You had to pedal on the blue and red trails? You weren’t hitting them fast enough ;-)

Last time I went to the garage for tyres I enquired about winter and all season tyres and they didn’t know what I was talking about :roll:

I need new so will watch this thread

All of them?

I confess i set off on one of the blacks, I forget which, and started to freak so stuck to the reds and blues which are fast, pumpy jumpy and a total scream if you lay off the brakes. I don’t recall using the brakes except to screech to a halt and collapse in a heap at the end.

I’m sure I did use the brakes a lot, but I’m trying to convey the silly speeds involved.

It’s all good.

Ok then, let’s start this off by saying that theoretically speaking your outside foot on a berm shouldn’t be level but facing down with a good percentage of your body weight pressing down for grip.

Even this seem contentious and I’ve had mixed advice and result. Flat corners: right on. But specifically why is it important to find more grip on a banked corner than is already conferred by the banking? Is it not the case that pumping and fast flicking between corners is virtually impossible with dropping one foot down, esp. with saddle at normal height? And as you point out, there is the issue of striking a dropped pedal and being tossed into oblivion. Been there, done that, which is why I reverted to level pedals cornering in situations where grip seemed less of an issue!

Can you explain?

Different wheel sizes contribute to the feel of a bike. Pick the bike you like the feel of, that makes you smile the most. It may or may not have unconventional sized wheels.

I feel wrong without my knees covered, like driving with no seatbelt.

After a few falls wearing knee pads you realise you are unconsciously putting you knee down and using your thigh to muscles absorb and limit the impact on your upper body.

Really sorry. As someone who often wanders hills and crags alone, this feels quite close to home. :-(

Oh no!

(Got that lust feeling)

This is classic pussywillow. Feed him after midnight if you want some fun!

It’s worryingly easy to pick up people who you later realise you don’t like. They can be hard to shake and if she is needy there is the guilt aspect. Your only responsibility is to be kind to everyone, not to be everyone’s friend!

Only a really decent person would be faced with this dilemma.

Absolutely love them, as much as fast rolling stuff, although it wrings the skills out of you to make it flow. It’s not everyone’s idea of mountain biking.

its the role-reversal vid with Darcy Turenne. I’m wasn’t sure who it was mocking at the time, and I’m still not!

I’ve always been ambivalent, and my late Mrs was definitely against – no complaints we had a great life together without children. But recent unexpected events have forced me to confront dormant paternal feelings! Age is somewhat against giving those feelings further consideration.

Great thread.

Hermes

And Ted Hughes, of course:

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.

[part]

Degged with dew, dappled with dew
Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,
Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness ? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet ;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

So she posted that two years ago, which is why she appears two years younger than she is. Was she with you then?

Aching shoulders and arms implies holding up some of your weight through your hands and bars and that doesn’t seem right to me as my hands are almost always light on the bars. Is this an indication a core strength or a technique issue?

Bar height, distance and sweep is a suck it and see problem as it depends on frame and body geometry. Just play around.

Flak Jacket XLJ

It’s not a flat corner – the berms will keep you in if you look up and around them.

You might be entering the berms too low for your entry speed, so the bike drifts up the berm, back wheel goes first because weight bias naturally moves to the front wheel as you change direction (not a bad thing).

Try entering the berms higher up where it is steeper and put the bike over more and LOOKING ROUND TO THE EXIT. If you enter too slow you will just ride down the berm as you exit. Fast enough and you will rail it.

BTW. I’m no expert!

start gently, work hard, and end gently

have a beer

works for all sports

lovely snacks

like

Evil

They are predictably fun. This is most important when the condition of non-purpose-built trails is poor

I especially like built corners.

I got absolutely filthy last night so that I could barely see through my specs, caned every climb chasing people down, and crashed off twice.

Brilliant.

Evil Sovereign here. It’s a handful. I love it. 44 in three weeks

What a great thread.

I thought it was useful. Maybe the quality of training varies as much as the quality of drivers?

Guitar

Panspermia.

The Squits. Gels are for when I’m too tired to consume solids.

Poor Gee; he really wanted that and expected to get it after a storming early season. But Stevie was always on his tail and had a blinding tail-end to the season and just took it away from him.

As a patriot and an Atherton fan I’m disappointed for Gee. But there is no doubt Stevie thoroughly deserved that. Canadians must be over the moon, and so they should be because he’s done his country and his family proud. If you’ve seen the Stevie segment in Seasons, you’ll have some idea just how his mum feels about it.

I’m writing a new tune at the moment but we’ve got a lot of work to do on it. But I can hear a band playing it in my head 25/7!

Oh god nightmare. Get well Simon.

Bar height is very much a suck-and-see problem for me. Can take a few goes to get the bar, stem and spacer combo just right.

To clarify, I use to term “higher beings” to mean that we might be capable of governing our future though intellectual ability, rather than our future being governed by just natural instinct.

I totally appreciate that we are biologically animals. But look around at the environment and society we created: were quite different from any other animal that ever lived on this planet. I’m not saying that other animals have no capacity for abstraction, rationality and compassion, but they seem uniquely manifested in humans.