Seriously, try and test both. They are both quite different, despite being similar on paper.

A happy Five owner. :-)

Exodus. The album that brought reggae to wider recognition and it still sounds good today.

Massive attack? Good but will it be remembered 30 yrs on? Best of all time?

It's got to be the best part of eighteen years old already… Still as fresh as a daisy.

On a slightly more serious note, why would you buy an Audi over – say – a Lexus or a Honda?

All produce 'premium' cars, but IIRC Which? don't rate the reliability of the Audis to highly, whereas Japanese cars tend to do very well on most fronts (depreciation, drive, reliability etc.)

And yes, I am playing devil's advocate. ;-)

Theres nothing wrong with Audi's, but there is something about most prestige marques, and especially 'drivers cars' that goes to the heads of a lot of the owners that can just about afford the credit agreement.
The strange thing is Audi themselves used to pitch their brand as the car for drivers who dont want to be grouped with the Beemer/ Merc set- remember that advert with the flash, arrogant yuppie mouthing off as he throws an A4 aggresively round the Square mile, before pulling into a dealer, handing the keys back, and saying " nah mate, not my style"
I thought that advert was one of the few responsible car ads- most show how fast/ how much power and how much status the car has( on totally empty roads, of course)

I remember that ad. Very refreshing at a time when "most show how fast/ how much power and how much status the car has" .

"Taxi!"

Just been on holiday with Riviera[/url] who work with another Italian company over in Finale. I didn't ride there myself, but the riding where we were was some of the most fun singletrack I've ever had the pleasure to ride.

I thoroughly enjoyed riding 2.2 Supersonic pre-production tyres at Afan in the dry – very very quick. Unfortunately I then split one on a flint locally, which was a shame as the tyres still had a lot of life left in them.

I know the 2.4s had a tendancy to roll over a little at low pressures when cornering.

Not really… No.

My father owned four Audis, two were the old 100 model, and prior to them (when he had some cash) two were ur-Quattros.

Does that make my father an ur-C**t?

I think he's safe – it's the company car underpowered A6s you need to keep an eye out for… ;-)

Rich, John and Ian of Firecrest over at Aston Hill are very good, if you're darn sarf.

Christ, I don't know any middle managers who have one of those things. I have to admit that i wouldn't mind an M5 estate, mind.

You obviously aren't working with the right middle management then, dahling. ;-)

@Grantway

I believe that the new Gamut double mounts on an external BB…

As a down and outright fun 'mountain bike' the Five gets my vote too.

Although the Slingshot and Klein Mantra are close behind… :-D

I hate to say it, but thirded.

I also looked into one when offered a bargain 1.8 petrol A4 estate a while back – I bought a 1.8 petrol Focus estate. Statistically a lot more reliable, cheaper on fuel, parts and insurance, lots of space inside and similar performance to boot. It probably handles better as well.

I was shouted at by an Audi driver while commuting on the bike a while back for not making a right turn over a crowded but reasonably quickly moving thoroughfare – it took a cab driver to point out that he was stationary and blocking traffic on the wrong side of the road for him to admit the error of his ways, which he expressed using the medium of flooring it out of the junction into busy traffic.

I'm sure there are nice Audi drivers out there, but their a**ewipe counterparts certainly help fuel the stereotype.

Probably get them serviced and then sell.

What model are the 55s and wrong with them?

Model is a 2008 55 ATA. I believe the problem is that there is a floating valve inside one of the legs that slowly sucks in oil as the suspension is compressed and released, which then restricts travel and gets worse the more you ride. It happened earlier this year after a few weekends at Aston Hill (which Windwave fixed during a service in May, alongside a top-out 'click'), but reappeared during a long weekend in the Italian Alps, weekend before last.

I've been assured that it's a pretty easy fix (take out valve, drain, replace oil in bath), but not something I fancy doing every six months.

I'd be inclined to lean towards a set of Fox Talas RC2's or 2008/9 Rock Shox Lyrik U-Turn's off e-Bay.

Kinda where I'm heading to now – 170mm is a little excessive. :-)

Do you really need 160mm? 150mm Rev's (3.57lb – U-turn) instead maybe?
Lot lighter than Lyrik @ 5.23lbs (u-turn 170mm)…

I have looked down that line and it's a very good option. However, more and more of the riding I'm doing on this bike is in 'big' areas (Alps, Spain etc.) to the point where I'm looking at possibly replacing the Five with a Blood or Alpine 160 (or even getting a second sus bike? In which case, it's where the bigger forks would go).

My advice would be don't bother with the adjustability, you think you need it but you don't really and it just adds weight. I actually thought that the 5 climbed worse dialled down to 130 than it did at 160. I also think its an unncessary distraction, you spend half a ride faffing about with it.

Normally I'd agree with you as less faff makes a lot of sense, but I do like having the option to drop travel a little, swap to lighter tyres and have a bike far more suitable for shorter rides where I am (Chiltern Hills).

You're not the first person to mention Lyrics…

I was erring towards Talas 36s until I did a price hunt – they ain't cheap.

Possibly selling my 18" 2008 Five frame soon.

To replace with either a Blood, an Alpine 160 or another Five.

For what I want from a mountain bike in a size range that fits me (I seem to sit between sizes on a lot of brands) I find it very hard to fault.

Sure there are minor niggles here and there, but as an overall riding experience it's great.

I have no idea what to say.

All I know is that it can be beaten.

So you can beat it.

Count me in as another rooting for you!

Sorry, iDave – sounds fascinating. My sister is quite involved in projects of that ilk as well – care to share with me too? Again, no worries if not. :-)

Is this a good time to point out that the bullish, ultimate, hardnosed point of a business is to make money? (Sorry Hora, but this – and I hate to say this – also includes Santa Cruz ;-) )

It's probably also a good time to point out that it's what the company does that brings value, not the fact that it's a money-making company. I mean, if our employers didn't ultimately make money they'd not be requiring our services, would they? And even governments need money-making people to tax, to pay for the services used by money-making people… It's all part of our beautiful rampant consumerist cycle.

Howies could finance arms deals in the middle east or test bottled milk on newborns in Africa, but it doesn't – it makes clothes, and appears to do so whilst concentrating on sustainability. Yes, it fuels our 'rampant consumerism', but isn't it better to fuel our little money-spilling disease with something that does a little less damage and pays fair wages throughout it's production, as opposed to the more disposable consumerism that other companies push for? Howies make no bones about you saving up for their clothes, whereas Top Man would like to see you in a new pair of jeans every Friday night.

I personally also like the fact that they try out innovative kit – it ain't cheap, but the Barrier hoody to me looks like something I'd be wearing a lot during the winter, especially after a dip in the North Sea or a spin where I have to get changed in a carpark afterwards before driving home.

Yeap – I agree that their kit could be a little cheaper and I'd like to see fewer items fail. But companies have ups and downs for various reasons – look at Manitou and Marzocchi – and it'll be interesting to see where both Howies and Dave H go from here. I have a hunch that Dave will still be keeping his finger in the clothing pie and I wouldn't be surprised to see something happening in a years time.

That fact that you're all talking about this means that Howies has had a certain amount of impact… Is that a little bit of jealousy in there too?

Good luck to him and his next venture, whatever it is.

I think you should find out yourself before qualifying your existence by denouncing the daily mail, posting pictures of a single speed related tattoo and make rash ill-informed and unfounded comments about the quality or lack of of a component you have never even used, but saw a mate of a mate once break whilst just leaning his bike against a hedge.

£150? Steal! Mine's now got Vanillas, old Hope Minis and an XT HT2 set-up, but as a winter singletrack bike I can't really fault it.

Older shot of it here: