I think its a bad idea to scrap masters as it takes a lot of the fun out of it. I like racing my peers. My peers are guys I raced when I was young and fit in the seniors, and now when Im old and not in the masters. I don’t want to end up racing my younger self again. I think the BC is seriously losing the plot in terms of MTB (Enduro and too a much lesser extent DH but more generally it now seems). I predict a legit MTB breakaway before 2015 is out, I just wonder whether XC racing would ever make the jump over or is the lure of the UCI too strong?

The Endura laser is good.

It does seem like a bit of a flawed design, specifically as the saddle is sprung, the seat position will get lower as the child gets older/heavier, which is exactly the opposite of what you would want!

Heres another couple for you – WTB i25 or Sun Helix TR are both very reliable and good value to boot. More expensive rims are a waste of money IMHO…

I’ll post up later if we’re getting more in.

The Zees? Complete yes. Ready to mount – also yes, if you don’t mind long hoses, but as with all brakes you really should chop them down to the right length. We’re out now though, but I am hoping our supplier will send me a few extra!

Happen often here in Crowthorne. Sunday morning ride through a rave is a normality!

All bike shops should charge you full price on C2W purchases, the rules usually state it applies to purchases at RRP.
Certainly the HMRC scheme does….

There’s no restriction on price from HMRC. It’s the huge commissions that halfords/cyclescheme etc take that keeps bikes at RRP

Ive got a load of maxxis/one industry ones you can have. Cost you a stamp :)

It’s near the join? It’s to allow the welding of the joint on both sides AFAIK. I’m guessing they are welded rims.

Good to hear Thegreatape.

Blue with black forks looks pretty damn good in my opinion ;)

I’m getting a new mountain bike, which is the first in a long time. And its got stuff that I’ve not had before – tubeless tyres and an air sprung fork.

So a couple of questions. What sort of pressure do I run tubeless tyres at for singletrack stuff and how much air to I put in the forks – I know it depends on my weight (69kg) and I take it the forks will have a guide included.

and do forks come with a pump or do I need to buy one?

You’ll need to top up the tubeless every 6 months or so with new fluid to stop it drying out – we’d recommend Caffe Latex fluid but stans or other brands of latex based fluid will be fine. An injector makes life easier too.

On the forks there’s a guide on the back of the fork, I’d recommend 90% of whatever it says for your weight.

Pumps, any generic shock pump will do from fox/RS/Xfusion/topeak etc. The Beto ones you see on fleabay are actually very decent too.

I was my Osprey in the washing machine regularly. Never had a problem.

A bird aeris in small (or xs) will be under 3kg.

I ran an 11-36 > 3 set up for a couple of years, and it worked fine. Im now running lots of variants, while X1 is nice for other reasons just than the big range, I still think an 11 > 40 range is fine for the UK. Paired with a 32 or 34 thats good for pretty much any terrain I’ve ridden in the UK depending on your fitness. I would rather see a 10 speed 11 > 40 cassette with a revised rear mech to add some cable arm clearance TBH, rather than yet another speed group set. That would sell by the bucket load.

Is the fork new? They come with Maxles.

DT Comp Races are nice.

Two pieces of advice Ive found from a couple of years of messing about with 1x.

First, move your chain line over by moving 1 spacer from the drive to non-drive side of the BB, which will help correct the chain line a bit. Second, controversially and contrary to most other advice I would lengthen not shorten your chain. If your chains tend to throw from the underside of the ring, I have found that running a longer chain helps reduce the angle of the chain exiting the ring, which kills the grind as well as aids chain retention. Changing the chain length won’t fix it throwing from the top I have found.

With a 40T ring you should be able to run any mech on an HT, and anything other than a zee/saint on an FS no worries. Set up is normally a breeze and you won’t need special b tension screws or the like, in fact you won’t even need to screw the current one all the way in. Only thing to watch is that the chain will catch the cable arm on forged mechs like XT occasionally. SLX/Zee are better for this as the folded plate has more clearance.

The problem is that AC is quoting roadie specs. Roadie 9spd is different than 10, and different again to 11 in terms of cassette width. 9 is 1.0mm wider than 10 (hence the spacer) and 1.85 less than 11. MTB on the other hand is the same for 9 as 10, meaning that you need a different spacer set up. As you have discovered, the 1.85 is all you need for MTB 10 > 11… don’t get me started on supplying 11spd free hubs on MTB wheels though!

The simplest way to look at this I think is that the bikes are effectively 22mm different before you take the bars into account. Bars are not a good way to change the ‘length’ of a bike. 710 is short, 790 is long. You probably will be most comfy somewhere in between (most people are). The length of your bars is something you should determine without the influence of how long it makes a bike feel, as more important factors like your shoulder width are at play. What is true, is that if you want a bike to feel the same when you lengthen the bars, its advisable to shorten the stem at the same time. not only does it effect your reach to the bars, but long bars can feel disconnected from the steering as they require little leverage and long movements to effect a change in direction, so a shorter stem helps bring back some of the more direct and involved feel of the steering again.

Whyte is longer, lower and slacker, more up my street, hence the IMHO

Just FYI the Bird is as long as the Whyte when comparing stand over and ETT length (which is the only two measurements that really count size wise), in fact the bird is longer in S & M sizes, and marginally shorter than the Whyte in L & XL, the BB is only 3mm different when running the same travel forks, and if you want we can slacken it slacker the whyte HA from the factory… FWIW most people that try the bird and the whyte and then go on to buy the bird do so _because_ of the head angle among other reasons, but of course there’s probably as many going the other way for the same reason!

I must confess to driving past and thinking ‘rather them than me’. Good work on the fatty though Jon.

Earlier this year i used el stravos to record my speed on my 150mm, supertackied up FS bike and got to almost 55mph just by freewheeling over the top of the hill.

And that is why you should never trust strava. Last time I got to 50mph on an MTB I was draughting a transit van about 6 inches from its back door… on a road, on a bloody big hill. Downhill world cup racer rarely breach 40mph. Hell even TDF riders seldom beat 60.

Some companies do, some don’t. We do change the length of the CS on our hardtails, but on the FS we dont as its long enough already, adding more length for the sake of it doesnt really get us much. We also spec wider bars, longer cranks, and bigger seatposts on the bigger bikes too. One thing I never did get though is the speccing longer stems on bigger bikes. How exactly does that help anyone?

Velvets dont get as discounted as RS so you’ll pay more for Velvets no doubt. If they are the right spec the Revs are a match for a velvet.

We supply velvets and sweeps on some models of our bikes – never had one back in the whole time. They are great forks and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them! My only gripe and its a little one is that the axle on the sweep needs to be knurled to make it easier to fit. I have mentioned this to X-Fusion… maybe one day they will do it!

The DLA forks are less reliable though – as mentioned they need servicing regularly to keep the seals in the DLA mechanism from leaking. We’re only talking every year mind, its not horrific, but if you’re the sort of person that buys something and ignores it until its dead, then death of a DLA fork will be quicker than you might like. Upgrade (The importers) are brilliant in dealing with any issues on them though. Before we set up Bird I had a set of DLAs go on me after about 6 months, but they fixed it and sent them back to me in under 48hrs. Great service!

Dhr2 Would be my choice, even better for wet would be a dhr2 Rr shorty front. Actually I would use a dhr2 fr and Rr over the dhf for wet riding.

Matt from middleburn dropped it round ;) we are working on some things together. Not sure if they are for sale yet, but the last version I saw was very production ready (IMHO) so I expect soon.

TF Tuned or http://www.mountainbikecomponents.co.uk/

I have one on my current bike (well one of them). First impressions are really good – the hardcoat really kills some of the grind that you get on other brands when muddy. The newer gen ones are nicer looking and lighter than mine but thats ok… I don’t mind… honest.

Yeah we often do it. Even worse if you have converted a 2x chainset! Im running a Middleburn Mono ring at the mo for testing, and one of the nice things is its a lot less grindy!

Not sure if you ever sorted out the issues, but we find that Pikes dont like running below about 75PSI. The transition from the LSC to the HSC is very harsh in those conditions, meaning the fork will only properly run on Open mode with little LSC. In order to get it working right I would suggest that you should have someone change the oil out for a much lighter grade, which will reduce the compression damping to a point where its workable with a light rider.

Sounds like a big faff I know, but it will transform the bike.

Pendle do a ton of 2 bike options, so maybe them?

Yawn.
Wait until you see it, then comment! Same every new generation

Seen it. It’s fugly.

High Volume and Standard Volume. High Volume shocks have more air in them to compensate for certain riding characteristics, but they tend to be very linear – heavy guys need lots of air in them. Luckily you can just change the shock to a standard can, but thats a bit of an expensive upgrade.Rule of thumb is avoid HV shocks if over about 13st.

Also, don’t get hung up on certain ‘stats’. Yes the ghost has a low leverage ratio, but thats not the whole story, its also linear, very linear. That means its going to wallow about a lot as there’s no real resistance in the frame design to moving through the travel, which means you are totally reliant on the shock. So what you gained in low ratio you just gave back in a very flat shock curve.

Choice of shock is way more important than leverage ratio in most cases. Both those ghosts have hv Shocks in the picture, which means they probably would need a new shock either way. Look for something low to medium that uses an sv can and you’ll be fine I would expect.

Remove your inner chainring & left shifter and add a top chain device. 1x done. No Thick thin / clutch mech etc. needed. While thick thin works its a bit smoke and mirrors too – its not good enough to run without a clutch mech on really rough stuff, and its not as good as a chain device. Its nice and simple if you are starting from scratch, but if you have no clutch or a 9spd set up (so no clutch option) then a chain device is the simplest and most effective option.

aren’t most £1000 hardtails generic far east frames with budget equipment on . I think it looks nice

Many are I suspect but FWIW but the Bird Zero is designed entirely by us right down to the butting on the tubeset. We do all the 3d modelling, FEA etc. here in the UK and then send out the specifications to Taiwan for manufacture. We then import bare painted frames and do all the assembly here in the UK. As we hold huge parts stock you get the benefit of direct pricing while still being able to spec loads of options (alot at no charge) and your bike still gets to you in under 7 days. Every part on that bike is picked to give the best blend of value, weight and long life, hence why even a £995 Zero has an XTR BB, XT Cassette, Spoon saddle, Hope seat clamp… the list goes on. <Blatant Ad Over />

It’s the 3c that’s the issue not the hrs. Minions only come in 3c I think so they won’t help. Try hr2 dual compound, or wmb vigilantes for harder wearing tyres.