The MTB thread

Ah this thread, good timing. Got the Shock mounts!!! So I got my Vivid shock on the bike. Problem now? (cos there is always one!) I need a spring to fit, my nuke proof is too thin to go over Sigh. So next week now I guess before I can ride it...

After completing a 291 mile charity cycle ride on the road last week I've got the cycling bug again - on the look out for a MTB, though.

Hopefully I'll be posting in here a bit more often!

[phi-dan]

For anyone interested in watching MTB UCI World Cup XCO, DH and 4X (but doesn't get the Extreme channel), it's streamed at http://freecaster.tv/mountainbike
Between that lot, Estoril, and Touring Cars on ITV4 I managed to maintain some degree of balance in an otherwise princess dominated weekend

Originally Posted by MCN_LiamM

After completing a 291 mile charity cycle ride on the road last week I've got the cycling bug again - on the look out for a MTB, though.

Hopefully I'll be posting in here a bit more often!

Ya get one then dude?

I have just about finished modifying mine now... Just got to get a low stack bottom cup for the headset, the current one is raising the front end by 15mm, which adds steering angle which is already lax, so needs bringing down some more. Might also need to cut some more steerer off once im done, I already have a bit too much on top.

Here are a couple of pics.



Full bike. Bit dirty... I should clean it better. ha. New shock on there, looks bling. Still needs running in but seems much nicer than the old one already!






New Direct mount stem. Got it on sale so happy days. Quality of it is very very impressive!

Not yet, I need to sell a bass amp first to get some more funds.

Not sure whether to go for a full susser or a more jump style bike, since that's what I used to have. Never ridden full sus.

No hills down here in P'boro so would only get to use it at weekends.

my bike is for sale in the bike and bits sale section £525 takes it and the spares

Originally Posted by barwel1992

my bike is for sale in the bike and bits sale section £525 takes it and the spares

You replacing it then or given up?

[maviczap]

Whooo hoo

Takes to the generosity of my employer for 25 years service, i'm going to get £150 worth of Halfrauds vouchers (my choice, not much choice of other useful vouchers).

So looking to buy a Boardman or something similar around the £500 - £600 mark.

Don't need another road bike, so it'll be a mountain bike

[northwind]

Lucky man... Check out the Carrera Fury, it's a superb bit of kit for the money.

Just spent a zenlike evening in the garage putting helicopter tape on my new frame... Fell out with the Ragley Mmmbop I had, it did some things brilliantly and some things pretty damn badly so it's moving on. So I've got me a plastic bike, should be finished tomorrow

[northwind]

OK so, ages since i've done a post in here...

I had a wee cheeky weekend away up north, my mum and dad had a caravan booked at Dornoch, near Inverness and invited us up and I just happened to take some bikes

Day one, I nipped over to Learnie with my brother, he's not done much mtb stuff so we did the blue routes together. He was a wee bit worried:


Is this for you? by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

but he did grand... View from the top was pretty nice!


Posing by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

Then I took off to do their famously nasty black, and he carried on round the blues. The black was a wee bit of a disappointment, half of it was demolished for tree felling and the bit that's left just feels a bit disjointed... singletrack with the occasional very manmade rock feature. Also really badly marked out, I came to a 5-way junciton with no signs and ended up riding up a descent, glad nobody came down! Good riding but it could have been better, still, worth the trip. Also had a really nice jump line, and a weirdly abandoned skills area that had loads of bits of trail that just ended suddenly. Like this:


IMG_7743 by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

That was so strange, I came charging down this narrow rock line, just barely in control then the trail stopped dead and I was surrounded by trees! Just had to walk back up the trail...


So it wasn't a bad day out, but not great. Next day, I was planning to nip over to Fort William for the downhill world cup but I decided I wanted to get more riding done instead so I nipped along to the Kyle of Sutherland trails, Balblair (black) and Carbisdale (red). Balblair's something else- the mountain's covered in massive volcanic rock features and they've used loads in the trail, the builders must be geniuses as it all just barely flows together, keeps it challenging but always rideable... I ended up going back for second goes at loads of bits, they were just so much fun. A bit special. Carbisdale's red is very nice too, but short. Hell with paying money to watch other people ride bikes when there's sunshine and empty trails...


Last day was for Golspie itself... Golspie's fab, it starts at sea level in the town and you just ride straight up the hill to 1300 feet. It has a famous black-graded climb called Lactic Ladder, which is so damn hard, I thought I might have a heart attack. Almost made it too, but 2 of the sections beat me and needed a second try. I love this sort of nonsense, all my mates are only about the descents but techy climbing is fab.


Up there? by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

At the top you get another great view, this time over the Dornoch Firth


View from the top by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

You also get to meet the Duke of Sutherland... Everywhere you go around here you can see his massive statue up at the top of Ben Bhraggie. The Duke was famously a massive b*****d during the Clearances, so having this statue overlooking the town is a bit weird. Look carefully, there's a bike in there...


A gigantic stone ******* by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

After a massive climb, comes a massive descent... It's nuts in places this one, almost like a downhill trail, the top bit's so rough even on a big bike you get booted around. Lots of rocks to deal with. Then you go down into the forest and it's like an obstacle course, lots of riding up and over and around, big scary steps and slabs to ride. Makes you realise how tame most "black" routes are! I had a wee bit of an over-the-bars trying to ride down an enormous step, apparently you're supposed to ride round it! Landed, looked up just in time to get the bike in the face! But no harm done. Some of it, you can't just ride into, you really need to check it out first to see what's coming, which is a bit weird but does allow some very good riding

If you're ever up this way and fancy some proper tough riding, Golspie and Balblair are absolute must visits... Can't wait to get back.


Anyway, that was the weekend over but I still had to get home, so I took a wee cheeky diversion over to Fort William... Well, I might not want to watch other people on the downhill track but I wanted a go. Jumped on the gondola, and just as we got to the top the bike fell off! Luckily, aonach mor is all just boulders and peat bog, and it missed the boulders so even though it fell a good 30 feet it was totally undamaged. Bit of cleaning up and adjusting/straightening and we were off again...

By pure luck I bumped into a mate of mine from Edinburgh and 2 of his mates, so we went off and did a run of the red then 3 runs of the world cup route before the weather went bad. I'd done the world cup route once before, very badly but I'm racing there next month (aargh) so I was glad to get some good runs in. This track's a monster, some of it's pretty damn hard but also it's just so constant, you never get a breather. On a downhill bike it's hard enough but on a 5 inch full suss, it's a bit silly


Aonach Mor looking forboding by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

By the end of the day, one of us was in hospital (suspected broken wrist). Alister's hire bike had gone all wobbly in the middle. The other guy's GT had blown up his shock. And I was all smug, relatively intact and bike undamaged, until...


Oops by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

How lucky is that? It must have snapped right at the end of the last run, the other side of the linkage was still holding on but about to go. Anyway, a quick call to Cotic when i got home and they sent me a replacement for free, even though I told them I'm out of warranty and told them what stupid things I was doing on it. I love this bike, luckily the company are fantastic too!


So then, after all this downhill and big mountain riding, I came back home and did the Glentress Seven XC race, as part of the Tweedlove festival. We'd helped build the track so we got free entry, which was nice We entered as 2 trios, and I decided it'd be quite funny to use my rigid forked XC bike, which also has only 9 gears.

The day started out lovely, I took the first lap and ended up putting in the fastest lap of either of our teams, somehow. The rigid makes things kinda hard! But it's great fun.


110611161137_H by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

Then the heavens opened and it all got a bit dirty... My second lap was still quick but I was tired and the track started to come apart, so lap 3 ended up taking about half again as long, but was just hilarious- sliding about everywhere on my racy near-slick tyres, dodging falling riders... By the end I was a bit less yellow!


110611193045_H by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

Brilliant day out and I think we were 9th in senior trios which was not bad at all. I do like my silly bike- if you go right back in this thread you find me just starting to ride mtb again and buying this carrera for £200, still going strong