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

Yeah bio-security is a thing. Foot and Mouth was the worst. Killed mountain biking for 18 months.
Anyone remember the fires when they were burning thousands of cattle corpses?

There are plenty of others. Larch disease. Crayfish plague etc etc. I like to take a clean bike to an area and clean it before I leave. I know its not good for bearings etc

Larch disease is sadly affecting a lot of riding areas near me. Felling has changed the feel of riding at Ae forrest quite a bit...

Good to hear you take a pro active approach. Seems the majority of riders don't fully appreciate the risk or even realise its an issue. But good to see it mentioned here and raise awareness.

I'm also sold on one of those portable bike washers!

Yup, foot and mouth killed mtbing for me, only got back into it through cx a few recently.
My dad worked for Defra at the time, although as a fruit and veg inspector but was drafted in to manning the phones, trying to prevent farmers who had lost everything turning their shotguns on themselves.

There is an abandoned farm I ride past sometimes that still has the old warnings up about foot and mouth.

It was @gofasterstipes who introduced me to it. I've had mine two years now I think, and it's done sterling service, really is a great piece of kit.

But, word of warning, even though it isn't the strongest when it comes to pressure, it pays to keep an eye on your bearings and give them a check over every few weeks and make sure you're not washing out all the lubrication.

Horrible times. Agri equivalent of c-19. Hopefully never to return but doubt it.

Yep. Afan forest is the same now. Completely changed the feel of the trails. Switchbacking down open hillside isnt the same as when you didnt know whee the trail went next due to tree cover.

Not ridden Ae for 10 years. Shame if same happened. Lot of clear felling as well at Kirroughtree which is local to me when up that way. Surprised as thought the whole point of "peoples forest" was mixed tree stock planting to avoid this sort of thing.

Are you in D & G?

mmm

#hippyisfat

Pressure washer chat: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/320263/

No, I'm just out side Glasgow. Ae and inners are my usual go to areas. In terms of numbers, Ae usually feels dead compared to a Saturday uplift at inners so it can be preferable sometimes.

My daughter being born led me to selling my downhill bike.
I went about 7 years without riding at Ae then bought dh bike again a couple of years ago. My first trip back to Ae I was surprised at how completely different sections of trail felt that used to weave through dense forrest.
But the riding is still great there and it now feels normal in the open sections, infact it's probably got faster too.
But it's not the fact that the riding feels different, I'm lucky I still have trails to ride, but just a shame that such huge areas of forest can be affected, they of course provide much more than just tree cover for mountain bikers.

I've been riding at inners off and on since about 2001 and to me it still feels essentially the same. But I worry that one day felling will change the riding quite a bit.

All this chat really has me pining for some riding now. I hit inners 9 weekends in a row last summer! But not been since September or so now :(

Grim Donut gets talked about at length in this podcast by Yoann Barelli

The last few rides have been really wet and muddy and not only am I going through disc brake pads like they are going out of fashion but my rear hub pawls were refusing to engage yesterday.

#26aintdead

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So a quick disassemble of the drive side, regrease and reassemble of my Hope XC hub should hopefully sort that out

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Has anyone here used Invisframe to protect their frame?

Would you recommend it, or warn me off?

The flat end of the trail to the butchers today.

And on the way back the other day.

Just been told my axs reverb is being replaced under warranty which is great, but told they won't have any to send until mid April...

So looking for a cheap ass dropper to tide me over. Must be 31.6, at least 150mm drop and internal routing.

Any one have anything lying around?

I had my 295 Invisiframed, it’s a peace of mind thing really as I probably won’t get to find out if it was worth it unless I strip it all off. It’s not very tough- I ended up putting additional (thicker and tougher) clear plastic on the areas of the frame that the uplift forks were touching as the bike went up with me as the Invisiframe was wearing through. However that’s kind of the point- the Invisiframe started to mark, then tear, and I could slap a better protector over it before the fork damaged the frame.

I didn’t bother with the 529 as it’s steel and I’ll just repaint it if/when it starts to look ratty, but bare carbon fibre on the 295 meant I was happier to protect it.

I think @furious_tiles has mentioned it before and has experience

Sintered pads?

I've not used invisiframe personally but mates rate it as long as you really take the time to apply it properly. You certainly can't get away with just slapping it on. From experience i definitely wouldn't recommend the ams frame protection. It looks ok but its not that sticky and its soft as shit so anything beyond a stroke from a bramble will just go straight through it.

Yeah, got my YT Capra covered when I bought it.

Helps protect it from scuffing from heal rub on the stays and muddy shorts on the top and seat tubes.

Also from cable rub.

I also covered the fork lowers as these take a battering and also can get knocked about on uplifts.

Don’t really buy into the whole protects when you sell as 2nd hand mtb aren’t worth fuck all.

What frame/bike are you thinking of doing @andyp ?

Thanks all. Don't tell anyone, but it's for a cross bike.

*<scarpers>*

I’ve used it. It does what it says on the tin.