Done,

Build more trails, smile politely and be polite to the moaning dog walkers as you dig the cack out of your tyre that there little darling has just left behind. Rise above.
I have to say that I haven’t met anyone in the woods around here (Alton, Hampshire, Chawton park) that isn’t happy to see us blasting through the woods, enjoying ourselves on our cheeky trails of an evening. Maybe I’m lucky and live in an extraordinarily happy place.
I used to live in Fleet where the woods are a grumpy place with more poo on the ground than average, so I moved.
Alice Holt is only a short tarmac blast from my house, I don’t ride there because it’s currently rubbish, or i’ve missed all the good bits. I will check it out at the weekend for grumpsters and report back.

Elfin, pop by for happy trails and hugs!

+1 for singletrack. Not too baggy, nearly short shorts.

My goodness, that is a lot of ladders!

??

Try here for stats

http://spank-ind.com/index.php?a=info&do=pro&id=61&tid=12

Here for availability (orange or white only though)
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/18894/Spank_Tweet_Tweet_Stem

As mboy says,
I have been riding MTB’s for over 20 years and have introduced lots of people to the sport in that time. I did a skills course with the bearded one last year and realised how many bad habits I’d picked up and little things I was missing. This year has been a revelation now all the new found skills have become instinctive. I recommend doing a course to anyone. Just need to convince Mrs Wachowchow to book one up as I’m no skills coach myself.

My Missus runs 2.3 Conti Verticals on 717’s. Never been an issue.

Further to PJay’s comments. I have an earlier, badged a Virtue, model. The seat tube is very thin wall. I spoke to the guys at Kenesis about getting a QR seat clamp as I found that their standard type for this diameter seat tube actually grips the seatpost before it clamps the frame. Kenesis machine out their QR seat clamps specially to suit this frame alone and they tell me that no other will suit, due to clamping the seat post etc.
I am running a Thompsen 27.2 seat post and it fits like a finger in a bum (MOD engineering term for limits and fits, does not appear in your Zues book).

98 beautiful Kg’s of trail destroying lard and sinue.

@ Calamity James,

You still get full travel with pro pedal on, it is a low speed compression damping switch. It firms up the potential to wallow and bob when pedalling out of the saddle but the rear wheel still gets out of the way of bigger high speed hits, such as roots and rock and the like.

I got some Easton carbon bars last year. Took a little while for them to earn my confidence but I don’t even think about them now.

It depends on the suspension platform. I have a 2006 Heckler with an RP 23, single pivot and generally leave the pro pedal on in position 2 for most riding and flick it open bigger faster terrain, I find it works lovely. My wife has a 2006 Horst link Turner 5 spot with a DHX air of the same age (7 clicks pro pedal adjust) and she leaves the pro pedal wide open all the time relying on the more sofisticated suspension design, also works super lovely.
Horses for courses.

If you have both forks available and the cost isn’t an issue, Fox.

30% off 2011 Rockshox at Evans online at the mo. That made the decision for me. Get ’em while they’re hot, they’re lovely!
Sorry, slow day at work

Thanks all. I went for Halifax in the end for the whole shebang. Got all 3 bikes itemised to the value of £7,500 buildings and contents for £55 a month. Every one else came up short on the bikes value and getting cheap house insurance with a seperate specialist bike insurance was much more than this.

End of boring thread, thanks for being tolerant.

Ooh, thanks guys. I will give them a spin

This is very frustrating. My basic argument is that they are not their forests to sell.

Bib longs in the pub is always a good look. Nothing else mind.

We did goose a couple of years ago, lovely. More flavor than a turkey, smashing tatties, but less sarnies on boxing day.

Didn’t think I would be the first but thought I would share anyway. Maybe returnable, chucked all the packaging though.

@flamejob.

Your flameboy is truly stunning. Did you make the frame?

<img src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1182/5169200957_683f94b26e.jpg&#8221; width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”virtue1 (2)” />

That Five is a lovely green Cheasybeans. I’m sure my dad had a mk3 cortina that same shade.

Sorry, technical fail. I made a nice bike though, honest.

Profile shot, I thank you.http://flic.kr/p/8F1TWY

Has anyone mentioned MX Mayhem yet? You can do back flips!

I put all three of mine on 20″, Spesh Hotrock and Giants for their 5th birthdays. All seemed to get on fine and stayed very enthusiastic, good fun for a cheeky borrow as well.

I guess we have to be patient. No excuse for not answering emails though, thats just rude.

Do let us know how you get on

A friend of mine recently renovated a mk1 SC Heckler which had a seized seat post. We tried everything. We started by filling the frame with ‘plus gas’ (like wd40 but in a drum rather than a spray) and let it soak for a month, then pulled, no joy. We then tried to put some heat on the frame and freeze the seat post, still no joy. Not wanting to anneal the alloy and end up with a butter frame we gave up.
We were turned on to these guys at Argos cycles. They set the frame up in a jig and drill the posts out! You can guarantee that there will be one tiny spot that is seized so once they start drilling and get to that spot the rest just starts spinning and drops out. The finished job was like new as they ran a reamer down the tube, no machining marks at all.

Home

[/url]
5 Spot side[/url] by Jef Karn[/url], on Flickr

The wife’s

I do have DHB glasses, not sure if they are the pro’s. They came with 3 sets of lenses. Clear, blue tint for low light and grey tint for sunny. I mostly bought them for the clear lenses for night riding but wear them always when riding now, changing the lenses to suit the conditions. I really like them and pretty much forget they are there, until you stop and they steam up pretty quick but soon clear quickly again as you get going.
Bargain at the 20 quid or so that I paid.

Ok, so the dust has finally given way to some nice cosy mud down here in Surrey and Hampshire but snow is still just science fiction! Looking forward to the intrepid sub zero night rides though.

Looks like the one I got when I swapped from IS to post with an old Hope caliper. +20mm on the rotor size confirmed I feel.

Be prepared to have to buy a bigger rotor to allow fitting.

Is it a Tamper?

Extravagent needless bike purchase … make world go round

@thv3 – YGM

The DHX 5.0 coil has an air can as well as a spring so you can pump up the bottom out resist and make it more progressive separately to the coil spring preload. They also have pro pedal for the ride back up.