Mine’s XT, sorry I forgot it’s not stock. Dno if the SRAM has a switch, the XT does.

Picking mine up tomorrow minus a front wheel which is away back with an issue. Sticking Hope Hoops with Specialized tyres on to go and will report how I get on.

15% off at Alpine Bikes this weekend 🙂 Makes this a total bargain IMO. Also, Kyle in the Inverness shop couldn’t have been more helpful … he even ordered me a mech hanger cos he knew I was going on holiday with the bike soon.

Did a few miles last night, long woodland climbs and dippy leaf mulchy singletrack, with added snow and icy roots.

It comes alive as soon as it’s pointed down even a tiny bit of gradient. It goes faster than my brain, I need to raise my game and concentrate harder!

It’s absolutely a skill compensator, and I’m overbiked for what I’m doing with it, but it’s fun for all that.

The reverb is downing but failing to up (on the third ride), initially I thought it was either the low temperature or dirt causing the friction, but the switch is very squishy so I suspect it needs bleeding.

Dead easy to bleed if you have the kit mattjg, but check the air pressure before you do it. Decided I can’t wait … I’m going for mine this afternoon after work.

Air pressure was down around the 150 psi mark according to my RS shock pump, I upped it but that didn’t fix it.

The problem was the Reverb was failing to return through the last 40mm of travel, the top half of travel was fine.

A post here: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rockshox-reverb#post-2563914 mentions seat clamp tension, and I did tighten it last night.

Backing it off a bit seems to have fixed the problem.

It’s quite easy to set those Whyte clamps, with the tensioner wheel and the big levers, pretty tight.

Updates please Swayndo, share the new bike buzz!

Got it after work and am just in from the garage. Stuck the XO cranks and Hope Hoops with Flows from the HT on (after adapting the hubs) and after some minor fettling had a bike. Went for a spin in the street and it wasn’t right. Not enough air in the rear (for my lardarse) for starters.

Bit of air and some brake adjustments and I had a much better second run. It still felt a wee bit too stretched for me at full extension even with a 60mm, but sliding and tilting the saddle tomorrow will have some effect on that. I’ve also got a 50mm I can try. Need to trim the Reverb cable and may stick the lever under the bar on the RHS. Other than that I’m good.

No pics yet as my garage is a tip but I’ll take some when I get a ride tomorrow. Leave for Morocco 3 weeks today, so I’m gonna ride it a lot over the next couple of weeks then decide which bike’s going with me. At the moment it’s still the Fireline.

Every new bike feels odd to start with, it’s gotta be the perfect bike for the Atlas mountains!

Can you drop the bars a bit? That helped me with reach.

I don’t like the Reverb button on top left but don’t want it on the right getting in the way of shifters.

Stick it inboard of the brake lever. Works well with the single matchmaker clamp for brake and gears, but it’s still okay with seperates.

Ergon grips now on and minor adjustments feel good, but it feels like I’m riding the nose of the saddle. Guess it’s just me. Gonna try to get an early morning ride tomorrow. I can feel its gonna be mental pointed down the hill.

Yup!

Right first ride was an icebreaker in Evanton Wood. Lots of short sharp climbs and wee steep descents, but some longer easier angled stuff too. Generally woodsy HT territory, but in frozen dry conditions a perfect first ride from my doorstep.

Was a bit worried about how it would climb … shouldn’t have been. I struggled a teeny bit with the heft after riding the Fireline solidly thro the winter, but that’s me and my fitness. It’s not a heavy bike considering what it is.

Pointed down it’s a big barrel of fun. Very stable and hard to get knocked off line, but easy to turn when you want it to turn. Noticed some buzzing which turned out to be the uncut reverb cable but other than that and a slight saddle tilt I never had to touch it.

I’ll get heel rub on the non-driveside chainstay so I’d better tape that up and I can maybe do with trimming some cables to avoid rub elsewhere. I’ll trim the Reverb cable and play around with the position of the remote.

Gonna get out later with a wider bar as I think that will suit it better … in the meantime here’s a pic from the top of Porter’s Plunge.

Agree all of the above, it’s not a weight weeny bike but it’s OK weight for the price and purpose.

I guess you can’t really answer: but do you think the Flows are a material benefit over the stock wheels?

ps any chance you could weigh the stock wheels naked? (ie no rotors, cassette, tyres).

Like the stealth look from your black bars/cranks.

oh & I quite fancy a Fineline too!

Converted to tubeless today, very easy rims already taped just need a valve, seat the beads with a tyre leaver quick blast of co2 then pull a bit of a bead off sealant in then up with track pump racing Ralph on the back stock ardent on the front, they actually held their air without the sealant, the stock tubes are very thin and light as well, so would not fancy them on rocky stuff.

Stuck the Warhead off the HT on the Whyte for the second ride and instantly felt at home. More sustained climbs and descents this afternoon and the bike never put a foot wrong. I was okay too 🙂 I’ll just get another 760 Warhead and that’s me sorted … a black one tho.

Mattjg, my thinking about the Flows is that I wouldn’t normally ride a narrow rim, so why start now. You mentioned these are like Crests. Crests flex around to much for me, so something stronger and wider is a better bet IMO. Plus wider tyres sit better on slightly wider rims. Saying that I’ll probably keep the wheels and give them a good demo.

re wheels, on the stock rims

as jonny says the stock tubes are surprisingly flimsy, only 180 grams

I got both a 2.0 Maxxis Beaver and a 2.25 Schwalbe Rocket Ron to seat and seal on the stock rims, without co2. It feels like the rims are a tad less internal diameter than my Crests because the tyres were a bit slacker than I’m used to and it took more puff to seat. I have a track pump that can do high volume puffs, and it took a fair welly with soapy water to get them seated (more than I’ve needed with Crests). Both these tyres have seated happily on Crests in the past.

The installed yellow taping seems sound. I took the Beaver off, the Ron has needed a second reinflation, a good fluiding about, and seems to be OK. Let’s see in the morning. If it stays, I’ll do the front with the Ardent.

The 2.25 Ron just fits on the rear. There’s about 4mm clearance on the bottom of the ds chainstay – the little rubber spikes on the blocks (which I presume are left over from molding) actually touch it, but that’s not an issue I hope.

@swayndo I have a nagging feeling my 740mm Renthal bars may still be a tad narrow, 760 seems about right.

yeah hear you re Flows – tho I never noticed flex on Crests myself, perhaps I’m not riding hard enough!

Mattjg, probably you are lighter than me. I’ve got a Specialized Ground Control 2.3 comfortably in the rear. Great rear tyre IMO.

77kg as I roll out of bed

I’ll look up the tyre ta

Seat angle seems too slack on the figures, what’s it like in real life ?

So after my first couple of rides, I ditched the stock tyres as they were pretty much useless up here in the lakes!
I went and splashed out on a 2.35 hans dampf on the front and a 2.25 nobby nic on the rear. Both seated tubeless after a bit of a faff. Had to inflate with a tube first and pop one bead off, take inner tube out and pop in the tubeless valve. Then plenty of soapy water and a bit of effort with a track pump and they went up. Then deflated, removed valve cores and squirted in sealant. Front seems to be losing air slowly (I’ll redo it at some point, tried some new sealant in the front, stans in the back) back is find though. Plenty of room for the hd up front and the nn seems ok on the rear too. Looking forward to getting a proper ride on them tomorrow! The hd is draggy on Tarmac but feels grippy as hell! Trail star hd pace star nn. Definitely thinking a shorter stem is on the cards. 50mm I’m thinking.
Swapped the grips out too for some odi han solo’s. def recommend them. Green’s not that good a match but awesome grip and comfort.

Some more tinkering today. Shortened the Reverb cable, re-bled, then set it up with the remote, the brake lever and the shifters all on the same clamp. Extremely neat.

Special mention for the brakes. I had a couple of early pairs of Juicys and swore I wouldn’t go back, but these Elixir 5s are spot-on. Good on Whyte for speccing 203 and 180 rotors on the large.

While I was at it, I replaced the stock saddle with a Bel Air. With the better nose padding the bike now felt perfect for me. Ride today backed that up … I can’t speak highly enough about this bike. For what I ride thro the year it’s perfect.

Gonna try out the stock wheels when I get my front one back from ATB. If I can lose a bit of rolling weight without bending them then all will be good.

My Ron on the rear stayed up overnight and is good to go.

I didn’t get time to finish the front today, I renewed the yellow tape but it’s still leaking from the valve. I think the tyre will be fine. Hope to get out tomorrow.

I think the rims are these or very similar: http://www.wtb.com/products/wheels/rims/xc/products-wheels-rims-xc-frequency-tcs-i19/

I’m finding it quite hard to get a tape seal, I suspect that little lip under the ‘On Ramp’ isn’t helping the tape get a nice sticky flat area seal. (My Crests are flat there).

With both the installed tape and my re-tape I’m getting a leak at the base of the valve, that indicates the tape to rim seal is failing somewhere and air is getting into the internal chamber of the rim. (I had this happen in the past when I damaged the tape with clumsy levering).

The Ardent itself is seeming to settle on the beading pretty easy, just the valve leak is stopping me getting the pressure past about 7 psi.

I’m gonna have one more go at taping. The rear stock taping worked fine so it is doable!

Ok the front is up and running on the third set of tape. It was, again, leaking from the valve base but I persisted with some fluid and it sealed.

My taping was bomber, I checked it and I don’t think I damaged it putting the tyre on. It looks to me like the added tension on the tape of pushing the valve through actually pulls the edge of the tape back from the rim a couple of mm. This has never happened on my Crests, I think it’s down to that ‘On Ramp’ bump causing additional tension in the tape AND stopping it from having a nice flat sticking area on the rim shelf.

It’s running with a Stan’s valve, that’s just what was at hand, I don’t think it’s material.

The Ardent itself seated nicely as soon as I managed to get a few psi going. I don’t see any leaks in the sidewalls at all, it’s fairly tough and fit for porpoise I think.

Picking mine up the end of the week …managed to get a frame only ..(very helpfully LBS).. Just wondering what tyre to put on the rear …running flow rims ATM ..will prob fit my racing Ralph’s

My 2.25 Rons on the stock rims just fit, tho I’ve not ridden it yet. Anything bigger’s not going to fly, but that’s big enough for me anyway.

Went out for the first time on mine on Friday and again this morning. Was a bit worried that the ikon wouldnt be so good, as the trails at swinley have been really wet, but (running tubeless) it was better than I thought. Cold and dry today and felt superb. Glad I tried the stock instead of changing right away.

PRs and a popular run top 10, up there with the self-appointed great and good, on some of my benchmark trails this PM. **** me that’s a quick bike. The trails are shorter and the hazards come up quicker. These are countoury singletracks, roots, bends, bombholes, trees, nothing steep.

Using all my fork travel but only 2/3 the shock so some tuning needed.

Quite why those 26er lads get so agressive/defensive about 29ers is beyond me. Dodos.

@subsy ta I’ll try the Icon, the Ron is more than needed around here.

I’ll have a look at the Ikon before I dismiss it. Suspect I need thicker sidewalls. Maybe use it on the HT for local rides.

I too played around with shock settings today. I’ve been running it a bit low but with low rebound damping. I upped the pressure and the damping today and it was better for me on a tour of the wood.

Riding the Tollie Path tomorrow. First proper mountain ride on it. It’s gonna be ace. I’ll try to post a couple of action pics.

Droppers are dead handy for getting a bike bike back in the car!

Looking fwds to the pics from Scotlandland.

Ace ride today with the boys at the Tollie Path. The bike was immense … perfect tool for the job, although Bedmaker on his fatbike did rather well.

Blue skies in Scotland? Fake.

Did all the Pitch Hill classic trails last night. On the 75% of the ride that’s fast XC I can keep up with the group but it’s bloody hard work hefting that bike about. It’s ever so smooth in granny ring tho, and climbs out of the saddle bob free. I turn on the front damper but leave the shock alone.

On the 20% that’s twisty, flowy, rooty or downy (or all 4) it’s an absolute hoot, I’m chucking it around like a kid at a BMX track rather than an old giffer knocking on towards 50 who should know better. What fun.

I think the slacker head angle really encourages me to get my weight forwards on the bars, and at no point was I conscious I was on a ‘big’ 29er. Putting the saddle away helps a lot too.

I still think there’s a gap in my life between the T129 and my super-light SS rigid. Some kind of fast geared HT fits the bill. Need to think about that.

Mattjg – Yelliscreamy. You know you want to. Mine is brill round us.

ah yeah, I just made a new thread, ta. Is it not super slack tho? (and hyper expensive).

psa re stock tyres tubeless on stock rims: the Ardent burped and the Ikon looks damaged and would never seal anyway. http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/whyte-wheels-what-do-you-need-to-do-to-set-up-tubeless?replies=9#post-4860285

Took this for a spin today on the Quantocks
Very good on the downhills inc the specific DH runs
But also surprisingly good on the climbs

Untitled by jerrypc69, on Flickr.

It’s a lot of fun to ride, I am sold on slack head angles.

I love how Whyte made a different colour decal for ‘the version that doesn’t come with a Reverb’.

Oh yes very fast and fun pointed downwards …..and lively too …….it’s like my Yelli but with rear suspension