I love mine, mainly use it over the winter instead of my Whyte T130. Very similar feel to the T130 as the geometry is almost identical minus the suspension at the back,

I can’t think of anywhere I’ve ridden in the UK where I wouldn’t ride my Bird. I goto BPW once or twice a year and take the T130, I’m also getting old and like my comforts, but would ride the Bird there – I just about manage to cope with the reds BTW!

Diablo here paired with a MaxxD both about t years old. Ride fairly briskly and run both on medium unless we doing the quickest of the downhills then I go for full power and when we hit the flat/climbs go back to medium. Generally get a 3 hour ride time so seems OK?

joystick is significantly lighter but the Diablo is bearable.

I’m 5’ 10” and run a medium with a 50mm stem but 30mm risers as I have damaged shoulders. I find it perfect and adjust front end bite by running a Shorty if it’s super muddy and DHF the rest of the time

@Mat see my rant here Fibre rollout reaches village but…

Persistence and making yourself a PITTA worked for us, we were 6KM from the exchange and barely hit 0.5mb, now we have ~56Mb with fewer dropouts.

Get as many people as you can to pre-regsiter for fibre send OpenReach and BT weekly emails, get your local parish and district councillors on side.

It took nearly 3 years for us but that was because OpenReach had classed the cabinet as not commercially viable.

Good luck!

3 trips with one ending in a broken shoulder. Last visit, post shoulder surgery, only injury was to my pride as i’ve totally lost confidence, did one red and it wasn’t fun!

Will be back to build my confidence!

BTW broke my shoulder JRA on the path to the cafe as my rear suspension collapsed and threw me off!

No the dot is standalone and works fine on it’s own.

Years ago I found a wallet on a remote track in the Elan valley. I took it to the local police person who called the owner, he dully appeared checked everything was in it and all he said was “lt’s soaking wet” and with a word of thanks wandered offer muttering under his breath.

That weekend was about as wet a weekend as i’ve ever seen in Wales it was truly tipping down for 48 hours and he’d dropped his wallet in a ditch but was surprised how it had got wet.

Some people are total nobs but there does seem to be a lot of good ones out there. My mate lost his chain due to serve chain suck at BPW on Sunday and nearly everyone on the trail asked if we were OK.

I’ve lost about 8Kgs (17.6 lbs) over 6 weeks by eating less, probably down to around 1200 calories a day (I don’t count as I would get too obsessive if I did) but I’ve upped my exercise to include an extra 5Km run a week and a hard turbo session (both done fasted). It’s been very unpleasant but it’s worked and I’ve set a PB for 5Km at ParkRun and managed to do much better one the climb at Cwmcarn (Cafall) but I need to lose the same again to be able to improve more on the climbs.

For long term loss I think losing the weight by a combo of less calories and more exercise works but extremes of either (or both) are very hard to maintain and ‘shock’ you body too much. Just IMHO of course.

So as an update I survived both Cwmcarn – Cafall and BPW!

One of the guys I was riding with had two sets of body armour, his full on DH stuff and some lightweight stuff. He lent me his lightweight shirt, SixSixOne EVO Compression Jacket Short Sleeve, which did give me some confidence that a minor knock to my shoulder wouldn’t be the end of the days riding.

We all managed to stay upright at BPW and I did 7 blues and 1 red and didn’t do any damage!

I think the SixSixOne is probably ideal for me as I don’t do the blacks and I’m only looking for lightweight protection.

I have a Bird Zero TR which I built up with parts from another bike and I love it. I ride a Whyte T-130 Works (2015) and they ride in a similar way (allowing for one being a FS and the other being a HT) which means riding either doesn’t require a big adjustment. The only major differences in spec are the Bird has Hope X2s and Revelations whereas the Whyte has Hope E4s and Pikes, I even run the same combo of tyres!

I’d buy either bike again which something I’ve rarely said over the last 25+ years on riding MTBs.

sweaman2 – thanks I’m hoping for something I won’t notice/worry about so maybe not the Leatt one

Tom_W1987 – Great advice thanks, I’ll take a look, I realise that lightweight doesn’t equal much protection but I’ll only every use it twice a year so I wasn’t planning on anything too hardcore :-)

I can’t repeat what Sue Ellen said when I asked her :-)

My Zero TR is built up with the parts from a previous frame including a Stealth Reverb with a drop of 125mm. I’m also 5’10” with a 32” inside leg and it’s perfect.

That’s the start of the sunken road which is exactly how it sounds! I’ve ridden it in August and had water above the hubs and also ridden it in November and had water to the headset!

IMHO it’s one of the best sections of (non-downhill) trail in the Elan valley. Always entertaining especially the river crossing just as you get to the Claerwen Dam.

I was at Sandbanks in Poole at the weekend and walked past the fence, the one that looks like a wave, that Martyn rides in the bike party video – it still humbles me how anyone can ride that!

I had my left ACJ excised, a sub acromial decompression and some other tidying up done to my bicep on 28th March and my shoulder is now working well. I’m back on the mountain bike and able to keep up with my normal riding buddies down hill. For me 12 months of chronic pain was instantly removed and after 3 months of physio it’s back to 90% with the only issue being lifting anything above my head.

I had all sorts of trouble getting to see the surgeon, I didn’t have company health care, as the NHS (who I’m a great supporter of) insisted on 9 months of physio, reviews and an insistence it was muscular!

When I saw the surgeon he did the usual movement tests and then said I’d snapped my ACJ, X-Ray didn’t show this but he then did an MRI which clearly showed the problem. He had a 3 month waiting list but 18 days after seeing him he had me under the knife as he felt the damage that’s was accumulating would be significant if left another 3 months.

I have a 2015 T-130 Works with the ROAM40 wheelset which are light, narrow and have terrible bearings!

My current issue with them is a freewheel that no longer clicks when free wheeling and has failed to engage i.e. no drive when pedalling. I’ve stripped it down and cleaned it, added a small amount of grease but still no click. I’m guessing it’s either totally knackered pawls (they look fine) or that the drive ring is worn although it doesn’t look terrible. Anyone had a similar experience pr have any ideas about where the click has gone?

Full mudguards a must, +1 for spare clothing (especially pants and socks) and expect to have close passes even on cycle paths!

A tip I picked up many years ago was to paint a blob of, preferably luminous, paint on all of your tools so when you put them down they are easy to find again.

Good luck and enjoy the fitness boost!

Big problem with the A34 is the lorries overtaking each other but only on the uphill bits! My colleague used to travel from near Peartree to Totton every day and it drove him nuts!

I also have a MaxxD and Diablo combo. Most of the time I run both on one of the lower settings as the Diablo only has a run time of 1 hour on full. We do a weekly night ride of between 2 and 3 hours and I’ve never had to resort to the spare Exposure battery I carry.

My eyesight is fairly rubbish so I like a lot of light and the head torch really helps with countering the bar lights tendency to flatten everything.

My lights are 3 years old and still going strong, when they die I’ll look around but I suspect Exposure will be getting my business again,

HTH

Have you taken the jockey wheels off at any time to clean them? The top and bottom are specific on my Sram X1 so if you put the wrong one back it can cause the chain to drop off.

I’m not 100% sure but I think it still qualifies for import duty/tax even if it’s a gift. see Customs duty

I second ParkRun, it’s great to run with others and although you’re only competing against your own PB there is an element of being dragged along by that person who you can’t quite catch. My 13 year old son is 6′ 2″ and stocky but he’s gone from a PB of ~46 mins to 27:04 in the last 6 months by running ParkRun and doing another 5K with me once in the week.

If you go the Couch to 5K route do what it says, loads of apps to help, and don’t be tempted to miss out the easy stuff in the first few weeks it’s a proven way of getting to run a 5K.

Our ParkRun is off road on an old golf course so it’s much kinder on the knees, but can be muddy in winter :-), so if you can find a park or such like run there and then move to trail running.

HTH

LBS may be able to help with suitable size bolts?

Done this for many years but try to be discrete, use a towel and have everything ready. I usually try and position myself beside the car/van so as to mask the view. As an ex kayaker I can confirm stripping after being in the water in winter tends to involve less discretion!

If there’s lots of people/kids about I’d probably try and do it behind the car door.

I got made redundant so I was free to interview during my gardening leave. Otherwise it’s tricky, sickies aren’t ideal as they show up if you get the next job, i.e. when their HR team ask for a reference the number of days sick/instances are often asked and given.

I’m fairly sure you’ll have issues as the top jockey wheel will be significantly further from the largest cog on the cassette with the 11-32. I’ve only ever done this with the same sized cassettes as it keeps it simple (but expensive if using an XD driver).

Cheers parts and tool ordered, thanks for the help.

From experience this:

Visit a sports physio and get some professional advice would be my advice.

@falkirk-mark thanks couldn’t find much on line, probably need to work on my Goggle skills. Any idea if I should order M6 or M8?

I’ll try calling ATB but last time I called they put me on hold for > 20 minutes before saying no to my question!

I go with water in my camelbak, a 500ml bottle on the bike with a SIS tab in it. I normally drink the bottle on the way back from the pub!

When we do weekends away I tend to add SIS Go or similar to my camelbak as we’re usually doing 4+ hours on much harder terrain than normal and by day 3 I really feel it if I just use water.

YMMV

Main thing to avoid is a kink in the hose, pulling through evenly is your friend.

Interesting debate, my grammar is average, my spelling is appalling but when I was tested at age 11 (by a phycologist) my IQ was recorded as 149 which is much higher than I feel is correct. I’m very good a puzzles and problem solving except when it involves spelling or grammar!

For what it’s worth my riding buddies and I enjoy our once in 8 weeks (roughly) trip to Swinley, it’s about 45 – 60 mins drive from us (near Winchester) but we nearly always do it as a night ride. Occasionally we go with families which makes it just a pootle around for which it’s perfect.

Not super challenging but at night in mid-winter it’s had it’s moments!

Just had my shoulder fixed and will be back using Zwift with a Taxx Smart trainer. It’s kept me sane for the last 9 months whilst I’ve waited to see a surgeon! Saw surgeon on 10th March and had surgery on 28th March! Hope OP is recovering well.

Date now through instead of ~8 week wait it’s been prioritised and I’m going in on Tues 28th March! So 18 days from surgeon deciding a “full job” needs doing to getting it done! 9 months since the injury!

I had an E30 M3 followed by an E36 M3 but previous to those I had my all time favourite car which was my Williams Clio. I co drove a race prepared 911 for a while which was fun but was very expensive even when shared.

Picking up an Octavia VRS Diesel estate on Thursday next week which is fast enough and fits a family/camping/biking ‘lifestyle’.

So shoulder surgery in 6 weeks time, 6 weeks of no driving as the surgery will fix 3 problems in one go! After that I’m looking at ~4 months before I can ride off road but having got into Zwift I can continue on the turbo after 2 weeks.

Starting to feel better and now wondering why i ever thought of giving MTB riding up :-)

Just bought one but I’m doing a minimum of 15,000 a year and if my shoulder gets fixed I’ll be driving to the Alps so maybe as much as 20,000 miles. Next time, 4 years time, I hope to buy a petrol as by then I’m hoping to be doing around 4,000 a year.

I runa DHf on the back of my HT fitted normal way round and get a lot of abuse from my riding buddies. I ignore them as I like how it rides/feels :-)

Been off the bike with a wrecked shoulder and just started on Zwift. Surgery beckons with a minimum of 3 months off the real bike but I can start back on the turbo (sitting bolt upright) after 2 weeks assuming the op goes OK.

So for me Zwift miles will be much greater than real ones.