You could always get your lowers painted..? How hard could it be?

I know Coal Bikes use http://blackcatcustompaint.co.uk/ who are well regarded

Loved reading about your bike holidays – it’s what got me started down that path. A sad day for Singletrack, best of luck in your new adventures.

Welcome James!

Made a mess of quoting so I’ll just add this separately.

I am already working on a design/looking for a trolley to put my greyhound in. Hes still quite spritely now but injuries and mistreatment from his time in the racing industry have left him getting quite bad arthritis. He it still happy in himself and really enjoys a good sniffari but the walk to and from the interesting spots will likely get too much for him in the next 12 to 18 months. So I’ll take him on a trolley (he’s way to big for a pram) and then he can put all his energy into the fun stuff and not have to deal with the boring pavement stuff.

If I can make it workable with my bike, even better.

Please do not put our chair cushions on the ground for your dog to lie on…

As a certified mad doggist I find the level of entitlement which lead to this sign even being needed absolutely bonkers.

If I’m going somewhere that my hound will need to lay down, it’s on me to take an appropriately padded thing for him to lie down on.

Have you considered minding your own business, OP?

Since you are telling someone to mind their own business, I can only conclude that you have a young healthy dog which you transport places in a pram.

Otherwise, what OP chooses to post about is (brace yourself for irony) none of your business.

2-3 quid here

Nope. Although I’m considering a pair of socks with a bit of shin protection for uplift days.

Do you always push the bike on the same side of your body?

Feels like they are getting a bit closer to the mark with the footage and commentary but still missing it.

Finally found the replay… turns out discovery+ through amazon simply doesn’t have it available. Cancelled it and resubbed direct with discovery and it’s fine.

Can anyone else find the elite women’s final on Discovery / Eurosport? I subscribed so I could watch the replays but can only find the men’s.

Im already grumpy that Eurosport put out an article that appeared in top search result while I was looking for the women’s full replay naming the men’s winner in the title (before I had watched). Only thing I have found online is a 14 minute highlights from UCI. Useless coverage is useless.

I had toast. And company.

One solution that might work for you is a windows virtual mixer.

I’ve used VB Audio VoiceMeeter before which allows some cool stuff in Windows. One of the key features I used was the ability to create an audio bridge between playback devices. In theory, if your bluetooth device shows up as a playback device in windows, you can create a virtual audio device, and bridge bluetooth audio to this, then set the output of the virtual device to the laptop 3.5 audio.

Rebound (and compression) damping settings.

I know if I don’t want my fork or shock to return from compression as quickly, I need slower rebound. And when a manufacturer is helpful enough to put a hare and a tortoise next to the dial I’m golden.

But +/- symbols or referring in the guides as open or closed my brain says nope. I read up, I get it, I start setting things up and that falls out my head again. It’s not helped by many guides changing terms while talking.

I made a commitment to myself to do something with my bike every day in May.
Mostly it was going on a ride, or mucking about trying to learn a skill on the drive. Occasionally it was using the bike to go to the local (ish) cafe instead of having cereal while wfh. A couple of times I didn’t go near my bike, but did pick up a shovel at the local trails. One day was a maintenance day

My overall mood was better by the end of the month. Smiles came easier and I was slightly less ill at ease with the world. Bikes are brilliant.

I’m doing it again this month but with slightly expanded scope.

Good to see.
Hopefully some of the women who ended up not competing at Hardline will get an invite!

I was there for the first time on Saturday and also finished feeling generally battered. I felt my hands getting weary quite early, so made a point of loosening my grip a bit which helped. The black trails are longer and faster than I am used to (only slightly) meaning the features are just coming up quicker. My technique absolutely suffered – I’m used to jumps on trails having a bit more room to land so add that to the increase in speed and I was just more tense.

I expect a second trip would be a very different experience as I know what to expect on some of the trails now. I also know what I need to work on…

So I’ve not actually got a van yet, so I answered the quiz based on my plans, which gave me the result free as a bird.

Then I did it again with the reality of being me taken into account.

So I’m basically a caravaner who aspires to be fee as a bird. Figures.

Stanley had a nice day out with the local greyhound trust recently. Here he is chilling in the shade being fussed by a stranger.

We had 50+ greyhounds join us for the event, no drama, just happy long faces. If anyone want to see more goofnoodles I took many photos for the rescue.

What are you basing your assertion that you have not got any less skilled?

I can feel crap on a mountain bike for the first hour if I don’t ride off road for a month. From your description, you have had a much longer break. That impacts the skills you have available on tap massively. With more riding you will build confidence and it will all come back.

What hardtail did you buy? Trails have not changed dramatically but they have changed – and bikes have changed with them. This also makes a difference.

as presumably valid tax is a condition of the insurance agreement.

Fortunatly insurance companies provide all this information in the policy documentation, so there is no need to presume anything. Just find the relevant section and see if they specify.

Wonder where they will route the riders instead?

The Matt Jones video seemed to show the longer start going past the original woods before going down towards that canyon. Now they have three days to build something else – or go back to the original track.

The more I see of the track the more I’m looking forwards to being there on Sunday.

I really want as many riders as possible to have clean runs and hit all the big features. I do hope the canyon gets work to make sure the entry list can all clear it – currently looks like it sends them too high!

Think another issue is that I probably should be on a large. According to Trek I am in the ML size but once you have all the spacers under the stem it does all begin to feel a bit too short so that might not be helping the low front end feeling.

You are absolutely onto something with this.

I picked up an ML Remedy recently and while it rides nicely, it just doesn’t feel good. Same issue, the front just feels so low and I feel like I’m too far forward. According to Trek it’s the size I should be on, but I think I needed an L.

Thanks everyone. All read and digested so far.

I have a temporary reprieve as I’ve just discovered my hardtail rotors are 180mm 6 bolt instead of 160mm and of the same type as my current ones. Means I can ride my new wheels sooner which is good… and I have more time to consider my options.

TRP slate evo look interesting… and this is why I hate internally routed frames 😠

Pop your details into the Trek bike setup website

It got things very close to the mark for my Remedy.

I am now super curious about the non Shimano rotors though. Looks like the 2mm ones are more readily available from other suppliers. Does the extra thickness make setup tricky – again I’ve read conflicting reports here.

So it’s definitely not right or wrong, it’s what you prefer. But it does seem to me like these days a lot of people feel like they <must> have 4 pots and massive rotors and vented pads and all that and it’s just a bit weird to me

Only quoted the last paragraph,  but read and considered all, Thankyou, a good insight. I think I’m looking for the Goldilocks zone of nice feel, ample power and reduced fatigue. It’s probably time to spend some money working out what I prefer. Discs and pads are still cheaper than new brakes!

If it were me, I’d go for a bigger rotor and also try different pad compounds. I run 200 mm 4 pots front, 180mm 2 pots rear with sintered pads. Basically, there’s a trade off between high-speed braking power and low-speed modulation so you need to experiment and find what works for the riding you do. On my MTB, I go for the power end of the spectrum, on my commuter, modulation, with 160 mm rotors front and rear and stock Shimano resin pads.

Thanks. This helps me come to the realisation that I just need to put the time into working out what I prefer and what works for me. I was hoping to avoid rabbit hole #2 which is pad compounds but looking kinda necessary! I’ve also got 160mm on my bimbleing hardtail and they are more than enough for a lot of things.

Are you looking to fit a bigger rotor for the rear? Sorry not clear in your post

Yes, I’ve currently got 180 F/R so am considering going up a size on both.

What sort of riding are you doing?

It’s a good mix. My day to day (other than the usual bimbleing) is shorter but fast built/groomed trails with jumpy stuff thrown in. Some occasional trips to the dark peak as well as a few days a year at FOD. I’m expecting to visit some welsh bike parks this summer.

TRP rotors have been cheap in a few places recently, they’re thicker than Shimano ones and definitely better than the resin only ones

Do thicker rotors cause setup issues with Shimano that is built around 1.8mm?

I’ve not tried 220 myself but I’ve read that they could be too catchy for lighter riders and depending on how/where you ride also not get up to a decent working temperature.

I’ve read the same, which is probably the main reason I have not already bought a set! I do wonder if there is a ‘best of both worlds’ argument nestling in there somewhere. If they are not up to temp maybe they would be less grabby, and if they are up to temp, I must be going fast enough. Probably just stupid mental (in)agility on my part though.

Braking technique has a huge effect. It took me a while to learn that dragging the rear brake is a really silly thing to do.

I am a guilty of this and it’s a habit I’m trying to break. Unfortunately doing so is where I found my ability to bleed off speed on fast trails is currently mildly compromised.

Well that is quite a suprise.
Looking forward to it even more now. Hopefully not cancelled due to weather this year!

In a world where clips and other funky locks are not super expensive, the double D ring is kinda disappointing.

Picked up a Trek Remedy recently.
Love how it rides until things get quicker then it feels a bit sketchy. This is not down to wheel size though, it’s just a bit short for me. Totally my purchasing error there.

But as an fun agile bike it’s really opened my eyes.

Then I flipped the chip on my 29er and put the 27.5 wheel off the Remedy in the back… and my world changed again. My 29er does have super short chainstays so was already quite good, but with the smaller wheel it feels nearly as agile as the trek but still get nice amounts of stability at speed. Also encourages mild hooliganism off jumps, so it’s quite likely to kill me at some point.

Got to say I do like the peatys one.

It’s got a slightly offset prong, which means the chances of pulling the strip back out again when you pull the tool are lower. It just works.

Plus, cool colours.

Want something that can do both XC and moderate gnar…. I’d probably be looking at the Ragley Marley 27.5.

If it weren’t for the fact it’s too big, I’d offer you my chiggle bargain frame at a similarly bargain price.

I’ve known about this for a while. It seems absolutely impossible to find any meaningful information about the event other than from instagram. They have no website and no central place to get event information from. We live in an age where you can get a good feel for whether an event is for you well in advance – and this one has none of that. The publicity appears to be pretty much drip fed to social media.

Not for me thanks, I like to know what I’m committing to for a weekend!

I’ll start by saying I don’t have an ebike (yet).

But on my meat bike if I’m at a winch and plummet type location I will be wearing full gear regardless of the weather. So long sleeves & legs, elbow and knee pads and a full face. Back protector coming soon. I like reducing the risk of extra holes in me!

If/When I do get an ebike, I will probably be a full gear rider more than not. If I’m doing laps then an ebike means more laps… and more laps means more chances to stack it.

I have found I can acclimatise to heat to a degree. I’ve not yet managed to get used to riding with bits of skin missing.

All the degreaser gathered can’t be easily disposed of without spilling it everywhere. Absolutely garbage gadget

You solve this problem by putting some workshop paper towels in the collector before degreasing, so it just gets absorbed.

OK, first up, don’t worry if it’s a 12 speed crankset, they work fine with 10 speed

In your situation I would look for a deore crankset with a suitable sized chainring. These are hollowtech ii cranks and have a 24mm spindle. Pick up the Shimano hollowtech ii threaded bottom bracket and you are set. It just all works together.

Merlin have the MT511 crankset for under 40 quid which is a bargain.

Oh and why in the name of all that is fetid and disgusting did someone at Skoda give them mechanical handbrakes when the equivalent Passats had electronic parking brakes and auto hold for at least 5 years before pretty much across the board.

My 19 Octavia has mechanical handbrake – but if I’m on the foot brake on a hill it will still auto hold.

Singletrack

I also pick up the Mispent Summers yearbooks and some of the odd things they publish.

Get the RSPB magazine as part of the membership too.