Its not as clear cut as just plain and simple ‘Location’ a lot of the time. We moved to a location that wasn’t our top choice, but was still acceptable for our circumstances, so that we could get a bigger house and garden for our money. And with Captain Hindsight at the helm, it was definitely the right thing to do.

Chap was riding one on a club ride this Tuesday evening. 9 of us, and to be fair it was overkill for what we were doing and he wasn’t the quickest downhill (not the bikes fault I might add), but he was at the front for every climb. So that either tells us the bike climbs fine, or he climbs fine, probably a combination of both!

I’m guessing even the fast guys have to start somewhere right? Or do they get themselves up to mega-speed and then start racing? Genuine question!

I went for a Hotrock, but only because I got it for £35 second-hand off here, and in great nick. It will get used by both our children, so great value really.

First child we both wanted a surprise and it was brilliant not knowing until the birth. Mrs Wilko is 6 months gone again and this time we found out, and it was equally brilliant that way too. My advice though is if you’re going to have two, then at least have one surprise, its the biggest most amazing surprise you will ever have in your life and a wonderful experience.

Planning on doing 4 laps. Is it really up to 11 miles though, last year it was more like 8.5. Are there any new sections this year?

Contenders for most disappointing trails? By far the most disappointing for me was Cannock Chase. After everything I’d read and heard about it I was properly looking forward to it, but I couldn’t have been less impressed if I’d tried. No offence to the trail builders and the hard work that people have put in, but I didn’t enjoy it at all for some reason.

Cheers, looks like bike24 are completely sold out now. CRC have a few small sizes, and Amazon list up to Euro 44 (UK 9.5) which is half a size too small! Have to stick with Five Tens for the time being I think

I really want some Vans Gravels myself. But where the hell can I get some in a size 10? Where did you get yours jam bo?

Frank, the original post states PP gift…

To summarise looks like you’re down £150 and lesson well and truly learnt

EDIT: Having said that, I’m a regular on STW, but on the odd occasion when I’ve sold something of higher value ie a frame, I’ve posted it on pinkbike and bikeradar too, so to them I’d look like a dodgy classifieds only possible scam type character. Just maybe there’s an outside chance that there’s a genuine mistake…?!

Heinz Baked Bean Pizzas

You don’t have to go steaming in and meringue ( :?: ) the guy, there is a third option. How about politely emailing and saying something like “I’m genuinely interested in buying your bike but I only have £ ??? to spend and I think that’s a fair offer for what it is”

Pretty much what the others have said actually

Sorry forgot to start Strava on last weeks ride :(

Great fun ain’t it!

Listen to dobie. That’s exactly what we did last Sunday, started at Speculation near PBA, did 2/3rds of enduro, over to Dowies to do all the stuff there and back finishing on full Y2K dh, a 4 hour belter!

Bullsh1t or not, there’s some nice engineering going on there. Not that I’d ever want one mind – think I’d feel like a bit of a tool turning up to a ride on one

I take Strava times with an entire 1kg bag of salt. I’m consistently quicker than one of my riding buddies on dh segments when we are actually on the trail together, but his times normally show quicker on Strava. I use an iPhone and he uses a Garmin. I’m very competitive too so I can’t deny that it irks me a lot, but really, the only way to know if you are actually quicker than someone is to ride the trail together

Nope, still hopelessly addicted here. That first coffee feeling in the morning is hard to beat, I really need to knock it on the head and go cold turkey

Well its been organised with the affiliation of both Bigfoot and Cheltenham Cycling club who were both instrumental in getting the agreement with Natural England about which trails we could legally ride.

Also the main guy organising it owns Slam 69 in Gloucester, and I can’t imagine as a local business owner and active member of the local cycling community that he would risk any of the good work done by incorporating any of the sensitive stuff.

The guy organising it is a founder member of the local Bigfoot Mountain Bike Club and the route is going to be far more technical off-road than HONC

EDIT : Not technical in a ‘World Cup DH track’ sense mind, just great natural woodsy singletrack type stuff

A vote for Blur LTc. Some may consider the geometry ‘old-school’ but I went from a ‘New-school’ geometry ASR5, to the LTc, and haven’t cared one bit. I think people get too hung up on all that crap to be fair. The LTc with 150 revs has a 68 HA anyway so its not like its vertical or anything! I can confirm that it rides superbly, a massively capable bike, that can really take big hits and drops, but still pedals well enough to fly on the flat and uphill. In fact I find it a far better climber than my ASR5, with far less pedal bob. I just can’t ride it enough!

Fair enough, I use Iso-propyl alcohol myself to clean my rotors as it happens. But white spirit is used as a degreaser in machine shops, just didn’t realise it left a thin film behind

White spirit is an effective de-greaser. I’d use soap and water to get the main grime off, followed by a wipe down with the white spirit

Yeeaaaahhhh great thread already!

Just quick, don’t have time to look up links…

T La Rock – Breaking Bells
JVC Force – Strong Island

I have done this having previously had an Anthem and El Guapo to cover all my riding. Now just have a Blur LTc and the only thing I miss slightly is the out and out climbing speed of the Anthem. The Blur is truly fantastic though, a real do-it-all bike. Sturdy and stable on DH tracks, jumps well, pedals great on the flat/uphills and just seems super-fast and comfy doing everything. Doesn’t quite fall into the ‘modern geometry’ category, but it really doesn’t matter, its brilliant

Brilliant, appreciate that nipper, won’t be until early September tho, I’ll drop you a line

Nice one cheers for that

Bump n grind

Not enough gum visible if you ask me

Sorry

Yeah there ‘may’ be a strava segment and if you use an iPhone as a GPS it ‘may’ not pick up that you went down it and therefore your time ‘may’ not show up on the leader board even though your mates time showed up 4th and you did it significantly quicker than him. Bl88dy iPhone.

ha ha super fish oil injuries!!

I was chatting up this bird last night in a gorgeous red dress. I thought it really complimented my figure but she was having none of it

Mate by then conditions are gonna be superb, I’d start getting excited now if I were you!

I don’t think it’ll get that bad. Sunday conditions were great on back-country stuff, and it would have dried up more since then. Rain this aftie/eve will prob just make it greasy, but it isn’t going to turn into a bog overnight I doubt. When/where are you going?

No not the bluebell one, as far as I know its a really recent one. Loads of earth been shifted, some really well built, solid jumps. The start is 2 or 3 hundred yards past the original Dowies start and it finishes on the fire road right near the end of Dowies. It is quite hard to find actually, we’d heard about it and rode round a few times trying to find it and it was only when we bumped into Dowie that he took us to the start

Yeah go for a mooch, its great fun, the pixies have put a lot of work into it. Dowie reckons he had nothing to do with it, but I’m not so sure!

Another On-one CNC here, very impressed, light, cheap, looks great and has withstood some abuse lately

Where’s the additional force coming from to make a heavy person go faster then? The force acting on them is the same ie gravity. The same way that two objects of different mass dropped from a high building will hit the ground at the same time, discounting the aerodynamic properties of those objects. It must be down to aerodynamics, rolling resistance, imagination etc :D

Brilliant :evil:

I’m with the Bigfoot club and we’re off up there Saturday morning, we’ll be on our guard

Difficult to know what to do when faced with people like that to be fair, you aren’t going to get any sense out of them and we’ve got no more right than them to ride those Portway DHs. Okay we’re not aggressive and shooting stuff but still, seriously, what would/should you do?

Damn, thought this was going to be another thread about the FoD!