Bottle cage I think is the biggest thing. You should really get one of those carbon ones before worrying about wheels and stuff! 😉

Seriously though, as above, wheels, tires and tubes.

I had creaking from my 5 for a while and it was the rear QR. It had to be done up ridiculously tight to stop the noise. Swapped it for a standard shimano QR and problem solved! I guess the sealed cam in the shimano ones works a lot more efficiently.

I did that route about 10 years ago in two days. It was brilliant! About 75 miles each day and we stopped at the yha in Alston I think. Petty much slap bang in the middle (highest Market town in England apparently, but you get a lovely 5 mile decent to finish your first day).

My advice would be, don’t make the mistake that we did, which it doesn’t sound like you will, but anyway… we thought
It would be a good idea to use mountain bikes instead of road bikes so that we could do the alternative off-road sections. They were fun, but added way more time than we’d expected and didn’t get to Alston until about 22:30, and it was pretty dark! Made worse by the fact that we didn’t have any lights and I was wearing prescription sunglasses!

Anyway, have fun, ’twill be great!

Thank to all for your comments. I think we’ll be looking closely at Adelaide now.

One final question to you: What’s the best way to get my bike(s) over there? I’m thinking the cheapest would be to ship them dismantled in a crate? Any ideas how much this would cost and where I should look for details?

How different is the grease mentioned above from bog standard lithium grease? Or Finish Line Teflon grease?

Thanks again, some great info! Looks like Adelaide could be a good option.

Ax3m4n, would Bunbury be a dull option though, mtb aside?

Thanks guys, I know surfing will be on the agenda, as well as diving, but don’t want to loose biking for 12 months! Personally, I’d love NZ, but the misses defiantly wants a change in climate from the UK, and keeps hearing from people the NZ is just the same. Also, NZ jobs for doctors are really oversubscribed.

2700m in 50k will be real tough, but if it’s ridable you’ll probably manage. Brecon Beast has big climbs but also a lot of road. Skyline at Afan was ment to be 2000m in about 48k but that’s groomed trail and fire road. It can all be very different on unknown natural trails!

I did a similar thing in the Lakes and plotted a 45k bridleway route with 2500m climb and that turned out to be a 17 hour disaster! Although, when the pain fades you realise you still had an awesome day! Main problem there was that I didn’t pay enough attention to the contours, and just because a bike is allowed there doesn’t meen it should be there! 20km of hike-a-bike can seriously alter how “doable” a route is!

So basically… Beware. And respect the contours 😉

+1 for coaching session.

Depending on your location, UK Bike Skills (Jedi on here) is highly rated and was the best £75 I’ve ever spent on my bike!

Edit: too slow

Ummm shiny!

Llandegla maybe

Working from home too, so my usual commute from the spare room to the living room is going to be expended via the woods around Castle Coch!

Probably about as excited as I am jealous! Have fun you lucky b*&@£#!

Mavic’s offering looked good initially, but what happens when it gets muddy…?

Interesting idea, I’ve never heard of it being tried. I would have thought though that if the magnets were strong enough not to release when riding, then they would be even harder than spds to release when you want to. Personly the only times I’ve ever not unclipped have been very low speed, topple to the side situations. Never had a problem with feet getting suck when coming off normally.

Public Service Announcement:
Jedi to the thread please.
Jedi to the thread please.

… Jedi must be away from his computer… probably doing some big gap jumps! 😉

I switched th M&S and seems by far the cheapest way. Used to use ETA, and they were great, but cost went up too far when I added new bikes.

I was on at Llandegla with a different coloured swingarm and it looked awful IMO. Go with all one colour!

I’d say about an hour is my average if I’m on my own. More like 1:15-1:30 in a group with waiting and chatting etc.

No, it wasn’t the scaphoid, was the outer metacarpal.

[/url]
Broken hand[/url] by mrrfb[/url], on Flickr

If I need to get it x-rays again, should I go to the GP, or just go to A&E? I know it was an accident, but wouldn’t class it as an emergency!

How many of those do you get for your 13 bucks??? Just one?!

Rrrraaaaaaa!!!!! Got the little fkr! Thanks guys!!

The hope video calls it a spacer.

Yes, I’ve got the cassette off, and the “spacer” from the other side (which was easy).

No, it’s the cover that sits about 5mm inside the freehub body, which the skewer goes through. Which is supposedly held in place with an o-ring, but feels more like it’s been glued in!!

The landing is not really off camber if you do hit it straight, but obviously it is if you don’t. It is a much steeper gradient than other drops that I’ve done though consequently when I did go over, it felt a further drop than I was expecting!

Rachel, depending on when you’ve been, the smaller drop on the right has been taken out so you can just roll down. Great for people who don’t want to do drops, but not much good for people trying to build confidence as you say. The right hand side follows the natural lime from the shoot anyway, so doesn’t feature my worst barrier.

I guess I probably was, although it’s hard to remember! I just know that everytime I roll up to it (and don’t do it), I’m never happy with the approach. Doesn’t seem like there’s enough space to straighten up and think about the drop, rather than still bethinking about the loose corner.

Edit: Tony, if you remember my visit last year, loose corners weren’t my forte!

Have fun, it’s a great ride! Make sure you so the second loop as well, that’s where a lot of the good stuff is.

Yeah it’s spam, get em blocked asap. Was just about to post this my self.

I thought AM (All Mountain) was exactly what it says; riding over all of the mountain, not worrying if it’s up or down. Consequently you can do AM riding on whatever bike you want, but bikes that are designed for “AM” are light enough to ride up anything (or carry what can’t be ridden), and burly enough to decent whatever terrain you find (skill permitting).

That’s made my day!

Bump

I was a bit let down my it, after all the raving I’d heard. Although I did loose the back end at one point and rode about 5 metres at 90 degrees to the trail. That livened it up a bit!

Edt: not done it on a tandem though!!

Cool thanks, I’ll have a scout and go for cheapest official Hope ones I can find.

Where us AE though, I genuinely don’t know.

AE? Is that Accident and Emergency? Conditions probably clean, bit cold maybe, and probably a 4 hour wait!

I try and get a lot of my stuff from the lbs as it builds a relationship with them and they’ll usually try hard to give me a good price, and are really helpful when I need advice on maintenance or anything else (bike related). Yes sometimes I could save a bit more buying online, and sometimes I do, but I think the benefits are good if you have a decent lbs.

I like the cow mat! 😆

I didn’t know they existed or were illegal either, till I got so fed up with poor signal inside my solid wall property, and did a bit of googling for solutions.

With the power supply problem and legality issue aside, I’d recommend them as it’s worked great, especially as I work from home and need to be able to make/receive calls easily.

I’m supprised there is no exemption as I’m sure Vodaphone have something called suresignal or something that runs off your broadband I think, and then provides a mobile signal in your home. I expect they can run these things for their customers under their license…??

Found a multi voltage transformer with a variety of plug sizes, so gave that a try and hey presto, it’s working! Signal strength is right back up. Thanks for the advise.

Obviously, given funkynick’s information I’ll be turning it off mow and removing it! 😉

When the phone’s next to the unit, the signal drops from 5 bars (full) to about 3 (what you get without the repeater in that spot).