maccruiskeen – Member

I have to say, having grown up there, Rainford is hardly a hotbed for crime.

…it’s not that far from some such places though, is it?

Binners:
Well.. I went to school with someone who is now a shadow minister

Well, I’d expect nothing less from someone as “old money” as yourself, old bean, especially as you attended the Eton of the North.

You’ve kept it hidden well 😉

Braking?! Whatever next?

Turn your head with purpose and the rest will follow.

Generally (and non-expertly),

push tyres hard into ground, tilt bike over onto the side knobs, look (up and turn head) for the exit, not at the ground in front of you (or at the trees -often difficult), feel the g’s.

If the tyres do slide, don’t panic and try to ride it out.

I have to re-programme my brain between mtbs and motorbiking on the road, as the moto requires more counter-steering,’pressing’ the knee into the tank and leaning into the corner.

Schwalbe Land Cruisers are a good all-rounder (-they were the favoured 3 Peaks CX tyre a few years back, they may still be).

I use 700c x 35 on my CX commuter, but there are other widths available.

Fine on road unless you are racing, surprisingly good off-road, very tough, very hard-wearing. I’ve not used my narrow slicks since I bought Land Cruisers a few years ago.

I think most people catch on fairly quickly. Only the self-righteously stupid drive around with side lights only in spite of being surrounded by others using dipped beam in low light/rain.

There are 3 types of people:

1. Those who pay attention to the conditions and use lights to aid their visibility to others as this has a mutually beneficial effect.

2. Those who drive around ‘pseduo-illuminated’ by only their position lights (side lights) low light conditions and rain, under the misapprehension that this is the ‘right’ thing to do and for no apparent reason.
(position lights that, whilst the vehicle stationary, should be used to highlight the rear edges of the car to approaching vehicles on their side of the road and the front edges of the vehicle to oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road. What use are they whilst driving?)

3. People who have fitted ‘bright’ LEDs to their position light holders for aesthetic purposes, allowing them to gain satisfaction from seeing small points of white light when driving towards reflective surfaces and when the car is parked-up at ‘meets’. This is definitely not to impress schoolgirls or boy racers.

Thankfully most drivers are in the first category.

Sidelights here to unless visibility is very reduced

Is non-use of the dipped beams some sort of religious observance?

mrmo – Member

i wonder about the trend for grey cars being driven unlit in less than perfect conditions. It is actually surprisingly hard to see some cars in fog/rain/low cloud. Not saying i can’t see them, just surprising how easily they merge into the background.

Exactly. I noticed it whilst watching cars approaching along a straight road whilst I was stuck in a traffic jam in clear, dawn conditions with the not particularly dazzling sun on the horizon.

Dull-coloured cars without dipped beams (no lights or side lights -hardly any difference at all) were far less visible than white or bold coloured cars, which were all less visible than those using….

….Dipped beams (easily switched on by even the most stupid driver), which made all cars roughly equally visible.

Obviously, if I were to invest in some aesthetically-pleasing uber-side light bulbs, I’d want to be using them to impress 14 year old girls, so having to drown-out the LEDs with the much more effective, fit-for-purpose, dipped beams would be a bit of a shame.

coffeeking – Member

Seriously wonder how many people should be driving if they find cars with sidelights on difficult to see.

Seriously, when the sun is low in the sky at dawn/dusk, it is a dull, grey day, or it is raining, many cars, often of a grey hue, do blend into the background, especially if the sun is behind the car.

2 candles buried in the headlights do little to help with this.

The question remains: why wouldn’t a driver used dipped headlights?

Some of us drive large, powerful cars with LED sidelights

Hateful, glare-producing things -and so are the LED sidelights.

As it so easy to enable dipped headlights in low light or rain, often with the very same rotary switch, I can think of no reason whatsoever why a driver would not use their dipped headlights in preference to their position(side) lights.

In dawn/dusk/rain conditions, cars (especially grey/dirty silver ones) are often not particularly visible. Position (side) lights are almost useless in such situations, although a significant minority of drivers seem to think that they are a good idea for use whilst driving, even whilst surrounded by people using their dippped headlights.

Is it mostly ignorance, low intelligence or just mis-guided stubbornness?

As PeterPoddy says, looking well ahead of you and looking at what hazards (and opportunities) and cross-views are coming up in the distance, allowing you to plan your approach makes a big difference to cross-country and motorway driving.

A huge proportion of drivers do not look beyond what is going on immediately in front of them, with a very narrow field-of-view, and often follow the vehicle in front far too closely, rather than hanging back and weighing-up the situation.

You do not need a ‘fast’ car to get from point to point smoothly, briskly, efficiently(maintaining momentum) and safely. A ‘fast’ car doesn’t make a good driver and beyond point-and-squirt, most people, including myself (without going mad on straight bits), probably wouldn’t be much quicker point-to-point in the real world. A motorbike can, of course, be very effective in traffic, due to the narrow width and effortless acceleration.

The argument about whether you should be accelerating or travelling more quickly than the ‘overtakee’ before pulling out comes down to the situation and to the vehicle. A ‘fast’ car or bike can indeed allow some more opportunities to overtake. Pulling out for ‘a look’ before increasing the speed to pass, due to the rapid acceleration available (on a bike you are often easing off the throttle well before pulling back in). A slower vehicle would often require a longer space ahead of the ‘overtakee’, but these situations don’t arise too often.

If there is a lane closure 800yds away, why are many people merging in a jostling manner where there is no lane closure?

Because British drivers don’t generally merge-in-turn at the obstruction, there is a time advantage for those who do.

If everybody did perform and allow others to do a system of sensible merge-in-turn, then there wouldn’t be a clear right hand lane for non-sheep-people to drive down….

A former (German) colleague of mine found it very strange. He said that in Germany people would be getting angry about people not merging-in-turn like a zip.

Then again, Johnny Foreigner really don’t know how to queue.

Having skimmed the thread, a few points:

Speeding is not rigorously enforced in the UK and speed cameras are not hidden. Police ‘speed traps’ are quite rare outside of 30mph limits.

With some discretion, care and observation cars can be driven at brisk, reasonable speed without incident or anti-social behaviour. Overtaking safely is entirely possible.

Drivers should be aware of their surroundings; including speed limits, conditions, road signs, other road users etc. and base their behaviour upon them. eg. If you are in a 40mph limit and there are pseed camera signs, it shouldn’t be too surprising if you see a speed camera….

People do drive along at 40mph (often accompanied by unnecessary braking) in 60mph limits with long queues behind them. Their may well be a general fear of overtaking and their is a very British ‘queueing culture’. I have no issue with people overtaking columns of traffic where safe and with visibility. It is much, much easier on a motorbike though.

(the ‘queueing culture’ also results in merging and jostling at the “800yds” signs before roadworks on dual-carriageways, with much harrumphing and fist-shaking at people who prefer to sensibly merge-in-turn)

A lot of speed limits have been reduced in recent years, which can be frustrating.

Personally, I’m a fan of discretion. As a ‘younger man’, I did drive a bit ‘fast & furious’ at times and gained (some expensive and some lucky) experience. I now drive in a more considered/considerate way, but do like to maintain a reasonable pace, with more smoothness.

ps. French/Italian cars may appear to have a lot of dents and possibly do, but there is a seemingly British attitude towards repairing even very minor bodywork damage, possibly linked to the fact that people like to change cars often, rather than when they ‘wear out’.

tron – Member

When he was in the office, I thought “By God, he does an amazing job of playing an egregious bell end”. The more time goes by, the less convinced I am that he was acting…

Haha. That’s exactly what I thought.

Something tells me that I’d quite enjoy something that combines motorbikes with off-road trails….

Having benefited from further motorbike and driving skills training (which have also helped with biking) I probably should enrol on one of these courses.

I reckon if I’d had some decent tuition a few years ago I’d have made the transition from erratic, bull-in-a-china-shop, erratically-pseudo-fast lad to the quick, smooth, flowing trail master that I’m working towards hopefully eventually becoming much more quickly.

What course for somebody who is no hero, but familiar with the techniques and confident with most normal things mtb …other than enormous gap jumps and 50 foot cliff hucks…. and can usually hold their own with other STW weekend-warrior-30-somethings?

– “Polishing trail technique and Enormous gap jumps & hucks for Dads”?

TJ, where is it written out that we (humans) have to be rational about stuff?

It’s difficult to live life without any sort of rationality….

rational thought requires evidence. faith is acceptance of belief without evidence thus is not rational.

…and, as such, you’ll have a very difficult job converting a ‘believer’ using rational argument.

Any critical, analytical thought process must reject faith without evidence.

…Exactly, but the ‘believers’ want to believe, they don’t want to be critical, because they know that their faith won’t stand up to scrutiny.

I used to have these debates with people I know, but I’ve given up as replies such as “….Because it is/the Bible says/well, if you don’t question it too much…” don’t really lead anywhere.

Personally, I prefer to have an enquiring mind open to new ideas.

Let them carry on, but do let’s separate the established (minority) church and state.

For years, I’ve had 2 mtbs.

One hardtail (it’s been singlespeed and geared and 2 different frames) with an 80mm air fork and fairly light bits. I’ve used it on the rockiest & longest of natural trails, at trail centres, UK mountains, Les Arcs and anything else you can think of. It’s taken a pounding, is good fun and demonstrates that you can have fun on a cheap and cheerful machine. The current frame being Ex-Binners!

The other bike has been a chunkier hardtail / full-susser at various times. Currently in fully coil-sprung, full-suss, chunky-upright-all-day-all-mountain-heavy-enough-to-keep-you-honest-on-the-ups spec. Its been ridden on many of exactly the same trails as the hardtail. This bike is more forgiving on technical trails.

When I decide to ride I choose which bike I want to ride based upon:

where I’m going,
who I’m going with
what I feel like
which bike is working

eg. For bimbling around a flat forest I don’t see any need for a big, full susser, no point having to wait for hours at the bottom of every descent or being very slow on every up.

Choose your battle and choose your weapon.

Mortgage.

Month off.

re-shuffle/update bike collection

KTM 950SM

Second-hand sports car for fettling.

Just stop, chaps!

You can’t argue against ‘blind faith’

Thankfully Britain is a fairly tolerant place and I can cope so long as I am not having religion forced upon me. I’m even nice to the door-knocking missionaries.

I gently roll my eyes when our ‘religious leaders’ speak forth on matters of morals, problems with gender equality and their very weird obsession with what other people are doing behind closed doors with other people.

I do, however, object very strongly to “Thought for The Day“….

By all means be nice to people as far as practical -I try to be.

Don’t however do it because of the contents of a book of contradictory, many times interpreted, ancient text centred around the threat of eternal damnation.

How many other 2000+ year old manuals would you refer to for guidance?

armo – Member

I’ve got a Kona 2005 and it rides better than many a new bike, depends also how light you build it!

I’ve a 2007(?) Dawg. It does ride really well, but it is built up heavy (DHX5.0 coil & Pikes, some chunky bits). Coil shocks might be heavy , but the improvement over air feels like the equivalent of about 1 1/2″ of rear travel.

I really like mine.

Carlos45 – Member

When are the parking charges due to start. I am due to go there this weekend……

You’d probably best give it a miss, just in case you do have to pay for something.

I had one. As above, with a bit of cutting and filing to fit it worked very well.

Brake (and clutch) cleaner is, as far as I know, mostly IPA and possibly some other light solvents. I’ve used it for cleaning all kinds of things, it evaporates quickly and doesn’t appear to leave any nasty residues.

Electrical contact cleaner is very similar.

I wouldn’t use soap for brake internals.

You don’t actually *need* a bashring.

A front mech on its own will do as a top guide on a single or double, as it does on a triple.

I do also use bb mount Blackspire stingers on my bikes (single and double chainsets), which I really rate for keeping the chain on when its bouncing about.

Radical, I know, but why not use brake cleaner?

People sometimes seem to be a little over-critical of these things. If the forest was a smooth sustrans trail, then I could understand people not liking it, but the place has been created by a lot of volunteers and allows punters to have a very varied ride, for no cost, without the need for navigation.

Maybe set up wrong but some bits made my 6″ FS feel rough going

You’ve either got your suspension set up very wrong or mountain biking has jumped the shark. I’ve ridden it on my hardtail and my hardtail and with various other people. Neither bike or any other people struggled.

Okay, so I what was I to expect being so overbiked

I don’t know, but I wouldn’t expect you to find it ‘rough’. Watch out on the DH bits!

bspoked
When the ups are stop-start, the flat is a slog and the downs are short, it starts to lose enjoyment for me.

Are you sure you went to the right place? I like a technical, ‘natural’ trail, preferably on a rock-strewn mountain or hill …but I also like Gisburn.

The only ‘slog’ is that track that links the upper and lower loops of the “8”, and even that isn’t very long.

ps. when the trails are smooth on the ups and on the flat, I don’t enjoy it.

That’s vandalism that is! MTBer trail sanitisation at Mellor, whatever next?

Even NBT can manage it on a tandem -Presumably Mrs NBT was at the front.

I like it. It feels (mostly) more like riding in a forest than on a big BMX track than some trail centres do. And it’s in Lancashire.

As above, “need” can mean different things.

I currently ride 2 mountain bikes. One is a simple hardtail with 80mm MXC air forks (run at low pressure, but with a lot of oil added to prevent too much bottoming-out)and 2.35″ tyres. The hardtail is obviously not very forgiving and the forks occasionally bottom-out, but with a bit of thought it can be hustled downhill and along our technical, Pennine trails quite effectively.

Jumping back onto the full susser is good fun and more forgiving, but it sometimes feels almost like cheating in comparison.

I rented a Demo 8 II at a German DH centre last year. That was fantastic downhill and very forgiving, but I wouldn’t want to ride it 30 miles around the mountains.

A lot of people think that they need much more bike than they actually do.
I’ve met people who can ride rigid 29ers very quickly on technical terrain.

As somebody once said,
“It’s not about the bike”

On the subject of the W Highlands, signs like these seem to work:

I’ve never seen one like it in England.

Ah, as I suspected.

It was you who recommended these brakes to me a few years ago 🙂

One piston is damaged and mucho fluid is leaking out. When they work they are excellent.

I’m happy to replace a piston and seals if I can get them….

If you ride fairly gentle terrain, with lots of road links, then go for the cross bike.

A cross bike can be ridden on some fairly gnarly terrain -it’s not about the bike… but the frames can only take so much punishment. Mine went over the Wayfarer once and up/around the rocky bits of Rivington & Winter Hill numerous times before the frame snapped in half.

I wouldn’t give up my mountain bikes.

Cheers.

Given that I don’t want to spend my life watching less than perfect TV, I think I may just do The Wire.

Most TV is cr*p, so we watch very little.

We’re currently working through the West Wing(now on series 2)-which I think is superb.

Next on our watching list is either The Wire or The Sopranos.