21st may 2011, intermediate

Todays course highlighted to me the importance of making the right gear/bike choice - you can never be too experienced to make mistakes in choice or take price shortcuts you could regret later. Peter had a good bike but it was too big which meant he had to make twice the effort to get the front wheel off the ground for step ups, and jumping drops, while wheelie drops and manuals were virtually out of the question. There are ways around this such as a shorter stem which maybe enough to get the body further back and in the right balance zone - certainly worth trying. I bought a new seat post as my 8 year old Thomson had worn to an hourglass shape which made clamping tricky when putting the saddle up and down - too loose when up, too tight to fully clamp when down. I went for a cheaper Nukeproof one, but on opening the box found it was painted not anodised. two rides and lots of paint has come off effectively making it thicker in some places than others - so now I have the same problems after 2 days that it took the Thomson 8 years to get. Buy cheap buy twice!