Is there a good 4 or 5 days riding there? Is it pricey?

When you are back from riding revisit CBT.

Guess this makes a pocket rocket unlikely now too. :(

Depends on the underlying rate engine and it can vary massively. It might be worth looking at Drive like a girl as I don’t think that they have a curfew. It will pick up that it is being left at a different address still but I believe it is more focused on the type of driving (rather than more traditional rating factors).

Don’t know but bigger feet would make the trail come alive…

It was the best thing we could find for the money (and we got a deal from CRC). Useful sizing if you have big child for their age as the 18inch is still nice, simple and light (with none of that back pedalling to brake nonsense).

Out after kids down and planning to ride like I stole it or atleast borrowed it without asking first. Less than a week before the evenings start heading the wrong way though.

Is the preferred approach to route it along existing cables then? Drilling would be cool but Hemlocks don’t have the best record for robustness as it is. :wink:

Just a pain. Worked well for the first two rides, had stretched so much on ride three that I nearly ran out of horizontal adjustment on a single speed specific frame, snapped/sheared on ride four. Probably best to use one or two to fine tune but make sure they are up to the job if you are planning on stomping up hills.

Why did I have to see that re-spray. Love the colour – like Turner anodised orange. Thinking how good Orange apple green would look on my reborn Hemlock now.

Lot of talk about 120mm forks. Is it happy with 140mm forks?

Brilliant – I’ll try glue and patches before going down the dental floss route (the dentist always complains that I don’t use dental floss when advised).

Could be shock set up although I have managed to snake bite with travel to spare. Will check the pivots as I put the frame together from separate components and may have bodged something. I definitely hang a lot over the rear which may upset it. I guess I may have suddenly become gnarsome but I haven’t noticed a change. Loving the bike but it is starting to take the shine off.

Probably more South Uppers than South Downers :-)

And they left the place looking so nice…

I’m looking for a bit of everything really – techy bits, big sky bits, stop and breath bits. The weather could put a stop on the trip though as riding wet trails on the local sandstone will be a lot less claggy then wet chalk trails. Time to pull out the OS maps and compare with strava.

stuinoz – thanks for that. I will check out the continental online retailers as I have experienced activesport / Mark Anthony bikes before. Splayed was the word I was looking for earlier.

Bontrager single bolt clamps should fit the Joplin (according to a US forum) and are bound to be stronger/better/work compared to the Crank Bro originals. Anyone tried this as I don’t really want to experience another fail.

@wwaswas – once battered twice shy and so I don’t think I will be investing in another Joplin but thanks for the offer.

Close – 15 minutes into the first ride with them and a clumsy landing resulted in me putting weight on the back of the seat which then put too much pressure on the seat rail clamps. These clamps appear to be made of cheese and therefore (looking for a technical word) unfolded which meant that the seat fell off backwards and I narrowly avoided rectal trauma. Luckily the twin piston design of my buttocks meant that I could use these on the nobly back tyre to come to a controlled stop. I am now looking forward to the ebay seller conversation and the tracking down of replacement parts for an old seat post (the distributer has recently changed). It did look gnar for those first 15 minutes though (apart from the side to side wobble).

I think it is the price. I’m thinking of selling my 2011 xl 5-spot frame soon but would be asking a max of £400 for the reasons above. I like your “green” but would be a little put off by a respray.

If you live down south then Dogs in Need are more flexible about rehoming than many. They will do a house and suitability check though. We got a rescue puppy from them and we have 2 small children.

Anything else up there with the Planet X? Other than the difficulties of fitting/sizing online it does seem to get good reviews.

I have been using photo chromatic sports glasses from optilabs for the last 10 years or so. Good protection, good vision, curved lenses for wrap round style but half the price of Oakley prescriptions (or at least they were when I bought them). Last set have survived 4yrs+.

OK – I’ll save it for a dry day. I know Holmbury better and so will probably do less damage and have a better ride there. Thanks

Thanks for the replies. I guess I know what I’ll be doing Sunday afternoon now.

@davosaurusrex – ok, but I feel like I haven’t earned it yet :wink:
I have had to do less “earning” since I took off the Ti coil ccdb.

I never understood why anyone would care about what bike someone else is riding (unless they were racing). My bikes have got “better” as I have got older but my riding skills have got worse as I now ride less and take fewer risks. I don’t care if i am on my knackered singlespeed or my boutique bike – it’s just good to get out.

I don’t have room for “another” bike and so a mac-ride or LOCT look perfect to give me a little more room for pedalling. The CRC one looks a bit ropey and so I will try and hunt down one of the above.
Thanks for all the ideas.

The bakfiets look amazing but I’d probably end up having to carry the wife and dog too. I hadn’t heard of the follow-me tandem and so thanks for the recommendation.

I had pads in and a spacer whilst bleeding. They only went pop after I refitted them to the bike and gave the brake lever a couple of squeezes. I will go back to the company I bought them from but I am now a bit concerned that the front brake might do the same and I am supposed to be heading to Spain in 2 weeks (where it is nice to have confidence in your brakes). Ho hum.

I don’t know where I would stand with a warranty – I had to shorten the hose and then bleed – but I will definately try. I just didn’t know if it was possible to over pressurise the system or something. They were super stiff before going pop.

Thanks one and all – bigger obviously isn’t always better. Duffer’s link has got me thinking about my gearing now too. I have been running 32:16 for the last few years but is it really better to have something larger on the back? I do get through chains and cogs fairly quickly.

Z510 it is then. Shame about half links as they did make fitting particularly easy.

Drive like a girl might be worth a look if you are happy to have a telematic box fitted.

Joystick ordered-thanks for the psa

These guys were pretty good (although the riding was quite mixed) and they were good value for the money. Think they have now have improved trails and hire fleet. They do day trips too. http://www.themountainbikeadventure.com/

Great stuff. Pipistrelle bats now back to feeding in the beam of my exposure lights.

Is he tall? If so I have XL old style Cannondale Jekyll (dirt cheap), 2006 20inch Orange 5 (cheapish but with nice shock) and large Cotic Hemlock (less cheap) frames gathering dust in my shed. Didn’t see sizing – doh.