How tall are you? I could ride the large but the handling was a bit vague on the front as I couldn’t get over the front wheel enough. I’m 5’8″ and deffo a medium.

There’s no doubting that the Felt is a bit old school in it’s geo but I had it with a 70mm stem and 680mm riser on it and found its manners good.

What size Felt would you want? If you could get up to Bristol I could probably get you a demo on a large…

I’d be looking at the Felt myself. But also the Blur XC Carbon and Yeti AS-R Carbon.

95% of the Fives Mountain Bikes out there will be tootling around a gravel path trail centre.

Hardly stressing the frame are they?

Fixed that for you…

the trail isn’t going to last very long anyway

They’re going to be there for a while yet and they’re making daily adjustments already. I think the fact they’re opening it as they build it is going to make it evolve over the next months to prevent that.

I think they were initially a bit tetchy about people riding it too soon but if anything, Bikefest convinced them that there’s actually a lot to be learned from letting probably one of the most used trails in the country just get on and be used, allowing tweaks to be made insitu.

Rumor has it they’ve even turned back on the decision to run beggar bush lane uphill and it will no be a descent. They’re listening liek they have done right from the start. We may have a rose tinted view of the old trails but this is going to be great balance of what we need and want from Bristol.

I have to cycle past Ashton Court to get home, it’s getting really hard to resist going in and being late home for the little ones bath time!

I went for a 30 minute blast on the new trails in the pissing rain and I didn’t have to clean my bike afterwards. That’s a good thing.

I’m not mud averse but having proper riding near the centre of town and having to commute in that vicinity anyway, it’s nice to nip in for a quick run at any time of the year and not have to worry about spending an hour or more in the garage dealing with the aftermath.

We’ve lost a great natural trail that’s only fun to ride for a couple of weeks in the year, but gained a great obviously man-made trail that’ll still be fun to ride on a miserable, rainy saturday in January.

And as CD says, plenty of natural stuff going untouched in Leigh Woods and 50 acre has been much better since the logging thinned the canopy. I probably rode these bits more than Ashton Court anyway. So it’s win-win for me.

Stand out bawbag moments off the top of my head:

phoning my sister at work a few days after her friend died, prentending to be the dead girl calling from beyond the grave. He was 25 at the time.

On meeting a mates down syndrome brother, telling him he’s got ‘the face’ so he’s double unlucky as some don’t have ‘the face’ and kept going on about ‘the face’ untill he was told to leave or be thumped.

General bragging about his wealth (which is mostly BS) I think ocean finance lent him some dosh which he blew on a BMW and he feels inclined to tell people how much better it is than thier cars.

Asking someone if thier Sri Lankan wife is just an imported slave (she’s a GP)

You’ve pretty much written your Best Man’s speech right there,

Good job I read the whole thread, I ‘ll just post +1

Also RE the brothers thing. Me and my brother did the best man duties at each others weddings, it was great!

My mate had a similar situation – woman in a Merc pulled out of her parking spot on the street as my mate was driving past, didn’t check if the road was clear and was on her mobile. The front right of her car smashed into the back passenger door of his, his sister was left with a huge bruise of her leg.

Initially she claimed responsibility (well, apologised and said “I just didn’t see you”, then “Well, you were going very fast”) and swapped details, but when my mate phoned her later that evening to get it sorted, her husband answered and started denying responsibility.

Went through court, she even tried to claim emotional distress but it found in my mate’s favour, with the judge actually shaking his head in a slightly disbelieving way. She changed her story three of four times – there was the original one at the scene, then the one her husband gave on the phone that evening, the one she gave her insurance company and the two different ones she gave my mate’s insurance company. Fortunately her inability to get her story straight, combined with the photos of the scene (which disproved a couple of her versions) meant it was fairly obvious she was lying.

So, the good news is that you’ll likely be fine, especially with reliable witnesses. The bad news is it took 2 years for my mate to get it sorted.

This. Change ‘driveway’ for ’roundabout’, ‘woman’ for ‘daughter’, ‘husband’ for ‘mother’ and that’s basically my story. I had no witnesses. She changed her story so many times but essentially claimed I’d over taken and cut in further down the road when in fact she’d T-boned me on the roundabout from my left without looking.

Eventually got them to bring an independent accident assessor in who concluded that if her story was true, the damage on my car would have looked different and her car would have most likely rolled mine over. He advised them if it went to court that would be his statement, they admitted fault right away.

Dig your heels in, even your own insurer will try to convince you to go 50:50 at some point to save themselves the time and cost of fighting it. Been there done that, after a year I won in the end.

Foot. There’s not really much in terms of dexterity going on in your foot so assuming you can get a prosthetic, the foot must be much easier to cope with and adapt to.

As cool as a Luke Skywalker robot hand would be, I’m not sure they’re all that available on the NHS.

and yes GaryLake “sheeptrack” is start of Whites

Ah ok. When people talked about riding up rock gardens I thought there some new amazing bit I’d somehow missed having not been in a while.

It’s tough being a medium wearing size 9 shoe person. Never anything good left in the sales! 🙁

Is my French worse than I thought or does the article say that the Zesty and the Spicy are not changing much and this X-Flow is a new 120mm platform?

Google Translate suggests that you are correct. Expect the X-Control will be race only, no marathon spec. OST platform does the business, no need to change it.

I think one thing to bear in mind is the racing. The tougher courses technically can become a little processional IMO. As lame as I think Essex looks at face value, stick 50+ riders on it, could be quite exciting as you can overtake everywhere.

I thought the Tees were a good honest Medium and I always wear Medium. I found the medium Hoody a little large and wouldn’t have minded trying a Small.

(All from the latest range)

What’s the “sheeptrack” climb? Start of Whites?

Does Ultegra come with cross ratios or just standard compact? Might be worth looking into getting a different crankset or some new rings as the 50T can be a bit annoying unless you’re just canal pathing it.

Disc or canti?

Shimano M086 have rubber sole but in a normal XC shoes cut. Great shoe actually.

I think it’s now the M087 which I’d assume would carry the rubber sole over.

It’s a bike FFS – the shape doesn’t ‘date’ it, the fact they’re only produced for short periods of time does!

I disagree, a lot of bikes from the 90s have dated horribly but things like steel Konas have aged rather gracefully.

Put it this way…it’s a bike (that you ride) not a handbag (that you mince with).

I ride a Five for what it’s worth so take from that what you will with regards to form over function 😉

And you brought up the looks first!

Randomly bent tubes….check
Looks like its melted in front of a fire….check
Tubes joined with plasticine….check
Will look horifically dated in 18 months….check
There’s a bit of emporers new clothes syndrome going on with the niner.If they both weighed the same and rode identically would you really pay the extra £1200 because it looks ‘pretty’?

The Niner really doesn’t have anything like the kind of random bending of tube profiles going on in with the On One. The Niner looks clean, if you trace its basic outlines it’s a nice shape and won’t date like the On One.

Its no less mingy than the Niner Air Carbon…for 1/3rd the price!

I know taste is subjective and everything but this time you’re wrong 😛

Same as you Ross – but punctures have only been when getting a bit silly in terms of riding trails. Although found they’ve worn really quick, mine are slicks down the middle almost after a few hundred miles.

edukator = justice understanding fail.
A jury needs to be from a wide cross section of the public to ensure that bias is avoided.

I’ve done an inquest before and I had a few in the room who’s attitude was “what do I need to say to get out of here before rush hour?”

Made me worried and sad for the system tbh.

Ok but the effect is still a widening and a lack of planning permission in a sensitive area, everything your typical anti-lobbyist needs! 🙂

Clubber are you for real?? I’ve been riding there the last 10 years and the quarry loop in particular has gotten pretty motorway-ish. And there were plenty of spots on Upper quarry where there were 3 lines around trees with a fourth developing. Same on BBL.

One point that has been missed is that the trails had to be built this way or we risked loosing them all together on environmental grounds. I love the new trails but even if I was luke warm, I’d prefer them to being outlawed from AC.

http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/blog/bristol-trail-redevelopment-kicks-off.htm

I often wish Bristol Bikefest was 24 hour. Would make the Sunday less of an anti-climax which it often is relative to the chilled but buzzing Saturday.

I know, wall needs attention drive needs weeding etc. etc.

Actually it was the green stem I was going to mention 😉

Dawg, Sub-5, Mount Vision, Prophet, Stumpjumper

ove the cotic – tell me more – did you fit the discs? would discs be much heaver than v’s

whats it like compared to a average xc hardtail?

Yeah fitted the discs, little bit of a faff and took a bit of bedding in but pretty decent now. Power is as good as a very good V brake in the dry, does degrade a bit in the wet but no way near as much as rim brakes would. Tried to do the maths but going off manufacturers weights is dodgy at best. But I reckon the Lyras carry a half pound penalty over some Tektro cantis so not bad tbh. My X (54cm) is 23lb 7oz with Shimano 520 SPDs on. I’ve got an FSA SLK crankset on the way which should shave a half pound off. Looking to source some wheels (racey 29er wheels seem to be the way to go) and reckon there’s a pound to be lost there. So looking at 22lb without getting too silly money wise. The Conti tyres are pretty basic some maybe some Racing Ralphs would lose another half.

It’s still no mountain bike, it’s deffo a cross bike 100%. But it’s just a bit more chilled and solid (geo and build), but also has a really lively and pleasant ride to it. The video I posted on page 1 sums it up perfectly, it’s just lovely to ride.

Saw my first one at Bristol Bikefest while I was filming. Little bugger crawling around on my tripod – got him before he’d found his way onto me. Judging by that finger nail diagram an adult male I’d guess. Did check myself over but now looking at the Nymph size I wonder if I’d be thorough enough… awful things.

Also, I’ve hopefully got an FSA SL-K crankset with proper CX ratios coming so reckon there could be a good half pound difference between it and 105.

Don’t know the fork weight but I’ve got the Carbon one on there.

my understanding was that DHers and proper fast people actually use it to go faster

Well faster or as fast but for less energy – someone proper good like Duncan who’s actually building it will probably be at least a full minute quicker down Upper Quarry than even fairly decent riders and have turned the pedals far less.

Just go and search youtube for pumptrack footage and see how much speed a really good rider can carry without a single pedal stroke.

More here: http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/blog/cotic-x-cyclocross-first-look.htm

GaryL, that looks lovely! Any good as a do-it-all bike, ie. Off-road explorer, commuter and light tourer (back panniers only) as well as possibly a cross racer?!
Was starting to think next bike would be a croix de fer, but my head is being turned…

I’d say its strength is its offroad manners. I largely ride it instead of an MTB if I want to link up some more spreadout/less ridden trails.

Not fitted a rack though but have run it with slicks and some SKS race blades – super smooth ride and the slack angles make it very stable (some would say slow to turn) so I’d wager it would be great with the full rack and pannier setup. Racer? Bit heavy with discs – 23.5lb as above but the Cotic wheels alone are 2.2kg with skewers. 23c tyres bring it down to 21.5. I reckon with new wheels 21.5lb with cross tyres and discs is perfectly doable without spending big money – I think sub 20lb is going to cost you somewhat.

The Croix de Fer is very good, the X is just a bit more special and lighter (tested both for about 6 months)

Matt: http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/blog/first-look-2011-felt-edict-team.htm

Two full bikes £3700 and £4400 so I’d take a punt on at least £2k frame only but this is wild speculation. Have asked Saddleback if they’re bringing in the frame only…

Would your Boss go off work in the same situation?