661 Kyle Straits knee pads – comfy like knee warmers, nothing like wearing armour.

On our summer hols last year the entire group kept taking the p*ss as I’d raved so much and made everyone get them – they weren’t taking the p*ss by the end of the trip when they’d worn them on average 50km per day for 6 days and all crashed enough times to be grateful to be wearing them.

Huge difference between 9mm QR floats and 15QR Vanillas but the float is a flexi fork and it could just be moving to Vanillas as much as 15QR…

Rarr! (Spacers from other two bikes are on that dirty gert stack on the Orange, the forks have now been cut and the other two bikes are ridable – premptive ‘ta’ for pointing it out ;))

And don’t worry about being tired!! It’s a ride not a race!

Meet at Northroad entrance to LW

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114609323037773268940.00045192bfbc3a332234b&ll=51.454141,-2.639347&spn=0.005121,0.013272&z=17

Don’t forget Kimi’s classic “I was taking a shit” when asked why he didn’t attend some pre-race ceremony for Schumy…

Rich, we have riders of all levels but the Monday night ride always has the classic “Cheesy Ride’ which as Peter says, is spectacularly glacial in pace!

Quite often we run two or three different rides from the same place depending on who turns up and how fast they want to go…

I’m resting up this week for the Clic24 so I’ll be doing the cheesy ride instead of leading a quicker one like I normally do. Look out for white helmet and a Gold Orange Five attached to a rider talking too much. :lol:

Forks to be fitted…

I’ve always had web and email on my mobile and then never used them (or even set them up), got an iphone now and use it all the time. Web browsing is pretty sorted with the gestures (pinch, stretch and double tap)

5’9″ and ride an 18″ – lent it to my 6ft mate and he wasn’t comfy on it. 20″ IMO!

It’s also one of the few good looking 20″ bikes too!

I’ll keep an eye out for my bike’s twin out on the trails ;)

If you’re on Pro IIs surely the CRC Vanillas are a no brainer!

No looking back after fitting 15QR Vanillas after my Floats died…

As mentioned my Hope has one..

Oh and check your diet and make sure you’re drinking enough water and not too much caffiene

I get the downs now and again, and I find it really is a case of MTFU. However, if you just tell yourself your’re being lame and need to the MTFU – you then feel even more lame and depressed because you’re lame and depressed over something pathetic, making you feel even more lame and pathetic.

Make some lists, write stuff down and try and take baby steps in the right direction. Even if you only do one tiny positive thing a day – it won’t take long for that to add up and become the beginnings of a turn around.

I find the car is in it’s element when you melt into the seats, select a big gear and let the world fight around you.

Not saying this applies to you but I do thik this is part of the problem. Everything is so calm and isolating from the inside that you forget what it’s like to be outside of it. Having just replaced a Ka with a C-max (not the same thing as an Audi I know) but just being so much smoother, comfier and refined means I’m probably too relaxed and chilled out behind the wheel.

I think the dirvers of the big german cars feel like they’re just ghosting around in totla serenity and silence doing the world no harm whereas on the outside they’re ultimate in giant sized aggression!

(Would totally get an A6 Avant in a heart beat if I could afford one)

How does a split crown race make sevicing easier?
It doesn’t, does it?

Actually Pete, my point being was that in 16 months, a split crown race didn’t allow all sorts of crap into the headset so therefore doesn’t have that as a downside. Which seems to be the only theoretical downside to them. Read the post immediately before mine for some context.

When I recently changed my forks over, it took a simple and very gentle tap with a screw driver to remove and was replaced by hand.

So phnarrrr! :P

No worries, here’s one where there’s less direct light on it

I’ll pretend i didn’t see that dirty steerer tube….

Forks were newly fitted and don’t have a hacksaw – it was sorted the following day ;)

Fools Gold, ignore what it looks like on the website….

Did someone say spacers?? LOL – don’t worry, I didn’t have a hacksaw and vice to get it cut down so needed to get to the shop.

Have they not moved the Five towards a ‘lighter’ build – skinnier downtube etc..

Well it’s now slacker and faster DH/slower uphill than the ’08 one according to MBR. An Orange demo rep told me it was to create a bit of fork clearance for things like the Fox 36s.

The dude wants a full susser, let him be!

Don’t get a Blood.
If you can only afford S or Pro spec get a Five
If you can afford SE spec get an ST4.

Demoed an ST4 this weekend and it was a lovely, lovely bike BUT – in Pro spec it’s the same weight as a Five and you might as well bag the extra travel. However, at SE spec with some really light forks and wheels, I reckon the ST4 will make a lot of sense which it doesn’t in Pro spec.

Ehem, I mean get a unicycle!

I really don’t like High Rollers as a rear – superb front though

Love it on the rear, useless on the front. :roll: :lol:

Those MTB mags that talk about ‘just get out and ride’, because anyone who buys those (or any other) MTB mag is clearly not, ‘just getting out and riding’.

The fact of the matter is that those people who don’t give a toss about the MTB scene and all the bike jiggery pokery that goes with it, including those mags, but own a mountain bike and go out every weekend, are the only ones that ‘just get out and ride’. And, no one here, on this website forum ‘just gets out and rides’, because we spend more than half our time ‘just’ reading the mags, ‘just’ fannying about on this website forum and ‘just’ wan£ing over expensive blingy bike parts.

I found that pretty annoying – god forbid anyone be so into something that it extends beyond the actual riding.

I pretty much buy every mag and ride plenty thanks.

Right better get packed to hit the Quantocks, riding 4th day out of 4 this bank holiday weeked… :roll:

I’ve got an ST4 on demo tomorrow and Monday – I’ll report back.

To be fair I’m being a little harsh on my forks – I ran them 16 months with no maintenance and they start pissing all the oil out the seals (but oddly still worked fine when I took them off – will find out soon whether it’s bad or not)

Yeah no issues – I wish their forks were as reliable!

Bike bag is surprising bulky (assuming bike is inside and not empty) – I’ve got a Cmax and rented s Zafira (new) and in both, the bike bag only just clears the boot lip. Can’t imagine it going in without a degree of creativity.

16 month old hope headset, serviced for the first time and barely needed anything doing – great idea split crown races!

Must. resist. masturbation. jokes.

I wouldn’t risk it, had a similar situation last friday and at 3pm when I was thinking about bailing out, boss rings from London on desk phone, not mobile – I’d have been busted.

There’s a lot of bikes people think are cool or look rad but not a lot of actually aesthetically pleasing ones :-/ That includes the Orange Five and I bloody have one!

Anyway…

Kona Hei Hei

Sena day to day, Crumpler for riding…

Where’s the cam mounted (chest, neck?), nice to see the bars and top tube – actually gives a sense of speed lacking from most helmet cam shots and it doesn’t seem to be juddering around in the same way…

Just converted mine to 15QR and zero play (on Vanillas btw)

Recently pulled the trigger on the Fox Vanillas on CRC (£349) – deffo OEM but no regrets so far!

over the phone I was explicitly told to expect around 6mbs for my address even though I was paying for 8mbs

I understand your rather sh**tily put point – but if you reread what I said, I didn’t assume I’d get maximum speed.

In fact, BT chose to test my line there and then and told me to expect 6MBs out of a possible 8MBs

Bit different if you ask me!

120mm isn’t 4″ it is 4.75″

Rebas have gone up to 120mm this year haven’t they… :(

*facepalm*