Orange peel occurs when the coaters put the powder on too thickly. We have our extrusions at work coated relatively thinly (40-60 microns), but don't get orange peel and the coating looks good.

Not had experience with Triple S before, but any coaters who've had experience with bike before are far more likely to get a good finish than a 'std' coaters.

Got Louise brakes. Not had a problem with them in 2 years. Didn't have a problem with the one before for the 2 years I had that. Not had to bleed them so can't comment on how easy they are to bleed, but I lost count of the times I had to bleed (no matter how easy) my Hopes in the few years I had them (Minis and Mono Minis).

More powerful than Hopes for the same size and a firmer lever feel (although i'll put that down to the very flexible Mini lever on the brake I had, the tech lever may well be different).

Grumm, you may just be the cause of some pain to both the credit card and my other half…..cheers!

I'm 6ft so not sure if a small would be a bit wee for me.

Peter, thanks for that, but i'm lusting after a new bike.

I last walked in to a bike shop to purchase a complete bike 12 years ago. Since then it's all been secondhand. I fancy something new, and with Specialized, i'd like to get the lifetime frame warranty!

Yeah, that was kind of the point. A few months ago, you could pick up a Pitch Pro for just under £1000, now they're £1600. I know the £1000 wasn't rrp, but I can't even see the 2010 Comp dropping to £1000 in the sales.

Seems Specialized has gone from having a total bargain bike to something comparable with the rest now.

I guess from the deafening silence that there's none about. Ho hum, guess i'll have to dream about an Enduro now as the new Pitch seems to have turned from a bargain into nothing special.

'Technically' I believe that anything over 3W is too bright for commuting (think there's some hidden rules somewhere) and the light needs to have side light to it as well.

Thanks for the replies guys.

James, I've seen Trance frames with Pikes, so didn't think the 145mm travel would be a problem.

Nixon forks have an axle to crown of 518mm vs 509 on my Toras so I figure it won't feel any different (especially as i will end up running a touch more sag).

I thought the Shermans were more of a FR fork than AM, so figured they would be heavier.

I take your point about the Dual air QR Revs, but I was meaning the 20mm version of them weight 4.5lbs ish, and dual air Revs are still a lot more second hand than the Nixons seem to be going for!

Rockplough, I refilled the cartridge before putting the lowers back on and oil was p*ssing out of the bottom of the upper leg and when I put the lowers back on, filled the lowers. On top of that, oil is coming out of the top of the leg where the lock out knob is.

StumpyJon, I think you migh be right, just that the kit in the first pic has a label on one of the bags with motion control written on it so was hoping for £15 rather than £30.

Magura Louise user here.

Having had Hope C2, (original) Mini's (2 sets) and Mini Mono's, the only one I was happy with was the C2 on the front of my trials bike. Both of the original mini's had spongy levers and calipers that flexxed apart when you pulled the lever.

Magura's might be more complicated to bleed, but my current set are 2yrs old, and my previous was a lot older (about 5 years) and neither have required a bleed yet. My Hope's did, so take it as you want (although Hope customer service is very good).

Why don't you stick with Orange and go for a HTC Hero. The HD2 is a Windows based mobile, so is liable to crash just like a Windows based computer.

The Hero is similar to the iPhone, but runs Android so you can get free apps etc.

Maggsy

Drop me an email if you're looking to sell your Pitch frame as I could well be interested 🙂

slackman 99 at gmail dot com

I agree with the above (mainly because I was with Thomsonru84 for one of the weekends).

Cli-Machx is worth a trip for the dh alone. There is a large fireroad climb at the start, but the singletrack is nice and flowy (my preference) and the dh is a monster!

Coed-y-Brenin wasn't so much my cup of tea. Seemed like lots of fire road for not a lot of singletrack and even some of that wasn't the best.

Llangdela was my favourite, but then I like smooth flowing singletrack over slow techy rocky stuff. I'm also fairly lazy, so the long but fairly shallow fireroad climb out to the back of the woods suited me fine. Then you ride back mainly on singletrack (which is great).

But as above, trail centres vary vastly and are a personal preference (although Whites Level is maybe my favourite of the ones i've ridden if you want to read anything in to that).

Handyman,

If you're anywhere near Northampton you can borrow mine.

From my experience, my M520's also have a lot of float which I think is a good thing, means you can move about on the pedal a bit.

Have you set your cleats at the correct angle? If they are off on the angle when you're normally pedelling (and are close to unclipping in one direction) then this can cause a click as the cleat is close to unclipping on each revolution and starts to move the mechanism.

Have you tried (for a few pedal strokes) altering the angle of your foot to see if that makes the clicking go away? (Don't do this for long as you'll knacker you knees!)

Completely agree. Rode it for the first time last weekend and wasn't at all impressed. As mentioned, named sections are good (with Rocky Horror being my favourite, but strangely not that rocky), endless seeming fire road (inc fire road descents) were not the best!

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Simple answer is……..yes.

Long answer is…….bargain.

Had a Pentax which I sent back. A200 is much nicer in the hand. Pictures compared to a compact are above and beyond. Compared to the competition you'd be hard pushed to notice a difference, and even then any difference you can see is down t personal preference (i.e. softness versus noise, colour rendition versus vibrance)

Only benefit of Canon and Nikon is the abundance of second hand cheap manual lens. Can use Konica Minolta lenses on the A200 if you want.

My father has built a 2000 sqft house (timber framed) for approx £100k complete and it's got decent stuff in it (underfloor heating, presurised hot water system decent carpet and wooden flooring etc). He's done all the decorating himself (and landscaping) but major building works, wiring etc has had tradesmen.

You may be more likely to get planning if you build within the existing floorplans, but not guaranteed as the house will have to be in keeping with the area.

I've had 318 Tora's for a couple of years now and for £100 (that I paid) they are a total bargain.

Ok, so they're a bit heavy (steel stantions and steerer), but they seem plush, fairly stiff and I haven't had a problem with them yet. Travel is upped to 5" by adjusting spacers. Lock out if you want it (I don't use it) and generally fairly well controlled damping.

I know they're not the 302's you asked about, but I thought i'd give you my impressions in anyways!

http://mountainbikerider.ipcshop.co.uk/shop/accessories/practical-accessories/mbr-water-bottles-x-5944

Not sure on the size though.

Surely a Pitch Comp would be one of the best around at that kind of price?

Shock back in bike will make it a doddle!

I've got a little A-Tech 1/18th scale setup that i'm looking to sell.

Only needs batteries for the controller (comes with battery and charger for the truck). No battery cover on the controller, but all there other than that.

Not the fastest thing every, but will be plenty fast for a 1yr old, plus is small enough to run in the house.

Drop me an email if your interested and I can sort you with picuture and price.

Dave

Anyone else got any recommendations?

Just seen some of the DHB jackets too. Any good?

S, which TK Maxx? Don't suppose i'm lucky enough that is was Northampton?

Can you remember what make they were?

I don’t think they can be ‘properly’ repaired. Welding the aluminium causes a change in the hardness (due to the heat) which leads to an overly brittle weld.

Usually ali frames are welded and then heat treated afterwards to relieve the stress caused by welding and make the welds less brittle.

So unless you intend to get the frame re-heat treated the answer is no.

However, I had a cheap ali frame a few years back that had a cracked dowtube weld. I had someone weld the crack and plate it and it didn’t crack there again (went on a seat tube weld second time). So it can be done, but won’t ever be as strong.

There is a welded in Coventry who we use through work who seems to know his beans when it comes to welding. He does ali, stainless and ti welding and along with the commercial welding he does for us, he also does ti artwork so must know a thing or two about welding.

I can drop you his details if you want (note that i’m not sure if he’s ever welded a bike before).

Swede, depends where you are, but there’s a chap on our industrial estate in Coventry that welds Ti. Don’t know if he’s ever done bike stuff before but he’s s**t hot on welding ali!