The ultimate irony is he moved to Machynlleth to escape Tesco et al and now they’re opening a huge one just down the road from him.

Yeah doesn’t he also live in a giant big **** off barn conversion despite divorcing (possibly, before Monbiot sues me), he’s had two children so managed to pollute the planet more than someone who’s had none and who commutes everyday in a Lamborghini Countach…..and because he live’s in the country he has to drive to get anywhere? Wouldn’t the green thing to do…. would be to live in a modern apartment in London, have no car at all and only have one child?

I’ll be laughing my balls off if George Monbiot get’s what’s coming to him.

My tech V2’s are at home so I don’t have access to them at the moment and I set my brakes up then didn’t touch the bite point adjust again….but shouldn’t you be adjusting the bite point adjustor outwards not inwards to stop it from hitting the bars?

Rifle round passed very close to my head several years ago.

Been attacked with a sharp weapon.

Been very close to being run over by a lorry.

I try not to think about these things, there have been quite a few times I could have potentially been killed so far. But I wasn’t and I’m still here, there’s no point dwelling on it or you end up a nervous wreck – there are things in life that are beyond your control, you should expect this and let it slide.

Strange on a number of levels.

I take it you guys have never been to the Philippines then.

Someone I know accidently slept with what used to be a man.

I still find it hilarious that people think their XT’s are more powerful than Evo X2’s when dyno results have shown the opposite.

People are getting stupid – chavs and bankers are probably the problem.

Sorry Northwind. Tired, replying whilst staying up doing some stats work.

That’s because most people like braking like idiots, hence skidding causing braking bumps in Morzine and damage to jumps in Chicksands etc. No one seems to get that locking up causes your braking distance to be longer.

Personally I prefer big rotors as I’ve cooked Oros, The Ones, Avid’s and the old C2’s and mono M4’s and my brother once managed to boil a set of M6’s at a downhill race in the uk…**** knows how you do that, the calliper and cooling surface on those brakes was huge.

Your right though, it’s down to personal preference. I stated that earlier, if your preference is for grabbier brakes the OP should go with the Shimano’s. At the end of the day it won’t affect his riding that much either way he goes, it’s just about taste.

you need to chill out more!! ever tried smoking weed?

Because weeds great for depression…. 😐 not

I haven’t tried the new Saints but I’ve tried the new XT’s quite a bit on mates bikes. I was just using the old saints as an example of how I find modulation to be important, I nearly OTB’d with them. I found the newer XT’s to be better in that regard but not enough to justify saving 50-70 quid by going with them over Race X2’s.

I genuinely disagree with that, I found the old Saints to be far to on and off. That’s what feel means to me Northwind, anyway the M4’s modulate a lot nicer than my V2’s. When I moved up to the V2’s I really had to alter my braking style (and even these modulate fairly well) so as not to scrub off to much speed into corners.

The Shimanos aren’t on off though- I was riding a bike with 2012 Saints and 203mm rotors at the weekend, still perfectly usable, not at all on/off.

I thought they felt absolutely horrible tbh but that’s just taste

They’re 4 pots though, part of the reason for going to 4 pots is to increase modulation as well as power.

Whereas everyone I know who uses Hope brakes says they are great but then complains they arent working properly now and need bleeding again. At least Hope have good spares when you need them. But why are their brakes so seemingly unreliable?

I’ve had about 4 pairs of Hopes, C2’s , Minis, M4’s and V2s. My brother was a sponsored downhiller at one point and ran Hopes from C2s all the way through to M6’s and V2s and my old man pretty much ran the same. So we’ve had well over a dozen sets of Hopes. Never had a problem with reliability, ever.

You need to bleed Hopes at least once a year because they use hydroscopic synthetic fluid that eventually loses it’s heat resistance, whilst Shimono’s use inferior but longer lasting Mineral oil.

It was beyond our ability to fix them with spare parts from CRC Northwind…they needed to go back. They’d had the usual new seals and were still acting funny. I think something really major had gone wrong with the master cylinder.

They were the old 09 ones that they had to redesign due to reliability issues.

When was that? You know they changed distributors? There was a downtime inbetween as stock and obligations were transferred.

The summer just gone, he sent them at the beginning of August.

Yeah Dirtbiker, it’s all down to personal preference and whether you want to service them easily. At the end of the day I like more modulation, I like to service my own brakes, I like nice blingy things and I also have a habbit of physically damaging brakes during crashes – so I went with Hope’s as say… if I bent a lever…I can get that for 16.99 as opposed to 45 quid for a whole new Shimano lever + master cylinder.

Remember the X2 system is a lot lighter than XT and slightly above or below (can’t remeber) XTR weights whilst being cheaper than the latter.

They aren’t more powerful though, they’re just grabbier initially.

That’s where opinion comes in, where I hate the on/off feel because it’s much harder to feather Shimano brakes in loose or wet conditions without losing traction.

Exactly how long have you had them for Coogan? 1 year, 2 years, 3 years? They will go eventually. My old man hasn’t had to do anything to a pair of Hope Mini’s on his commuter/XC bike for the past 5/6 years.

That’s unusual for Hope…

Formula The One

LOL my old man sent his pair back to be serviced/repaired. Do you know how long it took the distributors to do it? Three months 👿

Overall: With Hope you’re getting quick service times when you want to send them back, good parts availability and good customer service. With the XT/SLX you’re saving a few quid and getting a brake system that produces just as much power and are possibly more reliable… but at the expense of parts availability and customer service. The XT’s/SLX produce their power quicker and have less modulation (some like grabbier brakes).

So do you want initially grabbier brakes, that are cheap enough (just about with the SLX brakes anyway) to throw away when they start to break down? Or do you want to spend more and get a slightly better performing brake that MAY need a little more servicing but will last better in the long run?

Also the Hopes can take good racing fluid like Motul 600 or Castrol SRF – if your into big long alpine descents these will do more for you than Shimano’s Icetech rotors ever will. Also the Hope’s feel MUCH better made with no rattling parts and are far more bling! If you like engineering, you will love them.

Two Concepts of Liberty – Isaiah Berlin

The Hitler Myth – Ian Kershaw

Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients – Ben Goldacre

Kendalls Three volume Advanced theory of Statistics (cost me a LOT of money *sigh* lol)

Put a skunk in the garden

Not sure I’d want a pair of bos forks, you can source all the spares for Rock Shox forks on the net very quickly so that if they die on you just before you go to the Alps your not going to have to rent a bike or cancel your trip.

Galaxy Note 2 here as well, the hardware and OS blows my old S2 out the water. No more crashes, easier to navigate, better widgets etc etc etc

It’s fooking great, I’ve found it so much more readable than a normal phone and so much more portable than a 7″ tablet. It goes everywhe
ere with me unlike a 7 inch tablet except when I’m in a lab that requires sterility (no phones allowed).

Then when I’m commuting….waiting for 15 minutes for the train….no need to riffle through my bag to get a tablet….instead just grab the phone from my pocket and I can get on with playing Need for Speed!

I prefer this

It’s beautiful and different, it just needs a 44mm+ headtube.

Headtube is clearly too short too.

Really, it’s 125mm? That seems a bit long actually, the NP Mega’s is 115.

This one if for those who chose to remember..

I chose to remember, others in this thread have clearly made opinions about how remembrance should be done. If you guys didn’t want someone to dispute that, it shouldn’t have been posted.

The trolls are out in force then? The armed forces past, present and future deserve our unwavering respect, regardless of political issues – they should not detract from rememberance day. This day is to remember those who have sacrificed all for the protection of our country, and the upholding of values we rightfully want (world or nationwide).

Okay, you and others asked for this – what about remembering all the war dead – that I feel so many are forgetting. Oh but we must put our armed forces up and on a pedestal and bask in their glory, anyone who doesn’t is akin to a paedo.

What about all those massacre’s that the British Army are known for? What **** values did the Para’s in Bloody Sunday uphold again, what values did the British soldiers involved in the Mau Mau uprising uphold, what values did our soldiers uphold in the Boer war, what values did our soldiers uphold in the Opium War? Oh but they deserve our unwavering respect regardless, we must all bow down to social pressure. Just about the only truly just war in the past 5 centuries has been WW2 and arguably a few of the Balkan shit throwing contests.

Check out the last Tommy’s views on the poppy and perhaps Robert Fisks grandfathers, both of which held very similar views to my veteran grandparents and uncles. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-do-those-who-flaunt-the-poppy-on-their-lapels-know-that-they-mock-the-war-dead-6257416.html.

Here’s a thought – just because I have opinions, and some of them are deeply held, there might be occasions on which it would be respectful and appropriate to keep them to myself. Too many people nowadays think that just because they are entitled to an opinion, they must ram it down throats whenever possible.

Yeah that would be a start, maybe some of the more jingoistic poppy wearers should shut it as well. It’s like living in the bible belt of America – wear your proppy but I don’t want to hear your views rammed down my throat on the news, in the papers, in public, or at parties.

P.S The pics for all the red faced angry patriots that will now post that they want to knock me out and defeat the original interwar point of the poppy. Also, I donated to the RBL but I won’t be caught dead wearing poppy seeing what I feel it’s come to represent.

Recent graduate in Medical Science, having been a student I’m a recovering social defect. My head doesn’t reside in a cavity (unless I’m going down on a woman)… my brain does though if that’s what you mean.

I think you’re a bit of a chav if I must say.

I is/was nukeproofriding now and ‘then’. What of it? I am here, I am me.

Quit smoking pot. Hippy.

So who is/was nukeproofriding then ?

Just come out and say it !

Nahhh, it’s not me.

To be fair, you do come across like a massive, massive cock.

I want to rip him a new arsehole and send him home on the train on Monday with his notice in his pocket and a week’s compensation for not having access to his company car
It’s little wonder he’s taking the piss out of you.

Guys, if you think the OP is bad you should try cheffing in a Michelin star restaurant. Oh the stories! You’ve never had a bad boss until you’ve been punched in the face by one or been branded with a hot poker.

Anyway, to the OP, can I have his job? I’ll do it for 15k+ and a car for the first year, rising after a year. I’m often told I’m a persuasive person, I scrub up well and I have a public school boy accent (it must be good if a posh persons selling it to you? right! ), I reckon I’d be good at this sales thing.

Seriously, 15k+ and a car and I’ll be more focused and loyal than a Gurkha. My multiple part time contracts are starting to irritate me.

4.4kg inc shock. Was thinking about Nicolai Ion 16 personally.

Bar weight, I don’t see how that’s going to be much better. It’s slack as well! Slackness isn’t good for climbing but the bike I’ve got in my head isn’t for all dayers, it’s a play-bike/enduro bike that you can just about mash up to the top of your runs. An evolution on mini-downhill bikes (that I never thought were mini, light or any more fun than a full blown race rig).

Don’t get me started on signle crowns, if someone produced a decent 160mm-180mm dual crown in a similar weight category to my coil lyriks, I’d be all over them, even if they cost a bit and needed air prings or ti springs etc to keep the weight down. Integrated stems are the way to go.

Just researching my options at the moment, I think I might try a slackening my mega off more for the time being but I’d like to move to the Cotic at some point seeing as I have an undersized frame anyway. I’ll get in touch with the chap who mentioned the 44mm angleset and with the frame 18bikesmatt about a custom front triangle if Cotic won’t do one. This will probably be a project for next summer/Autumn though – I’m going to take my time with this build and I also need the money :mrgreen:.

I guess with my dislike of single crowns and my bike preferences is that I’m after a 140/160r-160f mm bike that weighs between 28-32lb’s, has the geometry of a downhill bike, a steep a full length seat tube and dual crowns to keep similar steering precision…..it’d be schawweeeeeeet. It’s a shame no company will indulge my desires and that there’s no real market for it. 👿 I’m not so bothered about coil shocks/forks for this this kind of bike, air would be fine and it’d keep the weight down and the geometry and stiffness would make for a really fun ride.

P.S The push link is for coil shocks really, there’s nothing wrong with the stock Nomad link if your running an airshock.

Well, a properly setup bike (ie propr sag and proper rebound) can help beginner downhillers gain confidence when riding a lot quicker. Compression is a fine tuning device. So I really disagree that setup can be crap and most riders can ride round it. They cam, but they’d see their times decrease fairly considerably if they time their runs and got the basics right.

Tyre pressure is another big one, on loamy wet ground (eg chicksands, especially when it’s got dead leaves on it) I find high tyre pressures work much better for me. I get more trail feedback so I can feel the grip and the tyre seems to dig in more. Low tyre pressures in the conditions feel weird and sensation less. In rocky, rooty terrain I MUCH prefer low tyre pressures though.

Let’s decapitate his head and display it over London Bridge!

Hooray for the Middle Ages, hooooray!

Me, 3 or 4 years ago on an SX trail overshooting the landing by quite a margin on the dual at Chicksands before they cocked the dual track up by taking the drop out. 👿

Well, they ended up with a far worse product. The forks are actually less forgiving on steep descents for the average consumer as the diveyness whacks the geo out!

There have been lots of other products in the past that were ruined when the consumer got what they asked for and then suddenly realized they hated it. Just wait till the 2013 fox stuff has good circulation amongst the consumer base and they’ll be whining about the brake dive and wallowyness!

Now whilst I’ll slag Bos off for their customer service, haven’t you noticed that a lot of average riders have been raving about their products! Bos forks are harder too achieve full travel with than the new Fox stuff – but they are controlled! That’s what counts!

If you could push to 800, I’d be running some Syntace MX35’s (the width is insane for the weight). If not, then I’d go cheap and cheerful with some Superstar hubs laced to Stans.

Do the mavics still have the god awful hubs that were seeing them being slated in all the mags?

Also, never buy anything with proprietary spokes for obvious reasons.

What’s hilarious is because Fox listened to idiot consumers as opposed to racers, the new forks are divey pieces of crap and have been roundly slagged by reviewers/good riders!

Anyway, I use much firmer compression damping at places like Chicksands to give more trail feedback and pop off jumps and back off on rooty techy trails. I also alter rebound depending on the trail as well – eg do I want it fast or are there lots of big hits that give me a bucking sensation (so that I have to back it off a bit). It does genuinely alter the ride quality. I really despise these new CTD forks.