What is the secret to keeping your feet on the pedals then?

And where are your feet supposed to be? I tried the midfoot pedal position but I seem to have a tendency to band my foot on the ground when pedalling uphill on rolling trails.

On the descents (sorry, not what you asked for) it’s supposed to be feet midway & with dipped ankles but that’s fine if you like to ride-through sections like you’re riding the section out (i.e. soaking it all in with your legs) with the weight toward the rear. If you like to ride in aggressive stance (weight low & over the bars), flick about, stay loose, hop over/into stuff I find that type of feet-positioning awkward.

edit: bland expressed my thoughts better

I’ve been riding HT all my life and up until last year I was a flatty person. Since I eventually decided to give clipless a try I found I like them when the going gets rough: my feet stay on. However, definitely flats or fully-commit on clipless for when it get’s sloppy.

You are joking, right? They’re a ****ing slug!

The CX500 are quite popular in the modding scence as the engine, despite being heavy & underpowered, has a niche (Guzzi) look to it and is a reliable lump. Much ‘sportier’ than an equivalent BMW (i have an R45 cafe).

As for trail bikes being more nickworthy? My 82 DR125 trail bike has been stolen 3 times. 1st time it was locked in a garage with a locked car blocking the door (broke window and let off handbrake, broke garage door, cut bike lock). 2nd time it was locked <2m away from my head whilst I slept with the window open, i heard gravel sound but thought nothing of it. 3rd time they walked it off down an alley and gave up trying to cut the lock. I know for a fact the 1st two instances were by little scrotes (I had a chat with them).

Latest bike stolen was an MX bike. MX bikes & quads are always been stolen.

1 trend I’ve noticed (I’ve had 3 mtbs stolen too) is that they all get stolen just before the summer. Typically May/June time.

If you have a flat roof with an up-and over door, there’s nothing to be done. The scum hang on the roof and kick the top of the door in making those garage-door t-handles you see bolted to floor pointless. If the bottom is uncovered, you can hook something underneath and rip the door down. If the top is uncovered you can jam a screwdriver/knife and push the sprung-loaded bolt down. Some of the door locks are easy to pick.

The last 2 I learnt as a kid to get into my dad’s/friends parents garage to get our bikes out when our parents were away with the keys.

If you armour the door with bolts, they go in through the roof, and dismantle the door from the rear. A neighbour had his 2 Gas-Gas trials bikes stolen exactly that way.

Is it a roller door?

MucOff, kitchen brush and a pressurised garden sprayer (B&Q) on the path outside my gaff is how I do it. It gets the most off. Technically I have a garden (2x2m) but weird things grew out of it after I washed my bike their and it’s my landladys anyway. Not sure why you need a garage to clean a bike though.

Any half decent lock will deter opportunists, serious thieves will go through walls and roofs if they really want to. Get it insured and use whatever they ask you to use.

True. Locks keep honest people honest.

Is this one any good
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191220996936?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

What you see in the pic below is a chopped Oxford Hardcore and a space where my motorbike used to be (out of shot are 2 other chains).

Almax are supposed to be the standard.
http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/Almax-Immobiliser-Series-IV/c-1-70/

LDV Maxus. Cheap because they’re not a VW or a Transit.

Plenty of them around with money in your budget to spare for kitting it out.

Leaves you plenty of money for these.

I.e. Tomac were shite bikes.

Hey now. My Omen has being going strong to this day since 2006.

Probably not, but it can certainly be left in gear

The front wheels are on planks/skids.

3rd on Aviva. Just bought domestic insurance with them. The online tool doesn’t require your life story and the phone call to purchase the policy was painless. The price was surprisingly reasonable and the cheapest I found.

What’s the end of the tail-pipe look like? Oily? Could have just over-heated and the oil wasn’t at the right level to begin with. Burning a few litres of oil in couples of minutes will make a right mess and the stink will hang around.

[edit] doh. I just read your latest msg. Hmm, something seems off. The whine was probably there before, you find noises when you go hunting for them.

@jambalaya

Are you going to write him off forever for his final years at mclaren, where the car was on a gradual decline? I too had written off Alonso because of his whining/extra help at Renault but his performance over the last 3 years puts hims tied #1 with Hamilton in my book. They both whine, Alonso over the radio, Hamilton in interviews, so what. I want to watch them race.

Last -> 3rd x2

vs

1st -> 1st and 1st -> 4th.

Just out of curiosity, i wonder if today was the only time a merc got ahead of the other, at the finish, this season (excluding dnfs).

I appreciate this thread is about a lawnmower engine but changing the oil ratio solely based on smoke/spooge is wrong in 2-stroke land.

Oil ratio is to manufacturer specs or adjusted slightly due to non-typical use. You change your jetting to control smoke/spooge.

jonnuk, there are loads of lanes around Bristol, you can easily go out for a few hours around the Chew Valley and then link into all the tracks around Wellow and Peasdown south of Bath. In the dry they’re a pleasant cruise, in the wet there are some tricky old sections (and one hill that repeatedly defeats me).

That’s a lot closer than the Malmesbury->Swindonish->Calne area I explored before retiring the bike (gearbox needs a rebuild). In it’s place I started Enduro/Hares this year…until my RM250 got knicked.

I just want to point out I wasn’t referring to cheeky routes. IIRC a Bristol TRF rep mentioned having agreements with certain landowners when I expressed my dismal results on looking for Green lanes in the area.

Used to loads around Salisbury plain and the neighbouring areas. However, I don’t think anywhere else (bar Wales) has as many routes so close together. If you’re thinking about it, joining the trf is supposedly helpful in finding unmarked (os maps) routes.

As for the bike? You can use anything with knobblies; they are tame lanes, until they get submerged or the 4x4s do a spot of bogging. I used to ride a DR125 all over the place all day on the plains and regularly got held up by people on their orange crushes (KTM EXCs == Orange Five).

It’s been an absolute age since I raced XC (does anyone remember the name of the Devon xc series when the CMBC races were around?) but forget technical stuff for now. Walk the course, or at least the first sections; at the start you will be in survival mode and will be less likely to see obstacles causing you to stop/fall and fight your way back on to the line (even in fun races I found). Then your breathing is out of control.

Once you’ve got past the first minute or so you’ll be reet as long as you just aim to finish to get experience.

Max power is just the start of the kilo May be called a sprint but it’s still an endurance event.

Ah, missed that crucial part. I think he does points & scratch too.

My brother claims his max is just over 1600w. He does alright in the masters class on road and track.

My budget can’t stretch to a 07> so an old model 2.0 it is for me. I’m correct in thinking there was no LWB old-model? I’ve had a search and all the LWB vans are for the new types.

If we are going to flash our steerers,

Before:

After:

Cutting the steerer so shoddily (resting on my foot) was serendipitous, it created a nice key for the offcut to line up to.

It’s been fine since I did it over 3 yrs ago.

You can weld the cutoff back on.

On my drop-offs I cut the steel steerer fine for 1 bike, then that bike got munched (hit by a car). On the new frame the steerer was too short so I ran it with only 1 pinch bolt for ~4years. When I got a MIG welder I re-attached the cut-off for reassurance.

Centre punch and a hammer.

Just saw it today and i’d say the cinematography is better than Le Mans. The plot building sections though? I tuned out for those bits.

The shot where the camera pans from the driver (with a gyro-gimbal mount) to face forward on the Monza banking did, literally, make my jaw drop.

No bloody chance.

I have motorbikes too so my disposable income is spread thin on bikes; my usual plan of attack is mend or make do. If something is broken/shagged then i’ll spend money. My mtb is 8yrs old & i’ve been running on a semi-slick High roller (7yrs old) for a while now. It’s been a long time since I felt what grip is.

Tomac? Intense?

I have the Huawei box. The software is pretty good and seems to have loads of recording space.

However, it’s a PITA to use as it’s incredibly slow. You press a button, wait a second and press the button again thinking nothing happened. Then it double presses. Also the “nearly ready” message it says for 10mins on startup is annoying. The random failure to record stuff is also a nuisance.

It depends on who I work with i’d say. At my last place I had a leaving: free curry and got pissed. At my current place I don’t want to spend any out of-work time with my colleagues. Thankfully there are no leaving dos where I work.

I wear gloves because i’m pretty crap when it comes to keeping wounds/gravel rash clean. Just recently I only remembered to clean an moto-enduro injury because of the smell. Oh god, the gunge.

I’ll still take the gloves off for the long slogs and descents I know are easy enough so I can ward off the tan lines.

Bottle/scissor jack & eye protection.

‘Course, if the OP is just after a bike for fun, then he should forget tarmac altogether. Buy a slightly tatty crosser for 2k, another few hundred on gear, then find the nearest club running hare and hounds.

I’ve been doing just that since Nov. Don’t use a trailer. My bike was stolen this weekend :sniff:

Or more sedately, a classic trials machine should be available from £500, and there’s more of that about as the events are easier to run and need less space.

Even more sedate still, how about Long distance trials?

IMO the recommendations of needing to be the next Marquez to be able to ride on the road is rubbish. Being able to control a bike is a small part of being on the road.

The most important thing is the roadcraft: identifying dozy b******ds who won’t check blindspots/are on their phone; keeping an eye out for road surface changes; making yourself visible when passing through junctions; road-positioning, etc, etc.

LWB Hi Top Transit Connect will

I’ve seen a lot of people recommend that elsewhere and there’s lots of them for sale. A VW caddy is a bit spendy but older VWs always look in better nick than any others. Decisions, decisions.

Might be worth going and speaking to the folks at Meredith to see if they have heard anything.

Yeah. Did that and left details with him. Also contacted the local breakers and they said they never touch MX bikes as they are undoubtedly hot. Apparently they get shipped off to Ireland.

Someone on another thread told me there’s a spate of thefts right now in Avonmouth/Pill/Shirehampton and I should check under the Avonmouth Overpass as it can be a bike graveyard. I checked it this evening, I can see why it could get that reputation but no sign unfortunately.

The bike for those that might come across it at tracks.

The boots thing is hyped up from people wearing clumsy great big things on the end of your feet carrying half your house

Picture this – guys who do proper fell running. They run in a vest and shorts, all over the place, and cover more ground than us. Can you imagine them in boots?

I don’t know what distance they do but the fastest my team ever did was a touch over 43miles in 13hrs. We only stopped because it was a new moon and we had no idea where we were. With a full 65L, wet bag on my back I would not have wanted to wear shoes through bastard grass.

Just seen which way you are going. I recommend going the west side of the North moor via Kitty, Lynch, Great Mis & into Princetown (couple of routes into here, take your pick). The hill up to Kitty is nasty though but it’s less boggy than the east route and more scenic. You do get to miss the lone garden gnome by the pond in the middle of nowhere though.