Search results for:

Ah midge hell is not nice.
I tried to count bites one year, got to 300 and gave up :( the itching for days was not nice, i mastered the dark art of taking a whizz while still walking (slowly) for those out there reading, if you stop for 10 seconds it's like something from a horror movie, the little vampires appear from nowhere and swarm all over you, i managed not to get a single bite on me wang, which was nice.

Haven't done the xc routes, i couldn't walk for a few days after the biggy. The red DH track is fairly mild depending on weather, about 1.2km of boardwalk at the start, i went a bit quick and jumped one of the tables, shame about the heavy crosswind that blew me sideways in flight and into the bog, bit exposed on the boardwalks, but stunning views and a bit of shelter when you got off the woodworks.

Did you spot any wildlife on witches! pine martins are ace, like a big scary fluffy ferret on steriods.

Best track i know, it has a bar at the start and a bar at the finish and a hospital 8 mins down the road in a car :)

Oh oh oh Cannondale Moto's :)

Mud dock cafe in Bristol used to have a big table with about a dozen sets of Moto's for it's legs, possibly the best use for them :)

what Really Shit Twangers, allright back in the 1990's from memory i think Shaun Palmer was sponsered by them for a bit, but so long ago, i wanted some Mozo Pros because they had coil springs inside, an age when most had a foam rubber stick inside that would go hard when it was cold and not really do much :)

We had some crap gear back then, but it was also cutting edge back then, Girvins, and AMPs, RST and Zocchi Bombers could be easily stripped and rebuilt but the Bombers with open bath MX type dampers, against the Rock Shox Judys with plastic cartridges........ goes all misty eyed and looks for rose tinted specs :)

The old Rockshox boxxer DHO Tim Flooks had to rebuild them after each downhill race run as the cartridges would not hold together for a full race run, imagine that, you have the cutting edge fork on your bike and you know the internals are going to let go in the final half of your race run, exciting or what.

The Fort William world cup downhill race track has been raced rigid, but with gears not SS, so a rigid is capable of anywhere in the UK.......

Suspension forks are a minefield.
FOX are more race and need looking after, good back up if you follow approved service regimes, costly repairs if not, but fully rebuildable at cost.
Marzocchi are more solid (08/09/2010) certain models had problems, 07 and earlier are bombproof workhorses, 2011 onwards is almost on a par with the older bombproof models, loads of late 1990s still in service.
Rockshox, easy to work on and service, moderate pricing good choices.
Magura, good forks but spares and dealer servicing can be tricky.
BOS, excellent forks.....but..... pricey, poor spares and dealer service in UK.

XFusion building a good rep for well priced and specced forks, wouldn't say no.
Suntour, mostly low end OEM budget forks but they are trying to get into the quality aftermarket business.
Manitou, once made banging race forks, then quality went down the pan and they got called manipoo's, bought out by Hayes around 2010, and making back ground, well priced and some online bargins, the 29er forks have a good following.
They have all had issues and dramas over the years, find a bike, google the fork/model year and go from there.
As a very rough guide, open bath forks tend to be longer lasting but heavier (more oil inside) than the closed/sealed damping cartridge versions which are lighter weight and don't have much oil to help shed grammes. So much to choose from these days and a very focused market for product, so XC, XC race, All mountain, Enduro, Freeride,Park, Dirt/jump/street, Downhill, air or coil sprung, open bath dampers or sealed cartridge dampers, anything from 24hour service intervals to maybe check the oil every 6 months.

Didn't consider using the rack for backies :) just a bit of shopping, but yeah...... nice bit of marine ply to infill or sit on top, then maybe some of that camping mat dense foam stuck on for a bit of comfort.
Or old skateboard chopped down.
Keep finding shopping trolleys dumped in water course near me, no wire baskets yet....... one day... :)

I am so getting one of those catz, will hide it under Mrs 853s pillow see if it goes off in the middle of the night :)

Loving the build, the rear rack really needs sorting if it's going to get proper use. The bolt holes could be enlarged to get bolts through/allow centering, drill out or file or dremel, or make a new adpater flat plate with correct bolt centered holes.
Must do mine as the rack i got free dosen't line up either.
Good work zauerbek.

Super strong and burly, few years back the DXR was cheaper than saint cranks and pretty much the same thing, but shiny and polished, looked great on DH bikes.
According to the 2013 shimano guide, hollow tech II, 68mm bb shell compatible and a 44mm chainline 165/170/175/180mm lengths.

Did the frame escape any damage !
If they didn't see it, they weren't looking in mirrors.
If they didn't see it, they should have heard the crunching and scraping.
London is like a supermarket carpark, ding it, hit it, drive over something......... no one looking, no one about, best drive off then.

:) yep been having brake and gear cables too.

Seems positive enough on chains, will pick some next time i am near a store (about 2 weeks) will update with a photo and maybe weigh them too.

Can't view the link.

Without looking, a wild guess that it runs the normal open cage bearings which pretty much any bike shop will sell, halfords even give you a little tube of grease in the packet.
Think it was £3 in halfords for a pair, should be similar in bike shops maybe cheaper but without the grease.

If you can a find Zephyros 2 XL Lite the pricing was close to the higher end Terra Nova Laser's.

Terra Nova bought out Wild Country few years back and run it as a budget side company to partner the high price and high spec Terra Novas. The Zeps are based on the Laser series but made from cheaper materials, they almost compare weight wise with the 10 year old Laser i have, so kinda trickle down design and tech to a budget market.
The Zep 2 XL Lite was an odd one, it was close in price and weight to the Terra Novas, this may have been why it was discontinued last year, i was looking to replace my old Laser and the Zep X-lites had my eye, but when compared with the price i could get a new laser for online, think it was only an extra £30-40 i was going to get a new up to date laser.
Taking posh tents to festivals is allright if you don't mind it maybe getting wrecked/pissed on/puked on or some drunk falling on it or setting it on fire when they try to cook some sausages next door to you.
The standard Zeps are pretty tough tents, the X-lite versions cost more and user better materials so are much lighter.

Camp sites will cost, research your route, pricing will vary loads depending on whats available on site and some sites are seasonal or have limited opening this time of year.

Wild camping and right to roam is legal in Scotland, and is expected in major wild spots in the UK like Dartmoor or the Lake district. The rest of the UK is either private land or national park land, or MOD (army training&live ranges, camp here if you don't mind sharing with tanks and trigger happy squaddies)
Wild camping is not legal in England&Wales and considered tresspass by landowners, some national park rangers will move you on if spotted, it's unlikely to be arrested, however trying to argue the toss with grumpy landowners or park rangers and they will involve the Police.

It can be done.......loads do, if you wild camp sensibly, no open fires, don't draw attention to your self, a bright coloured tent is a big give away, most pitch up late in the day and move on early in the morning and leave no trace they where there. While some national parks will tolerate sensible wild camping as they can't police it, they can ask you to move on.
Don't try and pitch up at Stonehenge :)

I wasn't sure what to expect when i started lock spotting today.

Saw several min Krypto+chains left wrapped up waiting for Monday, loads of yellow Krypto D's and proberly the same amount of the above Orange cheaper Krypto, both types with cable wraps for saddle and front wheel.
Only a couple of bikes had double d-locks, some flash bikes with cable locks....
I dunno, kinda thinking for me as in not leaving the bike all day and not being far from it, that Orange Krypto or 2 of them would do for me as i did see a lot of them with an extra cable, i would only have a shit bike with the extra london mods of old chain bit through stays and saddle rails and BB's glued in allen bolt tops, i suspect there would be better easier to nick bikes using cheap locks than my shitter with the orange Krypto.
This whole thread more educational as it is amusing.

wow.....
I do like thought of trying to match the lock to the frame colour.

I did see a few front wheels only d-locked to rails on my pedinger tour of the city, will take photos next time.

Not so much commute but tourist day tripper, and pedinger as Mrs 853 wasn't too keen on rolling out on a rental bike.

Did spend the time watching out for riders and bike checking, Started at St Pancs and a blonde lady with black and red helmet bombed down the hill and got a green light and zipped off at speed, behind St pancs by nature garden, up to camden lock for a chinese for breakfast, all flash road bikes around Regents park, no fixed or SS until we got down to soho.
Making mental notes and causally checking out bike locking, loads of Kryptonites out there but more cheapo locks, did spot some nice bikes around the place.
Loads of wreckers too, slowly rusting away and some classic how not to lock your bike front wheels only.
Thought of DAS'ing a few but decided against it, cut down from Regents into Baker street for Holmes, ambled along bond/oxford street checking out side streets, finished off at the Hunterian muesum which is great if you are a budding serial killer or trying to impress a Goth girl (few goth girls in there, i like goths) then a pizza across the road and amble back to St Pancs for a train home. Few commuters with bikes on board.
Learnt my way round a bit more, checked out and sat on a boris bike, next step will be rent one for central London then much later (need a good lock first) i will bring a bike in so i can go beyond the reach of rentals with out incurring extra fee's.

Cold but dry, some nice locals and grumpy tourists 8/10

I only had a quick glance, at first i thought TATA (own british steel) did look like TAVA, but TAYA rings a bell.
Will go to google-fu myself pdlouche might give one a go, ta for the feedback, it was chance topic to see if anyone else had tried one, normally use shimano HG53 9spd as sometimes i can get them around £8, was hoping the wilkos might be a secret bargin.

Both are right.
It's a well known tip to pack a bit of extra grease into the hope hub to quieten it down a bit.

What grease and how much is the tricky part.

Not a Hope, more for weather proofing and extending life i packed out a Shimano DX freewheel with lithum grease. This worked well with no issues down in the mild and moist climate of the south west of england.
Never thought about, it worked, it really muted the not -so-loud-anyway shimano freewheel.

Then i went to Scotland, to race down a snow covered mountain. At first it felt like the chain was skipping, as the day went on it got worse, as i lined up for the seeding run i had a final drive failure (but not as costly as a BMW GS F.D.F.) and had to run and scoot all the way down, apart from the steep bits :)
The colder temps was enough to thicken the lithum grease, this caused the pawls to stick down and not engage. Applying heat would have only worked for a short time, i tried to force flush with GT85, still no good, had to strip the freewheel in the carpark and degrease, loose a few BB's beat the thing back together with no correct tools (allen key and rock to drift it apart) light coating of GT85 and hope it didn't freeze overnight or during the race. It worked the only seized item in the morning was me and the headset (another story)

I was mooching about in a large Wilko today, boring stuff coathangers and pegs.

I did find the bike stuff, had cables from them before, cheapish inner tubes. They seem to have there own branded stuff now, bike cleaners, lubes, tubes, tools nic nacks, and chains.
Never seen chains in Wilko before, started at £2-3 for a 1-3speed, i slyly opened the pack to have a look and the links where stamped TAVA and it had a quick clip link to join it, no other names, just made in Taiwan for Wilko in small print.
Also had 5-8spd think that was £3.50 and a 9 speed around £4.50
I didn't open them up and have a peek as the first 9spd pack had been opened, chain nicked and pack put back on the shelf and i didn't want to get accused of nicking it.

Anyone tried them ? worth a punt ? or a bit too cheap, don't fancy popping a knee.

From memory.... i cant remember the actual size (M8 perhaps) but it's a standard sized and pitched thread, so finding Ti bolts should be an easy task from quite a few mail order places.
Just a case of finding a mate with some M6/M8/M10 allen bolts to test fit to confirm right size before internet shopping :)

:) didn't notice the big silver bolts. My eyes are out of whack.

They are so loud it put me off ever having one, still in the city it might be handy, as they say with motorbikes "loud pipes save lives" i think hope's went with "loud freehubs save lives" or just let everyone know your coasting :)
Hope hubs and DH races you get "pedal" shouted a lot.

Is that the normal hub, looks large for the minifreehub SS hub (could be image and my eyes off whack)

The race was the first of the NO Fuss Events "MacAvalanche" mass start at the top of Glencoe ski resort mountain in Scotland.
The heli drop didn't quite work out as well in reality as it played out in most blokes heads.
We (blokes of a certain age) expected a Wagner soundtrack as a chinnock heli dropped the tail hatch and we would roll out and away......

Cue a lack of snow and windy weather instead and a VIP heli with leather seats, no stripped out doorless slicks or chinnocks.
The real plan was drop bikes off at top of first chairlift, the piste bashers would ferry bikes to summit start, we got a heli ride up, the reality was not enough snow so bikes had to be taken to summit (how no one had a heart attack i don't know) by rider, then get back down to finish for safety brief and race rules...... then ride back to top. Only time in a heli and the views where stunning.
I expected the race to be super tech and really rough, the Glencoe DH track is a tad technical, more so when wet, so i went for lightish but reliable set up of SS, forks are 2005 Z1 FR2 running a single manitou nixon spring (TF tuned it).
After the rough summit start of jagged rocks and snow holes, it was a bit rough xc and very pedally....... Ace fun, like a very scaled down MegaAvalanche.

Got another photo on this PC of the pimp2, raced DH on it 8" brakes and a Zocchi 66 fork, did race the blue fork set up with bodged on gears for Fort William, bike made me bleed that time.

But it's mine :)

Can tease you a bit more though.....