Soon to be 6 miles, soon to be everyday…

Currently 1/2 mile and always walk…

“Hangers are for wardrobes”

I hate all you bastards having paid £80 last year myself – mind you, I felt it was a top bit of kit at that price anyway so enjoy your bargain! ;)

Any recent Canon. Best low light performance at high ISOs which really shows up when shooting in the woods compared to my mates Sony.

Problem with trailrakers is they’re dreadful in anything but insane mud so if you have any intermediate bits on your trails you’ll hate having to use them…

Rob (cheers drive), exactly how many hours did you spend repairing and servicing yours while we were in North wales? :D

Did someone say fools gold?? :o

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*nasty Orange seatpost is now gone

Not seeing the BS either – sure they’re going in a certain direction with the 700c road bikes but I find the MTBs to be simple, well thought out, handsome bikes. I almost bought a Duster SS recently but just so happened the Genesis iO floated my boat a little bit more.

I grew up in Radstock (well Norton) anyway so leave my boys alone! ;)

its not one hard slog

lol – that elevation graph begs to differ – it is precisely one hard slog :D

CwmCarn’s climb isn’t insane – it’s pretty techie in places – it’s probably fairer to say that there’s a definiet feeling of having earned the descents. It’s also a good trail as although being a mere 15km, it’s nearly all singletrack…

Having seen a 20″ Five it’s also one of the only good looking 20″ bikes I’ve seen…

I’m 5′ 9″ and ride an 18″ Five and it’s perfect – but I do like em long in the TT with stubby stems and inline posts though…

2.1s will be a little bit sketchy on the front end on the Wall or Penhydd if it’s really wet and you’re pinning it.

Otherwise fine.

Tbh, if you dent a five enough to need a warranty you’ve probably broken everything else…

Maybe I got a really good one (as I know others have had dodgy paint) but I don’t even chip the paint when I crash…

I think an Apline 160 will be as stiff as you’re going to get with the Maxle rear end but I worry the 18″ isn’t going to be big enough for you – you could always go for a Five AM which has the Maxle rear end and 66 head angle…

My mate has a purple one (oh dear) and the finish is really good and the paint is really sparkly!

Bloody commuter racing, I was coming back from an early morning hack on the S/S, pulled out onto the main road coming back down into town, not exactly going all that fast due to spinning out – I’d come out in front of a slow moving short ass 40 something on his never-seen-a-trail-in-its-life MTB – next thing I know he was practically having a heart attack trying to blast past me in top gear…

I LOL’d and carried on gently spinning away on 32×16… *sigh* I expect he probably bragged about that scalp this morning too…

He’s on my soon to be new commute route, perhaps I should pick him out when I’m on the Cervelo and show him speed :twisted:

I’m an SLR snob and usually loath using compacts but the Panasonic TZ-series that I bought for my wife was really alright actually. Wide angle lens is a bonus on whatever you finally buy though…

Also, look out for burst fire as it really helps get those action shots down…

*registers interest*

Well this is garage security only so weight isn’t an issue – garage will also be alarmed and I’d hope to hear the angle grinder LOL.

The AM is just a five with a 36 and a bashguard double.

Not sure about fitting a coil though – I’d speak to Orange as they do a coil and air version of the Alpine, they might have some advice on doing that for the five.

Didn’t realise they’d slackened the 09 five though – be interesting…

In Bristol, lost one in ’07 and one in ’08 – fingers crossed for ’09!

Oddly enough, a quick blast of odoreaters spray works a treat in between washes!

When your spending that sort of money, it’s still money well spent to make sure you buy the right one though…

Of course it’s the UV index of 2 around midday that I’m personally worried about! :P

You usually get a refund if you buy the bike. My LBS used to do free test rides but you’d get too many test pilots once word got round so they had to start charging…

I’m a bit wary of proper mud tyres – I ran some trail rakers on my singlespeed and while they were very good in the deep mud, it makes you realise than even when it’s god awful out, there’s not as much mud as you think there is. And of course, proper mud tyres are a real pain to haul around on in anything other than proper mud. I hear the mud x can be left on all year so maybe they’re different.

I’ll admit the nevegal can really clog in the Bristol clay (when’s it’s not rained for a while but not dried out either is the worst Bristol conditions) but so does everything else when it gets that bad…

In ’08 Five pipped the Prophet to MBR’s trail bike of the year review – both got 10s but the Prophet got it’s 10 due to value (and wasn’t without some flaws) and the Five was supposedly the more complete and better handling bike.

Nevegal/Blue Groove combo or High Rollers are pretty much permanently on my bikes…

I’ve been experimenting with a Small block 8 and a blue groove up front – very fun – even in the current conditions :D

This thread is nothing without pics!! :wink:

If you do it in juction with a service it’s only £100 to do the lowers…

Being stiff is what it does best :) Although watch out for non 15QR Fox floats…

Got the plain ol’ SS iO.

Running A blue groove 2.35 up front and a 2.1 Small block 8 out back. It’s such a play bike, wants to just attack, hop and bounce through and over everything. Obviously the small block 8 is making for a very tail happy bike but it always stands up and it’s actually really fun way to ride it in the current conditions.

Agree with the comments on feeling direct but it’s got a real zing to it that I wouldn’t have expected from a plainer 520 frame as well. It’s not flexy at all, it’ll clatter through anything, they seem to have just struck a nice blend between strength and comfort. I was expecting quite a dead solid ride but found quite a bit of character (this bike was purely meant to be a tool to ride in winter more and get me fitter)

Paint job and finishing kit is far too classy for the money too but I won’t complain.

The ID looked like an interesting prospect but was too much money for a mud/abuse/neglect bike.

aracer – not quite as simply as that – but one big concern I always hear people moan about is how strong our current currency is – which it isn’t any more…

I’m not suggesting I’m for it but it does have a feeling of inevitability about it so with our currency almost on par with it, it would seem to be the best time to do something if we were going to end up doing it anyway…

I think going Euro is likely to happen sooner or later – with the £ only being €1.1 now, surely the arguments for the £ are weakening as quickly as it’s value is falling so would it not be a better time to do it than ever?

*stops pretending to understand these matters*

No snow or rain here (Bris), looks like I will be on the roadie as planned…

Scant – not able to go out for a while but I’ve got a whole hoard of Bristol riders who love CwmCarn (40mins burn down the M4 baby and great fun to ride at night!) who’d love to go out and see what else is out there. Will deffo take you up on that offer in the spring or something if that’s ok!

The people I’ll bring would generally have no issue with two laps for the record – most would do 3 if there was a bribe of tea and cake actually…

Sounds good about the DH run, I’ve got some long weekends coming up towards end of March so might well give an uplift day a go on a Friday or something…

Taff, don’t entirely disagree, like many here, the correct answer (assuming you can afford it) is get both.

I’ve just gone back to HT in the form of a Genesis iO and love it – you couldn’t make me give up my Five though – different bike for different rides innit! :D

I do like covering ground quickly and I personally find that best done on a FS…

Sorry to promote a rival mag but get yourself booked in on the Bike Radar demo days, line up a handful of 4″ and 5″ full sussers in a vareity of geometries and just go and have some fun with it.

Then come back and talk some more… :)

I went Pro. Same reason, the 36 is a lot of fork and a lot of money that isn’t needed on all the riding I do.

If you’re just a trail centre and all day XCer who prefers the downs to the ups (it’s a perfectly adequate climber, just not an Anthem) you’ll struggle to find a finer bike for your needs than a 5 Pro… (well the SE obviously but it’s your bank balance :wink:)

I think the MKs tend to flatter a riding style that has a bit of finesse to it – they don’t seem to like being banked over and ragged by the scruff of the neck.

I’ve had black chillis and non black chillis and the black chilli comes into it’s own on wet rocks – bloody tenacious grip on wet rock!