I have a complete 1×11 groupset and my experience after 3 rides is exactly the same as endurokid. Don’t think I’ve gained much coming from 2×10, in fact on the whole I think I preferred it. I do like having only one shifter but then the front mech and shifter never gave any trouble once initially set up.

Fair comment Northwind. The fact that he was even running them for WC DH in the first place is a pretty good advertisement for them. I’m running them on 350s currently and I’m very impressed with their stiffness and build quality. Set up tubeless dead easy too.

iain how about getting your 240s built onto some EX471 rims? They’re solid as demonstrated by Aaron Gwin at Leogang

Got my order in before Christmas at 299, got to be one of the cheapest new decent full suss frames I’ve ever seen. I got Onone to fit a headset prior to delivery. However having seen Mr Overshoots comments, better check that they actually delivered a large now

I have had that Samsung TV from John Lewis above for 4 months and for both TV and gaming it is brilliant.

The TV shows are far more entertaining than the books, there’s no doubt about that. With guest voices from such stalwarts as Brian Blessed what more could you want 🙂

EDIT: netmums does peppa pig in a maxxis babes calendar stylee:

http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/general-coffeehouse-chat-514/tv-music-sport-entertainment-13/735615-i-don-t-let-my-2-year-old-watch-peppa-pig.html

Its spleen an emotional thread

Not only is it directly impacting on my riding enjoyment when I do manage to get out, various sections of my fence have blown down. This means that when there is a slightly better window of weather for riding, I’m having to fix sodding fences instead.

Jesus Mary and Joseph yes

Look at that picture of Dave having a pint by the fire – he’s SUCH a man of the people 😉

EX471 vote again here. I’ve got them on 350 hubs and they’re great – stiff, light enough and pretty much bombproof (see above post about Aaron Gwin). Good tyre profile and so easy to set up tubeless (well, with 2.3 Minions and Shortys that is)

As kids me and my sister had a stocking in the morning and then had to wait until after lunch for any other presents. When my Wife was a kid though she just got them all as soon as she woke up and that’s how it is now in our household funnily enough.

Do you think they will guess what their main presents are before opening them?

Surely its a self-portrait?

Custom wheelset? Surely the go-to man if you want stellar aftersales care is Dave Hinde?

EDIT: Ordered loads of stuff from Merlin, including a custom wheelset and never had an issue. The wheelset was very well built too, only had to tighten a spoke once in something like 3 years of using them

I’ve been to Jedi and he was awesome, I’ve taken the stuff he taught me and applied it to my local trails hitting drops and gaps I never thought I would do. It really doesn’t matter on what trails you do the coaching but I kind of understand your point about riding them again. I’ve heard good things about Pro-ride guides at FoD. Also Katy Curd does coaching at FoD and quite a few of our club members have been coached by her with only good things to report.

An exclamation mark, or marks, after the price

This is a good point from molgrips

“I think the reason so many men here don’t get it is because they *aren’t* sexist, not because they are”

I’ve been reading the posts all along in this thread, and struggling a little. I may get flamed for this, but I like looking at pictures of naked ladies. A large number of the replies in the ‘against’ category have been making me question whether I am indeed being sexist/stuck in the 70’s etc for that reason. I’m fairly sure I’m not!

Anyone any opinions on the rosebike link I posted above for MMs? I’m not very familiar with Schwalbe compounds

Considering trying out the 27.5 Magic Marys for general all year trail/DH lite use. Is this a decent option?:

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/schwalbe-magic-mary-evolution-tyre/aid:718719?gclid=CjwKEAiA18mzBRCo1e_-y_KLpXISJACEsANGmvYertfJEK4_6H3hmtiUM9He7-MN-purjnxhQv-sdhoCiXjw_wcB

Seems like a good deal, but I know little about Schwalbe compounds – normally a Maxxis man as they have such good calenders 😉

I’ve been enjoying the various debates so far where no-one takes a blind bit of notice of what the other is saying but its starting to get a little bit ‘did Aldo take a dive’ now. Can’t we just leave it and close the thread, its not going anywhere and I’m strangely drawn back to it time and again and I’ve got stuff to do.

The sprouts were bl88dy awful at ours 😀

I was very shy at that age, and I never really overcame it. Now I DRIVE the schoolbus! Seriously, it never held me back, I hated performing in front of people then, and I still do now. My 4.5 year old daughter is the same as me. I really feel for her as I know how she must feel in that situation, but there’s precious little you can do about it. If they’re shy, then they’re shy. They might grow out of it, they might not. I just tell Rosa (my daughter) that its okay to feel shy/nervous and that everyone feels it, including Daddy.

Fair point, I can’t comment on dual positions as I’ve only every used solo airs. My experience of solo airs is that if I set what I consider to be the correct sag, then they bottom out way too easily. However I’m 15 stone and don’t have the most gracious technique landing drops so 3 tokens were what I needed to get them feeling right. Different riding styles, weights etc will obviously require different set-ups!

I bought some RCT3 solo airs very recently from alltricks, worked out at £460 delivered.

Also, I can confirm that 3 tokens vs 0 tokens makes a huge difference to the performance of the Pikes, even to a distinctly average Joe like me. Experiment!

Some of it was filmed at Puzzlewood in FoD, but I’m sure everyone already new that 😉

Finally built up my second-hand (bought from lobby_dosser who posted on this thread way back on page 1) Spitfire. No photos as yet but I’m very pleased with how its looking. Quite a predictable build though really 1×11 XT, Pikes at 150mm, EX471 rims on 350 hubs, CCDB air.

The only problem now is I’m faced with a bewildering array of adjustments to tinker with! First ride this Sunday morning – wet, muddy DH tracks in FoD 🙂

How about a set of sexy saucepans and some non-stick pants?

Yeah I don’t really want to run the Shorty for that exact reason Steve, but can I be arsed to change it out for one day is the question? I’ll see how I feel nearer the time I think! Cheers.

Apologies, I only read as far as ‘share your tales’ 😉

Had a particularly bad bout about 10 years ago when I was about 31. Had the classic swollen face version which started to clear up after a week at which point it spread down to my balls (called orchitis). First the left one, after a week that started to ease, and then it went across to my right. They were the size of baked potatoes. The pain, oh god the pain. There were times when I could only crawl to get around. Fever, hallucinations, massive weight loss. Did I mention it was painful? The pain in my balls literally made me vomit what little food and fluids I had left in me. Woke up hallucinating one night and Superman was helping me across the bedroom floor to get to the loo. Then he flew out the window and I collapsed, smashed my head on a door frame and knocked myself clean out. I woke up to my current girlfriend shouting and crying and the sound of sirens outside as an ambulance turned up.

There, hope that cheered you up 🙂

Sounds like he fell up and down the stairs a few times to me! The official line on the TV news this morning was they were restraining him and he banged his head on a window 🙂 classic

That pub is The Woodman and yes the food is great. One of my riding buddies is a chef there and I’m not biased at all! Fountain is good for accommodation, and right in the thick of stacks of great riding

I’ve just bought a second-hand Spitfire V2 frame with CCDB air, should be turning up tomorrow. I should have all the components ready for the build by this time next week. So I have no real-world experience as the thread title requests, I just thought I’d tell everyone about it as I’m very excited 🙂

Great link mboy. I normally get tyres from Nextdaytyres, however due to stock shortage all over the UK what can you do?! Just gone 650b and building up my bike, wanted some 2.3 Minions and there don’t seem to be any available from UK sellers at all.

Anyone want a 26″ 3C 2.3 Shorty by the way? Used only once on a sloppy muddy off-piste FoD ride!

Tidy, cheers

Ah shame, never mind.
Chief you’ll have to let us know how your ultra slack experiment goes. I’m coming from a Blur LT so the Spitfire is quite a bit longer and slacker even in the neutral setting.

Mac I’m after a 50mm stem, black 150 solo 650b Pikes (or poss 160), 650b tubeless tyres, headset for tapered forks and a 1×11 drivetrain. Fair bit left to get!

Just bought a second-hand V2 from someone on here. Very excited about it, although I only have about half the bits for the build 🙁

Did they wheelie expect us to believe it?

Much as I didn’t want Glen to die, it now seems like a cop-out that he survived. I reckon he’ll croak it now in the ensuing battle in full view of Maggie.