I’d stop for f&c in Lytham and skip Blackpool tbh.  Much more pleasant

Or go the opposite way. Chips at Bispham and on to Fleetwood!

@ sharkattack

Made good use of a small space at Charnock. Especially the best bit, the attached dirt jumps! Shame the pump track is a touch on tight side for MTB’s though!

Would be nice to see the pump track, intermediate dirt jump combo adopted for other small urban sites/corners of existing parks up and down the country!

it usually means some weird jump is about to be added to a trail

:D Yeah seen jumps pointing at trees, abrupt lips with no scoop (bucky as ****), jump sets squashed too close together and gaps with next to no run-ins or run-outs. Obviously there’s never any thought to grade a slope in the trail so the water follows the contours of the land, no just a hole (before a lip) or a carved-out trench/rut that fills up like a pond!

Meh predicted this years ago on this very forum. All the tax clamp downs (trades, small businesses etc) will be on the little people while the American corporations crack on business as usual. What a shocker eh!

They always punch down and start at bottom, while trivialising the amounts of money when it’s rich people and making a massive deal over much smaller amounts when it’s dirty little plebs at it.

push the button

I’m not having it. It’s pull the trigger!

On middleclassbuyingdecsionworld we rock up and pull triggers. If some oik has the temerity to disagree with one’s carefully considered procurement strategy, it is customary to be offended, defensive, indulge in some backhanded insults and finish with a flounce.

The real question is what is “middle class”?

Exactly! Everyone get’s their Waitrose shopping delivered and have been to at least one Jacob Collier gig in another country.

Who doesn’t want to defeat the evil mind control carrot!

Audi TT wheels.

If we are talking underrated or didn’t know it existed, it’s got to be this:

Used to play it projected onto a wall, it looked stunning. A Bit like MTB, if you can’t keep the flow going gameplay becomes lumpen and awkward!

As they are Manitous latest and supposedly most sorted product it’d be good to hear (good and bad) what you think when you have got them dialed in and had some time on them!

How long will it take for some braindead to twang one of these things off their bike ripping a kids face off or they get dragged up the hill by their heels getting debowled in the process. There will be high fiving at the LLP as they sue for twelvety billion trillion pounds and get the whole thing shut down because there wasn’t a sign saying don’t pour hot coffee over your skin or something.

This is the glorious UK we live in. The level of skull is unbelievable and unmatched!

I’d settle for some indoor dirt jumps and we can’t even get that.

The reason they are so rare is commercial landlords (canny as ****) don’t want to be left with a building full of earth that needs shifting if the tenants business goes tits up.

Until recent years the authoritarian threat came from Labour, especially in its “new” guise.  3000 new criminal offences, ID cards (moot now),   and indeterminate sentencing

Absolutely. Included extensive and disturbing surveillance plans, carbon copies of American legislation under different titles and very loose use of powers related to terrorism, abused by councils/any public body to deal with minor matters.

Suppose that’s what you get when coming from the legal profession. The we know best drive to micromanage the naughty plebs world.

My most worn shoes of the last few years. I will leave you horrible lot to speculate on what I matched them up with. A cheeky mert and brown paper bag perhaps!

Oh dear vintage trainers to go with the badly fitting jeans and beer belly covering leather jacket.

The idea of some equivalence between the far right and the far left is just a fantasy, the far left doesn’t exist in any real way, other than a lie to portray an imaginary ideological battle.

Pointed this out years ago when someone was going on about rabid left wingers. It’s ironic most western governments view right wing groups/individuals as the largest domestic terrorist threat. In the US they are organised, heavily armed, backed-up by certain professions, prominent politicians and the mainstream media.

I’d go further. In the last 15 years there has been a concerted effort to stamp out any remotely left leaning discourse in the public domain.

The only reason I’m on Shimano is because I haven’t paid more than 120 quid for F&R and I have XT, SLX and Deore. The Deores were more like 70 or 80 quid.

Can you buy the Lewis levers separately?

I blame Industry Annoying and Hope for these big bore freewheel yobo’s.

As mentioned the GA2 Fat are tapered.  Just be aware they are thicker than average sized grips, not massive or the thickest on the market by any stretch though.

More backsweep is another good call.

I agree with you about straight bars. Since the almost universal use of zero/low rise stems and shorter headtubes they just don’t seem the right answer. I can only think of the odd DH bike with a really high stack where they might be necessary, unless you are trying to look like a mint sauce drawing or something!

Two excellent remixes.

The scary thing is moving towards the American way, but without the higher wages and possibly as strong unions

Of course we will get the cheaper, smaller, and greyer English version.

Educate the neighbours!

try dealing with Americans. Themost peverse nation i’ve ever dealt with

They are pretty good at serial killers, high school shootings and have the highest prison population in the world. Psychotherapy and self help is almost a norm just to get through American life. Not to mention families bringing their kids up like they’re in a military boot camp. Some of the longest working hours backed up by the lowest holiday entitlement. The worst poverty and homelessness of any rich country.

Seems their societal ideals come at some cost, unless you are rich/a celebrity/from a rich family/revered for making money. Yet British people want to be American, have adopted American political (woke and all that shit) and cultural ideals because of their all pervading social media and cultural brainwashing that started long before social media existed!

Anything but an inner tube 🤮

I know but if you cut the tube into a single layer thin strip it doesn’t look anywhere near as bad, especially on black frames! I’ve actually had a few comments on how neat it is on one of my bikes. Managed it without any cable ties or tape to hold the ends down!

I’d like to try a McLeod

I’d go for the newer Mara. The inline version is a McLeod with all the refinements and improvements the McLeod got during it’s production run before the name was dropped in favour of one name for both the inline, trunnion and piggyback versions, which were previously named McLeod and Swinger :D

A Mezzer Pro, Mara and Dominion equipped bike is my dream. I’ve got a McLeod (helps rid 4 bar bikes of their  sluggishness and wallowing) and Mattoc Pro.

Hayes got something so right with the pro dampers silky smooth handling of successive big hits. Feels smooth and unflappable like DH forks from other manufacturers.

The issue with boomers is that they have been the largest single block of voters from around 1970 right up until a couple of years ago.

That means that we have had political parties tailoring their policies towards a single generation for over 50 years.

Absolutely the death throes we are witnessing are as ugly as you would expect.

You might not even find they perform like you expect, 2 vs 4 pot in mountain bikes is largely about marketing and largely about the fact that some of the market leaders really aren’t very good at making brakes

Well I’m about to find out as I’ve only had 2 pots before. Not had any problems with Shimano calipers leaking but master cylinder piston seals have leaked after about 2-3 years on the most used brake (the rear) on both my bikes.

Had I known Shimano brakes were shit in the long term I’d have got Hayes Dominions, but it’s too late for that now! I’m fully tied in and have spare brand new calipers and pads ready to go when necessary. I haven’t needed the spare calipers in roughly six and five years of use. New levers/seals yes!

If you do find that you are overheating the rear, a larger rotor will probably help more than a 4-pot caliper

The calliper and pads are one great big heat sink. Surely the larger surface area of the 4 pot caliper and pads has got to help. As I understand it the sole purpose of the longer banjo (more metal) is for increased heat dissipation, however marginal it may be!

People IME tend to cook the rear brake. Therefore it seems logical to me that a 4 pot rear makes more sense on a mountain bike and as you say there’s no harm in trying it anyway.

usually the rear brake that gets dirtier

Yeah that’s true. It always seems to be the rears where one piston seizes. So potentially 2 more pistons to seize up/drag.

Well what about this fruity little banger!

Owner of a sousaphone and Nigel Farage dart board.

We’ve noticed that your cassette is slightly dirty sir, would you like us to replace it and the rest of the drivetrain at the same time?

This^^^ cables and tyres.

I predict there will be a lot of people buying new rotors that aren’t needed as well. It’s a favourite in the vehicle servicing world!

Bloody woke liberals pursuing this when snow black trans has taken over and my useless brother-in-law gets 300 quid a week to sit on his arse along with all those work shy millennials starring at their phones.

We should just let them off, it’s only a few quid after all said and done! They’re trying their best. They all lie anyway. We are getting 40 new hospitals rule Britannia Britannia rule the waves.

What goes on in your bedroom is your business.

so what?

I reckon we can do better than adopting all the look at me parts of American culture.

Lee, Brian, Gary, all the same aren’t thee.

Loving the poster taking life advice from Alan Partridge

He was right about Kate Bush though.

The old ones were lethal and documented as such by many, many people.

Yes they were. They were alright for the first few months, but once through the thin top layer, were as dangerous as other hard compound tyres, when used as a front. A typical DHF would last twice to three times as long before it was unusable.

The worst tyres I’ve had have been the ones with hard compounds. Old Michelin Rock R and as already mentioned a worn Butcher. When on the front I could make them slide in dry berms with alarming ease, where even the most mediocre/worn ragged tyres would grip. I just moved them to the rear, where it was ok until proper winter slop had set in!

@Cougar

Bring on the guns I can’t wait.

Not had the specific tyre you’re on about, a DHF alike tread. But have had Toro and a discontinued intermediate tyre. Both were good.

They have their own stupid naming conventions for compound and casings like the majority.