for me, Cotic Soul 4″ travel on UST Nobby Nics 2.25 at both ends – my XC race set up did me well both days

Hardtail, 2″ Hutchinson Pythons front and rear – spot on!

looks like the bike of choice was a prototype Ti29er singular singlespeed, Reba 120mm maxle, with maxxis Ardent tires according to the lap times…..

ibis mojo and maxxis high roller rear minion front, does me all year round anywhere, good enough for 7th dh and 13th xc

…or a Koxxs 26″ wheeled hardtail, with steep head angle and worn out flat pedals for the fastest DH time. I think it may have lots to do with the rider.

I’m with Ed on this, more to do with rider skill and fitness than bike and set-up.

For what it’s worth I was on a Prophet with 2.35 Highrollers (53rd DH,57th XC), my mate thrashed me on a Dialled PA with 2.1 Highroller on the front and a virtually bald tyre I can’t remember the name of on the rear (6th DH, 9th XC), he was in third on lap 3 but punctured coming back into the quarry.

I’m blaming my hangover for my poor performance………..

“…or a Koxxs 26″ wheeled hardtail, with steep head angle and worn out flat pedals for the fastest DH time. I think it may have lots to do with the rider……” thats what i was getting at Ed.

SC Blur 4X with Kenda Blue Groove Stick-E. Good for 38th in the DH and 38th oddly in the XC too (I think).

Very much down to the rider, I was ****. But I loved every minute of it!

On the play off of speed vs reliability i go fully on the reliability side of desicions. I run a Rolf Harris hub which is a tad wieghty over the rear end and has given me real problems with Pinch flats so recently (3 months ago) changed to the Bonti connection hardcase and haven’t had one since and i really try! Doesn’t look like a fancy mtb tyre at all and not seen another one but never fails which is the most important thing. I run a 2.1 Bonti Mudx on the front which although hums on the road it grips like anything over the moors. The xtra weight of all this obviously makes it tougher on the lungs/legs but my thought is that reliability is an increase in speed – overall. Bike worked brill over the weekend, but was also great to see such a range of kit doing the same things – such fun. Am in post weekend depression now – boo.

A Scandal running normal michelin dry2 2.0 tyres tubeless. Bottomed them out a few times during xc race but not during the downhill ran at same pressure 25psi both days. Also had a 130mm stem – discuss?
Mark McPhillips

A Scandal running normal michelin dry2 2.0 tyres tubeless. Bottomed them out a few times during xc race but not during the downhill ran at same pressure 25psi both days. Also had a 130mm stem – discuss?
Mark McPhillips

I was running a 456 with fox TALAS forks, and maxxis ADvantage 2.1″ tyres and flats for the DH and trials and SPD’s for the XC. Pinched on one of the DH practice runs, but a bit more air in saw me through to 21st in the DH race , something like 0.14 seconds within the 10 second cut-off. Was a tad disappointed with that, I know I should have gone a bit quicker, but just wanted to get to the bottom of the hill in one piece (bike and me!!).

XC race came 8th – was happy but annoyed my legs were still shot from a mid-week fell race and i just didn’t have any ‘really pedal hard’ left in me 🙁

the bike/fork/tyre combination was ideal IMO!

Everyone looked like they had fun (even the guys that ended up shouldering down the DH after flatting), so I reckon every bike/tire choice worked!

It’s funny how things have changed from the “what beer” discussion (I plumped for Red Stripe due to lack of enough forward planning to be able to get nice local ales in, incidentally, but it worked quite well even after being hot all of Saturday.) last week! 🙂

Accidental triple post. Phone was in my pocket sending it over and over again, sorry about that, didn’t mean to bore evryone!

I was on my Nomad with full DH High Rollers in Super Tacky.

I think I was definitely a little over-biked for the XC and even possibly for the DH too and my tyre choice was definitely wrong for the XC but they did mean I was almost certain to avoid punctures or pinch flats on the bits of the weekend I was likely to enjoy most.

The main problem was me though. I’m just not fit enough. I was not able to sprint the bottomhalf of the DH as I would have liked and I found the XC climbs very very hard going. Given me some motivation to work on my fitness though.

I think that, with the power of hindsight I would still use the Nomad (it is my only remotely suitable bike) but would go with much lighter tyres and maybe try going tubeless