Is it foot stink or shoe stink? I had a pair of Bontragers that stank of cat pee whenever they got damp. It was the adhesive apparently – couldn’t do much about it except exile them outside until they were dry!

I bought a forerunner 235 and its great, the only downside with the HR monitor is that it does seem to lag a bit. Doing intervals the other week, and my HR was still going up even though I’d stopped running flat out and was starting to recover.

Yeah – this is what DCRainmaker identified as pretty much the only quibble with the 235 – not catching recovery drop well and getting a bit confused when doing intervals (see http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/garmin-fr230-fr235-review.html for a very in-depth review).

That wasn’t a deal-breaker for me as I’m not that interested in using the HR stuff at that level of detail, and I’ve been really happy with my 235. Really nice switching between biking and run, syncing with Garmin Connect is pretty good, which links to Strava nicely. Basic phone notifications are fine for me – can feel a bit overwhelming when phone, watch and ipad all parp at the same time though 😉

Personal favourite is Shimano 600EX/6200 series stuff, just before the grey of Ultegra took over. There’s a beautiful functional simplicity to it.

Plus there’s the bonkers headset lock ring pattern too..

Fox launch pro youth are good. No shin protection though – how important that is depends on how aggressive their pedals are 😉

EVS Option Mini have been good for us too – hard knee and shin protection and strap on and off easily.

Lizard skins soft elbow pads are great for protection but not restricting them too much too.

I thought skiers thumb was a traumatic thing, rather than a repetitive thing – ie this:

I have snapped my UCL twice on my right hand thumb

I guess the doc will diagnose something. I rode rigid over rough stuff a lot in the past, my strategies for managing the bumps and hands
1. fat (and tubeless) tyres (well… fat for then 2.5)
2. the right fork – I’ve experienced massive differences between what look like very similar forks
3. thin grips (allow the hand to grip more naturally
4. ulnar nerve padded gloves (although this is more for chatter than impact)
5. working on arm and upper body strength – gives you better movement control and shock absorption
6. also think about whether a change of position might help in changing hand-bar angle of attack (independent of considering a **** shaped bar)

I don’t ride rigid much these days. Suspension is really good these days you know 😉

My eldest is 11 and has been riding clipped in since he was 7 or so. He started on SPDs off road, and even though he was really confident on those he still found the transition to road clips intimidating (he’s fine now). Riding on the track forced the issue I guess as he really wanted to be clipped in so just manned up and got on with it.

I think your plan of the touring pedals and mtb shoes is a good one. Although you could just get some M530s and he’d have an alternative off road too.

I did make him do a lot of pedal drills – in-out-in-out-in-out-etc – on both feet until he was really confident. They need to practice getting out when they don’t need to – don’t save it until they actually have to stop 😉

I’ve got to remember all this now as the youngest (6) is on the cusp of fitting our smallest SPD shoes!

Looks like you probably want a thru-axle style lockring – Shimano HB-SM20 is the standard part. Fits with an external BB spanner.

Good result 🙂

You’d be very lucky to get anything new with an air fork for less than 700 I think. I’d be looking at second hand 26″ wheeled bikes to get something good at that money.

Also even at 4’11’ most adult “small” frames will be quite big – so worth getting him on a few to see how they size up.

The Whyte 604 compact would be a good one to look at, if only to comapre frame geometry to. It’s £525 but still only has a coil fork…
http://www.whyte.bike/#!604/ifi6f

Have you fitted these cranks to this bike before? If so what’s changed?

It can be a bit of trial and error to get these to be just right – if you’re happy it’s bottoming out then I’d get hold of another 1mm spacer or two and add those in until it’s right. If the shell has been “enthusiastically” faced then you could easily end up with an extra mm to take up in slack.

I’ve just swapped from Straits to IXS Slope-series EVO – no longer a current model, but still available. Definitely up a step in protection from Kyle Straits, but at least as comfy, probably more so.

and the most important thing a flashing led strip that gives his speed on the side of his wheel so everyone can see how fast he is going.

What?! This sounds amazing! 🙂

Yes, if you can get a short inline post (or cut one down) then that would be perfect as you can swap that slight layback post back in as he gets bigger. As long as the pedalling position is right I wouldn’t worry too much about getting it any lower – he’ll get used to is pretty quickly.

I’ve conditioned my kids to like a fairly aggressive position, so I’d slam that stem and find some flat bars, but you’ll work out what he’s comfortable with in a couple of rides

Looks good!

Quite long? It’s hard to judge with the camera angles. You might want to experiment with a slightly swept flat bar, depending on how he get’s on with it as it is.

If you want a granny then the Thorn 4-bolt triple comes in 150mm. They’re very nice cranks, used them on a 24″ build:
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-104-64-pcd-triple-crankset-mk2-black-prod31813/

Has anyone come across any 4-bolt cranks shorter than 150mm? Want to drop the gearing range on a 20″ and 150mm is too long.

Very bike friendly B&B in Pickering: http://www.elevenwestgate.co.uk/

Lockton YHA is close (so close they’re now calling it Dalby Forest!): http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/dalby-forest

I’ve used Roger Musson’s calculator recently, based on real world measurements, but I’ve used the DT one before using its built in library with no problems at all. With the length, I’d always get as close to required length as possible, so I tend to go to the nearest 2mm step if that’s the option – which also means I tend to go to people who do per spoke rather than by the box. I’ve had spokes cut and threaded before for particularly hard to find sizes, but that’s on smaller wheels (kids bikes) where it becomes a bit more critical/fiddly.

Sapim D-light looks a comparable spoke (a smidge lighter) – available “per spoke” from Just Riding Along:
http://www.justridingalong.com/wheel-parts/spokes/sapim-d-light.html

edit: actually not lighter, but very close. Sapim use 64 x 260mm spokes for weight (307g) vs DT using 64 x 264mm (312g)

Gert Schraner recommends the cheap Tacx one in his book, no personal experience though:
http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/tacx-wheel-truing-stand-t3175-exact-26101?currency=3&delivery_country=190&gclid=Cj0KEQjwipi4BRD7t6zGl6m75IgBEiQAn7CfFwPCrLAkFoIOki8Pp22w8bW-oq9mxxCKLK8gEtKtaPUaAo5x8P8HAQ

I use a Ultimate Support/Feedback Sports one-sided stand. Removes the need for a dishing tool – not too pricey here:
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/20738/Feedback_Sports_Pro_Truing_Station_FB01049?gclid=Cj0KEQjwipi4BRD7t6zGl6m75IgBEiQAn7CfF2cg7jHkWBspCDuiH4X_cPYLOt23b6xZ7dZt51nQ6SQaAi4V8P8HAQ

I will do – shout at me if I forget! (Just added email to my profile)

Chariot for sure. I have a CX1 I need to sell too!*

Great bit of kit – allowed me to do loads more riding than I would have been able to without it. Kids loved it too. Good for running and any time you need to moved kids about on rough ground, or just keep them warm and dry outside.

* Well used but in good nick. All the extras. Let me know if you’re interested.

Oh man – orthotic grips… that’s an new industry we never knew we needed right there!

Snap 🙂

You know it’s more than likely your right arm is longer than your left? (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Ruff2/publication/7457813_Limb_bone_bilateral_asymmetry_variability_and_commonality_among_modern_humans/links/02e7e5363ac9ee2825000000.pdf)

Maybe straight isn’t the answer. Maybe it needs to be offset to match your personal asymmetry 😉

Salt damage to the anodising (from sweaty shorts) would be my guess – I’ve had similar (but a lot worse) from poorly anodised cranks after road salt exposure.

Good thread here: http://www.socaltrailriders.org/index.php?threads/allergies-to-spandex-polyester-or-lycra-anyone-else-have-this-problem.50345/

100% wool, no lycra, choice of pad..
http://www.kucharikclothing.com/wool-shorts-traditional-p-347.html?osCsid=5mfucd100h9sjorm0v5rjdhod4

If you’re sure it’s a sensitivity to Lycra then you’ll probably be best off looking for a padded liner short/underwear that doesn’t contain Lycra (or Spandex/elastane, same thing). You will probably need to look carefully at the label to be sure though!

Looks like Madison do (or did) a bamboo liner short https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=madison%20bamboo%20undershorts although you’d nee to see the label to be sure what makes it stretchy, as it’s usually a small percentage of elastane in stuff like this.

I have seen old cotton padded liner shorts, but from way back, not seen any recently.

I think your success measures are perfectly tuned 🙂

IME (of having a similar era frame and running a variety of forks on it) it won’t handle like a pram, but it will be a bit slower than with 420mm forks on. But even on 80mm corrected frames, 420mm forks tend to make the handling pretty quick, so it won’t be too bad with 445 on it.

Sat and tried a few good pairs on at CRC before Christmas to find a replacement for my collapsing Kyle Straits. I didn’t want too soft a pad, so ended up with IXS Slope EVOs – they’ve been very good in the limited off-road riding I’ve managed to squeeze in since then. Very reassuring level of pro, but still good to pedal for a good while.

You certainly don’t have to give your name and address to police in England. From those bastions of Policing standards the Met (in relation to stop and search or stop and account)…

“The police officer will ask for your name and address and date of birth. You do not have to give this information if you don’t want to, unless the police officer says they are reporting you for an offence.”

http://content.met.police.uk/Article/Frequently-Asked-Questions/1400009364853/1400009364853

Law is clearly different in Scotland (which Ben’s link was referring to). Different rules apply in the case of a vehicle stop, where you do have to. I doubt stopping a cyclist counts as a vehicle stop, but if they were traffic police that may be the line they were taking.

I was surprised by how small the boot of a V50 was when I was looking. It was smaller than the Saab 9-3 we were getting rid of. Ended up with an XC70 , which is not as unwieldy as you’d thing – better turning circle than our Panda 100HP 😉

Subaru Legacys too ugly? There’s diesels and big petrols around in your budget. That said I test drove an Outback the other week and thought the gearbox was awful.

So BM 😉

Cheers… long wanted BMC team kit bought for eldest’s birthday next week at bargain price 🙂

I ripped my knee apart 2 weeks before our youngest was born. Thankfully I could send a friend to tell my wife as I was at hospital by then! Crutches in the delivery room yielded surprisingly little sympathy from the midwives 😉

Neither of us were able to drive and had to rely on our parents helping out!

Yup – following an emergency c-section neither of us were able to drive after the birth for about 2 weeks. Went down really well.

I’ve written about some bits of this before:
http://singletrackworld.com/columns/2015/08/man-in-red-2/

Essentially you’re not really at significantly more risk of the type of injuries you’re worried about mountain biking than you are a doing a lot of other outdoor activities. The other thing to remember is that statistically you tend to be better off in a health sense being active in slightly “risky” activities than you are being inactive.

So I’d say you need to look outside of mountain biking a bit to give you a better perspective on these “risks” that are worrying. We pick up a reasonable number of injured mountain bikers, but no where near as many as you ight think and serious injuries are thankfully very rare. I can think of maybe two incidents that fit in the sort of category you’re worrying about in the last 4-5 years, and that’s in one of the busiest trail centres in England.

There is the dichotomy of crashing better to avoid injury – as said ^^^. In some ways the more you gently push at your riding limits, the better you get at safely bailing out when it goes wrong. Collarbone breaks tend to come from quick unexpected – the sort where you instinctively stick your arm out to catch yourself. Those falls are just as likely to happen riding on the road, walking on ice, as catching a wheel on a wet root.

I’ll have been mountain biking 30 years this year. It takes a while (not that long though!) to get your head around the relative risks of riding in different ways, particularly if you’re early on the path and still developing as a rider. Give it time and it will all fall in to place.

I think you probably need BB86 bearings (86.5mm) for GXP cranks – something like this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram-pressfit-gxp-alloy-bottom-bracket/rp-prod75586?gs=1&gclid=CjwKEAiAmNW2BRDL4KqS3vmqgUESJABiiwDToMthPrMz_tKQZIuqcqHVA7Ly3Rh9Xf2jB3dki7xk-BoCAezw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

125mm is tiny. There are shocks about that small, but air shocks that small are likely to be custom or special orders, so unlikely to be cheap. Have you had a look at this thread? http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/build-report-custom-scott-spark-20-junior

Smurf ended up with a Risse Racing shock via J Tech. Risse seem to be shock providers of choice to weirdier applications like velomobiles and the like too, for similar eye-to-eye lengths. You might get a bit of leeway with the length through careful use of offset bushings.

I did spot this on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SHIMANO-Di2-COMPUTER-CONTROLLED-SUSPENSION-SHOCK-UNIT-RS-C810-25-NEXAVE-C810-/182033633895?hash=item2a620cd267:g:Jo4AAOSwBahUz5qt

Might be cheap enough to give it a whirl?

I remember having to have one of those fold out safety arms for riding to school…

I’m pretty sure that was a key driver for me learning how to dismantle things. The **** thing didn’t last long 😉

I find that ingesting three Weetabix before heading out in the evening is essential to maintain any decent energy levels. I definitely don’t have the time to eat properly before going out and Weetabix is the one thing I’ve found that I can eat fast and gives some decent lasting energy. And I’ve always got sweets in the bag… and a couple of emergency gels.

When I run out of energy I run out. Trying to ride half techy narrow trails through tight trees when you’re finding it hard to focus your eyes and can only actually think about jam is very difficult and to be avoided. I’ve been physically pushed back to the car on more than one occasion 😉