I’m 6′ 1” and on my second 575. Both have been large and I find the fit pretty much perfect. It’s quite a tall frame so I run a lot less seatpost than usual, but anything smaller would be too cramped. Amazing bike, no regrets.

Went to the gig last night and thought all the bands were pretty good – the Foo’s really do put on great show. DG is the main man so it’s no surprise the focus is on him.

As for the venue, I’m not sure I’ll be bothering to go to another gig there. Hyde Park is a much better veue for outdoor performances IMO. It seems that they really squeeze the capacity and the banking doesn’t help when when trying to negotiate all the bodies whilst carrying four pints in paper cups!it must be absolute carnage if it’s wet. I agree with the comments on the atmosphere as well. Everyone seemed to be generally unimpressed you felt they need to access the bar or the toilets.

There also seemed to be a serious issue for all the ladies trying to access the facilities as quite a few had taken to squatting in the trees on the banking in plain view!

Most of the stuff on CRC has an in stock date of the 26th of June.

I’ve done the SDW in a day – well sort of! – we had to bail two miles from the end to get the last train back to Winchester from Polegate as it had already left Eastbourne! If it wasn’t for a very friendly local with a pick up truck we would have been stranded.

Lessons learned;

1. take some lights. We ran out of light due to underestimating the time it would take us.
2. Be careful following the signs. The route changes and we ended up following and old section and adding 10 miles to the journey.
3. Limit the amount of time you stop for. it took us 14 hours, of which only 11 was riding.

We ended up doing 110 miles and 13,000 feet of ascent so it’s a serious undertaking, but it is possible to keep your average speed up as there’s no technical sections of any note.

Good luck!

Sounds like you’ve got too much tension to me.

some interesting stats here..

http://www.bikemagic.com/event-news/london-2012-organisers-debit-ticket-money/10511.html

I got into shares about 18 months ago when it was relatively easy to make money as everything was so depressed. With some basic research it was relatively easy to return a profit.

I used the following site to track prices. It’s free to register and you can set up a virtual portfolio to track share performace. the Forums are also useful

http://www.lse.co.uk/

As for tips – I almost exclusively used the Questor section of the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/questor/

If, like me, you can’t be bothered to do your own research these are pretty good and they are generally on the money.

The problem with shares is that you can become obsessed by it! I was looking at the prices almost every 30 mins at work and I’d have to check the prices as soon as the market opened at 8:30 every morning. I almost became a day trader and it got a bit too much of a distraction so I sold up and banked the profit.

I Only applied for four tickets for the family for the Men’s MTB and it looks like I’ve got them all. I’m surprised to hear that people have missed out on MTB tickets as I was pretty relaxed about getting these. As a ‘lesser’ event I thought it was a bit of a banker but seems like I’ve underestimated the demand!

Im pretty sure you’ll be impressed with the 575. I’m on my second having just swapped out my 2008 version for the 2011 model. One of the main benefits of the 575 is just how well it climbs for a ‘big’ bike. It’s also fair to say Yeti’s are not exactly immune from cracking issues either! Although that comment applies more to the full carbon rear end version which is no more.

Does look nice…

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/new-shimano-deore-xt-groupset-for-2012-29882/

Did the 100k and enjoyed it. Some nice sections of singletrack but there seemed to be quite a lot of road stuff, which I guess is hard to avoid in that part of the world, expecially if you want to get people back in a resonable time.

Overall well organised with a friendly atmosphere. Definitely be back.

How many days do you need to budget to do the Woodcock route for mere mortals? Is four days at 50ish miles a day pushing it given the terrain?

If you’ve never been to Afan than it’s worth doing for White’s Level alone, as it’s still one of the best. I just think the Brechfa trails have more to offer for a weekend of riding. You could easily stop at Afan on the way to Brechfa and do a quick lap of White’s – you can get around it in an hour and a half.

there isn’t till you have to ride up this.

I’ve never understood that section! Why is it built like that? Are you supposed to hop up it trials style!? – seems a bit much for a red graded trail. I’d like to see some video evidence of that seciton being ridden if that’s the intention. I thought I’d gone the wrong way first time I rode that section as well.

The Marin and Penmachno are two of the best in Wales in my opinion. If you’re after ‘Tech Gnar’ then look elsewhere, but for fast flowing trails they’re both superb.

If you do both loops at Penmachno, which you should, it might take you a couple of hours and then the Marin similar I guess as there’s a lot of climbing. I’ve never tried but apparently you can link them.

You could also do the Llyn Cowlyd Loop..

Some of it’s very techy and It’s possible to link this with a lap of the Marin as well and that should certainly fill a day!

+1 for Brechfa it’s another hour or so into Wales but worth it. You could do the Gorlech and the Raven in one day no problem and still get back in time for tea!

I’ve just changed my 08 575 for a 2011 575, I’ve not ridden the new version yet but the same comments apply no doubt. As Mokl says, the 575 geometry is designed to be altered when pro-pedal is switched off i.e. when open it slackens off the geometry and the bike sits into the travel much more. I find climbing is significantly harder on the 575 with PP off especially getting around tight switchbacks with the slacker angles. In short I switch between PP on the 575 much more than any other bike I’ve owned. I’ve also got a Giant anthem which has the same shock and you’d struggle to tell the difference between the two settings. On my old Stumpjumper I’d just leave in it PP all the time. So the platform does make all the difference.

Just got a note from CRC that mine have been dispatched. Was expecting to be waiting until Feb!

I totally agree with IanV. Any insurance company will try to reduce their exposure wen it comes to paying a claim, it’s not surprising. I can’t find anything that even comes close to the M&S policy. I’ve looked into bike specific policies and the terms they dictate are just stupid. i.e. they have to be always locked to an imovable object with an approved lock regardless of where they are, including on your own property! Which is just not practical. They’re also expensive. Until M&S tighten up their terms significantly I’m going to take my chances and be ready to break into the piggy bank if I need to top up any payout!

Out of interest, when claiming for custom built bikes, how do you prove the value? I’ve simply kept all the receipts for the parts, but wondered if there are other methods in use. By their nature I assume you can’t always prove the value of a custom built bike. I’m insured with M&S and this is always something that has concerned me, as all my bikes are custom built.

I ordered my trail pedals in August and I still seem to have missed the first batch! How does that work!?

Best way to tell if the chainrings are knackered is watch the rear mech when you pedal. If the cage skips back and forth the rings need changing.

Get yourself a HR monitor and a computer with a cadence display then download some of these;

http://www.thesufferfest.com/

and prepare to sweat/dribble/weep!

I’ve also got an Enduro Maxx, but am running it with the original joystick, which is useless! I’m convinced I’ve got a duffer as there’s no way they could charge over £100 for something so lame, or have times just moved on?!

Anyway, I’m considering getting the new Diablo to run alongside the Enduro, which should give me around 1600 lumens at full tilt – albiet for only just over an hour. it’s much cheaper than a new Six pack though.

You should be ok provided you’ve got a big enough trial pack on 😉

I doubt it’s the spacing of the BB. If there were too many spacers the axle would be too short if anything. If there weren’t enough, then when you tigten the cups down it will crush the internal sleeve and you’d probably struggle to get the axle through anyway.

I’m assuming it’s an M970?? Edit: PIC above wasn’t there when I started typing! First of all make sure the tension adjustment ring on the non drive-side crank arm is snug to the arm before you put it on. Also when you put the non drive side crank arm on make sure it’s engaged on the axle properly – I often give it a gentle tap with a rubber mallet to get it seated – after checking it’s lined up properly! If it’s not seated on the axle far enough before you start tightening you’ll find you have the problem you describe above.

My parents have a place in Ironbridge so the Wrekin is a 20 minute ride from theirs. You really need to ride with a local to get the most out of it as none of it’s officially marked. Best suggestion if you’ve never ridden it is to follow the surfaced track all the way to the top from the car park – it does get very steep in places, and to do it without a breather would be a serious challenge. Once at the top you simply follow the obvious track over the other side and back into the woods. This drops you – increasingly steeply – until it flattens out and you hit the road. The drop is VERY steep in places and very rooty. I managed it all with one dab, but it was bone dry! I wouldn’t even bother if the ground is at all wet as it would be an uncontrolable plummet!

And the moral of this story is…..

I learned this the hard way with some KCNC bolts. They are super soft alloy anyway and they just shredded when I tried to apply any pressure to undo them. I couldn’t drill mine out so ended up sawing through the middle chainring to get it off and out of the way. I then used some mole grips to hold the backs of the bolts and just undid them with an allen key. It was brutish and messy but It did the job and a middle chainring is less than a new crank, unless it’s XTR of course!

Respect to all that took part on Saturday. This is the second D2D I’ve missed in a row due to family commitments. TBH I was gutted until I was sitting at home (20 mins from venue) and the heavens opened! Then I was rather glad to be inside. I rode the event in 2008 and that was BAD, but by all accounts this was on another level. We’re due a dry one next year, when hopefully I’ll be back.

Which of the Bombholes is ‘Elveden Pit’? I’ve been riding at Thetford pretty much every week for the last 10 years but dont recognise the name. I assume from the comments it’s the one with the rooty drop in about half way round the lap?

Jiff – you have mail!

Can’t believe i’ve missed this after all the times I’ve ridden there!

Jiff, I’ve got a scan of the route map I can email you… Good route and hard work. Only downside is that Minton batch is pretty cut up and abused these days.

Supersessions, where’s the yapsel bank descent?

The Red took me almost exactly the same time to ride as the Black, about 1hr 30. If you pick up the link half way around the black I think there’s just a short section of fireroad which dumps you on to the last descent of the Red – It think! I’ve not linked them but I suspect you should be able to do it in 4 hours easily. The other option is to ride the Black then just ride up the road to Abergorlech and do the red. Could also be a convinient nosh stop!

Just had a look at some pics of my old Commencal Supernormal hardtail, which has essentially the same set up. What you get is a short section of plastic tubing that covers the section of cable that passes over the bb shell to stop it rubbing and reduce the friction. This tube slides into the extension from the cable guide under the BB. From your pics it looks like this part might have been broken off. What you really need is someone to post a pic from under a similar frame.

If I had to guess, I’d say the cable guide has been broken off the main bracket. For that sort of set up there’s normally an extension to the guide which passes over and past the bb shell. That’s a bad description but I’m sure someone will post a pic of something similar at some point!

I'm running the original Exposure Maxx three LED light and I find it a bit lacking even on full (720 lumens I think). I usually run that with a mk 1 joystick – helmet mounted. Not sure If I've got a dodgy one, but I find it almost useless. Probably easier just to buy a new mk5 joystick (300 lumens) to boost the output.

Anyone seen one of these in the flesh yet? 1800 lumens sounds awesome. Wanted to know if it was as good as it sounds. It does look considerably bigger than the Maxx-D as well.

I've had the same type of email so I gave them a call. Apparently it's been caused by an upgrade in their system, which has caused order confirmations for loads of old orders to go out. Thought I was on for a freebie for a minute!

I'm 6'1 and I ride a large (20) I would say this is closer that being too small that too big, if that makse sense!? I'd therefore recommend an XL personally…

You need a T30 & a T40 for the main bolts! I had to buy a set from homebase as I didn't have any either. Whilst it's a pain if you dont have the tools, I do feel that it's a much better system that the chainring tool plus 5mm allen bolt.