Harry_the_Spider – we use meetup.com which is a social networking site which is why you will be blocked.

another very happy MMB member here. it's quite interesting that some of the people that enjoy only riding by themselves or with their small, regular group of mates come on here and slag the club/clubs in general off. MMB was all started by people who didn't much enjoy that – some people want to meet new people to ride with. the amount of people i have chatted with in the club who feel the same is enormous.

it was free to join at first but when numbers grew the decision was taken to cover for liability. £20 was charged because the idea was to get indvidual liability insurance through ctc for each member but it turned out that the ctc are crap and it would have taken a considerable amount of time & effort for someone to manage membership. we do now have leader liability insurance. this means that there is a bit of money left over in the club fund. it doesn't belong to anyone and if someone has an idea on how to spend the money it is put to the vote. as mentioned we've recently ordered club lights and are looking in to picking up helmet camera's and stuff like that. i imagine over the next year or so we will have marquee's etc.

as for the jersey's, i too was a bit skeptical about having a club jersey. but it turns out that it's way cooler than the majority of shirts available in the shops. it was designed by one of the members.

One that stands out from a long time ago:

We had this trail that we used to hit regularly which had series of stone walls that had broken down in places. The trail crossed over these walls and we had managed, over time, to build up jumps to clear the walls. This one afternoon I was flying down the trail trying to hit the wall jumps as fast as I could when one of them catapulted me forwards and off the bike. The ground to the side of the trail was nice and soft and I ended up unscathed lying on my back. I sat up and looked back up the hill to see my bike cartwheeling towards me. There was no time to react so my instinct was to just turn away. Unfortunately turning away didn’t alter the bikes flight path and it continued to plant the end of the bar on the back of my head, which was luckily covered by my helmet. No word of a lie; there was a 3/4mm deep impression of my bar-end cap in the polystyrene – x-lite motif and all. That could’ve been a whole lot worse!!!

And not mtb but…

On my first boarding season I met a few mates who were all egging each other on to do bigger and more scary stuff. We spent one afternoon building this kicker over a stream out the back of the hotel we were working at. The gap was about 20ft. The landing was flat but there was a nice 2ft layer of soft, fluffy powder to cushion the landing; all you had to do was clear the gap. Two of the guys hit it with no problems then it was my turn. As I dropped in across the off-camber run-in I lost my edge a touch. I should’ve bailed it there but had this macho thing running through my head. So I continued to the kicker whilst trying to keep speed and regain proper control of the board and consequently sliced across the kicker at completely the wrong angle. I still almost cleared the gap but almost wasn’t enough and I landed on the bank of the stream, directly on my femur. The bank of the stream was lined with what resembled a telegraph pole or a largish tree trunk. It was seriously painful – I thought I had broken my right femur and that was my season over. I recall screaming hard but no-one else heard anything. With the aid of my mates I managed to unclip and drag myself out of the stream. My thigh swelled up to twice the size and I found it hard to walk but after two weeks of no riding (i.e. lots of drinking) I was back on the snow. I must have done some serious muscle damage as my lower quadriceps above the knee still has a huge divot when compared to the other. didn't walk away but I limped away with no broken bones…

yeah he must be superhuman or something – that's a tough climb. distance + steepness + cobbles = 8O

ah, a shame you didn't get a proper look at it. would be good to know if it's usable again

great pics again.

a couple of things; did one of your team really ride all the way up gatescarth from longsleddle?

and;

what state was the descent on the other side to haweswater in? last time i was up there a couple of months back it was in the process of being destroyed (read: turned into an unridable sand pit type bridleway).

i'm up for anything really mate. all day or a few hours.

weekly monday lunchtime stroll to lidl around the corner for dinnertime provisions. spend between £5 and £15 a week which gets me fruit, sometimes crisps and junk, drinks and sandwichy stuff. luckily i have access to a kitchen and fridge so can knock up the likes of cheese & pickle sarnies/soups/toasties/chicken salad wraps etc.

this weeks menu has been cheese and spicy salami toasties with a nice blob of sweet chili dipping sauce.

no stigma in my office.

"scary white boxes with red x's invade australia"

my mate wiped his ass with cambodian riel when we were there because a) they are virtually worthless; and b) he had no toilet roll. sad, but true.

damn it – i was on a rigid marin. i so nearly could have been world champ…

re 4×4's on that descent – let them go for it. 4x4ing is great fun and there aint many places you can do it legally.

adt – Member
Steve Peat once won a DH race down there

was that the 4x event – circa '96??? i think i entered that too but didn't win or go on to be DH world champ…

get you lights on and head up on a monday night!!

****

shotgun lucy boggis. yummy.

but do you really think that cars and household goods etc never have any issues or fail? there seems to be a common theme on here and other forums that mtb products are crap or do not last, but considering the environments and the strains that we put them through it should be expected that stuff wont last, especially when demand is primarily for lightweight equipment rather than heavy duty use.

they are pretty big, they don't fit on my norco. they are probably around 2.4, maybe 2.5 but the fact that they are quite tall means that some frames will be too narrow at the chainstays. 2.2's would be more than fine i would imaging.

top 4 were:
1 – cx
2 – mtb
3 – cx
4 – mtb

rubber queens

Rusty Spanner – Member
peachos – did he look like this, but in focus?

yes that's him. the undeserved 3rd place. i was in fact 3rd for most of the race, but my front tyre slid out on the last lap down by the pond/lake. it wasn't a bad fall i just hit my head. got back up and started to pedal straight away but then went dizzy and had to stop for a couple of minutes whilst i regained my vision. saw this guy fly past and tried to chase him down but ran out of course.

i always ond up knee deep in some bog or another when i ride alone. i find it quite amusing though when the fp i think looks interesting leads me there.

scruzer you don't really understand why north shore came about do you? basically to get you from one nice piece of trail to another when unfortunately the part in the middle is crap and unrideable, usually a bog.

i will be there – is it on again?

excellent course btw. did you organise it terrahawk?

until the last final lap when i came off and lost my 3rd place spot to some kid on a cyclocross bike in an evans jersey.

i think they are painted with paint with sand in it – i may be wrong but there is definitely some attepmt to increase the grip. still got the feeling my front wheel was going to wash out at any second when it was raining though…

paulrockliffe – Member

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

I've ridden it, it's gash.

rocky, it's nowhere near as bad as you make out. yeah the single time that we rode it it was completely turd because of the wind – we were more focused on trying to stay on the boardwalk rather than actually riding it. and the same with the non-board sections – i think the flow of the trail was limited by the wind. saying that there were sections where you had to scrub off loads of speed, whether it was windy or not, due to the technicality of the trail. i mean the parts where the trail used natural rock formations. but i don't think that is particularly a bad thing – it does feel a like you are riding on natural trails compared to many other trail centre trails. if they had just dug in to the hillside and laid down a weatherproof trail you'd all be complaining about that as well. you have to take it for what it is, not the best trail in the world and probably not somewhere that you would travel specifically to ride, but worth a couple of runs down if you are visiting Aonach Mor.

when i paid for my lift ticket the lady at the counter advised me to not go on the new red northshore because some kid got blown off up there earlier in the morning. of course i headed straight for it :D

depends on the size of the seat clamp you need.

depends – a properly cleaned and maintained bike will last longer. i'm talking in regards specifically to the drivechain. as clubber said, this is why i also have a SS.

try vitalmtb or mtbcut perhaps…

tails – Member
Can't think of many better freeride bikes on the market than this

NZ then

i use mine all year round, it's a brill light with plenty enough power imo, a good spread and the best looking!

new

It was literally across the road from my brother's house. I went out with them a couple of times when the Rocky Mountain team came over for a promo visit.

haha i went out on that ride. went over blackstone edge didnt it?! and it was of the era of will longden's RM sponsorship – he came out with us on that ride too.

they are pretty much all or nothing, they don’t tend to grip in stages

well i guess you must have been doing something wrong if you found they were either on or off. i have no problems whatsoever controlling my speed without locking the wheel.

yes they are very powerful but not great unless your into DH

not sure what you mean with this comment.

as for the weight comment why is that daft?

because saying a brake is too heavy for a SS bike makes no sense. so if you have a SS that has juicy 5's and rides perfectly well but then you decided to put nines on there the bike will just not work?

Nines have no modulation though and for a SS they are way too heavy.

Modulation – Usually incorrectly referred to as a characteristic of a brake system. Modulation actually refers to the process of a rider accurately controlling the amount of brake power required without locking the wheel. Typically modulation is best with a brake system that has a “firm” or “hard” lever. The amount of lever stroke required to increase the amount of brake power generated is minimal. Soft levers require stroke to go towards caliper and hose expansion instead of brake power. This type of soft lever is inherently more difficult to control. Levers can feel soft due to mechanical/hydraulic advantage or hose and caliper stiffness properties.

from the hayes website. as for being too heavy for a SS – well that's just a silly comment isn't it.

i've ridden a couple of VPP bikes and was astonished by the amount of pedal feedback when cranking it. horrible, horrible feeling. nothing on horst link!

yikes – £180 worth of bent metal & plastic…

hayes nines. you can pick up a new set (F&R) for less than a hundred quid. work well, plenty of power. spares readily available and they can be fully rebuilt and are easy to bleed/maintain.