Nearly £200 isn't too bad, mind I can't see the lever or remote cable to make it go up and down!

:lol:

Looks sweet.

Only that it was more than adequate for most riding, most of the time.

Agreed, you 'can' ride anything with your saddle up but you'll be compromised.

Oh and nothing to do with skill compensation, for me it's about getting the maximum out of the bike and myself.

:wink:

Don't most of the WC DH riders ride with their saddles at full reach?

Nope.

As I said in a previous post, for proper dh riding you'll want it lower than xc height but not so low as you lose all control (keep that for dj and the bmx track).
On the dh bike I used to play around with saddle height a fair bit to get the best compromise, which I find is saddle at around the height of the stem (as mr.peat above), give or take an inch or so either way dependant on how tech the course is, eg. if its somewhere relatively non tech like say the cwmcarn dh then up a bit to make the pedally bits easier.

Each to thier own I guess, but don't try and tell people you can ride to your full potential downhill with your seat at an efficient xc pedalling position, it just can't be done, fact.

:D

Matta – Member
Hateful bike, ugly & over priced
I got given one to ride in spain the thing did nothing but hit rocks!!

Posted 1 hour ago # Report-Post

What utter shite – nowt to do with inability then?

Yep, rider error i'd say.

These really are great bikes, the faster and more you give it the better it gets, it's making me not want to get back out on the dh bike at the minute :roll:

The one above, yeh value around £500 somewhere…

:D

Yep he's right, you can't ride fully committed down fast technical downhills with your seat up at an efficient pedalling height, if you think you can then you obviously aren't going fast enough 8O :wink:

Also I find if you have your seat too low on DH's then you lose some control, saddle down as low as it will go should only really be used for jumping and bmx track work. This of course varies slightly with different frame designs and all imo of course.

:D

but for simple maintenance/ease of use/general everyday riding a good single pivot system is still the best to me in most situations.

Yep, i'm a fan of single pivot's too, simple and lightweight.
Main thing is to ride the bike you are most comfortable with/feel most confident on, there's a lot more that goes into a good bike than just purely the rear suspension design.

:D

Erm, they're awesome.
Light(ish), nice and slack, good handling, take most things you'll chuck at it.
Bolt thru back end on my prophet mx too, for a little added stiffness.

Some people think thy're ugly tho 8O :wink:

Depends how i'm feeling. If i'm just going out an a steady ride and not giving it full beans then it stays where it is, the ride flows better.

But on alot of rides we tend to stop at the top and if its a decent dh coming up lower the saddle and give it some, more of like riding a series of dh's linked by climbs than a flowing ride if you get what I mean..? Drops and jumps aren't too much fun with your seat up.

All depends on what type of rider you are and the terrain you ride.

DH bike saddle stays put at the same height all the time, just low enough not to get in the way when giving it some but high enough so that it can be used to control the bike with the inner thighs…

:D

I sailed past numerous skinny blokes on their much posher bikes

:wink:

You don't 'need' a full sus for any trail centre in wales…

Wise decision.
Learn to ride the rockhopper (which is a damn good frame anyway) properly first, then upgrade once the bike is the only thing that is holding you back, or as said above, your riding style changes (eg. you get into a bit of dh and jumping etc).
Oh and don't bother reading any magazines, put the money you've saved not buying them towards your new bike when you do upgrade :wink:

Mountain morph ordered from crc last nite, cheers everyone :wink:

Yep that's right andy…

Thanks for all the replies.
Loving the look of the lezyne, but at the minute I think the mountain morph is looking like the one, although it does look a little large, but should still fit in the camelbak ok??
:D

The curtis's look nice because you can see the brazed joints…
A normal welded frame, hmmm, just get it powder coated the colour of choice for a proper job, or rattle can it and let the rust come thru when it wants for the 'rat' look :D

I would hate for the thick members of STW to have perished rubber, would do nothing for the gene pool!

Too true… :lol:

CHB – Member
vaseline is NOT rubber safe.

It was a 'joke', hence the embarrased thingy.
Got some silicone grease I use for rubber stuff, and yeh that red rubber grease is good stuff.
:D

Vaseline? :oops:

jedi – Member
you unwieght the front end not lift too

True, more of a lean back unweighting of the front like when going into a manual than a wrench up on the bars.
Thats why you can make a living out of it jedi and I, erm, can't :wink:

Loads of stuff on the net about it now a days, I learnt about 13 years ago from pictures in magazines and watching JMC in 'dirt' the video :lol:

-Practice the lift of the front wheel first, keep doing this until your really confident with lifting the front wheel.
-Now practice the lift of the rear wheel. Coast along at a 'reasonable' pace and practice lifting/unweighting the rear wheel off the ground by pressing 'down back and up' on the pedals.
-Then connect the 2 together. Lift the front, then try and 'push the bars away from you' at the same time as unweighting the rear. Try and land rear wheel first or you may go over the bars. also have something to physically hop over eg. an old shoe box or something to start.

That probably makes no sense what so ever :wink:

Why would anyone want the pro green hope stuff on their bike unless your are actually a pro rider :roll:

Yep, get a 2nd hand thompson, got mine for 35 quid off here. Strong, light AND cheap :wink:

I used the 'enduro' bearings as supplied by betd;
linky

It omit's the plastic 'top hat' spacer tho, so if your not happy with that (they'll be fine as long as the bearing never seizes) just get some standard sized bearings as said above.

My standard htII bb (slx) lasted about 10 months, I'll see how long these last…

:D

Thanks for the link mattp.

Kielder 100?

What sort of thing are you thinking?

Tbh, i'm not sure myself really. Haven't done an xc race of any type since the late nineties 8O as I got more and more into the dh side of things. Done the mega a couple of times since and thats it really.
The Kielder 100 looks pretty hard, would be something to aim/train (a lot!) for, have you done it?
Any more races in the near future to get me started? Anything within 2-3hrs driving of Derbyshire would be a plus.
Thanks for your help.

Why don't easyjet put this statement under 'sporting equipment' rather than next to 'hair curlers containing hydrocarbon gas' in their carriers regs;

(1) Carriage of bicycles:
Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.

Teach me not to read everything in the future…

:?

james – Member
For eg
If you had one bike box (eg 23kg) and one hold bag (eg 9kg) you would just be within gthe maximum
When selecting number of hold bags you would select 1 in this instance, and tick the bike sprts allowance option also

I'd say your wrong james. Because the bike is exempt from the excess baggage charges you could still check in a case weighing upto 20kg with your bike (as long as the bike doesn't weigh more than 32kg and the combined weight of bike plus other case isn't more than 50kg)
:D

IanP, i'd say me and you are correct, the limit with sports equipment is 32kg TOTAL inc any other hold luggage.
But seeing as bicycles are exempt from excess fee's then its ok as long as the bike doesn't go over 32kg (the limit for hs reasons).

Many thanks everyone.

:D

All wrong. From experience the past two years;

If you turn up with suitcases, over 20kg you pay for every kg over and are only allowed up to 50kg in total.

If you pay for hold luggage+ bicycle, your case weighs 20kg max and bike can weigh up to 32kg (the H&S limit)

They hide the line

Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.
further down the T&Cs

Awesome :D

Yes on first reading it I thought paying for sports equipment upped the limit to 50kg;

Each passenger is allowed a maximum hold baggage weight of 50 Kgs including any sports equipment, subject to available space. The maximum weight for any single piece of baggage is 32 kgs

But it clearly states here that paying the £18.50 for sports equipment only increases it to 32kg;

Payment of the additional fee increases your checked-in hold baggage allowance (including additional item) to a maximum weight of 32kgs.
Where your total checked-in hold baggage weighs more than 32Kgs, normal excess baggage charges as set out above shall apply in addition to the above fee.

I think the 50kg they keep referring to is a 'maximum' weight of hold luggage that each person is entitled to, once the relevant excess baggage fees have been paid of course?? :?

Sounds fair enough- buy the tools and do it yourself if you think it isn't.

Or take it to another shop that charges realistic prices :roll:

Half an hour labour? Seems fair to me.

Half an hour?!? :lol:
Takes about 5 mins.

£20 to me seems quite expensive. Yes of course lbs's need to survive, but 20 quid for 5 mins work, hmmm.

Didn't 'mark anthony cycles' used to have a shop in belper?

Anyway, I live approx. 10 miles from chesterfield and 15 to 20 miles from derby and notts.
I've been to j.e.james in both chesterfield and sheffield, leisure lakes, evans and scamways (sorry, i mean samways) a fair amount. I wouldn't say i've had particularly good service from any of them, and thats the main reason i'd prefer to probably buy stuff online if i'm absolutely honest.

Now rewind the clock back 7 or 8 years ,and, the bike shop i used to frequent the most was roy jervis's in ripley. The cycle side of it was run by an enthusiastic rider and nothing was too much trouble.
If something broke or needed fixing last minute you could just turn up and he'd do his best to fit you in, not the 'bring it in 2 week on thursday' that you get from the other shops listed above.
If i wanted some new parts i'd let them know, and he'd get them in at the best possible price they could as soon as he could, which wouldn't be as cheap as your chainreaction/merlins but I don't mind paying a couple of quid extra for proper, helpful service!

I know thats no help on the location front, but if it was a decent shop, run by riders for riders, and reasonably local to me, then i'd use you no probs.

:D

Jackal – my two crushed vertebrae were (are still, actually!) T7 and T8, also in the Thoracic region. My CT scan was sent to St Georges Hospital, but told I was unsuitable for an operation. Given yours and Madzaba's injuries, I wonder why I didn't have an op? Were yours 'burst' fractures? Or do you know what percentage they were crushed by?

Cheers
Mike.

Hi Mike.

One of my vertebrae was crushed by around 30% they said, not sure if this is classed as a 'burst' fracture or not??
The other was fractured all the way through.

My CT scan was sent to both Sheffield (northern general) and Leeds for the best course of action, I was originally helicopter'd to wakefield but they weren't too sure what to do by the sounds of it.
Ended up having the op to fuse it at sheffield northern general as they decided the spine wasn't stable enough for anything else.
Surgeon said it was a relatively common op for that type of injury, also had some bone chipped off the hip to graft onto the vertebrae to strengthen it.
Its still reasonably sore now, alot of that is to do with the 10 inch or so cut they had to make through the back muscles to get the rods in :?

Hows yours coming on? still in much pain?

:D

Just seen UK Bike Store have Hope Tech 2 sintered for £11.99 .That'll do me thinks

Yeh ordered mine monday afternoon, came tues morn. Cheap and v good service.

:D

Do you bike engined car owners use the clutch for shifting or just takeoff

Use it for setting off and down shifts only, just as you would on a bike.

You reckon? That's interesting, whenever I've looked for whole cars for sale (out of general interest) they've been pinto engined ones.

Oh yeh don't get me wrong there's still loads of x-flow/pinto engined live axle 'book' locosts, but now there's easily as many with IRS rear ends and zetec, duratec, xe, k series, bike engines etc etc…

Mines a bike engine with a live axle btw!

:D

That's only a problem on bike engined cars without an aftermarket reverse addition. I'd think most (or at least many) locost type cars are ford engined, normal gearbox types.

The original 'locost' as per ron champions book, was based around the mk1/mk2 escort so hence would use that engine and transmission combo.

But, there has been many many variations on this now and the number of locosts without mk1 or 2 escort engine and running gear far outweigh those with it, a fair amount of those being bike engined cars too.

:D

Jackal How do you make it go backwards?

Push it..! :D

Its now a requirement for IVA (and RGB race series) to have a reverse tho, but as mine passed sva, there was no legal requirement.
Quaife do an inline reverse box but its very expensive and not that reliable, i think MNR are making one too.
Most people make/bodge their own up using a ring gear/sprocket inline in the prop with a starter motor and some kind of system/linkage to engage and disengage it.

:D

madzaba –
Yes, also broken here. I had a motorbike trackday accident in August (knocked off by one bike and then hit on the ground by another). Fractured vertebrae (now nicely tied together with titanium rods)

I too fractured/compressed two vertebrae, in june this year, after hitting a tree head first.
I too had to have it operated on, six vertebrae now fused together with two titanium rods, eight screws and a bone graft.
Just started riding again after 4 months, felt brilliant to be out, but its like learning to ride all over again, and still a fair bit of pain. Overall its no fun at all :?

madzaba, how are you getting on with yours? And which vertebrae was it? Mine was in the thoracic region, T5 and T6, the rods going from T3 to T8.

Anyone here built a kit car?
Is it much hassle/fun?
Was it worth doing?

Yep, finished my stuart taylor/aries r1 powered 'locost' in spring of this year.

Yep, its a fair bit of hassle but i really enjoyed the build, i'd planned it would take me around a year to complete but it took two, getting the garage as clean/tidy and well lit before you start will help no end.

Bolting the main bits together is the easy part, its all the finishing and wiring that took a fair bit of time for me, then realising you've run out of that bolt/rivet/connector/sikaflex/whatever and having to get/order some more.

Cost wise, it can be endless, especially if your building an ultima :wink:
Its suprising how much all the small parts you req will add up to, and don't forget to add in the cost of the tools you'll require, if you don't already own them of course. IVA replaced SVA earlier this year, now costs around £500 i think (got mine through sva just before it changed).

Was it worth it, YES! :twisted:

Check out locost builders for plenty of info/help linky[/url]

Some pics of mine;

Pics from sva day;

:D