crashes down the steps around the 5:30 mark are brilliant! :D

got a hunka and found it a bit on the small side for me (6ft) with a 4 season bag. replaced with a hunka xl and much better – plenty more space and length

you’ll be fine, been out there with people on hardtails who had a great time (variety of skills levels too). maybe not best choice for hucking off any drops/doing owt crazy. chameleon would be my choice hardtail for it anyway, have fun! :)

got a few bits i couldn’t find anywhere else and came quickly too, no probs

was riding my local trails a few years ago (shotover park in oxford) – came round a quick corner to meet some guy having a dump in the middle of the trail, luckily had enough time to swerve and miss him and the offending turd! 8O

also whilst riding saw some kids walking down a lane swinging a bloody pigs head about was pretty wierd

had a mail from rik at the bike shop saying it’s fine for riding – we’re also going tomorrow :)

lube

cheers for that info Brick, will give it a go tonight

cynic-al – a freehub off a lx hub would do just the trick if regreasing doesn’t work. thanks for pointing that one out :-)

anything you’ve got lying around with chunky knobs for the screws to bite into would work, as people mention more knobs are better for snow. i’ve got a panaracer fire xc with 150ish studs on the front and some geax creation with 80ish studs on the rear. the rear tyre doesn’t have loads of grip on snow so i’ve been running a chain on the it for snow rides – provides a lot of traction but its really draggy on the road/sounds like a tank!

currently charging us for two accounts, customer service is absolutely shocking and they just bounce you around the globe and never do what they say they will (still getting charged for the duplicate account and have bailiffs threatened on it – we NEVER set it up or had anything to do with it!) can’t wait to change but leaving them is turning out to be just as much of a nightmare

can anyone recommend a different broadband supplier was thinking of plusnet?

had beef stew and dumplings last night so got to be an easy chippy tonight i reckon :-)

always had issues with my bikes freezing in subzero temps, the front mech usually freezes up first mind even after dowsing in gt85/wd40/lube before setting off – it looks like it’s just the amount of slush/wet snow being chucked up by the tyres building up ice around pivots etc. i’ve got used to it now and accept it’s part of winter riding – just make sure it’s in a suitable/ss equivalent gear when it does freeze up so it’s still ridable!

by cheap i mean 30-40 quid really. not bothered by any fancy stuff just needs to play cds and work! will check out the aldi/lidl ones cheers

my brother’s been told to take whatever they feel comfortable carrying (letters only too) and only if they want to in the conditions – he’s gone out but a few others probably haven’t. hope no-one’s waiting for urgent parts from crc in barnsley!

i’m in newcastle also, finding some reasonably knobbly tyres with custom intalled spikes (1/2 inch steel screws with a dh tube liner in an old panaracer fire 2.1/geax barro combo) working a treat at the moment except for the really deep slushy stuff – been running gears too and preferring the range of gears to control traction more than my usual ss

just round the corner from my house in newcastle yesterday, good little blast :D

i’ve got a couple of these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11303 to fit in our van’s kitchen area. will use the body from an old flourescent tube light for the cover/switch. maybe worth a try?

mango

onion followed closely by the spud

not sure of the size but it could be something like this

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1644

either way they may have the right size if you measure it up when you take it out

whilst we’re on the subject the driver is this one (for 5 mode anyway)
http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1845

that’s the ticket cheers!

best booby trap i’ve found was on a ride a few months ago – i found a 3inch diameter by ~8ft long steel sign post still attached to lump of concrete across the trail 8O don’t think it was put there by walkers but by chavs hurling it down the hill from another bigger path above with a clear line of destruction between the two locations. luckily not on a corner but it did weigh a ton!

you’ll be fine, been riding my crosscheck more than my mtb recently jsut cos its a good laugh. if anything it’ll help your bike skills as you cant’ rely on suspension/grippy tyres/good brakes! the hardest bit is going to be getting to grips with riding in the drops!

onzadog – agree on the old Moomins, even seeing old style Moomin images/characters still freaks me out!

bristolbiker – not sure, i’d hope so. have raced the 1/8th ic rallycross before electric 1/8th came about, it’s definitely my preferred class as cars are nigh on indestructible, v fast and i prefer the size/style of tracks. if i can get the chance to go to a track with the 1/8th electric i’ll be there with a big grin…

think my bro had a very similar one, it didn’t work very well (bent easily, didnt hold chain etc). i’d avoid and put the money towards a tried and tested one – dmr, goldtec etc

this would be sweet on a bmx track electric 1/8th buggy :D

cougar – you can still get nicad/nimh packs in stick layout that should fit any old tamiyas except the really old ones that took a hump style pack (my old wild willy had this) – may be worthwhile getting a new fast charger to suit the pack too if you have a trickle charger. also make sure you get a pack with a tamiya plug on it to save fitting a new one on. for info i rebuilt my old nitro thunder tiger 1/8th buggy a few years ago and was pleasantly suprised to see the engine kick into life after 13+ years sat in the shed!

back on the OP i’d suggest visiting your local model shop if theres one near you. they’ll usually have a range of cars to look at and advise what to go for. the main thing above anything is to get something you can get spares for quickly and cheaply, no point having a buggy you cant get bits for! electric is easiest to get into, buggys/trucks are great off road and the bigger the scale the better off road it will be but the more space you’ll need. on road is good too but you’re limited where you can run it to car parks/on road rc tracks. i’ve got a 1/10 associated rc10b4 with brushless and lipos which is scary fast and can get around 20mins out of one pack. just building up a 1/8th rallycross buggy into a lipo powered monster for the bmx track/car park as its much stronger than the b4 and will take some big hits if you do some silly jumps with it…

if you dont have a modelshop nearby good online modelshops include: modelsport, apexmodels, jespares, mkmodels, demon etc

slug sushi! 8O

i’ve recently built up my crosscheck for cx/commuting/general off road duties but dont have much road bike experience so just built it up with what looked ‘right’ to me which may/may not be to everyones taste. bars seem good set reasonably high (but not so over done it to give a sit up and beg position) i have about 15mm of spacers under the stem with the stem positioned to give more rise too. bars seem to work well with the tops/hoods totally level, my mate rides with them rotated forwards slightly but i didn’t get on with that set up especially off road. also using a 100mm stem. found speed kings pretty good rolling resistance/grip but the rears worn pretty quickly. don’t see the need for the chicken levers on it, it’s wierd getting used to riding technical stuff in the drops but once you get used to it its fine and think having a narrow grip due to having hands on the flat bit of the bar would be more hindering for me personally. i recently did dalby red a few weeks ago with my girlfriend with no problems on it and although its is a little bumpy compared to my heckler totally loved it! :)

good work on the results Hob Nob if you’re doing that well you’re bound to a get a podium soon :) i’m resigned to the mid table and happy there! :)

need to learn to do big jumps/drops again, been off them for a few years after selling my dh bike and mainly riding peaks/lakes/local and sanitised trail centres :( was at innerleithen on the dh runs a few weeks ago and felt the fear for the first time in years on the bigger doubles/drops 8O otherwise goals are mainly staying reasonably fit and doing some bigger trips ie: riding to/round/along morocco/iceland/europe/americas etc oh and not letting work getting too much in the way :wink:

singlespeed cyclocross bike, lot of fun off road, fast on the road (if you gear it right) plus easy maintenance. that felt breed ss in classifieds would look good if i didn’t have one already… alternatively just stick slicks on your pimpest mtb and buy a couple of kryptonite new york locks with the money you save on not buying a new bike!

love it or hate it but tk maxx – got a nice lambswool jumper last week for about £15 also a merino one for about the same :)

TJ thanks for that, haven’t seen one of those yet but will look into it further. i’ve tried the adapter before but found it took loads of room up when not used and kept unclipping from my pannier bag when i was getting the bag on/off so wasn’t convinced it was the best solution… hopefully the proper bag will be much better :) cheers

for 2 weeks in a nice motorhome that sounds about right, they are horrendously expensive vehicles to start with. however for that much and if you don’t mind a bit of research/gambling :wink: you could be better off buying an old t25 and using that for the two weeks then selling afterwards for what you paid for it. we’ve had ours for about 9months now and its had plenty of use – a 2 week trip on the outer hebrides/highlands and 10+ long weekends inc wales/scotland/peaks/lakes etc :-) only problem is if you get a dud one it could be quite costly (ours has been fantastic with only issues being a loose hose on the engine after last trip)

maybe a bit too much to handle for just a 2 week holiday but could be an alternative…

TandemJeremy

gazc – sit up and stare at the driver of the car behind until you are certain they have seen you , registered your presence and are going to leave room for you to pull out.

i’m quite sure he saw me alright, if he didn’t, i’d probably be in the hospital/morgue right now instead of writing this. the point is he chose to ignore me NOT that he didn’t see me, but thanks for the advice anyway. i’ll make sure to ask my doctor about getting my eyes transplanted into the back of my head when i next see him :wink:

ps: i do agree making eye contact does work with motorists, especially at roundabouts/junctions. just unfortunately when cars are speeding up from behind its not that easy…

this happened to me this morning, riding in a ‘defensive’ position (as i alway do with all my biking paraphernalia on) signalling right, checked for a gap which there was, went into gap so i was in the middle of the lane still signalling and some utter nob in a crappy corsa decided to plant the throttle and narrowly overtake me, swerving in before traffic coming the other direction and narrowly missing my front wheel. can’t see how riding any different could have avoided it, but bloody annoying cos not only did he nearly have me off the bike he could have hit the person coming the other way! unfortunately didn’t get his number plate :(

bring on a minimum overtaking distance although struggle to see how can be enforced really

i think pearce cycles used to do uplift days at bringewood/hopton etc where you could hire/demo dh bikes. not sure if still do now mind

my girlfriends dead set on us doing this next year, would it be fine wild camping all the way up/down?