may as well bob down to Degla seeing as though your in the area. id be wanting to maximise bike time and you’d get a full afternoon down there… personally id be looking at Wharni / Grenoside then an easy jib up the M1 after.

Watched ‘Detroit’ on a flight the other day. Hell fire that is some depressing shit… very good like, but ill be watching Greatest Showman again on the way home!!

Also watched ‘Molly’s Game’ which was pretty good too.

Master of None.

I get the ‘all you care about is your effing bike’ treatment quite regularly.  she has a point…

Yep. Hope 30mm BB with RF turbine cinch crankset.

just added a spacer behind the non-driveside cup in addition to the one on the drive side. Perfection.

you cant really over-torque the cinch system as the preloader is tightened by hand only…

that preloader ring is shite tho tbf.

i think it feels faster than the stage 6, but the S6 was deceptively quicker. i remember it took a lot of effort to get up to speed, but i now put that down to not being used to 29ers at the time.. im as happy to ride my S5 over any terrain/obstacle as i would on any other bike, or my skills allow…

i built it from frame only. Pikes (with luftkappe!), Monarch RT3 DB, E13 TRS wheelset, reverb, XT, Saints…

i rode my mates stage 6 with 160 lyrics for week. it was amazing, and i aced all my PR’s on it, up and down. enough to decide i wanted an Orange, this was a big descision itself as i was adamant i needed a bottle cage before!! Ultimately the S6 just felt like a bit too much bike for most of my riding. its an absolute brute in the flesh! plus i prefered the more svelte lines of the Stage 5 so went for one of them without even demoing, i assumed it’d be just like the S6 but lighter and livlier and i was right. its the business… I do run a 150mm fork which is a bit naughty but its a dream!  still cant keep up with my mate on his S6 tho but i doubt that is down to the bikes!

Red Screes; are you talking about the long descent back to Ambleside or the steep one down to kirkstone pass?

She (Diane Morgan) was on a Adam Buxton podcast recently. she was saying the interviews are genuine, she arrives in character, and stays in character till they leave.

i think they record a lot more than they can use…

last few times ive ridden nowt but Poppety Ping into Hot Stepper, or Roots Maneuvers. if they are closed id look at postponing.

nah he (HKT) has dabbled in the past but he said in a recent podcast he doesnt even own a bike any more…

the EWS or Bust eps should be a good insight, and they were at first. but every one is pretty much exactly the same now and that guy is pretty annoying! the two of them together are too hyper for me and i find myself switching off half way through to give my ears a rest….

HKT Podcast has some decent guests but the presenter drives me insane – terrible interviewer and loves talking about himself.

haha, yeah, rad dude, stoked etc… the best episodes are when he can barely get a word in! Olly Wilkins, Bret Tippee etc. the lesser charismatic guests are a struggle, unlike Downtime, the fella is not a rider, or even a particularly big fan of the sport so often comes across misinformed, which is pretty poor for a niche podcast.

i dont wanna sound too negative tho, i still listen religiously. its generally good.

i have never done this 50% air / compress thing when pumping mine up? shock feels fine.

gonna try it tho, see what happens….

The HKT (Hook-it) Podcast is worth checking out too.

but give their ‘EWS or Bust’ episodes a miss…

Id say the blues ant Antur are like the blacks at bpw. if you hit a blue expecting a bpw blue you’ll be in for a shock. it is great tho, i really enjoy it there. just keep your fingers crossed its not windy. rain is not a problem there, but the wind can be brutal.

I let my Mrs choose every time (but only from a carefully pre-selected list) win win

mine neither.

my stock answer to this is always La Esquina in Soho. looks like a scruffy diner at street level, but they whisk you downstairs through the kitchen Goodfella’s style into the main restaurant which is one of the coolest places ive ever been. its where is discovered Tequila isnt just that rancid poison you get shots of in yer local at home!!

good thread this tho, some really good ideas away from all the usual nonsense.

last year we did a week with Whiteroom with an extra day at either end, so 8 full days, and they were full! we could have had a ninth but were pretty done in so decided to bugger off home instead.

The Greatest Showman is a big camp cheesy musical extravaganza. grin inducing foot tapping leave your brain at the door fun. i loved it and danced out of the cinema all the way home!!

yeah my in-laws live in Criccieth so im always looking for options round there.

There is a pretty cool cheeky loop i do sometime round Tre’r Ceiri with its iron age hill forts which also takes in the Nant G DH track! not really suited to gravel bikes tho.

Pont Scethin is the usual stock response but ive never ridden it. its a drive too. I inevitably end up driving away for the day so aim for Snowdon or Cadair Idris or one of the trail centers, Dyfi / CyB etc.

there is a hill on the way to Porthmadog called Moel-y-Gest that we have walked, great views out to sea – loads of tracks between there and Borth to explore.

FIL is a proper lycra bandit and swears its a mecca round there for tarmac warriors but i dunno about any of that nonsense…

made a herb garden. didnt really require any modification other than fastening some membrane into the pockets and screwing it to the wall…

(not mine, just one off google…)

scored a hat-trick this weekend, riding Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

sunny, cool, and bone dry!! i wish it would stay like this forever…

I would never consider driving to the Alps I’m less than an hour away from Manchester Airport and the flight is only about 2 hours

I’m less than half an hour from Manc airport but prefer driving after trying it for the first time last year.

Besides the flight may be 2 hrs but you are there 2 hours earlier, takes an hour to get there, an hour to get out at the other end and then another 2 hours transfer, plus all the hassle of packing & building your bike and scrimping on what to pack because of the weight limits… it also takes up a day that could be spent riding!

Besses is OK. I grew up there 40 odd years ago!

i heard Moss Side was nice 40 odd years ago…?

nah its a good spot. well handy for phillips park, the tram and the motorway, and not near any parks or recreation ground where scrotes might congregate…. I went to see Labyrinth at the Mayfair there in 1986.

i have a small tin box i think dogtag insurance sent their gubbins in one year.. its about the size of a tobacco tin and has rubber on the inside so does not rattle. Inside i keep the contents of a weldtite tubeless repair kit along with a co2, powerlink, brake pads, cable ties and multitool (nice super flat one from alpkit) i keep the box in a neoprene pouch that came free with a magazine, prevents the box from opening and keeps everything dry. works a treat…

i carry a loaded co2 inflator in a different pocket and have a tube on my frame.

i have that Lezyne one with the wooden handle too. the head was useless on tubeless valves where there isnt enough thread to engage with. would be great otherwise, works fine in conjunction with an airshot… but since you hardly need to bother with an airshot any more, i ended up swapping the hose from an old pump that has a push on lever type head on the end and its great now. i have no idea how accurate the gauge is tho but im not really bothered…

my dog is always biting my feet when he comes on a ride with me! not all the way round, but at certain times somewhere along the way he will take exception to my fivetens and start growling & attacking them – what is it all about?? it doesn’t hurt, i find it hilarious if anything!

he has never done it to anyone else tho…

he also goes mad whenever i stop to rest/drink/fix something – yaps his friggin head off till were rolling again! doesn’t do that in any other scenario either…. something about bikes

I was thinking of riding the BB tomorrow… bluebird skies here in London but we have a good covering at home in Bury apparently… no mention of snow on the keswick forecasts… i imagine you have more trouble riding gisburn?

i have dropped enough hints for one these this fathers day… http://www.urbanrider.co.uk/deus-ex-machina-accessories-half-zip-leather-wallet-black.html

unfortunately the restrictions you wanna avoid pretty much typify lakes riding…

Borrowdale Bash would probably be alright?

or you could do a Buttermere loop via Whiteless from Whinlatter, where you use their south trail as your climb.

Helvellyn from Glenridding can be a fairly easy up / easy down.

Yes, and the ability to set the tolerance a bit tighter

yeah we have dug a new track recently, completely fresh cut, but it does run quite close to and crosses the main bridleway through the woods. we made a segment for it because we didnt want somebosy else to claim it! but the leaderboard has times from 3 or 4 years ago, and when you look at their rides, they have just ridden down the bridleway..!

i use it, its in private mode whatever that means? and i only follow a handful of people and only have those guys follow me back. its kindda like facebook but exclusively for us who are genuinely interested in each others riding.

couldn’t really give a shit about distance and times. most of my rides are about 6 or 7 miles!

i enjoy looking back through past rides and reminiscing over the photos.

i like to see where the lads rode that time i couldnt make it, then take the piss out of it a bit.

i also love creating routes i never use! :D

yeah, thinking long sleeve base with a micro fleece rab hoody under the jacket for milder days, but swap the fleece for one of these on colder ones… just unsure whether than deacthlon thing will be warm enough when it really cold!? not that im expecting really cold in March, but it was last week!!

my Sweet Protection Sport Pursuit special turned up, i was disappointed that its basically a gore-tex shell, no thermal properties at all. but it looks cool and fits really nice so am gonna keep it. I have been told its all about the layers, last few years ive just worn a base layer under a north face jacket, was either too cold, or if i added a fleece – too hot.

just deliberating what to run underneath it now, i have a montane featherlite down jacket i could use, but i also picked up one of those £30  x-light hiking jackets from Decathlon. that slots under the sp jacket a treat and the hood fits over my helmet, but im dubious about how it will perform in the cold?

what do you need to be in the NW for, and would you sack it off and stay down until the weekend if it turns out to be ‘impossible’ to travel tomorrow or would you be compelled to risk travelling anyway?

NW is home. Much rather be up there the extra day than stuck down here!!

its glorious in Farnborough but everyone is saying they’re not coming in tomorrow… my dilemma is that i need to drive home to the north west, so do i leave tonight and assume tomorrow is a snow day or wait and see, then potentially have a treacherous journey back…

need to get back to the north west from Surrey tomorrow. deliberating whether to piss off today instead… bound to meet some disruption at some point all that way…?

its an interesting one. id expect them to be cheaper in low season / quieter times but then again from their POV the average punter through the door is absolutely not gonna shop around, they have probably been sent to the shop by their operator, are either super eager to hit the slopes or get on the lash after a long journey and are 100% going to spend their cash either way.

im tempted to now to book online but not mention it when we show up at the shop, get a new price then go with the best..

would your wife notice an inch & half?