Butterfly 2346 – I keep an eye out for that one, cheers.

Steellam – Arse!

DezB – again, a long way from me I’m afraid but thanks anyway 🙂

Is that this weekend? Bit far for a spur of the moment trip unfortunately – shame as I wouldn’t have minded going to watch the racing anyway.

I like mine. They’ve lasted well with bugger all maintenance – took it apart last year for the first time in 2 years and all was still good with it. A bit flexy and you have to be careful with the plastic stanchion guards (don’t trying and pick the bike up with them le I did) but very supple and bling too 🙂

Thanks very much for the comments – I was expecting more of a flaming than that! And thanks Rich – you saw my ad then 🙂

I was thinking £900 was a pretty good price so I’ll stick with that I guess. Yes, it’s a £1500 frame but the lack of subsequent warranty makes a difference (although ATB-Sales seemed genuinely surprised I’d snapped the last one 🙂 )

I guess eBay’s the best option. I just resent giving them 10% of any sale!

Awesome – great spectacle and completely mad as a fruit!

As above – use the search function. Not trying to be funny – there’s loads of good info been posted on the different options, over the past few weeks alone.

Had mine a few months now and I’m convinced. It’s amazing how much you actually use it once you get used to it – higher than normal for long climbs, a smidge of a drop for more undulating stuff, a bit more for technical trails and dropped proper for DH runs.

I’ve got the normal right hand lever and run it under the left hand side of my bars – it nestles up next to my shifter (SRAM) nicely has a lovely action once bled.

As others have stated, a little bit of play but minimal. So far so good…

For those who haven’t seen it, there’s a pretty good round up Here[/url] that give a good idea of the track & conditions.

Mike – I think you’ve got me confused with someone else – I didn’t borrow a bike.

Most DH races would have run Chicken Runs round the hard obstacles anyway, gives you a time penalty but can still compete.

There were multiple line choices on the DH section and any drops were easily bypassed (the biggest of these was still a lot smaller than those on stage 1 (shredder). The only difficult sections in my eyes, involved roots which, had the weather not been so bad, wouldn’t have been any issue at all.

All in all event was good for me but not for the people I came with who had hoped it was the middle ground that they would enjoy

Funnily enough, the 3 guys I was riding with all said that stages 1 and 5 where the definite highlights of the day and the majority of smiles I saw were at the bottom of these.

None of us are of a level that will challenge podiums but we all ride a lot in varying terrain and have fun doing it. This series is just an extension of that idea and that’s the appeal. IMHO it would be a shame if a series like this turned into a “race” round trail centre routes that can be ridden with a stop watch any time. The mix of different styles makes it what it is and challenges every skill.

I guess this argument could go on for ever, as will similar arguments re every genre of MTB racing/events – too long/short, to easy/not challenging enough, too pedally/not pedally enough. Time will tell if these guys have got it right. I think Ae was a good event with a few teething problems that round 2 should hopefully rectify.

Thinking about it – the comments about the course being unrideable in the wet and mud, with people abandoning the race, reminds me of Mountain Mayhem 2 years ago. The weather turned the DH sections into swampy quagmires with lots of people giving up. I don’t think that could ever be classed as too extreme – the weather plays an important and unavoidable part.

Indeed the DH race at Bringewood was run on the same weekend. They had to change the course used half way through the weekend as the original choice was unrideable. And they’re DH’ers 😉

mikewsmith – I think you’re perhaps exagerating your point a bit here. Yes the “DH” track was used but it was a DH track with the worst of the obstacles avoided. The step down, the large jumps, the larger rock gardens were all bypassed. Yes there were a couple of steep sections and some roots and a lot of mud, the latter made an awful lot worse by the pretty shocking weather conditions. All the remaining drops/jumps had detours available around them and all bar the bottom section was rollable at slow speed for anyone not confident to ride it fast (the bottom section was slideable on your arse through the mud if necessary 😉 )

As others have said, it was made clear that these races would not be just a race round a trail centre route with no imagination – I’ve avoided the Avalanche Ae rounds in the past as I it just seemed a bit dull. The name itelf surely suggests the series is going to have a
bit more, erm, gravity based action

As you stated earlier, you finished 90th overall so clearly weren’t struggling too much with things.

Obviously it’s horses for courses with this type of racing and, being new in the UK, time will tell as to what people make of it. I left the weekend happy that 95% of the people that raced, finished with a huge smile on their faces. Yes, some were covered in mud; yes some took a long time to get down. Hell, I trashed my bike, abandoned the race and was still laughing at the end…..just!
The important thing is there was a great atmosphere and I for one, can’t wait for Kielder.

Anyone who gives good money to someone with a rating that low deserves whatever they get!

Tried to buy a CK wheel off him last year (when he went by the name Batesy_1). He was really keen until I started asking questions about who built it, receipts, etc. I’ll have a look at his emails when I get home, see if I can give you more info.

I think some of the timing confusion was due to the organisers trying to get people off the hill asap and avoid too much standing round in the weather. The initial gap between stage 4&5 was incorrect, then the amended one was too long. They tried to shorten it on the day and adapt the timing accordingly and I’m guessing that’s where the errors crept in. Should be sorted for Kielder.

Vortexracing – yep, the date on the Website is the first (practice/seeding) day with the main event the day after.

Tight threads or tight interface with the cranks?

I’ve got issues with my Hope BB and FSA cranks – the crank axle is ridiculously difficult to get through the bearings and getting them out again involves inscrewing the BB first.

Pete – like the write up. Gives a great insight into what I missed. You got some good times too mate.

Roll on Kielder

andrewy33 – that just sounds silly!

Pete – no worries, cracking weekend on the whole. I’ll look out for the Blog – crap pics of Ned are always entertaining, we need to keep his spirits down after he beat Beef despite puncturing on 2 stages 🙂

Meant to give a “Big Up” for the SRAM guys. They fixed my shifter after I snapped the lever off in qualifying, then both laughed and sympathised when I showed them my frame on race day. They even offered me a seat on their bean bags & looked after my bike while I walked the course :).

Top bunch of very friendly, helpful guys – makes me glad I’ve got Sram/Avid/RS stuff

ahwiles – ah ok, that kind of makes sense I guess 🙂 .
That does mean there’s even more of a mix up of fast & slow riders, although I understand the gaps can be bigger.

Mr Plow – yep – I saw that photo and thought it must be you 🙂 I wonder if that guy ever came back up the hill for his saddle!!

Fingers crossed for better luck all round at Kielder 🙂

Shandy – there was some initial talk of setting off in pairs but fortunately they stuck with singles. I can’t really see how the pairs thing would work?

Yeah – I guess you could sum it up with, a few teething problems but the important bits went well and everyone I met had a smile on their face at the end. I’m looking forward to the next round anyway 🙂

I have to disagree with you there re the DH track. The rain did make it more tricky but everyone seemed to finish the qualifier and stage 5 with a grin on their face. All the big jumps/drops were avoided and there were some sneaky new lines included.

The series is billed as the Gravity enduro so is always going to have a DH bias. There was nothing that needed anything bigger than a trail bike…….. imho, obviously 🙂

Worth the cash?

Most importantly, the timing was unobtrusive and worked!

That makes it worth the cash imho.

Top weekend, marred only by the weather and me snapping a rear sus link on the top section of stage 1 🙁

Ae’s not my favourite venue but the use of the DH track was great.

Signing on could’ve been better but Parr’s promised to sort that. Most importantly, the timing was unobtrusive and worked!

Great atmosphere too despite the rain. Roll on Kielder

I think if I tried to wipe like that, I’d have an involuntary secondary poo.

😆 Classic

I’ve got one and love it – only just got it last week though so can’t really help but I haven’t noticed any premature marks so far (neon green)

have you guys not realised this is just an Exodus with a new name

Erm, I assume you’re trolling – it’s no more like the Exodus than the Xen it’s (sort of) replacing.

And here was me thinking I’d actually see Ae in the dry for once. Ah well, the DH track should be fun 🙂

Set of xcm-130s here and I love them. Service once a year without any seal/wear issues and excellent performance for a light weight fork.

grum – just seen your reply and about to email you the details but your email’s not showing on your profile either now.

nwATvet98DOTfreeserveDOTcoDOTuk if you still need the route.

dooosuk – The problem wasn’t really with the service centres. In hind sight I should’ve just sent the phone back to SE.

My problem was with the complete lack of service, arrogance and often blatant rudeness of the call centre staff/managers. It’s not worth going through the ins & outs but I had months of the worst service I’ve ever received with delays, stalling and even blatant lies. Even the local CPW staff couldn’t justify their central staff & policies and were just left apologising repeatedly every time I went in.

They are probably the only company I won’t ever go anywhere near ever again

mobiles.co.uk was the source of nearly 6 months of stress and hassle for me.

Unless they’ve suddenly improved in the past 2 years I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. Or CarPhoneWarehouse for that matter.

The problem is, you buy the phone from the mobiles.co.uk who then don’t want anything to do with you. My brand new SE phone died 30 days into an 18month contract. Because mobiles.co.uk have a 28 day warranty, they weren’t interested and told me to go to my local CPW shop instead. Because I hand’t bought the phone directly from them, they wouldn’t sort it direct and had to send the phone back to their central office. It took the latter just over 5 months to finally sort the problem, during which time I was stuck with a very old mobile and was unable to use many of the included features of my contract.

I’m sure the lucky ones who don’t have any problems do get a bargain (and I’m all for a bargain) but it’s not worth the risk ….imho.

Nant yr Arian & Brechfa are both great choices. Neither are your classic trail centre riding, esp if you do the longer route to the North of the waymarked stuff at NyA (if you want a gpx for that email me). If you’re going to Brechfa, try and get to Cwm Rhaeadr too – 20mins down the road. It’s only a short way marked loop but the singletrack descent back down is amazing fun and you can incorporate it it into a longer loop with a map (as in STW a couple of months back)

That does sound a bit odd – I’ve never had mine over estimate altitude gain! I can’t explain that one I’m afraid.

As for the calibration, you’re right, it does automatically do this using GPS data. I think it does help with accuracy if you manually enter a point of known altitude as it calibrates the baromatric altimeter and helps varify the GPS altitude (which I believe isn’t as accurate as in other dimensions…but I could be wrong!)

DT78 – the easiest way is to download the “Webupdater” software from the Garmin site then just connect the Edge and run the software

Oscillate Wildly – do you mean elevation gain? I think there’ll always be a discrepancy between the GPS and mapping software – the mapping software will take the GPS course and map it directly onto topo maps, measuring every change in elevation along it (including any corners cut & any small changes); the GPS uses barometric info as well as the GPS so will probably iron out some of the more subtle changes in altitude.

That’s my understandingt anyway as all the GPS units I’ve owned have given significantly lower elevation change readings compared with memorymap etc.

Calibrating the unit with a point of know elevation will help to some degree though I think.

Yep – the route simon1975 links to is a cracker on a nice day. I did it the other way round which seemed to work well and was 90% rideable with some good DHs but horses for course I guess

I’m tempted by the Powermonkey with the code but…..is it just me? That brings up the “troops in afganistan” discount 😯

Downloaded thanks – I’ll try it later. SD compatible too, even though it is only 48Kb 🙂

I’m not sure what people are referring to with the double search – I just load up navigator then type or speak the destination. The simple keyboard on this does seem a good idea though.

Tip – you can set destination short cuts on your home pages too (to your place of work, home (I use a rough area) etc etc) – one click and it takes you there 🙂

2nd the Pont Scethin route – quite short and exposed but some great descents. And views if your lucky 🙂

This really surprises me – I was seriously looking at the 146. It’s a lovely looking bike, seems to be the ideal upgrade from my current bike for the type of riding I’m doing now and I’ve had nothing but excellent service from ATB Sales in past years (enquiries, warranties etc etc), so I’m keen to stick with them in the future.

I’d be interested to know which LBS you’re dealing with and how much effort they’ve put into getting the bike..

No problem guys. Certainly seems to be a bargain offer while it lasts. I’ve probably used it more for streaming tbh – it’s good to listen to albums without ads prior to buying them. An alternative to Spotify now they’re clamping down a bit.

spasmic gerkin (?!) just listening to your link at the moment – like it so far 🙂 .

Oh, and the Motorhead back catalogue has all just appeared as 99p easter eggs too 🙂