Had some coaching recently on manuals and jumps. Couldn’t get it at all at first cos kept trying to pull the bike up. It was explained to me as transfer bike to back by flicking up toes and at same time move arms as if pushing away a basket ball to bounce on the floor in front of you. I had to practice the feet thing first then the basketball thing and then bring them both together. It worked. There was also an article in one of the mags recently with Chris ball talking you through the different stages of the jumps, he said definitely not to pull the bike up but more to do with weighting and un weighting at crucial stages.

The 10 speed SRAM uses a power lock instead of the power link. The power lock is not intended to be removed.

Don’t take ibuprofen for the pain as it inhibits the release of a chemical needed to heal the bone, take co-codamol instead. First couple of weeks really sore then it gets much better. Take the pain killers don’t try to be a martyr.
Also, do wee bit research on the different stages of healing it helps you to understand why your arm is making certain noises that might concern you but are in fact entirely normal.

Cat Stevens – how can I tell you
OR
Water boys – a man is in love.

Actually there are far too many to list.
Prince – the original of nothing compares to you.

All mine been a fiver off so far. Got one sitting here burning a hole currently though…..

Agree re DMR vaults. OH has them on his latest bike build and they are amazing. Real nice feel to them under foot, they almost feel like rubber, pins are reversible so you can have either sharp pins or smooth pins. He uses smooth pins because they don’t rip your shins. Even so grip is amazing. I have hope f20s, know some people think the grip is terrible on them but personally I find them great. Before that I had nukeproof electrons (I think…) pretty good for the dosh and really grippy but them pins are very very sharp if/when they come into contact with your skin!

Get a hybrid, you pay very little if any company car tax. I’ve got a merc e class estate, hybrid, company car tax is £40 a month only because of extras added. Last car had same purchase price but car tax was £440 a month!

I’ve been to garda and stayed in a hotel in limone which is a marigold colour and sits out half on the lake. Sorry can’t remember the name of it but it’s in evey picture of limone, says right next to where one of the ferry comes in.

Going to torbole this year with Michael cycle but that mtb obviously. I think the weather round there will be ok in November but obviously you won’t be able to go into the mountains.

Had it been earlier, I would have recommended bormio, as it would have allowed you to do both paseo stelvio and paseo gavia….but will be snowed out at that time as only open June-oct. If you ever do go to bormio, hotel alu is fantastic, food amazing and the owners beppe and Chiara are amazingly helpful at pointing out routes. Had best ever holiday of my life there last year, motor biking and wee bit mtb.

Merc e class estate is a cracking car with loads of space. C class estate pretty good too.

I’ve the hybrid version and fuel consumption is fantastic – averaging 55mph with a bike rack up top.

Firstly I don’t agree with an earlier poster saying that every second bike at glentress is an SC. Been there a few times and they’re still in the minority by far. Same at the other trail centres in Scotland.

Yeah SC are a bit more expensive than some other brands but they are cracking bikes and people have different value points. Do you all drive about in basic KIAs and buy budget bread and milk? Or in fact do you make a decision something along the lines of :
Is the price worth what it does for me (service, reliability, access to parts, “use” experience….) that’s basically the decision that you make every time you decide to buy one option over another. Commonly known as the value for money factor. Each persons limit on this is different.

Yes I do have an SC, so does OH. I absolutely love it. There are other brands in our garage but nothing rides like my bronson does and I’ve ridden badly on trails on other bikes that seem easy on my bronson.

What is the obsession with beepers and audis? Most of them are company cars, fleet managers get great deals on them because they buy so many, hence why so many people have them. Same thing as SC, good service, reliability, well species, etc etc. And no….I don’t have one but do drive a merc estate and we do have a transporter so cliche away folks.

Clyde my trail dog before during and after
[/url] image[/url] by julmulvan[/url], on Flickr[/img]
null[/url] image[/url] by julmulvan[/url], on Flickr[/img]
[/url] image[/url] by julmulvan[/url], on Flickr[/img]
[/url] image[/url] by julmulvan[/url], on Flickr[/img]
And my favourite one….
[/url] image[/url] by julmulvan[/url], on Flickr[/img]

OH has them on his brand new bike build. There was a very long wait for them….over 6 weeks. First ride out was today, he likes them. I was really hoping he would swap them for my WTB Frequency.

They look great, very nice kinda brushed effect on the actual rim with low key graphics. Not ridden them enough to say what they’re like but quality wise they stack up as you would expect from hope.

OH had ordered a set of pikes from LBS couple of months ago. They offered him black or white if he wanted 160mm

Do a search for rockshox pike white solo air. They are loads come up. Just hope you aren’t looking for 650b as they are a tad difficult to come by.

I think you can but only on 160mm.

Big cooking fan. I have a set of Meyer pans bought around 8 years ago they are still perfect. Just recently bought the two sizes of frying pans, Meyer again and again cannot fault them.

Watch out for them in debenhams sales as occasionally you get a really good deal. My frying pans were £48 half price.

It’s a fox float ctd evolution series. Just the standard shock that comes with the bronson frame.

Length (i2i ?) is 200mm.

As someone already said, I recently switched to rock n roll blue having heard good things about it. I ride in all weathers and was cleaning the drivetrain and cassette after every ride but it was getting seriously mucky. Since moving to rock n roll cassette and drive chain remains remarkably clean. Weather hasn’t been as bad but it is waaay more clean than previously.

OP I currently run XT 2×10 38/26. I spend the majority of my time in the big ring dropping down to the wee ring if I get to the biggest rear sprocket in the cassette. BUT like you I think it’s crazy to be in a 38 all the time when I never get to use the full top range of the cassette with it. I’m looking to drop it to a 36t. From my own research into it, I’ve two options (as shimano don’t offer a 36 in xt rings). Blackspire as mentioned above or raceface. LBS recommending raceface so gonna give that a go and see how I get on. I can always swap back if I don’t like it.

OH has a bike build ready on Monday with XX1 so looking forward to trying that and seeing if it really is all it’s cracked up to be……..

Fingers crossed getting them Monday. Everything else on the build is ready to go so will post back then and let you guys know what they’re like.

Hopefully you’ll have you’re by then too.

@julzm – do you have a name for the hotel in Petit St-Pierre ?

@jambalaya

It’s called au lion d’or. Brilliant place. We were there on motorbikes and they could not have been more helpful. The food was fantastic and the view from the restaurant is something else. Looks right over the valley for miles and miles.

Hi folks
Many thanks for your suggestions. We do all the Scottish centres regularly especially those in D&G. However lee quarry or whinlatter are probably our short list so I’ll have a look at both of those.

Techy stuff is our preference with minimal forest road, so looking for that really.
Thanks again for the help.

Couple of things:
If you go to the Black Forest DO NOT SPEED. Lots of unmarked cops on the roads. My 40th was ruined after two of them took 1000euros from us!

If you go to the Vosges I can highly recommend petite-st-Pierre as a place to stay. There is a really fantastic gastro hotel there and the whole area is stunningly beautiful.

Bregante that was my first thought. What’s it like?

Hi Russell96
Good shout but it’s actually the only trail centre in England that we’ve already done…..

Stop off in Bormio and do both road and mtb. Bike hire available in bormio. Do the stelvio pass on a road bike. Then head over to livigno to do uplift stuff and / or bike park. Route to Milan can be from livigno into Switzerland and down through st moritz then along West Bank of lake como (doesn’t touch a Swiss mway therefore no need for a vignette). Some amazing roads that way – was there on a motorbike last summer.

I’ve done it on a motorcycle many times and although it’s not the busiest, it is a very fast road with lots of slow moving traffic on it and only some sections are suitable for overtaking due to poor visibility etc. Personally it’s not one I’d like to cycle.

Yep +1 for proride and orange five fits it no bother.

Asbrooks I use mapmyride too. One of the previous posters has it correct, you need to open the app when you still have gps. Then when you are ready to start, hit “record workout” and it should start up ok. Sometimes when you don’t have a gps at this point it will take a while to start but it’s already picked up the gps so should be ok.

I’ve had this myself and it still picked up the route even though I couldn’t view it whilst actually out on the bike.

Hmmm..interesting point. There has been a CCDBA CS sitting in my front room for the last two weeks awaiting fixture to a bronson…..unfortunately not my bronson, but the impending carbon one.

The orange five we have has the 2014 fox float 34 CTD FIT with trail adjust, kashmina coating etc. Massive difference between that and the VPP. I’m not sure a decent shock would make enough difference. I think the key thing about the VPP is that the centre of gravity moves, unlike a single pivot where all the forces go through the same place, hence the pedal bob or inefficiency.

The alu bronson is excellent IMHO. Although haven’t yet ridden the carbon version, there is only 1.5lbs of difference in frame weight. OH gets his carbon one this week hopefully so that may be the catalyst for me to sell the alu frame and get a carbon. Initially I didn’t get a carbon because I was worried about breaking it in falls (currently sporting a broken elbow from a crash 12 days ago). Apparently very strong except if specific hits all concentrated in one place. Kinda convinced myself being stupid on that front since my carbon bars stand up to all sorts and not a mark on them.

On the VPP v single pivot, OH has a Five. Night and day between the pedalling efficiency for that versus VPP. would also say the same about giant maestro platform. My previous bike was a giant trance x1, an okay bike with great spec for the money; pedalled well but shit on descents with really steep head angle. On technical climbs didn’t find it as well balanced as the bronson, back wheel would often spin out and front end lifted a lot. I found it impossible to fully weight both wheels at the same time although don’t have this problem at all with the bronson.

Got a fantastic OH who shares my life and loves
My son has turned out great.

Got no debts, enough to live on and a life full of bikes and fun.

I have an alu Bronson. However, I started out wanting a Heckler do demoed that and also a SOLO at same time. I was so impressed by the VPP over the single pivot that I ended up opting for the bronson purely as it offered more travel for an upcoming lake garda trip.

Personally I find the VPP excellent compared to single pivot, which was also very good. I have pikes on front and fox ctd FIT kash on the back.

Honourablegeorge – do you have a link to that group test you mention?

I’ve had xt 2×10 on my two most recent bikes, both with 26/38t. If I could have it however I wanted I have 36/26 or 24 so agree with others that you should probably add a few teeth to the main ring.

Very tempted by one of these too. However have a big sound link so can’t really justify it. if you buy it from qvc they let you try it out for 30 days and send it back for full refund if you’re not happy with it. They also often have it one 3-4 months easy pay at no interest.

Gorgeous anda geat choice. Hope you have many happy trails and adventures with it.

Thank you everyone for all your advice and experiences. Trying to have it out of sling as much as possible. I have some movement in it although the frequent muscles spasms in my bicep (puny things!) are excruciating. Getting cold is the same. Apparently your body needs loads more calories when trying to heal a bone so I suppose that’s good now wishing I hadn’t gotten rid of the hybrid bike as legs will need to spin in a few days.

Fracture clinic next Wednesday so will see how it’s looking then.

Thanks again.

Jekkly…..I’m a chick! But I’ll pass that advice on to the OH.

Agree with golfchick, my LBS said once per month based on 2-3 rides per week. Just done mine for first time yesterday (had bike since end February). ‘Twas a doddle so will do more regularly now.

Yes agree it’s definitely cycling clothing in general. – mainly MTB. Chant see why some of the main brands don’t cotton on to this. Endura and altura seem to have a decent range although sizing is still very weird. With everyone else it seems to be a token gesture with a very small womens range meaning that anyone not of average size/height must walk about looking like they’re dressed in their granny’s hand me downs.

Glad it’s not just me who feels like this.