at the Octagon in Bangor

I lived in llangefni for 2 years, then Bangor for a further year (1987), I remember taking a girl to the Octagon and some old gipsy lady saying we’d have a long future together (obviously hoping I’d buy some lucky heather-no chance), but we have now been married over 20 years!

I use performance direct to insure my sprinter camper conversion £300/year for a £30K+ value van.

My favourite, (also Shelley) is the Masque of anarchy, particularly:
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many – they are few.

Bear in mind if your towing a caravan with a van, some campsites won’t accept you, fearing your a pikey.

I changed from a Scott Spark 910 which is a pretty light bike, to a Whyte T130c-works which on paper is a fair bit heavier, but don’t notice it when riding and it’s a far better bike and more fun for what I do. I wouldn’t stress too much about the weight difference.

We’re in Morzine July/August and planning 2 days on road so intending to do Joux Plane and Col de la Colombiere, is the climb up from Morzine side good (I understand it’s slightly less brutal, but that doesn’t bother me either way), or am I best to get myself to Samoens and ride up that side?

As already mentioned, depends on where you’re likely to ride and how tall you are. I’m 5’8″ and had a Scott Spark 29er and have changed to a Whyte T130 (27.5) the Whyte seems so much more fun to ride/chuck about and changes direction so much easier than the Scott did. They are different bikes though so it could well be the different geometry as much as the wheel size that made the difference for me. On place the Scott did have the advantage was on straight but rocky decsents (peak district), the large wheels just seemed to roll over everything really well.

We stayed the night at Carnac in northern France on the way back from the Pyranees last year, the stones there aren’t the biggest I’ve ever seen but there’s several fields full of ’em!

Agree Avebury is very cool.

Got an Oregon 650 and it is a very good bit of kit, but I thought the supplied 1:50k maps were all but useless for what we wanted, so ended up getting some osm ones that my mate treated me to and also the 1:25k os ones which were another £300, making this a very expensive little device.

nd the adaptor that goes inside a presto valve when the core is removed won’t fit in any of the valves I have

Ditch the small o-ring in the adaptor and it will fit with no issues.

I love my mountain hardware ghost whisperer

I’ve got, Rab, Hagloffs, Patagonia, Berghaus and several others (I have acknowledged I have an issue and have a self imposed coat ban for at least another year) but my favorite is the above Mountain Hardware jacket, looks good, very warm for a compact jacket, packs down reasonably well.

Any recommendations for winter tyres that work well on a T130?
The WTBs on my ’15 are great in the dry but a bit slidey in the wet.
cheers.

I’m using MM on the front and DHR on the back, works for me.

Mct in Stowemarket will be able to help.

Sealskinz 3 finger gloves, have been using them for over a year and they’re great if you don’t mind the ‘star trek’ finger positioning.

I have these and I can’t use them in anything over 2degrees or my hands are too hot!

We’re happy wild camping for a couple of days on the bounce but for over a week, hook-up and facilities become more important, also my camper is a LWB Sprinter with a large garage (hence being able to carry the motorbike and multiple push bikes), so the awning really comes into it’s own as living space, so I think we need to be in a campsite for this trip.

I’ll look into Le Pre and it looks like I need to do some research on what I want to ride rather than my original plan of making it up as I go along.

Thanks for the input so far, much appreciated.

Cheers Nick, sounds good.

Good to read positive reports as I’ve got a Mojito arriving today, not tried one on, so fingers crossed it fits, or it will have to be sent back.

E Bikes are probably great to ride but there’s one worrying thing about them. They could increase the popularity of mountain biking immensely. People who never considered the sport might try it now. The complaints towards mountain bikers from dog walkers are already high, think how pissed off they’d be if there were 5X more bikes flying past – mostly E bikes going just as fast uphill as downhill ? It could lead to us all getting banned.

Other problems arise with E Bikes tearing up the trails, damaging ‘soft ground’ when its wet & muddy – especially in Winter – inevitable as the popularity of mountain biking increases – especially so with MUCH more powerful bikes.

This is my concern, I can only see the e-bikes getting more powerful, it’s human nature to want the best/fastest……..

A small co2 inflator with the valve core removed is often enough to seat the tyre on the bead if track pump fails, if not then as stated inflate with an inner tube then remove ensuring the bead stays on one side.

Another one with cracked ribs, happened twice now, the most recent was 6 months ago at a Stiff little fingers do in Nottingham, got absolutely zero sympathy from the wife who was safely near the back with the friends we went with, it made motorbike racing a touch painful the following weekend.

I’m in Melton Mowbray. The only place I go is Belvior loop which is ok for xc, but mostly we end up in the peaks, Cannock, Llandegla or further afield.

Ryders Thorn, yellow photochromatic lens, anti fog (nothing’s ever perfect, but these are as good as I’ve found), half the price of Oakley of which I have several sets and can guarantee the Ryders perform far better on a bike.

https://www.ryderseyewear.com/eyewear/thorn/?frame-colour=matte-black&lens-options=photochromic-antifog&lens-colour=yellow-vlt-76-27

Lensway.co.uk do them and there’s several other styles if you don’t like the Thorn.

I’ve been out 3 times on my new T130 and have been really impressed with it, it handled beautifully at Llandegla and Cannock and was much better than I expected round Hope in the peaks. Oh and I had 2 people compliment me, one watching me descend a rocky section and the other was an old fella out walking with his mates commented it was a beautiful looking bike, which has never happened to me before! Enjoy.

Got a Met Parachute on it’s way for a trip to the Alps, not sure how often I’ll wear it in the UK, suppose it will depend how well I get on with it.

Whyte T130c works, should be picking it up in the next week, getting desperate as I sold mine a month ago, have borrowed a bike on a couple of occasions, but need the gap in the bike garage filling!

Very nice. A lot of inanimate objects get named in our house too, I have been forced into playing along as if it’s left to the wife, whatever it is gets christened with some retarded name that then sticks for years.

That would be my guess.

Stayed in Bormio a few years ago on a motorbike tour, absolutely loved it. Stelvio will be good but busy. Mortirollo pass is fantastic and I’d imagine fairly challenging on a bike. Gavia pass scared the hell out of my missus, can’t really remember why, probably because I rode like a tool. Umbrail pass was ace but there’s a few km’s of unpaved road.

100mA rcd is for protection from fire only, so don’t swap the 30mA one for a 100mA one. I had an issue years ago which after some fruitless fault finding I changed the rcd itself. Problem solved, I don’t think it’s that common for the rcd to go faulty but it can happen.

pjm are you near croft?

Melton Mowbray.

Update on the cephalopods, just googled them and I do like a nice Octopus!

what’s your position on cephalopods?

I’m very relaxed about them, mostly because I’m to stoopid to know what one is.

Where are you going in the Pyrenees ?

We’re staying in Luz St. Saveur, which is at the foot of the Col du Tormalet, so I’ll do that and possibly another climb or 2 on the road bike, then want to ride down Pc du Midi, St. Lary and Cauterets on the mtb.