I like the air flow through a well vented (or even non-existent) helmet in the summer. With anything more covering my head it gets too hot and makes me want to go to sleep.

I’ve got the lower specced one without the motion sensor. The height measurements are wildly optimistic but for working out where the hell you’ve been it does the job very well.

I managed to get a Merida 96 and AM3000 down on demo a couple of years ago for a customer.

If you can’t get a demo then get the tape measure out and spend a lot of time measuring bikes you like and others that you don’t to work out what’s going to work for you.

Thanks Kimbers, what did you do that I didn’t?

Oh and Winchester to Eastbourne maxs your chances of a tailwind.

I did (most) of it in a howling South-westerly and can’t remember feeling the wind being behind me anywhere much. Very little of it is actually flat, either at the tops or the bottoms of the hills and so for most of the first 80 miles that I did from Winchester you’re sheltered by hills, hedges or woods. That may be different on the run into Eastbourne but I didn’t find out because the weather and daylight were going downhill rapidly so I binned it at Brighton.

I don’t doubt this is true, but some of us are fat and old weekend warriors!
I’m knackered after 15 runs goign down, sod pushing up..

And some of us just see it as a bit of a treat, a present to ourselves.
Because we’re worth it.

Try it on a singlespeed, geared just a bit too low. That’d be a challenge.

Ideally you should use fresh olives and fittings every time you change or refit hoses, but I didn’t and I haven’t had any leaks. The Magura fittings screwed straight in to the Shimano levers.
If your brakes haven’t had any attention from new then it would probably be worth checking/lubricating/bleeding your existing kit before splashing out on anything new.

It’s a while ago now but as far as I can remember one of the brakes did go back to the service centre but the problem returned not long after it came back. When I spoke to Magura Germany I was told it was most likely a bleed problem and there was no knowledge of it being a common fault. At the time we were all using the bikes two or three times a week and were reluctant to take them out of action until the weather improved enough to get the summer bikes out. When that happened the sense of urgency disappeared and it became another of those things you remember only at the most inappropriate times.

Casios do the job. I tried a Timex for a bit and the buttons soon got stuck with the grit and mud from winter riding.

We’ve tried bleeding, bleeding and re-bleeding and the problem kept coming back. Changing the levers has made the brakes feel much nicer and more powerful, more like the Louises I’ve got on another bike. The Louise appears to use the same caliper but with a nicer lever assembly.
The main reason for going with the Julies in the first place was that they had more clearance at the caliper and so didn’t suffer the rapid pad wear in wet, sandy conditions that I’d seen with the full Shimano system I had before.

What advantage can there be to making something that is so specific?

Usually patent or royalty avoidance.

Well they could still be utilised to help keep homeless people drier and warmer in winter, coon’t they?

You want all the homeless people to become pikeys?

joyless roadie’s philosophy

But I like road riding every now and then.

They’re like doing track days, some people like the idea and some don’t but you don’t go there for the scenery. I can’t remember having any conversation about motorbikes or cars where track days have been so badly slagged off as trail centres have here. Does that say something about some ‘mountain bikers’?

Funniest episode in a long time, and they did it without ridiculing any minority groups…………….unless you count Jaguar owners.

The Alfine’s great for long distance ‘spinny’ type riding but the slow pick-up from freewheeling can make any trialsy type moves a lot harder to get right.

I was parked in New Milton (south Hampshire) when I picked up the flyer.

Thanks, mine’s the 2.4 non-turbo, apparantly well known for being the least economical of VW’s van engines. Hence the interest.

My Vintage Small Motorbike (not actually mine but the same model)
100mph, 75mpg, cheap insurance and not too heavy.

Shimano have a three year warranty period on shifter pods, which is something not a lot of people know. If your shifter is under three years old your lbs should be able to send it back to Madison for you.
If it’s older it could be a corrosion issue or just a spring having come unclipped inside. They are a pig to take to pieces but it’s not impossible.

Working on quality kit (£700+ bikes and associated kit) is far easier and fun.

I spend a lot of my time working on sub £300 bikes that have been thoroughly used and abused and get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I’m making a huge difference to peoples riding experiences.

Try calling your local plumbers and ask them what their call out charges are. Would your customers be willing to pay a similar price for getting their bikes fixed?

New bike sales are down but repairs are up at my shop.
Going mobile would probably be popular with customers but to earn a living you’ll have to expect them to pay for the privelidge so I hope you’re based in an affluent area. Your vehicle costs will be significant and so will the ‘dead time’ you spend driving to and from customers. How’s the traffic in your target area?

VW T4 long wheelbase here. I’ve put a line of low cupboards along one side in the rear that also act as a bench seat when parked but otherwise have kept the interior minimalist. I put camp beds on the floor if sleeping in the van but can’t fit two beds and bikes at the same time. I’ve been told that Vitos are wider so bikes may go in them arossways rather than lengthways.

An answer in search of a question………..

It’s crowded down here in the central south. My own personal measure of how crowded somewhere is is how often you use main beam on the road. Locally it’s ‘never’.

I didn’t find any problems with passing whilst I was out. I’d call ahead “can I get past when there’s space” and say “thanks after. That seemed to work.
I may not have been in line for a podium but when you’ve put the effort in on the climbs the singletrack and descents are the payback and I wanted to make the most of them.

LOWS, Hearing someone at the top of the Kenda Climb say “nice 29er singlespeed” and then follow it up with “oh no, he’s got a hub gear”. I had a spare wheel with me and if only I could have found someone with an 18T freewheel for sale it would have been a singlespeed.
Getting bog all sleep on the friday night due to the rain rattling on the roof of the van.

HIGH, Camping trackside with the Sumo gang. There were 28 of us all in.
The whole area being safe enough to let my ten (very nearly) year old go off on his own.
Finding that the final bumpy descent feels smoother on rigid forks once you get ABOVE 26mph.

Er, looks like it’s on his seatpost, and he’s a solo so can be excused for not scampering anywhere during the race. Sorry to wee on a couple of bonfires there.

EDIT Can’t type fast enough on this manky old keyboard.

The only changes I’d make would be to put more chicanes in that final descent, preferably with bermed corners and have it feed directly into the main arena to give the spectators a bit more to see. As it was all the bits where bike handling skills really made a difference were hidden from the non-riders.

To have alcohol for sale on site would probably require a costly license. Considering the events that stopped the Malverns Classic on that site many years ago (a murder, for those that don’t remember) I wouldn’t expect it to be very likely that a license would be granted.

Just remember to stock up well in advance next time.

A couple of answers to previous posters:

The guys in the Sumo suits were raising money for an epilepsy awareness charity. In addition to drinking a lot of cider and having a great weekend. When the results are up you might want to check some of their lap times.

On that ‘flat looking’ bit of trail with the dip that claimed several collarbones I was hitting 28mph on a rigid 29er dragging the brakes. Anyone with both suspension and balls must have been significantly faster. The dip that caused the problems was a 2ft wide channel running across the trail at a bit of an angle. If you allowed a wheel to drop into it at those speeds……………. Need I say more?

Work out what wheelbase your measurements give you. 1075mm or less should give good manoeverability. for the record an 18 inch Inbred 26er is 1100mm, my Dean Ti 26er is 1040mm and it flick-flacks in and out of the trees beautifully. If you want to keep your weight back on the bike you might want to consider a curved seat tube at a slacker angle to allow the bottom bracket to be as close as possible to the rear wheel to avoid toe overlap. Also see the Canfield Nimble 9 for another way of doing it with straight tubes.

Depending on what diameter the post is you could clamp an A-head stem round it and then put an old set of forks through the stem for more leverage to twist the post out. That’s worked for me a couple of times.

My Flint is a good mile muncher but my Dean Ti hardtail is far more fun for pratting about in the woods.

Don’t believe anyone who says that a 29 inch wheel is worth 80mm of suspension on a 26er. Rigid is still rigid. You still feel the bumps with a 29 inch wheel but they do slow you down a little less.

Take a bucket and a brush, the queues for the jet washes will be legendary.

My first Mayhem was 2004 which was pretty muddy. In my naivety I only took two sets of riding kit so after the first lap I had the choice of getting my second kit in the same state as the first or saving it in the hope that the rain stopped. I washed the first kit in a bucket and put it on wet before my next lap. Not nice, but on the Sunday when the course dried I did still have my second kit.

I ride on my own at least once a week. Group rides are nice socials but I find it equally nice to have the flexibility to explore that little path you’ve only just noticed and to get my head down and push myself without worrying about the group fragmenting.

Our son went to a nursery 2-3 days a week from 6 months until he started school and now he’s nearly ten still remembers it as a great part of his life. Most of the staff were in their late teens and early twenties and did a fantastic job for the kids. Several of them carried on providing occasional babysitting for us after he left.

I close my shop on Sundays to spend time with my family and sneak a ride in if I can. Employing someone to open the shop on Sundays would cost as much over the course of a year as many people spend on their cars or annual holidays and in my location at least would be no guarantee of extra business. It’s also not that easy to find someone who is competent enough not to do the business more harm than good and willing to give up their Sundays in return for typical bike shop wages.