rsbromley

@radatabs: fair criticism. I guess I’d misremembered as the only things I’d looked to buy in the last year or so are from the Kinetic range, which seem to be made in China. I’ve never seen a label in a Rab product that says made in Europe though, unless you count stuffing the sleeping bags. Either way, I’ve switched to buying Tierra stuff recently. Well made gear and a lot of it is made in the EU.

@tremeer023: To be fair, their Goretex jackets I’ve tried on have felt well made, but I think Goretex have pretty stringent standards on how their stuff can be used?

I have quite a bit of Rab clothing for climbing, and one of their sleeping bags, but I stopped buying from them as I found everything (apart from the sleeping bag) is made in China, and unlike brands like Patagonia they’re in no way transparent about their supply chain, which seems odd these days. Some of the things I’ve bought recently seem to be feel a bit cheaply made as well. It’s a shame as I found their stuff fits me well, is designed for UK conditions and is sort of averagely priced over here.

They’re ideal for people who ride multiple times a week in sloppy UK conditions and don’t want to spend all their free time doing maintenance. The guy who runs my local bike shop could have his pick from all of Specialized and Santa Cruz’s plastic offerings, but rides a single pivot Orange. He rides almost every day in all weather.

XC and road racing both favour the fittest riders, but road racing pays a lot more money, so any rider who is talented enough to do both is obviously going to do it. I think that in the past road teams have been reluctant to let their top riders risk racing XC, but neither Pidcock or MVDP took the traditional route to becoming world tour roadies - they’re former junior CX champions who grew up riding in the mud. I don’t think making XC more technical would make them any less competitive. Pidcock has world class fitness alongside amazing handling skills and he actually enjoys riding a MTB - I’m pretty sure I saw a video of him riding DH in his off season a couple of years ago. I think MVDP’s issues could be a mix of the psychological effects of that crash in the Olympics coupled with the fact his focus is on the road these days and he probably doesn’t ride off road as much.

Don’t know about MTB adjacent, some of these look reality adjacent. That desk is straight out of Black Mirror.

@naptime: Definitely drive past Shropshire and go to Wales. There's absolutely nothing to ride here... : )

While I agree in principle, most of the larger forest/woodland animals here in the UK are nocturnal or crepuscular, so they are actually more likely to be asleep (and vulnerable) during the day when most people are riding or walking dogs off the lead, which is arguably more disruptive to wildlife.

@skiboot1: Exactly. Infinium is nowhere near as effective as a Goretex membrane. This is a softshell, and for autumn/winter UK riding the back of it will wet through after 5 minutes.

@deli-hustler: I’m sick to death of hearing about it now, to be honest.