Just swapped the Slayer for a 2022 Trek Fuel ex9.8
I felt it'd suit my riding better than the Slayer. Lovely condition, Fox X2 on back, Fox 36 on front, CODE RSC stoppers. Nice.
Just waiting for the guy to get back as he'd forgotten the front axle 😀 😀 😀
Straight off to FoD then to play and get it dialled in.
Nice bike, I test rode one before I bought my Enduro, It was so good at everything.
Jeez again??? 'I love the Slayer, won't be getting shot of that'. Two mins later....... Do you work for the Government???? Only jealous, enjoy! Had my 3 bikes 7 years, 6 years and 4 years now
DPX2 rather than an X2?
Looks nice! And as you mention, probably a better all-rounder the slayer.
I've never considered a 'swap' with bikes before!
I give it 5 months 😀
I give it 5 months 😀
That's generous!
I'll give it six weeks.
I’ll give it six weeks
We all know weeksy is a nickname derived from how long he owns a bike right?
There's nobody quite like you weeksy 🙂
Health to ride.
I’ve never considered a ‘swap’ with bikes before!
I think it makes sense if you have an a bike and want something more gnarly.
I've been bitten before though buying an XC bike off someone who wanted to get a DH bike, you're getting an XC bike that's been ridden like a DH bike.
Out of interest - where do you find all these folks to swap things with, I find myself with a Shimano drive train for the first time in years and hoped I might find someone similarly displeased with their recent acquisition of a sram one 😂
where do you find all these folks to swap things with,
It's the shop in Carlisle that he got the slayer from in the first place. They resprayed the Trek Fuel he gave them in exchange a few months ago.
C'mon weeksy, scrape some of that paint off and I bet it's yellow/green tint in the background
In comparison the some serial bike swappers I know, trust me when I say that @weeksy is a mere amateur.
Out of interest – where do you find all these folks to swap things with, I find myself with a Shimano drive train for the first time in years and hoped I might find someone similarly displeased with their recent acquisition of a sram one 😂
Tell me more ........
I've got a 12s GX mech and shifter that came off a bike I almost immediately single speeded and I'd far rather swap for XT to upgrade my main bike.
There's cranks too, but they've been used.
And my nice wheelset is XD so I'm keeping the cassette.
I hope it satisfies you ... for a while at least 😀
How long before a Status puts in another appearance? 😉 Fence could do with painting and those weeds...
Oh, nice bike BTW 😁
What is the first upgrade?
I felt it’d suit my riding better than the Slayer
Today maybe... 😉
We all know weeksy is a nickname derived from how long he owns a bike right
I suspect he's hora under a different login
I suspect he’s hora under a different login
That *exact* thought occurred to me when I first opened this thread.
That or the tall RAFer who strugled no end to find a bike they were comfy on and who's name escapes me completely. Though I think they did eventually manage.
What is the first upgrade?
The previous owner already did the 150mm upgrade on front and with the DPX2 the rear is ace. So in truth I don't know.
The RSC brakes are great, the seat isn't bad
First run down was a bit meh, but it's quite different, after that it started to flow.
We're becoming friends
I felt it’d suit my riding better than the Slayer
Pretty sure I said, on that Slay the Trails thread, that the Slayer was a freeride bike 😀 You should take my advice on more purchases 😉
Rumour has it the treks already been swapped in the car park on the way home .
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So day 1 is done on the bike and we're most happy 🙂
It took a little while to get to grips with it being a VERY different ride on the trails and i'm still missing a few lines on corners due to needing to shift my weight differently. But i'd also set the pressures on both front and rear a bit too soft, having now gone up 10psi in the front and 20 in the rear to try and find my happy place with it, i was pretty much bottoming it out on the jumps at Dowies. But it handled them really nicely and rides lovely. As you'd expect of course.
It was missing the internal frame tool bag, which i've just bought, at £18 it was less than i expected.
The headset in it is a complete pile of crap, it's been neglected there, so in the car-park i threw a new set of bearings in the upper and lower and it's sweet again.
Other than that, it's as per the pics, a very nice, very clean 2022 EX9.8.
All week we've been exchanging mails and i really expected him to come back with "i want £500+ on top of the Slayer". His bike was up for £3000 and it wasn't massively optimistic in terms of price i thought when looking at Ebay and Pinkbike. I felt the Slayer was closer to £2000 on a good day, so was more than happy.
Pretty sure I said, on that Slay the Trails thread, that the Slayer was a freeride bike
A couple of people said similar, I think hob nob too. But life is about trying thing, experiencing things, so there's no such thing as a bad decision
Yeah, you definitely enjoyed it for a year. Fuel is a nice looking bike. Higher rise bars needed? (I got some 38mm Nukeproofs in the CRC sale, nice they are)
I've got some 38 Burgtec here in 35dia if I wanna try. But currently I'll just get it ridden both tomorrow and Sunday and see from there really
Nice. Good weekend for riding 😊
Talk about a proper baptism of fire.
https://flic.kr/p/2p7QPCn
Out with stupid fast child and [smention u=84]crust[/smention] on his ebike. We did a load of trails, woods and fun, then some jumps and beers, chips and chats. Then more trails, but by this stage my legs were saying no and my HR and effort were maxed time and time again.
On road to pub 2 I tried to gap them, sitting at 19+ mph but I died in last 100m and they caught me. More beer, then Ridgeway and stupid flat out trails to home.
I'm a sweaty gibbering mess! My legs are soooo tired.
Trek was ace though
Sounds like a Zwift race but in the real world trying to gap them 🤣
Maybe you need an ebike 🤔
It was a Zwift race at times, but 6 hours out with 4 of them riding. We hit lots and lots of trails though so it was ace
It took a little while to get to grips with it being a VERY different ride on the trails and i’m still missing a few lines on corners due to needing to shift my weight differently
Cue, you don't really get on with it and will be changing it soon....
🤣
It’s most likely the change in reach from just sub 450mm to 475mm. Still much shorter than the Large Aether 7 that Weeksy didn’t get on with (reach was maybe 505mm on that?) so I reckon it’ll be fine after a few rides. Plus will feel a chunk quicker covering ground / uphill. The stability of the longer reach will probably make up for some of the loss of suspension travel on fast / rocky stuff I’d imagine.
Oh i'm more than happy. It cracks along at a fine pace and the geometry lends itself to covering ground better than the Slayer. You feel more 'on' instead of more 'in' .. But that was clearly apparently from the numbers of both. You can see that the knees are further away when sitting pedalling.
I hit plenty of tech trails yesterday, some fast, some tight and yeah it was golden. It's running 150mm on the front so not exactly lacking in terms of performance of bounce. I probably still need a little more air in the back but other than that, i'm more than happy.
I've got an internal frame bag thing ordered for tools/pump.
I've got the invoice for any warranty stuff, i've also registered it in my name and insured it.. So it's here and it's happy.
I can now get back to organising my trip to Morzine 🙂
I can now get back to organising my trip to Morzine
you'll be needing some kind of longer travel bike for that.......can I suggest a rocky mountain slayer?
You can... but i'll be taking the Fury for the days i need longer.
But mostly it'll be more XC/Enduro stuff for me and the old fellas rather than DH chaos with the kids... we're talking 3-4 of the Youths, so they'll be left to their own riding and me and the oldies will do our stuff more along with PPDS type riding.
Yeah we like this... it rides and goes welll 🙂
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Very much friends. I do need to find a decent/nice saddle i like... but that seems somewhat challenging at times.
It's now got some frame protection on it, along with a frame bag with tool/pump inside the frame.
Genuine question - have you never considered a HT in your serial quest for the right bike? Looks like you locality might suit one tbh
Hardtails are very hard work if you’re not used to them though - you spend a lot more time standing up and if you try and sit in places you would on a full suss it’s really annoying getting bounced about. I prefer using my hardtail on local trail centres where I’m riding like my hair is on fire.
Genuine question – have you never considered a HT in your serial quest for the right bike? Looks like you locality might suit one tbh
Owned several over the years and yes in some of my riding it'd be great and was at times. Owned a Giant XTC29 and an On-One Parkwood. Used them plenty, but i deffo prefer the comfort of the full-bouncer. The HT is obviously effective, but on the tractor ruts a bit teeth chattery.
I'm happy with this for what i need right now 🙂
in your serial quest for the right bike?
Missed this part.. I'm not looking for the right bike.. I don't see there ever being or me even wanting the right bike. There's just bikes, a bike today, a different one next month, or the month after, who knows. Life changes, priorities change, there's no right bike for every situation, so sometimes i end up with the right bike for XYZ and not ABC, then i want the ABC bike. I don't see this as a fault in the bikes, nor in myself.
Yeah I agree with that. Different things are interesting, so changing is fun; the new thing doesn’t have to be objectively ‘better’.
It’s just really expensive changing so I change every few years.
It’s just really expensive changing
That's why in the past few years i've done the swapping thing instead of selling/buying/buying/selling. I've traded 6/8 of my last bunch of bikes, both myself and the lad. I've done OK on some (this one for example) and i've had to put some money in a few, like the Slayer. But i've not been putting in millions... Arguably people drop money on cars and lose more than the whole value of my bikes within the first hour of collecting it 😀 So i'm OK with the financial side of it.
I feel spending money is justified as it's my 'thing' i do most days, so it's not like i buy something and it sits there for month after month losing money, it's out there being used.
The Fuel EX though, is BETTER... well, today it is 😀 and for the current riding i'm doing it is. Whether that's a 12 month thing or less, or more... i have no idea 🙂 But i like it 😀
It suits the pink pedals better than the Slayer
Whether that’s a 12 month thing or less, or more… i have no idea 🙂 But i like it 😀
We do 🤣🤣
Glad you're enjoying it, and absolutely tomorrow will be different to today so why should the answer be the same? It's bikes not physics
On the saddle note, I've gone through quite a few in the quest for the most comfortable (for me) and if you haven't tried it the Ergon SM Mtb sport saddle has been outstanding so comfortable for all day rides
and if you haven’t tried it the Ergon SM Mtb sport saddle has been outstanding so comfortable for all day rides
That's what came fitted to it and i rode on Sunday, it wasn't terrible, but i'm not massively keen and advertised it on Ebay/here 😀
Ah ok lol, just shows how personal a saddle choice can be.
Playing at Tirpentwys today, have to say there's some stuff here that makes my arse clench. Way outside of my happy place 😁😁😁
With the noisy seat-post removed and the new Raceface dropper in it's place i went out for a quick test and as expected, the bike is 100% silent and sweet 🙂
Wasn't the longest ride ever as the rain started and then got worse... so i called it fairly early on... but i'm most happy 🙂
Missed this part.. I’m not looking for the right bike.. I don’t see there ever being or me even wanting the right bike. There’s just bikes, a bike today, a different one next month, or the month after, who knows. Life changes, priorities change, there’s no right bike for every situation, so sometimes i end up with the right bike for XYZ and not ABC, then i want the ABC bike. I don’t see this as a fault in the bikes, nor in myself.
Have you ever considered, like, owning several bikes rather than replacing and buying a new one every couple of weeks? That way you could choose the one that works for a particular scenario. I know you'll now argue that you can't afford such extravagance, but you probably spend more on diesel going to bike exchange points in a year than it would cost to simply buy an additional bike...
And yes I know, it's just retail therapy that's got slightly out of hand 😉
Have you ever considered, like, owning several bikes rather than replacing and buying a new one every couple of weeks? That way you could choose the one that works for a particular scenario. I know you’ll now argue that you can’t afford such extravagance, but you probably spend more on diesel going to bike exchange points in a year than it would cost to simply buy an additional bike…
Well, the previous fuel was 10 months, the Slayer was 11.5 months, so it's not really THAT often. Some of the others have been shorter, some have been longer. My G-160 was nearly 2 years, my T-130 was 2.5 years...
It's not always a question of funding that stops me having multiple bikes, it's the fact i'd have a preference and ride 1 and not ride the other. The FuelEX though is arguably the 'sweet spot' in terms of bikes attributes for what i ride and where etc. It's about as sweet as it gets i think really.
The swap for the Slayer/Fuel wasn't even a £1 drive, i was going to FoD that day anyway.
it’s the fact i’d have a preference and ride 1 and not ride the other.
I get that - I've got two FS MTBs and ride one of them much more than the other as it's the right bike for most of my riding, whereas my less-used FSer is most definitely the right bike for other riding I do less often. Having more than one bike means I've usually got the right bike (in my stable at least, if not on the day...) for XYZ AND for ABC, without the need for swapping. I've also got a hardtail that doesn't see much use but when I do it's definitely the right bike for that particular use where my FSers are unnecessary.
What I'm saying is having >1 bike at the same time and having a favourite and not riding the other(s) as often isn't necessarily a negative.
Just think how much fun you'd having swapping bikes if you had 2+ in your collection to play with 😁
Just think how much fun you’d having swapping bikes if you had 2+ in your collection to play with
LOL i've got loads i can play with
Fuel EX9.8
Session 9
Privateer 141
Liv ebike (160front)
Hybrid
DMR Sect
As all of them are air shocks (or no shock) i can in theory use any with a couple of mins setup. But really it's only the Fuel and the Liv that i ever use. As i said above, i found that even having the extra 30mm of bounce on the Slayer over the Fuel didn't mean i could hit things that i thought/hoped. If anything as i'm getting a little older each year i'm less likely to hit bigger things now. I hit the Red stuff faster than i used to but i'm not going 'bigger', so the extra bounce, just ain't needed for me.
Just think how much fun you’d having swapping bikes if you had 2+ in your collection to play with 😁
My experience tells me that the swapping involves taking all of them out of the garage then putting all bar one back in the garage only to repeat later because your road bike ended up at the back because it's November but tomorrow is going to be glorious and you've only got a snatched hour or two to get out.
My experience tells me that the swapping involves taking all of them out of the garage then putting all bar one back in the garage only to repeat later because your road bike ended up at the back because it’s November but tomorrow is going to be glorious and you’ve only got a snatched hour or two to get out.
Problem sorted
What's happened to the Orbea eeb?
What’s happened to the Orbea eeb?
In simple terms, i didn't see a use for it and i'm not convinced my mate really wanted to sell it... So instead we just went riding and i used the Liv with new Fox 36s installed and some Ebike pads from Uberbike... it was great. So i didn't see much point in having the Orbea.
https://eu.steadyrack.com/Problem sorted
If you've room to pivot your bikes, you don't own enough bikes.
Swinley forest today with teen crazies who just pedal, corner, power, pedal, power. I may collapse!
teen crazies who just pedal, corner, power, pedal, power. I may collapse!
Tell me about it - in prep for the upcoming Gorrick I took Jnr out with me for some start sprint intervals. I've found out where the Father / Son power parity occurs - at 14 & 51yo. 😀
My excuse is that I'm in the throes of a bad cold....
You did better than me, I got to almost 12 before he started trouncing me on DH, but yeah I may have reached 14 before I lost the overall as I had power and persistence in my favour.
Now, I'm a spent force.
But tell you what, we had a blast! 5 of us just arsing about throwing ourselves around there, ace fun.
I must admit, I'm enjoying the winter break from DH
Swinley forest today with teen crazies who just pedal, corner, power, pedal, power. I may collapse<br /><br />
Maybe you need to do some sweet spot and threshold interval training sessions on Zwift from the workout session? Might improve leg speed and ability to recover. Although it won’t make you 30 years younger sadly 🤣
I always think Swinley is a bit of a sprint from corner to corner kind of place with short sharp climbs.
I think dropping 30kg would be better. But beer and croissants are gooooood
beer and croissants are gooooood
Amen
I prefer cider / spiced rum and Panettone personally 🤣
I prefer cider / spiced rum and Panettone personally 🤣
But of those 3 things none of them is breakfast.
I always think Swinley is a bit shit
FTFY
You couldn't be more wrong. Swinley is ace fun, lots of turns, jumps, roots, up bits, down bits. How anyone can think it's anything less than brilliant is completely beyond me.
Sure, it ain't bpw and it ain't Dyfi, but it's not a mountain either. It's just fab fun.
Chasing mates, french lines, silly gaps (by them) and fine fine fun.
Swinley is alright considering the lack of elevation and safety first by the FC there. Probably suits a down country style of bike best as it’ll take out the irritating roughness of some bits of the trail without bogging you down with loads of plush suspension you don’t need.
You couldn’t be more wrong. Swinley is ace fun, lots of turns, jumps, roots, up bits, down bits. How anyone can think it’s anything less than brilliant is completely beyond me
I'm only semi serious, it's ok.
Ridden it twice. Once on the HT, once on the ebike.
It was ok, but just ok - preferred it on the eeb.
Brilliant though, that's a far stretch 🤣 I'd put it a level below Cannock
But then the Peak is my playground
I’d put it a level below Cannock
Wow, I've never been to swinley, but is it as bad as that?
But then the Peak is my playground
Where else you ride doesn't matter, my playground these days is massively varied with Dyfi, Hopton, Peaks, BPW, Ponty and of course FoD being the staples, but that doesn't mean Swinley isn't brilliant, it is... Is it sweeping vistas of the peaks, no... is the the steep tech of Ponty, no.... but it is just where and what it is, a fun, friendly place, throwing it into berms, sweeping round corners, trying to hold off the brakes to keep mate in sight, getting to the end of a section and laughing about how you nearly stacked it on the slippery polished stones... I'll sit and argue in defence of Swinley all day. It holds many memories for me that place, from his first 'trails' to hitting a 10' vert drop at 12 years old, to his first 'black' in the skills area and massive gap jump, to sitting eating cake and talking rubbish with mates more times than i can count.
Ok, glad you like it and it holds some sentimental value for you. If you enjoy it, it's all good 😊
The even better news... the seat is silent and the bike doesn't make any noises now 🙂
I specifically took it on sections it used to make a noise on, like short steep 1st gear climbs... nice, silent.
I do need to work on my skills and fitness though for sure !!!