You didn’t answer the question, did you pay in cash on collection or paypal – if the latter… then ebay will side with you and you will get your money back you just have to prove you sent it back….

Assuming you paid cash on collection here ? in which case your not likely to get anything back.

My experience of ebay is in any paypal transaction. If there are any issues ebay will always side heavily with the buyer (which is wrong IMO) , you’ve got 30 days to make a complaint and will always get a full refund.

there’s no official trail-building groups around afan but a few separate groups of people and some very dedicated individuals that build around afan and the Swansea valley

the only official local group I can think of are the MTB pigs but they tend to stick to the official trails at clyne

Hints to finding these off-piste Afan trails?

for a starter – what I said – park at rhyslyn’s and take a look at the hill in the opposite direction of the official stuff ! its not the worlds best kept secret… and there’s times this year when there’s been larger groups of people riding that side than on the trail center!

locals and people in the know tend to park at the rhyslyns car park which has been full when ive been in the last few weekends – from there its much easier to make up a ride of both trail center such as the wall and penhydd and “secret” stuff.

If you park at the glyncorrwg car park its harder work to do this as there’s not so much stuff off the official trails on that side of the hill – if you parked there that’s probably why it was quiet.

see my post yesterday,

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/strava-segment-length-change

turns out they way the segments are measured could be different – each ride as the start and endpoints can be way out ….makes the segment tool and leaderboard pretty pointless really…

@waswas – I think your strava article pretty much confirms it one of the paragraphs read

“Segment matching uses the GPS points in the data closest to the start and endpoints of the segment, and as this can vary with each activity, timing on a segment can vary slightly because of this. At the present time, we don’t interpolate or extrapolate GPS data to normalize for the exact start and end positions of the segment.”

although in this case the start points that some of the top ten are picking up are way down the trail after some tight flat corners….. that’s pretty poor in my opinion if the activity doesn’t match on the same start point then it shouldn’t register – that would make it more consistent.

I’m under no illusions …I know who the “genuinely” fast riders are locally and who I have no hope of catching… and the ones who have put that much time into me on that segment aren’t that fast – or are on strava EPO 😉 ! or the trail has changed – or strava is broken – as highlighted above!

I was worried this thread would get the don’t take it too seriously type of reply, trust me I don’t at all. Im not a strava obsessive compared to some riders I know, but I thought (I was interested to see on one of my regular trails where faster riders are making up time and maybe session those sections of trail and try and work on techniques etc)

But what I have highlighted above means there’s a pretty big flaw in the system – makes the strava comparison tool useless!

I can show you the comparison if you look at the 2 maps the top link is my ride

https://www.strava.com/activities/977055512/segments/23947372291

this link below is the same segment looks unedited – but the leader clearly starts 20 – 30m into the same trail missing out the dog leg at the top that you see in my run – (as do most of the top ten on the leaderboard)

https://www.strava.com/activities/125633881#2822595508

if its true about the start point – this doesn’t explain why the map outline is different – surely this should always be the same ?

funnily enough i did the sort of ride you are describing yesterday! – id say 95 percent of what i did would be good on a cx bike with a some smaller sections maybe a bit too rocky to be fun on a crosser – if your on strave my route is here https://www.strava.com/activities/864381488

yes I’ve had a pair for a few years, just had them reglazed for cycling as a spare pair. I have replaced the rubber “socks” twice on them – they seem to perish after about a years wear.

the replacement arms are a rip off but you can buy the socks separately for (relatively) cheaper price – think they were under a tenner from vision express

thanks for info – for comparison – what size enduro ive tried the 2015 29er version in xl and it didn’t seem overly big but I think they got longer the year after? Also if you dont mind me asking what is your inside leg !? (im 32)

@Dango – how does it size up in comparison to your enduro ? im 6ft and the size calculator recommend a medium – however my other bikes are a large

my point was – as a rider who HAS raced afan and some of the other series before One of the KEY factors that keep me interested (happy to pay for) and coming back to the same location to race. Is riding on different stages or fresh trails.

I know some locals I talk to feel the same way and maybe that’s one of contributing factors in the dropoff in numbers specifically @ afan event where the stages haven’t changed a lot in any of the series that have been run over it.

I was going to enter the tour de France next year till I realised that I could just ride around France. Muppets like that will never be at a race, you can ride any dh course any day of the week if you want

sorry mate but when you mentioned tdf I switched off..

“It also doesn’t help the numerous comments on here when an Enduro event is coming up and people say “I’m not paying to ride trails I can ride for free the following weekend”…..it saps the enthusiasm from the sport”

of course you can go and ride any trails you like if the following weekend if you really wanted to….

The point I am making is specifically about the afan event the stages have remained exactly the same for the past few years and to keep things fresh I think one or 2 stages needed to change at some point. Whether that’s logistically possible is not for me to say. As a local I know theres other amazing trails close by but whether an public event could be staged those – (probably not!)

Also I know the dyfi area pretty well and could go and ride those stages for free at anytime – but as kimbers said

“the old ukge team put a lot of man hours in to build/prep some of the stages”

which made me much more inclined to drop £75 on it than the afan event

not surprised on the low numbers for the afan event – I expect not many people are happy paying 75 quid to ride trail centre trails (apart from the hillbilly stage) – that they can ride for free all year.

I think the events like ard rock /moors are more appealing to the average rider as its a chance to ride places that you cant ride normally (on private ground) people are more willing to pay and travel to these ones.

im 6ft with a 32inch inside leg, I test rode the medium which felt great but bought the large and run it with a 30mm stem. Not sure how the medium would feel now – prob too small and also I prefer the longer wheelbase on the steep stuff,

the main reasons reverb wont work after a bleed is that you haven’t screwed the speed adjuster out on the trigger when you bleed it. if you don’t do that when you bleed there wont be enough oil in the system to push the poppet valve up and down

great film!, my boss in work is involved (outside of work) with the Banff film festivals I asked him about how to get the films into the festival the link is here

null

My experience of the Swansea shop is that they will try and sell you the most expensive version of whatever it is you ask for eg. if you ask for chainring bolts you will be offered a set of £30 quid titanium chainring bolts – not 50p steel bolts.

Little tip if you are ever in the shop and need or tempted to buy anything always ask them at the till for the online web price. As this is invariably much cheaper than the RRP instore and they will happily match it. Although I don’t understand why the prices aren’t these anyway – just seems like to leave a bad taste if you are caught out like this!

around chop gate, south of middlesbrough

any idea on prices ?

I’m not an experienced racer but did enduro 2 this year which is “only” a 2 and 1/2 days of riding – and it is physically one of the most demanding things I have done.

Personally if I was going back I would just ride and not race as the trails were great and when racing you don’t get to experience them fully in my opinion (but then I’m a stop and look at the view / session a jump type of rider not a race as fast as you can on every single trail rider.

I was struggling to hold onto a bike on the last day and was glad it was finished – we did the megavalanche a couple of weeks later and that was a like riding a bluebell trail in comparison to the multi dayer event

I also have the compressor in the pic above bought it to setup tubeless and its works for all tyres ive tried – it must have a small res built into it as you can feel the air pressure drop off if you hold the trigger down for more than 5 secs.

Although this will usually give you enough airflow to seat most tyres…and if not you can pulse the trigger off and on to keep the airflow going until they seat,

As the other guy has said they are VERY loud and might upset the neighbours if used indoors!

ive got the same wheelset, they don’t feel any harsher than other wheels ive tried … but if anything I would have thought there was more flex in these than if the hope enduros you have had previously which are surely a more burly wheelset?

they do seem pretty bombproof and have only needed to replace the bearings in the front wheel after approx 1000miles on them

in a word its frustrating I did it for the second time this year and doubt I would ever do it again. I thought I would have a better go this year on the second attempt as with prior experience and hopefully a better bike handler having done a lot more riding. I actually did far worse in the qualifying this year even though I rode a lot better than the first time round ….and they reason for this is the qualifying lottery.

The key to having a good run in the mega is having a good starting spot in the qualifier which as far as I know if you are not a pro or recognised rider you take pot luck and are allocated a row. This year I was in one of the rows at the back of the group there was a bottleneck from the intial fireroad all the way to the first techy singletrack and from there on in I don’t care if your Sam Hill you wont be doing enough overtaking to make it count as there isn’t enough opportunity.

As you can see in most peoples vids you eventually get stuck behind singletrack sections behind slower riders and are dragging your brakes all the way down you do get a few openings but at that point id lost the will to ride

It is however more open on the main event as you have a longer run on the snow in a wider area and so the field thins out a bit more allowing the faster and fitter riders to get away from the pack.

you can go up and ride the mega course any time before or after the event and it is an official trail

I have heard the mountain of hell has a fairer way of qualifying and may try this next year

same experience here with a pair of the waterproof (elements?) ones I bought from snow and rock last year – the sole started peeling off within a few weeks. But was in similar position that it was too late to return them pretty obvious manufacturing issue there – not good enough for shoes that can cost up to £100 quid

I glued them on using a whole tube of UHU which is a good temp fix – but then the other side the sole split on a heavy compression when my foot folded on the floor again

anyone recommend any alternatives as I’ve given up on them

just come back from there if camping avoid the nearest campsite to the lift in town…its more gypsy site than campsite, we stayed there one night and then moved onto the one Rudiboy recommended above – bit further from town but more secure

has anyone got a gpx or strava loop of a good long route that takes in all the off piste stuff? cheers

I love there aesthetics but id stay well away from xtr. From my own experiences I went through about 4 levers in the past 2 years. The latest ones they have sent out with the carbon blades are complete dog sh*t.

I have given up now and bought slx’s instead. The issue I had is quite common specifically to XTR if you google it – a piece collapses in the master cyclinder which means the lever gives way and wont return! the master cyclinder is sealed and so the xtr levers are a right off. The issue doesnt seem that common with the “lower” spec shimano brakes so Im guessing whatever collapses has had weight shaved from it to lighten the lever up.

Yes if you like a challenge! – completely different to riding the zig zags descent. With tight steep turns, off camber roots and rocks!

As above it was used as a stage on one of the national enduro’s- although it has been modified slightly to make some of the turns easier to make since that race.

I’ve got the original solarstorm case but the springs are in the top cap that unscrews and the fixed contacts are in the bottom of the main case.

The battery stickers had worn off and I accidentally put the battery’s in the wrong way around so am wondering if something has shorted in the case – but it does seem to be an similar issue as you have described

can anyone recommend a case for the 4 x 18650 batteries ?? – ive got the generic solarstorm style one which I bought last year and was out on the 1st night ride last night, the light was switching off on every bump… very frustrating!…I put the issue down to the case as when tightened up it would intermittently come back on – and ive got 4 x genuine panasonic batteries

I’ve looked on ebay and they all look the same and seem to come out of the same factory – so should I just get another or is anyone using another case or setup to house there batteries?

any advice appreciated

my experience of invisframe is the total opposite, tried to send a unopened kit back after my frame order was delayed and eventually cancelled and they wanted a £20 quid restocking fee! ..which i think is a bit much on an item that costs £50 – £60 quid – to put something back on a shelf which would prob have sold within a week as its popular frame… I wont be using them again and wont be recommending them.

buy the standalone 810 unit and get the maps from talkytoaster website – not free but cheap

dont suppose your interested in an invisiframe frame protection kit – as I cancelled my reign order and have one in a tube unopened

I rode round a loop around dyfi last tues the final descent of climach is closed due to tree felling

there is a diversion in place which I didn’t ride down as there are some other more interesting descents in the area….

I did think about drilling the frame and running a full outer but am pretty sure you’d invalidate the warranty / might also be a problem for re-selling the frame as well

plus if you drill the headtube – your still going to have the fairly big hole in the downtube which you would probably want to seal up to stop the shit getting in – if you go down the little plate route, you wont have the touch the frame in any way.