Be Excellent To Each Other

Same plan tomorrow as yesterday. Leave work, head to Chevin and a couple of loops with short, steep climbs, some downhill bits, some flat bits, more short climbs and steep, technical bits. Then home for half six. It's good that I can do this with a friend, as we push each other on to go further up the hill and stay off the brakes for longer going downhill. It's also quite fun interval training.

Sounds excellent!

I need to find a cycle buddy!

Not had one since I left London

Malc

If you can handle the mongs that inhabit them, you'll probably find a coupla sound folk near you on Singtrackworld or pinkbike.

Although I'm beginning to twitch at this, if I get this job. I like the green. The extra £100 seems to get you hydraulic discs, so I'll have a think about it in a couple of weeks.

Huh, VooDoo Bantu looks good for the money, no 0% though.

Their 0% finance deal is pretty damn good!

Looking at the Dawes website the chainwheel on my bike is a Suntour crank; that won't have any impact on the brand/fitment of the "sealed cartridge" bottom bracket will it? I assumed that because there's so much Shimano elsewhere, it'd be a Shimano BB.

The tool still hasn't arrived. Hopefully today...

yeah, so much so, I'm considering upping the budget, bu shh! don't tell MrsA.

I have tools! So I'm going to the pub.

I've come back from the pub. And been to eBay.

Fuck. Where is Lancashire?

Once I got the cranks/chainset off the reason for the grinding and stiffness became clear - the tosser who serviced it crossed the fucking thread when he reinserted the bearing cartridge. Hopefully I'll be able to get the replacement in straight and I won't need a new fucking frame; I'll replace it anyway because even if it worked smoothly now (I don't think it does) it's been under unusual stresses so would be likely to fail any time. It's out and a Shimano replacement is a tenner so eh. Probably better than "Chin Haur" one Dawes fitted.

So I drive over to Otley, and pick my friend J up from his house. We drive over to Stainburn Forest and pull into the car park. Tehre's loads of other people there, and they look like they know what they are doing. Bike racks, full face helmets, elbow and knee pads. Thousands of pounds worth of mountain bikes carefully leant against trees. So pile out of the car in shorts and t-shirts, wearing tennis shoes, pull the bikes fro the boot of the 306 where we'd lobbed them in and totally missed this sign:



and did a couple of laps of the red route. A man, clearly impressed by our hands on attitude and the way we spent most of the time laughing at each other's attempts to ride rockeries that Capability Brown would not install due them being impractical for anyone weeding them, told us that the woods over the road were "really too muddy to ride today". We thanked him for his sagely advice and went over the road. That was somewhat muddy, but on my ageing RTS and J's really quick swanky Trek 9300 hydraulic dics hardtail thing, we had an awesome ride through the forest scoring some brilliant singletrack.

I loved it, and, to me, it showed that if you've a bike where the seatpost is the wrong height, and the rear suspension doesn't have any noticeable effect it's having awesome funs that counts. I'm knackered now. You can keep your 140mm travel day bikes, I'll stick with mine, as I was riding up the hills, too. WINNERS!

Christy! Your mate has them scary pedals strap thingys! I fear them things more than I did spuds*
*Which aren't really for me unless I'm riding something so daft that I need bondage to stop me being bounced off the pedals. Fort Wullie is borderline.

Anyhoo, STW is providing the lolz today

Yeah, he's switching to SPDs soon. We're going back there tomorrow to do the red run a few times again and head up to the radio tower with the sign saying "Do not enter. Poisonous Snakes in compound" runs down the singletrack there for 3 miles then back to the pub for a while.

At this rate I'm gonna be the only bugger that rides & races XC on flats

Also, "Snakes on a Ground-plane"

Have a look on youtube for Stainborn woods and the red run. We'll be doing that today. The Black is, um, for show offs and children.

EDIT: I couldn't cope without SPDs, the increase of control is too good to give up

Looks fun. The black looks no bad too, as long as you're happy riding rock gardens & "northshore". You can always push/carry round/over any stuff you don't wanna ride, no shame in knowing when to back off.

We did a fair amount of the black. The singletrack climbs are epic! Had a really good ride about. Missed out the see saw though. I'm 33 this year.

I'm getting more of my confidence back going downhill now. Getting more of a flow, using the brakes less often and moving my weight around more. Some step downs I struggle with, but others that are the same height I'm fine with, I think this'll change over time. I've also stopped riding the bike like the one I had before. With the RTS, it rolls through things more easily, the Kona was much more precise. The RTS is also a lot more aggressive in riding position. Now I've gotten my head around this, I take the rockier lines (straight on, rather than around) and let the suspension deal with the traction issues (it seems to grip really well when you pedal). Going uphill, with the saddle still stuck, is hard work, but on the tight, technical singletrack it was super fun. I'm fast becoming to love this bike the more I ride it, the issues I have can be sorted and it was super fun keeping on the back wheel of someone going uphill. I love climbing, and it gives me the safety net to overcome my shortcomings when going down.

Heh. If you fall off one of them you'll be ok, probably You should be doing a grand total of heehaw mph & the FC don't usually stick anything dangerous around them.

MaliA next week!

Heh. Probably not, to be fair.

I found this video. The first bit is the red descent, the middle the top of the black route and the third is the end of the red route. Watch wih sound off, as it is apparently sweary new school rap, according to Old Man Afterthought, who is more of an Arrested Development man.

Tried, very very carefully, to fit the new bracket straight. It was hard going, but was straight, until pop! And it jumped off angle again. Shaved some more alu off the thread in the process. Will a proper shop be able to tap a new thread or it fucked?

They might be able to tap it, but they can't & know what they're doing/aren't filthy robdogs they should be able to drill it & bang insert in. If they're no use try a metal worker. In fact try the metullers first as they'll most likely be cheaper & won't try to sell you stuff

It looks right good fun that. Arm pump central too

Speaking of which... after riding around at trailcentres a few times instead of mountains & stuff I've came to the conclusion that Blue/Red means smoothish & Red/Black means boneshaker. Not really any harder, just different. Maybe I'm wired funny though

There doesn't seem to be any rest on your way around. You are either going up or down, and, in defiance of logic, you aren't, someone has lobbed rocks in your way. It's super fun but by the end of the red descent, we were both shaking out our arms and hands. As a fun couple of hours it is an intense work out, and I'm really losing the tummy now. The uphill bits are some if the best routes I've ever taken.

This is where I've been going: Stainburn

Out of love with the RTS again. Now, I don't like the forks as they need work, even my friend couldn't free the seatpost, the seat stays rub on my calves and the rear suspension clunks a lot. To fix it all would be quite pricey, so I'm considering my options. Mostly in blue with VooDoo written on it.

You should buy my Kona frame* & whatever's left by the time I build up my pal's bike
*It's blue too.

I thought that, but I wouldn't have the RTS as a donor bike. Halfords have cut prices on VooDoo bikes, the Hoodoo looks awesome right now.

I'm probably just convincing myself now but 27 speed, hydraulic brakes and remote fork lock out. Only real downside is the weight, but there we go.

Sports direct have many SPD compatible shoes for less than £25 at the moment, if you're considering going clipless. Which you should. You need them, some cleats and some pedals.

Sent Dawes a message asking if they have a frame I can buy

I bought a bike. Picking it up in a bit.

Looks good...

VooDoo HooDoo - First Impressions:

I picked this up a couple of days ago. It was put together in the shop, so there's a couple of things need tightening up again (headset, mainly), and the brake levers and gear shifters need to be angled downwards. I need to remove the reflectors and bell, too. I intend to swap the flat pedals (which are very grippy on a worn pair of waffle soled Vans) for SPDs but I haven't done that yet.

So, hyraulic dics front and back, a suspension fork with 120mm of travel (rebound adjsutable and a lock out lever on the handlebar) and 27 speeds are well above the norm for the price. The color is red.

First time I sat on it I thought:

The handlebar is wide. Very wide. The grips are comfortable, although the rapid fire trigger rubs against my thumb. The brakse are pretty good. There is a lot of lever travel, but I'll get used to that. I'm not sure if this is the norm for hyraulic brakes or not. The suspension fork felt a bit stiff. Everything falls easily to hand.

Riding it:

The wide bar makes for stable steering. I'm a bit more upright than normal but I can slide the comfortable saddle back on the rails and tilt the bars forwards a bit. This is fine tuning and I'll do that after a few rides. The gears and brakes work well as I headed over the bridge toward the bridleway that goes upwards to Shipley Glen and on to the moor. Coming off the road and heading uphill over roots and mud, it was quick and responsive. The riding position really encourages you to keep going. Uphill through a singletrack, rocky, slippy and muddy technical route, it was well behaved and very responsive. Feeling pleased with that, I rode about on the moor for a long while. I was dropping off foot high steps with ease, such is the comfort of the wide handlebar, and the bike is very good at attacking short steep sections from low speed, just what you need to get over that large pile of rocks. I rode through the puddles a lot, but I won't be fitting mudguards. The tyres are fantastic on this: 2.25 inch ones, really good traction, front and rear. After a few circuits I went to the quarry and went down a couple of chutes (which I would not have considered on the RTS) and felt fine about it. The bike gives me the confidence I was previously lacking. On the way home, I went down where I'd come up, only dabbed twice through the steep slippery slope as I picked my way through the rocks.

I'm looking forward to trying it out on the red and black routes at Stainburn, as I think I'm going to enjoy it, a lot.

I'd recommend it, wholly to the house. It's brilliant, especially for less than a monkey. I think I'll be out on it again in the rain tonight, too.

Further:

Really like it. The remote lock out is really good when the uphill bit is fairly smooth. however, I need to get some bright nail polish on the switch, as I forgot to unlock the fork until about halfway down Baildon moor yesterday. The gear cables have now stretched slightly, so a little bit of tightening is needed, but that's about it. I really enjoy riding it uphill, the tyres really grip well, and the response when you stamp on teh pedals is good. Speaking of which, I've still not put SPDs on it....


I contacted some people over the internet, and I'm going riding with them tonight, so that should be interesting. they said as long as I was 'competent' I'd be fine. So, um, yeah, we'll see. Hopefully, they'll be ebtter than me, so I can push myself that little bit more.

After reading this, I am dusting off my bike tonight, might go for a blast.

What are SPDs?

Shimano pedalling dynamics. They are special pedals that your shoes attach to. You shoes have a ematl cleat on the bottom, which clips into the pedal and is held in place by a spring. you're then attached to the bike itself. To remove your foot from the pedal, you twist your foot to either side, and the cleat oushes the springs apart. They make pedalling far more efficient, and improve bike control. And, if you drag your foot along tarmac, you make sparks.

And, if you forget you're wearing them, make you fall over and look like a wally.

Will I fall over and look silly?

Ah that is a yes then!

Yes. But you’ll only make that mistake once. I love my SPDs.

single best upgrade you can make to a pushbike.

Are they cheap..

Cleats are about £16, shoes you cang et from sports direct for £22, pedals about £30ish. Sometimes, you get cleats with the pedals.

Heh. Probably shouldn't have sent that to mrsA.

I beg to differ

Kov, if you're interested I've an unused pair of pedals & cleats. They're yours for ~£20.

Just got back in after spending two and a half hours of riding some really difficult stuff with some people from the Internet. The pace was relentless it seemed. I'm unlikely to walk tomorrow. It was awesome. I earned that pint. Which they bought for me. Which was very nice of them. It was a good evening.