Olliver Brothers

We are all just different. I love Oranges and have had loads but the Alpine has never appealed to me. Always seems too tall because probably I don’t live in the Alps. Friends have bought shiny complicated very expensive bikes that seem ludicrous to me but I have bikes that I think are great however I know that my friends think that I am some kind of curiosity.

Tom
I’m with you on that but apart from the Absolute the BBs still look high.
That is my particular thing with gravity bikes but it is because I am short!

We have had a 14 ft trampoline for a while. Spent about £400 or so on it about four years ago but has been well worth it.Has been used more than anything else we have bought for them.I have three boys now aged 12, 15 and 18 and whilst elder two now mostly grown out of it the youngest still uses it all the time and is fantastic on it.
Would say that you should get the biggest that you can fit in your garden. Safer and more fun for everyone.

Met a bloke on a 146 about a month ago. His was new but he had had a lot of problems with bearings etc. Whilst with him the carbon swing link snapped when he landed a jump. I was local, he was not and so I went home and got the car to drive him home. Bumped into him today in the supermarket and Whyte and his local bike shop are sorting him out with a brand new (he said) 2013 bike and lending him the shop demo in the meantime.
So good on them except for all the hassle. Despite the problems he is very happy with it. His is very bling and seemed to weigh nothing.

We are doing the Sundowner
An overnight ride from Steyning to QECP and then back again. Supposed to be chasing the sun as it sets and then picking it up as it rises on the way back. Weather forecast looks wall to wall rain overnight. Ho hum.
Downs had managed to keep pretty good and hard overall but are starting to soften up now.

I know the area. My parents have a house in the mountains above Laroque on the side of Pic Neulos the tallest (1200m) mountain in the area before Canigou. There is bike hire shop in Argeles in the beach area (not the old town area) off the road heading north. Easy to find because has loads of big pedal cars outside. they do mainly beach cruisers but do mountain bikes (basic suspension but hydraulic disks at least), not top of the range but do the job if you have no choice. Brakes are left hand drive!
Buy one of the blue maps and explore. Ride up the fire roads and try and ride down the tracks.
I have been riding that end of the Pyrenees for ten years but a bit more in land than Argeles and Madeloc. Have found some really good stuff but also some really bad stuff. Record was nearly a four hour bike carry with hardly any pedalling.
Not a big MTB culture in that area. Off the fire roads I have hardly ever met anyone or even seen a tyre track and so take a phone! Careful on a Sunday because they hunt boar and might shoot you.

Laperre is a 2009 frame that I bought second hand and fitted stuff that was mostly lying around the garage. Just a Froggy frame with some triple clamps. Feels pretty fast and composed over the rough considering it is such a mongrel. Too tall in the tight stuff but I have been riding a Blood for a while which is very low. Will be getting some offset bushes from a friend who makes them to lengthen and lower it. it was just a house bike for use by children and if we go to uplift days together but has been good enough to be more than that and I take it out if i just want to blat around and jump off things.

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Parkin Brothers videos on Dirt for the Val Di Sol round at the moment are stunning.

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Thanks
I have been out of that loop for a while and forgotten about SDH

Stanfree
I hope it’s mine

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What a thread!
There are hardly any Oranges around here. It must be a regional thing as has been pointed out.
I’ve had a Sub Zero and a 224 and now have a Blood.
I’ll see myself out.

I have obviously been confused with terminology. I thought a footpath was a footpath and I am happy to ride them politely and smile etc and everyone (nearly everyone) is happy.
Cheeky trails I thought were tracks through the woods with no rights of way and just follow dear tracks and out of site have jumps/berms etc
Ride/build these as well but feel a bit guilty and don’t advertise or talk about them.

Above is the first time I have posted pictures.
Woody – also a mongrel.

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I have just been out on my Froggy that has triple clamps and had a great time (and i only live next to the South Downs). Wouldn’t want it as an only bike but with an air shock and pro pedal it still winches uphill.
Have a friend that I ride with a lot that has a few bikes -Scott Spark, a Whyte hardtail but since he bought a Spicy about 9 months ago I have hardly seen him ride anything else. At first I thought it was just new bike syndrome but seems to have been going on too long for that now.
If I had to have only one bike (something I would try and avoid) a Spicy would be on the list, but probably not at the top because it is still French after all.

How many times have you ever seen or heard anyone say that they regretted buying a Soul?

Orange is the only choice.
Black is too dull and loads of bikes are black.
I have an Orange Soul and a Black Blood.

Interesting and encouraging thread. Broken pelvis two years ago and starting to suffer a bit of pain (that I thought was muscular) that turns out to be trauma induced Avascular Necrosis which is the failure of blood supply to the bone in my femoral head. Will be arthritic, perhaps, but early days and may recover. Therefore anything now relating to hips is interesting. My brother in law had resurfacing a few years ago and runs and rides a lot – still very fit.

Unfortunately I am old enough to know that the reason for landing on the back wheel first was that we did not have suspension forks. Any jump of any size needed your legs to take up the hit. Now bikes are better and lots of jumps have landings. Back in the day etc we just used to jump off stuff and try and land on whatever was there.

More SoulLove here. I have lots of bikes and if they were broken would probably end up changing to something else but now that I have had a Soul for a while I would be surprised to find myself without one. Just such a nice bike to ride around on and so uncomplicated. As someone else said, on every ride there is always a point when you think ‘that was nice’.

34 up front with 11-36 on the back works fine for me. If you can’t get up a hill on that then it is not much slower walking.

Amazing thread, how can people not like High Rollers and Advantages?

Scotchegg. that sounds harsh and good luck. Five years and no riding. For me I hate road riding but I guess if i couldn’t ride from the door i would think about it. I have been on bikes my whole life and MTB for 20+ years. Still love it now as much as ever and ride most days. Mix it up with XC and downhill, different bikes and different friends and track building keeps it interesting. My children are also now giving up the fight and starting to ride, even if for the most part they don’t ride with me. Don’t worry about it and just do what you want.

Sorry but a Soul is just too fast to be built rigid, plenty of other frames for that. I have a Soul and a rigid but we are all different.

Top guide is fine for trail riding and xc but if you start messing about you will need a bottom guide as well unless you try the Shimano Clutch system which I have not yet because they don’t do a short cage version.
See how you get on with a cheap top guide first because decent top and bottom guides are stupidly expensive for what they are.

A friend has a 29er that seems good and looks sensible because he is tall but he says it is hopeless in the mud because the long contact area gets bogged down and then the wheels also weigh a ton. He uses it when it is not too wet and seems pretty fast but he is pretty fast and I suspect that is the truth. The problem with mud seems logical but has never been raised on line as far as I have noticed despite the huge amounts written. Just wondered if anyone else had noticed.

Not quite sure exactly what happened thanks to concussion. Low fast jump and i remember being too far to the right. Came too with a broken pelvis. It seems that my knee hit a tree in the landing and pushed my femur backwards. Chipped the hip socket (fine and no problems) but broke my pelvis. Whole right side detached in an unstable pelvic fracture. Air ambulance and a month in hospital, big operation with plates and bolts etc and three months in a wheelchair. Sold my 224 and replaced it with a Blood. Stopped downhill racing and avoid high consequence stuff like long gaps and fast jumps with difficult or cluttered landings.
Still love downhilling but try and ride ‘well’ rather than ‘fast’ (but do neither). Now ride every day (except when pi$$ing down like today). Cycling and swimming are fine but other sports like tennis and squash are now just for playing with my children because my adductors seem to no longer exist. Currently investigating whether they can be salvaged with physio or just be thankful for what I have.

Knew they were only for 10 spd and so quite a pricy change needing new cassette,shifter and chain as well, especially if it then doesn’t work. Have a full top and bottom guide on another bike but wanted to avoid this if I could for the Soul.

I don’t take the dog when I go for a proper ride but I usually go out with the dog by bike instead of walking him. He usually has a walk during the day with one of the family and a five or six mile walk with the bike with me. He has grown up with it and is fine. It’s up on the Downs, often at night and so not many people around and I just potter along giving him time to have a sniff and a wander.

I read STW and Dirt like many of the above. Really enjoy Steve Jones. Can’t read some of the type but I put that down to being old and so not target audience.

(Also used to read Car and LJK above in the 80s)

DrP
Given the rate that the first race sold out and that the competitive class is already sold out in the second race I have booked in for the second two races and so happy to share a lift. Aslo happy to meet on the Downs but ground pretty horrible at the moment. With the thaw it has gone all ‘chocolate cake icing’

As above my orange Soul had too much paint in the drop out and the wheel did not sit properly at first. Easily sorted and fine since.

DrP Happy to meet up. Always nice to go riding with someone new. Often have a different take on riding in the same area.

I am not doing the FoD race because a bit far away from me (Steyning) but will be doing the other two later in the year.
I tried and enjoyed their try out race last year at Aldershot.
I am not far from you and like you I susupect my riding buddies will not want to race and so happy to share a lift.