I like your top 2, not that I've even seen one in the flesh, let alone ridden one. I know a bloke with an NS Surge and he seems to like it. Did the Fort William DH enduro race thing in the summer on it and finished 3rd in hardtail category. He also uses it for 'normal' riding too (whatever normal riding is these days).

Scroll down towards the 2nd half of this page. Take your pick!

http://dirtmountainbike.com/dirt-100/2010/page/2/

Usually pay in full on dispatch. Cotic don't take deposits for frames that they don't have yet, although 18Bikes did when I ordered a Chemeleon (about £50 IIRC).

At the moment it's my Kona Howler. It's my least bling bike (got a hardtail and another FS) and is mostly made up of 2nd hand or hand me down parts, but it's just so much fun! it's got 1×9 gearing and I can pop in my burly wheels and go uplifting at Cwm Carn or put my light wheels in and go and have fun locally or at the trail centres. In fact, if I could only have one bike this would be it. It's now got Pikes on the front.

Cheers. I've only ridden mine once round a lap of Whites at Afan, but they were fine so fingers crossed.

Hmmm, best get using mine to see if this rears its head. How many hours have you used yours for?

Cheers Mark. Was just looking at a cheap way of getting cleats plus some pedals, so will prolly go with the Candys instead then.

Thanks. What's the difference between premium and plain then?

Chromag or Curtis would be on my list, but both are expensive when compared to a Dialled or On-One. Decade Virsa looks good too and has the swap-out drop-outs to go gears or snigglespeed.

I ride a 15.5 inch Kona Howler and with a 400mm post I just get away with it. I've got a 33 inch inside leg, so you should be fine post wise with a 16 inch.

At least you know now. I hate wishing that I'd done something or asked someone, even if it went wrong – at least I knew. Takes all the 'if only' scenarios out of your head.

Nice.

I assume you've already seen these? Just in case…

Dirt test – http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/reviews/pdf/OrangeST4TEST.pdf

Singletrack test – http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/reviews/pdf/ST4_Test_Singletrack_48.pdf

As he says, same travel, but different bikes really I'd have thought.

Don't forget to bring the correct bike too – no mountain bikes! Shoppers, old BMXs, grandads bike – stuff like that.

The 8 days thing is because demand is running higher than supply pipes can pipe it in, so the stocks in the UK start to be used up.

The worst that can happen is she says no. So what? She'll most likely take it as a compliment at least (unless you're a complete wierdo).

What do you mean by outsiders? Best to ask Charlie the Bikemonger – he 'organises' the 'race'.

You wanna be watching Movies 4 Men 2 at 10pm. They're showing "The Erotic Adventures of the Three Musketeers" starring Ron Jeremy. Got to be worth it for the comedy.

How's SSP? Is his arm OK or did he in fact break it like he thought?

The White Room had a good one. Have a chat with Steve – on here as stevomcd I think.

Isn't the Ragley quite a bit lighter? The Summer has plain gauge tubes IIRC.

Aye, good fun today. Thanks for showing me some more of the Forest – not that I'd be able to find most of the trails we did again!

psling – yup, nice to put a face to the famous name. Must meet up for some pootling locally sometime.

I was in the Forest of Dean with other STW types and we had three 29ers in a group of 10! How un-niche and mainstream is that?

P.S. Hope singlespeedpunk's arm is OK.

Look at it as buying cleats and getting the pedals for £3.00. Might do that myself.

I find I don't really use the U-Turn on my RS forks, but I used TALAS loads when I had a set. It's just so easy and simple to use it was worthwhile doing.

5 ft 10 and a bit with 33 inside leg. Had an 18 inch classic model a few years back and wish I'd gone for the 16 inch. I do prefer a shorter bike though.

Is this the newer EBB model or the older horizontal drop-out version?

Cheers Cheesy, but all set with Ayatollah now (unless you're part of his group). Have a good one.

8 of us went last year with The White Room – http://www.whiteroomchalet.com/sumintro.htm – and they were fantastic. We went before the lifts opened so got to use the van, but Steve can cater for whatever you like – XC, day long traverses, a bit of DH, singletrack, etc. The Tarantaise Valley where they do their riding is excellent (Les Arcs, Ste Foy, etc.) and the food is superb. Excellent value for money too and yes, all you can drink in beer and wine is included in the price.

I run a 34:18. 32:18 was a little too easy at most places and ran out on nice flowy singletrack. I do tend to freewheel the downs more than most (it's all about the views) and I'm a bit crap going up, so 32:17 would be a good place to start if you have lots of hills.

No way!

Current – 'dale Prophet MX, Kona Howler, Genesis Alpitude

Want – maybe some new forks or a shock for the Howler, but they're a great 3some so no new bikes/frames for me in 2010.

Has he crashed through the barriers yet?

Dual Air is the positive and negative chambers that RS forks use. When the forks are just called Dual Air then the travel is fixed (although you can use spacers to drop travel internally). U-Turn uses dual air, but also has the windy uppie down ability you want. U-Turn are a wee bit heavier just because of the U-Turn gubbins inside, but there's no difference in performance as far as I'm aware between the 2 types of forks.

Ker-ching! That'll do nicely for the Alpitude. Anyone want some '05 Minutes?

I lusted after the pink and blue Montanas from around 1992. They were ace. It still looks nice today, Jimmy.

I've got an Alpitude and it's awesome. I had the new model Chameleon (the one with the EBB) and found the BB too high. That was a reason I chose the Alpitude over the Soul too – I like a lower BB.

I preferred postie's when it was that sort of silver grey colour.

Apparently it's an old Sunn frame that was modded.