Virgin has a youtube channel which I dismissed as a gimmick initially, but now I know how to link it with my phone and laptop it’s great. I don’t know if it’s on bt or talktalk but it’s not on sky afaik.

b r – Member

5.5ltr V8. 85,000 miles (only breaking in a v8)

Yes, but it’ll be something else that breaks with scraps it – my gearbox went on my 535i; it would’ve cost more to investigate the problem than the car was worth.

That’s the risk you take though isn’t it. If you’re going to try and run something like that on the cheap you’d do well to have a self employed mechanic who’s easy to pay. For the sake of argument though, if the gearbox did go bang on that merc it’s not necessarily the end of the world. Second hand gearbox from a scrappers, or break the car yourself. A decent AMG engine is probably worth £5000 on a good day. And since dealer parts are so expensive there will be a demand for used parts, and they’ll comand good money so you’d come out of it alright. Maybe :-)

JCL

I agree 100%. The only compromise is slow speed tight turns

Personal preference etc etc but I notice a lot more positives than just slow speed cornering. The things I notice short chain stays contributing to would be easier to lift the front end, easier to manual for those who can, easier to pump terrain, easier for me to jump with and better low and high speed cornering.

I find that bikes with longer stays can sometimes have an unpredictable weight shift mid corner or on corner entry which is unsettling. I’ve not personally noticed this twitch with shorter cs bikes. Rather, I find if they do get unsettled mid corner it’s more manageable.

I also feel that shorter chainstays contribute to a more direct pedal feel and have more snap or response under power. Could be me.

I like a long wheel base up to a point, but i personally think the best compromise is to have a long tt, and short cs, not just a limousine of a thing, because as I see it, the only downside of short chainstays is a loss of climbing traction, especially out of the saddle, which I can easily circumvent by staying in the saddle. Long stays for stability yes, but not for handling, same as vehicle wheelbase in general.

JCL
Gwin came off a more neutral, balanced bike and was a mess on the Demo.

He also said he didn’t ride any proper dh tracks, any world cup grade tracks to train. Just his local dh trails.

We’ll probably never really know, Gwin might not know why he had a mare switching to the demo. If there’s any truth in what you’re saying though, it’s that the cs length can make a massive difference. I personally doubt that’s what his issue was, to me it seems like an excuse, but it could prove that cs length is noticeable anyway.

That geometry didn’t slow Hill or Brosnan down.

Demo. You could see it was weight distribution related, especially in that early Redbull promo video. I honestly knew then that he was going to have a mare on that bike.

This video? Reeaally? You knew he was going to have a bad season based on this? JCL is the STW forum name for Sam Hill and I claim me free can of Monster.

JCL Which is why I kept saying trail/AM bikes. Bikes that go up and down and should be as balanced, neutral, handling as possible

If you mean handling, well yeah that would be nice. But I doubt that can be got without bias/compromise. I’ll happily take a bike that can climb okay, but is a dh weapon, over something thats a great climber but a twitchy descender.

Any budget? Or just ratio?

This is plenty bang for your buck. CL55 AMG?

5.5ltr V8. 85,000 miles (only breaking in a v8). £3995.

unki – Member
The vast majority of rock, pop and indie gigs are gonna be dross, so I don’t go to them.. But every once in a while, summink special comes along, where the band are real performers, or have some integrity..

Dance music is always more likely to provide a satisfying experience imo

Has no one mentioned drink or drugs? If you’re seeing a band you like, and they are have decent live, and you’re intoxicated how can you not have a good time ? :lol:

No but seriously. I know people who live for gigs but I can take or leave it Apart from the few bands I love, which were incredible experiences I am generally underwhelmed.

As I like “METAL” what I loved about the gigs I did enjoy was the incredible atmosphere, amazing skill and showmanship of the band, the variations on songs, stage show visuals and crushing, gut punching volume.

JCL – Member
Funny enough he went from 420 to 440 rear centre to try and get that bike to work.

For him. Funny enough, Brosnan and Ropelato left the geometry unchanged, and Brosnan was only a few points behind Gwin. So what does that mean?

Great photo’s of the DH guys in chutes etc but I’m talking cornering.
Look again, most of them are cornering.

mtbel – Member

I wasn’t aware the next level up from “mediocre” jumped straight to “Elite level professional”

The number of low lever recreational participants in any popular sport will be hundreds or thousands the number of professionals. Your point was that most mountain bikers are low level. Are only the high level allowed to debate?

mtbel

How many hours each week do you spend discussing your hobby online and how many minutes do you spend actively practicing it? And how does this give you moral high ground above the obese turds you so detest?

Yes. As above, at least we (most of us) do actually “do” mountainbike. So that gives me a moral high ground over armchair critics who can’t kick a ball. At present I spend zero hours on my bike thanks to a separated shoulder. When I’m not injured I spend enough time on the bike to make me better than most. Maybe that doesn’t qualify me to comment in your eyes, since I haven’t won a world cup, but I certainly have plenty of people asking my advice.

brant
Wingsuit flying?

Is that a sport? I thought it was just procrastinated suicide.

And one more thing, at least we actually do participate in our sport. (when we’re not injured).

mtbel – Member

This thread is interesting, to me it highlights mtb as an activity partaken by many mediocre to poorly skilled enthusiasts

Which sports are mainly partaken by many elite level professionals ? It strikes me that nearly every sport will have more poorly skilled and mediocre participants than highly skilled.

who would far rather discuss and purchase “tech” than actually put any effort into practicing the basic skills required to improve.

Every time I ride I am practicing skills to improve. As for discussion have you been out in the real world? Have you ever encountered people debating soccer or rugby or boxing or tennis or golf ad nauseum? I have. It’s like a plague. Hordes of over opinionated arm chair critics arguing at length over players skills, managers tactics, pitch conditions, refereeing. Obese useless turds debating the relative fitness of elite athletes. Cowardly cack handed commentators debating the fighting prowess of UFC or IBF killers.

Everyone loves debate. Go over to a soccer forum, try not to kill yourself shortly after. MTB is a sport where technology is pretty integral to it, certainly to the racing side of it, so people love to debate that side of things too. Similarly, go on to a motorsports forum and read the views of illiterate teenagers who’ve just passed their driving test ripping into Lewis Hamilton or explaining what’s wrong with the turbos in Redbull’s latest F1 car.

There have actually been quite a few threads recently on the subject. As always, recommend what you have so I recommend the Mountain Equipment Bastion. Just over your budget at sale price. Light, comfortable, durable, toasty and water repellent. Still warm when wet too.

seosamh77 – Member

JimJam, I take it you spent quite a bit of money on a shiny helmet then?

No, I’ve got an IXS Trail Rs which replaced two Fox Flux (is it flux, flux’s or fluxes).

Anyway, Both Fox helemets suffered massive over the bars scorpion style crashes into large rocks at high speed. Stopping dead. In both instances, either just before, or just after I thought this is it. I am dead. I got up both times, having not being knocked out, with little more than concussion and helmet split. And a bit of a sore head. One of them was so violent I am pretty sure I would have been killed outright without a helmet.

So I have enormous faith in the traditional inadequate foam helmets he finds so useless. The IXS actually had a pretty nasty oblique impact on it the last time I was out too, but I didn’t really take much notice since I separated my shoulder at the same time.

So, :lol: back to you.

seosamh77
Notice how you keep say “claims” about MIPs, doesn’t sound particularly convincing..

Well I havent had a massive crash in one, so until I do, it’ll just be a claim to me. I generally don’t spout crap about a product unless I’ve used it. Unlike Dr. Phil it seems.

seosamh77

How can he be talking shit, if the only thing he is concerned about is improving oblique impacts? That’s kinda what he is researching..

No, he dismisses shape and design as “merely aesthetics”. The Fox Rampage “Carbon” which I posted is not merely aesthetically different from a road helmet. So that’s wrong. He outright dismisses existing helmets as scary and useless.

in regards to safety, as there is no superior product“

All helmets are equally useless according to him because they don’t dissipate oblique impacts (which some actually claim to). But a helmet which dissipates oblique impacts is instantly superior. So by that logic unless all impacts are oblique impacts………

The Smith Forefront uses aerocore instead of foam, so that’s wrong. Mips is available in four different helmets and at least claims to do what he says helmets cannot.

seosamh77 – Member

@ jimjam.

you are missing the context, whihch is:

No, I understood the context. But he immediately undermines his credibility by saying something like

“it is scary how similar traditional bicycle safety helmets on the market actually are. If you went into a helmet shop with an unlimited sum of money, you would come out with essentially the same thing, in regards to safety, as there is no superior product”

The only real differences are in shape, colour and design – merely aesthetics.

Everything is made out of polystyrene, which fails to offer adequate protection during ’oblique’ impacts.

So unless all impacts are oblique impacts, he’s talking shit. And as cynic-al points out mips already exists and claims to dissipate oblique impacts.

So

You had me until

Dr Philip Martin, Research Associate at Cardiff University, said:

“It is scary how similar traditional bicycle safety helmets on the market actually are. If you went into a helmet shop with an unlimited sum of money, you would come out with essentially the same thing, in regards to safety, as there is no superior product. The only real differences are in shape, colour and design – merely aesthetics. Everything is made out of polystyrene, which fails to offer adequate protection during ’oblique’ impacts.

“The use of advanced supercomputing technology has helped us speed up our research to produce results much faster than any system I have worked with before. Currently, without these supercomputing capabilities….bluh bluh bluh bluh balh bluh bluh

So according to Dr Phil this

offers no more protection than this ?

Assuming it’s private, just going by the op looking at a used car on a Friday evening scenario.

trail_rat –

You will need to insure it and tax it before driving it or it will show as untaxed and insured on anpr – even if it has a current valid tax disk in the window – which many still do. the tax is still automatically refunded to the previous owner

You could ask the seller not to cancel the tax on it for a few hours? Yes you’d have to take them at their word but most people are reasonable. It’s of no benefit to them to claim the tax back that instant as they won’t get the full months tax back anyway.

northernmatt

Same goes for insurance. Go through the usual comparethemeerkat, go compare etc etc, find the quote you want and then buy it on your phone when you pick the car up.

Be careful with that. I managed to get loads of quotes on comparison sites, but hit a wall when I actually tried to go to the actual insurers website. Probably not an issue for run of the mill stuff but definitely a reality with performance cars, imports, classics etc.

There are insurers who do temporary cover or your current insurer might extend cover to another car, and this might be something you can do via smartphone/website.

What new bike comes with decent wheels? Most are keek. Most forks are of questionable quality, even on expensive bikes.

Take the super expensive xx1 or x01 stuff off. Stick it in the classifieds and put 1×10 32t x 11-36 on it. Problem solved. Spend the difference on beer.

fudge9202 – Member

I’m only in granny ring when climbing to the top of Kilbroney which is a seriously long time and steep, but once up never in it again as it’s down and fast all the way. 32 would seem to be the best way to go but plan to run a t rex 42 expander sprocket so do you think I’ll spin out or should I stick to original choice of a 34 front ring?

You won’t need an expander ring. Last year I did Kilbroney starting at Yellow water, up to the river crossing then down the red. Then into Kilbroney, up to the top (via zig zags), down into Bally Ed, up the tractor trail to the mast. Down the black, then back up and finished the red to YW. All done with an 11-34 cassette and a 34t chainring. I was doing zero commuting or midweek miles at the time.

32×11-36 is a very light gear, if you’re doing 100 miles a week on the road the climbs around Kilbroney should be fine. If you can’t do it without an expander I’d be looking at my bike setup and climbing technique.

Some more nice pics to add some colour because every thread needs pics.

JCL – Member

There is no way you can effectively alter your mass location forward to compensate for a typical short rear centre/long front centre trail/AM bikes. Well, you possibly could but you would be in such a precarious riding position that you would eat shit often. If a bike requires you to move out a neutral position to give consistent front/rear cornering bias it’s a dated, flawed, pile of crap.

What’s more amazing to me is that people are advocating for bikes that ride just like that. The marketeers have done a great job. .

So what are you trying to say, modern bikes require you to sit like a sack of spuds and just hang on? Have the basic principals of how to ride changed? You’ve become lost in arguing one tiny point and forgotten that any one aspect of a bikes geometry is not the defining factor, it’s only one part of it. I suspect no one is talking about hurling your weight around like the passenger in a sidecar race, rather, small shifts. A bike with a longer effective tt might require you to shift forward slightly on a lippy jump, or to apply a bit more pressure on the outside of the bars on a flat corner to maintain grip but the flip side is they require a less dramatic rearward weight shift on descents, compared to a bike with a really short tt.

Try to imagine tackling a big rock garden at high speed down a steep chute on a bike with a 450mm top tube and 900mm chainstays. Does that sound ideal to you?

JCL .

And to the chap who said that DH riders move around the bike etc. No they don’t, not these days.

Of course they do, that’s a laughable statement.

Exposure Diablo meets all of your requirements except price.

Has this thread been improved by Michael Bay yet?

I spent a long time deciding which saw to buy, it’s quite the minefield if you don’t know what you want.

As someone else above said, Husqvarna and Stihl are your go to brands. Or Jonsered which are re-licensed Husqvarna or so I gather. Those brands hold their value well, and have good dealer networks. There are some very good fakes out there though so be sure to buy new, or used from a dealer. I have tried bootleg Stihls, and Mitox, which is kind of a legitimised chinese saw….absolutely terrible.

About 95% of online info on chainsaws seems to be debating which is best, Husqvarna or Stihl. To no avail really. I got the impression that the massive Stihl online presence was down tho them being made in ‘Merica rather than them being better in any appreciable way so don’t waste your time with that. All the farmers I know swear by Husqvarna, but Stihl are a good saw.

Bigger is not always better. In fact a big powerful chainsaw in inexperienced hands is a terrifying prospect. Also consider whether you will be using it all year round, and what features might suit occaisional use or regular use.

Genuine lol. Well done mate!

I state the truth and people mock me with derisive laughter. :-)

DYSWIDT

No, sorry, what? did you do there? :-)

nemesis

Only if you set your privacy that way. Ditto for them being able to read your posts.

jaylittle

Hence the pay as you go sim!

Yeah I thought I’d post for the benefit of people who may not have considered the implications.

Lifer – Member

jimjam – Member

Clutch. /thread.

FIST BUMP

Low have been pretty damn awesome

Converge

Mastodon

Tool

My first thought was Tool, but I really didn’t rate 10,000 days.

Mostly Balanced

Fatbikes are the current rebellion against increasing complication but will soon be recognised for the heavy and clumpy things they are and lighter 3 inch ‘plus’ sizes will be widely adopted for trail use.

I always thought that’s what they were, and why they were popular, but full sus fat bikes kind of make a nonsense of that.

Stato, I wouldn’t just jump into doing that without taking a look first especially if it’s a big od update. Final cut is a pretty hefty programme, you might spend most of your trial period just learning the basics. Which would be great , but are you then going to buy it to continue editing your gopro clips?

In fact my track stands are so long that I don’t go for bike rides, I go for track stands, which I occasionally intersperse with a bit of cycling.

So long are they, that the only way to determine their length will be do dig me up several million years from now and use highly super highly advanced future carbon dating techniques to carbon date my fossilized bones. And of course, my bones will be fossilized into a track standing position because I will certainly just wear a hole into the ground wherever I decide to stop and future generations will just build over the top of me.

I’m so much better than you I can’t count how long I can do it on any bike regardless of wheel or tyre size. I’d starve to death before I discovered the limits of my track standing ability. Even if someone hooked up an intravenous drip to sustain me during my track stand the tyres would probably degrade and the wheels would get eaten away by atmospheric contamination to the point where I was just being slowly lowered to the ground.

Ultimately I’d just end up standing on two pedals, my hands clenched onto the bars, which by that stage will have been formed into diamond. My beard would grow down beyond my crotch, shielding my privates from view and sparing other the sensation of instant emasculation that would strike them should they catch a glance of the testicles of a man who could do such a track stand.

Here’s a tip. Not being sarcastic so stay with me after this next sentence. Google “top 5 free editing apps for mac”.

Then go on youtube and look for tutorials for those programmes and imovie ( and premier for context).

That’ll give you a good, detailed over view of the programmes as well as a look at the interfaces, how they work, what the work flow is like, how simple or complicated they appear.

I’ve used pretty much every pro level app out there and have edited for broadcast tv. When I downloaded gopro’s own app I got pissed off with it inside about 10 minutes. Same thing for imovie.

Clutch. /thread.

epicyclo

Seeing as humans are not evolving exoskeletons, the greater speed means wearing more and more protective gear like a hurtling Manga warrior.

Or not. How long do you think it will take bikes to the point where weekend warriors will be as quick as World Cup DH pros? Simple answer is, never. Reflexes and bravery will be a requirement. Even if it was technologically possible it doesn’t mean riders will suddenly disengage their brain, they’ll have to use their discretion and moderate their own risk.

Guys (wearing a helmet and knee pads) on dh bikes at MSA and Windham are hitting 60mph so the bikes are already capable of potentially deadly speed. And you can walk into a shop tomorrow and buy one.

Having said that there’ll probably be advances in armour, lighter, stronger, more reactive. Look at d30. How about a visco elastic polymer shorts, jersey, gloves etc etc

Adobe Premier elements is about £80. I’ve only used the full version but I would imagine the elements package would suit most entry level users.

making a £30 electronic mech won’t be so easy.

Airlines for the win then.

Do you think it’ll just fall over if you succeed in killing it?