A mate had one he sent back as it didn’t fit him, but I tried it on and would say it is as well made and felt like it offered more protection than the 661 pressure suit I’ll be wearing in the alps next week.

Great value for money and seemed to be very well made – I’d certainly buy one (although fancy a POC short sleeve one with separate elbow pads despite the price!)

Another vote for Jedi – fantastic coach, fantastic setup at Herts – had me clearing a 9ft gap jump and styling in the air after a few hours!

I’m going next Friday and can’t bloody wait! Have you insured your bike separately against loss or damage etc? My travel insurance covers medical stuff OK but not a high value bike.

Ah, didn’t think about that. May just got for a 32T then and flog it when I change the ring.

Thanks!

I’ve recently switched to Taxis – much less hassle with kids and loads of luggage. Not much use if you’re 200 miles from Heathrow though I guess!

Quick update. After several annoying trips to Swinley and Aston Hill over the last few weeks, something finally clicked on Sunday and I think I’m back to my old self again! Looking forward to growing my skills on Friday rather than finding them again!

Looking at an E13 for my M970s so did you find a solution?

I probably do more xc miles on my 160mm ML8 than I do on my HT – it’s pretty light (28lbs) and climbs well but I rarely feel over biked. All depends on where and how you ride I guess.

I’ve just upgraded from a Speedball (Joplin 3) to a Reverb and am a big fan. I would only get one with a remote control, as once I was used to it, I found I was dropping it all of the time. Some people waffle on about you not needing to drop the saddle all the time, but on a technical or steep section it can be a huge help.

I don’t have one on my HT and miss it when I’m riding that, but all of the 27.2 ones are too short for the frame sadly.

cheese@4p – the crash that injured me was due to complacency – a drop off followed by a jump that I’d done dozens of times previously, my concentration lapsed once and I got the take off wrong so landed and went into a tree! The second off was probably due to excess enthusiasm at Cwm Carn – giving it the large down the DH course having never ridden it before, so slowing down a little for things like that in the future certainly wouldn’t go amiss!

Certainly will! Looking very forward to it. Turns our you are about 3 miles from my business partner’s place – Sacombe?

Thanks for the input – pretty sure the Jedi day will help a lot, but think I’ll go to a place I know well and just session some bits until the flow comes back.

You’ve obviously not owned some of the cars that I have! I’ve had several brand new cars (mainly BMWs) that have all had some minor niggles to sort out, and the new mini I got last month has a wonky bonnet but the CR-V has had zero issues. Main dealers are always a rip off for servicing, but when a car is still under warranty it’s nice to have the stamp in the book. The last service was an out of warranty one but it was only £50 more than the local garage at around £200 so not really worth the saving.

Service intervals are quite regular I guess at 12500 miles as my BMWs have often got to almost 20k before asking for a service.

Wifey has an 06 plate, petrol manual and it really is ridiculously reliable. It’s on nearly 50k now and still on the original rear tyres! It’s had 3 main dealer services at circa £250 each and a new battery last year that’s it in close to 5 years of ownership. I had an 05 Range Rover that cost me £3k in the last 12 months of ownership – don’t buy one of those!

She averages about 27mpg but it doesn’t get many long runs. Quite nippy at slow speeds, but pretty sluggish above 70mph and really starts to drink fuel if you drive at 90mph on the autobahn.

I don’t actually ‘like’ the car, but as a reliable family car it’s fantastic – just doesn’t have any soul. If you do big miles, a diesel would be my preference as it uses about 35% less fuel (37mph ish from a friend) and the torquey diesel suits the car better than the revvy petrol. More money, but long term a better bet and I wish we’d got one.

Loddrik – what forks are you running? I have DUC32s on mine but have started riding downhill with a bit more vengeance recently so fancy something a little longer to slacken it off like a 160mm Talas 36.

My ML75 was called Baldrick – now owned by a mate of mine who’s ridden it twice in the last year!

Anyone? Maybe a bit too OT!!

I’m thinking the same – I have a Maverick ML8 with 150 front/160 rear travel and whilst it is awesome for 95% of my riding in the UK, a couple of recent trips to Cwmcarn and Aston Hill and an upcoming trip to the Alps are making me want something a little burlier. I have seen photos of some ML8s doing DH in the US with a pair of Totems on the front, which is one option, but I can’t really be bothered swapping forks etc over and for the price of some decent Totems, I could probably buy half of a used DH bike.

Uvex XP100 here – love it although unsure how big they go as one size fits all.

Did you see this one? Christ he must have a headache!

It’s a lot steeper than Cwmcarn, Afan or Llandegla which are the only trail centres I’ve been to. The camera does shallow things out a lot – the actul hillside itself is probably 45 degrees in places, but the tracks are obviously cut into this and run along it. It’s the drops into the switchbacks that are the steepest bits

I’m very new to DH so I’m sure it is just run of the mill, but compared with the welsh centres I’ve been to it’s much steeper and technical.

Didn’t try the black as it was getting dark – what’s that like?

Well worth the visit – see my thread after my first visit last week

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/aston-hill-bloody-hell-its-steep

The tune is ‘Night Air’ by Jamie Woon.

Wasn’t sure what the tracks were called but if it is DH3 initially and then DH4 I’ll update the info on the video.

In the wet it must be lethal as the roots are all off camber and must be like ice – not sure I fancy that much yet!!

The DH4 drop was awesome and Graham only crashed both times as his line was just slightly off and the steep camber off the line is completely unforgiving.

Having watched some of the proper DH Boys going down there on YouTube I know we’ve got a long way to go yet and am not sure I can afford the injuries, but can see DHing becomimng a more regular part of my riding! Oh dear, time for a new bike I think!

I gave up getting UST NNs on my Rhythm Pro’s and got the LBS to do it – they have a burly south african with superhuman thumbs and he got them on for me! Tight as you like!

Well spotted! It’s fitted in a layforward stylee as the charge spoon saddle flexes quite a lot and was triggering the drop mechanism! This way round the lever is at the back and it’s fine. Also puts less stress on the bushes as the load will be a little more direct.

The tune is Kasabian ‘Fire’.

Pretty sure that trail is Deerstalker, but where we stop at the bottom, Labyrinth starts and is the super twisty singletrack that runs for about a mile further. Babymaker starts next to Deerstalker at the top but is shorter and has the tabletops in it. They both finish at the start of Labyrinth.

Good buy – almost bid for that myself as they come up so rarely I fancied keeping my current one in XC ish guide and builing a burlier one with some Totems!

Here’s Vondally’s old Bingo!

None of that smut here thanks (although I was wearing Assos bib shorts under my baggies!)

Yes, GoPro in upside down mode so can be angled steeply upwards. It’s probably close to 45 degrees upwards when you’re stood up straight.

The trails at Swinley are superfast at the moment.

Happily iMovie is pretty quick at editing and I only film interesting bits! Am sure the novelty will wear off before too long but keeps me entertained for now!

Natural selection

FSA K-Force triple on my Whyte 19 and no problems at all – don’t feel any different to the XTRs on my ML8

88 Renault 5GT Turbo (how I insured that at 17 I have no idea!)
92 Clio 16v
95 Punto GT Turbo
95 BMW 318is coupe
97 TVR Chimaera
96 BMW M3 GT (one of only 50 RHD ever built)
98 AC Schnitzer S3 CS (one of only 3 RHD ever built)
05 BMW X3
07 BMW 325i coupe
07 BMW 130i M Sport (awesome car)
06 Range Rover Vogue
11 Mini Cooper D

Miss the AC Schnitzer and TVR – bloody kids!

I got the Eurostar to Brussels, then a train to Antwerp where I met a guy in a hotel room, handed over a brown envelope full of US Dollars in exchange for a plastic wallet with a rock inside it!

Had moule fites for lunch, got the train home, dropped the stone into my favourite jewellers and had a ring made from a sketch!

A family friend used to be a diamond dealer so it was he that I met – my jeweller reckoned I saved at least 60% on the UK price of the stone and I got massive brownie points for the romance of it all! Only issue now is trying to insure the bloody thing!

Suspect you’d need to know where to go and what to look for, but Antwerp is where all of the rocks come into europe from the mines, so will always be the cheapest place to buy (in dollars at least – the euro rate would be cr4p at present).

I went for the first time 3 months ago and it was boggy as hell but great fun so looking forward to some dry runs there. Very technical and twisty in places.

I test rode one back to back with a Blur LT2 and 575 when I was looking to upgrade my Klein Palomino a fee years ago and just didn’t get on with it at all, neither did a mate who was looking to change his Ransom. I ended up with a Maverick. They are too popular to just all be hype, but just wasn’t for me.

I’ve always used XTR and haven’t had any play in 4 years or so – they cost more than twice the amount but weigh a little less and have a slightly nicer action. Being quite lazy when it comes to maintenance (and a bit of a tart!) the extra upfront cost is worth it for me.

all my chest cam vids,shake like ****,on the rocky sections,maybe its the heardtail that makes it shake more.but could do with making it more stable on my body somehow?

I’d imagine the HT doesn’t help, but I just ended up doing it REALLY tight and it helped a lot – I think the last vid up there was quite loosely fitted and it definitely has more wobble than the other two. I was actually aware of the camera moving about on impacts whereas when it was really tight I didn’t notice it at all.

This is the last clip from the day

Plenty of mincing on the DH after that crash! To be fair, I hadn’t ever ridden it before and as the scars attest, I probably should have had some more padding to compensate for the lack of talent!

First time at Cwmcarn and loved it – did the XC loop first, then climbed up to do the DH and then did the XC loop again.

Very tiring but great fun.

Here’s the correct link in HD: