No worries! By all means get some Demos though – it'll be the only way to scratch the itch – you'll either be happy with the stumpy or £2500+ worse off!

(PS, bet you'll buy the Orange ;))

dandan – to be honest, a 140mm bike will be better down something like the peaks but maybe look at a beefier front tyre (if not running one already) and just working on your technique a bit.

I've got a Five and it's a truly magical machine but no bike is a silver bullet and the stumpy is still fairly competent. I think it's the case with most 140mm bikes, to really get the most out of them you need to be fit, strong and fast – the Five will look after cautious riders well enough but it really comes alive when you just try and ride the tits off it! (Of course you might be up to this, I don't know, just don't like seeing riders drop the cash and get nothing back for it, when all that was needed was just more time in the saddle)

Btw, I always cringe at the made in the uk argument for the Orange. Mainly cause there's no real proof that they're any better for it. What is important is Orange's evolutionary approach to bike design and the fact that they absolutely only sell something if they like it, ride it and if it survives*.

(*I'm not sure this applies to the G2/G3s)

Will final times get posted?

Anyone know who the official event photographers were?

Yeah, that's a good point, as you also have the glyncorrwyg centre for dossing about in afterwards. Cwmcarn probably has the less demanding descents after the climb though.

I always thought Cwmcarn would be less suitable but my wife actually got on a lot better there.

Whites at Afan is probably a no no for beginners. The Penhydd and the Wall would be ok.

If you do Cwmcarn, the climb is the hard bit really. I've found taking beginners into the start of the climb, switching to the road when you get to the gate house, then resuming the climb at giants finger seems to work quite well for beginners. This misses out what I think is the hardest and most demoralising bit of the climb for newbies. (Alternative, manning up is an option and just pushing up the hard bits of the climb lol)

mad al. richpips talks sense, that's pretty much the method I use to get these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zero303/3608906284/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zero303/3608706308/sizes/l/

Who's garyfisher above?

And yes, any of team 32?

18" is long, but that's a good thing for me – run a 60mm stem and inline post getting you down inside the bike – rarr!

5'10" 32 leg

I think Hora has one in white…

2.35 Nev/BG works a treat on the Five. Not fab in the slop but better than a King and they work well on wet rocks and roots.

R8 S with Recons is £1300, Pro with Fox floats (and other upgrades) is £1650

If you can call the current P7 a proper P7

why so?

Don't get me wrong, current P7 is a great bike, but having owned an older one, and considering how iconic the badge is, that R8 is a more faithful vision of what I'd consider a P7 to be in 2009.

If you can call the current P7 a proper P7 😉

No frame only option, I'm safe from the Mrs then…

Beaten to it by 44 secs…

What size?

My degree is pretty useless nowadays, but that is kind of because I don't do software engineering anymore and switched to graphic design – I did a computer sicence degree…

Is that not similar to 09 prices? And where have you been this last year, stuff is expensive now!

My stanchions are fine 😛

Bloom is on an Ibis mojo i think…

18" 29.5lb (digi scales from ceiling) with that big steerer now cut. As you can see from the build, I'm hardly "trying" with the weight… Going back to floats not vanillas, and more a xc front tyre and bar/stem should see it drop towards 28 comfortably enough. Orange claim a frame weight of 6.8 I think.

Definitely when a non-biking friend asks what bike to get and not only do they get the 40 min talk as mentioned above, but you then waste half a day online trying to find them the best deal, even though they've not asked you to.

I don't know what to say cynic-al lol

Ignoring that, I can see people's points about rim development and how discs would allow that.

Cool: Steel and ti Kona's from the '90's

+1

Seriously uncool: Yeti 575, any SC (except Superlights and only if they look well ridden), Marin Alchemist (argh!), Whyte full sussers, Any singlespeed (there is no cool way of explaining to non MTBers why you only have one gear)

Uncool: Orange 5 (I own one) – the latest victim of glowing mag reviews pretty much killing anything left-field and cool about it. I'd still buy another though. Any Commencal full susser. Lap Spicys and Zestys (See Orange 5).

Cool: Whyte HTs, Intense Tracer (just)

Subzero: DMR Switchback, Orange ST4, Cotic Soul/Soda BFe, Cove Handjob/Hummer/Stiffie

Just casually state you're not sure where the blame lays with a small child being run down by a car exiting over a lowered kerb but you'd be happy to get the police involved to help solve this one – he'll be off like a shot if he's got any sense…

I think the neck is a redherring. I dont think he was up there with his old times in the old car so called it off. Why? He did a fair few stints in karts and his neck would have more than shown itself there. His times in a F1 werent good enough IMO.

The times from the 2007 car would have been useless. Even if he could compare times with Kimi and Massa from 2007 he was running GP2 spec slicks, not 2007 spec F1 groove tyres. I don't buy the redherring thing…

Why do people make categoris statements like this with no datqa whatsoever to back it up?

…and what aracer said re locking front wheels, I'd love to see it.

What data do you want? I have decent rim brakes that if I so chose, can apply too much power – what data do I need to qualify myself to partake in this debate then?

Technically if your front pitches you over the bar, the wheel has locked to do this no? Why do you assume locking = skidding? *sigh*

Someone always claims that it'll be too much power for 23mm slicks, but thats rubbish.

I'm sorry but the trouble with my rim brakes (campag centaur) and 23c tyres is actually converting that stopping power into traction and actual braking in an emergency stop.

I moved to disc brakes in a heart beat the second they were mainstream and viable on MTBs but proper road bikes? I can see it on loaded up tourers and even cross bikes but 23c tyres on a racing bike really can't cope with any more braking power than a quality calliper already offers. It's easy enough to lock the brakes as it is!

I found Lamasil once to be a bit crap personally.

Canesten athletes foot cream 3 times a day. That and religious foot washing and drying as often as possible, fresh socks when you get home from work etc, fresh towels and fannels more often etc.

Just don't give it a chance…

Perl was one of the first languages I learnt, and it didn't do me any harm – I ended up doing Java/JSP and C#/ASP.NET before realising I didn't want to programme for a living anymore.

Just because the people are bad, doesn't mean the language is. If it's only for home tasks you won't need to endure others' code anyway.

O'Reily – Learning Perl was quite good for getting the basics.

Learning any language is never wasted time – a lot of the skills are transferable and once you get three languages or so under your belt you slowly become quite language independent.

Whenever I do have to do some programming now, I just keep a book by my keyboard and start coding regardless of whether I previously know the language or not.

I've not found Truvativ ones to be any better or worse than Shimano… Had one on both road bike and MTB.

Currently on Raceface – was constantly wondering what the hell people were whining about and then after 6 months it suddenly went from perfect to argh in two rides!

I've got some Superstar-esq prototype from a mate who was thinking fo doing something like that, will run that and then get a Hope or CK I reckon…

There seems to be some notion by the OP that night riding is something done out of necessity, not choice 🙂

zaskar – I didn't notice your bell the other night, I'd have sent you on your way otherwise! 😉

A mate of mine has a proper big ring ring type bell on his trail bike, he gives it a good ring before we start each section of trail – I kinda like it! 😀

Awwww, relax, can't beat a good midsummer's night ride out in them hills!

Last year we were deliberately setting off to Cwmcarn at 9pm to get a few dry and fresh night laps in!

Oh god I forgot about the wet root performance of them until I had the misfortune to be riding a bike with them on last night.

I'm not sure I've personally ridden a tyre more lethal on wet roots.

clubber, did I get an email from you already?

I'm assuming your commute doesn't go through any traffic lights then!?! I can recall about 6 red light jumpers on my way into work this morning. There was even a car that jumped the light on my way home (turning right up zetland road at the gloucester road lights outside maplin)

I take in Jacob Wells and Anchor Road…

I can't actually remember the last time I saw a cyclist RLJ on my commute if I'm honest… (Bristol)

clubber – I found it ok for a road ride if I didn't dip down into deep combes and valleys out failand way. I'll have a look into not letting the iphone lock.

Do you use your offroad at all, CwmCarn, Afan, Qs etc?

I'm pretty luke warm about the Mountain King. The roll pretty quick and make the bike feel pretty lively. But they just don't stand up well in hard and fast cornering.

If you're more of a cautious and general XC kind of rider they'll be alright. But it doesn't take a lot to get the front end washing out in the corners if you're hard and fast.

They're pretty poor in the mud but at least stay fairly clean and clear.