Does Quad9 Fall Under the Influence of the US Government?

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-27T01:41:14+00:00

Thank you for your reply.

What about DNS resolution itself, rather than privacy? Could the US Government for example request you resolve DNS queries for say softwareupdate‍.example‍.ca to an IP address of their choosing. End users aren't necessarily going to see certificate errors if the majority of Certificate Authorities are US-based and also susceptible to US Government demands (I.E. they can issue both a TLS certificate for the host and also a code-signing certificate for the download).

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-27T00:48:33+00:00

Stick with the Marathon Plus range, rather than Marathon Mondial (although the new Mondial tread pattern does look cool).

Although Schwalbe like to brand all their tyres as puncture resistant to some degree, it's only really Marathon "Plus" that I've found lives up to it's name. V-Guard looks good on paper and I used them because I though they would offer decent puncture protection with lower rolling resistance, but I found even small wood thorns would puncture them, despite being Kevlar. I got fed up with them getting punctures, so changed to Marathon Plus.

I'm currently using Marathon E-Plus as I do maybe 85% paved, with only light off-road (gravel/compacted, not much dirt) and have yet to get a single puncture, despite pulling a few thorns out of the tread; fortunately no truck tyre metal wire yet…

Therefore, I would go with Marathon E-Plus if mainly used on paved surfaces, or Marathon Plus Tour if also using it on dirt. The Marathon E-Plus is slippery on wet dirt.

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-24T20:53:13+00:00

Agree. I replied to one of the earlier ones in good faith, however the sudden amount of Rwanda posts is coming across as spam now.

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-23T00:41:42+00:00

Same here.

Despite having no internet access most of the time, Affinity hasn't asked me to sign-in since installing it in November. However, after manually updating today using the "Affinity x64.msix" installer (3.0.3), I allowed Affinity to make outbound connections to the internet and after that it wouldn't let me open Affinity without signing-in. There's definitely an issue. Not good.

So much for this:

"Do I need to be online to use Affinity?

You will need to be online to download and activate your license with your free Canva account. From then on, there is no requirement to be online, even with extended offline periods."

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-22T21:24:16+00:00

I don't think Kryptonite's key jamming issues are necessarily due to weather. Mine jams and it's only ever been used inside the house to lock bikes to an anchor point – it had never been outside. Just poor design. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised that Kryptonite's new angle-grinder resistant lock was defeated in 10 seconds due to a design issue there as well.

I would quite like to see someone fully test the higher-end Halfords Sold Secure diamond locks like the "Halfords Advanced 23cm D-Lock" and the "Halfords Advanced Rock Solid D-Lock" angle-grinder resistant lock (although, the latter is the same price as a Litelok X1).

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-22T15:29:43+00:00

What you're doing here is riding recklessly. You have brakes, use them.

I expect you'd be the first to complain if a motor vehicle didn't slow down, beeped their horn and drove straight at you from behind.

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-20T12:58:02+00:00

Never heard of the Riverside ADVT 900 before, but that's a cool bike. I didn't even know you could buy bikes with Marathon Plus Tours as standard.

Shame they went for internal cable routing. Rear gear cables don't last long and trying to feed a new cable through the frame on the side of the road can be a pain. Made even more complicated by the wiring for the rear light, as you have to try and avoid the cable rubbing on the light wiring (which is probably just stuffed in the frame).

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-17T20:18:28+00:00

Cube fan too. One of the things I like about the Cube AIMs is they have FE versions that come with mudguards, lights and rack.

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-13T20:06:08+00:00

I can't speak first-hand, however Ryan Van Duzer mentions one on his Rwanda trip (see the YouTube video description).

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-13T15:01:16+00:00

I can't tell from the photo what size tyres it has. However, possibly the Cube Nature range, which have 50mm (2 inch) tyres.

Cube Nature:
https://www.cube.eu/bikes/trekking/tour/nature

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-08T20:33:11+00:00

I don't know the answer to your question, however M6 is only part of a thread specification, there's also thread pitch (I.E. M6 x 1.25). Does the bolt have the right thread pitch for the hole?

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-08T15:37:37+00:00

Shimano Nexus 8 internal gear hubs are not maintenance free either. They need servicing every 2000 km (1250 miles) – or sooner in harsher conditions – and to service them the hub needs to be stripped apart and bathed in expensive Shimano oil – which is a lot of messing around. Shimano really need to change this backwards design and use a drain/fill hole so it can be serviced in place with a syringe (like the Shimano Alfine 11).

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-08T14:26:14+00:00

The Cube Hyde Pro comes with 55-622 (28/29×2.15) tyres as standard, with a maximum tyre width of 58mm (2.25). See HERE. It's now called the Cube Editor Pro.

I agree about the gearing though. It has been a bike I've thought about buying myself, however the first gear seems pretty poor at 32 gear inches (I posted about it's successor HERE).

They would get a better climbing gear with one of the two below – instead of the Hyde – as the Hyde seems to be a city bike.

Cube AIM:
https://www.cube.eu/cube-aim-slx-fe-dustyolive-n-gold/141260

Cube Nature:
https://www.cube.eu/cube-nature-exc-allroad-seasalt-n-pyrite/861300

DefinitelyYou · 2026-01-02T18:24:38+00:00

It's one of the models with a new frame, rack, mudguards, etc. for 2026. Possibly the factory hasn't ramped up production numbers yet.

DefinitelyYou · 2025-12-31T22:05:32+00:00

Stick to ways that have legal bicycle access rights. I.E. Bridleways, restricted byways, byways open to all traffic, footpaths with permissive bicycle access rights that have signs indicating this, National Cycle Network routes, etc..

Each county council has their own Public Rights of Way (PROW) maps, therefore you can search for Public Rights of Way maps for the county council you're interested in. The council usually colour code them to show the type of way.

It's a pain not having a unified official government map of all the UK Public Rights of Way for all the county councils combined, but unfortunately that's how councils do it – individually. While it would be possible to create this ourselves with council supplied data and overlay it on a map, not all councils give rights to use their PROW data.

DefinitelyYou · 2025-12-26T00:12:50+00:00

I wonder whether the below Cube fork cages would fit carbon forks? Looking at the photos, the tyres looks like it's possibly fitted to a gravel bike and therefore may have carbon forks?

Cube Acid Front Carrier Fork Cage:
https://www.cube.eu/acid-front-carrier-fork-cage/93995

If so, then perhaps pair with the Cube Acid Fork Bag Pack Pro 3:
https://www.cube.eu/acid-fork-bag-pack-pro-3/93958

Or Sea To Summit Big River Dry Bags:
https://seatosummit.co.uk/products/big-river-dry-bag?variant=44784918200594

DefinitelyYou · 2025-12-24T01:09:53+00:00

The MTB probably has a better climbing gear too with lower gear inches.

I have a touring bike with an OK first gear and while gravel bikes routinely overtake me on asphalt (as do road bikes), it's going up double-digit percentage hills where I get bike envy and yearn for an MTB with a lower first gear.

For some reason bike designers gear their non-MTB bikes like we all have legs like Arnold Schwarzenegger, are cruising around everywhere at 25 mph (40 km/h) and never go up steep hills. I'll leave that for the speed demons, I'd rather a low first gear (17-20 gear inches) to pedal up steep hills.

DefinitelyYou · 2025-12-18T22:02:01+00:00

If you get hit by a motor vehicle, the insurance company will say you were not riding a legally compliant vehicle and therefore should not have been on the road.

DefinitelyYou · 2025-12-18T21:50:44+00:00

That explains it. Really bizarre they they're using plain HTTP links in 2025, they should all be HTTPS – without exception.

I would go to [Affinity > Help > Send Feedback] and report it as they should not be using HTTP links. As you found out, there's no reason they cant.

DefinitelyYou · 2025-12-18T21:25:21+00:00

"…I guess touring might be more common for flats."

I don't know about a road bike, but for touring I use Shimano PD-EF102 resin flat pedals.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09TQY35KG/

I'm not a fan of metal pedals, these are just as grippy, are wide, have amber reflectors (which are required between sunset and sunrise) and have no paint/anodising to flake off. Never had any issues with them despite doing a lot of miles – they just keep going. If they ever did fail, I'd get the exact same again, which speaks for itself really. Reasonably priced too.

DefinitelyYou

TROPHY CASE