Living in Guildford city centre is an utter pain in the arse!
I’ve lived most of my life in Liphook, Haslemere, Petersfield and for 18 months in Guildford, in an effort to make my wife’s commute into London easier. It was shorter and cheaper for her to get to work but everything else was terrible. We lived right in the town centre (College Road) so that she could walk to the station but my drive to Bordon (24 miles away) and back sometimes took almost two hours. It was noisy at night, the cars, houses and gardens in our road were habitually vandalised. Getting in and out of town during the day at the weekends was almost impossible and parking was a nightmare, even having paid for a resident’s permit. We have now moved back to Haslemere, a much nicer place all-in-all and much better riding, in all directions, right out of the front door. The riding out of Guildford isn’t very good in my limited experience. I used to put my bike in the car and drive down to Haslemere to go riding! Trains from Haslemere to Guildford only take 15-20 minutes.
Having said all that, if you’ve got the money to enjoy the shops, pubs, restaurants etc and didn’t need to drive in or out of town at the weekends it would be a great place to live. I do know a few people that live in Merrow and love it.

Looking good. I’m thinking of getting one of those (a 16″) to replace my 18″ ‘original’ 456. Love the raw finish.
Hope you nerve sorts itself out soon. I can empathise having had that kind of trouble in my back, not nice.

http://www.shockabsorber.co.uk/bounceometer/shock.html

Thanks for all the advice. I’ll leave it until a summer morning or evening. Probably best to do it with a buddy or two as well, having seen some of the pics and videos!

I know it’s not brakeless trials but Akrigg’s Golden Nugget video is a masterpiece of tongue-in-cheek uberskillful nutterism.

In my 16 years of riding, in order no particular order:
Fractured skull – 7cm crack, week in hospital, two weeks off school!
Sprial fracture of left tibia – 6 weeks in plaster, two of them off school!
Dented left radius – hit the edge of a van door at 20mph, whole forearm turned black and blue, thankfully not broken.
Split knee – 4 stitches, lots of iodine and “oh look, there’s my knee cap!”
Not to mention the 10s/100s of other “flesh wounds”.
I think I’ve got off quite lightly. You definitely learn how to fall off the more you do it!

I’m another guitarist/singer!

My 456 (built with bits that work and won’t break) weighs about 30lbs.

Shouldn’t the “STW stock replies” for such a question should have been mentioned by now?

Give them another few rides and they’ll feel even better, once everything’s bedded in and loosened up :o)

On the top I’d say.

Don’t really know, he’s always done it. Almost every ride he’ll eye up a tree and before anyone can stop him he’s dragging his bike up it and we feel obliged to photograph him before he falls out!

More Treeride® action!

Dibbs, do you work for Marin/ATB Sales? If not that’s some serious brand loyalty!

This one flamejob:

Yes, agree about the waves/phases. You can see in my history that it also correlates to my financial status and willingness to use credit ;o)

Flamejob’s Pace just gave me the horn. That would have been from about the time I had my Endorphin.

Just noticed a mistake in my list, sorry it was late when I posted. I didn’t get the Blur until after I’d sold the Wilier so it should read:
Raleigh Marauder
GT Outpost
Diamondback Apex
Scott Endorphin
Scott Endorphin and Zeus road bike
Scott Endorphin, Zeus road bike and Kona Humu 7
Santa Cruz Superlight, Zeus road bike and Kona Humu 7
Santa Cruz Superlight and Wilier Lavaredo road bike
Santa Cruz Blur
Santa Cruz Blur and Kona Explosif
On One Inbred 456 and Kona Explosif
On One Inbred 456
On One Inbred 456 and (reunited with) Diamondback Apex!

My bike ownership phases:
Raleigh Marauder
GT Outpost
Diamondback Apex
Scott Endorphin
Scott Endorphin and Zeus road bike
Scott Endorphin, Zeus road bike and Kona Humu 7
Santa Cruz Superlight, Zeus road bike and Kona Humu 7
Santa Cruz Blur, Zeus road bike and Kona Humu 7
Santa Cruz Blur and Wilier Lavaredo road bike
Santa Cruz Blur
Santa Cruz Blur and Kona Explosif
On One Inbred 456 and Kona Explosif
On One Inbred 456
On One Inbred 456 and (reunited with) Diamondback Apex!

Epic – not me in the tree, I was taking the picture on my phone whilst waiting to hit 999!

A couple of crappy phone pics, one from this evening’s ride:

and a new niche perhaps?

Scott made a Thermoplastic hardtail a number of years back, Endorphin perhaps. They nearly all cracked!

I had one of those for, it was marvelous. Thrashed the pants off of it for 4 years, with a Hope C2 torsion bar on the back and it didn’t crack. Some of the paint cracked but not the frame. Sold it to fund a Superlight so don’t know how it ended up. Good times.

Go on, go on, go on, go on!

Who was it that always used to say “Conti Vert Pros” to every thread about tyres?

I didn’t stray out of the middle ring when we went last week. I thought it quite easy. I have been forcing myself to use the middle ring only for a while now, not really a problem on Cannock Chase!!!

The day I did that ride it was blowing a gale. I was nearly blown off the trail several times. I wasn’t at “peak fitness” then either! ;o)

Cae Gwyn Farm?[/url]

Great “natural” site, marvelous views and just over the road from CyB.

My 456, as was in March ’06. I ran it as a 1×9 (with an N-Gear Jump Stop) for about 18 months, when I was mostly riding in an area where there were no big hills and the extra clearance was essential when using 2.3″ Timberwolfs throughout the winter :o)
That ride at Nant yr Arian (pictured) was hard on 1×9!

Have a look at this thread.

What did you say?

Just got a reply:

“you can change the headset”

Oh dear.

Thanks Mama’. It’s not so nice where I am but I’d still be out if I weren’t coughing up gunge.

My mate James needs to pull more faces! Heres his stunningly moody solo:
<http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=75280353071&ref=mf&gt;

He’s a very proficient but is that enough delay!?

I’ll get practicing my faces in time for BBB.

I just asked:

Hello,
Re your description: “THE STEM IS 11/2″ NOT 11/8″ BUT YOU CAN GET REDUCERS THEY WILL FIT ANY MOUNTING BIKE”
Please can you explain exactly how a fork with a 1.5″ steerer can be fitted to a bike with a 1.125″ head tube?
Thanks,
-willej

Can you tell that I’m frustrated that I’m poorly and can’t go out on my bike? 😈

Taking pictures:

Sognefjord, Norway

Playing my gee-tar:

The Railway, Winchester, supporting Sham 69

You can get a “normal” (not a X4) Thomson Elite stem in 70mm length for 25.4mm bars. Shorter stems are better, IMHO but you say the bike’s too small, wouldn’t putting a shorter stem on be making it even smaller?

oh and its strange that my components came off my heckler on which i never ever got any problems

I should think you never noticed the chainsuck on your Heckler, because of the elevated stays. I miss my SC Superlight and Scott Endorphin for that very reason; no chainsuck!

I’ve had some chainsuck problems on my 456 in the past but it stopped all together when I changed my RaceFace Race Rings chainrings to Middleburn Hardcotes. The tight chainring/chainstay clearance on the older 456s just exemplifies the problem when it happens.

Ooh, didn’t know there was a tiny Blackstar. Well worth an audition I’d say, their bigger amps are splendid.

Those Laneys came with either a H&H or a Celestion 10″. The Celestions sound better but they are both really very good. By far the best low volume reasonably priced valve amp I’ve ever heard.

456s are ace. Here’s mine in various guises:

The Laney has a 10″ speaker and still sounds good. It has a speaker output socket on the back and sounds awesome through a 2×12″ or 4×12″. I’ve even used it for recording.

Don’t go anywhere near dirty modeling amps! Valves really are the only way to real tone. I’ve got a Laney LC15R which is a great practice amp. It’s got three 12AX7s in the preamp and two EL84s in the power amp. It’s only a single channel but is very versatile and sounds great, even at very low volumes.

’93 Kona Explosif.