Be interested to see if anyone receives theirs, as the ex display shop soiled frame is £170 more for the exact same thing!

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ragley-marley-frame-ex-display-2013/rp-prod111553

BBB BSG-30 are supposed to be for a slimmer fit face, quite cheap too. I’ve been meaning to get some myself to try out, they come with three lens types as well so cover all bases.

Also heard good things about DHB gear. Nobody knows what the quality is like yet, but Aldi are bringing out their new ‘pro’ range of cycling tights soon so they could be worth a look for their bib tights if you’ve got one local.

To balance out the hate I bought a set of their DH 595s with a Trizoid rear hub and stuck them straight on my downhill bike, they’ve had quite a hammering between casing big jumps at races and general smashing into rocks on local uplifts and they’re still fine with no maintenance needed whatsoever. Maybe I’ve been lucky but I’d buy another set from them without thinking.

If you don’t mind paying the postage I’m sure they have a free re truing service after purchase as well.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/HEOOEPH/on_one_enduro_pro_helmet

I assume?

I’d want to see more than one angle of it before I clicked the button! Not sure buying from on one with the expectation you might have to send it back is a good idea.

I tried some LED H4 headlamp bulbs just to see what they were like. Absolute pants I’m afraid, look nice from outside the car as the colour temperature is spot on but they give out not much more light than the sidelight bulbs, dangerous to drive by.

If you want a clean, bright, white light you need to get some LED/SMD sidelight bulbs, and then fit a 6000k HID kit for the dip/main. Don’t be put off they’re not that difficult to fit, everything is plug and play however you should only bother if you have crystal headlamp lenses, preferable projectors. An old style headlamp with the beam refractor built into the lense invariably looks crap with an HID kit and will dazzle oncoming drivers.

Gelert Strider, good quality and is litally the same as the CB Mule at 1/3rd the price – I have had mine for a few years now with no problems to report.
http://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/126527-gelert-strider-2l-hydropack-blue.html

Or if you want a bit more space for all day adventures or, if you’re like me and your bike is so unreliable you need a large amount of tools to keep it going, I’m quite happy with my one of these, the slightly bigger version.

http://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/126524-gelert-edge-hydro-pack-lime.html

The only reason dirt jumpers and BMXers don’t wear body armour and a full face is because it’s not fashionable. Like you said, coming up short and huge bails are pretty much standard especially if you’re just starting out so you’d be daft not to get some pads on!

Luckily downhilling doesn’t have (quite) the same fashion stigma attached to it.

Only early days yet but my Madison Tempest waterproof shorts seem to be well made, fit well and are doing a good job of keeping the water out so far. They’ve recently brought out a new revision so make sure you get these, the older ones aren’t as good apparently. Think they’re currently the cheapest waterproof shorts you can get.

Canyon!

https://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=3265

Superstar Size Zero, nice and thin which is what you want to prevent finger cramp unless your hands are huge, and a good length at 150mm which serves to take up the gap between the end of the grip and your levers/shifter. And a bargain at 9 quid!

‘Can you see well?’

‘No I don’t need to pee’

Love it!

I bought a set of these from a seller on Ebay but was refunded as they were out of stock. Sounds like a lucky escape, might have to take a punt on the new design, £42 makes them the cheapest waterproof trail shorts out there.

Does anyone with experience of both think the Altura Attacks are worth £10 more than the new Tempests? I would imagine aftersales care from both manufacturers should be pretty spot on.

Slight thread derail here, I’ve so far not been able to find a pair of sunglasses or riding glasses that fit my slim face and it’s starting to annoy me, wet road rides and trail centres are the worst. This is the first I’ve heard of the ‘asian fit’ that Oakley do and tbh it sounds like that’s what I need. Normal unisex size glasses are too wide across my temples and I can normally fit a finger inside the frames each side!

However I don’t want to spend £100 on some glasses when their sole job is just to keep the worst of the spray out of my eyes. A few of my mates wear bog standard safety specs from Dewalt or similar that look like sports glasses but cost less than £20. Does anyone know if any cheaper manufacturers have an ‘asian fit’ or equivelant? Or am I forever destined on fast wet descents to be squinting like a retard trying to read the newspaper?

Quick edit: a few searches on eBay bring up the BBB BSG-30 glasses listed as a ‘slim fit’ for people with smaller faces. At around £17 with a selection of lenses these seem to be just what I’m after, have any of you eyewear experts out there had any experience of these?
Sorry to the OP for the tangent!

Definitely strip. I’d keep things like the headset – it’ll go in something else at some point!

Conversely you might find when selling a frame that it goes a bit easier if you’ve left all the attatched bits in. A good condition headset, seatpost and bottom bracket will save the new owner a lot of hassle in purchasing and fitting/taking parts to their LBS so it might attract a few more bidders.

I’m quite happy fitting those parts myself but just thinking back to a few years ago when I was less mechanically confident, jobs such as headset fitting and BBs that required special tools I found a bit daunting. Although I suppose you could argue anyone after an ASR should probably know what they’re doing.

In typical STW snob fashion, Halfords do a high performance 5.1 fluid that I use because I find I get less brake fade with it in both my car and motorbike on track days, so I use it in the mountain bikes well. A full run down Snowdon on the dh bike at a not insignificant pace and the brakes were still spot on at the bottom, says it all really.

Such a shame, looks like they’re going to ruin the best bit of the path for me. Hopefully it is just surfacing rather than making the whole lot into one huge gnarly gulley, but time will tell I suppose.

You’ll get more money for everything altogether if you split it, which is the upside.

Downside is it takes a lot more time and effort dismantling and posting bits individually, and you’ll always end up stuck with a few crap parts that nobody wants.

I’ve been really struggling to get my sintered pads to stay quiet, I’ve tried cleaning the rotors, giving the pads a quick sand, chamfering both edges and I’ve swapped them to the other brake to see if the noise is improved, if it isn’t I think I’ll be sending them back for some other ones.

I was going to recommend the Forerunner 10 as well, I am also tight and it’s what I’m saving up for. Definitely get a dedicated GPS watch either way, mobile phones tend to be pants as soon as it comes to trees so you’ll miss out on most segments when mountain biking, fine if you just want it for on the road though.

As there’s a topic on it, anyone tried the Centrum Performance multi vitamins?

OOS now, doh!

I bought a set of Superstar Size Zero grips for my DH bike, and loved them. Nice and thin, good length at 150mm and good solid locking collars with good bolts all for £9.

However I went to buy a second set for the trail bike and they’re now out of stock until next month, can anyone recommend a similarly priced alternative or should I just wait for a month?

After reading all this I think I’ll be asking SS to change my sintered pads for one of their other types, does anyone have any experience of the Kevlar ones?

Don’t reckon; why remove pedals? Thought it was worth a punt with an offer. Hope it isn’t nicked

I was joking really, I doubt it’s stolen it’d be unlikely to be sold as a complete and easily distinguishable bike if it was.

best black is enter the dragon which follows the old dragon dh course (although for the welsh champs this weekend they had the top section of enter moving into dai hard (best bits of both)

This was an awesome combo to ride and definitely worth trying if you can, however it might be a bit churned up still in places if they’ve not gotten round to trail repairs yet.

the bike is missing the seat which was nicked locked up

Going to chuck my 2p in here too. I had one set of Superstar Organic pads left from the last batch I bought, and bought a pack of four Sintered from them as well for the welsh champs at BPW on the weekend.

Cleaned both rotors with brake cleaner then fitted the SS organic pads to the back brake and sintered to the front, both identical Hope M4 brakes. After some heavy braking down the fireroad to bed them in by halfway down on the first run both brakes were working spot on, loads of bite and power with zero noise. Sintered pads would squeal slightly when cold but by the second or third corner on the track the noise was gone which was fine by me.

However come the 2nd day the back brake with its organic pads was still working brilliantly, but the squealing came back gradually on the front until it was like a truck horn the whole way down the track even once they were well warm.

Think my next course of action is to swap the pads front to back to make sure it’s definitely the pads that are the issue and not my brakes at fault, then I might get in touch and see if I can change them for kevlar or organic ones. There’s a few reviews on the SS website saying other people have had problems with the latest batch of sintered pads being really noisy but I’m prepared to give them a bit of a chance yet.

Definitely going to get one (or two!) of the solarstorms after seeing the comparison to my T6 which I thought was the dogs danglies only last year.

Definitely try pairing up a Chunky Monkey with the Smorgasbord, I’m really impressed with mine and like you say, rude not to at the price!

Both links are the same, but I’ve got the same pack and it’s great, really impressed with the bladder it belongs in a much more expensive pack. The bag material also seems fairly waterproof as well.

I’ve got a Trizoid hub on a DH 595 wheelset that’s been faultless for 18 months. Still runs perfectly true I’ve only had to nip up one or two spokes in the whole time I’ve had it, no other maintenance whatsoever.

Could also try Pete’s Eats in Llanberis, a few minutes away from the bottom of the Llanberis Path on the high street, they’ve got bunkhouse type accommodation upstairs but I’m not sure how many beds, I know there’s quite a few.

http://www.petes-eats.co.uk/accommodation.asp

Obviously it’s the ‘new thing’ which might be explanation in itself, but does anyone know why fixed gear bikes have made a return? Surely to anyone with an ounce of common sense they’re just a daft idea? I can totally understand a singlespeed bike with a single brake being the ultimate in a low maintenance machine, but a freewheel really doesn’t take that much looking after so why would you even consider junking it considering all the negatives?

Sorry if I’m late to the game.

Get onto your local council or ROW department, if you take them detailed print outs and show exactly where the obstructions are and which address you believe is responsible they should sort it out.

Councils may be useless on the whole but if they don’t know about it there’s even less they can do, so it’s the first step.

Anyone tried the Madison Tempest shorts yet? At less than £40 they seem like a good deal compared to all the more expensive stuff.

To balance it out, I’ve ordered loads of stuff from SSC when building a bike and didn’t have any problems with any of it, even a custom built DH wheelset arrived perfect and in true and hasn’t needed any more than a few slightly loosened spokes tensioning back up in a year now, still all running perfectly.

But their entire business model seems to be like the contractors triangle. You have good quality parts, cheap prices, and good customer service. Pick any two.

Trick is with them (and any online retailer to an extent) is to spend ages doing your research and making sure it’s exactly what you want before you order to minimise the chance of needing to return something.

I’ve seen too many forums for various sports, interests and owner’s clubs flop completely because they weren’t busy enough to maintain the huge number of sub forums the admins had stupidly decided to create. A site like Pistonheads for example is massive, has a huge amount of traffic as it’s based on a popular interest (fast cars) so is able to pull off plenty of sub forums. However this one is only just posted in enough to cope with the separate Bike and Chat subforums, so more is just going to make it feel quieter and split the posters up.

How much ‘around’ 10am was it? On a downhill bike with some skills, an idea where you’re going and some body armour it only takes 10 minutes or so to descend to the bottom, so they might have been off the hill completely by 10am.

Although as said it is a voluntary agreement and not legally binding so who knows.