Goon, nice dog indeed, apparently I have to ask if he would answer to Ted…

No description for the medium route either, FWIW..

Doing it again this year – first time since the initial one. And my folks are just down the road from Edradour Distillery. which is nice..

May not help terribly much but I've been to both in the winter skiing (Saalbach rather than Hinterglen though) and have to say I won't go back to Andorra – getting very commercialised and can't imagine it will be very pretty in the summer. Did see the Hinterglem northshore stuff from the ski lifts though, looked good. Zell am See is just a short bus ride away too for some alternative RnR and there are lots of marked walks from memory (we were in a hotel in Zell).

Orang, one of the guys in Biketreks / Bikedebts seemed to think that Orange were considering bringing out a 22" Five, might be worth checking with your dealer or even Orange themselves to see if there is any truth in this.

Trojan Games??

Not sure which of Boredale or Bannerdale would be better, but I'd sooner ride back up the same bridleway to the Cockpit, particularly if you start in Askham instead of PB. I usually park at the top of the hill and ride up to the top of Askham Fell. That way the ride finishes with a nice grassy blast back to the car and a pint in the Queens Head.

Andy.

Hi guys,

I was there too in the morning, you'll know me as the annoyingly out of shape Jock in the red coat. My humblest apologies for slowing you chaps down with my crap fitness and puncture!

Tried the 20" Five Pro in the morning – great apart from the tyres surprisingly enough. Hope to try the shop's 18" one shortly – couldn't hang around for the afternoon which is a burger really – Iron Keld is a damn fine descent.

Big thanks to all involved, especially Dave for the rapid tube change!

Cheers, Andy.

Sweet! Just about to order something very, very similar but white and with RLCs. Just need to try an 18" and possibly a 20"

Have seen that fluoro orange in the flesh – shades essential!

Cheers all, much appreciated! Seems to be some uncertainty about forks and the need for anything clever and, given that I never touch the ones on my hardtail (only MTB at moment), seems likely I'd fiddle for a month or two then leave them as is so perhaps, perhaps, the Float R's would do me.

The problem I have is that it'll be part paid for by the bike2work thing (£1k) so apparently that means the bike shop are already taking a 10% hit on that part of the sale – so less room for bargaining around forks, performance pack etc. Not sure they'll go much further than a Hope headset which is (just) a £50 upgrade..

Stupid question no doubt but would the bike be supplied with a shock pump?

Yikes, sounds like the Talas are the forks to go for, but thats another £240 on top of the standard £2500!! Might try and blag a bit of a discount..

Thanks for the reassurances about the 18" frame, my recollection from a few years back was that it was spot on.

Other important factors to consider are the standard 2010 colour of Mandarin Orange or the SE colour which is Chrome Grey or sumit.

Thanks again, very exciting!

I’m no Ferrari fan, far from it, but I wonder how much less the teams would have to spend if the lunatics that run the asylum stopped making big changes to the rules every single year, without any apparent listening to the teams who actually make it what it is?

To be honest I’d hate it if Ferrari dropped out – its quite amusing when they do badly..!

Conti Ultra-gatorskins seem pretty good, got them on my tricross and my road bike and no puncture probs. Also go up to 28c if you need a “fatter” tyre for your rims.

Any word on how long Merlin’s offers will last? Seem to remember they did something similar last year for a limited time??

I’d be worried about the ice cream melting!

Cheers guys, doesn’t sound like its coming from anywhere near the front end but I’ll check anyway. Definetly not the pedals though, get exactly the same noise regardless of which foot is doing the pushing, and its at exactly the same point in the stroke – near the bottom is worst not surprisingly I guess.

It doesn’t half take the edge off of what should be pleasant rides!

A.

Sounds like car crash cuisine to me. And thats without dissing the whole farmed salmon thing. Argh…

Sweet, did you do the whole seal change thing too? Anything else needed – particular grease type etc.?

Just go one for Chrimbo Mike, sweet little gadget! I’ve ripepd about 250 CDs onto it (32Gb) and still less than half full. Just figured out how to get DVDs onto it tonight so thats the next game..

Really handy for quickly checking email etc. but can’t comment on docking stations and car radio-transmitters yet – a work in progress..

Get one, you know you want to!