Great thread.

Great machines mid 80’s cr’s. I got chance to ride one of Dave Thorpes ex british championship CR500’s at Apex Motocross in Worcester last Spring. Being someone who has been racing four strokes for the past 7 years, it was a culture shock to say the least. I take my hat off to the GP boys of the 80’s. Those 500’s were absolute animals.

What you going to do with the header pipe? Get it blown out?

The rook is an excellent frame and surprisingly versatile if you like lively, playful bikes.

I’ve ridden a rook at Antur Stiniog and it was great. It’s burly so will take the hits but, stable on the rough stuff but has a very responsive, lively feel to it.

A great do-all bike in my opinion. It’s going to be my next build.

I think it’s more a case of trying to establish why it happened, not just finding it.

For the british DH scene i actually think Ride.io (previously southerndownhill) is really good now. The forums a bit dead but certainly recently it’s been a very active site. They were first with the bds video and photos etc. Getting better anyway.

Never known it to be broadcast. Never seen cameras, other than with short film/highlights film makers. Only WC’s are broadcast AFAIK.

It’s the only station I really listen to now. It more or less stays on all day when i’m working from home. Weekly highlights for me are Kermode and Mayo, Danny Baker and Fighting Talk of course.

Absolutely no access is given to the park out of hours and no pushing up is allowed at any time.

….oh.

Yeah, that’s what I thought. They all make claims about protective properties but i’m a bit dubious about if they actually cause damage to some materials. I found the hard way that MRP chain guides don’t like GT85 very much.

Saying that, anyone tried – http://ride.io/reviews/ducksmart-cleaning-products-review/

Before my time but i still, tragically, remember the number for ‘Live & Kicking’ 0181 811 8181

Every time you ‘like’ a charity awareness post on mememebook you can be safe in the knowledge that you have made a difference.

I bet he is almost normal in real life

I’ve seen no evidence to support that 😉

King sized bag of peanut M&M’s.

I don’t want to tempt fate but my wifes 05 corolla has already done 120k and is so far running strong. Had no service costs other than consumables and she does at least 70 miles a day 5 days a week. When it finally does die i’ll be looking for another one but i’m hoping that’s some time off yet.

I’d do it but I’m not good enough at jumping to be fast. It doesn’t look like a kids’ sport in the Olympics, it looks mental!

Agree completely. I’ve often noticed that the best riders in BMX, particular in the States, are often in their late 20’s, early 30’s. That makes me feel a bit better but never in a million years am I going to ever contemplate the sort of riding they do.

It is silly that I should feel self aware about it and I keep telling myself I’m stupid for not giving it a go purely because of my own problem to overcome. I think it’s just getting over that first day when i roll up for the first time and give it a go. I’m hoping once I get past that point the fun of it all will remove any doubt I had.

I’ve always felt a little vulnerable in a regular cycling helmet when dealing with fast technical terrain but then being the tragic self conscious fool that I am I choose not to wear a full face helmet unless I’m downhilling because I’d just feel a bit daft in a FF at a trail centre.

But it’s entirely my problem, I doubt anyone else would care less what helmet I’m wearing.

Not a bad weekend for me either. Went to see the folks yesterday and helped my dad put up a new garden fence. Nice meal out with the family. Today went and got some laps in for some much needed motocross practice at my local track. Back home, starting to ache but very much looking forward to a well earned beer and an indian takeaway with my better half. Even got a bit of a sun tan as well!

I can’t even begin to imagine how you contemplate throwing yourself down there at that speed with that level of accuracy with just 5% vision. Incredible!

It mentioned on the radio yesterday that unless the report comes direct from his management team or his doctors they are unlikely to be accurate. Apparently a lot of misinformation has been coming for so called sources ‘close’ to the doctors/family etc.

A few years ago i made the error of doing short 45 – 60 minute road rides at a silly high cadence on a regular basis. I kept it up for 9 months. In terms of mountain biking and motocross i was faster and more explosive on the bikes than i’d ever been, which was great. When i one day decided to go for a 100 mile road ride i almost immediately started to fall apart at 90 minutes. I’d trained myself unwittingly into these 60 minute bursts but anything beyond that and I was completely floored.

I just stupidly assumed that I was now ‘fit’ and could therefore take on long all day rides with ease. The opposite was true.

Some sort of clever magnet combination?

. I’ve said this many a time, when I see ickle lambs/sheep on a ride I always have Lamb for tea..

Why’s that then?

Straw man, ad hominum. I honestly thought there was only one who regularly used that stuff. It’s obviously an internet forum favourite*

*needs Wikipedia research to confirm.

BTTF did the same joke in the early 90’s when Robert Zemeckis told everyone that hover boards were actually real but parent groups had them banned.

They obviously weren’t real and still aren’t.

Yeah, it’s rubbish. I’ve opted to keep the DVD service, unlimited for £6pcm and I’ve signed up to Netflix for streaming services at £4.99pcm. Seems a good combo.

Look on the bright side. Winters over, spring is breaking through, the trails are drying out, day light hours are getting longer so more bike time.

This thread is a bit depressing really. Who on earth cares how others enjoy riding their bike? It’s a simple pleasure anyone can enjoy in any way they wish to. If pootling along admiring scenery is your thing then great, if shredding the gnar, tackling 30 ft drops is your thing, awesome. If clearing every double, whipping every tabletop is your thing then brilliant. The beauty of modern mountain bikes is their ability to tackle most things you can throw at them, they are a great tool with versatility so anyone at any level of ability or with any particular riding desire can enjoy them fully.

I can’t fathom why anyone would be bothered by how someone else chooses to enjoy their bike. It’s got sod all to do with anyone else.

I’ve got two motocross bikes. If I want to leave the ground I’ll ride one of them. Once you’re beyond puberty bicycles are exercise equipment.

They’re not though are they.

So many rules in this leisurely mountain biking game i wasn’t aware of.

Until the last view point I didn’t realise he’d been thrown out the car. Lucky guy indeed.

It’s hard because the difference in size with each manufacturer can be so great. I’m 6’3 and normally just automatically opt for XL, but i’ve been caught out a couple of times unfortunately when i’ve bought without test fitting/riding. My Spesh Camber was an XL and it was enormous, waaay too big. The only sure way to get the sizing right is to try them out, which can often be really difficult to organise.

I’m struggling to decide between the meta am 2 and the Hip Hop 2 to be honest. Im opting for a full build as every time i do my own build the cost spirals out of control.

The Hip Hop looks like loads of fun and and i really love short travel, lively bikes that can take the hard knocks which the Hip Hop can obviously do but i wonder whether the AM will open up riding options a bit more? Although the complete build weights are more or less the same between the two so surely the Hip Hop will be just as happy on ‘average’ trails?

Our Westie, who was on his lead, was run into by an off the lead labrador. He hit our dog so hard he literally flipped him upside down, breaking his leg. The woman who owned the Labrador didn’t even apologise and instead decided to snub me explaining that her dog had been hurt previously in a similar incident (her logic was that because it had once happened to her dog, it was only fair it should randomly happen to someone else, somehow restoring balance to the universe).

I threatened to call the police unless she left me some contact details. Once our dog was fixed up I insisted she pay the bills and advised that she hadn’t kept her dog under control and was therefore liable ( i was just making it up as i went along but i thought it sounded reasonable). She backed down after numerous calls and paid up.

I suppose mountain biking is my hobby, motocross is my sport.

On the side i also do a bit of bouldering (hopeless at it though), bit of trail running, kayaking. But generally speaking I just like trying new things and soaking up the experiences they offer.

True, this was XC racing but DH on 26″ was last year, let’s see what they use for WCs this season

It will be a mix of 26 and 650b with all but the top team riders on 26.

Well racing yesterday I’d say 80% of the bikes were 29ers, but that’s racing & trying to go as fast as possible rather than playing in the woods, so I guess if going fast is your thing choose a bigger wheel and who doesn’t like going fast and scaring themselves?

Slightly simplistic assessment of things but I admire your attempt to antagonise.

My next bike is almost certainly going to be a 26″. Not because I’m some 26″ campaigner but there are still plenty of very good 26″ bikes that i really like, that fit the bill for what I want. I’ll take my chances with parts availability.

He’s someone that you are far better off not engaging with at all. He’s said all the same things time and time again and he’s heard all the same POV time and time again. He just wants to draw people into his twisted ideas of logic. He’s horrible and should be left to dwell in his own anger and misery.

Like others have said, my only real concern is that parts, spares upgrades will continue to be available for all the various wheel size choices. I don’t care what anyone rides but I do worry that we are at a point where anyone one or two of the currently available wheel sizes could be quickly dropped by the industry rendering them obsolete in relation to spares .

As it happens there’s a gorrick race next Sunday. Give it a go while you’re thinking about it. I bet you enjoy it.

You know what, i think i will. I can borrow a friends Cube Reaction GTC SL 29. That should do the job right?