terrible news 🙁

RIP Jahwomble

I’m 5’3″ and have a small chameleon and xs giant glory.

This is Dillon and I love him more than life itself

Cheers Hairyscary that would be great 😀

Great piccys mmw!

bigjim – that looks like the kind of place I was thinking of – proper isolated. Although I think I’d want a route guide rather than wandering in the unknown wilderness.

looks lovely 🙂

I shall……

….when he has his new bars on and is looking beautiful.

The follow the dog trail should be fine as the next step. I suspect she has the MTB gene if she’s thinking ‘degla blue is too smooth….that’s a good sign! 🙂

I nearly got taken out by one at the Forest of Dean last weekend. Luckily saw him heading on a collision course with me across the bracken and braked in time for him to come flying across the fire road right in front of my nose. 😯

Definitely common with DH bikes, not seen it on a trail bike yet.

You can – although in this case I’d say you were just being a bit of a grump and should’ve enjoyed the time with your mate.

I find being over-tyred is the biggest problem for me as I’m a bit lazy with changing them between XC and push-up days out. The difference big supertacky tyres make is absolutely amazing, feels like pedalling through treacle and unless there is a decent descent I’ll have to pedal like mad just to keep up with people. I think being relatively light makes the effect even worse than it is for larger guys.

I have learnt this the hard way too many times recently. 🙄

I’ve also just split my trail 140 mm susser as it makes most stuff feel quite uninspiring compared to the HT. I’m riding the HT for everything now, except uplifts or big DH days. Can never be over-forked on a HT though!

I think everyone was at the FoD. Never seen it so busy as yesterday!

don simon – Member

There is a Hannah Barnes in here, not sure which one and non are particularly hot.

Hope none of them read this thread. Do you regularly go round telling ladies they are ‘not particularly hot’ to their faces as well?

You knows I have a thing for that bike Sid…it’s too early on a Monday Morning for that!

YES

Absolutely – TF have made an amazing amount of difference to the stuff they have done for me. It’s not until you get the shock back you really appreciate just how bad it had felt before.

I have always thought about buying a JPEG or two taken at various DH courses, but for a decent quality JPEG they all want £4.50 minimum. Even for a low res JPEG (suitable for phones/facebook) £2.50 is normally the going rate.

So I buy none at all.

The stupid thing is, if they sold hi-res JPEGS for £1 -£1.50 each I’d prolly buy several each time. So I just can’t understand how a business model works for electronic files where the chances of selling any are so low (like the OP, I know no-one who has actually bought one), but you could massively increase that by dropping the price and not require any more output than a bit of time to send the email through.

Seems like absolute madness to me.

NorthCountryBoy – Member

what about white? Ok not red but red hubs!

I have white flows already….well with blue proII hubs 8)

Ooh this thread has improved muchly with the addition of more piccies.

geetee1972 – Member

Jo what bike are you putting these on? Given how little you weigh, if it’s for a trail bike you could probably get away with the lighter Stans Arch. I’m using these myself and did the Peak Pootle on them last week. We took in stuff similarly to the rangers path and my rims were fine despite my best efforts.

The rear wheel completely unbuilt itself mind, but the rim didn’t have a ding on it.

They’ll be for the Chammy so need to stand up to DH and rocky XC/AM. I did have a pair of Stan’s Oly’s on there tbh, and they were superlight and stood up to an awful lot of abuse. The rear rim is dinked but they never had a loose spoke and suffered a lot of hard hits with me learning to jump badly on them! I’d not have swapped if I could’ve converted the hubs to bolt-through. So you’re probably right about the Arch – but are they not limited to 2.3 tyres?

@thebikechain – you knows where I am 🙂

@Bernaard – for Dillon!

GeForce Junky – Member

Red paint looks well chav but I love it

That HT looks cracking. I would be very happy to have one of those. Maybe that’s my council estate roots speaking though!

You know me and my love of anodised nipples druidh, I just can’t help myself

Cougar – one thing that’s worth knowing is that you want an FFP3 type of mask for use with asbestos.

Here is a HSE sheet on asbestos PPE

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/em6.pdf

Although this is designed for a commercial situation, it may still be useful to you to put your mind at rest!

Remember the mask is the last line of defence. The key is to keep the cement damp and take it off in whole pieces as far as possible. Wearing a mask won’t protect you from smashing the sheets into a million pieces 😉

ooh Rickos, them’s looking spafftastic

Teetosugars who are you then…I guess I know you? Erm, well, I was planning black flows with red hope hubs, black spokes and anodised red nipples…..but I’m verging toward anodised rims with some RaceFace red atlas bars for full ‘in your face’ effect…..

….but I’m stuck with what rims to go with, and they never look the same in real life than on the web page!

SpokesCycles – I gotta do it…cant. resist. the. bling.

@Cougar – if you look up there^ there is a link I posted for Miketually from the Bury Council website that deals with removal of domestic garages. It will give you some good advice, but if you need any more just shout 🙂

5lab – Member
I expect your flue surrounding will be cement board (but don’t take my word on it) so ripping it down should be reasonably ok. If you want to borrow my hover (I’m in Brighton) – you’re welcome as long as your replace the filters/bags after

I would say you are incorrect with this statement. In a property of this age, flue surrounds are just as likely to be brown asbestos and be insulation board.

ps. rather than get a survey done, I just got a removal company round to give me a quote. Figured they knew what they were on about.

This is true to a point – however, they will just price on what you show them you want removed. There may be other issues in the property which are not apparent unless you are a trained surveyor, particularly if refurbishment is planned. There is also the issue of independence – at least an independent surveyor will give an honest opinion of the extent of removal/remediation (if any) required.

psling – Member

General rule of thumb (dangerous thing, I know!) but if the sheet is external and weatherproof and has asbestos content, it will be asbestos cement sheet.

General rule of thumb is a dangerous thing to go by when dealing with something as hazardous as asbestos. For example, soffit boards, when they contain asbestos, are more often AIB than cement (in my regular experience of sampling and testing these materials).

miketually – Bury council has a pretty good webpage for householders on garage removal which may be of use 🙂

http://www.bury.gov.uk/environment/pollution/hazardousandtoxicsubstances/asbestos/default.asp

^that link is for domestics only though – you can’t get away with doing that if it’s a commercial enterprise!

One thing to be aware of is that there is a very big difference between asbestos cement and asbestos insulation board.

Cement is the stuff most people associate with asbestos – profiled garage roofs for example. This tends to be Chrysotile (white) (although older sheets often also contain blue and brown) and doesn’t release fibres too easily unless it is heavily disturbed – for example by smashing or the use of power tools. That doesn’t mean that it’s harmless though, and good practice with water damping and appropriate PPE should still be used to remove it.

Insulation board, although still a ‘sheet’ material, normally contains at least some brown asbestos, is easy to damage (you can normally cut it with a knife), and easily releases fibres if it does get disturbed. For example, a study has recently looked into the risks of pulling drawing pins from insulation board because the risk of teachers getting mesothelioma. Turns out that pulling one pin releases up to 6000 fibres. You can imagine how many fibres will be released if a dodgy builder decides he can pull a sheet out without too much worry…. This is why removal of AIB is so expensive. It is normally done under controlled (enclosure) conditions.

This is a link to the study
http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/meetings/iacs/acts/watch/010206/paper2annex1a.pdf

This one is it. True love, no question.

*tries to wipe brain hard-drive but the image persists*

I’m a fully qualified asbestos surveyor (p402, s301) and consultant and have been since 2003. What Spud up there says is good advice.

I see horror stories all the time of poor, overcharged and unnecessary removal, even today with the new legislation. People with a ‘bit’ of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

BUT I also occasionally see people living with asbestos in horrendous condition exposing both themselves and their families to fibres on a daily basis

If you are planning on any kind of refurb in the property, get an intrusive (now known as a Refurbishment Survey rather than a ‘type 3’) survey done by a UKAS accredited company. This way you will get to know exactly what you are dealing with and whether you need any remedial work at all. A good surveyor will advise you on the best course of action – but take care, many removal companies have their own surveyors who will tell you the worst. If you require a survey before purchase, it is unlikely a Refurb Survey will be suitable as these can be very destructive and tend to involve damage of decor etc. A ‘Management’ level survey (formerly known as a Type 2) will at least give further information on the boarding. It is not unlikely asbestos insulation board (AIB) is associated with the flue and used as fire breaks in a property of that age. Good information on AIB can be found here:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/aib.htm

You don’t necessarily need to have the asbestos removed unless it is in bad condition. Small damage may be repaired by yourself and the legislation doesn’t cover domestic settings in the same way as in a commercial setting at the present time (this may be subject to change in the future and may be considered if this is an ‘investment property’).

If you want any information, I’m happy to help. Obviously I can provide a quote for a survey, if required – depending on the size of the property (4 bed can mean a lot!) and the location – I’d say £275-£400 for a UKAS accredited survey is a about right.

ah well, my bikes are better than EVERYONES

I’m getting more and more tempted by Paramo…anyone got anything bad to say about it?

This is why I ride round puddles now….

It is nearly as important as my dog

Thanks all 🙂

I think I’m gonna look into all the options, but at the moment I am still swaying toward a decent Gortex to replace my old one (which I seriously mistreated in the washing machine a few times too many!)

I don’t have waterproof shorts/trousers as I only seem to struggle with the cold if I get my core wet. Until this year I used a Mountain Equipment 3 layer Gortex for the winter stuff. I like having a decent coat I can put on when I need it (I.e. in proper wet and cold weather, long descents, after a crash/breakdown or when stopping for lunch) rather than needing something to wear all the time.

It’ll really only be used for the big ‘out there’ rides. A hood is pretty important too, especially if it fits over my XC helmet.

I’m actually thinking about this one[/url], as it is similar to the one I have now (and I know it fits well, even over armour, and my XC helmet fits under the hood) but the price tag is a bit blummin extreme. 😯

So eVent rather than Gortex then?

Hmm, I was verging toward Gortex because I’ll only wear it when it’s really needed (I.e. the water/windproofness is prolly more important for me on the top of a mountain than breathability)

The 3×3 seems to get constant good reviews though, so that’s good 🙂

worked, drove, looked at bike wishfully

*nods*

Mountain Equipment ORGE jacket – now finally past it’s best after a fair few years of constant abuse both in and out of the washing machine.

bargain aldi leggings under baggies
halfords cold weather gloves for when it gets superduper cold
buff
sealskins socks
cheap £10 fleece from go-outdoors

Definitely spending good money on a jacket again this year, but I find budget stuff just fine for base layers.

geetee – YHM 🙂

Thanks for the input all, much appreciated.

Hadn't really thought about the 36's as I'd heard their stanchions weren't particularly hardwearing, but I think I'll definitely look into them.

I think I'm going to go the secondhand route and see what I can get – either lyrics or 36's as I need to get some forks sorted ASAP and will then make a decision on a new pair once the 2011's have all been released.

If I buy new it'll be from TFTuned again as it's so good to know the forks have been set up perfectly for me.

I've had my own fingers burnt, and seen too many others as well to risk buying Marz again (either new, or secondhand) until I am certain they have sorted out their issues….

….unless they actually do release those ones with lovely red stanchions, of course 😛

Yup, these are getting good now!

Loving all the pics, especially yours leggyblonde. Crackin shot that!

Brilliant stuff, keep 'em coming!

Loving the big drop pic PJ266 – impressive stuff for sure.

The trail pics are making me just wanna drop everything and go out on the bike.

I'd love to have a go at Urban Racing, steps, steps and more steps.

it's no good giving me a qualitative assessment of gnar…..although knocking the photographer out could, I guess, come close to the top of an empirical scale of gnarness so I could dish out some points for that.