8 hour solo for me. Was test riding the track yesterday and it’s great. Just a little narrow in places so going to wait for a few minutes at the start before rolling out.

I actually want to get a canvas made up to go in my lounge as I have just bought my first house and thought it would look great in there.

No free loading here, just wanted to see what was about as I didn’t really find any good positions this year between laps at Mayhem to get any.

Anyone?

Off the entry form

Sport class – Open to four man and four-woman teams who would normally race in the Sport (or Fun) category of a British NPS race. That means no experts and no semi-pros sneaking in. There are prizes for both the men’s
and women’s teams. Basically a Sports team must be single sex and four strong.

Open Men -Team of four male riders, open to all abilities.

I have no idea where all this negativity comes from.

The event is called MOUNTAIN MAYHEM and this year it finally lived up to both words.

MOUNTAIN as it felt like you were climbing for hours and MAYHEM as the start was chaos and when the track got claggy saw people make some interesting lines.

The last 2 years people complained at the lack of hills and “the course is too flat” and now people are saying there was too much climbing MTFU!

As for people bitching on about entry fees. A local 2 hour XC race is £30, Chain Reaction Cycles Marathon is £30 so a 24 hour race where you can camping from Thursday to Monday with showers and toilets that get cleaned every 2 hours for just over £50 is a bargain.

If you didn’t like it, don’t bother next year but if you are reading these comments and it’s putting you off then don’t let it. I have done the last 3 years and will back next year as MY TEAM AND FRIENDS help make the event fun and enjoyable.

Any other thoughts on how to make my ride a little easier?

I will be up at 6am and out for 6.15 for an hour and halfs ride round Cranham and then meet the parents on the beacon top at 8ish with a flask of coffee. LUSH!

It’s a mess up there at the moment, looks like there has been several big groups through there over the last week and it has rippen up very badly in some places.

Some of the more under cover areas are turning into bogs.

It needs more frost and some time not being hammered to recover.

I would suggest Painswick beacon and down to Standish Woods as it sits on rocks and stones.

Thanks for the advice and for sticking up for me the few that did.

We do want to go back to Scotland as well as taking in the best on the way up and down England.

Cwm Carn and Afan are less than 2 hours from us so we ride these once or twice a month in the summer.

Well for background we are all from Gloucestershire so Scotland for us is a 7 hour drive.

By “did Scotland” I did mean we went up and did all the 7 Staines and really only enjoyed a few.

The rest of the guys I ride with love trail centres and we are not map readers so any off peast adventure riding may be limited as we are all useless map readers. Hence why I need some advice.

But I have walked many of the Scotland mountains and most of them are not really suitable for bikes unless you want to carry them for ages at a time.

I totally digagree with what Katy Perry represents. She comes across as sweet and innocent so she appeals to young girls. And yet if you listen to her new album it has sware words, talks about sex on the beach, losing virginity and a number of other things. She is a disgrace.

Bonty X Lites are great. £20 delivered on ebay. I have a Merida one that came with the bike and I have no marks on my bottle. Brilliant

I am using Maxxis advantages and they are fantastic in the wet and mud.

Used Bonty Mud X’s and could not find the cornering grip with them.

Just for those who were involved and interested.

Forks went back to Merida who in turn sent them to Rock Shox to have then assessed. They cam back to me saying that there was indeed a quality problem with the lowers and have supplied me with a fully serviced fork with new team lowers and internals.

A big thank you to Jason at Merida for superb customer service.

One to note for all Rock Shox owners, according to the warranty report if the fork lowers were under 3mm out they would have not done anything as that was within tolerance. So my 5.5mm was extreme apparently. But keep an eye out for leaning lowers on 2009/10 models.

On the first page of your listing you will see either a buy it now/fixed price tab about half way down.

If you want to start at £1 enter £1 into the starting price or if you want to add a buy it now, enter it in the correct tab field.

Sorry to say that I think the thought that has gone into the frame is brilliant. Looks great

DO NOT GET GLOSS OR YOU WILL END UP KILLING YOURSELF!

I got gloss, used the kitchen for a month and the scratches that appeared were a joke. We always use chopping boards and the top was littered with marks. Ended up ripping them out, going to B&Q with a screw in my pocket and rubbed it over their non gloss worktops and found they didn;t scratch. They have been in for a year with no marks on.

It’s supposed to be -1 tomorrow night so bring thermals!

Team of 4 sport men looking at 18 laps for the team

Ah well, most people who go to concerts would have ripped the CD’s of the artist for free so call it payback!

Have a look at the merida FLX range. Brilliant frame quality.

Tempted

Mine are sweet, There are 14 on there. Result. Christmas presents me thinks.

RDFCC 2939.jpg is awesome!

Mayhem
FOD Enduro
Oktoberfest
CRC Marathon series
Southern XC champs
10 under the Ben
Dusk till Dawn

I have these and they were brilliant for trail riding and commuting, my only issue is that they give off a really white light so when an on comming car lights hit them they dissapear. But I still use them after 2 years and they still hold a 6 hour charge.

Any pics up yet?

You had to enter expert! DOH!

Managed 3 out of 4 and banged in 66 minutes on the first lap but my body had nothing to give crossing the the line to start the 4th lap.

There were some really quick riders there too.

Really good event, maybe try it on the full sus next year as my ass hurts from the carbon hardtail.

Close ish to the Shrine. Just up the other side of Cranham up the steep hill on the right, backs onto the trout ponds. Nice pad. Mate was there yesterday doing a new alarm install.

Trek EX8 2010 was £1900 and 2011 is marked as £2299!!!!

Luminous Model 601 is brilliant!

me too please.

Many thanks

On an XC bike with flat bars they are brilliant, with risers no!

Hiya,

Yeah I have 2 local shops one being Leisure Lakes.

An independant shop had a look for me last night and he said they looked like they were twisted and had seen a pair do the same thing last year.

I have contacted the supplier of the bike direct to see what they suggest.

It's a shame as it's only done 196 miles of XC!

Tried 3 wheels including a brand new nukeproof wheel, brand new DT Swiss X1900 that came with the bike and a 2008 Mavic Crossride.

All do the same thing.

Seems to be about 5mm so noticable.

Mine have now started to lean to the left as you look down on them.

It's even worse under compression but with lock on on they are fine.

Trail_rat as I bought direct from Merida 11 months ago, will they be able to help me out?

Sorry buddy, thought I did.

Lum's stuff is great. Had his light on trial twice and the Mountain Mayhem riders I was lapping thought I was right behind them when infact i was 150m was brilliant.

Also got told off as it was too bright in the campsite. Quality