Oooh, so it is! (also in Milton Keynes). Shame I've gotta work all week 🙁

Ahhhhhhhh, I see!!

ok stupid me. hmmm, wonder if it's worth the extra effort of getting them built up for tarty colours.

Wooly Hat Shop? Yeah, I've bought some bits and bobs from them, disc adapters and stuff. They've always been fine.

'09 FSR XC Expert (crappy mobile pic)

And a '98(ish) singlespeed s-works:

Love 'em both, especially the FSR.

Another vote for aquapac here. I have three or four of them for various phones, GPS, cameras etc. Last for ages and well made, I'll quite happily go for a swim on holiday with a camera in one – totally waterproof.

Cheers Onzadog, I had a feeling that would be the case. Might take a closer look inside the piggybank

Kind of on-topic but…

I have some 2.35 Nev/Blue Grooves on Mavic 717s which are supposedly rated up to 2.3". They don't come up as wide or square as I was hoping – very rounded profile, the rear also feels a tiny bit wallowy. I'm thinking of getting some Flows, are they significantly wider that I'd notice a difference in the shape of the tyre?

Ta

I'm afraid I've got to go to Cambridge in the afternoon so I'm going to pass on this and get a couple hours in myself first thing in the morning up Aspley Heath instead so I can be home for midday-ish. Sorry chaps!

I might join you if that's ok? I have the week off this week and planned to get a couple rides in up at Woburn before the weekend. Depends on what time you go and what plans the Mrs has but I should be ok.

Might head over there this morning actually too…

Jase (the other one)

Just googled Gonzo Valve which has turned up a load more replacement valves for Fox shocks too. Think I'll measure the thread on my valve then make a few calls to some of these places.

Cheers for the tips, this place rocks!

Anyone take a bet on whether the valve-to-shock body thread is a standard size:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=20889
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=38254
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=38257

Those are listed as for a Manitou shouck, might be worth a punt.

This guy has some proper rad skills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9D9iGuRjY

(shamelessly stolen from brant richards' twitter feed)

Woburn this morning

SprocketJockey – yes it's a 100mm MX Comp. Works really well in my opinion. I previously ran the fork on a standard inbred and just switched all the kit over onto this bike. I really notice a big difference on steep descents now, feels very confident and safe on descents that would previously make me think "oh ****!" with the same fork on the inbred.

Was tempted to try a longer fork but I'm not a huge fan of lots of travel and the unpredictable geometry and handling that goes with excessive fork dive etc.

Note it's a 456 Summer Season as opposed to standard 456 – couple of degrees slacker.

Nobody got a new colour 29er then?

I'm such an idiot, I thought "Explosion in a spaghetti Factory" was a euphemism for more bendy and wobbly than a wobbly thing. Hence me defending my point.

Sorry, carry on

FS.

Meh, they feel fine to me – unlike other forks and various other components that I've given some stick over the last 20 years, I can't say I've ever really had any conscious thoughts about these forks while riding, positive or negative.

What does 351 mean? Or indeed any other of the RockShox model numbers (like the various Pike models)? Does it refer to something specific or is it just an arbitrary model number?

I have a Recon 335 SL air fork (only air in one leg, I guess that's what the Solo refers to), 120mm. Haven't had any problems at all, seems smooth, no noticeable flex, well controlled adjustable damping, can't fault it really.

Now with shorter stem and brown saddle. Loving it

Anyone got one of the new colour 29er inbreds? Apparently they're purple or orange but I can't see any pics on the On One site.

In summary then not wearing lycra seems to be an anglo-saxon, prudish, homophobic, fat, small, small cock, fashion thing then?

If you like. Do you wear speedos on the beach?

Mono M4/Mini here in 200mm/180mm. Piece of cake to bleed and provide plenty of power but my rear Mini has been a bit of a PITA. I'm on my second set of pistons and they don't retract as well as I'd like, result is lots of squealing and pad wear. I also don't seem to be able to get rid of a bit of lever wobble, which isn't really the end of the world.

Experienced quite bad brake fade and loss of power due to over heating a couple of times but that's been on very long downhills on the road, constantly on the brakes at about 30mph for 3 or 4 miles, fully laden with panniers. Never had a problem off road though and I weigh about 16 stone.

I really don't get all the hate towards baggies over lycra.

Personally, I'm a bit fat and don't especially want my knob on show to all and sundry. What's the problem with that? Yes I know it's not a fashion show etc etc but so what? I wouldn't wander round the shops (or anywhere) on a very hot day in speedos either, despite that probably being the most appropriate functional wear for the conditions – doesn't mean I'm fashion obsessed. Being self conscious about how you look does not make you an idiot. We all own a mirror somewhere in the house to make sure we don't leave for work with our shirt buttoned up sideways or breakfast round our chops – doesn't make us image-obsessed fools though.

You can just right click and 'save as' on that mp4 link you posted above to download the file (14mb).

No problems with getting enough power but I find the lever hits my knuckles if only using one finger. Maybe I have a strange grip or something

Cheers.

Just to add to this, my discs appear to be perfectly smooth and in fact the organic pads that came off last week don't show any signs of scoring. Also both pistons/pads appear to move in and out freely when I pull the lever.

On the whole I've been happy with Superstar pads, had a few sets before these and they've all been great. I'm happy to accept that either these were a one off or that my heat cycle/bedding in procedure was inadequate. Having only ridden these pads in a total downpour, I wonder if they ever really got up to temperature?

re: doing something wrong, I'd had a couple pairs of SS pads in the past which have been fine as well as a few pairs of Hope ones. I reckon these were just a dodgy pair.

Other than bedding them in properly, there's not much else to do wrong, surely?

My kevlar superstar pads this afternoon, after 3 hours of riding, fit them new to my new summer season build last week:

Got ya, sounds cool. Fingers crossed for a break in the rain tomorrow.

From the start of trippy tucker to fuller's lodge? As in starting at the carpark at the bottom? Can't picture where this goes. I'm going back out tomorrow afternoon so would like to try and find this.

Went up this morning and spent an hour and a half riding in a downpour 🙁

Top of that second descent after the lip:

Indeed it is. Used to ride there a lot in the mid 90s and only really started going back there regularly this year and the difference is amazing

oldgit, will be out tomorrow morning (as most Sundays) although I think I might be taking out a friend who doesn't ride much so probably won't join the club ride this weekend.

Is that The Moat then? I'd heard it mentioned but wasn't sure where it was. I know that double descent though, fun.

BTW, I'm Jase_MK, not Jase who I believe is another Woburn rider that you probably know. I'm sure we've had this confusion before… 🙂

100mm on my slot dropout SS style inbred felt nice and quick and climbed very well. Still felt confident on steep downhills though.

I have exactly the same forks with a Hope Mono M4. Will fit fine with post mount to IS adapter but will require a +20mm disc. So if it's a caliper designed for 160mm, the adapter will push it out to 180mm.

Will dig out a photo, 2 secs…

Trying too hard to better yourself can be a slippery and unfulfilling slope in my experience. The guy riding 6ft drops and rock gardens isn't necessarily getting more of a buzz than someone else on some basic flowy singletrack. Riding to 80% of your limit is going to generate more of less the same amount of buzz, no matter what your limit is. Imagine your favourite bit of local trail that gives you a little adrenaline kick. Now imagine Steve Peat riding it – I bet he'd not get the same buzz from it that you would.

I used to experience this when I did a lot of track days in the car. There is always someone out there with a quicker car and more talent than you and it's easy to end up chasing this elusive goal of driving nirvana. The truth is that you'll never reach it (unless you secure an F1 drive with Ferrari) so at some point, as with MTB, you have to say enough is enough and just get on with enjoying yourself.

/soapbox

Blurboy, when you say you rode them on Sunday, was that with the Cyclone club?

I'll have to check these out at the weekend, nice one.

My old man eventually got a frame replaced without proof of purchase but it took some persuading and a willing/helpful LBS to talk to Trek on his behalf. It was a late 90s Mantra Pro frame that cracked and got it replaced (in about 05/06) with a new brand new Palomino frame.

axle length depends on the cranks. Most modern stuff sits fine on 113mm but I had an old 90s LX crankset (93/94 maybe?) and it needed 120mm BB on my inbred. In fact 122mm prob would have been better as there was bugger all clearance between the small ring and the chainstays. Now running 113mm BB with some (slightly) newer cranks on the same frame and there is plenty clearance, if anything too much (front mech has trouble reaching the big ring with the limiter screw all the way out).

PCD = Pitch Circle Diameter – usually used when referring to car wheel bolt patterns but means the same thing

I have those hooks straight into the wall and there's no problem with twisting. The rim hangs off the outermost middle part of the hook so there is no twisting force applied in either direction. The nice thing about having them in the wall is that both tyres touch the wall so there's no swinging about. Prob a bit less pressure on the rim too.