@Criggie will get rid of asbestos! Seriously, about the only way to make the stuff safe is melting it back into silica. Obviously easier if you simply bury it in a subduction zone, but burying it is the way we "deal with it"

Yeah - my boy's starting high school next year. The year after that they're moving the school to the old QE2 sports center site, but there's been a whole lot of asbestos found there. So instead of removing it for $9 mill they're going to "encapsulate" it for $4.5 mil

so we're looking at moving house.

somewhere that is less uncaring of their students.

I'm sure its technically safe to wrap it in concrete and leave it.

but - fuckem

@Criggie yeah, I have great faith in that, it worked so well at the Mapua chemical factory

I feel like being a smart-arse

Shirley Boys and Avonside Girls' are combining on site to form a conjoined single-sex school

Was tempted to suggest the maori word for asbestos as their new name :-P

I think.... trainers and rollers are dumb

OK yes I see that some poor schmucks live in places where outdoor riding is not always possible

but why waste that energy on fans and magnets and fluids?

If I was going to ride on a trainer, I'd hook it up to a generator to make power, or at least make wind to cool me down while riding it.

Would a hanging bike work as a trainer? It would lack resistance unless you did something like a pulley cord.

My boy wants a rock polisher

Wonder how that would go

No, its not a david question

rock polisher?

like a rock tumbler?

yup

bascially a drum with something abrasive in it, and rocks. Probably need to gear it down.... don't want the drum to be doing 600 RPM :)

thats an interesting thing for a kid to want -- how old is he?

12

goes on rock finding trips a couple times a year

remind me and I'll post a photo of his collection

So I have just rung the bank, and talked to a nice helpful person who could actually tell me most of what I wanted to know. Like the extra money we've paid into our mortgage is an "advance payment" that hasn't really been taken off the loan, it's just kind of sitting there offsetting some of the loan. But it's not an offset account, that's different. And our redraw account was closed when we paid it up to zero, which is why we have an account with zero balance that we can't redraw out of.

Just because it's called a "redraw account" and it's there, doesn't mean we can redraw from it. Whatever, now I know the magic incantations to use when telling the salesmuppets about it. And the salesmuppet's manager is going to ring me to talk about the other weirdness that came out of our meeting yesterday.

@PeteH - if you buy a brisket in the UK does that mean flat or point? I'm guessing its flat unless otherwise noted

brisket? that's a cattle beast's sternum, good raw dog food.

generally its a cube

@Batman he's right, the only context I've heard of "brisket" is in a cut of beef, so to say flat or pointy, doesn't fit

But then squirrely came up the other day, and I had no idea what it meant.

@Criggie no relation between asbestos and trident, except maybe one would be good at removing the other ;)

Actually the debate was quite interesting, although I didn't hear anything new. They even had a Green party person who was disappointing. It is an issue in the UK at the moment because the UK government has to replace the existing system with something (or nothing!) at quite a high cost to the UK taxpayers

It was interesting in terms of the "backing up the USA" argument, that the USA has 4500 warheads, of which 1500 are in a state of readiness at any one time. The UK has 50 warheads, with 16 at the ready. When they talked about this, the American woman (an advisor to Clinton, so probably democrat) just laughed.

Indeed, she said one of the US's primary concerns was nuclear proliferation, so from that perspective, the less non-US nuclear material loose in the world, the better. Of course, whether Dubya's advisor would have agreed, we don't know

Wow! I commented on an answer to that Amsterdam question, asking the guy to clarify something he said. I got a response starting "WTF is your problem?" so I flagged it. I went back to see if anything had happened and the entire answer has been removed.

I think I've only ever flagged stuff three or four times in all my time on here

afternoon

hey @ynnekkram enjoying yuour Friday?

@PeteH working on assignments for most of the day, deadlines coming up quick

need to start doing some AWS learning too

work is just sooooo inconvenient!

Interesting Blam's comment on my answer. Anyone know why I might not be able just to swap a 9sp freehub body for an 11sp?

@Batman that's normally the sort of stuff you know!

I hadn't realised freehub-bodies-for-different-speeds could be incompatible with each other. In the Shimano world only, I mean. I know Campy will be different

No. actually I'd still expect to be able to fit a Campy freehub body to the hub. I'm confused... Someone pleaser explain to an old dickhead!

Wait are you asking to explain it to you or Blam?

If they changed the spacing and 11spd requires a wider freehub body, you might be able to slide a 11spd cassette onto one, but not be able to safely get the lock ring tightened. However, geniuses that Shimano engineers are, they may have changed the splining to prevent people from having that problem. They might have made it obvious that "this cassette does not belong here".

They did not do that for hubs with 7/8/9/10 speeds, but I think the problem there was always spacing to get the shifting right after. It wasn't ever actually the ability to safely attach the cassette.

in 24 minutes I can make a call and get a definitive answer from the world's premier winter bike mechanic.

@SuspendedUser no, I'm the dickhead in this scenario

Huh, that must be the non-American meaning that I am not familiar with :)

@SuspendedUser I understand that answer, but that's not what I'm asking.

ok, so what is the question, because now I am confused?

I have a rear wheel, complete with hub. I can put a 9sp freehub body onto that wheel and run a 9sp cassette no problem. So, if I go out and buy an 11sp freehub body, with a view to running an 11sp cassette, what could go wrong?

Blam seems to be saying "you might not be able to bolt the new greehub body onto the hub", and I don't understand why

I think the buying the buying the 11spd freehub parts.

Any old freehub body won't fit on any old hub. The manufacturer of your hub would have to make an additional 11spd freehub body for it. And I am guessing that is not common, especially for lowert end or entry level hubs.

Ah, right. So all freehub bodys are not equal? They will fit on some hubs but not others? This could be where I misunderstood

Yes, completely. You know how different hubs advertise X degrees of engagement and such?

No, I never looked at that too closely. Come to think, I think I only ever bought complete wheels, which obviously sidesteps the problem

Thanks for that

All those internals are different. Freehub bodies are like derailleur hangers. There are a lot of different styles and only certain ones will work for you, normally only from the manufacturer.

I am still going to ask Zombie Jeff what happens when you stick a 11spd cassette on a 10spd freehub body.

oh, I know the answer to that. Or at least, I think I do. It won't lock properly.

That is probably the case, assuming Shimano didn't change the splining. I guess basically what I am asking is "Is the splining the same?"

Interesting, though, I did the opposite a couple of years back - bought a wheel that was "11sp compatible" and stuch a 10sp cassette on it. The wheel came with a spacer for exactly that scenario

Just the other day I bought a new freehub body for my training wheel. It was a 10sp 105 one, that I got cheap. But I have no bloody idea what the hub is in the training wheel. There's a possible "oops" going on there!

Sounds like it. Freehub internmals is I think one of those areas where engineers have Blam style arguements and obsess about points of engagement, number of pawls, engagement width, degrees of engagement, etc.

In reality most riders won't notice a 3% engagement difference. But there are some disciplines (Trials for example) where engagement should be maximized and efficiency can take a backseat.

So a case of "all these 14 existing standards are crap, my way is better. I think I'll call it.....Standard #15"

More or less. Then there is the question of sealed or loose bearings as well.

Yeah, that I understand. It just surprises me a bit that the interfaces are different

Shimano was still using loose balls in their XTR hubs. They used to be my preference for snow bikes because they winterized so much better and you could replace the loose bearings with ceramic ones easily.

Sealed bearings are a pain to winterize, you have to soak them and play fiddly games with a razor knife to get the seals off, hope you don't contaminate them, etc.

Gasoline or Citrus soak and razor blades. You always end up nicking yourself (and jeebus does that sting) or worse, the seal. Then you have this nawing nag at the back of your mind that your seal is nicked, even though it works fine for years.

#ProblemsOnlyAlaskansHave

True enough.

Yay! I ordered a tablet a few weeks back and it is coming on Monday

My "Christmas was shit, you deserve a present" present

self-christmas presents are good - they're always exactly what you wanted.

Right - Ride time. Later all!

@PeteH - I'm not entirely familiar with 11 speed (its way beyond my budget). But, unless you're running Mavic or someone else other than Shimano/sram, they're not mostly interested in making new stuff work with old stuff.

I believe its mostly deliberate, occasionally technical.

It's ok @Batman, @SuspendedUser put me right

The bigger problem Shimano has done though is that theres a small subset of users running the same number of speeds in road that have a different freehub, and it does require a wheel replacement iirc.

since they tried ot change the splining

ah...naughty

yeah.

I think bicycles have been at diminishing gains for a very long time, so hopefully we'll see some more standardized stuff

I feel like that line is probably uttered every decade.

Probably. Its moreso a where do we go from here thing

My guess is electronic automatic transmissions.

I was hoping for hydraulic shifting.

It's been done, but not by one of the big three./

I dont think hydraulic will catch on.

Battery technology is crap for everything, I think batteries should never be a necessary part of a bike.

But I wouldn't be surprised if we saw electronic shifting in tiagra/105 within the next decade.

I don't want electronic shifters, but they'll probably be at least an option.

motorised bottom brackets? oh, no, that's been done

They won't ever work for the riding I do, so I haven't ever bothered looking.

Yeah, we saw that at the CX Womens U-23 last week =)

I think it'll be difficult to make anything catch on. I'm not sure that "buy a bike every few years" will last.

im not a fan of the motorized bicycle thing. Just buy a damn moped.

Maybe. They're cool fashion items. Strap a nice bike to your car, don't ride it.

@Batman I think that's pretty much what Merckx said - if you want to race with a motor, use a motorbike instead

I also think we should bring back a high quality 2x7 road set too.

which probalby won't ever catch on.

SO I received my replacement headlamp today. It is the newer brighter model, which is cool, but also has the same non-arctic grade wiring.

So now I am shopping online for arctic grade wiring to redo the old one.

nah, probably not. They'll only promote anything that they think there's money in.

holy crap is that junk expensive

@PeteH Ilove that. People start a business account on social media then act poorly. I feel like asking "did you start that account with the intention of damaging your business?"

@Mσᶎ yeah, exactly. I found it strange that, especially as a new user, he was so aggressive toward me

The last part of his reply to me was something like "Stop commenting on my posts. Now." Now there was a challenge.....

Does your rep allow you to see it still? I can't.

@Batman For me personally I wasn't really a fan, but now I'm getting old grinding out the k's is starting to get harder. But for people who aren't dedicated cyclists an electric power assist makes sense, and for people trying to carry more than they can do by leg power alone it's essential. We have a lot of "mommy bikers" who are pushing one or more kids, plus all the kid stuff, and often dropping them off at daycare on the way.

In Melbourne with the wide bike paths they jumped on the Gazelle Cabby with or without power assist (I lived in a very flat part) which is a long john design with nice trim and you can get an infant seat as well as various covers etc.

In Sydney we have a lot of "lovely bike path, be a shame if some fuckwit installed posts and hoops all over it so even BMX riders have to dismount". So longtail designs are more popular as they are easier to wiggle through those abombinations. And the LBS sells a variety of power assisted bike in all sorts of configs, but the "longtail, power assist and two kiddy seats" models seem to be most popular as 'family transport'.

The cliche is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It has one of the rare dedicated cycle paths (bikes only!) but it also has 6 flights of stairs at one end. So not only do you need power assist, it has to be throttle based not pedal assist, or you're never getting that 35kg electric longtail up it, Ms 55kg MommyBiker. Oh, and at the top of the stairs is one of those double barrier chicane setups, so it's hard to get a long john through there, even after you've got it up the stairs.

It took about 6 people to get One Less Ute up and through :(

@PeteH yeah, 10k gets you "see deleted posts"

@PeteH I'd be tempted to camp his user page and everything they post just comment saying something minor. Spelling mistakes especially :) But that would be mean. If he hadn't deleted the answer I would have posted my question above as a comment after his.

@Mσᶎ do you get to see who deleted it? was it him or a mod?

Yeah, 'twas Gary Ray (mod) not the user. I think there's a message there.

@Mσᶎ surprised me a bit that he deleted the whole answer, not just the comment (s)

But I've chatted to Gary once or twice, he seems like a switched on guy, so he must have had his reasons

@PeteH I suspect he just couldn't be bothered playing with it. It wasn't a novel answer, most of the points had already been made, and it wasn't particularly useful. But second guessing mod decisions is right up there with reading tea leaves.

Although if we sacrificed a user an read their entrails we'd probably learn more :)

@Mσᶎ yeah probably.

(to the first bit!)

@PeteH it could easily have been accompanied by a "don't be a dick" message, a bit of tone policing early on can work wonders with some users.

Anyway, gotta got, we're back house hunting so it's off to see the real estate, the wonderful realestate of Oz.

@Mσᶎ Maybe, but I don't really think it would have done me any good to try that tack. He could have just said initialy "no that's not what I meant" and that would have been the end of it. But he clearly wanted to push a stronger message

Maybe "if you're rude, we'll delete your posts" is a clear message

It is sufficiently late here that I can't be bothered to find out what "go birdy" means until tomorrow

See you later, good luck doing it yourself @Mσᶎ