For a number of years I used to do somewhere between 2000-3000 miles on a race track a year. Did loads of on the limit handling training etc. I have a reasonable amount of car control and I don't panic if the car does somthing unexpected. I don't beleive that most drivers have a clue what to do if things start to go wrong and the human panic reaction generaly leads them to do the wrong thing.

That said I dont think that gives me the right to drive like an idiot on the roads and my speed is generaly limited by by visibility and by others around me, but given the right curcumstances I dont believe it is always dangerous to exceed the speed limit. There are things that people do everyday in vehicles that are far more dangerous.

I generaly stick my cruise control on going through 30 and 40 limits as it is harder to see and process all the hazards in this sort of enviroment.

But I do have to say the closest I have come to having accidents on the road have not when I have been driving/riding fast, its been when my concentration levels have dropped. That generaly does not happen when doing 130MPH on a bike !!!!

Bazzer

You should check because that's not me, but then I cannot see how this latest missive of yours is interesting or constructive?

Its not, it was meant to be entertaining hence the :-)

I should look but, but I wonder if the same people who are anti enjoying driving riding a Morotrcycle in a spirted way are the same people who get really uptight about people building jumps on other peoples land and having some fun.

I fear STW has been infiltrated by ramblers :-)

Bazzer

I reckon the blokes in DH must be earning more than the girls.

Emiline Ragot (spelling) served me dinner in our challet the other week.

Bazzer

Yeah I accept the GPS innacuracy thing, I was miles off course yesterday. It could be done by some other method, radio/rifid/ bluetooth – it seems to work in the pit lane in formula one. I am not trying to carry out a design exercise here I just think it is possible and is a good idea.

You are of course right it could be done, but it would not be simple or cheap.

But before we spent money on that we might consider

Smoking related deaths are in the region of 100,000 a year, there are around 9000 alcohol related deaths a year in the UK. People killed in RTA's less than 3000

Where should we spend the money ?

Bazzer

But still, make a mistake at 30mph and you'll probably live. Make the mistake at 80mph and you'll probably die. So the speed does kill. Humans arent machines, they make mistakes

This is irrefutable. How can anyone say speed does not kill.

As regards the practicalities of the speed limiter thing its utterly simple, you start with a mandatory install on all new cars, much like cat convertors.

Then on any car with a spark ignition system a very simple method exists to limit the spark, so you could have a GPS receiver and a spark inhibitor that would fit any vehicle EFi or not. You can apply the same idea to diesel cars by using a solenoid to limit fuel flow, diesel limiters have been in use for many many years already.

Sorry its eminently practical. I can imagine a future where the GPS signal changes your max limit as you cross the speed limit boundary from town to country. Or it could be done by rfid or bluetooth.

If you want to do 140 MPH do it on a racetrack you recklessly dangerous man.

Complete tosh and anyone who has ever worked with GPS would know that its tosh. Its not accurate enough 100% of the time to do this. Sat nav systems use clever algorythms to keep locked onto a road when the GPS position wanders, but it does get it wrong a fair bit.

I would not want to be doing 70 miles an hour on the motorway with someone up my chuff and the box decide I was on the 30MPH road I am running adjacent too.

All these things seem simple until you actualy have to build what amounts to a safety critical system that does the job in the real world.

Bazzer

whatever PP and his 140 mph safe driving says speed is a factor in a third of all crashes and the faster you go the more likely you are to ….

What is your source for this statistic ?

Bazzer

Its very hard not to trust someone you have spent a lifetime trusting !!!

knees slightly bent, hands in front, bit like skiing :-)

Gravity dropper, ugly as sin but reliable and does exactly what it says on the tin.

Love mine and hate riding without it now.

Had mine for about 3 years with loads of trips away and its still going strong as others have mentioned very easy to service and keep working nice.

Bazzer

I ordered an SL pro with SRAM red kit on it from Planet X yesterday and I got an email today saying its going to be built on Tuesday.

I exhanged a few emails with them and they were very helpful.

My first road bike since I was about 16 realy looking forward to it. Hope the weather is good next week for a good blast on it.

Bazzer

Got mine a diamond bracelet and got my Best Man to take it down on the morning of the wedding.

Baz

I had a pair of lyrics which developed a lot of play in the bushes about 3 months from new. Fishers replaced the lowers under waranty. They lasted about a year and the play came back. I was off to Whistler and told them I was not that happy for them to fix them for them to die again when I was away. They replaced the whole fork and I have had no problem ever since.

I can feel slight movement between the uppers and lowers but cant feel it when riding.

The play in the original set was terrible though it felt like a worn headseat. Terrible under braking.

That was all about 3 years ago and they have been mint ever since.

Bazzer

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Big book, big story :-)

Bazzer

I have a almost brand new set of Totem Solo Airs for sale if they are of interested. They are a 1.5" to 1 1 1/8 Tapered stearer. Selling complete with tapered headset.

They have only done about 3 days riding.

PM me if interested, will be a couple hundred cheaper than new :-)

Bazzer

Well im in the same boat as you, Im off to Morzine in 4 weeks and have no DH experiance. Although I did go to Chamonix last year on my Enduro and loved every second.
like you Ive done the Cwmcarn XC route 100 times + and I realy do 'go for it' on the decent. Now you've got me thinking..

Really don't worry about it there is a lot more than just DH runs in Morzine. I am off to Morzine with Flow MTB on the 3rd of July I cant wait :-)

Bazzer

TrikcyDisco, did you do one uplift at Cwmcarn with a young lad yesterday ?

Had an awesome day at CC yesterday, really enjoyed it.

I remember the first run I did a few years ago and I thought it was awful. I was booked onto the uplift for the day and thought I had wasted my money. By the end of the day I was having a great time.

Get a full face and some armour and throw yourself down it :-)

Bazzer

I was expecting 2 wheels. That is lovely but must have cost you a small fortune!

We don't talk about the cost :-)

But I would rather be out on my mountain bike these days than doing track day's in that. So I thought it was about time I let someone else scare them self in it.

Bazzer

drive a boring Ford but would much rather have a Caterham R300 90% of the time.

My Busa would be more fun than an R300 :-)

http://pistonheads.com/sales/1698155.htm

I would bite someones hand off if they offered me anywhere near 5k for mine !!!

I have had an 04 Vrs estate from new its now got about 110K on the clock.

I have used it for transporting bikes and also for towing my toy car to race tracks. I drive it fairly hard but not crazy.

It was fine upto about 95K miles since then its had.

2 Wheel bearings
Wiper linkage
Wiper Motor
Front anti roll bar and mountings
Rear high level brake light.

I think thats about it.

Bazzer

I have had a Vrs Estate from new its a 2004 with nearly 110K on the clock now and its only just starting to feel a little tired and I have abused it. Its carried bikes and towed my track car all over europe.

Not the most exciting drive out there, but does exactly what it says on the tin.

Bazzer

I have done a session with Jedi and a day with Dirt School (Rowan Sorrel)

Both were excelent but very different would recomend both.

Bazzer

mtbing should be about riding what nature put in front of you not digging it up or following the herd to trail centres with all there nice idiot proof waymarking.Then again if it makes you happy it leaves the hills free for the rest of us a bit like the Pennine way leaves the rest of Britain free for those who want to maske our own walks up

What utter clap trap, mtbing is what ever you want it to be !!!

Rang hope the other day about this. Its a new hub I am afraid.

Bazzer

Hi

Unless they have changed the size on newer bikes its a 27.2mm diameter post.

Cheers

Bazzer

I bought one the other day, great spec for the money. Odd that they fitted a air totem rather than coil though.

I am waiting for a fat boy spring for the rear as at 13st in my kit its bottoming our quite easily on small drops.

Only ridden it once but apart from the spring it handled really nice.

Bazzer

PS I have been told (after I bought mine) you can go through quidco and get money back from CRC buys.

Trekster I would say have a go with a skills session. You have nothing too lose apart from a couple of quid.

Its possible to overcome fear by starting very small and working up. You can start practicing drops on a curb. Once you have that sorted you can move up with confidence.

I never thought I would get into the whole jumping DH thing and although I am not very good I do enjoy it now. It also improves your trail riding a lot too.

Try going out in the road for an hour and practicing on curbs. If you ride from your door to trails, practice on the way there and back hopping on and off curbs etc.

Bazzer

Uplift is at half capacity at the moments as some delivery truck hit one of the minibuses. So there are only 16 places rather than 32. Me and 4 of my mates got bumped off the list for Saturday :-(

Bazzer

Me and my mate did an afternoon with Jedi last Friday. At no time did I feel I was being forced to do stuff outside of my comfort zone. When we were learning new skills or re learning ways to do stuff, Jedi made sure it was on terain we were happy with. He is good at putting you in situation where you can concentrate on the skill not where you are doing it.

Thats not to say we didnt ride anything interesting on the contary the trails were a lot of fun with drops, jumps and berms etc and some nice loose natural stuff.

The only jump that I was uncomfortable with, was a gap jump that we looked at at the end of the day and he made it quite clear that we had the skills to do it, but it was entirely optional if we were comfortable with it.

I would deffo recomend it, both me and my mate ride all over the place. Maybe not the best riders in the world but we are pretty comfortable on most terain, but we both got a lot out of the session. By the end of the day we were both riding smoother and a lot less sketchy in some sections :-)

Best bit of it though, was we had a right laugh, riding my bike with my mate and Jedi on a warm dry day, it does not get much better :-)

Bazzer

My Westfield Megabusa Turbo is for sale if you want a really really fast car :)

300BHP and 500KG makes for a lot of fun :)

Bazzer

I think the only people who would have had a valid complaint with Trout would be the forum owners and he has sorted that out so thats not a problem.

What we are getting from trout is a light with the latest and greatest LED technology. Because he is a small outfit he can be nimble and bring us this technology this year rather than next season.

I had some lights CNC'd and made last year I and I can tell you the effort that goes into designing and building them is not trivial. With the number of lights he will sell on the Singletrack forum, he will not get rich.

There are a lot of people on here who can't even do a simple job like bleed a set of bike brakes so have no idea how long things take to design, machine, build etc.

I can tell you I would not be prepared to take the risk/hassle that trout is taking for the money he will make.

Bazzer

Hi Luminous

Who supplies those switches ?

Cheers

Bazzer

vd

It was Gary who rides with Phil and that lot, who had the light last night. In fact I think he picked it up from Del at QE last night.

I have ridden with them a couple of times, too.

I must say its a cracking bit of engineering, I really want to take it apart but I don't thing Gary will let me :-)

Bazzer

Its a nice light, I was amazed at how small it is I was expecting it to be MR11 size from the picture buts its tiny. Looks really nicely machined and built.

But not as bright as my Troutlight is going to be :-)

Bazzer

Yep I have a gravity dropper with remote and I love it. Only downsides are its ugly and it weighs more than the Thompson post it replaced.

Bazzer

My mate bought one of their lights yesterday so looked on this website and thought these buttons look good with inbuilt LED

http://www.four4th.co.uk/four4th_control_button.shtml

The light is really nice, tiny CNC'd case ideal for a helmet light.

Bazzer

hi trout

Is the 5g of gunge from that ebay shop enough to build one light ?

Bazzer

Cheers Trout

I get enough grief at the moment if I try and ride behind my wife, with my trailtech hid light :-) She is not going to like this :)

Bazzer

Hi Trout

I sent the deposit last week, via paypal. Am I one of the lucky 50 :-)

Bazzer

Edited to add I am up for a kit