Hi Lazlowoodbine, I have a compression fracture of my T9, landed on my head on an upslope whilst jumping, didn’t have an Xray for a couple of years but the pain was so bad on occasion I did and that was the diagnosis.

The good news is that it has never stopped me riding, I’m 57 but I still ride pretty hard (DH and enduro).

The bad news is that I get chronic pain with it and use Tramadol most days.

Everyone is different though and I wish you the best in your recovery.

Nice one Charles, you can’t be fairer than that, hope that settles it for you Davvey.

You really do personify the spirit of MTB don’t u! Go ride your bike and chill out.

..and I can confirm Charlesj1987’s account that his tyre was trashed by riding it flat and that Airshot actually managed to get it on his rim despite the damage, it just wasn’t very round hence binning it, the damage had nothing to do with Airshot.

Davvey, I was there, your tyre blew off the rim because it had a flaw, Airshot can only pump the tyre up to a certain pressure so how did it happen? By what mechanism? You’re annoyed because you lost a tyre, get over it mate..

Everything’s open and rideable, rode Penhydd\Blue Scar yesterday and White’s and Y Wall on Saturday, always the chance of a tree down of course. Skyline final descent is back open and the Blade descent is finished tho not officially open so plenty of choice.

I’m with the OP on this, I’ve blocked a few lines myself, I believe a lot of it is Strava driven though not all.

I’m 55 in March and I ride 4 times a week, I have had a number of serious injuries over the last few years from MTB, broken tibia (plated), clavicle (plated), T9 vertebra crushed, wrist and 3 separate occasions of cracked ribs. In the evenings the T9 fracture causes me pain and I take opiate pain killers for it.

My solution is just don’t stop, ride as much as you can and if you need painkillers then take ’em.

Riding gives me far more than it has ever taken away.

Agreed, I’ve got Shimano on all my bikes now (Saint, XT, XTR) having used Hope for years and whilst the Saints and XTs are impressive the XTRs on my Enduro bike are phenomenally good, I really can’t fault them tbh.

Rode the Wall starting at 5.30 tonight, saw a couple of others out and the Pontrhydyfen car park was full of vans and cars with racks on our return, never seen so many actually so in answer to your question it’s a ‘yes’, Afan is ridden after dark..at least on Thursdays!

Just built a Slackline up for winter training but I’ve always wanted a steel hard tail again since I got rid of my Trailstar a few years ago anyway. Ridden it a few times now, bit harsh on rocky Welsh descents but I’m spoilt by plushness it seems, on the smoother trails of Brechfa and Cwm Rhaeadr the drive is incredible though, once tuned into it I think it will be significantly faster than my Covert (on those trails). Feels very much like my old Trailstar but better. From what info I could gather on it seemed the HT for me and I’m not disappointed.
Hope that’s helpful.

Never ridden a Rocket, or any Cotic for that matter but I’ve owned an ali Covert for the last 18 months and I’m seriously impressed, I have a Trek Session 88 which I now hardly use due to the DH capability of the Covert, it climbs well too. There’s quite a few on them down in this part of South Wales and everybody seems stoked with them, couple of top Enduro riders amongst that number too. Hope that helps..

Broke my left clavicle in France in July, it required plating which seemed an advantage because I was able to stand up paddlesurf after 3 weeks (great rehab) and started gentle riding after 5. Been riding unhindered now for about a month. I do worry about breaking it again with plate in situ as that can be a complicated injury but I’m not gonna stop riding so I’ll just take my chances with that.

Good luck with the rehab dandax, once you start riding it’ll soon be a distant memory..!

Mine does, 2011 model, no issues otherwise..