Cool, how does it ride with the 160mm? Obviously good for descents but does it adversely effect the general ride? Appreciate you said you select 130mm though but have you tried 160mm for general riding?

Thanks all, going to give it a try then with a 160mm fork!! Could be excellent or a complete disaster, what could possibly go wrong? lol

Ah now that’s interesting, thanks. Its the RXF34’s in 160mm I’m looking at so 11mm difference

How about the Specialized Sports?

http://www.southdownsbikes.com/men-s-clothing/shoes/specialized-sport-mtb-shoe-2016

I’ve been using the Comp’s for a few years now which do have the Boa and I’ve never had a problem with it. I also use the Sport in road guise and they have been great.

I have a new Mini and now I own a Citreon Berlingo to put my bikes in :) Mini was just too much of a faff, rack would fit on the back due to the spoiler mine has, Mini rear carrier wouldn’t fit due to the JCW body kit, roof bars wouldn’t fit as not ordered during build. Hated the thought of messing up the interior so bought a cheap Berlingo and it’s great.

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. Doesn’t sound like I need to drop a large amount of money on the new version then if the Five29 is still what I need. Having said that it doesn’t stop me looking, lol :D

Be interested how you compare your new 2016 Five to your old Five29? Still have my Five29 and love it but I do keep looking at the new 2017 Five’s :)

Really enjoyed it this year, tough but much more fun than last years course. This year the climbs were tough but there were great descents to reward you with. So glad it wasn’t wet and glad I changed to much narrower bars before I went. Team of 3 this year so plenty of rest time, full respect to all those solo riders!!

So drove Berlingo today, what a boat it is! :D I did expect that to some degree but I am wondering if there is anything else out there I could be looking at to fit the bill? I want something with small van type properties but not a van. Transporters are too big and pricey for me, Caddy Maxi seems good but again VW pricey.

Suggestions? Budget of around £4K max (ish)

Bike will be setup during a bike fit so I’m confident it will fit well. Yes it is a good deal which has made it tempting plus I get to finish it with my choice of components rather than what the manufacturer has decided.

As for the bitsy build, I thought Di2 was a good match for a high end bike, S-Works finishing kit is high quality and a nice matt carbon which suits the frame finish but could chose the Pro Vibe also. These two are stocked by the shop so makes it easier during fit to change to suit.

Agreed the wheels are not up to scratch but for now I can run with these so I can spend more on the rest and hopefully get a set of Hunt carbon’s when they come back in stock :)

Hmm, the Berlingo is coming out on top at the moment. Went to have a look at one in a dealer to get an idea of size and they look huge with enough flexibility to do most things bike related. Will probably stick with the car version now rather than the van so I can use it for all sorts then.

Just need to find a nice cheap one :)

If I by the sexy light bike I’ll still have the Roubaix to take guards and use when conditions are not so nice but I still want to get out so the new bike is not a do it all option. I’m in a very fortunate position of having some disposable income, having some bikes I’ve bought over a period of time plus the C2W voucher in hand that my LBS will allow me to top up on. They have a Boardman Elite frame that got ordered and cancelled so are willing to take a hit on it. So although it’s not the best brand name I believe the Elite range are actually quite good.

Just been in there and asked them to spec it up using Ultegr Di2 groupset and S-Works finishing kit but no wheel set as for now I’ll use my Campag Zonda’s until I can afford something better. This way the bike is well spec’ed and I can easily change wheels later. Will see what they come back with.

Currently looking at Citreon Berlingo’s car variants as a bit of a compromise. Seems to have all the room required, cheaper as not a true van plus has a tailgate which I like for shelter. Anyone used one of these for carting bikes around?

@mboy, now thats not a bad option to be honest, given me something else to go look at :)

Thanks all for the feedback, pretty equal both ways so no help :lol:

The thing that got me looking at the lightweight option is I just wasn’t getting excited about the new winter bike option. This time last year whenI was buying the Roubaix I was checking every day to see if my voucher had arrived, nagging the shop to let me take the bike early etc. This year I’m just a bit meh about the whole thing which made me think I’m doing this for the wrong reason. Probably not helped by timing of buying a winter bike when the weather is meant to be improving! So it seems to be a head vs heart decision, buy sensible or buy what you really want :D

Most of the time I’m fairly quick with clipping/unclipping but I do find it lets me down if I have to either enter a down without a run in or if I’ve had to stop part way down. That feeling of not being connected to your bike whilst tearing through a section is very disconcerting :) Had a couple of these moments on my last ride and I really understood how flats would be so much better for gaining control quicker.

The slippy, muddy conditions were making it happen far more frequently so I think I might put flats on the Five during the winter months to try and get used to them some more.

Ok, as I thought it is my lack of technique! Some really helpful hints here, thanks, I need to go put some of this into practice. Although most of you said you weren’t very good at explaining it did actually make sense most of the time so I know I’ve got to work at this in order to improve. I’ll be sticking with flats on the Fatbike and I think I might buy another set for the Five and man up for a trip over to Surrey Hills before attempting Wales later in the year.

Thanks also for the links, will go do some more reading.

Seems to work ok for me so I like it :)

Whenever I mount my Diablo to bars I disable the Tap function. It’s too rigidly mounted to be able to work properly on the bars.

Personally I found the Diablo a better match to something bright like the Maxx-D also. Bit more cash obviously though.

I’m running the Praxis Works 11-40T cassette and it works very well. Have used plenty of expander cogs but the advantage of these is they do away with either the gap where you need to remove a cog or the not quite right 16T filler. Considering trying the 11-42 SunRace soon but you will need either a RAD case or new XT mech to cope with the 42T cog.

Used them last week and they were excellent. Cheapest price for what I was after, good comms and delivery was really fast. Certainly will use again.

Prices are still listed in Dollars but they ship from a warehouse just down the road from me in the South East. Normally next day or day after delivery :)

Very warm down on the South Coast today! Overdressed and sweating, had to strip off half way round :) Mad weather for December but happy to make the most of it.

Maxx-D paired with a Diablo on my helmet, fantastic combo. Went to Exposure to get rid of the cable that separate battery packs bring and I’m so glad that I did. Really nice and simple mount system that you just leave on the bars, clip the light i and go :) Paired with the Diablo I hardly ever put either of them into high and together they produce enough light to ride for hours.

My Fatbike has just come back out for winter bike duties. Normally ride SPD’s but this year I’ve decided to try flats for the first time as hoping it will keep my feet warmer plus in these conditions I figure flats might work better with the mud etc. I had a pair Shimano Saints laying around so going with these for now and just bought a pair of 5:10 Elements to keep the worst of the water out.

When I first started to explore on my own I used Strava to pinch a few mates rides that I knew went there occasionally. I then did some searching on Strava for ‘Peaslake’ as a keyword and downloaded a few .gpx files. Loaded these on my Garmin and and a navigation app on my phone. With this I went exploring and now have a fairly good knowledge of the place and can piece together a good days riding.

If you can’t download or use .gpx files, still use Strava to view the area around Peaslake to get an understanding of when the main concentration of segments are. From there you will just be able to see them from the fire roads and follow your nose.

As already said, don’t expect signed routes but you will be able to see tyre tracks this time of year easily. The place is big enough to not bump into other riders for a while but don’t be afraid to ask and tag along when you get the chance. Also, when in Peaslake the local shop is the main feed/coffee stop and you will be able to talk to riders there for most of the day.

CCDB fitted yesterday and a ride out to Surrey Hills to test. Went for the base settings from CC website for the Orange and these seemed to work pretty well. Didn’t fiddle with it and just got on and rode but the bike definitely felt a bit more controlled on the trails. Not ideal conditions to really start adjusting it so I’ll leave that to another time but so far very happy with the new shock :)

Cane Creek Double Barrel air cs for my Orange 5 :)

Cheers Stuker, thanks for the offer and advice :)

The concern I had with the Elements was how low they were on the ankle, assuming your feet just get wet from water going in the top of the shoe? With my current Defrosters at least I can put my bibs over the shoes to keep the worst of the water from just running in the top. This was the same idea I had with the Impact High’s but I guess if the material just absorbs and holds water anyway then your feet are getting wet.

I was planning to use the local Evans store to try the sizes on :)

Another question, whats the difference with the Element VXi to the none VXi?

Had a fairly disastrous ride tonight with my Spesh Defrosters on flats, no grip whatsoever and my feet were all over the place. Not a surprise really as the soles don’t have anything the pins can locate into. So I know this isn’t a workable solution and I either need to go back to SPD’s or buy some shoes.

One of my ridding buddies had gone back to flats for the winter tonight and she had a pair of 5:10’s which she swore by for winter. They had high ankle support unlike most of them that I’ve seen so far so a quick search and I found the Impact 2 High’s which look pretty good. Although from the info above they obviously aren’t waterproof but I guess a quick treatment with Nikwax should keep some of the water out.

Generally with 5:10’s and fitting in some Sealskins and merino socks I’m assume one size up should be good enough?

Busy day at work today so only just checked this thread, wow, didn’t expect this response :) Looks like I’m not going mad then and there is a real need for this type of shoe/boot that isn’t being filled well in the market.

Currently I’m using Specialised Defrosters, 2014 versions. They are ok but they haven’t kept my feet warm over the last couple of winters and I’ve only stuck with them as they cost me a packet. Was going to use these at first as an experiment just to see if having my feet able to move a bit more helped. My concern was with the sole of the boot not being ideal on the pins but as long as they were good enough for a couple of rides that would be all I needed to try it out.

Strange with how popular flats are now that there isn’t many winter boot options out there!

Cheers Goldigger. I’m about 90Kg or just under fully kitted so with a but of adjustment those setting will be close as a starter :) Found a setup on the CC Lounge for Drew Carters Orange 29’er and they are also in the same ballpark as yours. Do you run any volumes reducers?

Thanks for the correction dirtydog, makes sense. For some reason I lump it into single pivot issues!

Worth giving the FIT4 damper a try then when I next get the forks serviced.

Also got the Bell Super 2R as I fancied a full face but couldn’t justify it against the amount of times I ride at BPW. So this works really well for me as I get to use it all the time but have the extra protection when I need it.

The general feedback seems to be that the Fox shocks don’t seem to gel quite as well with the single pivot setup, or at least previous to the 2016 versions. Lot of positive feedback for coil shocks here but I’m still thinking they are a bit overkill for what I want from my riding and bike. Therefore I’ve gone for a CCDB air cs shock as that seems to be the next best thing and managed to pick one up for a fairly good price last night :) Now just need to work out a base tune when it turns up and go from there.

Also interested in the FIT4 damper upgrade for the 34’s, be keen to hear how you get on with them gelert.

Glad I got a last ride of Evian on Sunday then! Shame as I thought it had survived since Area51 and others had already been destroyed by then but I can understand the issue with the trails being illegal. Only just found Secret Santa this past weekend and was hoping to revisit soon but guess we should give that area a miss in general to help the situation settle down.

Maxx-D on the bars and Diablo on the lid is my combo and it’s fantastic :D Use the Maxx-D on mode 1 and switch between auto high mode and low, the Diablo on mode 4 and tap enabled to switch. Great setup and lasts for ages like this.

Finally got a chance to try the bike with higher air pressure this last weekend. Although I couldn’t find any technical climbs to play on but the bike did feel better and I noticed it wasn’t blowing through the travel under normal riding, it was however able to use the travel when landing jumps etc I’m running the pressure at 210psi now and that’s giving me about 20% sag.

Next step is to get the shock serviced and I’ll explore upgrading the can to the new high volume version. Still intrigued about having it push tuned by TF but by the time you do this, new air can and service, a new shock isn’t much more!

The Fox X2 doesn’t come in the correct size for the Five (190×53) and the CCDB Inline seems to have a lot of reliability issues so either the CCDB air cs or Fox X would be on my wish list.

Thanks for the advice :)

Bought a set of these last winter for my Fatty and been happy with them ever since. Can’t say I inspected them that closely, just fitted and rode. They have been fine for all my riding so far.

Thanks for the feedback guys. As much as I wanted the Hope crankset I was talked out of it by my lbs in preference to a Shimano XT M8000 and just replacing the seized BB bearing. Worked out much cheaper for now as funds became a bit of an issue so for now this will get me back riding the bike but no bling factor :)