Mine does exactly the same, and did since new. Took it back after a week, had a brand new mech fitted FOC under warrenty, worked fine for a ride, now all over the place again. There’s also an alarming amount of play in the mech cage for something with only about 150km in it. Asked a few mechanics, response seems to be ‘it’s Sram, thus it will be shit’. Considering ditching the mech and shifters for 12speed SLX.

I’m using wiggle – Covers my roadie to a value of about £6k. Only one I could find that allowed a custom build to be insured as the sum of parts rather than needing proof of purchase for the whole bike.

Hi Dave, this is interesting – my other half usually lives in Edinburgh but she’s stuck with me in Aberdeen during this working from home phase. Might take you up on that if we’re back over that way.

Cheers Steve, thats interesting since the Bird Demo centre in Scotland is close to me, but they’ve only got a Large Zero for demo at the moment. I assumed from their size charts that the small would be too big , but will take another look!

Thanks, was browsing the classified but seems I’ve just missed the ones you highlighted which would have been spot on.

It’s very doable but probably not off the shelf, and probably not with Discs. Depending on the size, a cannondale supersix evo rim brake frame pre 2020, built up with Ultegra, a careful wheel choice and a smattering of carbon finishing kit should get you there including pedals:cages for well under 5k. Get close to £5k and you can have deep section wheels too!

My 58cm supersix with ultegra and bora 35s was 6.8 on the dime, including arundal cages, speedplay zeros and alu bars. It’s still the same weight with etap, 50mm scribe clinchers and carbon bars.

Also possible with a CAAD, although you’ll probably have to be more spendy on wheels and groupset!

“We should have multiple words for mud – like the inuit (allegedly) and snow – to cover stuff from Eastnor Mayhem-style frame-clogging natural concrete through to the watery, gritty gruel that the Dark Peak produces over winter and everything in between”

Oh for the Dark Peak brake pad removing, shiny component eating grinding paste. This is more your top of Bleaklow peat sludge with the frictional coefficient of a wet soap bar coated in Vaseline. I’m suffering from the mud plane phenomena you describe, so fear that I may indeed have been riding something more suited to Cairngorm Rock Slabs in a pine forest planed on a peat hag. Might just stick a pair of 2.3 DHF’s on through the winter and go old school before all this plus stuff. At least I won’t have an issue with frame clearance.

Mountain biking eh, so much for ‘grab bike, open door, go ride’!

Cheers guys.
Currently running a 2.8 high roller up front and a 2.8 Rekon on the back. Its a reasonable set up that rolls nicely and works really well for trail centres which I guess is what all bikes are apparently designed for these days, but useless in the real world peat bog forests out beyond the groomed man made stuff. Might try the 2.8 out front like badlywiredog suggested first, if that doesn’t work, go 2.6 or 2.3 both ends as can’t really afford a second wheel. Just quite like the tractor like grip from the rear when it cones to going up.

Probably my fault for mostly riding in the rain, as if its sunny I get sucked into roadie mode!

Just picked it up and set it up. I went for the XL, and with my optimal sadle height, ive 32cm of post out (including dropper, about 12cm below the dropper). Seems to fit quite well, bars are mega wide and at slow speed feels like steering a super tanker, much like every modern bike ive tried. Looking forward to getting it out on the trails. Seems to be a fairly comfy position so far, not XC low but also not sat at the bar high. Feels much more natural a position however. Felt like I was sat on the Crush, rather than ‘in’ the Whyte!

Based on a couple of uphill sprints, despite its length, i reckon i’d be kneeing the bars on the large! Will report back once its gotten muddy!

Cheers!

Cheers all. I’ve ordered an XL, but the shop is fine about swapping it for a L if I feel its too big once of pootled about the car park. Will be interesting to compare it to the Crush ive ridden recently. Not quite so worried about the reach, anything feels short and upright coming from an agressive roadie. Will have a go and find out.

Cheers all for the info. Looks like the XL may be the way to go.
Tried to test ride one but all the demo bikes seem to be mediums so no luck there. Seems to be a popular bike at the moment. Was originally going for a so der but the spec for the price won on the whyte.
Found a shop however that i can order one and ride it around the car park at least and then swap it if its wrong.

Cheers again, hope everyone has a great new year!

I guess whether that matters to you is down to whether you’re ‘performance driven’. A lot of the people I know who ride mountain bikes seem to be enjoyment driven. Anyway…

Agree completely with this. I ride bikes because I enjoy it. It’s also why I don’t race on the road, but prefer going for a long ride with a nice coffee stop!

If you want to go for a regular xc ride (or “trail”, whatever – it’s all xc), you’re as likely as not to find plus tires give you more grip on loose surfaces, roots, ruts, etc, more grip at most lean angles, and less fatigue. That’s going to mean a faster, less tiring, better bike ride for a lot of people.

This sums up my usage perfectly! Sounds like the Sonder is definitely worth a demo then and don’t get caught up in the tech chat :) Cheers all.

Alpin: https://www.on-one.co.uk/c/q/bikes/mountain-bikes/ti-45650b

Cheers for the help.

I guess by suffer against, I mean lose out on all round traction and rideability out in the hills against a fatter tyred bike. i.e. does the added grip of the plus allow you to ride more vs. the downsides of the added weight. plus also thinking of the way the future of bikes is going.

Effectively I’ve always ridden hard tails and would like to continue doing so. Plus, I’m after a does everything hardtail that I can ride out in the real world, as opposed to a hooning bike to ride around in circles, although that can be fun too occasionally.

I did look at what size Minion DHFs or Ardents go up to as that’s what I ran for most things on the old 456 and 2.8 seems fairly wide anyway. Off to the Lakes at the start of December so will try and pop into Ambleside and arrange a test ride.

I guess the ultimate question is, if you could only have one bike for everything off-road related, would you choose your sonder over your Ragley, and if so why/why not?

Lezyne Microdrive 500xl works for me for stretches of dark road or bits through the wood as well as commuting. Wouldn’t want to go flat out on a descent with it, but good balence between price, battery life and brightness.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lezyne-micro-front-500/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=100385089&kpid=100385089&utm_source=google&utm_term&utm_campaign=UK_PLA_Accessories&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mckv%7csGvKyTGuM_dc%7cmcrid%7c67090840622%7cmkw%7c%7cmmt%7c%7cmrd%7c100385089uk%7cmslid%7c%7c&mkwid=sGvKyTGuM_dc&pcrid=67090840622&prd=100385089uk&pgrid=17507340302&ptaid=aud-131695477502:pla-127996705502&pauid

I’m currently running 38mm Schwalbe G-ones on mine. Fits fine but its a bit ‘tight’ on the rear. No rubbing issues or mud clearance problems, but you won’t be getting any sort of mudguard on!

Thinking of upgrading my fork to a carbon version to lighten the build a bit. If anyone’s interested in an original 3 month of steel version then drop me a message.

Was only planning on running a tubeless specific tyre, probably either a Schwalbe S-one or one. From comparing the ‘tubeless ready’ rims on the cx bike that still needed tape, there doesn’t appear to be any real difference between the rip hook profile. Furthermore, surely a flat standard clincher with a tube will roll off anyway if flat? Not being argumentative, but other than the spokehole free rimbeds like the ksyrium, trying to work out what the difference is.

I bought a supersix evo HM frame from Paul’s in the spring (2015 model) and built it up using the ultegra groups from my old bike and added some campag Bora carbon wheels. Utterly brilliant bike, really really fast, light (6.9 in current build for a size 58) and also far more comfortable that my ‘endurance’ carbon roadie before it, and way more comfortable than the obscenely expensive cervelo R5.

It’s racy yes, but if you get it fitted by a pro it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable (don’t slam the stem) but the biggest thing I love is how it handles, it’s so precise and secure at speed it really builds confidence, but also doesn’t bite when you’re tired. I’ve ridden mine in the alps, done the dragon in the UK and just blown away by it. Yes BB30 is a pain and yes the cable routing is external (will just HAVE to buy etap if going electronic) but blows the socks off every other carbon ‘race’ bike I’ve ridden, which is a few!

Scarily, the 2016 is supposed to be better. If you can find the frame though, custom is the way fwd.

Cheers TiRed, Am i right in thinking the Ksyriums have no spoke holes in the rim bed, the newer ones anyway thus no need for tape? I seem to remember reading somewhere about the bead of the rim being different thus some wheels won’t run tubeless at a higher pressure.

I’ve been running a Lezyne microdrive 400 as a commuting light and been really pleased with it, however I’ve recently added a super drive 1200xxl to the set up as, like you, the battery packs were too much of faff for commuting, but wanted some brighter lights for a woodland section. Been really pleased with it, easily bright enough for riding quite quickly off road and only need the lowest setting on.

Nick: Cheers thats pretty much the sot of thing I want it for, plus rides out to Surrey taking in the trails over Ranmore and over Shere way. More fun than just road riding in the winter pissing rain! Taking a look would be grand, I live in SW20 and Work in Victoria.

Dragon: Have no issue with On-one, their service is hit a miss, I’ve had both, but the bikes have always been sound. The Cannondale tempts me as I already have a ‘Dale road bike and its awesome, but the BB30 is a ball ache, especially on a bike where it’ll be shot fairly quickly. Might try and track one down to test ride as they’re always great handling.

The grit.cx review seems fair. Would probably run it with either commuting slicks or 38mm G-ones most of the time.

Disc: yes, I was trying to work out how it was heavier than the somewhat industrial and low end London road. Good shout though I’ll give them a call and double check. I appreciate £1400 isn’t great for commuting, but I don’t have the budget for a commuter and a cx/winter road bike, so one will have to do both. It’s about 10miles each way in and out of central London so potholed but not overly gritty.

Creg: likewise I’d seen the snapped London road horror stories so decided to avoid that one. Had a Planet X carbon road frame which was fine though so trust their carbon and steel frames. Will try and find a norco in stock to go have a look at.

Cheers!

Those ads for grit.cx :oops: I did see they had the first look, and after trawling the comments the full BBB review is coming soon.

I was looking at the Norco – seems like a good deal, although the (snobbish) thing that puts be off is the 105 Hydro discs as the levers are fugly compared to the ultegra level ones. The charge Plug 4 was also on the list, but again it was the brakes that let it down, and I’m bitter that they’ve changed it from steel to alu. Steel would be the preference but it doesn’t fit the budget.