Did it in 2011 8hr solo and rode to a (suprising) top 5, absolutely love riding Thetford when its dry and dusty and its held on the Brandon side of the forest which is great fun and surprisingly hilly (well for Thetford) course. Just don’t under estimate how many training hours to put in…8 or 10 hours there is a heck of a load of pedaling! Enjoy :D

Exile brakes are crap whatever frame you stick em too…I’ve bought high end specialized bikes that had bushes missing from the fsr links, I’m sure once its fixed you won’t have any further regrets

[quoteRealise I’m setting myself up here but as a relative newcomer to xc racing, I’m still overly enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Enjoy, and if (when) it starts to feel like a job then stop

[quoteRealise I’m setting myself up here but as a relative newcomer to xc racing, I’m still overly enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Enjoy, and if (when) it starts to feel like a job then stop

[quoteA family of what? Midgets with no luggage? We had a week in the Lakes last week and easily filled every last bit of boot space in our Octavia estate.[/quote]

If you want a Skoda estate I’m sure it can’t be beaten, the OP was after a 5 door hatch..

With all the things she supposedly achieved all I can recall about her being PM is going to the poll tax office to pay them £650, I was an eighteen year old on £80 per week….no surprises it was the poll tax that finished her off

Watch this, skip to 2.50 for the part on length

According to the marketing b.s a trail bike generally has slacker angles lower gearing and more than 120mm’s of suspension travel.
apparently one degree on your head angle and 10mm travel makes a world of difference?!!

Id go for the leon, Golfs are over rated. but if it was my own car. Id go for neither.

Having spent the last two weeks in a mk 7 Golf (se 2.0 Tdi 150) I can say its a close to family car perfection as you could get, and ive driven lots and lots of cars in my time… You have to drive one to pass judegments like that im afraid

If your style of riding is pushing limits / bigger drops more knarly downhill then the trance is the boy, if climbing and going fast XC is your forte look no further than the anthem.

[quotehow is that better than racing 10 mile laps?[/quote]

Only the very long events have 10 mile laps and having done many in my time after 4 or 5 the only thing you notice are the mile markers stuck to the trees

….and yet the mtb sportives such as the wiggle super series and evans events still sell out or reach capacity. i think there is also an element of change going on too, maybe we are getting bored with riding round a 4 mile curcuit for 2-3 hours? the future lies with multi day events or races like the kielder 100 or bucks off road sportive where there is also an element of adventure and discovery?

2003 honda civic type r, no traction control and 200hp on the front wheels= nightmare

postage is whatever you want it to be, id calculate the postage on time and cost of packaging, travel to the post office..

You’ll get a grand for that bike no probs

Darude sandstorm

Black legend – the trouble with me

Prodigy no good start the dance

OT quartet – hold that sucker down

Will smith – boom shake the room

good bike, i would recommend spending as much as possible on one as some of the lesser models ie 3 and 2 are quite heavy. Dont shy away from the Rockshox monach shock either as its actually quite tunable.

As teamhurtmore mentioned an Epic will probably be quicker but id still rather have an anthem over one for an all round bike you cant do much better really.

Really cute Pup, when we went to Puppy training classes with our Pup the trainer said Dogs only really respond to two things. Food and sex.

Always carry treats with you when you are near him and every time he does something you approve of give him a treat and over praise her, but it must only happen on the event as Dogs cant reflect on past events. Never shout only treat. Get signed up to some Puppy training classes which were really helpful, if not just for the training but also the socialising with other dogs.

Spent alot of time with our Collie when she was a Pup but it was so worth it 2 years later we have no probs at all.

Bedgebury when wet is truly horrible, give it some dry out time to avoid dissapointment..which will probably be May at this rate…

Flat trails like thetford are a real test of endurance, some of the quickest riders in the country lost their cherry there

+1 on Honda s2000 , nothing quite like it when the motor rolls round to 9000rpm.

Ba54her for post of the day :lol:

[quoteOf course retailers hate them as they make no money from them.[/quote]

Not from the bikes but calculate how much you spend on the life of your bike in servicing , upgrades , accessories , clothing and potentially the retailers could still make a mint

I kept our bikes inside the villa, it seemed pretty safe but I wouldn’t leave them unattended

From the main exit (toll booths) to centre parcs turn left after 200m, ride up the fire road and you will end up on the blue route there is a trail map visible to check your bearings, from memory the pines forest centre was only a 5 min ride, hope that makes sense

Depends on the mood, singletrack if I’m a bit down and reflecting on life or mbuk for a bit of colour and uplift, the writing isn’t up to single track levels but mbuk is definitely a more colourful and uplifting mag

Brilliant. Really enjoying this series so far

Brilliant. Really enjoying this series so far

go pro HD

bear in mind a 29er with front wheel off only just fits with the seat down, 2 up possible but only just

my question would be : when you get bored with the jones, where do you go from there? im only asking because i get the impression you would buy one because you have exhausted all other bike options, is it not a retirement bike really?

The tddi isn’t as good as the tdci but at that age its not going to make a big difference, give it a valet and stick it up for a grand with a mind to take 750. I remember selling these new for 21k…how time flies!

Use the post office service if in a hurry, it costs a little more but I got mine renewed in 2 days

[quoteus to Mersea Island?[/quote]

You need a passport to cross to mersea island, at least the residents like to think that way :wink:

You can get to the zoo by bus but need to get one into town first, best bet would be to change trains at Colchester north station (the main station) and get the shuttle train into colhester town (st botolphs) from the town station turn right and walk down head street about 400 meters to the main bus station. From there you can get as bus to the zoo.

forget the castle its closed for a re-furb. the zoo is well worth it though

Might be “more MTB” in the UK, are you sure that’s true in the rest of the world?
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO #

ill ask the rest of the world and then get back to you :wink:

[quoteBollox.
A middle of the road Giant 29er might be your ideal bike but to say that it could do everything well is a bit short sighted.[/quote]

Single speed anthem x 29er ?

Fontana has a point, baggies is really more MTB, XC racing needs to change to gain popularity. Why not start with the shorts…

quote One bike to rule them all? I think not. quote

Thought so too until i got my anthem x 29er, apart from another 10mm travel or so i cant see why you would need much else

Pedalon : not my local bike shop but very impressed with the service. ordered a complete bike with them but called first with a couple of questions, one of which they didnt know the answer to and i got the dreaded ‘ ill give you a call back in 5 mins’ , two mins later the guy called me back with the answers. ( that never happens with my LBS) , my bike then arrived 4 days earlier than the sales guy estimated. Bike was expertly packaged and im over the moon with it. I’ll definately use them again. brill.