olgit – Yep, really happy with it. Looking forward to doing some longer rides and maybe the odd sportive :).

Thanks for the help/comments you've given especially on here – much appreciated 🙂

Blimey – that's a proper one!! Makes me feel better about breaking my frames now 🙂

Yeah – loving that thread. Esp the lack of nonsense spouting 😉

The next regular Friday event?

Nice thread :). Yes, they can make good pets, especially if left to roam free – the number of rabbits being "garage ornaments" only checked on once a week are fortunately reducing!

[Sensible hat on]BIG thing with rabbits is their diet, and the effect it has on body weight on tooth growth. You should make sure they've always got access to fresh grass/hay/straw – that's what they're designed to live on. "Rabbit food" is necessary but should be looked on as a supplement. Get the homogeneous stuff like burgess supa excel(not the mix – they're buggers for hunting out all the sweet tasty stuff and leaving the beneficial high fibre goodies) and limit greens/fruit to occasional treats. Rabbits teeth grow constantly and if you don't get their diet right the teeth can grow wonkey, leading to regular vet trips to have them clipped/burred down again and a much shorter life span. Also, overweight rabbits are much more prone do disease and can't keep themselves clean.

Personally, I prefer Guinea Pigs though – more character 😉

DezB – amazing. I've never met you but already I hate you 😈

This means it's 3 months until cream eggs are on sale again……

🙂 – sad but very true

Vet down the road from us is called Owen Money :). Although for some reason he wants to be called Mr "Moaney" – Bucket/bouquet anyone 🙂

Oh god I'm sorry – I've become a victim, and the cause in the same day! 😐

Dougal – the scary thing is, the website crashed because it was so popular! 😯

I know the MBR reviewers get into bed with SBC at the earliest convenience (and seem to be flirting with Lapierre at the mo too) and have never got on with the Marin style of doing things. It's just the fact that they raved about the thing 12 months earlier. They did exactly the same with the E-5 before.

To be fair, "What MTB" have done the same – last year: bike of the year contender; this year – average review. At least I can appreciate where some of their criticism comes from, even if I don't agree with it. I genuinely don't know what the MBR guy has been riding. He even slated the bike for an XT hub failure!!

Ho hum.

Well I ride a bike that, 12 months ago, everyone loved – rave reviews in What MTB, MBUK, the BM mag and a couple of others.

Now I read an MBR review that slates it. Funny thing is I honestly don't know what the guy's been riding. Apparently the head angle is too steep so it's twitchy on descents (it descends almost as well as my 223 in most scenarios and much better than my old bike – I got told to slow down after launching some drops at Kirroughtree!); it bottoms out really harshly – never noticed it myself; the suspension is too active (is this possible when you've got pro-pedal); the chain feedback in granny ring is unbearable (one thing I love about climbing on it is I never feel any chain feedback!!!).

The fickle (and slightly bizarre) world of the MTB press!! 🙄

Whyte E-120 by the way 🙂

Perks of the job – I've got all sorts of things I could use relatively painlessly 🙂 *

* please note – I wouldn't do it, am of sound body and mind, and don't condone the use of drugs……mmmmmkay

Another vote for the Kyle Straits. I've never used Veggies but I can wear those for an all dayer with very little rub.
More than I've managed to do with Dianese/RaceFace knee/shin protection on the DH bike

Yep – almost certainly be fine. I've done it loads of times. It used to be a problem when the signature panel was important 🙂

Blimey – I'm amazed at how many people are sticking up for the "trail centres are too rocky" arguement. Maybe we should all go back to fully rigid/bmx bikes and keep it real on tarmac jumps?

The only trail centre this may slightly apply to is Ae – as others have mentioned, there are sections of very irregular "cobbled" singletrack flat/uphill sections that are hard to keep flowing on a 120mm FS bike, never mind a HT – that does smack of poor design.

As for DHs though – surely we need to have a least some where you've got to think about lines and not just rail the berms and pump the doubles? MTBs are all about riding a variety of terrain – the fact they can cope with so many different types is the amazing thing about them. Fine, have some easy trail centre routes, but surely a challenge on a ride is a good thing?

As said above, a trip to any good Lake/Peak district/Scottish loop would show people what their bikes can actually do (rider willing 🙂 )

Ribble have got them for a similar price but if you buy them as part of a £50 spend, you get them for £19.50 🙂

2nd the c905. Now they seem to have ironed out the initial problems it's a great phone. Camera's fantastic (for a phone!), GPS is useable, MP3 player's pretty good too. Really nice screen.

Oh, and it works well as a phone 🙂

edit – and it's got the sports tracker, pedometer & other software on it too!

Oops – just realised I never actually posted the link 🙄

Try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTt8Noi5Rk

No matter what you think of the current album, have you seen this – V funny (assuming you can spot the subtle "mistake" in the pre-recorded show 🙂 )

And is it wrong to just think "etthhethhethhethhethhe SCORCHIO" at the beginning 🙂

We were out on Cut Gate yesterday – saw the air ambulance head off in a totally different direction!

TJ – I've had friends "only" break bones in the past. One guy "only" broke his arm. By the time the ambulance came he was white as a sheet and feeling faint due to blood loss from a ruptured kidney (un-noticed bar to the abdomen blunt trauma masked by the pain of his arm). Extreme example I know but any major fall in an exposed place can have serious repercussions. And as for MTFU – surely that's the emergency services call not yours? I'm sure we'd all be complaining if the ambulance service said that over the phone then someone got into difficulties.

Get an 11-28 cassette and you'll be fine – that's what I've done.

Yes you might get more obvious gaps between the gears but think of the weight saving and greater acceptance from the Roady community 🙂

You know you're going to do it so buy it now while it's on offer!! 😉

You'd probably get a bit for the shifters/cranks at least 2nd hand.

Got a fixed wheel for fun and to push up the fitness

I feel the need to draw the line somewhere, and that's just wrong! 😉

No reason not to as far as I can see – I've just done the same with the current Planet X offer on C2W. I'm really looking forward to getting out on the roads again (after a break of 19 years!).
I just see it as an easy out-the-door option when I can't be arsed getting the car out to drive to some good riding. Anything to get me riding more often and hence fitter.
I'm also hoping it'll be like my HT – great fun to get out on and makes my full sus seem sooooo much comfier 🙂

Be good to ride to work when I can too 🙂

Might not help but you do know that if you go into your account details and change the preferences for what newsletter you want to receive, it automatically generates a £5 off £50 voucher for you?

Can't beat the sound of that engine flying low over head 🙂

I guess it's not live either then – he's disappeared 🙂

they should set off the fire alarm and see what happens!

Nice 😆

Oh god – I'm a talentless, uncreative nobody 🙁

Love this – the bestest people out there will get stuck – anyone with talent or creativity will stick. (anyone who doesn't = loser) 😈

Planet X is in Carcroft, near Doncaster, not Darlington.

Oops – sorry. Yeah, I meant Doncaster 🙄

ChristGinger – you may be awash with Halfords but, checking the website, there's still the same availablity problems – the nearest store to you that "may" have stock is Ayr.

Good luck.

I might go and have a wee shot on the boardman to see how it feels – cant do that with a planet x I suppose.

If your local Halfords has any in stock go for it – unless things have changed a lot in the last month you'll be lucky though. I think you can call in on Planet X if you're anywhere near their office in Darlington. Otherwise GB cycles do have some in the South I think and PX do frequent a few big events (triathlon included) with demo bikes.

Yeah – I did notice that. Fortunately I'm sorting it directly with my boss so don't need to involve the cyclescheme.

I can see why they do it though as they only get £900 for each £1000 voucher (cyclescheme must be coining it in!) and they are apparently working on a minimal margin as it is.

Still a bargain though imho. The other options I listed do offer some good value too.

Oh my lordy lordy. Have a search of the forum – there have been a few of these posts in the past 2 weeks 🙄

FWIW, I've finally made a decision and am waiting for one of the Planet X Carbon SL, Ultegra 6700 (2010) offers described above – good reviews, good forum feedback, friendly replies to all emails re sizing, weight etc and the current offer is a bargain 🙂

I was considering the Ribble Sportive (lovely bike, long wait, questionable customer service), Focus/Boardman offerings (good value but racey & harsh ride), Dolan (just didn't quite do it for me), Orbea onix Vuelta (nice but few reviews, very limited release & low end groupset for the money) and a few others.

Best advice is try to test ride some – I hope you have more luck than I did in that department!

They did have a similar, less well publicised Sportive ride at this years Mayhem. Not sure how many people took part. I was to busy suffering to notice 🙂

There's a collection? Just nipping over to Amazon for a mo….. 🙂

I've always loved these. The lamp one was ground breaking and still looks great now. Even if it did take several banks of computers an awfully long time to work it all out 🙂

Edit – Luxo Jnr – that's the one 🙂

Road Bike Mayhem

😉

Sat – Working 🙁

Sun – Cut Gate. First time so being "guided" round it. Apparently it's quite good 😉

Can't believe Currys can get away with giving advice like that! Well, I can but it's still not on!

I'm running 2003 on Vista without problems. Not sure about the Norton License but you'd be better off with Kaspersky anyway – you can pick a legitimate copy up for £10-15 🙂

Try installing Norton with the same key and see what happens – worst that'll happen is it will say no 🙂

Yeah – definitely concerning. I've always classed round here as reasonably "safe". Thieving scum bags!

Having said that it always pays to be wary – just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you!!

edit: and obviously I'll keep eyes peeled too!

Mad!