Ahwiles….spot on with wishing for a short travel, slack angle HT….I reckon it’d be great fun.

I sort of made my own one by fitting wide bars and short stem to a Kona Caldera, 68.5 degree head angle isn’t considered slack by most but compared to the 71 degree XC biased bikes I’d ridden before then its great fun. I ride a lot of the stuff Teamhurtmore rides in Surrey and the bike is fine….however, I have just acquired a 140mm FS.

Is it too much bike for Surrey? Maybe, but I also do the 661 Gravity Enduro races so its mainly for that. I’d say the biggest difference is how fast/hard you can hit the terrain….or in my case how clumsy I can be!
With 140mm of travel at both ends its often brain-out riding with the bike bailing me out, I can see how the term ‘skill compensator’ came about.

On the other hand a robust FS encouraged me to do things I wouldn’t on a HT. Case in point is Gibbet Hill in Hindhead, never cleared it all on the HT but managed it with FS….could be psychological I suppose?

Elfinsafety. Agree with that, I have friends who will argue over the stuff in their house, argue over shopping etcetc….I just don’t get it. I had a mate a few years ago who told me his ambition was to lead the kind of life that he reads about in FHM….I’d never pitied one of my friends before that moment.

I go to the shops for what I need and then spend the rest on things my better half and I enjoy doing. Things like 60 inch TVs leave me cold, surely its the program being watched that provides the entertainment and not the vessel its viewed on?

Far too many friends have been in debt trying to keep pace with fashion for gadgets, cars etc….they end up leading a hollow existence whereby their possessions define them.

Windydave, they’re Shimano M575 brakes.

Had a set earlier in the year, the bolts/rivets that connect the inner spider to the outer rotor sit proud of everything else and fouled on my brake caliper.
Superstar know of the problem but dont put a warning on the description/advert for this item, their helpful response was to advise me to file away the part of the caliper that was catching on the rivets.

I decided not to bugger up my brake calipers for the sake of some cheap floating discs. To be fair to Superstar they replaced and refunded them with a normal set of rotors instead.

My brakes are Shimano so its not as if i was using some obscure boutique brake brand.
I found i could improve my brakes in a more cost effective fashion with soft compound pads instead.

Trailmonkey…spot on.

South America is largely Spanish descendant and Russia colonised most of Eurasia, laughable that such countries now pontificate on decolonization.

As I said in a previous post, where do you draw the line? Australia back in Aboriginal hands, ethnic Spanish south Americans back to Spain, all white people out of New Zealand…..does it work the other way? Is it acceptable to repatriate black people to their country of origin?

Massively touchy subject for some so I’m of the opinion that seeing as it happened hundreds of years ago then its safer to let sleeping dogs lie.
Argentina’s sole claim on the Falklands is that Spain once held them when Argentina was a Spanish outpost. That time had passed, for a country so opposed to British colonisation they seem to desperately want their own version in place instead.

Whatever the legal and moral wranglings, if there is oil present then it should be fought over tooth and nail to kept in British hands.

The world is going to become an ugly and expensive place as oil becomes thin on the ground….if there is oil at the Falklands then Britain should do all it can to keep them.

Not really interested in the ‘who was there first’ argument as it just gets silly, where do you draw the line?….chuck all European descended Yanks out of the US?….hand Brazil, Argentina etc back to the Native South Americans?….turn Oz back to an Aborigine country?

The world changes all the time, populations move around….its not always pleasant when done by force but trying to reverse hundreds of years of immigration, colonisation etc seems pointless.

I have both but ride the HT more, i grew up with rigid bikes in the 90s so a HT seems like a ‘proper’ bike to me anyway….thats not to say i eschew FS completely, my FS gets wheeled out for the 661 Gravity Enduro races and the FoD Mini-Downhill during the winter….but for pleasure i always take the HT.

One thing to bear in mind, a narrow seat tube and consequently a narrow seat post will have a barely perceptible amount of flex but is well worth hunting out, it makes for a far more comfortable HT in my experience….wider seat posts seem to act like a conductor rod to my arse transmitting all the harshness of a HT ride….fell in love with HTs again when i got a Kona with a 27.2mm seat post.

This sounds fun, count me in too.

Parking is good, permits available on the day from the Lookout.

I’m around on the 29th so count me in, been once before but could do with being shown the best bits around Swinley.

http://www.bikepark-leogang.com/en/

BadlyWiredDog….why dont you enter the 661 Gravity Enduro races next year and put your theory to the test?
Cotic are one of the sponsors and offering prizes for the highest placed HT….the races are at known trail centres so your rigid HT that ‘is more than adequate for anything in the UK’ should cope admirably.

I prefer a HT too but i’m not daft enough to think i will cover ground faster on my HT than i will on my FS….riding the HT is about line choice and finesse….riding the FS is about ploughing through whatever is in the way….the FS is much faster on anything other than climbs….theres a good reason why there were only a handful of us on HTs at the Gravity Enduros last year.

Bren2709….thats what i was thinking too.

So many people these days talk to the Police like that idiot cyclist who ran a red light and got pulled over by the cycle Copper (the video was doing the rounds recently) and wonder why the Police come across as rude when often the Officer is simply responding in kind but people have so little insight into their own conduct that they cant see this….

….there seems to be a section of society who are very much law abiding but take offence at being pulled over by the Police for the usual drink driving checks etc….the Police arent mind readers and dont know if you have committed an offence until they speak to you, the way some people moan you’d think they expected a formal written apology for passing a breath test.

Been stopped several times over the years and breathalysed a couple of times, got no problem with this….every time it was during the weekend at night and i was usually the only car on the road….theres a better than average chance a vehicle like that is coming home from the pub, a club etc and may have an intoxicated driver at the wheel….was pinged last year too for using the phone while driving, always found Police polite and actually up for a laugh if you just admit what you were doing (if you were doing something wrong) and speak to them like they’re human.

They deal with so much crap and so many scummy people that they are naturally guarded when initially speaking to anybody and this sometimes comes across as rude…in work mode i spend a lot of time with Surrey and Hampshire’s Police and in 12 years have never met a Copper than i thought was a nob.

*doppel post*

Germany wants Britian back in the ‘club’ so it doesnt have to foot the bill alone when its time for more bail-outs….which will happen shortly i’m sure.

Better to be on the outside of a crumbling economic experiment than locked into it.

Trying to harmonise economies as different as Germany and Greece was never going to work….but with the EU it always seems to be a hurried and immature numbers game, no real thought as to who is joining and what they offer, just an assumption that more members must be a good thing….even if they come to the EU with a crack pot economy.

I see Albania and Macedonia are being lined up as potential new members (seriously), anybody think they are bringing anything to the EU?….the reality is that countries like this want their place at the table for what they can get out of the EU….and the same will happen to them as seems to happen with all new member states, there will be a temporary boost to their economy during which they will spend more than they create and will be left with a debt for the wealthier countries to pay off….thats why Germany wants the UK back in.

The sooner they Euro is knocked on the head the better.

Interesting thread this, also been looking at the Nerve AM 6.0 as my first FS.

Only fly in the ointment is the Voodoo Zobop, this has a similar spec but from what i can see the brakes seem better on the Voodoo (Elixir R as opposed to Elixir 3) and the running gear is XT as opposed to SLX…also comes bang on my size too (17 inch)….i see the Canyons are either 16.5 or 18.5….not sure i want to go as small as 16.5?…apart from that they both have 150mm travel (one runs Fox and the other Rockshox, i’m not fussy enough to have a preference) and theres half a degree in the slackness with the Voodoo slightly more raked out in the front.

How do these Canyons measure up?…is the medium a small medium so to speak?

Kudos100….thats a great video, one of my favourites for the Surrey Hills….the point of the original cartoon video (i think?) was lampooning those riders who (as you pointed out) blame their riding on the limited capabilities of a 4k bike, when in reality they are never likely to get near the limits of what the bike is actually capable of.

I used to be based on the Ambulances at Cranleigh, quite close to Peaslake, Leith, Holmbury etc….most weekends were spent picking up MTBers with broken bones….the bikes they were on were irrelevant, some had hardtails and some had FS….a crash is a crash whatever the bike is.

For what its worth i’ve ridden most of that video and Gibbet Hill (see the Whyte Bikes promo video for the new 146 to get a look at Gibbet Hill) on Hardtails, i didnt take the big jumps at Leith because i am a pussy not because the bike isnt capable….and i walked down a 10 yard section of Gibbet Hill where none of the available lines looked appealing….i’ll concede that FS in that instance may have got me down safely but i’d also wager that a better rider than me could’ve got down it on a rigid.

The point?…not sure really but i stand by what i said about the costs involved in MTBing these days….truly ridiculous for what the bikes actually are and it excludes loads of kids who i’m sure would like to get involved but cant stump up the money needed to get a decent bike.

joolsburger….i think the point is that MTBing has virtually disappeared up its own arse due to the cost and the fact that there is an available (and gullible) customer base with a good disposable income who change bikes on a regular basis and keep prices artificially high.

We’re talking about cycling for christ’s sake…..it should be a cheap past-time available to all….the money that some (most?) on here spend it would be cheaper to get into Moto-Cross!

I recently returned to MTBing and was told in the LBS that £600 would get me a good entry level bike….i nearly fell over, i’m 34 and could thankfully afford it but how many kids that would like to own a modern nice bike cant because that kind of money is ridiculous?
We have a forum that spouts off about 2k being the minimum people should spend on their first full susser….£2,000?….have we all gone mental?….its only recently i bought a car for slightly more than that.

These bike are mostly aluminium tubes welded together and then adorned with forks, brakes, wheels and gears that are mass produced for a fraction of the retail price….bonkers, its why i hope firms like Canyon with their direct to customer model take off in a big way and show the industry up for the scam it is.

*double post*

DR gave me Tramadol last year for a shoulder injury, didnt rate it as an analgesic but as a legal way to feel stoned/high it was quite pleasant.

I found taking 2 tablets in the morning on an empty stomach would put me in a very ‘relaxed’ mood until about mid afternoon….couldnt really see any drawbacks provided things dont get silly, never took more than 4 a day….the one time i tried this it dropped my blood pressure too low and i came over faint and clammy for a while.

Didnt suffer with constipation like Codeine gives me, never felt nauseous like some opiates can make people….truth be told i was probably less of a grouch during the 3-4 months i took them!

As the OP said, cold turkey isnt pleasant….they are an opiate (synthetic) but an opiate nonetheless and i had a few days afterwards with headaches and cold/flu symptoms….withdrawal basically, nice.

I once had a phone call from a firm who wanted 10k to buy some land, once the land had planning permission they sell it to developers for a huge mark-up….sounds pretty logical and the return on the money is fantastic.
I expressed some interest and after the phone call i googled the company, seems there is a genuine market that operates in this way but most firms into this racket just get loads of people to sign up, they then buy some land (and bank the rest) and very slowly go through the planning process…they usually get rejected and you never see your money again, but you do own a nice piece of land that is good for nothing somewhere in the south east!

When they called back to finalise payment i hung up, they called again and i hung up…i should have just said i’m not interested but i couldnt be bothered, easier to just press clear on them.

They phoned almost daily and in the end i took to answering the call but putting them on loudspeaker and just listening to the desperate and increasingly funny tone of the voice as the caller said my name over and over again….it got to the point where i would let my other half, work colleagues, family etc listen in when they called….i started to admire the tenacity….the calls sadly stopped (months later) when i think they’d run out of patience during one call when i had them on loud speaker and i was sat there in silent hysterics….the tone changed and the caller spewed forth a foul mouthed tirade, this made me crease up even harder, by now my ribs were hurting and that was the end, never got another call from them.

Shame, i miss them.

DezB….’Phoneshop’ does a great job of lampooning the accent of choice for youngsters today….perhaps i should have used that as an example instead?….people get so touchy when they think race is being brought into….i’ll reiterate again for those that missed it the first time….speaking like either of the two nobbers in Phoneshop will not curry favour with a propsective middle aged employer sat the other side of the interview desk.

You get me brah?!

cheese@4p….youth speak differentiates young people from us oldies….and you’re right, that has always been the intention….the problem young people have got (and it is their problem) is that the oldies who are in positions to hire and fire young people cant understand half of what is being said in the ridiculous urban patois….or understand it but feel it is too ridiculous to put out front as the contact point for a business.

That is not the fault of the older generation, kids who have decided to adopt a patois so far removed from how the rest of society speak that they make themselves unemployable need to rethink their ways not vice versa.

There was a documentary a few years back with John Prescott going into London tower block estates to find out about youth unemployment….he seemed genuinely shocked when a young British girl told him she wouldnt do a cleaning job because it would be too humiliating….he ventured that claiming benefits was surely more humiliating and now it was her turn to look completely shocked.

This is what needs to change, young British kids (for whatever reason) have decided that cleaning jobs and the like are somehow beneath them….but a life on benefits is socially acceptable!

All the lower paid jobs at my work are taken by older people or eastern european immirants, virtually no British youngsters….i asked why and was told in no uncertain terms that they dont want to work.
A previous poster hit the nail on the head when he said their attitude is to work as little as possible for as much as possible….while that sounds fantastic its just not going to happen, whoever is paying the wages wants a fair days work from an employee.
Much easier to just riot and blame the police, government etc etc (yawn)….

brooess….i dont think i’m saying anything too controversial.

When the ‘yoof’ of today speak and it sounds like Ali-G it just makes them sound thick even if they arent….if the accent they are using has caribbean overtones when they have never been to those islands then it just becomes comical….and (black or white) kids speaking like this want to be taken seriously? :lol:

Someone from Jamaica speaks with a Jamaican accent – fine and normal.

Someone from Guildford speaks with a Jamaican accent – cock.

I hope that clears things up for some people….lets not being race into it, its about looking like a penis or not and a lot of these kids dont help themselves.

CharlieMungus….you’ll find that blacks in the US that talk in hip-hop speak and act ‘gangsta’ also have a hard time getting work….its not about the colour of the skin, its about not acting and looking like a prick….there are plenty of blacks in this country and the US who dont feel the need to conform to negative racial stereotypes and funnily enough they seem to get on with their lives fine….its the few who want to act like they’re living in an MTV video and still get taken seriously that have a hard time of it.

“get paid”….awful yank expression imported from the godawful rap scene over there….applied to any activity (legitimate or otherwise) that garners money….drug dealing, benefits etc etc.

Had to chuckle at the ‘repressed’ youths that cut their holiday short by 9 days to return to the UK and join in the riots….wow, nothing like being so held down by ‘the man’ that you have to cut your hols short to come home and riot!

The kids being spoken to are trotting out the same lines we’ve heard for decades….police oppression, anti-government etc ….same shit, different generation….why give air time to these bellends?

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, when these retards talk like a bad impression of Ali-G nobody in their right mind is going to give them a job….it sounds particularly bad when the jamaican patois being spouted at you is coming from a white person….how does that work then?….or when the black lad who is a 3rd or 4th generation West Indies immigrant and has never left these shores speaks with more of a caribbean accent than his dear old granny who was born in St Lucia!….its no wonder society shuns these cretins.

Nomakoman, then why bother listing the old mud specific tyre on the website? I wanted the deep, widely spaced tread of the mud tyre not some half arsed inbetweener that will clag up with mud. A simple email to tell me they no longer do the mud tyre would’ve been fine, poor service.
Anybody want some Black Sharks?

Black Shark:

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Black Shark Mud:

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….like i said, two different tyres and they sent the wrong ones.

Epic fail by the STW know-it-alls.

Ordered some Black Shark Mud tyres….what turned up?….ordinary Black Sharks….yeah, awesome service….the email receipt stated Mud tyres, the paper invoice packaged with the tyres for gods sake even said Mud tyres….will stick to Evans, CRC and On-One from now on, never had any problems with those companies.

Did mine the other week, hard to mess up….he should be fine.
Remove grips.
Loosen brakes and gear clamps.
Turn bars one direction and remove the brakes and gears from end closest to frame, if you try to do it with the bars straight the cables are usually too tight and prevent removal.
Turn bars opposite way and remove brakes and gears from other end.
Undo stem face plate bolts.
Remove old bars.
Fit new bars and replace stem face plate.
Add brakes and gears in the reverse order they came off.
Fit grips.

Done.

Kona Wah-Wahs here….£30 new from a seller on ebay that does them, cant remember the name of the shop/seller though?

Interested in trying those plastic ones though, reckon they’d grip better than metal in the wet.

When i read the thread title i thought ‘angina’ but then you said it doesnt come on with other types of exercise/exertion….?

Personally i have exertion related asthma….but only from high impact activities weirdly….for example cycling and BJJ doesnt trigger it but squash, running and kickboxing does….DR gave me a Ventolin (the blue one) inhaler to use prior to these activities and its not a problem now.

Could also have pulled an intercostal muscle (the ones between the ribs)….best to see your DR, the cautious approach is to treat chest pain as cardiac until proven otherwise.

clubber…”Ah, never let a bit of fact get in the way of class war muppetry, eh.

FWIW, having actually met real Eton types in the wild, it’s not really them I’d worry about. IME they get a fairly rounded education and the school really pushes the message to them that they’re very lucky in the grand scheme of things rather than superior.”

I agree, the most superior and pompous acting twits in society tend to be those from the middle classes who jealously aspire to be something more….the number of obnoxious Solicitor types i’ve come across beggars belief….i’m sure they’re not trained that way so why do they act that way?….spend any time with the real upper class and it becomes oddly apparent how normal they are.

teamhurtmore….i think the public would go for it and the majority of NHS staff too….there would of course be wailing from the unions and other professional bodies like the Nursing and Midwifery Council who would see it as some kind of career castration for their members….ludicrously i was lectured earlier this year by a Consultant Nurse who was in his early 30s….obviously being a Consultant Nurse he no longer gets his hands dirty in a front line role, he issues clinical directions to the nurses under him and lectures at the local Uni (for more money obviously)….the NHS has paid for the Degrees, Masters etc that have paved the way for him to become a consultant in his field….the NHS will also now be stuck with his inflated salary for the next 30 years and the pension provision afterwards, really what was the point in taking a bright young thing like him away from patients?

As Swiss01 suggested, his role should be manned by somebody with 20-30 years experience who is looking to step back from frontline work and willing to take the appropriate pay cut….we have things very upside down in the NHS!

Swiss01….i would agree with the idea behind keeping good frontline staff in operational roles and paying managers less, this would see an end to the careerist managers in the NHS who just want to climb the greasy pole and keep managerial job vacancies for frontline staff who want to take a step back and have excellent previous experience to bring to a supervisory role.

Good plan that.

To give an example of some of the nonsense going on in the NHS where i work, a Paramedic friend of mine has just qualified….literally just qualified….i’m talking mere weeks since he was a student.
He has been a good student and will make an excellent Paramedic, here’s to many years good service and the Trust recouping the money back that they spent on his training….oh hang on, thats not going to happen because the service (in its infinite wisdom) has already made him a manager!….thats right folks, they have identified him as such a good Paramedic that they are prepared to remove him from that role almost immediately and put him behind a desk!

You couldnt make it up, of course he has accepted the promotion as its more money and he has some student debts to pay off but if anybody wanted an example of how barmy things are in the NHS then that is a great example.

Swiss01….if the reality is that deep down everybody knows that 65 year old DRs, paramedics and nurses isnt going to happen and that front line medical roles are jobs for younger people then there needs to widespread reform being led by the government, not nonsense about making the NHS retirement age 68 years old.

Pay employees significantly higher wages and do away with pensions altogether, then people have the option to spend the extra money on qualifications for a second career once their front line medical career is over or make their own investments re. pensions, property etc etc….because realistically there arent that many people in any role in the NHS over 55….and the government must be paying out a fair amount in medically retiring people before the age of retirement, this will happen more and more in the future unfortunately.

Paramedic here, from my point of view the hourly rate is often better in the private sector but there is no pension provision, the NHS pays me less than i could earn but offers some stability and a pension at the end….swings and roundabouts, one of my colleagues who works mainly in the private sector has just bought a second house as his form of pension for when he retires.
Its a crappy move to change existing pension deals, better to have changed the deal for new joiners instead and honour current deals that people may have put 10, 20, 30 years into.

Regards age and ability, in my 12 years with the Ambulance Service i have come across 4 members of staff who have made it to 65….working through the night, clambering around in upturned cars, carrying people down stairs etc is not an old man’s game….the number 68 being floated by the government is laughable….anybody want a 70 year old Paramedic coming out to them in their hour of need?…this is what has caused the most ill feeling in my area, there is now a belligerent attitude among the older workers that they will continue working as requested by the government and if that means chronic injuries take months to heal then they’ll have no guilt about going off sick on full pay for 6 months before returning….or putting in claims against the NHS for injuries sustained at work, this is a massively growing sector by the way. The government could end up shooting themselves in the foot with this rule.

Happy days, Australia beckons i think!

The NHS was being planned long before 1945….like i said, voluntary hospitals that came about because of WW2 were going to go under once the war was over….creating a state funded NHS was seen as the best way to keep them once the war was over…the lead up to the 1945 election was about selling the idea to the electorate….hence the slogan about a welfare state that looks after people from cradle to grave….all politics, or maybe i’m too cynical?

£280 for a reverb?….priceless :lol: .

You’ve already paid for the roads too….go and claim a bit, see how that works out for you?

Tax funded services are not the same as owning a service….in reality the NHS would belong to the people far more if it was privatised and people held shares in it….not saying i want this to happen but it does make me laugh when people think that paying for a service via tax means they ‘own’ that service….while you’re at it why dont you go and claim some MoD property that you will have paid for through tax….in fact next time you’re cycling on MoD land and come across soldiers training on ‘your/our’ land tell them to leave….again, see how that works out for you.

Ernie lynch….the NHS came about from the EMS (emergency medical service) that was formed during the second world war, these EMS hospitals were dependent on government funding and would be in trouble once the war was over….the need to guarantee their existence after the war led to the reforms that created the NHS….effectively war led to the NHS.

We pay for it because a government decided we should have it and fund it….their was no ‘people power’ revolution that led to the creation of the NHS….it was a decision taken by a government and if a government wants to remove a tax funded service or organisation then they can do so….put a consortium together and with others in your local area buy a part of the NHS or the primary care trust in your area, then it would be ‘your’ NHS.