Your lawn needs some tlc, it’s looking like a desert.

Was it the Champery DH track from 2007? That nearly gave a few people a heart attack!

On a serious note, glad you survived and hope you make a speedy recovery.

Take it easy!

Not at a primary school no. For the majority of pupils that age that is the norm.

But when you’ve got 6ft tall 16 year olds it can make a big difference. I can’t tell you why, a psychologist might be able to.

I’ve just witnessed the difference first hand in practice post change from one uniform to the other.

Edit, thinking about it, it might be something to do with creating a professional feeling environment, basically that you put on your uniform and go off to school to work. That would also explain why primary kids don’t need the same social clothing boundary of shirts and ties, the polo shirts and jumpers to them will feel like they are in their school/work clothes.

The environment has a massive impact on learning.

You can instantly see a difference in the way a group of pupils behave if you put them in a uniform, in a nice light open classroom. They are drastically worse if they are in a cramped graffitied environment with wobbly chairs and desks that are too small wearing polo shirts and jumpers.

He has absolutely no clue whatsoever.

He really makes me angry!!!

I’m Head of Maths in a school and I can’t believe how niave he is about what really works to benefit children.

The worst thing he has come up with to-date, and is trying hard to push through is to remove structure and introduce performance related pay. It smacks of someone who has no clue about how to help a school full of pupils.

We strategically move pupils to support each other as a Maths team with behaviour and other areas in mind. There’s often a member of staff who takes one for the team (groups of pupils who can barely sit still) so that all of our team can benefit and so that other pupils learning environments are protected and we can get the best results for all the pupils.

If each member of staff starts to become motivated to only get the best out of their groups then shared planning/resources and all the colaberative elements that make us successful will then start to break down.

We all lose out, but more worryingly all the pupils start to lose out.

What an absolute moron!

Did you know that a large proportion of his qouted statistics come from a UK TV Gold surveys?

…. and for anyone who asks why are you on a forum when you should be marking or teaching?… I’ve given my group a mock exam which they are sitting right now and I’m up to date with all my marking due to working till 11pm last night…. just for the record :-)

Rant over.

I’m a teacher so technically do educate the Masses.

I’ll make sure I add a lesson on this to our key stage three schemes of work for next year. Thanks for the heads up…. I Don’t know how my riding might have progressed without your wise words.

Thanks for all the responses guys. It’s quite scary hearing the “friend of a friend”.

Zigzag- Thanks for describing that in such detail, I’m not sure I want to put myself through that.. but then again I might..

You’re mixing milk and orange juice then going riding… acid and alkaline fizz in your stomach.

Throw a bucket of cold water over him when he tantrums.. he’ll only do it again twice. :lol:

I had a lunch box. The shell was so big, thick and heavy it made it properly slow.

Then I got a dirt thrasher

Then I discovered you could buy aftermarket shells and my dirt thrasher got slammed with shorter shocks and slick tyres with an Opel Manta replica shell.

Happy days, I lost about 3 weekends to building these for other kids at school who were too dumb to follow the kit instructions… or maybe I was dumb not charging them!

Year old Zesty with float front and rear with mix of SLX/XT/Formula and a reverb.. about £1000

Having owned various brakes from Avid and other manufacturers (Hope/Hayes/Formula/Shihimano) I can honestly say THE most powerful brake I have ever owned was a set of original Codes.

Out of interest what made you change the 456 for a Soul?

I had one of the original big hits. They seem to have got rid of the specialized decals on this new one?

It will be fine, everything with a pivot (mech/frame etc) will all be wobbly by the end of it… but it will be fine.

If the frame/forks will take some 2.5 tyres then that will help.

Good luck with your hands, the braking bumps out there are hard on your hands when riding bikes with less than 7″ travel.

Buy the one that suits what you need it for and fits you. The fitting you is more important than anything.

For instance- I can’t own a Turner 5 spot, I find the medium too small and the large too big. Some manufacturers sizes will fit you spot on, others you may be between sizes.

As has been said they are different bikes for different needs. Decide what you want it fir and at bare minimum go and sit on one in a shop to try it for size before buying.

Started fitting a new kitchen floor on Saturday… no riding next weekend as a result of losing a load of plaster when removing the skirting board.

Sunday- Rode a charity bike ride called Tonya’s Challenge. Nothing to shout about in terms of technical trails or anything as it is mostly a ride through farm land. But the spirit of the day was great and 37 miles off road in 3.5 hours has left me broken today!

Beer?

Banshee Spitfire would get my vote.

I’ve managed to get 4 years out of a pair of sidewinders.

Paul

Cannock with half the monkey closed for felling is still much better than pines.

In answer to the original question… yes the 32 has fatter lowers. I was looking at them in my garage the other day noticing this myself (I’ve got 140mm rev’s on my hardtail and 150mm 32 floats on my trail bike) and its really noticeable by eye.

You could cut the steerer off so the cracked bit is removed. Then buy a low stack headset and run your stem with no spacers.

Obviously this will affect your handlebar height.. which you could correct that with a higher rise bar.

Tried using Ride.io? Works well for me when selling.

Cheers mate, that’s a starting point for me.

Appreciate the offer on the rattly mower but I’m based in the midlands.

There’s a fair few come up for that sort of money. Any brands to avoid?

http://www.gumtree.com/search?q=petrol+mower&search_location=Nottinghamshire&category=all

I bought spokes from them a few months back. Just paid on debit card, no mention of bank transfer.

Can you run 719’s tubeless? I thought Mavic tubeless all started with an 8?

You’ve got this all wrong.

You need a trailer to hook your 2.5 year old dog up to and then put the older dog inside :D

Have you cut the interference piece off the front mech? Connects with the frame during compression.

Paul

I’m 5ft10 and bought a medium 2011 one. Had to sell it because it was too small. I’d say 5ft7 would be perfect on a Medium 5 spot.

£350 ish would be my guess.

Lol. Is that the one I sold you Terry?

EDIT: Just realised you’d posted before the pictures. Really glad that got some “proper” use.

Nice, I started off riding 26″ mtb trials at about 13 before I got into DH and then eventually all mountain/xc. Always fancied a go on a trials bike with an engine.

They count, are they old school trials bikes esselgruntfuttock?

This thread would be better with more pictures :-)

About 2k. Would be about 4k if it was all bought new at retail, but most of my kit was bought as ridden once or twice second hand or unused parts from last year from sponsored riders off of various forums.

Maybe take up Golf?

Only joking, try going to some places where you are there to ride DH. One minute descents with a push back up. Wear some knee/shin/elbow pads and get a full face and go out and learn that falling off doesn’t hurt that much in that gear.

You will get much faster and more confident in what you/yourbike and the tyres can do quickly that way.

Then jump back on the normal trails in your usual gear and you will be more confident.

Hope this helps… then if that fails sell the bike and get some golf clubs ;-)

A mate of mine who I used to ride/race DH with (Adam Wiles) if any of you have done much DH in the past few years might know him? Anyway, he rode his BMX from Nottingham to skegness last year with a bunch of singlespeed riders. Said it was the only single speed bike he owned so took that in the spirit of riding 1 gear. 70 f’ing miles! Took about 8 hours mind, but still an amazing feat.

No, but in the few years before that yes.

Hayes nines are reliable old clunky brakes, modern kit (even the budget brakes) are a lot more refined than nines.

Yes. it’s the right hand ones that aren’t compatable. I’ve got an X9 shifter running an XT front mech on a triple. Works perfectly.

Paul