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

Is the landowner still calling the police when he spots riders? I've not ridden there in 7-8 years but over the preceding 5 or 6 years spoke to the police a number of times and got (politely) told to sling my hook.

That said, mangrove was one of my favourite Surrey Hills trails of all time.

In Redlands? No idea. Winterfold seemed to be the main area of contention last year.

Howard is the landowner

Think I'll stick to pitch tomorrow. Don't fancy being rozzed. Pretty sure I've ridden a lot of the stuff around coldharbour Lane, but not for a long time and I had a guide. Will have a good explore again when it dries up I think.

He bought Redlands? When?

Redlands is the best riding in that area. Love it.

I’ve entered the Ard Rock epic enduro. How hard is it?

I'll probably be down that way round Christmas time for a ride with some mates, I'll post something on the forum.
There's a lot of excellent riding there, some of the best loam I've ever come across.
And mega janky sections.

Up for it, @Howard? You missed some of the best stuff after the lunch stop last time.

I'd be up for that. Will keep an eye out for announcements.

Should be up for that - impending baby however may put pay to it...

It's a natural surface there so not Swinley-esk and is pretty well maintained. Though the weathers been a bit grim recently so might be a little worse for wear. Plenty of single track around the area too - Strava heat map is your friend.

Talking of wet...

Anybody want some Maxis Maxxlite Speeds? 29 x 2.00 brand new & never used. Internet tells me they're fast and supple rubber, but i'm 100KG and neither of the aforementioned - best popped in the shed till summer though unless you're bashing towpaths and such, they're not wet friendly. £25 for the pair collected from Canary Wharf or Waterloo Station. They'll have gained £10 in price come summer so grab em now! ;)

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Are these tubeless compatible?

Everything is tubeless with enough sealant....

They do not carry to TR logo anywhere and details are scarce online so it's an official no.

170tpi though and mad weight of 350grams(ish).

Roughly when do you think fella? Need to get my FS bike working again.

Edit: Christmasish. Hmmmm

27th - 31st, probably.

S(l)urrey was a lot wetter than last week (which was wet enough). Still fun though. Managed to blow up my shock today though. Lost all rebound control so every compression resulted in a horrendous thunk as it recoiled to full extension. Luckily it happened on the last descent.

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I'll take these for my Vagabond. You up for posting them?

This thing has air intakes and an exhaust port.

Me too!

An exhaust port, eh...

Manitou bois ( @TvH @platypus ?)

Do you know anything about the Machete fork? It's quite cheap. But 32mm stanchions and 2kg.

Is there a better option? Mattoc Pros seem to be sold out everywhere. Want 130mm (maybe 140mm if A2C not too large), 27.5+/29, boost, for blasting around trails

As far as I'm aware the lower end Manitou damping is fine, but I don't really know much about them. It's a completely different system from the MC2 damper in the bigger forks, and I'm not light enough to be less demanding of my shocks. Seems you missed the golden years of cheap Mattocs and Magnums unfortunately, and they're putting all efforts into the Mezzer now

Seems that way :|

Don't appear to be many megadeals on forks out there either. Should've bought the complete bike.

My inclination would be to hunt down a Fox 34 Rhythm or Performance, with the FIT Grip damper. It's a proper cartridge damper with good basic architecture (i.e. IFP, shims, no platform/lockout). It's OEM spec on plenty of bikes so you'll find new or barely used take-offs. If you need to change the travel it requires a new air shaft.

Eg:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/372854209079

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193224096108

Air shaft (haven't checked it's an exact fit)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153638471947

Just avoid anything that says CTD on it

I'm a little bit jittery about spending that much on something second hand with no warranty, as I don't know enough about the internals to say whether I've got a dud. But I guess eBay would side with me most likely...

The exchange rate is reasonably okay at the moment so there's this Debonair/Motion Control "Yari" for £340:

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/rockshox-yari-rc-29-debon-air-tapered-offset-51-boost-932291

Looks pretty similar to the 35, maybe it's the same thing. Didn't think the Yari came with less than 150mm so suspect it's an old model?