Mine’s on 160 36s already, so we’re good on that front (if a bit heavy).

Hadn’t considered offset bushings though… better, worse or equal to an angle adjust headset?

Ta

Good points,

Forgot to mention that I’ve already switched over my old DH bars (which are now “enduro” width these days!), and I’m looking for a shorter stem too so that’s work in progress.

I guess the goal is a ghetto bronson cc!

Re the wheel size, i’m happy enough with the old school 26 at the mo, was just pondering future-proof ideas. Although by the time I’m ready for a new bike 26″ will be back in as “new and nimble” :p

MEEEEEEE!

An epic weekend, if you’ve never made the pilgrimage then it’s well worth the effort, even if you’re just into bikes rather than DH bikes you’ll have a great time.

Beers at the finish line in the sun (hopefully!), with a great chance of another UK winner, perfect weekend 🙂

Bring midge spray, sunscreen and a waterproof!

It’ll all be fine, if you flew from sea level to the edge of the atmosphere it would only be 14.7psi pressure difference… Your flight is probably not that high 😉

Airline may ask if you’ve deflated tyres (i’ve never been asked), if so, say yes.

Enjoy your hols!

Same as above, no issues, delivered as promised.

Boxed as factory.

As for the friend with loose bolts etc, tbh i’d be checking everything on a new bike regardless of where it came from…

It’s an ALPINE 160. You’re going to the ALPS. You’re basically taking it home

This!

For the cash it’ll cost to hire, you can fix yours AND buy spares!

Or buy a cheap DH bike, then sell again when you’re home. This may be better if you’re planning on going hard enough to break frames again…

Ooh, also, as mentioned above be VERY careful if anywhere near a road!

There may not be as many bikes these days, but there are thousands of ebikes/emopeds that are almost silent, use no lights at night and drive at mach 10…

When crossing roads, don’t expect traffic to stop for things like red lights or crossings, cross your fingers and make a run for it!

Shanghai:

Definitely head to the Peace hotel Jazz bar (think old world opulence) to check out the pensioner only jazz band playing some tunes, it’s vaguely expensive but not by Western standards (£10-15 a cocktail). One of the best things we did, we visited a couple of times. Weekends have a min spend per table, but it was only about 2 drinks worth. It’s down by the bund.

Also check out the waterfront at the bund at night, maybe after drinks!

We felt very safe in Shanghai and no issues at all wandering around at 1am walking back to our hotel.

Beijing:
If you’re adventurous try and hit one of the un-repaired sections of the great wall, again a highlight of a 3 week trip. Saw zero people (which as you’ll discover is almost impossible in China!), no hassle but it did requiring hiring a driver to take us as there was no tourist transport available. He dropped us at one end and picked us up at the other. The walk itself was challenging (some steep , descend on bums sections, some failing wall sections) but great fun.

In both cities we used the metro extensively and it’s cheap, efficient and easy. Worth downloading an app with the nearest stations on it for when you’re wandering around.

If you plan to take a taxi have your hotel write down where you’re going in mandarin.

As above, the Maglev train is cool, and crazy fast, and a fun way to get to the airport an back.

If you’re eating in Beijing I highly recommend hitting one of the Da Dong Duck ‘peking duck’ restaurants (there were 3 last time I was there). It was amazing! Get the whole duck between two. Nothing like you’ll have had at home. Expensive for China but normal prices for UK.

Have fun!

Assuming you’re looking at mostly bikepark style riding, nothing in the Alps comes close to Whistler, NOTHING!

It truly is mecca.

I’ve been to Morzine several times and although it’s a nice holiday it doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath IMO. It’s still fun, and i’ve had a great time, but if it’s a choice (and money no object) it’s Whistler every time.

Conversely if cash is a concern Morzine is a good time at great value, you’ll have fun, ride loads and progress quickly.

I disagree with some of the sentiments above about being unwelcome if you aren’t ‘good enough’. Yes, if you’re messing around on Aline at 2mph you’ll be warned you’re in the wrong place, but that’s because you’re a very real danger, both to yourself and to others.

But there’s no reason to be there until you’re ready, there’s a whole host of trails for you to ride and get comfortable and safely work your way up to the bigger and faster sections.
Including trails with smaller jumps to gain confidence and experience (think Crank it up etc), which are great fun in their own right.

Do be aware that some of the trails are a big step up in skill, for me Dirt Merchant (dbl black) is more than one step above A-line(black) to be comfortable)

(For reference I’m by no means an awesome rider, and happily went from shitting myself on crank it up as i’d never done jumps before, to hitting Aline, freight train and Dirt Merchant with confidence in a fortnight).

Whistler has a recommended trail list progression with relative difficulties comparing each trail to the next.
Slower riders have right of way on all trails up to and including blue, faster riders have right of way on black and above and slower riders should yield.

My other half did a few of the womens nights (bike hire, lift pass and coaching for a few hours for $25, her 1st time on any mountain bike) and had a great time, at the same time as I was lapping Aline with my biking mates.

A much cheaper way to visit Whistler is to go in the Autumn, they do a discounted lift pass that covers the end of the season, think it was around $250 and was valid for Sept-Oct, so if you go for more than a week the end of season pass is cheaper, accommodation is also much cheaper then and the park is quieter.

Wherever you go, have fun, it’ll be ace 😀

Glad you survived the cull!

I applied for the severance package, was promptly offered my previous (better) position back, and still haven’t had either confirmed in writing yet…

Farce! The longer it drags the more I want to take the cash and run 😀

FFS, my 3yr old bike is now 2 wheel sizes out of date! How can that be possible?

It’s getting as bad as F1 these days… or Apple!

Luckily i’m not racing World Cups (or anything else for that matter) so i’ll save myself the £8k a new DH bike costs these days and just have fun on my 26inch retro bike.

Is it out of date enough for extra cudos? 😉

Wonder how many potential bike sales SC have just scuppered as folks wait for the 29er to be released?

Drive faster, ideally around corners! 😀

Following others above, no!

(or should I say not again…)

Pollution isn’t an issue (at least not that I can tell…) but the noise pXsses me off. Fine during the day, and indeed in the back garden, but when it’s otherwise quiet at night and a bus or loud car goes past it disturbs.

Re the mortgage chat, I also switched online without having to speak to anyone/provide any payslips etc (nationwide), as long as you stay with the same provide there shouldn’t be any issues.

It means you can’t shop around, but likely still better than standard variable.

I was laid off in sept, then re-employed by same company in lesser role. Now they’re offering voluntary redundancy with a pay off…

Wait to be pushed (with no pay out, not in UK), or jump and take the £?!

Eugh.

Good luck eveyone!

These flights are indeed full of O&G crew, however the turbo props are pretty wee, and lots of us have 2 bags checked in. To be fair, I reckon you’d likely be fine though.

Easy way to avoid any issue is to make sure the flight/s are operated by SAS and not Wideroe/Eastern.

SAS fly ‘real’ planes, Wideroe and Eastern (codeshare, same flight these days) only fly dash TPs (beware Wideroe also codeshares with SAS!)

If flying SAS for a big plane, I believe you’ll need to go via SVG. It’s usually the same kind of price though, beware that some connections are only 30min, and you need to clear customs and re-check your bag in that time…

KLM also fly ABZ-BGO via AMS, often for similar prices, but this usually takes an extra few hours, and your bike is way more likely to go AWOL at Schippol than Sola!

I was pretty excited to have finally built my shed, until I saw the party bus!

Nice work my man, nice work.

Sorry to hear this.

We had the same issues for my old man. Alas by the time you’re thinking that you need a POA, it’s very unlikely it will be possible to obtain (as previously mentioned).

Due to the above my mum has just arranged for me to have POA for her, despite the fact she’s still 100%, this still takes a while and the solicitors need to confirm that A: your relative has capacity, and perhaps just as importantly that B: they are not being pressured by anybody to sign away their rights.

So you’re left with an application via court to become a Deputy.

Lots of good advice from citizens advice

and from Alzheimers UK etc.

Hope that helps

I’ve been to whistler a few times now and just hire a car, it’s not much more than the bus and I can do whatever I want en route. Grab some shopping etc. Also means you don’t need to drag your bike bag all over town when you arrive.

Between 3 even a massive SUV/van/pick up will be cheaper than bussing it i’d imagine.

NB: Only Avis has an office in Whistler (it’s in a hotel lobby) so they’re your only option for a 1 way hire.

enjoy!

I’ve been on too many UCPA trips to recall, from beginner ski to expert high mountain snowboard.

They’ve all been excellent. Price includes ski kit and ski pass which is where the saving is.

The best part is that for off piste courses you normally have a high mountain guide rather than just an instructor.

Actually, the best part is having a group with the same ability.

Highly recommended!

Have a look on actionoutdoors website at the centre ratings, UCPA have been updating a few recently and the difference between the old and the new is massive with regards to the rooms.

For example Chamonix centre is very, erm, rustic, but just up the road Argentiere was refurbished a couple of years ago and is excellent.

Ok,

So for background: I broke my scaphoid and Radius this summer up at Fort William (end of May).
I was in an open cast for 2wks (due to swelling), then closed cast for another 5wks.

Wrist was obviously very tight, with very little movement range, and massive loss of mussle.

With physio and pushing the exercises hard in the the first month back I had good ROM and rapidly regained strength. Now I’m fully functioning, biking, skiing, lifting heavy items etc, perhaps at 90% of full ROM. Certain impacts on wrist are still VERY sore, but otherwise i’m all good.

If you’re looking for a support for riding (which by the braces mentioned it would appear you are), i’d seriously advise not even thinking of getting on a bike until your wrist feels ready.

If you think you need a support, you’re not ready!!!

I thought the docs were being super conservative with the 3-6month estimate for being back on a bike, but when my cast came off I counldn’t even grip my bars on the turbo, let alone ride. So I started running and doing short turbo stuff for fitness, use your wrist as much as possible day to day, but no riding!

I was lucky that my break was obvious on xrays instantly, and healed very well with no complications. So post cast I progressed really well and was back on my bike 3 months post break.

For day to day wear I had a similar support to the one pictured above from the NHS, nice and lightweight (and thankfully black so I didn’t look like an old lady!).

I used this for running, heavier and stronger (in case I fell over!).

That turned out to be a bit long! Basically, do the physio, take your time getting back on the bike and with a bit of luck you’ll be back to shredding at full speed in time for spring 😀 I feel your pain!

Good luck!

Had considered a dehumidifier + small greenhouse type heater to keep the chill off the air initially (with some polystyrene type roof insulation), but for as little time as I actually spend in the shed the energy use would be difficult to justify.

Is your out building now airtight(within reason) or do you also have some ventilation (air brick / trickle vent etc)?

I’m still surprised that I have an issue given that mine isn’t anywhere near airtight now with a physical hole in the wall, but still looks like a possible airflow issue for me.

Yep some WD40 or similar is ok for the hand tools, but also plan on storing some powertools in there which is more of an issue.

I’ll try a couple of airbricks, still not too sure on the ideal postion of these though, high/low or both?

Best not google the title at work 😀

Ice hockey/basketball depending on dates, both good value fun peeks at a bit of Americana!

Also, i’d advise getting a hardshell only, then you can wear it all year in the lovely British summer, and layer up with a fleece etc for winter use.

For week a year, perhaps not.

But if you can spare the cash a ‘proper’ (think GTX) jacket can save a holiday.

After getting rained on whilst boarding one year, then having a 2hr trek to get back to the chalet I vowed to never go discount on outerwear again!

You’ll always be able to grab a deal on a nice jacket that’s last seasons colours/model. Buy an old model in a safe colour (black/red/blue etc) rather than the latest fluro lour and it’ll last you years.

I’d never go back to cheaper jackets, but I get a lot of use out of mine out in the middle of nowhere, so it’s more of a need than a want.

I bought a linx1010 specifically for travelling through airports etc, £100 ish on amazon and perfectly fine for internet, microsoft office etc. Expandable memory so you can load films etc if you fancy that. You can get a keyboard for it too if you plan on doing much typing.

Pretty happy with mine. Not as pretty as an ipad, but it’s a quarter of the cost!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Tablets/Linx-1010B-10-1-inch-Tablet-Black-Keyboard/B014D847FS

Perhaps not relevant as different parts BFWIW, but i put some new-er (brand new but not most recent) XT levers on 2gen old saint calipers and they were rubbish. So much so I got rid and bought the new (at the time) XT set, which are ace.

Aha!
Cheers leffe.

Research seems to be mostly positive, so it’s probably the best of a bad bunch of options if bone etc is ok. Damn that whole grain bread!

Will see what my dentist has to say next week, soooo much fun to look forward to this summer…

Thanks for the input folks.

My forum search skills must be below par, as my initial search turned up nothing, and a re-search now only yields this topic. Must try harder!
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/search.php?q=dental+implant

Thanks for the link though 🙂

The cost is what has kept me from biting the bullet (puntastic) up until this point, but the £500 fancy crown I have is moving around, and after the last chat with the dentist I know the tooth is goosed, so it will need removed regardless… Fun times ahead 🙁

Interesting (and VERY tempting) thread.

I’m in a similar situation, commute to work once every 4 weeks, 2wks at work then back.

I’d be looking for excellent skiing/boarding in winter and biking in summer. It’s a shame Canada is so far as Whistler ticks the boxes for me but is too far/expensive to fly to every month.

Chamonix looks good, amazing skiing and lots of nice touring but not sold on the biking aspect, I want epic singletrack but also uplifted DH jump trails and tech… Not asking too much!!!!! Also Cham is super expensive 🙁

Other half has one, they’re nice inside and out, but a bit too ‘soft’ for my taste with super sensitive brakes/steering, a little too easy to drive if you understand my thinking?

Also, it torque steers like a b#tch if you give it anywhere near full beans on a country road, also hates camber on normal roads whilst accelearating and will try and put you in a hedgerow.

The above makes it sound like a terrible car, it’s really not, I do like it, I just like to drive my cars hard and it’s not very well suited to that in comparisson to a RWD/AWD car, which are my own day to day cars.

The OH loves it.

They’re also pretty quiet in standard trim and with a ‘normal’ colour choice they don’t look out of place in the office car park if you’re concerned about it being a bit, erm, ‘tribal tattoo’ for you.

Also, for the performance, the fuel economy is very good, especially on motorway cruises. Seems well made too and the interior is standard new ford (which is pleasant).

Boot is a good size too.

We have the ST3, heated seats are amazing in winter!

HTH

Great effort cliffyc,

Thanks, and enjoy your good karma! 🙂

Also, BA can’t weigh your bike at ABZ as it won’t fit on their scales at the desk, so it’s “around 22kg”, isn’t it?! 😉

(I flew to Vancouver last month from ABZ).

You may get stung on the way back though.

Yep, loads of stuff cheaper than amazon uk, ordered a ski bag on the DE site and it was £40 cheaper, and shipped from… Scotland!

Just remember to add shipping to the total cost as you’ll likely need to pay rather than get the free delivery you have with UK site.

Also, make sure you have full insurance cover for ‘off piste’ riding.

Some of thr trails are WAY out there, if the worst was to happen you’d be hitching a ride in a chopper. Without insurance you’d be looking at a new bronson carbon with enve rims!!!!!!

I was out with them a few years back, highly advise taking dual ply DH tyres!

I had a single ply minion and had 5 flats in 6 days riding on my rear alone. Not only is it a hassle, but it holds the group up while you fix it.

As for what to expect, a real mix! From a day of terrible XC climbing (on a heavy 6in AM rig) to a days uplift with the vans, to a days pretty exposed high altitude stuff! Good mix for most groups.

NB: XC was shit as I hate XC! Uplift was great as I love going fast without having to earn turns 😉

The ‘epic’ ride was amazing (HEIDI), stunning scenery, great trails. Long day but well worth it.

Food and accom were good, guides good.

Enjoy!

Why be a bit of a knob when there’s naff all to play for?

In what way is there nothing to play for? Quintana is his main rivial for GC!

I have the impression it was more a bit of physocologial warfare though, which again is fair enough.

What’s not fair game though is throwing urine in the face of the yellow jersey and spitting at people. Surely the gendame should be shadowing the yellow and dealing with this shit?

Ah, that’s not ideal. Any idea when it’ll be finished?

Not sure if you’ve tried or not, but my work IP is routed via the US (from Norway), and shows me in Cali, but as long as I log into my ITV player account it ignores this fact and lets me watch anything I fancy.

Worth a try.