London Calling

popstar

You lot won't draw me into carrying DSLR, I have enough of hard job filming you slackers. Dubcat 10-22mm ? That would be awesome for movies ... kind of fish eye lens in Knarr action OMG. Given general lighting conditions F8-F11 is the sweetest spot in MTB world.

Dubcat, Apprentice was doing fine on Rockhopper even on gnarlier Black graded trails. So them rockgardens are lil fluffy babiez.

As for scared to ride with expensive stuff, need to check when, if at all Jedi runs free ride-along days in Woburn. If I remember it right, the man did Mondays for pootling around. Not sure about it.

Will77

Plus one for winter wonderknarr @ peaslake tomorrow. See you at 10!

cooldad

Winter Wondeknarr it is then.

Anonymous

Wonderknarr, not Wondergnarr !

thel33ter

@Popstar - Nice vid (PT 2) The trail at around 7 minutes looks great.

cooldad

Pretty good ride today. Icy but dry. All the big ruts were frozen and quite deadly. Was like riding on rough concrete.

dubcat

Glad you guys had a good ride. I was on the south downs today. We started our ride at -3c and ended 3 hours later at 0.5c. I discovered the wonderful world of buffs and skullcaps on my way to the ride thank god lol.

See you all soon.

Dub

Ps. One good thing about the cold is at least the bike does not get muddy

roger_merriman

cooldad wrote:

Pretty good ride today. Icy but dry. All the big ruts were frozen and quite deadly. Was like riding on rough concrete.

indeed rolled out to BoxHill from Kingston, the solid mud was really quite fun, and Iron like.

njee20

I did wonder if you guys were out this morning, I rode through Walking Bottom at 10, so probably saw you!

I thought it was awesome, super fast, tonnes of grip, great fun! Was on a Scott Genius, my first foray into 'longer travel', I'm not totally sold, it all felt a bit 'muted', the Fuel is often quicker is certainly more engaging!

popstar

Wow Njee, thought you were gone for another top fuel. Does it look that you fancy idea of gnarlier riding? Surely Genius will fly in full colours once on a rootier-rockier trails, I must see your new steed!

supra-man

njee20 wrote:

I did wonder if you guys were out this morning, I rode through Walking Bottom at 10, so probably saw you!

I thought it was awesome, super fast, tonnes of grip, great fun! Was on a Scott Genius, my first foray into 'longer travel', I'm not totally sold, it all felt a bit 'muted', the Fuel is often quicker is certainly more engaging!

well may be if you saw a red flashy mondraker, thats how Will recogized me yesterday.
Nice long loop up to leith through pitch ad holmburry. very cold Gripy fast trail. ruts were as hard as granit...

njee20, maybe you need to play around with more air pressur to make it feel stiffer and communicate more. But coming from 100 mm to 150mm chances are trails where the trek is good arent the best to make longer travel shine.

and some bikes at equal travel and use are more engaging than others.

Richard2118

njee20 wrote:

I did wonder if you guys were out this morning, I rode through Walking Bottom at 10, so probably saw you!

I thought it was awesome, super fast, tonnes of grip, great fun! Was on a Scott Genius, my first foray into 'longer travel', I'm not totally sold, it all felt a bit 'muted', the Fuel is often quicker is certainly more engaging!

Njee its probably just because you are so used to the old bike, you naturally pick the right line for your trek, with the longer bike you can look for lines that might be a bit hairy on the trek and that will give some of the engagement back.

That said you have been a full on xc whippet for years and re programming maynot be something you can easily do, after all full sus with longer travel can easily make you lazy in your line choice and you are an extremley good rider therefore the pay off for someone with less skill moving from say hardtail to full sus will probably not be as big for you.I certainly do not have the same skill set as yourself and for me moving from my xc full sus to longer travel was a revelation but i have never raced therefore had no need to try to pick evey line as perfect as possible. I am therefore more of a lazy rider than you , I suspect thats why you do not feel as engaged on the longer bike. Sometimes and i am probably a culprit longer travel hides skills issues.

My suggestion would be do the most techy down you know and also fettle like hell with the shock and fork and see if a harder or softer set up helps you.I presume you normally have a fairly hard set up?

Richard2118

How is everyone ???

Hope you are all good, when you all riding next ?

French_Aristo

Anyone up for a little ride in Swinley Forest tomorrow (Wednesday 1st of DEC)
10:30 @ the GO APE gate
Riding until the feet turn to ice cubes (I fond that that happen faster than me being tired at the moment)

cooldad

@Richard - Hi Richard, all good. Hopefully will dry up a bit - think we were planning Sunday again.
@FrenchAristo - some of us have to work for a living more's the pity.
@everyone - Sunday? What where when how etc?

popstar

Njee I vote to session -Wedgy- the bestest techy descent yet . Could film that, also this weekend most probably will run away from home to ride bikes. Hope to organise -Wacky Races- too !

This thursday me with Plaisir honing skillz in Cwmcarn's Airstream trail, must learn a thing or two. Damn, need to heat up the likes of Njee. Hate those XC snakes, the man got praise from Rich. No good. Maybe should have shot Njee's leg so that would level our fitness levels? On serious note ... I suspect Njee would be even better with lowered seat on drops-jumps these days.

What trails do we ride this weekend? Suppose if -Wacky Races- commence they will be held on Pitch hill.

thel33ter

I'm happy with doing anything as long as my modding of the rear shock is successful

Wedgy in the snow could be interesting.

Anonymous

Likewise, working weekdays . Unless the snow prevents getting to work but that looks very unlikely round here. It's wet slushy stuff and most roads are clear.

Should be a nice dusting over Surrey Hills though, and more to fall possibly Thursday. If the roads are fine at the weekend I'll probably be over there. Not sure about Wacky Races! As the IT geek, Prof Pat Pending would be me most likely.

popstar

You've got to trust Popstar with -Wacky Races- !

There is also STW massif ride in Swinley this Sunday. Could be epic.

supra-man

was nt some talking of a wedgy 2?? or even do wedgy sessions

need to take him in a properly rutted area. My guess is he isn t riding fast enough yet.... eventually with speed and firm shocks... the feel will be there.

plus wales, is really the place to see a difference, I would say.

anyway ready this weekend.... and with warm socks this time.

10 am peaslake as usual??



so otherwise what dates for Xmas drinks?

I cant the 11th of dec, or only the afternoon friday 10th is good weekend after as well

popstar

The only fast rooted place in SH is the end of Telegraph Road with extra special's. Suppose it's a good place to set up small-medium bump settings. And there are jumpy lumps into car park at the end of it too, where I crashed.

French_Aristo

cooldad wrote:

@Richard - Hi Richard, all good. Hopefully will dry up a bit - think we were planning Sunday again.
@FrenchAristo - some of us have to work for a living more's the pity.
@everyone - Sunday? What where when how etc?

So do I!
About 7 months a year. After that the gov get more cash than I do therefore I live within the means of 7 months a year earning ;-)

cooldad

That thing in Swinley could be a bit of fun. Maybe we should plan that - haven't been there for a while. Hopefully if it stays cold the mud will be hard.
Probably not Knarrrrly enough for Richard though.

cooldad

Bit slow with my last post - I was busy going over to the Dark side and registering with STW.
Forgot to hit the go button.

popstar

Swinley ride does look uber sociable though. Could do some awesome pictures and videos, looks like there will be a riot of MTB-ers.

thel33ter

It could be, and Swinley has plenty of fast bumpy bits for Njee, and Rich can try and clear that nemesis tabletop of mine.

I just want to convince Njee to come out, I've raced Marines and super duper rich roadies and Richards singletrack speedyness. Now I want to see how I compare to a proper racer

supra-man

thel33ter wrote:

It could be, and Swinley has plenty of fast bumpy bits for Njee, and Rich can try and clear that nemesis tabletop of mine.

I just want to convince Njee to come out, I've raced Marines and super duper rich roadies and Richards singletrack speedyness. Now I want to see how I compare to a proper racer

Where is this table top??
the ones in the jump gulley, or in those tight DH tracks under the trees??
As I cant really see you not clear those...


or is there an other?

popstar

Thel33ter, don't embarass yourself. Njee is a proper XC snake. Now the man's got a proper bike too, unless you pass Popstar's bootcamp you shall not even try to challenge the man.

It's December now, so Naveed with 29er Stumpjumper should pop around for a ride.

cooldad

Shall we say Swinley for a change then?

thel33ter

Its one of the ones on the DH tracks, not 100% which one it is but its the really long one that I can never get enough air on.