Good brakes, light and powerful. I used to be a big Formula fanboi until I tried the new Shimanos though. Much nicer levers and a bit more powerful. I’d recommend taking a look at the new slx or even deore brakes. Still, I doubt you’ll be disappointed with RXes

That looks great! If it were a degree slacker (considering it has talas forks) it would be spot on. Pity the 34s aren’t a 20mm axle though.

I always thought about these but even when I’m at max effort it’s my legs that pack in not my lungs. I can’t see breathing being a limiting factor in generally fit people, surely it’s the rate at which glucose is metabolised which is a fair few steps down the chain from the volume of air you can breath in/ co2 out?

XE seems the go-to?

I’ll be sticking with my Prophet I think.

The answer^ got the geometry right years before many other manufacturers. Who else did cheap, very light, fun, 65 degree trail bikes in 2009?

YOU SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM GETTING SOME DECENT SECOND HAND KASHIMA ONES FOR THAT PRICE MAYTE. Or, you could just buy lyriks and live happily ever after.

Just ride into them. Trails are signed to warn people of the usage.

+1
Life’s too short to suffer pedestro-plebs.

I wanted one of these as my first car, quite gald I didn’t get one. Must be the antithesis of the manhood compensator though….

I got some Pacenti TL28s, smashed teh rear one on its first ride in a water bar or something but the front has survived teh Macavalache, downhilling, a week stravaing the alps, Calderdale cobblecore and a few Lakes/Torridon trips. Not bad for something nudging crest weight and suefully wide too. Got an Arch EX to repolace the pacenti I smashed, smashed it in much the same way. Now have an old mavic xm819 wheel on the back as even though it’s heavy and narrow it doesn’t break.

I used to work for one of those companies looking for ground rents. There’s nothing is the planning legislation for objections due to house prices so it’s not an issue to get riled up about (choose something more subjective if you want to object). I expect the effect on house price will come down to a buyer’s preference – they could always try and haggle even if they didn’t mind it but saw it as bargaining capital I guess.

It’s heavy, fundamentally flexier and weaker than our good friend the oval/circle and ridiculously expensive. I remember an engineer friend asking a lot of questions at the Ft.Bill world cup and pretty much exposing its only merit as being “different looking” which is OK I suppose but doesn’t do it for me. Did the same with the man from Mojo who needs a haircut – I’m no engineer but I could tell there was a lot of tosh being spurted. Awful lot of marketing hype in biking.

Syntace do 11 or 12 degree wide bars, you can pick them up from many of teh german sites or on ebay sometimes.

If you have a good level of fitness then 32×36 should be fine, anything I can’t ride everyone else will likely be pushing anyway or looking very silly spinning their granny ring like a little mincer.

for a 29er I think you’d notice the difference, however, Mavic wheels are pretty stiff from my experience especially compared with crests for example. A lot of it is subjective and to some extent based on your riding style/ weight. It’s worth considering the qr forks will be a fair bit lighter but you need to factor in the weight of the qr too! I went with some 20mm rebas and havens as I wanted something dependable and analogous to how my big bike felt. Overkill for xc racing but I only do sport or no fuss style team events so is a good compromise for me.

Ignitors or just see it as a good opportunity to try out newer, better tyres (speaking as someone who has used verticals 8 or 9 years ago before switching).

It depends, I used to run a prohpet and then a remedy as an all rounder but started doing more DHy stuff and found the Remedy a bit uncomfortable for that. But I also did do the odd XC race so decided to get a big bike (dune with 170mm forks) and a lightweight hardtail 29er for the odd trail centre ride/long distance rides or racing. For me, a carbon spicy on its own would probably be all right but if you’re wanting something that can race DH and XC at a reasonable level you’ll be left wanting I think, which isn’t good for an investment of that size!
However, you would have a bike that could do the job of the alpine and 90% the job of the DH bike whist being a hell of a lot more versatile so it might be worth getting one and keeping the hardtail?
EDIT: of course it depends on the relative value of the DH and XC bikes, you could sell the alpine and xc bike and get a zesty/remedy or sell the DH bike and Alpine and get a 160mm bike (and maybe some 170mm forks).

That fork looks flexy as a flexy fork. But I’d love a go on it.

M&S sartorial suits are hard to beat for value for money. If you can get one that fits alright from an outlet and have it altered to fit you better (c.£25-30) that would probably land you at the nexus of fit, quality and price.

Wind turbines from about 15kW and above are great in terms of return on investment but the little ones are awful. E.g. and Endurance e3120 (32m base to blade tip0 will cost £260k installed but generate £45-70k a year and a 500kW one generally (47-65m base to tip) will pay off in 3-4 years i.e. £350-520k a year at a good site. Little ones generally take 6-10 years.
Solar thermal’s great if you use a lot of gas for heating.
Oh, and don’t underestimate insulation, it has the best cost benefit ratio of anything.

The Descent

How can a film that had people caving with ice axes be scary? I thought it laughable. The ‘monsters’ weren’t even that scary either – just stay still and bash them with your unnecessary ice axe when they come trotting past.

Flaming Nora that’s impressive!

That was the most fun day of bikes ever, such a great idea. And what a great wedding, thanks for letting me be a part of it Luke!

Southern accents on bikes.

Lagan’s a tricky one, great trails and a big draw for experienced riders but it’s also in the middle of nowhere with respect to other stuff.
I.e. Tweed valley, Aviemore area, Ft William, Dumfries etc all have a lot going on in a fairly small area, both bikes and walking/watersporting/nature bothering etc etc so attract larger numbers of people who hang around in the area = £.

Lagan’s a bit lonely, even if it is just off the A9, it’s miles from any big towns so the facilities only attact people who go specifically to ride its trails rather than people that have gone to the ‘Lagan area’ or do outdoorsy/tourist stuff in that area which are obviously much fewer than at other trail centres.

As far as i’m concerned you might aswell just guess what time you did.

Same rules for everyone though isn’t it? If everyone knows of the current limitations and is fine with them then what’s the problem?

I don’t care is if it’s 10 seconds out on a 2 minute segment, having the facility to ‘ compare’ for free is great.

Furthermore, if the current GPS devices represent the best GPS signal available to cyclists it’s a bit of a redundant argument surely? I’m not complaining about other people’s strava rides recorded on gpses from 2007 because they’re even more inaccurate, I’d much rather have more people and more ‘rides’.

I use strava all the flipping time, if you ride with a bunch of mates or on popular routes it’s great to compare yourself, often against pro/sponsored riders too. I’ve raced every category of off-road riding and whilst it’s fun, it’s flipping expensive in terms of entry fees, travel, food, spares and time too. Strava presents a nice way to ‘race’ against people in a simple, efficient and free way – all you need is your bike and a GPS device.

More than anything Strava has got me out on my bike more, putting much more effort in and consequently affording me a good hike in fitness.

If you don’t like it, or think it attributes false glory just ignore it. Or, more likely, refuse to accept that you’re a massive mincer and continue to complain.

I enjoyed the top 1/2 but the bottom’s not so great unless you go down the footpath, which, on a good day is likely to be a bit cheeky. We had wind and a bit of rain so we had it pretty much to ourselves.
Those cliffs are something to behold!

Ach! Don’t travel all that way to do the Ogden ride, especially backwards! I live about 100m from the route and ride it regularly as a 45minute spin in the evening, it’s not a good ‘day out’.

However, you want to climb up the cobbles rather than waste all the descent on them, descend down towards the carpark on the actual bridleway, it’s not steep but you can get some fair speed going. Riding it the other was is just pantaloons from my experience, loose/wet climb and no fun descending.
But to be honest just ride the stuff at Hebden or Stainburn, much more fun.

Edit- Daveyboywonder has it spot on ^

As someone who likes to lol at the people in question,I think there’s an unwritten algorithm that includes : Minceness/radness, outright speed/abandon, level of over-bikedness, level of fitness/grit, propensity for colour-matched anodised bits, lack of any visible dirt on the bike, addition of fancy euro components/ accessories (bos shocks, urge helmets etc), getting a mince train going with your go-pro.

If you’re on the right side of all that you’re good with the flash bike but if you tick the boxes in the wrong way I will continue to lol.

Zimbo +1

I met a naked rambler coming down from sprinkling tarn on my D of E expedition when I was 15. I was just amused and if anything thought good on the guy for just doing what he wanted. Wasn’t hurting anyone in doing so, so I had no problem. To be honest, if I’d have had kids with me I don’t think I’d have seen it a too much of an issue either – we’re all the same in the end.

If it were all black and the red bits either green or purple it might look all right but that’s goppington gopsley.

Got 4 premium tickets at 11 nae bother.

Until recently I had a 2010 remedy 8 and found it to be the consummate all rounder. I built it up to be 26.5lbs 1×10 with chain device and 150mm revs with 20mm axle and it was great. I raced enduros and 10 hour and 24 hour xc with it and it was decent at both. I ran it with 36s (TALAS) for a while too.

The Slash looks great and would be better for uplift days and gravity-orientated trips but you can’t get past the poor value for money and the fact it’s likely a bit much for most UK riding (unless you’re a ‘winch and plummet’ type who cares not for the uphills and flat). I reckon it would be great for Welsh mountain affairs and the like but maybe a bit much for trail centres (though it’d be a blast at that new rocky DH one Festinog(sp) and some stuff around Dyfi)

My advice would be to try and demo a remedy and slash on the same day/ weekend and see what the differences are, both are great bikes but the remedy will be a bit more versatile coming from your fuel while the slash might instill more confidence to be a gnarly bas****. Have fun!

Is it just me or does the top one in Sharki’s last post look like an X-wing!? It looks fast!

YT
maybe a little hefty if he’s planning on big rides but has a solid spec and will leave you with enough money for a packet of fags.

I’d trade a few watts for reliability, longevity and stickproofness.

tru dat

I really can’t see the benefit of this system for 98% of riders over 1×10 or 2×9/10.

I just see it as being for sponsored athletes or unfit tarts who would rather spend a gazzilion pounds than admit they need a granny ring.

If it ‘trickles down’ (as if bike tech was ever cutting edge) then maybe it’ll be useful but at that price it’s just ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. How could you happily churn along a muddy/ gritty ride knowing your 3rd of a grand cassette is getting ground down?

‘usage’ gets me. Don’t know why.

I thought about that for a second and have to agree with you! I’ll make a concious(as opposed to unconscious) effort now!

Another term is ‘product’ when referring to a collection of goods instead of ‘goods’, ‘items’ or just ‘products’

30 yards for a brand new Rocket Ron: £1.65 per mile

erm Wouldn’t it be nearer £1800 a mile?