my brother’s best friend used to be babysat by one of the guys from EMF

Heat news it is not ;-)

bit of old, bit of new, it’s all good at the mo. Loving the trails – 50 Acre’s a bit special at the mo :-)

Ashton Court/LW trails are ace – fact. As is 50 Acre.

Thanks to the volunteers for fixing up the old trails and for Architrail/Clixbys for building the new ones. Without their excellent work, the haterz wouldn’t be able to whine on about how easy the trails are and that they could ride them on their roadbike/unicycles/shopping trollies etc.

If you want to whine, whine on. The rest of us, we’re out there having fun ;-)

impact whey isolate from myprotein

+1 on Stardust :-)

whatever happened to the Hope 9-36 cassette?

this is more pertinent these days http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S660A

+1 on an 8 or 9 speed SRAM chain – mine’s been faultless

loads of people riding into work and out on the trails – good to see :-)

same tune as mine – how heavy are you? Might be worthing swapping to a smaller air can or getting some of the Fox air volume reducers if you’re a big unit. Mine’s a 2011 BV which came with the XV can, swapped it for a standard can and made it much better – I’m 15 stone.
Mine’s a single pivot but has a rocker link for comparison

depending on the tune of your RP23, try running more sag and more PP. I run 35%ish sag and PP set to 3 – performs much better than fully off with less sag IMHO.
This is on an Orange Blood.

keep a Baron on the front, use something faster rolling in the rear from your existing stock?

bear in mind that even in the middle of summer you won’t get a whole heap of after-work surfing time in – remember to get outta the water before the badfish come out to play….

never rode in the Blue Mountains while i was there, but given Jill Kintner & Bryn Atkinson live there, I’m guessing there are some awesome trails!
When you get to Sydney, check for a pamphlet that’s sold in pretty much all the bike shops about MTB riding in Sydney/NSW – it’s a great thing to base your initial riding on.
We found that wages didn’t stack up to the (very, very) high cost of living – rent, food, household stuff, clothing is (relatively) super expensive.

Lager
Spicy or dry roasted nuts

+1 for ET and Goonies. My boys love both of them

Oh and Star Wars (original trilogy) – my nearly 3yo can’t get enough :-)

+1 for Timbuk2 – have had 2 over the years, now using a waterproof version that’s just the job

Manly Dam is a cracker and rideable from Manly/North HSore/Northern Beaches. Ourimbah is a worth a look but it’s an hour’s drive up the coast.
City Bike Depot is a good shop as is the bike shop just out of Manly whose name i forget.
Oh, and buy stuff before you go – bike stuff is very pricey in Oz

Railing a corner = awesome
Riding in a straight line = a bit boring

IMHO ;-)

+1 for a Focus. We had a 1.6 Zetec that was faultless, only got rid because we were going overseas.

i’ve had a couple of Race Face ones (Hoodlum IIRC) over the years that have served me well – you can always get them discounted at CRC.
Fuzzhead Jr Sr has a Dare2B one that seems pretty good too

2011 Orange Blood – cracked chainstay and headtube after 14 months. Replaced under warranty by Orange after some initial reluctance…

my kid rides his 20″er on all sorts – it’ll be fine ;-)

Check the GT Distortion as well – on my shortlist along with those bikes for exactly the purposes you describe

get them to a bike shop and try out some kid’s bikes? At 4yo, they should be able to push pedals round.
As above, they’ll do it if/when they’re ready – all you can do is give them the tools and the encouragement/sweets ;-)

I had a stuck seatpost once – tried all the methods listed above. In the end, had to saw the seatpost from the inside and then crush it before pulling it out

Superstar grips are pretty damn chunky, but why are you getting pain in your 3rd finger? Is it your braking finger?

I like my Orange, it’s not been as reliable as my last few bikes, but it’s a lot of fun. I may or may not get another Orange when it finally dies.
Probably won’t ever buy an Audi though ;-)

never had a problem with UST RQs myself – sounds like they need to go back to the shop

Ride more on my own than in a group, sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of banter, even if that does come with the inevitable faff trade off.
It’s also good to get that iPod on and HAMMER!

Gt Distortion? I’ve been eyeing up one of these for when my Blood dies. Seen some of last years models for crazy prices

Thanks for the link alfabus. Been having the same problems for about 10 days but I haven’t changed my privacy settings – have got privacy settings enabled though.

I seem to recall United fans baying for SAF’s blood after his first couple of seasons…
QED, fans know jack ;-)

15ish stone here – had a stock XV BV RP23 on my Blood. 25% sag meant blowing through the travel super easy – making the ride wallowy like a 50s Cadillac and hard cornering “interesting”….
Swapped out for a normal air can 18 months ago. Running the standard can means I can run more sag (35%ish) + more compression to get the ride feel I like.
The only reason I can see for the XV cans are for light(er) riders and the “parking lot test”, but performance seems crappy IME

Motorhead

RIP

IME you feel like you’re going faster if you lose weight:

a) from your wheels
b) from your ass

O’Neal Sinner here, SaaSTec jobbies. Comfy and work well – my knees are loving them! :-)

we used to make the trek from Ross for the indie/student nights to get tw%tted on snakebite’n’black and get our goth/mosh on ;-)

Malvern is nice (and great riding to be had), but there may be other villagey-feeling type places closer to hand.
At 18 months I guess schooling isn’t top priority, but maybe be slightly governed by primary school catchments/ofsteds etc? As mentioned above, from talking to friends who live in ‘Nam there’s a bit of an east/west divide around good schools in town.

Would it be Cheltenham where you’d work? As above, there may be other options worth exploring depending on your requirements. Not that I have anything against ‘Nam as it was one of my haunts when I was growing up (Gas, Sh!teOwl anyone?).