@coolbeanz – after much searching, I supposedly have the exact tyre you’re looking for turning up today from probikekit.co.uk. No idea if there’s any left but hopefully you’re in luck. Having tried some alternatives let’s just say I’m excited to have a dhr again.

Hey mate it says D9NW on mine. Don’t know if it varies by size but mine’s s4 – largest one they do. Only had one ride on mine but it feels fantastic so far!

Yeah the difference being a building serves a practical, useful purpose regardless of who paid for it, whereas a statue serves no purpose but to celebrate the person it depicts. If that person is a slave trader, it’s pretty inappropriate to be celebrating them. Not sure where the confusion stems from on this subject.
Furthermore a secondary plaque explaining his wrongdoing was suggested years ago and they didn’t bother making it, so the statue clearly wasn’t there for educational purposes.

EDIT: was supposed to be a reply to cheekw’s most recent but somehow not managed to reply properly

Your best bet is to listen to a load of stuff you’re really familiar with, that will tell you if they’re making a good representation of the music versus just hearing how loud they go. Posted a couple of YT links, may be to your taste or not but I find them a good test. You’ll want to use decent quality streaming or preferably flac files if you can though, youtube will likely be the weakest link in your chain.

These three are a solid bass test:

And the next two have those vocals that should sound as if they’re right in front of you:

Bonus filth, this just sounds like a mess on subpar speakers:

Enjoy your new kit!

Edit: of course I didn’t embed the videos properly
Edit edit: turns out trying to embed doesn’t work, just posting the link does, happy days

Bit rougher than the old railway line into town and can hold on to water fairly well when it’s wet. Definitely doable on the sort of bike you described, and the path turns to a tarmac surface once you reach the lake. I’ve done it quite a few times on a cx bike without any issues.

Started doing a bit of digging at my local woods (with permission) and have a load of brambles to clear. Didn’t fancy spending £40 on a brush cutter so whipped this up from a hawthorn branch and an old saw blade. Giving it a first test tomorrow so hopefully it does a good job.
Left some of the serration on when sharpening, but may grind it down to a straight blade in the future if I find it snagging.

Air shaft mod on my Pike was a big upgrade. Not sure where I saw it done first, but drilling a small hole on the negative side of the air shaft and taping the shaft threads enlarges the negative air volume.
Same benefits as the debonair shaft but free so long as you don’t mess up. I now run a bit more sag and took a token out as it now stays higher in the travel. Seriously impressed by the difference.

My technique for stubborn tyres which has recently worked on a on-tubeless dh casing tyre:

1. Put tyre on rim with a small amount of sealant, slosh around bead and fit an inner tube.

2. Inflate tyre to sufficient pressure to pop on bead.

3. Leave a little while for sealant to work on the bead.

4. Unseat one side, remove tube and chuck a bunch of sealant in.

5. Give it a slosh and inflate the tyre (I’ve only needed a track pump – no airshots etc). Put a small amount of washing up liquid between the unseated bead and rim wall if it’s stubborn.

6. Ride it. I found it lost a bit of pressure first ride out, mostly weeping through sidewalls, but has held pressure in the week since. Again this is a non-tubeless tyre.

BONUS CHEAPNESS:

Gorilla tape is fine. I also cut a valve out of an old tube and used a small o-ring between the lockring and rim to help seal the hole. Use some pipe lagging as a ghetto cushcore. It doesn’t add a huge amount of protection, but really helps get the bead against the rim for seating.

Best of luck

It all depends how much time you’ve got on your hands…
I got the lever cheap off a mate, so worth the faff. Especially over the original x-fusion lever.

Cheers for all the advice guys. Will definitely be making some adjustments to the bike and body position. I was mostly worried that I’d get too keen if I went on the mtb and wreck myself. Also this loop is just really flat. I think I’ll bring my expectations down for what you can bully a road bike into, and maybe get on the mtb a bit. Thanks for the help

Had surgery 2 weeks ago and the dressing’s just come off. Starting physio soon, and might be allowed to start swimming. Only 1 more month off the bike, and hopefully no more back/leg pain! Also interview monday for what might be the perfect post-grad job!

The uni guys ride Wednesday at 2pm from the front of Fulton house. There’s usually a fast and long ride as well as a slower, shorter ride. I doubt they’ll mind if you ask nicely. You could try and contact them on facebook, the group is SUCT (swansea uni cycle team).

Rae Morris – Unguarded

Gabrielle Aplin – Light up the Dark

But obviously Currents by Tame Impala. Surprised nobody’s said it yet

The slacker head angle will definitely help on the steep stuff, but the lack of any bounce at the back means that you have to ride very smoothly if you want to keep up the pace through rougher stuff. You’ll probably be fairly good at this coming from a short travel bike, so it should be a good transition for you. I’ve got a Dartmoor Hornet and it’s great fun as well as being a very affordable purchase frame only (£185!).

You should be able to get a great bike for not much money with a long travel hardtail, and as long as you’re not doing big drops or really rough stuff you should have a great time. Just be prepared to work the bike quite hard to keep up with your mates on full sussers.

OK, thanks!

Last year at uni it was about 3 minutes straight into a pretty nice descent…

Any excuse…

…

In they go.

Just got back from my first ride on SLX brakes. Apart from the stupidly long hoses out of the box I’ve no complaints at all. Loads of power and as long as you wind the levers out a bit on the little adjuster thing you can easily modulate it all through one finger.

I’m 6’3″ on a Large Dartmoor (19″), so I wouldn’t say it needs to be a massive frame as long as it’s long enough and you’ve got a big seatpost.

In terms of technique, going out of your comfort zone definitely helps. I spent last weekend riding a steep, rocky and rooty downhill track (BUCS at Innerleithen if anyone’s interested) on my 150mm hardtail. This week I’ve found all the local trails a lot easier and I’m carrying a lot more speed(scientific merits of Strava debatable).

Yep, got my Hornet frame off them. Came in a few days well packaged. Not had to deal with them since, but wouldn’t hesitate to again.

The Dartmoor Hornet’s also a good shout. The build quality’s good, but the frame only costs £185! I’ve got one and I think it’s seriously good. Handles great, doesn’t weigh much with a fairly strong build and apart from not having the thickest paint it’s tough as nails. It also rides really well with 26 inch wheels and fork, so you can save a bit of money that way, although it does also fit 650b. You do get the odd pedal strike with the 26″ wheels, but usually only if you’re pedalling mid corner going all out. I can’t really think of anything to fault it, it even looks pretty good.

I have the Audio-Technica M40 headphones. Very comfortable, and very well balanced sound without any stupid bass boost crap and the headband expands over a wide range so they should fit just about everyone.

Epic in every way.

I’m first year at uni so I have pretty recent experience. Firstly, GCSEs don’t really matter that much as long as you do well enough to get into the college courses you want.

From my experience at college though, doing something non-academic is a MUST. However, art A-level swallows a ridiculous amount of time and with probably detriment other grades.

I did music technology and it was perfect. Just gave me something to look forward to at college. I think I would actually have gone insane if I stuck with all science and maths. However, the majority of art students I knew at A-level found it an absolute nightmare, so if she’s musical, it might be a good idea to try music at GCSE and see if she enjoys it. The music facilities at college will be a lot better than the ones at school though.

8 GB of ram should be enough if she doesn’t do anything too intense.

I’d also recommend an SSHD from seagate which is what I’ve put in mine. 8GB of SSD for OS, and regularly used apps and documents and a 512gb or more hard drive for movies or music or photos etc. I’ve got one in my 2012 macbook along with 16GB of ram (I record and produce music so it’s necessary) and it is like a completely new machine.

*edit* re-read the op and seen that she doesn’t use much storage, so could get away with just an ssd. However, and SSHD is a fair bit cheaper and still has a lot of the performance benefits, so I still wouldn’t write it off.

University exams and studying for them. After tomorrow I’m free though, and I will be getting filthy and stupid hilarious crashes going too fast into wet corners and it’ll be great. Getting grit under my safety glasses and right into my contact lens always sucks though. But everything else is bearable.

Pedalling against all the mud makes me stronger and cornering in it makes my balance and reactions better so I can go faster in summer. In theory. I’ll probably just fall off a lot.

If they don’t grip that well, take the front one off and just use them on the back with a better tyre on the front.

I’ve got a high roller 2 on the front at the moment and it grips well in some pretty slimy conditions and doesn’t drag too much on the way to the trails either. I’d say be prepared to try a bunch of different tyres before you feel like you want to settle on a particular setup though. Maxxis seem to be consistently good though unlike the continentals I’ve had, although obviously that might just be a bad experience on my part.

I’ve got one, but running with 26″ at 150mm, so it’s a bit steeper due to the fork. That works alright for me as I ride to the trails and don’t mind my climbs.

It rides really well in my opinion. Corners well, and the reach is fairly long, so you can run a short stem on it and still have room to move around. It also feels pretty stable in the air, but it’s only recently that I’ve tried some decent jumps, but I’m getting confident pretty quickly. It is really stiff at the back too, which makes me confident to push myself, but some might not appreciate it on longer rides.

Doesn’t weight too much and has a lot of mud clearance at the back which is handy this time of year. Paint’s a bit thin, but I guess that stops it being too heavy. It does everything fairly well, so you shouldn’t be limited by it for the majority of things.

It is pretty slack though, so with the 650b fork being longer anyway(longer lowers), I’d try it with 150mm over 160 so it still handles nicely. I’m running a 150mm Pike and don’t feel like I need more.

TL:DR highly recommended, schralp-capable, hardtail that does most things pretty well. You should probably get one.

Looking down on Swansea from Kilvey Hill.

I use a ART Tube audio interface. Records really well; has two XLR and Jack inputs which is all you should really need if you’re not planning on recording drumkits. Also has built in compressors and low-cut filters on each channel which is nice.

For a mic I use a Røde NT1. It’s really good, lots of versatility, and if you’re just getting started and doing home recording, there’s not much point in spending more on a microphone.

I’ve got a couple of songs on soundcloud that I recorded with this gear and logic pro. It’s not really the same style as you sound like you’re planning on recording, but it’s an example of the gear’s quality.
soundcloud.com/the1fletch

Good luck, and remember to share with the rest of us once you’ve got something recorded!

I’ve got Nukeproof Generator AM rims, which are fairly light (don’t care enough to go measuring etc), but more importantly look and feel nice and strong once built up. No flex when riding either. They use all standard nipples and spokes and seem to be very easy to install/remove tyres, to the point where I rarely need levers to remove a tyre.

They’ve been used on some fairly rough and rocky terrain at decent speed with no dents and not even any scratches that stand out enough for me to spot.

If you want something lighter but not quite as tough, I believe there’s a Generator TR rim available as well, but personally I’d recommend the AM as they don’t seem to weigh all that much anyway.

Woods behind nationwide?

I got bored of the default ones, so I made some.

Dartmoor Hornet. Excellent ride at an amazing price. Designed to be 26 and 27.5 compatible, so the bb isn’t the highest. Only noticed while pedalling mid-corner though on road links.

Pushed the OTA to me Nexus 4 day before yesterday…

It is NICE!

Seems to run smoother, and there’s definitely a decent improvement in battery life. Can’t wait for more apps to take advantage of the new designs and animations available.