Maybe your chain stays are shortening.

Surely if they didnt kill the birds of prey, then the birds of prey would kill the grouse and they would have to bother getting people into kill the grouse.

sound much simpler to me

😀

You have lost me entirely – you made absurd claims, then said you were just trolling, then said you did mean it and tough on me for not agreeing with them.

Im pretty sure there was a lot of sarcasm it the sentences when ernie said he didnt agree.

I suppose the obvious answer is racing ralphs.

Or rocket rons if you think the sidewalls will last on em for you.

I imagine most people are here will basically say none of the above.

I would really try and get 9 speed if you can.

what about this ?

surely for the same width of tyre the contact area will be just slightly longer, but the same width and therefore area will be bigger ?

CLICK ON HERE

also says “dinosaur bikes,which deal with 650b wheels”

theres a geezer been trying to flog some for ages on here hasnt he just put them on ebay ?

Anyone know if the gully, axle and other runs are still there?? Or can we not get as far as that yet

The fire in crowthorne woods so no where near gully, axle etc

Probably my most replied too post in a long time I should be pleased but originally I’d mis-posted a classified and I was trying to delete it.

Hey Tazz,

After coming cycling with you lot in the chase a few weeks ago I know your not slow 🙂 but as I said I reckon I’m pretty quick on the fully rigid.

Anyway dont you have 29″ wheels as a skill compensator? 😛

brown rice or wholemeal pasta

yeah I didnt really mean it too seriously was just a bit confused that it seemed to be easier or at least more instinctive to go from riding a full-suss straight to a rigid. And it felt rather alien to ride a hard tail which I think most of us would consider the “Standard” mountain bike.

I ride a hardtail with the forks permanently locked out.
I rely on the threshold/blow off/gate valve or whatever it’s called to take care of the worst hits.

I was considering doing that. Is it bad for the forks in the long term ?

I dont know if I totally mean what I said above too. But yesterday I definitely found my hardtail much more tiring and slower than my rigid which I didnt excpect. I think I just need to relearn how to ride the hardtail.

i did some normal Michilin AT XC on a DT4.2 with rim strips just the other day.

i had already done some Racing ralphs on stan rims which was really easy. So I had some experience.

This time I just stuck the rim strip over the rim tape because I could nt be bother to remove it.

tried to pump up with track pump nothing much happen.
Tried moving the tyres abit then just really gave it a go really pumped fast again nothing much happened then all of a sudden the tires seemed to catch on the rim and suddenly I was go.

Its just a bit odd you can pump for ages and nothing much happens it will sudden catch and work. you need to encourage the tyres bead to seat its self as much as possible and then just really go for it.

I think the answer is no.

Bars just used not to be that wide.

Titec Flat trackers used to be 660mm too

That first picture makes it look like your in Oz or something. I know its been dry this spring but surely no grassland can be that parched already ?

thats special

Cricket must hold the distinction of being the only sport which is better to watch than play.

If your’re just watching you dont have to worry about being woken from your dream-like haze by people shouting at you to run after the ball and throw it back.

Also you can continue to drink your beer/tea/water in peace without someone suggesting its your turn to stand in the middle of the field for a couple minutes.

I don’t like cricket.
Oh no?

I love it !

Im pretty sure the occasional one is random. I got one for Ladies underwear at Marks and Spencers once. Couldnt help myself but click on it 🙂 and I get loads of M&S adverts now, which is very distracting.

Bombers are generally quite long in comparison to RockShox. My 100mm 2010 Reba SL is only 470 mm axle to crown you might be able to get away with them.

If you could get a 80mm Reba presumably it would be 450mm this would be perfect.

I think I’ve finally worked out how to express what Im trying to say.

I think their are some people on this thread who are overstating the impact of some actions which they can control(or easily change) or of which they are not responsible for. (ie erosion caused by poor cycling technique, riding through puddles etc)

Where as they are choosing to ignore or understate the impact of actions which would mean they would have to seriously change how they enjoy mtbing(ie Creation of new Trails, Encouraging more people to MTB, Driving to trails, Night Riding etc)

PS im not suggesting these things should be stopped (Creation of new Trails, Encouraging more people to MTB, Driving to trails, Night Riding), just that not riding through puddles etc is unlikely to save the British countryside.

If this arguement stood then all trails would surely be huge, like 50m wide! They arent as it constantly grows back where it doesnt get ridden.

For a large part of the country I think this is true, whether the trails which remain are fun to ride is another matter, but dont confuse wanting some nice trails to cycle down with being an eco-saint.

I didnt say that did I ? I said the opposite you cant assume all trails are the same. And therefore issue rules for all trails

ie

Don’t ride when the ground is soft.

I mean how would that work in a sandy area the ground is always soft.

horses dont have cheeky trails equivalent

Im not convinced by that I’ve seen plenty of horse tracks that arent on bridleways, I suppose they might be the landowners but I doubt it.]

Though out my posts I have been saying people are looking at things from different perspectives generally thoose from muddy areas in the SE tend to more it’ll heal itself and the further north you get the more people are like you need to be a careful rider. So there is the point we’re arguing about different things.

Don’t ride when the ground is soft.

No this is wrong you cant issue general rules like that. Its doesnt work.

What you might mean is in the area you live in Dont ride when the ground is soft but Im not even convinced by that.

Pictures again Bridleway in chilterns in summer and Winter.
Winter[/url]
Summer[/url]

Frankly that first bridleway is in good condition for the winter I’ve seen ones much worse chewed up normally by horses and its been happening for centuries. They always go back to normal in summer and the process continues.

The main reason not to cycle there in winter is because its not fun and your’ll be covered in mud.

First you can ban the horses from the trail in winter before your banning me I might be light enough not to cause damage if horses didnt go over it.

Don’t widen the trail beause you fancy it.

Also Im not convinced by this often the trail will widen then find some ground that is sustainable and stop, although not always.

I think I’m fairly happy that riding a bike along an already established path won’t have any impact on species diversity :o)

Personally I think your wrong and agree with Mr.Agreeable, but my conclusions from his are different.

Personally I reckon what ever I do in the countryside will probably have a negative impact therefore it doesnt matter if I ride round puddles.

Interestingly those on the “don’t give a cr*p” side of the fence seem to assume that those advocating responsibility are as selfish as they are, hence the “you just don’t want your trails damaging, etc.” rather than realising that we are advocating responsibility nationwide, not just for the trails we ride on.

There is no-one on the “don’t give a cr*p” side of the fence. you are imagining that. I do “give a cr*p” but for the area of the country I live in, I think there are many things I could do which would help limit the impact of my mtbing. (ignoring giving up riding)

1. Dont drive to ride
2. Dont night ride
3. Only ride in “official” trail centre areas (in my case ride to swinley and only ride there in the day)
4. Dont encourage friends to take up MTBing
– as I think the numbers of MTBer are more important than the type of riding
– I brought a newbie riding on Sunday and no matter how many times I told him not to skid he kept doing it
5. Only ride on my own
6. Ride slowly
7. Ride through puddles

Theres just so much more I could do before I need to start thinking about whether I ride though puddles in my opinion.

(note if the area is stoney and Im wet I will ride through puddles. This weekend I went round about 5 puddles in two days riding. The very fact there were still puddles there in the SE after a month without raining suggested to me the trails was never going to dry out and frankly I was better widening it and going round.)

Wrong. The real, practical answer is that you take more of an interest in where you ride, don’t lump “the countryside” into one big mass – some bits are clearly nicer and more valuable than others, but I doubt most MTBers know or care which ones – and try and minimise the impact.

Again I agree. I have said my posts dont apply to large areas of the countryside In fact I think Im the only person to have said that. Im not really sure how you can minimise the impact though except by not riding there.

Some real wilful ignorance on display here. Things like soil structure, vegetation, ground cover are all important, and people who think they can separate this from impact on wildlife need to do some reading, or even just talk to an ecologist for 5 minutes – how do you think ecosystems work?

I do agree with this why the real answer is there should be no MTBing. Surely the numbers of riders and the numbers of trails are more important than how they ride.

Im not saying any of these things listed above arent bad they are but surely have the creation of trails in the first place and the numbers of people using them makes such as bigger impact than anything else.

As I have stated before in my opinion if you really wanted to reduce the effect MTB has on the countryside. You’d be better off forcing the MTBer’s into several small areas around the country and allowing them to do what they want to them area (including riding in straight lines !) and allowing the rest of the countryside to continue as normal.

Im absolutely certain everytime I go for a night ride and my lights startle a deer/badger or even when I sneak off the trail to go for a wee (because some animal wont like the smell of it) I am doing more damage to the countryside than when I ride round a puddle.

There is no bedrock its just mud. This is what Im on about, people are at cross purposes. See my pictures from above.

Did you read my post to the end, I said I know nothing about where you live ie Scotland.

That’s what cutting corners, creating pussy lines is equivalent to and we should likewise discourage it.

Im not saying we should try and discourage it but overall its neither here nor there when a couple of weeks later they decide to drive tonnes of logging equipment over the trail.

People are getting really annoyed with the posts above but not considering the area they are in.

Also climbing is nt equivalent the rocks take hundreds of years to weather and frequently climbing can spend this process up immensely. The sort of areas im on about change season by seasons never mind year by year.

Elfin I wish I had the same amount of time to compose my posts as you do but I’m in a hurry so I’ll just have to settle for calling you a jumped up arrogant soapbox wielding holier than thou muppet who thinks far more of his own opinion than anyone else does. No doubt you will run straight to the mods and report me but unlike you I don’t need stw to feel like people listen to me.

Shaggmeister, are you actually saying you don’t care in the slightest about the longevity of the trails you ride? Typical shaggy response; ‘It wasn’t me’. IGMC.

Your totally missing the point. No one is anti trail-maintance or riding sensibly they just think in the big scale of thing its not important.

As I mentioned before the question is are bothered about the damage riding is doing to the countryside or are you bothered about the damage riding is doing to “YOUR” trails and “YOUR” enjoyment of them. I think alot of people seem more bothered that the trails are becoming boring to ride rather than anything else.

I do obviously sympathise with the people who put in a lot of effort building the trails and would for instance never ride a trail before it opened. I heard a lot of people were riding the monkey trail at cannock before it opened which might explain why the trail filled with braking bumps so quickly, and I feel bad for the extra work the chase trails crew do in their time off.

But frankly I dont think the fact the trail is a foot wider and looks a mess is going to have more of an affect on the wildlife of the region than if it looks smart. Whats going to have an effect is the fact the hundreds of mtbers are riding past. I cant see that any type of riding in the country is a good thing for the countryside. But I am in no way suggesting access should be restricted. Its just one of thoose things we live on a small island with a lot of people.

Also the areas I ride are often forested and often have large scale forestry opperations going on when you see a forestry vehicles driving over the land it makes you feel that the actions of even a large number of MTBer is irrelevent. The other area I cycle ie chilterns tend to have a large number of horsey types and when you see the damage a horse can do to the trail again MTBing seems neither here nor there.

People who ride in straight line or go round puddles do create more work for the people who look after the trails (which is a reasonable complaint). The fact that they make the trails boring is neither here nor there and the people who are complain are just being selfish and bascially dont want begineers on their “LAND”. I just cant see riding in straight line and going round puddles has a detrimental effect on the countryside/wildlife in large parts of the country or at least most of area I ride in.

There obviously maybe special areas (ie tops of cairgorns) or even whole areas ie Scotland that are different but frankly everywhere south of the peak poor riding is neither here nor there, the countryside will recover. The fact that 40million people or what ever live in that area probably has alot more effect, which is what the picture of the M3 cutting was trying to suggest.

This is the sort of thing Im on about at least. In the winter it just churns up no matter what you do. In the summer it will bake hard and be nicely ridable.

click here[/url]

and I think this is meant to be the same bridleway in the dry, at least I would nt be surprised if it is.
clickable[/url]

I’m afraid I’m sometimes a ride around rider. There were many areas hit hard by wet weather over the winter this year andt he chalky/gloopy main parts of the tracks have just been horrendous to ride through so you end up going around. I don’t like seeing badly corroded trails but if they get so bad they should be

I’ve bin riding in Epping Forest for years now. Seen trails change course cos of boggy bits, and new stuff grow from the bits people went round. Nature adapts, and regenerates. The trails can get more wiggly because of this, and more fun. The Forest doesn’t suffer in the long run at all.

This is where people are talking at cross purposes. Tandem Jemery you ride in Scotland the conditions and speed of regeneration are tottally different from the south.

I ride in the chilterns quite often and can totally see where both taff/elfnsaftey are coming from. Its not like if you ride through the centre of the puddle/mud you’ll hit hard ground you’ll just hit more sticky sticky mud (normally where the horses have churned it up over centuries) and come to a stop.

Every year its the same and every summer the clay/chalk ground will set hard in summer.

Might be useful, if you store a bike in a house/flat. I used to store a bike in a flat in london. Pretty sure I knocked it over several times. Well there were black marks on the wall when I left.

This may have actually be useful then.

cheers ! really pleased I’ve got it at last 🙂

Tyre lever instead of compass is a much better idea.

But judging from the responses hear I think you really need to market it as a tyre lever with an extra bit(the bike lean). Not as a bike lean with a tyre lever.

Is there anyway you could add in a 5mm allen key as well ? maybe sell it as multitool which can also be used as a bike lean.

You need some pictures of it on the bike on the front page as well as the videos so people can quickly see what it does.