Greetings

Best discs for higher performance cars will always be original ones. I once tried ATE and they were shot after 2 comps, now only get them from the BMW dealer and they last a hell of a lot longer. I'm sure you can get better discs like AP Racing for instance but that's in a completely different league to shoddy replacements, even from companies like Brembo or Zimmermann. By the way, not sure if I posted this in here, video from a fantastic practice session on a military airfield. I love that car so much, it's the happiest thing on 4 wheels. To think you can have so much fun in a 350 quid car with a tiny engine which that day averaged 10mpg Starts at around 0:40, also really proud of the sharp right after 5:15, took me ages to get that part right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVVD-0F_0_c

To be honest I don't remember and can't check at the moment but 1166 rings a bell. Just checked and there is an 1166 pad, could be that.

From my limited experience, Mintex Racing pads are by far the best. You end up killing 3 discs before the pads get worn however they do not need any heating up and they don't fade even when temps get pretty high (rims too hot to touch and ABS sensors fail kind of temps). Plus on my car which has standard brakes, ABS kicks in even at 120mph so these pads allow to use the full braking potential of the car. Standard pads don't offer such performance.

Follow up: driving pinion has no teeth left. Having it replaced but will need to look for a special motorsport crown wheel and pinion, especially as with a dogbox the stress on that part is going to be even greater.

Yes, definitely. Google is a fad too, that will go away and we'll be able to search the net manually, using ctrl+f and making up URL's. On a more serious note, keeping in touch with people is not a fad, the reason other websites went down the drain was because Facebook was a much better alternative. Do you see anything on the horizon that will take over Facebook? Pretty much that. I use facebook frequently but mostly to find out about events or things that concern me, I rarely post myself because I assume people don't give a flying shit about my current thoughts - which is probably true. Never understood some of my friends (especially girls) posting crap like ":(((((" or that they went shopping. WHO CARES. Anyway, I think it's a good way to keep in touch with people you rarely see or haven't seen for ages, but it was never a strong part of my social life and never will be. If anything, it's more of a superior marketing tool than it is anything else.

I'll give it another go then, downloading trial.

Photo editing mostly, cropping etc. But also designing very basic images from scratch.

Graphics card finally packed up after almost 5 years. Now faced with having to purchase something new, annoyingly the equivalent in performance is still well over 100 quid. I thought that after 5 years the technology becomes obsolete and is worth a tenth of what it was originally and yet it appears that my old card is on par with the performance of a 650GTX. Where's the progress?

I've been avoiding Photoshop like forever, still using a graphics program I got with a scanner back in 1996 (Ulead iPhoto 4). I'm actually amazed it still works considering it was written for Windows 95. I've had a few attempts at Photoshop but usually failed to even draw a squiggly line in it so into the bin it went...

Out of interest, why would you use a floating disc in any trials related sport? It's just another thing to go wrong and doesn't benefit you at all.

In my case, reducing weight from 10.5 to around 8.8 over a period of a few months improved my riding during the first ride after saving weight. Then it no longer benefited my riding since I was probably subconsciously using less strength during moves rather than going higher. So to answer your question - no, I don't think it will benefit you. You will notice a difference on natural though because you'll be able to ride for longer.

I seriously don't understand how half of that stuff is even possible.

I don't know much about 125p's. You can check the prices here, just divide it by 5 to get the price in GBP. That should give you an idea of the condition/price of the one you're thinking about. If you're talking about a 126p (never heard of people putting a busa engine in a 125p) then Revolver used to have one or still does.

Nasty crash from yesterday's comp captured on video It's the first clip.

Nah, just joking. Everyone kept saying wear gloves or you'll damage the steering wheel, so I got some gloves and had my first DNF in over half a year. Could be a coincidence I guess... I've been thinking about this a bit and if it's not a u-joint, it's almost certainly that. The speedo was not consistent with the actual speed and the indication is from the crown wheel. So logically, the problem can't be between the crown wheel and pinion. The only question is that would such damage cause the whole body to vibrate so badly? Furthermore, the noise was so biblical that I ended up "walking" the car to the shop - put it in gear, got out and held the wheel. Otherwise it felt like wearing a bucket and having someone hit it with a hammer.

Meh, never going to wear gloves again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G32imrjdR5A Hope it's not the diff and rather the universal joint on the prop shaft. I managed to get half way to the workshop and whatever broke stopped transferring torque onto the wheels. If it's the diff then I've probably got no teeth left on the pinion. On the plus side BMW Challenge is starting in 2 weeks and I want to win the season, this would be impossible if the car failed on that event rather than this one.

I weighed some wheels out of interest today and was quite shocked. Not only is the lower wheel 8,5kgs lighter, it offes a lot better traction. The wheel weight to car weight conversion is about 3-4x, so this set would be equivalent to shaving 100-130kg off the car. Hope I'll get to try these tomorrow, would need at least 7C which isn't impossible, but unlikely. Also got the car "fixed" as cheaply as possible, it doesn't show too much that it had a few bumps on the last comp.

Ah, thanks for opening my eyes! I have seen the light thanks to you!

I'd guess that on average less than a quarter of riders build their own wheels but among the more experienced ones, easily the majority. Like Revolver said, learn to do it yourself. You'll save money and acquire a valuable skill which will come in handy if you bend your wheel during a ride.

On the telly today I heard (haven't been able to verify it in other sources) that Korea is going to declare war "today or tomorrow" Perhaps they're waiting for the right weather? I just hope that if there is a war, N.Korean soldiers notice at some stage that they have been lied to and that the country they're fighting for is not a superpower. Actually, I can imagine the regime behaving similarly to 1984, faking news reports of successful military strikes. Matt, I know this is a bit off topic but what's wrong with Kia? They're starting to make really good cars, their rate of progress is massive.

What I find interesting apart from that is to what extent the N.Korean population is brainwashed. When Iraq was "liberalised" (never mind what's going on now) it was clear that the public was pretty happy about the fall of Hussein's regime. If Kim's regime were to fall, would Koreans react positively, or would they start to fight against the imperialist oppressors? We're talking about a country, where the death of their leader was met with ridiculous acts of anguish, but whether they were actually fake or the result of years of propaganda is hard to tell.

That made me laugh.

Got my 24" Rocket Ron in the post today but still waiting for a rear Big Betty. That, and the weather is shit - snow and cold. So pissed off, for the first time in months I actually want to ride and learn new stuff.

Undo crank bolts and go out for a ride. Simple as.

This is ridiculous: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300964/North-Korea-war-room-photos-Kim-Jong-Un-plotting-attack-America.html Are they complete idiots? Who publishes pictures from a "war room" with a big piece of paper labelled "US strike plan"? Kim is also clearly using an Apple computer and - apparently (read it somewhere else) - a South Korean phone which just adds to the irony. Furthermore I know that this is all about propaganda and they would never go to war. The great leader and his generals must be aware of that, after all it's their job unless they're so brainwashed that they actually believe that their arsenal is advanced. But as harsh as it may sound, I'm somewhat hoping that this problem will be resolved properly this time, not by sending more aid for the poor inhabitants of that country.