"Got away" with 3 points and a 60 quid fine for >115mph on a dual carraigeway by South Wales plod. What started as "Your gonna loose your license mate, get in the car" ended in "You seem like a decent chap, you just f**ked up".

I usually ride cwmcarn on Friday evenings on the way home from work (XC up, DH course down) but can't see it happening tomorrow. BBC and MetCheck both look pretty soggy!

Sidewinder @ Penhydd, Afan. Flat out fun :)

Did you eat the meatballs on it too? They didn't taste too great when the pizza was fresh on Tuesday night let alone today :)

Mines only got 3, and it's in Welsh.

Do you want to borrow mine? They'll never notice.

We came across this monster forestry machine at the gethin downhill recently. Scary stuff!

I'm running schwalbe fat alberts (2.35) on XM321 on my hardtail and loving them.

Apart from the fact the rear punctured all on it's on whilst on the bike, leant up against the wall in my room. Very bizarre.

Me and the missus did a day with Stuart at ForestFree ride recently and had a good day. Location is indeed in the middle of nowhere but it's a gorgeous setting in a valley and Stu, his wife, owls, dogs and sheep were all really friendly and laid back.

Not sure I got as much out of it as I thought I would but probably down to the GF and I being at different levels and what I was after (jumps) there's only so much technique you can learn before it comes down to MTFU'ing and getting on with it!

We didn't stay in the bunkhouse but did use it for tea breaks and lunch but looked nice n cosy and would take advantage of it if we went back.

Here's my NS Bikes Society:

Nowt fancy and still a work in progress but you don't see that many around.

Why not ride the inbred in a lairy styleee?

Never had any problems on my hardtail tbh. I did borrow a mates Patriot with 8" front and rear travel for a quantocks ride when my bike went missing and it absolutely killed me on the climbs. Ended up sloping off home early but then I'm not that fit anyway…

Hopefully we should make it too, white NS bike and inbred on the back of a shonky vw van. Cya there.

Me and the missus usually go for a pootle round the Quantocks on Saturdays/Sundays, wouldn't mind tagging along if there's a group ride?

I know a few routes but it's only from getting lost over the last few weekends so probably not the optimum mix of climbs and descents :)

Cuckoo: Yeah, it's pretty much like a "thh" sound, so Davith. Watch some pobl y cwm on S4C if you want to hear it properly :)

Numbers, "It's raining" and "I like frothy coffee" is about the extent of my welsh to be honest :)

It sounds strange when people pronounce Afan as "afff-an" though ;)

It's 'pump', pronounced 'pimp'

FWIW I've been running in my 5:10 freeriders for the last few months, 3 or 4 times a week and don't find them too bad. Am planning on getting some shoes from the local running shop, or at least getting my gait looked at.

Thanks for the heads up, I had my trek ex8 nicked in south wales. Long shot that it could've ended up in Newport but worth a try – left a message with the newport feds.

Had my Trek EX8 for just under 12 months and went through 2 seats of bushes, both replaced under warranty with LBS. That's regular riding in Wales (natural and trail centres) with the occasional DH runs so maybe to be expected.

As above, the wheel hub bearings are far worse, went through those at a rate of knots (again under warranty although LBS got a bit funny about it in the end)

I'd be up for tagging along tomorrow, those times above sound alright if I can find the car park. I'll be seriosuly over-biked and mincing around on an 8" patriot but it's all I've got at the mo.

+1 for infity's. Running 9623i's (I think, can check exact model number) in both my golf mk3 and T4 and they're great for the money (50 quid). Sounded a lot beefier than the alpines for similar price despite always having alpine kit in the past.

Just had an email from Merlin to say my hand built wheels are on their way. woop woop, I can finish building my NS bikes hard tail on the weekend.

Cheers for all the pointers, I'm gonna have a bimble around Saturday morning and see what I can find.

XC stuff aside, how gnarly/technical is the triscombe DH stuff? Compared to say something like cwmcarn DH course? My missus lives in Taunton and we've up the Quantocks a few times on the bikes but struggled to find decent routes.

Saturday – Ride with some mates in the black mountains, someone is bringing cones along for the annual dual slalo race :)
Sunday – Booked a day on the cwmcarn uplift bus but going out in afternoon so might get 4 or 5 uplifts on the DH course.

Have you tried the usual price comparison suspects? http://www.kayak.co.uk seems pretty good for car rental.

"Is XC only short periods of time then!?"

Of course not, I guess I mean "all mountain" rather then XC – however you want to define it. Will the 717's handle the abuse of a few cheeky downhill runs including maybe 1 to 2ft drops?

My mate who suggested the EN321's reckoned the 717's would be a bit too lightweight for what we usually ride: Welsh trail centres and lots of natural stuff, not adverse to getting two wheels off the ground and the odd uplift day at cwmcarn so yeah prob not 'XC' requirements but something I can ride all day?

I was about to post a similar question, I'm looking at building my own with hope II hubs and mavic en321 rims? Any idea how they compare to the above suggestions? I'm a total newbie when it comes to this, trying to build up a hardtail from spare bits after my full susser got nicked last week.

I'm running Windows 7 release candidate (Free beta from microsoft) on my aspire one and it works a charm. It's a lot quicker than vista. Expires in march though :(

We were in Rhyadaer this weekend, cracking riding and some stonkingy descents, well worth checking out.

I recently bought some Infitity's 6×9's from halfords that they had on offer. Sounds suprisingly good for the money and better than the alpines they had for the same price.

The Gap Route is probably worth a shout although it doesnt float everyones boat but the 3 mile rocky descent is worth it and the views are pretty good.

Black mountains are full of tasty singletrack, the killer loop is a good all day ride.

Probably best pointing you at http://www.mtb-wales.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Subjects&file=index&req=listpages&subid=12 for some route guides rather than trying to explain them myself.

I'm local and ride most weekends if you want anyone to tag along or more specific guidance.

"So you bought a XC-biased bike to do DH on, and you're surprised it doesn't ride as well as something designed to do it!?"

No, I bought a bike that I can ride pretty much anywhere. If I was going to by a bike "to do DH on" then it wouldnt be an EX8, but its coped with everything from all day enduros to uplift days so far. I'm simply saying it doesn't particularly excel at going DH. Jeeez….

I've been been riding my 09 fuel ex8 since september last year and rate it highly. Tested it against a giant trance x1 and a stuntjumper.

It is fairly XC focussed but a shorter stem and whack the seat right back on the rails and its not too bad, thinking of sticking some larger forks on to slacken the head angle a bit as it's pretty twitchy DH. Saying that, I do cwmcarn DH uplift days on it reguarly and it copes with that fine.

Test rode a zesty @ afan (premier bike demo day) a few weeks ago and wasn't impressed to be honest. I did bring the bike back covered in blood though having stacked it getting granny air so prob not a fair review :)

That's dirt cheap, we just paid a fair whack more for an L reg 1.9d, granted it had a nice professional conversion inside. I'd bite his arm off (and I'm in south wales too so would be interested if your not!)

Not a formal blog as such but we usually video any mechanical work we do (fork servicing, hubs etc..) in usually a light hearted manner (along with the rides):)

Youtube vids

+1 On crappy astra handling
My brother's got a 56 plate 1.6 model and it's soft as hell and understeers if you give it the slightest of beans. Nice and comfy though.

Cheers all, that barbury castle looks a decent ride and is fairly close to the hotel I'm staying at, shall give it a go.