i’ve seen him a few times and he was brilliant every time- his songs were always re-arranged depending on his band,     I think some of his earlier stuff sounds dated musically but prophetic lyrically.

>Unless you want them to hate you stay away from whw on a bike</p>

I was tihnking of avoiding Drymen to Rowandenan and including Blackwater Dam instead

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.4px; background-color: #eeeeee;”>I think you need to give a idea of skill and fitness level. Quite a variety there of different levels of rides (of the ones I have done and know of</span>

Regular mountain bikers with varying levels of fitness. Most are reasonably fit iie. riding 2-3 times a week.  I’m probably the least fit of the group, but we’re looking at the summer so once I have a goal I will work towards it.

For around your budget, the vitus erscape and Summet look good value. My mate has an escarpe and is getting on well with it

Amazing. MTB paradise for allsorts.

Has anyone ridden the 2018 Enduro in comparsion to the Rallon? They look very similiar geometry wis.

I managed to get a ride on a large on Saturday, thanks to Pedals, and I was very impressed. This was my 1st ride on a 29er and it quashed my preconceptions. The bike felt very agile and not dissimilar to my 27.5er. The best thing for me was the lack of pedal strikes- II kept it in the low (not lower 8)) setting and didn’t encounter any. LOng. low and slack maybe all the rage, but to be honest, I would rather sacrifice some of the benefits of this to minimise pedal strikes.

It wasn’t the best conditions to test a bike and I was a bit unsure of the tyres, but overall i think i could live with one 🙂

Was sketchy in bits. Mid-section red trails were hard and a bit icy in bits. Spooky wood had packed powder snow that was really grippy. Bottom trails were hard but grippy.

Be careful.

thanks alan

it’s just lazy, formulaic journalism.

I agree with this statement about the articles, however i do think there’s a motive behind why these articles are constantly trotted out by the mainstream media. ‘Themes’ in the media are constructed to either act as a catalyst for change or to act as a distraction.

cheers guys for the heads for the shops in central belt/borders. I’ll try and get there tomorrow.

Anyone with a L or XL in the central belt/borders that I could throw a leg over on Saturday/Sunday morning? itching to pull the trigger on one for May delivery, but i need to do it soon.

Love Lower Manhatten/Greenwich Village/East Village- the area is super-chilled out and friendly. Spent a couple of days in Hells Kitchen this year and it was great, but prefer downtown.

I’m more mid range and change every couple of years. I’ve no desire for a single dream bike.

During my serial bike buying years, I rarely had any test rides and most I got on with. A couple of dogs that I didn’t like including

Turner 5-Spot, sold a heckler for it and just didn’t like it.
Giant Glory 8 – too short and steep for me.
Intense 6.6- steep and flexi back end
Nicolai Helius- felt like i was perched on top of it

for an ‘adventure’ bike what about the Marin Four Corners? Seems like it has been well thought out for ‘adventure’ bikepacking and commuting

I haven’t but I would if I had one. Look a lot of fun.

Looks good Ben- good luck with the sale.. Hope you make a good pice for a worthy cause……

2nd the Don Julio. Lovely stuff. Tequila has a bad rep in this country due to the shitey white spirit that people consume as shots. A good sipping tequila is as good as any scotch imo.

I ordered two wheel bags from them. They turned up a week later.

everyone is a baldy legged roady around here nowadays, Dialled bikes don’t make a Gravelduro bike anymore so they’re no longer cool. unless of course it’s a kobe or a morning glory 8)

Depends how much you need £200 . For some people £200 is a lot of money to spend on a 2nd hand bike.
I would offer her a refund and sell it to someone who realises the bikes worth.

Are there any statisticians in the house?

I’m curious about some of the new 170 ish travel bikes like the Nomad, Pivot Firebird, Whyte G179, Devinci Spartan etc. I ride a 140mm ‘trail’ bike just now and it’s good for about 80% of my riding. The other 15% of getting battered I ‘think’ I need a bigger bike & 5% of ‘I would do that if i was on a bigger bike’, However if I had a ‘bigger’ bike I’d only use about 60% of it’s capabilities due to the size of my cahoonies/ability. So for the 80% my current bike is good for, 50% of that would probably be boring on a bigger bike and 25% of the trails I don’t think I would be any faster as i would still be shiteing myself.
100% of the time I would be making an excuse for climbing slowly because I’m on a bigger bike, even though I’m slow on any bike.
Answers on a postcard.

9/11 I was working from home for US company and had dialled into a conference call. After 10 mins I sent out a few AIM messages asking why no one was on the call and got a reply saying ‘turn on your TV dude’. I was on the 1st flight out of Glasgow to Newark when the flights started back up and it was eery, sombre experience.

David Mitchell- liked the peep show, but now he makes a living being a shouty twit on panel shows.
Lemmy- used to think he was kinda cool rock ‘n’ roll rebel. Turns out nazi memorabilia collecting sad loner.
The Oasis brothers- when they 1st came I was learning to play the guitar and their 1st two albums were good to play along with. Now they’re up their own a.holes

Catlike Vacuum

Lightweight – you don’t look like a enduroist or roadie

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/catlike-vacuum-helmet-p328540

Must watch later

I’m more of a serial bike changer and never get overly fond of a bike. I’ve bought a few bikes I never got on with from the start and one of them had a CCDB. Just found it was too much faff-too many things to adjust, ended up continually adjusting settings and getting more frustrated.

ooft. Glad I got one as a warranty.

I take it you can remove the docking side and replace with a more conventional bolt through?

Is there a difference between a gravel bike and an adventure bike? I don’t know why but in my head an adventure bike is for long trips with luggage, so should be quite well built with a tons of mounting points for racks, mudguards, water bottles etc and should be a fairly comfortable ride.
A gravel bike is almost a CX bike, less focused, for blasts where mountain bikes are boring.

I think the prices are fair. Even the tubeless set up considering it is approx £25 for materials, use of pump/compressor and 15-20mins of time.

2005 Modutop here. Had it since new and it’s a brilliant mobile shed for bikes. I can get one bike in with wheels on, two with the front wheels off.

Fox something with a ti spring on a Nomad 1.5. No faffing or lock out settings, minimum servicing (ie none) . Fit and forget.

Hans dampf on the rear and looks a size down compared to the old one it replaced.

^This.

+1

I’m the same as you sadexpunk, so thanks for starting the post.

Nights are fair drawing in. Need to get the lights on charge and the longs looked out.

After a couple of years of farting about on motorbikes, I’m getting the taste for mountain biking again. Hopefully I’ll get at least 2 mid week rides.

[/quote]Whyte has a lower BB and bigger stack. What does this mean in the real world?

You’ll have more pedal strikes?

Marin 4 Corners. More rack and guard mounts than you can shake a stick at.