There is a bucket load of proper off piste around Afan, that unlike The Masts, doesn’t really exist anywhere, a bit like at the FoD. There are certain bits that are known & talked about, which can be found with a bit of detective work, but others like to be kept a secret. I was fortunate enough to be shown some from a bunch of locals, who obviously went for a point proving exercise when we said we were pretty much happy to ride down anything 😆

They made even the spicy stuff at Masts look like ‘my first off piste’. Finding it however, is near on impossible & i’ve only ever found a handful of what we rode again, but I know it’s full of gold, just don’t live close enough to explore it again to find it…

If you’re riding blues & reds at BPW, then even the fairly recently adopted stuff in Afan official will be pretty excitable for you

The thing that intrigued me about the half fats is the weight of the bike as I ride some steep stuff and how they feel when you’re above assist speed, the large amount of YT vids I watched said the half fats are much better in these scenarios then the full fat siblings.

I don’t ride a huge amount of flow stuff, but it’s easy to get over the limiter on quite a lot of trails. On the bigger bikes i’ve ridden (Bosch/Shimano/Brose) they all feel like crap when you are trying to pedal meaningfully. The Mahle motor is a significant improvement on that, but is still is no free pedalling normal bike, that’s for sure.

In terms of feel on steep stuff, or trying to slow it down, I would say it’s a lot more like a normal bike in terms of feel over a full fat ebike, but I haven’t quantified that as yet (although I do intend to try, on my suspension setup trail I use). As always, the stopwatch will tell :)

I like Katy, without doubt… but i guess i’m self-conscious that my time has passed and i’m better spending the money on the lad for coaching instead of myself, hence he has a session with Wye-mtb and a session with Katy in the next few weeks coming up. The logical one would be for me to jump on his sessions with her… but i don’t want to hold back his learning.

Do a 3hr morning session with her, to teach you the fundamentals & you can go away & cement those skills.

I’m pretty sure your lad would relish the opportunity to ride faster, harder trails with his dad on his wheel & having a friendly rivalry when racing. Otherwise at some point in the not too distant future, because of his age & kids ability to soak up new skills, he’s going to stop riding with you, because the chasm will be too big.

More of a general observation, but I do find it odd with MTB specifically, there seems to be a real ‘issue’ with people having skills coaching against pretty much any other sport.

you go faster on an ebike because of teh weight. ebikes are confidence inspiring downhill and stable due to teh centered low weight. Remember Chris porter strapping weights to DH bikes.? same principle. the extra weight also makes teh suspension work better.

It’s not quite that black & white, or simple. In ‘some’ situations ebikes can be as fast, or faster, but there are also plenty of situations where they are not as quick.

I haven’t done any back to back comparisons with my now current ebike, as it’s still new, but until recently on the whole, my previous ebike was slower, to a notable degree in most situations. The weight provides stability, but it also makes the bike harder to slow down on (very) steep sections & harder to handle on janky tech.

I have one section of trail I use as a repeatable test. A fast, open & flowing line, with mellow corners, into a high line over roots which you need to hop, then a super hard braking section before dropping into a steep bombhole, followed by an increasing section of rough & steepness. The whole trail is ~1m30s & regardless of conditions I am ~4 seconds slower on the ebike. Most of which is lost in the braking zones. It’s not always practical to brake earlier on an ebike as the trail may not allow for it, so I have to ride it slower, to make it down. I have tried many a time to ride at a speed comparable to my normal bike & as yet I haven’t made it down the trail in one piece.

There is a massive difference in feel with a 16/17/18kg DH bike, with 200mm of travel, over a 150mm E-Bike weighing 24kg.

I have a Kenevo SL for the reasons you define (minus the health issues). I’ve had a couple of full power ebikes & end up using them in Eco most of their lives.

I’m reasonably fit as I still like to race & can put out a 2000m vert day on my normal bike so I do not ‘need’ the assistance, but I ride a lot & doing that around a normal job and life is sometimes a bit much. I value my descending time more than my climbing, so an ebike with very similar geometry and feel to my normal bike (Dreadnought) suits me down to the ground.

I can happily ride in Eco still & even now turn down my settings from stock.

In terms of ride quality and feel, it is a very different bike from my Gen3 Levo which I was pointless me having a 700wH battery for.

With the KSL I’ve still done a 60km day & 1500m vert on the internal battery (with 18% left). For me it’s a great blend – for the days when I want assistance, yet I don’t feel like I have to re-learn to ride a bike again as there is a huge difference in feel between a full fat eeb and a normal bike.

The Levo wouldn’t be my first choice in geometry, because it doesn’t suit what I like to ride, but if I took it for what it is, a Stumpy with some assistance (ie a trail bike) it’s probably great.

There must be a new one due soon, after 3 years now. There is also Transitions version of the Rise imminent…

Way out of budget but I bought the Patagonia dirt roamer storm pants. They are amazing, they feel like a regular trouser (none of that sticky feeling you get with waterproof stuff) and they are proper waterproof.

Whilst they are waterproof, they are designed for people with midget legs. And they have literally fallen apart in less than 12 months. My other Royal pants have significantly outlasted them, for a third of the price.

As far as I’m aware, there is no difference in any of the heaters no matter how many kW the ad says.

Maybe true of the cheap Chinese tat, but certainly not true of Eberspaecher / Webasto. All you have to do is look at them side by side to see the difference.

Have seen a scary number of them leaking CO too, coupled with the average ‘hobby’ van converter, doesn’t really instil confidence.

There is a reason why there are 20 year old Eber/Weba systems still selling for good money on Ebay, for the sake of a few hundred quid.

Changing a tyre on the motorway certainly does not appeal, but neither did waiting for 6 hours a few months ago in the freezing cold for a tyre fitter to come and sell us a hugely overpriced tyre as the side of the road.

We have spare wheels now (which is a bit of a pain in a Tesla, but I’d rather do that than wait forever again.

A Fox SLS won’t fit an EXT shock.

The only springs that will for will be a Rock Shox, EXT, Cane Creek or Nukeproof spring

I think chip supply is improving, with most of the tier1s signing supply agreements with the semiconductor companies, so at least they are getting priority over what is produced.

As a large T1/OEM (amongst other things), chip supply is improving, but the backlog is so great, most manufacturers are anticipating delays until Q3 2023. In the meantime supply is erratic and specification of vehicles is inconsistent to order schedules.

Things are improving.

Finally have a build date for my new car – April with May delivery. It had been indefinitely postponed since just after I ordered in late August.

They definitely arnt on the whole. There are some very big manufacturers who currently have closed order books & customer orders are sat at dealer & country levels until they are open again.

Some will weather the storm better than others. Tesla will continue to buck the trend as they arnt so reliant on them to build cars.

I think people will see the effects of this for at least another 12 months & then there will be a game of managing how prices come back down, as a lot of car companies are essentially finance houses now & they are going to be at significant risk if the bottom falls out of the market.

It’s been a really simple answer for years. FiveTen of your choice. Everything else fails in the fundamental bit of grip, in comparison. One job as a flat shoe maker, make it as grippy as a FiveTen, yet no-one has been able to manage it until recently.

The only comparable shoes I’ve tried are the new Specialized 2FO (pick which ones suit you).

They are as grippy as a FiveTen & last better on the sole.

I don’t really understand why people get so bent out of shape about drying times either. A shoe dryer for £30 means it’s a non issue, whatever you have.

Have tried many others, none manage the simple requirement of the same levels of grip (even FiveTen lost the plot recently by putting the harder compound on the PrimeBlue Freerider Pros, which has made them shyte).

I know it is currently popular to knock Yetis, and honestly, truly, I cannot find a genuine reason for this. They are not delicate, and they never have been

It’s mostly because of the blind patriotism the fans display. And because they build bikes that fall apart, in the real world.

In the last 7 years, I’ve cracked 4 bikes. 3 of them have been Yeti’s. That doesn’t include the rest of the other warranty issues either (worn SI Links).

I’ll let you work out which of brands was an absolute sh*t show to deal with as part of the warranty process..

IMO they deserve all the sh*t they get.

I have 3 bikes.

Trek Boone. Barely gets ridden, but it’s my road bike, gravel bike, stupidity CX bike etc. I should probably just sell it and buy a nice hard tail instead.

The two main bikes get pretty much equal use, either a Forbidden Dreadnought or Kenevo SL.

Choice is driven by who I’m riding with, what we’re doing & how much energy I have.

Life is too short to ride a sh*t bike on sh*t trails for months because I’m worried I’ll wear some parts out 🤦‍♂️

I just ride it regardless. If I need a new bit because it’s worn out, then so be it.

I can ride to Swinley in 20mins from my door

I used to live 20 minutes away from it (a good while ago now) and still chose to never, ever ride there.

Off the Plenney run in Morzine

Handily, if it all went wrong, you could have pulled on the ripcord & used the parachute to save yourself.

I assume that’s what you had in the holdall you are wearing on your back? :)

Code RSC.

Cannot stand the wooden Shimano feel, and I think universally everyone who uses them in complains about wandering bite points.

Codes. Feel good, very powerful & just work.

The Rise doesn’t feel massively different to a normal EP8 bike in my experience, but I put that down to the EP8 feeling underpowered compared to the current Bosch & Brose motors. They are significantly more powerful in real life Vs paper numbers.

The Rise and the Levo SL feel very similar in terms of actual ‘riding’ but then they are both fairly restrained trail bikes in terms of geometry.

Hands down the best riding ebike I have ridden is the Kenevo SL. As a Gen3 Levo owner, I’m in the process of selling it to go for the KSL. I ride mine with the power turned down so far it’s pointless me having it & a 700wh battery. I’ve still done days where I can get nearly 2km vert out of the Kenevo & have a much nicer time riding it back down trails.

I am not your typical ebiker though (insert stereotype here) 😆

I had the pleasure of both. I went to a local state school & it was an absolute dump. I had a good group of friends though & we were generally left alone as we were safe, middle ground, rather than targets for the hard of thinking.

I did witness some spectacular levels of violence, bullying, drug taking & harassment though. I thank my lucky stars none was aimed at me, as i’m surprised some of the kids actually made it through at points.

Then I got totally the other end of the scale. A sports scholarship to Millfield for 6th form. My parents probably could have afforded it (although it may have taken some belt tightening) & it was certainly an experience.

Some of the wealth/privilege was remarkable, as was some of the entitlement. Most were fairly normal kids born into a life they never really understood – some were so far removed from reality, it was bizarre. Relatively speaking, I of course was about as povvo as one could be there, but I didn’t really get any stick for it (sports scholars were generally respected anyway, thankfully).

Didn’t make any long term friends there, still waiting for the ‘old boy network’ to kick in, but despite that I made it out & into a (now) fairly senior role in a multinational company. Not sure that part of my education made that possible to be fair. Did however have an obscenely rich girlfriend, who is probably worth many hundreds of millions now who was bonkers – that was fun.

Coaching
Suspension
Brakes
Tyres

Basically that.

If ‘going fast’ is a serious objective, then invest in something like a set of freelap poles & go & break a trail down, section by section & then link it together again.

If the technique is there, then unless you are World Cup level pinned, then you can pull multiple seconds out of even a 45 second trail by sessioning it, corner by corner & finding the limits.

And that’s just at my mediocre level (occasional winner/podiumer at the sort of races you go to).

It’s also quite good fun to do :)

Also a Whitecroft local (well, we near enough live in Parkhill Enclosure).

Drive through Lydbrook fairly regularly & it always feels dark & gloomy. Not somewhere I would have actively chosen to live, even if it is close to some lesser known Forest Gold in terms of trails.

In for the champs & will do Triscombe when it’s released. Not bothered about the rest.

We’re in. I entered the Sport as I wanted to race on the Sunday as my other half is as well & she’s not the most accomplished racer – means I can be in her vicinity at least.

Never done it before, so no idea how/when practice is, guess on the Friday for both of us.

I’m guessing it will be littered with wobblers though. Hopefully I can at least get out in the first wave 😆

I think @Hob-Nob @bruneep had issues with known seal drag, that was fixed with replacing the twin lip wipers with single lip.

Honestly, I don’t know what the issue was – I’m quite fussy with my setup but I couldn’t get it even close to feeling like something I was confident in pushing.

The only way I could describe it was a bike that felt too much as a trail bike, but then not enough as a bigger bike, kind of didn’t do anything well.

There are others in that middle ground that are better IMO (not high pivot idler bikes).

I tried the Deviate, but really wasn’t impressed for a few reasons. It actually put me off trying another HP bike at the time. Then tried a Druid (with a decent shock) & was a big difference, but just wanted something a bit bigger & a big less trail bike, now I have a Dreadnought.

be aware of the Forbidden crush zone requiring all sorts of bodges to stop damage to seat post and swing arm

Not really a ‘bodge’ but Jank were selling something which made it a non issue & now Forbidden are offering a free bigger guard, with an extension to make it a non issue. I at the time did something similar & it’s been a non issue. Never had any bolt related issues, and I checked it when I built it up, and do fairly regularly anyway.

Out of the Forbidden options, I would say the Druid might be the better choice. The Dreadnought is a big bike (the medium is bigger than the large Highlander in some areas) & it really shines on the roughest, nastiest trails you can find & ride. I am yet to ride a bike that manages to eat the rough stuff like it, but if you want to boost off every lip, root, bump, etc, then it’s probably not the bike for you. It wants to straight up go as fast as possible, which does polarise opinions, but it suits me as that’s how I ride.

That’s not to say it won’t jump (it does), it needs a little more body english to manual, but they are trade offs to me for how well it rides in other areas.

The Deviate was a straight no for me, and the issues supposedly the Norco has with the lower link means it wouldn’t be a consideration either.

As for general HP riding, other than a little bit of noise on the idler when pedalling, I couldn’t really tell you if it pedalled worse than my previous similar intentioned bikes or not.

Richie Rude is a beast & he’s 26/29 or 27/30 on full DH casings front & rear. But the man can certainly chop a corner pretty hard!

I would say my sweet spot is ~24 front & 28 rear with DD casings. Any less and if I square a corner off, or get too excited doing a cuttie, I can burp a tyre. I don’t run thinner tyres, but if I did, I would up the pressure more, as they squirm like crazy when you load the bike up in corners.

We have a smart casual office, which is basically collared shirts, or company polo’s, chino’s & suede or similar shoes. Jumpers/fleeces are all fine. The only people who turn up in suits at our place are auditors & people who didn’t check for interviews.

Friday is a total free for all.

Big German corporate machine, for reference.

187cm.

~490mm on both bikes. All with 50mm stems. All with reasonably steep STA’s.

Tried bigger, turned me into a slow wobbler. Wouldn’t go bigger again.

Nothing in the diary that weekend, drop me a message nearer the time & we can sort the details out 👍

Likewise if you want to be shown some of the decent off piste in FoD, just ask.

You can have your pick of the ‘known’ trails up to bonkers steep hidden stuff.

I find that somewhat remarkable as i have struggled on the Southerns. I’m happier throwing myself down a BPW red than i am hitting some of the Southern Enduro stuff

To be fair, that’s because the reds at BPw are mediocre at best & not technically challenging at all.

You can go 15 minutes down the road to Barry Sidings & ride stuff a whole other technical level to BPW.

Riding groomed bike park trails isn’t the answer, it’s steep, natural tech.

It’s not hugely important, but given the price, build quality, unpleasant interior and now lack of advantage in range there are better options which are also better looking. It’s rapidly lose the market in Europe now there is a growing range from the mainstream manufacturers.

As ours is a work car, we don’t have confirmation bias, but to counter – what else is there to compare it to?

Everyone keeps talking about the New Ionic 5 as the Model 3 killer & it is utterly woeful inside by comparison.

I’m fortunate/unfortunate that bough to have driven a lot of different EV’s now & there is literally a handful of them I would consider over a Tesla. They are all double, triple or more times the price.

Competition is a good thing, so the more the merrier.

I bumped into a bore last time I was there, he kept me chatting for ages about tyres for gravel bikes

They are even worse than the actual boars.

Stoneworks car park is the local dogging spot, so don’t flash your lights 😆

Although you do get people fishing in the lake there, so there is quite often campers parked up (or people wild camping for a night).

I’m not a great fan of ours, it certainly looks a bit odd from the front (M3P). I do like the minimalist interior though. Swapping between that & our other (soon to go) normal car feels like stepping back in time.

I forgive it though, as an a to b tool, it’s brilliant.

Plenty of people do spend a lot of money on second hand bikes. I sold a 12 month old ebike, which was ‘well’ used for £5k a few months ago & sold another £5k normal bike recently.

As to what I would spend on one, if it had warranty & it was what I wanted, and a price I deemed ok, then I’d consider it. Generally I only really buy new though, as I am fortunate enough to get a deal on things, I can keep a bike/frame/whatever for 12 months & punt it on at what it cost me (or actually make a reasonable sum of money right now!).

Car allowance + 45ppm.

We have a very generous scheme, especially when your place of work is ‘home’ so all mileage is claimable.

They are just different series of events. You should also include the South West Enduro Series, Welsh Enduro Series & if Charlie decides to bother the Welsh Gravity Enduro Series.

There’s also the random one off’s, like Ard Rock etc, Tweedlove & countless others.

Some series are harder than others. The Southerns are pretty entry level in terms of distance & track difficulty (and as a result of that, fitness requirements). The Welsh ones get a bit tougher, some of the PMBA’s are pretty tough (especially if the weather is crap). The Scottish Enduro Series race some spicy stuff compared to down south.

EWS qualifiers exist & just piggyback off a normal race. Essentially, there are just EWS points up for grabs for the top finishers in a few categories. Get enough of them with an EWS licence & you can sidestep the lottery entry system. It’s less of an issue now they break out age categories a lot more & have the EWS50/80/100 races too. I’d you do well enough in the 100 & you really want to get smoked, you can go race the main event.

I’m not a parent so my opinion might be irrelevant but at 13, you are essentially a sponge for skills development. Even if you do 10/15 races a year, which is a decent amount, it is still an insignificant amount of riding compared to just time on the bike. I’d be focussing on that, and racing can be a by product.

If I could wind the clock back & start again now it would be pump tracks, dirt jumps, DH days & going to find the dirtiest, longest & steepest off piste I could find, to ride my normal bike down in the Welsh Valleys as much as I possibly could.

Like all these things, I think it depends on the bike a whole heap too.

My current bikes are both better with air shocks than coil (EXT Storia).

I’ve had all sorts of problems with them in the past year

I don’t discriminate by years, they have always been utter shyte for me.

They are my last resort when I haven’t been able to get OEM sintered bad (which last multiple times longer, perform consistently & are more powerful). That includes the Race ones & the Ebike pads.

If I can’t get OEM, then the only comparable pads I have found are Galfer, Trickstuff & Swissstop. Which cost as much as OEM anyway.

We had both in our household, now Shimano & Brose.

The Shimano is noticeably the least powerful & the most hungry on battery. The current (not brand new) Bosch system was as powerful as the EP8 for a setting lower & whilst the new Brose isn’t as ‘grunty’ as the Bosch if you spin it, it’s got more power (and it’s very quiet compared to both).

Shimano rattle is more noticeable than the Bosch, it is actually quite annoying, if you have a quiet bike.

Integration/controls of the Bosch are shyte. Shimano is better, Spec is better still.

I wouldn’t discount a Shimano system’d bike, but the total lack of serviceability of the system is an issue, and they do like to go through motor bearings 🤦‍♂️

Do tend to ride the Eeb more in the winter.

Don’t have a specific winter bike though, just keep riding either the Eeb or normal bike straight through.