If there was something like an indoor version of the CwmCarn black run within an hours drive, I’d certainly pay a tenner to go and session it on a wet winter day.

Ignoring the rear door, another classic impatient driver trying to squeeze through – I mean, there’s maybe what 10 cyclists riding 2 abreast, parked cars on the other side of the road, AND a speedbump.

I don’t care if the cyclists are pissing you off, they’re still people and the driving alone, is plain stupid. The fact the door came open only meant he was caught doing it.

Do you ride downhill courses and jump massive gaps?

If you’re worried about looking after old bones look at 5″ but 7″ and all that weight, and those angles will be so wrong you can’t imagine.

Graham, for the record, a completely randomly selected graphic from a current design, PS CS4 PNG was twice the size of the gifs.

So I guess the answer is no, it’s not any better in Photoshop out of the box…

Not sure about bandwidth paying for itself though – we do pretty big sites but bandwidth is so cheap and so readily available that the only clients we have with bandwidth concerns are those serving masses of audio and video. At which point, worrying about saving kbs here and there on gifs and pngs is not worth worrying about.

(Screaming at clients for blowing through their bandwidth in a day by autoplaying a 9mb movie on the home page is another matter, no really!! lol)

I’ve never bought anything from superstar but I’ll be giving their chainrings a punt for sure if they’re ever back in stock…

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=121

Just re-read the comments about re optimizing pngs with that online tool – jesus, another step I’d need to add to an otherwise bloated process :'(

If’s purely graphical a proper ‘saved for web’ gif will be smallest in file size and crisp. PNG if I need the alpha transparency or a gif’s 256 palette won’t do (you’ll be surprised what a photoshop optimized palette can cope with mind).

Jpegs are for photos.

I’m only teasing btw – I walked up it on one of my night laps lol – no one was looking and I was shagged :D

Also, when I ride it solo next year, permission granted to mock me for walking that bit…

Name and shame! Judging by how clean he is, this looks like first lap as well… ;)

Bearing in mind who this is aimed at, the mud coping qualities are probably assuming a complete strip and rebuild every ride anyway so will likely be fine. Sure this will end up consumer bikes but fools are they…

The platform CB pedals are not dual use – the cage is to support the SPD shoe but the raised engagement area makes them nigh on useless for riding in flat shoes.

As others have said, there is no real compromise. If he’s looking to use his bike for hacking about town also, you’d be better off just getting him a bike to hack about town on and save the nice MTB for the trails (I’m guess by the fact you’re willing to splash out on fancy pedals for your 14 yr old son that you’ve also splashed out on a nice bike for him)

Ian, I might be able to find a buyer for your entry…

Argh, disaster bike. My bike was still in ruins after the very muddy CLIC24 so I rented at Afan…

Just didn’t connect with it at all, twitchy and nervous and seemed to deflect off things too easily. Slack seat angle and steep head angle felt wrong from the off.

Climbing was a mixed bag – sure the steep head means it tracks very straight but then the slack seat angle meant pedalling and position felt really wrong.

Had to take it back after the first lap as I couldn’t bear another on it…

Fine on the back, shocking on the front. Shoulder knobs are far too weak and don’t stand up very well meaning remotely aggressive cornering will cause them to break very suddenly.

Fine for XC, rubbish for Trail/All Mountain…

Tried both 2.2 and 2.4, 2.4s were better but still very average at best.

* No traffic lights involved…

* I’d had a rubbish day at work so needed something to “vent” my frustrations on…

* It was a choice between sitting on thier back wheels or going past, as, on the uphills I kept catching up and freewheeling…

* Might have been a bit of a case of all the gear… as one of them kept running big to big on the ups

* I’m sure they were jut warming up but it made me feel special for about 20 mins

Dooge- it was on the way back from “Bridgy”

So why make a thread out of it like it was some kind of conquest.

Also, big to big is only an issue really on triples.

Bear in mind seat angle won’t be measured with any sag so the seat will get a few degrees slacker the second you get on it…

If you can’t see the benefit of a 2.35 Nevegal going downhill over a racing ralph, your trails are tame or you’re not that fast. Sorry.

However if your trails aren’t tame and if you can go just as fast on the ralphs, at least admit there’s a difference but you have the skills to ‘get away with’ the ralphs.

Either way, my beef is you saying that your 25lb Five is a sensible build and just as capable as a 29lb and you notice no difference in downhill ability… which is BS either way

Scott, still not mentioned forks and tyres…

I’m somewhat skeptical – the Mojo sponsered lads have their Fives down to 25lb but they are built for riding in the NPS and have likely had no expense spared – I ‘think’ they also run a 120mm fork too.

Screaming downhill is all relative – I’m a pretty fast rider but I also know that I’ve got riding buddies who are leagues faster than me. All I’m saying is, what you class as screaming downhill, might not actually be fast enough to highlight the nervous nature of that build. In which case you could have got away with a lesser travel bike anyway. Not trying to get into an argument – I’m just ‘saying’ and I’m happy to be proved wrong.

All I know is that I removed skinny 2.1 HRs and a Fox 32 Float and Added 2.35s tyres (+1lb) and a 32 Vanilla 15QR (+0.4lb) and it descends much faster and is more secure.

No matter what you claim, there’s no way you’ve achieved 25lbs without something like a 32 float (and I suspect something lighter and sacrier) and silly tyres like a sub 500g 2.1.

Also Scott, very interested in the details of your build actually… :)

Perhaps it be the coil bolt through fork, more hardcore tyres, Holzfeller bar and stem, meatier wheelset all adding up for a stiffer more planted, less nervous ride?

Have you ever built yours any other way?

Try a Nevegal on the rear if you can borrow one…

I personally run a 2.1 HR or a SMB8 on the back with a 2.35 Blue Groove up front as I like it a bit drifty but really pinned down up front – I’ve found a Nevegal to really keep the back end in line…

Why not have a light bike? There are no rules that say you have to have a bigger heavier bike just because you weigh more.

As other have mentioned, when you build 140mm bikes this light, they stop riding like 140mm bikes. My Five seems to have a magic weight of around 29lb where it seems to ride best in technical stuff and still be ok to climb again – and a love of riding technical stuff is why you bought a 140mm bike in the first place right?

I’ve seen far too many people build crazy light bikes and then actually hate riding them. Nervous, twitchy and uncomfortable is usually the words I hear.

Also agree some of these weights are a bit optimistic – I know before I had accurate scales I was living in fantasy that I’d managed to hit 26 – 27lb based on guess work, quoted weights and silly tyres. I now run at 29lb for weekend rides and chuck some skinny tyres on for marathons.

I thought the point of running a front minion on the rear was to get the rear to drift more easily?
At least thats what I think I remember reading somewhere

That would be a pretty funny conclusion to the thread if true!

This isn’t a dig at the OP but I had a wedding photographer approach me for a site. He’ll happily charge £1500 for days work to shoot a wedding but thinks that paying me £400 a day is daylight robbery. So glad I don’t freelance anymore – the day I took an agency job the better!

Unfortunately there’s no such thing as a cheap and decent website unless you can do it yourself and actually know what you’re doing…

I’m going to stay out of this debate because I’ll end in a bitter rant over why people assume this stuff should cheap or free and still be decent…

Currently ordering jerseys for the cheesy riders through charlie at Carvalho…

Looking at 8 weeks – tried phoning around, everyone else is pretty booked up I’m afraid… we missed out getting them for the Bristol Bike Fest because of those LVIS chaps putting an order in just the day before I did… ;)

Oh yeah, never ever run pro pedal unless it’s a fireroad climb. It ruins the bike IMO – makes it fidgety and awkward…

Need to adpat more to pumping and then Peaty-esq pedal squirts inbetween rather than just mashing the cranks everywhere (that’s what Marin’s are for :-P)

It’ll work, just let the bike come to you…

Cy – espresso Soul in wrap graphic would probably be the sexiest bike out there!

Although judging by the colour scheme I did for my bike club, that’s probably not a surprise I feel that way… there’s about four cotic souls in the club but no brown ones yet… :D

I thought only fox forks broke in English weather?

Yeah, M&S is supposed to be new for old no?

Another ugly Mountain Biker with sexy lady…

Rides bikes…

I’d say Llandegla given the company. Cafe/Shop is a pleasent and cool base. The main climb gentle if long. And the black runs are safe enough if they show a bit of respect to the trail.

Marin has some of the best sections I’ve ever ridden but completely ruined by mile after mile of fireroad both up and down.

Can’t comment on Penmachno but some riding buddies who went said it was great but fairly tough compared to a lot of stuff up there.

CYB is great but again, I wouldn’t fancy taking relative novices up there – some of the armoured stepped sections up there gave my fairly novice mate a torrid time…

I think locality has something to do with it – there seems to be a big Bristol and South West contingency on STW so something as low key on the calendar as the CLIC24 is going to get a huge build up because a lot of STWers will be doing it.

Speaking of which, is it too early for a Bristol Bike Fest role-call/build up thread?

LOL – typical!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A51622797

No.

32 Vanillas and RP23 here. Probably endless numbers of bikes out there with air cans and coil pikes too…

Just posted an article on 606 (awaiting moderation LOL) and going to email them too. See if we can brew up a storm via twitter too…

Fed up of paying my licence fee and then putting up with utter sh*t for telly…

I think the big one is who resorted to using granny ring to ride the final kick in the balls bit after the firetrail uphill?

Granny every lap baby! And I walked it on my last night lap but then I was yawning and almost nodding off at the bars…