It was reported that he would charge $2m for a pardon… I expect that’s why he’s planning to issue loads of them.

Many MTBers seem to conflate riding locally to riding at their local MTB spot. Not quite the same thing.

Possibly a more important discussion. The main reason I’m not driving anywhere to ride at the moment is to avoid “the gnar”. Crashing and requiring medical attention would be bad for all involved, and on a selfish personal level I really don’t want an injury that ends up having an unnecessarily bad outcome due to insufficient capacity resulting in suboptimal treatment.

I think that’s a message that isn’t understood by a lot of my MTB mates. Most people do follow the social distancing bit and are ‘covid safe’. But it probably isn’t appropriate at the moment to chase KOMs, ride mega gnarly woods, or get up high. They are also putting themselves at risk of life changing injuries due to no capacity to treat at the local A&E not to mention the  increased risk to the mountain rescue teams that will be needed to carry them off the hill or out of the woods.

I’ve seen some brake caliper spacer blocks that have a space for one piston to move to allow easy exercising of lazy brake pistons. Rotate the block to get all 4 piston positions.

Gopro helmet visor / chin guard / airvent mounts?

Rear light mount for saddle rails?

Shock / frame sag measurement tool?

DIY spokey dokeys??

If it’s just guidance and has no legal underpinning, how come the police are able to issue fines for not following it?

You must not leave or be outside of your home except where you have a ‘reasonable excuse’

The reasonable excuse is exercise within the local area, the local area bit is up to the police to define if they stop you.

If you’re 50 miles away, despite you thinking it’s ok. Have a think about what officer plod might think if they pulled you over.

it isn’t now, ambleside was like a ghost town today.

Thats good news at least.

As you could for jogging, yoga, peleton, zumba, etc. Star Jumps only, unless you happen to enjoy them

Thats kinda my point, the vast majority of people don’t see MTBers ragging themselves in the woods as ‘exercise’ and quite rightly get annoyed when we get uppity about not being able to get to the trails.

We’re very fortunate that we still can, but only for as long as we don’t take the piss.

Devil’s advocate – There is a distinction between exercise, leisure and recreation. You could argue the mountain biking is more of a hobby, leisure and recreational activity rather than pure exercise. Which is not a permitted reason to leave home, let alone the area. /Devil’s advocate

Its all about keeping self and others safe and not increasing risk. This also includes reducing risk of non covid related injury / illness. To relieve the pressure on the NHS.

We’re lucky to be allowed out the house at all! (The French weren’t for months!)

With all the northern Cumbrian hospitals full, at the moment the hospital I’d be taken to is in Newcastle! Even then only then if I was about to die.

Its not just city parks that are busy. The lake district is rammed with people at the moment. A quiet walk away from people is difficult to find even in the countryside. Hopefully things calm down a bit soon with the lockdown

Not one that could be reasonably arrived at when it clearly states:

That’s why I was asking earlier about difference between tier 4 and lockdown. Tier 4 rules didn’t have the local bit. I couldn’t see that when I looked earlier.

**** what you think you can get away with without breaking the letter of the restrictions. Rule one. Don’t be a dick.

Completely agree. Unfortunately there are lots of idiots out there.

From a purely selfish point of view any non life-threatening injury will not be treated. So potential life changing injuries could result. A mate of mine ripped his bicep tendons off the bone in may, missed the window of opportunity to reattach and has now lost 60% movement in his right arm. All due to the first wave and the number of covid patients. Its significantly worse in the hospital’s at the moment.

So the lakes is fair game for anyone if they can drive there and back in a day.

Morally it’s not right, but the restrictions don’t go far enough in my opinion and the media are not pushing the message of what is and isn’t appropriate.

Just look at the social media coming from the biking community…

For example: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJojSRxg2Fa/?igshid=s32clgwyjq1t

Don’t get me wrong I’d love to be doing that now, (and I was up until about 4 weeks ago.) just not when the hospitals are full to bursting

As you mention local exercise.. gov site says mustn’t leave village, town or city. So does that mean if you live in a small village, your cycle will be confined to going around the block many times?? It’s once again confusing.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Lucky buggers in the big cities then</span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> </span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Oh and Neb, you can only exercise once a day</span>

Yeah, but isn’t exercise an essential activity? You are allowed to travel for that. The exercise is still unlimited in duration.

This was discussed at length… what’s safer, leaving the car at home and going for a road ride from the door around the local streets in the dark with nutters driving about and possibly being knocked off or hitting a pedestrian, or taking my mtb in the car 3 miles to a local woods and doing some light xc.

It was never an appropriate sentiment. One of those things that sounds good but has unintended consequences.

I can kind of see your argument for not driving, however the not far and no gnar stuff seems really appropriate and I’m surprised it’s not being pushed by the bike media as much as it was in April/may.

“You can’t leave your town, exercise is local only”

I thought that was already in the tier 4 arrangements? Schools have effectively been closed since early/mid December, so the only difference is takeaway alcohol and zoos being closed?

A bit flippant, I know. But my point was that it doesn’t seem enough. I can’t see any changes that are likely to reduce the case rates. The schools is an obvious one that they should have moved online in November, but the rates have been going up despite no kids in schools over December anyway.

Another question.

What happened to “No car, no gnar and not far”

It seems more appropriate now than ever, the Lakes fells were quiet in the beautiful spring of last year, yet now it’s really icy, there are bikes everywhere!

What’s actually changed in the restrictions between tier 4 and now? Other than schools closing (but they’ve not been open since mid December anyway!)

Struggling to see this as anything other than changing the name of the arrangements to lockdown.

I think OKO is the original sealant producer, making it for tractor tyres originally. They’ve been going 42 years! So they must be doing something right!

I’ve been using it and it seems to work fine, tyres went up ok, one was a bit of a fight but once it started to seal it was fine. With other sealants I usually notice air loss between rides, the OKO stuff does seem to be better at holding air in the tyre. I’ve not had any tyres cuts yet, so not sure how well it’ll cope when that happens. It’s usually tube time by that point anyway.

Another ztto lever here. Bargain and works well.

From Seatoller instead of going up the road, there’s a gate on your right, but to be honest we usually go straight on and take the path on the road corner. It’s a 10min hike a bike to get you to the castle crag path. It’s much easier than either pedal (we are accustomed to hike a bikes so that might help)

Thanks diz, that sounds ideal. I was just a bit concerned that if the foam tyres are rubbish on hard floor, then we’d be screwed as it’s our only option for the moment. Looking through RC history on some of the forums it sounds like silicone on the wheels is one option that works, so thanks for confirming that.

I was amazed how simple the kits are and how many bodyshells there are! For only £6-7 each as well. We’ll probably only run stock 27t motors with 4 cell NiMH so they aren’t going to be mega fast, just enough to have a laugh, be sociable (socially distant obvs) and drink some beer while racing.

Some of the videos of the banger racing look nuts!

We’ve had a couple of mates races over summer, back garden + beer type events that have been a right laugh. Obviously the weather has gone rubbish and our occasional outside races are not likely to happen over winter. (If the weather’s nice we’ll be out on the mountain bikes instead!)

We’ve seen the little mardave v12 (or kamtec) cars that look ideal for a group buy and indoor races in the local village hall.

They look really simple, really robust and cheap to buy spares for so ideal to be honest.

Does anyone have any experience of them?

My main concerns are racing on hard wooden floors with foam tyres might not be ideal?

Thanks in advance for any wise words of wisdom! Ta

Magura MT5s

So much power!!

Yeah the Shimano rear mechs feel solid compared to sram. Much better clutch and half the price!

It’s odd, I love mismatched drivetrain components (especially as they are cheaper and work better) but I hate mismatched tyres. I must have same brand front and rear.

SLX 10 chainset

X01 11s shifter

GX 12s chain

SLX 12s rear mech

Garbaruk 11s cassette

For bonus points –

SLX brake levers

Magura MT5 brake calipers

All works well together.

Robinson from Buttermere moss I have done though. All rideable, steep grass at the end so careful in the wet. not technical apart from one exposed bit as far as I remember.

I’ve accidentally ridden off that exposed bit… Very scary and very surprising that I didn’t die. Not recommended.

10-48 is great as a medium cage mech can be used, I think a 10-50 is a bit much for a medium and you’d need a long cage which is substantially longer and more vulnerable.

The surprise for me was the mountain bike leader level 2 training teaches you how to be a good guide, not just how to keep a group safe. Very little chat about paper risk assessments and lots of talk about dynamic assessment, giving the guide freedom to do what he is comfortable doing with the group. I work in a heavily regulated industry so I am used to paper risk assessments, the dynamic stuff relying solely on the competence of the guide was a breath of fresh air.

If you’re thinking about becoming a guide, do the training and understand what you’re letting yourself in for.

I’ve just finished the level 2 training, it’s really interesting and I’ve learnt loads even if I don’t follow it up with the assessment. The British Cycling membership with the training gives you insurance to work with a qualified level 2 coach at no cost to them.

Do the training, volunteer and work alongside a real guide. See whether you like it or not.

I’m using a SRAM 11s shifter with a Shimano 12s rear mech, it works fine. The clutch is better too!

Anyone else weigh themselves before and after a wee? I routinely wee a litre in one go. Thinking that it might not be good for me…. It was helpful while playing Centurion at uni though

Isn’t that the whole point of servowave. A big air gap between the pads and the rotor to prevent disc rub and to manage heat better, and a cam arrangement to close the gap quickly and build up the leverage for when the pads contact the rotor to have increased power.

If you move the pads closer to the disc (by pumping out the pistons) will you not have less leverage and therefore less power?

Personally I prefer the bite point to be as close to the bars as possible, not sure how you’d go the other way.

I’m using a SRAM 12s chain my 11s Garbaruk cassette. It works fine. I picked it as the improvements to eagle were mainly in the chain, its supposed to wear the cassette less. No idea if this is true yet.

Love the kask rex, really comfy. The fit is the same as the kask road bike helmets. I have a kask mojito that feels a similar fit

I’d be going Mezzer. The Mattocs I’m riding at the moment have been fantastic. Far better than the tftuned coil + fast suspension damper in my Pikes on the other bike. I’ve been really impressed with the latest Manitou stuff, so easy to service at home (or tune)

Garbaruk 10-48t here as well. Nice bit of kit. I was looking at the ztto 9-46 cassettes which would work with stock rear mech, but was worried about clearance on the chain stays. The 10-48t cassette was so I could use a medium cage rear mech rather than a long cage.

The rear mech can also be changed to either a SRAM or Shimano 12 speed to gain the extra capacity. I’m running an shimano slx derailleur with my SRAM X01 11s shifter. The slx RD was £45 so might be cheaper than the extra cage/pulley wheels would be to modify you existing mech. The clutch works better as a bonus!

To be fair, the MT5 levers were rubbish on my maguras, but I’ve not seen the MT7s so they might be less plasticy.

But Shigura works a treat

The lever throw before bite point is determined by the gap between the pads and the disc and ratio of lever movement to pad movement. The distance between the pads and the disc is determined by the rollback of the caliper piston seals (nothing in the lever, or the pad ‘spring’)

Shimano have a cam operated link that means the relationship between lever and pads is non linear, ie the pads move more at the start of the lever pull than at the end.

Put Shimano levers on your magura calipers and get the best of both worlds. It gets rid of the plasticy crap that magura builds their levers with and it gets you a brake that works and has more power than Shimano Saint.