Yea, I ride with someone who got a Reactor and they are perfect for general trail riding, big days out, was tempted to get one instead of the Mega as it’s not all about travel, right? But, the Mega suits the trails here in South Wales better than my Privateer which is kinda skittish and hard to get around the tight stuff, great bike for the Alps but yea Mega all day long.

Doh! Yea, just checked and rear non-driveside bolt was loose, and could be turned by hand. Sorted now all torqued up, no knocking.

Loving the Mega btw, great bikes.

Yea I’ve heard the same, I’ve checked by hand and all feels tight but will give them a nip-up.

Pedal are brand new and greased. It happens at a precise point.

Depends where about’s. It’s quite a big area when you take in Mumbles, Gower, Neath, Swansea Valley, Port Talbot, further west towards Llanelli, all these areas would be considered Swansea, really.

For mountain biking and general outdoor stuff, you’d struggle to find a better area IMO. Winters are very grim tho it rains a lot, I mean every day for weeks on end.

Housing market is very, very competitive, hardly any stock and lots of people buying/looking, so properties are going for well over asking price in some areas.

Turned out they came from factory with 160 sahft not 170. Fair play to SRAM though, changing a buggered pair of forks for brand new Lyriks. Very, very fast service also. Four day tun around.

Yea you are right. Must be older debonair. I’ll check nice one for that info.

After checking they are Debonair not Duel Position Air which would be the updated one.

I’ll run them and see how they are.

So, had a nice new set of replacement forks, although Black lowers not Red but beggars can’t be choosers! SRAM have no red 29er Lyriks in stock. They didn’t say what was wrong with original forks but must have been terminal.

The only question I have is that these new Lyriks sit just below 10%, is this normal? I’m borrowing a set of 2019 Lyriks at mo which don’t sit in travel at all. I tried zip tie trick etc etc and they stay the same. I guess this must be normal and doesn’t really effect anything once sag is set.

Ok thanks for the suggestions, I don’t have anywhere clean to work on them at mo and don’t want to do anything that could spoil the warrenty (20 days left 🙂 ), they have been sent to ZyroFisher/SRAM once again, maybe they did just catch the ring when fitting new lowers but can’t believe they let them go out like that. Personally I’ve always thought it was the damper.

I shall let you know what happens. Just to add, SRAM service time was fast….like four days from sending them off to getting them back, luckily I have access to another set and the sun just came out here in Wales!

Mmm yea never ever heard of that, obviously to diagnose just remove wheel and check if roughness is gone? They are still gritty without the wheel. Guess they’ll have to go back to SRAM

Ok cheers. I assumed the original problem was bushings, that’s why they replaced the lowers, it’s very strange that SRAM would have let them come back this way.

What you mean by out of tolerance hub?

Thanks.

Over the last 12-months or so, there appears to have been a marketing campaign from the industry and those pushing for ebikes to become the norm that reliability would not be an issue with the current generation of ebikes. Don’t fall for it, I’ve seen plenty of photographs of failed motor internals from modern ebikes, caused by……water and…pedal strikes.

You will never stop water getting into a motor, ever. Also, you will never stop pedal strikes.

Get a good warranty. They will break at some point.

There’s a lot of ‘off piste’ riding around there now, but it is a big area and a lot of the stuff is tucked away and not on Strava. The locals have a Facebook group if you are on there, best to join one of their rides.

RIP Julien Bream. The greatest guitarist.

I love Ibanez guitars.

I have a 1981 AS100 semi-hollow. Amazing guitar, beautifully made and stunning tone. Very hard to find now in the second hand market.

Tom B –

Yea dude, I am! Love them, although not everyone’s cuppa tea! That’s amazing you must know so much about the great man.

Julian Bream. The greatest guitarist ever, without a doubt. Segovia and John Williams are a close second and third. They are beyond anything, of another other style included.

Mainstream..

Acoustic…
Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. Kind of similare but amazing chord structures and finger picking.

Plugged in…
Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. Unbelievable guitarist. Wrote some amazing riffs and had to put up with all the punk stuff.

Hendrix. By far the best electric guitarist. Not technically, but he was born with nothing, was black, which at the time was a bad thing in that part of America, came to London, blew every other musicians mind and became worldwide name and a legend forever, and it was all down to his playing and creativity.

Cobain, was good as well, to front a band like that, singing and churning out that music night after night, takes some doing.

I don’t know, there are so many. All imo, obviously. 🙂

Cheers!

twinw4ll – I’m working on the whole suite which it is from, I learn’t the Prelude last year, this Fugue took about 6 months to memorize the score and to get to that standard and needs some work still. I’ve played classical from childhood but this is the most challenging piece I’ve attempted, both technically (there are some big stretches!) and musically. It is very complex, like most fugues, but this is a inverse retrograde fugue, so the repeats are backwards and upside down, excuse the theory talk but only Bach does that shit. It’s tough to get your head around.

metalheart – yea amazing set of videos, Julian Bream is my all time favorite guitarist of any genre, probably the greatest of all. His enthusiasm and sheer love of playing is amazing, and when Benjamin Britten decides to write stuff personally for you, you know you’ve made it 😉

Edukator – haha! I do love a power chord also! 🙂

Lol I know, no idea where to post this.

Is this the guitar thread now btw?

Excuse the lockdown hair but found time to record this. Pretty hard to play 🙂 Probably not anyone’s cup of tea, but Bach is the best.

Twin Town 🙂

I built my P4 last week, and I’ve ridden it quite a bit as I have trails from the house, and it’s a great bike. Straightforward to build the frame, running the dropper was a bit tricky, but got there in the end.
First thing is the seat angle. It felt very weird on the first couple of rides, but I love it now. So much better at climbing than my Airdrop, it’s actually quite addictive at the moment going uphill. It’s a beast (as expected) going down, eats up rough stuff and corners well, very balanced. Build quality is awesome from the looks of it. I though it was going to be pretty much the same as a RAAW but they are quite different when comparing side by side.

Not a bike for everyone though, if I was ridding trail centres etc etc, I’d look elsewhere, these need to be ridden hard and are built for rough stuff.

So yea, very positive from first impressions, I ride off piste enduro stuff in the Welsh Valleys mainly, pretty much every other day, so it was bought for the purpose it’s built for.

I’ve done a quick video of the bike if anyone wanted a closer look.

haha yea, going to be slightly over biked for a while! 🙂

Nope. But they have put a couple of updates out, and the frames are with them next week and ready to be put out to delivery. Considering everything, that’s pretty good I think. Looking forward to building it, but not being able to ride it in anger will be hard!

Freelance press photographer selling images regionally, across the UK and internationally. Very, very busy at the moment (this is a perfect storm for the media) . I don’t cover sport only news, but many other photographers who shoot football for a living are very worried.

Also, even more like a Raaw Madonna 🙂 pretty much identical now.

Yea seen. Looks good to me. Really can’t wait to get it now.

6ft Foot Under has had a river running down it the last couple of weeks. It’s bee awesome haha.

Trails all OK, Whites and Blade are rough, yes, but all good faster you go easier they are.

I just got a new set of Dt Swiss Ex511 on 350 hubs for £380 ish for Fitwheels.eu. Great service too.

Hunt are decent wheels but I’d go for DT Swiss all day long personally.

When the frames are with them? Not much point otherwise, I guess.

Been in touch, frames still expected with them on time and no delay. If you were to order now they would be in around May.

Yea, same here. Well i guess i’ll drop them an email tomorrow, but it seems very close to shipment date from warehouse, which is what, 15 days away. If it’s May/June i may have to diver my money to a Mega 290.

I put mine in end of November. What was the lead time on your order?

It’s been grim around Afan, trails were like streams yesterday, so much water coming off the hills. Wind is the killer. Shorty front and rear helps.

When did you order Mrman? Spoke to them earlier in Feb and frame was due in 16th of March. Would have thought they notify customers straight away if delayed.

It would be disappointing if true with races coming up, but understandable with the issues in the far East.

Where did you hear this? In the pre-order and not heard a thing.

And yea, no reason whatsoever to make any comparison to Sick.

The two final descents on The Wall (Zig Zags and S4) are closed at the moment, just to let you know.

I had the same kind of choice, even own a Aidrop V2. I went for a Privateer frame which should be here next month, they are doing full builds now, so maybe worth a look. If it I didn’t fancy a 29er I’d have just got a V3 frame.

Top half of hill has been felled but still plenty of trails to ride but not so obvious to find. Goto Rhystlyn car park and ride or ask some locals, plenty of other off piste apart from masts.

I had similar trouble with Hope rims.

My solutions was to use electrical tape, one strip in the channel then a strip each side onto the shelf, left and right. Use an Airshot and fill with sealant, you may still get leakes but leave it overnight to settle. Worked for me.

Do The Wall, but go off down 6ft under half way along Graveyard, then go right and climb up the steep fire road (don’t bother with Resurrection which will take you back down to cycle path) and head back up to skills park, have a play in there. Go up and do Corker into either Zig Zags or S4 (black descent) which will take you back to carpark. Nice little spin that.