Looks like you did the ride I’ve got planned for later in the week !!!!

Is photo #3 Witton Weavers after climbing through the farm where the abandoned caravan is ?

Where are the ruins ? Guessing after Tockholes car park dropping into the woods still on Witton Weavers ?

Cheers

Well I survived degla

Really good ride out. Just did the Red.

Bit disillusioned at first on the fire road type bit but, once in the trees it was great fun. I’m still a bit scared when there’s big drops on the sides and I tend to freeze and chicken out and did that once on the roller coaster part, I think its called that.

Thanks goes out to local lad Lee who I got talking too and showed me round and waited for me about 3 times so, if you are on here, cheers mate it was good to have someone who knew the trails.

The climbs took me by surprise but its defiantly somewhere I will visit again.

I’ve a few good bits, a Gore Bike Wear jacket, Blackburn Track Pump but the one bike related purchase that is better than anything is my Park workstand.

The days of turning the bike upside down and trying to adjust things were a nightmare.

Bump

My seat fell off tonight. Nearly fell off backwards, just managed to slam the brakes on and stop, was going up a slight hill at the time.

The front bolt on that clamps the rails snapped in half and I lost the top nut type thing that the bolt goes through.

A mooch through the CamelBak and no zip ties, no spare bolts, but I had an old Hope universal light mount that had snapped when I fell onto it back in the winter.

Managed to bodge it into a front bolt
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Trail bodge[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

I’m teetotal so this is the best I could do sheeps water bath
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Watering holes[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

@se7en983

I mentioned the Moped to the lady who runs the Mountain Bike section at the velodrome ( can’t recall her name ) who told me to tell the PCSO and GMP who was there.

Apparently, they have an off road section who have crossers, who can chase the kids on mopeds, but the cars etc, even if they got onto the estate, can’t chase them I case they lose control.

We have all been young and daft so I can understand that, but its a shame because I’m really put off going back again as I’ve been twice and both times met up with motorbikes etc.

The wire across the trails is more of a worry and should be treated as attempted murder.

I’ve had people fail tests because they have gone into the ” bike box ” as I call it, but only when they simply have not braked hard enough and gone over the first line.

The speed on approach was fine but simply going in it ” coz me mum does ” is not a valid excuse :roll:

( sometimes no matter what you teach them, on test mum knows best ” coz I’m on me test “)

Away from work, it really get on my ( well :wink: ) when a vehicle stops in a bike box. It’s either they simply do not care, are daft, or don’t realise but, majority of times, follow the offending vehicle, and you will see speeding, bad positioning, squeezing through gaps etc so anything they brings these kind of motorists to book is good in my opinion.

On the bike, I went to the side of a people carrier that had stopped in a bike box and deliberately went close to the drivers window. Think I shocked the woman but I said ” funny looking bike love ” at which point I got told to …… Off so sums it up althougher. OK I was a bit cheeky, but that reaction was unneeded.

Got this little fella

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Echo 2[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

Absolute star. I agree with everything else said, the only thing that has changed is not jumping straight out on the bike as soon as I get home and having to take him out, but letting him jump in the car and taking him places outweighs that.

Working for myself, I can nip home and check he’s ok so he never alone for too long.

Thanks for all the replies.

I’m going to give them both a go next week hopefully. I’m just not used to riding trail centres as most of my stuff is Rivi or bridleways / bits of singletrack.

Will report back 8)

Check for angling competitions – I got stuck in one at Adlington a while ago and it was a nightmare to get through

Went today for a ride round and the trails are pretty good, a moderate / blue trail which is flowy and a Red that’s pretty steep uphill, few rock gardens and drop offs.

Pretty tight bends on the red so watch out going downhill.

I got talking with a guy who works at the velodrome who told me that they had done a reccy first thing and found wire across the trails ” at chin height ” according to him, also I saw some teens on the trails themselves on a moped 8O

Some of the signs had gone missing as well.

More permanent signs will be going up soon.

It’s early days so hopefully these issues with vandalism will stop over the next few months as its a good place for everyone to cycle, from experienced riders, to families.

Yeah it’s post mount then.

Frame wont take more than 160 mm on rear. It’s an Orange G3 and, according to the website, that’s the max on the rear.

Nipped out on the old raleigh, was just gonna nip round block but felt good so kept going for a couple of hours just down the old railways.

No Garmin with me so guessing only about 10 miles or so but on a 24 year old boneshaker it feels like double.

Quick loop of Rivi tonight on the Orange.

Well thought I’d sussed it :oops:

It’s creaking again but only when under load i.e. going up slight incline / uphill on the flat it’s doing it a bit, but not as loud.

Any ideas ?

Cheers

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Rust 2[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

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Rust 1[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

2 stand out with me.

Staying at my mates we had been having a few drinks etc and had decided we wanted some Cola but didn’t have any so made various mixes of alcoholic substances out of the cupboard, adding a bit at a time till we made something which resembled Cola. At one point, it got too much and I fell asleep leaning against his kitchen door. I managed to crawl into the spare bed and drifted off.

This drinking had obviously hit him harder than me as I’d not had too much as he decided to come into my room screaming that he needed to check that the back street was still there. I jumped up wondering WTF was happening which woke his wife who came in screaming to get into his room.

That didn’t work so he decided to ring his mum – by using the shower up his ear. Wet through now, he went into the bedroom, his wife said to calm down at that point he said ” I’m making a run for it ” ran past her and fell down the stairs.

I just clung to my blanket. He eventually came back into my room just wearing Simpsons boxers then disappeared off. God knows if he went straight to bed or not but he couldn’t remember in the morning.

More recently, I’d fallen asleep on the settee and, about 3 am, got woken by what sounded like someone kicking the fence panels in. I honestly though someone was breaking in so, being a hero, I put my Park workstand up against the back door and called the police :oops:

Staying in the kitchen penned in by the workstand with a hammer in my hand, I heard my neighbours voice outside so I went out to the side of the house to find a Police van parked in the middle and a Bed, Sky box, CD rack, wall unit all in the middle of the street.

Turns out the flats next door which are 3 storey, top floor had a domestic and threw everything out the top window 8O

The police wondered what was going on as the main door into the flats was still open and some items had hit my car.

Never found out exactly what happened, but I found half a mug under the bonnet of my car when I topped up the screen wash which had smashed against my windscreen and slid down…..

If coming from down south, the RAC building at the M6 / M5 interchange, coming from north, Forton Services.

I’ve just been Manchester and, according to Twitter, there has been a firearms incident at Salford Royal Hospital.

As I was going down Regent Road into the City, there was about 6 Police Land Rovers coming the other way, all on blues and in the middle of them was a Merc Vito, dark in colour with blues behind its grille and headlamps flashing.

Obviously part of GMP with its MX index number plate, but without it being on an emergency, could have looked like any Builder, Plumber or Courier.

I had a creaky clicky noise on mine and turned out to be the splines on the hollowtech II axle, where the crank arm slides on.

LBS told me it has to be really clean so I proper cleaned it with petrol and toothbrush, skim of grease and its fine now.

OP, if you get any feedback from GMP, can you let us all know ?

I’ve just remembered an incident a few years ago when some lads in an Impreza were followed by a black Audi A3 for some distance.

After a while, this Audi turned on some blues in the grill, the lads pulled in, got out and the guys out of the Audi ran towards them and tried carjacking the Impreza

So, like I said before, there could be more to this than just getting through traffic, especially if flashed in the dark it would be difficult to see what exactly the vehicle behind is.

I would have done, but it was the opposite carriageway which is elevated (by the farmhouse for anyone that knows it!)

No chance of getting a reg number across that big gap but I would definitely be having a word with West Yorks or GMP depending on which way it was going as they can zoom in on CCTV.

There’s more cameras down the GMP section than Jessops so they will have caught it.

I reported a suspect police car about 10 years ago to GMP as it looked dodgy and they made enquiries, rang me back and it turned out it was a demo vehicle they had on trial they was really grateful I’d rang.

Obviously this situation seems more suspect than that but they will be interested as there could be more serious motives to having blues than just wanting to get home……..

I used a pair of polarised oakleys in the car and they make the working day much more bearable.

Not too sure which model without nipping out to the car, but they are not cycling style.

They make things more high definition for want of a better phrase, and I even keep them on when its dull weather as they make everything so much clearer ( and I’ve perfect eyesight been tested before anyone asks :wink:

I agree with the earlier post about them playing havoc with displays on stereo and phone etc because at first I thought my phone was broke till I took the oakleys off !!!

Got some Fakeleys for the bike and they are not too different in vision on the polarised lenses but the genuine ones do have a bit clearer vision but only slightly.

XL all gone now.

Just got myself a pair of Large so hope they fit !!!!

There’s a little ankle biter at a farm on one of my local trails. I use it as a challenge. Depending on which way I’m going, its at the top of a mega steep hill so i always stop at the top to get my breath back before heading towards the farm and then doing my best impression of Cav

It never goes too far from its land, and will stop before getting to the road so its good fun outrunning it.

Much better than the rottie at the next farm which is mostly tied up but I have met up with it twice once in the snow and I really did panic a bit coz there was no way I could have got away with all that snow but it turned back into the yard.

No I didn’t take the BB off as I’ve no tools to get it off.

There’s loads of E clips on the Bay, anyone know what size the pins are or how to measure them to get the correct size ?

Sussed it.

Was the end of the axle where the crank is splined onto, it was dirty with grit and muck so cleaned it up proper, thin film of grease and its quiet as a mouse now :D

out of interest, on what bike is this

Orange G3

Have you put copper grease on the threads

The threads on the chainrings ? I don’t know as my LBS put it all together, its just I’d rather have a go at fixing it myself as I’m busy when he’s open at the moment.

Done the pedals as well forgot to put that in the OP

Could be the chainring bolts I suppose as it was all new with the BB, new chainrings put onto secondhand cranks as my original cranks were square taper and wouldn’t work with the hope BB.

This tread is bringing back some memories.

I had a citiroen ax gt that me and a mate went halves on. We left it in the garage and someone nicked it and took it round the local BMX track 8O absolutely wrecked it.

Car I regret most losing was a Mk 4 escort estate that we had about 11 years and in that time it had a new engine then mum gave it to me to put through an MOT and it failed on loads of welding.

I stripped it to a shell and welded it all up, had it painted and dark yellow and put a RS turbo engine in it. Did it fly. Only thing that stopped it was a Punto pulling out in front of me and I went straight into the side of it..

The bonnet folded over, the engine dropped so I couldn’t move it and the girl who was with me asked ” as it damaged our car ? ” as I climbed out the window Bo and Luke style :roll: she was eye candy to say the least…….

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Reflection 1[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

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Reflection 2[/url] by S1mmy1[/url], on Flickr

Them barriers won’t stop something going through if it hit head onto them.

About 9 years ago, an HGV went through the barriers of a bridge on the M60 near the Trafford Centre after swerving for some reason across from lane 1 to 3 then back across lane 1 going through and dropping onto the road underneath.

Sadly the driver died. I’d only gone under that section 5 mins previous and I felt sick when I saw the aftermath.

The barriers will stop a ” deflection ” type impact but I’m sure that even cars have gone through the Barton High Level barriers after hitting head on but not had enough momentum to fall off luckily.

I’ve not had any willies since I was about 5 years old

*post reported for mentioning winkies and being a rudey*

Bloody predictive text :oops:

Thanks for spotting that – sorry !!!!

Edited 8O

I’ve 4 mountain bikes, all hardtails.

The main bike is only 2 years old but looks more trashed than the 20 year old one, but all the parts are new and mountain bikes are meant to be trashed are they ? :wink:

Got a ” shopping ” bike that I can leave locked up in town which I only gave £40 for from our local arkwrights type LBS with a 3 month warranty, a 13 year old that I got off my mate that got me back into cycling, and my first ever mountain bike, its only a Raleigh but Nan bought it me so its got sentimental value.

Still have a tinkering after a road bike after doing 56 mile on the main bike the other week and taking a few days to recover :oops:

Just bought 2 as my Spoon on the MTB is knackered now.

Cheers for the PSA :D

Went out about 3 pm and it was chucking it down but I’d have ended up asleep if I hadn’t and not been able to sleep tonight.

Absolutely soaked.

Went Rivi and very few people were out, only the odd walker and one hardy fell runner. Was under a blanket of low cloud.

Couldn’t see a thing coming back down on the descent as my glasses had steamed up, full of grit so I took em off and was nearly blinded by the spray.

I’ve done loads of miles in jeans under overtrousers in the winter and was fine and comfortable.

Often go shopping on the bike and have jeans on.

Think I’m addicted to Yazoo Strawberry, I have one after going to the Gym and it seems to work with recovery.