[Norton Sharley]

Well at last the sun has come out and I'm going quicker!! Just knocked 3 mins of my commute home. Well chuffed. Although my heart-rate maxed at 195 - OMG!!
Bad news is that I can't do the Leg breaker - on weekend of 18/7/08 - had to do some swops at work so I can have a holiday.

If anybody wants the place let me know - I only entered the short course (85 Km ish), but I think its fairly easy to upgrade to the medium (130Km) or long (165Km).

Come on fatdoc - get back on that road bike - you know you want to. 

 

[unclesomebody]

Right then, I've been to pick the bike up today. It's very nice, very clean, and rides great. The forks feel a bit slow but I don't think it's been ridden much recently. I took it down to an old jump spot near my house, where we used to spend many days building trails, and was saddened to see there is very, very little left. I jumped what was left (tiny) and realised that the rear end has a bit of a kick on takeoff. I've got to get used full sus. Plus, bunny hoping is very difficult. Is this the result of 7" rear travel?!?! I used to be able to bunny hop onto the top of a picnic table... somehow I think that won't be happening on this thing!

PS. I think I saw you today Bubba, in Buxton. Were you outside the caving supplies shop at about 5pm? I did wave as I went by, but you probably missed it or chose to ignore the loon.

PPS. What's wharncliffe like at the weekend? Will it be full of people who'll be angry with a punter going small and slow?

Oli; I'll send you a PM about getting out, should be good!

[Bubba]

Wasn't me in Buxton - I was in bed at 5pm

Bunny hopping a picnic table is seriously impressive. But yes, the rear travel will soak up all that power...though you can use a bit of spring-bounce to get things going.

It sounds like your suspension needs some tweaking. If the forks feel slow then the chances are they have too much compression and rebound damping wound on (are they slow to compress, or slow to rebound or both?) If the rear end is kicking you on takeoff then it could mean that it has too little rebound damping. Chances are the bike was set up for somebody a different weight / riding style to you so you'll need to do some experimentation. It can take a while. I have my 888s sorted now but my rear shock still isn't on the right settings.

Wharncliffe is fine of a weekend, there's always a big mix of abilities out from some fast kids to people rattling down the easier courses on XC hardtails. Are you going up with someone who knows the woods? Can be a bit hard to find stuff first time. I would offer but i'm not about this w/e.

Get yourself booked at Innerleithen on the 27th if you want some real fun

[fatdoc]

bubs is on the money for the suspension, have you set the sag?

my free time for riding on sunday has been allocated, sorry. (some mid summer Xc ride starting well early on sunday - in the region of 40km i reckon... including rushop, mt pleasant, jacobs ladder & hope cross!!!  all welcome! 8 a.m start mind)

if you get overcome with the setup PM me, i've some steps in my garden that i set my bikes up on... it'll take me 10 mins max.

[Bubba]

Good idea about steps - a big steep set of steps is probably a good way to get your basic settings sorted. If it feels like you're riding down a smooth slope instead of steps then you've probably got the basic compression/rebound settings right.

After that just tweak them for what you're riding (eg smooth fast course / drops and jumps / etc ) and your own preference. Must find big set of steep steps for this - any ideas?

Irrelevant and gratuitous steps pr0n - biiiig drop onto staircase - shows what a transition can do:

[unclesomebody]

I'm working on the suspension set up, but in my opinion the front forks are a little slow. Perhaps this is because they have recently been serviced and need bedding in tough. Hopefully one of you guru's will ride it someday soon and give me an opinion. In other news, the pawls in the rear hub are shot and I can no longer pedal with any force. It's being taken care of, and the chap I bought it from is paying for it. I still pushed it up to the local woods and rode a few drops from back in the day. I managed to confirm that the front forks do have 170mm travel on a measly 6ft drop. I was a bit surprised, but maybe they are low on air or something. Anyway, I'm mainly concerned with getting the freehub sorted so I can start pedalling... 

I'm looking forward to wharncliffe now!

[Bubba]

6ft isn't measly, sounds like you're probably going to be fine at Wharncliffe

[Oli]

I don't know if anyone's seen this before but I've just found some stuff about Millyard bikes. I'd never heard of it before, but it looks truly stunning. There's some good innovation on it, that could be the future for bikes. Stuff like internal gearboxes that actually work, single sided swingarms and active suspension...
I want one anyway.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/allen-millyard-part-1-2008.html

[SA Chris]

Amazing pieces of kit, pure craftsmanship and back to basics engineering. There was an article in Singletrack about them about a year ago.

[fatboySlimfast]

Everyone was saying how this guy builds these bikes out of his shed for his son, but the guy works on missile systems as an engineer so I think an internal gearbox is probably small beer.
Back from holiday and fucking pissed off...........

[Oli]

He made a V12 motorbike too, so as you say it's probably not too hard for him, but nevertheless its good for someone to start innovating and making new stuff that actually works.

Back from holiday and fucking pissed off...........

Rain? Broken bike?

I managed to snap my rear mech hanger by hanging up on a landing (not quite sure why it broke) and threw my newish XT Shadow mech into the rear wheel which pissed me off no end. At least it didn't rip any spokes out.

Also, anyone had any experience with Manitou Dorados? Found a decent looking pair second hand for not too much. I heard somewhere that they can be high maintanence

[fatboySlimfast]

Rain? Broken bike?

No just tooo good a time and wanted more...was lucky as I stacked big style on first day and gave myself a go faster stripe down by forearm, upper arm and shoulder, will post a pic as soon as I can get a moment.

Lets have a wharncliffe session then as suggested, all welcome with no pressure or macho bullshit, have a bit of a cycle do what u want to do kind of thing....that includes you Fatdoc, you need to justify hanging on to that demo 8.

[fatdoc]

one never needs to justify the ownership of a bike.

yep, i'm up for it.

i'm not going
- in the pissing rain
- down no human

i will be
- swathed in body armour
- falling off a lot on the jump spot etc...

[unclesomebody]

Rain? Broken bike?

No just tooo good a time and wanted more...was lucky as I stacked big style on first day and gave myself a go faster stripe down by forearm, upper arm and shoulder, will post a pic as soon as I can get a moment.

Lets have a wharncliffe session then as suggested, all welcome with no pressure or macho bullshit, have a bit of a cycle do what u want to do kind of thing....that includes you Fatdoc, you need to justify hanging on to that demo 8.

Great, I'm game too. I concur that I'm not going in the rain but I don't understand the bit about going down on a man.    I will not be swathed in body armour, but I shall probably be falling off! I'll be up for it anytime during the week or perhaps even on Saturday. Is it cool to ride in ripped jeans, top off, with a backwards baseball cap on?

[fatboySlimfast]

Is it cool to ride in ripped jeans, top off, with a backwards baseball cap on?

yes indeed I hear this look is in this year


normally caused by this



It costs £60 for a full facer, to have 3 teeth replaced with implants and have it all put back together costs around £1500 in fees.....

As for going down on on a human, well.............
you think were going biking dont you

[fatkid2000]

£1500 for some Dental work - damm picked the wrong job!!

New bike has arrived at shop - just waiting on the fork!!

[cofe]

Have any of you buys ridden the XC route at Wharncliffe?

[fatboySlimfast]

Have any of you buys ridden the XC route at Wharncliffe?

yah, not bad, very good start in a quite modern idiom(trail centre type stuff, tight turns and open fast sections) leading to a section of the old xc route which is good if dry(otherwise its abit of a bog plough) this leads down a bit of fire road to the new xc descent which should have you thinking about the merits of long travel bikes. From the bottom you have a cpl of options, either trace the old xc route out(see Bartons guide) or you can do a loop over Wharncliffe side and do a return loop.     Another option is to throw a bit of Grenoside woods in as well if your feeling strong

[cofe]

thanks man. I'm keen to ride it. looks like it should be waymarked according to the WRC website.

Have any of you buys ridden the XC route at Wharncliffe?

(see Bartons guide)

yeah, i might have one of those kicking around...

[fatdoc]

it's NOT the route in Barton's guide.

it's been totally re routed and much more built up

look / post on gravity-slaves.co.uk  or WRC for more info

[fatboySlimfast]

looks like it should be waymarked according to the WRC website.

it was, theres a local freak who thinks that all evils are to be blamed on mtb's so he has either nocked the signs down or stolen them, the so called badger man

[cofe]

been on WRC. there's a route map. I'll try that.

[cofe]

rode the wharncliffe xc tonight with obi wan...  first half is good but it was pretty muddy. it would be very good when (if?) dry i reckon. i think local knowledge would be handy for the second half as the markers direct to pretty much just fireroad with bits of singletrack. still good fun. most markers seem to be up, first one is missing. a few guys were building on the xc too - good on them.

[mark]

Can I be next in the buying advice queue? Time to treat myself to a new bike.

Rode Dolly's VT (I think that's what it was) recently which is the only full suss bike I've ridden but it was great fun so I'm after full suspension. Want to be able to ride around the Peak, going downhill as fast as I can and scaring myself jumping off things. Don't see myself going for day-long rides as I've never done this sort of thing on my current old hardtail. So more all mountain than cross country. Absolute upper limit for budget is £1800, though I'd much rather spend less.

So many bikes seem to get great reviews, not sure where to start.
Specialized Pitch? Too heavy?
Orange Five? Over-priced?
Trek Remedy 7?
Second-hand?

Too much information available, too many options, so please filter it all for me.

[fatboySlimfast]

Specialized Pitch? Too heavy?
Dont think its that heavy, its an all mtn bike so round the 30lb area. Nice looking bike if you ask me(do some searches on the reliability of the spesh own shocks, not heard that much negative but worth looking up, the guy that designed them worked for fox before so must know something)I regularly ride xc on my Turner which weighs 36lbs, has downhill tyres etc etc. I can still just get up hills but I am riding for the downhill experience at the mo so it feels fine to be slow!

Orange Five? Over-priced?
Possibly, love em or hate them , talk to Norton and fatdoc for the opposites of the coin

Trek Remedy 7?
Meant to be good

Second-hand?
If you can hang on a little bit, get a bit of advice from Norton, myself, fatdoc you could pick up a fantastic bargain..
Bikes go for fuk all 2nd hand,