@deadkenny the offence could be criminal damage, look back through the thread. As the name suggests it’s a criminal, not civil, offence.

Just need to convince NIMBY middle class Daily Mail reading rambler types

Actually, just need to convince people not to build prominent downhill trails with jumps and features in sensitive areas of woodland used for conservation, and to do it somewhere more appropriate.

Try Julian Rathbone’s historical stuff – Kings of Albion, The Last English King, Mutiny and a few others. I thought they were very good indeed.

I read Last English King a few years ago, it’s in my all time top 10 and a defo re-reader.

Maybe you’d like Grave’s I Claudius, similar dysfunctional family intrigues, better to read than on the TV, which was a bit dry. If it’s for action, try Gale’s 4 Days in June, a near blow by blow account of the battle of Waterloo from several personal perspectives. Gripping.

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

It’s early days but I think I’ll enjoy it: heavy, Russian, battles, lots of characters.

Go riding not shopping.

Dear event ‘organisers’, support for your event seems to be errr, underwhelming, from your potential customer base!

It’s hard to see what good the event would have done, except for the few people who may have made a small profit, and I’m not sad to see the (temporary) back of it.

This isn’t some shapeless forest in the back end of nowhere. Surrey Hills is an AONB that gets a lot of use and pressure from many groups already, it needs careful management with a view to conservation so it’s available to the people coming behind us to enjoy just as we do.

Economically it’s one of the UK’s most affluent area, any argument on bringing in tourism revenue for the benefit of the local economy is redundant.

The ranger’s just doing their job.

If badger sets are protected then it make no difference if the badger was there before, it’s there now. Give the stripy fellas a break eh.

There’s plenty of space and great riding out there for everyone, and should continue to be so if we’re all a little sensible, and sometimes, a tad discrete.

And the people who build these trails know they’re likely to have a finite lifespan.

Weekend and weekday night rides from Westcott, a mile the other side of Dorking, maybe 25 min (on a clear run) drive from Reigate. Be aware at rush hours getting to the the Westcott road from Dorking is a bottleneck as there is no easy way of avoiding Dorking’s 1 way system.

I’d suggest reading the book. And then Graham Greene’s “The Human Factor”.

We currently don’t have plans to re-stock Sodas. We’ve got about 4 left in medium, then that’s it for the moment.

So refreshing to have a bike company proprietor say it like it is.

“That’s how WARS start”

iPhone spell correction, that’s how are start.

As for Soda vs Soul, the price difference is the cost of a cross bike, settles it for me.

Can anyone compare the ride of the Soda vs the Soul?

Thx.

I had a new carbon post fail after a few days light use, it crumpled into a vicious emasculation weapon as I was on it. I dismounted very carefully.

Ben sure I realise. What model are they?

(good god 72 hours she deserves several medals)

Awesome.

Our mini-me arrived 1st April.

Take lots and lots of photos, more than you think you need, can’t have too many. The time passes very quickly and before you know it that tiny scrap of humanity you first knew has changed and gone forever,

Ben, what wheels?

ps as for motivation I find fear of poverty and the prospect of having to work for someone else does that fine.

I love working from home, I’m not as disciplined as I could be, but am self employed so it’s my call really.

My daughter was born in April and it’s been fantastic to be arund why she ils tiny, I don’t mind the interruptions. It would be a pain if I was on the phone a lot but mostly I do email so that’s not a problem.

Ideally put your desk in the smallest craooiest room in the house, ideally not by a window so you can’t look out. Internet distraction is a problem, I have an iPad and my rule is ( during working hours) work on the Mac, fun things on the pad, then when reach for the pad I am at least aware of it. Faux targets and time allocations don’t work for me, I make my rules then break them anyway.

I don’t need a strong separation between work and non-work time, I don’t mind them blending together. I have plenty of mates and a full life, the ‘loss’ of a social scene at work is nothing.

Take a quiet moment and think about the commuting time and expense you are saving, you’ll never go back.

@brakes, your second pic the summit of Holmbury Hill?

Are wide bars ‘in’ at the moent?

I’m not a big guy (5’8″) but have pretty wide shoulders for my height and chopping from 685 to 655 was a definite improvement for the local riding (forest, natural trails). The steering is faster to respond and more sensitive to shifts in balance than before (which was more like turning a big ship’s wheel, slooooowwwww).

For switching direction on twisty trails and anticipating the best line through bends, it’s much faster. More ‘speedboat’ less ‘oil tanker’.

I’ve not seen a downside yet.

I’m tempted to chop further but first I need a longer stem now my hands are in front of me rather than off to the sides. And that’s with only 15mm chopped off each end.

the creak on my Kula is seat rails. I’m told dirt can get between the rail and the seat tube fixing causing this (clean it), tho in my case I think it’s just old age and use (of the saddle!), where the rails join the saddle body.

Take a look on the northern (London) side of the fire road that runs from the reservoir to the ‘top’ car park, lots of tracks in there, not as steep as BKB, faster. Got it?

Lots of fun to be had on Leith too, and tea and cake at the tower.

Soz no I mean back across the tarmac road, then to the left of the fire road that traverses to the car park.

We should all meet up at the drop, have a little party and ride the ****er to death.

feisty = twisty

Re BKB (we call it Golden Birdies), there’s a general consensus amongst us its had it’s day anyway, go look the other side of the fire trail, there’s plenty of fast feisty ST.

I think the fear is because we all came across that drop as beginners, intimidated but had to do it to ride the rest. It stuck.

I wonder if there are different measurement methods going on here (some seem very high). Mine is for the bars without the grips, straight line centre of bar to opposite centre.

685mm EA50s, I just trimmed to 655, much more flickable for twisty singletrack, should have done it years ago. May shave off a few more mm yet.

@teamhurtmore I’ve ridden it dozens of times, I never had a problem with it, but on the approach … I always know it’s there.

@wallop yes 140mm

Fox “32 TALAS   140 FIT RLC” do 110mm – 140mm it seems. I don’t see much mention of Fox on the older threads, dno why.

Here are older threads on the same topic:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/forks-for-a-soul
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cotic-soul-fork-advice
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cotic-soul-build-what-forks-etc

The general consensus seems to be 120mm is the sweet spot (except for the frame designer himself who likes 100mm).

If you’re looking at the current range of RockShox your choice seems to be the Reba which tops out at 120mm but can be wound down, or Revelation which starts at 120mm and can be wound up.

There must be many other options, I’m no expert on the fork market, but these are the names that keep coming up again and again.

I’m a bit torn myself, I think Reba Teams go 90mm-120mm, Revs go 120mm-150mm, my feeling is I want the lower end of the travel more than the higher end.

OK I wound up doing Hamsterley black and a chunk of the red, including some unfurnished bermed trail I found in the woods,. I took off across the moors at the top too but it was so boggy I turned back.

Couldn’t work out how to load these MMR routes into their iPhone app, lord they don’t make it easy. Anyway next time I’l take a topo and aim to get off the prepared trail.

Thx all for your suggestions, I am keeping them. I live in Surrey so if you want a guide for the Surrey Hills/North Downs, get in touch.

– M

Note to anyone reading this in the future: the Hamsterley trail map doesn’t show that the black is ridden anti-clockwise, the red is clockwise – this is material if planning to link them!

@legolam no joy finding you on mapmyride, it’s pretty crap for that, do you have a link to your profile or the route

thx

thx all, lots to peruse there. Hhave just arrived at Great Lumley from the sunny south. Have I missed summer or has it not arrived yet?

over the weekend or Monday – thanks

XC, singletrack and vistas/environment my thing, not so much jumping/freeride etc. Bike is an XC hard tail.

The weather forecast for the weekend is poor, so maybe staying low and in the forest is better than out on the moors.

So Mattjg, what are you waiting for? Give us a shout if you make it up here anytime. Only too happy to share the local knowledge.

We’re waiting to pop the sproglet out and see if our house in Dorking works out. If it doesn’t we’ll likely end up renting, and there are no decent rentals in the SE so it’s likely we’ll be in the NE where the other half’s family are and there’s a bit more space. (And I’ve warmed to the idea a lot).

Thanks all for your hospitality and advice, appreciate it.

And if we stay down south, Dorking has masses of forest/cross country riding on the doorstep so gimme a squawk if you’re down that way.

lordi see what you lot have done – so far the NE has just been a contingency plan, now I actually want to do it!