I'm still clinging to the miniscule chance that Lab and the Libs are just planning a huge prank on Cameron. When he tries to form a government in the house they all just start laughing as theyve done a secret deal with the nationalists for Clegg to be called to the palace.

he range of the 11-34 is wider anyway. Why not just fit a smaller chain ring?

Do a bit of mix and match with your old 9sp cassette for an 11-36t

Voted for the loony left so +1 lib dem ;)

There's a few sections of singletrack down the eastern end of the forest at Foel Gasnach :evil:

Ignoring drag, if the bullet being dropped is released at the exact instant the gun is fired then it will hit the ground slightly before the one fired from the gun. This is due to the extra time taken for the fired round to accelerate the travel horizontally through the guns barrel before starting it's acceleration downwards in the vertical plane. It will only be a small fraction of a second difference, much smaller than the margin of error you could realistically obtain when trying to fire the gun and drop the round at the same time.

Bottom line were are staying in watching TV and eating tesco value for the next five years miniumum until we are out of the shit.

Except that the Tories want it to be everyone else eating bread and dripping whilst they carry on with their luxurious lifestyle paid by shares in bakeries and abattoirs.

When we moved to a bigger house 9 months ago we fixed our mortgage for 5 years just in case. There's no way we could afford double figure interest rates like last time.

Hang'em all.

36, INTP

I've just swapped to an Ardent front Aspen rear combo on the 456. Fast as a fast thing in this current dry weather and still enough volume to rattle through the rubble.

I love a Hope Bulb for DH clickyness but on relaxing trail rides on the HT I prefer the Deore silence.

5th Coil Shock
Saint 810 brakes
66 RCV's

How good are you at DH?

If your not that fast then I would go with some bigger brakes. If you are pretty good and tend to brake in short sharp spells rather than drag your brakes then they will be OK although the extra adjustments the XT's give will help reduce finger and hand fatigue. I suspect if you could use SLX's as DH brakes you wouldnt need to ask.

Park in the lay-by/car park next to the lake in Llanberis Rangers starts opposite the obelisk at the top of the miners track. You get back to Llanberis by turning right after the second gate you come across on the Rangers path then heading up the grass hill to the obvious pass at Bwlch Maesgwm before heading down the Telegraph path to Llanberis. Full face not essential but gives that little extra protection to 'have a go' at the trickier sections.

I wouldnt ride the Rangers path alone especially late in the day as it's a lot quieter than the Llanberis path so getting help in the event of a bad stack may be difficult. The Llanberis path on the other hand has enough people on it to make riding alone OK as long as the weather is good, are fully prepared for bad weather and have quite a bit of experience of the UK's higher areas. The fact that you are asking suggests that maybe going alone would not be such a good idea as there are far too many cliffs to be falling off if the weather closes in unexpectedly and you loose your bearings.

Video of our Rangers descent last weekend courtesy of Goognoog.

Rangers pt 1 and Rangers pt 2.

The HD version is well worth the extra bandwidth and we even had a rider clean the lot except it wasn't caught on film :(

which bit of the rangers path do people struggle with? is it the bit where it narrows in to a gulley and the slabs are at awkward angles? thats the only hard bit i can think of and with a bit of sessioning its not bad at all.

It's the bit about a hundred yards from the end just before it levels out as you head over to the Telegraph path.

Well one of the two organising the skill course is properly qualified to teach riding.

Properly qualified and good at teaching are two completely different things.

Another '99 XCR

This is a 20" frame.

This is an 18" frame.

Yours is a 16".

Have you had your tape measure calibrated recently?

That looks like a 16". The head tubes are really short hence the high rise stems on the on one site. This allows you to run a short fork with a high rise stem or a one several inches longer with a flat stem and keep the bars in the same place.

You can set them up in so many different ways the only realistic way to give advice is for you to give your current settings, what you like/don't like about them and then settings can be recommended from there. Changing the oil heights also makes a huge difference to how much they ramp up at the end of the stroke. To hold the fork up in the midstroke and give a more linear feel I ran the left leg with lower oil but a slightly higher pressure. I used to run the right leg pretty high with oil but low pressure so that it ramped up towards the end of the stroke as the air volume dropped quickly due to the higher oil but with more progression than the PAR chamber and then added enough negative pressure to get it supple at full extension. I ran with minimal compression and rebound damping as I like a nice active fork.

The key is to understand how altering the pressure an oil level in each chamber affects the feel of the fork and then adjusting each individually.

It took me well over 6 months to work it all out but once you do they are an incredibly versatile fork.

FSA XL2 off ebay – £17 something delivered

Snap

Orbit XL2 for £17.50 from Absolute Cycles. Nice OS lower bearing.

La Varda from my back door and ridable all year round.

Not another Trek tin can obviously.

McLaren MP4/8 as driven by the late, great Ayrton Senna.

Cheers for the replies. 456 it is then. The budget won't allow for anything other than an on-one never mind an extra set of forks. Just got to decide which of the rather uninspiring colours to choose from now.

It has evolved quite considerably. Have a look at the Pink Beasty.

Early 90's Kona splatter paint jobs are coming back. I can feel it

GT's paint finishes from that time were much more interesting IMO. My peronal favourites were black tigerstripe over white and the cracked metallic paint effects.

They are good, not as light as e13 etc but very sturdy and both the guide and roller are nice and adjustable. same as the Da Bomb one CRC were/are knocking out for £50.

Main roads in are all clear unless you want to go over the Horseshoe.

For normal tyres.

Sounds like slight contamination that manifests itself just before the slave auto adjusts as the clutch wears. Personally I'd live with it but the SO would want it changed.

Mine was best with a 6" Z1 with ETA for the climbs. I also put a 200*57 shock on with after modding the lower shock mount to get 5,6 and 7" travel without resorting to the ludicrous leverage ratios the BETD kit ran. Ran it in 6" most of the time but 7" was nice for the Alps, Rangers path, occasional DH duties etc.

Double check the weld between the drive side chainstay and forged pivot assembly as a lot of the earlier ones including mine went there. The newer ones tend to go on the weld that allows the seatpost to pierce the seat tube.

The testing was done by Fibrax in Wrexham. This is the same company that sold hydraulic brake hoses that would explode under braking pressure.

Rumour has it those hoses were 'export' only.

Saints give enough power that you can one finger brake all the time without even needing to pull hard. It's amazing how much difference only having to apply gentle 1 finger pressure for even the most aggressive braking makes as regards to finger and hand fatigue and so how well you can brake or even hold onto the bars by the end of a day of heavy braking.

Agree new Saints are overkill for trail centres or rides with easier descents but for rides with lots of steep descents, Alpine trips and DH riding they are perfect.

What they also allow you to do is run smaller rotors for the same amount of power reducing the likelihood of a rock or root strike bending the rotor.

Deregulation of the bus service did for decent rural busses

+ 1

Had a lad giving me grief because I was 5 mins late this morning due to traffic and that as such he would be 10 mins late for work which was on route. Drivers don't get paid much and accordingly those that see it as just a job don't really give a shit as it's not that well paid.

Most drivers rely on OT to take home a decent wage.

I got my first full shift OT in 3 months yesterday. Due to the recession this winter has been the first time in many years that our depot has been able to retain enough drivers to cover all the duties without OT. Normally we can't train them as fast as they leave and we are the highest paying depot in the area.

It's hardpack fireroad all the way through to Pont Aber-Geirw and pretty much all downhill.

Can't afford an top end off the shelf bike. A self build with cherry picked SH parts comes in much cheaper.

There's a pretty decent map trail map on mtb techniques here[/Url]. It's in a big A2 sized pdf file so you can zoom in or print it to a number of smaller A4 sheets for laminating.

Obviously the local companies will know more trails but there's definitely enough there to keep you going for at least a week without much duplication. I'll add more to it next time I go.

The Office.