Given that they have steel pins, how exactly will these prevent the skinned shins? If it really is just for pub and shopping then just put some cheapo fully plastic pedals on.

30×12 is a very spinny top gear.

I got them from Chain Reaction.

Coed Mor looks good for what it is (small skills loop), but if you’ve driven that far from Benllech then you might as well cross the bridge and head into Snowdownia.

Pretty sure all the Holyhead Mountain stuff is cheeky (at least all the good stuff), and also likely to be full of tourists.

Just got some Revelations – love them so far. There’s a limited choice of trail forks with 1 1/8″ steerers these days, you’ll be hard pushed to do better than the Revs.

Mountain biking – not really. Road riding – plenty.

Spoke to tftuned this morning.
Ordered a CCDB Air, I was advised that the CCDB Air CS wouldn’t work as well for me.
As I’m 100kg kitted up and I’d be running the shock at 200psi or more, the high speed rebound would be out of range..

I thought that was only a problem with the Inline. Looks like it will have to be a CCDB Air on my 5 too then. Shame, I quite like the pro-pedal on my RP23 and was hoping to get the Air CS.

Fair one. Any of the parts pictured on it above are also available for sale.

I’ve got an Uzzi VPX frame I might be willing to sell (Black – Medium – 135mm dropouts). Make me an offer if you’re interested. Comes with standard dropouts plus a set of ‘Slacker’ dropouts.

Thanks for the tips. Will give the stretching and core exercises a go. Can only be a good thing to do anyway.

Any stretches in particular?

Best core exercises?

Yeah, I’ve got no illusions of placing well, I just want a challenge. It is also about giving me motivation to keep losing the weight. Having said that, I’d like to not only complete it but complete it to the best of my ability, hence the reason for wanting to follow a training plan and target certain things.

I definitely need to look into working out heart rate zones, it’s not something I’ve ever bothered with before but seems to be key in training effectively.

I guess I need to start riding the hardtail more too to get used to that. At the moment I tend to ride my FS for most things (Orange 5), but I’m guessing the hard tail (On One 456) will be better suited to something like 10UTB, although there’s not much difference in weight so perhaps the FS will be the less fatiguing option – something to test out when I start doing longer distances I guess.

Joe Friel book ordered.

What about strength/core exercises? Anything I should focus on?

Thanks for the tips, I’ll definitely check out that book.

@steve_b77

You make it sound so easy! Any idea where I can find a more structured version?

Hmm, interesting approach! I think I’ll skip the rib breaking part.

I’m planning on doing it solo, so will definitely require something more than my normal riding.

Looks like it’ll be Glentress then. Cheers.

I patch my tubeless tyres with standard Tip Top patches. I lightly sand the area where I’m applying the patch, but leave all of the other latex in place. Like stumpy, I clean the bead before reseating.

Just bought some Revelation RCT3s to replace my old Pikes. Only had a couple of decent length rides on them but absolutely loving them so far.

Wouldn’t work in Safari for me, but worked in Firefox. Used it in conjunction with KSVAZ to get a Hope seat collar for free with my Troy Lee A1 helmet. Nice one.

I’d get some panniers – much more comfortable taking the load on the bike than your back.

Oh well, we shall see. The flexiness is my one concern, but having weighed up the options available to me, I think the Rev is the best compromise. If they turn out to be too flexy then they can go on the hardtail and the Pikes can go back on.

Why do you say that rocketman? Haven’t heard of any reliability issues and nobody above, including yourself, has said that they’re no good – couldn’t find any bad reviews online or in mags either. Oh well, given my limited options due to steerer compatibility, I’m fairly confident I’ve made the right choice.

Revs ordered :D

Cheers guys. Looking like I’ll go for the Revs.

How do you find them?

Rock Shox Revelation RCT3 Solo Air is an option, but too flexy?

Orange 5 – awaits tractor/filing cabinet comments.

Orange AirO.

I have one – great bike but crap name. I once had some parts stolen from it and the police officer I was giving the details to on the phone thought it was hilarious that my bike was named after a chocolate bar (once I’d convinced them that I had a blue Orange bike).

I had this problem with a second hand 305 that I bought. Nothing I could do would get it to connect. I phoned Garmin and they sent me a new unit for £37 even though I wasn’t the original owner – you may get it even cheaper having bought it from them.

Just a sebaceous cyst, but a fairly large one.

I’ll go with the consensus and reevaluate once I’ve finished the antibiotics.

Cheers all.

Anyone?

I’ve not been in there since 2010, but at the time they were knowledgable and friendly. However, I won’t ever use them again as they charged me £15 for fitting a bottom bracket (I only wanted them to fit it to check the axle was long enough) after I’d spent over £2K with them for frame, forks and said BB.

Mavic EN821. A couple of mm more internal width, and I believe it’s roughly the same weight as the 819 and the same ERD.

I have Vaults and Burgtec MkIIs. The Vaults are great and just as grippy as the Burgtecs but the seal keeps on popping out of one of them and the bearings have already gone rattley (only had them a couple of months). On the other hand, the Burgtecs have only had a single bearing change in 5 years and are indestructible.

I wish I’d gone for the new Burgtecs instead of the Vaults, especially now their weight is competitive with similar pedals (the old MkIIs are ridiculously heavy).

I’m quite lucky living in the Peak District as there are trails that are rideable year round. However, some of the best trails on my doorstep suffer badly in the wet and I’ll avoid these because I want them to stay great. It seems that there are many that don’t take this approach and it always saddens me to go back to these spots and find ruts so deep that you can’t ride them, and former ribbons of single track turned into wide sections with multiple ruts.

Sometimes you find yourself on a wet or boggy section of trail because you don’t know the trail well enough to know how it would have coped in recent weather, but even if you do then you can limit the damage. In such cases I always ride through the puddle or boggy bit, not around, as I don’t want the trail destroyed. If you’re out riding in those conditions then you’re going to get wet and muddy anyway. If it’s really bad then I’ll either get off and walk that section, or turn back if it looks like those conditions are going to be prevalent.

If I lived somewhere without the option of trails that don’t suffer in the wet then I think I’d probably spend the winter going to trail centres or road riding. I’d rather take the hit in winter and change what I ride than have to ride bad trails all year long due them being destroyed in the winter.

Everyone hates seeing trail sanitisation, but it seems that there are a lot of riders that aren’t prepared to think about the impact that their actions have on the trails.

A bump for April’s crowd!

Gone for Cro-Mo Charge Scoop.

I know what you mean Scruff, but I tend to disagree. A lighter bike will still be lighter when I lose some more pounds. As long as the lighter stuff is strong enough, I don’t see any reason not to consider weight as an important factor when buying stuff. I’m no racer, and probably never will be, but I enjoy riding a lighter bike more than a heavier one (all else being equal).

Hmm, sounds like Cro-Mo is the way to go. From what I gather, it doesn’t make much difference in weight with the Charge saddles, but Ti is almost a 100g saving for SDG saddles. I guess SDG use lighter Ti, but they’re probably not as strong either. Looking like a Cro-Mo railed Charge at the moment. At least they’re nice and cheap.