Mate had Louises and raved about them, so I got a set to upgrade from Hope minis as I was taking the bike to Morzine, loads of problems with them, in the end got a new MC under warrenty-

They are pretty good now but I think they are marginly better power wise than my old minis. Not worth it unless you can get them for a bargin imo

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Been quite a season for spiders – one of the ones in my garden (not the biggest I've seen this year either!) Body was about the size of a 50p

Can someone pm me the 'well known' retailer they are talking about (in case they are worried about publically naming stuff on a forum. I'd really like to know, the credit card company doesn't tell me anything so I can't change my habits to prevent it in the future

Hmmm this is worrying – I've had my credit card done twice this year and got a letter from the Inland Revenue saying someone had tried to claim tax credits with my details…. pretty much I only buy bike bits and flights online. I've been wondering for a while if it was a bike site.

The main one I use is CRC but have used wiggle, winstanleys and merlin all during this time period

Completely ignored them? Ridden in a different direction so they couldn't follow? Once I took evasive action from an angry white van man across some people's gardens.

Some people are t**ts and you can't win with them, they don't want to be reasonable or listen to common sense, best off completely getting away from them and avoiding any escalation of the situation.

Oh – and I'm a tae kwon do 3rd dan, so reasonably handy – there is just no point in bothering with low life.

I do it because I like to have the maxxis logo on both sides of the bike……

Lol – it gives a bit more braking I find, and a little more drag. I have an old set of 2.5 single plys on my 6" trail bike.

Personally if I were you I would just chalk it up to experience. However they got hold of your bike make sure they can't again. From looking at it in the picture the bike doesn't look like an expensive one it really wouldn't be worth the potential trouble with the police. (if they are a thieving scrot they will undoubtabely use the police to their advantage).

EDIT – and yes I have had a bike nicked in the past. I now have kyrptonite locks/ground anchors and a motion alarm – and M&S insurance….

ok thanks guys – helpful as ever – I'll order from DX – I just hope I don't wait a month for them to arrive!

Can't say I ever suffered from bad service or short changing in the 5 or so years I've been there. I even remember one time a mate was joking that his portion of lasagne wasn't big enough (it was huge) and the chap in charge overheard and promptly had another chunk brought over free of charge. Was most enjoyable watching my mate try to eat two enourmous portions of lasagne verdi and then go out for the second loop.

Hope it is replaced with something equally as good if not better

By some strange co-incidence I am also a project manager but from an IT background, very similar to the last couple of postsfrom engineers, did well at school, uni (law degree…) no idea what I wanted to do, still don't. Managed to drift into a pretty well paid job but feel wholly unsatisified or challenged. Just hit 31 and having the whole 'is this it then' type thoughts….

As some one said coming up with ideas is one thing, coming up with ones that don't involve taking a massive financial loss or risk is another…

This post is food for thought!

Noooo!! I've spent so many hours chilling out there eating lovely cake and looking at bike bling. Even the hour I spent there after snapping my steerer and waiting for my mates to finish was enjoyable!

Anyone know why? Article doesn't say why…

I've had my mk1 since summer 07 and done a fair few miles on it, perfectly capable climber. I've got the crappy DHX air with like 15million clicks of propedal so pretty much don't bother with propedal at all and it always climbs fine. Haven't done any riding in the peaks but ride Afan alot and can quite easily do pen & whites back to back in around 5 hours. I don't use spds on it either.

Bearings wise I sent the bike back to jungle for a service a couple of months back after the second trip to morzine. one of the axles had seized as I hadn;t been popping them out and greasing every six months (didn't know you were supposed to do this!). I also had to replace a shock bushing (which was the main reason for the slight play). All in all cost me £55 and the a couple of main bearings were replaced for free as they have a lifetime warrenty. Not bad after 2 years use.

Swap stem & tyres and it's fine for alpine DH. I'd recommend trying before you buy as they have quite a short TT. I'm 5'10 and use the medium, however it feels just a bit cramped on the ups.

Getting in? Your supposed to buy a ticket from the centre (not that I've ever been checked tbh) Don't think there is any age limit.

Had a nightmare with 2.5 dual ply maxxis. Make sure the bead is in the centre of the rim made it a bit easier. I ended up using metal levers.

In my student days, half way through the night my DH bikes slime filled inner tube decided to explode. Made the girl I had brought home jump :)

Not sure if you picked up on my comment about the zesty feeling flexy out back compared to the nomad. Would be worth trying them back to back. The nomad is significantly better (imo) on stuff like afan's skyline descent (I rode them back to back on it), and I didn't feel like I climbed any better or faster on the zesty than on the nomad with the travel wound down to 100.

Could have been a shagged test bike though.

Use 36 11/34 on my hack bike. I find it fine for riding in most conditions and a hell of a lot easier than it was (36 x 16ss). You could probably get away with just a roller (bs stinger) rather than a full on chain device like I use (e13lss)

I wouldn't like to try and run it round a trail centre or somewhere which had some decent climbs.

Chain has been shortened as much as I dared :)

Thinking it is only a matter of time before the derailer is broken so when it gives up the ghost was going to try a short.

Great bit of advice on calcing whether you need short/med/long – one question does this still work if running a single chainring up front (as obviously it gives a value of 0…)

I''ve got a 36 single with 11/34 out back. I'm thinking I could get away with a short cage.

I have an 07 Nomad with 36 talas – it's a great bike but yes I do think it is overkill for the uk, especially trail centres. I've used it for 2 trips to the alps now (swap wheels/tyres/shorter stem) and managed to keep up on most tracks with my mates on 223's etc…if you can only have one bike, like doing DH/lift days but need to pedal up I would say it is about perfect.

Friend who had an orange5 in the alps suffered quite badly on some of the steeper and techier courses. He said it was down to the head angle (he's a better rider than me and I was ok on the nomad…)

When I test rode a lapiera (zesty I think) it felt quite flexy compared to the nomad.

I seem to remember I had to do something similar when I ordered a camera from pixmania a few years back. Personally I'd veiw the 2% credit card charge as insurance in case you are ripped off….

From my experience of karting at thruxton, when it rained half way through one of the races it became absolute carnage. Was virtually impossible to keep the thing on the road round corners. By not crashing I came third and I went very slowly……

Just dont do any harsh movements/braking or acceleration and you should be fine !

8 years working for insurance / banking, 2 years civil service.

Pension for new starters isn't as great as it used to be.

You need to remember CS get paid less than PS for the same roles.

Over the last 3 years the pay deal here has been 2% every year. I was getting 5-7% per annum with the bank.

The real problem with the CS is the longtermers, who will gain massively when the finally are made redundant/retire due to excessive benefits under the old systems and currently do very little. People here are taking VER/VES and are getting payouts of 6.5 times. That is stupid.

I largely agree that on the whole most civil servants I have met in the last 2 years are pretty useless, but that is down to poor leadership and management. There is a culture of shipping £1000 a day consultants in who have little idea, instead of paying the going rate to recruit half decent people in or develop their own staff.

Do I agree with a pay freeze? No (I wouldn't would I?). They could cut millions by simply cutting contractors and working smarter. I also don't agree with everyone getting the same pay rise whether they work hard or do bugger all.

Will I be staying – nope – like someone said if you don't like it leave. I will be.

Wellll…..

I got a nomad with 36s for trail centre/DH, XTR charge duster for XC and rides with the missus and a DMR sidekick with pikes for blating about the local woods and DJ/street.

I reckon that covered about 4.5k. The bike I ride the most is the £800 one…..

I use an e13 LSS ISCG05 – comes with a BB bracket if you dont have the tabs. Costs around £45. Be aware it took me the best part of 5 hours to set it up perfect so it didn't rub in any of the gears – I was using a 38t/11-34t

I lost my riding buddies to the marriage/first baby trap in the last 2 years. Depressing to start with riding on my own etc…but got over it and quite enjoy it now, bought a decent mp3 player to keep me going.

I see them very occassionally, it's sad, but I understand that people's priorities change and unfortunately that means mates get left behind somewhat.

We still try to meet up every 3 – 4 months or so. I'm hoping things will get better when the little ones are toddlers (probably time for the second then…)

/You should try to be happy for them. Even if it means you sacrifice your buddies.

I seem to collect handy pieces of wood that I might use again sometime in the future….

Generally the one enthusiastic is pretending. It's their job to.

At the end of the day we'd all much rather be out riding our bikes

– this thread is like an interactive Dilbert storyline lol

Hilarious read – I'm a pm and my place of work is looking to implement DSDM/Scrum in an attempt to try and speed things up.

'I started my day by wasting 20 mins….

If you think you have to sit through pointless meetings as a developer you should think about your pm/manager. My entire week is filled with attempts at getting people to agree to things they don't want to, or get people to do things they don't want to….

In fact yesterday I sat through the exact same presentation (for 2hrs) as the day before….bascially to police the meeting to keep people from shouting at each other and storming out….

Anyone else in a job they hate?!

I use capitalone. 1% cashback. Run everything through on it, plus you get a bit more peace of mind if purchasing online. I pay off in full every month. Creditcards are very useful if you use them appropriately

Personally I'd tell them I was going for an interview, with the reasons your looking to leave. Ultimately your boss will respect you for being honest – even if it might leave him up sh*t creek.

You never know they if your good and valued they might try to improve whatever the reason is your looking elsewhere

I am completely with you on padding up. I usually where kyle straits and 661 velcro pads on the elbows (wing?).

Last thursday I had a complete freak accident, clipped in I caught my calf on a broken twig on my way home through the local woods. Cue a 6 inch gash which them split open about a cm. 9 proper stitches and 10 butterfly. I might start wearing calf protection too.

I'm just coming back from a scaphoid break in May. I hear these things come in 3s…..

Update: status changed to shipped (ordered on the 20th). Lets see how long it takes – glad I ordered early this year :)

I use the 661 wrist support – the biggest one they do as I broke my scaphoid back in May. Gives me a bit of confidence and I reckon it will help a bit in a stack. Problem is in under 2 months riding it's already a bit knackered and one of the plates has split out under the palm. Was hoping for better tbh

I treated myself to a hope h/s last year. Lower bearing lasted about 8 months before it was gravelly and needed replacing. I don't use my full suss all that much so I wasn't too impressed at needing to spend more on it within a year. I'll buy CK next.

I placed an order with them ok on 20/09 got the confirmation and everything. Order status is still down as 'waiting on supplier' starting to think about cancelling tbh…