Sod all this roadie malarky – why not do the proper deal and ride off-road in Dunwich Forest and on Dunwich Heath? Some great trails (and don’t get shot on the archery range).

tomaso, you’ve hit the spot! Only to be trumped by one of the best reasons to be in Suffolk – Adnams Broadside. And guess where I am…

Lots of tracks on the N Norfolk coast route – some of them really entertaining!

Don’t have an FTM, but I rode one – a large, which at 6′ fitted me perfectly. Everyone has different tastes re sizing, but if you do find yours is too big, please give me a shout – I may well be interested. Email in profile.

Please NOT the last weekend in July – it’s WOMAD time!
The weekend after would be good though………

Look at the YT Industries Wicked 160 too.

Likewise, if the date’s right I’ll be there.
Also maybe consider Rendlesham and Tunstall Forests, and Dunwich Heath and Forest as good places for a mass tootle………

About £3.60 for a pint of Adnams Broadside (which is without fear of contradiction the very best ale in the land) here in Suffolk, the home of Adnams – or about £3.20 Adnams Bitter, Greene King IPA or most other basic bitters……….far too much, and I notice the difference when I’m in the North West for work. A cracking pint in Bolton costs £2.50 or so, and there are some for under £2. Perhaps this begins to make up for the pay imbalance bias towards the South East……..?

Local trails in the last couple of days, but Dunwich Heath and Forest with my brother-in-law today, interspersed by a pint of Humpty Dumpty at the Ship and an ice cream on the beach………happy daze!

Nipper99, your Gower jaunt gets my vote. Had a stonking time going round Rhosilli Down a couple of years ago, and also up the hill behind Oxwich Bay the year before that.

Why do some folk say such silly things in such sweeping generalisations?
Santas are great bikes but they ARE expensive – same goes for Mojos and other Ibis bikes, and also for Yetis.

I always buy second hand – that way you can afford a top end bike, often one which has actually had very little use, for half original price or less. I don’t understand why they do it, but there seems to be a steady stream of guys who buy amazing bits of pricey kit and then ride twice to their local shop and once along a tow path – and then sell. And bless em all – where would I be without them?

I follow the same line of practice with cars, only I start a bit lower down the pre-loved chain. Quality makes with lots of extras, FSH but high miles – 5 star bangernomics!

No more than my alloy Blur LT size L with Rockshox F&R and XT spec – 28lb. But ideally more like 26-27lb for carbon Genius 20 or Remedy 9.8.

Why ever go over 30lb unless you want a mini-DHer?

PS – Mr Badgerman: Au contraire – capitalism is deeply inefficient! How could any system which reduces the majority of the world to collateral damage, and restricts most of the population of the world to necessary emmiseration be anything but inefficient? The creative and liberating power of capitalism (and even then, at enormous human cost) lies back 2 centuries ago, when capitalism was a dynamic and at times even progressive force. Can anyone honestly claim that now?

The last gasp of little England?

Superlights are simple but great, and if you want the evolved version go for the Blur XC (pricey though) – but the most hardtail-like FS bikes are a) the Cannondale Scalpel, and b) the Specialized Epic. Someone mentioned the Scott Genius – yes, you have bar mounted full lockout, but it’s a bit long travel perhaps for you. The Scott Spark is shorter travel and still has full bar mounted front and rear lockout.

Bet you’re confused after all these suggestions……..!

PS – VAG 1.9 and 2.5 TDIs are all pretty bulletproof, with the Octavia being the wisest choice. 2.5s are very juicy though.

Re Saabs, I have a 9-3 estate with the 1.9 engine at 171K miles, and a 9-5 estate with the 2.2 engine at 155K miles.

The 1.9 engine is more refined but also prone to far more issues – inlet manifold, alternators, electrics, cam belt changes every 72K miles.

The 2.2 engine is more agricultural but more reliable – very few issues really plus it is chain driven with the timing chain hardly ever needing replacement.

Both do very similar MPG in my experience – 42-45 MPG with my right foot. Plus my 2.2 9-5 is pretty much as fast as the supposedly more powerful 1.9 9-3.

So for more trouble-free motoring, I’d say choose the 2.2.

cinnamon girl, you have it right – Canvey is really rather an appealingly bonkers place, and in its own little time/culture warp.

Lots of generalisations in what people have posted, and many of them generally true (but always expect the unexpected, Essex can have charm where you least expect it).

My generalisation would be that Essex is best on its eastern and northern borders – ie where it’s almost Suffolk (Halstead, Castle Hedingham, Mistley, Wrabness, even Colchester) or almost Cambs (Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow, or that place that Jamie Oliver comes from) – but then I live in Suffolk so I would say that.

Sadly all this will be of limited help if one of you has to work in Southend – so how about Shoeburyness, beloved of Ian Dury and Billy Bragg?

My Mojo – sold to my mate Dom, who’d been pestering me for ages until I relented and let him have it. Nothing has equalled the solidity of that bike when it hit big hard stuff.

Oh peasant – hoist by your own petard (or is that tailfeathers? whoops no, that’s pheasant)……..so if you ‘agree with the cuts’ but ‘dread the day (you) might have to sign on’, doesn’t that just lead you to re-evaluate your support for the cuts then? Or is this masochism corner? I love right wingers – ‘not in my back yard’ etc.

Honda Jazz – like the tardis inside.

I’d go with the Nickel suggestion, Paul. But what I’ve ridden a lot over the last 18 months until I cracked the frame was a Cannondale Rize 120 carbon with TALAS forks wound up to 140mm. Lovely ride – plush but tight if you know what I mean. Nice and light too. It really was the most versatile bike, do anything, go anywhere. I seem to remember somebody in Singletrack (the mag) saying 3 or 4 years ago that if he had to choose just one bike, then this would be it.

Looking at getting the frame repaired now. Love this bike too much to lose it.

Did you ever get my email about your Mondraker rolling chassis, by the way?

Mike

Any Saab I’ve ever owned – and there have been a few……….

br – why come back to defend some pretty shameful and indefensible comments? When you’re in a hole………….etc.

Generalisations about diabetes and diabetics are pretty much as stupid as generalisations about most things in life. Get some facts and come in with specifics.

People with type 1 diabetes tend to have an in-built pancreatic weakness and are usually diagnosed quite early in life.

People with type 2 diabetes tend to be diagnosed later in life, and the causes are many and various. They include a heritability aspect (it runs in the family), eating too many sugars, eating too much processed food, eating too much fat, just eating too much and becoming overweight, lack of exercise, smoking, etc etc. But equally there are many people who do all of these things and do not get type 2. So while lifestyle can be a precipitating factor, it’s simplistic to say that it’s ‘the cause’ of type 2 diabetes. Sometimes it just happens……..

So please don’t abuse people with this or any other condition. It doesn’t help. Try (as they say) to understand a little more, and condemn a little less.

And yes, I had type 2 diabetes diagnosed 15 months ago. Shocked the heck out of me. I had and have a good diet with little processed food, I don’t much care for sugary foods or drinks, I don’t OD on alcohol, I ride my bike a lot and lead a physically active lifestyle, it doesn’t run in my family. So why? Who knows. It’s not what happens to you, but it’s how you deal with it.

Petrol at 10K miles per year – no clear benefits for diesel until you hit 18K+ miles per year. Plus lots of short diesel journeys clog up the particulate filters.

Ha! All you prog rock miserablists – none of the above (with the possible exception of Ummagumma). It has to be Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Pure psychedelic brilliance combined with English whimsy. Syd in full flight before he became the effervescing elephant. Without Syd Barrett PF became ponderous humourless beasties – sort of in character for Waters and Gilmour.

I interviewed the Floyd circa 1971 for my college paper – not very nice. Arrogant, sneering, bored. Now the Incredible String Band, on the other hand…….

Paul,

If you enter Epic Evo on the search engine here on STW, you will see a large being sold by barneycool for £1700. Ad is 4 weeks old, but he still had it about a week ago. Worth a try mate.

I’ve got one as you know Paul. Love it. Absolutely won’t sell it, sorry. But there’s a guy on here from Surrey who’s selling one in large. Think I have his email address somewhere if you’re interested. But no, they were only produced for one year – 2011. Spesh totally sold out I think. Now all big wheeled fuglies……..

I’ve got a Blur XC – bought the frame from someone on here about 20 months ago, and it was new and unused at that point – a warranty replacement because of a paint bubble on his first one. But in the meanwhile he’d bought a SC Tallboy and got the 29er bug.

And the fact that SC were so willing to replace the frame for a paint blemish shows how good their warranty is.

So how’s the bike been for me? I built it up with 120mm Fox Floats, which seem to go very well with the RP23 shock. Like you, I came from having had a Superlight, which I’d loved, but the Blur XC is something else again. It is perhaps the stiffest bike I’ve ridden, even on a par with a Mojo, and the harder you hit things the more stable it seems. At first the stiffness is almost unnerving, and in a funny way you almost ‘hear’ it, but then the bike proceeds to go through stuff you’d never consider on an XC bike. As someone else has already said, the carbon is as tough as nails, and my paintwork (black with blue detailing) is mat and hasn’t chipped – just occasional bits of rub. I don’t find the front end wandery on climbs (but then I’m north of 200lb, so leaning forward puts more than enough weight over the front wheel) and generally it is pretty damn fast. There is a bit of a highly bred race horse feel to it though – it’s VERY sensitive to changes in direction, and to this extent not like the very safe planted feel I get on my old alloy Blur LT. So maybe not daily transport, but a hell of a lot of fun on special occasions (and it doesn’t mind the mud either).

So what are you waiting for………..?

Scumbags Paul – I’m keeping that Whyte frame for you.
Mike

Soft snow on top of rainy ground here where the Suff folk dwell, but the snow seems to be gaining………..now quite a carpet, with the wind to whip it up overnight.

As the others say, the downs above Royston, leading up to Therfield and along to the other side of Baldock.

Spent a pleasant weekend in Ashwell last year with bikes, lots of chalky tracks and trails leading out and up onto the downs from there. Imagine they’re pretty greasy/horrid when wet though.

Honda………

Totally horrible for your friend and all those (and there are many) who are having similar experiences.

Why does no-one on here mention the obvious tip – JOIN A UNION? Even the most bureaucratic trade union should be able to help in a situation like this. That’s why unions were set up in the first place – to provide some protection against employers walking rough shod over folk. Not a magic solution, but……together we are stronger.

Borgan’s compelling and strangely human too – but coming after the final Killing, it’s almost an anti-climax.

What we’re really waiting for in our house is the 2nd series of the Bridge. Saga Noren – what an amazing anti-heroine. A tall blonde female autistic in leather strides, she almost makes Sarah Lund seem suburban.

Danish TV rocks!

Drink the water – it’ll have more taste than any Bud bar Budvar.
But if it’s beer you’re after – Adnams Broadside every time!

Fantastic Gilles – not just for the Plain in the snow, but for the sheer class of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Cantaloupe Island’ as your accompanying music.

I was out on my local trails in Suffolk yesterday and today. New snow (the other stuff dates from last Mon/Tues, and developed a crackly crust) only really started falling as I rode today, so I actually had some my best riding since the end of the summer – loadsa grip on a good hard surface, but with a bit of sliding if I wanted to…….

Vote here for Octavia VRS estate……..or a late gen Saab 9-3 TTiD 180 Sportwagon (it’ll be dead cheap, but see previous posts about the failings – and strengths – of GM era Saabs)

Just done a couple of short local loops as the sun went down. About 5 cm snow on the ground so actually great grip and riding. Some of the lanes are treacherous though – black ice. Temp rose to 0 at about 1.30pm, now plummeting again, approx -6 or -7 now. Went down to about -12 last night.

Sorry, come to this thread late, and may have missed some stuff, but……

The real issue is this – what is shocking for the police is that for the first time in a very long time they’re being treated like every other public sector worker. In other words, their numbers are being cut, their pay is being cut, and they’re being expected to work for longer – and they’re being vilified and treated like rubbish by those to whom we are all expected (by them) to tug our forelocks – our masters the well-healed (with private incomes and god knows what inheritances and perks) in government. To this extent – welcome to our world. Congratulations! You’ve just become proletarianised.

Why this is shocking to the police is that for a very long time they have been treated as ‘special’. The 1919-20 police strike so frightened government at the time that they cut a deal – they sacked and blacklisted most of the strikers, recruited new bobbies, and told them – you work for us, you’re the thin blue line of law and order, you can’t join a union but can only have a professional association, but we’ll look after you and treat you better than other workers (who you may be expected at times by us to suppress).

And so it has been.
In the 1980s Thatcher’s government reinforced all this around the issue of the miners strike and other major trade union battles of the time. Hence the stories of Met coppers waving wads at striking miners to wind them up (and they’re not just stories either) and the general culture of police impunity which has grown up, and recently been highlighted by Leveson, the Hillsborough report, etc.

But now Cameron and co think they can remove the police’s special status and treat them just like everybody else – ie badly. No wonder it’s a shock to the poor old cops.

What we do not need, including from too many folks on STW, are snidey mean minded comments about how ‘I’m even worse off than you and you deserve to suffer like I suffer’ etc. Pointless and perverse. Who wants a race to the bottom (ie to make things for most people worse and worse) apart from Dave and his wealthy chums? Can I have the gall to suggest that we all need to come together and firmly challenge Mr C’s agenda? His system’s *** and he wants the folk who get the crumbs to pay for it? Dream on.

All the stuff about less robust bearings and other parts on the Specialized is probably true, but they’re such fun to ride, whereas I never took to the 5-Spot I test rode a couple of years ago……..so Steve, you take your choice. But hey, why not split the difference and go for a Mojo? Awesome bike, and you get the DW link thrown in (feels much much better on the Mojo for me at least).