I won’t go to the multiplexes. Over inflated prices for the film and just don’t get me started on “concessions” (Definition: preferential allowance or rate given by an organisation!!!).

I’m happy to go to my local independent cinema though, where they charge £5 for the film and serve proper mugs of tea (at reasonable prices) for you to take into the cinema. You’re expected to stand for the national anthem prior to the screening. Quirky, but it’s not an entirely bad thing.

…if only for the experience of waiting on a glacier for a tape to raise and carnage to ensue, whilst listening to THAT music

2014 was a nightmare!
I’ll probably still be back in 2015 though 😀

I think anyone who calls themself a mountainbiker should do it at least once in their life.

no

EBay cut down MOD goretex

+1
and just replace elastic drawcord at waist with something that doesn’t stretch, so that they stay up. Sorted.

That’s the same box that Fasttech have sent me with the XT40 light that I bought from them.
There is a sticker on the base of the box that gives the current/voltage figures for under and over charge protection. You can read those fugures from the picture of the box on the DX site, so Yes, the box contains a protection circuit. You don’t NEED to put protected cells in it.
I’m charging my cells (efest 3100 imr) in the box with a cheapo 1amp charger but I’m aware this may not be the “best” way to go about it.

We were out there in October. Brilliant place.
The EWS trails are good but there’s better… ask for Cacciatore, Kill Bill, Cavatapi, Madonna della Guardia, Isallo Extasy, Fast H, to name but a few. All good. 😀
Don’t even think about pedalling up at that time of year. Uplift would be the only way.
I understand they do most of their trailbuilding in Summer though as it’s too hot to ride, so it might not be such an ideal compromise as you’re expecting.
I can becomend Ezefreeride for uplift/guiding. With their 4Motion T5, they can get it to the trailheads where some others will have you pedalling up sections of access tracks.

The alloy ones that I tried (ebay cheapos) were fine right up until the point they failed.
Because they aren’t solid discs, they wore to a point where when one eventually failed, it failed totally.
Rather than skipping or no longer shifting crisply, one just colapsed without warning into a mangled spikey lump of alloy. I’d have been stranded in the mountains if I hadn’t had a spare in my pack.
I’ve only used either BBB ones or Shimano since.

I rode this route with Tomaso

… up Rosset Gill over to Angle Tarn to Esk Hause and down Sty Head and then around from Seathwaite to Stonethwaite to head up Langstrath valley and up and over Stake Pass for a more rideable route.

and I’ve since done Rosset Gill as a descent too. It’s “challenging” at the top but ridable. On balance, I prefer Rosset Gill to Stake Pass as a descent, but I’ll take my hat off to those who clean it (no dabs).

If you do go Langstrath > Stake Pass, another option to consider is the Grains Gill descent to Stockley Bridge instead of Styhead Gill.

Stans Flow EX

Does the 26 out back alter stand over and BB height much? For the better? I’m really trying to talk myself out of buying another w35 in 26

Still too early with the 27.5 for a proper assessment Vonplatz.

It would be for the better, as the BB is sky high anyway

Yes the BB is high on the 301 HobNob, but it’s still the most competent technical descender I’ve had. Also means that I smash the bashguard into stuff marginally less frequently now 😛

It’s an absolutely classic route and you’ve got some realy good pics there.
+1 for a Rossett Gill extension though 😈

Looking for something of similar capabilities i.e. a good descender and capable of going up hill with little/no bob; but with a slacker head angle and in 27.5″.

Unless you’re very tall for a female, I’d caution against putting 27.5 in the back end of a 301 anyway!
I have an XL 301 and am currently trying a 27.5 Syntace W35 on the back to see how it copes in Winter slop. It’s quite tight for clearance with a Magic Mary on it.
Normally I run a 26″ W35 and clearance is not an issue with that.
As the chainstay lengths are size specific on the 301, I wouldn’t recommend 27.5 rear on less than an XL.

If (when) you decide to break your own rule, then 27.5″ front and 26″ rear is the way to go on an LV 301, IMHO of course.

Liteville 601 then?
🙂

Castrol water-pump grease. Same stuff as marine grease really.
It’s great stuff, doesn’t wash out and any muck just sits on the top of it.
I use it for all my headsets, BBs, Pivots, Pedals and Hubs.

I’m with you on this one Tom.
I won’t be touching 11 speed for the foreseeable future. Just too expensive for what are basically consumable items (cassettes, mechs & chains)
If I do ever go 1xn, then it’ll be 1×10 with a range ext.
In the meantime, 2×10 for me too.

… and I still don’t get it why Shimano haven’t produced a 11-40 XT cassette.

take a look at Syntace W35 wheelset

£900 odd?
They do look really good, but are hugely overpriced.

about 750 Euros on German sites = approx £600. But yes, still seriously expensive.

Dave,
If you’re considering anything spendier than Flow EX, take a look at Syntace W35 wheelset that I recommended earlier. 35mm wide, light, strong, CXRay spokes, tubeless with tape and valve.

Probably a bit too closely grouped in “middle of the road” spec when I start to think about it…
456EVOTi – 140mm /65.n deg / dual ply tubeless / 2×9
LV 301 – 160mm /65.n deg / dual ply tubeless / 2×10
Patriot – 180mm / 65.n deg / dual ply tubeless / 2×9

Think the Patriot might have to go to make room for a LV601, at least that should get me to 64.n deg 😛

Bogtrotters are Lancaster based and ride both days every weekend.
Saturday is easier rides, typically 15-20 miles or so and less technical. These are the best place to start.
Sunday is usually tougher rides, either more miles, more climbing or more technical (but mostly all three 😈 )
Always two Wednesday nightrides on too, one Lakes and one further South.
Take a look at the Bogtrotters rides list on the links above or ask to join the Facebook group if you want to get involved.

Just Google for Apres hits or Hütten hits…

We do Manchester to Munich for a long weekend skiing.
Out Thursday night; back Sunday night; three full days in the mountains 🙂

[edit]
Thursday 29th Jan (Manchester to Munich), ~ 17:30 from Manchester
Sun 1st Feb (Munich to Manchester) ~ 21:30 from Munich
[/edit]

so a bleed wont affect the speed at which it extends – that’s the air pressure

Not strictly true Wobbliscott. Whilst the hydraulic circuit does not actually raise the post, it can limit the return speed. The hydraulic circuit is progressive, not just on/off.

I’ve just collected one of the GS XTs from Ribble at the weekend and I thought it looked a bit long too.
Only convinced myself that it wasn’t SGS when I put it alongside what I knew to be an SGS.

You’re 80% good, even at the extremes

Call it 75% good and I’d be struggling to disagree 😉

See the thread a out winter bikes, plenty of people manage just fine, there is a lot of myth and bs to justify a second bike “for winter”

I wouldn’t try to justify a bike as “for Winter” but I would be more inclined to grab the 140mm hardtail with ‘zochi coils and cheaper wheels (over the fancy multi pivot 160 FS) if I was doing a local nightride in Winter.

Fiction.

Any decent 160mm “Enduro” bike might do most things reasonably but…

Would you be happy to maintain it through the worst of Winter’s slop (when you know that a hardcore hardtail would be fine)?

Would you be satisfied with “surviving” Fort Bill WC DH whilst your mates flew past you on 200mm beasts?

No experience of the Dueler
I have the Van RC on my Patriot. It’s good but it’s not as good as a CCDB coil.

I ran a CCDB coil on a Five for a couple of years. It was quite simply brilliant.
Like you, I thought I’d be swapping between it and an RP23 but I soon decided the CCDB was better for everything and well worth the weight penalty..
If you want a coil, get the CCDB coil. Best upgrade I ever put on the Five.

Riding a bike helps. I still find it impossible to be unhappy on a bike.

Unless of course it’s a road bike. 😉

Rain, what rain?
Beautiful blue sky day in the Lakes. Only three of us out but we enjoyed a nice scenic ride from Ambleside:
Loughrig; Fox Ghyll; Rydal Hall; Coffin Trail; Grasmere; Elterwater; Tilberthwaite; Slate Mines; Hodge Close; Iron Keld; Loughrig; Clappersgate.
With just the three of us out, we kept up a fair pace all day, only stopping for a butty at the top of the slate mines. Legs feeling it today!

22 miles, 4000′ and a post-ride pint in The Watermill at Ings.
Overall, one of the best Lakes days for ages.

If we’d have known that the weather was going to be as nice as that, we’d have gone for a high level route instead.

Well yes, I used to but it’s hard to make what I’m about to describe work these days with balance transfer fees etc.
Certain “mule” credit cards allowed you to transfer a +ve balance to a bank account. Egg (sadly no longer) was one that springs to mind. The “mule” card is pivotal to this.

You’d take out a new card with a zero % deal for balance transfers and request at day one a balance transfer of full credit limit to the “mule” card. Then transfer this +ve balance from the “mule” to the offset account.

Repeat for as much credit as you can find.
At one point I had £35k of various credit card companies’ “free loan” money sitting in my offset account avoiding mortgage interest.

I can’t make it pay in my particular circumstances now that balance transfer fees are applied by CC companies and my mortgage rate is basically BoE base rate. The principle still holds good though and might still work for you if you can find a suitable “mule” card and your mortgage rate is significantly greater than your transfer fee/interest free period.

I know we’re on different sized wheels but I’ll throw it into the mix anyway…
I’ve been running a dual ply Maxxis Larsen TT, set up tubeless on the W35 rim with Stans. It’s been excellent in all but the worst of slop (eg this year’s Mega, where I had to swap out for something knobblier) and it’s quite a small profile too. I don’t know if they are available in 27.5 but worth checking.

As for Halifax A&E

I didn’t know it was closing. Thanks for the heads-up. Have had to take riders there on occassion following incidents on Hebden-tech-fests. I though they closed Burnley A&E years ago, so I guess I need to figure out where Huddersfield A&E is. Is that the closest now?

Why the assumption that driving means “to a trail centre”?
Were that true, I’d have to agree with the bike cost/time ridden theory, but it’s not.
Loads of us still like to have mountains feature heavily in our mountain biking.

The

half decent local terrain

is about half an hour away in the car. This is the after-work nightride or just got 3 or 4 hours to spare stuff.

jumping in the car and driving for an hour or so

gets me to the Lakes or Calderdale. These would always be my first preferences if I’ve got a whole day to play.

… to the nearest trail centre.

No thanks. Not unless it’s blowing a gale and been persisting it down for a week, in which case it might be the only ridable option left.

In typical stw fashion I’ll not answer the question but put my own view

and I’ll do the same…

Much as I like mine, I think the liteville is really a 26″er that happens to take some 650b tyres but the clearance is just too tight for big 650b tyres.

That would be my view too.
Mine’s an XL 301 Mk11 and I spent ages searching out pics of 27.5 wheels and tyres in the rear. In the end I decided it was too tight for UK (muddy) conditions and chose 26″ W35 for the back and 27.5 for the front. No regrets.

I’d happily move to Hebden Bridge.
Heptonstall would be even better – just about every path out of your front door would be a cracking descent 😉 (less fun pedalling home though)

I’m about 5 miles from Ribchester and there’s not much in the immediate vacinity. Nearest places worth a visit would be Rivington or Hebden Bridge but you’d need a local to find any of the good stuff at either. For a daytime ride, alone, I’d be heading off to the Lakes.
As they said earlier, Staveley would be a good start point for a loop of Nan Bield or similar.

Gisburn Forest is OK for a couple of hours but not wilderness at all. More suitable as a fall-back for either when it’s bad weather or as a night-ride. If it’s good weather and daylight, you should take the opportunity go up-high in the Lakes.

I’m with Tomaso on this.
Dual ply Maxxis on Flow EX or Syntace W35, run tubeless. They’re the only things that I’ve found sufficiently robust on the rear.

Loving Magic Mary on the front though with the W35 rim (it’s only snakeskin too!). Zero problems in the last 10 months of use on a 160mm FS ridden bull-in-a-china-shop style.

4 passes and a loop of Rossett Gill & Stake Pass for good measure.