Interestingly no one has mentioned the type of riding they do.

Given the tyres we’re discussing, I’d imagine most are doing similar stuff. As we’re coming out of a wettish summer, you can guess the trail conditions.

Personally, I just go riding. Might be a big XC loop in the Peak, might be playing on a DH track in the woods, might be an enduro race, might be a trail centre. Only got one bike, and I can’t be arsed changing tyres, so it’s the same for everything and everywhere. Minion SS has been good for the lot. That said, I doubt I’ll still have them on in the middle of January, but that’s probably fairly obvious.

OK thanks – basically I need something that’s narrower than a 2.35″ Rock Razor

I had a Nobby Nic 2 2.25 on the rear for a while. It was nice and light, fast and cornered fine. But it was stupidly fragile. And wore out in about a week. I’ve now got a Minion SS in which is tougher, faster and corners better. It’s also surprisingly good in mud. Bit heavier mind, but it reminded my why Maxxis (and usually a Minion of some sort) has always been my default choice. Same width, so narrower than a Rock Razor.

Leaning over a set of forks I was working on, I removed the circlip holding the air spring in place. There was a huge bang, I got an eye-full of oil and something rocketed past my head, missing my face by millimetres. Distracted by the Moto GP, I’d forgotten to let the pressure out of the forks and had fired the air spring past my head with some force. I wasn’t scared until I saw the inch-deep hole in the ceiling 6 feet above my head.

I’ve had a couple of scary climbing moments, although the scariest was when, halfway up a cliff, I heard an ex-girlfriend scream as she abseiled off the end of a rope and fell a good ten metres to the ground. Luckily she’s made a full recovery, but it’s not something I really want to experience again. Don’t imagine she does either!

Unicorns.
Just because you’ve stuck a Cornetto cone on your head, doesn’t make you any better than a horse.
Yes it does as you can easily catch and roast marshmallows thrown at you

Going to struggle to eat them though.

I used to ride hard 4-5 days a week and got ill a lot. My diet mainly consisted of pasta and pizza.
Now, for various reasons, I only ride once or twice a week (but do plenty of other stuff) and eat a shed-load more fruit and veg than I used to. I’ve been ill twice in the last 2.5 years (which I’m unsurprisingly happy about). Could be the lack of riding and not pushing myself so hard, could be what I’m eating. Could be both. Dunno what my point is, probably to try eating a load of veg. Might work, might not. Worth a try though.

We rode it yesterday. Doethie valley itself is pretty swamped in bracken in places, but fine if you’re ok with a bit of guess-where-the-front-wheel-is riding.

But, it was a lot muddier than we expected, which meant a lot of sliding around and slow sticky riding where you’d usually be zipping along. (Still great though.) Personally, I’d wait until it’s drier as a) it’ll be more fun and b) you won’t knacker the trail.

And the British Bouldering champs in Sheffield.

I had a 26″ Soul, then a Slackline and now a Switchback.

The Soul is a lovely bike. It was the best of the three for ‘riding around’ on. Great on XC rides and brilliant through semi-techy singletrack. It was just nice to ride. Having said that, I did a few Gravity Enduro rounds on it and it was more than capable. Great bike.

The Slackline was loads of fun DH tracks and techy stuff. Really good at cornering and jumped really well. It was heavier than my Soul and I didn’t think I was going to like it, but it made me grin every time I rode it. I rode a 24 solo on it too, so it’s perfectly good for big rides!

The Switchback is my current bike. The slackness has taken some getting used to in tight stuff, but now it’s awesome. It’s in its element on steep and techy stuff – the harder the better – and absolutely charges over rough ground. And despite this, it climbs virtually as well as the Soul.

I’d pick a Soul for ‘normal’ riding and a Switchback if my riding tended towards DH and tech stuff, although I’d say both bikes will cope well with either. That said, my Slackline was the one that made me smile the most and is the one I’d pick.

The steep and gravelly thing? Turn right across the stream at the bottom of Smith’s Combe? A fair few people I know can ride that. If it’s one I’m thinking of it’s just a case of sitting down and grinding away.

The Haute Route was awesome. Loads of memories from that.

More recently, the Bear Bones 200[/url] was great fun and very friendly, even if we did have to singlespeed a bike at 90k… No racing for us – pub for tea and a nice bivvy.

Lakes 200 is also brilliant and can easily be ridden hostel to hostel.

Also really enjoyed parts of the Cairngorm loop, mainly the scenery and the riding on the final stretch to Blair Atholl (where we started and finished).

That’s a lot of bread you’re shovelling in.
Most definitely!

It’s four slices! Four!

I like my Troy Lee ones.

I’ve got a set of Dainese trail skins for sale. They’re good pads, they just never fitted me particularly well (might have just needed more use to soften them up). Yours for a tenner if you want them. They’re in VGC and I’ll even wash them.

Both are good. They Troy Lees have a hard shell, but only padding on the knee/shin. The Dainese are soft and won’t take as a hard a knock, but have light padding on the sides.

AFAIK you can get new tape. You can also get seam sealant ‘glue’ which would probably mean you didn’t need to remove what’s already there so neatly. You could also get the shorts repaired, but that might be pricey.

Alternately, leave them. The material will still be waterproof and you’ll probably not get all that much coming through untaped seams. (Apologies in advance if you get a soggy arse.)

I’ve tried it and gave up, although I don’t doubt that it can work.

What you’re doing sounds a little different – I didn’t go for a set six hours. The method I followed was to work out how much sleep you typically got in total, and start there. Once you stay asleep for the entire time (I have no problem falling asleep, just staying that way), you bring your bedtime forwards by 15 minutes. Equally, if you’re not sleeping, you push it back.

I gave up after a couple of weeks. My usual pattern at the time was to struggle through c.3 nights of awful (4 broken hours max) sleep and then get a broken 6 or so, which I could deal with. Although sleep restriction seemed to be working, neither I nor my job could put up with a fortnight of zombieism.

The doc suggested signing me off work. Maybe if I’d had a couple of weeks where I could zombie my way through the days with no need to function then I’d have had more luck.

I’ve since realised that my insomnia is a result of a bit of a whirlwind in my head and that it’s not going away until I get that sorted.

Trying to stay awake… I went for short walks, fixed bits of bike, played the keyboard with headphones in (any ‘hobby’ basically) or did puzzles as mentioned above. Best for me was watched TV or reading stuff that caught my attention – I know you’re meant to avoid screens but I’ve found that they make no difference to my sleep. I did try to wind down over the last thirty minutes or so though.

Different conditions and reasons for insomnia and I think it would have worked. Hope you have more luck!

Insonia’s fun, isn’t it?

I’m not local, and it’s a while since I’ve been there, but the answer is ‘yes’.

There’s some pretty nice singletrack on Hexham Common (the marked bridleways, from memory) that’ll do you for a couple of hours or so.

There’s also a long bridleway marked on the map running down from above Allenheads (EDIT: might have been Allendale actually) that I always wanted to check out and never did. It looked ok on Google Earth a few years back, so it’s probably worth exploring.

How far’s Edmundbyers from Hexham? About half an hour? There’s some good stuff around there on Blanchland Common.

Sorry I can’t be more help.

Tom and others, a couple of thoughts:

I’m veggie. My initial reasons were moral ones. And these moral reasons apply to me. Just me, not you, not anyone else. I couldn’t give a flying whatsit what you eat, or think about eating. I’m really not judging anyone except myself and I’m not comparing myself to anyone else. (I’m a complete dick in many ways, so if I did, I’d cancel myself out anyway.)

Secondly, those moral reasons aren’t black and white. There’s no logic, no absolutes. I’d just quite like it if, as I see it, I had less negative impact on the world. It’s a sliding scale. Yes, I’d eat meat on a desert island. Yes, I’m pro-choice. I drink beer. My shoes are leather. I eat eggs (although, after reading this thread and doing some googling, I kind of don’t want to). If I think I’m doing enough of what I see as the ‘right’ thing (in any situation), then I’m happy.

So, my ‘moral’ reasons apply to me alone, they’re not logical and for me, and many other veggies, there are no absolutes. Can you accept that and move on – maybe back to the OP?

Jenn’s Tour Divide article is awesome. I’ve still go it and regularly re-read it on the toilet (a high compliment!).

When I started 24 solo races, I used to consider it a good ride if I’d finished anywhere near Jenn. And when my girlfriend rode her one and only 24-solo Jenn managed to take time our of riding faster than virtually everybody else to be unbelievably friendly and supportive. I still remember that and how much it helped my girlfriend.

Take care Jenn, you make cycling special.

Cheers. I’ve been wondering about the Gerardmer area. The thing I liked about the Thann region was that you could pretty much pick a trail off a map and it would turn out to be ‘semi-tech’ flowing singletrack. I’d like to find similar stuff again as I’ll be with less confident riders, so full-on rocky death tech wouldn’t be ideal.

I was told (possible Bulls”t) that the pain was caused by problems elsewhere.

In every climber I know with elbow problems, including myself, it’s been the shoulders and neck that have been the root cause.

I had recurring problems for several years. I did all the eccentric exercises imaginable and just gave myself bad wrists. I saw three different physios who massaged my elbows, stuck needles in them, fired ultrasound at them, gave me stretches and exercises etc etc and got nowhere. Then I went to a physio who looked at the way I stood and sat and gave me a couple of shoulder exercises to do. My elbows were fine a couple of weeks later. Similar story for three friends.

Check your shoulders!

Done it twice, both times on (different) Cannondale Prophets. A bigger bike might be more comfortable over the rocks, but this was fine.

I used 2-ply 2.35 High Rollers the first time, Exo 2.5 Minions the second. both tubeless, both absolutely fine – I’d go with the latter again.

I didn’t have a dropper on either occasion. Didn’t matter the first time as nobody had one, but the second time I definitely lost out on the pedally bits, so I’d make sure I had one next time.

I’d also want better brakes. I got massive fade towards the bottom the second year and had a huge crash.

I’ll probably never get around to riding the Mega again, but I’m so glad I did. What a race!

I’ve got no idea what I want to do. Because of that, I’ve never really tried to find out. I’ve got to now.

Had my first proper night’s sleep in months last night. Definitely made the right decision.

Cheers guys. Popped in to see a mate to run some ideas past him before the long ride home with plenty of time to think … not a great plan! Then I read all this and feel a lot more positive! My OH has been telling me to quit for ages, so that helps too.

I was editing/writing/proofing stuff, thankfully not for the Mail. I guess I could do a bit of that freelance for a while to keep me going while I get something else sorted, but I’m pretty much done with it.

Beer now, proper decisions tomorrow!

I’ve got a 25-mile road ride home – that’ll give me plenty of time to regret my decision! Beer waiting at the other end though. And probably a curry.

Cheers guys. I did stuff with words. I hate sitting behind a desk though, and don’t really like what I was doing, so it’s time for a complete restart, which I was never going to pluck up the courage to do whilst I had a reasonably comfortable job. Exciting times. I think.

Trout, I particularly liked your approach to setting riders off:

‘Reckon you’ll catch him? [Watches rider sketch around first corner] Yeah, you’ll catch him. May as well wait a bit longer.’

I’ve already got my wish list (currently consists of an 853, 4130 and an aluminium frame, all roughly the same price). The 4130 leads it based on angles and looks (yes, I am that shallow) but I didn’t want something that might potentially crack earlier than the others (they’re all designed for similar purposes) hence the concern.

I guess it’s mainly strength I’m wondering about. I’ve seem to have an annoying habit of cracking them.

Or do what Hora would and buy a new bike.

Get forward, get low over the front, get your weight through the bars … all the usual stuff.

Lower your bars, roll them forward – that’ll pull you towards the front.

I’ve sometimes found that rolling my brake levers further down pulls me over the top of the bars more too.

Try pushing your saddle forward. I find I sort of set my position when I’m descending based on it. I’m sure I read an article once where some DH pro talked about being surprised how much saddle position affected their standing position on the bike.

What kind of mincing clumsy clattering around are people doing to find Flows weak? I got them to save a bit of weight over my 721s, they are lighter, wider and better tubeless but in every other regard they are worse and because I’m not a forum riding god they work fine.

Fixed that for you

I started using it last year to see how far I rode in 12 months. Then I’d get annoyed if I forgot to turn it on. Then everything turned into a race and I’d get annoyed if I wasn’t as quick as usual,(which was ridiculous as it wasn’t even remotely accurate anyway) and the first thing I’d do after every ride was check it. Bikes started being about Strava, not riding. It wasn’t much fun, to be honest, so, after six months, I stopped…

..until this morning.

I promise I’m not Hora… I don’t swap bikes often, hence my reluctance to just get shot of it.

It’s a hardtail, so no shock tune to worry about and the cockpit is pretty sorted. There are a couple of things I’m not keen on with the geometry that affect each other. Improving one worsens another etc. I was concerned about them before I got the bike but it was a warranty job and so choice was limited.

I believe it’s from the inside of the bend to the end of the spoke. Pretty awkward!

Try this.

Edit: 260/258

‘never knowingly undersold’

Three months isn’t exactly long term, but I like mine (RS).

Good stuff:
Definitely less on-off than my old SLX.
Nice feel.
Consistent lever feel, which was NOT something I got from Shimano.

Bad stuff:
I think got a touch of pump up after dragging the rear down a big descent at the weekend. I botched the bleed after shortening the hose though, and didn’t bother re-doing it. The front was fine.
They squeal like little piggies when they’re hot. Probably just the pads.

The correct size of post has always been used, with about 200mm of it in the frame. Not sure how they appeared, but mildly concerned that they’re going to continue to spread.

The right-hand side bottom picture shows the top tube, leading into a gusset with the head tube at the top right. The crack is mid-way down the r/h side, coming off a cut-out of the manufacturer’s logo. (I don’t really want to show the full logo.)

Really force the sleeve to move. It does budge eventually!

I wouldn’t have thought chainline would really affect indexing. Maybe at the extremes, but I’ve not come across it. Small variations in chain length shouldn’t either. (Assuming your problem is indexing.)

Are you meant to run some 10-speed chains a certain way up? (Not sure that that would make a difference either, unless they taper.)

If it’s all new, I’d double check you’ve not done something silly somewhere.

You’ve definitely got the narrow/wide bits of the chain on the narrow/wide bits of the ring?