Have been enjoying the pictures and links to get me in the mood for my trip out to Morzine.
Never boarded there before but reckon it looks pretty good at the moment.

Only problem is I got a call yesterday to tell me that crystal ski (why oh why did I do that) have overbooked my hotel and they are offering me an alternative… unfortunately it isn’t in the village and we’ve booked B&B… they have offered to upgrade to half board but our friends are staying in the village as well so don’t really want to be stuck out in the sticks.

Anyone ever had any of this nonsense? Worried for our holiday now… just want to get out there. Give me tales of incredible upgrades that kept you happy… please?

My GF has a 55 plate mini cooper. Engine was made by peugot but we have only had a couple of issues with it losing coolant and burning oil… Not the best car she’s had, but not the worst either.

Very harsh ride though, bear that in mind if you live somewhere with roads that the council doesn’t care about.

Just a new axle I think – X12 conversion kit rings a bell.
Just changed mine but it wasn’t an evo.

I hope you’re wrong Phil, as I think the trails in Greno fill a much needed gap.
What changes do you think would need to be made so that all users were kept safe and happy? I’ve not seen any incidents with horses or dog walkers to be honest but I’m aware that they happen.
Clearer signage at the bottoms do tops of the runs? More of an obstacle to slow riders before reaching the bridleway/ fire roads at the bottom?

Actually Phil, I agree with you on the horses (not my high horse mind), both greno and wharnie fire roads are no place to be overdoing it on a mtb or a Motocrosser. But hey, maybe we should all accept a blanket ban because of a few idiots… I don’t really see what you’re trying to achieve with your angle here.

Ah, Dorset, with its wonderful Bulbarrow Hill.

I know we shouldn’t feed the troll but come on…

Philxx1975- this is a designated one way DH mtb track, in a sensitive woodland setting and you’re arguing that people should be allowed to drive motorised vehicles up it against the flow of the traffic…

Get a grip. There are plenty of less sensitive sites with less vulnerable traffic available and the motorcrossers should go and ride there.

Unbelievable.

Was running fine today. Beware the rock in the middle of the trail on DH3 but otherwise all was clear and running fast. Enjoy.

We went around and around with them when they set up our phone line and broadband in the house we moved into. Initially it all worked – 10Mbps broadband and telephone. Then the phone stopped working and the broadband dropped to 1.86Mbps.

Called them half a dozen times and never managed to get offered a solution – there does appear to be a fault on the line but we will try to fix from here etc. Didn’t fix it.

My partner called them once and they sent an engineer straight out that week. He found no fault externally and when inside found no fault there either, although his equipment said there was a fault. He called the exchange and they flipped a switch and fixed it straight away. Angry… You bet.

slowoldman – I had a very similar experience – played a beautiful Guild acoustic. Massive body on it, amazing sound. Didn’t buy it, regretted it ever since.

Taylors tend to mellow with age and get a better tone in the mid-range as they mature but they take a lot of playing and can sound a bit too bright for some to start with.

I agree that a Martin would be the one to pick though.

mmmm, nice. And it probably smells of coconuts as well! Why not?

I have a Simon & Patrick that I bought when I was in Vancouver. It’s alright. Would prefer something from Martin or even a Gibson. Out of curiosity, what is the problem with a Taylor? Their better ranges with interesting tone woods are amazing sounding.

I went to the Chill factore near the trafford centre, and visited subvert.

Great selection to choose from and loads of demo boards to try out, had to pay a small deposit but had that credited against the board when I bought it. Ended up with a burton process flying v.

The newer shapes with various rocker/camber combinations are so different to the old log I used to use!

Amazing experience in the factory canteen where I used to work, typically the bacon/breakfast sandwiches were REALLY good.

Got down there late one morning and all of the bacon for sandwiches had been sold. “No problem” said the cook, and proceeded to deep fry me 4 slices of bacon and dump them in a roll without even a complementary pat with the kitchen towel. The worst bacon sandwich I have ever had.

Allthgear +2 !

It is terrifying the number of people who haven’t a clue what the speed limit is on a given type of road. I left with an improved knowledge of reading the road and an acute awareness that a significant number of people are dangerous on the road and need to be given more space.

The instructors on my course were entertaining and knowledgable and dealt well with questions asked, regardless how stupid.

It is pretty clear that the driving test isn’t a full assessment of a drivers ability and I agree that there should be mandatory retests every 5 years.

If both Financial services and Russia are verticals how do they overlap? Or are there no Russian financial services? Are they parallel or is one inside the other? What a bunch of jargon toss.

On topic for a second though, I have seen a few articles over on Pinkbike about MTB in Bali. Worth a search.

Rusty Spanner – I think your thinking of Cuba there sir. Although Dorset is appealing, with it’s wonderful Bulbarrow Hill.

My Uncle was riding a lot up around Doncaster and the Peaks. He donated his Trek 930 to me when he bought a new KHS montana pro – must have been about 1993.

When he gave it to me he brought it down to my parents house in Devon and we went up to Exmoor near where I lived and did a loop around Withypool. Was boiling hot and I suffered all the way around, but the downhill was immense.

Got back to the car and the only drink he had was a 2litre firkin/flagon thing of Hancocks devon cider. Refreshing but a bit strong for a dehydrated 13 year old!

i.e. less dish.

Where did that nice blue king hub go?

I guess the idea is that the spoke lengths for both sides would be equal – giving a better balance of tensions across the wheel….

Looks interesting though. Not sure I’m a fan.

Spent 7hrs riding various DH trails in Greno and Wharncliffe last Sunday. I will be doing pretty much EXACTLY the same thing this sunday.

Happy trails.

Morzine? The road up to Avoriaz and down to Montriond is a great loop for the road bike.
There is Via Ferrata out of the back of Avoriaz and I reckon supermorzine is pretty rideable for the young ‘uns/wife.

I had one of these as my first road bike and experienced a pretty terrifying speed wobble on it whilst descending off exmoor. Had no control over the bike until it slowed due to the levelling of the road. I then analysed what I did and whether I could reproduce it.

Turns out I was descending with my weight back (as you would on a MTB). Adjusting to bring my bodyweight over the bars prevented it from happening again. Something to do with the resonance of the frame at a certain speed I think. Other people suggested holding a leg against the TT when descending.

RD – the pivots are all in a fairly well protected area of the bike though, so I suspect it would be no worse to keep maintained than a 4 bar.

D0NK, I don’t think it’s the manufacturers paying for good reviews, it’s more a fear of them withdrawing their advertising that may lead to a skew in the review.

If your main income came from a company that makes a product that they advertise in your magazine that you then give a bad review to are they likely to stick around?

Perhaps you could lend it to me for a week and I could review it…. but then I would look on it favourably as you were gracious enough to lend it to me… so all reviews are subjective is probably correct.

FWIW I really like the idea of these Evil bikes, if I was in the market for anything like this it would be on the shortlist of bikes to get a test ride on. Unfortunately I seem to have spent all of my money on a new bike from YT and will be broke for the foreseeable future.

There is always a flaw in the process of a rider reviewing their own bike. By definition they are invested in it, unless they have money to throw away most will try to enjoy the features of their new bike as they otherwise have wasted good money on it.
I would say this is almost as prevalent as the positive reviews of key advertisers bikes in many industry magazines.
Perhaps reviews would work more on a “friend of the owner” basis, a bit like that dating website where people describe their single friends – I’m sure it would be far more objective.

Hi womp, you got an email address?

Nope, and I have the ISO assessor coming into our place for a review of 2008. Gonna pretty irritated if I have to pay for a revisit if it becomes superseded in the next couple of months.

I got mine from here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Q2O0J7W/ref=s9_simh_gw_p200_d41_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0ZTVW2HV2W78HBS2GJRY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455333147&pf_rd_i=468294
Was tired of waiting for them to come in stock in the shops so bought from these guys. Was a pretty swift delivery.

I suppose it’s use will be limited to items that traditionally suffer from fatigue failure, although it depends if the strength and ductility is comparable to the alloys it will replace.

Interesting article though, and nice to see it not being dumbed down too much by the BBC.

Best similar situation I’ve experienced was in the local late night drinking hotspot. Got 2 pints of guinness for me and a mate and it tasted bloody terrible. cue amazing conversation:

“This guinness tastes terrible, could you change it?”
“How do I know it tastes terrible?”
“Taste it, it’s bloody awful”.
“I can’t drink guinness, I’m allergic to Nitrogen”….

That sounds like an absolutely terrible affliction, never encountered it again since, I couldn’t even see her hermetically sealed suit with constant oxygen supply.

Yeah, jonostevens has my favorite route details starting in Horner woods. Lovely area to ride. If you don’t get any detail give me a shout on t’email.

I’m incredibly grateful that I had the chance to see him supported by Gary Moore in Birmingham a number of years ago. Both incredible musicians and so passionate about their art. RIP.

I have returned. You are a bad man. I’m going in again!

If you head in from Station road in Deepcar there is a tunnel under the railway.

You have to ride past the old station, straight through the yard and then through a stile/bike gate. Follow the path and the tunnel passes under and pops out on to plank gate.

christhetall I think the gap before the split is definitely in but they provide alternative run arounds for anyone not brave enough.

I still haven’t heard which finish they will be going for but the track does end in the bombhole. Not too bad of a drop in though really.

I had a look around that house in the OP! It was nice but the rooms were all tiny and was built on one of the flat “floodable” areas of North Doncaster.

In the end I bought a 4 bed house 15mins ride up the hill to Wharncliffe and Greno woods for about the same price!

Definitely a variety of expectation vs reality with some of the house prices in this region. Stamp duty was a bloody big hit though, really detracted from the deposit we had saved 10 years to accumulate. I hope to not have to move again.

Had a good downpour last night down at the bottom of the hill but I reckon it should hold up okay. The surface has bedded in nicely. We are forecast more rain on Thursday and a bit on Saturday afternoon but I hope the prediction is as accurate as the previous weekend! Was bloody lovely in the peak, even the top of foulstone road was dry.