I live in the Basque country, the beaches are far nicer than anything darn south, the food is regarded as the best in Spain, there's lots of nice mountains too. Lad who posts on here Doug, has a guiding/holiday company called Basquemtb, based in Hondarribia on the Spain/France border, its a lovely town with mountains and beach on your doorstep. San Sebastian isnt far away if you want a bit of culture and more beaches.

Home

..aye its canny. Hard work today mind. Nice tan though. Now rehydrating with a decent rioja.

out in the hills today…

and up a litlle hill.

I've got some routes round there in English, i'll scan them and email them to you if you want.

2nd the Valencia idea.

San Sebastien too, although i wouldnt say its cheap, but I do know a great Hostal in the old town.

Where do you live, what airlines fly from your neck of the woods.

Anyway, Lisbon is good.

Havent read the whole thread but surely the most important thing about having discs on a road bike is that they just look nice?

If you are a memeber if the Guardia civil, sitting in a guardia civil car, sitting outside the guardia civil building then you'd be at risk, otherwise, go, you'll be fine.

Trivial little firecracker type things. Dont worry about it, ETA arent interested in you, they phone in warnings and are just trying to be a pain in the arse.

I live in the Basque country btw.

also, if you are taking a bike, a road bike is better.

Being a perfectionist. I always say that, even though its not treu.

Check your dropouts are straight.

From Consett, Co. Durham now live near Bilbao.

I'm from Consett, but managed to escape. There's some decent riding straight out of the town but most of the "mountainbikers" from the town just seem to hoon along to Waskerley and back, pretty dull really.

crazy-legs – that's excellent.

Cars, trains, electricity, that sort of stuff are still relatively rare up there.

Sounds morbid and I'm sorry, but if the main draw of "back home" is the grandparents, then how long will they be around? Is it worth uprooting to be close to them for just a few years?

I'm an expat too btw and can sympathise, ive tried living back in the uk but couldnt stand it. I'm a helluva a lot poorer and have no "career" but i'm happy enough, i get to ride my bike a lot in the sun. I probably need to be a bit more sensible now I'm approacing 40 though.

I always found the Sony CybershotU to be the perfect trail camera. Tiny little thing. Unfortunately not made anymore, available on e-bay though. Only 2 or 3 megapixels, which good enough if you just want them on your PC/internet. Probably only cost you 50 quid.

Cabrales.

Nowt, I use an unramped Middleburn chainring. Never had a de-rail, maybe i'm just lucky.

Dont know about "good" but theres the South Downs way and the Downs link, pretty long off-road stuff, not exactly technical though.

Try a long distance trail like the Camino de Santiago, havent done it but always been tempted. Cycled bits of it that are proper mountain biking, not just "improved" tracks. Goes thru some great scenery, cities and towns.

Not far from Vitoria you have Legutiano, Murgia and some lakes, there are trails that take you up into Urkiola and Gorbeia. There's a via-verde, a converted train track, straight from Vitoria into this area. There's biking around the Rioja Alavesa too, places to look out for are Laguardia and Labastida. In short, yes there's some riding. What you heading into Vitoria for? It's a pretty dull city, especially out of university time.

Head towards the Pyrenees, good beaches round Biarritz and over the border into Spain, proper mountains too.

I had a random idea in the shower last night. How about some little device you could inside one of the tubes of bike that was basically a little mobile phone (but only capable of texting). When you leave your bike you text "on" to the device on your bike, this enables the device. So, when someone nicks the bike the device detects that its moved (by noticing its using a different phone mast) it then sends a text distress signal, sure it could also give an approximate location. When you wnat to deactivate the device you text "off" to it. Good idea, already done idea or a load of tosh?

I think Madrid is better than Barcelona, more because of the general ambience rather than any architectural beauties. The real joy of Madrid is just walking around, soaking up the atmosphere and finding lovely little squares. For a weekens trip concentrate on tapasing your way around, there's a lot of lovely places to eat and drink. Madrid is centred on Puerta del Sol where there are hundreds of bars, some touristy, some not. Go to Papa Bravas for the Patatas Bravas, lovely. Nearby you have Plaza Sanat Ana, which is a great place to sit outside and watch the world go by, close to here is Cafe Central which hosts fanatastic live Jazz at the weekends.
Plaza Mayor is a good place to sit with an overpriced beer, here got to "el torre oro", its a bar that show bullfights oin video where the bull wins. Around the side streets near Plaza Mayor there are variety of bars and resaurants worth trying, especially "lizarran" a basque bar, great tapas(your first is free).
The retiro park is a great place to go walking in the afternoon. There are plenty of museums and buildings to admire, most are walking distance of the centre, so just randomly walk and discover them.

Places to stay, lots of cheap Pensions around Puerta del sol, better places include the TRYP on Gran Via which is often very cheap, otherwise check out the NH and Sol Melia chains. Anywhere central will do as the Metro is cheap and excellent.

Thats a bit vague.

Oi, Pace forks are great, they dont make them anymore cos someone bought their fork business.

Thers nowt **** wrong with bloody swearing.

And I wish I was less shy.

Try here, the food provided by the hotel is excellent, a definite step up in class from most of the restarants in Windermere.

http://www.glenburn.uk.com/about-glenburn.htm

Thats grand, thanks.

Second San Sebastian, theres a ryanair flight to Biarritz which isnt too far away. Bilbao is another good one, you can fly into Bilbao with easyjet or clickair.

Driving in France is generally ok, the French method of overtaking is to get within 2mm of your rear bumper, move out, zoom past and pull back in 2mm in front of you, bit disconcerting at first, be careful when approaching a slip road, people dont seem to look and just pull into the main road.

Inbetweeners

I believe the new P7 is going to be 853.

Just try a few out, I’m a big p7 fan, its very versatile, not the lightet but it feels quick and its forgiving enough for all day rides to be comfortable.

Lots of nice, natural XC round Blanchland, get a map and follow the bridleways.

looks a fair fight

What? Noone on here has any info at all.

I suppose because wheels/forks only come in a very limited range of sizes.

Orange P7, mine came to a bit more than 1k but I’m pretty sure there’s a sub 1k one. It’s comfy, long travel, just does the job in a quiet no-fuss way.