My R500’s have been faultless, and strong – based on the hammering that the Bristol roads give them.

I’d like something a bit stiffer and lighter, but for a bike that get hardly used, they’re bang on.

I just started using Havens and I bloody loves them.

So much, I brought another set for my hardtail. I don’t want super wide as I hate the fear I get trying to thread through tight trees.

Indeed DaveyBoy, indeed.

By the way chaps. Just to verify my MX5 credentials; I’m sure SOME of you have seen this about on Pistonheads. I still have a V-Spec and that CERTAINLY doesn’t have coilovers.

Yup. That was me.

TuckerUK: No they don’t.

To quite Wikipedia: “A coilover is not to be confused with the shock absorber and spring setup (strut); coilovers are totally independent and do not require extra parts e.g. bumpstops, ball Joints, spring cushions etc”

MX5’s have traditional gas struts with steel springs.

The OP is talking about adjustable coilver systems that allow the user to adjust the spring rate of the system.

Personally, I’d not fiddle – I love my Mk1 MX5 as standard. Much slideyness.

Erm. This is not filling me with all that much confidence for my flight home.

Cheers chaps.

I’ll think of it as a replacement of adrenaline for not being able to ride my bike all week.

Hmm. Interesting results indeed Taz.

Even if the results aren’t right, I’m pretty chuffed with my 13th overall – as riding my Charge hardtail was a last minute thing, and I’ve certainly not set that up for DH – it’s my XC bike!

To be able to blast out some times and a decent on a rigid 30 speed bike I thought was pretty good; and I’ve not had any chance to get my fitness up due to a newborn – so I know where I can improve!

Taz, great to meet you too :)

Yes, that did cross my mind – I’m very thankful for the event being run – and I was keen to make sure I was cheery and nice to all of the elderly gents taking their day out to do the timekeeping.

All in all, for a first event it was well organised; my only criticism would be the route marking was a little vague at times, but other than that super.

Also, I managed to capture the event on Strava, and as such now have a route map of all the trails that we rode.

Hmm. I do completely understand that organising an event is a difficult thing to do, and I’m not about to get on my high horse when I’m not helping out in any way with any organisation, but I was a little surprised at the results taking so long.

I guess it’s down to the fact that it’s so many times and stages to add together that is taking the time, no?

Did anyone get any measure of the results, or are we all having to wait?

Yes, you do get the odd ridiculous situation with a family stood in the middle of a corner, but it’s a price I guess you have to pay for maintained trails these days.

However, on the flip side, having finished my race today at FodD (the Enduro1 event) I bimbled down to the cafe to enjoy a well earned cup of tea and a piece of carrot cake (and a good letch at the superb looking ginger girl serving behind the counter today) and got chatting to a very nice chap called Alex – was nice to simply chew the fat and discuss bikes and biking without any wankiness.

They are out there, the sound guys, guess you just have to put up with a few bad eggs.

Ssssssh!

I’ll be on this grotty monster…12 start off for me…

Get shot of her. Just ‘kissing’ my arse. Trust me, it never is ‘just kissing’.

Best way over a woman is under another.

Orange Five.

Hey DrP – I’m number 128 – I’ll be the guy kicking himself for breaking his Enduro’y bike and having to ride his commute bike as a result!

:)

Seems it’s the ‘base valve’ that I have broken if you look here (and I never knew Fox had this part of their site…) http://service.foxracingshox.com/consumers/Content/Service/QuickTech/32Gen3OBRL_ServiceProc.htm

Arse socks.

Best talk nicely to Loco then and get a service done.

James: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/225035-Fox-F-Series-vs-Float-any-internal-differences :)

ETA: See here for explanation http://www.mojostore.co.uk/acatalog/Forx_QR15_Lower_Legs.html

Difference between arches is down to the type of fork; Webbed = Floats, non-webbed = F-Series.

However F-Series WAS available in 140mm and I can’t see the lowers all being different, other than the webbing giving extra stiffness…

If Grego’s stanchions are too short; I’ve a set of perfect 140mm stanchions for sale (Tala’s 2010)…

ps just emailed the EBay seller to find out what year/travel the forks were…

Where’s Loco when you need him!

Thanks for that; the fork lowers look identical – I’ve measured them up against each other and they are exactly the same in length, girth etc…

You can see here…

By the way, it’s this bit:

I’m racing this tomorrow as well and as a newbie to FoD I’m looking forward to exploring and having a good relaxed ride with a bit of racing interspersed.

However, in my customary pre-race faff, I managed to snap off my damper rod bolt/thread on my Fox Floats on my Lapierre Zesty. Noooooooooo.

So I’ve had to quickly swap my tyres and have to use my Charge Duster, which in hindsight is likely to be a pretty good weapon if my previous experience of FoD is anything to go by…

@NorthWind

House gets it for sure; although very much a marmite program for many.

With regard to West Wing, the direction lost it a bit after Sorkin left, but once they recovered and established the Santini character it really got going again.

Series 7 is a cracker and certainly leaves you wanting more, yet also strangely satisfied.

Good work on the Breaking Bad recommendations – I’ll get it downloaded.

However, I can’t believe nobody has mentioned West Wing.

Pfft.

4 years of doing the Megavalanche and I don’t think I’ve quite been as scared as watching that video.

Parts of the Mega have bits where you have a massive drop, but NOTHING quite like that…

You wait until you get to know the track.

Loop that in with Strava addiction, and a top three position, and you’ve basically ruined any chilled out ride around the damn thing.

And now I’ve started bantering with my fellow 3rd place chap, it’s only made it more difficult.

Be careful, those two sections of tight ‘pif paf’ trees bite.

Hard.

Draytek Vigors – the industry standard.

Trust me, these things are rock solid.

2nd on the infamous Taylored Cycles Swoop in Leigh Woods last night.

BOOOOOM!

On my steel hardtail too, 8 seconds quicker than on my Zesty!

I’ll find those 2 seconds easily and get that KOM!

@trickydisco You need to a perfect run to get the Clifton Suspension bridge – you’ve got to have an empty bridge in order to be able to nip around the ‘wrong way’ of the toll booths.

That and I’ve been trying to do it on a bleeding inefficient Zesty with Super Tacky tyres…those roadies have it easy!

I had something even worse happen tonight:

I had a reasonable ride and then perfect conditions on the Clifton Suspension bridge sprint.

I was chuffed with a decent run, only to find when I got home that the app had a hissy fit and decided not to record my ride.

Nooooooo.

Mr Agreeable can you point out that bit on a map – I’m still figuring out where all these names relate to trails etc! ta

I gave up with mine; I couldn’t get it comfortable and was forever having problems with the cable sticking meaning that it was totally hit and miss whether it worked – which at the time I REALLY wanted it at the Mega, was very annoying. I also found that whichever way you tried to get the shifter, it would either be comfortable but the cable routing terrible or uncomfortable but the routing decent…

As such, I dropped the remote when I got back to the UK.

I’ve now just dropped the seatpost totally – I hardly used it anyway! I found that it just took my mind off the riding trying to remember I had the thing! Add in the wieght, and I just went back to my trusty Thomson.

Hence. One virtually unused KS950i for sale.

Trying to get out now!

Next week may end up in some WFH.

Erm.

Yep, Yep, and er, yep.

I’ve tried that, having even gone for the specific Genesis range from Gary Fisher in order to see how it goes.

However, being more DHy in my style, and a 4 time Mega, er, rer, I’m naturally going to be running a short smaller bike.

On top of this, I’ve spent many years riding longer bikes than mates, having been pointed at, laughed at, generally shunned, until I finally cracked and gave into the 50mm stem way – and I’ve never looked back. However, as I’m doing more XC now, and given I knew the Zesty would be a medium, I’ve given myself an extra 20mm over my Spicy which I ran a 50mm stem (and that was a BITCH to ride anything other than down, with all the kit on it).

With that, and the fact that I used to work in a bike shop maaaaaany years ago as a Sales Manager, sizing up triathletes and many a MTBer, I’m more than aware of how sizing works on a variety of different types and manufacturers of bikes. Just sayin’ like :)

Either way, I’m happy enough that I’m just an unfit faffer I suppose.

I might have a mooch at my cleat location, they may well be a bit out – but I’ve always ridden them ever so slightly to the rear of the ball of my foot.

Yesssssssssssss! Get IN!

B_R and Euro: as lovely as those sites are, they don’t even account for my 33″ legs against my 6’3″ height – so I think they’re a little out – and they’re also telling me I need 180mm cranks if I choose 33.5″ as my inside leg – go figure :s

At the end of the day, I’ve spent over 15 years riding/racing/falling off mountain bikes, and I’ve tried an awful lot of different bikes, one thing that I’ve always found is that I just do NOT get on with longer top tubes – causing me back pain and ending up dulling the speed of the bike in tighter stuff.

I prefer a bike that’s smaller mainly because of it’s handling traits – and as such I’ll never be convinced of the “you’re 6’3″ so you MUST ride a fapping huge 20″ frame”.

I tried a 20″ Lapierre once. I couldn’t even step over the top tube. An 18″ is not much better.

So, when advising people they’re too big for a bike without reading all the stat’s they give is a bit silly…