You won’t find it mate it’s a secret group drop me a PM will hook you up.

Tdog, as a cheltenham native I’m offended!

OP I ride weekends in FOD and during the week in the evenings and we have a Facebook group for riders, happy for you or anyone to join us.  Not really a club just a group of 30’s and 40 something’s who enjoy MTb riding. Drop me a message if you want more details

russ

Interestingly I have gone the secret route before and it ended up with a substantial argument and long term doghouse situation.  Ultimately causing more long term heartache as she now watches our account like a hawk.  I would always be honest now, clear conscious makes the new bike purchase so much more enjoyable!

You can run a 60mm stroke shock on a remedy it would seem.  Seen a few X2 fitted of late

So im guessing if you are after 100mm you are looking at 32’s?  Its kind of a “how long is a piece of string” question without knowing which model you are after as to if they are any good.

I run Factory 36’s RC2 in 160mm travel and they are absolutely brilliant, the newer model im told is even better.  Sure they are not cheap and its hard to walk past cheaper alternatives but for m totally worth it.

Which ones?

Jesus these are some posts here which are at the most spiteful or at the least tinged with jealousy!

I don’t suggest this frame is good value or not, never seen one.  But I hope Taxi is happy with his/her purchases.  Please keep us updated with the build

Wow hang on, I want to leave with my head held high and do right by my current employer.  I hope that has come across in my posting.  I can’t however just walk away and earn nothing for 3 months.  I will take advice and I will follow that advice, just wanted some comfort and any real life examples of people whom have had this situation before.  That said I believe the clause to be unfair and unreasonable, gardening leave and a differed start date being the fair outcome.  We will see how this pans out today.

Did this not come up at the interview/offer stage?  Surely you would have mentioned it?

Absolutely it did!  We discussed at length, but without understanding how my current employers would react it’s difficult for them to support.  It maybe we agree a golden hello type agreement….who knows! Anyway I have a call today to discuss with current employers so hopefully I will have clarity after.

Whether it be 3 months, 3 weeks or 3 days, the OP is going to be using his skillz in direct competition to his existing employer at some point. Reading between the lines , I’m assuming the the existing company has lost the contract to the new one and the OP’s knowledge is going to help the new company run the new contract ?

Reading between too many lines I’m afraid, I have explicitly asked not to manage or have anything to do with that account.  What’s interesting is due to my hard work earlier this year my customer base are all in long term contracts so regardless of my relationship of knowledge I cannot do anything anyway!

Jakester, is this your field?  If so can you PM me your contact details as I may have to seek some council following tomorrow’s meeting.

Thanks

For reference it is a slightly different…but broadly the same role.  There are significant diffferences but my new employer is named in my anti competitor clause in my existing contract.

I have told my new employer of the situation.  It maybe I have to negotiate an advance as part of my package so I can sit back and wait…if they are willing to accept I can’t start for 6 months that is

I have a call tomorrow to discuss, but given I have not been put directly on garden leave to me suggests they can’t be that worried about how I may act in a competitive manner?  So making me work my notice for 3 months then expecting me to rot for 3 months is unreasonable.

I am in a sales role, but more Technical sales…for what of a much more better description.  As it’s a Specialized field.

I really hope it doesn’t get messy as I genuinely want to leave with my head held high and with an open door as I really do wish them well for the future !

Frankly I am stunned that this money was accepted,  is there anyway to block a forum member so I have no way of accidentally dealing with them

in future?

Brant, all the best.  I’m personally looking forward to Onone developing more value frames.  Specifically a more modern 45650b…maybe a longer version of the deedar?  I’m sold if so…

https://www.merlincycles.com/ritchey-timberwolf-mountain-bike-frame-2017-110830.html

Im close to buying one of these

I bought an octane one probe from CRC the 29er version.  It was savagely harsh a ride and the build quality was not great specifically the paint which was just awful.  Otherwise a cheap frame which rode OK, but like I said it was unbelievably harsh a ride

Bought it for lounging by the pool stock, read it in about 35 minutes.  Complete tosh really loads of ads, nothing of interest.  Nice key ring

To be honest the place seems to attract them.  I got some abuse from an absolute ignoramus a few years ago on the run to the uplift.  I was hurtling along the trail and came to one of the rollers/jumps and a middle aged lady (not that her sex or age should matter) had stopped mid trail.  I wound anchors on and managed to stop…just some bloke rolled up behind me and started giving me a load of shit.  Didn’t want to hear my explanation, so I gave him an absolute gob full and he stfu!

Trouble is the range of ability at the place is so vast as is the range of rider intellect

Well I have been burnt like the rest with OO customer service,  but if they release anew 456 with modern twist at a good price, then likelihood is they will have my money.

really want a 650b steel hardtail with slack/low geo. Just don’t want to spend a fortune as it will likely be a winter basher

Thanks for that!  With some return gift vouchers my hope BB just cost me £7!!

Donated.  My condolences and thoughts for you and your kids.  No person should worry about funeral costs at such a difficult time.  Please put the worry into remembering the good times and love with the kids.  Life is so cruel at times

Mark

i got a 2.3 aggressor exo you can borrow for a week or two if you fancy it?  Running a 2.5 now which I find has more grip but is slightly draggier…make of that what you will.

Russ

Slam 69 build nice wheels and Graham is always very accommodating and help full.  Plus he is the Stroud side of Gloucester with easy parking.

He has a pinkbike account.

and who the **** gets a bike for fathers day anyway?!

This!!!!

Former 2016 owner here and 17 model for that matter.

2.4 will fit but it will be tight and in my opinion will rub if loaded up with mud.  I took all the paint off the inner swing arm on my Five with a 2.35 Hans Dampf.  That was with an Arc 27 Rim.  The back of the Five is quite flexy and mud clearance was never really one of its strengths in my opinion.  The issue always seemed to be in muddy conditions, probably get away with it whilst its dry and dusty.

Yeah im riding FOD tonight.  Watch the football on catch up if its worth watching.

Ha no not at all!  It was fantastic to watch!  Especially the pro’s.  Wynn Masters looked so graceful on a bike as did the 50 to 01 boys.

It wasn’t the racers out of their depth!  It was people on demo bikes and non racers, who after being told were still pilling down the downhill course.  I must have seen at least 10 people have some fairly impressive crashes!  Luckily no one got seriously hurt!  I would guess most of them hit it blind…  I didn’t race this year as it was a last minute decision to attend.  Does not having a race number not allow me to have an opinion? ;-)  i’m not trying to be a keyboard warrior, just think better marshalling and common sense should’ve prevailed.  More luck than anything else that someone didn’t seriously hurt.   All this was happening whilst they were desperately trying to slow the course down due to an unfortunately placed gate post!

Still my kids thought it was entertaining.

*Edit – Just to reiterate, it wasn’t the racers who were out of their depth.  All of which were more than capable of getting down that course impressively!  The Pros were unbelievable.  “Nuggets” as i affectionately called them were people in my opinion abusing the system.  But hey its an opinion!  Like arseholes we all have them,

Had a great day there today.  Not sure I understood the racing schedule. There was shenanigans with the DH and quad corse.  Lots of complete nuggets out of depth on the bombhole.  Hopefully it’s all on again next year as we will likely spend the weekend there and camp.  Thanks to Si and team for obvious hard work!

I find the 2.3 aggressor roles beautifully but is rubbish in any kind of mud really and braking is not particularly great.  The 2.5 is better all around, but suffers slightly in terms of rolling resistance.  Been a while since i user a DHR2 but seem to remember it being draggier than an aggressor…Maybe not much in it.

I’m thinking of heading up Saturday with the family…ride not too given I’m 20 minutes away!

Think I have settled on two tyre sets being as we seem to have either Damp or minging conditions in the FoD…albeit it’s dusty at minute!

Spring/summer – Minion DHF 3c WT front and aggressor WT rear occasionally a semi slick

autunn/winter – Magic Mary front and either fat Albert or Hans Dampf rear

i am constantly looking at new rubber, but I have just decided to ride the bike with what’s on it now

Riklegge, send me a PM buddy.  I wasn’t trying to create a stealth ad!  Happy to talk

Yes there are!  Even more terrifying when your pathetic little legs mean your ass an balls get torn to shreds by the back wheel of your 29er….ha ha

This bit perked my ears up though, so for those of us who’ve never rode FoD, what’s it like? a bit tame compared to Tweed Valley stuff?….

Its different!  Certainly not tame, but that depends what you are riding at Fod (likewise Tweed valley i guess) Our off piste trails at FOD are much, much shorter as we don’t have “proper” hills.  But there is some proper steep sketchy stuff, on a level with what i have seen in Tweed!  The trails at Staunton/Biblins are in my opinion the best and most challenging with Staple edge (Mallards pike whatever you want to call it) offering some really good stuff also.  The FoD is very natural and tight in places (hence why i think I struggle with my current bike there)  If i had a choice of the two i would pick the tweed valley!  But then that’s because its new to me every-time i head up there.  It was also super dry and dusty when were were there earlier this month which meant it was unbelievable.

I will say if you are planning on riding FoD then team up with a local group or a descent guide to show you some off piste stuff well away from the trail centre and do some research.  You could easily spend a great weekend there and never ride the same trails twice.

If it were me i would stick with the deal.  Sure £10k is a load of money, but your first offer was a chancer and is likely to try and chip you if so much as a pebble is out of place on the driveway as part of the survey.

I would make your exsisting buyers aware of the offer over and above theirs to encourage a speedy hassle free exchange however.  Maybe its just me, bt having been gazumpt under similar circumstances before, personally if i was happy the first deal was progressable and of sound footing i wouldn’t want to partake …

Some interesting posts here.  I agree with most of whats said, but for reference i should point out that i have been riding 29er trail/Enduro’s for the last 12 months.  I get the weighting the front wheel and am happy with my technique from that regard.  I’m no riding god..far from it, but can get a bike down a pretty technical trail normally.

The Jeffsy certainly felt more nimble than my Hightower, Even though they are fairly similar in terms of their travel.  Maybe its just a case of meeting your hero and i was expecting so much more from this expensive inanimate lump of carbon, kind of a reverse placebo effect.  Maybe i’m one of those weirdos always searching for perfection as a reason to justify lack of ability.  Who knows?  What I do know is I’m enjoying riding less since my HT purchase!  The only time i have walked away from it grinning ear to ear was on our recent lads trip to Inners and Golfie!  The bike was awesome there…God knows, however the wife is likely to start orbiting the moon when i broach the subject of changing bikes again to her.

Interestingly I have lost 5kg recently!  Not saying the bike is hard work to ride either!  Just feels dead a bit meh!

So I have adjusted my riding style. But I never had these kind of issues on my old 650b bikes.

I have ridden and owned much slacker and longer.  My HT is running 160 forks so it’s pretty slack at about 65.5deg.

I have tried plus wheels and to be honest I’m sure it works for those of you who like it but I found that hateful!  Just not good at anything really!

@joe….there is nothing I would struggle with on the HT around freeminers! I’m talking off piste stuff up mallards pike or Staunton.  Which is pretty far removed from trail centre stuff at FOD.

Ultimately I would’ve binned the bike off ages ago if it hadn’t been my absolute dream bike.  Sounds like I need to give it another month.

or buy myself a second hand Banshee spitfire to remind myself how great that bike was!