You need to drop your heel down and push into the pedal- like you’re forcing it away. Once you’ve got your front wheel off the ground, your legs and core do all the work in balancing and pumping. If you feel the front drop then push forward on the pedals.

This is really hard to explain actually..hopefully you can get something from that. Practice makes perfect though.

Can you wheelie? Once you find ‘that’ balancing point on the bike then a manual is a whole lot easier.

Thanks nicolaisam.
Is there a good guide on removing seals? What tools do you use?

Price match- I saved over £300 on a recent bike purchase from them. Quick and easy to setup. There’s some Ts&Cs HERE.
Just don’t buy it from their Reading store. They are useless and rude.

Ah, some one got the reference :D !

I’ve got a small update for you all..

I’m not convinced this is a thriving plant..

Response sent.. I shall update once Abdul has finalized his offer I can’t refuse. Hopefully he doesn’t ring the local plods number I have give him.

The BlueGT sounds like the best of both worlds. It’s probably enough real world power should you fancy some fun. My partners got a new 1.2 Tsi and it’s such a refined car, so that plus more power and toys seems a winner.

Residuals on these cars is really good! I can’t believe that a ’14 with 20k on it is still over £14000! I just need to wait 4 months before I can order mine.

Did you opt for the 3-dr or 5-dr? Manual or DSG?
I’m really struggling to find one to test drive in either manual or DSG.

Bumping the thread..
Does anyone know the weight of the Ti Stooge frame and fork?

I’d go for;
FS Enduro- Airdrop Edit; £2500
Trail FS- Whyte T129 SCR; £2300
Trail HT- Cotic Solaris; £1600
XC HT- Trek Superfly 9.8; £2300
Rigid SS hack- Stooge V2; £1100

OR

FS- SC Hightower X01 with LB Carbon wheels; £5600
HT- Canfield EPO; £2500
Winter hack- Stooge v2 Ti; £1900

OR

FS Trail- SC Nomad; £5000
FS Enduro- Airdrop Edit; £2500
FS winter- Orange Four; £2500

As you can see, I’m very decisive.

Good looking though, eh :o ! Have they released the total price yet?

The Bird is 650b.

There’s a few choices- Canfield YS, NP Scout 290, the new Last frame, 2Soulds QH .

When I was younger, it was swapping a bike every 3-4 months. I had about 3-6 bikes at a time. Swapped before anything would wear out most of the time.

Found a few bikes I absolutely love and sold the ones I don’t use. Now down to 3 and they’ve been around for 1x 3 years, 1x 1 year and 1x 1 month. Can’t see me swapping them anytime soon.

That said, we’re moving into a house soon and it’s not got a garage and space is limited, so I might have to go down to 2.. so possibly upgrade to same bike but current MY for my favorite and keep the roadie.

Just spotted this thread. Congrats on the purchase!
I’m stuck between the GTI and the GT myself. Not sure I can justify the additional running costs for 42bhp more.. works out as about £80 more PM, plus the additional £1500 purchase cost.

Edit: I struggle a bit with the standard GT interior. Not seen it in real life though. What do you think of it?

I’d love to hear what you think about the GT. There aren’t many user reviews on this. Would really appreciate real world feedback. So did you just walk into the dealership and to the deal? Did you have a print off of the broker deals? I’d prefer to go through the local dealer.

For local rides and trail centers- I’ve got a saddle bag mounted next to the DT bottle cage that contains essentials; tube, tools, chainlink, tyre leavers, Co2 & emergency phone. I usually mount a mini pump onto the bottle cage. Food & money go into by jersey pockets. This set up lets me add 2 bottle cages too- so 1.5 liters of water if needed.
I really like this setup. The weight’s down low and secure. I’ve never noticed the weight and I have more freedom to move around the bike.
[sorry about the bad picture, but you get the idea]

Longer trips I might add the Alpkit feedback for more food and a layer.

Now that is a lovely build bud! Still can’t get over the lovely colour.
Bontrager, you barstewards! How can they put on 3 rim stickers!! No hope of lining the tyres up. I’d have to de-sticker the rims :lol: .
I wouldn’t get sucked into changing the fork and shock too much. It’s a nice to have thing. Spend the money on uplift days and cycling trips :D

Edit: some matching mountain mint fork decals would look great!

At your price point I’d go alu.
You can save the weight from the CF frame in better components.
You’ll end up with a light bike, with nice components and better support.
The Alu frames are plenty stiff enough. A whole load of options will open up by going Alu (already a good list above).

For John Drummer:

In honor of this lady. Just..so..inspirational *Weeps*

[Only joking. It’s got nothing to do with her]

Learning to manual. It’s unbelievably satisfying being able to manual down part of the trail. It’s also got the added benefit of being useful now and again. It’s saved me a few times from going OTB.

I’d also add learning to snap the back out or up. It’s helped me with tight corners and trail obstacles. I also feel like a riding god when I tyre tap a tree.

Esher, is that Doddy with Rob too?
I always wanted to visit Esher, but I was too young to drive and didn’t have very willing parents.

The shop at BPW seems to do very well. I always stand in a queue whenever I buy something there. Some nice ideas there too, like the Enve demos. The whole centers well setup really with the Cafe, shop, rentals and uplift.

The unit my LBS is in is up for rent :( !
I’ve heard nothing from them though. They must be keeping it on the down low for now. I hope the can work something out. They are fantastic guys and run one of the local riding clubs out of passion.

The huge lease cost makes me wonder how sustainable it is though. We are looking at an annual lease in six figures. They never seem really busy and don’t have an online site. I wonder where the majority of their revenue comes from?

Didn’t know that, sorry. They are ace bikes too :(

I would suggest looking at:
– Whyte t129; I’ve got one and can’t get enough of it. Ridden XC marathons to some Enduro series. It does it all. Very competent for 120mm.
– Evil The Following; Great reviews and light, but expensive and questionable QC & CS
– Santa Cruz Hightower; New bike so unproven, but looks like a recipe for success based on the VPP platform on the Bronson and 5010. Expensive and you pay SC tax on it.
– Ibis Ripley LS
– Specialized Camber
– Canfield Riot; probably a bit OTT
– On-One Codeine; probably a bit OTT

To the fair, it’s only the title and the first paragraph. The rest of the article looks fine. Well set out actually, with good pictures and an interesting read.

3/10

That Mountain Mint is a fantastic colour! Would definitely be my choice.

> Chopping the steerer. Something really satisfying about cutting something down for a functional reason.
> Packing things with grease- headset, BB & hubs.

relevant-to-evans-but-off-topic-rant/

Yup, I’ve had some seriously bad customer service from them recently at the Reading store. Kept me waiting for an hour with no update and gave me a bike with an inferior lockout and scratched carbon bars, greasy frame and packaging still on it, bike not setup (bars & rear axle not tight) and gears not properly indexed and rubbing discs. I took the bike because I’d had a long day at work and needed to get back.

They put me in contact with the manager of the store, but after seeing his twitter account there is no way I’ll be talking to him.

No way in hell I’ll be going back to them. Almost gave the bike back but was the only one left in the country. Shame that my LBS didn’t have stock. The free service will be useless too if it’s the same mechanic working on it. He’ll make it worse. I despair for any amateur cyclist buying a bike from there, that’s if they get down the road alive after how mine was set up.

/rant

Ahh, right you are. Didn’t spot that in the deal.
Whats the plan with the car? Buy it outright and own?
If so, check out the residuals and depreciation. The Fiesta isn’t the best in that regard. The Polo holds its value fantastically well (as long as its not the bogo 1.0, 1.2 non-Tsi, or anything lower than SE). Some of them you could run depreciation free for a year!

Edit- Sundayjumper- you could be right. It’s just not obvious to many that its an option. I did the same with my MSc career development loan. They were charging 9.9% interest! Sorted a 3.4% interest the next day and paid it off in full with no charge. Saved me over £1800.

Hmm, that specs coming up as £13,206.20 on Drive the Deal.

Yes, you order through them. They just act on your behalf to secure the deal.
Just so you know, the cars aren’t always in stock.. some can be and others have to be built. Just talk to them and ask.

All great cars! Don’t think you can go wrong. I’m looking at similar, but may blow the budget and go for the Polo GTI (new 1.8 Turbo version).

As a heads up, check out some other broker sites as Car Wow is rarely the cheapest. My two favorites are:
– drivethedeal.com ; they have the Zetec S Black for £13,040, and Red for £12,620
– Oranegwheels.com ; not cheaper for this model

Remember that the deals are often based on taking the car through their finance. If paying cash you need to add the deposit contribution and other bits on top. It is however possible to take their finance loan and pay it off within a month in full. You don’t get stung by their interest but retain the original lease benefits. Usually there is no early settlement fee. Lots of people do this for a variety of manufacturers, just double check their Ts&Cs. Takes a little bit of work but worth it. That’s my plan when I get round to it.

If you don’t have the cash, just take out a low interest loan- some are offering 3.3% for £7.5-15k (M&S, Sainsbury’s), vs the VW 6.8%! No brainer.

Other cars to consider are the Peugot 208 GTI. It gets a good review. Bit of a left field choice though.

Turkish guys offer me a complimentary drink (beer, soft drink or water), they set my ears on fire (literally), use a cutthroat razor to do the shave bit, wash my hair and then massage my face with a warm eucalyptus infused hot towel for £12- yes, I roundup to £15 with pleasure. It’s a real event going there. Lovely and friendly guys. As pampered as I’ve ever felt :lol:

I moved and the new barbers does an okay job for £10. Can’t really tip when paying with a note. Not very good VFM either.

I’d be interested how much your bike weighs fully loaded.
Do you always wear the camelback?

Yeah, I find that my bikes seem to depreciate more than my cars. So I am forever disappointed when selling bikes. Depreciation coupled with stupid offers just make me rage. Partly why I’ve cut down on the bike addiction.

The Whytes have pretty big reach/TTs. I think it depends on your preference.
I’m 5’9” and am on a Medium T129, but a Small 29-CS. I would be surprised if you don’t find the large more comfortable though. Only you will know though once you sit on it. Maybe post some Renton style photos for us armchair engineers to offer some judgement :lol:

Tubeless on my new bike :evil: . It’s the first time its caused me problems.
Setting up and tweaking the rear mech. I still haven’t worked out how to get it perfect, yet I can bleed brakes and rebuild forks.

Another great groupset by Sram! They really are stealing the upper MTB market.
I like the fact that they’ve now got a conventional freehub cassette available too. All bases covered.

It’s funny that most Steel HT frames have weight stated but anything Alu they seem to struggle. Carbon is always stated too. Try finding out the weight of an Orange FS. Almost impossible.

Didn’t realize that! I thought all the money from parking goes to the Crown Estate, who then help fund trail building and development? Partly why I park there and don’t give others my ticket when I leave. Maybe I have to rethink this if none of the money goes back into the trails.

I should think the cafe could make money all year round. Even in the middle of winter the car parks packed. It could really do with an extension and a re-fresh. Currently it looks tiered and it’s a poor layout. Plenty of scope to make some nice home made cakes and the like.

Scamper- £100 seems reasonable if you’re local, or have kids. That’s only 25 all day trips.