Remember, it is easier to seek forgiveness after the event than permission before:)

I always stay at the old mill farmhouse, Margaret, seemingly the only b&b owner in north Wales who can be bothered to respond to an email query.

Drink it.

I always thought it good trail etiquette to allow faster riders to pass. It sounds like you should have done this, being the adult.
No I don’t have children and I don’t like being held up, or holding others up.

I have one, it was my only bike. I spent a stack of money to buy something I would keep, rather than buying an off the shelf bike each year, using man maths, this saves money in the long term!
Its a very good bike & got used for everything from xc to dh days. Obviously a do it all bike is a compromise & for the bigger days out I eventually bought a dh bike as well for the extra safely factor.

Ive never seen Aston Hill so dry & dusty as it was this morning. Did rain whilst driving home though.

I like racing, I assume this is virtual racing? I would be surprised if it was accurate under dense trees, where I do the majority of my riding.

I ruined my hands using the default half Nelson’s that came on my yt tues, numbness and tingling that still remains after 5 weeks. The northshores are excellent, the separate blocks really help to cut vibration.

Cant go wrong with the new design dmr v12’s, thinner & lighter than the clubby old ones & cheap also. Magnesium is too soft I recon, I have damaged threads on mine due to grounding, so go alloy. With a set of terror pins & 510 shoes you will be good to go.

I was in the market for a large tues recently. Your model is by far the best colour scheme I recon. However I was extremely wary of bos suspension, 26″ wheels are fine & I specifically didnt want a carbon bike. I would have paid approx £1700- £1800 for yours.
As it turned out, the ones local to me sold fairly quickly so I bought a brand new 26″ pro for £2250 from YT when they had their 300euro sale on, which does make your £2200 look expensive.

I bought a commencal am29, thinking it would be as fast and good at climbing as my 29 hardtail. It wasn’t, I sold it and went back to 650b for more travel.
In fact I sold the hardtail as well and use the am/enduro bike for everything now, or did until I bought a dh bike.

Well I have 661 evo, they are OK but I wouldnt recommend them. Flexible and very comfy using the 3do or whatever its called rather than hard plastic, but the knees do tend to move in a crash and the arm pads drop during a ride.
I think I will try troylee or poc next.

I feel the 99% days are getting more frequent unfortunately and its really starting to get to me.

If I want to go for an unmarked ride through the woods then I would do.
However when I have travelled 150 miles to ride some advertised tracks with limited time, then I bloody well expect to be able to find them!
I have no issue finding the trails at tidworth freeride, aston hill, stoughton dh, rogate, antur stiniog, revolution bikepark, qecp etc etc and I’m sure if I was a requarly at fod then I would have no issues either. But I’m not and again wasnt the only one having navigation issues on the day.

What tin? Perhaps it wasnt properly signed :-)

Strange, I’ve been there loads this year and I’m booked to go back this month, those two starting points on the mound are a popular spot to start a run from….I’ve certainly started runs from there this year.

Ah yes, I mean the 1st mound where the out dated trailmap is, near the blue trail crossroads. I expect you are refering to the mound further down with the short pedally jumpy bit that leads into the 2 trails, gbu & corkscrew I think it was.

Was there during the week and can confirm its appalling, as bad as aston hill was before they sorted it all perfectly at the beginning of the year.
I haven’t found a map online that actually shows all the current trails, they all show a different numbers of trails with conflicting names. I dont think I ever found ‘cougar root’ as shown on the flyup website, maybe that was the one with the missing sign, who knows..
I did find out that the 2 & 3 orange dot signs near the mound at the start on the left should have been removed a while back, as they dont go anywhere.
The minibus is super efficient though & I will be back, but really, surely it cant be hard to have an upto date map?

Had bikes for nearly 30 years & have sold up recently, riding kit also.
I’m not burdened with a wife & kids, so no pressure there. I just prefer to spend my free time on the mtb these days rather than blatting around the countryside.
I dont miss it and have no plans to get another.

HD 2.35 is massive, more like 2.5, good for the front.
I use a 2.25 trailstar on the rear of mine. Wanted a pacestar really for the rear, but lets see how it lasts.

Ah more of this indestructible carbon stuff…
Hopefully you will get it resolved quickly.
Buy a metal one next time!

Another recommendation for an acer c720 here. Bought mine from ebay over a year ago virtually new for £100. Gets used daily, rarely turn the windows laptop on these days.
Not sure I would want to pay full price for a new one though.

Depends where you ride I guess. I assume a slackline is a hardtail, fine for pootling around bridleways & swinley I expect. Give me a 160mm fs bike anyday, more fun.
I expect its also an age thing also, I have no desire be be rattling around on a hardtail again in my 40’s.

EDIT yes I sold my hardtail. The maintenance thing is a non issue for me.

Driving to north wales for revolution bike park tomorrow then antur stiniog on monday.
Was going to go to cannock style cop today on the way up, but my legs are too tired to pushup.

Flippa discs in shreddies were my favourite. Kids these days are so stupid they would try to eat them and their handler’s would try to sue, hence no toys anymore.

Now working my way through Walking Dead from the beginning.

So was I, until I got to series 4 and they wanted more money to watch it. Stuff that on top of the monthly fee. I torrented it.
Looking forward to new top gear.

My topeak track pump over read by 5 psi.
So I have been running my tyres too low for years.
I go weight in stone x2 +2psi for the rear & -2 psi for the front for my dh & enduro bike.
I also worry incessantly whether my suspension settings are optimal. Fortunately this is the only thing in life I have to worry about.

Walking around behind a creature picking up its feces, or not in the majority of cases, is a very odd hobby indeed.

On roots and rain you have an entry for Southern Enduro, venue TBA 1st November 2015.
I assume this is inaccurate?

661 knee and elbows pads plus met parachute full face on every ride.
Plus TLD body armour for uplift days.

Crikey, I normally stay in bed with weather like that. Brutal. Surprised the medic’s weren’t more busy.
I have mud in places I didnt know existed.

YT Tues for uplift/push up days.
A Canfield Balance for everything else.
I dont really do xc type rides any more and tbh the canfield would have been enough for everything, but I feel safer & faster on the tues.

Excellent vid I though, as does everyone I know who rides a mtb.
I thought this level of misery only existed in the chat forum, obviously wrong!

Plus transitions.
Transition 15mins, rest 10mins, GO GO GO!! 5mins and transition again…
Repeat 5 times, if riding blind, 10 if practising.
I was utterly utterly destroyed after my 1st enduro.

It’s a spin bike, but with a bit more wind.

I would rather be on a spin bike, no chance of getting run over & hot chics to gawp at.

Wow I did not know that. I know a few who would have had it, will remember that for next time.

Dont get a road bike, thats really giving up on life!
I’ve just bought my 1st dh bike at 44.
Aston is brilliant fun, I’m sure you will go again.

Doesn’t work like that. Let Scot know so those on the reserve list get the invite.

Looks like an epic few days away. I wonder what all the white sticks were at stiniog? They weren’t there a few weeks back when I was there.

Hmm ok, I’m obviously asking the wrong sort of questions for this forum.
How about, what drop handlebars for my racing road bike..

You failed, you were scalped, a sign of weakness.
Move over next time please :)