I Dumped everything Virgin in Favour of Sky. (Virgin annoyed me and I cut my nose off to spite my face)

I only get 4.5 Meg interweb now which is ok to be fair (but I had 20 before) and the 2 tuners in Sky HD hasnt been an issue ~(until Britain's Got Talent came on and we ended up with loads of recording Clashes)

If the deal isnt sealed, may be worth phoning retentions to see if Virgin Can get you a gooder deal? I am going crawling back to Virgin as soon as my Contract with Sky is over (maybe 🙂 )

For my Skill level, I barely notice the difference when I am on my toes.

For this reason, I got rid of my Meta recently and built a pretty 456. IF I was more of an accomplished rider, I would have known how to use the fs as an avantage.

What I do miss is the comfort over bumpy stuff when I am in the saddle

Maybe when my Son has grown up and my Wife has left me but other wise, Norfolk and Chance

My boy has particularly short legs so I had to go for something with a really low seat so I chose a Stryder Prebike[/url] which (at the time) was one of the only ones that fit him due to his diminutive inside leg (Seat goes down to 11" from floor)(islabike, for example would have been just a bit too big)

Got it for his 2nd birthday in April and he is going well; just starting to pick his legs up and freewheel! 🙂

Spot my Springer in this clip

Dancake I am local (ish) to you and would be very interested in the group thing. Cranham woods perhaps?

Im up for that, mate. Was thinking more toward the end of Summer because (here come the excuses)

* I have just started to use flats for the first time
* I am struggling with [strike]fitness[/strike] fatness

If we decide to do it, might be worth hooking up for a ride one day to discuss what we want to get out of it/ where to go etc.

(Flow is my problem – I dont want to do crazy jumps or stuff, I just dont want to slam the brakes on every time I comne to something I dont like the look of)..(I also would like to do the steeper twisty stuff better)

Also I think you might be quite a lot more skilled than us; we wouldnt want to hold you back!

I ride with and without my dogs. For dog rides I choose a local area with lots of good stuff and a play area all in a small area. You will need to give them plenty of water and learn to recognise when they are flagging. (My Springer would run until he passed out if I would let him)

For a good long ride which has road work, I wouldnt take the dogs. Also, you can have your fav section ruined when the little tike runs in front of you and wont get out of the way!

Depends on the Dog, too. My Cocker is a lazy git and always looks pooped; the springer is quite the opposite

Maybe those lovely mud wrestling ladies can wrestle in the chocolate milk instead and occasionally take a slurp. They could go on for ages…

Did the skills day at Woburn Sands then had a little play at Herts Shore, the place blows your mind

is that your "local" ? we (4 of us) are thinking of the "he comes to you" route and train locally maybe if we can organise ourselves to actually do it…(and i dont keep coming up with reasons not to)

I loved mine, but I convinced myself I needed 25" of travel to be a better rider so it had to go. (What the bouncy bike did was give me more confidence which in turn made me better but thats another debate)

20 Minutes left

minus 1 for beer. I had a lot of it after the roughride and today I can barely get up the stairs

(Apologies for all the loud swearing and farting to anyone who was unfortunate enough to be near me – I only get away from my Wife once a year and I overdo the booze a bit)

Are you going through normal login and checkout then selecting paypal?

if you do express checkout without logging in it doesnt work..?

When you hang around forums long enough EVERYTHING gets said all the time

TBH though, with so many good words said about UKBS I would give it ago.

Too Shy though

And poor

this problem can actually lead you into all sorts of issues and in one severe case a guy called mark beaumont lost the ability to corner in both directions – he only nipped out to the shops for some milk…

did he not try the back button either?

I sold an NRS locally in the same colours last year with fox forks and a Fox RP2 for 250 quid after noone on the classifieds wanted it…

and what is a Drailer?

I absolutely benefit from reading technical advice and going to try it out. Some of it works for me, some of it doesnt. I am not a natural rider and I fall off quite a bit, but I am getting better.

Conversely, a riding partner of mine never falls off and he can look at you very strangely when any skills/ technique are mentioned. Taking little drops/ jumps for example, I still havnt found a repeatable safe technique (for me) that gives me confidence to tackle them all. When I quizzed my mate on his technique, his reply was "eh? Just ride off it…" he is what I would call a "natural"

edit, ok everyone falls off but you get my point

I corner left better than right and I am sure it is because I press nice and hard on the right pedal when going left but dont automatically do the opposite when going right; I am right footed.

Sometimes it is nice to play on a section and try different things.
(I spent 30 mins the other day seeing how fast I can go over a particular log, for example) Did the same on a jump, too. (until I fell on my face – Ill keep the wheels on the ground for a bit)

I am Sure we have all been there; in that second frame, you already know what is going to happen next…and sure enough, it does.

It hurts enough without the slashed face and the stretched neck so good luck to you, fella. I went OTB last week. feel silly for making such a fuss, now!

Suppose a Pic is in order?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. Im a 456 fanboy (I now have a banger for work and a posh one) so I will defo go for the carbon if I can find any money

IM 5'11"

Ride an 18" with on ones own 60mm stem (quite steep)

140mm forks and 2.5" minions. Fits me well

My mate who is a lot taller than me rides an 18" with a long stem and 120mm forks . Feels like a completely different bike

Did the 48K myself. Disappointed with myself for pushing up so many climbs but fun all the same.

Got filthy at one point when I tried to go through a muddy ditch that turned out to be very deep and the front wheel just stopped. In I went…30 seconds later, someone else did the same so it was all good.

Likes the downs; you could get up quite a lick – dont usually get up to those speeds on twisty singletrack. Had a bum twitcher at one point as I entered a corner far too fast, but came out the other side unscathed.

See you all next year

ITV HD should be shot for going to an advert 3 mins into the game just before england scored their goal

wasnt just my Telly then..Still boring though

Marin Roughride for me Sunday on the new build. Hope nothing falls off 🙂

Whats going on with those spacers?

Never used the big ring, unless by mistake. Swapped to a 22/36, took a bit out of the chain and fitted a bash for fun.

Only becomes a problem on one section on the way to work when I spin out. If I ever need more gears off road, I will be damned chuffed with how I have come on!

*actually I dont spin out..just cant be bothered to pedal faster

Today. Clean bits up all nice and shiny ready to fit to new 456 frame coming on Monday 🙂 Assisted by 2 year old boy 🙂 🙂

Tomorrow. Up to Standish woods with the Dog bike (+ dogs)

I genuinely Laughed out loud at this thread…

Got a riding parter with a green. Wouldnt be cool 🙂

Octopus Erotica

I have GOT to get me some of that…

I don't think that 'drop' is a foot high.

bloody is 🙂 and there is a local gravity anomoly which makes it lethal, especially on Tuesdays

456 cost me less than 300 quid to build BTW. (Thnaks to ebay and nice prices on STW classifieds 😉

Curiously, my Workshop is only open when my wife is out. To be fair it is the Kitchen and she would go NUTS

Tools.

Workmate with an old kona frame clamped in it (Wheel Truing Stand)
Spoke spanner
allen keys
Old chain/ Mahoosive grips/ Casette tool
Cutty things and hitty things
Stuff for tyres and the like

(a mate's torque wrench. Must give it back)

Thanks V Much.

2 pedal strokes. Bad trousers. Not clipped in.

NAILED IT

Obvious I know but If I could pick one single thing that affects my riding more than any other it is where I am looking.

If I look way ahead, the slides/ moments often take care of themselves. If I am crashing it is usually because I am looking down.

If I could not spend the fist hour of every ride looking at my front wheel, I am sure I would be better!

here you go. sorry about the bash ring. Got a white hub too 🙂

I use Windows movie maker with .mov on W7. (I do have a codec pack installed though )

Different actuation ratios, innit

96kg here without kit and about 195 psi. I set rebound on the slow side otherwise it seems to affect me picking the front up. As I have got better I have flicked it one faster though

I started this game 21/2 years ago and at this point I hadnt ridden a bike for 15 years. I went straight to SPDs after one ride when I slipped off the pedal and hurt myself on the chainring.

I really fancy trying flats (too many hilarious slow speed topples- and landing on my bum still attatched to the bike)

Will I have to learn all over again? I am just getting the confidence to do little jumps; I dont want to loose it 🙂

You can get co-pilot live for android. Uses offline maps so it will work, even if 3G is no good.

http://www.alk.eu.com/copilot/android/

or you can go to market and search for Navigon or copilot

(make sure you are on wireless though; its a big dl. Think navigon is free for a month