I went from 680 to 750mm Havoc bars last year and while I liked the width, the balance of the bike was definitely affected. The steering was slower and I didn’t feel as confident downhill, possibly because my weight had been moved forwards.

Just swapped the stem from an 85 to 55mm Easton Haven though and its all good now :) The steering’s sharp and the balance is confidence inspiring so I’m really happy again :)

20mm isn’t such a big change, but you may find a 10mm shorter stem helps later on.
Can’t comment on the relative stiffness of carbon cause I’ve just got alloy.
Austin Powers Swedish device? Maybe, but once you’ve got the width you’ll never look back. Everyone else just gets bar envy ;)

Brake pads. Going through mine rapidly in this weather!!

Foo Fighters. Thread closed :)

Think I’d have to upgrade my thighs as well if I went 1 x 10. Bit steep around here ;)

You’re already making me feel better about this, thanks guys :). Hopefully it was just the mud as the conditions were pretty horrific. Think I’ll try giving the chain a thorough clean & lube first.

If that doesn’t do the trick guess I’ll have to bite the bullet & buy new bits, ……. Or a new bike (there’s a lovely Pivot Mach 5.7 frame in my lbs that’s just begging me to buy it ;) )

Just for back in from a 15 mile loop round Chevin forest & it was my first night ride too. Got 2 CandBSeen lights for Christmas & it was so much fun! Probably couldn’t have been a more challenging induction to solo night riding, but it was just great to be out when no-one else was :) Love it!!

My eyes, my eyes!!!!!!

Did everyone with the MW81s go up a size from normal or are they shaped to accommodate winter socks?

Anyone tried the Shimano MW81 Goretex boots? How do they compare to the Northwave ones?

I’m about to push the button on a pair of Shimanos cause I thought they looked like they were made of better materials.

Any thoughts???

Hey Munge-chick. Yup, I’m a boarder, but I used to go to the US & Canada with a skier mate. Really mixed up the groomed, mogul & powder runs with him.

The back bowls at Lake Louise, Vail & Keystone were particularly memorable as he was really fast in all conditions. Reckon I had more fun on the board though, although it was handy having him there to tow me out of the flat sections after Outer Siberia bowl ;)

We got a great last minute deal on the Colorado trip too. About £550 for 2 weeks!! Didn’t know exactly where we were going to stay when we booked, bit ended up in a 4 star catered chalet in Breckenridge!! Sooo jammy :D . I’d love to do it again, but 2 kids makes it more than a little bit complicated & expensive.. :(

You’re lucky. My missus works on a soap, so I’m obliged to watch it with her when its her episode!!!! 8O

The only problem with going to North America or Canada is that it’ll spoil you. Europe will always be 2nd rate after that. I lived in Banff for a while & boarded at all the big resorts in Alberta. Wish I’d tried more of the BC resorts though, like Revelstoke & Fernie. The people are fantastic, the lift queues non existent & the powders amazing. Just got to put up with occasionally harsh temperatures (-35 degrees) & taking buses to the slopes each day.

Went to Colorado too & was completely blown away by it. A list pass at Breckenridge took us to Vail, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain & Beaver Creak. More waist deep powder than you can shake a stick at :-)

Really want to go back there NOW… Anyone want to buy a kidney???, ….maybe a child or two????? Just wondering……

Got a Altitude 30 and have been really happy with it. Got rid of those terrible Continental Mountain King tyres, changed the bars to 750mm and will be swapping the stem to a shorter 55mm one, but if I’m being honest or didn’t need it. Has made it feel more gnarr though 8)

Seeing as no-one else has put a picture of theirs up, I’ll break the ice.

[/url]
Genesis[/url] by Jonathan Roch[/url], on Flickr[/img]

I’ve got one. Works well…when its on…

Problem is that I got it to guarantee signal when I’m working from home, but if I have to run an online meeting where I’m uploading data at the same time as using my mobile, the quality of the phone signal goes right down the pan and I end up sounding like Metal Mickey or Norman Collier :(

That means I’ve got to turn it off and run the risk of flakey signal from the Vodafone mobile network, which at times has been non existent this year..

Wish I didn’t have to use Vodafone, but its a corporate contract with my employer, so there’s nor much I can do, I’m afraid.

I got a VW Passat Estate(12 plate) as a company car earlier this year and I’ve been really impressed with it so far.

Spec is excellent (DAB radio :D, cruise control, electric everything…), the boot’s massive, the handling is way better than I thought it would be and the fuel economy is superb, although it’s never going to scorch the tarmac with a 1.6 Tdi engine though. Real bonus is that I save a packet on company car tax cause of the low C02 rating though.

I’d have loved a BMW 3 touring or an A4 Avant, but both would have been more expensive on tax and personal contributions & neither would have taken my kids, dogs and bikes as well as this does.

Interesting point made on Question Time last week as there was a guy on there who owned a Starbucks franchise.

He is essentially a small independent business owner who pays his royalty to Starbucks and pays his tax to HRMC independently of the global Starbucks business. He has therefore done nothing wrong (apart from having the wrong sign over his shop), unlike the larger Starbucks franchise organisation.

Given the fact that he employs 50 staff, boycotting businesses like his does little to hurt the larger Starbucks organisation, but has a significant effect on his business & therefore the local economy.

I think it’s easy to lose sight of the effect general boycotts can have on the exactly the type of business most people would actually like to support in tough times like these.

It is the governments responsibility to make sure that the tax loopholes exploited by Starbucks, Amazon etc are closed. General boycotts can be counter productive in my opinion unless it is crystal clear where your money is actually going.

Fox Launch Pro’s. Comfy, good protection & not too expensive.

Love mine :-)

Love checking out other peoples bikes, but as sharing is caring, here’s my two babies.

First up my old ’93 Orange Clockwork. (My dad’s got it at the moment and has fitted a mahoosive saddle to it which somewhat spoils it’s slender lines.

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I rode it again a few weeks ago and although it still felt fast and ultra responsive, it’s amazing how hard it is to wheelie and manual an old school bike compared to something more contemporary like my Genesis Altitude. Going to fit a 55mm stem to the Genesis soon, so getting the front wheel up should be a nearly telepathic exercise soon. Can’t wait for Christmas :D

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I’m with matt1986 on this one. Going to get a pair of lights for bars & helmet from candbseen for Chrimbo :-)

Can’t see the point is spending twice as much (or more)for Magicshine or other brands when you can get 1200 lumens for £45 and you get UK support if anything goes wrong. Can’t see you getting any support from the Chinese sites…

I think what you’ve got to do is reset your bowels in much the same way that you would a computer. That way you can restart your digestive system so that it fits in with your day.

I’ve read a lot of good things about Picolax (see link below), so maybe this could help to get this ball rolling, as it were.

Picolax[/url]

If you do try this out though, promise to let us know how you get on. Remember, we’re only here to help :D

An Australian friend of mine introduced me to a different species when I lived in Canada a few years ago.

The Rocky Mountain Barking Spider!!!

Tiny little buggers. Very hard to see, but have got very large mouths.

Unfortunately a couple must have climbed in my bag when I came back to the UK as we’ve now got what can only be called an infestation of Yorkshire Barking Spiders around my house now!!! Seem to multiply after the wife’s cooked sprouts for some reason…

Cheer Nobeerinthefridge :-)
I think you’ve just persuaded me to part with another £30 from my wallet! (The missus would just have spent it anyway :wink:)

I’ve been thinking about getting a pair of X2s for helmet & bars. They look ideal for the helmet as the beam is well focused, but do you think the light spread is wide enough for peripheral vision from the bars?
I’m wondering whether the Luminator might really be worth the extra cash for this instead??

I’ve spent quite a lot of time in Copenhagen in recent years and the single biggest difference to the UK seems to be that the cyclist has the right of way over cars, partially due to the design of their cycle paths & partly due to their traffic laws.

For example, if a car is turning right at a junction (even if traffic lights are green) it is the car drivers responsibility to check that that there are no cyclists riding up the inside of their car before they make the turn, not the cyclists responsibility to get out of the way of the car.

Denmark seems to have recognised the inescapable fact that cyclists are the more vulnerable party and less capable of inflicting injury on others. Compare this to the UK where drivers are the dominant party & cyclists have to get out of their way, it’s easy to see why cycling is less popular & safe in the UK.

If the UK were serious about adopting the Danish model, it would almost certainly have to involve legislation that would put greater liability on drivers and provide cyclists the right of way in more scenarios, as ultimately litigation would make drivers keenly aware of their responsibility towards the more vulnerable cyclist.

I don’t particularly relish the prospect of legislation, but I’m not sure there are many other ways of instigating change in our car dominated society :?

My advice is to make sure your heel doesn’t move in the boot when they’re done up. Heel lift will ruin any chance of decent edge control and can be really uncomfortable, so this should would be top of my list. Thermo & custom liners can really help too, but only if the basic shape is right for your foot.

Fox Launch Pro’s for me. Hard cap protection & they’re so comfy you forget you’ve got them on. What’s not to like? :-)

It’s not just O2! I use Vodafone with my company phone and their network reliability & coverage has been absolutely appalling lately. I work from home a lot & for around 3 weeks in late August/ early September I had no reliable signal at all & ended up purchasing a “Sure Signal” box from them which uses my home broadband connection to guarantee a 3G signal to my phone. (This affects my connection to my company network so really doesn’t help that much anyway!). I’ve since heard that they’ve been upgrading my local mast to 4G, but no-one at Vodafone has officially confirmed this with me.

This problem isn’t just where I live in West Yorkshire either. I’ve just been involved in a project to roll out smartphones & a custom app for 200 field service engineers in the UK & the number of people complaining about poor network coverage all over the country has been suprising.

Vodafones service has been pitiful throughout these problems too. If anyone knows of a reliable mobile network provider right now, I’d be very interested to know who it is :?

Give Moss Bros a go. I got a really nice Calvin Klein suit from there a couple of months ago & the staff were excellent. I just told them the colour I wanted & they had two great suits off the rack for me within a couple of minutes. They really knew their stuff & saved me hours of trying on things that were the wrong size or fit. Can’t go wrong :)

Try the sizing chart on this website. Might take some of the guess work out of it for you.

http://www.allsportprotection.com/v/vspfiles/foxpro.gif

I went for the L/XL by the way and they fit my very averagely sized legs perfectly :-)

Ashima?

Park are OK, but I’ve found that blisters often form over the puncture hole which then spread & eventually leak. Good ol’ fashioned glue & patches work much better IMO but are a pain to use out on the trail.

I now just use the Park patches for trail side repairs & glue & patches for when I can get home to do the job properly.

Ashima??

Got one for Christmas and have been great so far. Most of my rides are 2-3 hours, not all day epics, so I tend to put the full 3 litres in, a couple of tubes, multi-tool, tyre levers, phone, keys and maybe a lightweight waterproof in the expandable outer pocket if it’s looking dodgy out. Well designed, well made, comfy. Happy punter here :-)

OK, an Orange Clockwork’s not a rare bike, but I had one in silver. Not seen another like it.

Also still got a Proflex 853 with a Noleen NR4 shock and Pace RC36 forks. In bits now though since the shock blew up and couldn’t be repaired :(

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My old Proflex[/url] by J[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Just had a quick look at the POC pads on CRC & blimey!!! HOW MUCH???

They’d better be pretty amazing pads for that kind of money (£109.99)! Can they really be that much better than Fox Launch Pros or even Scott Grenades?

My Fox pads are very comfy on XC rides & don’t slip at all. The cut out on the back of the Fox Launch Pros mean that they don’t rub the back of your knee. Can’t see a big cut out on the POC ones… :wink:

Burley in Wharfedale fits the bill quite nicely for you I reckon. Not quite as expensive as Ilkley or Harrogate, but a bit nicer than Otley or Guiseley IMO. The issue with Ilkley Grammer has been resolved for now by the way.

I was brought up near Kendal and went to school at Kirkby Lonsdale & while it’s a really nice area, the houses are at least as expensive as Ilkley & Harrogate and you really have to drive to Kendal, Lancaster & Penrith to get to the range of shops & facilities you can easily get around Leeds & Bradford. Convenient, it ain’t :wink:

If you’re just after some clear lensed glasses to keep the crud out, I’d recommend some Bolle safety glasses.

http://www.bexpress.co.uk/pageview.php/ecommerce_stockcode/contclear/name/Bolle+Contour+Clear+Safety+Glasses.html

Fantastic value for money, styling’s good, good lense quality and it doesn’t matter too much if they get scratched, dropped and broken. Personnally, I’d be distraught if I knackered a pair of Oakley’s up :wink:

I moved to London back in ’98 when I was on a low wage (£13,500) and lived in a shared house in Ealing.

Absolutely HATED it!!! :evil: I ended up driving back up north to Sheffield and Leeds every weekend to be with my mates and go biking in the Peaks and Dales.

The upside was that I learnt what I wanted from life and that was that I didn’t want to be in London, living in the rat race, just for my career. My job pays for me to have the lifestyle I really want for me and my family and living in a grey, noisy, dirty, miserable part of the world (like west London) certainly doesn’t give me that!

Ever since then I’ve been determined to live and work in the North so that I can enjoy an outdoor lifestyle in an area near my friends and family and so far it’s worked out really well :-). However, I do have to work away from home fairly regularly, but that’s a price well worth paying for me.

Had my Easton Havoc’s for about 4 months now and they’re perfect. Haven’t even thought about cutting them down even once. When you get lock on grips on them, 750mm isn’t that much after all. Love ’em :D

Bruised coccyx from an endo gone wrong…. 8O

Saddle whacked me right up the ar*e !!!!