Phlegm city here for a week and a half now – thought the warm weather might have burnt it off…

It might be okay to go up to 120mm, I did fit 115mm forks on a RM Hammer that should only have had 85mm travel. Check out the Rocky Moutain forum on http://www.mtbr.com, it's a great source of info and someone may already have done what you want to do.

Rich

A large aspect of the sport is the social one IMO. Sure, I'm not down the pub after every ride but I get to have the craic with a few friends and listen to some diffferent stories etc

The polyphonic spree – together we're heavy, pretty chilled out stuff.

It should be as easy as with a Shimano mech – is your mech swinging freely around the main pivot?

I made the change to gripshifts years ago – as per Njee, XO has a really positive, snappy action. I don't know if you'd describe it as smoother but you know when you've shifted (something I personally find hard to feel on triggers) My rear mech has lasted incredibly well – 6 years old and still fast shifting and the shifters themselves don't seem to suffer from age related wear.

I generally use Shimano M520's at £15-£20 a pair, chepaer to buy new peedals than replace the cleats alone when they wear out, and I'm not too bothered if they get bashed out of shape (although has never happened yet)

Nice,

always happens to me – new bike build then rough as a badgers a**e.

Don't be ashamed aabout the cost, you earnt the moneey and can spend it how you like

Regular Delamere Monday Night run and check out http://www.chestermtb.co.uk for a good craic and some regular riding of all abilities

Some great shots here.

This is my lad, fascinated by a truck on holiday last week

I'm pushing to stay bottom but some other b******d is down there! If Petrov had a better first few races I would be okay I reckonm he's coming good now so I should hopeefully climb up the ladder :)

My Rm Vertex is very comfortable, more so than the steel frame it replaced (I know, probably blasphemy on here) It's very stiff power wise and the large frame is noticably less noodly torsionally but it's comfortable to the extent that another 10psi can be added into the tyres with no adverse affect on comfort.

Other frames may differ, depends on the will of the designer and what he wanst it to do TBH.

Looks nice, but given that you regularly post bike pictures on here I'd have expected more effort to go into that lawn :lol:

No policy will cover for that – acts of nature/god are not covered. We've booked flights through an ATOL/ABTA agent and have been told we'll get those refunded if we can't fly this Friday. If you book your whole holiday through one then I'd imagine that you'll get all your money back.

Most people's impressions of him must surely be derived from the media?

I remember seeing an interview of him on the TDF last year where he clearly showed his passion and knowledge of the sport, did his research on his rivals and how they operate and came across as confident in his own ability.

At that level of sport confidence and arrogance are part of the arsenal of weapons available. If you're not bigging yourself up then you probably don't have the self belief.

My asthma has come back lately after a 6 year absence. It follows a similar pattern to yours and got noticably better when it was warmer a week or so ago, now that we're back to normal springtime conditions I'm starting to wheeze once more. I think a good long summer is required to truly shift it, I can only conclude that the cold snap over wwinter started it up again and somehow the lungs get irritated more easily afterwards.

Bear in mind that an expensive bike is much more accessible that a sports car form £40k upwards, I view it as the probably the pastime that I do where I can justify top line piece of kit, I know a Les Paul guitar would be wasted on me so my £99 guitar will suffice for that particular hobby. I'd like to think that my riding can justify expensive bikes but some days it's not to be :D

Loads of issues – just gotta put your foot down and make them realise that it's your child. Same as yours, loads of suggestiosn that don't need to be suggested and the general impression that it's almost said to cause trouble and confusion.

My dad also had to do the same with his MIL when I was a baby….

Start near the railway station/visitors centre and then go past the resreve car park at the bottom, trun right and go see what you can find off the fire roads- if it looks like a trail it generally is rideable, some entrances may be a bit tight through the bushes but keep going! There's loads of hidden trails, if you get lost you should be able to find a sign to the visitor centre along the fire roads.

Rich

A Rocky Mountain Altitude 90CR

Granted that it's cheaper to fuel up a modern car per given mile of travel nowadays, it's just that to tap into this wonderful economy you have to splurge a large chunk of money on a new car.

Therefore, for most of us with older cars that work perfectly well, its not cheaper to run a car than it was a few years ago.

I bought some Shimano M161's to replace mine with a few weeks back. I couldn't justify the price of the Sidi's and the Shimano shoes are much more comfortable to walk in, just as good when pedalling as well.

I had a test ride on an Alu Altitude last year – very nice bike, could be ridden slow but liked to go fast :)

If it was in my size I'd buy that off CRC

Watched the race on freecaster – those guys were all flying today!

Go up the Petronas Towers, not been their myself but know a few people who have, and they enjoyed it.

The lightning's generated by the activity in the ash cloud

Great photos

The Stamford Bridge on the A51 into Chester always seems pretty good when we go in.

Chester here and I'd not realised how many orange planes fly over my house on their way to Liverpool until it went quiet. Suppose it's not easy to notice when the numbers grow over the years.

Blizzard, but I'm a biased Rocky Owner – best riding bikes I've ever owned….I bought my Hammer frame second hand and have had no issues with it over 3 years.

I've used fenwicks on the car to get rid of flies etc, not sure I'd use muc off tho'……

I looked at this a few years ago and came to the conclusion it was cheaper to buy a good shed when on offer and then reinforce the frame and door locks etc. The timber required to build one wouldn't be much less than the shed and the time involved would also increase somewhat.

Having said that, I wouldn't call you a nutter for bu8ilding your own, you could get all those quliaty bloke features in that standard shed is missing (minibar, jacuzzi, big tv)

As per convert here..

Could you not make a love stool instead of a chair, would be more fun in the future! :lol:

I've just put some 2.3 Panaracer Razer XC's on my HT. Light, big volume and fast – they even perform pretty well in softish conditions as they don't hold onto the mud.

Oakley outlet at Cheshire Oaks had some good reductions on quite a few styles last week.

Dear – Wheel bearings for Volvo's – thank god their easy to fit

Cheap – clothes – someone somewhere is suffering to make money for supermarkets…..

Is anything physically blocked on teh pump outlet/filter? Check that first as the machine may not want to go into spin cycle if it can't shift teh water out in the first place. Happened on mine a few years back.

I could see snow on the Clwydian range this morning so chances are that there will be some further into Wales. How deep though is anyone's guess…

I can't say I notice any flex in my 2010 140mm QR revs – they replaced some RC41 XCAM's and we're pretty much the same weight as those. I'm running them with a steel XT QR and it all feels pretty solid to me.

I had a Hammer built up with 115mm Reba's and it was fine, plenty of sag on the fork but the only problem with the handling was some wheel lift on really steep climbs. Great geometry on the bikes, really chuckable through the singletrack and great on the steep teechnical downhills.

I lied – it should have said 42lbs!

All I know is the LBS weighed it in at 22.5lbs when it had the ventidiscs, alu bars and Verticals on it and it has got lighter since by 300g due to bars and discs. My other bike was weighed in at 31lbs, which seemed on the money.

I apologise for any offence caused :(

*Gets coat, leaves thread*