weather forecast is looking good, fingers crossed :-)

I appears not, they’re as common as dog dirt in Germany and they do tend to like good quality products there.

I’ve seen their brochure and they do appear to be excellent value for money, check out the ‘Factory Outlet’ section of the web site too for bigger bargains.

I’m there. I have been told that one of the stages is a completely new cut track, so that could be the one seen?

I like the ‘relaxed’ overall time period, no rush to get up the hill between stages like a normal enduro, I can have a brew at the bottom between each stage :D

I have a Dakine Apex that has ‘swallowed’ everything I have ever tried to put in it with room to spare.

http://www.dakine.com/sport-packs/bike/apex/

Seconded, Oury’s are like little shock absorbers for your hands and come in a multitude of colours.

As briefly mentioned above the French can organise races so much cheaper because most of the big expenditure is paid for by the government, such as insurance, policing, marshals, first aid, etc. They get the money from the Sporting and Tourism Depts, as it’s seen as a benefit to the local town / village to have these events.

We were talking to the Masters MTB World Champs organisers in Pra Loup a couple of years ago to find out how they did it so cheaply, as there were ideas to perhaps try and get it to the UK.

We’d only be paying £25 per round if those costs were knocked off!

Out of interest, for all those in this thread who have complaints about The Hub and how it is run, have you ever done anything about it other than whinge on a forum?

I tried to complain when I had a gripe years ago and was totally ignored. I tried their own forum, another forum they posted on, they never replied to my emails and letter and were never available when I phoned and never called back when I left a message with someone.

I eventually received a reply via my sponsor as they contacted him to complain about me. To protect my sponsor I dropped it and have never dealt with them again and will never do so.

I have a Supreme DH v3 on order and have to pick it up from Whistler, with current eta of March – aint life a bitch :D

http://www.commencal-canada.com/bicycles/supreme-dh-v3-atherton

I can just imagine what the owner looks like :wink:

Robertgray05 – Check out ticket2ridebc.com. They get a high % of female guests there every year plus they have a number of female staff who ride every week and can also advise on all the best shoe and bag shops in Whistler :wink:

I have alsways found Canadian Affair or Air Transat to be cheapest and they only charge ~£30 each way to take your bike, which is effectively another 32kg of luggage so worth doing :wink: With a couple of the budgets going bump in the past years, there isn’t any competition these days, (both the above use Thomas Cook planes so are the same price), and returns start @ £269.

For the first time I’d recommend you go with a holiday provider such as http://www.ticket2ridebc.com who are the biggest out there and offer a range of holidays based around a basic full board holiday package. There’s a 15% early bird booking discount available at the momment too 8) With the current discount, one weeks holiday will cost Btw £380 to £510 depending upon exchange rates, time of visit and package.

They can tailor your holiday to exactly what you want to do, DH, Freeride or XC, with daily trips avaible to various places out of Whistler, such as Squamish, Pemberton and North Shore. As mentioned above you can get sucked into the bike park every day which is only about 30% of the available riding over there.

Spending money wise, beer is circa £4 a pint in the cheap places, (double that if you drink imported bottled beers)and you can lunch in GLC overlooking the bike park finish for about £10 a day.

Due to the cost of the flight, I’d say you really need to go for a Min of 2 weeks and you’ll still be able to ride something different every day.

I’d fly to Bodo, via Oslo, and get the ferry to and start at the southern end of the Lofoten Islands and work your way North from there possibly round the coast back round to Bodo.

Did a 1 week cycling Hol there a couple of years ago just up the southern Lofoten Islands and it’s stunning. P1ss easy and cheap to get your bike to/from Bodo too.

Be warned though it’s mega expensive, even buying your own food in shops is costly and possibly the wrong place to go if you don’t like fish – ha!

I’m entered and really looking forward to it rather than racing in the Winter DH up there. Better winter training than the normal DH races too. :D

Always run the front hose up the inside of the forks up to the bridge using a couple of zip ties. If you have it on the outside there is a high risk that it will be damaged during fall offs or even get snagged on passing rocks and branches, which will cause you to fall off too!!

I must have terrible circulation and get unbelievably cold toes when riding and having tried various socks, winter boots, overshoes etc, I have resorted to buying those disposable toe warmers to keep my feet warm. Ok it’s costing me ~ £1.40 a ride but my feet are finally toasty all ride :D

YGM :D

SRAM X7, X9, X0 and XX all do specific x 2 front shifters and I think Shimano do too but I have only fund them for sale in pairs so far, whereas SRAM’s come in singles if required.

But I just did what Digger90 stated.

Check out the ‘Torque’ DH bikes on the ‘Canyon’ outlet page;-

http://www.canyon.com/_uk/outlet/list.html?type=mtb

They’re a German Co that sell direct from the factory which cuts the cost and the above are even cheaper ‘factory outlet’ sales. That’s a lot of DH bike fopr 2.5K 8)

The M62 and M56 into M/C were at a standstill this morning due to ice and multi car pile ups 8O

Seems to be moving at the moment though;-
http://www.trafficengland.com/map.aspx?long0=-403.4613960041688&lat0=3276.6173111324606&long1=173.3223076995351&lat1=3027.4688365561897&navbar=true

Been using a sub £10 tarpaulin for years and never had a wet or mucky seat yet.

What goes around comes around!
The current owners have shat on few people in the past, (I know from personal experience), so I can’t say I’m too sorry!!

You can either buy the proper tool to replace them, or you can use the new bush to push the old one out.

In both cases you’ll need a vice to do the job and a 15mm socket for the DIY method for the old bush to push into.

http://www.tftunedshox.com/catalogue/results.aspx?search=bush

or search ebay where you’ll Def find them cheaper shipped from USA, but if you’re in a rush use above.

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/TYCONSPK/continental-nordic-spike-120-winter-tyre

Planet-X had some on Friday

You need to replace the bushes and yes they are calles bushes!

TF Tuned and Mojo sell them or ebay. There will be specific torque settings for the clamp bolts but I tighten them as much as I can with the leverage from a normal Hex wrench.

The rotation occurs Btw the bush and pivot bolt, hence why the bush wears out.

Up to 20% discount off http://www.ticket2ridebc.com prices if you book before the end of the year :wink:

A few of mine using a GoPro and edited using Sony Movie Studio;-
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I bought a Forme Vittesse, they are normally £999 and have full 105 groupset which is usually on £1500+ bikes. Done a few miles on it now and comfy as for a newbie.

I got mine for £650 shop soiled which was a mega bargain :D

Blimey, I have a Thermo plastic STS frame sat in my garage loft with some judy xc’s :D

The bike in the link is an STS DH that preceded the Lobo, I had the first non factory Lobo in the Uk when they first came out 8)

Manu tolerances on Ti springs can be lees than equivalent Steel springs though, I’ve seen manu’s quote +/- 10% in some cases which can make over 50lb difference in higher rated springs.

There are some cheap Ti springs on the market and they are cheap for a reason if you get my drift and I would recommend you don’t buy one as I and numerous other people have had problems with them in the past, (the one I had broke!!).

If you want a quality Ti spring with good tolernaces then you won’t get much change from £200 and the best, (Obtainium), are near £250 but are like rocking horse sh1t to get hold of!!

:lol: Yeh I never had any problem with the 3 i-drives I had plus two of my mates were sweet shifters too. :lol:

Ever thought of applying for a job in Halfrauds Mr ‘Love Tubs’ :lol:

I have used the Contour and the Go Pro and prefer the Go Pro, better quality sound, more mounting options and has a replacable protective housing too in case of crashes.

The only issue is possibly the OD of the disc rubbing against the caliper body in the piston ‘slot’. If that is the case just put 1mm spacing washers Btw the caliper and mount adaptor.

I’ve had both and I prefer the Go Pro. You get terrible wind noise on recordings with the Contour due to the position of the microphone pin hole and no amount of stick on ‘baffling’ and heath robinson shielding could cure it and I hated it purely because of that.

Lots more moutning posibilities with the go pro, plus the protective housing, which you can replace, protects it from crash damage.

Just buy Bolle safety glasses, £8 a pair off ebay, (Contour), and better Spec than branded cycling glasses, ten times + the price :wink:

I noticed the ‘trail fairies’ were out at the weekend building a new black run option down the old ‘original’ section of the Monkey trail 8)

Like BearBack’s post above, I have an interest in telling you about T2R as they sponsor me in their DH team to try and sell holidays. However I did go there on my own accord for 2 years before they offered me the deal, so I can speak from the ‘punters’ perspective too.

I’ve done a lot of the xc trails with T2R and certainly in the past 2 years, the guides knew the trails like the back of their hands mainly due to the fact that they are out with WORCA, PORCA and SQORCA EVERY week maintaning them. They even took notes during this years rides on anything that needed maintaining to report back for the next maintenance day.

You get a shuttle run to the trails in Chilcotin, Pemberton and Squamish and then a lift home. All the Whistler trails are an Av of 15 mins from the lodge, it’s MTB heaven.

As mentioned above T2R did go ‘downhill’ (sorry) under the previous owner, but the new owners, brothers Pete and Phil, have put and lot of time, effort and money into building up the reputation of the company again and it’s now 2nd to none in Whistler.

Fot the ultimate xc riding you need to check out the Chilcotins trips – float plane ‘shuttle’ to an alpine lake and then 5 hours of cruisey xc through some of the most stunning scenery in the world.

In addition to the canadian affair discount, if you quote the code T2R01 you’ll get a 5% discount on your T2R holiday too.

http://www.ticket2ridebc.com

Goodridge are the daddies, fit and forget and lots of pimp colours these days too.

Our weekly ride round Cannock Chase is taking 30 mins longer at the Mo as we dive off into the undergrowth to pick mushrooms :D Even started taking a massive back pack as we're picking so many, it's a bumper year.

If you're going to be sat down and also stood up whilst riding, the chest harness doesn't suit both riding styles and you'de be better off mounting it to your helmet.

Chest mount works well for DH where you're stood up most of the time.