I have one set up SS. Nice light build and it feels proper nippy. Only done a couple of short rides on it so far, but I like it (used to ride an Inbred EBB SS for years).

The chaintug thing is a bit of a pain – I ended up just filing away an On-One chaintug so that it would fit.

I’ll probably run it 1×10 for general duties when a direct mount front guide is available (or if I get hold of the E-thirteen one),

Bike Village is based in Landry near BSM – ace people and ace riding (that you wouldn’t find from maps)

we have a Outwell Vermont M that we’re going to sell (great tent – huge living area, but we’re just not the camping holiday types!). Only used for half of a two week holiday and comes with the fitted carpet and a (brand new) wind break. Mail me if interested (email in profile :)

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/p/Outwell-Vermont-M/473

As Jase said, it’s a long way off flat and there’s a lot of people on here who slag it off with no first hand experience and based on a photos taken from the start/finish or campsite clearly haven’t got a clue. It’s a nightmare in the mud (2008 was probably the worst year ever – followed closely by the muddiest SITS ever) and fast in the dry. Very few fields too! (Sandwell was most fieldy, whilst Catton is deceptive).

I’ve done several solos there and 10 Under Ben (not Relentless) and I found singlespeeding easier at Fort William (as the climbs tended to be steady long climbs which suit me). Having said that Scottish courses are ace and more weather proof!

Ton – you’re not getting in the spirit of the thread… You’re supposed to moan/criticise about the event without any first hand experience ;)

450m of climbing per lap (per Matt Page’s tweet yesterday)…. a photo of the start/finish can be deceiving!

I’m sat at home this year anyway – my lounge is definitely flat.

I have a Lynskey Cooper (medium/long size) that I might have for sale soon… fantastic frame but I can’t justify 2 road bikes (and the other one is a Storck which is also very lovely so it’s a tough choice).

Drop me a mail if you want to know more!

I think it’s already been said above, but they can be really good in some cases (if set up right so the front end doesn’t get too high etc). If you want to ride rigid forks then they’re definitely a good thing for the extra comfort (I did 24 hour solos with rigid and suss forks and the rigid set up felt more “right”).

In the end I sold up my 29er stuff and reverted back to 26″ wheels… (my neck/wrists can’t handle the rigid forks and I just prefer the feel of my other bikes).

My Storck c1.1 is lovely (and you’ll get change from £1k)

Missed out on Manchester tickets after dilly dallying the day they came on sale (and the bl00dy ebay/seatwave touts clearly picked up their fair share…)

Seen him a few times though – the seated gig at the Apollo wasn’t great as he was really mardy and the last one at the Academy was very good but still a slight undertone of mardiness (anyone yelling stuff out seems to wind him up), but the Liverpool Academy gig when Heartbreaker had just come out was one of the best gigs we’ve ever seen (started shakily – the first bit was songs from “Rock’n’roll”, hood up, swigging cans of lager and going through a spliff per song… but the second half when he was playing Heartbreaker and older stuff just got better and better (until he fell off the stage and broke his wrist!))

Mine is built up with light wheels, 70mm stem and a few other bits to lighten the weight. Really good fun bike that climbs and descends well. I love it.

Mud X for the front… brilliant grip in any condition and reasonably fast rolling. I have a pair for sale if you’re interested (email me if so!)

Golden/Kicking Horse were Ok for a short stay (as part of the road trip Bunnyhop mentioned above…) but I probably wouldn’t want to stay much longer than a few days (unless it is snowing heavily in which case you won’t really care where you are!) The restaurant at the top of the gondola was superb (albeit it’s bl00dy cold heading up that gondola in the evening – and very unpleasant when a member of your party decides to drop his guts on the way…) but I expect you’d exhaust eating options fairly quickly (and I don’t remember there being a decent bar for the end of the day).

Whistler is the bestest place in the world (although you can get unlucky with the wrong weather patterns) but in terms of others…

Utah has some great stuff (although Alta and Deer Valley only allow skiers) but is pretty much devoid of charm.

Jackson Hole is great if you like steep stuff – the town is nice but can be an odd mix of trying to be very upmarket and being served by ski bums :)

I can’t remember which of the hills it is, but Aspen has skiers only on one of its hills (I’ve not been BTW). Vail is good but pricey and very busy… I also tend to prefer somewhere that got bigger volumes of snow than Colarado(like Whistler/Utah/Jackson/Fernie…) but it is of course pot luck!

Fernie is ace (though can suffer from mild weather like Whistler, despite being in the interior) and has surprisingly good eating options for a small town/base. You could easily combine Fernie with a few days at one of the cat skiing lodges in BC (not cheap, but possibly the ultimate if your budget can stretch).

3 Valleys? Not the best for boarding… (IMHO!)

Japan? We had rave reviews from some Australian friends who went there a couple of years ago (great powder/great food – just depends if you mind putting up with too many Australians!)

We had a month in Whistler for our honeymoon including a day of cat skiing which is probably the best day I’ve ever had (not just on snow!) but I can understand that you might want something abit quieter/more quaint (we didn’t!)

B*gger…. get well soon (I’m sure a broken leg won’t stop him riding?!)

We used Nicola Grimshaw-Mitchell (based in Ramsbottom so I guess she should cover that area) http://www.ngmphotographic.co.uk/

Not cheap (but certainly not as expensive as most of the photographers recommended by the venue) but very good if you like quite natural informal shots (we barely noticed her on the day – probably only 10 mins of staged group shots and another 10 mins of just us, then the rest were all informal).

The albums/prints etc are where a lot of the costs add up – you can save a lot if you buy the digital negatives and sort your own albums and prints out (having said that, we did get one album done and it was very high quality – far superior to anything we can get done ourselves).

It’s OK using a friend but it’s also a lot of pressure on them!

Bikevillage is ace… good guiding really makes a difference, so nice to go to a spot where that isn't an issue (that was the big drawback to Morzine I thought)

Still not quite sure how people rave about Zermatt…. We went a couple of years ago and found it to be very mediocre. Badly linked area (especially if you're on a board), lots of flat spots, and the town was a bit stuffy. The Cervinia side was best – it did look like there could be some decent off piste but the snow coverage wasn't good enough (and it wasn't a bad snow year). Most of the mountain restaurants required reservations (irritating – unless you want to plan your day around lunch spots and have proper meals rather than enjoying the skiing/boarding).

So once was enough for us… I prefer North American skiing (Whistler is the best – no argument ;o) but we've done a reasonable amount in Europe (Espace Killy is probably our favourite in Europe) and Zermatt is probably the worst of the lot for me.

Views of the Matterhorn are good though.

Bonty tyres are a pure joy to inflate tubeless… I've done it on various rims and they've always gone up in an instant (I normally expect at least 5-10 mins of battling/sweating to get tryes to inflate tubeless!)

Surely Crest rims on that? And Supercomp spokes? (keep it nice and spritely)

I couldn't get the MRP 1x to fit, so I've got a Paul chainkeeper which is lovely…

(does mean I have a fitted but unused MRP 1x for sale when I get round to advertising though)

(build wasn't quite finished in this pic…)

18" MmmBop
Hope step down headset and seat clamp
XT groupset incl disc brakes – with RF bash guard in place of outer ring
RS Pikes
Easton Havoc 711mm bars
Hope 50mm DH stem
Fizik Aliante saddle
Syncros post
Hope Hoops – Pro2 on Stans Flow
Maxxis HR 2.35 60a tyres
DMR V8 flat pedals
Is that it now?

Weighs in at just under 28lbs – not bad for a tough nut…

allthepies is right – you either physically pay the market value at the end, or you get taxed on it (because you're not paying for it and it's therefore a taxable benefit). The employer would have covered their costs with the hire payments already deducted so I'd assume most would just let you have it (at a small employers NIC cost on the taxable benefit) rather than profiting from the scheme (i did say "assume"!)

or if starting from scratch, they could reduce the hire payments slightly to take into accounts the expected FMV at the end (I haven't worked out how that impacts on overall tax efficiency…)

or just have the rental period over longer than one year (even though you make all the payments in one year).

I didn't react very well with it – but that just meant feeling pretty wiped out and ill for a few days. I think it's pretty unusual to react badly to it, though, and at least you're only taking it for a short period. The worst thing for me is that we flew straight back to high altitude at Cusco – I'd been fine at altitude until that point and could barely walk for a couple of days!

18 Bikes in Hope are on the verge of starting their custom steel frames and I believe that a long travel 853 trail hardtail is what they are aiming at initially (from chats with Si, they will be a lot more custom than Curtis etc – lots of options over every aspect…)

Terrahawk – I'm not sure an ice cream van is a good idea… a little lad nearly crashed into me last night when trying to eat an ice cream whilst riding his bike.

But I like hot and sunny (it's my swarthy complexion you see…). Rach would be very grumpy in the pits though!

You can guarantee that if I turn up next year then it will be lashing down all weekend – none of this warm sun malarky! ;o)

Another vote for BV here – great people and great riding…

I rode at Lee Quarry for the first time on Monday – I was really impressed (if you ignore the gypos!) I think I've ridden the old stuff at Cragg Quarry lots of times in the past (assuming it's the stuff you ride past on the MTL) and, whilst it was fun for a short play around, don't think it will be much of a loss…

Just a shame I don't live in riding distance any more!

I might still have my old 178cm K2 Four skis (pretty mint condition too) unless my mum has already taken them to the charity shop. And a pair of Lange X7 Boots in size 9 (ish), which I have at home gathering dust.

Not used either for at least 8-9 years now (boarding is much better ;o)

Drop me a mail at rodmason AT gmail DOT com if you're interested…

I buy beans from Origin Coffee in Cornwall (all the best cafes in Cornwall use them). The triple certified beans are great (and they've started doing a lot of single origin beans too if you like to try different things)

http://www.origincoffee.co.uk/

Definitely worth a go!

"x2 football" is pretty excellent if you like sports games, and real racing is pretty cool too ("real racing gti" is the free version)

as per DaRC_L above…

a small flashing back up front light can be a godsend! (a bit late for today though…)

I like them on the back (with a Mud X on the front for maximum grip) – nice combo in the mud…

I found them easy to fit on Stans rims with a track pump, but they didn't want to play ball with a converted Mavic 717 rim.

when buying a replacement for our stolen Dell laptop, I had the "pleasure" of using the online chat thing to see if there was anyway we could transfer the extended warranty on the stolen laptop to a new one. after a particularly unhelpful answer and being cut off the chat, i decided that was a sign…

so we bought an Acer instead! (experience of which is miles better than Dell so far!)

last time i was in vancouver, a couple of years ago, I'd happily spun my way up to the start of the CBC trail on Mt Seymour (about an hour's climb) and there was a guy doing trail maintenance at the top – he looked at me and said "woah… riding up as well – old skool!" (it was definitely "skool" rather than "school" because of the way he said it – and he probably said "dude" at the end as well…. :o)

A vote for the other "BV" here – Bike Village. Based in Landry nr Bourg St Maurice (below Les Arc/Les Plagnes) and they know lots of fantastic singletrack…

if they can't provide an equivalent, he should be able to demand a full cash settlement (they would normally reduce a cash settlement to what it would cost the insurance company to replace the bike).

he might have to argue a bit and complain to the insurance company, but he should get there in the end – and make sure every aspect is up to equivalent spec when negotiating the cash settlement! (i've been through this for bike and laptop…)

then he can go and buy it from a nice LBS instead :o)

the new flaming lips album (embryonic) is sounding pretty special so far…