You can always send your trail dog ahead of you…
IGMC

Nope, can’t help I’m afraid- but saw one once with horrible paint splashes on it somewhere up in Herts 😀

Me too Frank, plus other cycling related wins missed by the STW Massive….notably Rachael Atherton.
Too busy riding I guess…… 😯

Biscuits in the dvd player

+1 – That Carbine must be the 2012 winner.

There was a temperamental fella called Manwells who might be the all-time champ though…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/profile/manwells
–
awesome link 😯

Yep, the big trail at Nant Yr Arian (sp) and Penmachno (sp) are both very natural, out of the way, not popular etc and well worth the ride.

1st tip = layers, layers, layers
2nd tip = won’t stay dry so don’t try
3rd tip = keep the wind off, so get stuff that is windproof rather than waterproof
4th tip = spend money on extemities – feet and hands. Good gloves and good shoe covers (if you wear disco slippers) are a must.
5th tip = Remember this thread when it’s cold, dark, wet and raining and refer back to it for a source of motivation 😯

Ianv – yes, from memory map

Stock music player syncs with i-tunes.
Bought a bluetooth keyboard for mine – logitech one works fine
I’m using Wunderlist as an app and works perfectly between phone, pc, blackberry.
You can download from bb app world straight to pc so no need for bb phone if you haven’t got one. All the various bits and bobs like splashtop, docs to go, evernote, drop box etc available for playbook.
That should keep you going for a bit.

Double bar tape (road bike stuff) and a couple of zip ties for me

Eat and drink more on the ride, this cuts down the cravings post ride. Make sure there is plenty of decent food around the house / in the fridge to avoid the “I want fat / sugar” cravings. Oh…….and be more self-disciplined 😯

Mecki’s in Riva / Tarbole – plus they can organise an uplift. If you have a GPS, most of the shops will put GPX files on for you. Depends if you want to ride up, down or both I guess? When are you thinking of going, as sometimes of the year the weather is very unpredictable, due to the geography / location. Be prepared for lots of lycra clad, German HT riders with every attachment you can think of added to their bikes…. interesting!

OK, I’ve bought the tools, bought some bearings and going to give this a go myself. Zippy & Rustymac, thanks for posting up and sharing your experience – saved me time and effort. Full report on 1st time hub servicing in due course……..

The train line that runs along the south coast is grimmsville slow, reckon it might be as quick or quicker to go into London and back out, not with a bike though….. 😯 willing volunteer / partner / friend might be an option?

Eating – nothing, might go for a bit of muff later…
Drinking – decaff coffee
Watching – some weird telly prog on BBC called “for the win”

For me it’s more about getting enough fluid after a ride and rehydrating, as I’m usually flaked and just want to go to bed.

There are some bargains, just need to shop around a bit more. Couple of things I would be mindful of are;
1. Get a habitation check done before you buy – its like a motorhome mot, where they check for dampness, check electrics and gas, waste., fridge etc
2. Mileage is not an indication of use, and in particular low mileage. The base vans are designed to cope with high miles, it’s just unfortunate that you can’t get any objective measure of how long it’s been lived in.
Good luck, shop around and see as many as you can.

Mrs L very keen to go back next year. We camped at Xonrupt Longmer, where there are 3 or 4 campsites, plus a municipal one. Walked a couple of times into Gerardmer, which was OK and got the bus to Col De Schlut to do the luge as well which was dead easy. Very sunny, nice camping, a chance to ride, lake stuff, big town close by – what’s not to like!

Ooooer – that’s not far from me. So……QE park maybe? Or Rogate? as examples of what can be done. Reckon a good pumptrack never goes amiss.

Need a trail maintenance group of some description also……

Unbelievable – how can you protect yourself against that? That’s grim, hope you find the low life and get the bike back

Log on to tourist information sites (Colmar, Gerardmer, Xonrupt etc.) and they have pdf downloads of suggested bike routes. As per above, loads of stuff and you’ll be either going up or down and not much else.

There’s me thinking (from the title) that the thread was actually closed. I’ve got my bourbons open, brew ready, waiting to get to the gritty heart of why the thread was closed and it’s open
–
This forum is rubbish 🙂

Well i caved in, popped to vision express this morning, ordered some Oakley Half Jackets with transition lenses, £195

That’s about 200 pairs of contact lenses!

Should I take up one of them “manual jobs”, so I can get better at riding then?

Do you honestly believe that?

Xiphon – ty

Other than being four letter words, what’s the significance of “rain” & “dogs”? Am I missing something?

Contact lenses, then as many pairs of sunnies as my heart desires

1 1/8th – standard type headset……

Must be a lot of filing cabinets to shift?

Not sure if any of this helps, here goes: –

Had a set of Marz 55TST’s and they are without doubt the worst fork I have ever ridden….lockout kept breaking, and had to keep letting our out to get any kind of travel and then they’d loose what little air they had left after 1 or 2 runs, so needed pumping up again etc.

Switched to a set of 36 Van R’s (yes I know not air) and they have been awesome in every way, not least because you get what you get and there is limited adjustability, which for a throw around play bike might just suit?

I know you said air and (I assume) not coil, however it would open up many more possibilities?

Talk to me about moist fridges…

– thought it was a thread about the wife…. 😯

The whole 8gb on shuffle!

Bit of both – seems our German / French cousins like to ride up fireroads and come down tarmac roads if you follow the signed routes. Having got caught out a couple of times I decided to ride up the same tarmac / fireroads and then seek out some of the other “trails” down with the help of a good map and gps. Worked a treat, some of the footpaths are very tricky 😆

Sits back with a cuppa

Bourbon anyone?

Do you drive an Audi?

Here we go:-

[/url] IMG-20120814-00024[/url] by LucienCarter[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url] IMG-20120814-00020[/url] by LucienCarter[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url] IMG-20120814-00018[/url] by LucienCarter[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Totally awesome riding, if you like going up and coming down. Some parts quite tough (both up and down) and suggest a map and/or GPS, plus an inquisitive nose for a trail are the way to go as I found some excellent, natural singletrack.

Are there any braking bumps?

OK, I’m here and can add from 1st hand experience that: –

Waywarked “bike trails” graded by colour are available and the colours seem to relate to distance rather than difficulty – most are on wide, fireroad or similar but…when used in conjunction with a decent map get you to the top of a some pretty big hills (1000 mtrs 😯 or so).

You can then pick from literally loads of waymarked single track trails (down) that are some of the most difficult and technical terrain that I have ridden on…and is quite scary in places. I fell on monday, on a ribbon of singletrack, with a massive drop and if it wasn’t for the ferns would have been a further 20 feet down from the trail in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds. Nothing like a hike back up a sheer cliff face to take your mind of any bleeding…..!

It’s not all like that, some of it is much more rideable and in just 3 days have done some excellent exploring (map, GPS and bike map in tow) – and I’m here for another week and a half. I’ll try and post up some pics to give you something to look at…

For info am on a 140mm pitch, with Eskar’s front and rear with a 22/34 low gear and 34/12 high – I’m still having to walk up some bits as well..

Out of interest, how is LW riding at the moment? Have any of the trails that were wrecked been re-established?

Was there a bit over a week ago, found it was very wet and still quite muddy in places plus some of the trashed trails are still pretty trashed…. 😡