I’ve got one on the hardtail and it has not been any bother, just replaced the chain and front ring up to 36t from 32t, but I won’t be throwing the old chain away, still plenty wear. The 1×10 sunrace 11-46 cassette, xt shifter / xtr mech , Kmc chained Franken-drive on the other bike gives me a load more grief. The only thing I don’t like about sram is you can’t back shift on the shifter.

The back of his van says “Danny Hart road racing” we might see him in the TDF if that’s anything to go by.

It all depends on what types trails you ride 95% of the time . If my regular was trail centre I’d go max 140 travel probably less, as the Enduro just dead’s the trails and they become a bit boring. As for 29 vs 27.5  the only comparison I can give is my mate has a similar geo 29 LT with similar gearing travel etc, on flowy trails the 29 just seems so much more effortless, I had to pedal like mad to maintain speed, where as he just kept going, however when it got steep  techy and twisty it was the opposite.

I risked it with the wife and funnily enough, pulled it off. It was the next bike that was the problem, and the fat bike had to go to allow for the new play thing. I loved my fatty but it just didn’t get ridden enough once the novelty wore off. Like you I live near the beach and had a couple of pretty cool little loops worked out, but it just lacked variation, and the ADHD set in. Or maybe it was the 3 mile road ride all uphill, into a headwind, on a fat bike with 8psi in the tyres,  after every ride that put me off.

A mate was up there yesterday, still pretty dry, dhf / dhr should cover most bases.

Is Hamsterley a ski resort what’s this “off piste” people talk of.

23 1/2 mins on the vets on an 2016 sb6 with a major hold up on 7. Mate rode a 21 and a bit in vets on a transition patrol, another did a 24mins on a steel hardtail.

Not sure how Ard Rock times can relate to bike manufacturers, too many variables, tyres / suspension/ rider ability/ fitness/ age ( maybe not given peatys time) etc .

Teenrat – don’t think the marathon needs to fund the Enduro races.

As for tearing tyres on stage 3 & 4 , it’s the dales, it’s rocky, it always has been. You  makes your choices. I can’t see how this is a complaint against the event.

Have a look at praxis press fit bb’s you install a threaded sleeve and the thread in both bb’s. Had one on a hardtail for the last 8 months and no issues.

Usual doggers,

rode through the middle of a crime series being filmed in near by woods, thought it was a police search at first then saw all the camera’s, they were not to please when I popped up out of nowhere.

Man having a poo on a trail.

Loads of incoherent, gap tooth alcoholics that shout something at you and do that alcie hand gesture when riding through the villages round here.

Highly recommend. Saved my frame from so major hits a few times.

As above the xtr m970 work with no issues / doggy chain line on a boost bike. Ran the xtr’s for 4 years on a non boost bike, bought a boost frame and went boost xt, they lasted a handful of rides, heavier and no where near as strong. The good old xtr are back on, and no issues, very quiet,  efficient shifting.

Sillyoldman – are the trails easy to find? in short no. That said where there’s a will there’s a way. I’ll pm you a few pointers, also message the thrunton trail builders on the FB page  , there is usually someone up there most weekends if not sometimes through the week. They are a pretty sound bunch and happy to show round. What week are you in Northumberland? If I’m around I’d happily show you a few trails.

what type of riding you after? Thrunton woods is about 1/2 hr away for natural rock and root trail riding . There’s also the Cheviots for some big xc days out if that’s your bag.

I snort a dextrose / salbutamol mixer. If it’s good enough for team sky it’s good enough for me.

Reduce your ride time on hot days, would be a hot tip.

Then buy an Avalanche damper and have a fork that would make a £1000 36 feel stiff and awkward for 1/2 the price.

Still loads of options on helvellyn without coming down stick pass. In my opinion  dollywagon is rubbish, just a whole bunch of man made stone water ditches to cross and it becomes a bit of a boring ball ache manualing over them ever 20 yards, unless that’s your thing. 2 of the best ways down are either birkside of the top or sticks pass west rather than east. Both take you down to thirlmere you can then pedal down to grasmere and pedal / hike a bike back up to grisedale tarn via the bridleway from grasmere and then you have that great descent from the tarn back to glen ridding. About 5500ft in all if you got to the top of helvellyn. Skiddaw / ullock are awesome especially the scree switchback descent off Skiddaw rather than the straight traverse, which is still very very good. But do pick your times, if you are not aware it’s a footpath and very busy at the moment and avoiding any unnecessary conflict between walkers and mountain bikers is no bad thing for us all.

Any locals know if stage 5 is liver damage ? Course looks mint.

As Marin said Cervina is harder than Pila. Pila is just super fast park with berms, jumps and built up switch back, a lot of fun for a day. Cervina is more like the EWS trails at la Thule a lot more natural , and long if you go from the top it’s a good 15-20mins plus some, of constant descending, fast but a lot more rock and root, yes if I remember right a lot more rock. They hold the maxi avalanche there, part of the mega avalanche series, so it’s no xc loop. I really liked it.

Dont be put off by the Italians in full body armour, from my time there they either wear Lycra for xc / road or full robocop body armour for just about  every thing else.

Not sure why everyone is knocking Cervina looks wise it’s not that bad, definitely not the best a bit like  an Italian slightly tatty version of tignes.

Riding wise cervina is pretty cool, all is lift accessed and is a mix of Pila type downhill stuff with some long la thuile style single track, a couple of the trail start right up at the top 3000m+ in the snow and glacier fields. There is a good 2 days riding if you did all the trails and a couple twice. Top to bottom they are about twice the length of la thuile and similar length to Pila’s long one back to aosta.

We stayed in valtourneche which is about 5 miles down the valley from cervina, it’s only a little village and much more classical alpine. There is single track from cervina to the village and a public bus with bike racks to get up to cervina. For food the best we found was the foyer des guides in the village , definitely not the cheapest but outstanding.

for some real find your way single track get a map the get the cable car and chair lifts to the top of the little village chamois and then take the footpaths back to valtourneche. It’s only a couple hours riding and not the hardest but very picturesque.

If you do go check season start dates and if the lifts are running on that day, the Italian often have a day a week with limited lift access. The lifts start very early in cervina as the glacier is the national ski summer training ground and they get up there very early in the morning before the snow melts.

Pila is very bike park and can get pretty blown out late in the season. We did last day last year and it was a foot of talc with 1 foot brake bumps underneath.

It Was a great day, absolutely brilliant, really well organised and jeez it’s grown since 2016.  esselgruntfuttock I spoke with one of his mates who said he was in ok spirits despite a pretty serious crash, hopefully a lot was precautionary and he makes a quick recovery.

Porter_jamie that’s a bargain, I’d need to buy 2 packs because I’d have eaten the first by the time I got to yours. I’m not going to find out you live in the SW of Uk and it’s like a 10 hr drive.

Great thanks for the responses seems it’s work a go.

I regularly ride with one. The crumbs can help thicken tubeless fluid to block those pesky to stop punctures, and they can double up as an absorbent dressing for a bit of trail side triage.

And of course if you don’t use them for this when you get back to your car you can enjoy them as a tasty energy rich snack reward.

On longer rides you could take 2.

Bigjim maybe glentress is different and fc Scotland put significant financial support into trail building but there are plenty of trail centres where they don’t, they just provide land which they have a statutory duty to provide amenity access, and little to no financial support. I bet car park ticket turnover and many sites runs into the £100’s thousands pounds take away the trails and it would be a fraction of the level, so yes reap the rewards. Lol? I have nothing against volunteer group building great trails to very high standards, said groups seeking funding through charitable donations grants etc, I just think in many but not all cases the FC could give more money back to the trail builder groups for further trail building and maintenance. I’m sure there’s not many trail builder groups that would object to even 5% of revenue from parking going trail building.

If it brings further tourism and money into the local economy than that’s no bad thing. However are the new trails construction to be funded by the FC or are they operating the same policy as many FC England sites ie get volunteer trail building organisations to pay for and build the trails then reap the financial rewards that this brings in, with little if any money going back to the trail builders?

The reason why many people don’t like them is they are a reminder of our sad demise and the inevitability of getting old.  With a touch of generalisation thrown in.  Most those in their 20’s  30’s and early 40s that rant on at how terrible they are will by the time they are in their 50s, maybe sooner, be either buying one, be e-curious or have buggered off and taken up golf.

Very easy, tap out the old cups, I tend to use a socket extension bar, but if you can get your removal tool in all the better. Then press in the new bb, have used the threaded bar and washer method but now have a posh headset press. I use copper grease, even on carbon and have never have an issue or creak.

I wouldn’t call yeti a main manufacturer yet, they are still very boutique compared to the likes of giant and Specialized, I’d image compared to Santa Cruz who many still regard as boutique there sales numbers will be tiny. Boutique isn’t necessarily a good thing though.

Dont read too much into what’s “in” in the world of geo. When the SB6 came out in 2014 there was plenty people including loads on here that said the chainstays were too long as at the time the “in” trend was for shorter stays yet now longer stays seem to be the trend.  Go ride one there’s plenty of demo days in the uk, and then form an opinion if the geo is outdated.

If it’s fast enough for Graves (was) and rude, who have raced on the 5c, 6c and a 5.5c 29er then I’m sure it’s fast enough and modern enough for the rest of us mortals.

i think the frames are getting stupidly expensive at £3500 now but then so are all high end frames, just look at the new Stanton £2500 for a steel frame.

Never had an issue on 3 bikes, ran hope, praxis and Chris King B.B. all without problems, no creaks, don’t see why people whinge about them, easy to put in and take them out. It wouldn’t put me off buying a bike.

Because he doesn’t wear a helmet. The Queen wears one, all be it with jewels on, he needs to take a leaf out of her book and I’m sure the invite will speed it’s way through the post .

As long as your not getting flutters and are recovering well, with your HR coming back down well, after peak intensity, I’d not panic. I think you may have found your HR Max . I was a bit similar I thought it was 169 but have found new levels of suffering and can pip it at 182, that said over 175 gets pretty damn uncomfortable. For reference I’m over 10 yrs your senior.  As above if your worried or if your resting HR starts to climb significantly further see your GP .

I gave up on mine, it ran perfect for about 3 months then started skipping in the 9t , 10t & 12t under load. Particularly the 12t.

I tried chain tension, b limiter screw but nothing worked. I replaced those 3 cogs and it worked again but only lasted 2 months. I was running a 28t front ring and wonder if a bigger front ring might of helped, though I don’t see how.  The newer ones seem to have changed design a bit and are only 2 pieces not 3 so maybe this is something that’s been sorted. It was a real shame as when it worked the range was great.

This flies in the face of the phase ‘the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts’

I’ve had mine on my bike for about 8-9 months with a fair few rides now. Can’t fault it. Traction is immense compared to old air shock, love how it handles roots and rock, the float x used to just give up on repeated fast hits, this never changes. Tend to run it in the middle hsc setting most of the time. There is a lot less pedal bob, if any than I thought there would be.  A 500lb spring matched up with my bike and my weight and gave 30% sag but I put a 550 on as I prefer it a bit stiffer, currently at 25%. The original ohlins spring was also a tad heavy, so I went cane creek vault, which is much lighter and not yellow.  I’ve put the air shock back on out of curiosity on a couple of more xc type rides and hated it.

I’d replace it with a hope bb. The e13 bearings are made of cheese. Went through 2 sets in a few months over winter, never again.

+1 for it working . I have a ultegra long cage mech on a 11-36 with a 36 /50 on the front end. Works fine .

I had this problem, the only way I stopped it was to wrap a strip of scotch 2228 tape round the bar then torque the clamp down onto it.

Can’t fault my northwave Celsius 2 boots. A few years old now and good as new. They keep my feet warm on everything from snowy sub zero rides to spinning on the turbo in my Baltic garage.