Its his irritating voice and the way he can only talk at you while looking sidesways on Panorama (the new dumbed down version) that really get me…

Single ply high rollers 2.35

Evens us up with all the dog sh*te we have to endure riding through…

Actually the more I think about the more I think that what I need is an Orange 5 AM. Grant YHM!

Two is hardly all. Lots of people sell lots of perfectly good bikes from time to time for all sorts of reasons. I'm looking to turn two bikes into one, and fancy trying non-single pivot for a change. I'll probably wonder why I bothered afterwards…

Sorry to hijack – I'm selling a 2006 orange 5 frame 18" in good nick with an RP23 shock, just in case you are interested… it is a lot of fun, unfortunately I need to reduce my bikes.

There's Aston Hill, Swinley, yes Ratz still going, also not that far to get to Dorking and Leith Hill area which is ace. Further north are Woburn and Chicksands if you like that kind of thing. Chilterns are great for meandering rides with pub stops, but not in winter unless you like very very sticky mud.

Between £1k and £2k depending on spec and install I would guess..

Used to have a 456, want to have a Hemlock, but currently have neither!

🙄

Norovirus? The winter vomiting bug. Its always around and going around. Should only last 48 hours though….

Its got back, ankle and knee pain written all over those chainstays.

Trek Remedy 9?

Ace thanks for the advice. Its gonna happen, only one Full Bounce bike in my garage woo hoo!

I'm 6'1" and can't decide between a medium or a large Hemlock, I ride an 18" Orange 5 currently and that feels right, any tips? I used to have an 18" 456 too which was fine for me….

P.s. when it comes to a double the key ingredient is belief that you will clear it, visualise sucess and go for it!

It all depends…. how fast you are going, whether you want to squash or launch, etc etc.

My biggest tips would be
1) make sure the rebound on your forks is not too quick – if it is its going to make it harder to stay tidy off the lip.
2) jumps to flat are ace because you can pick one and keep rolling it faster and faster until your wheels start to come off the ground, keep building it up. Feel the difference between sucking up the jump, and then "standing up into the face of the jump" which will mean you launch more.
3) practice bunny hopping, and try to get the feel for the same movement as you hit the launch. The faster you go, the less dramamtic this needs to be.

Do it again, and again, and again, and again………… have fun!

Oh bless, not him again…

I understand the anxiety but I'm not sure these things are a good idea, I can't see how they could work reliably with the babies moving around. We decided against. Do you use dummies?

Suspected I might get that answer, how annoying, £30 quid for one 15 mins ride and then chuck the tyre in the bin, argh!!!

I have same issue, I'm now running them with 60 psi in, I weight 12 stone with kit, and I'm getting all but 1cm travel on a hard xc ride. Seems about right, althought the not getting all the travel thing is a pet hate – marzocchi's pretty bad for this too I have some 55's and some Z1 sl's and don't get all the travel out of those either.

Sorry MikeT-23, you want the Bananas in my pocket thread, its 3 threads down on the left..

Conker distribution? GET YER OWN!!! 😉

I'm not going to start nibbling conkers but I might look a round nervously before I quickly bury them and them forget where… maybe more like Scrat in ice age… 😀

Given the shonky way I ride I think my hopper would empty after about two minutes when I bunny hop a kerb near my house and the conkers would go all over the road…. I can see actually that I'm going to have to get quite adventurous to keep finding good places for all the conkers, should lead to some good ride and quite a few not so good I should think.

Guerrilla tree planting, I like it. Sounds like a great way to break the law! Clearly the law sucks. Although I can see why its best not to plant trees where someone is just going to remove it if it grows… lets all fight THE MAN by planting trees!

Must admit the spiders in pockets solution is lacking a problem…

I'm not surprised by that failure rate, thought it could be higher. I reckon I've got at least 200 conkers, so that could mean I get 5 to 10 trees, that would be ace! I might even be around to see them!

Nice – where's that? I wish I didn't live so far south…

Anyone got any good tips on what a "likely spot" is then? I'm thinking ground that isn't often disturbed, mainly in woods, where there is light tree cover only or in clearings. Ground is very hard in most places at the moment so quite hard to find good spots…

Ha ha yes keeping a few back for my lad…

Not sure – a few have popped up in our garden before now, they get to about 6 inches high pretty quickly in spring. I suppose a lot will get eaten by rabbits once they start to grow, but I reckon I've got a couple of hundred in my bucket so some might make it!

I can't get that Monthy Python song out of my head now.

Finland Finland Finland, the place where I quite want to be….
Eating breakfast or dinner, or just watching TV….

Ah that's better.

Hmm… maybe I should just keep my five until it breaks… 🙄

Simonb – In what way do you find the Hemlock better than a 5? Interested as I'm thinking of changing my 5 frame but can't think of what to get. How does it compare?

I have not had a frame break for ages (que frame breaking on next ride) but I have found that having three bikes, and only ever using them for what they are designed for helps a lot. Mind you I do seem to have managed to end up with slightly misaligned swingarms on my orange 5 and patriot 66, is it because I can only tweak / hip jumps in one direction?

Do it!!! My lad is now 4 and bombing around on his CNOC 16, Isla bikes are gems you will not regret getting one. I can now go out biking for an hour with my lad and because his so light and fun to ride I get out out of breath keeping up with him (or is that because I'm so unfit?)

Nuts – can't make it – I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next one! How often do these rides happen? I've not noticed them on the forum before…

I had a similar thing with my 4 year old lad who is a fairly intense little guy. When I took him out on his bike, he wanted to do really cool things and if it went wrong he started to cry / get angry, he'd seen my DVD's and his expectations were too high. I showed him some clips from a earthed dvd of steve peat (his hero) crashing and then trying again and getting it right, it seemed to help. I agree that's its probably his expectations of himself are running ahead of his age / ability, and he's embarrased if it goes wrong. I tried to get my lad to enjoy it and not worry if things go wrong, just try it again and keep having fun and it has eventually worked. It really helped that some older lads saw him riding and gave him props for trying stuff, even if he had a little crash, it really boosted his confidence and helped him to relax. He has not been bothered or embarrased about crashing for a while now.

It must be much harder to deal with this in a team game and a competitive situation. Also hard to find footage of top players mucking up and laughing about it I'm sure!

he he love the fat albert joke…

Pesky things babies – they never turn up when expected and then don't listen to a word you say when they arrive…. phrases like "Please go to sleep!", "Stay still while I change your nappy, there is pooh everywhere!" and "I don't know what you want!" are ignored.

I'm surprised you can steer at all with a 100mm stem on it, the 5 now has a pretty slack head angle, its not an XC race bike. I run a 65mm stem on mine, its ace.