I may be being thick (more than likely), but how are you going to mount the disk brake calipers? Doesn’t look like there are mounts on the fork?

I had loads when I was using Specialized tubes and tyres on the old bike (~1 in every 3 rides), cut down to almost zero once I switched to Maxxis Ardents and thick Continental inner tubes. Not had any so far on the new bike with Maxxis High Roller IIs (no idea what inners as I haven’t had to change them yet!). Can’t say I’ve changed my riding style much, so I’d say tyres have a lot to do with it.

I did option A for a year, didn’t mind it at the time as I enjoyed the job but once we moved on to somewhere we actually wanted to live I realised how much I had compromised on quality of life. However, I’d probably still do it again given the chance to go back as it’s resulted in a job I’m really happy in. So it may be worth it as long as you go in with an exit strategy in mind.

Also, will your girlfriend be able to find work easily enough there? Mine really struggled with getting something that wasn’t soul-destroying, and it weighed on me knowing that she’d uprooted herself from family and friends for my career and was stuck doing a crap job to pay the bills.

Moved from Scotland to live in Bicester for work, hated it as (in part) the biking options were pretty crap. Only lasted a year til I moved to Manchester, much happier now!

When I did get out I frequented Swinley, Cannock, and Aston Hill. Best options were in South Wales, but as you’ve said it’s a bit of a trek!

The black is much better than the red though I’d say it’s more swoopy and jumpy than steep and technical. All rollable though, I’ve taken newbies around it and they’ve been fine*, though there are a couple of horrible climbs as muddyground said.

*Well, they came off and smacked their face, but it was on an easy bit and I’ve no idea how they did it!

Yeah, the elements are designed for wet weather. They seem pretty good for it as they don’t weigh a ton after I get them soaked, but then I’ve never had another pair of non-element 510s to compare them with. Dry pretty quick as well.

Not noticed any issues with my Freerider elements, but they’ve got more of a tread to them. Massive difference in grip on the pedals though compared with an old pair of DCs!

Got a new Heckler last year (R AM with the Fox 36 upgrade and a reverb), took me a little while to get used to it being bigger and heavier than my old 26er but I love it now! Eats up the descents and feels really planted over the rough stuff. It’s actually better than my old one on techy uphill stuff as well, but you can feel the extra weight in your legs after long climbs.

I’m 5’7 and have the medium if that’s of any help.

Pics from a few days at degla and CYB (no idea how to embed, just got a lil broken pic icon on the preview):

http://instagram.com/p/tKmlZmohNe/?modal=true
http://instagram.com/p/tZ1w6lIhIK/?modal=true

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A post shared by Ewan Bennett (@ewanb1980) on Sep 26, 2014 at 2:32am PDT

Depends how much you want the bike really. I waited a month extra on top of the time I was quoted for my last one because Fox had some problem getting the fork. The most frustrating thing was that no-one could tell me what was going on, because it was going through the LBS to the manufacturer to Fox, so the communication was crap!

Now that I’ve got it though I love it and have forgot all about the wait.

Synchronise/Align?

Because she hates me teaching her stuff?
Ha! No, because you described my wife!

Ah, makes sense now! Does she love pyjama’s and teapots and have the mouth of a sailor?

So, she’s having an affair!?

Because she hates me teaching her stuff? Hmm, she is surgically attached to her phone at all times so maybe she’s texting some mystery man. Saves me having to text her though!

What everyone else has said basically, make it easy for them. I took my gf round the blue at Glentress for her first time and she really enjoyed it. However, she’s since come to the conclusion that she’s too lazy for it and would much rather sit on the sofa drinking tea and reading while I’m out getting muddy!

Interesting that you said she hated Phillips Park red as I’ve been threatening to make the gf come with me, and I never really stopped to think how it would be for a beginner as it just seems like an easy blast with some fun bits to me! Thinking about it though I can see that it’d look steep in places if you’re just starting out.

Also, my gf HATES me trying to teach her anything that she doesn’t pick up quickly (which has resulted in a few incidents while trying to teach her how to snowboard!), so your partner might be more open to learning from someone else if you bring them along.

I find pics that I’m not in a bit boring so I can understand why you’d get one. On the other hand it encourages duckface and you look like a complete twonk using it so I’d never get one myself!

Okay so parallels are now being drawn between people being asked to remove their helmets and racism/racial profiling. I can sense Godwin’s law coming up soon.

If you can’t understand why people would be intimidated by a faceless man wearing a helmet then you must have very little empathy.

Bored of this now…

So if I was to go into a store wearing a balaclava because it was really cold out it would be unfair of the staff to be a bit concerned about it?

What this boils down to on the side of the staff is that a lot of robbers obscure their face while committing their crime, whether that be by wearing a helmet, a hoodie, or otherwise. It’s therefore going to make staff feel safer if they ask anyone entering the store not to obscure their face (not going near the niqab issue with a barge-pole).

What it boils down to on the side of the bikers is that it’s inconvenient to take your helmet off.

That’s just a daft argument, and you know it. You could extend it to anything you wanted to carry around with you “Wah, they won’t let me come in the shop with my big sword even though I’m a pirate. This is discrimination against pirates, they wouldn’t be allowed to refuse service to black people!”

Eh actually when you do a search for armed robbers with glasses you only get one result where it’s actually a robbery where someone was wearing glasses.

Anyway, this does nothing to address the point that it’s really about how safe the staff feel. At the end of the day, the owner of the store doesn’t have to serve anyone and if they feel that their staff are intimidated by people wearing helmets (or hoodies for that matter) then they have the right to refuse them service.

FWIW, I’d agree that opening the front of a flip-front helmet or people with open face helmets should be fine to wear.

I don’t really see how “staff prejudice” is something to get all het up about here. The simple fact is that some robbers DO wear helmets (see below), so surely you can imagine how staff would feel when they see someone approaching them wearing a helmet?

Admittedly the evidence below is anecdotal rather than statistical, but given that I found 4 stories on the front page of google after 1 search you would suspect there is some link.

FWIW, I can see why you’d be annoyed at having to take your helmet off, but can’t you also see how a helmet-wearing person could put staff on edge? Admittedly making honest folk take their helmet off won’t do anything to stop robberies, but is it fair of you to make the staff feel unsafe because you can’t be bothered to take it off?

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/cctv-released-after-armed-robber-a53288/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2728596/Armed-robber-died-eight-heroes-sat-police-arrived-bungled-jewellery-raid.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-29423715

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/armed-robber-wearing-bike-helmet-6399876