Sorry Mug, I’m posting on both threads – but as they are yours…

Two options I think:

1. Black up the the mast (I think this is a must), divert to red to catch the top of Spooky. Don’t do the pie run, it’s just been resurfaced and a bit dull. Almost no fireroad at all on this combination. About two hours.

2. Full Black. About 2 hours 30m. I was pretty knackered at the end the last time I did it at this time of year. HATED Redemption.

EDIT: I haven’t done Whites Level for a few years – but it’s much more like GT black than red, IIRC.

I suppose I like the ups about as much as the downs… I prefer it rocky to rooty, but wouldn’t be happy going down the DH at Inners or Hamsterley – that’s definitely out of my comfort zone (and not what I enjoy)! Mostly I ride not in trail centres.

As daft as this sounds, I just like a ride to feel like a proper mountain bike ride (hence LOVING the black to the mast), rather than purely downhill or perfectly groomed trails. I haven’t done enough of the other 7 Stanes to compare really. It’s a lot better than the red/black at Dalby, Hamsterley or Keilder (although they’re enjoyable too, and much closer to home).

I tend to arrive with only an hour or two of daylight left, and always alone (sneaking a quick one in on my way home) – which means I tend to stick with what I know. Although I think I’ll do Inners this week if I get time.

A bit late to join this (I guess you’ve been now).

Nevertheless, the black from the hub to the mast is one of my favourite bits of riding anywhere. Give or take it’s about 1h10 to climb if your not stopping to take in the views and really shouldn’t me missed. It just feels like a bit of proper biking, rather than a trail centre ride and it’s the perfect ying to Spooky’s yang.

At a bit under two hours I’d do black to mast, Spooky and then don’t do Pie Run (nice enough section, but a bit of a short way to end the ride).

The full black is also a really nice ride and feels much more natural than some of the more groomed sections on the other grades (which I like too for different reasons).

Me too Chris, I’ll drop you an email…

Ta.

I feel your pain Rudeboy. Some total chunt nicked my best looking bike too. A 95 Zaskar LE in ano black with silver RC30s, ATAC stem, Hyperlites, Ringle Moby Post and hubs (all in silver) laced to M321 Ceramics, full first gen XTR with Tioga Revolver cranks. She was beautiful, and the worst thing was I’d stripped, serviced and polished her that night. I was pissed off for two years over that…

Must let it go really!

Got to agree with the above Rob. If you’ve got 2.5k to spend, then get yourself into a decent local shop and buy new. Plenty of choice. Don’t even think about spending that much on a second hand bike until you’re a bit more experienced and know what to look for and how much to pay for it. I hope that doesn’t sound arsey, I mean that in the nicest way 🙂

Still have SRAM on the tandem, only on there because of the length of the cable run and 1:1 pull.

Tried on on my normal bikes – for me, X9/X0 is not a patch on XT/XTR for shifting performance – although I accept that it’s worth changing cable inners and outers every few months on Shimano to keep it really sweet. Kicks SRAMs arse though, in every performance respect.

Thought about Red of the road bike to replace D-A (weight reasons only, and I do like the shape of the hoods). Tin foil outer ring (annecdotal only) but a quick spin around the block on a shop’s demo bike showed a few noisy combinations on the chain cassette. Felt like Campag from 5 years ago in terms of shifting noise.

A mix is probably a good thing.

If I’ve spent the month mainly on the road bike and then jump on the mountain bike I find my arms are tired after a ride and I haven’t got the power on slow cadence climbs when you need to suddenly give a bit of welly. On the plus side, I can spin all day up a moderate climb and ride for double the time I would on a road bike.

In the reverse, if I jump on the road bike after a month on the mountain bike I find my natural cadence has dropped to around 70, rather than 90+ and my average speed hasn’t held up either. My neck tends to hurt after a long ride too.

I think riding both can only be a good thing. Can’t comment on weight or munchies. The main difference I suppose is the cake comes mid ride on many road rides, and at the end on a mountain bike ride… 😀

I did Glentress black up the the mast yesterday, then red with the Pie Run to finish from Spooky. Legs are pretty tired this morning (I went round in about 1hr40 which I know isn’t record pace for the dust creators on here, but I wasn’t hanging about for me). I have to ride a lot longer on the road bike to get the same pain – although I NEVER do intervals on a road bike, I just like to ride it.

I’m trying to get enough coffee in me to wake the legs up before going out for an easy spin on the road bike.

Well, they’re overkill for the riding I do (I do like to stop though), but I have only excellent things to say about the new Saints 180/160. They replaced XTR which I thought were good for the purpose but I like a more powerful brake.

I’ve had a few years on Magura Louise FRs too, which are also very good (still have those on the tandem). Never had good experience with Hope, but haven’t had any since the first Mono Minis/4s were released. Never tried Avid’s properly, but found the moderation a bit lacking on them.

The Saints are not THAT heavy, are pretty discrete and never need more than one finger. They are adjustable for reach and free stroke too which means if you’re a fanny like me, you can have your front and rear feeling exactly as you want. I love them – can you tell?!

I paid about £220 for the pair from CRC, IIRC…

Ha ha. Excellent. I like the pucker factor! I think when I’ve cocked it up I go straight to £2 coin and stay there… 🙂

I have to ask Saccades, what’s a 20p etc moment. I’m lost!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBRNexKb-Cg

He is absolutely shite live, isn’t he? But if I was completely smashed, now that’s another story. Big smile watching that this morning…

Saw IB at the Carling Newcastle and whilst I enjoyed it, I don’t think a Roses revival would work – they are too old now (as are we?)for the kind of crap singing but great music formula which worked so well live in the past.

Moet isn’t a French name, it’s Dutch. Founded by Claude Moet…

And in reality you can’t win anyway – go ahead and say it either with or without the ‘T’ (it is definitely Mo-et), and some smartarse thinks you’re wrong. It’s a good enough reason to avoid it and order something more interesting instead…

Duir: had to learn to be an idiot the hard way and have been one of the masses sold a big manufacturers all singing bike that turned out to be absolute rubbish. That was a long time ago and now maybe I am a bike snob but not for any good reason other than I am bitter

I’m surprised this thread is still going, might as well add to it.

The point I was trying to make is in the above. A long time ago, when you thought the big manufacturer’s bikes were rubbish, you’ll probably find it was only really the big manufacturers who were trying to produce something sophisticated with suspension that worked.

Your Specialized that was going through bushings was the first proper four bar that worked. Quote me Amp Research if you want, but I had one and it was a wet noodle. Marins at the time were big bouncy single pivots, Giant were changing their system every 6 months tring to find one that worked, Trek tried single pivot, URT, four bar, faux bar and so on. What was Cove and Santa Cruz doing back then to pioneer?

For what it’s worth, my last four suspension bikes have been a Commencal, Turner, Yeti and Rocky Mountain – not really a big brand in there. But you have to give the big fellas credit for having the cash to throw at this to get something that works well, and keep pressure on the small producers to try and keep up or over-take…

You seen obsessed with the thickness of the tubes on the bike. Have you looked at any handlebars lately?

There’s a taller headtubed carbon Giant frame… Or Cannondale synapse maybe?

Excellent. I wouldn’t have put it past Shimano to make them proprietory. Pleased they haven’t…

I’ll start with some EBC or maybe Bonty.

Have a look at the geometry on the Cervelo RS…

Cheers Zaskar. I’m not at all bothered about the Ti plate – but haven’t been able to see anywhere if the 975 pad shape is the same as the 965 and too tight to buy some to find out…

It looks like you are saying it is though, is that right?

Always love it when the bike snobs/idiots think that SC, Intense or Cove have more money to spend on R&D than the likes on Trek, Specialized or Giant…

Trek was NEVER the US’s answer to Raleigh – that would bew Schwinn. I haven’t owned a Trek for a while, but their early carbon stuff was ground-breaking – long before the rest of the industry caught up.

I’m pretty sure my favourite so far is the Rourke 953. Lovely.

rockthreegozy – concurred. Truly bizarre thread!

but in the ‘Wind Up Bird…’ ,which I really enjoyed ,he didnt finish the story . he just stopped writing one day….

Ironic. I’m 100 pages from the end. Have been for about two months, I just stopped reading it one day. I think it was starting to take too long to get where it was heading – he obviously thought the same.

Surprised so many reckon American Gods. Still don’t know what I thought of that, although at least I finished it!

His book with Terry Pratchet, Good Omens, was a good read for a bit of a lighthearted escape…

IWH – I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I’m pretty sure the co-axial is still based on the ETA 2892, but the derivative is nevertheless exclusive to Omega and a bloody clever tweak (English invention too).

The mighty Sunderland will take another three points tomorrow night. Just got to find a pub in Marlow to watch it…

FTM.

Eating a really healthy leftover chicken salad with roast squash, garlic, asparagus, lettuce and parmesan. Was really imperssed with myself that I resisted the urge to fry something or drink anything alcoholic to go with it (the Leffe doesn’t count, right)?

Now you’ve got me wanting a drop of Ardbeg to sip through the evening. MrsIATR is away on some MyersBriggs course (poor sod), so I think I’ll hit the whisky.

Good inspiration – thanks!

Good reading, thanks for the feedback. I side with the buy it – wear it crowd. I see a watch as a piece of quality craftsmanship, often a talking point, an investment. I try to avoid gratuitous displays of wealth (not that i have any), Rolex, Breitling, B&R etc… and go for understated Omega, IWC, JLC (some!), Patek.

An awful lot of boutique Swiss brands including Omega, Tag, IWC and Bell and Ross buy their movements from ETA (A Swatch owned brand, Swatch also own Omega) and ‘modify’ it in some way to make it better/justify the price – delete as appropriate. With regards Bell and Ross, they’ve have only been making watches themselves since 2002 (their first watches were rebadged versions of somebody elses). They feel like a triumph of marketing to me.

I’m a Rolex fan, I admit it. Apart from a few Zenith movements they used a little while ago on one of their watch ranges, they continue to make all of their own movements. They were second to market a self winding mechanism (after Harwood), were the first to recieve a Chrono certificate and if you believe the press they invested the rotating bezel (not sure on that one).

The top ETA movements are incredibly well made – no doubt. But for me, I want a watch made by the watch maker themselves, not modified. I also want a bit of history and heritage. Of the big brands, Rolex tick that box the best for me.

My tuppence. Ready to be shot down…

Check out Ambrosio cassettes. They make Campag spaced cassette with Shimano freehub patterns, and I’m pretty sure vice verse. Not massively expensive like the Wheels Manufacturing ones either – £35ish from memory…

Man. Beaten to it – I shouldn’t have made a cuppa mid-construct!

CaptainFlashheart – Member
Was he on crack, Hitler, that is?

Christ Cap’t, you’re such a Jizzlobber.*

* Not really matey, but I had to find somebody on this thread to aim it at… Brilliantly over-used in the distance past of Uni. The term. Not the practice. Ahem. 😀

yourmothermakesteaforpaligap

Excellent posts, very funny (although not sure if that was the intent).

Did you know that Kona were some of the nicest spec’d and designed bikes in the early 90s (I’m sure you do), and that since then regardless of how good/bad/indifferent their (your) bikes are, they consistently look cheap. I do hope you don’t design the finishes…

I submit for evidence:

Seriously Gnargnar, stop digging.

Do all the comparisons you want (no matter how irrelevant or incomparable), I’d worry about anybody who thinks a push in this situation should be classed as assault. The law takes a view of ‘reasonable behaviour’ – this would be one of those occassions.

GNARGNAR. I don’t believe you really think that’s worthy of being called assault.

If you do, then I can only assume somebody still tucks you in at night and leaves the landing light on. Bless.

I suspect you’re fishing though. Good catch.

Was it Bob the Builder driving?

Sorry. It’s early…

Thanks all. I’m really liking the idea of a normal holiday with two or three day excursions. I could definitely get that past my wife…

Three or four good options – that should do it… Thanks again.

Excellent Potdog, thanks.

If I was to tell you a couple of days in May I’d be in the area, can I book a couple of day rides with you as easily as that?

Ta.

Hello all.

Reply today from Cambrian, spelling errors not mine! 😉

Hi Craig,
Thanks for the email! Only tyres made in Germany have black Chilli, your don’t, but still have a sorter than standard compound!

Regards

So, no Black Chili outside of Germany confirmed. Regardless, I still like the tires, just think the 2.4 may now a better tire from a longevity perspective…

Ha, just seen the link – my eyesight doesn’t pick them up on the new forum too well! 🙂

Cheers all so far. Tenerife could be perfect – which hire company have you used Potdog, and where have you based yorself in the past?

Austria could be good too – definitely on the list although I’m leaning towards some watersports/beach option for a few of the days.

Spain less so, only because I feel like I’ve done a lot of holidays in mainland spain recently…

MrBarbarian. What fine taste you have! Who she?