My kids love him and so I get to listen to his stuff quite a lot. I actually think he’s pretty good!

My 11 year old showed me this from 5 years ago before he was really big – most impressive one man band I’ve seen in a while!

And here!

The Atherton’s seem to like it!

http://trekfactoryracingdh.com/2017/03/04/training-camp-1-california-new-team-mate-new-coach-new-kit/

Hob Nob – Member
Obvs me, having held the KOM on Red 15/The Big Dipper for coming up 4 years

Total pro.

I’m not sure it’s as fast as it used to be, but if your KOM time is the 51 seconds then chapeau! A good 15 seconds faster then me…

I’ve done Les Arcs a couple of times and loved it, BUT, the best day’s riding I have ever done there was when we went over to La Thuile via the Col du Petit St Bernard with a guide from Coolbus. As above, a bit like Inners but massively longer. A guide will help for sure as the best stuff was all well off piste.

Chamonix also great but when we went, the train along the valley was closed for engineering works and they wouldn’t let Bikes on the buses until the following week, so we had a 45 minute cycle up to Le Tour one morning in 25 degree heat which wasn’t much fun!

Sounds promising… ended up in MA this morning – god it was slushy!

Last day tomorrow – we’ve had an amazing time and think I’ll book now for next year and bring the wife and 5 year old along too..

colp – Member
It’s a 2 minute drive from Dienten and Muhlbach in the Hochkonig ski area.
Just up the road from my place.
How do you like Kings Park?

Lucky man! Kings Park is great. I reckon my son might be up for a run through the smaller stuff there tomorrow morning.

What’s the biking like in summer? Are the lifts open?

Gladly to hear I’m not the only one!

I’m staying here – it’s perfect for families and we’re the only English here which I like. It’s run by the friend of a friend (who’s English) hence me hearing about it.

http://www.birgkarhaus.at

Great family rooms for €200 per night half board for all of us. They picked us up from Salzburg (45 mins) and ferry us around for no extra charge.

It’s a 2 minute drive from Dienten and Muhlbach in the Hochkonig ski area.

8 hours on the slopes yesterday less a lunch break and the same planned today…. they’re certainly sleeping well!

I did it about 10 years ago at a busy garage on the A40 into London. I was convinced someone must have pinched it and as it was only £20, I didn’t bother calling my bank as I felt it was just my bad. It was shown as gone from my account so I just put it down as a life lesson.

About 2 years ago, I received a letter from my bank saying that they had done an audit and it had come to light that this happened and the machine did take it back in, but it wasn’t credited to my account, so they gave me back £20 plus 8 years interest!

Make sure you call them and get it back now.

Blimey – hadn’t realised this would be quite such a contentious post! Certainly set a new replies record for one of my topics by a factor of about 3 to 1.

Started my own business 7 years ago tomorrow. Now employ 16 people and love every stressful, irritating, joyous moment of it….

Semi scientific comparison.

geologist – Member
The main issue is thinking that it’s a replacement for a mountain bike, or can do the same things. Once you get over the fact that it’s a road bike which you can take mild off roading you relax and it becomes a blast!
Leave the rooty steep rocky downhills for the mtb and take it out on a mix of fireroads, smoother bridleways and tarmac and you will see it’s a great tool

Fair enough – fire roads and bridleways don’t really interest me on the MTB (being so #FullEnduro ) so maybe I need to try again with some tamer terrain. The plan for summer is to do the 25 mile each way commute every now and then on it, most of which is on a canal path, so maybe I’ll try and find some mild off roads bits on that.

That video is ace! Sort of proves my point though as not many smiles to be seen!!

All fair comments above and TBH, I don’t really know what I expected! Maybe I’ll try again when it’s not so gloopy but for now I think I’ll stick to riding bike on terrain that makes me grin!

It was a good workout – 139bpm average for the whole ride (1300ft of climbing) but 150+ for the section in the woods with a couple of peaks over 160. Still no desire to do it again though…

cookci – Member
Can i use shimano shoes?

Yes – same bolt spacing as SPDs

I rode various Shimano SPDs for 20 years (last set were XTR Trails) but moved to Mallet E’s last year and haven’t looked back since. Perfect in combo with Specialized 2FO Cliplite shoes

I’ve fitted some Schwalbe Smart Sam 700×35 cross tyres on my carbon grade and it’s pretty tight – don’t think it’d take a 40 without rubbing the fork and chainstay.

30T NW on 152mm cranks and a 12-36 cassette. She gets up all of the steep bits at Swinley so perfect for what she uses it for.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/project-bike-for-10-year-old-daughter-complete

We get ours done annually (family of five) but a neighbour moved I last year and theirs hadn’t been emptied in 16 years! Was an elderly couple so think it depends on usage.

£200 or so here in South Bucks

sbob – Member
Toasty – Member
“There’s no replacement for displacement” is rubbish

You obviously haven’t experienced enough displacement

Displacement and Turbos is the way to do !

Fatgit – YHM

molgrips – Member
it may be wise to check availability of spares in the countries you intend to travel through.
Far less likely to break a straight one though?

I’ve snapped a few spokes over the years and none at the J bend part. Most seem to snap about 50mm from the rim

slowbloke – Member

@hughjayteens I’d be interested to know why he prefers the 5010 to the Hightower. I was torn between the 2 when I bought mine and never did test ride a Hightower but keep thinking about doing so.

His riding style is quite ’50to01′ and I think he just finds it much easier to throw around and hop/manual etc. Playful is probably how he’d describe it whereas the HT is much more of a flat out ride over anything type bike.

A mate of mine with access to all sorts of nice bikes including a Hightower, still rides his 5010 more than anything else and is just about to change it to a V2. He can properly ride and I’ve seen him do stuff on it that I wouldn’t try on a V10! Great bikes. Go for it!

Head-To-Head: Santa Cruz Hightower vs. YT JEFFSY CF Pro

As a Hightower owner, this review makes the Jeffsy seem like incredible value.

I had XX1 on my Bronson and have Eagle on my HighTower – noticeable improvement in gear range and the shifting is certainly smoother than 12 speed XX1 (which I never liked as much as XTR).

The OP wasn’t asking for financial advice and as above, I think if you’re going to do it, do it properly and change the lot.

deadkenny – Member
Some actual horses here. Thing is though, a horse’s strength will vary so what is the actual benchmark of a horse power and how do you compare your horse against 1 hp?

Good question! I recall the term came from someone working out how much work a shire horse could do in a day and using that as a benchmark so suspect most shetlands are under-delivering!

maxtorque – Member
During some basic cal work at Millbrook two years ago, since which it hasn’t really moved due to work commitments ;-( i recorded 2.46 sec to 60 on warm slicks, and 4.86 to 100…….. (it won’t do 125mph on the currently gearing)

Jeez! A neck snapper! Is it road legal?

My car 515bhp although according to this it’s more like 575bhp and does 0-60 in 3.5!
Wifey’s car 309bhp
Mower 4bhp
Strimmer 0.5bhp

Yep love them! I’m usually an 8/42 in proper shoes big wear a 9/43 in these and Shimano. Very lightweight and although not very splash proof, they dry very quickly.

Yes equal carnage! I try and avoid driving in when possible but if I have to, it takes at least an hour, often more, to get from Central London to the start of the M40 from 4pm to 7pm.

Unless it’s the school holidays in which case it’s normally half that time.

I live near where the M40 becomes the A40 and yes, it is a nightmare at anytime between 7 and 9am. I’d park at Beaconsfield or Gerrards Cross (both v close to M40 junctions and have station carparks) and get the fast train into Marylebone.

Slough goes into Paddington which is less central so depends where in London you need to get to?

Depending on the time of day then Westfield is ideal. If you need to be there at 830am midweek the traffic could be hideous from the M25 (could take 60mins+ easily if it’s bad), so you could park at Beaconsfield or Gerrards Cross and get the fast train (20mins) into Marylebone for £13 each plus £6 to park. Much faster than the tube (again, depending where in London you need to get to)

Harry Potter read by Stephen Fry is very good.

Saw some photos today on Peaty’s IG. So desperately sad. I can’t begin to imagine how a family can move on when something like this happens.

RIP Charlie.

I’l drop you both a mail (I think it only fair to give the OP first dibs) as soon as I have a date for the 36s.

I’m going to have a boost Pike 140 RCT3 29er for sale in the next few weeks off my 4 month old HighTower – probably ridden 12-15 times so in as-new condition.

Great forks but I’m a Fox man and so have some 160mm 36s incoming,