+ 1 for Cheshire shoe repairs. I've used them a couple of times now. Very quick turn around too.

I can't believe I used to buy new shoes when the rubber wore through and that was when I was a Student!

I used to have two…now I have a PA :-)

I'm sure I've thrown away plenty of chains with some life left in them and some cassettes that could have lasted longer if I'd got a new chain sooner. Then I bought that park measuring tool. I know it's expensive but I suspect you'd fail to find someone that regretted buying one.

I too have several car length scratchs after a weekend in the lakes :-) , so keep em coming – especially the 'what you might have around the house' variety.

Builth managed to provide what in my mind I think of as a more traditional XC style route. Hence I enjoyed it.

That's why I thought it was less than brilliant, but I can see were you're coming from. I still think a local (not restricted by having to contruct a loop 50km or 70km long with roughly Xm of climbing) could come up with something much more efficient! I guess I'm just used to the kind of riding where EVERY up has a purpose beyond adding a few Km's :-)

rather than granite like the Beast

I think you mean sandstone vdubber67.

I've only attempted cavedale once, and failed. I'm not convinced it's worth the climb. Seemed like alot of effort for only one short down.

Route was brilliant

Lol at Surfr.

Great weather, good banter, average (I'm being kind) route.

Do the Dyfi Surfr, that's always brilliant.

Email Flowmtb. I'm sure they'll happily put you in contact with some local mtb guides.

LOL, It's also worth remembering that you'll get stuck behind lots and lots of mincers, on pushing big FS bikes :D

If you're on a hardtail is going to really hurt!

You might be ok on the mega but there's a reason why lot's of people take two bikes and use their DH bike for the qualifier! The first 20mins are brutal!

I agree with comments above.

Yes it's awesome (for DH)
Yes it's easy to find the (DH) tracks
Yes it's well worth the drive (if you're doing DH)

If doing XC it's probably no on all counts.

I've repaired quite deep scratchs in my fox Talas 36s. Just fill with araldite and smooth with 1500 wet & dry paper. Takes a long time! I took the forks off the bike and sat in front of the TV. Just keep at it till smooth. You may have to apply the araldite a few times if it doesn't fully bond to some parts of the scratch. Don't worry about wearing down the stantions. I'd say this would be virtually impossible with 1500 W&D.

I think my 36's have now done two peak winters and two weeks in the alps without needing any further attention.

Did the Marin today. Snowy in places but all very ridable and surprisingly grippy. The sun was quite warm this afternoon, so if it's cold overnight I'd expect plenty of ice first thing tomorrow morning.

Simple, anything made by dialled bikes :wink:

I've managed (when desperate!) to re-use them before. Lots of cursing but I can usually make them big enough to fit over the hose barb thingy.

I'd go SH. There's lots of barely used £4k plus bikes going for not much money on places like Pinkbike.

I've only ever bought one new bike/frame. There's really no need. Especially DH bikes, given how expensive they are and how little they're worth once used.

My second and last P7, although I hear they're a bit stronger around the headtube now!

He's been a number of times now, and has said that his favourite way of doing it is with a cheap flight, bike and tent, and a map; which is my favourite way of seeing somewhere new.

Hmmm, maybe if you have a lot of time to explore. Otherwise you'll definitely need a guide. Imagine trying to navigate across the BW's of the peak district with an AA road atlas!

This Oct/Nov I went to Morocco with Flowmtb. We all had a fantastic week. It's basically a lift assisted xc week. There is a bit of climbing but it's really all about the singletrack downs and the moroccan culture. As has already been mentioned if you know where to look (and have some experienced drivers) there's lots of ace sometimes very flowy, sometimes technical trails, a lot of which are often very loose, rocky or off-camber and occasionally with a little bit of exposure. A lot of the riding is on mule tracks, which as you can imagine aren't in anyway similar to the footpaths or bridleways we have in the UK. For this reason there are sections that everyone walks regardless of how skilled you are. This combined with the fact that you're always riding within your abilities, helps a long way away!, means that the trails are fun for a surprisingly wide range of skill levels.

Strangely the riding was perhaps the most "xc" I've ever done despite being some of the hardest stuff I've ridden and with very little up. I guess in the UK and when I've been in the alps, it least for me, it's all about getting to the bottom of the hill as fast as possible, and I guess taking risks. Morocco is more about going with the flow, enjoying yourself and occasionally trying to ride down some silly stuff, whilst getting heckled by small children walking to school!.

I bought the bone legs in the alps. Thought they were amazing very comfortable (for armour), didn't move around too much and seemed to offer lots of protection. I used them for a few peaks rides and some DHing in the UK after I got back, then bought some 661 Kylie straights. I haven't used the POC's since. Not sure what that says, probably just that they're good, but too much protection for most of my riding. I'll only reach for them now if I'm going DHing somewhere loose and rocky.

Some 1500 wet&dry sand paper from halfords will smooth the scratch without damaging the anodising. I've repaired quite deep scratchs in fork stanchions by filling with araldite and sanding down excess.

Bugger! I was so close to reserving one, but thought waiting til after xmas and grab a test :cry:. I've been trying to decide between a soul and a blue pig (PA would also be right up there if they had any!)for weeks. It seems the decisions just been made a whole lot easier :D.

Perhaps someone 'in the know' would like to comment on whether or not more HT frames are sold at this time of year. If so then why have three very popular british manufacters had low/no stock issues over the first(and potentially last winter) months. Perhaps I'm being a little unfair. Small companies have to buy in relatively small batch's which will get sold. It's just frustrating having money burning a hole in my pocket with no one to give it to :D Still it's not really a bad position to be in!

P7, despite the weight they've picked up having to go through CEN testing they are still a superb trail bike.

Glad they've made it stronger I broke an 07 frame a couple of months ago, folded the top and down tubes close to head tube. I think a few have died this way.

Are PA's out of favour at present?

I would suggest thats it's just because they're out of stock (of 18" frames anyway). But then so are the other bikes on my short list (new soul and blue pig)

I did a session at calshot a few years ago while I was at uni. I really enjoyed it despite never having ridden a fixie. I wasn't seriously into mountain or road riding back then either, so didn't have any pedals to take. Trying to get in and out of toe-clips whilst pedalling is a skill I don't have!

Have heard the can be a little twitchy or is this magazine BS?

:lol: no they're definitely twitchy!. Not my thing but a mate has one and loves it. Probably worth trying to get a ride on one though, more love it/hate it than any other bike I've ridden.

I have a cascada jacket and trousers, a velez jacket and a fuera windproof. As much as I obviously get on with paramo, it's much to warm for mtn biking in the UK (for me anyway). Even for winter mountaineering I'll wear the cascada jacket and trousers over virtually nothing and still be warm and dry.

Another reason I don't wear it and why it's unsuitable for mtn biking is fact that you can't wash it with normal detergents. During the winter my waterproofs get washed on a weekly basis, which I wouldn't want to do with my paramo gear.

'duntstick – You want some bigger forks on that'
Hmmmmmmmmmm, Lyrik coils ………..hmmmmmmmm

I have a Kobe Ti :). It started life with Fox 36 Talas forks, but has recently been trialed with some spare Revs (20mm BT) whilst the 36's are being serviced. It goes down (and up!) much better with the 36's. I've got some coil lyriks on another bike. They're very good forks, noticably better than the 36's (which they replaced), but I wouldn't stick them on the Kobe Ti, the talas travel adjust gets used to much for that!

What maxxis tyre is that on the rear? A crossmark LUST 2.25? I've been struggling to find a tyre that can cope with the abuse, well one that fits anyway.

duntstick – You want some bigger forks on that :)

Apparently Mountain of Hell is more pure DH than the Mega.

I thought it had more climbing?

Done the mega for the past two years, and went over to les deux alpes for a day this year. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with the riding at les deux alpes. But then we were near the end of a two week trip so were getting hard to impress!

Oh my God, as in there are probably more wet days up on the Garbanzo lift, than dry ones. In Deep is a bitch to ride in the wet, much harder than anything in Wharncliffe and the like.

Blimey! There's some silly hard stuff at wharncliffe (I guess you just have to know where to look :wink:). Although I haven't been down anything harder than the "one with a rock drop between two trees", between "red dot" and the "long one that crosses red river near the top".

[edit] For some reason I thought you were talking about somewhere in the UK. There's obviously harder stuff in Whistler than Wharncliffe :D, although I've heard about some mysterious "old" stuff that no-one rides because it's a bit full-on[/edit]

Dito the comments wrt video's making stuff look easy. The megavalache vids make some of the riding round Alpe d'heuz look like the peak district. It isn't!

Love the Strange Alpine 5 MWLeeds is that Apple Green.
Whats the head angle on that mate?

Grantway: Yes I think so. It's SLACK :D, although currently in the not as slack setting so maybe 66 degrees. Handy things those movable shuttles.

GREEN!

web_toed_marsdener touched on an interesting point. If a trail centre start's charging, do they suddenly become more liable if someone gets injured. You would have thought that there is a difference between something which is built but free to access and something that is built but costs money to use.

Taking a kids play ground as an analogy. I'm sure councils have some responsibilty to unsure that they're safe. But if they started charging parents directly to use them then surely the council would be legally (more) responsible for the childrens safety?

Perhaps this is another reason why car parking and honesty box's are the only way's used to generate money.

Haven't been for a couple of wkds but it was quite dry and has been since so should be ok. I generally head towards the DH's so don't know the details but bits of the red xc loop were closed due to felling.

You may be correct MrGreedy. Whenever I format page numbers in this way it's to number pages before the first page of a report, in which case I'll have a page break in there as well.

From memory there should be a "continue from previous" box in the page number format options. untick that and set the start number and format.

Blimey £60-70 to fit a new piston and bleed one brake!

As has already been mentioned the pistons are relatively cheap (£8ish IIRC) and aren't to much of a pain to remove. Obviously one can be pushed out using the lever, just make sure the other one is sticking out enough to be able to grab it with some pliers when the first one pops out.

Bleeding Avid brakes is very easy so get yourself a bleed kit if you haven't already, search juicy 7 bleed on youtube for a video demonstration.

How much do you want to shorten them by? I used to "suck" my older revs from 130 down to around 115 just by putting air in the negative end first.

My Kobe Ti.

I have a 17" 05 P7 and used to have a 17" 07 P7. Both felt spot on and I'm around 5'10". Although looking at the orange website, this years P7 looks a little short in the TT (probably something to do with the steeper ST), 580mm ETT compared to ~610mm for my 07, and 592mm for my 05. Orange change the geometry and TT length on most of there bikes every year! So there's only one way to be sure and thats to find a 15" to throw a leg over.

I have a rule whereby if I'm riding my big bouncy bike I'll always wear armour regardless of where I'm riding. I find it removes the should I put it on or leave it in the car question. Of course most of the time I'm not on my big bike so it's not that effective.

I ride at Llandegla a fair bit and have never worn armour there; which to be honest is quite stupid. Yes it's easy, and yes it's man made so there's rarely any supprises, but for this reason (and this applies to most trail centres)it has to be ridden quickly to be entertaining. Oh and it also makes it easier to be complacent. In the case of Llandegla, if you leave the nice smooth trail some of it is really quite steep and rocky with lots of trees (obviously), I found this out the other week when I broke a frame.