That’s a lot of decks!

Thought I’d add to this post above as some feedback from having a coached session, in case anyone else was thinking similar. Had a 2 hour session with Lee from TrickTech with a mate, we both really enjoyed it. Worked out at £50 ish each, for just the two of us on the session.

I’m surprised at how much I got from having some tuition / coaching. I honestly thought it would be more ramp/trick focussed, but it ended up being far more about fundamentals and finding lazy habits and blind spots that would hold us back as we progressed (like backside body varials for me 😀 ). Having been out skating since then, I’m much more aware of what I’m doing and we both feel way more confident, as well as having lots of things to work on, just on flat ground if needed. So all in, a coached session was great fun and genuinely helpful. Five stars etc.

So should I simply buy one and move with the times?

It’s entirely up to you OP. You can make your MTB riding more about fitness or more about maximising other aspects, sounds like your riding group is mixed in that respect already. The balance is yours to choose – no one in 2023 is really going to give you much hassle for it either way.

I have a coached session on Monday. Going with a mate, I have limited skatepark skills, he has basically none. Should be entertaining/brutal, I’m at a point where I need a bit of a push to actually be able to ‘use’ a skatepark, so this might help.

Has anyone been to XC skatepark, any tips? Really looking forward to some miniramp time, but will be taking all the pads!

If I don’t like the slackness can I reduce the travel of the forks and undo it a bit?

The travel has been spec’d around the rest of the bike geometry and build – reducing travel won’t make the bike a lightweight xc bike, so that is likely not to achieve the effect you hope for.

I’m used to lovely lightweight 26inch 2.1 wheels with low rotating mass, do these 29×2.5 monstrosities feel like riding a tank? Am I worrying about nothing?

I think your worries are fair. Modern agressive hardtails are hefty bikes aimed at agressive riding, with parts to match. That is great if you ride aggressively, powering into corners and hammering through roots etc. So the Ribble will likely be faster and more fun in those places. But on a slow climb in the South Downs, it will be heavier and the tyres it comes with will drag.

The question is where you want the bike to perform best and also how you ride (I have a modern long/slack hardtail – it needs a fair amount of ‘body english’ to get the fun out of it).

How much difference would I feel between a stronger or more flexible ski?

See, I reckon most skiers would agree almost all skis have their place, stronger or more bendy (technical terms, I beleive 😉 ). It depends what you are up to, snow conditions and a range of other factors.

As you mention hiring, it would seem sensible to go with a place that allows you to chop and change. I’ll mention Skimium rental shops here – which as far as I can tell is the rental arm of Decathlon. They will let you change between skis on the ‘level’ you have paid for. Make yourself try some different skis and see what works for you, piste skis, freeride skis, freestyle skis – anything you can, suitable to the conditions. You will definitely notice difference, but I’m not sure there is a silver bullet, much like bikes – and the diversity is a good thing.

Update 12:00 22 December

We’re really sorry for the ongoing disruption to water supply in parts of Hampshire. This is caused by a combination of factors.

The recent heavy rain has caused the amount of sediment in the water we take from rivers to be higher than normal which means our water treatment works are having to work harder to treat the water before it’s supplied to customers. This combined with the increased number of leaks we’ve experienced since the recent ‘freeze/thaw’ event has meant demand for water is outstripping the ability to keep taps running.

SO23 here, dodging Southern Waters’ latest attempt to ruin Christmas for now.

there is a huge set of options out there.

All mountain is a massive category, isn’t it? What’s the score with demos wherever you are? Seems a good way to try some outliers and narrow the options.

My ‘all mountain’ skis currently are Black Crows Captis, 184. Might be very different from what you are looking at, as I specifically didn’t want ‘metal’ skis and fancied something more at the park end of all mountain. They are great by the way, but I guess alongside other skis in the list like Mantras, it goes to show how big the category is.

Or just get some Line Sakanas and let me know how it goes 😉

Wind Hill bike park – check out the mid section of Rootiful South. Drop to drop to drop, none too big, but rooty and eroded as well as drops, and the speed builds, so it’s careful line choice and speed judgement. Or just jump the whole thing, obviously… 😉

Quickly learned that trying to (re) learn to skate, doesn’t mix with keeping a close eye on a toddler learning to scoot. Been out a couple of time myself but still feel painfully self conscious with the wee man in tow.

Yeah I get that! I’m starting to do my own weekday lunchtime sessions, which seem to put less pressure on kiddie time. I think I need to establish some more fleshed out ‘lines’ in the skatepark that I can do without much thought, but still working on on it.

How’s everyone getting on with this skateboarding thing? As days get darker and everything is muddy, I’m looking at spending more time on a board, but my generally knackered joints and snatched opportunities seem limiting factors.

How are other learning / progressing? YouTube guides, skating with others, what else? How do you decide what you should try to learn next once you can push, stop etc?

There’s a lot in here that definitely isn’t people being abject failures at jobs. Being lied to, recruited to impossible jobs, having horrific colleagues/managers or the company imploding (or in the process of doing so) are not personal failures!

I’m going to say that I’d assess this on what would I refuse to hire or pay me to do, in hindsight. Pretty sure it is my student years as a bike shop employee. I could build and PDI bikes from boxes. My remit should have very much stopped there.

I will work on my own bikes – but as I’m now very much aware, I’m fine with my bikes held together with tape, and most bike shops customers aren’t.

Been through this with mine recently, now 6 and 4. At 4 it is really young for skateboarding. Yes there are some YouTube heros out there, but for most kids skateboarding is something they will struggle with when really young, 6 is normally the earliest starting age. Even then, my 6 year old likes the idea of it much more than the reality.

First thing, obviously get helmet and pads for her. My eldest has a Rio Roller helmet and a HangUp Kids pad set – all fit her at 5 and are decent enough without spending big bucks.

If she just wants a toy to play with, sit on and slide etc, then get her what she wants board-wise. I think it being a sit-on toy is quite a likely outcome based on my experience. If you want her to learn to skate, as in push herself along and stop etc, then that Decathlon board up above is the best I have come across. Kids are surprised when they stand/sit on a kick tail and the whole thing tips, plus on most boards you can never get bushings loose enough to let a 4 year old actually turn.

Locations – skate parks are intimidating and a kid who can’t push, turn, stop or even jump off is not going to do themselves any favours, unless there are extensive flat open areas. Locally to us we have a smooth paved multi-use games area – just a big flat rectangle. That’s where my kids go to practice. They get more from that than ramps at a Skatepark.

On the positives, get yourself a board and pads etc and join in. There’s a skateboard thread on here somewhere for older non-experts. I love tearing around with my kids, board of choice for that is my surfskate, but get stuck in yourself and it’ll help with understanding the challenges – loads of “how to” videos on YouTube.

Go off sick and get professional help

I’m reading the OP as being of the opinion that they aren’t quite at that point yet, but would like to avoid it getting that bad. Obviously take time off if it is required.

Short of that, maybe have a think about where the pressure comes from. Is it people literally screaming at you and threatening your job etc, or is it more pressure you put on yourself to ‘perform’, maybe even because you are proud of your work and/or work in something you think is genuinely worthwhile, so you struggle to let it just fail. Can be a mix, of course.

Changing jobs and stepping back, yeah I did that for a bit. Turns out that I ended up working just as hard and using all my ability, but for less money and with less ability to change things. I found that frustrating. I have seen people do it successfully, but you have to be prepared to step back in your own head and your view of yourself professionally, if you know what I mean. I think you touch on that risk in your OP.

I have to work hard on being prepared to let things slide – I don’t like it. If things get really on top of me, I choose two things/clients/projects that I am deliberately going to let fail/shut down immediately – they are sacrifificed and I communicate that as best I can, but I’m not asking permission. Saying no to new stuff is obviously great, but that takes weeks/months to come into effect, as does new recruitment etc (which rarely materialises as promised anyway).

But yeah, if it’s required, do just step away.

EDIT sounds like a lot of employer pressure and things aren’t being planned right.

My little girl is 6 and has just this summer moved to her first “gear bike” as she calls it, and 20″ wheels.

She had a hand in the choice and chose a Kona Makena.

It has been a great choice, she loves it and it has improved her riding and confidence massively. There are some great bikes around though, so some strong competition – but the green-ish Kona was the popular one here.

EDIT to say, she’s just under 120cm tall. Saddle on the Kona is almost right down, but not all the way down. The bars are high-ish as a result, but she can ride it up and down hills and on singletrack comfortably.

Being a 1 car family of four with two small kids is easier in summer than in winter.

Being a 1 car family also means you need to be more organised and agree on priorities for leisure trips etc, with everyone able to compromise.

Hiring a car for a weekend has never been a financially viable option for us, realistically. Friday-Monday hire from somewhere like Enterprise is around £150 IIRC, I’m not paying that just so I can go for a ride an hour away!

Kinesis Range is also Fazua, “from 5′ for size small”. But it isn’t easy being at an extreme of the size range.

I think there might be context missing in the OP, but in the absence of say a preceding thread, it’s hard not to read that and go “why the heck does that person want an ebike?”. I’m not being argumentative, I’m sure there’s a good reason, but it seems like there was nothing about the “assist” that was well received!

Did the Trek not allow you to adjust the power? My Fazua allows you to set many things on a laptop or app, like the watts assistance, power matching to your input % and so on. Get a small battery system and dial the assist levels right down so it isnt too powerful? Will still be heavy (relatively) though, unless the accompanying partner kindly carries your Mega Lock for you.. 😉

Honestly, you might be worrying too much and over thinking this 😀

Enduro races aren’t DH races, so they are more accessible to different kinds of bikes and riders. I’m assuming you aren’t expecting to win first time out, so it’s just an exercise in having a good event.

Practice would be to ride ‘normal’ trails as smoothly as you can, without having a mechanical, for a good few hours. Normal grass roots events are pretty relaxed, but some, like Southern Enduro, also run ‘mash up’ style events where what you ride and how many times etc is even more relaxed. Many events also have a ‘fun’ category, so you can start there (unless you secretly know you are smoking fast!).

Thing with Enduro events (it’s a good thing) is that they often attract people who have never raced, or been to an organised mtb event at all, ever. It’s then even more daunting to sign up and know what to do on the day, but it is super easy. Having mates who can go with you will help, but not at all necessary- you will meet people to chat to, not least on the climbs!

So I reckon just try an event or race and don’t put pressure on yourself or worry about your bike. Put on some tough tyres and just go have fun.

Just checking if mine is fixed yet…

Edit: Nope, I’m still ‘free’

It’s okay OP, no one is saying you Have to like hardtails – but your question is fair and yes, in my experience they do need a different riding style. I love my hardtails, but also recognise that they aren’t as fast as full sus in the rough stuff so smoothness over straight line speed is where the fun is found.

If it’s a ‘LLS modern geometry’ HT, that adds another layer of difference to older HTs, but once you get used to that they are way better.

As others have said, you need to weight the front. For me, that means with the dropper down, dropping down AND slightly forwards in the lower body – knees down towards front axle kind of thing – if the bike is long.

The other reason they feel weird riding along compared to full sus at places like Swinley is, in my experience, a weird ‘rocking’ motion forwards and backwards as you try to put the leg power in but also need to keep the bike riding smooth. I think most people hate this and well damped full sus seems to take care of it. Hate to say it, as I know you are an athletic dude, but you need to engage your core to stop that – that keeps it smooth and helps absorb bumps, legs spin under that driving the power. I think we all know it, but switching back and forth can catch me out on that one and makes the HT feel like a dog.

OP is fitting GRX di2 so I’m assuming it’s going into a high end frame..

A missed opportunity to create a rare example of the Di2 On One Inbred…? 😀

It sounds like 250 is fair, but in honesty I would hum and haw about that price for a ‘simple’ frame swap.

On one hand, I know that I could do it and ‘probably’ have all the tools. On the other hand, having done it several times before it always seems to cost more and be more complex than I think – something always has a new standard or type, requiring me to stop and order a tool. Something always needs new cables or fixings, which I don’t realise in advance and have to go off and buy. Something is always slightly challenging to fit, giving me paranoia that somehow it is incompatible and I’ll ruin a new frame trying to force it on – the list goes on!

But, yeah – £250.00.

If the frame is a real expensive nice upgrade, I say shop. If it’s a cheap second bike thing, crack on, drunk, on the kitchen floor.

bit harsh!

Haha yeah, classic stereotype! As above, I suspect that people get challenged about their choice so much, it’s tempting to dive in with the pre-defence of justifying yourself, then coming over really passionate about the topic!

I take two things from this:

1 – that at least six people will (apparently) respond by PM to a forum member with zero posting history, to share personal details and their feelings about those, and

2 – Around a third of people who chose not to have children also like Crossfit 😉

50 m2 of trees felled by the neighbours might be an issue for them. Leaving aside any ‘site specifics’ such as ownership, designations and protections for species in that area, I would think the starting point would also be a yes/no on the need for a felling licence. 5 cubic metres of wood is a threshold, I think.
Felling Licence .gov link

Thing is, was it ‘trees’ or was it more ‘scrub’. Latter might be much easier for them to swing it. If it was decent trees they’d obliterated, I’d personally be very much distancing myself from the neighbour’s plans!

VW ID3 Pro Performance ordered in September 2021, estimated for April 2022 delivery at that time. Latest estimate is late September this year, so over a year, and I think it’ll be a miracle if that target gets hit.

The only specific delay reason I’m aware of is ‘wiring looms from Ukraine’, the rest of the delay is just down to ‘things’.

Slightly odd, but over the past 6 years or so I have been using a backpack with a built in spine protector. As there’s a sleeve on the inside of the bag against the protector, I never feel the laptop dig into me or flop about, just feels really secure and comfy (I also run commute with the laptop in it, where i think it makes most difference, anything bumpy/jolty basically). I get the pannier debate, but my bags tend to get used all day moving around, not just bike-desk-bike, so they are less versatile for me.

Are you new-ish or returning to MTB after a longish break?

It seems relevant because you mention you

mostly ride a road bike at the moment

and talk about short reach etc.

If you are spending lots of time sitting down, it is quite possible for a long reach bike to still feel short. Steep seat tube angles and short stems do that, for bikes that are ‘long’ when you are out the saddle. This might affect your experience.

If you want an efficient bike for covering ground, it seems to me that you are looking at short travel full sus, with the right geometry for how you ride, maybe a longer top tube (depending on how you feel about stem lengths). If what you mean by ‘no bike parks’ is that you are in the saddle more, that’s cool – but the reach/stack interpretation figures were developed for the opposite, to describe the likely ‘out of saddle’ bike feel, so comparing those figures may not give you what you want.

That’s good news OP, hope that sorts it for you.

The kids do, I don’t, but I go along with their ideas or they don’t know what I’m talking about.

I’d just go with manufacturer names, I.e. “The Golf” or “The Mini”. The only exception might be one of those cars where the name is so cringeworthy that I would HAVE to rename it, like that Kia Dad-Wagon “The Stinger”. That would have to be renamed (and de-badged with pliers).

There’s a Fazua riders Facebook group that covers a lot of this kind of thing. Thankfully it’s mostly about clicks and getting the motor locking catch sorted, rather than lots of Specialized-style motor graveyard posts.

Many of the ‘click’ discussion centres on the torx bolts that attach the Fazua BB to the frame and ensuring ensuring right torque. The lock catch and ensuring a snug fit is another common discussion, the lock has been updated a couple of times. That one’s not really a “Fazua” fault, more that the frame manufacturers vary in how good a fit they produce with the standard demountable Fazua motor pack.

Mine has clicked on and off – I’m a bit more liberal with the grease and checking bolt torque now and don’t have a click, after just basic maintenance. I’d go through those discussions and check the basics before pulling anything properly apart, seems like you’d risk making a niggle into an issue!

Whatever tyre tread and compound you are currently riding.
A new, world-beating tyre has just been released, didn’t you hear? The company also make car tyres and are bringing fresh thinking to the MTB market!!

I think this would be scary for someone scared of heights and would have ruined her trip. Get some cash back OP, best outcome.

If we are talking safety, nothing is 100% protective – chair lifts (as above), hot air balloons, fairground rides…if I wiggle like “this” and twist like “that” I’ve fallen out! But at some point it isn’t really incidental.

I’m interested OP in the very significant challenge you would have in characterising these inputs for your book and YouTube channel. I mean, how would you describe STW input, as a source? Definitely not ‘the view of mountain biking’ or even ‘cycling’ I guess? The ‘view of the internet’ seems unlikely (in fairness that would be waaaay weirder). ‘Men over 40 who like to be left alone’? I’m just a bit fascinated by how you will present this in your book, seems like a key output of your plan 😀

‘SaxonRider’s STWeird Weekend’?

Is the Avon accessible there? Most of my experience of it are extensive sections of ‘private keep out’ signs, because it is one of the famous chalk rivers and so highly valuable as a fly fishing area – like the next door Test and Itchen. Finding a public right of navigation could be a challenge?

Downstream is the Blashford Lakes waterpark though – wakeboard, sailing etc – could be a SUP option?

Had a few things from them since Christmas – all have turned up fine without any big delay or odd charges

It might not be your thing OP, but two of the ‘b1ke’ Park sites are pretty close – they are, err, bike parks. Wind Hill isn’t that far south west, Tidworth is just south (but not open in winter). 417 bike park just up the road (ish) north of Cirencester. Appreciate not everyone likes driving to ride, but these are options and pretty good ones too.

The woods behind Nationwide in Swindon are the “Croft MTB trails” – regarded on here as ‘expert only’.

Our Rolec home charger is now installed, benefitted from the grant (just about). But we’ve just had the news that our ID3 won’t be here in April as promised, but now ‘early June’. That’s an order from the end of September; at least it seems there’s now a build week. I was expecting 6 months, let’s see if it can come before 9! :)

What’s that then? 

Surfskate seems to have two answers:

1. The surf purist. Uses a surfskate as a surfboard simulator on ‘flat days’ to work on ‘good form’, which to be fair was the initial concept. The fully swivelling front truck allows for much tighter carves, maneuverability and pumping for speed. Lots of arm waving from this crowd, maybe fits in more in stylish sunny locations than a grey UK skatepark.

2. The non-surfer, likes skateboards and probably comes from longboards, cruisers or pool skateboards out of curiosity. Drawn in by the ease of riding ramps and bowls (once you get over the thought of dropping in on a wobbly front truck…) and especially the ridiculous way you can pump them around without having to push with your foot, which on fairness is pretty fun. If you want to start small in bowls and mini ramps and don’t want to do the usual learning dropping in, rock-to-fakie, rock and roll, bigger kickturns etc, surfskates can let you do some of that at lower speed, lower commitment and lower risk. But you won’t be kickflipping.

I think both approaches are valid, although it seems people do row about them on YouTube :) I think I look a bit odd sometimes on the surfskate in a local park, but the problem is that it is proper fun to ride, so…it’s staying.