Am I allowed to plug the one from the company I work for? oh well here goes….

check out http://www.lifedge.co.uk

It may be a bit too much for your needs though…but it really is 100% waterproof (tested to 1m).

A specialist fastener supplier we use at work is Montrose Fasteners. They should be able to provide something similar. Send them the pic and give them a call

Awesome.

It’ll be great.
The Horton’s are putting together better and better courses now. They seem to experiment & try new things in these Newnham xc races with the need to put on an awesome course for the 24/12 in their sights.
Yes there will be some tough climbing, Yes Newnham does get muddy, but we’ve had sun down here for all of Friday and today so far, so Newnham should be ok come tomorrow.

4 laps of a roughly 5k course probably.

This was the sort of Dartmoor wetness we encountered on our evening ride yesterday. This was on the climb up to Pupers hill from Cross Furze (south Dartmoor)

It was like riding in a river. i’d agree with Shiny things, woods are going to take a while to dry out!

Shiny, I haven’t forgotten your offer of being shown around the Cleave one evening. Seem to have either been away or crap weather recently. If it drys out, maybe next Thursday?

Clicked on this as was interested. So will try and be constructive.
GOod skills. A good discipline to try and do one a day. It looks like you are trying to solve a theme, as COnvert said, maybe draw a line under that one (boom boom) and give yourself a new brief every week to work to and resolve.
Maybe also get yourself a Wacom Tablet / Wacom Bamboo and have a go at sketching with that!

Mike……I have a PA Mk1. All lovely in pink. I’d love to try a big pink 29ery one as well……

Looks ace.
Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it.
What’s it replacing, what are it’s main duties going to be?
A friend has replaced a heavy 6″ FS with a Specialized Carve 29er. The 29er is 5kg lighter…. I followed him down a local rocky, but yet highspeed bridleway the other night and if anything he was quicker on the 29er as he got more pedalling in…
it’s got me fancying the change up to big wheels

PRINCE ALBERT

But then you are quite tall and If I was you i’d be getting an inbred 29er.

6′, 33″ inside leg
Currently ride a large Cannondale Rush, 625mm ETT i think. But run an 80mm stem for racing, 60mm stem for general trail riding. It’s plentry long enough, possibly too long.

Thanks Brant.
Means that the 18″ is a bit shorter than I was hoping for, although very close to an 18″ scandal which I used to ride and was perfect, and can’t believe I need a 19.5″.
The 18″ looks about the same length as a mates Specialised Carve – will go and ride that around a bit more to see…

Do you all travel together in a ‘Nichebus’? If not should club togeher and get one.
Seriously, quite worried about those bars. You may hurt yourself on them one day.
That’s all.

Can really rate the Gurnards Head for some damn fine food. Was there for a wedding anniversary meal with Mrs Julioflo on saturday night actually. Top. However accomodation was the Flomobile (mercedes vito van) on Sennen Cove Harbour carpark.
But Cornish Cottage Holidays[/url] have been ace in the past. They sorted us out a great last minute deal on a lovely cottage in Pendeen a few years ago. Booked it on a Sunday night and was there the next morning.

Buckfastleigh, nestled in the southern edge of Dartmoor.

Best little ride from there would be to exit the Park at the Holne bridge. Bridleway on your left takes you up to the top of Hembury woods. I haven’t ridden it much so can’t give directions to that bit! Drop down to Newbridge, cross bridge and ride along track up river. As the track opens out / exiting the trees there is a track on the right that heads into a stone wall and climbs up along side this.
Follow this techy drag of a climb straight and all the way up to the remains of old quarry and then up onto Dr.Blackalls Drive Bridleway above it. Turn left on bridleway and climb right to the carpark at the top. You should now be suitably tired! Turn around and descend the route you came up. it’s great, especially the bit of single track from the bridleway down to path along the river. Repeat if you can muster the energy, or take the road to the top and repeat till fade!

Dartmoor is great.
South Devon beaches at most an hour’s drive away, even from the middle of the moor.
North Cornwalls even better beaches are not really that far away either.

hmm, not down with reproductions….
Wasn’t one point of these furniture designs, to make them locally?
This is one of the examples of consumerism and greed/want?
I’d suggest finding some young and ambitious UK based designer maker and buy a lovely original design from them.

Ok I know hard to take this sort of standpoint when we buy bikes etc etc made in the far east. But if you are considering spending large amounts of money on furniture, it is possible to spend it at home.

Bit twisty and up and down isn’t it! I normally ride it on my mtb, my Mrs is fine on here 700c hybrid flat bar type bike….

philstone – Guess you’ll could come back to Dean Prior through Kings wood? As far as I can see the most fun way down through Kings wood is to enter the gate at the top and take the remains of the single track to the right of the fire road. Where that pops back out onto the fireroad head straight on down through a path that has lots of closing in trees, which eventually leads onto a nice steep and rough bit of fire road. Or you could just take the gradually descending main fire road down through the woods.

Jam bo, Slugwash, took that very same route home tonight, run it with the dog some nights. Cycle path from Totnes to Steiner school then Colston lane back home.

Phil, Was it you who was mentioning tracks in Kings wood a few weeks ago?
Even though I live in Buckfastleigh, I have never ridden down to the Avon Dam from the Abbotts way.
The descent from the Abbots Way above the Avon Dam to Cross Furzes is still there, still quick (in the dry. I prefer to climb that up from Cross Furzes, head over towards Pupers Hill, climb up to Pupers a bit and descent to Ludgate, bear left along the wall and then descend to Chalk Ford, all Very quick and more technical than the descent to Cross Furzes.

Blast from the past indeed.
I’m finding it tricky to get enough time to meet up with any of you lot at weekends (Part time MA study), but am giving myself Thursday nights as guaranteed regular riding slot. So if anyone wants to show me (and a few mateys) around either some Lustleigh Gnartech or the Dart valley stuff from Bench Tor on Thursday Evenings i’d be very grateful and would show you the Dr.Blackalls Drive single track that you probably all know anyway…

I love stuff like this, in any discipline. It’s exploring the potentiality of a bike design rather than saying this is the way to do it. It’s not mainstream and does not profess to be. Good work chap.

What tyres are they? Be interested to hear how you find them around the Cleave

Rode it the once about a year ago on a HT. It’s ace. Proper natural feeling rather than scultpted Gnarwhiz trailz. I liked that about it.
Cafe at the bottom of the road at the T-junction was rather pleasing too….

innov 8 Roclite 295’s here.
Have about 1 mile of tarmac to run on until I get to the woods or moor. But equally I run the 12km home from work on tarmac lanes in them on Wednesdays.

They are far far better for my (used to be dodgy) knees that the ‘supportive’ Asics that were recommended to me by a proper good running shop. Much lighter too. And being so flexible and with sticky tread they really offer security when running of road.

Think of them like the elusive one tyre for all conditions, grippy, tough light and fast.

Only thing to watch out for is the lack of heel cushioning / height. if you are used to heel strike running, then innov8’s push you onto your toes more. So for the 1st month take it easy and allow your calf muscles time to rest/recover. My calf were a little bit sore for the 1st few weeks of switching from said Asics to the innov8’s.

Would love to know where that trail from the video is! Gotta put the part time masters study to one side for a Saturday, leave the confines of Buckfastleigh and come ride with you East Dartmoor guys soon!

Love the colour. Not enough purple around.
Endura shorts, Giro helmet – need to up the niche to match the bike there!

Danny Hart and his whips: By probably a stupidly small amount, would not be as aerodynamic while pulling said whip? Therefore is he kept the bike straight in the air would he gain some 0.000001s of a second? If this is bollocks please say!

Agree with the facts that blade grinders chop rather than grind, therefore a burr grinder is best.
Just had lovely smells and nice coffee on my first use of our little Tiamo hand grinder, bought from Origin coffee, the Cornish coffee company:

Tiamo Coffee Hand Grinder from Origin Coffee

Hi Slugwash – Keep me posted, that could be my 1st bike bivvy outing! I live in Buckfastleigh so easy to join a ride up from there.
Wouldn’t have been me on Sunday, unfortunately I didn’t get out on the bike this weekend.
BTW, Which route out to and down from Venford did you take?

Slugwash – Venford? Love it.
I’m just off to Happy Apple to stock up on those meals!
Will be doing 1st bivvy outing in a few weeks, very excited.

Personally i’m an Inov-8 fan….

The hope step down has about 10mm of protrusion out of the bottom of the headtube, for the reasons you are talking about. I think there is an FSA one that has similar 10mm protrusion

ha! – very little weight difference between all of them, so my main concern is mud clearing – as one thing my old SPD’s with plastic cage (can’t remember model no.) tended to do was clog up with mud and rock shrapnel

Do the 520’s clear ok?

Thread Hijack 2.
I have a good condition Mavic Crossride front wheel sat spare – £30 posted if that’ll help you out?

I, just like coatesy picked up a pair 2nd hand off here. They were the 70a ones, not even the 65a exc ones. Not good on the front at all, BUT i am quite liking it as a rear on the back of my Cannondale Rush. Light and surprisingly quick and has given me good climbing traction. Using it tubless and it went up well, so can’t comment on pinch flats, but ther isn’t very much volume to it….

@nipper99 cripes! even the table tops on the red? fair play

I like! Because you have done your own thing and because I like those little Cannondale frames!

However I always wonder what sort of terrain these drop bar offroad rigid bikes are for…What sort of riding do you intend to do on it?

Choice is a good thing

Raw Alu Rush – with fresh Newnham mud from The Stinger this past sunday
Scratches on a raw frame don’t look as bad as paint scratches…