I had an ’05 5 fail in the same place as that, and mine was repaired in that same way.

The repair lasted longer then their first attempt, before it cracked again in the same place. In fairness, it had actually cracked in 3 places and I hadn’t spotted them because I hadn’t bothered cleaning it for weeks.

I was quite happy with the deal they cut me on a replacement given it was 5 years old.

At least you only had to buy half with yours! 😉

But did you have the right to demand a new front triangle, or were you obliged to accept the repair

In law I believe you don’t have the right to choose, it’s up to them to repair or replace.

On or off road?

If you’re going to be on the west side of Wolves you could try hitting either the canal or the old railway line back towards Wombourne, and then canal on towards Stourton and Kinver.

Otherwise the A449 is a pretty busy national speed limit road, and I’ve had a few close shaves with fast moving lorries along there. The only real on-road alternative is to head towards Sedgley then onto Stourbridge via either Kingswinford or Dudley and Brierley Hill. It depends which you find more appealing, urban traffic or fast moving traffic!

Have you checked the frame for cracks?

I used to ride a 2005 5 that developed a creak that I couldn’t get to the bottom of so did a full strip and clean of all the pivot and drop out surfaces with a view to greasing it up and replacing the bearings.

…and it was a good job I did, there were 3 seperate cracks in it! 2 in the swing arm and on in the front triangle. Have you checked for cracks and lifting paint?

I can assure you the abuse started after he’d been threatening towards a 14 year old and pushed some one in to the barbed wire fence.

Given how he tried to come over as judge and jury on who could access his land, i’m not surprised he boiled over and did something silly if anyone dare disagree with him.

been over today, the trees have perfect cut marks in them and have had rope tied round by the looks to pull them across the trail as they are felled!

Could be an oppoertunity to add some jumps, or are these big trees? 😀

ahhh… thought you ment the point where the offical footpath leaves the woods, not the other end by the Whittington road.

I wonder how long that path has been in use for? Has anyone got evidence that might be enough to apply for restricted byway status 🙂

Might be worth mentioning it to Staffs rights of way people if its obstructing passage on foot (cough).

I’ve had a couple of distant shoutings at from the guy who lives in the house at the Forresters end, seems to have a real problem with bikes on the footpath along the edge of the woods.

I while ago I stopped and let him spout at me for a bit, thought venting his spleen might help his anger management 😆

He couldn’t give a reason why me being there was causing any harm, just kept telling me I was trespassing on his land and I shouldn’t be there. Turns out he’d confronted a group of guys on bikes and one of them had given him a load of abuse and claimed to be a copper from Stourbridge police station. The old fella had even gone as far to check up the PC number he was given and complain, but said the cops told him it was made up. Claimed a number of them were wearing orange tops (Stourbridge CC?)

I rode off and have carried on using the path, unless he was stakeing it out he’d never catch you.

Is the footpath blocked completeley or just the gap inthe fence by the style?

Should be a really good day on Sunday, until the 80k mark anyway.

The Soul would be my bike of choice, but I dinked the front wheel enough to crack the rim earlier this week and not had chance to get another and rebuild it.

You can all point and laugh at me being completely over biked on a blue 5. 😆

As per Graham above, you can put together a nice 50+ mile ride from K’ford extending my loop out to the Wyre via Shatterford and Arley.

If anyone wants it I can try and post a gpx file. 😉

Limy – hope all is well, must try and catch up some time 🙂

If hundreds or even thousands of card details were harvested, I doubt that they’d test absolutly everyone they’d gathered.

This is only the 2nd time that an internet retailer has been the prime suspect for any fraud on my account, usually it’s petrol stations.

I can’t say for definite that my details got into the wrong hands via CRC, but there does appear to be a pattern emerging.

Bank have canceled my card and the fraud team have been prompted to call me tomorrow. 🙂

Just checked my online banking and had £30 O2 prepay taken out yesterday. I also took advantage of the £10 voucher from CRC…

Looks like i’ll be calling the bank 1st thing 🙁

For all the people complaining about the loud noise on the pro2’s – just pack plenty of grease around the pawls and they soon quieten down.

I quite like the noise, it means the springs are still in one piece!

The bearings in my XC and Ti Glide hubs last loads longer than on the set of Pro2’s I’ve got. And the leaf springs in the Pro2’s freehub won’t last more than a couple of years either.

I keep looking at getting a bulb to replace it, but they always turn up on ebay as part of a heavy DH wheel and I don’t want to faff with swapping rims.

Pro2’s are lighter, but I reckon the freehub drags more than on an XC and they’re not as robust.

Did Heathrow to Birmingham with Europcar before Christmas beacause my flight back from Munich was cancelled.

Was done through their desk in terminal 1 on our company account, but I think they just classed it as a 1 day hire, even though I spent less than 2 hours in the car!

It wasn’t until I got to Heathrow that I realised how few options there were to get back to my own car. Public transport on that route would have taken over 3 hours.

I had seasonal asthma for 10 years, and kept getting fobbed off as having viral bronchitis as I could consistantly blow 800+ (it think, it was in the end bit of the scale).

It always starts at the end of October and hangs around till March and gets worse when the weather is cold. In the summer I get the odd spell where my chest gets a little tight but never the uncontrolable coughing that made speaking difficult before the doctor gave me drugs 😀

A specialist at the hospital told me my lung function was too high for me to have asthma, but my (fortunatly very good) doctor tried me on a couple of different inhalers anyway which significantly reduced the coughing, although I sometimes have to take very near to the maximum daily dose to keep it fully in check.

You might have to keep going back to get it sorted, it felt like they were always looking for a reason to avoid diagnosing.

Its the unmarked patrol cars you need to look out for, although they never seem to be around when someone passes you doing 100mph+

Is the sidewall dinked or is it that the main body of the rim is bent?

They’re quite pricey so unless it’s causing a noticable tyre wobble i’d leave it.

the climb out of the woods to get to the top of Suicide alley is rubbish.

It’s a good test of fitness, and the descent is more than worth it 😈

Houns, YGM.

I’ve pinch flatted down there more times than I care to remember. I’m always surprised by the number of riders going up there rather than down, and they always stop for a breather in the dark with their 10,000 lumen lighs on right in the way of the entrance to it. 😥

Mainly roads and farm tracks, although there are some open field crossings and singletrack bits as well.

If it’s dry, any sections that have been churned up by horses and dried solid can be really bone jarring. If its wet then it gets pretty muddy.

The route changes each year, and although there are a few sections that appear regularly, things like having to ride over a plowed field do feature from time to time.

I can mail you an .mmo file with it, or anyone else who might be interested?

I’ve always used a hardtail with fast rolling tyres, conti racekings last time. Being the wrong side of 14st I’d be worried about pinch flatting a skinny cross tyre, and it’s fun re-passing the cross boys on the downhill sections.

I do know a slightly longer route to the Million from K’ford that goes via the Wyre, it does spoil the descent of suicide ally though. 😕

This should be clearish if you look at an OS map, but I can add more detail if you need it. A good chunk of the first 4 miles or so is cheeky, but well ridden by locals.

From Summerhill School, head south through Ridgehill Woods, Friars Gorse, over canal and up through outskirts of Wollaston. South through woods above Stourbridge Rugby club and then across playing fields opposite school to Little Iverley Covert.

Along Sandy Lane and then up Sugar Loaf Lane past Raquet Club, then down bridleway through Fairy Glen. Follow road to Caunsall then onto Kinver Edge via Blakeshall.

After exploring the Edge, head towards Enville via Rocky Lane and two bridlepath sections. From Enville go east through the Million, decending the bridleway to Gothersley Lane and the canal.

Head to Gothersley Bridge, then along the lane and past Ashwood Nursery. Use the bridleway past Ashwood Lodge to get back to the school.

There are indeed plenty of routes that you can put together from K’ford towards Clent, Kinver and Enville with a bit of cheek and a map.

I usually ride a 20 mile ish loop starting not far from you that takes in the Million and Kinver Edge a couple of times a week.

I’ll post a better description of the route when I get back from work if you like.

6′ with a 34″ inside leg on a large Soul, with 80mm stem.

Used for XC rather then messing about, and having long legs it’s more comfortable for long days out.

The first few times I did it i remember having to post a cheque off with an SAE. I suppose this is the price of progress 😯

Maybe they should run another classics themed event later in the summer?

Moving house and having no internet made me miss it last year, was lucky to get 1176 this time it seems 🙂

I’ve had two 5’s, an ’05 one that I bought in December ’04, and an ’11 one that I’ve had since June ish.

Most of my riding is done around Kinver which is a big lump of sandstone and the soil conditions are a pretty abrasive. I’m not the best when it comes to cleaning bikes in the winter either, a quick rinse with a garden hose and a bit of lube on the chain is as much as I’m prepared to do on a dark evening.

When I got the first one, it was my only bike and got ridden 2 – 4 times per week for at least a couple of hours at a time. Thats around 40-80 miles per week. In that time the bearings never had any play in them so I left them alone, but it did get through 3 sets of shock bushes.

It cracked on the weld between the seat tube and the BB shell about 2 weeks before the warranty ran out and was repaired FOC by Orange. They re-welded the cracked section and it was returned with a shiny new coat of paint and new pivot hardware.

Following that it was fine until April (ish) this year, the frame was actualy ridden for longer in its repaired state than before hand. It was at this point that I spotted a big open crack in the opposite side of the repaired weld that extended into the downtube, another crack through one of the drain holes at the drop out end of the swing arm and the start of another small one in the drive side of the swingarm above where it clears the chainset.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it had covered a good 5 figure mileage, all with 15st of fat bloke sat on top of it, so I didn’t feel like it really owed me much.

I called Orange after finding the first crack to see if they had an old front triangle they’d be willing to part with, and on the off chance that they might be interested in looking at the photos. They hadn’t got anything that would fit but did sort me out with a crash replacment discount on a new one.

I hope it lasts as long as the 1st 🙂

Planet X seem to be a bit jekyll and hyde with there deliveries.

I’ve had plenty of stuff turn up next day, but also had items that were ordered when they were clearly in stock on the website get as far as “dispatched” on their system before suddenly changing to “awaiting stock” a few days later and then nothing turn up.

I look at them like a well meaning friend who I wouldn’t rely on in a crisis. 😳

Our little man likes it cooler than his mom, so he’ll be sound asleep after kicking his blanket off while she’s burried under the duvet and her dressing gown in bed next to him.

You’ll soon get an idea what he/she likes, just use more or less blankets and edge on the warmer side to start with. A finger in the crook of their neck soon gives an idea if they’re too hot.

Fortunatly we changed our boiler earlier this year and had the house split into 6 zones for exactly the reasons beamers highlighted above.

Trust me when I say whoever is on baby duty will be more bothered about being too hot/cold than jnr ever will.

Theres some good stuff around Kinver as well, and the jumpy, droppy freeride area off Kingsford Lane.

Go large if you ride Gate-XC!

Go small if you want to bash your knees on your shifters when you’re out of the saddle… 😉

I’m a fraction shy of 6′ with a 34″ inside leg and quite long arms so ride a large with a 70mm stem and an inline post.

I prefer things reversed to how brakes suggests, you can always shorten the bike with an inline post and shorter stem.

Then there is the other type of person that has lights but the batteries are almost flat.

Some of the ones I’ve seen in the last few days make me wonder if they bother to check if the on switch actually does something, or they want to get every last drop of power out of the batteries.

It doesn’t have to be someone on a £50 supermarket special either, beats me why people risk their life for 3 quid in batteries.

Another Stourbridge local here, my regular route takes in Kinver and Enville so I might have already crossed paths with a few from here.

We should setup a group ride…

Bacon and egg sarnie has red OR brown sauce. Both? Are you clinically insane. Nothing supports both except a burger. Which generally copes with a multiple sauce approach far better than the butty.

I repeat yesterdays assertion that fish finger butties must have red sauce and a cheese single. The cheese single must be of the lowest quality available. The sort that is labelled ‘may contain cheese’

Not as insane as someone who puts fish together with cheese, no matter how fake that cheese is! 😯

Am I the only person who like red and brown sauce on a bacon sauasage and egg sarnie. yum….

i.e. stem against the top cap of the headset and see how it feels. Might look wrong but it will drop the bars.

I ran both 150mm Pace and Fox forks on my 2005 until it cracked.

It makes it a bit slacker and raises the front end a bit, but given my long legs and need for a fairly high saddle I saw that as a good thing.

Can you drop the stem lower on the steerer?