Mark W

You thinking of the HS11 or the proper old-school bulky as hell Magura levers? 'cos my blues are around 3 years old or so I think, and they're like every other lever blade...

The use of the "?" at the end of the first sentence belies the fact that you know you're on sketchy ground there (Y) And also, maybe they thought what they were doing was for the best? The storm HAD been downgraded, and the large majority were fine and survived the hurricane, it's been the lack of food/water/sanitation/medical care SINCE the flooding which followed the hurricane which has been the problem. So they were OK to stay there for the hurricane, it's just the wave which formed out to sea that f**ked them over, which most people seemed to think would be held back by the levys they had in place, as well as other flood defences. Maybe all the people killed in the tsunami shouldn't have lived in that part of the world because they were told in the next 100 years there'd be a massive tsunami? You know, 'cos they'd want to protect their families?

For f**ks sake... You can have a blow-out in any car, even your boss's super f**king fantastic BMW. Seriously, are you f**king retarded or do you just not understand what it's like to drive a car? Say he'd happened to drive over, say, a nail or a tack or something and it caused a small fault in his tyre? Or if the tyre itself happened to have a small defect in the carcass of it? Something which would be exacerbated over time? Cornering at 100mph would cause it to die. Cars don't get much better than F1 cars, and they have blowouts, so use your f**king head. No doubt your fan-f**king-tastic boss wouldn't get a blowout. Maybe the McLaren team should borrow your bosses tyres so that way their back left tyres wouldn't have delaminated at Monza?

"PA" meaning "Personal Assistant" or "Per Annum"? Sunntrials, the blue Maguras are just another colour. I'm running blue Maguras f+r on my bike and they're just like standard Maguras, just "sidehop blue"...

Like I said, the affected area was the size of the UK. Therefore, it's not "Being homeless" for a night if you can't travel anywhere, is it?

The morning after it happened, they'd even printed newspaper running the headlines that New Orleans had 'escaped' the and had missed the brunt of the storm. The hurricane wasn't what was the killer, it was the wave that formed out to see by the differences in pressure, which destroyed the under-developed and under-funded levys. I don't really get how you can say "They should have left" when you haven't actually been in that position? If you had the risk of having everything you've got being taken away and you left with nothing, no roof over your head and no chance of getting another place, your attitude might be different. A lot of people stayed because they just prepared their houses for the hurricane, and people were largely OK after the hurricane. There weren't that many fatalities as a result of the hurricane, it's just the post-hurricane flooding that's killed more (and is STILL killing people).

First ever Magura pad widow? (Y) Nice attempt though :P

Do you mean Bratislava Pete? If so, are you sure YOU know where it is? (Y) Which region would it happen to be in of Bratislava, Pete? Wouldn't have thought to get such a plush house you'd have had much scope, really?

That's the whole point: Some of them couldn't afford to, either from having no money and therefore not being able to just leave all their worldly possessions, and some just couldn't afford to go in terms of transport and so on. This is why people were pissed. The people who couldn't afford were the poorer people, the majority of which were black. EDIT: The size of area that's been affected is apparently the same size as the UK, so sayeth the guy from Newsnight last night. So really, unless you could drive or whatever there was naff all you could do anyway...

What did you say before you edited? If you don't agree with me about something I'd rather you said than just going 'I agree' or whatever (Y)

Hey snappel, I'm not saying that I think he hates blacks or anything, I was just explaining why some people seem to think he might do because he didn't exactly rush to help them, and it was known that the majority of people left there were black. I'm just saying he's a complete numpty, as are most of the administration having heard/read/seen interviews with some of them (Y)\ EDIT: Seeing as this thread's about him too, Michael Moore's just as much of a numpty as Bush. Fahrenheit 9/11 pissed me off hugely just because he's trying to stand up against the people he portrays as not telling the public the full truth about certain matters, yet he does exactly the same thing. It's been a while since I saw it, but I remember talking to some friends afterwards and we'd all spotted several points where he'd been...hmm..."economical" with the truth? He lies just as much as the people he's trying to put down, and largely seems to just do it for cash, really. He's just a bit of a dick, really, which is why Team America made me laugh even more (Y)

*sigh* Seriously, people need to listen to the news or something. The actual hurricane had passed. However, the levys which hold back all the water (New Orleans is below sea level, so they have lots of barriers called levys to hold the water back...) broke, causing the water to flood the city, which is also why it needs to be pumped out and won't just 'go' on it's own. The city had $750million to spread over 15 years to try and build and update them. This is supposed to carry them over until 2010. However, they'd already spent $500million because it had cost more to do all the work than they'd thought. They asked the Bush administration for more money, but money was REMOVED from their budget to fund the war in Iraq. Therefore, the levys weren't built to the correct standard (only to grade 2 or 3 hurricanes, when they were supposed to have been updated to have worked against greater problems), and they failed when they were hit by the wall of water that had developed way out to sea. They'd thought the water would just wash over, but it undermined and smashed 2 of the levys, which in effect put them all in the shitter. The people there are pissed because they told the government that they weren't built to an adequate standard. They'd even had warnings that this could happen, but they chose to ignore them despite the city asking for more money to shore up their sea defences. This meant that because of money being syphoned out of the already stretched budget, the levys couldn't be built strong enough. After this had happened, Bush decided to stay out on holiday, then actually went fundraising in another state. Finally, he ended up having his flight directed so it'd fly over New Orleans so he could see what it was like. I'm not saying "He should have been tehre shaking hands with people" or any shit like that, but he IS the leader of the country so he should LEAD them, not just go on holiday/whatever. It's the same as when he heard about Sept.11th, he was in a school in Florida or Texas or something, and he kept reading "The Littlest Goat" (I think that was the name of the book). His aides even told him that there'd been two terrorist attacks, and he continued to just read, sitting there. If you've watched the start of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' you can even see this from footage from news teams there. He just doesn't seem to be able to understand what to do when shit happens. Presidencies tend to be defined by how they actually deal with crises, so maybe they'll ditch the loser next time. Either way, the aid didn't get distributed until pretty late. One news correspondent said he'd even driven into New Orleans in a normal car, but the emergency services weren't going in. Hell, the police force have been filmed looting shops, so it's not great there... ---- Just had to go and film a vid of some gaps, so I've totally forgotten what I was gonna say :">

Are some of you not aware what's happened or something? The reason people are saying "Bush doesn't care about black people" is also to do with the fact that when the evacuation was ordered, the poor people couldn't afford to leave their homes/get out of the city. The majority of poor people in New Orleans were black people, and with the White House's retardedly slow rescue/aid effort which is fairly ineffectual even now it's technically in operation, the poor people left there were dying, mostly the black people. It's not just about captions...

\/ Plaz V-Flies. You'd be a fool not to (Y) I'm running them on the back of my BMX, where I need a fair bit of modulation but still lockableness. They're working perfectly on a chrome rim, but I know they work pretty good on "normal" rims too. They're pretty sound pads, so might be worth a look? Alternatively, the Koolstop red or salmon V-pads aren't too bad, neither are Fibrax reds. Lastly, you could always buy some Heatsink V-pad backings and put something like Koolstop red Magura pads in there? Should work like a charm (Y)

A-ha, didn't realise you'd only just done GCSEs. In that case, I'd recommend doing A-levels. They're pretty straightforward, there's a huge variety of subjects, it's fun to do, and they're useful for getting into uni/other qualifications/general jobs (A's > O's), and it's some good thinking time whilst still getting shit done and moving forwards. I held down two jobs, a hectic riding schedule and having fun whilst still going to school and came away with ABCD, so it can't be that hard (Y)

I getcha. It should do, yeah. I mean, like I said, the difference between the pins is gonna be the same as the KHE quickie, and the thickness of the link should be fairly damn similar too, so it should be good to go (Y) I'll double check though, like I said (Y) EDIT: I'm a dumbass. The quick-link replaces the outer plates, so yeah, it will almost definitely fit. The width of the thinner parts of the link (male? female? who knows... *Cough*Tart*cough*) will be the same simply because it has to be to be the right gauge. As long as you've got a KMC Kool regular, not thin, it'll be absofriggin'lutely perfect.

If you're getting the Collapse, why would you need to half-breed the KMC link with the KHE link?

I'm actually using my KMC Kool quick-link, and having spent hours at various points trying to get the whore of a clip to undo, I know the shape of it pretty well. The KMC Kool quick-link is like an 'orthodox' chain link shape (just the standard loose figure of 8 if you get me), however the KHE is curved so it almost looks like the larger sideplate of a KMC Kool. Weird. Anyway, they SHOULD be compatible. If you think about it, the pin bits HAVE to be the same distance apart, so there's no real reason it shouldn't work. The sideplates are fairly similar in width (if not the same) and the internal gauge will be the same too, so it should work hunky dory. I'll check tomorrow for you though munchkin.

My quick-link's still a virgin, let's just leave it as that. Really. (Y)

Plus it doesn't *really* work like that anyway... It's just that your centre of gravity is changed, plus your weight and force is distributed over the bike differently, as opposed you being a spaz and only having 90°(<- Alt 01456 Si (Y)) movement in your arms :P

Minor adjustments really do make a big difference. I tilted my BMX bars back about, say, a degree at most, and it felt totally different. If you think about how much a ° more on the HT feels and how much difference there feels between a 1065 and a 1080 bike, you start to understnad just how much stuff affects you. Bar height really is a clincher too. With the ZOO! stem on, which lowered my bars by just over an inch in total, everything was way harder. Gaps and sidehops felt a little easier, but everything else was just a right mission. High all the way for me (Y) Currently got a bar height of around 38"...

This is with a fixed sprocket on the rear. It just sounds a bit like a tractor at times (Y) But either way, the Collapse is just a better chain, really.

By that, do you mean you used to be able to go bigger on the Levelboss?

Beast (Y)

Not having a go, but there's another thread somewhere (A-level results thread or something) which has a load of names of places where people are going already (Y)