Messages

136

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: May 09, 2015, 06:10:42 PM »

No; the outlook is not that grim. People here are die hard labour supporters and that's why they are so fucked off. No one was predicting such a big win for the conservatives it just shows that the majority of people do trust the conservatives and want to keep them in government. So much so that they have improved on last year and are now running a majority.

Bollocks.

Labour are pretty crap, no argument. They have made an arse of this campaign, totally failing to stand up to the stupidity of the Tory policies and just toning them down for their own manifesto. Austerity is BULLSHIT. It DOESN'T WORK.

Look at Greece. Sure they made some fucking stupid decisions in the past, but they have done what the ECB wanted for years, cut everything to virtually nothing and it has just fucked them deeper into the hole they are in.

But all the major parties were saying how they would keep on with Austerity and cuts and reducing the deficit like its the answer to everything. When what we need is INVESTMENT.

The reason the Tories won the election is that fuckwits listened to the Murdoch press, they totally failed to understand that the SNP bogey-man shite was bollocks. And as they walked to the polling stations a lot of cowardly little cunts who had said they would vote Labour, bricked it. They liked their subsidised over 65's savings plans, and the guarantee of no tax increases and their avoidance of mansion tax and death-duties. Never mind that this all has to come out of the very fabric of society and will cause a massive jump in crime and poverty and child suffering. They were OK jack and fuck everyone else, and anyway Scottish people wopuld be in charge... They would have blocked a Trident replacement would they? How the fuck would they do that if the Tories voted for it? They wanted it right? So when Labour brought it to the house why the fuck would they need any support from the SNP when they had the entire Tory party voting for it? When Milliband said he wouldn't form a coalition with the SNP he meant it, he had no need to, he could easily have governed as a minority. Just because the Tories couldn't doesn't mean he couldn't, the thing is that most of the other parties would have just backed them on a bill by bill basis, whereas the Tories would have been fucked without the Libdems in their pocket.

So yes. Labour are a bit shit. But a bit shit is better than ludicrously corrupt and self-serving. The Conservatives have bribed the over 65's with a 4% savings plan that all us younger working people are going to have to pay for in the next few years. They are bribing the higher rate tax payers with a higher threshold etc, and everyone benefits from a higher lower rate threshold too, we all win YAY.

Are you really so fucking stupid that you think they can cut everyone's taxes, promise not to raise any new taxes, AND cut the deficit without fucking the country into the ground? When you fall off your bike and go to the accident and emergency in a few years, and it is run by G4 using day release sex offenders as porters and the long term unemployed as nurses and the first thing they need to do is swipe your credit card you are going to wonder what the fuck is going on. Its simple, the man who's family made their money from slaves and government hand-outs will be lying in a bath of money he made letting all his mates cherry pick the NHS and taking a massive shit because he cant believe how stupid people are.... 

On the face of it, I will be better off by about 3 grand a year because of this government, but in reality it will cost me a lot more than this in the long run, and I would rather my children grew up in a civilised society...

Oh, and remember this. In three years time Boris will take over as PM. You know harmless bumbling old Boris, with his great common sense policies that make you feel warm and fluffy. Nice red buses, more cycle lanes, a nice new estuary airport for everyone, but while he is bumbling about and keeping the press busy debating this trivia, he will be fracking under your house and shafting all the public services to death. NHS split into a million pieces so the Unions are gone, Schools all privatised and playing fields sold off for housing for his mates to build shitty houses on and make a huge profit (but not Eaton obviously). in fact, kids can probably leanr all they need at home from their computer so why bother with physical schools at all?

Thatcher squandered most of the north sea oil revenue on smashing up the miners and the steel workers, by simply destroying those industries. Now Cameron and Johnson will carry on her work and destroy the teaching and nurses unions by destroying the school system and the NHS.. and it will be the fault of all these selfish cockheads who voted Tory!

THIS is why I am pissed off, not because I am a "die hard Labour supporter" but because I have seen the Tories do this shit before, and it sucks. It took us 15 years to recover from Thatcher, that's why there was no money left. But it was improving, crime rates were down, waiting lists at hospitals were down, school class sizes were down, schools wern't crumbling lumps of crap and temporary classrooms understaffed and with a massive shortage of teachers.

FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!

Sorry for the rant...


G.

137

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: May 08, 2015, 08:50:43 AM »

FIVE fucking years, not four!

I cant believe Labour made such a bad job of getting the message out that the whole SNP scare mongering was bollocks, all the polls up to the last minute had it 50:50 which would have been fine, and then clearly a lot of dick-heads bottled it for some reason as they walked to the polls.

At least their majority is very very slim, with a bit of luck some marginal seats will need by-elections and we can escape a full 5 years. If only we had the power to recall MPs... Within a few years of austerity-plus at least the immigration issue will be less controversial as we will all be wanting to fuck off to Albania etc...


G.

 

138

Product and Sales Announcements - For the BMX industry ONLY / Re: Hiring full time BMX Mechanic Canada

« on: May 08, 2015, 08:44:44 AM »

Holy shit, it's been like 5 months. Are you guys looking for the one dude in the universe that has memorized the torque specs for everything or what? In all seriousness though, it kind of blows my mind that you guys are looking for a F/T BMX mechanic, but it would take quite a bit to get me to leave my current job.

We're just looking for a good mechanic, with at least 2 years of actual bike shop experience. A lot of people apply, but very few have actual experience. We have staff that are very good at working on bikes, so it hasn't been a rush to fill the position - still we are looking for someone who wants to take on the mechanic's role full time.

Probably be a few good mechanics in the UK thinking of emigrating to Canada now...


G.

139

The Bike Shop / Re: Removing blown bearing race in odyssey driver

« on: May 07, 2015, 08:38:12 AM »

I'm not familiar with that driver, its probably a stock JoyTech one, definitely not my work, sorry. Realistically though, probably better just to buy a new driver, saves buying the bearings and all the fannying about and after 6 years or so it is probably a good idea to replace it anyway.... or just buy a new hub entirely... I realise that this is a bit of a shit answer and it would be cool to keep stuff running as long as possible by just replacing the smallest part possible, but compared to car spares or bits for a domestic boiler or whatever, this is nothing...


G.

140

The Bike Shop / Re: Removing blown bearing race in odyssey driver

« on: May 06, 2015, 05:49:56 AM »

This thread has me all kinds of confused.

What driver is this? There is ONLY a needle roller in the drivers of all our aftermarket hubs, this problem simply shouldn't exist?!?!

Pictures?


G.

141

The Bike Shop / Re: Keychain woes?

« on: May 06, 2015, 05:46:58 AM »

I have a similar situation with a Keychain, MDS and Thunderbolts and all items are within one or two rides of being new.

After a trial and error process of swapping parts around onto my older drive train I found the Thunderbolts are responsible for the tight and loose spots. The old drive train was a standard chain, beaten MDS and Twombolts and the chain tension was always equal with no questionable spots and the MDS straight.

Turns out the Thunderbolts sprocket bolt hole is a fraction below being level with the sprocket recess and after tensioning the sprocket bolt down then spinning the cranks the disk was pulled out of alignment TOWARDS the sprocket bolt. Backing off the sprocket bolts tension the disk was again nice and straight.

Did all the same again with the Twombolts and they do not cause the disk to be pulled over and never had an issue.

Changed gearing on my spare bike which has Thunderbolts and guess what? Exactly the same issue of chain tension being tight and loose with the disk pulled over to the sprocket bolt.

After looking at the wear pattern on your sprocket it appears you might have a similar situation?

Sorry to hear of that. I would check the main sprocket seat on the crank very carefully to make sure there isn't a blob of paint or something preventing it sitting flat. If it isnt easily remedied then we can warranty it for you.


G.

142

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: May 06, 2015, 05:43:32 AM »

The 'wasted vote' idea is a load of shit invented by the big two parties to stop people voting for smaller parties.

Its more a result of the way the country is split into seats that are then counted as units. Ironically the Libdems managed to negotiate a referendum on changing this system, but as with all their negotiations with the Tories they made a massive arse of it and only ended up with a choice between what we have now and an AV system which was a shitty compromise that failed to win. Its Ironic, because it looks like the results at this election will be pretty terrible for the Libdems but much better than they would have been if we had got proper proportional representation...

With the system we have, about the best you can do is vote AGAINST the worst case scenario, but in most seats a vote for the Green party (for example) is pretty much a wasted vote and has the potential to let in the cunts you didn't want....


G.

143

The Bike Shop / Re: Keychain woes?

« on: May 04, 2015, 10:36:53 AM »

A quick blurt for anyone interested who can't work out to do it:

Rear ends are 110 from inside of left dropout to inside of right (overlucknut dimension)

110 / 2 = 55mm

55 - 11.5 (distance from inside of right drop to centre of driver teeth on Ratchet and possibly Antigram) = 43.5

Middle of driver teeth is 43.5mm from centre of drops/BB

----

Say your BB is 75mm wide (you'll have to measure to find out how wide it actually is, range I've seen is from 68 to 80mm)

75 / 2 = 37.5

Say you have a 5mm sprocket with the teeth in the centre of the sprocket

5 / 2 = 2.5mm

43.5 - 37.5 = 6

6 - 2.5mm = 3.5

3.5mm of spacing between BB bearing and that sprocket to align it with driver

This is great, but it assumes that the frame is straight and very often they aren't! I would always suggest checking with a straight edge too if at all possible.


G.

144

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: May 04, 2015, 10:35:16 AM »

Perhaps what you are saying is right, and perhaps if labour did not want to introduce a 'mansion' tax I would side with you and in fact I would quite like to, I do believe allot of what labour is putting forward. But like I said, no matter how much I believe, the conservatives are offering me £3k a year for the next 4 years for my vote. No amount of political idealism is going to argue with that.

So although pretty much the first thing they did when the coalition got in was to up VAT from 17.5 to 20% (which probably cost you a couple of grand) and put up tuition fees by many thousands (which might effect you if you are at Uni or planning to go), and put the stamp duty up (which you were also complaining about). That possible new 3k is the real killer?

What about when you come to try to get on the housing ladder yourself? I very much doubt you will be able to buy in London unless you are very very well paid, but even elsewhere in the country you are going to struggle thanks to the coalitions various policies which have driven up house prices even further from their already ludicrous levels, and represent about the only economic growth we have seen under them.

Tory policies are full of rampant short-termism. They abandon any long term goals like a well educated population, affordable housing, etc, in favour of quick political gains now, sell off utilities, sell off council houses, cut the top rate of tax, dismantle the steel and coal industries etc etc.

People moan about Labour selling off the gold "cheap" (when most other developed countries were doing exactly the same) but the Tories pissed away the north sea-oil revenues on smashing up the steel industry and coal mining just to weaken the unions. At least with Labour we got new schools and hospitals, the Tories left us with Poll Tax riots and a collapsing education and health system, and a new "service industry"...


G.

145

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: May 01, 2015, 04:49:35 PM »

We already pay the 40% tax rate, that almost half of what you earn goes to the government about 30k. We already pay stamp duty when we sell the house, which has increased recently. I do not see what is wrong with the bedroom tax, if the government is paying for your housing, and you are living in a house which is too big for you, what is wrong with taxing you for that?

I am an average person, we brought this house 20 years ago for no where near that mark, we got lucky and the area improved and the house prices went up. This tax is forcing people out of their family homes, three grand a year is a huge amount and its unfair charging  the people with large mortgages or people who have simply got lucky.

Nearly everyone pays 40% plus in tax one way or another. Sure, when you go into the higher rate tax band it is all called tax and is a bit more transparent, but you don't pay any more national insurance than someone at the top of the 20% rate. Other taxes like VAT, fuel duty, road duty (road tax), council tax etc are NOT means tested either so you pay the same whether on the minimum wage or taking home a bankers bonus of a million quid every year.


Yes there will be a very very small number of people who are in an extraordinary position of owning a now very valuable house for whom that extra £3k a year is a burden, but there is provision for those not in the higher tax bracket to postpone paying it until the house changes hands.

However you have to compare this to David (my family is loaded because we owned a lot of slaves and then got compensated by the government to let them go and then continued to benefit from their labours by re-employing them at "slave wages", ie. we are rich because of government hand outs) Cameron, thinking that everyone on any kind of benefits in this country can be squeezed by 1% (hey its only 1%) to let them keep the top rate of Tax down at 45% instead of 50%.

So yes, if you truely are in the situation you describe then I sympathise, but I still think that it will be easier for you to find £3k a year than it will for a family below the poverty line to find (another) 1%. Its almost like they are taking the piss with the whole 1% comparison...


As to London paying all the tax.  I already covered that, London isnt an island, you NEED the rest of the UK to generate that cash, you think it just magically issues from Alan Sugar's rosy sphincter or something? And why stop at London? A significant portion of that tax was probably generated in a few postcodes, why not cut off tower hamlets etc too and really lord it up? Because then there wouldn't be anyone to clean your offices and empty the bins, they'd all be outside your doors with pitchforks!

The bedroom tax is ridiculous, it assumes that there is plentiful housing out there and people can simply move into a smaller place to avoid it. This is obviously ridiculous, we have a massive housing shortage and moving house is an expensive exercise at the best of times. All these measures that the tories have bought in have caused massive hardship yet saved virtually zero money. They have just resulted in the money going to private companies making an arse of the assesments instead of the actual people who used to get it!!!!


G.

146

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: May 01, 2015, 06:20:34 AM »

I see it more as saving money within the NHS and saving money on welfare support. It should never be better to stay on benefits than go into work. Living in London I don't want to vote labour because of the 'mansion tax' which is basic a tax on London. The conservatives have done a pretty good job here. And since London taxes prop up the rest of the UK economy, a recovery in London is what is most important.

So your house in London is worth over TWO MILLION QUID but you cant afford an extra £250 a month?
A huge proportion of London properties worth over £2M are owned by non-doms, shell corporations, super rich immigrants or people who dont even live in London full time, and this has a knock on effect on London house prices as a whole. The number of "little old ladies" who have lived in London since they were very small and now happen to find themselves in this situation is close to zero.
If you knew anyone who worked in the NHS or the ambulance service or education you wouldn't think that they are safe under the Tories.

"London taxes" by which I assume you mean "UK taxes paid by companies and individuals who are based in London" may well prop up the UK as a whole, but this is the same for any capital city. London isn't an island and those businesses are in turn "propped up" by the rest of the UK in terms of trivial things like food, water, electricity, workers, customers, tourists etc Not to mention when the huge London (and other major world city based) banking businesses had to be "propped up" by the country-bumpkins of the world when THEY (not the Labour party) FUCKED THE WORLD ECONOMY RIGHT IN ITS COLLECTIVE ARSEHOLE SO THAT THEY COULD BUY A NEW FERRARI !!!!!!   

What really caused the economic disaster of 2008? Terrible corrupt lending practices, market manipulation, profiteering, junk bond manufacturing etc by bankers around the world who weren't properly regulated. What has the coalition government done to protect us from a repeat of this? Fuck all really.

What we need is:-
1. an end to  crippling austerity (not more and deeper)
2. A Tobin tax (not just to raise money but to stabilise markets).
3. Investment in REAL wealth creating industries and innovation (not money shuffling hedge funds that just make things worse).
4. Proper bank regulation with a real risk of jail for people who cause these issues.

Are any of the parties offering this? No. But the Tories are the worst, so vote AGAINST them!


G.

147

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: April 29, 2015, 02:37:54 PM »

If people want change, don't vote, if enough people do not vote the government would be forced to change their tact. I realise this will probably never happen, but what do people expect. You don't take down the premier league by switch clubs from Man City to Chelsea. If you still pay the tickets, you're contributing to the problem.

If everyone didn't vote it might work, but they wont so it wont.

The only reasonable option is to vote AGAINST the worst plan, and that's the Tories. Currently you mostly need to vote Labour to stop this. If the SNP get a lot of the previously Labour seats then the Conservatives will still be the party with the most seats and will get first shot at forming a government. If they get LibDem support and UDP etc then they might just make it, and Scotland will have fucked us all over for the sake of what? What are the SNP even for anymore? They had their referendum and the Scots (very sensibly) said they didn't hate the English (and Welsh and Northern Irish) quite as much as they like to pretend and that leaving the UK wasn't worth fucking themselves over for... So what is the SNP's purpose now?.
Personally I would be very happy to have a Labour SNP coalition with no Trident replacement etc, but the Tories have done a cunning bit of propaganda to block that...

Please vote, and please vote AGAINST the Tories.


G.

148

The Bike Shop / Re: What's the status on new Odyssey products?

« on: April 28, 2015, 05:31:27 PM »

There have been quite a few shots and videos regarding some new Odyssey stuff.
Any word on release dates or details?  Here are a few I've seen mentioned and prototypes on riders bikes checks, but haven't seen or heard anything further.

Dugan pedals & stem
Raiford stem
Ross stem
Hawk 24" tires
Freecoaster
G-Sport Simian rear cassette

What's the deal?

I think that most of the stems should be available.

Freecoaster (Clutch) should be out very soon, like within the next month I think but dont take that as 100% accurate I need to check.

Simian rear is still working out production niggles, we have had test hubs being ridden for a very long time and its very reliable/solid, but production is throwing up silly little problems that need to be ironed out.

Dugan pedals seem to be taking forever to get tooling sorted out, again its just silly production stuff that takes an eternity to get running right.

Thanks for the interest.

The Uniguard and new GLANDS are both already out too.


G.

149

The Bike Shop / Re: Keychain woes?

« on: April 28, 2015, 05:25:12 PM »

Is your chain very tight? The aim of a chain (or the threads on a bolt/nut) is to transfer the load from the sprocket to the chain (or the bolt to the nut). You can never expect the components to fit so perfectly that they all take an equal share of the load, so the last tooth will take most, and then the next one a bit less (or the first thread for a bolt/nut). Typically, it is just the first 3 teeth (or threads) that take 80% of the load or more, and the further you move from the load the less it is. So you would expect to always see something like you have there... having said that, it is obviously hard to tell from a video compared to having it in your own hands, but it does look like maybe that is a bit extreme for all brand new parts.

How does it ride? If it seems OK to ride, then please check that the chain tension isnt excessive and try riding it and see if it seems to improve or worsen.

I hope this makes sense and seems reasonable.


G.

150

The Lounge / Re: General election

« on: April 28, 2015, 05:15:20 PM »

Pretty good summary really. We've been living with the conservatives, it's not been easy on the NHS and welfare like allah says,  but otherwise they've done a pretty good job in terms of cutting the deficit and supporting business.

Sorry my head just exploded, what fucking country have you been living in for the last 5 years?

They aimed to ELIMINATE the deficit by making massive swinging cuts. We got the cuts but we still have the deficit. The economy flatlined for the first 3 years of the coalition and they then thought ooops, and started spending some money to try to improve things by this election. The economy THEN started to recover a little (whilst the USA who had avoided the whole "austerity" bullshit were romping ahead economically (by comparison))... So the plan for their next term (if they get in) is to cut even harder and deeper... It didn't work last time and it wont EVER work.
The only economic lift we have now is based on property values and building work being rushed through while the relaxation of planning laws still holds (due to end soon).

How have they supported business? By putting VAT up to 20%? By offering a referendum on Europe that will make any company very nervous about investment until it is settled, and then what the fuck happens if the Faragists play up the immigration paranoia enough to actually make it happen?

As someone who lived through multiple Thatcher governments and multiple Blair governments I know which I would rather have more of. Sure they both got into stupid wars, but at least we had (some) genuine growth under Blair. Yet somehow the fucking tories always seem to be able to perpetuate this image of being "better" on the economy, and Labour just leave them to it?!?!?! It boggles my fucking mind.

Scrap a replacement for Trident, scrap HS2, and go for something really ambitious like high speed tube pod travel things and massive hydrogen airships. We sold the world railways, surely we are better off jumping ahead than just buying the last iteration of something we invented 200 years ago (off someone else) and instead selling the new thing to the world. We desperately need investment in innovations (like Graphene) rather than austerity and stagnation.. Not that any of the parties are offering this of course..


G.