I don't care about tech. As far as I'm concerned, the 'tech' gets in the way of riding. I used to be well into it, changing tyres left right and centre, fiddling with suspension and worrying about geometry. It ruined riding for me. I don't want to descend thinking about how the bike works. I just want to ride.

I read singletrack because it has 'features', not just endless repetitions of the same articles like the all the other acronym-titled mags. (Dirt definitely excluded here!)

You've articles from loads of people about things all over the world. Iditarod, trails across Australia, Yak attack. You've got stuff on rights of way, 'fish out of water' stuff, speedway. The £100 challenge.

Personally, that's why I read it – because it makes me want to ride, not cream myself over what my bike's made of.

Favourite mags? Dirt/ST/The Ride. I like the photography, race reports and wide spread of articles in dirt – I may not read them all, but there's always something I like.

MBUK's alright, but I've already read what they're going to say 50 times.

MBR's generally less good, although I'm gradually reaching the conclusion that Danny Milner is one of the best mtb 'writers' in the UK at the moment.

one on Exmoor. Little bloodsucking hitch-hiking burrowing opportunistic bugger.

I posted about this sort of thing happening a couple of years back when someone knocked a whole through a berm and uprooted a tree to avoid a drop. The berm and drop were made unrideable because someone wasn't good enough to ride them (plenty of people were!).

I got told I was elitist and that it was absolutely fine. 😐

Really good to see that people's opinions are changing! 😀

EDIT – 'alternative routes' around things definitely fall under the banner of erosion/path widening in my book.

LOL @ marsdenman's 'Dave' comment.

Better now?

(And wrong forum, sorry!)

I've pieced it back together with spares/cleaned up forgotten stuff and a few castoffs

If those are castoffs what the hell's on your ST4? 😯

Always worth it.

Nice semi-techy bit along the river and up to the top, bouncy corners across the open (don't even think about doing the 'freeride' cr&p or you'll miss the best bit of trail there!). A couple of corkscrewy descents, a twiddly bit through the woods (and a nasty sting-in-the-t(r)ail climb) and then the final rocket down to the car park.

My favourite trail centre, no doubt in my mind. I always stop off if I'm passing, even if there is more to do at Afan.

There's another seal inside the top of the motion control unit. Maybe it's that that's gone.

Take the unit out and unscrew the top of it. It's on a reverse thread.

You'll see the seal in there. It's a kind of stepped seal ('umbrella' seal?). You'll see where it's gone – part of it gets pushed upwards. No idea where you get them from – they aren't in the seal kit. Try calling TF Tuned. You can sometimes leave it out for a while and try and coax it back into shape, but this has never worked particularly well for me. Or replace it with something better.

I didn't have a scenic, but I did have a standard petrol megane which went to 189,000 miles before I sold it.

By that point, the already soft suspension was pretty iffy and the engine wasn't quite as nippy. The air conditioning had packed in too, but as I hadn't serviced that since about 90,000, I would say that was not unexpected…

Other than that, it was fine. No major problems – I had a small hole in the radiator and I had to replace the exhaust (but then I had nearly knocked it off on a rock, so again, not too worried).

Considering I really hadn't looked after the car (wasn't servicing it etc), that a significant amount of those miles were on country lanes around the Peak and that I had generally abused it as biking/climbing transport, I was pretty happy.

So when anyone tells me how crap Renaults/French cars (I had a citroen before that) are, I tend to completely ignore them.

I very nearly bought a megane estate recently – loads of storage, massive boot. Only didn't because a focus was cheaper and I'm a sheep.

PROS – Loads of stopping power in the dry and they last FOR EVER.

CONS – have bog all power when wet (really, NO power) and squeal like annoying little b*stard stuck pigs until they get hot enough to burn the water off… brings me to point 2 – they get HOT and smelly on long (dry) descents (although this hasn't caused any problems in itself).

Driving – last time it took a day and a half, but felt ok between two of us. We did end up sleeping in the car in an Austrian pass because all the campsites we could find were rammed…

I've flown in and out of Venice – it's a few hours' drive from Cortina/etc but much closer to the Lake Garda area. It was a very busy and slow drive to and from Cortina though.

I've camped near Colfosco and Cortina – nice sites, but they all tend to be very expensive (20 euros a night at least). Cortina's better for restaurants etc.

For better Via Ferrata, I'd stay further north – the stuff around Lake Garda never seems as much fun to me (not as high, not as exposed). It's also a lot hotter down there. That said, there's probably better biking there and it's pretty close to Venice for flights. I've no idea about biking further north (I've only climbed/walked/via ferrated in the Dolomites) – the road riding looks amazing though (and, much as I'd love to call myself a 'cyclist', I'm not, I'm a mountain biker – that's how good the road stuff looked!).

Enjoy it. Via Ferrata are awesome!

How do you subtly disintegrate somebody?

Nice site. Maybe you could put a map in the 'natural' routes bit too?

I don't have 'f' series forks, but on floats, it's just a question of opening up the LH leg and fitting a 20mm spacer. I assume they're fairly easy to get hold of – I just fitted an old one that came out of an ancient vanilla. (Might have another if you need it, but can't check until friday).

EDIT – pretty much what everyone else just said…

Anyone?

I *think* I used to get mine from Chelmer Cycles[/url].

Are you clipped in? Before spending any money, if might be worth trying raising the height of your saddle slightly or moving your cleats (I think you would need to point your toes in a touch – google knee pain in cycling and it'll tell you which way to move it). The new shoes might have thicker/thinner soles affecting saddle height or you may have put the cleats on differently.

If you like fish curry you want to look at this

If you're thinking of the Jacob's/Roych Clough/Rushup Edge/Chapel Gate loop then 2-3 hours. It's not long, but I can't think of any bits that aren't going either up or downhill… And there aren't really any shortcuts.

If you want a ride that you can adjust for time starting in Edale, you could head up to Hollins Cross and mess on the descents and climbs around there or loop over to Cavedale or Rushup Edge.

I'd just clean it out, grease it up and put it all back together.

Obviously if a bit's properly kippered I'd replace it – probably with whatever replacement the shop had.

It's ok. From memory, there's some techy singletracky stuff near the top and then a steep rocky bit lower down. Harder than the main track down but easier than Grisedale. Personally, I'd chose Grisedale every time.

rather than granite like the Beast

I think you mean sandstone vdubber67.

Sorry people, it's gritstone (yeah yeah yeah, type of sandstone etc – still grit.)

Cavedale harder than the Beast. Chapel Gate harder still. The thing (footpath) Hora's on about harder than all three put together.

Last time I saw someone like that I picked him up. Big mistake. I couldn't get rid of him. Eventually found out where he lived and dumped him in the doorway. Made me late for the pub.

Boxing – right, right, right, big left Brilliant!

I tend to use things with whichever hand I pick them up – hammer, allen key, cutlery, computer mouse – no difference. That said, I'm definitely left handed – snooker, writing – cack with me right.

I reckon most left-handed people are similar to an extent – although we're left-handed, we learn/copy things the other way around. It took me ages to learn to tie laces (my little sister beat me to it. She used to deliberately tie hers in front of my while I struggled. I was NOT happy.) – because I tie them right handed, as I was taught. I can use my right for lots of things because I learnt to with scissors/computers etc etc.

There are pictures of me thowing things as a kid – left arm all the way. Now it's my right that's the more powerful and accurate one (left's still fine though!).

As to discrimination – WTF?

Jacobs – Roych Clough – Chapel Gate was wet and muddy yesterday, but the snow has all gone.

Haven't been out to work yet today, so haven't checked, but if any snow fell last night then it will be on scenic duty only.

If it helps, Sheffield's doing its usual grey-but-not-raining thing at the minute.

I'm fairly sure I never used to rip so many tyres running tubes. Or at least, when I did, it didn't matter.

As for the pinch thing with tubes/tubeless, yes, you do get the same punctures, but it doesn't usually need a new tyre! I think tyre sidewalls also wear faster tubeless – you get those little diagonal lines much earlier than usual – possibly leading to punctures quicker? I also think the tube does support the tyre a little, especially when you're running it around 40psi (I always had to run around this with tubes).

As for riding style, I definitely ride 'heavy' (I'm not – I only eigh 11.5 stone!). I tend to ride in a fairly clumsy manner, fairly fast (off the brakes over rocks kind of thing), so yes, I am at least part to blame!

Anyone ever had issues with tyres blowing off rims? I've jsut stuck a kevlar high roller on the back and am properly nervous about it after my last experience with a kevlar maxxis! (Usually use steel-beaded ones.)

The only bombproof tyre I've found was a dual-ply steel-beaded HR. But that's not so good around the Peak.

Run loads of things and at loads of pressures. Specialiazed, bontys, Maxxis, schwalbes.

Tend to stick at around 40psi in the back cos I'm fed up of pinch punctures!

Might try proper full-on UST, but it's expensive!

Nice idea – but not very useful for me, sorry.

Doesn't show distance, height gain or loss, or ground – so hard to work out what goes where (I know this isn't a trail map – but these would help for reference points). Also this means it's no good for working out whether to take lifts or the links, so little actual pracitical use either.

Clearer than the usual maps for showing how things link up, but really hard to get your head around – especially of you don't know the names of the things. Lack of distances don't help here either. Labelled runs might improve things.

Ridges/other features – shapes of towns etc would help me – but then it's turning into a map, rather than something to show the links. Could you try overlaying your 'tube' map on an actual map/pictoral map of the area somehow

Great idea, maybe needs a little 'tuning'.

New Forest? Why drive all that way when the Surrey hills are closer and better? Can you get out to Peaslake/Holmbury St Mary/Dorking area? Loads of good singletrack around there that you can find with an OS map and a bit of hunting/tyre track following!

ourmaninthenorth – Making up journalists? Well I never….

"Errol Day" – that's even better!

Samuri – Check out the writers name.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7065824.ece

Ha! I really really hope that's his actual name!

I've recently had coil Pikes and air revs, and Vanillas and Floats. No air turn on the air forks though.

The damping on the Fox forks is significantly better than the Rockshox. And I was lucky enough to find both sets of foxes way cheaper than any current rockshox forks. I've worn out fox forks in the past, but I've not found rockshox to be any more reliable at all. (I'm now embarking on a new really-look-after-new-forks maintainence routine!)

The raptors are pretty nice. Well thought out, lots of nice features. The talon is a lot simpler, but I wouldn't say any less useable.

The difference is basically the bladder. Dunno if you've had a look at the osprey/nalgene ones, but the stiffening is a pretty good. Camelback mouthpieces are better, but I'd say the nalgene one wins overall for me.

Not really sure what I'm trying to say here… bascially, both bags are nice. If I needed a new bladder, I'd have a raptor. If I didn't, I'm not sure.

Sorry, pretty pointless post really.

My theory is that it stems from the side of the road they ride/drive on. For hand signalling.

Even if that was the case, it would be the other way round, Shirley?

(ie, we'd have the most powerful brake on the left, so we could control that and signal with the other hand that we were about to move across the road?)

It's far less common for a cyclist to kill a pedestrian than a car, so no, the latter wouldn't make the news.

mudshark – if the guy's been arrested, there are limits on what the press can and cannot say before a trial. Alternatively, and possibly more likely here, the press simply might not know.

Mike – had a bit of a crack appearing in the seat tube, at the bottom of the seat post slot. Not sure how, as I had about 150mm of post in there (I had ridden the bike a LOT though). Anyway, I got that welded up, but then I got a seatpost terminally stuck in it and the crack re-opened when I was trying to free it. Going to try to soak it in caustic soda to get the post out and then weld it up again, as I've had a serious amount of fun on that frame.

I had on of the original Souls (no.31, check me… ahem.) and I've just gone back to one after a PA and an Inbred. I have no idea why I ever bought anything else. It is by far the 'most fun' hardtail I've ever ridden. Blinding downhill with 140mm forks, probably a better allround ride with 120s. I wanted a Bfe, but the PA died and Cy didn't have any. Now I'm getting tempted to get one as well and build it up for DH.

Having said that, an 18 inch trailstar is very similar numbers-wise and friend's 16" DMRs feel awesome. It was only the weight and the fact that they don't come in orange that put me off.

For me, the Alpine and the Stiffee are too high, the Ragley far too slack and the Evil too pricey. No idea about the sanderson.

Cotics are great, and the DMR looks ace too, if a little heavy. They're both nice and low, decent lengths and have nice HAs for allround sillyness.

An obvious one is Johnny Cash and Hurt. I'm pretty sure most people know it's a cover, but his version's still more famous (and better) than the NIN original.

Tj's half right and half wrong.

How new or 'modern' the boots are is irrelevant. Whether they fit or not is important.

Just because your boots used to fit doesn't mean they still will. Your feet can change shape over time.

Your old boots may need some care – get some leather restorer on them if they're looking dry and so forth. Wear the boots a few times for short walks and let them soften up and take the shape of your feet again – your feet may also need to toughen up a bit if you've not been doing much.

If you don't want to buy new boots and are still getting blisters, stick compeed or something on nearer the time of the walk, but not yet – give your feet get used to things first.

You don't want really tough, hard and dry skin, so ignore the whole surgical spirit thing. This either doesn't work, or causes skin to split/rip off in chunks. Not ideal.

And yes, I have, and still do occasionally fit boots for a living.

Angeldust – I'm sure there will be boots that fit or can be altered to fit. At a complete and internet diagnosed (and thus useless) guess, you may have wide feet and be sizing up to get the extra width, or you have issues with feet elongating when weighted. Wearing a size too big can cause as many problems as it may seem to cure. You can get some custom-made ones if you're really desperate.

Now, I've, ahem, never ridden that footpath, but I would (not) suggest taking a line on the right in the trickiest sections (at least, they look tricky, I wouldn't know, because I've only ever, er, walked it).

I could be wrong though – I've only (not) done it at night when no-one's about so had a bit of tunnel vision going on and probably didn't look at lines too much. As a result of only (not) riding it at night, it's also not massively clear in my memory, so we could be talking abotu different sections.

Not a huge fan of footpaths in the busiest area of the Peak in the day!

The bit after the gate is actually easier than it used to be! Just stay off the front brake and you'll be fine.