I think they key it’s knowing your local area and being able to confidently navigate routes. It might be worth considering some leadership training if that sort of thing floats your boat. It would probably work best to have at least one other regular who can do the same.

From experience there are people who are happy to repeatedly lead routes, and others who will happily tag along without ever putting their hand up.

I’m friendly, but often find it difficult around people I don’t know, especially if there’s no context. This comes across to others as grumpy and distant. I’m getting better with age and on reflection must have been awful when I was younger.

I’m also quite intolerant toward unthinking and irrational people.

Remember that your speedo’s are all out by up to 10%, and almost always showing a higher speed than you’re actually going.

Funny you should mention Crewe. One of the routes I wanted to sort was Crewe to Winsford.

There’s some stuff around Wistaston I think (need to explore), plus a project to link queens park to Nantwich that could open up some options…

Amway, thanks again, I shall have another look around Delamere and primrose wood, plus the other route Steve mentioned.

When will people realise that 10g for an empty gel pack, or more for a bottle is a serious weight penalty. How can i justify that when i just spent £15 on some carbon stem spacers. Besides, it just adds to the mess in the car and that all needs sorting by someone.

Seriously though +1 kkf. Selfish & inexcusable behaviour isn’t it?

Thanks Steve.

Gtth, I figured that, and I do myself live on the east of them there hills. My curiosity stems from growing up on the aforementioned area but never doing any serious mountain biking. I also have family who I’d like to introduce to it, and pennine hills do not make for an easy introduction to the sport.

Thanks bellerophon.

I took a look at the WordPress forum and it bears enough similarities to conclude that’s probably the one. FWIW I think STW is themed more nicely, especially on the thread listing.

Oh, and make sure you drop in to the Dog & Partridge after for a pint of Ewe Tosser and one of their very good burgers. They also do some great flapjacks and other cake type trail food.

Not ridden the Marin trial, but have done Penmachno.

I’d say Gisburn is a lot more technical in places than Penmachno, with some interesting diversions such as the Hope line and the freeride course. It’s possibly not as long, though I may be wrong.

The north half has some nice exposed sections with rocky technical bits and some interesting black options. Hully gully is very good. Nice views of the Yorkshire 3 peaks too.

The south half is mostly wooded singletrack with quite a few nice bermy sections in the trees and the odd wood based obstacle. Home baked is nice and has a noticably different feel to the rest of the loop – just watch the wide bars.

Effort required to get round is similar. As you’ve not done Gisburn yet I’d suggest you give it a go.

They’re invisible, just like the stuff one chucks out of the car window.

Might sound far fetched, but check out the halifax ultimate reward account. It comes with travel insurance which I know covers skiing so I’d imagine also includes other ‘extreme’ sports.

Not had to use it myself but know someone who had a substantial claim (helicopter rescue & repatriation) and aside from a few side issues he was sorted out.

The TCL/MBL awards are being retired and BC will introduce 2 new awards in their place. I don’t know about MBL, but TCL is to be replaced with a BC level 2 award, which is mostly the same as the TCL.

I’m informed that there will be an announcement in the coming weeks. Hopefully this will give some much needed structure around MTB qualifications.

The BBB ones are x7 compatible and have sealed bearings. Can’t remember the model number, and they can be a bit elusive. If you get some they work well.

You obviously work in a very different organisation to me.

It consumerisation sounds great on the face of it, but what are the practical implications? What do we actually say to a user who’s device isn’t working? Go waste a day of company time trying to get help from a Dixons monkey?

The actual implication for the most part is that it departments will still need to support this kit but it just got a whole lot more diverse. Oh, and if it’s connected to the corporate network it still needs to be patched, service packed and running approved AV, firewall and data loss protections.

Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Enterprise IT is hard work, but usually a lot harder than it needs to be, and usually because of a good number of factors not least under/inappropriate investment.

Using some cloud service is great, but where do you get your competitive advantage from when you don’t have control of your systems?

Remember that Enterprise IT is a very different beast to home computing with wildly different requirements that a person not involved with the process is unlikely to grasp quickly.

Lastly, .net is actually very good, but can still be used to produce a rubbish product just as with php.

Sancho, do please elaborate? So you have helped secure equal rights for cyclists in Leeds and Bradford? Is this just council owned land, or might I naively presume something wider?

I’ve certainly noticed a significant tolerance to MTB’ers, apart from one bloke who moans about bikes in my local woods.

Signed it ages ago. Redesignation is no good because it allows horses which have a much greater impact. There also seem to be requirements to maintain the surface in such a manner to make it uninteresting to bikes.

Of the cyclists who would like access to footpaths I imagine those who like technical challenge are in a distinct minority, so you might get access to ‘suitable’ footpaths but these might be the uninteresting ones. Personally I’d like to see all footpaths open to cyclists with an exception process to exclude bikes on a small number of contentious paths. I’m thinking certain Lakeland/Dales etc paths where it might just be to dangerous to mix users. Obviously such paths would need to be clearly marked on a map and have appropriate signage.

As it stands I use footpaths quite a lot but try to do so as responsibly as possible, and being especially courteous to other users.

Edit: Useful reference describing an important movement leading to the access we have today http://kindertrespass.com/

If it was my kid I’d be offering to pay the costs, that is providing I had been approached by the individual rather than receiving a threatening letter from insurers or solicitors. Once the profiteers are in all bets are off.

I had a go at the top gear north pole method today. It didn’t go well.

Mtbtomo’s method works best for me, but you can use another tyre instead of a bottle.

They have 3 options:

1) weigh every product
2) take the manufacturers or distributors word and accept the risk
3) fob off customers and breach the distance selling regulations

I imagine they take option 2.

I have a handlebar light which I usually have on low, plus a very spotty helmet light. Putting a splash of light on a drivers dashboard works a treat for stopping them pulling out.

Don’t use flashing modes on the front at all. I might also add that with all the distractions on the road I don’t think stock ‘bike’ lights are bright enough. At least with a trail light you’re as visible as the other road users but the light could do with being refracted better.

The weight discrepancy alone is enough to justify full reimbursement including postage costs. Goods not as described. The fact is crc have a good reputation on this so you should be fine.

There should be another connection point where commonly you’ll have 3 neutral all connected with one going to the bulb, then 3 live all connected, then another with a neutral (may be sheathed or taped red) connected to the live on the bulb. This last one is the switch. There will also be earth.

Beyond this you may be better to get a spark on to help…

Edit: depending on the age of your wiring you may have brown/blue instead of red/black.

Personally I’d check the wiring in the back of the light switch and fitting is properly tightened and the wires are in good condition. My first thought is that there’s a loose wire. Maybe you have a dimmer switch or such, maybe just a damaged switch or fitting. Could be a few things…

Obviously turn off the supply before doing owt. Not entirely sure what’s legal now but I don’t worry about that too much.

If it’s a pre-2010 frame then you will probably die, 2010 onwards seem to be made of better stuff.

Seriously though, before riding it give it a really good inspection for any signs or cracking around the head tube, top tube to seat tube interface and pivot mounting. I have a friend with a 2009 Meta and the quality of welds are notably better than the 2009 one I had.

Interesting article tbh. It does beg the question, why if there is a dedicated cycle path from a -> b are cyclists still using the road? I suspect that either said cyclists are actually travelling from a -> some other location, or the cycle path is unsuitable, irrelevant, or maybe more of a pain to use than being stuck in rush hour traffic (which would be quite an achievement in itself).

I can understand his point, although it’s not presented well, probably on account of him being a bit of a numpty. So why if an awful lot of taxpayers money has been spent on a path is it not being used? It would seems that something has failed.

From personal observation, the cycle paths I’ve seen and works done to improve byways have been a little misguided at best, or maybe they’re just not factoring in the full scope of cyclists requirements. I know of one cycle specific path that has so many anti-motorbike/horse gates that it’s a right old pain to use, hence I’m often inclined to use the road instead.

As long as you’re in north or west Leeds there is an awful lot of good riding from the door, this is helped by a large proportion of routes being legal, lots of urban woodland and being right next to Bradford which as a district has a fantastic amount of good riding – all from your door.

45 mins gets you to the Dales, Calderdale, Nidderdale etc.
2 hours gets you to Lakeland, the Yorkshire coast and the peaks.

I’m not familiar with riding in many of the other cities but Leeds is definitely very good.

I once worked for a Croatian who was forever correcting me on grammar and spelling. I wouldn’t have minded but she was right 99% of the time.

OP, don’t let this colour your view of immigrant workers. I work with many people of all backgrounds who don’t have the skill for the job they’re in. In all honesty I’ve not seen any less skill or ability from foreign workers, and quite possibly the opposite.

Google ‘Peter principle’. I know it’s not quite relevant to what you describe but is along a similar theme.

Actually I agree with poly. There’s nothing of interest north of Watford, just mud* and poor people.

*This actually feels true at the moment.

no complaints from me about living in London – fantastic transport connections in every direction

So basically the best thing about MTB in London is the other places you can go to MTB, including a small hill in Surrey?

I’m sure it’s Ok, and probably ever so good in so many other ways, but better than Manchester and Exeter for mountain biking???

I believe MBR are based around Bristol, also there is seemingly a politically correct spread of locations.

If it was regions rather than cities then clearly Yorkshire would be number 1 😉

Very good.

Had some Shimano boots that started to fall apart after 9 months. They took them back and as it happens didn’t have the same size in stock so were happy to provide a full refund.

Had a Hope stem that cracked after a year or so, and at the time I was away so I needed to get a replacement there and then. They provided a refund.

No quibbles on either occasion.

There are 6* (proper?) mountains in England, of which only 2 are accessible on a bike. They are all in Cumbria.

*4 of them are kind of the same peak so maybe only count as one.

I’m suprised Bradford isn’t on that list. It’s pretty central to some of the best MTB terrain West Yorkshire has to offer, plus local to at least a couple of good trail centres, not forgetting the peaks and dales.

Superstar do one for £17. Only had it one for a couple of rides but it seems to do the job and doesn’t require iscg mounts.

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=56&products_id=362

Thought they were a requirement on all cars built after a certain date. I’d probably just mention it to the garage and ask them to fix it before the test. Can’t be that expensive can it?

What type? The light and motion one has a weak joint on to the PCB that can be resolved with a quick soldering job.

Mass air flow sensor? Any garage should pick this up though. When it goes limp is it completely gutless, or just above 1500 or so rpm?

If it’s completely gutless you could try disconnecting the maf sensor to see power is more consistent.

New sensor should be in the region of £50.