Cheers guys – lots of options!

Literally anywhere. I’ve got a few routes in mind around Bourton, Winchcombe and Wotton. Not at all bothered when I do them, just fancied knowing if some good pubs for afterwards. I’ll be coming up from Bristol, so can drive around if necessary.

Is that the Royal George in Birdlip?

Aha. Ta!

No work for me this afternoon…

Doesn’t work for me 🙁

What’s seat angle got to do with it? Were you sitting down around these LH berms where you lost traction and pinch flatted?

I wouldn’t worry about fiddling about with things and thinking too much.

You’ve only just got a new bike. It will ride differently to your old one and will take a few rides to get used to.

If it’s only happening on LH bends, it’s probably you – that doesn’t mean you have bad technique, just that you’re not used to the bike.

I’m always all over the place for a few corners when swapping between my prophet MX and PA and I ride them both all the time.

Give it a few rides. You don’t want to end up convinced the bike’s crap and hating it.

I’m becoming a bit dubious about using kevlar beaded tyres tubeless as I’ve had a couple stretch massively on me.

Coincidentally, the last one to do so was a 2.1 Advantage. Went from being a tight fit on the rim to as loose as a Panaracer. It burped, I pumped it up to about 30 psi (with a hand pump) and BOOM!, covered myself and my friends in latex. It then rolled off the rim when I punctured the tube the next day. From comments above, I would guess that the bead wasn’t seated too well, which could have caused the problem, but I’d run the tyre for a couple of months with no issues.

Never had the problem with steel beaded Maxxis or Bontrager tubeless-ready. I’m now giving spesh 2bliss a whirl.

I found that loosening them off, rather than tightening them, solved the problem. Look at the way the mechanism works – I can’t remember off the top of my head, and didn’t use shimano pedals for long, but I think that loosening them reduces the amount of space between the cleat and pedal mechanism.

You can still pinch-puncture tubeless tyres. Maxxis single-plys seem (to me) particularly prone to it.

I run a single-ply HR on the front and a 2-ply on the back (tubeless) when I really don’t want to puncture.

If I’m not going anywhere rocky for a while, I’ll leave the single ply on the back to save some weight.

Haha – I read that as a 48-tooth otter!

Cheers guys. Not sure what to do. I spoke to TF Tuned and they reckon there’s not a lot that can be done to increase the compression damping. I’ll probably just run it at that pressure and put up with it (I’m only bottoming off jumps and drops, not during general riding).

The other option is to flog it and stick my knackered old rockshox pearl 2 back on…

It’s a low volume can. The high volume one came off after one ride…

Well for a start, popping seals ain’t killing them

It is when they are constantly going. Or at least, it’s poor reliability. It also means that they’re getting pretty worn stanchions and getting a lot of gunk inside.

Re. reliability – Ok, fair point, the damping isn’t poo and air ones don’t seem so bad, but I found coil revs would go crazy down very rocky descents in the Peak. They’re fine for places like Swinley.

Cheers for the suggestions!

Merlin are doing 2008 XC600s for 200 quid. I’ve just had a bounce on a mates pair – pretty notchy, but they’re only 2/3 rides old, so I doubt they’re even close to being broken in – and not amazing, but £200… (as opposed to at least £400 for 2010). Is this a terrible idea?

I’m struggling to find any 06 zocchis. I think they’re probably a touch hefty anyway. (I just need to accept that and get some, don’t I?)

But then what would my mates have to laugh at?

I’m all about the community spirit.

It’s a weird ride in a way – parts would be infinitely better on a CX bike…

By riding them? I’m yet to be convinced of this ‘legendary reliability’ everyone keeps going on about.

And the damping’s poo.

Edit – seals mainly. I think the last set might have been a friday afternoon pair – went back 3 times under warranty (first time was after the 3rd ride) before I gave up. Previous sets just kept developing leaks from various places – the Pikes I’m still running have parts from three different forks in them…

I should probably add that I’m trying to keep the weight of the PA under that of the Cannondale MX… they’re pretty close as it is and I don’t really want two 35lb bikes! So the lighter the better… I tend to wear forks out more than I break them, even when doing my best to maintain them properly.

Not really the right lengths, but cheers anyway!

I don’t think I would. Depending on the route you take, you’d struggle on a few bits and there’s now way I’d enjoy it as much. The actual gap track would probably be fine, but I would say DEFINITELY more fun on a mountain bike.

(Sections in point: Techy descent low down on the climb if you’re going South to North and then fast rocky stuff off the top. Also, if you go the way I do, very rocky stuff along the bottom and on the way back south).

I used to ride the Peak on a Jake the Snake, so I’m not afraid of some rocks on a CX bike, just know I would personally have MUCH more fun on a mountain bike on the gap.

Cheers guys.

ADH – I may well do that later, thanks.

Yup!

Bah! I can’t post pictures. Ignore this post.

Anyone?

Why hello there. And how are we today?

Top tens are up on dirt now.

There’s no DH this weekend. The 4x was yesterday, women’s XC has just been on and the coverage of the men’s will start when the countdown ends.

Edit – and in the time it took me to type that your question has been answered!

Its been kept secret but Sam Hill was breaking 1 or more on one practice race/run!!!

I too carry several posts on every run I do.

I now have a new insight into how rumours spread!

A few thoughts:

1) Who cares if he took drugs or not? He has been an inspiration to a lot of people. Why jeopardise this? He also brought a lot to the sport (‘that’ look, using tv to fool opponents etc etc).

2) Maybe he took drugs before having cancer, maybe afterwards – do you see them as two ‘different careers’?

3) How much do drug cheats change in your eyes? Hamilton may have been a cheat (and come up with some pathetic excuses), but he still placed with a broken collar bone…

4) Sorry TJ, all your ‘evidence’ is completely circumstantial at best…

Just thoughts – nothing more! (Except the last one! And the third one, come to think of it.)

That what the brass washers are for. You crank them hard enough and because they’re relatively soft, they make the seal.

Aha. Wish I’d known that or there were some instructions with mine to tell me!

What do you normally ride for DH? The runs in the Alps are the same as everywhere else, just a little longer…

(I’ve run both and had fun with both. Personally, if there’s a significant amount of pedaling involved, I’m clipped in. If not, or if I can’t be arsed changing pedals, I’m on flats.)

There aren’t any seals between the hose fitting and the caliper if you’re using old-style shimano brakes, which meant mine leaked badly from this point.

This was almost certainly due to my mechanical ineptitude and general stupidity (and if anyone knows what I did wrong, I’d love to know), but even I’ve never managed to get it that wrong when fitting goodridge or OEM hoses…

I’m not buying them again.

Things to think about:

What sort of books – will they need much design work putting in? Can you do this? If some is needed and you have to pay for it, it might cost a bit – can you afford to stump up the money up front.

How many are you going to print? Where? What will happen if you can’t/don’t sell them – is there a shelf life on the book?

Can you distribute/market them yourself? Who to? Do you have any contacts for big shops or are you aiming at local places? Have you got the time and resources to do this? You’ll need to knock up some sort of info sheet on the book if you want to get sales in advance.

Is there definitely a market? The ‘outdoor book trade’ isn’t massive… Is you book different to any others out there? Is there anything about to come out that’s similar to it?

These are all things a publisher would handle for you – takes all the risk away from you.

I’ve not self-published stuff, but I have worked for a small publishing company (outdoor industry-focused).

The problem with the ‘it’s fine if you’re smooth’ line is that there’s always going to come a time when you’re not.

I snapped my mk1 Soul (chainstay) after crashing off a drop on a DH run at Wharncliffe. My fault, got it welded up.

I then snapped it again in an XC race, trying to get round some numpty on a descent I flat landed a small drop whilst going flat out. The problem was that I was knackered and so landed like a sack of spuds. Chainstay again.

I weigh about 12 stone with riding gear. The bike was never at fault and they’re superb frames (I was proper pissed to break it and would get another) but I’d be wary about using one for much silly stuff now, especially at £470…

I screwed my hands up at SiTS years ago. 24 hours of slumping onto narrow grips in thin troy lee gloves gave me all the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome through bruising to my palms. Loads better now, but my lower palms still ache loads from time to time.

Personally, I’d much rather leave my position as it is cos I like the way the bike handles and work around the problem in other ways.

So, top tip time:

Move your hands around on the bars more. ie. grab the ends like bar ends; move hands inside and kind of rest on the brake lever body; move thumbs around. This works surprisingly well.

Speccy gloves – help loads

Ergon Grips – completely stop the problem, but look ridiculous so I only use them for 24 hour races and the like.

I had one go like that whilst riding in a straight line to work once. Obviously I was a tad surprised, but fixed it up, got into work and got into work. About half an hour later I heard a muffled ‘boom’ from the staff room. Same thing again. Still no idea what caused it.

‘Swop out’

‘At the end of the day’

The use of the word ‘fresh’ to refer to anything other than fruit or air

‘I ‘sourced’ this, that or the other’

Those are just my top four…

Cheers!

Don’t really want to go to Argos due to price. I’m skint and reckon a bog standard welder will be cheaper.

Thanks anyway.

Steel.

I’m currently going through the Yellow Page’s ‘Welders’ listing…