I’ve downsized a lot (160/150mm bikes to 120/100).

One thing to bear in mind is that in order to get the springy, lightweight feel of the shorter travel bike, the whole build has to really be somewhat along those lines – suspension travel alone doesn’t weigh anything or increase resistance, but heavy-duty kit fitted to it certainly does. You’ll quickly narrow the gap between the long travel bike and shorter travel if they are both using the same wheels, tyres, gearing and so on. That’s diminishing returns on making the change.

Second thing is that shorter travel bikes just won’t be built for the same treatment. Getting a lighter frame/parts and brutally slamming it into things isn’t going to last long (ahem). Appreciate there are exceptions to this, but something to consider.

There are always trade offs, but some bikes are better at giving you the feel you want while you accept these. It might also be easier if you are smaller/lighter as you can use lighter kit with fewer breakage risks.

No one remember the 1990s TV show Pacific Blue, featuring mtb-riding cops on state of the art full suspension mountain bikes fighting crime with tricks and stunts?

The bikes were Schwinn (maybe some Trek Y bikes later?) and Hans Rey was in it. Makes you think.

it is not unreasonable that we manage all aspects of that landscape for the compromised benefit of everyone who needs to use it.

Well, provided that happens in a way that is forward looking and doesn’t perpetuate practices that are demonstrably harmful or only benefit narrow interests, of course. That’s why reintroductions need to have widespread buy-in to be successful.

Wildlife licensing is really about legal compliance and demonstrating the minimum requirements have been met though.

It’s quite possible they were either just trying to be polite or worried you might  have been to run right out in front of them.

Yeah I think that’s a fair assessment. My sympathy with the OP there is that my first reaction was pretty much “stupid driver did it on purpose”, so it’s normal to be a bit cross about it all, especially when it’s just happened.

I was out running recently and crossed a side road, as a car was coming out of it. I did a quick check and moved to pass just behind the car without me having to slow down. Anyway, the driver stopped way shorter of the junction than I thought they would and I ran into the rear corner of the car with a proper “thump”.

I was grumpy about it, as people driving cars should act predictably, but deep down I know they don’t and I hit the car rather than vice versa – I shouldn’t have reckoned on it. Lesson learned there, thankfully at a lower speed!!! Heal up quick.

There have been some really interesting contributions from women on this thread; if one if those raises the possibility that issues outside mountain biking can affect who participates, that is surely helpful in moving the discussion along. I don’t think it’s a reason to see it as a personal slight any more than discussing the price of bikes today, which could be equally divisive in how people balance their lives outside actually riding.

I understand why someone would feel a bit shaken by the attitude of blokes (okay, bloke) appearing in these discussions as self-appointed union reps for the rights of men though, spouting off about how badly treated we are. It’s annoying that they seem to represent themselves as spokesmen.

I thought Faeries point on free time imbalance was a fair one – I was actually quietly embarrassed that it hadn’t really crossed my mind much while I was reading the thread before then. Everyone’s relationship setup will be a bit different and this may not be the single biggest reason for differences in participants, but it seems reasonable that it would have an effect.

Interesting topic, one that could apply to many sports I suppose.

Part of the challenge for me is trying to understand what is meant when people say “mountain biking” as one homogenous sport or pastime. Jumping in the woods 50:01 style, racing DH, racing XC, bikepacking or going for a family ride around a trail centre would all look like mountain biking I suppose, but how I imagine the participants (for right or wrong) varies a bit for me, through my own prism and experiences. I guess that’s the perception element, then!

For me, I’d never have been attracted to mountain bikes in the 1990s if it was all Geoff Apps and the Rough Stuff Fellowship. That isn’t “mountain biking” to my perception of the sport, but it is obviously riding bikes off road, so clearly I’m skewed. As for so many, it was the rise of the “rad” element of DH in the 90s that attracted me, boozing, jumping through fires and unattractive behaviour and all.

So the point of my rambling is this – when people look at “mountain biking” and are put off, what do they see? I can’t judge that, but it seems unfair to point a finger at one corner of the sport and shout “it’s that lot with the spliff/stickers/beard..” :)

I understood the issue to be a bit of a challenge about identifying those actually responsible too – I might be a bit out of date on this though.

I remember reading quite an interesting discussion that estate owners/managers would essentially push their workforce towards illegal practices, but disown them if caught or prosecuted (but then replace them and start again). Rural workers, according to this discussion, didn’t have much choice but to please the estate managers when practices like raptor eradication were suggested/insinuated, as their ability to be employed elsewhere was limited and housing and other benefits could be tied to the job. Not sure how many cases this applies to, but seems plausible.

Might explain some of the complexity around securing prosecution and driving down the bad practices, got to get to the right people? Some of these cases will just be sheer bloodymindedness and stupidity though.

I think the approach to pricing and accessibility of the sport will change, especially as emtb becomes more and more mainstream. I can see more non-E bikes being sold with great kit and geometry at the lower end; there does seem to be a much greater embracing of cheaper brands as good bikes over recent years (Vitus, Bird etc).

More expensive bikes could easily schism into either Emtbs for many users, or “race bikes” for those who compete/would like to, with the resulting smaller range of choice for the latter. There will always be niches and small manufacturers though.

If we are assuming you are bang on with your measurements, is there a possibility your geometry source of reference is the wrong one? Sounds like this is a second hand purchase, so geometry from the web?

Outside chance there is that it isn’t quite the model year you think it is when looking up geo?

Other thing – maybe more likely – is that I’ve had misunderstandings across apparently identical models, especially in one case where the alloy and carbon versions of a frame were sold as the same, but the carbon was actually longer (10mm more reach). This wasn’t at all clear and most reviews and sales info simply said they were the same except materials. I personally think the (major) manufacturer was fine with this presentation, as most people used the more fashionable longer figures and probably sold more alloy bikes off the back of it – who measures?

Yeah maybe something like a mass-start endurance event, where the ebike advantage would also give you a bike strength / tyre durability advantage as well as out and out power. So some kind of physically challenging course but on component & tyre-wrecking terrain where on an ebike you could happily run dual ply tyres etc while others would have to compromise more for weight over a tiring distance?

Yep Vittoria TNT sagauro would be my choice

There was a similar South Downs 2.25 tyre thread a little while ago I think..

Yep
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lower-profile-29er-2-25ish-tyre/#post-10455302

I find the tough Vittoria or Onza options have had the fewest issues (although not necessarily my favourite tread patterns, ho hum). Maxxis EXO is just a write off for me, across a few tyres. Came to the conclusion that whatever it is I do, the protection is just in the wrong place.

Thought I could use a bobble hat too – no way this good weather is going to last ;)

Donated. Good to be able to chip in and support something worthwhile. Good luck!

I got a “regular” PS4 after a bit of reading, I’m not much of a gamer so didn’t see the point in splashing out more for better versions.

Only thing is, my one is noisy. I don’t mean “oh, I can hear it a bit”, I mean really really disturbingly noisy when it’s working, like no console I’ve ever owned. Apparently better versions might be quieter, which in hindsight I would actually have paid for. It’s also possible mine is just knackered…

6’2″ and 29ers here. Reach needs to be 480-500mm with a stack height over 630mm.

I’ve got a 2010 cooper s. Once you get to 10 years + I guess you have to accept the car will generally have had some wear – my experience of my R56 N18 engined one is that you can buy “engine type x or y” or look out for “well-reported fault z” but at a certain age/price the faults can be quite random, so best to have a decent local independent mini specialist nearby.

As a generality, the mini has a tiny front end, so trying to fix almost anything under the bonnet can be a faff, if you are mechanically minded and don’t want to spend ages putting the front of the car into “service mode” to get to things.

Not much help for the OP here yet!

I can’t help either, but it made me remember the entertainment of this STW relationship thread:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/help-needed-getting-out-of-the-friend-zone/

Might help, might not. :)

The Black Bottle, if you like wine, is nearby…

Restaurants, try palm pan Asia or kyoto kitchen, when you get bored of pub food.

Breakfast, try Forte kitchen or the dispensary kitchen.

Never realised how many places ended in “kitchen” until I wrote that.

To add to the pubs, the willow Tree has been really good in the last couple of years.

If you want a good walk, follow the river upstream. Villages with pubs all the way, the pubs vary from fine to very good.

Skiing is a lot of fun and unless you have a specific pre-existing injury there’s no reason it should be physically worse than say snowboarding or wakeboarding.

The only thing to be aware of is that taught skiing progression can be quite slow (in my experience – I snowboarded a lot before taking up skiing). You mentioned you wanted to spend time on the mountain with your friends, who are regular skiers, but you’ll be on learner slopes and limited by basic techniques for a while. Not that it wouldn’t be a valuable long-term process, but as above learning in the UK (which might take some considerable time and money) could be worth considering.

If you want to keep up straight away on a friends holiday, I wonder if sticking with snowboarding might be a better bet. Burton have re-released step in bindings (sorry, step ON) bindings if that appeals…

I watched the video, expecting to see some serious damage from some of the comments above. The video shows a guy clearing bracken where it has completely dominated a hillside below a woodland, which is generally considered to be a land management issue.

Obviously I watched it with the sound off in case he said something youthful which would anger me, but genuinely his trail was clearing dead bracken with occasional bramble in the winter. There was a small area of heathland habitat at the top which appeared largely unscathed. The loam scraping under the bracken is arguably beneficial in terms of exposure of bracken rhizomes and reducing regrowth to allow other species to colonise. It’s winter, so the disturbance isn’t a ground nesting bird issue and the trail went across the hill (ish) so erosion probably won’t kick off.

Perhaps it was more by accident than design, but the location and timing of this little activity seems ecologically neutral and could have been much more damaging elsewhere, permission debate aside. Just for balance, like.

South East England is a terrible place to live if you enjoy mountain biking, it’s nasty in winter and it’s too flat. The few places that even attempt to address these issues are too crowded and travelling for hours to ride somewhere decent is rubbish. We should have taken up something more locally accessible instead.

Kind of – I deliberately took a role at a lower level at an organisation with a reputation for work/life balance (non-commercial) while we were starting a family.

Late-mid thirties, went for the payrise / more responsibility / more commercial option. One thing I did find was that in my “lower level” role, I didn’t really get the advantages I wanted. I worked the way I always worked, just didn’t get paid for it. I also got frustrated with not being able to change things for the better and managing upwards was a problem. My own mindset was a bigger factor than I realised and I found stepping into something where I was more challenged was an improvement in many ways (within limits, work/life is still important). Probably only counts if you are quite passionate about what you do, though.

Yep lots of info on Google and his twitter feed, there’s nothing new in the Mail article – I’ll allow myself the click if it’s work-related :)

Important ecological issue in South East England. For signal crayfish, the chalk stream headwaters are some of the few remaining footholds for our native crayfish and they are the most vulnerable habitats to these abstraction-related issues.

Key point is “use less water”. Spoilerz.

I’m going to have a break from mtb too I think, mostly due to travel with the bike not being an option and being bored with the local trails (and yes, I have tried the whole ‘rigid bike to make it harder’ thing…). It’s a shame an hopefully I’ll be able to come back to mtb when time/money/moving location allow it.

In the interim, running, gym and tree climbing (ropes and harness stuff) will be fun/active enough for a bit. Might try tinkering with the car a bit to learn something!

Hi Frianag, for that budget and full suspension, the usual recommendation is to look at second hand bikes – the ads on this website and Pinkbike website could be a good place to start.

You will need to make some compromises to change to full suspension. You mentioned carrying cargo and durability and both of these things can be worse with full suspension as there are more moving parts and frame shapes. There are special racks available but they can cost quite a bit.

I’m on the Premier forum

Sub one hour on Swinley Red

Commencal Meta of some kind…?

A Kona Process? Overpriced at rrp but seemingly always on sale and supposedly excellent fun.

Kona Hei Hei trail 29er was my choice, short travel but with fun angles.

Now, Orbea Occam or Whyte s120 would probably be high on my list…too much choice!

Hiya, well I had a SC Butcher, the longer travel version of the Nickel and moved on from it a couple of years ago.

On the plus side in terms of ease of finding a direct replacement, the suspension was a linkage single pivot IIRC and there’s still lots of options with a similar approach and around 125mm suspension travel – it seems a popular and expanding market for shorter travel trail bikes.

On the flip side, a few changes will make a direct replacement trickier. Obviously things like wheel sizes will affect the choices, but if you’re buying a complete bike most things (like wider boost hub spacing) aren’t a big deal, unless you plan on swapping parts you already own (sounds like you aren’t if you are keeping the Nickel intact).

The biggest change that might affect you would be geometry trends. My Butcher was quite short, low front end and slack seat tube. Trend now is for much longer bikes, 29ers tend to have higher front ends and seat tube angles seem to get steeper year on year. I like the changes and newer bikes fit me much better than the Butcher did (I’m 6’2″) BUT it sounds like you really like your Nickel (which is cool).

So it might be worth demoing a few bikes, separating out manufacturers with more traditional geometry from those embracing the long low slack trends and seeing what works for your riding. I suspect that directly replicating the geometry of the Nickel might limit the choices quite a bit, if that is what you find works for you. Big demo day to try a few brands back to back might be a good choice?

OK well I’ve held a few licences to interfere with badger setts…

And that’s what you would need, if there’s a hole in your garden that the badger appears to be residing in and you want it gone – a licence from Natural England (the interfere with a sett – prevent damage one).

If it’s just occasionally turning up and foraging in your garden and there isn’t a sett, you can do your best to keep them out. But they can dig like anything, they can climb and they can barge their way through normal garden stuff. Badger exclusion fencing is tough, designed to be anti-climb and needs to be dug down and turned outwards under the ground, so it’s no small undertaking.

If you want to close a sett, you’ll need to engage someone who can show they have experience and generally have held (or been named on) licences previously, to fill out the forms for or with you. You’ll also need to supply a Method Statement which will need to explain the context of the sett (so wider surveys might be needed) and you’ll need to justify why the damage being caused means the work is necessary.

Essentially, it can work out quite expensive to go that route.

On the positive side, badger clans have a “main” sett and a range of lesser-used setts around that. Some are individual outlier setts and these tend to be used infrequently and for short periods, like when young animals are dispersing or during mating. So it is unlikely that if you have a small individual sett entrance that your badger is there to stay full time permanently, although I’d expect them to pop by and forage around.

You can put a camera trap out and monitor the sett and any accesses, which can help you to work out what they are up to. I’d be more concerned if more and more sett entrances started appearing in a larger “complex”.

I think I’d have stopped to check if it was alive (then vets if so) Tbh, but in my limited experience they are either dead in the road or prove difficult to find with injuries.

A few years ago at an old address, a woman knocked on our door to tell me she had hit a cat on the road. I told her that we didn’t have a cat, and from her vague description I didn’t know who’s cat it might have been. She got really put out, wanted me to take responsibility for finding the owner and telling them what had happened. There was no body, cat had run off. She pointed out that she had told me what had happened, the cat’s owner would want to know and I should do it as “I lived there”. When I declined and suggested that it was more her responsibility if a search was going to be launched, she thought I was a cat-hating monster and gave me the full high-horse treatment while I stood baffled in my own doorway.

That’s cool, and great to see a university recognising achievement in a diverse range of sports!

Okay that’s a familiar issue! Might be worthwhile checking out the Stans WideRight chart then – it’s just one company’s opinion, but they match up their internal rim widths to the tyre width range. Just pick a rim width broadly suitable to your tyre choices – you might want to go for a narrower than 30mm rim if there’s no chance of you putting wide rubber on there to get the “best” tyre shape.

Just on the width consideration, it’ll probably depend on the tyres you want to use. Going to a 30mm internal rim will let you use wider tyres, but if your riding means 2.35 is the widest tyre you use and you’d regularly use narrower tyres, it might not be an ideal move for you.

@tjagain – The wildlife and countryside act does include animals kept for shooting or fishing in its definition of “Livestock”. I think it’s the delay and extra administration requirement that is causing the most complaints, made worse by the time of year of its introduction and apparent short notice.