Dalby does have good riding away from the trail centre stuff. There was riding there long before they built it!

From Saltaire i’d prObably ride towards leeds on cannal. through tong park up golf course bridleway to hawksworth coming back through esholt woods mtb trails (via bridleway turning off coach road. Figure of 8 so Back up through tong park through equestrian centre onto baildon moor. Up to trig and down from there through shipley glen. Baildon moor has lots of tracks some of which are good fun if you want to put in some extra bits. Scout hut trail is fun although accessed by crossing golf course

I’d go for new direct mount shimano. XTm8100

Absolute black already do aftermarket oval rings so chainring availability unlikely an issue.

Shimano cranks are always a safe bet for hard riding I found.

Unbounded a set of rf next so put the warranty replacements on my carbon xc race hardtail. No more enduro-ing on those or any other plastic cranks!

Skinnier tyres usually give more grip in sloppy mud. The wider you go the more they skate around. So I would take the thinner option. Does mean grip is reduced on wet roots and rocks a bit though

I run a well worn magic mary out back in the winter. It is a bit draggy though.

Sounds to me like you need a 2nd set of wheels! One grippy, one whizzy

The only thing about them is they aren’t quite the most progressive geo out there. They’re better than a lot of the more conservative bikes but worth trying back to back vs a pole or Nicolai Geometron. There is a difference.

Bird definitely a bargain compared with those other brands though!

I went for a pole Evolink frame over a bird but cost wasn’t my number one consideration

I’ve got a Pole Evolink which I’m running external. Has holes in the frame for internal as well which I guess may be an eye sore to some. I plugged them with the rubber bits provided and it doesn’t bother me. Not the most trouble free external routing mind! Couple of extra zipties were needed to hold away from the shock.

Also Pole Stamina and Nicolai. Both super expensive though!

Hmmmm MX tracks though.

Maybe if you have an ebike it’d be a good shout over a trail centre?

I mean just think about how many laps you could get into an hour! Everyone on the internet would be so impressed when you tell them how many you’ve done.

Don’t worry about the MX bikes buzzing you I – its live and let live right?

+1 for worx hydroshot. Can wash bike completely in under 10 mins (using soapy brush alongside it). I also give shoes and clothes a quick rinse and chuck them in a plastic tub

Turn up home with clean bike and clothes that don’t have big chunks of clart on so can just be slung straight in the washer

One of these (assuming you have hollow crank axle) completes the set up to make it all very easy!:

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.XLC-Hollow-Axle-Display-Stand_127027.htm

I went up dollywagon recently. Pretty tough going up the steps! Went all the way over the top and then down sticks / seldom.

The top has a few fun bits that you miss if you take Kepple cove – so in my opinion worth the slightly harder climb – still the same amount of height gain you have to do give or take – plus you reach the summit without having to turn back on yourself.

I run approx 20 PSI out back and lose a bit between rides – I always check and pump up my tyres a bit every mtb ride (so usually twice a week)

1 PSI a day is probably a bit more than I’ve experienced but if you’re running higher pressure I’d expect you to lose more so maybe it could be that?

I think they drop pressure a wee bit faster than tubes but I always used to air up tyres between rides with those as well so it doesn’t bother me particularly.

I did have a mavic non tubeless rim set up ghetto tubeless in the past which did seem to lose pressure quite fast but still use-able so it could just be the tyre rim combo you have? 1 PSI a day doesn’t seem like the end of the world anyway

Co2 in my experience is fine. I rotate the wheel to have the valve near the top so the sealant will be pooling below when I use them – not sure if that makes a difference as the whole tyre does seem to go a bit cold! The valve area always seems coldest though.

To be clear: I don’t hate ebikes, or ebikers – I own a commuter one and think its great.

I’ve just experienced aggro behaviour on multiple occasions at trail centres and think those kind of conflicts will increase as the market grows – people on normal mtb’s sometimes do this stuff as well but actually it doesn’t happen that often because they aren’t doing loads of laps and having to overtake pretty much every person on the trail on the way round.

Surely specific ebike climbs would be a win for both groups? It would definitely help at trail centres, not so sure what the solution is to natural trails, again no real problem with the actual people or bikes being there. More that I’ve been riding long enough to know the inevitable reaction of certain other trail user groups to big increases in traffic. Previously only those that could be bothered to ride there would be present, which was quite a good factor in limiting the impact!

OP definitely taking a pretty aggro stance though!

replying to SteveXTC there

no its not really like that. ebikes will encourage more riders that previously couldn’t be bothered plus those who have moved onto ebikes now covering more miles more frequently and going places they wouldn’t have before. More miles equals more impact and more conflict with other people using the countryside. That will result in more restrictions arriving much sooner than they otherwise might have.

a lot of those things have been disruptive and then required management / legislation though.
more ebikes will probably mean more management and legislation for off road cycling – hopefully just for the ebikes but the pessimist in me thinks all MTB will get hit

However on my last visit to Llandegla it is pretty clear they need e-bike lanes! The first climb is ridiculous, countless e-bikers muscling by without so much of a ‘scuse me’

Is that the first climb that’s 427 meters wide?

Ebike is the only way to make Degla even remotely fun

I’ve had the same issue at Llandegla – in fact was berated once for riding 2 abreast with the missus up that climb by some angry ebike dude. No “excuse me please” just approaching really fast from behind, some shouting once really close and then barging past.

I’ve had a few annoying incidents with ebike guys and I don’t think its cricket to shout riders out of your way on singletrack when you’re on an ebike. So I’d be in favour of separate ebike climbs – maybe send them up a steep fireroad so they can get their 10 laps in. Its not a huge issue yet as there aren’t loads of ebikes – but the numbers are growing!

Trail center is definitely the best place for them though. In the future there will be an inevitable increase in resistance to mtb access on natural trails as a result of ebikes

It really depends where you are staying – any touristy areas are a bit crap for it. Lakes, Cornwall, West coast of Scotland etc – in these areas the locals get pissed off and fair enough so its better to find a campsite – usually possible to find a nice cheap one – or a farm that does camping quite easily with a bit of google.

A lot of less popular areas are still fine, lots of the less touristy populated bits of scotland / wales / north east etc. Would only usually stay one evening mind.

Anywhere on the med coast like Marseilles forget it – go to a decent campsite with a fence around it!

There are some amazing aires set up specially for motorhomes / campers in France that are free! ideally you want some kind of toilet solution in your van though.

In my opinion campsite owners are missing a trick by not catering to late arrival / early out people. Certainly in the lakes I’ve had to search for overnight parking spots for ages and would happily have paid a few quid but all campsites shut! Obviously its their business but its a bit rich when they then get peeved about someone doing a free camp somewhere discrete!

Its probably not as good as it used to be and plenty of places doing annoying height barriers now but personally I still like having a camper van (mine is mid sized). If you are going to a trail centre / race / riding location / beach its nice to have all your stuff with you – somewhere comfy to have a cup of tea, cook food etc. No packing unpacking as you travel between campsites when touring as well.

Cheers – sounds like its not a big deal then.

How long have you add yours jonf66?

The bearing sets are the other thing that looks like a potential issue – have you had to change yours yet?

Ok thanks chaps. Sorry I need a large so can’t take you up on the medium.

@bedmaker – how come you are getting rid out of interest? Anything else to watch out for with the evolinks?

Bump – one more try. No Evolink owners on here?

How about remote controlled tyre pressure?

or

Remote controlled chainstay length?

or

Remote controlled reach adjust?

Another option: Sadddleworth Valley (Stalybridge, Mossley, Greendfield) None of these have particularly nice town centres but there are nice areas of housing fairly close to train stations. Doorstep Riding / hiking is ace. Several supermarkets in the area. Quite a few schools and a swimming pool!

I have lived in Mossley, Stalybridge, Hayfield and Broadbottom. All have great riding – only the commute from hayfield was painful.

Glossop train is electric. I currently live in Broadbottom on that line. Train is busy in the morning but not horrendous – wife gets train in every day.

I now work in Leeds and usually get train there from Stalybridge(ride or drive to Staly) – its transpennine train and only occasionally disrupted. It runs through to manc and also some of their services now stop in Mossley or Greenfield.

I’ve considered Todd / Heb – but if there is a problem with trains or you need to drive for some other reason it looks like a traffic ball-ache.

My wife is veggie – I am not but often end up eating veggie and vegan stuff as a result.

quorn butchers choice sausages are good but do have a smidge of egg white in them – depends how much of a purist you want to be! I’d say if you can get over using a fiver you can get over that…

Linda mac suasages also quite nice and they are vegan – nothing like real sausages – they’re crispy! Go good with cooked mushroom and tomato in a bap as a veggie brekko sandwich.

Veggie haggis can be pretty good.

Veggie black pudding can be good.

I think any attempt to replicate non processed meat like bacon is usually crap. The quorn chicken shizzle and fillets are just about ok if cooked into something like a curry or mexican fajita filling.

Vegan cheese is awful!!! I’ve tried lots.

To be honest I could probably manage without much meat but not eating fish / seafood is unbearable and I doubt there is anyway to make up for that via vegan stuff. Also vegan ways of getting Omega 3 are a bit dubious – last time I read something on it the advice was to pop algae pills as all the flax seed / chia stuff doesn’t actually get absorbed properly. I suspect that a lot of meat eaters are also shit at getting omega 3 into their diets though…

your current flat pedal shoes (unless they’re 510 impacts!) plus some thick sealskinz socks is surely a no brainer?

seal skin knee highs are great for minging weather

To set the record straight: OneUp actually came good on the customer service side and I was able to get a refund on the above purchase so good on you OneUp – will defo buy from you again (just not this product!). They also responded v.quickly initially vs any other supplier in the bike industry.

Also for what its worth the oneup lever was super smooth until it broke. The wolf tooth one is not as smooth but seems to be made of sterner stuff. The sacrificial part that breaks is also v easy to carry and looks easy to fit incase you do stove the lever into something.

bought a oneup alongside the post and took 2x rides to break it. Not even in a crash just pushing to activate the post whilst riding down a rocky descent was enough to snap it.

Its made of plastic and this includes quite a thin bit that connects it to whatever bar mount you’re using. that’s what failed on mine. I suspect they will have this happen on a lot of them!

Also when I warrantied it I asked for store credit as I thought it was too fragile – they ignored this completely (despite me asking twice) and have just sent another one out to me so I guess that’s that. Can’t really see the logic in this for customer service but never mind.

I’ve already ordered a wolf tooth one and will be using it instead – hopefully a bit more hardy!

So in summary – oneup lever is too fragile and their customer service wasn’t great! The seatpost I ordered does seem really good though so far and the lever worked nicely until it broke.

Brand new OneUp lever for sale – Shimano ispec 2 version if anyone is keen to buy it having read my review! :)

I’ve always driven as it’s great to have your own car out there. If you have enough drivers you can drive in shifts and everyone has had a snooze by the time you get there. You can easily travel between venues then and no hire car costs.

Accomodation: Free wherever possible! You can usually get away with pop up tents in lift station car parks if you turn up late enough and pack away early.  Hammock is a good backup if no other options. If you want to stay a few days there is loads of campsites.

I reckon Aosta valley (Pila / La Thuile) is the best uplifted unless you are taking full DH rigs in which case go places that have been recent WC or IXS DH venues. Verbier is awesome. Lac Blanc is a good place to hit on the way out to break up the drive.

pricing is a bit wild for the UK. That bike is $4999 in the states – so about £3.5k in GBP. The GX version is $3999.

I previously bought a brand new smuggler in 2016 and remember the pricing was quite close to the US.

BAsically if you buy a transition in the UK at the moment its a total rip off!

Shimano 10 spd XT (or XTR) – most reliable shifting I’ve ever used. Very resilient to skipping even with a drive train full of gritty peak district mud honking up steep climbs out the saddle. Shimano 11 speed haven’t tried it yet but SRAM 11 spd GX is lacking in this resilience – also I snapped a tooth off the cassette – extra range is nice though. Don’t care so much about the ‘feel’ of the shift – more that the thing actually changes gear successfully and then stays in it!

I would like it if the designers from both companies focused on getting the reliability back with the newer large 1x ranges (and at a decent pricepoint!) rather than adding more and more speeds. I think 10 speed is actually plenty across 10 to 42t range. Don’t really think more than 10 to 42t is something I really need in terms of Range.

SRAM Guide brakes – in my experinece they’re not great. Wasn’t really happy with the vague feel of them, poor pad life, no pads available that work well in the wet. Then they did the thing where they sieze on in the warm weather. Glad I wasn’t too far from home when that happened! Not worht the cost of fixing them so in the bin they went. Replaced with the latest SLX’s which have been great so far. Overall had good 2 to 3 years of heavy use out of every set of Shimano brakes I’ve owned – couple of sets I’ve had to bleed in that time frame but they worked great again after that. Sent back one set of older style SLX’s that didn’t work – replaced under warranty and the replacments worked great.

Cranks – Shimano – changing to that weird BCD was stupid. Will never buy a set of shimano cranks with that BCD. Its dumb! I use RaceFace cranks at the moment and old style shimano on another bike. both fine!

for a short drive I use a seat cover which can be whipped off and put in the wash with riding kit after arriving home. Obvs you have to brush the worst of the schmoo off with gloves still on to avoid mud crumbs on the carpet.

Friend of mine has a big poncho thingy that he chucks on which also seems a good idea…

I guess it depends on when you use them. I find it very odd that people sit in huge traffic jams to get into cities and then ripped off for parking every single day. They seem to absolutely love it though.

I can do either an hour 30 of traffic misery or 40 mins on the fast train into Leeds. If there’s a delay it’s not so bad I can do emails on my iPad or sometimes even watch a film! Meanwhile the numpties crawl along the m62 wasting hours of their time.

Plus one on it being ace. My advice would be to take a dropper post if you have one. Lots of small ups and downs with some of the downs having pretty tricky roots to navigate.

Also it’s a super fan challenge in the wet so definitely still do it if raining. Drop some psi’s from your front tyre of it is.

There is a shower still there I think? You need coins to pay for it from memory. 50p piece I think.

Haven’t been for a couple of years but reading this thread reminded me how good it is. Need to revisit!

The reason he has managed it this year has been down Absalon and Kulhavy being way off the pace. I would expect both of them to usually snipe at least a round off him and make the other rounds a bit more competetive and interesting.

I think maybe in the next few years we’ll see some good competition. Carod (23), Forster (24), Cooper (23) and Sarrou (25) should all be able to get quite a bit faster. Most of the rest of the regular top ten riders are all similar age or older than Nino. i.e they’ve hit their XC racing peak.

That Van der Poel dude is just having a flutter – I reckon he’ll go back to CX.

I enjoyed the last lap of that race – Absalon absolutely destroying that last climb – pretty impressive!

I went with the foil bubble wrap stuff you can get from wickes / B and Q
Doesn’t take up as much space inside the van. some people say its not great but our van is plenty warm – if insulated any more it’d be a nightmare to sleep in during the summer!

For the walls and ceiling I used cheapo indoor cladding.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Softwood-Timber-Traditional-Cladding-8x94x1800mm/p/9000033782

Because you fit it piece by piece its a bit easier than repeateldy re-shaping a big peice of ply – you get all the main areas done which is just a case of meaure and cut to the right lengths. Next take a dremel in the van with you to do the edge pieces and just trim / sand down to fit.

I fastened mine direct to the metal roof beams by drilling holes and then using fur tree clips. (that’s how minibuses etc typically have their interior linings fitted so don’t expect it to cause any problems)
Backed the cladding with foam mounting tape to prevent rattling. I’ve seen others fasten in wooden frames to the side of the roof beams with self taps and then fasten cladding to that – you get less headroom with that approach though!

they were under the safety car they were not racing

Grey area as it was coming up to restart. I’d argue that there is a competetive element to that.

Yeh I’d agree he should just admit he’s in the wrong – however I think the punishment for what he actually did is enough.

Driving into the back of LH was a racing incident and then the bit pulling alongside him wasn’t dangerous really – just a bit of a weird and very unsportsman-like behaviour. Really wasn’t impressed with that!

Having said that – if it wasn’t for Vettel being a ridiculously competetive nutter we’d have another massive snorefest season where the other ridiculously competetive nutter Lewis hamilton just drives off at the start of every race and then wins all the time. Boring!

Nice guys usually finish last (well not consistently at the front) in F1 – it needs self obbsessed, tantrum throwing nutjobs to make it interesting. At the moment we have are lucky to have three great candidates to make it entertaining – Max V, LH and SV.

Anyway to summarise – what I’m trying to say is that Vettel is a ****. Long live the **** and put them all into F1 cos they make the racing exciting!
(and don’t punish Vettel to the point where he’s out of contention for the title – cos its more exciting when there are more potential champs)

I always find the pro-nuclear argument a bit of a weird one and it surprises me that so many support it. Only 9 countries globally have nukes so i guess these guys who are shitting their pants about not having a deterrent are pretty limited on holiday destinations!

I see more risk in living in a country that has a deterrent. It paints a massive target on your back.

193 people in a room. 9 have guns but they aren’t all mates. A couple are a bit unhinged but they hate the others with the guns the most. It kicks off between the dudes with guns. Who dies first?
I’d expect everyone with a gun to get shot pretty quickly with minimal casualties amongst everyone else.

I think Corbyn showed great restraint in not telling that audience member that he’s an idiot. He knows that he has to placate the tin foil hat uk majority to an extent to stand any chance of getting a decent labour presence in commons.

If you want just a straight who is the best driver contest you’re watching the wrong sport! The car and team have always made a massive difference and always will.

I used to when I did it everyday.

I only do 2 days a week on the bike now and enjoy it much more.

The other days I do the following:
– Work from home x1
-public transport x1
– go in by car x1 and take in all the stuff I’ll need for the week (changes of clothes, food etc)

Taking stuff in is great cos then you can bell off taking panniers and bags full of stuff and it feels like a proper bike ride insted of a commute.

I reckon if you did tues and thurs but had weds as a rest day you might find it much better. Certainly rest is important if you want to see fitness improvements.

Teamhurtmore you are presenting a combination of your interpretation of the situation and your opinion as fact. Its a pragmatic and sensible assesment but not clear 1+1=2 type fact.

Molgrips argument is not really incorrect, technically yes there is a difference between membership and access. Still though the scenario vote leave presented was tariff free trade with the eu and an end to freedom of movement in tandem, doesn’t look like that will be achievable so therefore any mandate TM claims to have been given is not a definite.

Its perfectly possible to accept the mathematical result of the referendum but question the mandate that the govt claims it has. They’re different things.

Its also possible to ‘get on with things’ and have a good remoan at the same time. Thats what i’m doing. Software industry recruiter by day, remoaner by night (well just when i’ve got a few minutes to sign a petition, stir the pot in comments sections and forums, support the lib dems etc. actually but hopefully you get my point)

Together with Cameron he did a terrible job in the so called “renegotiation”

In my view that deal offered significant improvement over what was already quite an advantageous agreement for the UK. Especially on the monetary side of things. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36456277

I think a ‘terrible job’ is inaccurate.

No alternative solution proposed by Captain Hindsight Farage though. Yes some countries could have done more to help out. The leader he has focused his attention on is the one who was most willing to be compassionate. It was a difficult decision and I could empathize with a call either way.

@ Jambalaya – That wasn’t directed towards the grieving families of the victims, interesting that you thought it was though. I would of thought it fairly obviously wasn’t….unless you are just points scoring and don’t really care about them, but you wouldn’t do that would you?