Im suprised, i went last year and used the drop-off cafe, the breakfast was superb! was planning on a return trip before chrimbo so will sample the cafes delights one more time!

Just hope the replacement is just as good!

In 95 i had a backtrax which was an amazing bike, handled great and was a superb bike for many years! it was fairly light had a tbh ive been searching the web, ebay etc to find another from that year, thats how great the bike was.

After that my other half did buy a saracen xray for starting to mtb and tbh it was awful, i saw some of the mantra's from the 2005 era and they were shockingly bad. The new range gives me some hope they will be better, im waiting for the urban/road bikes they bring out.

Have you posted on the chasetrails forum?

Lots of cannock regular riders on there!

Was this out the same time as the Raleigh Activator or Activator II? they were better to look at but stupidly useless suspension!

Thats one fugly bike!!

DH and Red run closed!

http://bike.nevisrange.co.uk/

I haven't cracked any bike, i can't be riding them right!

Im on a late shift today, managed to get a slot with the ptm this evening to have a chat about things, on another note i did visit the doc's yesterday he suggested i had some stress issues and 4 week off work would do me some good, as much as it appeals to take the time i really don't want to be off work, as someone said above at some point i have to go back.

Im hoping to go through the options with the ptm, one in my mind is a transfer to a store close to home to allow me a better work life balance, currently i have a 3 hour daily commute, added with the time i work over i can be out the house for 14 hours a day, late shift is the one where it is earlier due to me being out the house only 11 and a half hours! i feel sick in my stomach and really edgy, at the moment would much rather just get on the bike and go for a blast somewhere

The problem with blacks for me, is we used to have a Freespirit store in solihull which i believe that blacks own Freespirit and Oneil, i could be wrong, but recently they converted the Freespirit to a Blacks and the new store is awful, i used to like popping in picking up an animal t-shirt or something similar but now i can't.

All i can say is bring back Freespirit!

Back to to work today, had a brief chat with our PTM, going to arrange a meeting just me and the PTM to have a friendly chat about things. But as for the devil woman as i decided to call her today, i couldn't sit in the canteen with her, made me feel ill, when i see her i felt sick in my stomach, a bit of a gag reflex. So just avoided her all day.

Not sure if that was the best idea, but i got home after work!

You dont have an effective working relationship with your boss. This is very stressful so try to get one. Or discuss with your personnel people who can mediate

Your right we don't but we used to have a very good one, until i had a biking accident, had some time off, only a week but struggled with concussion for a few weeks after, memory loss, daft mistakes etc.. but that cleared after a few weeks. Doc's gave me the all clear about a month after the accident, but every chance she has she throws it back at me, her favourite quote on the odd occasion we discuss my job role is "your not the same person since your accident" when everyone else tells me im no different to what i was before.

Thanks for the replies certainly given me food for thought, as for the shop failing "project" no chance of that, its one of the biggest chains of supermarket in the country, i rather stupidly stayed there after uni and worked my way up and now 11 years later im still there thinking the last few days why didn't i follow my dream!!

As for the pin thing i did one better, she left her going home shoes in the office, i may of slipped a security tag under the insole, so funny watching the barriers go off as she walked out and security searching her! brightened my day!

Currently, one of my peer managers is off with serious stress issues, one left the store, another who i work closely with is at breaking point, and then im not far behind him. Other managers have left leaving a very weak management team in the store causing a lot of issues. One of my friends outside of work suggested i had retail burnout, and should just bail out all together and do something completely different, but in the current climate how do you find something which pays more than 20k which is different from retail, with should i add very few useful skills!

One thing which annoys me is my staff say im great to work for, yet she seems to think im making the whole atmos on my dept low! its all my fault apparently!

My Trek Fuel ex7, 06 model. Even though its a short travel full bouncer which is different to the current fuel ex's, it is a great bike!

I ran mine with reba's for a few weeks while my rev's where off for some work. No issues, one thing i did notice was the fact the bike fitted me perfectly, with the revs i don't have any standover with the reba's it was a perfect xc bike.

Now i run it with Rev's limited down to 125mm which i find is a perfect fit. Last year the P7 did come with 100mm tora's well they had those models in my LBS so it is possible.

Ideally i would like to have a set of revs with u-turn, crank it down for climbing etc and then back up for those techy trail stuff

After a bout of food poisoning from the staff canteen, i always take a packed lunch, sometimes its just a sandwich, some tomatoes, crisps. Other days if i do a rice stirfry or a pasta salad for tea the left over comes to work the next day.

Quite a few at work have a packed lunch, so no stigma in it at all.

Really?? not when i was out 8 till about 11 was fairly quiet, a blast round the dog, some cheeky stuff then back to the car and home before i was missed!

There is a tree on my local canal path during the summer you can see the odd bag, once the leaves fall off the tree its disgusting the amount of bags of dog krap that can be seen, the whole tree is full of it! im surprised there is room for leaves to grow back in the spring

Not tried that! off to get some cable ties and do it now.

Also looked at the shimano website and they have a download guide, which gives 3 states of the lever, loose, slightly stiff and stiff, mine fit between the slight stiff and loose. But i can't see what state the lever should be in unless i missed it??

http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/SI/Bleeding_SI/SI_0037A/SI_0037A_002_EN_v1_m56577569830648123.PDF

As far as i can tell they just need an oil top up?

Ive had a tinker and they seem a bit sharper, not great but a bit sharper. Also had a nosey in my LBS will get them to have a look in the week to make sure they are right.

Pads are brand new came with the brakes, so thought they would be ok, ive done about 40k on the bike since fitting the new brakes so should be loads of wear left in them.

Nice bike! then again you always have nice bikes! the heckler was a great bike! its a bit much for wyre forest and is there enough mud clearance?

Fozz, ive finally updated my hardtail a nice little (ok its bigger than my old bike) Orange P7

I brought a FSA one from On-One cost about £30 but my LBS assured me this would last a few years and so far he has been right! it does exactly what it sayes on the tin!

Just checked it was the Orbit XL2, below is a link:

http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/FSA_Headsets.html

grumm, its an amazing trail, it sucks you in all nice regular singletrack, you go round a corner and its northshore, then rock gardens steep drops, more northshore then some quick switchbacks, its a rollercoaster of a ride and an emotional experience! scared adrenal rush! best ive every done, can't wait till next year when i go back again!

Its a bit far from birmingham to go too often!

Wolfs lair, ive got a pic of that somewhere as well! will have a look, found it! an yep thats me in the picture, i look tiny but the view is great!

Good view, but the ben nevis red is an outstanding view!! not the best picture but you get the idea!
Its the cross between great views and an outstanding, thinking type of trail!

When she used to present the motogp, suzi in leathers! now that's worth watching!

She is stunning!

http://www.slickbiker.com/Slickbiker/Links/Suzi-perry.jpg

Working today, but tomorrow will be out might take the DSLR with me and take a few pictures.

From the living room, the best i can offer is 2 guitar hero guitars, not sure how much damage they would do!

Or i have a camera tripod in the corner should do the trick!!

I do, but that saying that im not a weight watcher so does it matter? and how much weight would your bike lose by taking them out??

My deore on my trek doesn't have them, and i think that the new slx ones on my p7 can be removed and have a little disc to go in place.

Piece of string with a weight on it, obv weight at the bottom and line it up that way.

If it turns out my Orange is too big then i will be heading to the cotic website for a soul! especially as the new P7 is almost the same price!

I had an off a while ago, hit a hole in the fireroad of all places, front wheel got stuck, i hit the deck turned out to be a slab of concrete. Concussion for quite a few weeks, over 18 stitches in my chin and above my top lip, still scarred and will be with me for the rest of my life but gives me something to talk about in the pub!

Took me ages to get my confidence back out on the trails but now a few months later im nearly back to my usual self!

$149!! the exchange rate is ether really bad still or overpriced!! I paid about £45 for my pair of DX's it was over 12 months ago. They are great pedals, need very little looking after.

When your on the bike are other area's too big other than standover??

With mine the whole handlebar area feels perfect, the toptube length is spot on, the reach and everything is just right! i went for 140mm forks and thats what makes the bike feel bigger than what im used to, ive took the forks down to 125mm, still the front-end is very high but im hoping on the trails it will be fine.

Saying that im fairly short 5ft6ish so perhaps bigger travel isn't for me!

At least im not the only one! ive done this with my build, i normally ride 15.5" to 17" frames so thought nothing about ordering a new 17" HT, now ive built the forks and added wheels, its oops a little bit big. Im not going to waste it as im sure is just the fact ive gone for bigger forks, so ive limited the travel by 15mm, took some spacers out, while the front end is a little high i doubt a smaller frame would change this.

Give it a ride, see how it feels, if its still too big then decide afterwards

Im in an unmetered flat, 2 people, no bath, shower etc and the bill is £145 ish every 6 months, went up a little last year. Still think its stupidly high, might ask landlord to get a meter fitted!

When i face planted into a concrete surface, my lid cracked down the middle, over 18 stitches in my face. But my glasses only a scratch in fact unless you really look at them no real damage. I have a pair of oakleys not sure which ones but they have a prescription lense, when i called oakley for replacement lenses they claimed that they shouldn't shatter on impact, i know they are pricey but they did the job.

My are the full framed ones, i think they are the whisker glasses, but not the new square ones, the older rounded ones. After the crash they are still functional and do the job, might invest in some new ones soon!

They are making the pitch, ive seen it in the 2010 previews, im sure it wash the pitch in white and looked stunning! also with a double and a bash instead of triple, not sure if it was the US version, ethier way the pitch in the last 2 years has been stupidly late into the new range im sure the first year the pitch wasn't available till late Nov.