Actually, looking at it again, the XO looks like it’d be fine with a bit of a sheath on the cable, and the planet-x might be the same with the guide on the right way around 😉

The front mech cable on my Scott cross bike has a little plastic sheath on it where it fouls the frame on the way up from the BB. It’s not as ‘big’ a contact as you’ll have, but it should be fairly easy to sort something neat through the hole/over the weld using a bit of, for instance, Gore cable inner liner stuff?

LOL!

My 3 year old rides the Dalby jump track on his pedal-less bike… although there has been blood :-/

But anything other than a trailer destroying impact shouldn’t result in him bumping his head, given the 5 point harness holding him in place, and the metal rollcage.

It’s banging his head on the metal roll-cage that I’m worried about. Without actually crash testing the trailer 😉 I would think that a car could very easily impart energy to throw a child about enough to get his head to hit the frame, five point harness or not. And there’s the chance of deforming the frame in towards the child as well. Could be s low speed impact, or a higher speed clip or glancing blow. Neither scenario is a destroying/flattening trailer accident, but definitely have more risks than when not on the road. It’s not empirical, but it’s not irrational 😉

It’s just a (improvised) risk assessment thing (based on lots of different factors – where, when, weather, etc), and sometimes on road I’m happier with him wearing a helmet than not. But most often I’m happier with not!

I just can’t see any benefits to a helmet in a trailer to offset the disadvantages (99+% of my trailer use is on the road).

Aaah… a classic “YMMV” situation then, as 99+% of my trailer use is off-road (and on the road usually means a busy rural A-road with impatient holiday traffic on it who don’t like bikes slowing them down on the way to their pub lunch).

What’s most important is that they are comfy and enjoy it (with a reasonable degree of safety). He certainly gets pulled on the road without a helmet on (inc touring in Belgium), it’s just that the usual roads we go on just make me wish he was wearing one. And yes – trailer destroying impacts weren’t really what I was thinking of, but any car impact, even quite “gentle”, is likely to impart a lot more energry to the trailer that virtually any “not involving a large moving lump of metal” accident off-road.

Also I’m having to tell him to take his helmet off in the trailer as he’ll be more comfy, rather than having to get him to put it on. And the helmet’s usually coming along anyway as his bike is often strapped to the back of the trailer!

So… he was better than you then?

😉

I’m struggling to understand the logic here. What dangers are there on-road but not off which a helmet will protest him from?

being tail ended by 1000kg + of metal ?

Yep – that’s the one. I choose the risks when I’m pulling a trailer off-road, not some numpty in a car. And I’ve had some cars going amazingly close to the trailer, including one inches from rear-ending it when I was turning right. I have no idea if a helmet is actually likely to help with the energy invloved in a car hitting the trailer, but he’s still going to wear one 😉

I can definitely recommend an Islabike Cnoc (14 or 16) – really nicely thought out bikes. My son is about to turn 4 and has had a Cnoc 14 since the summer. Excellent as a first “proper” bike with pedals. Choice is going to depend a lot on how big he is I think. Check out the minimum inside leg measurements on the Islabike size chart. You should be able to find this for Spec, Ridgeback etc?

Definitely avoid coaster brakes if you want him to learn to ride standing on the pedals etc. Cnoc 14 has rear brake only – which is great for learning how to brake, but obviously doesn’t have the stopping power of a front brake (which the Cnoc 16 has). The Islabike tiny brake lever deserves a special mention – really properly small and works brilliantly.

Ours was too small for a helmet when he started in the trailer. They generally don’t match up well and push the head forward too much.

I have always preferred him to wear one on the rare occasions we ride on road those. Off-road I’m not bothered, he’s rolled a couple of times and been fine – very dependent on trailer and harness design though. It’s probably more an issue as they get bigger as they’ll be more likelihood of heads being able to impact trailer frame, and more weight being thrown around in the even of a roll.

He’s so used to wearing his helmet now (and seeing us wearing ours) that he insists on wearing it in the trailer – despite it being more comfy without, and it making it a pain in the arse to get the harness on and off!

I sold some snowboard bindings on Ebay to a bloke in Budapest once – very cheaply. I charged him exact cost for postage and he was so pleased that I’d sell them to him he paid me 5 quid more than we agreed!

We’ve had a CX-1 for three and a half years. Lots of miles, on and off-road. Very good, no complaints from drivers or passenger – I’d buy the same again. Current Cougar spec seems very similar to our CX-1 spec – except for the zip-off windows on the cover which are really good.

Usually you’ll have a barrel adjuster on the cable hanger (front and rear). If you haven’t then you could fit some of those mid-cable adjusters (I’m sure they’ve got a proper name, just can’t think of it).

I was out last night, and on Saturday morning. As of last night there was still quite a bit of snow. It’s on the wane but it was tough going – frozen crusty stuff, but not crusty enugh to float over, or frozen slushy stuff which was just hard and unforgiving (it was freezing!).

It was OK if you were right in the trees, but anything out in the open that hadn’t already been well tracked (by bike or vehicle) was likely to be a push and it was harder going than in the fresher snow at the weekend. Last night I was on bits of the back half of the red and the singletrack obviously hadn’t seen much traffic – I suspect the first half which was getting ridden more at the weekend will be more tracked.

If the thaw continues until the weekend it’ll probably be OK – but expect slush or ice depending on the temperature.

JoB – Member

it’s “Get out of the way, d’you know who I wannabe?” usually

“Get out of the way, d’you know who I draw?”… surely?

Managed to ride/walk the whole red route bar the last section (too tired). Was really fun in the woods, the fire roads were very hard going though.

Weren’t they just? I was on the pink Surly – bugger that was hard work in the deep bits, especially the trudge back up to the forest drive just after you passed me – Stevie Wonder got me through it 😉

Good work on getting round – it was lovely to be out in it.

Another Macpac user here – excellent kit, if you can get it at a decent price it’s wel worth it. Their climbing packs had always been my favourites so ti was an easy choice for me (and my comfort). And as you can see he always found it pretty comfy too – I’m spectating at the Fort William World Champs… he’s seen enough fast bikes for the day 😉

I doubt they’d stop anyone from riding – it’d be impossible to police. I suspect insurance requirements demand that they say the trails are closed in some conditions.

I suspect you will only be able to drive as far as the visitor centre though, I heard there has been at least one accident on (or rather in a ditch next to) the forest drive this week.

I was going to get out in the forest this morning before work… but ended up lying in instead 😉

It’s pretty snowy up there and, based on previous experience, will be pretty hard going (either crusty snow or ice). So it’ll be fun, if you’re in the mood for it! I’ll be riding tomorrow, but I’m not spending time in a car to do it. To be honest anywhere at that sort of height is going to be pretty snowy, although the open moors will have more chance of drifts than the forests will.

I very much doubt the XXL Santinis will be too baggy – they’re sized to fit rake-thin pros, not weekend warrior mtbers. I’m small in most things (and just under 6ft) and their large bibs fit me just fine – just long enough in the body and certainly slim enough.

That tends to be the way most italian and spanish road kit is sized.

Always size bibs by height – if you go for a euro make then they’ll be fine for the slighter gent 😉

I got a pairs of these in the post today to replace a very worn out set of endura 3/4. They seem a very nice slim fit and have got a pretty good insert. Prendas are very good – you put your measurements in the order and if they think you’ve order the wrong size then they change it 🙂

Oh and you’d be XXL in Santini sizing at that height.

Bite the bullet and get something else. There’s a few other about (eg the Try-all one), but I don’t think any are as easily serviced as the WI ones.

Mine was supposed to be 5% and I was asked whether I wanted to buy it or not for that. I said yes and heard no more about it, assuming they’d take it out of salary, but I’m actually sure they did as there was no deduction from January’s salary and my last normal payment was, I think, December.

It would have been less than 40 quid though (they had a £750 limit) so I might not have noticed 😉

I must admit I had been looking at £150 rigid forks such as this one below, so a cheap test is not really a go-er.
Maybe I just get the Reba…

No

Nuke Proof forks

Oh yes… do it 🙂

Good basic steel disk forks seem to be about 70 quid at the minute (eg Surly 1×1, Salsa Cro-moto, Kona Project 2 – all good).

I ride rigid quite a bit (and with sus) – it’s just different (in good and bad ways). As long as you just accept that it’s different then you can enjoy the different-in-good-ways bits and ignore the bad bits 😉

Well worth doing for variety’s sake if anything – it certainly sharpens up your line choice skills. Oh and put a nice fat tyre on too 😉

I’m not trying to dismiss helmets – I’m just trying to make the point that staying within your limits is the best way to reduce your risk.

Agreed! And for me it’s probably the number of skiers and boarders on busy slopes that don’t appear to know what there limits are make wearing one an easy choice for me (that and those hard spring morning pistes). The worst falls I’ve had have usually been someone elses fault 😉

But I’m used to wearing helmets for riding (and in past for other activities – eg climbing and kayaking) so it doesn’t feel odd or out of place for me. I certainly wouldn’t want people being put off going up mountains because they felt unsafe without a helmet because, as you point out with the stats, they’re really not.

And re the original post… I know that area quite well… very lucky boys… and idiots 😉

I always wear a helmet boarding, and more often than not find myself wearing it when I’m skiing too. I’ve had enough falls where I’ve just whacked my head hard enough to at least think “Bugger, that would have really hurt without a helmet” for it feel worthwhile.

It’s clearly an active debate at the moment, see:
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/news/story.asp?intStoryID=6155

Interesting quote from that (but no link to the source):
However, research carried out by Norwegian scientists last year seemed to suggest that wearing a helmet had measurable benefits. Of the 3,277 skiers and boarders surveyed , there were 578 head injuries (17.6%) and the scientists claimed that the effective use of a helmet would have reduced the risk of head injuries by 60%.

I had one of those Ericssons – they were great. And then a Nokia 5140 which lasted a surprising amount of abuse until I got fed up with reattaching the keypad.

Got a Sonim XP1 now (what’s being sold as the JCB phone, but in nice plain black). It’s ugly, rugged and doesn’t do much a part from be a phone. It’s got a lifetime guarantee on the casing – which I’ve had to invoke. It cracked/seperated a bit along its “seam” due to sandwiching it between me and a rock from a height. Still worked fine, but probably wasn’t waterproof anymore. Vodafone replaced it no problem (once they’d realised it wasn’t servicable by them). It is proper waterproof (tested).

The software is a little bit clunky though (Phillips based I think?). Buttons a proper usable-in-gloves. For peace of mind ruggedness it is very good. But I’d probably go for the Samsung over it if/when I choose again.