Thanks goldenwonder. Appreciate the feedback.

New mega looks pretty tasty tho.

Having been bitten by atrocious customer service from Canyon and having experienced the awesomeness of Orange in the same department, I know where my money would be going.

there’s a Bristol crew too… can’t rememebr the name of the top of my head but I think they did some bikemagic vids on youtube.

pedal progression maybe?

ProRideGuides do FoD. not sure if far enough south for you. BPW do training too of course.

Balls. I spoke to hope the tech X2’s are end of line now and the master cylinder can’t be replaced. Glad I spent out on those just last year then.

get some quality training.

Could it be a compatibility issue?

Did you make sure to drive to your ride in an Audi? I think the silver A4 estate works best.

Thankyou Mr Saddle. Will do!

thanks mate – it’s the whole master cylinder I need though

I looked the cougars years ago when I had little ones but I decided I was unlikely to use the ski attachments or to skateboard over ramps or whatever their attachments are doing these days.

In the end I ended up just buying a 99 quid job from halfords and it did the job perfectly, lots of bridleways and wider singletrack (we had twins so needed a 2 seater from the off).

We still use it for taking stuff to the beach on holiday and the kids want to use it for overnight biking / camping trips too, only now the kids are riding beside me showing off their no-hands tricks or wheelies.

Good luck.

Currently building up the Nimble 9. Tested a mate’s for a short ride, nice and fun feeling (I’m not generally a wagon-wheeler).

I used a trail-gator with our youngest. I think it hindered his learning. His Bro’s are twins so this was never an option so it was balance bikes, then pedal bikes (no stabilisers).

The younger lad was ace on the balance bike but was reluctant to leave it. He virtually missed out the 16″ wheeled bikes but when he tried the 20 at the age of 5 he loved it so no harm in the long run but just FYI…

With the older bro’s there was of course the competition element of having twins and if one was doing something the other wanted to but still I don’t think the trail-gator helped with it giving the freedom to ride without a care e.g. wave your hands all over the pace and sing star wars & superman theme tunes.

We don’t have a BMX track but we do have loads of bridleways, national trust houses, forestry commission land etc… all was good for us.

…and as I’m sure you remember from your eldest the most important thing…. Snacks! (preferably with hot chocolate in a flask).

agree they are a bl**dy rip off tho! (not you DJC75)

Depends who we’re trying to talk into it.

no comment mate 😉

tidy.

Nice one. thanks for the brief review 🙂

I have a 456C (non evo) as my HT plaything. Love the carbon, would like a bit more slackness.

Currently eyeing up the Stanton Switchback… this is in the running too.

mine is rebooting itself sometimes 4 – 6 times a day. it’s fab. (same age machine)

looks great, loving that split colour.

how are you finding it for climbs / descending / rough stuff / snakey singletrack etc?

I’ve used it a few times. I can’t remember what the acupuncture was for, it was ages ago but it really helped and it was like the undoing of a knot in my head, like an elevated meditation. I will always remember that feeling.

Second time was for ligament damage in my shoulder, unsurprisingly this did not help, nor did a GP or a phsyio – none of whom figured out the problem. That took me and the internet.

My wife had the herbs for asthma and with taking them she was able to stop taking daily inhalers for the first time in many years. The medicine was also coupled with recommended dietary changes so I think several things worked together but I think this is crux, it works with your body and uses / enhances some of its own healing powers rather than coming with a load of chemicals and blasting it’s way through. It may have slower more subtle effects but potentially these are longer lasting and cause less side-effects.

I liked the herbs too but the doc would only let me take them now and again. She said I had too much Chi already.

They did look like mud and tree bark mind.

ridewithgps should have some if you can search through.

Nice – what size Pikes are you running?

I’ve ridden a couple of bridleways through golf courses

“cycling holidays” – aren’t these just called “holidays” ?

Cheers guys. Think road trip will wait a while but good to have the additional input.

Thanks.

yup – was there today did the blue and red and some of the other bits – first time there.

Trails were fine. Some of the fire tracks a bit muddy but all good.

Nicer when not torrential rain.

Cheers guys. Hope to not pick up piles in the process.

Great to hear there is a UK SRAM service centre.

LBS are saying they can’t (don’t want to) get close and want to charge an extra £100… so ruling themselves out effectively.

leeroybrown – best prices I’ve seen are: Alltricks, bike-discount & merlin.

Good luck.

Couple of my buddies just got in. They’re not in any circle either.

lol. enjoy!

Are you buying the frame or the bike?

Greenwich river cruise is good but does get cold on the water for an hour.

There are river boat restaurants which are quite touristy and in good locations.

It depends a bit on how mobile they are. I’d keep it all pretty central.

Royal Academy has some great exhibitions and is not too big, check in advance.
Ronnie Scotts already mentioned is a great spot for jazz, also central.
The South bank is great in the summer for a walk, this also leads to vinopolis (previously mentioned which is a wine experience)
Shakespeare’s Globe is also in the area but you probably want seats if your folks are 60 but thye might prefer a different show.

Restaurants – what do they like? there is literally anything from Ethiopian Goat curry to Indian / French fusion to Argentinian steak houses to michelin stars.

Hotels – check out lastminute.com secret hotels. I do that now when taking the missus out and you can get a great deal on 4 or 5 star hotels (<£100 for 2 people including breakfast).

kinda, it’s 650b and a bit slacker I think. similar though. hard-hitting, slack HT.

thanks guys – other option was alltricks.com

yeah I have this one: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/osprey-talon-6-lumbar-waist-pack/

I have Flashflo envy tho.

I have a 2011 5 and I bloody love it. I bought the bike ex-demo and over years pretty much everything has been replaced except cranks, shock and front 1/2 of frame. 🙂 ….even the paint is new.

I had some good use & re-use out of the original parts though.

I think most people have covered the other topics here already. Enjoy.

…p.s. I’ve always thought chakaping had 5-envy. Now I can see the amount of research he’s put into this. I know it 😉

oh dear, sounds like a bit too much fun to me. 😉

Thanks Nic

Haha, interesting. Yeah let’s not go there.

Thanks.

teamhurtmore – yeah it’s a dilema isn’t it, particularly with the lack of opinions and demos available 🙂 I’m not completely convinced on the 29er thing but have only demod a fairly steep FF29. Couple (most) of my mates now have decent slightly slacker HT 29ers bikes that I’ll try to swing a leg over too for comparison but so far I still love my 26 inch wheeled Orange5.

edward – okay thanks mate. There seems to be a pattern forming here. What sort of riding does your mate use it for? I would certainly need a bike that could climb decently as well as descend.

So Edward – how was it for you? Sounding pretty good if it made the slackline seen ordinary.

what sort of riding were you putting it through?

… good question teamhurtmore… not hoping to change my riding style maybe just get a more fun and bigger wheeled HT than the 456C.

I love my 05 but fancy a funner HT as another option…. not fussed on Ally HT’s either.

mboy – NP, think you have more of an idea than most of the press so I reckon you could drink off that one for another couple of months.

Do you mean James Coneden?

Yeah deffo, If I didn’t know about the homework beforehand I certainly did after my sis bought a pedigree springer spaniel from gun dog lineage as a family pet…

Off to you tube now… thanks.

good info guys. Any suggestions of types of dogs best suited to trail company and of course as family dogs?

We have 2 Hoy Bonaly 24″ers (twins – 8yr olds).

Kids love them. currently trying some suss forks on one but the kids aren’t too impressed by the difference yet and are likely to go back to rigid for the weight saving.

(rigid forks are 600g, coil suss forks from a Scott Scale are about 2Kg)