Anyone know where you can get spares for these – the stanchion guards on my SC32s have been “bodged” one too many times!

Great forks by the way – easily tunable, practically maintenance free and plush. Just a bit flexy, especially by modern standards!

Hate that – no warning at all and a very hard landing!

Drop me an email – I think I’ve got a goretex repair kit that I never actually got round to using. I’d just need to find it……..

Uh oh, I’ve got a bling XC bike, an average HT, a cheap second hand DH bike……. I’m clearly shit and great all at the same time…..blimey!

Fantastic news.

NZCol – when you talk about “cheeky” trails, what are access laws like over there? Are there certain tracks/rights of way you can and can’t ride on? There’s looks to be a fair selection of purpose built stuff around but I quite fancy some exploring.

Wow – thanks again guys. Some great info and I’m really starting to look foreward to the trip now. Looks like it’ll be worth looking into shipping my HT with me for flexibility, esp given the apparent easy riding from Wellington.

I did know about the hygiene/cleanliness thing. They tend to get twitchy when they see my occupation anyway so the bike will be spotless, along with everything else we bring 🙂

Hmm – found a few few more threads on here re MTBing in New Zealand and, it sounds like I’m going to want to do a lot of riding (staying with my partners family so should be able to sneak off a bit).

It seems the recommended guide books are only really available in NZ too unless anyone knows different?

Hels – fair comment re the the US route, although Emirates give a 35kg allowance anyway long haul… decisions decisions!

Thanks for the helpful comments guys.

Thepurist – can you remember what you paid for bike hire? I’ve got a few links for bike hire in Wellington and it seems to be around $60 a day for a reasonable HT. That would start to get expensive over a few days.

Thanks the route tips too – I’ll try and look that book up hofner.

Man that’s crap – Gutted for Sandy. I’ll keep me eyes out but I doubt it’ll stay in the area long 🙁

No!

Perhaps the cancelled ordered are for those folk who used the uk15 voucher code to buy them – it did state on the T&Cs that you couldn’t use it to purchase vouchers, even though the website let you?

I’m guessing that, as far as they see it, if you’ve ordered vouchers that aren’t valid until Dec 25th, there’s no real rush in getting them to you?

MemoryMap (on android so cheap) is great for last minute route changes/bail outs.

Oh god – I don’t think I really wanted to hear that (about the vouchers, not about you and Becca!)

Fantastic brakes but a bit temperamental when it comes to bleeding. The 2012 versions have a redesigned bleed port & body which supposedly eliminates this problem but I think only the cheaper “9” and “7” versions have been released so far. I could be wrong though.

ads-b – I think that’s the case yes. Theses don’t seem to be normal gift vouchers so I think you can only use one at once. I was tempted to buy £250 worth to get some XTR disc brakes in the New Year but I don’t think it would work

MTG – I don’t think you can though can you? As wwaswas said, vouchers and discount codes are the same with crc so you wont be able to use a Discount code when buying with vouchers.

I was just about to post this – seems a very generous offer. Desperate times and desperate measures maybe?

Pretty low form of advertising but it’s obviously worked!

2011 Zesty with all the deals around at the mo. Lovely bike

Been using one on my road bike for a while now without any problems.

Not the most technical of places to ride but some of the Black bits are well worth doing – great fun at speed.

The latest addition (the final 6km of black/red) is great and makes it feel like a proper loop now. Some fantastic jumps that flow really well but definitely tread carefully the first time down – you can easily over jump the launches and it’s easy to loop round and do bits again if you enjoy that sort of thing 🙂

I’d be interested in any info too – thinking of doing the same thing next year (to NZ though)

I’d take mine but not on a weekend/school holiday as it gets very busy. The ground’s pretty soft/smooth on the whole.

Expect a lot of not-particularly-helpful answers to this re the pros/cons of dogs at trail centres.

Had my 714 for about 4 months now and love it – great on the downs and feels like cheating on technical climbs. Looks wise they’re certainly up there with the best too.
Early days re longevity so I’m not saying anything yet 🙂

No 1:25000 mapping for round here on that site either.

I think OS have clamped down a lot on the 1:25000 images after it became more easy to download them via free software and cache them on hand held devices. Shame really but I don’t suppose you can blame them 🙁

Another vote for the Fender Bender. Cheap, looks a bit better than the neoguard/inner tube option (IMHO) and offers a little more protection to your stanchions. The only problem I’ve had with it is a slightly reduced tyre clearance so mud/sticks tend to rub a bit sometimes.

We’ve just had a weekend there too – it really is a great place to ride. We stuck mainly to the waymarked trails this time, sectioning some bits and making up a few others 🙂

I can thoroughly recommend This[/url] place if there’s a big group of you – fantastic s/c accommodation in a perfect position for the Raven trail or more “natural” tracks.

Looking forward to our next trip there already

My reverb has survived a few days saddle hung, gondola abuse – not sure it means anything

How long it takes and what I think

🙄

I was under the impression that vets had a duty to give emergency care to any animal brought in after an accident.

Yup – we have a duty of care to provide emergency treatment where an animal is suffering. Even if that treatment is euthanasia.

Why, how long does it take ?

Do they have time to sing a little tune ?

That’s poor, even by your standards. And it’s a LOT longer than you’d think, fyi!

Jesus. The opinions of a few people here really concern me.

First things first. If you have the decency to pick up an injured cat off the road and take it to the nearest vet, I’d be shocked if many would insist on payment.

As for the heroic “putting an animal out of its misery”, that’s fine in principle but some apparently serious injuries are very treatable. Unless you feel qualified to make that meducal judgement about someones pet, I really don’t think it’s fair for you to decide on their fate. And “strangling”? How is that humane?

Loco (S Wales) & J-Tech (Shrewsbury) have both served me well in the past

The newish Specialized tyres get good reviews – the Hillbilly would probably suit your type of riding. It’s a “cut spike” type tread but is apparently a bit stiffer and rolls better than you’d expect.

Having said that, I run a Minion DHF on the rear most of the year (with spikes when it’s gloopy) and get on just fine.

What is this thing you speak of? Maps magically marked onto paper? Sounds most intriguing 😉

Ooh blimey – this getting silly!

Taff – don’t suppose you’ve got any gps logs of the more hard to find bits have you 🙂

I love my Edge but have yet to find a mapping site or any software that integrates properly with it (as in connect the unit and get tracks straight off it).

I’ve got full UK MemoryMap but they seem reluctant to upgrade their software and are astonishingly vague when asked if it’s ever going to happen.

timnwild – thats what I was hoping would be the case – I figure if you start from the Abergorlech carpark you should be ok?

Have a good one – may see you out there 🙂

Taff – thanks for the info. We may well head Doethie way if the Brechfa option looks bad

Thanks P-Jay. I was thinking more of alternative routes in the Brechfa area as we’re staying there over the weekend.

Does anyone know how much of the black route is still ridable (starting from Abergorlech obviously)?

Equally, any maps/gpx logs of more “natural”/off piste riding in the area would be fantastic.