I suspected as much. Was hoping there’d be a wonder solution though ;-)

I had the same last year, in addition though the shifter would also become too hard to push – essentially the range of gears I could select was reduced as the shifter wouldn’t get to either it’s upper or lower ranges.

I ended up taking the derailleur apart and cleaning that through and putting a little oil down the (new) cable so there was no chance it was sticking within the inner.

All that worked for me, truth be told, I suspect it was lubricating the cable in the inner that sorted the problem.

Hope you get it sorted.

Dan

Great vid Tom. Looking forward to getting back to Woburn again myself, it’s a lovely area to go for a play.

Transition Bottlerocket for me

That’s a really nice looking bike _tom_

Been thinking about this on and off throughout the day since I learnt of it this morning. It’s just such a shame that their enduring memory of this visit will be this, rather than all the other stuff they got up to while here.

I hope that they (and you) have a good day at the Forest of Dean.

Really, really hope they get all of the bikes back too of course. I thought that carbon Covert was really pretty when I saw it on Wednesday, I hope the theft won’t screw up the product development cycle too much.

Have retweeted Tony’s original saying the bikes had been stolen. This is just shit, like you say Nols Kyle and Sam were genuinely nice people to spend a day with and so very enthusiastic about the bikes they’re making. They were really looking forward to their visit to FOD too, as well as trips to other areas of the country, looks like some scrote has put paid to that though.

I’m too far away from Monmouth to be able to offer any help today but will of course keep a look out, particularly for the yellow covert, it was a lovely bike.

Such a shame – let’s get these back.

No worries. You should be able to make Aston Hill in about 20 minutes from Aylesbury (assuming outside of rush hour, etc).

Enjoy.

In that area you have Ashridge / Chilterns Ridgeway which offer up some good singletrack – they’re starting to dry out a little too which owing to their chalk / clay base is a good thing – the conditions have been quite heavy going.

If you’re looking for something a little more jumpy / downhilly you could give either Woburn Sands (which also has it’s fair share of singletrack though I’ve never been) or Aston Hill.

Dan.

Yep, Jedi’s video blogs are great (my favourite of them is number 8 – a little more riding than normal, good camera angles and for some reason, just a different feel to the others.), always good to see a new one of those. I like the sweary Northener videos too – they’ve a real feel good factor to them what with the obvious camaraderie shown.

To be honest though, I’ll watch most videos – I take two things from them: a sense of the enjoyment others get from doing a sport I love doing too and secondly I’m watching how they ride some of the stuff they’re riding to see if I can pick anything up.

I guess the demand for Jedi’s services is ratifying the feedback given here about how good he is. I can understand that you’d like to get some coaching in before then – I’d recommend booking a session in with him for when you return anyway to cleanse you of those bad habits then ;-)

At first I found I’d get a couple of hours but prolonged (daily use) saw my battery crippled and me making a return journey (having removed the Strava app) to the Apple store to complain about battery life and ended up with a replacement phone.

I didn’t think about doing as others above have suggested and turning off other features such as WiFi and Bluetooth though.

Another vote for waiting and doing a day with Tony. You will not regret it. I’d echo some of the points above: Herts Shore is purpose built to ensure that you get the most out of the day – it allows Tony to focus on how you learn and thus making the experience as best it can be for you.

I’ve done the public Singletrack and Jumps and Drops courses with Tony and there’s one reason why I keep on recommending him: I wasn’t told how to ride certain obstacles, Tony gave me a new mindset which I can use when I’m out on the bike. To this day I still find myself approaching a section (be that a corner, drop, rock garden / roots) and thinking to myself looking, footwork. Just the other day I went out for a ride at Aston Hill in the wet, muddy slippery as ice like conditions and ended up enjoying myself more because I had this stuff running through my mind when approaching things whereas previously, I would have been on my arse wondering what had gone wrong.

Go see him, you won’t regret it.

Thanks Mugboo, will give Loco a call tomorrow. In the mean time, any advice from others is also welcome.

Bump for the morning crowd.

Alternatively, do any of the suspension tuning companies offer advice services that you’d recommend?

Thanks again

Yep, a couple of hours round Ashridge and Ivinghoe Beacon. Cold, wet, muddy and consequently very slippery. Great fun. Glad I got out.

I’m all about the Carrot Cake.

Yep, another vote for hasbean here. Great coffee. My current favourite is their Blake Espresso blend.

It’s really good to hear a story of a bike being retrieved for one. Well done to Whos_Daddy and al2000 for the detective work.

Let us all know how it works out.

As Jedi said, people take in information differently, and what he refers to is NLP. I’ve worked with a lot of NLP practitioners in my time and I can safely say that the times I’ve visited Jedi, he’s not come across as somebody who is practising – instead somebody who is enthusiastic about seeing people progress in their riding and very adept at identify how they take information on board which allows him to do the fantastic stuff he does to peoples’ riding.

colournoise – you’re right, NLP is more about providing people with another way to look at things – some might think that it’s more therapy related.

David Kolb is well known within the adult learning space and cites the Lewin Cycle as the one that adults learn best from (the Open University bases its courses on this style of learning). The Lewin Cycle starts with concrete experience suggesting that adults learn by doing. That in conjunction with Tony’s skills Jedi or otherwise are in my opinion what make the coaching route, and his in particular, so effective.

Sounds like you should consider a Transition Bottlerocket. There’s one with a small frame going on eBay at the moment (not mine).

jhw it was 9′ across, 3′ down – I’ve never done anything like it but I’m going to make sure that I’ll do more of the same, and push myself more

jhw, yep was speechless after it – wasn’t able to stop grinning. If you’re in to that sort of thing and want to progress, definitely go and see Tony. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made in my riding.

Clearing the 9′ gap at Jedi’s place at the end of the public jumps and drops course I did there. I was buzzing for two days afterwards. Not been able to look it in the eye again since, but I’m going to nail it again soon.

The sessions I’ve done with Tony this year have completely redefined not only the way I ride, but the way I look at riding too; it’s something that I’ll always look back on fondly and be extremely grateful for.

My Santa Cruz Chameleon – a bit of a Trigger’s broom…

Thanks both.

Go and see Tony a.k.a. Jedi at UK Bike Skills[/url] for some coaching – it’s the best upgrade I’ve made to my bike, ever.

ac282 Thanks, you’re right – just off the phone to my LBS before I remembered I’d posted on here.

I hope you won’t mind a slight thread hijack but I’ve a related question. I’m currently running 2 x 9 kit and am considering going down to 1 x 10.

Having just killed the rear dérailleur, I’m wondering if anybody can tell me whether I could take. Step halfway by putting a 1 x 10 derailleur on and continuing to use the 9 speed cassette and shifter I already have (this is all Shimno kit, if that matters).

Thanks.

I’ve had one for about four months now. I’ve done maybe 10 – 15 rides like you describe on it. My other bike would be best described as a hardcore hardtail – so I’m using that as the basis for my comparison.

The Bottlerocket is heavier than my other bike, but not so much so that over the course of a circa 20 mile ride, I really notice it. Obviously as an owner of one, I’m somewhat biased but will state for the record that it’s a really enjoyable bike to ride.

The one I bought came with 1×7 SRAM kit, not a problem in itself, but I’ve noticed that on the longer rides I’ve done so it’s worth mentioning.

Jedi suggested that I speak to Graeme at Surf Sales (the distributor) about demoing one. Through them and Marshall’s in Welwyn Garden City I was able to borrow the bike for about a week in the end. Both were really helpful. It might be worth exploring avenues in terms of demos if you remain unsure.

Hope that helps. If you live in the Hertfordshire region, I’d be happy for you to join me on a ride to demo mine.

Dan

I’m 6’6″, around 17 stone and have recently purchased a Bottlerocket. I’ve done a fair amount of riding on it so far and I’ve noticed the shorter top tube length, but not overly so – my other bike is an XL Chameleon.

I wouldn’t want to do an all day ride, with masses of ups on the Bottlerocket – but from what you describe above, it doesn’t sound as though that’s your plan either.

Surf Sales, the distributor for Transition in this country were fantastically helpful in organising a demo Bottlerocket for me, I ended up having it for about a week – do give them a call if you’re considering one. During my demo, I took it to the Surrey Hills for an all day session, a couple of sessions at Woburn and on a couple of my normal routes around home – hope that gives you some idea at least of the terrain I’ve based the above opinion on.

Oh go on then, my XL Santa Cruz Chameleon.

EDIT: Fixed link to photo

I had a similar sounding problem recently, and I took the derailleur off, stripped down and gave it a thorough cleaning and while doing so also changed the cable which sorted the problem. The Park Tools guides located here and here were really useful in doing this.

Thanks for all the responses. For completeness, I also came across Backcountry Navigator which meets my criteria. I’ll give the others a go too.

No worries. I always tend to think that you’ve got to go and give somewhere a go for yourself anyway, and besides; you’ll be out on your bike, in the fresh air and not doing the day job. Most of the time, that would be enough to put a smile on my face – in fact, I’m envious of you!

You can do a loop pretty quickly anyway, if you don’t end up thinking much of it, you could then go and spend the rest of the day somewhere else.

Enjoy

Just seen your post suggesting you normally ride the Surrey Hills, Bedgebury isn’t in that league if you’re comparing it to the likes of Yoghurt Pots, Barry Knows Best etc.

A hardtail is more than sufficient for a visit to Bedgebury.

I always enjoy it when I go there. It’s a good XC loop with some fun semi technical root sections thrown in. I’ve heard from a friend who lives very close to there that they have recently refurbished some of the berms on a portion of the track that has been closed for a while. There are a couple of sections which are worthy of doing a few times over in my opinion, though I can’t remember their names.

The freeride area there provides a nice area for some play, nothing too big, just good honest fun.

The cafe serves up good tea and cake for your post ride too.

There will of course be others that say that its not worth bothering with, and having not been to Chicksands myself, I can not compare the two.

Goldigger, I’d be interested in a quote for triple cute with battery and charger not something that I can afford straight away, but something I’ll need soon ;-)

Email address in my profile, thanks!

Thanks for the replies so far, sounds like a personal viewing and cash on collection is the only way to go.

@shortcut Good point about sizing versus how tall the guy is, thanks. Previous seller was a mate of his, perhaps using his own Mum’s account

Yep, here’s the original listing and here’s the current one.

Given the different accounts in this instance, I’m not sure that I would trust feedback, but yes I agree that would be a normal port of call.