I’m going to go with Black Mountains 3 Day for sure!

Wales Coast to Coast – I’ve done Dave Buchanan’s, not Sarn Helen (not done ENgland ro Scotland C2C).

Bristol BikeFest/Oktoberfest, only because it’s always a good vibe and it literally doesn’t matter what the weather does now they’ve rebuilt the trails there. If it’s wet, there’s precious little mud to trash the bike in all reality. Although statistically it must be the driest UK event I believe?

Doh, missed last couple of posts from dithering…

Sounds like vented will be worth it, I’ve got prescription half jackets at the moment which I find manageable as long as I don’t stop too much…

Has anyone got any experience with vented vs non vented?

I’m about to drop the cash on some prescription ones but the vented lenses are an extra £60 over non-vented. I appreciate if I’m tanking it in the winter they’re going to fog still but if there’s a noticeable difference still between vented and non-vented, I don’t mind paying… is there an improvement?

Bit of a curveball but Twin Six… I’ve ridden a fair distance in them from time to time with no grumbles

Having a kid did it for me. I’m definitely more cautious as a rider, especially when on new, unknown trails.

Have offset that by getting better as well though. So I’d say I’m more refined as a rider and less of muppet.

Yep, Trailrakers are unrivalled for pure bog trotting capability, but their performance everywhere else let them down. Horrid on roots and rocks and beyond draggy on decent surfaces.

Mud X is almost as good in outright mud but not unpleasant everywhere else. I’ve done half a 24 solo on them (the wet half obviously)

My lad is two at the end of the month. Islabike Rothan waiting to be wrapped :)

Such an ace video, what a lad!

I’ve never really understood all the psuedo science behind one bike “being faster” than another? I’ve yet to see proper comparison data for two similar but differently sized wheeled bikes?

I’ve got a Five and Gyro…

I find 9mm QRs much more faffy and slower than 15mm…

Bloody hell, how many Reverb variants!

Aside from seatpost diameter I assume it’s cable on the left or right, actual insert length, drop amount and whether you get the bleed kit or not?

However, I certainly don’t think it’s as fun. I normally like wheelie’ing about, jumping and just general pissing about when I’m trail riding.

It’ll come… it’s a different way of riding but manualling, popping about and jumps feel quite natural on a 29er now, and I find 26ers quite nervous and unsettling for a while until I settle into them again. I tend to ‘override’ a 26er now which I guess is a result of my adaptation to 29ers.

I’m not great on table tops and drops normally, but I’ve actually improved since going 29er.

At what age does a cyclist have to obtain a licence and pay tax? The kids round our village are a real liability – can we start with them. They don’t wear helmets either!

Well this is exactly it, sorry son, can’t ride a bike until you’ve passed your test!

Are there any proper prescription goggle options?

I’m all for Black boxes that issue on the spot fines for speeding and tax you per mile as well as within the current tax bands but that’s a bit extreme for some people.

But yes, let’s licence and tax cyclists!

I think the P7 has been struggling for a while as there’s just so many alternatives, and they’re usually quite an emotion/romantic driven purchase (don’t deny it). Sad as it is, makes sense that it’s gone.

American Classic AM? 1750g weighed so a fraction over but deffo deliver on the strong and stiff front.

The spec doesn’t look too clever for the money. You could get a better spec’d camber for the same money from Evans.
The bike does look nice though and I’d be tempted by a test ride!

Which model? You do know the pricier one includes a carbon wheelset?

Seats are supposed to be reclined, otherwise they wouldn’t be reclineable. I never understood that gripe.

I think it depends on the airline. I don’t think the seat manufacturers and Ryan Air/Easy Jet had the same thing in mind. Reclining on a cheapo airline usually leaves you looking up into the face of the person behind you :lol:

My 2 year old is so damned charming that he’d win over the most ardent of child haters in this thread, 9 times out of 10.

But that 1 time in 10, my god I apologise with all the sincerity I’m capable of. And it’s so much worse for me than it is for you, believe me, I’m not enjoying this either! :oops:

In fact, up top there’s a few bits where you really need to hustle the bike along a bit more and on a slighter lighter bike, I’d wager you’d be ‘up’ for a bit.

Na FuzzyWuzzy, sure a better rider could have gone biiig on the jumps where I was flattening but as someone just enjoying an uplift day (and far from the slowest rider on the day I’ll add, the guy on the Trek Session doing big whips in front wasn’t actually pulling away in between), it just felt overbiked there.

It’s perfectly possible for a trail to be tame enough to not allow you to unlock the full potential of a bike. In fact I’m pretty sure a local got close to the track record on a Five I do believe?

It’s been hugely sanitised in recent years. The stump mentioned above has been cut out a fair bit, and there was another one just before the switch to fireroad at the top, which has also been removed.

I’m a big fan of the course, one of my favorites. Definitely needs to be attacked to get the reward from it. Seems to come alive at around the 1 hour kind of lap times.

The DH is doable on a trail bike. There’s nothing you can’t just roll down (even the road crossing has a chicken run that looks more intimidating than it actually is). It’s more that the stuff on it is quite sizable by trail centre standards and the gradient is there to keep things feeling a bit fast.

I’ve ridden it on a Five and a Patriot, the Five was entertaining but a bit sketchy to really let go (140mm 32s and Mono Minis to be fair). The Patriot made it waaaay too easy. Alpine 160 would be ideal.

Most sensible thing I’ve read on the matter, James Allen:

“There have been signs Hamilton’s relationship with McLaren was coming to an end, and if he had signed a new contract with McLaren it would have been like a couple staying together for the children.”

He’s clearly been miserable there for a while and I expect half the battle has been admitting to himself that it’s time to move on.

mikeconnor: Hamilton has had a couple of comfortably sub-par Mclarens and he’s still always been there or thereabouts. By all accounts, the 2009 Mclaren was a dog and he still managed to string up some wins and podiums in a seaosn dominated by Brawn and then Redbull.

This year is arguably the first decent car they’ve actually given him since his championship win.

To be fair, Brawn didn’t really win this. Brawn bought the team from Honda for peanuts (was it £10? Can’t recall) after Honda had sunk $200 million into development.

Yeah, they sunk $200 million into it under his stewardship at the time.

Would that be about right, as it seems a very high % to me?

50% of sponsorship deals they arrange for him I understand? His salary is untouched.

Good few moans from people because theyve clearly bought a 29er and can’t handle the difference of somebody elses opinion.

Ok, what would your response have been if he’d ridden a 29er that was more than twice the price of his Trance and he raved about how revolutionary 29ers felt and that 26ers were clearly redundant?

Especially if I then turned around and said you’ve only got your back up because you’re still stuck on 26ers and refuse to move on?

Seriously, big regulation changes including engines in 2014. He’s just moved to the best engine manufacturer with the best team principle for interpreting new regulations. My money is on Brawn doing a repeat of what he did for Button come 2014, only he’ll have the budget to follow it up.

Very wise move and not just about the money IMO!

I personally found these cheap oranges to be no where near as good as my expensive apples.

The Tallboy even in Alloy spec is going to be twice the price of his Trance but it’s a good bike to start with if you want to see what the 29er fuss is all about. The Orange Gyro is also VERY surprising!

I love the way all the above bikes look proportionate, regardless of their frame size….

Was going to marvel at the exact opposite myself. Looks like you’re all riding around on castors!

(Own a couple of 26ers btw :P)

@bonesetter: it’s a Gyro Pro in neon green custom colour.

If you’ve got a smart phone, try an app such as sleepcycle. Detects movements on the mattress using the accelerometers or something (I only know of the app on iOS), and tries to wake you when it thinks you’re potentially more up for coming round.

I was left a little inconclusive but I know a few people that have really raved about it. You give it an absolute ‘must be up by’ time and it’ll just wake you earlier if it reckons you’re coming out of a sleep cycle.

Neil, I rode the WC2C on that kind of training! (although with a solid history of endurance stuff though)

Eat often, and from the start, before even. Big mistake people make on this sort of stuff is waiting until they think they need it. By which point it’s way too late and you’ll generally fail to recover from that IMO. Take it easy, and don’t stop. If you’re worrying about cut off times, it’ll be stoppages not slow pace that put you at risk.

Ease into it too, very tempting to go with the flow early on.

Don’t rest, ride but keep it easy.

I’d also suggest not resting Monday afterwards either. Always found my recovery to be much slower resting than if I just keep on riding afterwards, albeit gently.

Yup made it! I had my reservations but I later found out my wife had to turn around and come home due to flooding to work from home. And when I got to this, I felt smug albeit moist. Normally no traffic this far up until at least an hour later…

54cm weekend build 23.5lb

Cy, I must email you, sorry it’s been so long!

That said, it’s not uncommon to need a flat bar to keep the front end down on some 29ers.

Minarr’s obviously a mincer or just rides fireroads, only possible conclusion!