A snapped chainstay left me with a 9 mile walk in the Black Mountains. Other than that some serious chainsuck left me with a walk home. Even splitting the chain didn't work. Luckily I'd only just set off and was just the other side of town. I take that little plastic star key thing for my HT II cranks now, just in case like.

My first SS was a de-geared 1994 Rock Lobster with its old parts making up the build. It developed a wee bit and got a disc brake for the front and a pukka set of SS wheels. I then tried a Kona Unit and a Dialled Love/Hate with Rebas, disc brakes and all that nice to have stuff. I've now gone back to the Rock Lobster, mainly as it's not worth selling and the others never got used enough to justify having them. The Rock Lobster is also great fun anyway, but only really gets ridden a few times a year.

Dirt mag love it.

The ground is frozen hard, but there's no snow. Should be nice and grippy – just avoid any frozen puddles!

Depends what you want to do and what your riding is. I'm 5-10 and would always go for the 16 inch as my riding is 2 to 3 hour woodsy stuff. I had an original 18" Inbred about 5 years ago and found it too long for me.

Monmouth has had no snow at all and I don't think anywhere else in South Wales has either, so it should be clear. Icy hard ground, but clear.

Pulp supported St. Etienne back in early 90's. Also somewhere in another gig was a support band called Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, which in itself isn't amazing, but one of the 2 girl backing singers was Shirley Manson who was soon to bugger off and do Garbage instead.

You can get Japanese whisky these days. Would be worth it for the surprise and novelty. Bowmore distillery is owned by a Japanese drinks outfit and they've got some in their shop. £45 or £50 a pop though, so depends on your budget.

I've got the multi and you need to drop the saddle mid-way (or just not to the bottom), let go of the remote lever and then let it spring back up and it just slots into the 1 inch drop position.

I find the 1 inch drop good for singletrack stuff and save the highest setting for road and climbs. May as well go for the 4 inch overall drop as the whole idea is that the saddle is out of the way – you ain't going to be sat pedalling with it dropped anyway, so get it right out of the way.

Eh? A Bottlerocket is a suspension frame, not a hardtail. Anyway, the Transition TransAm is indeed a looker!

http://www.transitionbikes.com/Bikes_TransAM.cfm

I mean turn the gold knurled knob fully to on (external type) or using the allen key for internal MoCo so that if you didn't have more -ve air pressure it would nearly be locked out. The larger knob outside of the gold one then just acts as a lockout rather than a crude compression adjust.

TF Tuned recommend whacking the Motion Control full on and then putting between 5 and 10psi more in the -ve chamber depending on your weight. That way you got a fork that's still supple over small bumps but doesn't dive as much under braking. It works well for me.

Yes.

ET except their on BMXs. Still a good chase though. Bob Haro was riding one of the bikes and pulling 'sick airs' or whatever the saying was back in 1982.

Does the original Italian Job count as a car chase or is the whole film just a 'caper'? How about the James Bond film where he's in Paris and gets the back end of his Renault 11 swiped off. Can't remember the name, but may have been View to a Kill.

A 2010 Fox RP23 would be ideal – excellent shock and a doddle to set up. Dead easy to fit. Get the proper spacers from Mojo when you get the shock, pop them in the shock and slot it in the frame. Job done.

7.5 inches = 190mm
7.25 inches = 184mm

I've never even heard of a 184mm shock. Are you sure of that figure?

Singletracks are way burlier than 317's, so depends what you want them for.

With or without the spacer for normal crown forks? Not that I know, but it's worth taking into account.

I'm not reading all that. Summary?

Great fun bike. Does it all way better than I expected. Local rides to Cwm Carn uplift days.

Showerman – I ran the brake hose through the lower shock mount as you suggest.

20mm extra is *roughly* 1 degree slacker.

I doubt the new 2010 chainstays will snap. Much more solid around the BB pivot point. Take a look at the photos and compare.

Previous owner had the derailleur side drop out on the wrong way round, so that may be it. Unless it's the non-drive side that's giving the problem…

Hmmmm. Would this be why my rear wheel always felt loose? Never did fathom out why and thought it was the wheel. Let me know what it costs and I'll paypal the cash back to you.

I run a 32 with 11/32 but when it all wears out I'll swap to 34 and 11/34 just to get a bit more gearing for the faster sections. It'll do for now though.

It says in the manual that the bottom out should not be run lower than the main chamber. How do you find that? Seems odd to me coming from Rock Shox, especially the large difference between the 2 that they suggest. Should I just try and keep a 30psi difference at the right sag setting?

I had some '09 Talas 150mm forks and they were excellent. The Talas is brilliant – click, click and the fork is dropped. I took them to the Alps and found them to be a wee bit flexy braking into steep switchbacks, but never really noticed in the UK. I had to give them back and now have a set of 150mm U-Turn Revs which are also brilliant although the U-Turn isn't as user friendly, but fortunately they're on a bike with a steep seat angle so I don't have to use it much. To me the less faffy servicing requirement and less wear prone stanchions of the Revs outweighs the sublime damping of the Fox as the Revs ain't too far off damping wise anyway. If the price isn't an issue (a couple of hundred quid would be to most) and you can keep up the wiper servicing frequency then go for the Fox. If not, then the Revs.

'dale do offer lifetime warranties and powder coating prolly will knacker your warranty. BigNick did his old Hustler and then it cracked and Cove wouldn't warranty it cos of the powder coating.

My black Prophet still looks excellent, so gawd knows what you've been doing unless you're a perfectionist.

1994 Rock Lobster. I think this was magic ratio in this pic, but it's got an On-One doofer on at the moment. Used for kiddie seat rides now.

Definitely best to get a local if you possibly can. I've ridden there a few times, but never seem to find anything good on my own.

When I had a quick go on it it felt fine until I pulled the brakes to stop!

I've done that route in MBR and it's OK, but at the end you still have to lose a lot of height on road which is a shame. It's OK as routes go – took me about 2 and a quarter hours at a pootle and a stop or two to look at the views. I'd prefer to do something else in the area before that one though. There's lots to choose from so check out http://www.mtb-wales.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Subjects&file=index&POSTNUKESID=1e001f93cb77ad84955667bf1e960511

*cough*
White Hemlock for sale in classifieds. Comes with 2010 chainstays too!

So when you sell it in 12 months you'll advertise it for £353.50, right?

Alpitude has a lower BB height which is why you feel more in the bike. I love mine and after trying a few hardtails (New model Chameleon, Azonic, On-One) I've found the one to stick with. Mine's built with Pikes, Hope Hoops, double and bash, Gravity Dropper, etc. Fantastic fun.

Got a set of old wheels off my Trek 970 with DX hubs (7 speed of course) on Matrix rims (Trek in house brand before they bought Bonty). A 1.9 Specialized on the back and a 2.1 Ritchey on the front.

5ft 10 and a bit and I ride the 16.5 inch version. I love it. Bought the frame (2009) and swapped parts over from a previous frame. It's exactly what I was after in a hardtail and is great for trail centre razzing as well as longer jaunts. It's not the best finished frame, but after a few rides it gets a few knocks and scratches anyway.

That was the format back in the day. A 1 lap TT and then the race later on.