Depends which ones, there's about a million verions of the Lyrik. My personal choice would be the u-turn Lyriks which can be found as cheap as £500, as the 36s only have the 3 travel adjust options.

I had a Diamond Back WCF 4.0 from 1996, Woven CF tubes bonded to Chromoly lugs, the downtube/headtune bond broke, but I didn't realise for a year or two, rode it effectively without a down tube without any problems.

What voltage is the pwoer supply in Hong Kong? I don't have an adapter to plug mine into the mains, but I do have a 240v to 110v transformer from an old american Sony amplifier that has the same output as the charger for the light needs. So I've been charging at 110v instead of 240v. Can anyone advise if this is likely to cause a) longer charging times and b) cooler charging temperatures?

Would a circuit breaker be advised for this sort of charging?

The argument about beam spread etc is fairly irrelevant to a lot of people I'd have thought? As someone who was riding with a £3 ebay LED torch cable tied to their helmet and was really enjoying riding in near total darkness, the DX that just arrived seems complete over-kill. The suggestion that I might prefer to spend another £150 for a better spread of this lights seems a bit ridiculous. If it breaks, then I've still got that £3 torch in the bag and when I've bought another I'll have two battery packs. Judging by some of the warrantyisbest posts above, by the time it comes to SITS next year, I'll have enough batteries to last the whole night. Perfect.

Aren't moon-lit rides the way forward though really?

I regularly take bikes on trains when i go away for the weekend. Primarily Virgin West Coast and East Coast Mainline. It used to be that you just rocked up, jumped on with bike and went, but since the middle of the year I've always been asked for reservations, East Coast won't let you on at all without a reservation.

The Virgin Pendolinos are a pain because you can't open the luggage compartment without a member of staff. If you don't have a reservation, they won't turn up to let you out, and as I found out yesterday, if you do have a reservation, sometimes they won't let you out. Fortunately the train terminated at Preston, or I'd have been fuming, but having my bike locked on did mean I missed my connection.

The swines!

Half a million quid? Are they **** joking??

Just do it in an area thats suitably grown but has 5-10 years before logging, and get the FC to take the trees out for paper. While they have the machinery in, level your pitch. Spend a grand or so on grass seeds and some goals, job done.

**** quango retards.

There's a good climb from the Old A66 (Swan Inn?) that climbs up onto Sale, you could go from here onto Lords Seat and drop onto the top of the Red Loop – this would be a good climb.

That video above is cool, brings back memories! Though last time I rode it I wiped out at 2mph going over one of the bridges and had to have 10 injections in my knee so they could scrub it clean!

I cracked a banjo at Fort William during a fairly innocuous tumble, it took 5 minutes to replace the hose and re-bleed after I'd rolled to the bottom. What's the problem?

They do seem to put pictures of themselves on the cover far too often. I'm sure most people would prefer an action picture of someone actually doing it, rather than just writing about it.

Funny story, I was actually after one between 500 and 600mm, but no one does them, so an hour ago I chopped the head off one, fitted a QR clamp and inserted another seat post. I now have up yo 800mm of seat post, which should do the job.

That's a joke right? I can never tell on this site.

No, no, I have a bike I've built up, put a 400mm seat post in, but it was a couple of inches too short for pedalling up hills. The new 'arrangement' is probably stronger as now I have 8 inches inside the frame and only a little extra length. The seat post is pretty beefy, being a 31.6mm thats 3mm thick and it's only on full height for pedalling up climbs and I'm stood up on the DH bits. Will get you a picture and let you know if it snaps!

There's some on ebay, most appear to be Kalloy ones, I have one, it's not light as such, but at that length I prefer a bit of extra metal.

Funny story, I was actually after one between 500 and 600mm, but no one does them, so an hour ago I chopped the head off one, fitted a QR clamp and inserted another seat post. I now have up yo 800mm of seat post, which should do the job.

LOL, I'm sure those middle men are nice chaps, but middle men are just that. They don't add any value, just take their cut and there's far too many people who want a slice of any expenditure these days.

My P7s are on the way. :-)

I would probably buy it at that price if I had the money. Its probably just a case of being patient. I think you'll find the warranty is with the bike, not with the purchaser, so can't see a warranty issue.

http://www.meetup.com/manchester-mountain-bikers if you fancy Jacobs Ladder type stuff in the dark?

I'd say that the person looking at the road, other road users, checking their mirrors etc is less likely to have an accident than the person who spends half their time looking at the speedo and the other half checking for cameras.

Speed limits are arbitrary lines drawn in the sand, to say that driving a fraction above the line is shit driving, while a fraction below isn't is complete idiocy.

You can be a right bunch of cock-ends on here some times!

The law is the law, to be followed by both parties. One aspect of the law is innocent until proven guilty. It means that you are inoccent of a crime, regardless of whether you committed the offence or not if it cannot be proven. If there are no photographs then, in Law, there was no crime.

So the Police/CPS are alledging a crime took place, yet the law says its only a crime if theres evidence, but the signs are that there is no evidence, regardless of how fast whoever was driving. It looks likely that despite all the high-horse bollocks thats been written above that there was no crime committed according to the Law.

Some helpful advice:

If it's not been done already, you do need to admit that you were driving at the time of the alledged offence. If you don't, you'll have to deal with your employer, who would have committed an offence.

Then you need to decide whether to ask to see the evidence or not. If you ask to see the evidence you'll lose the option of paying £60 and taking 3 points. But if there is no evidence you will have fun in court, if it gets that far. If there is evidence, but the NIP says no photos are available, then thats a complicated legal argument for a lay-man to make in court, but possibly not beyond you, though the website mentioned above will be able to help with that.

To the rest of you, stop pretending you never speed, you have. Stop pretending you've never broken any of the laws of the road, you have. Speed doesn't kill, shit driving does, the sooner people stop eating the government revenue-raising bullshit, the sooner road deaths will fall. A speed camera will not protect you from the morons

You can put enough weight on the bars to stop the pedals rotating if you have more weight on the front pedal.

You'll have more weight on the front pedal if you're going down a hill.

You should have your inside leg forward and possibly slightly up when going round a corner.

I'm goffy as well, it's not an issue at all, but worth practicing going round corners with your feet int he correct possition, you can learn to make this feel ok.

Beat you to that one Fluff!

Second that, though I'd dispute 60-70% of Gasgale Gill being rideable! More like 20%, theres a great bit of singletrack in the middle, but it's a bitch of a climb!

We went for 5 + bikes in an Imprezza, got everything on/in but bottomed the suspension out to the point that it wasn't safe to drive. Gutter.

Extreme Option – top of the South Loop climb, turn left onto Grisedale Pike (Big hmountain, can't miss it!) then left again at the Summit and back down into Whinlatter.

Why don't you want to join a club?

I don't understand that sentiment. It commits you to nothing, just gives you more options, easier to arrange lifts if you need them, people to show you new rides, etc

Don't tell me it's because you have to pay for it, because it's such a small sum and is usually negated by the discounts that come with it.

Uplink, regardless of insurance cover, there's always something to go for. Without insurance you could lose everything, your house, your bikes, any money you have etc.

Most people have experience of car insurance, where you would have cover,the other party would have cover, so your company deals with all the legalities on your behalf and extracts money from the other insurance company etc. If you were an unisured driver and someone drove into you, the state of play would be similar to this situation with a mountin biker vs an insured club, you would have no legal cover,so you would have to do all the legal work yourself, or pay for your own solicitor, who would extract money from the clubs insurer. If neither party were insured, you would do your legal stuff, but the other party would also be unable to refer it to his own insurer, so would have to defend the claim himself and cover any financial implications resulting.

Possibly, but getting sued ten times while insured is going to work out a lot better than getting sued once if you're not insured.

And yeah, just going out riding with your mates could theoretically get you sued if circumstances conspired against you. But it's much harder to prove someone elses culpability if there's no obvious organisation behind the ride.

PP, appreciate your honest answer, maybe another way to ask the question would be are people's significant others, wives, families etc aware of and accepting of the potential consequences to them?

PeterPoddy, that all sounds really good and I'm not knocking what you're doing, but the primary reason that MMB charges is because of the need to insure people who organise rides against negligence.

With your group/club whatever you call it, what happens if someone has a bad crash because someone said something was easy when it wasn't and decides to sue because they can't work anymore and have to pay the mortgage?

I know those sort of events are rare, but they also have the potential to ruin those involved. I know you're going to say that it's not a club, but from what you've written above,the law would treat it as a club.

AALA only applies to under 18s BTW.

I have a GT I-Drive XCR2000, I'm fairly sure it was the first year GT did the i-drive and it's a 1999 model. It's an awesome bike, though I have had to rebuild a lot of the rear suspension with silicone rubber to quieten it down now as it's started to wear and I'm too tight to spend any money on it.

Re the smoking in doorways, it's illegal to smoke within 5 metres of any entrance, but the police don't enforce it. If they did it would mean you couldn't smoke in town centres at all in a lot of cases.

Blimey, you're a tough person to please, where's the mecca that you compare it to?

Er…… I dunno……. the trail right next to it? You know the one, starts at the same place, finishes at the same place, you might have seen it on the internet a few times.

I don't know of anyone who has ridden the trail and not really enjoyed

I've ridden it, it's gash.

I've ridden it. It's total rubbish. The boardwalks are more interesting than usual, but still incredibly tedious. You're on them and nothing is going on, except that at any second you might get blown off because its built on the windiest bit of the hill. But the biggest risk is that you'll fall asleep and fall off.

The rock sections don't fit together very well and the trail doesn't flow at all. now I'll accept that when I did it it was incredibly windy and it would have been almost acceptable perhaps without the wind. BUT it's always bloody windy up there on the windiest bit of a very windy hill.

You've travelled all the way to Fort William and they have a proper mountain bike descent there too. Why the hell would you waste your time on this?

The thought crossed my mind also that the Gondola might close because it is too windy on the red run, when the black is still perfectly serviceable, so the real riders then lose out. They do seem incredibly trigger happy when it comes to closing the course. When we went up it shut an hour early with no explanation and the Gondola still running.

Regarding the bike shop there; it's also complete ****. Last time we had any involvement with them they charged my mate £40 to hire some Giant cheapo FS bike with v-brakes and no damping. Then charged him another £35 when the inevitable crash happened and the seat popped a rail. Then we saw them put the seat in a vice and pop the rail back in.

And the woman selling tickets, yes I do know what I'm doing, yes I've ridden the course loads of times, yes I'm in the minority because I'm wearing jeans, but I think if you check you'll find that they are in fact thicker material than all these other chaps are wearing. Grrrrrrr!

Right there with you Peachey, right there with you. That was the worst idea you've ever had.

Once you've tightened the pinch bolts on your stem any spacers above the stem are irrelevant and any below aren't going to cause you any problems. I don't know what sort of failure of a carbon spacer you're expecting, but the worst that can happen is the stresses deform one a tiny bit and you get some play in you headset. You could always then tighten your headset.

The most prudent approach to headset tightness would be to get a frame/stem/bar combination that actually fits you and only run spacers abover the stem.

Incidentally at Laggan Wolftrax on sunday there was a woman doing the Orange descent uplift thingy on a Heckler with about 6 inches of spacers between stem and headset, all carbon. Hilarious.

My understanding was that a bike is classed as an "Unnatural accompanyment", and thats what prevents you from leading a horse or pushing a bike ona footpath. It isn't the riding that is the problem. Maybe if you took the lot to bits and put it in a bag when you saw a walker??

It's all bollocks.

I'd go as far to say that Mountain Bikers are more bothered about whether they're on a footpath or not than the walkers they meet these days.

BTW, the way I suggested getting up to Barrow appears to be a footpath on my OS map, yet it is an old mining track, built so horses could get stuff off the mountains, when did the Lemmings steal that one back???

Yes they are footpaths, both are wide enough and quiet enough that you won't cause any kind of kerfuffle. And honestly, if anyone is going to work themselves into a kerfuffle over such trivial things, it really is their problem, not yours.

I've ridden most of the footpaths in the area and mostly at weekends and never had a bad word said against me, walkers really aren't that interested. The only issue I've had was doing the run off Cat Bells on a Saturday afternoon in July, I had to stop for an hour above a set of switch backs as there was a steady stream of Lemmings coming up.

I don't know what it's like round your way, but generally walkers are pleasant and have been known to treat us like minor celebrities for getting our bikes to the top of x, y or z. Japanese and American tourists especially love us on top of Helvellyn. No one has ever raised the issue of whether they think, or the civil law thinks, we should be up there.

26th of September I'm riding down that and then possibly carrying back up. Will report back then if I remember.

If you have a spare hour, do Barrow near Braithwaite, it's a class descent and a very short ride. Park Uzzicar, head up the old mining track towards Sail, head off right when you've got behind Barrow and climb up onto the top. Waz down then turn right when you get to the wall and follow the path back to the road and you'll be able to see your car up ahead.

The descents is very fast, bumpy, grass, with a few steep bits, absolute hoot! Note it'll only take an hour, so you've no excuse!

Dodd Wood below Skiddaw is ok too, fire road up to the top, then there's a footpath down.

Grisedale Pike down the wall or off Hobcarton into Whinlatter are both really good desecents, worth tagging onto the South Loop of the Altura trail.

Sticks Pass is AWESOME down into Thirlmere though!