Alexsimon – many thanks!

Thanks for the cashback spot! definitely makes just buying one new from John Lewis the most sense with a two year warranty!

Anyone able to confirm the cashback question of what you are actually given back? is it a store credit type thing for sony or john lewis or actual cash/BT?

Many thanks chaps, some good examples there which have certainly helped in my decision making

Looks good guys, that first image looks like a CGI malver rider.

For my price range i’d be considering just the mark 1, i have spotted a second hand one with warranty until mid 2017 for 200 quid so considering that.

Managed to have a go on one in the shop and there did seem a lot of stuff hidden in menues but as for controls and settings i’m a little used to used them manually as I used to have an SLR but sold it as I never carried it since it was too big.

on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being extremely ashamed and 10 being utterly proud, should I be that No. 4 is in fact me?

ended up with a right deep slice down my shin, great scar to show for it though

Rik, aside from the baggage questions I would reccommend going to cycle up Logarska Dolina and also over the Vrsic pass (if you have the legs for it) then down the other side in the Soca valley and also have a look at the gorge near bled just google ‘vintgar Bled’.

You probably have already done your research though and knew that already but I loved those places so thought I would suggest it.

bump

Hmm will try fix it, my phone is out of action at the moment so didn’t have a chance to check that.

Cheers and happy new year to you too

I also take a lot of photos whilst riding so hard to choose! Probably these three though, all three of my mate Jonny who has come out to visit me in various place to ride…

1) This one because of the crazy scenery we were riding above in Geirangerfjord in Norway and the trail was pretty sweet and it was part of a great road trip we did around part of Norway

2) This, also on the road trip mentioned in the first photo, because the trails were just as perfect as they look in the photo, loamy, green, flowy and such good fun! In Kaupanger near Sognfjord

3) Really like the way this one is framed with the rock and the trail and the rider just small in the background, plus it was the first time I discovered this trail near Grenoble and it was ace!

I worked all summer at Ride Slovenia and a lot of folk used WizzAir to fly out with no problems all summer! We only had two lost bikes the whole time but that was with another airline with people coming from Paris, don’t remember who ti was though.

download (1) by Willy Gibson[/url], on Flickr

Got a fair bit done! pretty much all MTB miles, would have made it to 100,000m climbing but my phone broke just before christmas so never go it recorded!

What bike do you ride Paul? Wondering if i’ve seen you out and about before, hey maybe i’ve even met you back when I used to live here

ha i’ve spotted you on here before Paul and guessed as much!

It was good once we got down near the trees, just watch out for the massive ruts and holes that have formed from the rain, my front wheel got eaten b those a few times on the way down

Same symptoms as Xyeti with mine using Superstar pads, will definitely not be buying pads from them again

I once did the descent off Pen Y Fan heading south, along the ridge of Gwaun Taf and then before you reach the forest you head down a trail to the little reservoir on your left. I would certainly recommend that!

It was fantastic as the trail along the top was just enough gradient to keep your momentum up but with some pedalling here and there, so some quite good flow to it in my opinion with some good little technical bits, it is a kind of sandy moorland type trail and feels really cool as you ride along the edge of the ridge. Then when you head down to the reservoir it gets really technical!! You can even choose to ride down what looks like an old river bed if you want some extreme tech! Lasts for ages too since the gradient isn’t that steep until the end.

Highly recommend it… but ONLY in the dry, I can imagine it is super laggy andt here is a lot of resistance along the top trail if it is really wet = one big pedal.

Route map and some photos here[/url]

No specific pics of the trail but that last photo shows where the steep part is i was talking about.

Empty just now… no snow to be found over here, only sun!

If you are starting form the very beginning I would recommend some basic vocab books and also speaking to people in person so your cafe thing sounds like a good bet!

I moved out to France to do my masters at university in Grenoble two years back thinking I had an OK level of french from school which turned out to be not as good a level as I thought however, despite that things rapidly improved once here, point being actually speaking with french people helps so much and people were/still are really patient with me, they appreciate you making an effort a lot.

Good luck with the move and nice one for going for it!

I have been waiting for the day when I found out what IANAL and FTFY. Any finally, 8 years later, 8 years of using this forum and fiiinallly I found out! Thanks you.

(Yes I know I could of just asked myself buuut I was hoping it would just make sense some day and i’d be able to work it out myself…)

Grum – Cheers for those! Will have a leisurely read this weekend… What do you do up there in Chamonix? As you say looks like the snow is due this weekend! It has started raining here in Grenoble today, I imagine it is snowing up high.

Nasher – yeah those lot! They were a funny/unsual/wild/unpredictable/entertaining bunch to say the least. Yeah I worked at Ride Slovenia, Ride Slovenia is just one guy though well there was also me over the summer. When are you able to ride until down your way? I mean when do you usually have guests until, what is your season?

Sorry Nasher, forgot to write that was for Stevo, now i’m referring to you ^^ ! :)

Oh and Chapaking – I am even more novice than that I think, I am still using a WordPress hosted site, so I have limited options, for now it keeps me happy but I have also installed wordpress on my laptop so that I can learn and play with more advanced stuff so once i have I will sort myself out some hosting, domain name and a bit more of a complicated site I think. I like your site though, it is not far off what I was aiming for.

Nasher – cheers for that, I might see if i can hit you up for a ride some time, do you ever venture across to France? p.s. if you work at Riveira bike in Molini then I met the guys who got into a fight and got chased out of the town whilst staying with you a few years ago this summer… if not then never mind haha.

Flange – I updated the ‘about me’ page a little more to explain. But basically I am still a student despite being 25 although I have spent some years working! I study architecture which is a fairly long course and you sort of do it in two separate parts bachelors then masters and in between those you spend a year working; so I did my bachelors in Aberdeen then I got a job in Slovenia for a year and then decided to work for longer and spent 1.5yrs working in London, after that I decided basically that I wanted to live in the alps, simple as that really, and I spoke some french before I arrived and have always had a bit of a thing for france so yeah I applied to do my masters here in Grenoble and was accepted so here I am. I am in my last year now after having done a year exchange to Norway, some other stints working again in London and a season working as a mtb guide in Slovenia.

These last weeks have been amazing weather yeah! We had a bit of snow mid October but only for a few days but since then it has been something like 20degrees every day! Yeah I took a fair bit of stuff, I kept thinking what if I die at 2500m ha. Where are you based?

Yeah I have, I spent aggges looking through templates and playing with layouts and thought that this one was nicest/worked best for what I was trying to do. I am a bit of a beginner in playing with website design, even the wordpress ones, so there are probably better ones that could be manipulated to what I want. But yeah it would be great if they were wider! None of the free layouts allow you to have nice full page photos… now that would be cool!

I wonder if that is the sort of thing you can edit in the CSS? As once you pay for an annual subscription you can start to edit that (you have to anyway once you get past your 3gb storage limit).

Cheers guys

Selled, nice to hear that it is like that over your way too

Nasher, now that sounds really epic! 7 days! Did you carry much with you or were you staying in proper accommodation with food each night?

Also is anyone is interested and uses facebook I have made a page where any of my wordpress/instagram/photos etc gets posted

Facebook Page

Ocrider, yeah I will take the road a good way up the take a trail the 2nd half of the ascent then come down via the col de la pra.

I was out for a loop on the road bike in La Chartreuse two weeks ago and got a nice surprised when i came across that, just out there a bit in the middle of nowhere! Looks sweet, proper pump track and a couple of sets of dirt jumps, bit of a trek to get to from the city like but if I lived in st. Pierre I’d be pretty excited about it.

Have you been out here riding or skiing?

Haha Heyup Dave, did you remember my username?

Sounds like you’ve got plenty going on! Wouldn’t mind a bit of rain here to be honest, good bit of wet n wild weather would be refreshing! It is not bad having such big hills on your doorstep, got some plans to make the blog more of a website so will get it updated properly soon!

Hope your enjoyed your riding in Slovenia! If you want showing around some trails in Grenoble then I’d be more than willing!

Sorry to disappoint Ned… I’m just childish ;)

Coomber, I looked on that! But cheers

MANY beaches!

Alnwick castle and gardens and treehouse!

Up Kielder way there are various activities but then it is a bit back of beyond feeling up there, just one massive forest

Some of the valleys in the cheviots are rather nice, Coquetdale, Ingram, College valley but then not sure how much to do specifically for kids. Few visitor centres along Hadrian’s wall as well

If anyone is interested I post quite a few on my instafag account, follow the link…

Instafag account with lots of atumuny pics[/url]

I ended up emailing/calling Flotec suspension in Scotland which was one of service centres on the Jungle site (as Jon Taylor wrote). It was three separate parts, cost peanuts and I ended up buying three sets in case I loose them again… cost me a grand total of £4.25 posted. Guy on the phone at Flotec was well helpful, sent me the bits first class the same day I called up as well and he thought they would arrive today!

Great, thank you very much Jon!

Duty being VAT? Or something else?

I am talking about second hand stuff.

Damage of course is an issue but then is it not the same thing if you buy something from north of scotland and you live in the south of england… Unless you fancy a long drive?

Sketchup all the way, it is free (the non pro version is free forever).

watch a tutorial about how to make and use components in it and it will save you so much frustration! Simplest explanation of that is when you start making geometry and putting it together everything gets ‘stuck’ together, so if you make a cube, then another cube and put them right next to each other then try to move one away, it will be ‘stuck to the other and will pull it with it. However if you make a cube, make it a component, make another cube and make that another component, then sit them next to each other they will remain separate entities and not get stuck together, so you can still move them about separately.

Can anyone else provide any info?

Thank you very much. Got some ordered

Anyone?

for anyone who actually read the little story I wrote on this blog post, I finally have the meteor photo! So here it is.

Ok I know it looks like i probably could have just photoshopped in a white line but read the story and you might believe me :lol:

Please tell me this was a Snaiths Coaches bus! My parents (live North Tyne Valley way) have had several run ins with them (in cars, not cycling) and absolutely despise them.

One of which was a Snaiths bus driver managing to write of 5 parked cars at once in Otterburn, one of which was my dads, as he somehow managed to plow his bus through 5 cars that were parks at the side of the road perpendicular to it.