Up until 2 weeks ago I was riding on my own or with misses all local rides (no car used). Have started to drive to next local riding spot and have started to ride with others (2 other riders at a time max even if you could technically be 6 of you under the new rules). Plenty of evening rides to avoid the crowds. Got no plans for going big group rides, too far from home or anything gnarlier than what I’m already riding. Would say do whatever you feel safe and start small (ride with only one other person or same people).

Instead of doing national service why not just have more companies doing apprenticeship? I did mine around 15 years back and loved it, I got an education, a wage but more importantly a career. Much better than being forced to do a job that you have no interest in to begin with.

I’d look at nukeproof scout or what Ragley has to offer. I have got a steel Marino frame set up with 29×2.6” tyres and it fine Welsh trail centres to 50mile xc rides. The 29er wheels definitely help to cover ground. Geometry is key over spec in my opinion.

Inkstar – you have clearly taken my words and twisted them to suit your view point. In non lockdown situation I would fully support the legal protest and free speech against racism and the despicable treatment that has been used against bame people. At this current moment in time I don’t think it’s safe to be in large groups what ever the reasoning.

So a few weeks ago on a biking FB page someone was promoting a protest march against the lockdown itself organised by right wing group claim the government was taking away their human right of freedom. Please to see that everyone including me ripped into them from the many different angles of covid spread to there isn’t any freedom having been removed without a just cause etc.

The amount of people that have flocked to beaches and parks over the last few weeks while not abiding to social distancing rules has been ridiculous. The street parties for VE that all started from a distance but as soon as a bit of alcohol was consumed everyone is crowded and mingling with each other are just as stupid and likely help to spread it.

The protesters (regards of what you view point) full in to the same category of other idiots putting themselves, their families and the wider society at risk. What has actually changed that means the restrictions can change? Nothing, no cure has been devolved as of yet, it just the hospitals has space for you if the worst happens.

Think I paid £430 for fox 36 29er performance elite last year from crc but they turned up not in a fox box so recon they were over stock from full bike builds.

Because people like to think that they are middle class when in reality they are just a posh working class. At the end of the day if your not owning your own company with people working for you to make you money I don’t understand why you would vote Tory but when you look at the labour leaders at the last election you would vote for anyone else to keep him out.

PS I voted LD because of this, not liking Tory or labour at the time.

Might be my mate on his G1 and misses on spesh stumpjumper evo. As I said lives in the forest and is riding most days in the woods.

If a female only riding race wanted to have categories of virgin to whores would I be offended by it, no. Asked my misses if she would and again she said no but did say she could see if others could be offended.

The roller derby that I talked about previously was very much pin up girl, short hot pants, tongue in cheek player names and girl power vibe about it. Your first game was always known as the cherry popper. They do have a very small men’s following but again they didn’t do any real encouragement to get me involved to the level that the women’s teams had. The men’s teams were more of an after thought. Again the kit itself isn’t cheap (skates could be couple of hundred quid, then pads and helmet) so to give it a try you would need to borrow gear which they didn’t have. My main point is that any event is hard to market and equally encourage everyone from every background without offending.

So I did want to respond to Annabelle yesterday but was on the way out for a ride of all things. Have shown and discussed this thread with my other half and she pretty much agreed with you that she outdone be more offended by most modern advertising directed at women that anything else.

Her experience with getting into riding is quite a good story. Angela has always been a bit of a tomboy with doing activities that you wouldn’t expect a woman to want to do including going off-road jeeping, learning to play the drums and even getting a motor bike license(though will balance it out with buying expensive handbags and baking). All these hobbies are men heavy but has never felt discriminated or put down for wanting to do said activities.

She also join the local roller derby (it’s like rugby on roller skates) team as she did want to make more girlfriends. She would get involved with going to games around the country for team support or doing fundraising events. She ended up finding it very clicky (depending if you was in the first team, second team or freshmeat). I went to one or two games or social events and hated it (none of them actually wanted to talk to me or conversation was very limited). A year into Angela’s training she broke her ankle at one of the training days, for the first week she had only half the team message her to see how she was doing, the second week two of the girls and none the week after. I did drag her out to one of the social event so she could catch up with the other girls but again they didn’t seem interested in how she was doing. In the end she decided that even when out of plaster she wasn’t going back to that sport or group. Throughout this all of my riding buddies have asked me (and her when she would she them) how was her ankle and how she was doing.

I have gotten her out a few time with other women or women swinley group rides but she does prefer to go out with just me (afraid of holding people up or not being able to ride tech that others can). I have started to take her out with a couple of other new riders in very small groups and it’s works the best (same as when I first started). She is lucky that I’m (like to think at least) a fairy good rider and have been coaching her, the lockdown has helped to get her out regularly and I can she her improving. I don’t see men stopping women from getting into riding or any other sport, I would say at times it can be other women on other women that stop them getting into a sport but more than likely women on themselves.

5.9” high, 37” chest so not a big build. I run 780 wide renthal bar but could quite easily get away with 760 bar but just didn’t want to cut down the carbon bars.

Maybe we should roundup women and force them into biking to show how equal and non sexist we are?

I think people often forget that men and women are just very different to each other in their traits. I have slowly been getting my fiancé into riding over the last 4 years and it’s been a bit of an up hill struggle, she enjoys a leisurely ride but struggles if things becomes to gnarly (for her, I would stay testosterone in men helps to make them more stupid and risk takers). By any means I have learned how to encourage her to try things out on the trail (generally with a lot of explaining and not being pushy) and do want her to ride with other women so she can see how good she is (because at the moment is is always comparing herself to me).

I have ridden with a few other women in my time and most of them have got into the sport because of their other half’s. The few that have got into biking on their own are more outdoorsy people to begin with (definitely think the whole toilet situation is a bigger factor than getting muddy or sweaty as to why there are less women than men).

‘Who framed Rogue Rabbit’ hiding in the cinema was filmed in the Sate cinema in Grays, Essex (my home town).
‘4 wedding and a funnel’ filmed the funnel st Marys church behind proctor and gamble factory in west Thurrock (still grays).
‘28 days later’ truck stop fill up just up the road near Stanford le Hope.
‘Indiana Jones and the last crusade’ filmed the Venice boat chase scene in Tilbury dock (very similar place, honest).

EDIT

AND HOW COULD I FORGET ‘ESSEXBOYS!’ basically about the gangland killing over the drug market of Essex that was actually filmed in Grays, lakeside, and ssssoooouuuutttthhheeennndddd.

I have friends that live 10 minutes away from the drop off spot for the dh trails. They keep posting up how the trails are running great, finding new stuff all the time and just generally making the most of furlough. As much as we are now allowed to travel driving all the way from Essex at the moment probably isn’t the best thing to do…

Surely just taking the front wheel off would make it short enough for it nor to be an issue

Spook – hardtail is the local bike with an insert and using a bum bag & water bottles, full sus is the big day out running a back pack and frame bag. You may be right for the worms but view it that I would rather could ride home on the insert if it came to it rather than take it out so tube is only for the front.

Depending on what insert I would say, I have a rim impact and it fills over half the tyre, smaller ones I wouldn’t.

https://www.garbaruk.com/11-speed-xd.html?category=10

An expensive option but an option neither the less

So my two cents on tubeless.

After bumping in to father-in-law’s riding buddies in the woods we joined them to try and find some new trails. They are very much carbon 29er xc race weapons while we are more trail and enduro riding. On the climbs and road transition section we where definitely a lot slower with more heavy duty tyres on on our bikes to the point that the lead guide rider turned around to us and told us to keep up or go home (I’m far from unfit so had to poke the bear back and asked if he could go quicker on the downs).

Less than a minute later on one of the guys had to stop to fix a puncture (small thorn through xc thin tyres) followed by another rider 10 minutes later. Most people that worry about the weight of their bike tend to worry about the weight of their kit as well. All the flaffing around to fit the these punctures and borrowing my better bigger pump probably took up more ride time than us being slower to climb.

My advise would be go overkill on tyre setup for trails that you would side (eg so trail tyre over xc or enduro over over trail) to avoid having to use gear/tube to get you back up and running.

As for what I take, I have a local and big day out set up:

Local: 2 co2, tube, small bottle of sealant, valve core remover, tyre leaver.
Big trips: the above with a pump, spare valve cores, o rings, worm kit

Both of my bikes will have a DD maxxis rear tyre though the hardtail runs an insert as well (for comfort rather that for punctures).

So I bought one of the sick frames off of Marino when the whole fudge up happened (had originally order though sick but was able to get my money back as within the 6 months for PayPal if help out). Very happy with the communication between me and Marino (10 minutes to reply from the other side of the world at one point) though google translate was used so might have to keep emails as simple as you can to get what you want.

Frame hasn’t misses a beat and more than happy with how it rides. Did have a an issue with the chainstays clearance to the cranks but that is down to sic’ wanting to be able to run 3” tyres (have to run cranks with out boot covers). Clear coat lacquer has started to come off in one place so may get frame repainted at some point. Would say go for a simple paint job rather an anything fancy.

I would say if you can get a frame with the geometry and feature that you want from a bigger manufacturer then do so, but if you want a design that you can’t get from anyone else then go for it, when I bough mine there was no else making such a long slack low 29er.

What bike, frame size and height are you? Also what width bars are you using?

So I ended up doing some more research and found out the specialized command post has the same set up as the KS post with cable barrow located in the remote and clamped in the post end so ordered their remote. Arrived and fitted yesterday with test ride today. She’s a lot happier with how it feels and works. The only downside that I have found was that I thought I would be clever and thought the remote could be mounted to the bars vie a sram shifter clamp. While it will and does work it’s not the correct fit so have had to order the clamp as well.

I’ve just had friend move to Forest of Dean, the trail centre is ok, dh trails a lot better but it’s the of piste that is next level. They live in the forest so can ride from the front door. You would be drive for surfing but not too bad as a whole. Plenty of options for big towns for work as well.

What’s the different for you to run the shorter travel option? Can it be converted butto the longer travel if you change your mind? I personally have a mk1 g16 and as much as I love it to bits I really like how the newer mk2 g16 or especially g1 are even more versatile and adjustable to suit rider and trails

A sick bike…maybe.

So I actually have one of the sicks frames from Marino and have got a couple of thoughts and experience.

29er wheels seem to help a hardtail roll over every a lot better (with no suspension to help to move the wheel out of the way).
A tyre insert help to protect the rear wheel and allow a more comfortable ride due to being able to run a lower pressure.
The more modern long, low and slack geometry works wonder with very little issues with a pedaly all day ride (as long as seat tube is steep enough).
Rather than just picking based in on brand, set out what features you actually want (length, chainstays length, tyres size to fit ect)

Try ‘white lies’ for some smooth electronic band pain.

Also try ‘brand new’ with their last few albums for more rock band (their first albums start more pop punk / emo but still good songs when they do newer versions).

So I bought a second hand mk1 g16 geomatron 2 years ago now and love it (but I have since built up a hardcore hardtail for my local rides which gets the most use now). There are big difference between the mk1 to the mk2 and now the even better g1 (in fact my mate bought one because of me raving on about it.

Weight wise it’s very good for an high end aluminium frame and not far off a burly carbon frame (mate went from carbon dune to g1 and was 100g difference for a bigger frame). I run carbon components which helps to get weight back down to 14.2 kg

I’m 5.9 and on a longer which is pushing it (run a 32mm stem and seat pushed forwards), new g1 seams to come up smaller.

I run mine as 170f/155r which is more than enough for me and trips to wales, Spain and Italy. The one thing I would of liked (but the newer frames have) is the ability to adjust everything to suit the rider (I like short chain stays, the new ones have mutator chips for this).

Mate has sold his second bike (tranny scout) because he is more than happy to ride his on big days out at FOD where he lives (30miles with 4000ft climbed).

I had a 2000 Kona cindercone as my first mountain bike after I go in to buy my brother (he had a 1995/6 diamondbacks WCF), I paid £700 for it which because it was full retail they chucked in a set of rob warrer pedals in as well.

https://www.bicyclebluebook.com/value-guide/product/46277/

Still have it in the family, dads pub bike

I would of though most bits of your 9 speed are pretty old and worn out so might as well change out the whole lot (chain, cassette, shifter, derailleur, chain ring). The cranks may be able to be reused if the chain rings can be removed.

Any gear system wears togeather (chain, cassette, rings) and really don’t like bit changed out to run a mix of old and new so don’t go buying second hand bits.

I don’t think there will be much price difference between 10 speed and 11 speed so well worth checking cost and it would be easier to get spares. As others have said all 10/11 speed shimano cassettes will work on your wheels with all 10 speed sram and only the low end 11 speed sram.

Have run an minion SS for a while before moving into an aggressor for the rear. SS will be great for xc riding while still having enough grip for cornering. I only swopping to the aggressor due to lack of braking grip on the steeper trails I was riding due to skill level going up. The other mention Maxxis tyres are more xc oriented (weight and grip) but also robustly so be prepared for more punchers (thorn related or snake bits if you run low pressure).

So I original started out on 3×9, then 2×10 which was swiped out to 1×10 before finally going to 1×11.

A couple of things I would say:
1) 1x set up is a lot easier to work out what gear you should be in (girlfriend finds it a lot easier to know what gear she should be in).
2) oval chainrings do help to smooth out you pedalling and I find makes your knees hurt less at the end of a ride. You can go up a chain ring size over a round ring as well and it’s not as noticeable.
3) if you run sram cranks run a direct mount chain ring helps to drop some more weight.
4) I have no plans of going 12 speed due to the extra weight especially as it’s sprung weight. If you do go 12 be prepared to spend top dollar on the cassette. The other thing is I would go up a ring size over what you would run on a 11 speed has it will help with cadence in the 50t (less spinning). Otherwise you are more likely to become weaker (try riding in a granny gear the whole ride and that will show what I mean).
5) you end up having to attack the climbs more to get up them rather than spin up (this is where playing with chain ring size to suit your fitness and riding terrain is needed).

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/park-tool-mini-chain-tool-ct-5/rp-prod7843?utm_expid=.ckkRuxI9QieiYxXQHS8d3A.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chainreactioncycles.com%2Fmobile%2Ftools%2Fcassette-chain-tools%3F_requestid%3D608862

Smallest chain breaker I’ve seen without going into a multi tool style set up

How comes you want to have bare minimum tools with you? Are you happy to ride with all your tools needed but in a bum bag or frame bag or frame straps set up?

I have dakine strap to have an inner tube and 2 co2’s on the frame, 1 water bottle on the frame, a dakine hot lap bag for extra water bottle with an old hope bottom bracket plastic box with 2 tyre levers, multi tool, co2 head and magic link in it as well as chain breaker and small bottle of stans in the bag itself. This set up is for local and less adventurous rides in known areas.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/park-tool-handlebar-holder-hbh-2/rp-prod17706

Expensive for what it is but works well

Work in insurance inspection as a surveyor (basically as an MOT inspection for pressurised vessels though we also do lift & crane and electrical inspections). Work has gone a bit mental in the way that I don’t know if i’m coming or going, with constantly changing requirements from clients and company. Any industry you can think of we would have a reason to visit (though at the moment I’ve gone from 3-5 sites a day to 3 sites a week).

Breaking news

France surrenders to the corona virus.

Breaking news

France declares war on the corona virus

Running a riminpact on my hardtail on the rear with a dd aggressor tyre, I do it so I can run a lower pressure and make hardtail more comfortable rather than prevent bumping of the tyre. I did look at all options but felt the nukeproof ard and Hucks Norris didn’t/wouldn’t do much and Cush core would be overkill with not much air turnablity and too much weight (unless used with a standard sidewalls).

Morning cougar,

First off I don’t want to start an argument with you and am happy to listen to what are your thoughts and hopefully have my views changed by you.

If there are not two genders then how may are there and what are they? And why isn’t there just one more than said number? Is is where I go back to what I said with there are only two genders but different degrees of masculinity and feminism within the gender. I view sexuality as not being tired to how masculine or feminine you are (eg there is different levels of of campness (I am not using this in a negative way, again I don’t know what other word you should use) between graham norton and say Steven fry for example, they are both still gay men. And I’m sure there are plenty of other straight camp people as well.

I see being gay or lesbian as not a mental health issue and just as sexual preference (and I’m not trying to trivialise it but again it’s the only way I can compare) in the same way someone might have a preference to blonds or brunettes, skinny or fuller figure. What someone is attractive to is what they are attractive to. Being attractive to someone of the same sex is just another preference.

Do you think people that are religious have metal health problems? They have the ability to speak and hear the voice of their god? They believe (we’ll Christians anyway) that benevolent SOVIET zombie will come back to save everyone while you pretend to eat his flesh and blood.

So I have always found the subject matter of gender/trans gender an interesting subject matter that at the current moment in time isn’t discussed openly and logically (that would be the engineer in me).

First off is there only two genders – on face value I would say that there is only two genders but within them you get different degrees of masculinity and femininity of a person within that gender which I can see where you could end up needing different pro nouns. That still does not change what gender you are though or potentially have an effect of sexual orientation. The thing that I feel can and does break this idea is hermaphrodites (which again does prove that sex, gender and genetics is not a simple and I dare say binary (but you do have to take in to account it’s not a normal event (sorry I can’t think of better wording for this)).

If gender isn’t something that you are assigned by at birth, what other things could a person feel they are not? Race and age spins to mind. You can get black people what have absence of pigment in their skin and hair (albinos). If you are of mixed race/parents do you identify to one race background more than another?

I don’t know if being transgender is more of a metal health issue (in the same way there are plenty of people that are never happy with how they look so go down the route of plastic surgery to fix a problem that was never really there).

As I said I don’t have all the answers, just more questions