I had an early Rock Lobster 853, managed to to rub the paint off on a bit of the head tube through cable rub, the rest was fine though. Far better than the standard of paint on Inbreds from what I’ve seen.

The Rock Lobster to me felt quite stiff for a steel frame, like a half way house between steel and aluminium.

I’ve built up a Decade Virsa today, looking forward to putting it through it’s paces tomorrow.

I’ve just built one of these up. Think I might invest in a double bolt seat clamp to spread the load a bit. Anyone tried this already?

Perhaps those turning to the Darkside have heard about the UNLIMITED POWER!

I have one bike, it’s a mountain bike. I ride it on roads, to get to the woods.

Why are my squad of clones pointing their guns at me?

By the sound of it now may not be the time for SPD for you yet. When your race is done and you’re back to general riding and training. Try doing a route that you know on flats, but do it as though you’re clipped in, try and clean all the sections and keep you feet on the pedals (no foot out dabbing in the corners), try that a couple of times. Then do the same route with SPDs, knowing fully that you can do it and commit to it, this will start to build your confidence when riding clipped in. Once you have that feeling of confidence and commitment when riding clipped in, you’ll realise loosing the commitment head game will make you crash a lot more than being clipped in.

1995 Univega Alipna 502, stolen
1997 Saracen Protrax s.e.
2001 A horrible far eastern Alu custom build, it was Easton Elite tubing but really proved that “It’s the frame builder, not the material.”
2002 Rock Lobster 853 custom build
(time off bikes and getting fat)
2007 Giant XTC 4.5

Hopefully selling the Giant soon and getting a 2010 Charge Duster Mid.

I was watching the Snooker, then went riding in the afternoon.

I always wear a helmet, it makes me feel better about riding.

However I was in belgium a couple of weeks ago. everyone rides a bike, and i mean EVERYONE. no one wears a helmet, literally no one. I didn’t see piles of bodies, or queues outside hospitals with head injuries. I t definitely made me think about why there is such pressure to wear a helmet in the UK.

Because in the UK, drivers think we are the enemy and we’re getting away with using their roads without paying “Road Tax.”.

I guess we should all BTFU

That may be of use to you.

You don’t currently vote for a party. You vote for an MP for your constituency. The party, or parties that form the government are the ones that can form a parliamentary majority (more than half of the MPs in the house of commons).

Say if Labour won 45% of the seats, mainly by large majorities in each constituency.

But the Conservatives won 55% of seats, but only marginally in each constituency.

Then more people would have voted Labour, but a Conservative government would have been returned as the winner.

I don’t think AV is an ideal system (I don’t think one exists) but it’s better than FPTP (first passed the post) and a No result in the referendum would kill the chance of electoral reform for the foreseeable future, if not a generation.

So, in recent times more and more people have been cycling. And with this growth, incidence of cyclists being arrogant and aggressive have risen. Could this be attributed to how these new cyclists used to travel. I wonder what means of transport they used to use where being arrogant and aggressive is frequently the norm.

Yep, more because it looks neat and shows pride in maintenance of my bike. If it was any effort, I’d probably be too lazy though.

The Clegg Nuts
Referen-Dumb

I don’t get where all the colour has gone from MTBs. Yes, anodised purple and the Judy yellow/red fads were a bit silly. But all this black or white is just plain dull, which is much, much worse.

A mate of mine used to have ceramic 121s (iirc) on his trials mtb. They’ll improve braking power, but what you’ll gain on decreased rim wear, you’ll lose on increased pad wear, particularly in the wet. Hope that helps.

I’ve been back into Mountain Biking for a couple of years now, after a 5 year hiatus. Weight has been coming down and fitness going up, I’m not fast by any means, but I’m past the point where I get moments of “Why the **** am I doing this?” and the good bits still feel like a cross between Rally Driving/Rollercoaster/Return of the Jedi Speeder Bikes.

So. Bah-bah Ba-ba-baaah! I’m loving it.

Welcome back. I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago, coming back to riding after 5 years away. It’s taken a while, but I’m finally getting back to the point where it’s pretty much all enjoyment and never a slog.

How does the Inbred ride? I’ve been riding a Giant XTC since getting back into riding and it’s good for an Alu bike, with good power delivery and not as jittery on the rough stuff as the Alu bikes I tried back in the day (GT Zaskar and Cannondale CAAD 3). But I’m after getting something that feels similar to my old Saracen Protrax s.e. Like the more budget DB cromo frames, rather than the stiffer racier steel frames and have been looking at the Inbred.

So any thoughts would help and list a few bikes you’re comparing it to if you could, cheers.

^ Yup, I remember reading that it’s a limited number of medals issue.

Although can’t agree on the geographic issues. At Beijing, the sailing was like 600km away. They could have the DH pretty much anywhere in Britain for London 2012 (moot point, as it’s not happening).

DH may be a small part of competitive cycling. But has had a large influence on cycling as a pastime. How many people do you see riding FS bike, as opposed ti riding fixey track bikes, in a line, behind a little Moped?

Then again, if the events reflected the public’s experience of cycling, you also have to have a commuting/white van dodging event and a how many council estate kids can you fit on one BSO.

FFS, whatever you do, don’t watch any of the Final Destination movies.

Not because of your experience, just because they’re sh1t.

http://www.trueprecision.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TPC&Product_Code=200&Category_Code=MTB
sprag clutch operation, instant engagement.
I have a 72pt hadley hub myself, it’s blinkin marvellous

Christ, that’s pricey. Shimano used to do something similar, the silent clutch hub. I had one on an old Saracen back in the late 90s, but the design seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. Pity, if they did one for disc brakes, I’d have another straight away(but not at ^that price. Even though they were a little heavier.

I’ve had a fraud attempt on my card. Yes I have used it to buy from CRC (early March, I think was the last time), they attempted to buy something off ebay with it. It’s buggered up my 3DS pre-order 🙁

Noice, looks like my “What steel hardtail?” dilemma is solved.

Out of those 2, I go for the Genesis. But given a broader choice, I’d have this year’s Latitude 10 as I used to have a Rock Lobster 853 and found 853 to be a bit on the stiff side for my liking.

They are quite different bikes. The 456 (as specced by One-on) is a hardcore hardtail. Whereas the Genesis is more of a xc/trail bike. Depends what you want.

I’ve been looking at this too. Not been able to find any reviews for this, or the Buffer (next one up). I have found some reviews of the Steely (2011 model) which state that’s 34lb, which is pretty hefty, even for a steel framed bike (it does have heftier Sun DH rims).

Think I’ll wait until I can find a decent deal on a Saracen Kili Cromo 2.

What a difference a bit of sun makes :D. Been out around local woods, 14 miles (22k if you insist). Saw 3 other riders, which is a novelty, normally only see my tracks and 1 other set where I ride. Chalked up one of the good days, that get us through the winter slog. Hoping for many more over the spring/summer.

I’ve had my eye on the Kili Cromo 2. It’s looking like it’ll be that, or a Genesis Latitude 10 (which is cheaper, but it’s Black, what is it with Black/White bikes, gimme colour). Used to have a Purple Protrax s.e. with White Judy XCs on, which was probably my favourite bike of any I’ve had.

Anybody wanna by a Giant XTC 😀

Both of these threads have accusations of following fashion. But the point with fashion is it’s meant to be cool, cycling in any form, no matter how casual or hardcore, is only ever cool to cyclists. The rest of the world think we’re all geeks, there is no cool cycling.

I’ve done my own hydration experiments. When I’ve drunk 8 pints of lager, I’m frequently still thirsty. I wear a hydration pack to avoid situations like this, as sometimes it can lead to nausea 😀

I’m 5’7″ (don’t know inside leg) and have a 17″ (2007) XTC 4.5. Running a 4″ travel fork it is a bit tight on standover height (about 1.5″). So 16″ should be ok. Reach wise the frames have a stretched out top tube, so you shouldn’t feel cramped. But I’ve got a 350mm Carbon seatpost, which is at it’s minimum insertion level. So if you get a 16″, make sure you have/get a 400mm seatpost if you want to have an efficient/XC saddle height.

I initially moved to a hydration pack because my mates would never take water and would ask for some of mine when we stopped, making me their pachyderm. So when I changed, they were left with the option of a sip from my spittle covered bite valve, go thirsty or put the effort of carrying some water in.

But since I’ve found it very preferable, it’s easier to drink small ammounts regularly and have all the little bits & bobs I might need stashed.

@valleydaddy, no you’d need a 29er frame, hence a long 26er fork, or a 29er fork to keep the geometry usable. Would need to be a pretty slack head/seat angle 29er frame too.

It’d make more sense to me to do it the other way round. Either a long travel 26er fork with a 26″ wheel, or a 29er fork with a 26″ wheel and have the 29″ wheel at the back. One of the main complaints about 29ers is the effect the larger wheel has on steering, isn’t it? And it would make more sense to have the smoothing effect of the larger wheel where most of the riders weight is, on the back wheel.

Got a table booked. It’ll end in tears though, the Missus is s**t at Snooker 😆 .

You need a montage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU9Uwhjlog8

😆

I registered just to post that.