Seriously? After this if I ever get my money out I’m never using it again! I’ve got 100 left in there and have decided to spend it rather than try and withdraw it!

Thanks guys, I will check those places out tomorrow.
Now I’m off to fire up the new La pavoni grinder with some sub-standard beans and make myself an adequate coffee.

Cracking stuff, love the Hasbean coffee.
I’ve heard of opposite, a reputation for a great coffee.

see i just used a tescos carrier bag, I feel like a right gypsy now.

Unfortunately due to a snapped seatpost bolt on my mates bike within about 30mins riding we didn’t get to see much of gisburn.
We ended just after the bit where you have a short rockyish tight switchback descent and then a kind of rocky paved drop off, a few turns later you hit a fireroad.
Does that make sense?
So thats were we got to.
I found the first section far rockier, especially on the flats than I was expecting, I got over this ok with the 29er, but didn’t feel massively comfortable.

Cannock on the other hand (compared to this short section) has lots of flow!
Flow may be over-rated, but some of the flowing decents at cannock are great, they are mud/gravel as apposed to rocks so you can carry much more speed and be confident in SPDs.
As I say there is only one occasion at cannock that you have to put your foot down.
Forest of Dean is the same, never a need to put your foot down.

What I will do is choose my bike/pedals carefully. Bouncy bike and flats unless I go to somewhere like cannock when I know I can use SPDs happily.

Been thinking the same recently.
Went almost straight to SPDs when I started mountain biking as I come from a road background but I feel like I am loosing my confidence because I keep getting spooked and clip out.
I am used to the road bike when you can clip out in anticipation, however on the mtb it normally ends with me putting my foot down.
I road at gisburn the other day and felt I would be comfortable on flats, specially as I have a hip condition which prevents me from unclipping my right foot properly, so only the left will come out in a hurry!

That being said I can ride around the whole monkey trail at cannock chase and only have to clip out at the railway crossing.

But I found gisburn much more technical. Or maybe thats my confidence.

Oh, I am very much aware that it is me not the bike thats holding me back.

You miss my point entirely. I will have my hardtail which I will continue to work on my skill, but I am considering whether it would be best complimented with something bouncy in the 26 or 29er market.
I just wondered the opinions of people who have been in similar situations.

Thats the one I am looking at Khani, not sure about the 750 pricetag though 🙁

I never said about wanting this bike to be light! If anything I would prefer sturdy. And as I mentioned in the last bit this isn’t about my own skill. Which of course I am trying to improve.
This is about fun!

Yes

Oh sorry chris, only just saw this!

How are people set for tomorrow? Anyone out for a few hours? Its either the MTB or the road bike up to the dales, can’t decide!

No takers?? Don’t make me go out on the road bike!

Anyone up for a ride tomorrow morning?

I will be going for a short and sharp ride in the morning after a long day in the dales today so I won’t be joining you in the morning Sancho I’m afraid. I will wander along to crosstrax at some point though!

Yeh I thought you might, it was pretty heavy at 5-6ish.
Ok will drop you an email, I’m always up for some riding and have most of this weekend free if you are off for a ride.
I’m currently unemployed for the next couple of months so i’m always free!

For that money you would be hard to beat planet x – carbon road bike with sram red on it for around the 1000 mark last time I checked.

I love my ebay Cree light, 1800 lumens for £30, you would pay hundreds for that in this country.
The only problem with them (by all accounts) is water. So mine has had the head unit and battery pack sealed as best I can in clear plastic.
Seems to work great.

Stumpyjumper I am not going to be able to make it tonight as I have commitments at home, how often do you ride?
Have you got an email I can get hold of you on as I tried the one in your profile and its bouncing.

Daz, up for a ride early friday if you are? I’ll send an email to you in a sec.

Yep, sounds good to me Sancho. I’ll be there on Sunday.

either way I’m in!
Will ride up there as its only about 10 miles from me I think.

is that 6:30 in the morning or evening?

I’m up for a ride sunday Sancho.
I am also riding Thursday/Friday morning if anyone else is up for it?

Thanks for the replies guys, hopefully this means I won’t be lonely for much longer!

Ed – where is crosstrax?
I have a free pass all weekend as her indoors is on long days! So if you are free I’m up for some riding!

Ah I biked there, at least I think it was there!

I rode from leeds, through Otley, past a reservior, I think it was fewston? Not sure, then looped back around towards skipton, then home again.

That sounds great.

Jim – drop me an email via my email in profile if you are heading out on the road my way, I tend to ride for 2-3 hours Monday-Wed, then 4-5 hours Thurs-Sat sometimes split into 2 sessions.

Unklehomered, that would be great if I could join you next week, off to coed-y at some point possibly next week but not sure when yet. Otherwise I’m free.
I was up your way today actually, Pateley bridge. Made the mistake of leaving the 11-21 cassette on and didn’t realise how many 15% hills there would be!
I will be doing lots of riding in the Dales I hope, I will only be working 2 days a week starting in October so I have plenty of time!

Oh and trail building sounds fun, where is that?

depends on how you look at it really, if you plan on building up many bikes then it would be worthwhile getting the tool.
Its also nice to be able to do these things yourself.

But, for me it cost me £8 at my LBS to pressfit the headset cups and the bearings, so I reckon that may be better value for money!

If you are planning on doing big miles and you have found a saddle which feels comfy keep hold of it regardless of what it looks like or how heavy it is.
As a roadie who has been in (and still is) the constant quest for a lightweight race saddle that fits I still end up doing my long miles on an old bontrager.
The problem I am currently having is finding a saddle for the TT bike as the recent experiment with the prologo TTR has not gone well.

As you point out this is an expensive business as most performance saddles cost upwards of 100 pounds!

If you are after a fizik and have wide side bones DONT go for the arione.
It is only around 130mm wide which wont fit your arse.
Go for the antares, 145mm wide I think,should fit better.
Good luck with your search.

great thanks, will have a look through the maps v666ern.
Weather is great at the moment, contemplating heading out there this afternoon!

Just one bump for those that may actually have jobs!

Feenster you were spot on with your original point.
I was chatting with a sports physiologist who had been working with sky/british cycling recently. We were chatting about this and he said their attention to detail was just incredible.
He also said that there was never a plan for them to dominate from the word go, the plan was for 5 years.
Each rider has an incredibly specific training regime that is dictated by every possible measure of physiology/biomechanics you can think of.

Other teams are starting to cotton on to it with the employment/use of aerodynamics experts, but they still haven’t got the individual physiological requirements of the riders down.

Ah ok, see i didn’t know what was normal having not done one.
I still don’t really understand what the point of them is, I mean, what exactly are you paying for?

snakebite, you want to try going the other way! I have been riding road bikes/tt bikes for a few years now and having built up 6 or 7 bikes I thought I need them pretty well. Got into mountain biking in the last 6 months and have been staggered by what I didn’t know! I’ve just finished building up a 29er hardtail which took forever because I kept getting the wrong parts that didn’t fit!

bigjim – If you want to have a go be my guest! I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong as the rubena tyre went on very easily. On the nobby nic I can’t even get the first bead on!

oh and I know its not the best guide but whats a good weight for a 29er tyre? I know sub 600 is a good aim for a 26er, but what about 29er?
What would a racing ralph/rocket ron come in at?

I’m tempted by this tyre as I’ve just got a Nobby nic that will not mount on a stans crest for love nor money.
Anyone got any opinion on how it will compare to the other ones they have on sale on the site, the rubena ones?
I’ve just got myself a rubena scyalla, seems like a nice very supple tyre and went on very easily, was thinking about the other more grippy one for the front.

Yeh, why do you not reuse?
I have a couple of tyres that have at least 3 or 4 puncture repairs in them.
They both survived over 800 miles in majorca recently with no problems.

Thanks for all the input guys.
I think what I am going to do is re-vamp my macbook (which currently requires a new hard drive and battery) then look into getting a garmin 800.
The Ipad looks awesome but I still don’t like the idea of having a ‘mobile’ operating system that relies on apps.
Also I love the comment about NEEDING the garmin and WANTING the ipad, as the ipad was of course for work and garmin for play! Ha!

I had considered a cheap android, whats a good one?

Not real-time, just transfer to the ipad straight after and play.
For some reason I struggled with it on imovie, couldn’t seem to slow it down properly.

I’m starting to think that a laptop may do a better job! My current one is just a bit bulky!

I will be recording slow motion running film with a standard camera (canon I think) and then aiming to transfer to the ipad on to show the client on a bigger screen and slow the motion down with something like VLC if thats possible?