I just can’t believe how much John Humphreys and the Welsh news presenter get, 500-600K for essentially news broadcasting.

I don’t mind Adam Boulton on Sky, Johnny Vaughan on Radio X or any ITV person getting 10 million a week as i’m not paying, but licence fee money? Which i will go to prison potentially for if i don’t pay?

Thanks Stevedoc

Prices are getting silly, pushing me and partner more towards direct sales only brands, but i can’t bring myself to pay a load of money (to me anyway) for a bike from Europe in a box i haven’t ridden.

@andyg1966 its the EPO

what did you change from/to? Interested to hear your thoughts.

Don’t Orange just produce bikes that people either buy or not? Why the dislike? Have they done something specific to some of you in the past?

Orange four I wouldn’t mind, seems a simply 2 bearing low maintenance UK weather fuss suspension bike.

Like you all I had to set the pressures lower on both sets compared to suggested, to get the correct sag (mine are 150mm Travel 34’s).

Thinking of taking a token out on both sets (factory setting is with 2 i believe) as we never get much into the travel due to rider weights, except for one day at BPW where we were up to 140mm-ish.

:D I was getting worried that it had loads of problems after your post.

Turned up at 9:30 today to make sure I missed the queues. It’s like a track day, ppl going out on the first run… you never want to go out first :)

The place seemed empty as I guess most were going up in the vans. We,
(wife and me), were the only ones on HT and most had lots of protection and FF helmets, so we seemed under prepared. I did six runs all blue trails and really enjoyed it.

Bushwacker is a great blue trail after blue belle as it takes you back to the visitors centre without any pedalling ;).

I could have tried the reds but I was having fun on the blues and ran out of time after 6 runs. I also thought I might run out of talent ;)

Things I would do differently:
Going down hill is more energy consuming than I thought. Take more food and waaayy more water. If you want to do the reds and black a FS would definitely be better even the blue get bumpy on a HT, so I imagine the reds would be rougher.I cased most jumps on property ping at the end of the day as I was tired and after that I stopped so I didn’t have a fall.

In summary
Loved it, everyone friendly, get a seat at the window on the uplift vans (they smell). FS would be better, perhaps I will get that commencal TR essential i have my eye on :)

I have one on my partners bike and due to the reliability I chose one. Not sure what poopacoop was reading but I went for it due to reading about how reliable it was and servicable (as it’s spring actuated). It the best post we have. My bike has brand-X and to be fair that is equally good but my short legs were happy with 125mm. I would’ve go for either, but if you want 150mm I wouldn’t hesitate on the e13

cake, coffee or beer then yes

that’s a given.

rear tyre that is not a Maxxis Tomahawk.

what’s wrong with the maxxis?

The ride before last was the last straw with the POS dropper post sticking down. They complain about it in all the reviews. So bought an E*thirteen dropper for the better half and a brand X for myself.

Sorry just checked your first post again as I read it as June first time around. Those 661 helmets aren’t a bad price for FF

@nickfrog

How did you get on? I bet the meta was more than enough looking at its geo.

Do you think that incident would have happened with an HGV examiner in the left seat?

The simple answer is yes, the lorry driver is correct in everything he does, why is that hard to understand?

Lets flip this and assume the left hand lane was taken up by a convertible Porsche, that tried to go straight on from the left hand lane. They crash at the same spot.

A: The insurance company would side with the lorry driver.
b: Everyone would be calling the Porsche driver a “C” for trying it on.

But because its a cyclist for some reason we want the lorries on the road to do something to prevent this in future. the logistics of trying to downsize freight into smaller vans or use an additional person in the cab is cost preventative not just for the hauliers but for us as we will be paying more for everything that gets delivered.

aracer » it’s still not unreasonable for the driver to expect there to be other cyclists there, and there are ways he could have driven which would have eliminated most of the potential danger. – the two which spring to mind are mandating cabs as pictured above where the driver would see the cyclist, or mandating an observer in the cab when operating in such environments

The ways he could have driven to eliminate potential danger? the lorry driver was driving responsibly and in the correct way. The last few posts I have read seem to be getting further and further away from reality. Who is paying for the cost of the observer? All hauliers travelling into cities now have to double the payroll? Why? just because of a few idiots on bikes?

Orange boy

I’d don’t get it. Cyclist knew he was in the wrong , was too slow cut up the lorry and then complains.

I feel sorry for the lorry driver

Me too, perhaps the cyclist had a shock and reacted but the others were jumping on the band wagon in the video. The lorry driver did right to get out and say your a **** idiot pal, its a left hand lane and you tried to cut a lorry up!

Just because everyone does it was a ridiculous statement to throw back at the lorry driver.

I think the official car park may be locked at 7pm (I seem to remember a sign as you exit) bare that in mind if you are roaming late. But if you park in the unofficial little parking spots along the road you will be fine. If you head to brandon lodge car park you can stop in a little parking spot in the right and head into the beast and follow a trial to the main centre and crack on from there.

This is the parking spot (52.426336, 0.634494) at the bottom of the Beast where you can pick the trail nicely back to the trail main centre and explore if you are concerned about the car park being locked.

Also if you stick to the red “Lime burner route”” with the beast in it, you will be right back at you car at the end.

thanks for that, does it sit on the top edge or down in the fork that sticks up so its nice and stable?

Must remember never to ask generalised question for fear of ridicule. :D

Yeah first time.

Happy for any feedback on how the varying abilities get on on some of the blue/red, i’m going with my wife (we both have differing abilities) and looking at a few trails including our July 12th booked BPW visit. Lets hope its not too wet

Nickfrog from PH? Often read your posts and enjoyed your reasoned comments.

Let me know how you get on as I will be I at BPW in July with a couple of HT’s with I guess similar geo.

I really like the 120 and 145, but can’t get past the cables for some reason

Tungsten grey google search found these two hits straight away, looks pretty good

more here
https://stealthriders.com/2017/01/20/bird-aeris-one20-review/

Fox 34s seem great for my level of riding plush in open mode and controlled the rest of the time. I think they are lighter than the competition at the price range and in the reviews of the Crush they seem to come out well if not the best part of the package along with the frame.

Built up and taking in the sights… i think

No bling just mint and black.

Just relax,

try tensing your legs and running, or swinging a Golf club with tensed arm muscles, its impossible to do either properly, and you can’t absorb the bound and rebound of the bike over harsh terrain if you tense up and don’t flow with it to some degree.

To help you relax the shock absorbing parts of the body get the stickiest grips and the most grippy pedals you can, this will likely help you have confidence to relax the grip on the bars a bit and be light on your feet. No vice like grip needed with sticky grips and this will help to prevent your forearms and upper arms from becoming tense and refusing to move freely and efficiently imo….

Was it something to do with rear shock lockout on the left grip area?

Is it a little embarrassing for the bike in a WC to be snapping chains? If it was a new tech I could understand it but im not sure I fully get why it happens. Am I wrong? Is this something that should be possible to snap with 5 rotations of the crank?

deleted

oh yes sorry

Not surprising about the Ulster Unionist as it once was the Conservative and unionist party, but good time to be a Ulster Unionist i think , they could demand anything this week and likely get it…

As long as the SNP don’t have any deciding control in the UK affairs I am happy, sorry if that offends our great Scottish friends but its not personal to you, I just don’t like the party.

well if it was difficult before it has got a lot more complicated now.

Leaving aside the question of whether May etc really are competent for the moment- why would you vote for someone you disagree with but think is competent, instead of someone you agree with but aren’t sure is competent? It seems like some people would vote for Ghenghiz Khan because he’ll really competent at burning your houses and stealing your women, rather than Jeremy Corbyn because he might be a bit bumbly while trying to make the country better.

I do like that and can’t argue with you theory, but it depends if you believe the policy’s are achievable by labour. If you stand on a platform and shout” we need better schools for all our children” no one will disagree. But are they competent enough to actually deliver it.

Like bill Clinton said “it’s the economy stupid” and over the next parliament with leaving the EU I feel we may just be a little safer and more in control with the blue lot in charge. Heck some of the union’s want to leave the EU to possible help to drive up wages. So we shall see.

But perhaps labour need to change, not to be more tory, or more war mongery, but just appear at least a little less Michael foot.

For me its Competency

Corbyn, Macdonald and Diane Abbot (if she is well enough), including Len McCluskey in the back door at number 10.

vs

May, Rudd, Davis, idiot boris etc.

I will take May and her lot, not always, but I’m not happy with Labour in its current state for government or opposition.

Yes i want a better education system, and more pay for nurses, and more police, and better care for the elderly and more pension money and mental health issues. who doesn’t? Labour don’t have a patent on morale values, we all want things better no matter what side we are on.

But who could deliver this realistically in the current climate? May perhaps perhaps not, Labour at this time? I personally don’t think so…

I would rather they all honestly came to us and said, taxes will increase for all on day one and this is what it WILL pay for, just messing around with corporation tax or shifting a fews things while ring fencing others won’t cover the grand wish list in my view.

Get a PK Ripper, Quadangle, Skyway TA, or SuperGoose.

Sorry just showing my age :oops:

And not for that money either I think

I don’t think manufacturers have been taking the pee. evolution in Golf you watch for many years and wonder the same, but i think its just the way it is hybrid clubs, driver development, slow development to keep sales high instead of 1 big jump to a design that people wince away from and hurts sales.

My close to home example.

My wife had a 2012 1k cube hardtail and enjoyed it with its 530ish mm bars and high BB, but never did anything too aggressive as she never felt confident on it, roll on 6 years and she now has a 2017 Orange Crush and drops into bomb holes and small jumps with it. Is she concerned that a 150mm hardtail is too much bike? No. Is she aware of the geo difference and the implications on the bike? She is now that she has ridden it and feels confident on it to drop into things that previous made her feel she was going over the bars..
Low bb has seen her ground strike the pedal arms occasionally but a small price to pay for how the bike is making her recreational riding more interesting to her…

thanks for the info, i’m like a sponge for info at the moment you can tell i’m new :D

chestercopperpot – thanks for the video that exactly what i was hoping for.

Perhaps i have watched too much motorpsort where the teams/ constructor and engine package is always mention whether its MotoGP, WEC, F1 or WRC. I do like to know even if its a prototype, and why is this evolution better than the last etc. Maybe after the womens runs someone could have gone to the section to delve a little more closely into the technical bit of the woods, why it was catching them out etc (see above). The teams seem to be testing with telemetry but not much insight into this i found.

Not sure as i am a new to watching it, but would they all be using the same gear ratios? would this play a part in speed on the road section, do they all have the same travel and how will this impact certain sections of the track like the rock garden or woods. All these things could have been mentioned during the runs a little. in the same way Chris boardman covers indoor and road riding. Also why did the guy break his derailleur/or other at the start line? could this have been discussed with someone that catches up with them after the finish line? it was a little patchy with plenty of guessing, but great to watch none the less…

unless i missed it,

Was the OP or the other guy hurt? Amazed you got up so quick, but i guess adrenalin was pumping so you only felt it in the morning. Seems like you were going quick (clearly capable rider) perhaps the other rider thought it was a simple single track or new to the area? How did the conversation go with the other rider when you checked you were both in one piece?

and more importantly how were the bikes ;)

Thanks all, I had a sticker about 8 years ago lol, car it was on has long gone now though. I went around a couple of times but now I just go to that area as the Eifel region is a nice place and being a car nut i can’t think of a better place. Cost of going on track and fear of the bill puts me off and getting older I guess.

I found it a great day out, when you say shit, what didn’t you like? I come from Suffolk so flat and largely featureless to me it was pretty good.

ok thanks will keep the old ones when I launch the pads

I use this German site for bike parts, when i need to stock up on bit and pieces, but you do have to get over min over value, although even with carriage its still cheaper than CRC for some parts. funny enough i use a Germany company for pet food too as its cheaper than the UK, obvisously not the same one ;) .

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/shop/workshop-1884?currency=3&delivery_country=190

I found LHM to be a tad slow on the levers in the past, and since then only use shimano oil.

Shimano 1ltr is only £13 so not expensive.