Nonk, didnt think you had ignitors on last time I saw ! Whats that weird Rendez thing like ?

My hardtail : –

Me 65kgs
Bike: 24.5 lbs = 11.1 kgs

5.85:1

Hugh….any chance of a link to the Marin extension?

No problems link below, its a great ride, we do it often. Sometimes these route guides on peoples websites are innaccurate and hard to follow, however having read through the route that the guys have put on the flattyres website, it is just about spot on as I can see, so you'll be fine with it.

Marin – Sarn Helen – Siabod – Marin route

Yep, of all the trail centres we are lucky to have at our whim in North Wales, Penmachno is my absolute fave, provided you do loop 2.
Marins ok too, and if you want to extend it to take in some great riding around Siabod then let me know, I can send you the link to the route. Its a lovely ride that takes you onto the Sarn Helen trail, down into Dolwyddelen and then back around the flanks of Siabod for a return to the Marin trail its about 4 hours and nothing too scary unlike the Cowlyd ride I problably unwittingly nearly sent you on :wink:

We tried that one last year. Partner threatened to shove my bike up my bum if I ever tried to take her anywhere that tough again

:lol: lol
Yep its not an easy ride, I think there was an article in MBR in their Wales special, that called it the hardest route in Wales, but I think thats overstating it a bit. Let me guess the rocky path along the west bank of cowlyd was not her favourite bit :wink: it is a proper technical challenge isnt it ? If you can clean that one, then I am proper impressed, I know I cant !

Yes, loads of routes off the main trail centre stuff. I live in North Wales so its our main stomping ground, Depends what you like and your fitness / technical abilities are ?
If you like it tough the two lakes route taking in the banks of Llyn Crafnant and Cowlyd is a killer route, hard physically and relatively technical, but it has a technicalish rocky descent from Crafnant – Capel Curig which is ace. Alternatively for a less technical all dayer you can combine the marin with the Sarn Helen and Siabod route. Great scenery, less technical than the first route but enough in it to keep it interesting :) Failing that Penmachno is an ace trail centre in itself

Want or need?….

Lets face it, with the exception of a few things, like food, water and oxygen everything is a "want" and not a "need" Unless you are the current Mrs Jengin who obviously "needs" 8 handbags and 12 pairs of boots :lol:

could have asked me about this yesterday

Busted !! my cover is blown !!

Its the 10 speed thing thats the key, dont want to simply convert my bike to 2 front rings, I want 10 speed, so I can keep the majority of my ratios

XO is going 2 x 10 next year (as is XTR and XT)

The XT, sounds interesting it hopefully should be in my budget.

I use a Lazer genesis for the road, (its more of a pure roadie/xc racer style lid, with no peak option) but comfort for me is second to none, with the cable retention system. Lovely bit of kit, not cheap but for me worth every penny

I can only comment on road racing, but in a word you need both ! You need your distance legs that you get through your base training, but you deffo need your anaerobic stuff (red zone) in place. To quote Jens Voigt recently who said something on the line of
"you dont get dropped from a race because you dont put out a steady constant 280 watts for 3 hrs, you do get dropped from a road race if you cant put out 450 Watts for 5 seconds !!"
Obviously the whole peleton issue makes road racing and mountain bike races different but I guess some of the principles are the same.

Its very difficult to do a race without succesfully having your base and your top-end in good shape. But if I had to line up at the beginning of a road race with only one, I'd trade off my base everytime and try to survive on my top end, because you are dead meat without it. (Unless your races are over 3hrs)

Michelin Prorace 3

and the housewives too I imagine?

Ooops yes, thats what I meant !

it has put years on me.

Nonk, At least you've got that Yeti ASR to tinker with to keep from going bonkers :wink:

Thats good, started to think I was weird :)
My point is sort of the fact that I dont feel like it feels wrong or like "riding a chopper" my point is that for me it seems to feel no different at all.
Is it likely because that I am 10 stone, and generally a smooth high cadence pedaller.

Again depends what you want the bike for, I have two MTB's, an all mountain 140mm trail bike for general riding and a XC race hardtail for marathons etc. I am always slap between a small and a medium. I went for the small on the Trail bike for chuckability and fun and the medium on the XC bike for a racy and more powerful position on the bike and for long distance comfort, Both bikes technically fit me very well, I am glad I chose the way did, It seems to be about right.

Unless you are an accomplished or gentically gifted snotter, then dont try to exacuate your nostrils over the top of your arm thats holding the bars, make like a proper roadie and snot under your arm, i.e lift your elbow and snot through the gap. Occassionally even this goes wrong and you end up with greenie down the side of your leg, but it is generally more succesful and indeed more pleasant than sporting it on your arm / shoulder

Fanny Chmelar

Gotta be a winner :)

Dont know whether its an urban myth but a friend once reported to me that he was watching a woman called Fanny Schmelling compete in some sort of winter event on Eurosport

Yep, I loved it. Stayed in Sanur. Way quieter than Kuta, which agreed is a bit grotty and a bit of a hole. If you can cope with the street hawkers etc then its one of the most chilled and beautiful places I have ever been. OK people always moan about the street salesmen etc, but lets face it, have you ever been to the Costa del Sol within the last 5 years, its no better at all, you cant have a meal in any coastal town in Southern Spain or spend 15 minutes on the beach without being perstered to buy hooky DVD's, watches, handbags etc.
Get a taxi to take you to the outdoor Hindu temples and the rice paddys in the north of the Island, absolutely stunning.
Food is great, ans so cheap as is the beer, provided you dont eat and drink in the big hotels, beach bars and small private restauraunts in the towns like Sanur are the places to eat and drink. Cant wait to go back

Nice to discover that the world isnt all 9's and 10's, making me feel paranoid about being a 5-6

Git :wink:
kidding aside it is a beaut by the way, mind you, I'd love to pick some fault with it, but frankly I cant ! :lol: your lawns in need of some TLC though, sort that out !

I bought a trek 8000 hardtail for xc event duties recently. wish I could have afforded carbon or even top fuel fs race bike, but I had otehr commitments. Swapped out some of the really hefty bits,(tyres, seatpost, saddle, bars and pedals) with some creative, swapping, Ebaying and STW clasified work, so have probably only spent another £180 ish on it, and it comes in just a shade over 24 lbs (not theoretical, properly weighed)
So I am happy enough with that. Wish I had the money to upgrade the wheels to something lighter and I would have really improved the bike that way, but you can only afford what you can afford !

Just over 2 and a quarter hours

Both mine and my mates regular Humvees have fallen to bits within 6 months. Not sure if the quality is the same on the 3/4s but I'd be going for the Singletracks anyway.

Specialized mini. Its ace, and I can get two tubes (lightweight evo55 ones that is (not the regular) a mini tool, and a co2 inflator, just, its a squeeze but I have to have a tiny saddle bag as I cant stand the big whopper ones.

And if it's proper flu, then don't even go near a bike until you've got your energy back.

I am a bloke, of course its proper flu ! How could it be anything else :wink:

So whytetrash the bottom line is they are fast but really scary, sounds good to me ! :wink: Mind you I have just bagged some 2.1 exception crossmarks for similar XC duties, which are according to some pretty scary too, so will see you in A & E epic steve.
Glad I saw your posting though, I nearly plumped for some Larsens for early season events !

Mind you, if I had MTFU'd then I doubt my Mrs would have cooked my favourite dinner for me on Saturday night bought a damn fine red and mothered me to cheer me up. Sometimes it pays to MTFD :wink:

MTFU, I suppose thats an option :D

Its the spokes unwinding, and inevitably when you recheck it, it will be out of true again, so you will retrue it, wind the spokes up again, and hey presto they'll unwind again ! it can be frustrating.

The way I was shown to take the twist out of the spokes before riding it was to take the skewer out lay the wheel flat on the floor with the axle end on a block of wood to protect it. Hold the wheel at the 3 and 9 o'clock position, with your hands directly above the 3 and 9 oclock spokes and using straight arms use a downward forcing motion almost as if you are trying to taco your own wheel (which is a risk) but I have done loads of wheels like this and not bent one yet, but then I am a 10 stone weakling ! then continue round at each spoke. You do have to use a lot of force though.
You have to remember to turn the wheel over and repeat, because you are only de-tensioning the spokes on the lower half of the wheel. You know its working because you place your second finger on the underneath spoke as you are pushing down and you can feel it unwinding. The you can re true the wheel and repeat the process until the spokes are all even tension and hopefully detwisted.

Thanks for the offer cxi, was looking at the exceptions if I did go for the crossmarks, cheers anyway

Hope it works out for him and you, its a devastatingly difficult thing to beat.
My only sister drank herself to death over a period of 10 years and died of liver failure before she was 30. She was pretty, bright, a talented sportsperson, caring and loyal fiance and not underpriveleged, so there was no obvious social factors involved. We all knew (myself, my parents and her boyfriend) what she was doing, we all did everything humanly possible to stop it. But for her it was clearly doomed.

I am definately not trying to impose a feeling of inevitability and helplessness to your situation, far from it.
I hope some of these tragic stories actually bring some realisation to the person early enough to stop it but to echo all the sound advice written by the people on here is that, you cant make any form of impact for change on the person, until they are 100% ready to change.
When that happens I believe it can be beaten, and I hope he does. But I think you will know when he wants it badly enough, until then be prepared for lies, and dont take it personally when you feel you have been deceived, you just have to always remember that he is not in charge of his actions.
I genuinely believe that we got to that magic point with my sister where she was ready for help and would fight it, But unfortunately for her the true awakening came when she realised that she may die that day, and for the first time in 10 years I really think she accepted the reality and finalisation of her own death and it horrified her and she decided she didnt want to go….Sadly she did about 6 hours later.

Be Lucky

Yes, that makes sense. If I valued grip and downhill confidence over everything on marathon events then I'd ride my Zesty with High rollers on for Enduro's and marathons. Dont get me wrong I love my LP, but its not what I want for events etc, OK I dont take them too serious and I am in most part there for the beer :) but I also like to see what I am capable of in the event as well What I am after is a tyre that is "capable" and relatively predictable in differing conditions, whilst still having the least rolling resistance and speed. On paper the crossmarks fit the bill in that department, however paper is worth jack S**t when you are face down in the cack at the first time you hit anything semi technical ! I love the racekings for speed, and havent ridden them in iffy conditions yet, but I guess that they are going to be way better suited to specific (summer, dry) events.

Elbow – Leaders of the free world

Am sure this wont help, but I use the MT500's I have Shimano size 43's and use a medium overshoe, and it only just fits, very tight to get on

Nant yr Arian = Great centre, rode the long trail and the short one a few weeks back in orrible weather, some sections of singletrack are the best I have ridden for a very long time

There is plenty of information (including pictures of him training, and him describing his workout sessions on the trainer) out there that Sir Chris Hoy either currently or has used in the past the CATEYE CS-1000 trainer, with a full carbon track frame attached. The cateye trainer is the fixed front dropout type, and apparently he uses it for flat out sprint intervals. I would only be concerned about a catastrophic carbon failure if I was confident that I could apply more frame stress and torque in a sprint than a Chris Hoy at 2000 Watts until then I will sleep easy :wink:

Nope, I am definately far more timid riding at night, just not as confident, my riding mate is the total opposite though he rides with loads of confidence at night, and takes way more risks, (mind you he is as daft as a brush :)

Definately fine, provided you load carbon in the direction that its intended to, its as strong as hell. The downward force on the carbon fork when its in the trainer would be the same as when a wheel is attached, and the lateral forces would be no greater than when sprinting on the road I would guess. I use a cannondale road bike with full carbon fork on my trainer, where the front wheel is removed and the fork dropouts mount onto the trainer, and i'd be more worried about breaking the trainer than the forks. The biggest risk to carbon structures is surface impacts that go beyond the lacquer and also beyond the top comsetic layer of carbon weave, and unnatural loads in weird directions, I think too many people are concerned about the fragility of carbon fibre. The stuff is unfeasibly strong, thats the whole point, if it wasnt then every single Formula 1 designers got it wrong :D Search the web for information on how Carbon Fibre composites are tested for strength, provided its manufactured well and without faults and that its fitted well then it truly is the most astonishing material