An excellent route, Grum! I managed it yesterday, with almost no rain! Recommended.
I also managed the North Face Trail in full, which was ok (the best section was incorporated in your route IMHO) and Claiffe heights in the p*ssing rain (which was fun).
Many thanks for all your help and suggestions.
😀

😀

Cool. Now to make it super easy for me, can anyone point me to, or supply me with, GPS tracklogs?
Cheers 🙂

Super! Thanks for the links. I will browse this evening.
🙂

Well. Thanks for being interested but I promise you that there is no room for bikes and luggage, including all the accoutrements for taking a baby to the Lakes for a long weekend, in the back of a Mondeo.
Think I’ll just buy me a Saris from Wiggle.
Cheers 🙂

No. Sadly. The child and luggage would complain…

Oh.

Hmm… Yes. Those new Treks and Scotts look just the ticket.

I imagine Crc/hotlines will just employ another frame designer.

I hear Stevo’s looking for a job…

Oh boo to the naysayers.
I’m looking forward to seeing what fun stuff comes out of this.

A Spark would be nice but that Liteville looks wunderbar! Not heard of them before. Are they generally a good thing?

Yes! A Yeti. Mmm. Or a Santa Cruz. Why are these almost all American bikes?
I think the Whyte and the Cannondale are on the lardy side, no?

I have a similar situation, sort of. I want to replace my Focus Merluzza light tourer/commuter for no other reason than I want to…
My list currently includes:
Kinesis TK2;
Condor Fratello;
Thorn Audax; and
Van Nicholas Amazon.

front mech or shoe strap clipping the crank, two more for you there.

Indeed!I was once confused by the alloy end cap on my front mech cable catching my rightside crank each time it revolved past the seat tube. Solved by deftly bending the cable out of the way.

Ooh. Can be annoyingly tricky to isolate a clunk or creak (I once spent ages worrying about a loose headset that turned out to be a worn bush on my rear shock!).
I think it could be the pedals. On new bikes these tend to be where cost savings are made by stocking low spec bits. Also, being small, loose bearings (if they are…) they can be more prone to suffering problems when new compared to the larger, sealed bearings in your BB.
Can you swap out an old pair of pedals and see if that solves it?

Cool. I hope it’s not as serious as you might have feared. If you can get one, I can thoroughly recommend a cortisone injection into the joint. It really helps with the pain and any swelling and it lasts a week or two, which might be enough to get you through the most painful bits as you heal naturally 🙂

I’ve got the same injury, left AC shoulder separation after being mowed down by a car on my commute home. I felt something snap when I hit the ground and thought I’d bust my collarbone. Turns out I have a Type 2 separation with a ligament and tendon having been snapped. This happened about 5 weeks ago. I was back on my bike after 3 weeks and I have full movement now. The pain is mainly uncomfortable but it does hurt when I lift some things at arms length. Also, there is a bump on my shoulder where the end of the separated collarbone pops up. I’m probably at 75% strength on my left arm now and I wouldn’t want to ride quickly through the trees or grab some air.
Having had kinesiology and acupuncture since the accident, which has helped with movement and pain, I have taken the advice of the orthopaedic surgeon and will have an operation to rejoin the shoulder in a couple of weeks’ time. This decision was helped by my knowing a couple other guys who had the same injury and put up with the discomfort for up to a year before deciding that they probably should have had surgery sooner rather than later.
Hope this helps 🙂 And please accept my healing vibes.

Finally got around to having my Lobster powder coated. Bit boring colour but much tougher finish than the original black one.

Finally got around to coating my Lobster 😀
Here she is:

I have overwhelmingly been recommended Panaracer Paselas by touring types on the CTC Forum; they should know. I myself have most consistently been using Schwalbe Marathons and i don’t find them particularly draggy for touring.

Very nice but until you attach the wicker basket to the front it won’t be complete.
🙂

Super! CarraDry bags duly ordered. 🙂

Ooh… About to throw a spanner in the works and order some Carradice CarraDry bags. It's the rack fixing that's doing it for me (and the price: £65).
Am I wrong? 😐

Dare I say move to Shoreditch buy a fixie, get some sleeves, knuckle tats, skinny jeans, facial piercings and then wave goodbye to your mtb?

3rd the removal of the shock first. Usually you can tell very easily if the pivot bearings are worn once they are free of the shock. They'll feel grindy or notched, IME.

Actually, as next weekend is the weekend before the Bigdog, you'll probably find lots of people reccying the Stanmer route, so it should be easy to follow the singletrack nuggets.

http://brightonmtb.org/ is a good place for info. Stammer park has lots of nice singletrack but it's best to have a local show you round.
🙂

Well, I've always liked:
"my other bike is your mum".

Nice. Thinking of doing something similar myself. Did you get your decals direct from RL in America??? If not, where please? 🙂

18" 5, 16" Inbred, 17" Lobster and i'm 5'9" with long legs.

The manitou Swinger with the SPV chamber was a brilliant shock! It's made for fire road climbs! Just put a bit more air in it (the SPV valve) and it should be absolutely bob free. They're not that hard to service yourself either. I think a seal pack is about £20 from CRC.

Damn. Sorry guys. I completely forgot to reply… Good news! It would seem that the XT caliper has nooks for tiny air bubbles and requires careful bleeding. It's as solid as the front now. All working lovely 🙂

Just pushed the pistons back, bled and jiggled the caliper and hose. Will now go for a ride and report back later.

Joxter,
No. It's as full of oil as it apparently can be. This is why i'm puzzled by the spongyness.

Shandy,
Ok. Thanks. I'll give that a go.

Joxster,
I think so. The brake certainly seems to become sharper towards the end of the stroke. As i understand it, the servo wave is just a cam on the lever mechanism and the lever seems to be working just fine once it's been pumped a few times.

No harm in checking the alignment of your rear mech hanger. If it's a wee bit off it might be causing the smaller cassette cogs to snatch at the loose chain as it's backpedalled. I've got one of these[/url] and it does the trick nicely. 🙂

Coo. Sounds interesting. I'm not from the area but i have family that are regularly visited in the summer in Ringstead Bay. Would love the chance to meet up with someone with local knowledge for some rides later this year. 😀
Sort of agree about Puddletown Forest, but the cleared area at the top has revealed some terrific views!

Hairychested: I bloody hope so!
Sharki so very kindly took me round the Tox a few times last summer (once in the pissing rain!) and joined me in a cream tea afterwards. This not knowing where he's at is just horribly worrying. I keep anxiously checking back here to see if he's surfaced – man, i hope he does, and soon!

Sounds like you have a sticky piston. Check to see that both are moving together at the same rate. If one of them is sticking, remove the pads, clean around the pistons, and drop a wee bit of oil around the seals.

Nowhere then…
Went to Puddletown Forest, fell off embarrisingly, and cut my knee up. Ho hum :-/