Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Just to add to this, the trail rash on my thigh is now at that extremely itchy healing phase. My better half still hasn't twigged it.

Don’t let @BenDelaney hear you say ‘twigged’, he’ll have flashbacks

Great account of the Puffer, I've not even contemplated doing it myself but have read a couple of accounts and am still making my way through your one. Interestingly one of my neighbours kids took part here's his account of it.

http://cycle.enthdegree.co.uk/#post238

Nuts!

Oh yeah it's mad the amount of kids doing it.

Schools has entered teams of 8's I lost track of the amount of times Clydesdale Colts whipped past me.

These lads had a good old go as well and I saw them a few times out on the course.

http://minipips.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/2018-strathpuffer-24-hour-mountain-bike.html?m=1

cannondale sales spam here: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14076351/
only used it as a big city bruiser rather than off road, but might interest someone.

Really tempted to do this next year, I'm up in Aberdeenshire so it's on my doorstep, haven't said it out loud yet, lol!

I can safely say that you won’t regret it*

*this may be a lie

What’s the go-to for someone getting a first MTB?

I’ve moved to the Peaks and the trails look great round here.

If someone was after a cheap but decent first road bike, I’d steer them towards PX or Ribble to spend about £1k. What’s the MTB equivalent?

I’d probably go for a hardtail though I don’t really know why.

On one are a good place to start. Steel 456 covers most bases and they last forever.

I'd look at the Vitus offerings on CRC, the Sonder transmitter and the Calibre Bossnut. Really great bikes for the money.

I've not ridden one myself, but the Boardman range seems to offer a lot of bang for the buck.

Means shopping at Halfords though, doesn't it?

I’d probably go for a hardtail though I don’t really know why.

Good call on a 1k budget. Full sus at that price is likely to be ropey.

Thanks all. Vitus look good especially with BC discount.

Bossnut V2 gets cracking reviews if you fancy going full boing.

Marin pine mountain 1?

Yeah. I mentioned this elsewhere but I got my 29er hardtail with SRAM GX 1×11 and a RockShox 120mm fork for under £500. Insane value if you stack up discounts.

I had the following:

• bike was £200 off in a sale
  
• a British Cycling sign up bonus
  
• British Cycling discount on the sale price
  
• ~10% cashback on the pre-BC-discount price from Quidco (I think)
  
  

RRP £1000, I spent <£500. Doesn't seem like those discounts add up to enough, maybe I've forgotten something.

Edit: the £1000 Boardman full suspension bike has had some excellent reviews. Calibre Bossnut has as well but when I was looking for a bike (a year or two ago) they were having some significant problems with the frame to do with the rear wheel hitting the seatpost at maximum compression. That problem has almost certainly been solved for the V2 though. You can read more here: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/calibre-bossnut-potential-problem/ like I said I haven't kept up to date with that thread as I ended up getting that Boardman but worth reading through to see if/how it was resolved.

Calibre Bossnut

Potential fit & forget tyre sealant?

I've never had much issue with regular sealant drying up since I change tyres fairly often, but not gunking up valve cores would be lovely.

I've had mixed success so far. Conti sealant that's run dry within 2 months, and Stans that's still had some left after 9 months.

No Stanimals so far....

#doinitwrong

Apologies for the sales spam, but my Cotic Soda is up for sellz, if any of you dirty folk are keen.

26"? What is this, 2009?