My Industry Nine Torch hubs are pretty quiet, and super fast engagement. Quality is impressive. A few bling colours to choose from too, if that’s your thing.

I’ve always liked Hope, including the noise, but if I’m honest I’ve had more cracked freehub bodies, spoke flanges and broken axles than I would have liked over the years. Sorted out first-class by Hope of course, but I’d still rather they didn’t break.

I like Juice Lubes Fork Juice, it stops mud sticking pretty effectively and makes my bike very shiny, which I also like. I seem to get through a lot of it though and it’s not cheap. Recently started using the new Oxford Silicone spray though, it’s about half the price of JL and smells minty. It’s also a thicker liquid on application so needs a bit more of a buff after applying, but comes up well. Both recommended. I like to keep my bikes clean. I’ve tried a few other silicone sprays and the main issue I’ve had is that the spray mist isn’t fine enough. The Muc Off nozzles are super fragile and also get blocked, I’ve had to chuck a couple of cans that were almost full. Hope that helps.

Their T&Cs haven’t changed for bikes, they’re just harder to find on their website. If you pay for a hold bag and a bike bag then you have a total of 50Kg in the hold (the max for any one passenger). They have even stopped saying you can’t put other stuff in your bike bag. I flew with them recently and e-mailed to check as the website is indeed misleading. Bikes have their own policy, different to other sports equipment. Easyjet’s reply…

Thank you for contacting us.

It is certainly true that bicycles are exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle. If the hold baggage and bicycle weigh more than 32 kg, you will not have to pay any excess baggage fee as long as the hold bag weighs no more than 20 kg and the bicycle weighs no more than 30 kg. The total weight of the baggage cannot exceed 50 kg.

I hope this information helps.

Still one of the best airlines in Europe to fly with your bike, done it loads, never had a problem. Worth emailing Easyjet customer services before you go as the check-in staff don’t always know the rules and you can take the email with you.

I reckon 140 just about hits the spot, the Chameleon will egg you on to rag it’s ass off everywhere you ride and a shorter fork might leave you feeling short-changed. It’s a super-versatile frame but I think you miss the point if you try and turn it into a short-forked XC bike.

Denton House in Keswick always hits the spot. Good, clean, flexible accommodation, showers, toilets, kitchen facilities. Walking distance to pubs, food etc. Cheap, cheap. Ride from the door to Skiddaw/Whinlater/Borrowdale etc, etc.

http://www.dentonhouse-keswick.co.uk/pages/accommodation.html

We just got back from Tuscany (went there for a week after riding with Riviera Bike). We stayed in a beautiful hill-top village (yes, there’s loads of them) between Lucca and Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. We pretty easily found some epic off-road routes and if you don’t mind a bit of a hike-a-bike you can have some proper adventures on the long-range paths, there are maps in most of the villages.

Check out http://www.bikemap.net for loads of routes around there, handy of you have a GPS.

There are some published MTB routes around Portofino and the Cinque Terre a little further north.

Ride, coffee, ride, beer, piles of food, sunshine, scenery, beer, wine. I reckon you’d be gutted if you didn’t take your bike. Enjoy.

Yep, a £4,000 bike in a three quid box.

Makes loads of sense.

Glad you enjoyed Your ride. Thanks for sharing.

You need to get out more.

Doh!

BTW, TrailAddiction will show you a seriously good time, you won’t ever want to come home. Enjoy!

Seriously, take your bike. If you don’t use that thing in the Alps you’ll never, ever, EVER, have used it properly. Get a bike box by all means, but given that you’ve clearly spent a quid or two on your bike, get a bike bag (The CRC ones are great) because when you come back from a week in the Alps with TA, you WILL be going back again. Mountain biking will never be the same again, and you’ll realise what your bike designers had in mind when they thought up your bike, and trust me, it wasn’t Dalby Forest, Thetford or or Llandegla!

It’s got to be what we’ve been waiting for. A properly useful range of gears without the archaic, clunky, noisy front mech. Cash aside, all my bikes would be running it now. That, plus a clutch rear mech and a dropper post would transform a mountain bike, and I mean a proper mountain bike, made to be ridden up mountains, and especially back down them.

We’re seriously living in the age where mountain bikes become seriously good pieces of kit. No compromise.

What lucky, lucky riders we are. Yes, you can have loads and loads of fun on your fully-rigid, single speed, seven-speed, hair-shirt 1.8 tyre’d dandy horse. But give me some suspension technology and component advancement and I’ll take my fun to the next level.

I was in your position for quite a while with Eggbeaters and Candys. After persevering for ages, I found the most reliable and cost effctive solution was to bin then and buy some Shimano pedals.

Much, MUCH better in every way. Function, feel, reliablity, all of it. After years on CB, Shimano were a revelation.

I assume you’ve pulled the spacer off the drive-side end of the axle?

The axle is probably seized onto the free hub bearings. Pull the spacer off the non-driveside end and tap the end of the axle with a soft-faced mallet. The free-hub will come off on the axle and you can dis-assemble from there.

I did this trip during Easter 2008, in fact I met my (now) wife on it. I went with a few mates and there were a few other people on the holiday.

Morocco is a fantastic place to visit and a mountain bike is an amazing way to discover the Atlas Mountains. I’ve also ridden in Southern Spain (Sierra Nevada) with Freeride Spain (Switchback’s next door neighbour, just about) so can make a good comparison.

Unless the trip has changed substantially, and from reading the details recently it seems to be identical, then the riding is virtually 100% on double track, jeep tracks, plus a substantial amount of road. There was virtually no singletrack at all. The 4×4 support follows the whole trip. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery is amazing and you’ll experience the amazing Moroccan back-country on a bike. I really, thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and I’ve ridden XC, DH and everything in between in Moab, California, Spain, all over the Alps etc and lots of other places, but Atlas Descent it is not a singletrack MTB holiday. An experienced mountain biker would probably feel short-changed from a riding perspective if they went expecting singletrack.

Having said that, Exodus know how to look after you, and if you want comfortable hotels, beer every night, lots of amazing scenery and good food, along with what I would call MTB touring, without having to think about a thing, then it’s a great trip, and a brilliant country to visit.

There were several novice mountain bikers on our trip, on hired hardtails with V brakes and they were just fine. I took my Heckler and was completely over-biked. A short travel XC full-suss would probably hit the spot, a hardtail would be fine too.

One other thing to note, Exodus sell this holiday as Atlas Descent, and it’s true that every day has more descending than climbing, but there are some significant climbs, often on road, including one 10K climb all on tarmac road, and a 15K descent all on tarmac road.

I researched Flow MTB’s trip to Morocco recently and it sounded much more like a Mountain Biker’s trip, with much more of a singletrack focus, so maybe get in touch with them.

I took my own bike, as did six others. We flew with Royal Air Maroc and had no problems at all (two leg flight, LHR to Casablanca, Casa to Agadir). There was some time to sight-see in the towns after riding and that’s a must-do.

I don’t think you can compare Atlas Descent to a Spain trip with Switchbacks. Sierra Nevada is long, steep, tech, rocky, singletrack downhill. Atlas Descent is MTB touring on jeep tracks, uphill and downhill.

Really good trip though, as I said, I met my wife on that trip, I can’t guarantee you’ll meet yours, unless she goes with you of course.

As I see it the possible outcomes of having a life plan are these.

1. You achieve your planned objectives, and you’re disappointed by how it feels.
2. You fail to achieve your planned objectives, and you’re disappointed by how it feels.
3. You achieve your planned objectives, and you’re happy with how it feels.

So you’ve got a 1 in 3 chance of success! But who knows, even if you achieve number 3 and you think you’re finally happy, you might have missed loads of other, better, different stuff whilst you’re narrow-mindedly pursuing your plan, which was probably flawed in the first place.

I’m just getting to the end of a bottle of 30yr old Port Ellen, and whilst it’s certainly good whisky, and it’s good to have finally got the whole way around Islay, I would say there are better bottles of whisky for the money.

I paid £190 for mine recently. Gald I had it, but wouldn’t buy it again.

But then to a serious Islay lover, it would be a great present. You might find one cheaper than the one I got from LFW, but not by too much I’d have thought.

Me too, 1 euro size up in normal/summer shoes, two euro sizes up in winter boots (MW80).

You’ll struggle to do better than a new Bullit for the money.

If you’ve got lots to spend then there’s much more choice. It’s not a massive cost to get a wheel rebuilt with a 150mm rear.

A 110 might have a 110 year warranty, but a Chris King might as well not have a warranty at all, because in my experience you’ll never need to return it. And what I want to do is ride my bike, not come back to it and find the headset needs taking out and sending back (like the Nukeproof one on my hardtail).

Not that I’m saying the Cane Creek isn’t good quality, I don’t know, I’ve never even seen one.

But if you are a manufacturer you could, say, make a part for £10, sell it for £100 and give a ‘forever’ warranty. You’d need to replace it loads of times before you made a loss on it. Not that I’m saying the CK isn’t a good headset, just that a 110 year warranty doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good quality piece of kit, they might just have priced it with say three replacements in mind for every one they sell.

Or that might not be it at all.

Last year (August) the lift company had stopped asking for a photo for your lift pass, so assuming it’s the same this year no need.

I reckon you should get by with one set of pads of it’s dry. I didn’t need to change mine at all last year in six days of DH riding, but some people/some brakes seem to get through them so maybe.

Beer tokens?

You also need to remember to buff the trails nicely and keep the sun shining for when I’m out there in four weeks.

Enjoy (yeah right, like it’s possible not to!). It’s an awesome riding destination.

Drop Hope an e-mail via their website. I e-mailed them with a question about some V2s and the guy from the tech videos phoned me ten minutes later and spent quarter of an hour going through it with me on the phone.

First-class service. If they can’t suggest a solution I would be very surprised.

I used one for quite a while and had no problems with it staying on a Presta valve. I did find it took far too long to inflate an MTB tyre though and swapped to a Blackburn Mammoth Air, which I’ve been super happy with. Just about the same weight, it just takes slightly more room up in your pack, the perfect MTB mini-pump as far as I’m concerned.

Blackburn’s lifetime warranty should look after you if the parts in the head are worn though, maybe get in touch with where you bought it from?

I’d be interested to know if people have found ones suitable for above the eyes so that when you sweat it doesn’t sting?

Ultrasun or P20. They are completely different to normal sun creams, they soak in and bond to your skin. After application you won’t even know you are wearing it and you get full, all-day protection whether you sweat or swim or anything. It is THE solution for outdoor sports.

I have fair skin and wouldn’t have been able to ride in the desert or kayak in Africa without it.

I use reasonably heavy duty hooks from Screwfix, £2.50 each. I considered getting the bike specific hooks but I’m glad I didn’t, there’s really no need.

Hooks just over half a bar width apart, one high, the next lower, then high again and so on makes great use of space.

The wall material you’re fixing into might make a difference, I screw the hooks straight into the breeze block wall (drill hole, no rawl plug needed) and they are very secure.

I’ll tell you what, when you’re hooning down the trail towards that 30 foot gap jump, you’re miles safer to go for it than to get off and mince down through the long grass/heather and risk getting bitten by a tick.

I haven’t got any pics to share, but you’ve got to love a good glove! I don’t know how many pairs I’ve got.

No that shoudn’t happen.

It sounds like you’ve missed something when you’ve re-assembled your hub. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but there’s a spacer that needs to go in the right place or exactly what you describe happens.

Check the exploded diagrams on the Hope website.

It’s great. Really makes a difference to how smoothly your forks and shock work, particularly when they’re new and prone to stiction. A quick squirt either after cleaning or before riding.

It also makes a great frame polish, stops quite a bit of mud sticking to it.

Definitely worth the money.

The Juice Lubes Brake Juice stuff is good too.

Must have missed that in your post. Yep, 10 speed mech with a 9 speed block won’t work. The 10 speed mechs are designed for a narrower chain for starters.

Don’t assume that because the frame is new the hanger isn’t bent. I’d pop it down to your LBS, or wherever you bought it from, and get them to check the hanger alignment.

They get bent really easily when the frame is in the box or being handled.

Watch out for you bank stinging you if you pay for your foreign currency with a debit card. Certainly both Lloyds and Barclays will charge you commission on the transaction, no matter where you buy your currency.

Better to get cash out and exchange (unless you lose it / spend it / get mugged) on the way.

I travel quite a bit and usually find M&S have some of the best rates, and almost always have the notes you want in stock. You might find some better prices if you take time to shop around / order on line etc.

Spending more money does get you newer technology, more features (like being able to remove the liner and pads to wash them), nicer graphics, and often the option to customise the fit, something usually not possible with cheaper full-face helmets.

I’d say one of the best around for £100 is the Fox Rampage, you might even find a deal on last year’s colours. Although not much more will get you a THE.

If you’ve got a cheap head then buy a cheap helmet.

And that’s an apology?

Troll.

This forum is supposed to be about discussing the good stuff about bikes, tech tips, buying advice, routes etc. Please can we get back to that, or are more and more decent, down to earth riders going to leave this forum for good.

A decent set of cable cutters is all it takes.

You get a better, more positive, lever feel with braided hoses. You can often see the hoses flexing when you pull the brakes with standard hoses, that translates into lever feel. It’s not a massive difference, but there is a difference.

If weight is a bigger factor that a bit of an improvement in lever feel then don’t fit them.

It sounds like you might have a seized bearing in one side (likely to be the RH side of your wheel). I would support the RH fork leg and gently tap the unscrewed axle with a drift or similar that will fit inside the threaded side and not damage the threads.

A seized bearing can be caused by over-tightening the axle. When you screw it in through the wheel, it really doesn’t need to be all that tight. Like you only need to hold the short end of the allen key to nip it up and pre-load the bearings, the same goes for the pinch bolts too, for some reason people think they need to swing on the allen key, they only need to be lightly tightened.

The proper procedure for installing your axle/wheel is to thread the axle in and tighten lightly as described, then lightly tighten the pinch bolts on the threaded (LH) side of the fork. Next, stand the bike up and pump the forks a few times to let them settle into their sweet spot. Then lightly tighten the pinch bolts on the non-threaded (RH) side, again, just holding the short end of an allen key.

The axle should also be lightly greased, that should stop it from seizing in future.

You probably know all this, but there are lots of (very experienced spannering people) doing it wrong.