100mm is 100mm, the “feels like more travel on a 29er” thing is marketng twaddle because they can’t make longer travel wagon wheelers work properly.

respect to one of the youth riders on an alpine 160 lol

as above see rules 5 and 19.

just put on a rain jacket and ride then you bunch of shandy drinkers, a bit of water and mud won’t kill you.

dales rider you beat me to the gear calculator, what gearing you ride should be decided by how you ride and where you ride rather than with your ego, if you live in norfolk then standard chainsets make sense if you live in south wales like i do then not so much as you cant ride more than a few miles before there is a great big green thing in front of you.
i’ve only recently (18 months ago) started riding a lot of road miles and coming from full suss mounting bikes i tend to just sit and spin as that’s what my body is used to doing hence my choice of a compact. i can grunt big gears up hills at lower cadences if i want to but find the extra energy i use for no gain in speed to be a bit pointless.

i believe the hire bikes require delta cleats if you want to go clipless.

reverb, anything that uses a cable will end up causing problems at some point. the reverb is the market leader for a good reason.

cwmcarn has always been a very boring featureless descent i don’t know what people are getting upset about, can’t ruin something that’s already crap.

i love the brand bigots on this forum, canyon design and make an excellent quality and very well spec’d bike and its cheap rubbish. but put a cotic sticker on some over priced welded up gas pipes and its a work of art and super value.

appears to be legit, none of the tell tale signs of a scammer.

i went from android to i-phone and send it back to get another android phone withing 2 days.

found the iphone to be more of a fashion accessory than a functional device.

i went from android to i-phone and send it back to get another android phone withing 2 days.

found the iphone to be more of a fashion accessory than a functional device.

the rf2 output on a sky box is a pass through from the rf input with a modulated analogue output from the sky box added (on ch68 as standard)the only time digital tv fed from the rf2 will be affected is if one of the mux’s for you digital is on or very close to ch68 as the bleed over will screw up the signal.

holy crap, i thought they were made of aluminium not pig iron.
i used to have an sx trail with coil shocks and deemax’s that weighed about that.
my current strive is lighter with peddles and a dropper, still its a 29er so doesn’t need peddling up hills as they can ignore the laws of physics and gravity simply by the power advertising.

a 29er epic is a good idea.
a 29er stumpy is acceptable.
a 29er enduro is a step to far.

the yanks will lap it up though.

you tend to get very high side loadings on DH bikes and tubeless tyres can “burp” air out.
also the serious DH boys tend to swap tyres a lot depending on track conditions.

considering some of the ridiculous questions that get asked on this forum i think its quite acceptable.

i’m with DrRSwank they don’t look pretty, functional or well engineered to me, just some overpriced hipster shopping bike.

does the “gift” thing still work? i used to order tons of RC kit from the far east and never paid a penny of duty, i just asked them to mark everything as a gift.

this forum has now officially turned into a who can say they like the stupidest bike competition.

The Rules

pay particular attention to rules 5 + 9.

wheels, always the most cost effective way of improving a bike, a nice light set of hoops make a world of difference.

not a documentary as such but the flying scotsman is a very good film, its on youtube for free too.

i feel exactly the same thing with my strive, lower the forks and it immediately feels heavier to ride, to be perfectly honest i think talas forks are a solution looking for a problem, you can get the same effect by simply shifting your weight slightly.

160 bikes are perfect all rounders, don’t listen to all the “too much bike” hardmen. they only dislike them because their spindly office boy arms aren’t strong enough to lift the extra kilo or so onto the audi’s roof rack.

i traveled alone last year,
fights = £130 return (inc bike) bristol to geneva with easy jet.
transfers = 25 euro
hotel = 30 euro/night

cheap as chips, driving only makes sense if there are 4+ per vehicle.

or just buy a real MX bike and save 4 grand.

that contraption is a joke.

there is no substitute for northwave boots, they are rather expensive hovever.

69ers failed for one simple reason, no one threw millions and millions of pounds in to propaganda campaigns to sell the idea.

around where i live its the opposite, not a 29er tyre in sight at LBS.
and 1 shop i visited told me that 26ers are still out selling wagon wheelers by about 15 – 1 in his shop.
29ers are still very much a niche thing out here in welsh valleys.

because as travel increases more and more compromises have to be designed into the frames to allow clearance for the wagon wheels.
it also comes down to their respective uses, big wheels for fire roads and and the occasional small bump yes by all means.

every long travel 29er i’ve tried was a barge, you don’t so much ride them as wrestle them.

to recap lots of inertia in a straight line = good thing

lots of inertia and deviating from straight line = bad thing

why do you think big wheels are everywhere at XC events and almost non existent at gravity enduro’s and downhill races?

29er hardtail ? yes, i’m actually thinking of getting one as a mile muncher

29er short travel ? possibly useful but i’m not convinced at all

29er “AM” long travel ? nope, never in a million years, they simply do not work for that application, bikeradar and beardies can say what they like i’ve tried a few and they were all crap.

NEWS JUST IN: Whining pussy thread found on STW forum !!!

i wouldn’t bother with cwmcarn its just a horrible climb followed by a boring featureless descent, the breacon gap loop is excellent fun though if your staying in that area.

yep wind chill ads up when your average speed is about 10mph higher.

on another note. what makes this handmade in the north of england bike so cool, yet oranges that are handmade in the north of england so uncool?

i may be missing something here but what exactly makes this frame so special?
it just looks like a generic steel road frame to me.

@warton, my van is perfectly practical, it can carry 5 people and 5 bikes with ease, i just think of it like an estate car, its actually shorter than some estate cars.

5 sets of avid brakes so far all of them absolutely perfect, had far more trouble with hope brakes randomly falling to pieces, if you know how to bleed and change the pads on elixirs PROPERLY they are bullet proof. running 2013 X0 trail brakes at the moment, so much power they could stop a car let alone a mountain bike.

anyone remotely serious about cycling should own a van, there really is no substitute, they’re accommodation, changing facilities, workshops, secure bike storage and transport all rolled into one.