I tried a couple of SSRIs and just didn’t get on with them (first one killed my sex drive, and the second just killed me full stop).

I decided to start looking at St Johns Wort in high doses – but more importantly look at the root causes of the depression.

Best way over a woman is under another.

Seriously. It works.

ETA: I agree with the counselling suggestion. I did and it was one of the best things I ever did. So helpful.

Try this:

Observation
Feeling
Need
Request

When you’re getting angry, it’s you observing that you’re having a feeling. You’re having this feeling because of an emotion that isn’t being met – for some reason you’re upset about something.

So straight away you’ve done the Observation, next you need to figure out EXACTLY what that anger feeling is – is it fustration, is it jealousness, is it you being frightened? Who knows – only you, and you have to identfy this.

Once you have worked out what the emotion is, the feeling, you can then try and figure out what the need is – why am I fustrated – “I’m fustrated because that person has just failed to deliver the parcel on time”.

Once you have the need, then you can request “Excuse me, I’m fustrated because you said that you were going to deliver it before noon – and I’m still waiting – can you tell me when it will arrive?”

These can occasionally be swapped about – but I use this technique – and it really really works well – and the key thing? By the time you’re done all this you’ll find that the anger subsides and you’ve actually calmly resolved the issue.

Don’t forget also: Nobody can MAKE you angry. Only YOU make yourself angry. In the same way as you cannot make somebody else FEEL an emotion – only THEY control how they feel.

Once you grasp that, you can start to properly manage emotions.

I agree with dean: You’ll hear the pros talk of ‘pushing’ the bike into a berm or a turn.

They/We do this to get the grip – it’s a bit of a headfcuk when you first start doing it, but it really works – you’re getting the tyres to do their stuff, and also get your weight right.

It also fires you out quicker – much MUCH quicker.

Some FS bikes respond well to it – my old Commencal Meta 4X used to ping out of berms when pumped into them like it was a bullet out of a gun.

Mike T: So they are riding up the upper quarry trail, weird

Yup, and intensely annoying it is – there isn’t much room as it is, especially now with the increased speeds.

Xiphon: Yes it is – only recently has ‘bike riding’ been over analysed (probably due to the rise in popularity of bike coaching in recent years) to make it sound like some sort of elite skill. It’s not. Same with ‘body position’ and all sorts of other stuff.

I agree – you need to understand how to read the trail and be as efficient as possible. Sometimes you just don’t need to pump the track – just let the bike soak it up – but sometimes you do – i.e. prejumping a lip, or maybe looking to get the bike in the right attitude before a berm for example.

MikeT – it’s the new bit that runs alongside the quarry fence. It was a bit vague before but now it doesn’t make any sense – it’s a down bit only.

@TooTall I believe they do, but I never see them ;)

Although. And I’ll create a thread later about this: Why THE **** are riders now deciding to ride UP the down bit of the new Ashton court track. I nearly clouted one yesterday – and I wasn’t mooching – jesus christ, don’t they ever learn?

Neal – thanks mate – the bike is awesome – YGM :)

Yep. You can actually go faster as you’re pushing the bike into the grip and also pushing it ‘forward’.

It requires strength – I was on that trail last night and had already ridden a fair distance – so I managed one run nice and neatly, pumping the berms and, er, woopy bumpy bits, but my second run was a mess as I didn’t have the strength in me to properly hang onto the bike in the corners.

That track is deceptively tricky – it’s very tight in places and there are a couple spots that prefer smoothness and planning over speed.

Just keep practising and worry less about speed, but more smoothness.

Try to get the bike ‘silent’.

I’ve just recently got one having pretty much owned everything under the sun in between.

I love it to bits – to the point that my Lapierre Spicy is sat sulking in the cupboard and I’m lavishing all the trick bits on the Duster.

It’s got a lovely intensity to the back end, and as mentioned above it’s at its best on single track either down or up – I rode Whytes at Afan the other week and I was blown away at it’s fluidity in climbing and how comfy it was. I also did a 6hr at BikeFest and it was utterly comfy and I wasn’t at all knackered by the end.

Teamed up with some SID World Cups it’s a whippet – however the forks are letting it down – I wasn’t able to go fast enough to trouble the available grip and capability – with them flexing to much and not tracking. However it’s got me searching for some 120 or 140mm forks with a bolt through in order to have what I would term to be one of the perfect trail bikes I’ve ever owned.

I’m sure that the Prince Alberts, Ragleys etc are all as great to ride and I’m not about to say it’s the best of out them all, however I do know that the bargain price I paid second hand (£90) was one of the best moves I’ve ever done.

Buy it, spec it sympathetically and you’ll have a blast.

Bearing in mind this bike will be used for the Megavalanche, I’m thinking my 34 will be fine – I tend to prefer the bigger rings – and have never ever used my granny ring on the XTR chainset – let alone using the middle often…

Lovely news Poppa – cheers :)

That’s some great advice, thanks chaps, I appreciate it.

I think I’ll try a 1x first and see how I get on with it – I do a little DH work and would need to factor that in, but I may be able to learn to ride around the chain dismounting.

Any recommendations on chainrings, or shall I just keep the 34t thats on the chainset already?

No issues with faffing about with BCD or anything? Did you run it on the middle ring – and may I ask what size you went for?

Cheers