my Giant forks yesterday after just 5 months of ownership, i'm guessing they didn't approve of my recent attempts to learn wheel swaps. Luckily they broke coming out of a blunt so no harm was done, just got a few bewildered looks from the town's-folk as my bike fell to pieces . As you can see from the photo they're the crappy bonded steerer type and by the looks of it were only spot welded together Anyway, i'm now after some new forks but am unsure of what to get. I've been thinking about Fattys but was wondering how much the 10mm shorter legs would affect the way my bike rides. Alternatively does anyone know how much the Leeson Pashley forks are? I'm on a really tight budget and cannot really afford to spend more than £50 so any other suggestions would be appreciated. I ride a Brisa B26D if that makes any difference. Daniel

I've decided i'm gonna come as long as the weather stays good. It'll be nice to have a change of scenery and group rides are always fun even if the riding isn't that good. I may be bringing a mate as well. See you there

I may be wrong but is it priced in Canadian dollars, which are worth much less than US dollars. Just a thought.

I've promised myself a TVR by the time i'm thirty, don't know which one but i really like the old Griffiths and Chimaeras. The sound of those old V8s cannot be beaten. A dark blue Chimaera 400s with cream interia has to be the ultimate, like this one: On the whole power/speed issue the one thing you boys are forgetting is torque. HP means nowt if you haven't got torque regardless of gearing. If you gear a car long enough to do a theoretical 200+mph but don't have enough torque it's top speed could be stupidly low. That Skyline could do 200mph but it would take a damn long road to get it their, no track in the UK would have the space and doing it on a public highway is just stupid. Anyway who cares about top speed when you can only do 70mph, it's how fast you can get there and how fast you can corner that really matters.

There is a way but you'll only be able to watch what whoever is watching downstairs. Picture quality is greatly increased over normal analogue, i never use my tv on analogue now. Don't know anything about that NTL thing. All freeview boxes show the same channels regardless of cost. However ones with 'top-up TV' slots allow you to get extra channels at an additional monthly fee, don't know how much though and the extra channels aint all that, google for 'top-up TV' for more info. All the channels show at the roughly the same (high) quality so there's no snow on five or whatever. My box rates the reception out of ten but you'd be hard pushed to notice the difference between 7 (the worst i ever get) and 10. Daniel

What's the riding like there, worth an hour and a half drive?

I got a cheapo Echostar one from Tesco for my room about a year ago, was about £40. Use it everyday and have had no problems, finds all the channels fast and gives a better picture than the one that's built into our Panasonic tv in the lounge. I'd definatley recommend it if you only want something cheap.

Short or long refers to wheelbase length, generally a bigger person will want a longer bike but it's not always the case, it depends how/what you ride. The wheel sizes are determined my whether it's a mod, which has 20" wheels, or a stock, which has 26" wheels. Then there's street bikes like the new Onza thing (sorry don't know the name) and Leesons that have 24" wheels. Everyone so far has told you to buy a mod but you could pick up a decent second hand beginner stock for around the £400 mark, possibly less, it's just a case of waiting till the right one comes around. As to which you would want will depend on your size (if your really young/little a stock is a no no really) and what you want to ride. I ride stock and personally can't get on with mod bikes but that's just me. You really need to be able to ride a couple of different types and make your decision from that. Hope that helps a bit Daniel

Your best bet is to put it in something glass but as long as you don't leave it for too long a plastic container would be ok. Leaving caustic in anything for any length of time will cause damage, it'll even etch glass if strong enough! It probably would strip off other paints/varnishes but your better off using paint stripper for those. Something that's been anodised has a small layer of aluminium oxide (usually dyed pretty colours) covering it designed to prevent corrosion of the aluminium alloy below. Caustic dissolves the aluminium oxide and is one of the only readily available substances that will. The only problem is if you leave it on too long it will also dissolve the alloy, though this would take ages.

cool, i'm online now