+1 for Brecon Beacons. Personally, i don't rate Cwmcarn at all these days and much prefer the Beacons. There's so much to explore there.

If you've got the time, i highly recommend Cwm Rheader, a mini brechfa type trail about 20 miles north of Brechfa or about 5 miles north-west of Llandovery.

Brechfa's trail designer, Rowan Sorrell, did this as a community project. Its a fire road climb with an awesome singletrack descent. Some nice views from the top and bugger all people. Perfect length for a coupple of laps too.

130mm is max. for Handjob.

Chap on here bent his when using Pikes so be warned.

FWIW i run Fox Talas 95-130 on mine.

In 5 years of biking i have never snapped a chain or broken a Power Link, which i have fitted to every chain i've ever had.

Stayed with White Room last year and going again this September.

Full face and body armour other than elbows and knees if total overkill unless you're really paranoid.

Foxy…Glad to hear they sorted you out, hoped they would! (sorry!!!).

It's that reason i love Hope stuff, it doesn't have to be faultless when customer service is so good. The fact they can replace something like for like when they don't even sell that particular item (an XC hub) is great.

IME i've never come across huge groups at trail centres.

Seen far more people riding together out on 'natural' trails!

They'll replace it IME.

I did the same thing to an XC hub about a 18 months ago. That hub had come on my 2007 Marin Wolf Ridge and wasn't even made anymore and they still replaced like for like so you should be fine.

Cynic-al: Pretty sure the basic billet is cast to approx size then machined as with most 'machined' hubs.

IME 15QR was a fair bit stiffer and ALOT more secure than a 9mm QR but i had to faff with with the lock-nut bit to get it tight and never managed to get rid of the slack in it.

Went from 15QR to Maxle and the Maxle was stiffer and quicker to use too.

I was using Pro2 hubs so had no issues with getting adapters.

Thats also a Buy-it-now or Best offer auction so it doesn't really mean anything does it!

…not sure how you'll hold the bike up off the floor with no wheels in.

We put our bikes upside down in our Octavia and lash them down using the eyelets that usually lock the seat backs in place. Works a treat and still leaves loads of space.

Don't know if that helps you though!

1.4 TDI is the one to get, if you can find one. We have one to go with our Octavia estate.

The Lupo is an awesome little car. Reminds us alot of the Mini's we used to run as students, you can really chuck it about and it shifts when the turbo spins up. My wife uses it for commuting and is used for dog carrying duties, although a rather small terrier cross.

It's fine for what we use it for. Diesel engine takes abit of getting used to as it can feel a little unbalanced but then it is a 3 cylinder.

+1 for getting them from Orange. They come with new top caps and bolts too.

They should last a couple of years unless you're a trigger happy pressure washer owner 😀

My wife is as equally bike obsessed as me so very little justification required! I'm very lucky…….

Can't say i was annoyed when the crappy SRAM mech ended up in my rear wheel on sunday night…as you said, any excuse!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the help all.

Bugger….new XT shifters it is then 😀

Great….thats what i thought.

Does anyone know which SRAM shifters work with Shimano. All i have to go on is that i currently have SRAM X9 shifters which have 'Impluse technology' written on them??????The front one is shifting an XT mech already but i'm guessing front mechs are all the same?

I know nothing about SRAM as you can tell!

You lucky b$%gger!!!!

Both my LBS are Intense dealers and both have a Tracer with CCDB as their own bikes….i can't bring myself to ride one as i know it'll make my Orange 5 feel like sh1t.

Thats a good weight BTW, considering the forks and CCDB.

Sorry to hear you got dicked around by the shop….same thing happened to me last September.

Bought a new Orange 5 with X2 brakes, off to the Alps for a week so went to my LBS and asked for 3 pairs of pads for each of our bikes, owner says you'll need 6 pairs of the same as X2 pads are no different to the Mono Mini's on my wifes bike. Lucky we didn't need any pads for our trip because as it turns out they wouldn't have fitted mine anyway.

When i mentioned this to my LBS after the holiday he said "Yeah, they're different"!!! I don't use him anymore! I was so annoyed with him, he'd been great up until then too.

So, do your own research is the moto of the story.

+1 for pushing the pin with a screwdriver or the end of an allen key.

The pin doesn't have a thread on it, only X2 pads have the threaded pin. I've owned Mono mini (Black/gold and silver/black types) and currently run X2.

X2 pads and Mono Mini pads are different sizes and have different pins. If your new pads have a threaded pin then they won't fit your Mono mini calipers.

I'm looking at a pair of 2005 0r 2006 32 TALAS (95-130mm) and they measure approx. 500mm @ 130mm.

Does that help??

Not surprised it split…afer all tubes work best when the wall thickness is what it should be!!!

We'll buy someday but the friends of ours who have bought in the last few years have either a)Lived at home for free, b) Lived like monks and had no life for 18 months and had savings already or c) Lived at home for free and parents helped with deposit.

They all have re-payments of at least £200 a month more than our rent!

The options above aren't available to us but some of the responses above have enlightened me in regards to the pro's of renting so thanks for that.

Would have to disagree with you RHSno2.

We found alot of the trails around Sainte Foy near Les Arc to be very similar to some trail centres we've ridden. A few sections were more technical but not many that i can recall.

I think the Les Arc area is ideal for Alp first timers, which we were last year. We loved it so much we're back in September.

I've not ridden anywhere else in the Alps yet so can't comment on other areas.

My wife and i don't even consider th pro's of buying because it's quite simply an unachieveable dream!

We earn enough to pay our £575 a month rent and £141 a month council tax and all the usual outgoings. It might be 'dead' money to some of you but we have no choice!!!!!We have paid in excess of £20k to our current landlord over the last three years!

House prices might be low but mortgage deals are requiring such huge deposits it's ridiculous!

You're running too low pressures if you're burping them that easily! I never had burping issues here in the South West and it's rockier here than Surrey.

They are non-UST tyres after all so there has to be some compromise!

I've run Minion DHF and Crossmark with no problems on DT E540 and Mavic XM 317 rims. Used a track pump to inflate and seat the bead.

I have also used a 2-ply Super Tacky High Roller on the front, ghetto tubeless, and that was stupidly grippy. Too heavy for normal use but it'll be going back on my 5 for my Alps trip in September. I was able to run low pressures with very little squirming from the tyre. Perfect if you're down than up!

2.35 Single Ply MAXXPRO Minion on the front and 2.1 Advantage or 2.1 Medusa rear here in Bristol.

+1 for Box.

Considering Hope replaced my 3 year old XC (and no longer manufactured) hub when exactly the same thing happened, i'd like to think Chris King would do the same!…given their price and supposedly high quality.

The 575….and not just because my wife has one!

Good idea Chakaping, that never occured to me!

I'm pretty sure the Neil Pryde bags are now called Ultra(?) and they also look very similar to the CRC ones!

Think i'll stick a wanted ad up and if that fails then we'll go for the CRC ones.

I have a similar dilema.

I took my Orange 5 to The White Room last year and loved it but we're returning this year and i've recently acquired a Cove Handjob which i absolutly love. From what i can remember of the trails we rode it was a real mix. Some would suit my 5, others the Handjob!

I can't decide which to take…but i have a while to decide!

Mind you….most knee pads won't save your shin anyway!!!!!!

+1 for 661 Veggie shins, as used by my wife.

The road across the Mendips (don't know the name) i take to Yeovil must have been impassable yesterday as there are some massive drifts across it in places. I was working from home thank god but managed a loop around Bourton Coombe at 5:45am, that was hard enough but fun too.

I cycled around Blackdown last year a day or so before the big dump of snow in February and that was fun but now the path to the trig point must be completely buried surely? It had waist deep drifts across it that time.

Superstar Nanotech here also. Great pedals, nice and slim, bearings seem to be doing fine considering the wet weather we've had in 6 months i've had them, pins can be removed from behind too.

Pretty sure these are the same as Kona Wah-wah's too.

Shimano DX are bollox IME. Pins are way too narrow and bend too easily. Removal is impossible once bent also, pretty thick too.

Oh…and in 5 years of riding bikes (and flat pedals) i have hit my shin once!

Home – None.
Alps – 661 Kyle Straits.

Roads are fine, my commute takes me up Burrington Coombe and over to Yeovil.

Hope you're not intending to ride! Good luck if you are. There must be a good 6-8 inches of very wet and heavy snow up there.

I live up by the airport and have 6 inches of the white stuff in my garden!

Just zip tie inner tubes to it.

Did that on both sides on of my 5, protects the big swing arm sides from scuffs and makes it abit quieter too.

Looks crap but it's a bike!

If you manage to break an XC hub even the hub bodies are still available, as a warranty replacement only though!

Couldn't believe it when i rung them about my broken spoke flange on my 3 year old hub (came OE on my 2007 Marin Wolfridge). Sent them the broken one and they rebuilt the lot into a new hub body for me!