skimmed milk is low fat, but still has large amounts of lactose (sugar) which if unused will get turned into fat by your body

I have a 12 mth old trafic, its my second one. Bed built inside it, with storage underneath, sleeps two of us with the bikes inside for security when necessary and have a drive away awning for when a campsite is an option. Did 2 weeks in the alps last year and the year before and 2 weeks surfing in Portugal the year before-different vans obv! A mate has an older one with a similar setup (a 53 plate I think) which was about £2500. He made the same trip last year and he was fine. The year before he did it in a Passat estate that cost about £3500 and the engine blew up. My point is a) Trafics are a good van option and b) anything “used” carries a risk of letting you down.

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/f19/iron-horse-sunday-totem-208591/

Also I really don’t need the bottom bracket to be any lower than it is now either

I realise this is of no help but I have been thinking the same thing. They did produce a version with totems at one point but I’m not sure what the head angle difference was. That is the bit I’m worried about. I don’t want it massively steeper than it is now

I have a ccdb air on mine, it is very good. It’s nice to have rebound damping that does something. When I looked at the options available and RP23 kashima was £370 and the ccdb was £450. It seemed like an obvious choice for the sake of £80 to get what everybody says is the best airshock. Obviously that is relying on the opinions of others but when some of the others are the NP team riders then I guess you have to add that weight to the decision. Nige Page uses the shock on his and noone knows the mega better than him. Anyway that was how I arrived at my decision and after a bit of faffing with the settings I reckon I have it pretty much spot on.

I had one, it felt lighter than 6lbs, it was an ’06 but I never weighed it. Not trying to be a smart arse but why don’t you ring Orange? Whenever I’ve ever needed to know anything about their bikes the woman that answers the phone generally knows the answer, you don’t even need to get put thru to someone else.

Up the zig zaggy path behind the yoho, at the top turn left to traverse across and up to the summit or turn right to get round to the top of Sticks.

this may sound obvious hunta but have you tried taking up some of the slack in the cable? I have an i950 and that normally happens a few weeks after it’s had a new cable and taking up the slack normally sorts it out. Having said that since I swapped the cable for a Gore sealed one 6 mths ago it has worked flawlessly and changing the cable hasn’t been necessary.

have you actually put a different freehub on it? If so the spacer could well still be inside the old freehub body. Give it a tap and see if it falls out of the back. Embarrassingly this has happened to me :/

+1 Coatesy, look around for a spacer that looks like a du shock bush but obviously a larger diameter, it will be on the floor somewhere!!

mikewsmith-did you actually race the first stop at Inners? I did and not only did I not encounter anyone pushing up any of the timed descents but I’m not sure exactly where this could have been done. Judging by your comments on this I’d have to assume that you are for some reason anti Steve Parr and almost certainly full of shit

these http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/140/160_6290/fsa-orbit-xtreme-pro-1-5-mr069-bearings.html
prob cheaper on ebay

just enter 6808 2rs

you mean it sags less now?

Just came back from 2 weeks in the Alps, Les Arcs, Pila and Chamonix. Couldn’t be happier with the shock if I’m honest. I had about a week riding it at home and tweeked it a bit from how TF set it up and then changed it a little bit from that for the Alps, mainly took a bit off the low speed compression because I didn’t need to pedal so much and I guess it’s always gonna be a little bit of a trade off between pedal bob and small bump sensitivity. I’m gonna leave it like that now I’m back and see how it pedals. I think it was only 2 clicks so I may go half way. Its worlds away from the Monarch thats for sure…

Here’s mine, only a few rides in with the CCDB but it’s a world away from the RT3 that’s for sure

I don’t know much about the Fuji but have personal experience of the G12 so I can’t compare however size wise it seems like they’re pretty much identical from what i can see? Canon 112 x 76 x 48 mm and Fuji 117 x 70 x 57 mm. So it would seem if you got both you could start building a wall…

Canon G11 or G12. Only 5xoptical zoom but has a viewfinder, and isn’t too big. Excellent results too.

nah the last bit is a BW down to the visitors centre

Thanks for that, went from Chamonix thru Bourg last year but it was raining so just kept driving and went to Deux Alpes instead.Then ended up going to Valloire and never made it back to Les Arcs so want to have a look this year. the plan is to go to Andorra for a bit then drive to Les Arcs, then Chamonix and ride Pila while we’re in Cham.

sorry if this is a dumb question but I’ve been looking at the trail map that Wozza posted and can’t quite figure out, can you access all the Vallandry side by going up the funicular and then riding down to lifts and sort of zig zg your way across or do you need to drive round to get to the Vallandry and Vanoise lifts? cheers and sorry for the slight hi jack Airscool

thats a blow to hear that Valloire has been battered by the weather, we were hoping to ride there again this summer. went last year as I’d been in the winter and wanted to see what it was like in the summer. Gangsta etc were really good fun trails and kind of got the Mrs up to speed for some of the bigger stuff we did other places later on in the trip.

that’s pretty cool

There is enough time usually but they messed it up a bit at the first one so a couple of the transition times were wrong. Saying that there still isn’t much time for a breather, you pretty much finish your timed stage and get pedaling back uphill. It’s better to wait at the top and rest before your start gate than to risk resting at the bottom and missing your start. I wasn’t fit enough on the first one and the last climb between stage 4 and 5 was horrible.

I would say it’s worth doing one of the last two events this year to get an idea of what sort of fitness level you need to be at for next year. I was surprised by how tiring it was in between stages at Inners at the beginning of the year

I emailed Superstars last night about the “mud boot” and got a reply back today saying they had added it to their website. I expect it will take a few days as they have to get some stock in from Supernatural but here’s the link anyway. mud boot

like this crud catcher

I made a crud guard from a small bit of inner tube and zip tied it around the end of the cable outer. it sort of fans out up under the seat and stops the crap from getting in under the rocker arm/linkage thing on top of the post. I saw a picture of one that someone else had made somewhere. it works perfectly and I haven’t had any problems since.

Gotta love it when the kids give you tips and it works. “Hey Mister you wanna do it like this” from a snotty kid on a bmx is generally always a good thing I find. The moral dilemma comes when you see him outside the off license and he wants you to buy him booze in return.

Definitely try shiply.com. All sorts of people making trips like that and will take stuff for you to help with their fuel costs. Put your details up and be patient, you’ll get all sorts of ridiculous offers from UPS etc but then the private travellers will start getting in touch. I got two DH bikes back from Portugal that way for less than half the price that anyone else would quote me

it’s supposed to give a tougher finish I think. As Tricky says they quoted me £40 for a ht frame. They dip it, shot blast it, clean it prime it and PC it. They are good guys and all the stuff I’ve seen them do looks mint. It’s well worth the money as they mask everything up for you all you have to do is strip the components off the frame. Just bear in mind that if you want to keep the logos on your headset bearing cups then you need to take them out first.

I haven’t mate but there is a firm in Preston called Fastline powder coating that do a good job. How much do the guys in Chorley want to do a hardtail frame? Do they etch prime it first?

+1 for the one Xiphon has. Had mine about 5 years at least and it’s still in really good nick. Everything is tight and it all still works. Folds away to pretty small. At the time it was £69 from Merlin

Bwaarp-no consequences other than spinning out sometimes descending, but very rarely, only really if for some reason you’re chasing someone down a fireroad or something. I try not to waste a climb by descending on a fire road 🙂

I run 1×9 with a 32/bash up front with a Superstars Plasma chainguide and an X7 short cage mech. When I eventually get everything to break at the same time I’m going to swap to 1×10 (11-36) and prob swap the front ring to a 34. It’s fine for now tho

ah ok cheers. I don’t need one yet but it seems like a good idea to have a spare. The hunt continues…

Hi Rob I see you found one. Where did you get it in the end? I can’t see any on Superstars website, did you go elsewhere?

The North loop is the more tiring of the 2 so I would do that first. They are fun but both pretty easy. I think they are about 10k each, south maybe a bit shorter

try this in Portugal, they don’t really “do”rain in the summer in the Algarve. They also will do a split week if there are a few of you and take you up to Lousa in central Portugal for a few days. Anyway have a look at their website there are a couple of videos from customers that have been and some photos etc, they are pretty well in with the locals in both areas so you will get to ride some excellent trails/tracks.
http://www.freeriderepublic.com/

Plasma is excellent value. I have had one for over a year, chain has never come off. £40, free next day delivery(unofficial but everything I’ve ever ordered that comes in a small package has always turned up next day) and replacement parts for the whole thing should you want to change anything for any reason. A little noisy but unless you’re riding on smooth ground where you don’t need a chain device then not a noise that you’d ever notice.