I’m not sure where they got 1300grms from. States as 1005grms on the maxxis web site and I have one on my enduro 29er, weight in at 1050grms on my scales, not light but you don’t notice a massive difference in inertia over a magic mary.

Mikeep – I took the tyre that’s downstairs, and I weighed it.

66.5 is slack if you take nothing else into account, its running 160 forks so its about the same as a 68.5 on 120 forks or 67.5 with 140 forks… ish… sort of, which isn’t very slack for a modern bike, in fact its steeper than the SC Hightower.

Well, no, that’s not true. How do you set up sag on *your* bikes?
The SC Hightower is also pretty slack for a 29er, with a 67 degree HA (on the 140mm fork – put the chubbies on there with 150mm fork and it’s a bit slacker again). Set them both at 20% sag though, and the Yeti is still slacker. Although it’s hard to tell the difference on the trail unless you’re going hard, at which point you notice the extra 20mm on the Yeti.

Long Low & slack = journalism speak for middle of the road

Well, it’s *quite* long (admittedly, not as long as a Mondy, but hey) – not the longest reach, no, as you’ll see if you read the article,but the frontcentre is up there thanks to the HA and the fork travel. It’s got a very low standover though, and is 66.5 degrees HA on a 29er not classified as slack these days?

Perchy. This is LIBELLOUS! But you are far, far from the first to mention me and Nick Knowles in the same breath. Although your photo of Alex Horner (I believe) resembles art chap Rob much more than it resembles Mark…

And you are so, so wrong about pies. There’s nothing wrong with a behatted casserole, but it’s not a pie, and IT NEVER WILL BE

tomthumb – I think the BoC is Music has the Right to Children… but yes, it is utterly awesome :-)

Personal electronica fave is maybe that ^^, Plaid’s Not For Threes, or Dumb Flesh by Blanck Mass

Aphex: it’s apparently the Element Urban WS SO print jacket.

crashtestmonkey – Pretty much the only thing I wasn’t obsessed with as a kid, really. Well, that, football and reggae :-)

‘Tuatara Idro 3D0’ just rolls off the tongue if you’re used to making ‘brrrm’ motorbike noises does it? :-P

I’ll ask :-)

Love this :-)

Yorkycsl – here’s the first part of my long termer review: http://singletrackworld.com/reviews/long-termer-santa-cruz-hightower-part-1/

I assume you’ve seen this? http://singletrackworld.com/reviews/long-termer-santa-cruz-hightower-part-1/

I’m a fan…

Cokie – you don’t *have* to read it…

This is the last time I’ll be prompt, I promise…

It’s on the front page.

a lot of large frame are still made with 20″ seatubes

For the majority of bikes and frames these days, I think you’re wrong. Even BITD centre to top the majority of L frames were around 19inch C2T…

But, despite frames changing shape to be longer/lower/slacker, why are large frames still coming out with 20″ seatubes! Why not just give us ~17″ seatubes and beef them up enough to take 420mm posts.

Grinds my gears! Why does a 20″ frame need a dropped top tube and a seatpost brace when no one runs a 20″ post at max extension anyway, just make it an 18″ or smaller frame!

Well, the XL Kona Process 111 and 153 (and I suspect the 134, although I’ve not ridden it) have 18.6in seat tubes. Which, with the KS posts they come with, isn’t long enough for me. The new XL Hightower I’m testing has a seat tube over an inch lower than the Tallboy LT it replaces, and it’s on the cusp for me with a 150mm Reverb…

(here’s a pic of it with the saddle at full extension, just for you)
There are plenty of others. The Kona in particular was apparently designed with the impending (at the time) 170mm droppers in mind, but until they appear on the market us longshanks have to make do.

And I’m not the tallest, at 195cm or thereabouts.

Bangs is the technical term, I believe…

I’d heard as much.

Next weeks, probably!

But I’m still hoping this doesn’t preclude the random gif/jpeg sessions that this thread usually engenders :-)

It’s been up for ages!

Sorry.

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/fresh-goods-friday-282/

Was a bit late (not that there’s a time limit, but hey) because there was loads in it this week… we have one fatbike in the office and a few chubbies right now for the record – but it’s mostly a co-ordination issue with kids to nursery etc etc.

But the valley bottom from Tod east to Halifax isn’t too bad – snow in the air, but it mostly turned to slush on the ground… BOO

first born – signet ring on ring finger of right hand – stamping of seals and so on. Second born and on – little finger.

No reason that I know of; just what I was told as a nipper.

Go figure.

They’re not cycling specific trews, andybrad – they’re just moleskin trews. I daresay you could cycling in them if you fancied…

Thomas Covenant…

Jakd95 – I couldn’t ride. At all. I lived in Bristol; the woods were closed as they had deer in them. I used to go out for road rides but that was it. Bridleways were out of bounds; anything which went close to farmland was prohibited.

When they finally lifted the ban I remember going out for 3 hours after work to Aston Court and Leigh Woods on magically restored trails. It was completely amazing. It felt like some sort of catharsis.

There are a couple of really good coffee places on Andrassy Ut. about half way between Erzsebet Square and the Varosliget. Just before you get to the Oktogon. My info is a few years old tho. It’s also a fabulous place to take a stroll. Plus ice skating in the winter at the Varosliget by the weird fantasy castle!

Love Budapest; awesome place. Plus there is (possibly were) cheeky downhill trails in the Pest hills.

Mind you, so is the Basque country:
http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/nukeproof-launch-2014-two-days-in-a-basque-country/

Ainsa is awesome. That is all.

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/editors-choice-barneys-picks-for-the-year/

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ard-rock-enduro-announces-jenn-hill-trophy-for-hardtails/%5B/url%5D

Philwarren11 – the bike we’re testing has a threaded BB…

That sounds pretty feasible to me. I do remember the marketing types saying 6061 was better because you could heat treat it, but I strongly smelled bullshit even then. Didn’t stop me from lusting after a US made Zaskar tho ;-)

letmetoalktomark – one of the guys at the Caratti warehouse had a 19″ xixang – boy, I coveted that…

allan23 – I’m pretty sure I was still working in the bike shop when they went 7005 – which would be around 1998/1999. Unless they were still 6061 and they just moved production to Taiwan for the Zaskar.

Oh, I dunno. I’ll ask. ;-)

Yeah, rocketdog, but where’s the fun in that? ;-)

You’ll get it at lunchtime, same as it ever was…

…almost *too* dusty – not a phrase I thought I’d ever say ;-)

If you can afford it I’d go for boost, personally. You can adapt normal hubs for a boost fork if you need to; you can’t adapt a normal fork for boost hubs…

Okay people, you’re beginning to feel a bit…

…stalkerish

;-)

I did actually check with the chaps at CSG (the distributors) at the Bike Place on Monday before I put this up. What I took from that conversation is that originally the Zaskar was 6061, and then it changed to 7005, but the LE remained 6061. They were both made in the US.

Later on, 7005 Zaskars were made in Taiwan with the LEs remaining with US production out of 6061. IIRC the Taiwanese frames could say “made in the US” if you bought a whole bike, and it was assembled there. But it wasn’t, it was made in Taiwan.

And from selling them in the nineties I also recall that the separate frames you could buy sometimes had different features to the whole bikes, so a Zaskar LE bike could have a different frame to the Zaskar LE frame you’d buy separately.

Not that it’s at all complicated or anything.

Ha! Hello yorkycsl – a great little ride that was :-) The Hightower in the pics (that I rode) was an XL…

Cheers!

First ride thingy from last year here: http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2016-orbea-the-loki/

I don’t recall heel rub on the Loki overly (and I don’t mention it)… although it can certainly be an issue on some boosted frames.

I agree with Doug though – chubbies aren’t that super grippy, but you get scads of really predictable drift. in the dry the traction is amazing. Look out for all that to change though as new chubby tyres come out.

Sorry folks, that was a typo. Fixed now. For the record, Evil are distributed by Silverfish.

Sorry once again…