Lewis Arms ride is great fun – friendly bunch of guys and the evening winds up with a few pints and some grub at the Black Cock Inn.
I might see you there.

For trail centres try Afan Argoed and Brechfa.
I’m looking for more natural stuff other than Castle Coch as its a bit of a hassle getting to trail centres mid week.

One of my favourites is one attached to the seatpost looking backwards. Get a great view of the rear tire and the rider behind.

I’ve posted this before in another thread but I like this mount.
It uses the roll bar mount and a bit of creative work with cable ties.

To get an idea of the video angle here is the only one I’ve posted so far.

That Niner is gorgeous hugor. How tall are you ?

I’m 6 foot even. The bike is a large. It feels perfect for me with a 100mm stem but I’m considering dropping to 70.

Salsa make great bikes – I own one.
But all the brands above dabble in 29ers bar one.
Niner have been making 29ers only for longer than anyone else bar Gary Fisher.
Thats all they do and they have a great customer service reputation.
I’ve had my RIP9 for 2 years now and it still completely amazes me every time I ride it.

Skyline and Whites at Afan today – heavenly. Had a big off though – think I got away with it. Damn GoPro makes me push too hard – I never crash when I’m not wearing it.

not me. Nice finish but I really don’t like the farm land hike a bike stuff early on. In fact it did my head in.

Sky looks great this morning. The trails will be completely dry by now.
Can’t wait till this evening!!

Hugor,
Are you still in country next week (10th july)?
We’ll be having our monthly forest ride, welcome to join if you are in the area.

Cheers, thats next weekend. I’m free and will try to come over for the ride.
Will the ride meeting details be posted on the site above?

oh nice pics.
Work kept me back late tonight so I missed out.
My legs are burnt from the last 2 nights rides and they could do with a rest anyway.
Gonna thrash them again tomorrow night I think if the weather holds out. Forecast looks good :mrgreen:

have a look here

http://www.cc-cc.co.uk/routes.php

Hey thanks alot. Some good length routes there. Cheers

I was with my girlfriend who is a relative biking novice

I am in a similar situation to you. Mine is not a complete novice but certainly walks quite a few sections on your average uk red trail. Was there enough riding for you both given you would have had take less technical trails?
How much normal XC stuff is there?
Most of th stuff I read about the Alps is all DH related.

a six fingered local should be able to show you the less travelled paths

what does that mean?
I’ve looked at the fod website which only had the short family trail.
I’m looking for proper singletrack. I like to do 20 – 40 kms rides. My fav local ride is the W2 at Afan.
Anything of similar length even if its not waymarked?
Thanks for the gpx routes offer.

subcribed. I live in Cardiff but am keen to explore new terrain.

I think it means that you are riding a bike that is designed for much bigger and nastier trails that it is being subjected to.
Like riding a 7 inch travel downhill bike on a XC trail.

Just got back from a week in Spain with the parents. It was lame. To return to a cracking 28 degree day in Wales was my greatest fear. Bet it rains for the next week now.
What I’d give right now to be dirty, sore, dehydrated and drunk right now after a cracking ride!
I’m jeolous for all of you!

Skyline has been like that for a while. Long mudpits churned up by dirt bikes. Not much singletrack left. Not worth it anymore.

A good rain on a long motorway drive does the job for me

it feels good riding a nice clean bike… until you come to your next mud splash

which takes about 30 seconds where I live and ride

Take them off after your wet ride and strap them to your bike carrier in such a way as the air will enter the shoe as you drive.
They can get very dry in the short drives I take back from my trail centre.

Your meant to wash them?

Says who? Why should I? What difference does it make?

same goes for the car

I don’t clean that either. I take all the junk out of the inside every now and then, but I don’t get the hose and sponge out!
Again whats the point in doing that particularly when my bikes worth more than my car anyway.

Adjustable posts are the business and the best bang for buck upgrade you can make to your bike.
I had an early generation Joplin which kept failing until it ran out of warranty. I’ve also had a GD which works perfectly after 2 years and has been very easy to customise with extra drop points etc.
Unfortunately its on another bike which I no longer own :oops:
I’m now in the market for a new up-down post.
I wouldn’t buy the Reverb after all the early failures I’ve seen around here. Strangely enough alot of people still seem happy with their purchase which explains why SRAM was happy to dish out shit quality untested product. Personally I’d rather ride with my reliable rigid post than have an adjustable one fail on me half way into an epic ride or holiday.
I’ve now lost faith in all hydrolic posts and will only buy a mechanical one.
I’m looking into this post[/url]
Again it looks a little agricultural but its mechanical and very adjustable.

I leave mine dirty. Chain and suspension gets cleaned.

I’m with you. Its a mountain bike after all. I maintain the essential moving bits before every ride but whats the point in cleaning the frame all the time?
A clean bike in the Uk only lasts one or 2 rides max anyway and frankly there’s better ways to spend the time.

I’m already signed up and looking forward to it. Great that there are the 2 shorter options – I was feeling a little intimidated.

But a good rider would be able to pass slower folks without too much bother so it’s not a problem.

What is it about mountain biking that it attracts so many people with small penis syndrome?

Is it that they aren’t really good at anything else that they place so much importance on bragging about how great they are on forums such as this.

Most of the singletrack at CyB is narrow enough that unless a rider lets you pass, its dangerous to both people to attempt to overtake them.

Agree with above. There’s nothing worse than stopping all the time to get shit out of your eyes when your thrashing some sweet singletrack.
Its a bit dangerous too.
Glasses don’t work either as the crap just gets on them and blocks your vision too.
I’m using a RRP neoprene guard and it blocks alot of stuff. I’m going to fit a crud guard as well.
Mountain biking is about the riding and not the posing. I don’t care if my bike doesn’t look as nice with a guard on.
People against them are obviously more concerned about how they look rather than how they ride.
Perhaps they should consider another sport like figure skating.

The MBR is graded black. Personally I think its dumb to take a complete novice on that trail.
There’s plenty of other trails to take them on so why choose that one.
Everytime I go to CyB I and up getting stuck behind people who are riding trails well above their calibre. Sure they can ride the trails and walk most of the obstacles. But they won’t be able to ride it at the speed its meant to be and they’ll hold everybody else up in the process.

some amazing shots here :D

This guy has some cracking routes.
Also does guided rides and skills courses.

http://www.theedgecycleworks.com/mtbroutes

http://www.flattyres-mtb.co.uk/

Worth considering

To put it in perspective, my mate had to send his Gravity Dropper back for fixing

I had a GD and I used to fix it myself. Its really easy and the spares are cheap. I drilled custom drill holes to suit my required drop.
I used to have a Joplin which I gave up on for the very same reasons that the reverb is having.

my Reverb has been faultless since I fitted it

Its only been out a couple of months max so I would not expect any less for such a premium product.

So glad I held back on getting one of these.
Good warranty service is great after a year of good product function not a few weeks or even a few rides.
I expected RS to make a more reliable product than this is turning out to be given their experience with shocks.

no

JohnClimber – I totally love that shot. Scenes like that is why I do mtb.

Windscreen wipers for my cycling glasses.
I hate having to stop all the time to wipe a blob of mud off my glasses.

Geez man that’s not a good sense of humour.
I hope he was ok.
Grow up.

A view like that from your lounge must seriously elevate the value of the home.
Endless hours of live entertainment through winter.

Its seriously painful. Its a bit like after school detention.
They kept us there the whole 4 hours.
There was the usual know it all dickhead up the front too who kept interjecting and dragging the whole process out.
If he knew so much he wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
I did learn a few things but I could have learnt those in about 5 minutes rather than 4 hours.
The most useful bit was finding out how to know the speed limit on any road.
Other than that I found it a whole lot of preeching and scare mongery.

Rather than just punch out a whole lot of numbers why don’t you ride an existing frame, decide how you’d like to change the handling, and make the necessary modifications onto your custom frame.
I ride a 2010 Niner RIP9. In 2011 they have slackened most of the angles by 1 degree which is massive. Personally I don’t think the 2010 geometry could be more dialled but clearly they think it needed changing.
I don’t think you’ll get a good answers to your question here or anywhere as its a matter of personal preference.
I would ride an On-one or something, decide what you don’t like about it and adjust the geo to achieve your preference.

I use my 456 SS for what you are referring to – general street abuse.
Its also in the green bike thread.

It has 160mm forks, 27 speed, Halo twin rails tires.
I really like it.