Tomm

I reckon until you know you need something else, then just stick with what you've got, because even if you buy something better it might not be what you really want/need.

Thanks Tic I think I found somewhere that said the Medium was about 17" which sounds about right if yours is 15. I'm very tempted. Jut need to see if there's anything better on eBay or elsewhere.

Cheers Tic. I have had a look and I've seen some nice Marins actually. I wasn't expecting to like them Does anyone know how big a "medium" Marin hardtail is in inches? Because I've found an awesome deal on a medium marin but I don't know if a medium would be too small for me (I'm 6 foot, but I would prefer to be able to put the seat down). Any ideas?

Yeah, I thought my DVD player was playing up, because there was no colour for the first 1 minutes or so. It's not art just cos it's in B&W!

I just read the article by Mr Ashton and it sounds spot on to me. People wear pixie boots and tracksuit bottoms --> People look stupid ---> Trials isn't cool ----> Trials isn't in MBUK -----> The same people who are wearing the pixies boots and tracksuits come on here and complain that trials isn't in MBUK enough. If trials had the same cool reputation as BMX then it'd be in MBUK all the time.

Bah. How much is it?

Mmmm, that looks nice. What is the spec on it? And what size frame is it? Can I see Avid BB7s on there? Does anyone know how good they are for XC use?

Yeah I know. No worries

They will all contain either ibuprofen, aspirin, paracetamol, diclofenac which are essentially the same (all anti-inflammatories). I don't really know any more than that - I think I've used Ibuleve once and it worked, but it's probably quite expensive... You could just buy oral ibuprofen for about 40p, it'll be much cheaper than all these creams/gels/sprays.

I need to download this file off Rapidshare.de, but the damn website never works for me (and apparently anyone else on NTL). I've spent hours searching for this song for my girlfriend (I started off having no idea what the song was called or the artist...), and I finally found it, and waited 35 minutes for a download slot, only to be told that my IP address wasn't valid or something. I think this will happen to anyone on NTL, but feel free to prove me wrong. Anyway, if someone can download this and email it to me/upload it/Send it via MSN to me, I will love you forever and ever. http://rapidshare.de/files/33567018/Klapa_...njueke.mp3.html

I don't think you quite get the recycling old topics thing... But never mind. We wouldn't have half the trouble in this country if we didn't love the US so much. I think the "war on terrorism" is ridiculous, it's a war against an abstract concept, it's like declaring war on love. But I don't really care. I'm a terrible human being, but all this stuff has little impact on my life, so I'll just bumble along doing as I am doing. If you think about it, it's pretty scary.

I predict a warning when Mark (or any of the moderators actually) sees this There was a lot of crap in here last week or so, but Tom's been doling out suspensions and warnings like there's no tomorrow and it seems a bit better now. But OBM does a lot of moderating around here (I think he was the most active mod by far).

All the creams will be much the same, but with wildly different prices. The ones advertised on TV will be the expensive ones, obviously. If I were you, I'd go to a Pharmacy and see what they suggest The swelling is there for a reason though - And it should go down with time. Maybe just ease off on the riding for a bit and see if it sorts itself out?

Yeah, there's also not enough BMX or road racing stuff in there. It can't cover every kind of riding, and it won't try. A few years ago, trials used to be something that normal mountain bikers did at the end of an XC event, just for a bit of fun. But now it's completely different, it's a speciality in its own right. So basically your average mountain biker is not that interested any more. I don't really care if MBUK doesn't cover trials any more, I just won't buy it. Simple

DVD is ok... Good if you like a bit of nostalia and one-footed manuals, but nothing special really. And the rest of the magazine is a bit rubbish really.

Why does everyone want me to get the Carrera so much? It's a good spec but it doesn't really "do it" for me. Although my Carrera road bike has been great so far 1100 miles without me so much as thinking about servicing it. Ah cool. I shall go down and have a look tomorrow

Thanks for all the replies. I have to say that I'm not convinced by the Treks or Specs here - I think I want something that's more of a play bike (dare I say freeride?) rather than pure XC, which is what the those Treks/Specialized/Carrera look like to me. I don't want anything too hardcore like a DMR or Curtis or anything silly like that, but those Konas look spot-on (in my really, really uninformed way). I saw a Kona Cinder Cone today which reminded me of my old GT - it was several years old and all the bits on it had been lovingly upgraded, but the frame was still going strong. I know it's a bit different, but when buying a trials bike, I wouldn't look for the best finishing kit or fork or anything like that, I'd first look at the frame. And the Kona looks like a damn nice frame. P.S. What is it with XC bikes and small discs? All these 160 discs look a bit weedy and crap (compared to my Juicy). P.P.S Why aren't there any decent bike shops in Manchester? I want to try some bikes out. EDIT: Although it does have to be said that the Spec Hardrock Pro has an awesome spec for the money. It's basically the same kit as the Cinder Cone, but £100 cheaper. Gah

Buy mine. £90

You're gonna tell me this is the right bike, aren't you. And it's the most expensive one Kona Cinder Cone 2006 - £499.99

There's some history there...

Cool, fair point. Do you know if the shimano M465 mechanical disc brakes are any good? I am very tempted by the Kona Blast 2006 - it is £30 more than the 2005 version and you get worse groupset stuff (Deore vs Acera-X ) but you get the Hayes MX-2 disks (still not hydro though) rather than the Shimano mechanicals. Hmmm

Me and my housemates have been playing the PS2 game "Mashed" just about every day the last few weeks. Highly addictive 4 player micro machines-type game, only with weapons. So much fun but the graphics are rubbish. So yeah, graphics mean nothing. I hope the Wii does well, but I don't know that it will. I probably won't be buying any of them, unless they're really cheap (which won't be for a few years...).

I want a new bike to do a bit of XC on. But I don't want a hardcore lightweight snap-after-one-jump XC machine. It's gotta be able to take a bit more abuse because I won't be able to resist trying to jump on it. Anyway, I've got about £400 to spend (absolute max £500), and not sure whether to look second hand or not. The problem is that if I buy something second hand for £300, it'll need new tyres, maybe a new chain etc, and it'll all add up. Plus it won't be so shiny. So I'm open to offers for second-hand stuff, but I think I probably want a new one. I haven't ridden XC since I started trials (about 4 years ago) so I'm a bit out of touch when it comes to what's good. But the time seems right to buy one now - Everyone is getting rid of 2006 stock for the new stuff. Anyway, I was looking at these: GT Avalanche 1.0 Disc - £449 from CRC. This looks nice but I'm not 100% convinced by GT. I always thought they were a bit overpriced. Also does anyone know how good the fork is on this (Rockshox J3)? But it does have LX groupset which is always nice. Kona Blast - £429 @ Evans. Doesn't look like much wrong with this, Hayes disks ought to be good? And Marzocchi MZ-3s? It's only got Acera groupset though. Kona Lava Dome 2005 - £449 from evans. This looks nice but it's 2 years old now, is it worth getting newer stuff? Getting more hardcore there's the Kona Shred which looks like it'll handle abuse a bit better, but it might be a bit heavy, and it's at the very top of my price range. Actually, all the Konas in my price range look pretty tasty - have a look HERE and tell me which you think I should look at (Kona Blast 2005?). Trek 6500 - £450 This looks really nice but it's not got discs. I guess discs are worth having? Here's some more: Spec Hardrock Pro - £450 Gary Fisher Wahoo - £360 I've had enough of posting links, and I'm pretty sure no-one is gonna look at them all. But does anyone have any recommendations?

He means on the bail video

None the wiser