Hi all I’m reasonably new to trainerroad and just finished 6 weeks of mid level sweet spot, and have seen some fantastic results so far. I did my second ftp test last night and noticed that gradient is used in the test, where as only resistance is used in training, it was probably the case with the 1st test 6 weeks ago but I didn’t know the difference as had spent very little time on a smart trainer. I can happily spin up to 320 Watts in training and sit there for some time maintaining inertia, but found this much harder in the test as the gradient destroys inertia.

Is this right and is there anyway of increasing gradient in training to be more prepared next time. Thanks again

im lovin the geo whinging. Every time a bike that is slightly different to the current fashion comes out, people love to whine on. Geometrons were to long, mondrakers were to forward, yetis had too longer stays, now hope is to short. If it rides as well as it looks, which I hear it does, who cares if it’s numbers are a degree or cm out from what is currently in vogue.

Great that they are doing something, but it comes over as marketing hype, as a result of deciding to not jump on the carbon bandwagon and the need to differentiate themselves from the mainstream. Pole bang on about ditching carbon as it’s not recyclable But still spec there bikes with carbon cranks and handle bars, but hey I suppose they aren’t made by them so that doesn’t count.

If sick want to be really believable with their save the Earth cred maybe they should rethink making their ti frames in Taiwan and shipping them 1/2 way round the world.
maybe they just want to sound like right on, know it all’s who’s ethics are better than the rest of the bike industry or is it just a marketing angle of a small bike builder wanting to sell more bikes?
Both make great looking bikes mind, but if I ended up buying one it won’t be because they ditched carbon for “environmental “ reasons.

Jeez, I’ve had no luck. I’ve just built a niner ( now gone into administration) bike with American classic wheels, If Thompson and Sram go pop there wil be nothing left to warranty. Shame I think they are great wheels. Got a great deal on them before all this, from top fun in Spain so I’m not going to whinge to much.

Can’t fault my snap, erm well it’s been almost faultless, other than a couple of I’m going to kill you by turning up resistance until you break moments , it’s great.

I think the resistance thing has something to do with my wife’s car Bluetooth as it has only happened when she turn her car on. She can now only leave or arrive before or after a training session.

Getting fitter will make the biggest difference…

but if this is really n+ 1 justification to buy a new bike go for it .

Unless you do a lot of road miles or flat fast trails on the bike Stick will 1×10. I have a 1×10 (30, 11-42) on the FS and a 1×12 (34,10-50) on the HT when I’m riding the HT I don’t think wow “I have 2 extra gears”. And the climbing gearing is almost the same with both setups, any lower and it would be quicker to walk. The only difference is spinning out on roads. But I don’t ride the bouncy bike on the roads.

Jecca I would image down the seat post or in internal routing ports. My current frame which is pf92 stays pretty dry down there, but my last frame was rank. That said hope bb’s seem to see there way through most situations.

Depends on what you ride, as above if it’s steep tech with lots of roots sub 66 is where you want to start, 66 or a degree or 2 more for general trail duties and 68 or more for basic trail and longer xc rides. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that but it kind of works for me.

Ultimately a 65 degree hardtail bike still climbs pretty well just may not quite efficiently as a 67 degree bike. A mate of mind has a custom built 61 degree hardtail and still climbed 1500m on some days in the alps with no major issues.

Neither. start in the car park at Dodds wood follow the forest road that runs along the stream that then joins your blue line.

Have you checked the connectors on both ends of the hose are tight enough, I’ve had a couple of new ones not quite tightened up enough and suck air.

Instead of starting the push up at millbeck ride into Dodds wood and pick up the footpath at the back of it, that would join up with the millbeck path. It will get you higher up on a bike. There are also a couple of trails in the woods. I couldn’t tell you exactly where the path is in the woods, but it’s at the back ( eastern end) of the wood.

You can also run GPX cranks , Which is SRAMs equivalent to 24mm

An oval won’t give you less spin out at speed it just helps remove some of the dead spot in the pedal stroke, mainly when climbing.

The only other option is to change cassette and go to a Sram 10-42 or similar or even an e13 9-42. Both would require an Xd driver body on the hub. That drop of 1 or 2 teeth does make a difference, but after personal experience I question the longevity of the e13 cassette.

Put a 36t on if the bike takes it, most do, but worth a check. There are loads of aftermarket makes for the m8000, which is 96bcd, uberbike component do one I think, I think they also do a boost or non boost version depending on your rear end. Others are wolftooth and one up, or absolute black if you fancy a flash oval job.

Jecca bb92 was designed for shimano 24mm spindles you can get bb’s adaptered for 30mm spindles but there is limited choice and the bearings are much thinner to accommodate the wider diameter spindle in the same shell and from experience don’t hold up to muck / wear as well as there thicker 24mm cousins. Also the bb’s for 30mm spindles doesn’t have room to fit a centre tube, just 2 cups and bearings on each side. This further exposing the bearings to water and moisture. Bb92 tends ( not always) to be on carbon bikes, many of which don’t have drain holes, so it can turn into a bit of a swimming pool down there, so the more protection the better, hence best avoid 30mm spindles on 92.

Chilled76 I run a near identical shimano setup on the FS and also have hardtail with eagle on. I’m not overly bothered by weight so went GX as is so much cheaper. I’m really impressed by the GX, very reliable shifting, a more clunky feel to a xt / xtr setup shift but very reassuring. There’s no finger downshifting like with shimano, it’s a bit weird at first but you get used to it. There is definitely more range, that’s obvious eagle is 500% but if you ran a 34t up front instead of your current 32t it will be similar in the 50T to your current 46T gear. You would get more top end with the 10T. And there is always to option of dropping a 28t or 30t on and with that massive cog on the back crazy steep spinning would be possible.

But If you tend to ride gravity based descents that require little or no pedalling then why not just keep your current setup and change your chainring for big climbing days? For big lakes / Scotland descending i always stick a 28T up front, you might spin out on road descents but who cares. And changing a chain ring takes 5 mins.

But if II was building new again I’d definitely go eagle.

24mm that will change your life

It’s not the winning that is important, it’s the taking part that really matters. Well that’s what my teachers told me at school, so erm no, in my case.

Sorry to thread hijack, has anyone had experience of running the sunrace 11-46 with a mid cage shimano derailleur?

As a note on the e13 cassettes I tried one out for 6 months and was not overly impressed by it. They ran really well at first and it was a great way of getting more range, but found the smallest three cogs began to skip under load after a few months, particularly in the 12T cog, replaced it under warranty and the same happened with the next one. Got a refund and went back to my current sunracec 11-42.

Wolftooth components do something similar called the boostinator for certain hubs, you would also need to get the wheel re dished as it won’t be centred on your boost frame.

I’ve had a similar issue on a HT frame with hope floating rotors, it fitted but really only just, the caliper was pushed right over and still just say caught the rotor until the pad wore a bit. Thinner rotors is the answer.

Great to see Whistler snobbery still exists because you “live and ride in whistler” you must be right. Mate it’s a great place but no harder on your bike than 1000’s of other places . But that for another thread.

Edit google norco sight snapped frame .

Walleater . Sorry to disagree 2013 – 17 stays were all built in the same way. 16/17 stays they added a run of weld on the base of the seat stay to try and stop the crack starting, it might have slowed the numbers of crack down a bit but it did not stop it, the last frame I cracked was a 17 frame, which also was identical to a 16 frame. The 2018 sight seems to have had a major redesign in geo, so I hope norco have address the issue. Like I said, what a great bike to ride, still my favourite but I’d like to see a few years of good reports from 95kg + riders before I head back to the brand.

Did you go for the alloy or carbon one? If you went with the alloy one I’d be asking Evans what norco have done with the 2018 frames to prevent the drive side seat stays from snapping. The 2013-17 650b alloy sight and range all used the same stays and they were notorious for snapping, I had 4 go, and the mechanic at my local branch said he saw at least one a month, when my last one was replaced they had 3 bikes in with the same problem. I hope they have sorted the problem and can reassure customers they have, if not I’d walk away. Sorry to pee on your fire, the sight is an amazing bike, still the most fun bike ive riden, I just wished it stayed , no pun intended, together.

Edit this issue didn’t affect the carbon ones

Many thanks for the clarity. Think the term ‘standardisation needed’ spring to mind.

I know you won’t consider avalanche, but i cant bite my tongue. Sell your forks, buy the cheapest set of yari’s you can find / second hand even, it doesn’t matter. send them to avalanche pay your £400 and get craig’s full treatment and you will have the best set of forks for sub £900. they will blow even a new set of 36’s out the water, and make your shock feel like a hardened turd. I’ll park that there.

As above depends on all those factors, I’m 100kg and run a 500lb spring for my bike at 28% sag. Give TF a call they will work it all out for you and your bike.

Can I add my 2 pence . I recently ordered some essential bike parts ( a beer cooler and something else that needs doing , I can’t remember) but it was essentially. I ordered next day delivery or something like that because it was so important and was sent my invoice and expected my essential parts to arrive the next day.

A week later I remember that they hadn’t arrived. So I called them up.

To my surprise I was told that they had been sent and had been received and the plot thickens, signed for by myself. Mysterious as I was positive I hadn’t.

At this point silverfish could have said not our problem it went to your address and you signed for it but no, they went beyond the call of duty and using the power of the tinterweb worked out that my wife had signed in my name and deduced she must have squirrelled said parts away, probably because I buy too many bike part.

I recovered said parts from her squirrel stach and enjoyed a cool beer. Excellent customer service silverfish and great detective work.

Stick a shed on it, wait 4 years, hey Presto, free land!

if only it was that simple. Adverse possession requires 10 years and you need to actively do something/ live / use the land not just build a hut and pootle off to southern uk and come back to find your name on the title deed.

Put your bike in the back of your vast estate car boot. park a few miles away on whatever surface your 6 inches of clearance can cope with and pedal in. I would suggest putting off road tyres on your mountain bike.

Saw a thread on mtbr a year or so ago, bloke had snapped his sb66 rear triangle and yeti said they had no more left, this guy wasn’t happy as the bike was still under warranty. Yeti were being a bit arrogant and refused to do much but after a couple of months of rangling they said they would make him a one off alloy one. Don’t know if it was ever resolved, unless they are making them again they are pretty rare. Might be worth getting in touch wil target composites, they do some amazingly job on fixing carbon frames, you can find them on fb along with there work.

Teef I’m with you on that. If I was that good I’d take 3 tour wins over a gong. The Kenyan bit I can 1/2 get but he’s more British than Ryan Giggs is Welsh, just depends where your allegiances lie.

Scuttler I know where your coming from with grouse Moors. My avoidance of cheeky trails on grouse moors is more to do with avoidance of conflict with grumpy gamekeepers that tend to have a habit of popping up in the middle of nowhere despite not seeing a sole for several miles. I think mountain biking on grouse moors does far less damage to the environment than the gamekeepers do to local birds of prey populations.

Depends on where the trail is and how it affects those that live around it. A footpath over the fells or through a wood where it doesn’t affect anyone i can’t see what the issue is but a path that goes near to someone’s house or through someone’s farm, or affects someone’s livelihood like grouse moors on lambing fields I wouldn’t ride. Take a pragmatic view of the laws of trespass and you can’t really go wrong.

Proper great home grown race, stages are shorter than ard rock and overall distance is less, but the trails are more varied, and hairy in the wet. Atmosphere was more mellow, but a couple of the stages where absolute carnage last year after torrential rain, bodies everywhere. Well worth the entry fee.

I’m 235lbs and run a ohlins coil on a bike with a very progressive linkage, designed around an air shock, and I would never go back to air, the difference is night and day, as well as how smooth it feels the rear wheel tracks perfectly and traction is massive. I’d recommend one with a pedal platform if you do a bit of climbing. In pedal / firm the ohlins moves very little on climbs, yes it is slightly less efficient but not much. They weigh about 500-600g more but then I weigh a shed load more again. If you are bothered about weight the save a few 100gs and go Ti spring.

What you pay 5-6k for something that only does 3000 ft of climbing before it’s batteries dies. They must be for the Range Rover driving Surrey Hill’s set.

Think we all need to take a leaf out of Pennine’s book. 70 in the dales on an Orange 4 – respect!

Love it when any rational counter argument fails so they have to resort to the personal, T5, Audi, crap. Think in the uk mountain biking covers most woodland, hill and mountains or are you ebike lovers the canal towpath and former railway line type of e-mtbers. Sorry I’ll add it to the list .

@imnotverygood seen it and heard it, ive had someone say “you wonna to get one of these, it’s easy” looking down to his ebike as Ive been blowing up a hill. my response “you wonna be able to see your dick when you piss”. I’m no athlete, far from it, but when I go out on my bike it all my effort, and I go where I go, and know my limitations, if I didn’t i’d get a motorbike. Oh sorry an ebike.