After getting soaked to the bone at the weekend I’m in desperate need of some quality waterproof shorts.

The Sweet Protection ones seem to be getting good reviews but £120? Ouchie!!

I know that Exxpozed had them for £91 but only in XL at present – anyone seen them in stock in a medium at a slightly less eye watering price?

+1 for Revs – awesome place. Proper full on DH riding, especially if it has rained in the last 6 months 🙂

If you have the option of staying over and riding a 2nd day Llangollen (One Giant Leap) is also (imo) head and shoulders over BPW.

+1 for the Fountain Inn.

The pub on the other side of the green does excellent food too.

It’s a cab ride but Katz deli is well worth a trip – it’s where they filmed ‘that’ scene in When Harry met Sally.

The pastrami is awesome, the cheesecake is amazeballs.

Drove past Monday morning on the M62 and the commute was definitely do-able – took about 25 minutes (was in work for about 7.15am), expect that to be longer on the return leg as it would be peak time.

Bit of a thread resurrection…..

Looked at 7 (yes, **** 7) houses on Sunday.

One of which was at Outlane and ticked a lot of boxes.

A couple of questions:

1) The biking – is it really anything like as good as HB? Where I could ride from the door and take in descents as good as the likes of Blue Pig, Chipps, Midgets Pit, Pit X, **** Yeah, etc. These are the type of trails that I love – techie and/or steep.

2) Are we going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with bugger all to do and end up with cabin fever or is there a thriving community nearby with lots going on, restaurants, pubs, etc?

Cheers!

Only another 18 months and the ‘smart’ motorway will be completed this end too.

Once we’ve moved i’ll be doing what I can to avoid driving in the rush hour commute but unfortunately I’ll be joining in some days. Still, it has to be an improvement over what i’ll be doing until we find a house over that way, St Helens to Leeds commuting starts December 7th 🙁

Thanks for all the input everyone – I spent last night google mapping and showing the other half how far various places are from HB. We’re over in Yocksher for the weekend (Sat = riding HB / Toddy Lamplighter festival) so going to get booked in for some viewings on Sunday and visit a few of the areas mentioned.

Will keep you posted with developments and whether or not you have saved me from resorting to Kirstie and Phil 🙂

Do you know which side of Gelderd Road, inside or outside the ring road?

Up the hill from the Porsche garage.

Craig – I’ll be working at Gelderd Rd.

Lots to look into (could be a busy night of research and Right Move tonight!), cheers very much all, feel free to keep them coming……

BTW – I would need to drive into the office pretty regularly.

Not a bad word to be said then (goes off to congratulate the other half in picking an excellent location for a family holiday).

Thanks for the input everyone, really looking forward to it now, roll on summer! 🙂

Cheers Variflex – sounds like it’ll be spot on.

This is the family holiday but I’ll be out in Morzine the week before with the chaps so should be a good warm up (aye, I know, I got lucky this year when it comes to hollibobs) 😀

You want to be careful with those….if the tassels get caught up in the chain you could be in a world of trouble.

How did you know it was the BrokeBike Mountain weekender? 🙂

Jeez, that’s a lot of time away in such a short period. I hope for your sake your other half gets similar amounts of time off…

Yep…..just takes some planning to ensure we both have the things in our lives that make us happy (including riding). This weekend I’ll be riding Hebden whilst the better half meets up with pals in York – I’ll then be following her up the motorway, hotel is booked for Saturday night, family day in York on Sunday.

I think I’d be a significantly less awesome Dad if I was miserable because I hadn’t ridden my bike……

I’m glad I didn’t read this thread 12 months ago!

We have a 5 month old lil lady…..

There’s been 3 weekends to date when I haven’t got out for a proper ride (ie, one that involves throwing the bike in the car and being out for 6 hours). I’ve done about half a dozen DH days that are 10 hours out the house and the weekend before last I did 3 days in Scotland with the chaps.

Is my Mrs awesome or what? (No, she hasn’t got a sister) 🙂

I believe there is an option of getting heli-dropped at the top of one of the mountains, way above where the ski lifts will take you and then spending the rest of the day riding back down (in a group, led by a guide).

If I was only there for one day, once in my lifetime, I think I’d have to be having a look at this option 🙂

Cheers Jam Bo – could take either bike although as I’d be on my own and about 300 miles from home I’d try and reign myself in a bit*

* sounds like a good excuse for not tackling any 15′ drops 🙂

Bump.

Anyone?………

I rode with Free Motion a few years ago – a good set up but personally I was disappointed with the trails.

Did 2 days riding and neither where a patch on routes I’ve done in the UK (Lakes, Peaks, Hebden, etc).

drovercycles – Member
OP, if you are interested in a TR500, feel free to give us a shout and I can suggest you some specs.

Hmmmm………TR500 is nice but would (I’m guessing) be a pretty basic spec for the money.

Commencal with BOS is looking good value – especially as I’d have enough cash left over for upgrades 🙂

[/quote]Rosss – Member
I’d hold onto you’re cash, I’m sure YT have got the site up and running to get orders in for their Capras I’d bet the carbon tues will be along in a few weeks. If you can’t wait get yourself a copy of the Dirt 100 and have a flick through, some lovely DH bikes in this year and your budget would get you most. I love my carbon Devinci Wilson

Can’t see it personally – they were saying in September it would be shipping by the end of the year, sounds like they’ve had issues.

Need to get something ordered relatively soon as I’ve no DH bike at present and got a weekend away planned for April with the chaps.

Thanks for the info peeps! 🙂

Hope 4 pots take some beating IMO – powerful, reliable, adjustable on the fly & loads of feel.

Fall down a little on the weight but worth the penalty all day for me.

Just stick a 32 on the front, I’m 40 in February and not particularly fit at present.

Did 2500′ climbing round Hebden yesterday with only 1 push (penny steps), only time I feel like I’ m spinning out is on tarmac going downhill which I try to avoid anyway.

Swearing and grunting helps.

Disappointed.

I was expecting a punch line.

Google ‘The Great Yorkshire brewery’ – they have their own pub / b&b.

Food is great and you can book on your of the brewery of that floats your boat, the beers in the pub are good too, especially Yorkshire Blackout.

I rode 2 days MTB with Free Motion the year before last.

Wasn’t blown away by the trails the guide took us on, In the past week I’ve ridden The Lakes, The Peaks and Hebden Bridge and I’d rate all of them as better rides than I did in GC.

Also, when I went all the hire bikes were fitted with Conti Mountain Kings which offered bugger all grip and saw me puncture five times.

I know they don’t do them as regularly as CRC but the ‘offer or voucher code’ field on the payment page confirms they do occasionally.

“So my socks up bitch”.

Can’t see the problem?

“So my socks up bitch”.

Can’t see the problem?

I had other bits and bobs stuffed in last year – as long as you’re under I don’t think they’re too fussed.

Bear in mind wet Five Tens will weigh more than your bike on the way back.

Send it back to Lapierre and they’ll give you a new one.

Thatto Cycles in St Helens – they regularly go beyond the call of duty and offer great service and reasonable rates.

A pal of mine trashed his bike the day before we were heading to Scotland for a riding weekend but the part he needed wasn’t in stock. They took the part off a bike in the showroom to sell him and put one on order to replace it.

Top blokes even if they are mostly roadies! 🙂

Have a look at any bike with a set of Boxxers on and it’ll be the same.

The tolerances on forks are pretty shocking, I hadn’t noticed until a pal picked up his new Glory and spotted it. There was about 6 of us out that day with Boxxers and every set where out one way or the other.

Don’t know if Manitou have similar acceptable tolerances but wouldn’t surprise me.

Did you just select the lift pass option (ie – 42 euros from the 7th to the 13th) or is there a separate fee to pay for entry to the event?

Many thanks!

One of our gang hired from Torico last year and they seemed very good, bikes were in good nick and he could swap bikes every other day and take either a Mega or a Pulse depending on what riding he was doing.

Haggle! They will do you a deal.

Whilst it’s not for sale yet there is now a piccie of the (presumably soon to be released) 650b Pro model on the home page of the website.

Price is 2999 Euro’s.

Looks like it comes with Bos both ends but not the Crossmax wheels you get on the slightly more expensive 26″ Pro model.

Will be interesting to see if this is a replacement for the 26″ Pro or if they will be doing the Pro in 2 wheel sizes.

^ ^ ^

Hmmmm……..anyone else been to San Carlo @ Bristol lately?

I’ve been to the one in Manchester a few times (although not for a while) and thought it was excellent so booked it as a bit of a treat but you’ve got me thinking now……

Cheers all – plenty of insider knowledge! The other half is impressed with what a friendly bunch the Singletrack massive are.

So much so she’s about to post up that nagging question of what tyres and pressure would be ideal for Llandegla?

Bit of an update on the descriptions:

Yellow small Santacruz Juliana. Black reba forks, blue hope kit, Specialized seat post, blue welgo pedals.

White medium Santacruz superlight. White revelation forks, red hope bling kit everywhere, raceface carbon seatpost, raceface red bars, hope red hubs with Olympic White rims, blue candy pedals, X0 SRAM and XT kit.

Please keep your eyes peeled people.