haydon_peter

What do you think of our tracks? I couldn't take time off work this week to come along I hope it isn't too slippery on Thursday!

http://www.i-resign.com/uk/home/ I used the templates on this site to help me write my last resignation letter

+1 for Shimano I have had XT M775's on my XC bike for 3 years and have recently changed from Hope Mono M4's to Shimano SLX on my DH bike. This year Shimano have updated the SLX brakes so if you look around you should be able to pick up some of the old style M665 brakes for a good price. I got my pair for £120 in the CRC Sale.

Castle Coch!

What Tomm has said is basically spot on. I wouldn't touch a 2009 Commencal with a barge pole, LOADS of 2009 frames across the range cracked. I believe that in 2010 Commencal changed their frame suppliers and the 2010 and 2011 frames are meant to be much better. There are less stories of the newer frames failing however like Tomm says all companies will experience frame failures. Either way do not even consider a 2009 Commencal. The back end on my Meta is a little flexy side to side but apparently running a bolt through or maxle on the rear helps massively. Saying that I have not had any major complaints with the flex and in some situations it makes the bike a little bit more forgiving. I have used the bike at various trails centres around the UK and also taken it out to Les Arcs in the French Alps for a week and it coped amazingly well! I felt out of my depth on the DH track but for all the fast fast technical trails on offer in Les Arcs the bike was perfect. Over the last year I have also been using the Meta on some fairly large jumps at a 'Freeride' club I am an active member of, it's not the ideal bike but certainly feels nice over the jumps. Recently I have also been using the bike on weekly XC rides organised by a local cycling club. I am not exactly getting left behind by faster XC whippets on much lighter hard tails, yes they kill me on some of the sections but when it comes to the downs I am right up there at the front with a big grin on my face. The Meta is a trail bike, it climbs well and it goes down hills very nicely too. I got mine for my first trip to the Alps and soon found myself never riding my hardtail then selling it because it was just so versatile and fun. When I first made the move to full suspension I was very worried about how a full suspension bike suspension bike would climb and feel for general XC but the linkage systems on frames now are really good! I will admit that I do occasionally lock out my forks and use the pro pedal on the rear shock, when I have to use roads I lock out everything and on some off road climbs I use the pro pedal on the rear but leave the front forks active. If the climbs are rooty, rocky or technical I just leave the front and rear suspension unlocked and let it do its job. I now have a Giant Glory for DH duties but I still love my Meta 5 for everything else, it's a 2008 model which I recently stripped down and rebuilt so it's now riding sweet again. Latest photos of my bike.

Is that the Disney version of the story?

+1 for the Superstar Chain Guides. I fitted a Superstar Plasma to my Commencal, it needed some modification with an angle grinder but the mod does not take long. Sadly the Plasma guides were on offer at £35 until very recently, now they are £50, still a bargain though unless you can find an E13 or similar second hand for a good price.

Excellent choice Dave, we have to organise a ride soon!

Thanks to Mark and everyone involved in making this ride happen, plus of course Dave@Inspired and the Tarty Bikes guys for sorting out the prizes. That is the first group ride (other than the recent memorial ride in Portsmouth) that I have been on in a LONG time and I really enjoyed it! There was an amazing vibe which reminded me of the old days when I spent all my spare time travelling around to rides. It was awesome to meet some old faces again as well as new ones and I look forward to Section 02 For those of you that don't know me and want to put a face to the name... I was riding the Megamo Radical mod.

What makes you say that? Minion = Dry Tyre High Roller = Intermediate Tyre The High Roller is designed to be more of an all weather tyre.

HAHA oh yeah, the QR lever should be on disk side too, that's a double QR fitting fail

When I was younger I always used to love those Marins You could run the gear cable without that big loop of cable to the mech, Shadow mechs make cable routing much neater. And while I'm being picky, please do up your front QR with the lever ~180degrees from where it currently is and have it in front of the fork leg, I wouldn't want you catching it on something while hurtling down a trail

Yep, you're doing it wrong. See my post before your photos. You shouldn't ever be shifting into those combinations, it will cause the most amount of chain slack and also create a bad chain line. You also shouldn't ever shift into the largest front chainring and the larger rear cogs.

I suspect you are shifting into the smaller cogs in your cassette while in your granny ring, you should not do this. If you are using the granny ring and needing a higher gear rather than shifting all the way down the cassette you should be shifting into a larger front chainring.

I assume the insurance for the moto trials and bike trials competitions held at venues such as Bracken Rocks would be provided by the ACU...

No one was there apart from you so obviously we cannot give you an accurate answer. Like has already been said I would be logging it with the police and the insurance company just in case. To be awkward, I am going to do the following: 50 yards is a lot of space but if the cyclist hit the car are you sure they had plenty of space and time?

60a Tyres are fine, go Super Tacky on the front if you want but I wouldn't bother with Super Tacky on the rear. For DH Dual Ply is a must but the compound is personal preference.

I'm not sure about the whole Championships but there is a round being held at Tidworth where I dig and ride most weekends, you will be fine there on a single speed hardtail. Definitely go for off road tyres but personally I would want to run a front brake as well. A couple of the guys I ride with are on the Army DH Team, they have recently picked up some pretty good sponsorship deals!

But they are attached to a fixed position mech hanger. With front mechs you have to mess around setting the height and angle before even touching the High/Low adjustment. I have been fortunate enough to never have needed to set up a front mech from scratch. x1 front chainring is the best way anyway, I have been running 1x9 for ages, way before 10 speed was ever out. While I'm on the subject I find it amusing everyone is now changing to 1x10 setups. By changing to 1x10 you don't gain an easier gear ratio for the up hills, you just gain a tighter range cassette that shifts a bit smoother (that requires a thinner chain which in theory will be quicker to wear out and snap). Now loads of people that like having the latest shiny bike gear are manning up and ditching their granny rings

On most frames the gear cable guides will be set up to have breaks in the outer, the idea of this is to reduce friction however it also means it's easier for dirt to get into the outers. If you run a full outer with no breaks in it all the way from the shifter to the rear mech, the cabling will stay clean for longer. Lube the cable up with something like Finish Line Wet chain lube to reduce the friction between the cable and the outer. The only disadvantage of running a full outer is that you will probably have to run the cable alongside the cable guides rather than through them, to do this you can buy something like this or this or you can just use cable ties. If you're feeling brave you can also drill out the frames cable guides to make it possible to run the outer through them.

Rear mech's are fairly straight forward to setup, you just need to take your time and do a bit of fine tuning. Follow this guide, it may be for SRAM but the method for Shimano is the same. For best shifting results run a full outer and make sure you lube the inner cable before running it through the outer When sorting out your chain length don't forget that with full suspension you will usually get some chain growth when you compress the suspension. You can just let all the air out of the shock and compress the rear end to check this.

Don't worry about it not swivelling in the same way as an old style mech, its the 'Shadow' system. Don't do crazy tightening the bolt, just nip it up tight then keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't rattle loose. More info about the Shadow system is here The info relevant to answer you're question is: "Finally, gone is the bulky pivot bolt and spring arrangement. The top mount is now fixed, to limit forward movement of the mech. Great news - no more mech clatter as the body can't bounce off the bottom of your chain stays. A silent bike is one step closer! The mech retains a 'b tension' screw to adjust your angle of dangle, if required."

Tim, Andy had been suffering from Ulcerative Colitis since he started University so there was always a small risk it could develop into Bowel Cancer. The funeral is this Thursday, details added to the first post. Ses is putting together a photo album so if anyone has any nice photos of Andy please could they email them through to haydon_peter at hotmail dot com and I will get them printed out and pass them on to her

Hi everyone, some bad news I'm afraid. Yesterday Andy Hill passed away at 4:15pm, it was peaceful and all of his family were around him. Andy spent a large amount of his cycling 'career' riding bike trials, he was a Moderator on this forum and also got through to the finals of MBUK's Hop Idol competition in 2006 (I think it was 2006 anyway!). The last few years of his cycling were focussed on XC, 4X and DH. Last year Andy was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer, he had to have his Large Intestine removed and a Colostomy Bag fitted. Andy then had to undergo strong Chemotherapy treatment but sadly it was unsuccessful and at the end of March this year he was given 6-9 months left to live. While Andy was undergoing the Chemotherapy he remained positive and tried his best to continue a normal life, right up until the end he was still working and cycling in between his treatment. Andy and his Wife started writing a blog at the start of the treatment, for those of you interested it's http://ileostomy.wordpress.com/ Pete / Tic X Funeral Details A message from Andy's wife, Ses:

If the chain isn't long enough you will need to buy a new one. If the drive train is old and worn it's unlikely the new chain is going to mesh with the cassette/chainrings so you would need to buy a whole new drive train.