Bike cleaned, reverb swapped over and Mud Xs left in place! Unsure Wiggo prepares for a big race with curry and cava but hey ho!

Looks like leaving the Mud-Xs on was a wise move!

Picked my Epic up from my LBS yesterday after some work (including a Brain shock service at £160!!) and despite them putting the cassette back together incorrently, the bike rode well last night and I’m looking forward to my first race in 18 years!!

The bike has Mud-Xs on at present and I can’t be arsed changing them and given that I’m at my least fit for several years, that won’t make much difference!!

Is it worth me taking the Reverb off my other bike or will that not help much at Stanmer?

We’re based at Pinewood and it’s been quite exciting watching various bits of this film take shape around us! Wifey always got very excited when I was on the phone to her and walked past Mr Craig – when she was 8 months pregnant she told me to shout across that she just wants to have sex with him!

Can’t wait to see the finished item.

Great pics – the Breitlings are Aero L-39s.

I still remember seeing the prototype Eurofighter flying back in about 1987 when it was called the EAP (European Advanced Prototype) as my dad worked on it. Amazing how long it take to come to service and how irrelevant it’s amazingly dogfighting ability is in modern warfare!

We often use in-ceiling speakers for the surrounds, and this also works well when using the amp in 7 channel stereo mode for music at parties etc. You can buy surround sound specific ceiling speakers which have a wider dispersion than normal speakers – something like these would be ideal.

Clickedy Click

I prefer square in-ceiling speakers as they look a little different and B&W offer a square grille option.

For the front left/centre/right as above, I’d use the best speakers you can. Floor standers are great, but if you don’t want something as visible or taking up so much floorspace, there is a number of great sounding on-wall speakers from people like B&W (FPM range) and Monitor Audio (Apex range) which sound great if used with a sub.

If you fancy something from B&W or Monitor, feel free to email me and I might be able to do an STW special price!

I’m in a team of two – Team Fakawi (as in where the….) – both first time big doggers and the first time I have raced in 18 years so we aren’t aiming for the podium this year!

Think I’ll be leaving the Mud Xs on too.

How long is a lap and what is a typical lap time in the wet and dry?

I like http://www.rules.co.uk/%5B/url%5D – proper old school grub and lovely surroundings. Near Covent Garden which is always nice for a mooch.

Some of those Paul’s Cycles deals look mega. He currently rides a battered old Hard Rock and is just after an FS to give his back a rest, so anything is going to be a big improvement for him! The Cannondale RZ120 and Giant Anthem X4 looking like great choices.

And it has to be new as we will run it as a cycle2work thingy, but as it’s my company I can choose to buy from anywhere!

I’d go up 2 sizes – if I was buying more of probably go XL for a 32″ waist.

Used a Bones RS on mine with hatch huggers as the spoiler stops the hooks grabbing hold otherwise. Has marked the paintwork slightly buy it’ll polish out and I gave up being precious about cars a few years ago.

Can squeeze 2 bikes in the back with the seats down and wheels off so
I usually do this now.

They come up small – I’m normally a 31-32″ waist but have a large and find them quite tight. A large Altura falls off me!

AlexSimon – Member

hughjayteens – there’s a few people commenting vs Nomad here:
http://forums.mtbr.com/titus/el-guapo-owners-can-you-help-me-out-nomad-el-g-793282.html

Interesting reading. I fancy a changing my ML8 for something new and shiny, but as it’s used as a mini DH and Alps bike, I’m unsure if going from 165mm travel to 155mm would be a move in the wrong direction.

The weight and angles are very similar, but maybe a slackset El Guapo with some Talas 180s could be a nice option.

I can tell a difference between XT and XTR when it comes to the shifters and mech so use these, but the weight saving there is minimal.

The chainset saves a lot of weight and is meant to be stiffer but I can’t feel this but still use it as it looks bling and the weight saving is worthwhile.

I don’t use the cassettes as although there is a worthwhile weight saving, they are a consumable part and too expensive to change regularly!

I don’t use the brakes either as I couldn’t tell any difference between the new XT and the new XTR and the weight saving is minimal.

Once you’ve tried it, you won’t go back!

Think I may need to scratch my new bike itch quite soon and these look like cracking value.

Not being a brand or bike I am overly familiar with, am I correct in thinking that these are comparable with a Nomad? Has anyone ridden both to compare?

Nice bike. Do miss my ML7/5 with DUCs but the ML8 suits my current riding better.

My training is almost non existent at present due to business and family commitments. Only getting a couple of 2 hour rides a week in so not expecting to be on the podium!

How quickly does it dry out there if by some miracle it stops raining any time soon?

Sebo here. Killed 2 or 3 Dyson’s and then bought this. Has a bag to dispose of but is built like a tank and feels like it will last for ever.

Is what most of the big hotels use.

Great service from them too

No complaints from here after a couple of painless transactions in the past.

We had a Kangaroo and used it a lot, it’s now doing service on my mates wife’s Blur XC!

Does fit most bikes easily enough but my missus has a small Specialized Myka HT and it only just went short enough, and we did find that her handlebars couldn’t turn as far as you;d like due to needing the seat all the way forwards, so on a bigger bike they’d be fine.

Kids loved it although we didn’t ever used the removable rest bit.

Bit of a faff to swap between bikes so I’d consider it mainly a fit and leave on (with the heavy ugly crossbar always in place).

I went from NNs to Purgatory Controls and much prefer them.

Just emailed the bike rental place to see what they can offer! I think I’ll aim for an evening ride if possible so I can avoid the hottest time of day.

Good point re the car seats – we get a 10kg luggage allowance for the infant so I reckon I can film wrap the two larger car seats together and check them in under that.

Guess that’s what happens after 30 years of marriage.

I think that’s what happens when you’re a callous git. Knowing someone for a long time is’nt really an excuse, is it?

That’s another (arguably more common) way of looking at it! :lol:

I’ve just come back from Morzine and although everyone returned unscathed, there was a few offs that a full face lid certainly saved the day on.

The innocuous looking one at 1.37 on this clip resulted in a dented chin guard on some rocks so god knows what a mess it might’ve been with a normal XC lid.

I’d never ride there without a full face lid and some pads and/or armour. The new Troy Lee stuff is light weight and not very bulky and works really well. After seeing a mate go over the bars and then do a scorpion impression as his heels arched round towards the back of his head at speed, I splashed out on a Leatt brace too this year.

Thanks all – think I’ll need to do some bartering to get a day on the bike so good job the resort has a nice spa!

I booked through the amazingly helpful Nigel at http://www.designertravel.co.uk/%5B/url%5D who has restored my faith in customer service!

We got seven days in a two bedroom apartment, all inclusive with civilised flights from Gatwick and a private transfer for a little under £3k for the five of us. I could’ve saved £200 booking the flights on Opodo and the hotel on hotels4u.com but happy to pay 10% more for excellent service and convenience and to have the whole package ABTA and ATOL protected in these troubled times.

30+ sounds good although suspect it could be bordering on the scorchio in August!

The female of the couple whom I and a group of other mates stayed with when boarding in Les Arcs this year broke her leg badly on day 2 and was carted off to hospital. My mate didn’t go and see her once and didn’t even stay in on the last day when she was brought back to the apartment! He said there was no point spoiling both of their holidays…!

Guess that’s what happens after 30 years of marriage.

I’m a big fan – have them on both of my bikes and don’t think I’ll try anything else again! My winter bike went out in all weathers and they are still as good as day one. Minor faff to install but if done properly, they should last for years.

Great service from them too – I messed up and bought a short kit that didn’t come with full length outers but didn’t realise until I had started cutting, and they sent me 3m of new outer for free.

I think it is very dependant on where you live. My daughter goes to a village state infant school where there are 16 pupils in a class and she gets fantastic attention (she’s very bright and I was worried she’d get bored or not be pushed). The middle school also has an outstanding OFSTED report and then feeds into several outstanding Grammar Schools (South Bucks so grammar school system still alive and kicking).

We have friends in Devon and it’s a completely different kettle of fish so they are looking at private education.

Guess the house prices here cost as much as private education elsewhere so good job the schools are generally all very good!

Could they be the old heavy UST versions?

Good PSA – Just got tickets to the rowing finals at Eton Dorney! Quite likely we’ll get some gold there too!

Purgatory Control – I’ve managed to shred a few NNs (inc the old UST ones) but not troubled the Purgatory yet. Cheap too!

Here’s the full run from one of my other off’s – when I watch the slow mo I can see the front tire almost burping off the rim – was running 2.5 Dual Ply minions but when I checked later that day it was close to 20psi so I am blaming it completely on that and not my lack of skillz!

wwaswas – Member

Nothing more than small bruises so all good!

but how are the bikes?

we need the important info, not trivial comments about the state of the riders limbs!

LOL – one broken spoke, one snapped chain, one bent brake lever and a couple of punctures so for 6 people over 4 days I think we did OK!

alpin – Member

3:20.. he deservevd that for skdding through the corners

He claims to have been showboating for the camera but I think he clearly just wanted to be infornt and overcooked it!!

alpin – Member

theguy leading at the start in the 2nd needs a waist strap on his pack (?)

I know – no idea how he rides with that swinging around on his back!

Glad the first vid was suitably amusing

LOL! I only took my stabilisers off last week! To be fair, you get no idea of how steep some of those sections were from those clips. My two low speed falls were mainly due to forearm fatigue although in the first one you can see that the front tire bottoms out so I pumped it up after that one.

The full run of my high speed crash is here. The guy I am following on the lower section (from 6 mins onwards) is stupidly fit and fast (he was an elite XC racer a few years ago and raced for Lapierre amongst others) so I felt I was riding better than I ever have before when I was keeping up with him. I just ran out of skill and strength on that really fast section but despite the crash, I still finished that section 10 seconds faster than my mate who I am usually neck and neck with.

Did four days of awesome mountain biking in Chamonix.

Amaaazing!

Druff – great work! Saw on the blog that you did the corner into the 9ft gap jump later on – I did that when I saw Jedi but fancy a bit of the 12ft action next time! Was that any harder?!

It’s near our London office and I’ve driven past it a few times so will have to pop in and have a nosey.