Any decent stiff-soled skate shoe from TKMaxx is a good starting point – if you can get leather ones they’ll at least be slightly more water-resistant too.

Canaries? Biking on Lanzarote supposed to be excellent.

I rode clipless exclusively til I bought a full-suss, gave flats a go and really liked them. If I know I’m going to be doing a fast solo XC ride I’ll stick the SPDs back on but for everything else I ride the flatties. Superstar Nanos and stiff-soled skate shoes from TKMaxx, winner.

If you like the flats, stick with them until you don’t, IYSWIM. :)

I think Organic wins

He would if those clothes racks were strong enough to hold a single bike, let alone multiple bikes… They’re very weak; I just about trust it with a few t-shirts!

Have 24/36/bash with 11-34 9sp on the Pitch – much prefer it to a triple, if only for the increased ground clearance and lack of ability to skewer my calf on the big ring if I crash. Not noticeably run out of ratios yet but I don’t tend to ride it on the road much.

Try having a look on the MTBR.com forums – I think there’s a lot of tall guys there riding Trances.

FWIW, I’m 6′ and briefly had a Large ’09 Trance but preferred the Medium in reality – the earlier models tended to feel a bit short and tall. Am now on a Medium Specialized Pitch which is technically smaller but I prefer it for the shorter duration rides that I do. As an XC/trail bike the L Trance was a very good fit though.

Just because you don’t appear to be able to ride a bicycle without falling off, don’t tar the rest of us with the brush of ineptitude…

FWIW, I wear a helmet when I deem it necessary, but will happily ride without one when I feel it’s not. Having spent my youth riding BMXs and skateboards without a helmet, mostly in concrete urban environments, I think I’m up to the job of gently riding a bicycle round the local woods without much fear of serious injury. YMMV, of course…

I take it you know who Repack Rider is, right? Right?

CK, the mosaic and the monument are superb :)

Nothing like a bit of subjective hyperbole is there? Maybe he asked the kids whether they wanted to wear helmets and they said yes, even though he wasn’t?

Freedom of choice? Because I’m an adult who is perfectly capable of making a reasoned risk assessment of what I’m about to undertake and can decide whether or not I feel what I’m about to do warrants the wearing of protective headgear?

Do you berate those who walk on icy paths in winter for not wearing a helmet? They’re far more likely to fall and hit their head than I am whilst riding my bike.

If you could let me know your Swinley riding schedule so that I know when to avoid it like the plague, that would be great, thanks.

You know, I’ve never been impressed with the intelligence of anyone whose abbreviation of their name ends in a “z”…

So really, best advice to anyone buying a Canyon/YT/A.N.Other direct sales bike is to look at how much you’re saving over a similarly-specced model from a LBS, put that amount aside in case of having to send the bike back, fix stuff, etc. Then, if at the end of the warranty period you haven’t spent it, you’re quids in! :D

Had the Flame ones in 203/180, really bad fork judder. Swapped to the Vibe ones and it went.

If you can get a loan the Voodoo Zobop looks pretty good for £1299 with £70 further off currently.

Hammerschmidt?

1991 GT Timberline in 16″ – managed to save pocket money from doing chorse and combined my birthday and Christmas presents together for the remainder. Had it fitted with a flatter stem from the shop (Grosvenor Cycles in Aldershot) and 6 months down the line I sold all my Star Wars toys to fund a pair of PD-M525 SPD pedals and Shimano MO30 shoes – think I would have been 14/15 then.

Sold it after a couple of years and upgraded to a 1992 Kona Lava Dome (which got ridden around Pitch Hill by Declan Hicks of Zero Components whilst I was on 6th Form work experience there – he let me ride his £2.5k Proflex!), which made way for a 1993 Marin Eldridge, which made way for a car. Didn’t own a mountain bike again til 6 years ago, and up til last year they were still all early ’90s bikes.

Always wanted a 1993 Kona Kilauea after it came top in an MBUK test – will have one some day!

If you’re poor, why not look for a used Boardman Team FS? The original ones have a great spec, got a great review and seem to only fetch about £500-£550. That way you’re not tied into a 3-year finance deal. Being a shallow sod and caring about looks or a brand kind of gets put to the back-burner if you’re skint – beggars/choosers, etc.

Just a thought.. ;)

Gave up on a pair of Endura shorts for this exact reason. Now have a pair of RaceFace shorts that, although they too have a popper, stay closed.

Only ones I know of with a 125mm drop are the Specialized Command Post and the KS/Pure i900. Well, there’s also the RASE Black Mamba but no-one seems to use that.

Really wish the KS LEV had a setback head but apparently they’ve no plans to do one.

Other half has the 2011 Elite with Elixir 3s, no problems with them so far.

;)

There was a smidge of tongue-in-cheek there, in case anyone missed it…

I’m going to do what most do and recommend the bike I’ve (well, the OH) got – Camber. Had a Trance myself but sold it to get a Pitch as I just need all six inches of travel for the gnarr that is Surrey. Missus has a Camber though, which I’ve <cough> borrowed on a fair few occasions and it’s just a fun, playful bike that always seemed to be capable of taking on far more than I thought.

As others have said, if FS gives you the confidence to ride more stuff and as a consequence you have more fun then screw the naysayers – tis why I have one!

6′, shortish legs, longer torso, short arms, riding a medium Pitch currently with stock 60mm stem and 720mm bars. Generally ride for less than 4hrs though – if I was doing longer rides I’d want to be a bit more stretched out.

Spesh Pitch? Just got one myself and am loving it so far – climbs really well considering its travel.

Ask her?

As far as I can see, it’s just a dog show for horses

No, that would be showing… ;)

Wouldn’t believe anything the Grauniad writes about anything equestrian though… ;)

To those suggesting the riders should swap horses – should the cyclists swap bikes? Or all ride the same one? Same principle; you get tuned in to your ride and can perform better than on something unfamiliar that doesn’t “fit”.

Oh, and also bear in mind that the vast majority of professional riders don’t own the horses they compete on at all as there’s no way in hell they could afford them. Carl Hester does have a part share in Uthopia, but both he and Valegro are being sold now that the Olympics are over.

Too much subjectivity and art involved in dressage and not enough raw athletic talent.
I’m sure there are lots of skills involved in dressage but they don’t produce objective measurable outcomes.

Actually, at this level the judging criteria is incredibly strict and they’re looking for very very specific things – even down to the angle and extension of the horses’ legs during certain movements – and there are seven judges around the arena, the highest and lowest scores for each movement being discarded and the remaing five averaged.

As for the cost (which I’m sure has been done before) – other half’s latest horse is an ex-racer that came free (to a good home!) from the trainer, but a good allrounder can be had at £2k easily. Clothing can be on a par with cycling clothing costs. DIY livery can be had for £10-£35 a week, feed/hay/bedding/etc about £20 a week, a good old-school leather saddle can be had for £250, bridles start at £25. Competition entry starts at £10 for local riding club stuff, affiliated starts at £15.

Granted it’s not the cheapest of pastimes but it’s far from deserving of the elitist, rich-people-only tag that it gets lumbered with. Yes, you can spend far, far more if you want but it’s not mandatory.

The difference between riding and cycling comes in that you need lessons with horseriding if you want to have any chance of doing it safely and correctly. Get a jump wrong even at the lowest levels and you can be looking at serious injury, not to mention causing the horse pain by not riding it correctly.

As for Olympic dressage looking easy – that’s the point… ;) I’ve been riding a few years now, and I couldn’t even begin to ride even one side of those horses – they’re performance athletes in their own right.

My sister swears by her Specialized womens’ Body Geometry saddle, whilst the other half has a men’s Specialized Format SL130 – it’s all about what suits their shape.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

Fiancee, what fiancee?

So why are you buying his Saint cranks then?

[/Devil’s advocate]

Jealous that you don’t have the money to spend…?

;)

No.

No-one agrees.

Inverse snobbery at its worst.

Have to agree on the Eastern Europe thing – I’m in Romania right now and a much larger percentage of the girls here are utterly stunning compared to the UK.

I’m here for work however, and have an amazing gf to go home to on Friday though, so make of that observation what you will!

I’ll own up to being in a large amount of debt with nothing to show for it, a lot of it due to charges from burying my head in the sand and being scared to deal with it, a lot of it from just being stupid.

Have no float, no pension, renting, no investments. However I refuse to go down the route of bankruptcy/IVA: I caused the problem, I’ll sort it.

Looks like I’ll never have a mortgage though, and will be able to start paying into a pension at about the age of 70 or so…

I bet you there’s more people on here in a similar situation than would openly admit to it.

I’d love to be debt free but realistically it’s never going to happen.

It’s a fairly daft comparison though, with the exception of sports that have a big initial (and unavoidable) outlay (motor racing, horse riding, sailing etc) most sports are as expensive as you make them!

Last three horses we got were free…! ;)

Wish that happened with bikes…

Brant, do you have reach&stack figures for the 2013 El Guapo? I’m 6′ with a 33″ inseam, long body but short arms – thinking with the lengthened TT that a Med/18″ would be suitable as it comes in the same ETT as a large Mega. Those XT builds are damn good value, would you be offering them with a Lyrik/36 up front at all?

Other thing you have to remember is that 2009 is still 27.2 seatpost and std 1&1/8″ steerer which limits in terms of newer forks and dropper posts, which would put quite a lot of people off.

At the end of the day though, if something won’t sell then the only reason is because the price is too high. Reduce it to £500 and see if it sells… ;-)

Marmite and McCoys on thick white bread with proper butter.

Got to say, I preferred Follow Me tbh..

Now VAST, that’s good.