its always the same with these pootle threads, Chris plans a route and everybody wants to change it! :wink:

terrible ain't it :cry:

can't make it either :(
but then I am biking in the lakes that weekend :-)

Some great photos of the day folks! Thanks Ton for the organisation of a great ride, a really top day out with great company (and cakes!). :D

Looking at my bike, it needs new pads front and rear (rears have gone completely) and a new seat clamp as mine snapped at the start of the shooting house descent – riding back with my post right down has killed my knees too :roll:

Jon (black stumpjumper, black jacket)

should be there if I can wake up early enough :wink:

I may be out on a limb here but I really like spesh tyres, good value/performance mix IMO

I've used eskars for past couple of years for riding in the peaks, lakes and welsh/scottish trail centres
Plus points
Really great in most conditions
grippy on rocks – I found them a bit slippy on wet rocks when I first used them but after reducing pressures I found their sweet spot.
light for a AM tyre
cheap
Stable on a wide rim
not too draggy for a big carcass size
have used them as low as 15psi coming down dollywagon pike

Minus points
They perform poorly in mud – I've some purgatorys for more mixed conditions
sidewalls are fairly thin if you ride heavy through rocks

rutland cycles have got new xtr for £249 on ebay

best troll ever :lol:

abductee – Member

All I ask is that they don't then go calling it a world class mountain biking centre of excellence after they've turned it into a flat, muddy, off-camber joyless thing.

you referring to Sherwood Pines by any chance? :wink:

cheers Simon, should be able to find it now! and there will be a few of us so access should be ok.

love the pics Simon, I fancy doing this ride at the end of March when I'm up in the lakes, but is the cave obvious to find – I've been up and down the tracks around Little Langdale a few times and never even noticed it!?

brilliant, thanks :lol:

Not had a crap set in the last couple of years, sintered pads have been great, lasting just as well as the genuine avid ones

Nice Pics, looks like a fine day out. I rode Clumber last night, can't believe how much snow has gone, just a few patches here and there, leaving it very wet and draggy

enduros are an old tyre now- not sure how available they are anymore, superceeded by the eskar and purgartory. if you want grip on soft mud and grass go for a mud tyre 1.8 or 2.0 (trailraker/mud x/etc) big day out tyre purgatory blows up big and is a good all rounder

Purgatorys are my favourite all rounder at the mo, slightly slower and heavier than Captains but offer much more grip and confidence.

I bought these as an intermediate trail tyre something between an all mountain peaks/lakes tyre and a woodland singletrack xc tyre, but I have ended up using them all over, only chink in the armour is mud performance, but you cant have everything. @ only £40 a pair its a no brainer IMO

I'm about 17 stone kitted up and run an M4 front and X2 rear combo, they have been great (powerful, reliable, great feel, easy to set up, genuine pads cheaper than my old avids by £5 a time too), when I was looking to upgrade(fed up with continual tweaking of avids) the quality of the hopes engineering just seemed so much better than the formulas, hayes, maguras etc, and whilst mags say they are down on power I've always felt that they had lots in reserve and I wholeheartedly recommend them.

try your lbs, I find my LBS is great for this sort of thing, he seems to know just what i'm after and has boxes of all sorts of reducers and stops that you just can't source off t'interweb

I'm thinking i might try somewhere a bit different

there is Ton's STW Nidderdale ride next Sunday, promises to be good

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-northern-chapter-february-ridenidderdale

have a look on ebay, there is someone selling new selle italia 'test' saddles for about £30, identical to normal saddle but 2/3 off list price because there is a gold test saddle graphic on it – surely worth a punt iff you're a serial saddle swapper?

happy days! Wish my mrs was still about to tell me off :D

I cut about 70mm off my post so I could drop it a bit more, at full height it just goes past the safety hole too.

looks like a bastardised font to me, i'd use blippo light as a start and then modify to suit.

or have a look at this site for lots of bauhaus style fonts

http://www.bowfinprintworks.com/BauhausFaces1.html

some road sections can be fine at this time of year IMO, faster rolling, no filth gives you chance to catch your breath and have a chat on a group ride.

Amount of road is an issue for some with that VG ride if you set off from Redmires there are two distinct road sections, which are unavoidable. I think the Stanage causeway is best approached from that direction though, it seems a real drag to ride up from Ladybower.

not ridden that BW since October, so can't help :(

sticking valve?

Cut Gate is one of my fave rides, but I tend to steer clear when its been wet for weeks. whenever I do cut gate in the colder months of the year only ever see 2 or 3 groups at most, it will be cut up and boggy on the top sections whether we ride it or not, its just so much better in the dry, the drop down to North America is sublime when its had a few weeks to dry out

don't know about the cross, but loved the images

Cutgate although one of my fave rides might be a bit grim unless we get a good dry spell.

My vote would be for a Redmires start > Stanage Pole & Plantation > Lady Canning > Blacka > Totley Moor > Houndkirk ride as I think most bits hold up well.

Nice work mate, glad you missed my couple of offs! :D

in the trousers

gravy – 2 words for you mate, and one of thems off

:lol:

the best bike? its the one that you are personally lusting after most, no use buying a bike that is most reccomended on here if what you really fancy is a [insert fave bike name here]

should Ton buy

cagey cos it ain't true!!! (just yet), rode a 2010 demo bike on the peaks pootle ride and loved it so its just a matter of time. Trusslebabes is just getting excited incase I sell him my old one methinks :D

293 miles, it should be a bit higher but I blame the snow :wink:

dig deep for a chris king mate, you know you want to! I was going through them a rate of knots till I bought a king one last spring, now its happy days!

and grease nipple

it was Will, so you aren't the only crazy in the village :wink:

can't comment on shimano but would recommend whichever you go for get the hope matchmaker clamps too. i use hopes 'matchmaker' style bar clamps with my X0 shifters and the shifters seem to integrate better than they did running separate clamps.