I only have one bike – Nomad c,36 Talas with CCDB Coil. Im running a Scwhalbe Hans Dampf up front and a Kenda Nevegal at the rear – both tubeless – i think front and rear are both 2.5″

I am currently training for a welsh coast to coast ride in thats 180 miles over 4 days. The nomad, in its current guise, isn’t best suited.

What could I do to it to make it a bit more XC -> It came with an RP23 Kashima rear shock on it, but due to my riding weigh (15 stone) I could never get it to feel right, and hence the change to a coil. But now that I’m doing 30 to 50 mile rides the coil is overkill and overly heavy. The lads I ride with are quickly opening up gaps on me on climbs and long flats – due largely to their 120 – 140 travel bikes and 29ers.

Any ideas?

Lighter wheels and tyres ( or just tyres if budget is an issue) will make a much bigger difference than the shock. Especially I’d you don’t like the way it rides.

Buy a s/h XC bike for the event, sell afterwards?

The wheels are crank brothers iodine 3s so pretty light anyway – any light weight good xc tyres that u reccomend? I have considered buying a s/h xc bike but don’t have a clue about xc bikes and where to start – I’ve been thinking about some kind of 29er too

Is there anything that can be done with the rp23? I’m pretty sure tf tuned would be able to do a push tune to your weight/riding style to suit.

Send the rp23 to loco.