Yeh track is pretty big, the coach there said it’s a “supercross track not a BMX track”. If you’re used to riding at Crewe you’ll be fine. I’d say it’s not as fun as Crewe, but Crewe isn’t indoor in the warm and dry!

I haven’t done a taster session but jumped straight in and did the ‘accelerated accreditation’ then a gates session afterwards.

Think you can only ride the ‘beginner open’ sessions if you’re not accredited, which only have the final two straights open for riding (i.e. don’t get to do the full track).

Suggest booking on an induction to get accredited, it’s very easy. Involves riding round a some cones to assess proper cornering, then sprinting and stopping before a line, then pumping the final couple of straights a few times at increasing speed, then riding the start ramp with brakes on, then riding full track. Takes about 15 mins.

The receptionist said you have to book ahead for sessions now, which is pretty annoying to be honest. Oh and you need full face, long sleeves (or elbow guards), gloves and knee pads. You can borrow it all there for free, all the kit is new (at the moment!) so isn’t too skanky.

Mate has one, he’s very happy with it. Nice & plush, with good angles. He rides it XC and also rode it in the Mega Avalanche, good all rounder. The wheels are not so good – pretty much every other ride he breaks a spoke nipple, but this is because they are alloy so he’s slowly replacing them with stainless steel as they break. Strangely only the front wheel is a problem.

The fox suspension has been fine, I have similar Fox forks & shock on my bike and have had a lot of use and not had any problems…yet. Replaced the seals and done an oil change once (both very easy), and lube the foam rings every couple of months, again very easy. The rear shock has some sort of Spesh specific mount so I don’t know how easy it would be to but a different shock on if you wanted to upgrade / change to a coil etc.

Nice bike, for 2k i’d go for it. Remember you also get the excellent Spesh warranty.

Mike Hall’s blog, detailing some of his preparation for Straphpuffer, etc.

http://velobang.wordpress.com/

I know he went from being a very keen amateur to cutting out the excuses and properly going for it a few years ago, and this blog was meant to detail this. He was always a bit of an animal on the bike anyway, I know he does a lot of road miles and lives in places with lots of hills 🙂

Snoozed and lost! I’ll be sure to put any unwanted discount codes up when / if I get them 😉

Stevious – thanks very much!

In a racing situation, clearly ‘chicken lines’ should carry a time penalty. At a trail centre, no one is timing you, so who cares if the chicken line is quicker or not?

I don’t think ‘chicken lines’ are a bad thing, and will form naturally anyway.

A quick note on the “downhillers make it look easy because they make it easy” – a massive part of downhill racing is finding lines, and if the easier line is faster so be it!

He broke it dirt jumping didn’t he? Neck brace won’t help if your wearing a piss-pot.

Indeed, but it’s interesting that after the incident, all the Atherton’s started wearing neck braces for DH.

I’d say the opposite – the advent of Sam Hill et al has meant that a lot of DH racers now tend to wear a lot less armour than 5/6 years ago – typically just knee pads and a neck brace, whereas it used to be standard to wear full upper body armour. Just goes with fashion really.

I think Dirt mentioned something about a lot of WC racers now starting to go back to wearing more armour, so perhaps the guys you saw were just ahead of the curve.

I got one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KCNC-BB90-MTB-Road-Bike-BB-Bottom-Bracket-89-5-92mm-Blk-/260802640021?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item3cb90c7895#ht_1613wt_972

(I think that’s the right size anyway) and it’s been going for over 6 months with no problems (peak district winter regular riding).

I used to have problems with “self preservation” Dianese knee/shins, they used to move on impact. Needed to get sweaty before they’d ‘stick’ properly. Not very impressed

Changed to Troy Lee Brian Lopes knee/shins – much, much better. They have a lycra knee ‘sock’ which the plastic armour Velcro’s on to. They didn’t slip or move in crashes, was impressed by them.

Now run O’Neil SasTec knee’s (changed to running clips for DH so don’t need shin guards) and been very impressed with them, seem to mould to the shape of the knee and stay put very well, and are comfy.

Don’t think it’s anything to do with Velcro, just the design / cut of the overall piece that’s the deciding factor.

That run on the ridge at the very top of Pila is pretty scary!

La Blanc looks pretty cool.

Nowt wrong with PDS, just after going there for about 7 years on the trot it’s refreshing to go somewhere different.

Not me personally but there was a guy with a green Cove Shocker in our group…

View from the main lift station:

We spent a lot of time on the WC track but also recommend trying some of the red runs – just really good fun, loamy / dusty turns in woods. Had some great “mates races” down them. The whole place comes thoroughly recommended.

Also, we got two days for the price of one offer on lift passes, so we only paid 17 euro for 2 days riding – bargain!

Was there last week, if you’re really bored some headcam of the entire Aosta run:

Trek Buddy (free app) + Mobile Atlas creator works for me. OS maps are open source, but google & MS maps are no longer available on atlas creator, unfortunately.

Maybe not much better than the previous images but Pashley’s registered trademark details:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-os/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=2180782

9 months on R1s, good power, no real problems so far other than the rear brake lever has recently started not returning very smoothly. Going to have take it to bits and have a look. Not a big issue though, just a little annoying. Haven’t bled them yet, just new pads and that’s it!

Is that newlands blake?

It is indeed, a fantastic bit of trail.

A vid from a ride I was on, skip to about 1min 20…

Nope, you need to get 9mm through axle end caps for your hub:

http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/176/hub443/hope-pro-2-front-9mm-thru-bolt-conversion-kit.html

The standard bearings on my Zesty were similarly rubbish. I never bothered doing the whole clean out melarky, just spun the cranks a few times to get the bearings going again and just kept trucking until they got really wobbly. I then replaced them with these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KCNC-BB90-Adaptor-Bottom-Bracket-89-5-92mm-Black-Shiman-/270711803099?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item3f07ae4cdb#ht_2390wt_1199

So far so good, much better than the very poor OEM unit.

You just need a bit of bar and a hammer to get them out, used a makeshift headset press to put the new cups in.

MrSparkle – Member
Any thoughts on this? http://www.furtech.co.uk/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=10

I used something similar in a Polaris a few years back. Basically, avoid if at all possible.

I got through the night but it was pretty damn uncomfortable – very noisy (think a thousand crisp packets being scrunched next to your ears, all night), not breathable and not particularly warm.

Also, once you’ve opened the packet you’ll never get it back to anywhere near the same size, and it was quite fragile material. A bit of a one time only job really.

Yep just got a phone call from my bank a few minutes ago, someone had tried to buy a £30 O2 top up. The transaction was stopped & card cancelled etc.

The bank person said they were aware of a large amount of cards being cloned or something.

The last thing I bought on the card was something from CRC last night…

Neil and I did it for the first time last weekend. We both bottled two bits – a drop followed by a sharp right hander near the top – which is on we were just being wussies, and the ‘second half’ of the rocky chute of doom near the bottom, which just looks plain nails. Again, i’m sure it’s on but need some big cahoonah’s and an hour of swearing…