mikey74

@ Justy –

I disagree; If that was true, anyone could be a world class downhiller.
Alot of it is in the head and you can’t really train that.

Yes, the best in the world have a completely focused and unique mindset, and masses of “natural” talent that most find bewildering and will never poses but, they also have an insane drive to train, practice, improve, and an insatiable will to win.

Rivett

I e-mailed Steve Jones a couple of years ago to ask his opinion on two downhill bikes. He took the time to reply. I thought that said a lot.

I emailed him when I was considering buying an ex-demo bike I knew he’d tested, I wanted to know what sort of milage had been put on the bike. He got back to me quick smart. Seems like a top bloke.

I’ve just bought a Dare 2b Amplitude jacket of their own website and it should have been £60.00 onsale £24.45 incl p+p its breathable and waterproof

I got 2 of these from tk max for £12. They aren’t particularly breathable. Okay as a spare jacket but they are pretty unpleasant on the bike. I’d max out your budget and get something bike specific.

mine now only makes a windproof

Have you tried re proofing it?

crikey – Member

I struggle to see why people want those God-awful bars. Get drops, use drops not those foul spread out nonsense thingy

I believe they are optimal when used on trail centre double black runs for smoking people dressed like storm troopers on dh bikes. Possibly*

*highly f***in unlikely

XTR.

I’ve owned the 2010 fluid which I think was the previous gen sight, fantastic bikes. Very under rated. Definitely not an xc bike though.

dafoxster

I’m tending towards the Transition. Thoughts?

Heavy and overpriced for what it is.

dafoxster I took the plunge and went for a Large Black Transition Covert frame at £999.

Edit: Enjoy your new frame, :) I’m sure it’ll be great, that’s a good price.

CaptJon – Member

odd place for a bunch of big holes.

My thoughts exactly. Tidy work mind.

PJM1974

Try riding a Quad Link 2 bike and an FSR back to back and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

I used to work in a Marin/Whyte dealership and own an FSR. I choose tyres based on trail conditions.

What’s the point of dual chainrings?

I think the better question is what’s the point of a bash ring? And the answer is it replaces a redundant, dangerous and easily damaged large outer ring whilst increasing ground clearance and chain retention.

PJM1974

Quad Link 2 bikes are a little sensitive to tyre choice, there’s a tradeoff between traction, drag and wallow to take into account.

As opposed to bikes that aren’t sensitive to tyre choice, exercise bikes maybe?

For mixed muddy terrain and reasonable rolling resistance look at specialized storm controls or maxxis medusa. For constant deep mud panaraced trailraker, for tons of grip but compromised rr look at schwalbe muddy marys and super tacky high rollers.

Whatever you choose it’ll be some sort of compromise and you’ll not know what works for you until you try them so get buying!

Total gash.

Northwind Like your wet scream there, uncut, is godly in pure mud but ropey on hard stuff because of the tall knobs. And hard stuff can include a rock in a mud-bath, or a big root.

Naaaah, they are as good on wet roots and rocks as any other tyre if you’re off the brakes.

doverheels

I think that Super Tacky Maxxis Swamp Things are better over roots and anything wet other than gloopy than Wet Screams

Again, no difference if you’re off the brakes.

FWIW Schwalbe Dirty Dans and Michelin DH Muds are grippier than wet screams, but they don’t have quite the same impeccable manners.

Sweet lord no.

PJM1974
You’ll probably think “why the heck didn’t I think of this sooner?”

Exactly this. I’ve not had a bike with less than 150mm’s of travel since 2004. Got myself a ghost amr (120mm) a few weeks ago and I am literally raving about it to anyone who’ll listen. Even on internets.

There were plenty of reasons I wasn’t able to justify having a second bike but now that I do it’s totally reinvigorated my love of mtbing. I am riding everything on it….just riding more. I’m not relishing full on dh trails in the wet, but I am riding everything I’ve been riding on the sx trail and it’s wild fun.

I’m wondering, will I die?

No, you’ll just have fun.

Have had the revelation xx carbon steerer jobs in my hand. They are hella light. I would have them over a 32 if money was no object.

Sorry, I can’t be bothered to watch the video, but are you posting it because someone managed to accurately measure something? You do know there are naked women on the internet?

I’ve not felt any factory hubs that felt as good as i9. Those on some flows or crests would be pimpier than crossmax imo.

Was just going to post that I had my doubts about the effectiveness of bike fitting for mtb, then saw the link to bikejames’ article. Glad to see I’m not alone.

I’ve little doubt it’s great for road, and everyone I’ve spoken to who’s had it done for their road bike has had improvements. I went through basic bike fit training with a very clever and highly qualified fitter. At the end of the session I asked him how much of it was applicable/transferable to mtb and he just replied “all of it” at which point I realised none of it was.

This video features on being worn by someone who looks like he knows what he’s doing. FWIW I think it’s an extremley comfy helmet. Only stopped short of buying one because I didn’t think I would be able to mount my light on it, on closer inspection I would have.

Mavic 823 all the way. Or a cheaper option would be the sun mtx.

I’d had a brief test ride on one already so I had an idea what to expect, but first ride impressions are even better than I hoped. The bike climbs brilliantly, zero pedal bob when seated, even with pro-pedal fully open. Long front and short back end means it suits my riding style and I am always where I want to be on the bike, it’s taking very little getting used to. I threw it down some pretty rough sections and the bike felt very composed, very stable, comparable to some 160mm bikes I’ve ridden.

Front end grip was an issue with some very high pressure in the tyres and fork, hopefully I’ll sort this out in due course. I have one or two silly niggles, the stock grips are too fat, and the seat clamp is a bit cheap, but other than that it’s superb. Light, stiff, fun and composed. Can’t wait to ride it some more.

Just back from my initial shakedown of the new bike, very impressed. If you’re interested chris, post here and let me know and I’ll give you a more detailed breakdown.

I’ve just bought myself a Ghost AMR 5900. I don’t actually want to get it muddy, but when I do (soon hopefully) I’ll let you know what I think.

I chose it because it’s a 4 bar, as all my recent bikes have been, good geometry… it’s got a nice short back end and a roomy cockpit. I’ve ditched the stock bar and stem and now it feels very purposeful.

showerman

old innertube raped around bar,pull it good and thight

Oh you rough bastard.

Thanks for all the posts guys, it’s appreciated. I think I’ll stick it out with him, as it seems like he’s adopted us anyway. Not feeling too flush at the minute but he might get a trip to the vet sometime in the new year.

legend

I assume that he’s already had his plums off?

I’ve not looked at his balls…I don’t think he would appreciate it :)

CHB – Member

Yes, get rid!

It’s not that easy, I think the previous occupant used to feed and shelter him so he kind of lives in my yard. Also, the house next to me is basically gutted so I like having him about to keep pests away, and I just don’t want to kick him out as he’ll probably die.

What sort of things do you need to know?

Well, he’s friendly, but even when sitting on my knee he will turn and try to bite me pretty randomly, and then he’l sit there with his mouth open staring. or when he seems to be acting playfully he seems to really want to claw or grab hold of my hand to bite it.

M6TTF Is he play fighting or really going for you?

I think it’s play, but he’s a bloody big strong cat so he can draw blood very easily.

The vans gravels are excellent. Very grippy, keep the water out and stiff enough. Mine were a bit tired and as they were not available in my size I ended up replacing them with 5 10 freeriders (the red baron ones). I expected the 5 10s to be much grippier, but not as water repellent. To my surprise they seem less grippy than the vans, but the uppers seem pretty water proof. They are extremely stiff at the minute too.

They still take an age to dry out when saturated but to be fair so did the vans when absolutely soaked. All in all, having used every flat pedal shoe on the market I think the vans are best by a slim margin.

nickegg

Short…a little yes.

High…They have a lower BB than most bikes i’ve come across.

Steep…67.5 degree HA with a 120mm fork is pretty slack even by todays standards!

I’m guessing it’s the way they sit up in their travel that makes them feel high, and peoples tendency to put bigger forks on them jacking up the bb, this combined with a short tt means they feels relatively steep on the trail to me at any rate.

A few of my mates own/owned them and I’ve ridden a few different specs and variations. I’ve not liked any of them and have to say, in my opinion, for what it’s worth, it must be the most over rated bike ever. That’s not to say that it’s an awful bike, but it’s far from the best bike ever as many people would have you believe.

If I had to back that up, I would say it’s because I found it short, high and steep for an “aggressive trail bike” and heavy for a trail/xc bike.

blooddonor
And you can get a bottle cage on there,so no more looking like your going up the north face of the eiger with a bloody great camelbak on your back,

I don’t know if you’ve heard but they make small camelbaks too, incase you ride over mildly technical terrain which would cause your water bottle to be spat from it’s ugly fragile cage.

I’m happy that I’ve got my bike set up to my liking for my local trails, though I change settings depending on extremes of weather. I try to run my rebound kind of in the middle, not so slow it gets packed down, and not so fast that I get bucked off. I run my compression soft enough to give some compliance/grip over small bumps, and maybe bottoming out once or twice on a trail (depending on the trail) and that’s it.

As I said, the weather makes a big difference to the speed I ride and hence I adjust my settings slightly depending. These all work fine for my local trails but weren’t much cop recently when I went further afield. Horses for courses etc etc

Why are all roadies such bitchy, cliquey, gossiping, moaning, joyless humourless, posing elitist ****ts obsessed with proving themselves and/or deriding anyone else at any opportunity?

deviant

“we went back to session the drops”….no no NO.

‘Practise’ is what should be written.

But messing around and having fun might have been the motivation, in which case practise would not be correct. Session is the word which best describes the activity, deal with it.

Project IGI was great. Shooting people through walls never gets old.

So many games in this thread are either forgotten, or just weren’t big hits. Quite a lot of them were critically acclaimed so I think I’m just gonna throw up a few I have fond or vague memories of and maybe others do too. Cant believe how much of Sabrewulf I recalled from that screenshot. Anyway, here goes.

Saboteur

Who dares wins II

Fighting warrior

ATV Simulator

Zub

Gauntlet

Renegade

Zombies ate my Nighbours

Immortal

not underrated by any stretch but I must mention

and the daddy

marco
C,mon guys, just trying to have a laugh!
Oh and Jimjam – second that?? that all you got to add??

Okay, I’ll indulge you. Samuel Johnson said the following, regarding his ten year long effort to write a standardised english dictionairy. I’ll just echo his sentiments and hope that some of his wisdom rubs off on me.

Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design , require that it should fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. With this consequence I will confess that I flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged expectation which neither reason nor experience can justify. When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary nature, or clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation.

.

With this hope, however, academies have been instituted, to guard the avenues of their languages, to retain fugitives, and repulse intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain; sounds are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength.

Three_Fish – Member

9. Lists of phrases that annoy somebody else.

Second that.

Nice hybrid.