I miss the chippys back in Liverpool where I grew up. Menu’s like the bayeux tapestry. Hollands pies. Those were the days….

I thought it was the beginning of June not the end! I’ll stick to the same goal though. Anything else would be a bonus.

Just weighed in. Missed my goal weight by 2lb but still pretty happy to have dropped from 194lb to 183lb since the start. Feeling good on it which is the main thing. I think I would’ve made it but for the weeks holiday in Feb where I put on 4lb.

8lb to go for my goal weight. 1lb a week should be doable but we’ll see!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Orbea Occam TR

Looks a bit like the lad is trying to sight ahead but he’s having to tip his head back to see past the visor? Can you take the visor off? Just a thought.

Back on Zwift tonight after a couple of weeks off with a broken rear wheel on my bike. Was aiming for the EVR race but missed it sorting the kids so jumped on the Kiss first base in Cat D. Got into a nice group who stayed together for most of the race and ended finishing 3rd. Good way to get back on it.

Fitting a new chain, I counted the links on the old chain to size up but forgot that this had been connected with a quick link and the new chain would be connected with the connecting pin. Split the new chain the length of the quick link too short. Didn’t realise until I nearly ripped the mech off in the stand testing the shifting and going into big-big (probably could’ve done with an extra couple of links really). Could’ve left it on but wouldn’t trust myself to never accidentally shift to that gear, so ended up going to Halfords to buy another new chain. At least it was only 10 speed, not 11.

Just to follow up, I ordered the Prime competition wheel set and as above, managed to get 20% off bringing them down to about £165. Bargain.

Paired them with some new 25c Schwalbe Pro Ones. Went up tubeless with a track pump and held air well overnight. Had my first ride on them today and really impressed. Noticeably lighter and running lower pressures and a slightly wider tyre, they also felt smoother and more comfortable.

No problems with mine so far. Had to tweak the barrel adjuster to index them after a few rides but only what you’d expect from new cables.

What about this if it fits (5’8 – 5’11 ish)

https://www.cyclesurgery.com/p/orbea-avant-m30-disc-2016-Q2210425.108.html

Carbon, 105, discs but can also take calipers. Looks good for £1200

@dantsw13 – Amazing, well done!

I’ve stayed the same, partly as my road bike has been out of action for the last 2 weeks with a cracked rim so no Zwift or road rides and I haven’t done enough food wise to counter that. New wheels being delivered this morning but need to lose 4lb in a week to meet my March goal now so unlikely to make it. If I can get a couple of pound off I won’t be too disappointed.

For anyone who’s been to see Jedi, how do those drops compare to the gradually increasing sized drops that Tony has?

I’d have the Boardman.

The Boardman HA is actually 67.5 but has been published as being 68.5 on the Boardman site. Can’t believe it’s never been corrected as it was picked up in all of the magazine reviews as being listed wrong.

I live on one. It’s quite badly potholed but in the spring we all chip in £15 per household and have a couple of days repairing the worst of it with hardcore and cement. One of the blokes is a builder and organises it all. It’s great actually. We set a date and the fit and able blokes do the graft and the wives sort the beers/teas etc. It’s all very neighbourly and ends up a bit like a street party.

I also like the fact that the road is a bit rough as it doesn’t get used as a rat run and cars drive forcibly slowly. No issues with parking as it’s a quiet area.

Polaris have some decent kids stuff

https://www.polaris-bikewear.co.uk/category-s/103.htm

I demoed one and whilst I definitely wouldn’t describe it as dull, I can sort of identify with the comment regarding the stability/weight. I tried the ML size and it was a good bit longer than anything else I demoed and it did lack a certain liveliness for me. In hindsight I’ve wondered if a M would’ve been better. I imagine an aggressive rider would get the best from it, but in ML size it wasn’t quite right for me. I saw on Bird’s Facebook page that one of their riders was racing DH on one and that doesn’t surprise me.

From Slop>Dry

Front: Shorty>HR2>DHR2
Rear: DHR2>Ardent

The trails here in Kent are already good to firm to use the racing parlance. Been out for three rides this week and the bike has gone through the house and straight in the garage each time without a scolding from the wife = spring

Had a few more rides now on my local trails. The bike just gets better. I was a bit concerned it might be overkill for the woods but those fears are well and truly unfounded. It’s quick handling, accelerates and carrries speed and is just a blast. I’ve had numerous strava PRs and a couple of top 10s already, and this is March! The trails are running very well but it’s not summer dry so that’s been a real pleasant surprise.

The DHR2 has been an improvement but if this warm dry spell continues here I might’ve jumped the gun on that. I also swapped a spacer out from under the stem to lower the bar a bit which seems better. Still need a dropper. Hoping to get that sorted soon.

Drier than expected
New bike awesome
Fell off once

Great thanks. The primes look ideal. No issue with label snobbery. These are going on a CRC own brand Vitus!

Cheers for that. The Campag Vento looks a decent shout. About 200g heavier than the Cosines but might be better quality and noticed that CRC have them so I could use BC discount to get them a bit cheaper.

Saw it was 2-0 at half time and switched it on. Insane match!

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

I got mine from Cycle Surgery. They’ve only got Small left now.

Sorted. The Allen key I originally poked in seems to be slightly rounded hence it didn’t engage properly (now binned!). Tried with my Topeak Hexus and it came off fine. Rear DHR2 just went up tubeless really easily too.

Front wheel went up tubeless really easily. Tube out, sealant and superstar valve in and up first time with track pump.

Cheers! Thought it probably was, and I did stick one in but it didn’t seem to engage properly and didn’t want to force it in case it was wrong.

Just went to swap the Ardent for a DHR2. First problem – how do you remove the rear wheel? There’s no lever on the thru axle? I’m sure I’m being thick but not seen this before as my last bike was simple QR.

Pharmacist in the NHS. Trained and started my career in the acute hospital sector. Did a spell at a private hospital and then moved into a community trust. Current role is providing a medicines information service which is basically telephone or email support for any staff (doctors, nurses, dieticians, physios, health visitors etc) with medication enquiries. Also have responsibility for supporting education and training. I write and deliver training sessions and elearning on various medication topics. Also organise and support other staff with training such as non-medical prescribing. Lastly, I work one evening a fortnight at NHS 111 answering medication advice calls from the public.

On the whole I enjoy it but the workload is getting increasingly difficult to manage.

Had a gmail account since the beta ‘invite only’ years so have name.surname@gmail.com which is nice on the whole.

The disadvantage is that it’s fairly common for me to get other people’s random emails having the ‘index’ account for my name. For example there’s an Aussie with the same name as me. His email is the same as mine but with ‘xyz’ added at the end but people emailing him seem to miss that bit and it comes to me. Got a right shirty one from a disgrunatled ex of his once which I ignored. Then got a even worse one so told her she had the wrong address and got an embarrassed apology!

Also got a namesake in Texas who seems to think my address is his. He’s always applying for loans and seems to be trawling car dealerships and registering his interest in a new car, which also come to me.

I was not looking forward to this weigh in after a week away on holiday over half term which consisted of little exercise and lots of beer and meat and snacks. Not surprised to see I’d put weight on today. Put 4lb back on of the 9lb I’d lost! Back on it!

Not quite but I’m a Pharmacist for an NHS community trust and we’re potential first responders for major incidents when we’re on call. I’ve done some training including volunteering for a big exercise at the Dover port simulating a terror attack explosion on a ferry. It was in the middle of the night in November and was very realistic. We had no briefing until we got there and then just had to go with it as you would. It was multi agency, helicopters involved, the lot. My role was medication supply for the ‘walking wounded’ or ‘well but missing regular meds’ survivors at the temporary rest centre. My station was a corner of a costa coffee in the service area! It was fascinating and great to be a part of. Some good learning points came out of it so you could improve things. I was quite dreading it when I got asked to go but I really enjoyed it.

I’ve demoed both in my recent search for a new trial bike. I really liked both of them and there wasn’t a lot to choose between them to be honest.

I rode the M in the Whyte and the ML in the bird at 5′ 9″. In hindslight I’d like to have tried the bird in M as well as ML. The ML is very long and this made the bike very stable and confidence inspiring but I did find it lacking a bit in the handling and I struggled a bit to unweight it so it lost some liveliness. That’s why I wonder if the M would’ve been better for me. I suspect if you’re an aggressive rider who throws the bike about then this very long geometry would work better, but I wanted the bike to encourage input rather than demand it if that makes sense? There was a lot I did like about the bike though. It looked great, the team were very friendly and helpful. The ability to spec it to your preferences was a big plus for me.

The Whyte felt heavier to lift but actually when riding it this wasn’t too noticeable. It does ride lighter than expected based on just the numbers. I would say the Bird climbed better (this is where the stability and weight was noticeable and positive) but I felt the Whyte maybe handled better and felt more fun and engaging downhill.

My suspicion is, if I’d tried the bird in M rather than ML, it would’ve regained some of the liveliness and manoeuvrability I felt was missing in the ML (and that I found in the Orbea Occam I ended up with). It’s difficult though as they were relatively short demos with weeks between them. When they’re both such good bikes you’re really just splitting hairs and going on perceptions and gut feelings to separate them and those will obviously be very personal.

If you can find the right size Bird for you and your riding style, my feeling is that you’ll be able to spec it better (lighter) than the equivalent Whyte and it would probably be my choice of the two but there really isn’t a lot in it. As mentioned, someone else looking for something slightly different might just as easily feel the opposite! They’re that close.

I did a short 10 mile ride on Saturday to play with lever position, shock settings etc and when I got on for my ride this morning my arse was killing. Swapped the saddle there and then, couldn’t have carried on!

There are some nice touches. It’s a lovely looking bike.

It’s Orbea Occam weekend!

I picked up my Occam AM M30 on Friday and had my first rides on it over the weekend in fantastic conditions for February.

TL:DR is the bike is fantastic and well worth considering if you’re looking for a new trail bike.

I’ve been looking at getting a new bike to replace my 5 year old Vitus which is a 120/100 FS. It’s been a great bike but it’s showing its age and needs money spending on it that I decided I’d rather put towards a replacement so started to draw up a short list and get some demos in over winter. Ended up demoing the Boardman FS Pro, Bird Aeris 120 and Whyte T130 S before settling on the Occam. They were all great bikes and I’d probably have been happy with any of them but the Occam was the pick of the bunch for me, especially with the deal I ended up getting – £1800 for the 2016 full carbon model.

As mentioned by Scotroutes, it looks like a lot of bike until you get on it. I’ve gone for a large at 5′ 9″ and I’m glad I did. The LBS had the alloy version in large which is what I demoed and it felt perfect. I did a bit of geometry comparison and noticed that the Occam in large with a 70mm stem has pretty much the same wheelbase as the large Whyte T-130 but the reach is the same as the medium T-130 with a 40mm stem.

Early days obviously but my initial impressions of the bike having now ridden it on my local trails are really positive. It rides light and feels very lively and manoeuvrable but is also very stable. I’m not one for massive air but when I’ve hit small jumps and drops it really pops and the extra travel was noticeable compared to my old bike. I’ve also set the fork and shock to the recommended settings and they seem spot on so far. The Fox 34 fork and Float DPS shock are really impressive and plush. Also, when in the firm mode the bike rides like a hardtail. Absolutely no noticeable movement. Even with the suspension fully open it’s a really efficient climber and is one of the reasons I preferred it over the others I demoed.

Couple of things I’d look to change from the stock build. The Fizik Gobi saddle lasted one ride before I swapped it for my old charge spoon. It was like a park bench. Horrible. The high roller / ardent tyres will be perfect for summer but don’t quite cut it in the clay clag we have locally for 2/3rds of the year. My preferred winter combo is shorty / dhr2. I’ll probably make do with the high roller for now as we’re hopefully coming out of the worst of the mud and it was decent apart from clogging a bit at times but I’ll be getting a dhr2 on the rear asap as the ardent was pretty dreadful. Mine is 2 x 10 with a mix of XT/SLX. I prefer Sram and was really impressed with the GX 1 x 11 on the other bikes I demoed. I’ll probably move to that in the long run once this drivetrain is worn. I will say though that the side swing front mech is great. Very light action compared to my old x9 10 speed which feels like you need two hands to push the shift lever in comparison. Lastly it needs a dropper. If I’d paid RRP I’d be a bit pissed it didn’t come with one but for what I paid I can’t complain.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I’m really pleased with the bike! Yours looks great Scoutroutes – I think both colours look good but they only had this colour in stock so that made my mind up for me.

Some pics from my first rides

Down to 185lb. Lost 9lb in total. 4lb to go to hit my March target. Just going on hols for a week though! Center Parcs so hopefully keep active enough with swimming etc and brought my running kit.

I’m running a dumb trainer (Elite Chrono Fluid), iPad with Zwift iOS app and Wahoo Blue Speed and Cadence Bluetooth sensor. Works flawlessly.

As above, you can run it with a fairly basic setup and definitely don’t need a power meter.

No. It’s gone from the collection depot and en route to the hub. Not expecting it to get to the local depot here until sometime tomorrow. It’s on Parcelforce 48 and was shipped first thing this morning. When it gets there I’ll call and see if I can grab it.