Yep – black and black.

It’s a bike – stop fretting and ride it. Once it’s covered in seasonal filth it’ll all look the same anyway!

#haveawordwithyourself….

Dunkertons Black fox for the win

Addlestones

Almost anything from Aspalls

Most of the Thatchers stuff

If you are ever in Bristol – pop into the Cider shop on Christmas Steps – very friendly, knowledgeable and a big selection.

This. Is. Awesome.

Mike, you win! Keep the updates coming.Please. Bobbing around the North Atlantic waiting on weather & this thread has just helped me pass a good hour or so.

But left me feeling woefully inadequate.

Chappeau sir.

I don’t have much in the way of advice on where to live – our lass & I are living in Knowle at the moment as she works out in the sticks to the south of the city & I work away from home so doesn’t matter to me where we live really – but I will say, that having been living in Bristol since January, we love it! It’s friendly, easy going, some great local riding, well located to get to other great riding (Brecon Beacons, Black Mountains, Mendips, Quantocks, Exmoor…) & the cider’s marvellous.

You’ll love it.

Thanks for all the comments – MTG: I’m not military and know how good doing a proper job can be.

The Brick – not a bad idea.

Cheers for the PoV from a farming background bikebuoy, I hadn’t thought of that but I was expecting a blunt response!!

AndyL – email now in profile if I’m not too late…

Sharkbait, another idea I hadn’t thought of that I could pursue. Ta

Thanks again all, Paul

Nice one – cheers

Paul

Nice one – cheers

Paul

Solarstorm XT40 and uprated batteries from Smudge at MTBBatteries…

Mmm, night into day!

Rusty 😉 Now get yer coat!

Edukator – where is that? Looks tidy.

Will end up with cheapo option I think & see how it goes.

Cheers, Paul

Cruzcampo – cheers for that. Can’t wait to try it out. ta

Paul

I have to admit to looking forward to seeing this when I get home. View it as nothing more than light entertainment and its fine!

If you’ve never seen this (and you have seen the Apprentice!) you should – never fails to make me smile. YMMV depending how grumpy you are!

Cassette boy

Shame it appears there is no lovely lass this to visually ease the bellendery from what the STW collective are saying. Yay or nay?

Based on my recent experience with Smudge at MTBBatteries.co.uk I would thoroughly recommend him.

Hope that helps.

Having followed this thread since it started I have gone with Cruzcampo’s advice and taken the pluunge on the Solarstorm XT40 (see here clicky). I didn’t fully read the spec and didn’t realise it came without batteries 😐 but got in touch with Mark at MTBBatteries.co.uk who has been brilliant. It seems from reading around the subject that it is more important to get decent batteries and chargers. Mark recommended either a 6 cell 7.5V 6.6Ah Li-Ion Battery including battery bag or a 6 cell 7.5V 7.8AH Li-Ion Battery including battery bag based on the spec of the XT40. I have gone with the 7.8AH option. Whilst I haven’t received the light or the batteries as yet (I am working away from home, back next week) I have been extremely impressed with Mark and the speed of his replies via email to my queries.

Once I have everything I’ll report back. This will be my first foray into the world of ‘superlights’, I got an Exposure Joystick from last years PSA on here when Wiggle were knocking them out cheap so that’ll be the helmet mount. So far, I have been pleased with it (although it did need to go back to Exposure when it failed to turn off after a few months use – thankfully their customer service lived up to the hype and it’s been faultless since).

Just one question for Cruzcampo – what is the bar mounting system like for the SS XT40? Kinda hard to tell from the Fasttech site…

Roll on the dark nights 8)

Awesomeness in a jacket – bought mine on the offchance and now pretty much live in it! Can’t remember the ‘proper’ name for the colour scheme but bright green exterior and bright yellow interior is just so cheerful! Love it.

Awesomeness in a jacket – bought mine on the offchance and now pretty much live in it! Can’t remember the ‘proper’ name for the colour scheme but bright green exterior and bright yellow interior is just so cheerful! Love it.

Another one for Osprey packs – just so well thought out. I had similar concerns re. bite valve after coming from Camelbacks but its fine. Really. I wouldn’t go back…

dog walker – “shouldn’t you have a bell?”

Me – “yes, & I do (ring ring), shouldn’t you turn your music down?” (they were ambling along with headphones in oblivious to my bell, shouts of “hello, excuse me…”)

dog walker – “humph”

Me – ride off ding – a – linging merrily!

Some people are just born stoopid…

Yet another +1 for Osprey. I have a Raptor 14 and echo everything Iwluap says above. Previously had Camelbaks but this is just SO much better….

Can’t manual but working on it. Wheelies – I am tres awesome – normal, one handed and the ultimate; the no handed wheelie!

Tis how I got our lass… (resplendent with Stella, five skin construction and a dose of nonchalance! **may not be true!**)

Seriously, wheelies make riding up hill fun. Plus you can annoy your mates by cruising by popping one handed wheelies while trying to push them off! 8)

Each and every one of us is damn lucky to be here. Putting some numbers behind it helps:

For me – live well, live peacefully, ride lots, do as you would be done by and remember, generally, what goes around comes around. Nach.

Agent – I’m in the same boat as you… Still waiting. Annoyingly, I had £20 worth of Tesco vouchers but came back from a trip away with work to found our lass had spent £15 worth. Still a tenner in Evans is better than a fiver in Tesco! Maybe. If they turn up.

ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) emerging from the depths…

24 months for £34? Bargain, I’m in.

Thanks!

Badly Wired Dog – it makes perfect sense. You’re a star! That’s exactly the answer I was after. Thank you.

* – wanders off with OL1, a selection of highlighters and a Dunkertons…

Badly Wired Dog – courtesy of quite a bit of cider ( 😀 ) I am not quite following your outlined route; our plan is to start at Ladybower so how would that look for your big day out loop? I’m not after a GPX, just a list of places so I can highlight the loop on the 1:25K map (I know, old skool with my map and a bunch of highlighters – a lush way to spend an evening!)

Once again, thanks to all who’ve got involved!

Cheers for all the updates!

thepodge – whilst not a Twatterati myself that’s a useful link ta.

I’ll put the above advice to my mate and see what he thinks re. Doctors Gate. Having just seen the video posted by cruzcampo (linky) it looks intriguing and at least we’ll have ridden it to make our own minds up. Otherwise the classic Jacobs Ladder loop will be called into action. Always a winner!

Any other wise words the massive can offer?

Despite a hankering for a Caterham I am stuck with my beloved 90. Bit modified but used as an everyday / everything vehicle. The Caterham will happen one day though (obviously in addition to the 90!), once a house is procured.

Guessing that you did far more than the traditional Burrator loop! Sounds like a good time – I remember night riding round there and being momentarily s**t scared upon coming to a stop to then realise I was surrounded by soldiers on night ops….

Time on all bikes here – pretty much exactly what CFH says above… I seem to switch between flats and Times depending on mood, riding, which shoes I find first, destination & what I had for tea yesterday!!

Big up that sir, big up indeed! Just so neat.

ESI Silicon jobbies from Charlie the Bikemonger. Failing that, if you can
find them before I do, clear (softest) or black old Skool Onza Ules…

he would regularly perform an after-race trick of drinking a pint while standing on his head — once while he was up a tree.

This right here.

Just lost 45 mins to reading about MaxTorques build. Stunning! Absolutely stunning. 😯

Had a gander at Andy Burtons Peugot Cosworth too. That is / was a hell of a sounding car. Looking forward to seeing footage of MaxTorques Ibiza in action too.

Here is the PH thread about the guy with the Lexus V8 in a Renault Espace – he has even made it into a centre steer!

mad as a box of frogs

Stunning! I’d add that into the beautiful bikes thread at the drop of a hat. Chappeu

This is not so good for riding but lovely to look at (taken from my lounge, which is directly above my front door):

but follow the coastpath round and you might find some cheeky coastal singletrack…

Dartmoor is an easy ride away too – covering my bases well I think!

Woohoo! 2nd one worked for me! Ta muchly 8)

The rigid back of the Osprey is very good at keeping the pack flat.
Bite valve is great.
Magnetic bite valve great but pack specific I think.

Antidote reservoir good, quite ‘sausagey’ compared to the Osprey. Quick release hose useful if the hose is hard to remove from the pack – but this empties the hose contents when disconnected so can be a pain.

I was gonna post essentially this but gravity-slave has saved me the trouble. Absolutely spot on. I’d just add that the newer antidote Camelbaks can be opened with a quarter turn which is a massive improvement over the older style super, uber tight caps. The rigid handle on the Osprey makes filling much easier, as someone else mentioned.

So, if you can get one in – Osprey. If not, Antidote…

This thread reminds me that ‘one man’s treasure is another man’s tat’ and ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’!!

There can only be one option for me (although I’m generous enough to show y’all two versions). Pure bike sex…..

Fat Chance Yo Eddy in Aqua Fade:

Admittedly neither are perfect: I prefer the bottom one but it does need retro XTR in that gorgeous grey and a blue Ringle Zooka stem.

I’ll be starting a new life in Bristol with our lass, moving up from Devon to the big city – so plenty of exploring my new ‘hood. Are there many Bristolians on here?

More riding in more places – Wales, Mendips, Quantocks & Exmoor rather than ‘just’ Dartmoor and cheeky coastpath singletrack.

More surfing.

Post on here a bit more rather than ‘lurking’ 😉

Clear the credit card that replacing the Landy engine has incurred

Maintain bivvy a month

Visit more friends

Increase the creativeness of my culinary skillz

Getting quite into this – might go pour a cider, bang some tunes on and do a proper list….

– wanders off in direction of fridge –