yep using them, they look very pretty indeed, and stiff enough for heavy riding they’re great and I bought them second hand, although if I’m honest I think the saints or Zees are stronger and once my burners have worn out I’ll probably go with them.

I’m running a standard Hope BB.

couple of niggles though:
– you do need a chain guide though even with a clutch mech.
– like any self extracting cranks they extract themselves after riding, but a bit of Loctite on the crank bolt solves that
– I stripped the crank bolt and emailed middleburn for a replacement, but no reply, so bought a cheapo crank bolt from chainreaction and no problems yet

OP the brakes will work on any disc mounted bike

183 is the standard hope size

i’m running 183 on the rear and 203 on the front and they work fine, im 16st and they stop me perfectly well

i’m off to the alps next wekk so if i’m not dead i’ll let you know how they work on long descents

the brakes will be fine on an alpine 160 just need the correct mounting, which any LBS will be able to help you with.

TF Tuned have just done mine, cant recommend them enough

5 10 convert here. was always using skate shoes as you can buy 4 pairs for the price of one pair of 5 10s, but the grip on the sole and that they are semi waterproof and stones bounce of the toe rather than crushing your foot, makes them worth every penny – i’m sure chainreaction will have a deal on them soon

Yep, had alot of crashes over the years, one recently that ended in 17 stitches. i always find that getting back on the bike is a big part of getting over the injury, you’ve done that, so i woudlnt beat yourself up about being slower, as previous start back slowly and the confidence will return.

i find that once you start to analyse it you’ll come off more at the worse it will become

I’m 6’5 and ride a Large AM its perfect for me – but i’ve always liked smaller bikes so really its all a matter of preference – i’d give it a test ride especially as its a mates bike, i’m sure he’d be willing to let you take it for a longer ride and see how it feels.

i ran the bike with 140 Pikes for a year before switching to Fox 36s and again it rode a dream so your maguras will be fine until you yern for more travel 🙂 the joy of the Nic’s adjustabe rear to balance the bike

my camelbak bladder has a lifetime guarantee, perhaps check yours and get camelbak to replace it for free and keep your pack

otherwise i have the Haug NV camelbak, which i love and has plently of space for carrying, plus the back panels are extremly good and reducing back sweat

i have middleburn uno and Shimano Zee short cage

i have ridden Cwm Carn and innerleithan on both the DH and XC tracks and the chain only came off once on Cwn Carn XC

so presently no plans for chain guide – as soon as it starts to fall off then i’ll get one, so with stilltortoise on this one

i prefer the look without guide though

yeah i had those on mine with a Hope bottom bracket and the fit is pretty tight with the GXP adapter on the hopes, the months of grit and water had got in, especially if you’ve used a jet wash and i suspect that the grease is no longer, so you may need a bigger ‘bash’ with a rubber mallet it shoudl come loose.

sounds silly but have you made sure the bike frame doesn’t move when you bash it with the mallet as that will take the power out of the hit

dont know about the air version, but my coil ones are excellent and bulletproof. the coil ones are simply a dial that lets you infinatly adjust the travel between 95mm and 140mm travel

mine are also for sale….ahem (shameless plug)

ah ok, yep heading out on Saturday so perhaps Hamsterley is out, not sure my heavy frame (bike and Rider) will be good in an XC race.

yeah keilder is good, but i tend to ride it every time im up in the north so was hoping for something a bit different and yeah if the weather is good and easter weekend i think most of the routes in the lakes will be pretty busy.

thanks all certainly something to think about, halfway is up by hexham, so streching the halfway bit.

i like the sound of natural trails, especially as the weather is good, but i’m pretty lazy and following the yak trails is my kinda thing, especially when i am out of practice in au natural riding and mapping.

i do 4 sets of 14 press ups evey morning which has massivly helped my core and also i use resistance bands
from Amazon, whcih are absolutly brilliant and portable and you can do them in front of the tv in the evening

or a bit of grease

just bought some high tech grey outers 😳

convinced my shifting is infinitly better than my low tech black ones 😆

why avoid the fireroad?

the quickest way would be pushing up the side of the downhill, but you might not be too popular and i don’t think it’d be that easy

avoiding fireroad the quickest way is 1

alternativly the easiest way is to follow the forest drive road up the wrong way (then pushing up the trail for walkers that cuts off some of the corners)

Complete new drive chain!

Middleburn RS8 UNO cranks
Zee Mech and shifter
XT cassette
SRAM chain

best day since reciving the bike they will be thrown at

if you are riding through Aston court and Leigh Woods, the Cottage Inn[/url] on the water front is an excellent place for a post ride beer or two, especially if the sun is out!!

My Old man has an ’89 chevy corvette, its ace!, 5.7L V8 with 300BHP – how americans get so little power out of such big engies always amazes me, but the thing sounds beautiful (you can set car alarms off with it – so childish, but hilarious), and at 70 on a motorway it just about manages 23mpg, but when you press the loud pedal it drops to about 2MPG!!!!!
its also a classic now so tax and insurance is cheap (relitively)
the rest of the costs are a bit eye watering though tyres are around £300 and becasue its an 80’s car it is full of electrics that usually go wrong so that can be expensive.
With American cars its the mpg that hurts, other than that go for it, the noise of an old school V8 is immense

Bought my Cannondale at lunchtime and had to wait 4 hours to finish work before i could ride it, that was the longest i have waited.

when i bought the Nicolai i drove 30mins to the trail center and rode it, i’m with Binners, far too much of a child to wait

Sent mine via Roayl Mail a couple months ago and it cost me about £15

but mine were coil forks, dunno about air.

did skiing for a week when i was 8 and loved it, but then learnt to snowboard and haven’t gone back to skiing!!

skiing is way easier to pick up but snowboarding shoudl only take about 3 days to get the hang of linking turns and fall over less and is waay more fun than skiing

i woudln’t mind trying skiing again though, as the last few times i’ve been the snow has been crap and we’ve stuck to the piste (whcih is pretty boring on a board) if its powder all week then defintley board, but if its icy and you are on piste then i’d ski – plus you can go much faster on skis

French car with a frenchman behind the wheel has won the WRC for many many years not to mention same frenchmen smashed the Pikes Peak record to bits, with an epic Pug 8)

that said i prefer Zee Germans ( i have german car and german bike ) both are 4 years old and neither one has gone wrong……yet

bit late to this thread, but i used parcelforce about a week ago to send my bike frame (which included the are shock) and it all arrived safely no problems

i did go through ‘Mail, Boxes, etc’ though rather than via the post office

i’d have to agree with pieface, i would need a new hobby if i lived somewhere flat!!

can’t complain about living in bristol it is ace for biking, not quite what binners has at doorstep, but pretty darn good and i can ride to some pretty epic spots from my house 😆

thanks Wallop, cant wait, already my mind is wondering to sunnier days – hurry up summer i’m bored of winter now

yeah losing my alpine virginity this year in august and wondering where to go so any suggestions would be helpful.

the group is swaying towards Les Arcs, but we are taking the WAGs and they are more interested in walking so a mixture of flowing singletrack (for us) and nice views and pretty villages (for the better halfs)

Deux Alps has been suggested, we are also driving so needs to be fairly easy to get to from uk

Like Greeble said

defintiley start at Bryn Argoed
half time lunch at glyncorrwg

although i’d completly miss whites level out and just do the Wall, then you can try out the Afan bike park on the way back,

VLC player will play everything – not sure about windows vista but i’m sure you can get VLC with that

also just to make sure – have you checked the settings on the GoPro – if its new you will have to put it into PAL settings (comes in NTSC as standard and thats for the good ol’ USofA) also double check that the video is shooting the right way up as there is a setting on the camera whcih allows you to have the camera film upside down (for use with the chesty mount)

Short travel, lightweight, HT and my Nicolai

Hi dicky, just emailed you, we have a spare room in bristol we could rent on a short term basis

I have a 3 year old XL Cannondale for sale its 120mm travel and is happy in Wales – but its only the frame – needs a new headset but does come with bottom bracket – and i have the forks – might be a bit out of the price range though as i’m looking for around £400 for the frame and £80 for the forks

email if you want pics, i am open to offers

joe_oliver83@hotmail.com

not my ad but – http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1405602/

yeah i enjoy Keilder when i’m up there, as most people on here have said – definitley miss out the top section to the view point – it really is not worth it, unless its a really nice day – in which case i’d push/ride up the descent to the observation point

or buy a second hand Nicolai…..

i did, and it is quite simply the best bike i have ever had and its 26″ flavour – plus still has a couple years of warrenty left!!

have a look on Nicolai-UK website as they often had deals on there so you are getting a new bike – albeit you can’t fully customise it – however a full factory respray is around £300 so not horrifically bad and you’ll get the colour you want

yeah i’ve built a couple of wheels – it does take ages,make sure you have the right spokes on the drive and non-drive side though and take your time to thread them the right way

– but it is weirdly calming –

i used the cable ties round the frame/fork trick – way cheaper than a truing stand

but then you could always have a go at building then get your LBS to fully true the wheels

yep had some Toras on my old HT which fell off the roof of the car on the motorway when the roof rack failed – bike was trashed, but the Toras were fine – infact put them on another bike and still managed CwmCarn DH on them and they still won’t die

+1 for Otterbox

my wifes iphone survived being run over by a van, so its defintley tough – not waterproof though

oh – but it does make the phone into a brick

can’t blame a man for trying!

pretty sure CRC will tell you where to go…..but you never know.

let me know how it goes and i might return my 2 year old chain and cassette as they are covered in oil and the teeth are worn out so dont really work as intended 😆

Yeah its worth getting the tools – i think i managed to get the lot for around £40 – compared to my LBS that were going to charge £70 for a hub re-build – i figured even if i only use the tools once i was still up.

it is possible to bodge the tools though – there is a good vid on youtube