X-fusion new McQueen fork is getting rave reviews, I think that comes in 120mm?

Manuka honey is lovely actually!

Go to pharmacist, explain you’re sore ‘down below’ as you’re a cyclist and ask for Hydrocortisone cream….works a treat on me.

Just buy 650b and enjoy the extra mud clearance, it’s what I do…..650b X-fusion Sweep with a 26 inch front wheel in there, also gives me the option off going full 650b when the time comes.

Gonna get flamed for this but try Superst’s custom wheel builder section.

You can then spec hubs that are pretty basic Novatec rebrands all the way to super duper stuff with about a million points of engagement.
Rims can be from the main players like DT Swiss, Mavic, Ryde etc or superstar’s own brand.
Everything from narrow (by modern standard) 21mm stuff to wide Enduro-tastic 30mm width stuff.
Even if they arrive shonky (and I’ve yet to have that happen) most LBSs will tension up a wheel for a tenner.
Why anyone would go somewhere else and have to deal with proprietary spokes, long waits for spares etc is beyond me.

Are the electrons the plastic ones?….love those and there’s an eBay seller offering massive pins for them, I genuinely can’t get my foot loose once on them!

As a general rule (for me)) the cheaper the hub, tesla down to switch the better they are…less complex, easier to service at home etc.
I’ve got switch and tesla with no problems so far (years of use).

The security services must have a good idea who the extremists are amongst us….would it really be such an undertaking using the SAS, SBS, select Marines and Paras and have all radical extremists eliminated’ in the space of 24 hours?

No explanation, no comment from the government, just a proper cloak and dagger operation that makes the world a better place.

Here’s hoping Trump thinks the same thing.

http://www.itv.com/news/story/2016-12-23/berlin-attack-suspect-who-filmed-pledge-to-is-shot-dead-in-milan/

Ah, warms the cockles of your heart…i know i’ll be chomping down into my Christmas dinner knowing there’s at least one less religious nutter in the world.

For those for whom the link doesnt work it shows the Berlin terrorist has be thankfully shot in Italy on the run, the poor soul was armed with a handgun and they’ve also found a video of him proclaiming his allegiance to Allah before carrying out said attacks….

….but please continue to debate about whatever other nonsense may have made him carry out these attacks.

Too blind to see it.

Mid-West Wales.

Had a couple of hard frosts, no snow yet…plenty of fog and rain obviously, it wouldnt be Wales otherwise!

NN or DHR2 for me at the moment, both seem to do the same job but the Schwalbe seems to have more volume than Maxxis tyres so using it on the back of my hardtail currently.

On my FS this isn’t a problem so I’ve gone Maxxis/Maxxis with a Shorty front, DHR2 back.

Humans are classic examples of omnivores in all relevant anatomical traits. There is no basis in anatomy or physiology for the assumption that humans are pre-adapted to the vegetarian diet. For that reason, the best arguments in support of a meat-free diet remain ecological, ethical, and health concerns.

Taken from the ‘vegetarian resource group’….this is pretty basic stuff and has been put to bed many times, most non biased dieticians and nutritionists advocate a balanced diet, not an extreme diet in one direction or the other.

….humans have the necessary teeth to eat meat with our canine teeth and the necessary enzymes in our gut to digest it, you’ll find people pass more undigested grain, seed, fruit and veg than meat in their poop.
As the quote from the vegetarian group states, by all means do it for health reasons but don’t try to justify it by talking nonsense about how we’re not omnivorous by nature.

I also had bloods, ECGs and a scan done earlier this year and had low cholesterol, no hypertension and the scan revealed absolutely zero calcification of my coronary arteries….and I’m a big meat eater here.

If you want to talk about the benefits of a vegan diet (for you) then fair enough and if you want to switch to veganism due to the treatment of animals then fair enough (i couldn’t care less, we’re top of the food tree and I think it’s fine to farm and kill animals) but don’t go against what is accepted fact about humans being omnivores to support your lifestyle change.
As one specialist in the field put it: if you can pick it or kill it you can eat it.

….it’s the unnatural processing of food that tends to be harmful and rids the food of many nutrients and often adds artificial substances that we’d never knowingly eat.

The fad with that Huel shakes rubbish that vegans seem to be turning to for their vitamins and protein is a classic example, it’s got stabilizers, emulsifiers, sweeteners and other crap I wouldn’t choose to eat, you’d be better off staying with meat if that’s someone’s idea of veganism!….not to mention the processing the raw ingredients have to go through in order to get it in powder form and stable enough to sit on the kitchen shelf for months on end.

I respect any vegan’s choice re. animal cruelty or trying to sort out skin conditions, sinus problems etc (by the way this doesn’t make a vegan diet magic it simply means you were allergic to something before that you simply no longer have, much like changing washing powder to clear up skin conditions)….just don’t try to tell me it’s unnatural to eat meat when we’re equipped to do so as loads of scientific research will tell you….and even the bloody vegetarian society concedes that we’re omnivorous by nature!

If we’re Willy waving, last two bikes were an R1 and a GSXR-750….both of which I’m sure would decimate an old, heavy Kwakker 900cc….even my Gixxer 750, which I’m convinced was the perfect blend of weight, power and handling for the road and put up a genuine 170mph+ as tested so many times by various mags, internet sites etc.

Lived in Aldershot, short journey to M3 motorway…blast to M25 junction…another motorway blast on M25 to M1 junction, blast up M1 to Milton Keynes exit…short journey to sister’s house…it was actually dead easy and I reckon I could’ve done it faster if properly unscrewed my head.

Bikes at the time were a 1996 Kawasaki ZX7R then latterly a brand new (for the time) Kawasaki ZX6R….both would easily hit indicated 150mph+ speeds with more to come before I would bottle it.

Believe it or don’t, makes no odds to me….was just countering the poster who ludicrously tried to claim that going fast doesn’t get you anywhere quicker.
Re. the other points in my post for Edukator, they are car based examples, I haven’t had a road bike for a few years now.

Just been through this myself, the car was worth £3k, the repairs (apparently) came to £1500 and they wanted the car written off….i disagreed and priced the job up myself using pattern parts and not OEM Suzuki parts, came to £500…they still wouldn’t budge and wanted the car written off….

…fair enough, I got the car back from the body shop who had priced the job up (it was mechanically sound and perfectly drivable, just cosmetic damage)…that way it was in my hands and not theirs when it came to negotiating a settlement, the body shop tried to get me to sign a form before I left their premises saying the car wasn’t drivable….i refused, they can’t enforce this they can only call the police on me if they think it’s genuinely unroadworthy…they didn’t.

They tried to shaft me firstly by cancelling my insurance and refusing a settlement as the car had xenon headlight bulbs and was therefore ‘modified’….really petty of them but that’s insurance for you…at this point they thought they still had possession of my car via the body shop….the offered me the chance to buy it back meaning they got to both cancel my policy avoiding a payout and pocket however much from me to buy it back.

I surprised them by informing them the car was on my driveway and I could see it from the kitchen window….they didn’t like that, I then said if they were cancelling said policy they have no claim on the car and I’ll either continue driving it, sell it for spares or repair or fix it myself and insure with someone else….they really didn’t like that!

Long story short, they buckled, offered me a fair settlement….and I keyed every remaining good panel and poured water into the engine before it was collected….if they were willing to royally bend me over they should expect the same in return….good luck to them trying to get it back on the road as a cat-D for reasonable money which is what they intend to do and how they make extra profit from their customers ‘total loss’ cars….scum the lot of them.

Coconut, lol….loving the racial stereotyping…is coconut a reference to how ‘your people’ see you?…brown on the outsides, white on the inside…

(runs for cover)…

Ok, I’ll play…i missed this beauty of a thread.

Anecdotal evidence but my experiences nonetheless….for those saying speeding gets you nowhere faster, my sister used to live 100 miles away, I could (and did) regularly make the journey door to door in an hour….that’s an average speed of 100mph, now admittedly I was on a motorbike meaning traffic wasn’t an issue (just split lanes/traffic if I came across any) and speed cameras were all front facing en route and seeing as motorbikes don’t have front facing plates this wasn’t an issue either…safe?…who knows!?…i’m still here and I did that journey for years, I didn’t ride like that in the wet so I judged what was safe and got it right…i might have been wiped out by someone doing less than the limit but changing lanes without looking, that’s more dangerous to me.

Last night my journey home was painfully slow, the road is winding Welsh lanes (but with 60/national limits) and virtually no overtaking spots, was stuck behind an artic that only seemed to be able to do 40mph and was often dropping to 20mph going uphill, don’t tell me slow moving traffic doesn’t hold people up, there was a queue of us behind this prat about 15 cars long, it’s a road I usually drive at 50-60mph…if slow moving traffic doesn’t slow you down why are empty roads so much faster to travel on?…and why is there always bunched up cars behind tractors and artics on single carriageway roads!?

Sliproads….there is always bunched up motorway traffic around sliproads, why?…if you watch people you’ll find incompetent motorists trundling up them at way less than the 70mph the traffic they are joining is doing (often they’ll be doing as little as 30-40mph and seem to have forgotten what the accelerator does), they then expect to join 70mph traffic!….nope, not gonna happen so what you get is everyone already on the motorway having to hit their brakes to accommodate the imbeciles trying to filter in at half the speed limit or everyone trying desperately to move over into lanes two and three to avoid said pillocks and this also slows everyone down at the junction.

Here’s a little secret, if you speed up on the sliproad to the speed the traffic you want to join is going then you don’t need a massive gap to filter into, if however you bimble up the sliproad at 40mph you’ll be that idiot sat at the end of it virtually stationary because you can’t find a gap big enough to pull into!

It’s the same in reverse with people leaving the motorway, don’t slow down to 50mph on the motorway before the sliproad you inconsiderate moron, you make everyone slow down behind you and cause congestion at that junction, leave the motorway at 70 and do your slowing on the sliproad!

Red lights…don’t sit there handbrake on, our of gear fumbling around and acting surprised when they turn green…what were you expecting them to do!?…you should be ready to pull off on green not holding cars up that have the misfortune of getting stuck behind you.

Same for roundabouts, T-junctions etc…i maintain that a huge amount of congestion could be relieved if people just drove in a more considerate manner and concentrated on what was happening around them and understood what sliproads and the like are there for…all can be done without breaking as single speed limit, just drove like you’re actually trying to get somewhere and not like you’re out of an evening just killing time.

There are loads of people at my work who haven’t been sick in years and they’re not vegan, some even smoke and drink!…while your immune system can be improved with diet equally as important is simple hydration, getting enough sleep and the luck of how strong the immune system you were born with is going to be.

Ditto you can find plenty of meat eaters who are athletic and/or endurance world champions in their particular discipline.

The article reads that one man converted to veganism and is now world champion….it doesn’t mean we should all do it, apparently Usain Bolt is partial to fast food, but he is a genetic freak and aspiring 100m runners shouldn’t follow his example….in short we’re all different and while some will find a vegan diet an improvement for their health and performance others will not, the trick (as its ever been) is finding what works for you.

The long, low, slack thing is a movement to what people seem to enjoy more these days, namely descending and riding tech stuff….there are more XC orientated bikes out there for pure mile munching.

Yes, nose wheelies, manuals etc are more difficult…easily the easiest bike to do these on is a BMX which by MTB standards is short, has a high BB and steep HA…but you will adapt again and they’ll become doable even if not as easy as in previous bikes.

The natural stuff you ride is often more technical than trail centre stuff…i enjoy a day at BPW but none of it is impossible to ride whereas I can cycle 10mins up the road to Brechfa forest, go off piste and easily find natural stuff that will leave me flummoxed and is clearly in Danny MacAskill territory, just because they’re saying it’s built for trail centres doesn’t mean it will be boring everywhere else, if anything trail centres tend to be sanitized compared to natural stuff…it will be ideal for your days in the peaks.

Pootling and bimbling can be done on any MTB, I wouldn’t worry about that.

The odd XC race you talk about would be the only concern, with a long-ish fork, circa 65 degree HA and the weight of an all-mountain build it won’t be the best tool…if it’s just the odd race it wouldn’t bother me (see it as a challenge, how many lightweight carbon offerings can you overtake for example) but if I was racing XC every week I’d want a dedicated bike.

You can say the above about any Enduro/trail/AM/whatever term is fashionable this week bike designed with slack and stable geo, it doesn’t make them bad bikes but they aren’t designed for anything in specific these days….think of them as jack-of-all-trades bikes and you won’t go far wrong, they’re designed to pedal reasonably well (but not as efficiently as an XC bike), descend fairly well (but not as well as a DH bike) and take drops and jumps fairly well (but not as well as a freestyle or slopestyle bike)…they are the one-size-fits-all MTB, the comfy middle ground for the riding most people may encounter on a day out…the bike to get if you only want one bike in the shed, which actually sounds perfect as you started your post by saying it will be your only MTB!

He/they are a lost cause…can’t they see that the ‘anti establishment’ votes recently in the UK and the US haven’t been anti establishment in any way….the Tories were voted into power again, people voted to pull back from a conglomerate of countries and try to establish a sole sovereign establishment again and a billionaire was voted into the White House…all fairly predictable, mainstream and ‘establishment’ outcomes unless you lived in that there cosmopolitan London and couldn’t see it coming!

The Labour party need to pull their collective heads from arses and get around the country more if they want to judge the mood of the electorate….won’t happen all the time an idealist Islington/London MP leads them FFS….particularly one that surrounds himself with other disconnected socialists like Diane Abbot…the Tories must be laughing their heads off, they’ve never had it so good and no need to start any vote winning wars yet either! Win/win for them.

The truly sad thing is that even if they did put in the legwork and went back up north to Labour’s heartlands to regain votes, the current leadership would probably find the views of working class people too abhorrent to actually implement into policy….they’ve lost their way massively.

We’re cyclists here, aren’t we?

No!

I play squash, lift weights, go kick boxing, walk my dogs, ride motorbikes etc…cycling is just a small part of my list of enjoyable pastimes.

Can’t stand the ‘hormones’ argument as an excuse for crappy female behavior…and yet us blokes seem to let it slide, funnily enough it doesn’t seem to work both ways and if a man is aggressive, violent and wants to hump everything in sight due to testosterone we’re being unreasonable….you can’t have it both ways ladies….we were born with brains that can think and reason and will if you put your mind to it override ‘hormones’ so stop acting like idiots (men and women) and blaming ‘hormones’….pathetic.

You would do, I’m a handsome man….

Yunki gets it, troll or not it’s one of the most dick-ish things us cyclists can do on the road and we all know how much it winds drivers up, if we want equal treatment and acceptance on the road abide by the rules and don’t run red lights…when cars do it I think “what a prick” and it’s no different a thought process when I see a cyclist do it.

That’s just it Andy, I do get to a gym which is why I have a 44ins chest (maybe bigger, haven’t measured it for years) at 5ft 9ins, together with 28 inch thighs, 17ins arms and weigh 15st….most people who meet me would probably describe me as a bodybuilder (i don’t like the term as I’ve never got on stage and competed) but with visible abs and veins all over my arms and shoulders, fat I am not!

Crew, Fat Face, White Stuff etc.

Great shops, actually size their clothes for adults and not midgets…I’m a L in all of those shops mentioned including Joules, Saltrock, Alpinestars, Animal, Free Perry, Rydale, Nike, Levis, Adidas, M&S etc…stay away from the brands that make stuff for holocaust victims…seiously what brand makes an adult shirt with a 36 inch chest?…are you still 12 years old?…perhaps eat more and get to a gym if you look like that, horrific.

The newer Superstar Alpine and DHX-pro are both 30mm internal widths….the Alpine comes pre built on their flashy new hubs that might be stretching the budget a bit…but I think you can use the custom wheel builder section and spec them on the cheaper Switch hubs (which are excellent and easily serviced at home), they should come in on your budget then.

I have the DHX but I mostly ride uplift days at the moment, they’re heavier and have a marginally wider outside rim width but the same 30mm internal I think, lovely looking and the local bike shop built them up on my existing Superstar Tesla hubs easy enough, they are easily under your budget as the rims were only about £80 in one of their sales earlier this year…pre built by Superstar on Switch hubs they would be a good bet for really rough riding.

one guy had about 6 punctures which slowed us down somewhat

Seriously!?…how do people manage this?….i’ve had one puncture this year and my riding has been mixed terrain including the very rocky Antur, marginally rocky BPW and soft terrain like FoD…and I’m running tubes still!

There’s got to be something inherently wrong with his setup surely?!

Yep it all makes a difference, I had 35mm Pikes on the front of my HT and swapped them out to 32mm Revs as they were too harsh….ditto the bars, swapped traditional stiff Alu ones out for flexy carbon ones…both changes made the front end much more compliant and comfortable to ride….let’s not forget tyres, my current Swalbe setup of Magic Mary front and Nobby Nic rear (both apparently 2.3) feel and look like larger tyres, certainly bigger than Maxxis 2.3 and 2.5 tyres….then you’ve got seat posts, if your bike is an old school 27.3 size it will flex moor than the 30.9 and 31.6 versions giving the impression of comfort when sat down peddling….wheel flex, the new wide and presumably stiffer rims hitting the market are likely to be stiffer and less compliant than old model narrower rims…etc etc….frame material is just one factor, I’ve managed to make my big tubed and apparently stiff Alu Dartmoor Hornet more comfortable than any of my previous steel bikes using some of the changes listed above.

Yep, picked up some base layers in the sale, all arrived in the week and was what I’d ordered…as every time I’ve used them, no probs whatsoever…in fact when I ordered a complete 45650b the person building it was in contact by phone several times giving me updates and offering me up specs as opposed to the advertised build.

Yes, the manufacturers all seem to recommend 20-30% sag, which in my opinion is too soft and defeats the point…if you’re using full travel on a normal ride it’s too soft IMO, some people love it and enjoy the comfort but it doesn’t leave anything in reserve for big hits and properly rough terrain…interestingly some world class DH riders revealed this year that they don’t run any sag in their suspension, if I recall correctly one of them said he wants the full 200mm of travel and didn’t see the point in running any sag at all!

If you can get the legendary 9 speed double SLX crankset, it is dead easy to dismantle and replace the double setup with a single ring (i’m using Hope), the newer single ring can be whatever you want, I’m running 10 speed Sunrace 11-42 out back…if I recall correctly the SLX double and bash cranks (which is why you’re buying this crankset) are hollow and virtually indestructible, in my opinion cranks haven’t progressed from that awesome product.

Got the latest Deores on my HT and the latest XTs on my FS….no problems so far, had Saints on the previous Hat and they were trouble free too…iinterestingly they were the latest model but a few years old and although I thought they were great they weren’t actually any better than the new Deores I put on the new HT!
Shimano brakes are brilliant, like hitting a brick wall and cheap to boot!

Shitty weather=HT Dartmoor Hornet
Just for laughs and to make me concentrate on uplift days=HT Dartmoor Hornet

Cosseted easy ride, perfect weather and those great days on a bike=FS Giant Trance SX with 160mm fork and slacker head angle than the HT (i think)
I don’t take it out in crap weather, it was a lovely project build by buying the frame alone and spending the best part of 12 months selecting parts and putting it together….it’s lovely, I’m running X-fusion suspension front and rear, latest Shimano XT brakes, Sunrace 10 speed cassette with 11-42 gears, Shimano 10 speed shifters, Hope single ring front setup, Nukeproof 40mm stem and Nukeproof 780mm bars, SLX cranks, 35mm wide rims from Superstar built up with Novatec hubs, dropper post obviously, Charge saddle, Maxxis Shorty front tyre, Maxxis DHR2 out back, rear shock mod with the 200×51 replaced with a 200×57 giving me around 155mm travel as opposed to the standard 140mm for a Trance, Renthal grips…. I’m a bit precious about it as you can probably tell, it’s bloody lovely and very much ‘my’ bike and pretty unique…it lives indoors much to my better half’s disgust…the HT lives in the shed.

Andykirk, you just stiffen the forks up with minimal sag (i only have around 10-15% sag once sat on it)….then the 150mm fork only uses full travel on the hardest of hits, in fact last time at BPW I didn’t get full travel at all, there was about 10mm of travel left in the fork….i think the idea as much as anything is to raise the front and slacken the head angle….some of the newer breed FS and HTs are going about this with short forks and geometry changes instead but I like the margin for error that the longer fork gives me, it allows me to roll stuff that I’d maybe have to jump/drop with a shorter travel bike.
I had a slack HT Kona that only took a 100-120mm fork and it felt out of its depth on properly rugged trails, just personal taste I suppose….you do have to get the seat down and hang off the back on steep stuff but I like that and it’s how I ride my FS too, better riders would probably criticise my technique but it works for me, I don’t like riding the front/fork on steep terrain, I move back and let the setup/frame/geo handle it for me!

Yeah I dilly dallyed for too long over what new frame to get and the price jumped up to £200 briefly, I think they’re down to £180-ish again now’s
Complete bargain though, cracking bike.

I found comfort on a HT was improved (when standing up too) by fitting some of On One’s ‘chewy’ (flexy) carbon bars.
Much nicer on my wrists.

I actually like the swooping, fast, short trail to the uplift at BPW, the slight uphill ride or push at the actual uplift start is a bit of a ballache but it wouldn’t put me of going there…in fact I think the trail with its humps, berms and drops is a nice warm up for the actual DH trails

I’m currently riding a Dartmoor Hornet.
It can take 26 or 650b wheels…im using 26 for maximum tyre clearance as I like 2.3 to 2.5 tyres on a hardtail, I’m using a 150mm Revelation fork and it’s bloody brilliant…this isn’t new bike syndrome, I rode it back to back with my steel Ragley Piglet and it is a better ride….the reach is longer despite both being 16 inch frames and the bottom bracket is lower….i had to adjust my style slightly to avoid pedal strikes but it’s now second nature, I had it at BPW recently and it was confidence inspiring and I was so much faster

It’s nice and light (2kgs I think) and despite being aluminium it isn’t harsh, I’ve had a Dialled Alpine, an On One evo, a Ragley and a 45650b previously and it’s the best of the bunch…the reviews online are good and it’s in stock in this country (i think they’re a Polish brand) and they only cost £200!….well within your budget.

Mines black with the newer black Revelation forks and black Pacenti wheels, it looks awesome and so much better than the cheap price tag would suggest.

The trick with any of these venues (FoD, Antur, BPW etc) is to go midweek…i know this is difficult for some people but it’s so much nicer, quieter and efficient….shift worker here so I always book midweek when I’m off.

In my opinion BPW can get away with poor customer service as the trails are so much fun, I personally think FoD is more natural and challenging but the runs are short and not clearly marked….it’s easy to go off piste and get lost coming down, no bad thing as the unridden stuff there is great too…..but BPW is longer and easier to navigate down and you can link up the trails, the riding is appealing enough that moody drivers, rude cafe staff and monosyllabic work shop staff are easy enough to forget and just enjoy the trails.

I understand the OPs frustration but it could have been sorted with much earlier communication…as I said early in this thread I’ve never had a problem with BPW (or the others) when moving bookings when I can’t make a particular date.
Maybe it’s because I ride midweek but they’ve always helped me out.