Thought that might be the crucial point… A mate once had a t-shirt with the slogan ‘I came on Eileen’. Ruined the song for me, that one…

CFH- on to or onto?

The former is still possibly a risk, the latter i hope i’m past, along with the days of “ET’s Heart”.

8O

Winston- :D Have you been stalking me over past Christmasses?

Actually, I have a scar on my nose where i rode into a concrete drainage culvert after a whisky session….

To add to the comedy, the bike in question was an old commuter, with similar amounts of rust to that one. I had a basket at the time though. 8)

Sensible points about drink driving, of course, but my real interest is that A) I don’t want to get shitfaced in 2 hours, and B)I have a burgeoning social calendar (I know!) with several events at mine and others to come.

Out of the time off i have for Christmas, i don’t want to be feeling crappy, and there’s always the potential to spend a week over xmas in varying states of wastedness. This time of year, natural light is a premium, so hiding my head under a pillow with a methanol migrane seems a bit of a bad option.

i’m back.

I completely agree, local is a good thing: i’m in South Oxfordshire/Chilterns, so the local list is thus:

Mr Chubbs[/url]
IPA
hoppit[/url]

And yes, I’m not looking to get too wasted. I have kids, a limited amount of free time, when i want to be functional, capable of interacting with others or going for a ride/ doing stuff the day after.

Downing chemically lagers, climbing lampposts with my pants on my head and coming on to my mates’ other halves, plus enduring morning after hangovers are a waste of that. Also, I have an amazing capability to guzzle beer at an unseemly rate, which is why i don’t want strong stuff. I want to quaff a-plenty and get pleasantly merry on nice ales.

Yuck, water!?

Please don’t sully this thread with the mention of Lager, especially wifebeater thank you! :wink:

Some great suggestions; i’m pretty interested by some of the 3% is ones- and Rebellion IPA was already on the list- might nip down on Saturday for a polypin…

That Buxton brewery one looks ideal, might be a toughie to get for the weekend. (My first seasonal social)

Thanks, good to know some more locations!

I’m finding that Earthed vid remarkably motivating! Where’s it filmed!?

For the record, whenever i means i’ll be off to the pumptrack or some built trail, my little bike (Short NS Surge) is coming out this weekend!

Most recent one I like; UKGE Hammers in May.

aha, great info- one to save for later in the winter then…!?

Thanks Clink! STW teamwork wins through.

The chainguide is the Superstar XCR one. In fact it’s two of them- I and a mate both broke them in the same place, and i bodged one out of two!

it’s with a 36t middleburn front ring and a clutch mech. onse i got is set up ok, it’s not dropped a chain since.

I can post my Scandal, now ive finally cut down the steerer!

Not sure about weight, but it feels pretty light to me. Wheels are the FRM Urano ones, which Strada do. (although these were Ebay) they are nice and light/stiff; Hubs have very small bearings, but last well. FRM support is excellent, but has to be shipped direct from Italy.

If I hadn’t got these for a steal, I would have gone Crests/pro2.

Edit: i could post it if I could work Flickr[/url]

As one who grew up on a farm and used to do a load of hedgelaying myself;

The process is this- plant a row of hawthorn; leave it for 5-8 years. Lay it. Keep it trimmed with a flail. (Which would have been done with slasher or bill hook.) If the hedge is overgrown, take the side off with a shapesaw and lay it- probably needing a chainsaw and a lot of thinning at this point! In both cases, a well established hedge is maintained by flailing it every year or two, so it remains dense and close growing.

It makes me laugh the ignorant sh*t a lot of people spout- I’ve had people complain about us doing the latter, even though the end result is a far better wildlife corridor and healthy hedge. Likewise complaints about pollarding willow trees, even though established pollards will end up splitting their trunks if not cut back…

The timescale of these processes is a tad longer than someone trundling down the road on a bike for 10 minutes, on half a dozen occasions a year…

Edit- as above, hawthorn is a sod to work with- goes right through any glove, especially when it’s older! Makes for great firewood though…

I have a hope XC 28h front hub in my parts bin… thinking of building a disc-braked CX bike around it…

By birth, I score 90%.

The contemporary, enlightened, Southern livin’ me scores 20%, mainly as bitter, (or ale as I prefer to call it) is simply tip-top ace.

I have a 19.5, i’m 6 foot with a 33″ inside leg.

it’s plenty long enough for me, currently running it with an 80mm stem, for XC riding and a bit of racing.

You may be able to get away with it- run a short stem, and they are quite long and low, so there should still be some standover..? Big wheels and a slightly big frame might add up to a proper gate though…!

Hmm, i suspect my Polar stuff is a bit old- its for a CS200cad, I will examine when at home…

I’m also looking for a way to adapt some existing kit- I have a Polar HRM, cadence and speed sensors, but unfortunately have lost the CS200cad unit they were with.

Does anyone have an inkling if i can i buy an ANT+ dongle and tune them into it? I want to do it as cheaply as possible and i’d like to upgrade to a Garmin 500/800, when i have cash after Xmas.

I moved down to reading from Oxford about 10 years ago, first lived in the town, then moved out to Pangbourne area.

As others have said, I’d reccomend living in one of the train-linked villages/towns nearby; Pangbourne, Goring, Thatcham, Aldermaston, Mortimer, Cholsey, to name a few. If you live to the west, you have great access to the M4 for trips to South Wales trail centres in 2 hours or so, pretty quick down to the south coast, and local riding there’s the Chilterns, Berkshire Downs and a short hop to Swinley/ North Downs. Not biking, but the Thames is pretty lovely too.

Reading isn’t the finest night out, but for the half a dozen nights I go out there a year, the Allied Arms, Retreat on St John’s street, 0 degrees and The Nag’s Head on Russell street all do me fine for lots of great Ale. The annual beer festival is a good one too, in April/May. The picture house cinema in Henley is good, and the University Film Theatre is great for left field films. Otherwise, it’s an hour into London for everything else.

Slightly tediously, but pretty useful is that it has a load of supersized shopping outlets like Costco, B&Q, Wickes, and an Uber-IKEA development planned for 2015. Pretty nasty, but useful when you have a young family and property to sort out.

Like a lot of places, it’s what you make of it.

Ditto best time of year for riding. I think its a combination of things;

The fact you know it won’t last, as every day feels a bit wintrier, makes you appreciate it more.

You also don’t have the expectation you have in summer, so when its good weather it’s a real treat.

Also bad weather is a novelty at this point. (this summer at least) So wearing jackets and getting sideways in the mud feels good!

Everywhere looks great.

Its worth taking a bigger bag than usual to go foraging for wild tucker..!

I’ve got an alu 2012 frame. It is now at the point where it needs a good service, although i think it’s the shock bushings rather than the pivot bearings.

As has been mentioned above, judging bearing wear is pretty subjective, but I’ve had no problems. It tends to be the bike of choice for weekends away, so between rides it gets left in the garage for weeks on end.

Riding wise, its done a week in PDS, a week in Molini, 4 rounds of the this year’s UKGE series, regular days at Aston Hill, uplift at the FOD and Cwmcarn as well as plenty of wet welsh trail centre rides. It’s been dunked in rivers to clean it, and not-very-carefully jetwashed a couple of times when the mud had properly dried on.

It’s an awesome frame, and i’d have the carbon like a shot. The climbing traction is excellent, but it is very much in the AM/Mini DH category though, and it really shows when you ride it fast in the rough stuff, where it’s very composed.

It takes some time to get the shock right. Mine has an RP23, which I found was really blowing through the travel on drops, which is best remedied with a plastic spacer that fits in the air can. I’m running a medium spacer in and it only pushes the ‘O’ ring off on bigger drops/flatter landings. the travel now has a great ‘bottomless’ feel about it.

Aha! it works! So green it glows on a dull day…

The Berminator.

NS Surge; not light but very silly- as Kudos says above, a fantastic bike for jumping, BMX tracks etc. Have stuck a pair of Hope/Flow wheels on now, with 2.35 Hans Dampfs on for general trail riding. its a short frame,(23″ toptube)making for more throwaboutability. Still trail rides nicely though.

agh! flickr rubbishness…

Great, i’m ‘between’ regular riding groups at the moment, mainly due to a lack of time on my part. so it’d be good to get a regular Saturday/Sunday morning group going.

There’s loads of good riding in the Chilterns, although it can get a bit boggy in the winter unless you have an idea of where to go. Roughly speaking, the area south of Nettlebed, across to Henley/ south to Pangbourne has a lot of wooded singletrack, with some good descents east and west.

Further north, especially in the Watlington/Turville/Hambledon area, it gets more rolling and rockier (flint and chalk) which tends to get less boggy in the wet.

There are several groups which ride out of Reading, one loosely affiliated with AW cycles, as well as the off-road CTC group, and another from Pangbourne which has a website called Goodrideguide. There are probably loads more too, which i don’t know about.

If you’re planning a ride, or want someone to lead one, i’m game! My email is in profile.

Frith hill was pretty nasty in the morning for Masters, but I suspect it would have been far worse by the time you hit Open… I was way off the pace, but having pre entered, nursing a bit of a cold, I thought if do it anway for wet race experience… Thus I DID plod round steadily!

The biggest tip I’d give, (and I have noooo palmares to count as an authority) would be to really warm up- 10-15 mins exertions with some all- out efforts, followed by a break before the start. (Not easy to do when it’s pissing it down)

I don’t think it has to be one or the other. I coasted for a lot of my 20’s, travelled, worked internationally. Spent the past 10 years getting fairly settled in the UK, and am now pretty career-focused, young family, etc.

I don’t think I’ll be so work focused for ever though, but now seems to be a good time to get on with a career before I lose the option. I am already thinking how my current career could be downsized/steered into something a bit more personally rewarding when the kids are bigger!

I would go for the career option if you can, but always make sure you are keeping options open, and don’t compromise too much in terms of how and where you live. Whatever you do, I think you need to always have a strong critical distance from your job to evaluate whenever what you’re doing is working for you.

And if you can work internationally while you are young enough, and have no commitments, do it. Best thing I ever did.

I had RR front and rear, so most of my cornering was sideways, followed by comedy wheelspinning.

In retrospect, deciding to do the race while nursing a cold probably wasn’t the wisest idea, so after half of the first lap, i just focussed on trying to keep riding smoothly and consistently. Bit frustrating not feeling i could push harder…

Roll on November, might be drier then!

I have a 2012 Alu frame with Lyriks up front. Burly build throughout, (RF Atlas cranks and finish kit, reverb and Hope/Flow wheels) so not especially light, but not noticeable heavy. Planted climbing,great down hill, very stable at speed through the rough stuff. Have done the UKGE series on it in all weathers, trips to Molini and PDS.

It’s perfectly happy on DH runs, trail centre stuff and big days out in the hills. It’s probably due a full service this winter, but it has been faultless otherwise. The frame is thoroughly mauled through bad weather and ineptitude, but the mechanicals are still fine.

I did find the rear shock took a lot of fiddling to get right, and I’ve found that the RP23 it comes with has benefited greatly from an internal volume reducer, to stop it blowing through the travel on drops, etc. Once i got that sorted, and rebound speed set, it has been a revelation on rough descents.

I’d also lash out to get the 12×142 rear axle, as this is a bike to be ridden hard, so a bit of 9mm wire seems very out of place in the overall build.

I want to go and ride it now….

Going to be up in Ravenstone over the weekend, visiting relatives, I’m planning to go for a rumble round Hicks lodge early on Sunday. Anyone else about? Used to ride round Ticknall area a bit, back in the day… Always good to see how its changed!

I agree, Eastridge was great- considering the other options round there (Hopton is good too) Shropshire deserves a few days riding, at least!

Well impressed with your result, Both as a first entry and on the HT! I’m itching for some similar events this autumn- anyone know if there will be any mini-Enduro events, or similar?

Best round of the series- agreed! Glad i stuck with the Yeti, and very pleased with my remarkably average 66th place in Masters…

Back for more next year!

I’m in. First time at Eastridge, fourth go in the series. Debating between my SB66 or the NS surge. I haven’t troubled the podium with the full-suss, so might enter the ‘HT class’ :wink:

Agree with all above, great for kids, the Uptonogood event is a great day, (and financed the development) and the track is pretty sweet to play on yourself!

Crucially, it has other little attractions for big and little people- there’s a good playground, and the George and Dragon pub on the main road has a good little playground itself. And Aunt Sally. And beer.

Bit of a thread hijack- or adding to it, but i’m also looking for a GPS- something like the 800 would be ideal, as i want navigation, logging, HRM and cadence, which will also connect well with Apps/Strava, etc. Has anyone got experience of other brands- such as Bryton?

Inners is a lot of fun, but hardly beginner territory? Isn’t there a track at Ae which is a bit more approachable? I’ve ridden a gnarli-er descent there, but it was 2004, and my memory of the occasion is not the best?

brilliant, thanks! i’ll have a look.