I have:
Cracked 3 frames – Steel, Aluminium and Carbon.

For me it has to be something from Four4th lights. These are excellent.

https://four4th.co.uk/products/lights/omg-greenleds/

Welcome to the real world sir. If it is only recently that you have learned there are folk that do stupid things then you have clearly missed a lot in life. Yes – there are a lot of folk that are not entirely competent with the English Language – it happens in a multicultural society.

As for failing to control your speed to such an extent that you are able to slow down for any obstacles – this clearly is a lesson well learnt. Congratulations on that one.

Hi Andy,

This all sounds very positive, have you had any dealing with the MoD yet? There are ongoing issues between the MTB Community and MoD in the areas around Farnborough and Aldershot so Caesars Camp, Tunnel Hill, PorridgePot Hill etc.

another Andy

I’ve been to Canada 3 times in the last 3 years, all with Air Transat and have been very pleased with the service.

The bike costs £20 each way.

Seats are comfy, staff are nice, you can book your seats well in advance and pay £33 each way to get bonus legroom.

My only hitch was a cracked rim (which could happen with any airline), they paid for a new one (eventually).

Well, it depends whether you want to go 12 speed or not.

I often find myself lending/giving away tubes etc.

If a mate made a habit of being supported by me I would let them walk a couple of times if it wasn’t that far back to the car and it wasn’t dark, wet or horrible out.

I would suggest don’t get Next SL’s.

As to which rings – Absolute Black or SRAM are both good.

It is more a philosophy. I am also quite good at finding the shortest route back to the cafe or to the good bit of trail.

I had this name well before strava was invented and so well before starva lines and shortcuts came about. I also predate the Scott No Shortcuts tagline.

There is certainly an interesting debate here.

Surely the one thing we can agree on is that mountain biking is mainly about having fun and some folk have a different idea of fun to others. In the fortunate position of having several bikes I have found an XC full suspension bike will get me around most trails effectively, seldom wallowing into suspension sag hell and generally keeping me awake enough to tackle most thing from the reds at Bike Park Wales, to stage races in Canada.

Hardtails also have a place be it racing XC, cruising the local trails or out backpacking, an XC hardtail can be too little bike on some trails. Sure some folk will get away with it but personally it is not for me anymore. I have previously got one down the red run at Fort William and around many of the trail centres in Scotland without mishap, but for me a full suspension option is more comfortable and quicker in almost all situations.

Longer travel full suspension bikes (Trail to Enduro) have got to be a good idea for the steeper, more technical end of the spectrum and if that is what you enjoy riding then why not get one. It will do the easier trails too – just no so fast. And there is nothing wrong with this.

So, IMHO it is possible to have a bike that has more travel than necessary for the trails you ride, most of the time an XC full suspension or hardtail bike will see you through. BUT there is nothing wrong with riding something with more travel on tamer trails. It just won’t be as quick on the climbs and may make the descents less interesting/exciting that they would be on a cyclocross bike.

Specialized Camber or Scott Spark would fit the bill quite nicely.
With a plumper wallet there is the Santa Cruz Tallboy, Pivot 429 Trail, Evil, Intense, Yeti all have 120mm ish options.

Pleased to be British – certainly better than many.

I would however be very tempted to swap in my British passport for either a New Zealand or Canadian one.

In with a veterans team of 4 for the 12 hours. Old, Short, Bald and Slow!! Im the slow one.

This is what I have. There are a couple of others but I have no idea which ones.Auckland
Christchurch
Los Angeles
Denver
Tampa
Orlando
Miami
Boscombe Down
Aberporth
West Freugh
Inverness
Las Palmas
Funchal
Tenerife
Gatwick
Heathrow
Southampton
Dublin
Palma
Mahon
Nice
Malta
Cyprus
Turkey
Some random Greek Island
Marakech
Dubrovnik
Sicily
Bangor (Maine)
Prague
Faro
Barcelona

I would get rid of the Soul because the others meet different needs. The Solaris is just a grown up Soul so you don’t need that one.

Tough one this, Raleigh Grifter springs to mind as being way too heavy for a kids bike – but I did have a lot of fun on it.

In the MTB category probably an On One Inbred Singlespeed – just hard work and not very pleasant in anyway.

Straight in near the top 1991 Specialised Stumpjumper Team, then I went to an Orange Prestige and later a Kona Explosif.

For me it is the bike I ride most at the moment which is a Pivot 429sl with 120mm Fox34, Carbon rims and Eagle gearing. It has seen this slow old plodder around some tough courses and keeps coming back for more.

I also have a Specialised Camber Evo from 2015 which has been through a lot, has been neglected of late, needs some serious maintenance but is a great bike too.

In for this and looking forward to it.

Just need to get through the last three days of Singletrack 6 and get home first.

Tubeless has been around a lot longer than 5 years – I’ve been using it off and on since maybe 2003 and it had been out a couple of years before that.

As to faff – its not generally an issue but an Airshot does help with potentially problematic combinations of rim and tyre.

I am also in and signed up for my third. I seem to know quite a few UK folk that are going so it should be a bit of a riot.

Super excited already and I have loads of stuff in between.

lucky – feel free to get in touch if you need additional info. Email in profile.

Did it in 2015, loved it, went back in 2016, loved it. Signed up for Singletrack 6 in a couple of weeks.

It is not a remotely stupid idea, but do some training.

I don’t feel guilty but I do dread conflict so generally control my speed, say a cheery hello, apologise profusely and am nice about the dog.

Also in the spirit of recommending what you have the Pivot 429sl is a great bit of kit that works well in a variety of environments.

Absolutely love mine, have had it more than a year and have no desire to change it (aside for possibly putting Eagle on it), but I can’t quite be bothered with that.

Good luck to those that are there.

I did it in ’15 as one of a mixed team and in’16 in a veterans team – it was as much as i could do not to sign up for this year. Ended up with Singletrack 6 (and The Pioneer) instead.

I will be back. It is such a great experience and the organisation, support, logistics and team make the whole thing fantastic. Trails are ace too.

I currently am only reliant on my car for weekend transportation.

I commute weekly by air so could get a taxi rather than drive to the airport. At the weekends I tend to use the car to get to where the good trails are. I used to drive over 20k miles a year now it is I guess under 10k.

I could reduce my personal car usage to zero by using taxi’s and not riding my bike in nice places at the weekend. This is not going to happen because it would make my life miserable and I don’t have to.

Generally I don’t use it if I’m going to be in the saddle for 2 or 3 hours, even a day on the MTB. If however I am doing circa 100 miles on the road bike where I sit down more or doing multiday rides / races or am expecting to be really hot and sweaty for some time then I will use Chamois cream regardless of how good my shorts are.

It does make a difference.

So – yes – get some. Use it for a couple of rides and go on from there.

You won’t regret using it. You may regret not using it.

This is certainly a very sad incident and questions should be asked and responded to appropriately. Clearly lessons will be learned and the cost of those lessons was a very high price.

It seems at the moment as if the cladding was a contributing factor and that the fire issues relating to the cladding were known about (but how widely and by whom we don’t know). Was a decision made to use this in preference to something less combustible made with price and known implications in mind – I very much doubt it – but that is a question that needs to be asked and answered.

Who makes the cladding and why are they still selling it for use in high rise or other buildings?

Should sprinkler systems should also be added to blocks of more than x stories?!?

This is a terrible incident but anger as is being stirred by the press will not fix this. Further investment in the housing stock by local authorities to meet as yet to be published fire safety legislation may reduce the likelihood of further tragedy.

Yep – I shall be there, riding in a team of 4.

I don’t like any of them and have already voted for (IMHO) the least worst option so will not be voting tomorrow.

Frame: Steel, made in a lockup. Will take 4.8 rubber.
Fork: Lefty Olaf
Bars: Jones loop
Shock: ElevenSix
Tyres: Skinwall Onza Ibex/Canis edit, ah not 4.8. So any fatty tyres in skinwall. Does this exist? Found them – skinwall Surly Nates
Saddle: Brooks B17
cranks: Polished silver Middleburn cranks
Bar mirrors for checking beard awesomeness
Gears: XX1 Eagle – just because and for the goldness

This is actually a very difficult one. I like events with lots of good single track, an absence of fire roads and not too many road sections.

Good marshalling and feed zones are nice too. The Selkirk event is quite good and even rolls through Innerleithen. An event covering Innerleithen and Glentress would be good. You probably could do something nice near / interacting with Coed-y-Brenin too.

I know its not UK but Dublin is pretty good.

I have one and like it.

I would suggest you try for size they do come up very large.

Yep I was there. Didn’t ride the Hardnott Pass, generally not feeling the love for it at all yesterday but got around in 8.46 with an impromptu cafe stop for sandwich and coke.

It is a tough old ride and kudos to anyone that got around without walking, some of those gradients were evil, and yes, the accident on the Honnister did not look good but the one I saw at least the chap was sitting up rather than strapped to a stretcher.

Well done on getting around.

Axle interface simply shows up as one of the cranks having play in it.

Also worth inspecting the back side of the crank as it is possible to crack them. Now running Shimano cranks.

£13k and you’re getting a 1.2 Leon.

Honestly spend that money on an Octavia, BMW3 series, Passat, Mondeo that is a little older but won’t present any issues for quite some time. New cars are still hassle.

Heading to Wasing on Saturday to race open class. Not done a National for more than 20 years is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Sunday I am doing the MTBO in Peaslake – haven’t done one of those in 15 years but do have local knowledge.

Should be a good fun weekend.

Dat is gonna be orsumz. Dude.

It was asked on FB a week or so ago and I believe the answer was something along the lines of not happening. Which is a shame.