Absolutely LOVE mine, it’s a superb ride. Fox forks are spot on. Had to relearn how to ride a hardtail fast on the rough stuff, stay loose, works a treat and probably a good technique full stop. Slx brakes are terrible/lethal in the wet, I need to upgrade them.

I kept banging on to my mate how good a ride it is and he bought one too!

Check the 2nd hand market, we both got immaculate nearly new p7’s cheap as chips, my mate especially since his is dripping with hope.

Hope you enjoy it. I’m struggling to take the full suss out that I just bought because the p7 is so ace. Obviously it’s way more engaging than a full suss but that’s part of the attraction, makes the trails come alive again

Yes been there, I’ve loved bikes all my life but I lost the love for 5 years during a time when I needed high levels of mental and physical energy to negotiate a mid life career change but now things have settled down I’m unexpectedly back with a vengeance!

Walking as a replacement for biking worked for me as it brought fresh air, friends, family, exercise, adventures and solitude, all of which biking gave me. Turns out walking is a bit cheaper than biking too. And through the 5 years my friends didn’t pester me for a ride but they never gave up on me, dropping the odd seed now and again, so when the mercury went through the roof last year and the trails were dry I bit their offer of a gentle local loop and got the bug back.

It’s completely normal to feel like you do when you’re having to channel your spare energy into something else. And nothing wrong with selling some bikes (leave one just in case lol).

Nice one @thesanityassasin I may just enter that thankyou

Wonnyj I was there and agreed, a superb event, I’m still buzzing from it. The singletrack was defo a stand out feature! Very well attended by the looks of it.

Austen – defo book one, they’re so friendly and work for all abilities

I don’t know if anyone else did the Hope MTB marathon at Builth Wells yesterday but what a day! Did the full course, sunny, warm, dry trails, was like riding abroad. One spectacularly messy mud bath in the woods at the end but what a great day’s riding with great attendance and brilliantly organised. How do I tag the organiser in this? @p.rowland

Shame I can’t make the Minehead date but I’ll be at Ruthin in September for sure. And I really hope they bring back a northern event like the old days.

Home

I’m so pleased to see this thread getting some interaction. I’ve loved these events and really want them to continue (I’m just a customer like you). I saw how passionate the volunteers were and felt I should promote them a bit

Wow @sturdylad I like the sound of that!

And that should say off road, not odd road in my post above!

Yorkshire Divide – Moors and Mills Series

Did the Malham one a few weeks ago. Good riding. To say it’s a low key event would be an understatement – like an odd road version of a roadie Audax event – you get a route gpx and off you go, don’t expect a pat on the back at the end.

I’m going to sign up to the Blazing Saddles one from Hebden Bridge. Entry fee supports local mrt.

https://yorkshiredivide.co.uk/mills-n-moors-series

Good shout Bob cheers

Hydro looks good. I’ll get back to you on the basement and Gordon’s Arms aren’t big enough for us unfortunately.

Cleikum Mill – only 2 beds left for our dates.

Tontine Hotel no availability either

Thanks for the ideas tho

Ahh great, some events getting posted up on this thread now! I thought this was one of those threads which just disappears off the front page never to be seen again haha.

Of course free events are allowed!

Glentress7 sounds good, gonna check that out, as does that Questars series. Cheers

Following from Tom’s link to sientries above, I’ve booked a place a week on Sunday on the Mills and Moors event around Malhamdale. Self supported event but it’s only 11 quid.

https://yorkshiredivide.co.uk/mills-n-moors-series

Then there’s some other mad looking events on that site, like the Source to Sea self supported bike packing one!

It’s GOT to be steel, a way better hardtail ride than aluminium and absolutely noticeable, when you ride the two materials back to back it screams out at you. And I’d highly recommend a P7, belter of a bike, love mine

Ah this is a timely thread. I’m recovering from a chemical burn on my eyeball (plaster, one of the worst things you can get in your eye the docs said, although the guy with creosote in both his at the hospital didn’t look to be having a good time of it either) so I’ve been wondering about goggles also

Yep, a cooker hood, no carbon filters, no hole in the wall to the outside and a vent cover stuck onto the wall where the hole should be 😂

Could be worse, the builder who installed my brother’s extractor and vented it to the outside, complete with nice smart looking external vent cover,  didn’t actually bother to core the hole through the wall!

I sprayed waxoyl into my inbred frame when I got it (2nd hand) and well over 10 years later it was still completely fine. Haven’t bothered doing anything to the p7 I got this year

Well me and Dan Atherton could have done with some more accurate snow updates this weekend to be fair. Me and a mate drove 6hrs down to Dyfi last night, stayed over in a b&b and turned up at Dyfi This morning to be greeted by a stressed out Dan announcing the closure of the bike park due to snow and high winds. Gutted. We turned round and did llandegla instead

Wow nice, plenty of options here for me to look at

Yep we booked hotel in centre of morzine 3 ish weeks before the world cup this year, £600 for 2 people for 6 days I think, and then realised it was the world cup week! Absolute bonus. As already said, you can ride in the morning, get yourself to Les Gets and immerse yourself in the event village and racing (can drag your bike up on the hill to watch the DH. I was warned by someone in a pharmacy that there had been loads of bikes nicked so don’t let it out of your sight). Then when you’ve finished getting drunk/starstruck you can freewheel down back to morzine on the road

@theartistformerly…

If I could work out how to post images I’d post my P7 up lol

I just picked up an immaculate 2nd hand 2021 Orange P7 29er for £850 (you should easily get one for the same price or a bit less it’s a great time to buy 2nd hand). What a bike! Had a same year Orange Clockwork Evo 29er and the P7 is a way better bike (steel), plus it’s beautiful.

Take 2… Trying again after image sharing fail and can’t edit my original post :(

My old 5/10’s still going strongish after at least 10 years thanks to CT1 adhesive. Winning Dirtiest Rider prize here a few weeks ago!

My old 5/10’s still going strongish after at least 10 years thanks to CT1 adhesive. Winning Dirtiest Rider prize here a few weeks ago!

 

You need this Wifi extender, place it halfway between your router and your telly and connect your telly WiFi to it

https://www.screwfix.com/p/tp-link-re200-ac750-dual-band-wi-fi-range-extender/5059P?kpid=5059P&cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Electrical%20and%20Lighting?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=Google-_-TOKEN1-_-TOKEN2&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249401&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1247848&ds_rl=1248154&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjt-oBhDKARIsABVRB0yrtCy9EvFLDarpD_ZzAOHokdgYXZUNwZ1co-gn_1JGm4MouoXL3F8aAhuXEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

@prettygreenparrot – he, and I, have been back every 2-4 weeks for the last 2 years to see if it can be improved rather than accepting that it can’t. They make a change, he sees how it is, then goes back for review and the cycle repeats. He’s also had multiple appointments with 2 different NHS audiology departments. He’s persevered with this a lot.

Re the microphone location design, I’m sure the location is sub optimal, being partly influenced by some fashion requirement to make the aids as invisible as they can. It seems strange that the microphones are on top (not back) of his ear instead of near the concha. They should capture what comes into his ear via the ear’s own construction surely?

My dad has them, same price from Boots. They operate fine but he’s been back countless times for consultations, configuration changes, software updates, different tubes etc etc because he can’t hear well with them, and in some situations like noisy cafes he’s completely overwhelmed with background noises. His beef is the microphones are on the back and not forward facing, so they’re very good at picking up everything he doesn’t want to hear and nothing he does, despite their fancy software. I tried them on when the dog was barking, the TV was on and my nephews were smashing toys about and my head nearly exploded. It’s been a nightmare for him but I think that might be old age (88) hearing loss in general and not necessarily a fault of the hearing aids as he’s got 2 pairs of NHS ones that are no better.

I’m with you on this brother! Put my MTBs down in 2012, took up road biking and then work stress, now back on the MTBs this year and wow what a change. So good that n+1 has already kicked in and the 2nd hand market for 2020 onwards bikes is a buyers dream cos analogue bikes are worthless now 😁

@binners It was fine where I was mid pack, and I remember the bottlenecks, I used to start as near to the front as I could to avoid them

Re the widening out, the mtb marathons when sponsored by Merida used to have a sportive on the Saturday and the MTB marathon on the Sunday but there was no sportive this year. There was the exposure lights big night out ride but there were only 25 riders on that.

That mahoosive horrible climb at the start lol

Yeah but then that mahoosive brilliant descent afterwards 🤠 yee haa!

@bullandbladder I think it was £40

Interesting points. I didn’t know cycling events on the whole have been down in numbers this year.

It’s a shame as the the volunteers working the event were great. A lot of room for improvement in the scope of the “event village” which was almost non existent but the marshalling was excellent. I’d have liked to have seen stands with merch available, quite fancied a new something or other.

Was good to see them embracing ebikes by allowing them in the event (except when they were gliding past as I was grinding up the hills haha)

I’ve just moved from a spreadsheet and manual invoicing to Xero (basic subscription) and wondering why I didn’t switch earlier. Auto feed from my free sole trader Mettle bank account, app to upload receipts, massive paperwork headache gone. Does quotes, invoices, recharging of costs, accountant has access, etc. Taken a bit of effort to get it set up but it’s good.

Just had to get a blocked rainwater drain jetted for work. Dyno rod quoted £170, local company did it for £142. They were there same day for 30 mins tops, cleared it out with their water jet thing that pushes itself through the drain, all done.

Been loads of times. Massively worth going, the rides are brilliant, and massively worth buying fast track. Just do it!

No WiFi arrgggghhh

Ah ya beauties!

Well we did it and it was amazing – but I’d completely forgotten about that descent to Booze, wow, fast, jumpy, grassy into loose, rocky and twisty!

Thanks for the angry man tip and we diverted over the Brownsey Moor bridleway at the end to avoid the last road descent which worked out well.

As a couple have mentioned above, there’s defo more to try out up there which we didn’t include on this trip, but overall a perfect day and a fantastic route.

Updated map with our route change here

https://explore.osmaps.com/route/17104263/the-swaledale-round-route-mtb-britain-30-miles?lat=54.384618&lon=-2.022981&zoom=12.2756&style=Leisure&type=2d

Started and finished at the Punchbowl Inn in Feetham, right at the bottom of the last bridleway descent