i use gripper paste on them.. means you don’t need to tighten the clamp so much, isolates the two materials, and seals the opening a bit from all the crap sprayed up over seat tube

I love threads like this
until May this year i hadn’t ridden a bike since the mid nineties, and probably hadn’t ridden anything gnarly ever.. bit of bmxing in early nineties in a local woods.. that’s it
Ended up on a Vitus Nucleus and rinsing my local blue trail.. lusting for more..
the bike wasn’t right for me.. didnt feel right.. kept tweaking and upgrading and looking at FS bikes.. and the budget of which started at £1200 and went up and up and up
And then i thought why? what will a FS do for me? make things easier? make things faster?
and what will that do? make things less exciting? make my crashes hurt more?
So i reigned it in, what if i built an epic hardtail out of the parts i had collected during my Nucleus upgrade.. plus a few extras
So i built up a DMR trailstar, with a 170mm MRP fork, sitting around 64 degrees HA (unloaded).
Forks set soft but ramping up rapidly with lots of LSC.
The bike feels pretty dam comfy to ride.. and surprised me on my first outing.. i could ride sections seated that i was usually out of the seat on.
I could just hit stuff much harder with a little rear weight transfer and let the bike just ride through it.

I haven’t ridden a FS.. if i don’t ride one i won’t miss one right?
Im not lagging behind the guys i ride with massively on the downs..so if im slower it doesnt matter so much…
What i have done is saved myself massive amounts of money..and got myself a bike which feels pretty much as high (as reasonable without diminishing returns) spec as possible to build.. .it also shouldnt be possible to “date”.. i dont have to worry about exotic materials breaking or shattering etc…
yes, its heavy (somewhere around 14kg on innacurate scales) but jesus is it fun

the frame was on my wishlist, the BB put me off
I ended up with a DMR trailstar which was one of my 3 choices.

5ft9 on a medium, had a 120 with about an inch extra available

I also get this
on two bikes now, since i got interested in trail riding, besides breathing/sweating my hips are the only thing to twinge through use
i’m not going in for he flexibility answer as a whole, up until a few months back when i started riding, i was doing full depth squats for a number of years as part of my gym work, i remember groin/hip flexor aches from doing those early on. so im thinking my mobility is good.
So i’m definitely going for its something i have the bike set up like that i cant adjust to.
The seat position sounds likely, because on my old bike i had issues getting comfortable, and put the seat right back. New bike, ridden once… perhaps i can try sliding a little forwards on that as it seems better suited to me

Fast Orange
Washing up liquid with sugar
Washing your hair in the shower

i think the onza jackpot was built with an eccentric BB in mind… But.. might be a little overforked

i went with the ally fork, i think that’s the team model? lightest and simplest for him, as he wouldn’t be hitting anything that the forks would help with and his weight and size (he is on the seat all the time still) and i had read that disc brakes could be a little overwhelming due to their power.
I figured it will do him between now and maybe 12.. and the bike is worth upgrading going forwards

my bike weighs ~14kg, and his is significantly lighter, i picked up the 2018 model for 275 brand new, so its priced well

got my lad an Orbea MX24, lots of build options from steel fork, ally fork, suspension fork and disc brake options, depending on what they will use.
As he is a small 8 year old i went lightest ally fork vee brakes.. and it is a light bike, his first real ride ever and he did something like 13 miles no major issues

trying to get comfy on my new bike took me a while and what i learned was i had too much pressure on my hands initially.. i was able to sort this with a combo of bar angle (change in sweep and rolling the bars) and grips until i found even pressure on my hands.
the pressure was still to high so i raised the stem a little, pushed the seat back a little and tilted the seat up a little (too much seat tilt will be obvious cos it’ll hurt like hell after a few mins)
with my limited knowledge, you are aiming to get closer to 90 degrees up your body and down your arms

grabbed an on one lid myself the there day for £13 delivered
used it a few times, its no warmer than my random £20 roadie helmet i initially bought… in all honesty i figure any injury i receive riding trails etc… my head is the least likely part to make contact with anything…
but yer i’m happy with the on one so far

^^no, the travel is dictated by the length of the air piston shaft itself,, you’d need to cut and re tap to do it on the cheap, the shaft itself isn’t much anyhow

A 500 quid full sus (new) isn’t going to benefit your back as you’d expect… You’d be better off on squishy plus rubber more likely

Yup.. I wish I had gone for the sentier for the wider rear end but not a biggy now.
Yer.. Just looked at the bizango and if you can get the price down then I would.
My mate just got the 450 voodoo for 300 through Halfords doing a part ex on his old iron and not having stock of his size alongside Halfords regular sale prices.

Vitus Nucleus keeps getting awarded the best hard tail under £500 for a few years, i own one.. i love it.. but its the first bike i have had in years also
my only wish list it didnt have was the 1x drivetrain and a dropper.. but you cant have everything for that money…

its only a tiny amount more isnt it?
did it on my reba, although it doesn’t change the volume on the reba, it certainly seemed to have less stiction

tried tilting your saddle back a little? made a decent amount of difference to me when it came to bar weight

would the bike not end up with a shorter wheel base and lower BB height? in fact.. the chainstays would be set up for a 29 inch wheel tyre combo so will be longer than needed, and the shorter front end will put you more forwards on the bike weight wise…
how much a difference it will make? couldn’t say….

just done a reba from 100 to 120
best place to check is the uppers, if there are gradients on there for the travel you want then its possible, my rebas had the 120 partially obscured
So.. i grabbed a 120mm air shaft, and i grabbed the debonair seal/guid thingy and a rockshox service kit from ebay, for the oil and grease and crush washers, was cheaper than trying to buy seperate
consider doing the main upper seals while you are there if necessary
it is as simple as letting the air out
pop the 2 screws at the bottom of the legs, wind them back in and tap them to break the inners free
empty the oil, pull the lowers off
release the circlip (you will want internal circlip pliers, just do it)
pull air dhaft
clean
grease the new parts
refit
before you put the screws back in the bottom ,add the required oil, (check rockshox service manual)

recently started back? into bikes on a vitus nucleus
even flat riding i was feeling intense pressure in my hands, initially it was on the inside of my hands only
first thing i did was play with bar rotation, until i found even pressure across my hands
pressure was still too much, too much weight on bars
so after ensuring saddle height was correct, i started on the angle, tipping the nose up helped somewhat.. alongside sliding the seat back and forwards.. however i found that had a greater effect on front/rear weighting of the bike so kinda left it central
bike was better by now.. next thing i went for was carbon bars (on sale at £39?) and some DMR deathgrips… hands are starting to get more relaxed on the bar.
Adjusted the position and angle of controls, too much reach or effort on brakes was easily tyring my hands
ive now got it to the point were i can ride on the road with no issues (on back, arms or hands) and hit some trails with minimal discomfort upon completion.
Im now playing with tubeless tyres and a fork upgrade, which may or may not increase comfort but primarily because i ma tinkerer and want to go faster down the hills