We had E&L but soon realised it was a rip-off. My dentist recommended M&S as they covered his carbon road bike. Got rid of E&L and contents insurance with Direct Line and now just use M&S.

£20 a month, seems good value to us. As said above, will cover any individual item up to £4000.

In regards to Rock Shox pricing, could it be worth considering that the more profitable areas of the Sram empire help to keep costs down? Not every aspect of a business has to be 100% profitable.

Fox being a much smaller entity hasn’t got the room to absorb costs in such a way surely?

I defend Fox because i like their products and my dealings with Mojo have been great. I was running a Pro 2 hub so only needed the adapters. I once had a Rock Shox Pike but found that too heavy and too stiff, that was coil also as i prefer the feel of coils. I then bought the second-hand Fox Vanilla 32 but wanted the extra stiffness of bolt through. I find the 15QR a great balance between a relatively light fork which is plenty stiff enough.

I got the new uppers and lowers for around £270, Mojo did a deal as i recall so that is still cheaper then Rock Shox no?

Disagree away! Some like Fox, some like Rock Shox. I have no reason to buy or try any other brand. Sorry if that doesn’t make sense to some.

I find it amusing that so many consider fairly complex items like forks as “fit and forget”. Perhaps because i only started mountain biking 3 years ago, i can only go on technology since then. No doubt years ago items were “fit and forget” but only because they were simpler.

You can’t expect warranty work if you havn’t actually adhered to the manufacturers instructions. I recently rebuilt my 32 Vanilla R’s with the 15QR lowers only to discover badly worn stantions. The forks were second-hand so i can only assume no servicing was done prior to me getting them. I bought a new upper assembly which even with the new lowers was still cheaper than buying brand new 15QR forks!I then just fitted damper unit and spring into new parts.

I now whip the lowers every 15 hours or so of riding. I have just done it earlier and it takes no longer than half an hour. Thats with a cup of tea going and not rushing. It’s a good chance to give the forks a good going over and inspection. Every time i clean out the seals theres bugger all dirt. Pop a bit of Float Fluid on the foam rings and job done.

The real issue is that few people actually read up on what service intervals are required when buying forks. Its a lack of servicing thats the issue NOT manufacturing faults! If you’re ham-fisted then perhaps you shouldn’t own Fox forks, get something that has bigger service intervals.

I’ll get of my soap box now.

Thanks all,

Will check out my LBS asap.

Sorry, not sure i made myself clear there.

I mean, the airline attachments with the built-in pressure guage. Never seen one in any bike shop i’ve been to round here in Bristol.

For what its worth, i use maximum (3) for roads,fire roads or really smooth trails (like Brechfa forest, if you know it?) and for every thing else i leave it open.

I too can’t really find a use for 1 and 2. It seems to pedal so well when open.

Buy a 5. I’ve been loving mine since i bought my 2007 frame in July last year. I only use maximum pro-pedal on the shock for road or fire roads, with the shock open it just flies!!

I wouldn’t call it ugly although it’s very much a case of function over form, thats why i like it though. A full-sus couldn’t be more simple surely?

Not neccesarily the lightest 5.5″ travel bike but it carries its weight so well.

Some say they are noisy due to the box section construction but i disagree with that.

Run my 2007 Five with the new 15QR Vanilla R 140mm Fox forks.

Feels perfect for what i do: Welsh trails centres, Lakes and abit of very light downhill etc.

It has the 9mm QR swingarm but feels pretty damn stiff. A close match to the forks i think.

Travel is more than enough for the majority of UK trails IMO.

Will be taking to Zermatt in the summer so lets see how it copes with ‘real’ mountain biking.

The other thing Fox recommend is to occasionly store the bike upside down in order to allow the oil to run down to the foam rings below the main seals.

This keeps them saturated in oil and further prevents dust etc getting past and wearing out the stanchions.

Its quite reasonable to assume UK conditions to be some of the worst suspension can experience. After all most of bike all year regardless of weather and ground conditions right??

For all but the technically inept, i would have thought taking a couple of nuts off the fork lowers, taking them off and wiping down the seals is manageable!

You certainly don’t have to change the oil EVERY time! Thats bull! I just rebuilt my 32 Vanilla R forks with the new 15QR lowers. It was easy. However, the stanchions were beyond saving. These were second hand and therefore had unknown history regarding maintenance. So new lowers and new upper leg assemblies and some oil for less than £300, thats not bad.

I check the seals every 15 hrs of riding and thats it. Yes need cleaning but guess what so does the rest of the bike. This isn’t California (wish it was though).

I feel sorry for some of you lot. I love riding with my partner, clearly there must be something wrong with me for wanting to actually spend time with her!

Our rides together are at a slower pace than ones on my own but thats fine with me. She’s never far behind on the descents and just takes everything at her own pace.

She’s crashed a few times as have i, part of the process no?! We actually got into biking at the same time via a holiday to the lakes a few years back. We don’t earn much so bikes are our only extravagance. We talk endlessly about it and in May we’ll be taking our bikes on our honeymoon for our first experience of riding in the Alps.

I too have broken those Soma levers and get through Park Tool levers at an alarming rate.

What am i doing wrong?

Wrestled with my Mountain Kings and DT E540 rims for half an hour earlier today!

Someone please tell me how on earth you get tyres off without levers?

Yes they will.

I bought a triple ring Shimano Hone crankset, took the rings off and fitted the dual rings and bashguard from my Truvativ Firex crankset.

No trouble at all to fit.

Super long cage or SGS is a normal length mech, What most triple ring chainsets use.

Long cage or GS is basically a mid cage mech and can only be used on dual ring chainsets with a max of approx. 38 tooth ring (Depends on mech i think).

At least thats what i think?!

Go for the Orange 5.

I had a 06 Marin Wolf Ridge, that was nicked and replaced by a 2007 Wolf Ridge. After about a year i decided that it was too flexy in the swing arm, a pain to clean, too heavy, had too high a bottom bracket which made you feel very perched on the saddle. You didn’t really feel part of the bike?!

So i bought an Orange 5 frame in July after reading too many good things about them, and having Ian Luff at Drop-Off Cafe keep telling me how perfect it was for UK riding.i recall him calling it a Gazelle!!!

He was right! Easy to clean, very stiff in the swing arm, Looks great in a agricultural kind of way (Function before Form), Fairly light, pedals brilliantly, copes with anything i have thrown it down, stupidly stable on descents and pretty much the perfect UK bike, IMHO!!

Thats my thoughts anyway.

I got made redundant a week before christmas! Worked in the furniture industry doing CAD drawings. Not exactly alot of jobs out there for me right now. In the space of a week we went from being told there may be redundancies, to there WILL be redundancies, to there will be 14 (half the company!). They got rid of my role completely as well.

Feeling pretty low, what with there being so few jobs to apply for and working hard to get to that position with in the company, for nothing.

Needless to say, i’ve been getting out on both my road and MTB’s alot and have been building a new trail in my local woods.

Not sure how our wedding in May will be paid for though!!!

You should be within warranty period. It’s worth mentioning that Mojo recommend you store the bike upside down. That allows the oil to run down to the foam rings below the main seals.

I take my lower legs off every 15 hours of riding to wipe out the seals and do an inspection. It’s really easy to do unless you’re really cack handed!

I learnt this the hard way.

UK conditions are probably the worst you could use a fork in so it’s reasonable that forks might require more love.

Pace Event 3×3 Jacket – Had mine a few months, been awesome. Quite low on features but thats a good thing in my book. Event is the only fabric i have found to be actually waterproof for me.

(judging from recent threads on here, neither is it what lot of serious riders do) from aracer…….

Taking air or doing jumps isn’t for serious riders???? What? Thats a bizarre comment to make. I’m deadly serious about my riding and i love jumps/Air time!Don’t dimiss something just because you may not be good at it or don’t like it.

I did the Kona Mash-up and there were a HUGE variety of bikes being used, The Enduro race was won by a 4″ bike but Rowan Sorrell came 9th approx. on his Orange 5 (and won the Technical on the same bike)

My Orange 5 weighs in around 30lbs. It tackles every thing i put in front of it. When bikes start getting towards either end of the weight scale they ultimately will become comprimised one way or the other, although rider skill helps.

I think it was 2004/5 for us. Went to the Lake District on a break from Uni. We hired a couple of Dawes bikes in Grizedale forest. We thought these were proper mtb bikes too! They had V-brakes and front suspension after all!!!?

We scared ourselves bombing the fireroads and when we got back home we went and bought our 1st proper bikes, i had a Trek and she had a Dawes. Neither lasted a year!! We both bought full-sus Marins asap. She has just bought a Yeti 575 whilst i now have a Orange 5.

Thats £300 bike to £2500-3000 bike in about 4 years!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

December was pretty terrible for us. I got made redundant which came as a shock and my partner’s grandfather died just before Christmas.

On the plus side, i now have loads of time to cut a new piece of singletrack in my local woods, my partner has bought a Yeti 575 with her inheritance, i’m going to take this opportunity to change careers and most importantly, we’re getting married in May followed by a two week honeymoon in Zermatt.

I hope to look back in few months and be glad i was made redundant.

Was up on the Mendips at half 8. Stunningly beautiful and no one around. Never ridden in such frosty conditions but loved it. Had great fun on a very secret section of singletrack that i have only had the pleasure of riding in damp conditions and in the dark. No need to drift the corners today, never ridden it that fast before.

Everything rock hard here in the west country.

Done Forest of Dean,Ashton Court,Ashton Hill Plantation,Local singletrack and Mendips this week. All hard and very fast and VERY rough! Mendips this morning was beautiful. Can remember one week in early May when it was this hard.

Looks set to continue for at least another week. Not looking forward to it all thawing out though!