I raise you

This appears to be a bit of a running theme today:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/slicks-for-a-29er

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/please-can-someone-reccomend-me-29er-tyres-for-road-and-off-road-use-thanks

For road and light offroad then Big Apples would be fine.

If also mixing in some more rough stuff then can recommend the Conti Race Kings for fast rollingness. Can’t comment on longevity though as mine have only gone on this week.

I’ve just switched to 2.2 Conti Race Kings on my Karate Monkey which I’m using for my commute (potholed Devon lanes) and offroad.

They roll really well on the road despite their size. They’re obviously going to be pants in the mud but in the dry they’re fine.

Depends on your wife and the terrain surely.

I think if it’s only going to be used on the flat for family pootles then a singlespeed could be fine, provided she’s comfortable with the ratio. A lot of non cyclists are put off cycling by the fact that they don’t get on with the gears. A lot of cyclists(myself included) really love the lack of faff with singlespeeds.

For flat fireroads then the classic 32:16 may be a bit spinny but its a good starting point. Something a little higher would probably be the ticket.

Nothing as special as some of the above but I really regret selling my drop bar singlespeed RoadRat. It was an absolute hoot and probably one of the most versatile bikes I’ve owned.

Funds were used to buy my Karate Monkey which I love equally bit wish I’d had the money to keep both of them.

Big Apples were what I was going to suggest. Or Marathons in 28″ if you want a “normal” commuting tyre.

Would somewhere around cyb
Be a good base to allow nice easy day trips to the coast, fairground etc for the kids?..

Definitely. Harlech, Criccieth and Barmouth are all pretty close to CyB.

Graigwen (link above) is about 20 mins drive from CyB in one direction and about 5 mins from the coast at Fairbourne (you can walk across the bridge to Barmouth from there) in the other. There is also a mainline train service which runs down the coast to explore other places if you don’t fancy doing much driving.

If you’re not so bothered about riding and looking for more of a beach holiday then Lleyn peninsular is also worth considering. You’re still close to the mountains (easy to do CyB as a day trip) but got some lovely coastline. I’d personally avoid Abersoch in peak season though as it gets rammed with the Cheshire set. Aberdaron area is really lovely and much less crowded though.

The family route at CyB is great. Did it with our lad when he was about 8 months on a top-tube mounted seat. He loved it particulary the bit through the old gold mines.

I’d look around Dolgellau / Mawddach estuary. Easy to get to CyB, Mach etc and loads of natural trails on the doorstep (Cadair Idris included). Also some lovely gentler trails and proximity to nice beaches etc for the rest of the family. Decent pubs nearby and Barmouth is just down the road for a candyfloss / arcade / fairground fix.

We camp here most years, but they also have some holiday cottages. Stunning location and highly, recommended.

Home

Further north then Beddgelert is also a good place to base yourself. Again great scenery, good mix of natural trails (including Snowdon). Not too far from the coast and the Welsh Highland Railway is lovely for kids (and adults!).

£500 for my second hand Karate Monkey about 18 months back. Probably a couple of hundred quid in upgrades / replacement parts since then most of which was taken up by a replacement wheelset.

About £500 all in for my 1×1 which I built up from a second hand frame and forks and various bits of old and new kit off ebay. Not spent a penny on it in about 2 years other than replacing a chain.

I also reckon it was Miller’s son. Her hubbie finds out about it and covers for him by dumping body. Getting mistaken for Nige in the process.

I did wonder about Miller’s mad sister too. She’s cropped up a couple of times for no apparent reason…

Not related to the original post in any way, but whilst we’re on the subject of canine puns, this place is a regular tea stop on local rides:

:-)

A late entry… What about something canine related from mythology?

Cerebrus – Triple headed watchdog of Hades and gatekeeper of the underworld etc. You could base your logo on William Blakes:

Other options:

Marea – Belonged to Icarus and led Icarus’s daughter to his slain body buried under a tree. Perhaps a tad close to the knuckle if you want to get into SAR / recovery searches.

Argus – Faithful hound of Odysseus. Could get confused with low end retail store of similar name though.

Laelaps – Dog of Zeus who never failed to find his prey. Minus points for sounding like a sanitary product.

I’ll settle for a modest percentage of first year’s profits…ithenkyou :wink:

There’s a whole industry around it these days. All based around gaining the best SEO and rankings. As a company we invest a fair bit in social media ourselves and would guess that any celebrity wishing to enhance their personal rankings would be looking at employing an agency.

I guess it depends on whether the celebrity in question cares about their search rankings or is genuinely wanting to connect to their followers.

Was discussing this very subject over a beer with an old schoolfriend last night.

We reckoned you’ve become middle aged when:

1. You make noises when rising from a seated position.
2. You give out an involuntary sigh of contentment when handed a hot beverage.
3. You are staggered by the fact that you meet professional people (doctors etc) who weren’t even born when you started college / your first job
4. You realise you’re starting to sound like your Dad.

You also get bonus points for membership of any of the following:

Ramblers, RSPB, National Trust, English Heritage, Camping & Caravanning Club

I tick most of the above boxes, but to balance that like Wrightyson at 41 I’m still skating and thrash my singlespeed like it’s a big BMX.

May not still be made but definitely still available:

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/bontrager-29er-mud-team-issue-29-x-2-tyre-id74400.html

Mud X are brilliant on mud and cope fine with rocks and roots here on Dartmoor, but I do find the 29″ flavour seems a lot more draggy on climbs than the 26″ version, which I’ve run year round on my singlespeed for about 4 years.

sprocketjockey: yes! …. I have the connection, as you say, through settings/VPN etc….just need some way of viewing the files….is that what iremotedesktop does?

If it’s a windows server then it will allow you to open a session on it – ie have a windows desktop running on your iphone.

If it’s just simple access to files then as above filebrowser or something similar would fit the bill.

There is a built in VPN client on the iPhone (settings / VPN)… so you shouldn’t need anything additional to connect in the first place.

I’m guessing what you are actually after is some sort of remote desktop client?

If it’s a windows server then I can recommend iRemoteDesktop which is free on the appstore from HanaMobile. I use it all the time to remote support servers in work or even to connect to my office PC.

Apocalypse Now as contemporary myth / allegory (with specific reference to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and JG Frazer’s Golden Bough)

Railway infrastructure asset management systems

The life and times of Dylan Thomas

SQL

I don’t get out much…

Good work that man.

I would wager however that the resulting levels of flatulence could be sold to South Korea an effective anti-nuclear deterrent.

Thanks Charlie. You’re a star. Email just sent.

If the mech will move by hand it sounds like a problem with the cable pull.

Sounds obvious but when it’s in the low position (shifter and mech), is the cable under tension?

If not you may need to tighten it up some by getting some pliers on the cable. Had exactly that problem with my wife’s bike the other night.

Not got GPX – I just rely on OL28.

Links here to the start points of the two routes mentioned above though – routes are fairly obvious:

Bennett’s Cross

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?x=268050&y=81050&z=115&sv=268050,81050&st=4&mapp=idld.srf&searchp=s.srf&dn=782&ax=268050&ay=81050&lm=

Nutcracker

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?x=277250&y=81450&z=120&sv=277250,81450&st=4&mapp=idld.srf&searchp=s.srf&dn=782&ax=277250&ay=81450&lm=0

You may need to look for “new / old” stock (think they were v compatible up to 2010?) but would Recon Races suit?:

EDIT .link removed as it was to wrong fork!

Failing that if you just want something second hand which works decently I’ve got a set of pre Taiwan MX Comp Airs with uncut steerer and V brake bosses which will be going into the classifieds shortly!

I found putting a bit of washing up liquid around the rim helped to get them on!

Good news is that you’ll probably not have to get them off all that often. Mine have been on for about 5 years with no flats yet.

Gutted…He’s probably the one writer who I’ve stuck with throughout my life. I read the Wasp Factory as a semi-feral pre-teen growing up on the Welsh coast. The Crow Road as a waster student, and Complicity the year I got my first proper job. Devoured Raw Spirit on a bike tour of the Western Isles.

Losing him is going be like losing a close friend.

Hi. Live on East Dartmoor. We’re around 35 mins from Winkleigh. Loads and loads of decent riding in the area.

As above, there is a good route out from North Bovey to Hunter’s Tor, Nutcracker, Lustleigh Cleave and then back via Water. Check the OS map, but there is also a lot of good off piste stuff in the same area.

For more open moorland ride, there are a couple of loops you can do heading out from Bennett’s Cross near the Warren House Inn. Following is a good widescreen ride if it’s dry with a mix of XC and more technical stuff, and can be linked with the Lustleigh loop if you want a big day of it:

Bennett’s Cross > Vitifer Mine > Soussons Down > Golder Dagger > Challacombe > Headland Warren > Grimspound > Hameldown > Natsworthy > Jays Grave > Hayne Down > Hound Tor > back to Grimspound the same way or via Bonehill and Heathercombe and then back to start via Headland Warren

Also google the Stepping Stones ride out from Bellever. Again best attempted in the dry.

Further west, there is a decent loop out from Princetown to Burrator via the Widowmaker and back on the old railway line.

Surly 1×1. 32:18 for Dartmoor hills. Love it…

No snow to mention here on Dartmoor – just a light sprinkling overnight. Quite a lot of areas are pretty boggy but a hard frost overnight and an early start should see to that.

Ibis Tranny is a good call. Or as above get a decent steel frame retrofitted with S&S.

Conan257 – Member
I can’t bring myself to go from a 5″ carbon trail bike to a brompton!

Or what about an Airnimal :wink:

I’m also from the area originally and previous posters are correct that it has a bad rep locally, some of it admittedly justified.

But…it’s an isolated town with a long and proud industrial heritage which has been comprehensively crapped on, and has all the problems associated with that… this isn’t a uniquely Welsh / anti English problem – there are towns like that all over the UK – just not that many of them have a national park and top class MTBing on their doorstep.

I’d guess that some of the residents of those other towns would probably also get a bit chippy at groups of strangely dressed people turning up with bikes costing more than they’ll see in a year.

As above, AS is an effort to boost the local economy. I’d say give it a chance – ask the B&B / AS for recommendations on places to drink and eat – there are some decent places in some of the outlying villages even if you can’t find anything suitable in Ffestiniog itself. You may be pleasantly surprised and you can always bail for Porthmadog if it all goes wrong.

For reference my riding locally is a 60 / 40 split between a geared, rigid Karate Monkey and my singlespeed, but I’m something of a luddite!

If I’m honest I tend to pick my battles if on the 1×1 but it’s great fun. There are some routes around here where you’re going to end up pushing or carrying whatever you’re riding though, especially in the wet so a lighter, less complicated bike is sometimes a blessing.

If out for a full days riding just take whatever you’re most comfortable on.

Hope you have a good one.

Any particular reason for going tubeless? If you’re doing 80% road and only light offroad I’d be looking at a more touring orientated tyre like the Marathon Plus or perhaps Big Apples.

I believe the folding versions of both will mount tubeless with a Stans kit.

You’re not wrong. Went to college in Swansea so used to surf the Gower a lot back in the day so know that area pretty well. We generally do at least one trip to Pembrokeshire a year too which is probably one of my favourite places to surf in the UK.

North coast here can get pretty good but the popular places suffer from crowds in the summer. Can generally find something with a bit of initiative!

Use advance search and filter on Pet Friendly. Exmoor or Dartmoor would give you access to good riding and the coast nearby.

http://www.helpfulholidays.com/advsearch.asp

Where you at SJ?

NE Dartmoor so about an hour from N Cornwall coast.

Got in for a session at Widemouth earlier. Pretty decent sized swell, clean lines but closing out a lot. Not been in the water since before Christmas so “character building” is the adjective that springs to mind, and spent a lot of time foundering in the soup but great fun all the same. Saw some great surfing S of Black Rock and took a look at Crackington late afternoon and that was looking pretty much perfect.

The Cleave for singletrack for sure but for moorland riding take the route from Bennet’s Cross down through old Vitifer Mine workings, loop through Soussons to Challacombe and up the valley to Headland Warren. Hang a right for Grimspound then over the tops to Bowermans and Hound Tor via Jays Grave. Return via a number of options but don’t miss the ace descent off Birch Tor back to the mine. Warren House for tea and medals (or beer).

Thinking about it I first read 1984 in 1984 so must have been 12. Another book which had a massive impact.

Another huge Ransome fan here… Also avidly read Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton as a kid and loved the HHGTTG series.
Also did the whole SF thing – Asimov, Clarke etc. For Horror it was James Herbert, Ramsey Campbell and Stephen King.

The single biggest book of my formative years was Iain Banks’ Wasp Factory though. Still love it now…