that brinneling quesiton kinda annoys me for some reason. I mean its not a bad question and the answer is to replace things that need replacing, but really, a headset has to be pretty mucked up to make a difference in a lot of riding.

@Batman it's also missing the key factor that makes answering it possible (as is so often the case): how much riding will they be doing on it? Wearing something out when you ride it down to the club on Saturday to watch the races, vs you ride it 100-200km for training every day as well as to and from work... well, they're different, you know.

i think in most cases, something else will give before the headset.

@Batman is this too much "ask a stupid question"?

@Criggie I'm probably going to replace the caliper

all suggestions have been great so far

going to have a go at it in about 10 days

I'm alive

Completely missed the 5.7 quake today

missed the phone calls from the missus

She couldn't track my phone for some reason

Only got the message when stopping to change flat.

She was pissed that I hadn't told her I was OK

@Criggie Seems ot have been more exciting than the usual 4-ish ones, the Whitecliffs photos are pretty dramatic. Glad you're ok

Yeah I was riding

So perhaps it caused my flat ?

damn

@Criggie more likely your giant fat arse hitting the saddle when you punctured caused the shakiness.

So we have a maker space started up locally now: makerspace.org.au

I have emailed them to see if I can trade my TIG welder for membership, coz I'm returning the gas bottle tomorrow as I barely use the welder. Obviously now that I'm going to do that I have remembered that I was going to weld up some frames for the lean-to down the side of the shed. Ooops.

I think it will be cheaper to use that space than maintain my workshop, at least for the bigger projects. If they have a decent tablesaw I will be very happy (decent meaning "can take a 1.2x2.4m sheet of plywood and cut it accurately"). Between them and the space out near work that has a 1.2x2.4m CNC router I could be quite well set up for woodworking.

@Criggie you really need to get some gatorskins or marathon plus tyres

I've had my gatorskins for about 5000Km now and I don't think I've had a puncture on them

Pretty cool strava annual summary tool if you've not seen it before: jonathanokeeffe.com/strava/annualSummary.php

Yeah that's nice but it only knows what strava has on record. So a couple of my broken recordings don't appear.

@ynnekkram I got better when I went to the thickslicks. But today's wipeout showed they're a bit shit too.

@Criggie I've only ever had gatorskins and for puncture resistance they're great

definitely losing some watts in terms of rolling resistance but I'd rather keep rolling then have to stop once a week/month

I've heard the marathon plus are even better

@Criggie how is the tandem working out?

@ynnekkram I swear by them. They are slower, though, if you're focussed on that. But I'd rather get to work every time a little slower than mostly with the occasional 10-20 minute delay.

I've np being a little slower as long as I keep moving

right now, I'm commuting and cycling for leisure so it doesn't bother me being that bit slower

ugh, that sucks! you ok?

@Criggie d'oh. and you missed the nice run-out onto the gravel as well. Much skin lost?

Slippery lines?

@Mσᶎ - maybe. he knows the answer, but wants to avoid it?

marathons are good for puncture resistance, but the problem is that you have to get them on the rim.

some tires work well with some rims. other tires don't work with some rims. marathons are a bitch to get on regardless of the type of rim.

@Criggie - wow, hope you're alright

one of your problems is that you were riding on the wrong side of the road ;)

@ynnekkram Its different - the frame has a massive amount of flex compared to a single rider diamond frame. Got to get in the habit of calling changes, which is hard to do. My stoker fits but he doesn't like peddling at the same cadences as me.

@batman thankfully no oncoming traffic at that moment. Imagine wiping out on a bonnet coming uphill.