I have the meta and would recommend one, I’m a serial frame swapper and the meta will be staying for a while.

Anyone know if these will fit on a v3 meta am?

I have just built up a 650b meta and I’m very impressed with it. Not the lightest of frames and the internal cable routing is a bit of a pita. I’ve not noticed the weight when climbing though, and it’s definitely in its element descending, very lively and fast. I bought a large at 6’4 and the fit is brilliant. I’m using a 150 fork and have no issues with pedal strike.

Minion dhf fits nicely,they were cheap at nextdaytyres when I bought some last week.

This is definitely our huggable, granny bothering friend watsontony, the PayPal address he used to rip me off is the same as the ebay id on the cove auction. He claims he’s advertised elsewhere, anybody know where?

I test rode them all on an identical loop at glyncorrwg, half of whytes climb and the new blade descent.
I’m 6’4 and rode the xl’s on all bikes, all felt very comfortable.

Test rode a Bronson C, Solo C and Nomad C last weekend at afan. The Bronson was the pick of the bunch for me, climbed great and felt superbly composed descending. The solo wasn’t far behind, it would have been fairer test if it had a Pike as the Bronson did instead of the Fox 34.
The Nomad left me cold; long and lumbering uphill with plenty of pedal strikes, uninspiring downhill although it ploughed through everything very easily.
All eye wateringly expensive!

Did you do the section between helter skelter and the final descent? There’s a pretty good fast and swoopy section through trees followed by an old school section along the edge of a ridge although these are punctuated by yet more climbing. That said, there is a lot of winch for meagre amounts of plummet on this trail. Nice to have more options at afan though.

I’m committed to going up but may not race after an ‘off’ last weekend left me with bruised ribs. I’ll mince about on the Friday and see how I feel. Is the campsite available on the Thursday night?

3 sets, all de-stickered, looks much neater IMHO.

First ride on mine today, great piece of kit and didn’t miss the 17t gear at all

I finished my nurse training last year, there were quite a few people on the same course aged 40+. Age isn’t a barrier but it’s getting tougher every year to successfully enrol for nursing due to the numbers applying. If you’re not already working in healthcare you’ll do well to start volunteering in the sector to gain experience, also if you’ve been out of formal education for a while you may be required to do an access course at college before applying for uni. The course itself isn’t overly intellectually challenging but will take up a large part of your life.

I’d advise to closely consider your reasons for wanting to enter nursing, qualified nursing is very focussed on an administrative role these days sadly. You don’t need any particular qualification to become a health care support worker and the job may be more satisfying depending on your motivation.

Good luck if you decide to go for it.

I don’t think it was a comment concerning the durability of the trail surface and the ramifications on the future longetivity of a brand new trail – more being aggrieved that his expensive bike and 5:10’s were caked in mud.

Seriously sludgy in a lot of places. Overheard a comment- “I’m going to complain about this mud”. FFS.

Rode selected bits of it today:

Penhydd blue fast and grippy.
Whytes climb all open, a pain in strong wind now its exposed.
Windy point, 2 trees across trail. The second is just before the finish so take it easy.
Energy has trees across the trail very near the start, saw these from the fireroad so I dont know if theres any others further on.
373 and zigzags both fine.

Theres puddles around as you would expect but the trails hold up pretty well regardless of the weather.

There’s a button to press at the bottom of the link to show support, i’ve just done so. Thanks for the PSA Stupot.

Ordered Sunday night, arrived this morning using standard delivery.

In a very similar situation myself. I’ve planned to give my lad the best christmas yet before breaking the bad news that his dad is moving out in the new year. I will spend as much time with him as I can and try my best to remain on friendly terms with his mum. I’m anticipating tough times ahead but know deep down that a change is long overdue.

We’ve tried ‘rebooting’ a couple of times over the last few years and she’s still willing to attempt again but I’m all done. It’s properly heartwrenching to know that I’ll be turning my boys life upside down, I will try to make amends on every possible occasion.

Good luck with your situation, its a tough spot to be in.

SB95 owner here, i’d recommend one in a heartbeat. I’ve owned a rumblefish and 29covert in the past and the Yeti is superior to both in all ways. I have it built with fox 34’s, 1×10 Zee drivetrain, 30t wide/thin, hope/flows and reverb so pretty much the spec you suggested and its a superb trail machine.

Smorgasbord blew off my 26″ flow rim on its first outing. That said, very happy with the tyre now that a tube is fitted.

I had a chat with the very approachable Mr Sorrell on a day out at BPW in September and asked if there were any plans to build more uphill trails. He said that any new trails made would be DH as that was the main attraction and most people seemed to be riding up the fireroad anyway.

Loco, that’s an old frame of mine and is sorely missed. Lovely bike to ride and was a very light build (as a 26″!). I only sold it as I wasn’t enamoured by the stock drcv shock, I bet the coil transforms it. Its looking good in the current build.

Brechfa doesn’t handle wet weather as well as Afan IMO, but I would recommend a day at BPW which is about 1/2 hour further on than Afan in the direction you’d be going. Otherwise, W2 with a blast around the skills area is a decent day out.

You need the E and 2 cups with the extra 1 1/8->taper adaptor, assuming you want these for a 2013 covert frame.

Edit: beaten to it

Another edit, both cups in stock here for a good price http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/productlist.aspx?red=1

Yeti SB95, you’d have to go for a used frame to manage a build under 2k though. Deeply impressed with mine for all sorts of riding including the Brecon Beast and S Wales trail centres. The Trek Rumblefish is another very decent bike to consider.

Bloody predictive text on my new phone- my sentence was meant to read ‘its not marketed as a tubeless tyre’!

Apologies to all those who’s blood got boiled.

I had a smorgasbord blow off the rim on its second outing recently (tubeless on flow). I appreciate that it’s. It marketed as a tubeless compatible tyre but I’ve used other non TR tyres successfully. I was impressed by the grip and feel of it, although it was a little draggy.

I bought a conversion kit from Mojo to do this on my 36’s but haven’t got round to doing it yet; it looks easy enough if you look at the talas removal instructions and float fitting guide though. I probably won’t be using my kit as I’ve just fitted a set of coil forks so if you want it for a tenner less than the mojo price let me know- email in profile

Cheers OP, DH day booked for tomorrow.

Did this for the first time today, took the short loop. Pretty featureless ride, lots of winching uphill but enjoyed the challenge nontheless. Good atmosphere and a great effort from the marshalls.

Hope with flow/arch/crest depending on what you plan to ride. Freely available for @£280 ish, can be adapted to all common wheel fitment standards, easy to set up tubeless, Hope are great with any warranty claim should you be unlucky enough to need it and the bearings are pretty durable in UK gloop. No brainer really, well worth spending a few pounds over your top budget IMHO.

Just bought one from wiggle for 190 odd

Im heading up afan @10-11 in the morning for a couple of hours, probably do some trails and off piste stuff if you want some company? Email me for my number, address in profile.

Info please, email in profile

Ok, thanks for that.

How could I find out if there’s a retention period on the account? It’s an Outlook account. I’m also putting everything on an external harddrive and these emails are a backup to that.

I’ve been eyeing up the bikescene stumpys, I’ve heard bad things about low bb height on the earlier bikes so has this been resolved on the 2012 frames?

Kate at lodge cycles does coaching if your OH would prefer a female tutor?

Congrats on the new bike, I love my Coverts. I’d stick a nice burly 160mm on it (fox36, BOS, lyrik, marz66, xFusion) and ride it how it was designed to be ridden. A CCDB is a great upgrade to the shock as well if you dont mind the weight.

Whatsontony….a hod.