I stopped on a ride a few weeks ago as a young lad coming towards me through a bit of a dip in the road took a nasty tank slapper and hit the deck. The youngster in question was probably ten, out with his dad and had hit the tarmac quite hard, having not even let go of the bars, he was shaking with shock, a bit cut and bruised and obviously upset, also as he’d only just gone down, we hadn’t yet got any idea if we should move him. The first driver to arrive did the decent thing and blocked half the road with his car, getting out to stop traffic the other way. Two other cyclists stopped to see if any further help was needed too. Here the good Samaritans ran out of members as the woman coming along next just stopped, got out and said “could you just move him off the road so the traffic doesn’t get held up for too long?!”

Some people are so self centred it’s frightening.

Nice write-up dude, I knew those 5″ tyres weren’t wide enough.

Does GrahamS carry a rolled umbrella to work?

As misguided and odd as the chap in the video is, it’s quite hard to believe that the author of that blog extract is the same person. Despite his very strange opinions, he seemed reasonably able to communicate and string a sentence together in person, yet his typed diarrhoea reads as if written by a drunk, non English speaking rat.

20mm and 15mm vs QR – Yes, my big rotors don’t rub any more.

Taper vs straight – Yes, less for twang under heavy braking.

The spring of steel – Yes, I feel much better after a long ride on my steel hardtail than on my super stiff aluminium hardtail. There are big differences in frame design though.

The comfort of Ti – possibly, but I bought a Lynskey and it snapped.

Pick up – No.

Crank stiffness – Definitely.

All the positives (and maybe the snapped frame?!) may be as a result of me, fully kitted up tipping the scales at about 20 stone.

You need to wind in the B tension screw, on the back of the top part of the mech to correct your angle of dangle.

Race Face do a 30 tooth that works by sitting inboard of the spider by a few mm. Got one on one of my bikes on XT triple cranks.

30 x 11/40 on burly long travel 29er hardtail.
32 x 11/42 on short travel xc 29er hardtail.

Sounds like chainring spacers arethe thing to try. 1×10 with a big sprocket works best when the ring lines up with the 5 sprocket.

Weight. I have far to much many.

Or try Gooey pads for a much cheaper alternative with very good performance. Take it from a big fat bloke who can ride a road bike reasonably quickly, the work very well.

If the £140 spend gets you up and running again, on a sellable bike, that would be my option. Keep it running ’til you’re ready to buy the new one and flog it for anything over what it’s cost to repair.

Thanks for the responses. Managed to get half a days sliding in yesterday with no board damage. Happy days.

Yeah, I’ve seen the snow forecast for tomorrow/Wednesday and I’m thinking Wednesday would work, just wondered if there was much lying snow about already for a bit of a base. Fingers crossed we get a reasonable fall.

Plenty of great advice above. Mrs FBJ is plenty fit enough on her road bike but is terrified off road although she periodically goes through spells of doing a fair bit. We’re currently trying (at her request) to do a ride a week, only about an hour/hour and a half, with as many stops as she wants, plenty of chatting and nice views. I ride half a wheel behind her so she’s setting the pace, carry a backpack full of everything we could possibly need and we stop for coffee if she wants to.

Just take everything at her pace, remember it’s a trip out for her and enjoy watching her confidence and skills grow if she sticks with it.

Not at all, I’d doff my flat cap to anyone with the nerve to carry off the shoe/sock combo he appears to be wearing. I wish I’d dare.

Anoyone with such phenomenal shoes, socks and gloves skills as you obviously have will be OK as you disco glide over trail obstacles without enough interaction with the ground to worry about a frame snapping.

EDIT; Please please make my day and confirm that you are in fact wearing white slip-on shoes with cycling socks. Please?

England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Slovakia, Canada and USA.

At work, contemplating a special sit down and a second pint mug of coffee while stickering up some cowbells in readiness for the Macclesfield supercross next week.

The threaded section of the cups is longer on the MTB BB so if you have enough depth of thread in the frame to install them without spacers, you’ll be able to use the cups, but the centre tube won’t go in.

You could give Dan a try here Mountain Goat[/url] he’s a seasoned 24hr MTB racer and coach. Top chap too.

Wasn’t it announced a few years ago that no more attempts on this record would be validated due to the dangerous traffic levels on the roads nowadays?

That’s that sorted then. No need for any further thought.

Jamie – Freeloader!

My virginity.

Again, apologies.

That’s a bit much, doing the pokey pokey dance with another chaps pockets.

Just been thinking about how hard I saved to buy my first set of suspension forks and how great I thought they were. I can also remember going off the bike backside first on a climb because I wheelied over a small rock step and the resulting rebound on landing launched me over the back. Stuff was just great back then.

on the first vid from the op… is it me or are they all completely inept?

Or maybe you’re just lucky enough to be riding a modern fork with excellent brakes and great tyres, rather than the overcooked noodle construction of early suspension forks, cantis and 1.9 Z Max’s at 45psi. Ahh, them were the days.

When I ride places I had big crashes in my early years of riding (1987 onwards) I quite often think “what the **** did I do to come off here?”

Sanderson Town Crier. Ticks all those boxes and I love mine.

Done.

I don’t see the appeal of going back to do this at all. Probably the least enjoyable event I’ve ever ridden right from the horrendous midges on the camping field, through the pre race telling off in the briefing because “our marshalls will not tolerate any abuse from riders” to the most boring route. Mile after mile of fire road. I abandoned at the halfway stage and went off in search of singletrack in the forest and had a much better ride from then onwards. Long rides rule but not that one.

I’m on a 3 month riding ban because im getting married…

Is her dream walking down the aisle to marry a slightly tubby, tetchy fella?

I’m pretty well under the thumb but my missus would never have imposed such a ridiculous ban, I’d have been a nightmare to live with…

She’d better be worth it.

I rode on the morning of my (first) wedding – big group ride with most of the lads who were at the wedding in the afternoon, the ex mrs FBJ knew it was going to happen long before it was mentioned as did all the lads other halves.

My longest break from riding was after an operation, 8 weeks of no riding at all and it’s no great coincidence that we separated (and subsequently divorced) towards the end of those 8 weeks. I need to ride at least every other day for the sake of my sanity and those around me. Mrs FBJ mark 2 is more than happy with that, plus she can ride a bike too :’)

Sandwicheater, you should be in politics.

FOG – Member

We may be kidding ourselves about our value to the Peaks tourist agency. I am fairly sure the DCC and PPPB would much prefer the hordes of grockles who spend loads in gift shops and cafes and whose only traffic demand is for more over priced carparks

There was a study a few years ago that concluded cyclists tend to spend more than people travelling by car as they don’t tend to carry much with them and buy en route.

It would be interesting to hear the viewpoint of the owners of cafes such as the Woodbine and Edale station as to what the affect of a lack of MTBers cash in their tills would be.

Is that Gilwell? The ponds look like it. I went there as a nipper so my memory could be hazy.

Back in the days when Scouts were encouraged to do active things with an element of risk. My old Scout troop do more craft and computer activities than outdoor stuff now, it brings a tear to my eye.

A hilly 5 miles is a tough start to running, that’s only a mile short of the mythical Tenkay distance that all new runners spend a year working up to in order to get it done in less than an hour. Wait for the pain to subside and try slowly building up from a couple of miles with steady increases as you get used to it. Try not to look at distances like a cyclist either, 5 miles sounds like bu99er all, until you run it.

If we wanted to do Birkside descent, are either of the 2 bridleways over Whiteside doable or just more pushing and carrying? The other option is from further south, upto the tarn and carry up onto Dollywagon. Anyone ridden them all and have any opinions to offer?

The bike, and you whilst riding it, will be fine but after about a dozen rides, you’ll start walking round in right hand circles as your left leg will be slightly longer than your right leg.

Home fishing rod repair kits are a doddle to use, do it, then as above, cover it with a chainstay protector and don’t forget to check it every now and then.

Fantastic. Absolutely, properly and awesomely fantastic. Nicholas, the bike, his smile and the video. Well done all round and thank you. Hugs.

Our young sport has has lost a true gent today. Steve was always an honest, trusted, respected, likeable, amiable, passionate man with an authoritative air to all he did. There can’t be many who haven’t acted on what he said and believed in what he did. Anyone out there with silly bars, baggy shorts and a big grin should be raising a glass tonight to Steve. Long live his words and his memory. Goodnight Steve, you’ll be missed by many, but thoughts to your family. Tomorrows forecast for a windswept ride seems far more appropriate now than when I was whingeing about it earlier today.

Thanks for the info folks. Got back a few days ago and although I only managed a few rides, there were some great trails. Had a ride out with Steve from crosscountryHK round Tai Lam Chung reservior and country park. Some nice singletrack bits in there and completely empty trails. Steve was a great guide and comes highly recommended for knowledge of the trails, guiding and good banter.

The best riding I got to was on Lamma Island where I spent some very enjoyable time just following my nose, getting lost and finding some superb trails cut by the local riders. Anyone over there who hasn’t ridden Lamma needs to get on the ferry and go do it. We stayed there so it was on the doorstep but from the number of times we met bikers getting on the ferry from Central when we were off elsewhere, it’s becoming a popular destination already.