By default (i.e. nae cable tension), the remote lockout is closed (locked out), so you’d have to take the damper out and disengage a spring. I’m not sure if that would be sufficient to then turn the old cap into a lockout or not. Tbh the damper is good enough that I wouldn’t be bothered.

To change the travel you’d need to replace the air spring with a shorter one and (optionally) add a couple of bottomless tokens if you’re following RS’s recommendations (120mm has none, 100mm has two).

Given that one needs a bit of faffing and the other an additional purchase, I’d go for the RL version. Although double check on the process of converting RL to crown; there was a thread here the other day about it, I think.

How much longer? Rear QR skewers are an inch longer.

How about On-One? Smorgasbord on the back (2.25″) chunky monkey on the front (2.4″)? Made by Maxxis, good UK tyres, cheap and cheerful.

It’s not better for climbing, but climbing seems to be out of fashion now.

Northwind – Member

@asdfhjkl, inners red is easier than comrie red, and not bad at all. The black is a bit harder- maybe slightly easier than comrie black? It’s the dh and endless offpiste that ups the game a bit

Ahhh, I wasn’t sure if you meant the red was nadgery or the inners area in general. Thanks for the reply.

Duggan – Member
Servicing my headset last night. I’m terrible at maintenance and agonised for ages over whether to take it to the shop or try myself. Reluctantly decided to do myself and heart in mouth started to disassemble….then took out the cartridges, cleaned, re-lubed and put back as I found it.

Total job time- 25 mins including discussing local parking issues with my neighbour.

Now I see.

I’ve been putting off doing this for a few weeks now because I suspected an infrequent creak was dirt in the headset. Inspired by your post, I decided to do it tonight.

Bottom bearing (a sealed cartridge bearing) was so manky and rusted that it’s fallen apart, little balls all over the floor. Oh well, replacements ordered :roll: My “oh… right…” moment was realising that my part of Scotland is so wet and muddy that I ought to service the headset more than once a year!

Northwind – Member
Ironic that the red route’s so lacklustre really considering what a ridiculous concentration of awesome it is. Provided you’re comfortable with a certain level of peril, anyways

Thinking of doing the red XC next week – in what way is it perilous? If it’s difficulty-wise, how does it compare to Comrie Croft? I’m fine with the reds there.

AlexSimon – Member
Yes, but the strange thing is that missing 2km, so that meant it didn’t get a gps signal for about 15mins. I’ve never had anything like that.

That’s not uncommon, though. There are so many factors which can stop the GPS getting a good fix that it’s difficult to identify what in particular caused the problem.

With the disappearing segments and KOM thing, segments can disappear entirely if the person who created them decides to delete them or make them private, or if someone flags a segment as hazardous. Sometimes segments disappear from view but still exist and record; they show up as “hidden” segments on your ride and you can un-hide them using the website. No idea what’s caused this – it started happening more a few months ago. I think they maybe tried to automate cutting down on duplicate or “uninteresting” segments.

Unattainable high speeds sounds like GPS problems. Sometimes it lags behind for a moment, then suddenly jumps ahead as it gets an accurate fix, thinking you moved very quickly from A to B. Alternatively, if the GPS is sketchy then it jumps about a bit, adding distance (and therefore speed) over the time you were moving.

I’ve got a Polar M400 and it’s a fantastic bit of kit. It has way more features than I’ll ever need. The activity tracking stuff is good too, if you’re also looking for something like a Fitbit but with proper GPS and HRM support.

But jeez, Polar’s software is just awful. They’re about the only GPS manufacturer who don’t support automatic uploads to services like Strava etc. Their own web service is pretty awful and mostly exists so you can go online and export it for uploading to other websites. The Android app is pretty bad too.

Shame really as the hardware is great and their customer support is brilliant – I’ve had mine fixed under warranty twice now. They’re easy to deal with and my watch was returned to me the next day (sent special delivery, fixed that afternoon, came with the post following day). I’d recommend them as an alternative to Garmin if you aren’t fussed about having to manually export stuff to add to Strava.

No.

I’ve never owned or ridden a full suspension bike before so I’d like to try one. I fancy a Canyon Nerve or Spectral.

More realistically, I really want to build up a Cotic Soul.

I like Akrigg because he does amazing things in the sorts of places I would ride too. I think he’s more relatable than others for that reason, like someone else suggested above.

I’m a decent climber and have yet to come across anything (proper hills included) that I can’t ride up on my 36T cassette, nevermind with a 45T expander or whatever people use now. If I don’t ride it, it’s because gears wouldn’t make a difference and the bike’s on my shoulder instead. Going 1×10 or 1×11 is not for everyone but it’s great for those fit enough or who have it set up to meet their needs.

IMO the minimum worthwhile upgrade would be to something with the Motion Control damper (Recon Gold RL, not TK; or Reba). A second hand Reba should fall within your budget. You could get a new Recon for a little over yer budget.

I sometimes take my bike and the rest of my kit in the back of the car going to work, so if it’s an awrite day I can leave early for a ride on the way home.

On smooth solid surfaces (like roads), a slick tyre grips better because the entire contact patch is on the surface. A treaded tyre, on the other hand, has most of its contact between the tread and surface. Hence less grip. Water on the surface may affect the grip between tyre and surface, but it has this same effect on tread. Treaded tyres actually are worse off because they have less tyre in contact with the surface. Also, bikes don’t aquaplane (too slow, tyres too narrow, pressure too high).

On loose surfaces, a treaded tyre digs in generates grip; this includes the vertical profile of the knobs as they come in contact with dirt, roots, rocks, etc. A slick tyre can’t do this as well and it sinks in, generating its grip through its contact patch with the surface. This difference is also why lower pressures create less rolling resistance off-road: the tyre can deform and deflect more, generating greater contact with the surface.

Edit: I’d say it’s better to have tread and not always need it than to have fully slick tyres and find yourself in situations where you’d benefit from a little tread, which is the case with CX/gravel/whatever it’s called.

fr0sty125 – Member
Well sending me a dispatch notice if the item has not actually been dispatched is pretty much lying.

What’s the alternative? When it’s dispatched, they’ve processed it and it’s ready for the courier to do their bit. But they can’t control when the courier picks it up, how long it sits idle with the courier, or when the courier takes it out for delivery.

I’d like to think it’s an error with their comment system, rather than someone actually thinks the Pinkbike comments section is highly regarded enough for astroturfing.

You could lock the bikes in the bike racks inside Glasgow Central, which is slightly less a bad idea than locking them to the car roof.

1860 here. Freezing during the winter (I work from home, sat in my office with a wooly hat and two jumpers on, rather than putting on the heating) but nice during the summer months. Huge windows which let in lots of light but can be draughty. Like everyone else has said, condensation is pretty much inevitable. Dehumidifiers help.

Non-dropper post here and the brands of all three are different. My QR seatclamp is from a fourth brand. Just as well my tyres are the same brand or the bike fashion police would be after me.

Royal Mail 2nd class small parcel costs £2.80. I’ve sold various bike bits on eBay without any bother, though not tyres. I usually charge about £3 for postage there, to cover other costs (packaging materials, paper, etc).

I wouldn’t bother selling something for less than a tenner (not including postage) since it wouldn’t really be worth my time. Look at recently ended auctions for similar items to see what sort of price you can expect to get. They (eBay) recommended you start your auctions at a low price to attract more bids but I always set it to the least amount of money I’d be happy to let an item go for. Maybe it puts off a few folk from bidding but it means you’re not going to the expense of selling something for just small change.

Servicing C&C hubs. I was always put off by what seemed like a lengthy process with lots of fiddly bits. Turned out fine and I didn’t lose any ball bearings or catch fire.

Does the cable run nice and straight into the mech, or is the cable kinked? Is it a clutch-type mech with a stiff clutch?

Calorie estimates are generally imprecise unless you have something like a heart rate monitor or power meter to help guide the estimation. Even those can be way off. I find Strava the most consistent and conservative in its estimates, whereas Endomondo is all over the place.

Going through Arran costs time and money, though. Not worth it in my opinion.

I’d do a day or two at Glentress and Innerleithen, drive north somewhere (Fort William and Kinlochleven?), then spend the last day at whichever you preferred, or do some other 7 Stanes on the way back. Most of the best of Scotland is either way north or way south.

I also tried to bleed brakes with the syringe on the wrong calliper…

Is the tyre too wide for the rim? They’ll fold over if the rim is too narrow.

I have a Viper 13 and it came with the bladder (bought from Wiggle).

I’m happy with it so far. It’s a hydration pack, though, so I’m not going to pretend it’s an awesome ride-changing product. Its 13L is oodles of space. Enough to carry tools, pump, camera, extra t-shirt and some food, with room leftover.

I’m not sure if any of the features on the Raptor warrant the extra cost, which is why I went for the Viper instead.

+1 Charge Spoon. After six years, or so, it looks a bit beaten up but it’s still as comfy as ever. I think I paid £18 for it.

Nukeproof pedals are also good value, I think. Cheaper than most other pedals, oodles of grip and quite light.

Basic Berghaus tech t-shirts for me. Cheap, light, breathable.

They come with the skewer. Always worth keeping the old ones as spares. I’ve mangled one of them so removed it. It just makes taking the wheel off a wee bit trickier.

Have you cleaned and greased the axle and splines?

m360 – Member
The Recon seems to be heavier than the 30 Gold TK? I’d prefer lighter.

They’re the same weight, going off RockShox’s website. They list the Recon weight with a steel steerer, but the Gold RL has an aluminium one. Once you take that weight off (they say alu is 145g lighter), they both have the same 1660g weight.

You should be able to pick up a Recon Gold RL (not Gold TK) for a little over that amount. Thicker stanchions (32mm instead of 30mm) so a bit stiffer and the RL version comes with the same damper as a Reba (MotionControl, rather than the TurnKey damper in the TK versions).

Osprey fan here. Got a Viper and love it. Bladder doesn’t slosh around like my old CB used to, presumably because of its more rigid shape.

Probably not something they’d have checked.

QR skewers sit in the axle so if they’re dry and flex or rub against the axle, they might creak. Take the skewer out fully and apply some grease along it then reinstall.

If it’s coming from the front wheel when you lean the bike over it could also be a broken axle flexing in the hub. Figuring that out depends on the axle type. If it’s a loose ball bearing type then you could just disassemble and see if the axle comes out in one piece, or not.

Noises move, it might sound like it’s coming from the front but it could be anything really.

QR skewer needing greased? Axle problem?

Why not ride local trails instead? Few things beat a good ride starting and ending at home without any faffing about. It might be less adventurous than the “decent” riding you travel for, but presumably that’s also the sort of riding that’s getting you hurt.

I’d bet that most folk who go to skills courses do so because they wouldn’t know what to practice or how to do it properly in the first place. Never been to one myself but I see the value in them. Get someone who knows what they’re talking about to tell you what you suck at and how to suck less at it. What’s the point in MTFU and practicing if you’re practicing the wrong thing, or doing it incorrectly? That doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a muppet.