Stop it would ya? I might be 40, but I can still live the dream...

I must have missed something - when did the english cricket team start winning?

I dun think anyone really cares.

Yep, 8 wins in a row. Most ever

https://www.cricinfo.com/homepage/index99.html

They've played some **** test teams in that time though. We'll see how they're going when they play us next.

still a long way from our 16 record.

I bought my first Dura-Ace bits yesterday (drum-roll)........... brakepads

I can't believe how fast stuff wears out these days. Chain and cluster 4000km. Brake pads 3000km. Me 1km.

How much? Mine were about 18 bucks a pair.

I don't think 4000km is much out of a cassette and chain.

$17.

I recking it's bloody lousy, especially given that I clean and lube it every week + every time it gets wet. I'm gonna throw on Ultegra replacement with HC73 chain and see how that goes.

I think most of the wear is from sand and road grit. The road grit is super fine and gets into eveything. It feels like talcum powder but it acts like emery. Very hard to get rid of it too. Might need to get a HP water gun except i can use it because of water restrictions, doh!

What do you call "worn"? Is it slipping, or is it just running crap with a stretched chain?

Chain is certified 'stretched to buggery' using chain-guage. No slipping yet, but most freq used cogs are noisy and shifting is very clunky across some.

They've got to qualify for the A-league yet. Takes a while to work up from C-grade.

Rocky.... double wash in a coke/gatorade bottle or whatever with kero. First wash gets the fine grit and ***** off. You've got to shake the bottle like a martini shaker. Hard and for about 45 seconds. Let stand for 30 minutes or so. Pull it out the chain with a bent spoke or something. It will still feel gritty. Wash again in clean kero after draining off the first lot and the sediment. Let it dry in the sun, or get a hair dryer on to it to evaporate off the excess kero and before lubing. Put back on bike. One drop of lube per roller only.

Works for me.

BTW I've 10,000km out of 8sp chain. Cogs and rings are cactus with chain. But I can probably still get another 2000km. 9/10sp chains are renowned for their lack of longevity by comparison.

Spot on.

kero or turps. Not petrol....too harsh.

Dries the fingers out

And oh yeah, low flash point, dangerously flammable fumes, etc, etc. You have been warned.

WAKE UP you guys. I've been out to dinner with the crew from the boat on which I sail, rode home, and given Chuvak a hard time in General. And I'm still the last guy to post here since 5.18pm. What the hell's going on.

And don't give me that "out riding" rubbish. As if.... sheesh...

I was out riding. work to brooklyn via bobbin head. I was so long getting home my wife had given up on going shopping. Now I have to get some sleep.

climbo was racing, well at least I think he was. If he was the beanpole wearing black then he'll need to go on a diet to stay in this forum: he's far too thin! I suggest a few weeks of the supersize me diet.

You know, there were a couple of things in the first sentence of your post , rocky, that triggered yet another journo story.

Bobbin Head is well know in yacht racing circles. When I saw Brooklyn I thought: Jack. As in Jack Rooklyn. My mind works in very mysterious ways.

Well, with the Sydney Hobart yacht race not far away, and because the Aussie thread needs some entertainment OTHER than cricket....

The first feature story I ever wrote as a cadet journo was after the finish of the Sydney Hobart race in 197?. Line honours, IIRC, was won by Ballyhoo, a new maxi (in those days 65' was a maxi) owned by Sydney millionaire and pokie machine king Jack Rooklyn. Did the interview in the cabin of the boat, blah, blah, blah about how good he was, replete with big cigar, how he had paid big dollars for the boat and how it was a ***** performer.

Anyway, a day later I'd heard that the designer of Ballyhoo was in town. I tracked him down and spent an hour talking to Bob Miller on the dock. About how Ballyhoo was his best design until Rooklyn decided he wanted a fully-fledged safe installed in the aft cabin. Miller was totally p!ssed because it upset entirely the boat's performance. He was amazed Ballyhoo had done so well. This was between the various idiosynchracies Miller displayed as I talked to him -- nothing serious, but a little distracting -- something that marked him as eccentric. He also had designed, again IIRC, Ceil III, which won a Sydney Hobart (maybe the same one where Ballyhoo was line honours winner) and a variety of other boats, including Apollos for the (in)famous Alan Bond.

Anyway, I thought Ballyhoo, in her green and white livery, was probably the prettiest maxi ever launched. She was eventually sold off by Rooklyn to someone in Hawaii and was renamed Mystic Miss (I think). She whipped @rse in various maxi series in the US after that bluddy safe was removed. Rooklyn bankrolled purchase of another maxi, Apollo, that also had mixed success in various ocean racers, ostensibly under the skippership of Rooklyn's son, Warwick. Miller continued designing yachts with varying levels of success.

Anyway, the feature article was published. I was pretty proud of it. Probably if I looked at it now, I would cower in the corner in embarrasment. But it was a portent.

Not long afterwards, Miller changed his name because of some *****fight over a commerical arrangements. He became... Ben Lexcen.

He went on to design the yacht that wrested the America's Cup from the seppos. and continued a close association with Alan Bond that had been generated with his Apollo designs.

Just thought you'd like to know... even if it sends you to sleep!!!!

(Sad, isn't it, I can't draw on magnificent cycling performances to justify my existence in the world?)

Yeah 4k was not what I had intended to spend. But if I throw some more cash at it I can probably get a frame I'll be happy with for longer and I wont be looking for something better right away, thats what I'm worried about. And I'm only 5'7 so I guess I'd be looking at the 52 then...

Maybe the bikeshop would allow me to ditch the composite crank and the Mavics to keep the cost down... we'll see

So is the Roubaix a good ride or what? Thanks, badsac.

Any of you guys seen the 1985 cycling movie 'American Flyers' starring Kevin Costner?

A mate gave it to me and I watched it the other night. Its very 80's with plenty of bad acting and Eddy Merckx even makes a very brief appearance. Watch it!

It is CRAP!!!

Blunt...

Been taking lessons?

Yeah its crap. But I got a laugh out of it.

And Costner???!!??

They could've used someone who DIDN'T have chicken legs

I was thinking the same thing. He just wasnt convincing.