Only a fool would do that though.

A wise man would ebay them before the stanchions wear and buy some Revs

Oxfam in Cheltenham had a decent deal on coins, 5 Euro for £3.50, and $10 for £6 the other day!

I actually prefer shopping in charidy shops over high street stores. You actually get choice and an element of surprise which has been wholly removed from high street shopping these days.

Had more bargains from car boot sales than charity shops though i reckon!

Cheers guys, never really linked all of the other areas together that you mentioned but it seems to form a nice bunch of places all relatively close to each other

Just looking for options for this year really, Italy is great but done Pila a couple of times and while there are some great trails there its a bit limited really.

I had seen the bike magic link, it was that which jogged my mind about the place

You are having a giraffe.

Call Napier windows in Oldham for a comparison. a bay and the rest of the house was £1700 or £2200 fitted (Bay plus 6 windows on modern house with a finish similar to rehau)

Rock doors or GRP style ones are £750 and a load better finish than UPVC.

Think you have had your trousers down.

Oh and i can get the above for £1300 from a cheaper manufacturer (liversage in Oldham)

Got issue 1 of Mountain Biker (which became mountain biker international) at home

Here is 100,000 litres for £340

Good mark up on the old mucoff!

Here is 100,000 litres for £340

Good mark up on the old mucoff!

Has he got a bathroom mirror you can position so that it looks like there is someone watching you?

Surely hot work refers to structural welding……… not soldering

9 free tubes you say, almost worth a trip!

Did that ride on Sunday and it was like summer condition wise. Slightly greasy in places but ace otherwise, loads better ride than jacobs ladder and chapel gate has been surfaced now so pants

This was the Whinstone descent HERE

If anyone fancies a pootle we will be meeting at the Ladybower Inn at 10am on Sunday!

Some figures for you Oliwb from last years trip to Les Arcs with 4 in a car, averaged just under 40mpg and did the ferry (which is a PITA but cheaper, however get in there early with a pillow and you can get 2 hrs sleep under the stairs)

ferry £85.00
Breakdown £26.00
Insurance £90.00
camping 200.00 €
Fuel £46.00 224.65 €
Tolls 178.00 €

Total £749.21 split 4 ways

If you stay in one place then you just need a week lift pass (c 70 Euro) If you move about its c20euro per day +/-5 euro, but you do get to see more.

There are ways to do it cheap. We have previously bought an LDV minibus and had 10 in it with 13 bikes and all teh camping gear. Best and worst 2 weeks ever. Never spent a penny on camping, got lethered everynight driving somewhere new, did about 3500 miles in two weeks, and we got thrown out of Les Gets by the robocops as we were making the place look scruffy it transpires. However lake Montriond offers washing facilities and a better view so not a vast loss.

I can say that 2 days were wasted in the PDS during the two week trip. The first day everyone was too smashed to ride. The second was like a shock to the system, people everywhere and featureless trails.

Go once, do it you will get the buzz, but then start planning a road trip for the following year once you get the buzz!

It never rains but it pours bud, but in the end all things come good! Maybe the bad news will be countered with some good, often happens strangely! Stay positive!

Hora, £70-80 is expensive! Have a shop around and play them off against each other. £40 should do it.

Try Alp Transfer, Ski Transfer and drop a line to some of the organised holiday places, they may well have space in a van going at the same time

Actually that depends upon where you are going, kind of presumed that it would be the PDS.

4 may go in a Mondeo estate, the bikes will be dismantled, take them out of the bags and stuff in, they take up a lot less space with peggles off

Oh, and she’s rom Yorkshire, so it’ll take some convincing to get her to live in Lancashire

Solves that one too! Ok it is oldham, lancashire postcode but they are quite proud of their white rose

Alright, to turn it on it’s head a bit, if I wanted somewhere that’s not a god-awful commute into Manchester and is still vaguely on the edge of rurality, here would I go?

Saddleworth (but keep it quiet please). Bit of a pain to drive but you can get the train from greenfield into town in about 20 mins, close to M62, new cafes where folk seem to enjoy sitting outside of in subzero temps, good food, normal folk and annoying snobs, sociable riding group head out from greenfield, and folk dont really give a toss if you ride on wednesday afternoon bridleways.

Everyone should know a scruffy bloke covered in oil with a small garage in his back garden and a queue of taxis outside – who only takes cash!

Its the way forward!

If you can get in Marthrown of Mabie then stay there, and try get the roundhouse. Its brilliant, we have been a few times. They have a Neolithic style roundhouse with fire in the centre which sleeps 16 and it adds a really good element to your stay (or they have bunkhouse style accom) – They do an amazing breakfast too.

Oh and they have an outdoor wood heated hot tub to seal the deal (plus sauna and a plunge bucket fed from a local spring – chilly)

However because of this it does get booked fast

I used to run that combo, ignitor on front and Adv on rear in 2.1.

its a good combo for trail centres but out of depth on natural terrain with rocks.

I got some 2.4 advantages and they are amazing but drag, gone down to 2.25 on rear and love it.

After running a bigger volume i have never used the 2.1’s since as they were hard work. If you want some cheap i should have quite a lot sat in the loft doing nothing, or if anyone wants 2.1’s for something bigger let me know

We have been there and have come out of the other side with a second gorgeous little girl, dont give up hope for one second.

In our case someone drove across the path of the wife and caused an accident which then seemingly caused a bleed which led us to think that is it. After numerous harrowing visits to the hospital for scans and more bleeds it transpired that the little one was literally hanging on by a thread, the sac was literally just attached to the wall.

We had months of worry following and it continued to a point where she was undersize so we thought we were going to have to have her by c-section very early. Again, scans week in week out followed but by staying positive(i feel) and eating healthily she hung un there until the expected date and came out very healthy.

Its an awful time it really is. However we came to the understanding that if it was not meant to be then that was the case. We both agreed that nature should take its cause and would have aborted if it looked like there was going to be issues due to what had happened (not everyones view and not an easy one but one we both agree is right and only fair on the unborn).

The early days are fraught with problems and its when your wifes body decides if its a keeper or not. Try look at it as nature just doing its thing if the worst comes to the worst. On a plus side, you are in a position where you can get to this stage, a lot simply can’t. Keep positive both of you!

Sounds like a winner! Wasnt too sure as its been thawing a good bit in Saddleworth and cut gate is great when frozen but a nightmare at the rest of the time

Them cheapo ones are fine, just do as above so the cold doesnt get it.

£10, drill, job done!

but when I looked into it it didn’t really seem viable in summer. This was a couple of years ago though.

We looked at it last summer and i seem to remember the same, its not actually straightforward at all and damn expensive. Im not certain but there may be more than one change, shame really as its ideally situated and right nest to the fenicular

does everyone not have handfulls of these in their tool box? They are the same size as old canti bolts and length wise, you just use washers non?

id say you were lucky, god awful forks!

Haha, radial rear wheel on the jump bike too!

On a serious note, I think the bikes come from Poland.

I suppose he could have moved over here with them.

He should get onto Orange, there is more R&D in his bikes than has ever gone into an Orange!

There is some serious bodging go on but i still dont think they are his. Surely if you had made such contraptions, and he obviously has some skill (just not sure what in) to do it and some knowledge of bikes so would surely have something else to say about them.

I dont get it, his house looks too normal for someone who can create something like that.

Im telling you, these have all came out of someones garage on the continent, certain of it

Truly hideous inventions, but what has been bothering me is that they clearly arent his and he has no idea what he is sellin.

So where are they from? Well in my experience the only people who ride things like that are crazy frogs or Germans so whats he doing with them. They are clearly nicked from somewhere!

Does anyone contribute to a french or german forum as it would be nice to have them linked to on there to see if anyone recognises them. Bikes like this must gain local noteriety. They aint british for sure, you can tell by the stickers. They aint what comes free on MBUK or a british MX mag.

He could be shipping stolen bikes out of Portsmouth and has taken these as reverse payment possibly.

Something not right and it would be interesting to find out where thay came from and who the seller is!

Alternatively Hora could buy them all, im sure everyone would have a whip round to see him do Fort Bill on each of them! Then they could go on display with the Peados bikes at Brants place

Or have a look on teh Rip n Roll website, they make replacement clear lenses, normally a few £ each, no point spending more

As first trips go, most people go to the Portes du Soleil and you WILL have fun, however after a few years on teh trot you will start to tire of the weather (50/50 chance of sun/heavy prolonged rain). When its nice its lovely, when it isnt it ruins your holiday. That coupled with teh fact the trails are so well rode they have no features left other than braking bumps and the fact you have to queue for lifts grows tiring.

After repeatedly putting up with this for years you will eventually man up and go out into the deep wild alps and find what you have been missing.

Endless untouched singletrack, no queues, glorious weather (the further south you head) and Italians

Seriously think what you want. The PDS is great fun for a first time but at the same time its rubbish. If you are 17 then you will love it, if you are 37 then seriously dont bother.

Some other places to think about:

Les Arcs (and Sainte Foy)
Chamonix Valley
Alpe Duez and Les Deux Alpes
Pila and La Thuile
Vars, Montgenevre etc in the deep south
And Beaufortain which is mostly undiscovered but really nice

If you want any tips on road tripping give me a shout

Oh and take a look here if you are struggling to find what your options are – Yes there really are that many places other than teh PDS to ride in

I think once you are a marked target they will always have their eye on you unfortunately and hence my most favoured method “is out of sight out of mind!”. So dont carry bikes on a rack, roof etc but in the car instead.

Id worry about the wife not feeling safe once it had happened and all of the consequences which come with that.

thanks guys, think somebody up there is telling me to give up riding.

Or give up keeping bikes in the shed, houses are for bikes, sheds are for spades and lawnmowers

Christ, what happened to directing the Mtn rescue guys by grid reference, or can no one do that any more?

Jesus there has been some shite inventions around in bike world this week

A lock in a seatpost (the seatpost can be removed with an allen key)
Doh!

And a helmet which can fold up (but actually just collapses and stays pretty much exactly the same size
Grrrr![/url]

Who is sponsoring all of these bleeding pipe dreams?

Its as if we are going back in time, like reading the small chinese ads in the back of MTB International in the mid 90’s and thinking “oh boy”

Check teh little adjuster screw that pulls the top jockey away from the casette.

Does the mech move freely without a cable/chain?

Maybe try lubing the shifter

Cheers Chris.

I was actually thinking of this post and talking about it when in Les Arcs last year. We were looking down on the GR5 which ran along the side of Mont Blanc de Peisy.

I may be in touch if thats ok once its decided what the plan is and once i have read through your post again

Use a USE shim for anything bigger! Wont scratch as bad that way neither!

One of them adjustable pipe cutters done slowly, just keep tightening and spinning it. You get a lovely clean finish.

And as for the star fangled nut, try cutting a bit of broom shank off and belt it in with that