Superb video! If you can suss pointing the camera up a tad, it’d be perfect!
I must get back down the FOD again soon. I’ve uncovered some ace trails, but there’s obviously loads I’ve yet to ride! 😀

I took the singlespeed up to the Dark Peak for the first time to see how it (and I!) would cope. (Very well as it turned out!)
Did a loop from Derwent over Crook Hill, Hagg Farm, Thornhill, Roman Road to Hope Cross, Blackley Clough, Rowlee and the Lockerbrook descent.
Weather stayed nice and a great ride was had. 😀

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Mountain biking has changed enormously

I think this has a lot to do with why there’s a huge amount of mountainbikers that would never entertain the idea of entering a Trailquest.
In the early days of the sport, you went out with a map and found routes in the hills to ride and I could be wrong, but I think a greater proportion of riders were “cyclists” rather than “bikers” if you get my drift. I used to pore over the o.s. map for hours planning road rides, let alone mtb rides.
The move towards bigger and gnarlier and quick thrill type of riding has brought a whole new crowd into mountainbiking who I don’t ever see being convinced that TQ = fun.

If 26″ wheels appeal, I can thoroughly recommend the Genesis Io.
Far more fun and capable than I could have dreamed of for the price. Although they’ve gone up a fair whack since I bought mine. 😕

I ride only legal trails if I’m in Wales, The Peak or Lake District, so I wouldn’t be too bothered.
The only trails I ride illegaly are some of those in local forests, but I still don’t tend to ride the ones with specific “No Cycling” signs as I think that’s taking the mickey a bit.

Very nice indeed!

Tim Gould is a big Bob Mould fan iirc…

We had “The Everthere” by Elbow.
A beautiful song.

I’ve only ridden one trailquest event – the Clent Canter as a pair with my bro. We did well and came 2nd overall I think.
It was good fun I must admit and despite going into the event for a bit of a laugh, we got really competitive as soon as we started.
It’s a different slant on mtbing and can open your eyes to trails you would never think of including in a ride in the area that look pointless on a map, but are sometimes little gems.
O.K. it’s not for the extreme sports end of the mtb rider spectrum, but once in a while as an alternative type of day out on the bike, why not?
A bit of tactics and planning added to the excitement I thought and boy, does the last hour go quickly!!!

This thread = 😆

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Because it’s simple, light, quick, handles sweetly and has left my far more expensive geared HT gathering dust for months.

32:17 here.
I find 16t just a bit too hard going some of the time, especially when the climbs get steeper, twistier and more technical.

Anyone remember Quasar forks? They were a bit like the Girvins. Remember the guy trying to sell some to the shop I used to work at.

I used to have a Flexstem for a while… 🙄

For the moment at least, for the mainly forestry riding I do, the singlespeed is just great fun and makes me feel like I’m fitter than I am! My “hardcore” hardtail just feels like a bit of a pig compared to the ss and I rarely use it now.
I’m not bothered which is faster, better, cooler, just enjoy the simple, light and skippy joys of singlespeeding off road.

Oh, and that Brummy bloke with the bosted knee is proppa nails ay he. 😉

My furthest was 130 miles on the road.
I cycled out to a reliability trial, rode that & home again after.
That was a loooong time ago now and not an experience I’ll be repeating any time soon. 😉

There are so many albums I love, but this has to be my recommendation:

I rode out to stay at Dolgoch too, with my bro. and a couple of mates.
We rode down to check out Llyn Brianne the next day, then stopped at Clun YHA on the way back to break it up. 🙂

I have fond memories of that road (maybe not so fond of the Devil’s Staircase, mindyou!) as part of a roadie ride I did years back – out from Builth, to Tregaron and back via Elan Valley. It was superb!

Glad to hear the support for full albums! 😀 I’m a bit surprised tbh, in this age of short attention spans and mp3 downloads.

I almost always listen to full albums on CD. I’m a bit of a sucker for new CDs and still get “the excitement” when a new bunch arrive in the post.
I listen to music depending on the mood I’m in – random tracks over different genres would annoy the hell out of me. I play albums depending on their overall vibe – the whole package including cover art often dictates what I fancy hearing at the time.

I haven’t listened to any more recent Tannoys, but my old 636 floorstanders still sound awesome. I’d consider Tannoy again without hesitation.

Yeah, that Dead Poet’s bit gets me, Silent Running, too. Lots of films tbh, the older I get! 😳
It’s amazing how much a good musical score helps up the tear quota, too!

Most of the last hour or so of The Return Of The King still gives me a lump in my throat and when I first saw The Fellowship Of The Ring, I was full-up at the start where Frodo meets Gandalf and they ride into Hobbition. Just seeing these characters I’ve loved so much from childhood done justice on screen made me quite emotional. – I say done justice… there are many things about Peter Jackson’s treatment of LOTR that make me want to take him outside and give him a damn good shoeing! 😡

My faves have already been mentioned:

Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast & Robert De Niro in Cape Fear.
And yeah, Rafe Spall is awesome in The Shadow Line!

I noticed a strange “pinging” sound when standing on the pedals riding to and from work. Only happened some days and not others.
Wondered for quite a while what it could be and checked the bike over to no avail.

Imagine my surprise when I eventually realised it was the buttons on the inside of some cheap “cargo-pants” (the kind you can roll the leg up and button it in place) that I wear for work, catching the top tube! 😳

Innit, Chief. 🙂

There are so many great places in the UK to go, I’ve no interest in going overseas for a holiday.

ADvantage front / Crossmark rear. Spot-on for me at the moment.
I never got on with Highrollers, but if you like ’em, HR front Crossmark rear sounds ideal to me.

I’ve had dodgy knees for years, from when I used to do Karate back in my youth. Quite often I limp a bit.
I’ve only been singlespeeding for a couple of years or so and haven’t noticed any worse knee pain than when I rode only gears.
What does happen though, is when I occasionally change bikes and ride my geared hardtail, then seem to I get worse knee trouble. Perhaps it’s adjusting back from ss style pedalling? Dunno.

I met a lovely young lady (who’s now my wife) at a “Spacehopper” (psychedelic trance) night at the Que Club in Birmingham. Happy days. 🙂

My money would be on Tim.
(That probably guarantees that he will lose!) 😆

Pretty bog-standard Io, but pretty light & nippy all the same.
A set of carbon bars are on the way to add a bit of comfort & blingness.
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Best of luck Keefy! (And everyone else.)

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Animal.

The Advantage is my current fave front tyre. (2.1, though.) It works better for me over more trail types than anything else I’ve tried.

I sometimes change the rear for extreme mud or very dry conditions, but usually run an Advantage on the back too.

I used to have a massive crush on her when I was a kid.
Very sad news. 🙁

There’s loads of great trails in the FOD if you know where to look.
A local guide is the best bet, but the clues are out there…
I camped there last week and found some superb “secret” singletrack trails on my own, after doing a bit of homework. I’d rather ride the FOD any day than Cwmcarn tbh, but it can be frustrating first time if you haven’t any direction.

I loved The Wasp Factory and enjoy a bit of Sci-fi, so I picked up The Algebrist from the library. I just couldn’t get on with it a t all. Just didn’t like the style. I couldn’t make it more than a few pages in.

That’s gonna be expensive! 😮

I love the simple pleasure of riding ss, possibly more than a geared bike, but there are places I wouldn’t take it (like the Lakes) because I’d be walking a lot and I don’t like to be forced to get off on climbs because I’m overgeared.
Mainly for that reason I’ll always have a geared HT too.

Heh, heh… 😆