Heh heh – Thanks! In hindsight, that might well have been sensible :)

As if often the way, it was the crash on the easy stuff the ended up causing injury. Just warming up, only the second run of the day and I washed out the front wheel on a berm in the top section of Melted Welly. Love that part of the run and have ridden it many times before. Probably just lost concentration for a second, didn’t have my weight in the right place and that was my day over. Ho hum… will be back again soon.

Just bumping this back up in case anyone fancies some last min coaching next Thu…

Just for clarification…. Onzadog is correct. Free as in available, not free as in I pay for you to have a zero cost day of private coaching ;-)

Jedi’s standard coaching rates apply and can be found here -> http://ukbikeskills.co.uk/coaching/ . Ranges from £260 for dedicated one to one session down to £135 per person for groups of between 4 – 6 people. Certainly not cheap, but having had a session with him a few years back, I can honestly say he’s got a real knack for helping progress your skills.

I had a major issue with jumps when I first went to see him. Flat drops were fine, but whenever I saw something that started to ramp up into a jump I froze. Jedi spotted this before we’d got anywhere near the table top and suggested a couple of subtle things to work on near the start of the day – seemingly unrelated to jumping. By the time we got to the tabletop I was already feeling more comfortable and after a few attempts managed to clear it. First time I’d ever cleared a tabletop. It gave me a huge feeling of smug satisfaction for weeks afterwards and really helped me progress my riding. Don’t know how he does it but he seems to know exactly what do say/do to help!

Thanks for the replies! Maybe I was just having a bad tubeless day…. I’ll start with the other wheel at the weekend and see if I have better luck.

Was this with the 2.4″ HR’s? I’ve just received my AL 1, popped the tube out and put in a tubeless value but struggling to get them to inflate at all – even using the compressor at the local garage. Real trouble getting the beading to seat properly. Even with inflating with a tube and then trying to remove it without disturbing one side, I can’t seem to get the tube out without the type dropping back in the centre.

Anyone else having problems getting HR2’s up tubeless on the E19 with their Capra?

I’ve been riding with Shimano RW80’s for the last couple of years but struggle with cold feet on any ride longer than an hour when it’s zero or below. Tried lots of different sock combo but nothing made a huge difference. I invested in a pair of Lake 303s this winter and love them to pieces. Much warmer than the Shimano and makes my winter night rides in subzero temps a much more pleasant experience. Highly recommended.

Many thanks for the kind offers.

Drac – I’ve just dropped you an email.

Junkyard, many thanks for the offer. If Drac can’t find his I may drop you a line.

Patrick,
I love reading the mag on an iPad and very happy with the digital subscription. Putting the pdf up on the site somewhere would be great so that if someone like myself wanted to download it and print it off we could do so.

Cheers!

Thanks guys. Joe Friel’s blog looks like an amazing source of information!

I first learnt to ride a MTB on Hankley 20 years ago and still regularly ride there. It would be a real shame if they were to restrict access. The army always seemed to had a good relationship with the locals – hopefully with enough signatures they’ll reconsider.

I’ve signed the petition and will pass it on to everyone I know locally.

75mm Syntace stem. Currently still riding with the 650mm bonty bars that came with the bike but will be upgrading to 685mm Easton EC 70 Monkeylite XC risers in the next month or so.

The 2011 Easton EC70 XC Riser looks great but I can’t find anyone who stocks it in the UK yet….

Ah – many thanks. I hadn’t spotted that Installation Instructions tab.

It seems that they’ve revamped the bars for 2011 and the claimed weight on the site is 155g. However, I can’t find anyone selling the 2011 bars yet not any review articles that have actually weight it so I guess the jury is out until someone can verify the weight.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Gore Phantom ordered with the 20% off wiggle Xmas code :)

Sounds like everyone is very positive about the Gore Phantom. I’ve just done some searching and wiggle have it for £107.99.

Anyone had and bad experiences with the Phantom? What the sizing like? I’m 5’11 / skinny build and a medium with most things. Are Gore’s sizings fairly standard?

Thanks!

Icj I'd also love a copy of the map. I know bits and pieces around Leith hill but I'm trying to expand my knowledge of the good bits!

Nah – they are going to have to go on the outside. Big question for me is still fork mounted or not….

Sounds like it's not a problem to put suspension forks on a fork mounted rack and they look like they should be more solid. I read that it can be a little tricky to get the tension right at the fork. Boxelder – you didn't have a problem with this? Was it a Thule 561 rack?

Last time I put it on the rack I wrapped it up a bit better but I'm just a bit worried about actually damaging the carbon. I've had a couple of different Alu bikes on the rack with no probs at all but both my carbon Trek and a mates carbon 'dale have been taking some damage.

Bikes in the back isn't really an option. It's physically possible to just about get two in there but muddy bikes + car interior don't really mix all that well.

No one got any thoughts on this?

Shouldn't need to carry all that much. A change of clothes, spare cycling kit and some tools should sort me out. I'm liking the idea of the Carradice SQR with a bar bag if I need more space.

Any other good recommendations on makes of bar bag? I presume it's generally worth paying extra for a waterproof one? While I'm not going to use it all that much it would be sods law if it p1ssed it down during one of the days and everything got soaked.

Cheers guys,
It sounds like a seat post rack might be the best way to go. I don't have an carbon seatpost and I won't be doing lots of touring on it. Normally it's a hack it into work bike but I want to do a Paris -> London trip on it over the summer. So not much kit and only 3 days of riding…

Sound like a seatpost rack might be do-able? Any one used one or got recommendations?

Good work Onions! Couldn't help shouting at the TV "That's shallot!" when he survied that last ball. We seem to be getting rather good at hanging on my our finger tips to draw games. What's the betting that we'll now go on to win the series by drawing the last match.

I'm really torn with Pietersen. He hadn't been half the batsman he used to be. I'd probably be tempted to keep him for the last game but I think the team is pretty well balanced at the mo. But sooner or later he's going to face the chop.

But the forks and shock on the 9.8 aren't as good as the ones on the 9!

I'd normally lean towards just blowing the cash but in this particular case I'm just thinking I'm paying a grand just to have a carbon frame that probably doesn't even weigh all that much less than the alloy one. I'm tempted to blow the rest on a grands worth of upgrade in 6 months. Lovely wheel set and bar/stem/steat post combo would be probably take it down to a simlar weight I reckon AND then I'd still have the RLC/RP-23 shocks rather than RL/RP-2 on the 9.8.