I would space the chainring up the cassette using some to get a better chainline. Might need to use longer chainring bolts though. If you need to move it more than the 2.5mm the spacer would give you, you might need to move the spacer too – although that would leave the crank arm closer to the stays on the DS than the NDS – which I’m not too keen on.

The organic pads I’ve had in my SLX brakes since the summer have lasted very well. Now that it is turning really wet and grimy the rear pads are wearing at an increased rate, but that is because they are exposed to so much dirt compared to the front wheel. I have swapped the front pads to rear and rear to front. Should get another 3 – 4 days out of those, depending on conditions.

After that I’ll get Shimano metal pads for the remainder of the winter. Give much longer life in the grit and excellent performance in the cold conditions. I also prefer the slightly firmer feel they give to the lever. Might run them forever from then on, as some of my friends do.

You might want to take a look at this very informative article on silencing noisy brakes.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesday-Silence-That-Squeaky-Disc-Brake-2011.html

2.2 Continental Rubber Queens, Black Chilli rubber. Tube or UST version, depending on your budget/ preference.

Ridiculously good tyre for what you’re describing, it almost feels like cheating! Tend to start drifting a little earlier than some tyres but there is no unpredictable break away on the limit.

I rode them on super-steep loamy & rooty stuff yesterday and they were excellent for my riding style. Very low rolling resistance too. 🙂

Sorry to hear that,

I’ve never been made redundant but I have been in a job that I couldn’t stand and definitely looked at the opportunity for change as a massive positive.

What do you do, what would you like to be doing and are you prepared to relocate for another job?

I have the same feelings towards my 2012 SLX’s. It’s tolerable but what I’d like to do is adjust the bite point and wind the lever closer to the bar so there is less lever travel to take up before the bite.

I can set them up before the ride but they re-adjust themselves as you describe. Definitely the master cylinder returning fluid to the reservoir but I don’t know if this can ever be stopped. Would love to here if you find a fix. (and by fix I mean fudge. There’s nothing broken in the brake to fix tbh)

IA – Member

Oh, are you on flats? Cos that makes seat up rough stuff FAR harder IME. You need a bit of clearance then, as you need to bend your legs more to keep feet on the pedals.

+100, as I found out this weekend. First time using flats in a while. You definitely need to drop your post a bit.

Oh yeah,

That is pretty clear when you compare them side by side like that.

Cheers ChiefGG

I’m trying very very hard to resist buying an old style XS BFe for street before they all sell out!

Cy,

How different are the back ends of the Soul and BFe? They are both 4130 Chromoly are they not; is the difference not in the front end?

Loving my Soul one year on. It certainly doesn’t give me the impression of being a flimsy frame, that’s for sure.

Maybe best to check with another, borrowed, post and see if it’s as bad. The post on my Soul slipped a bit, nothing like you describe. I used some carbon assembly paste to improve things while not having to tighten my Hope qr seat clamp too tight.

World cup DH racers account for this in their bike setup. For tracks like Champery, they reduce the rear spring rate while increasing the fork stiffness. It helps the suspension sag stay in the correct range for the track but in a flat carpark the settings would be off.

I guess if you were predominantly riding steep terrain you could do the same. If the terrain is more varied then it’s tough to make such a change without it ruining your handling everywhere else. I myself always run my fork quite stiff, on my hardtail, to prevent major nose dive. I don’t care if I lose a bit of small bump compliance.

Not a local, but I have done a lot of cycle touring around Gatehouse. It’s probably my favorite part of Scotland for that sort of thing.

The first thing I would say is A75 – just don’t do it. Not a suitable biking road at all. Heavy haulage, locals and tourists all on road with high speeds and not great overtaking. I have cycled a couple of miles along it before from Twynholm with the Missus and I genuinely felt I was putting her at a great deal of unneccessary risk.

I would say B796 all the way. It’s longer and there is a fairly long climb out of Gatehouse but it is quiet and super scenic. Lovely riding. You can even visit the viaduct at Gatehouse station if you can handle the detour of a couple miles. It featured in the 39 Steps but is now disused.

Don’t forget to grab some coffee and cake at the Mill on the Fleet before you set off!

I’m pretty sure that looks like a sticker. Are you sure that’s not a sticker? 😀

What is the adjuster? Is it compression?

I don’t know the fork but if it is then my guess would be hard (more compression) soft (less compression). Is there a manual in English you can download or anything?

Depending on the combination of headset cups/ spacers/ stem you have, I reckon the minimum you could do with is 180mm but 190ish would give you the best options.

This is based on my Soul with a 100mm headtube with a Cane Creek S1 headset, 12mm of spacers and a Raceface Evolve stem requiring 185mm. HTH

I sorted out a deal for myself today but I am an existing customer. I threatened to leave and they gave me 30mb Broadband @ £22.50 first 3 months were £17.50 – 12 month contract.

Having browsed their website, it should be able to get the same deal but they want to charge you £50 installation. Tell them you have a line already installed and that they are only sending a tech to setup the router and you feel the £50 installation is out of line.

Wow! I felt so guilty about cleaning my bike in the bath with the shower… until now. There’s loads of folk that do it! For me the option of using warm water to clean you bike in your heated flat in the winter was just too good to pass up.

Not that this will help the OP if he has a small shower but I used to line the bath with an old sheet then clean the wheels, then the frame. When done I would just gather up the sheet with all the mud and put it in a bucket with water to rinse. Then just discard the muddy water down the toilet and wash the sheet. Boom.

I’m moving soon and I suspect a mobi washer is in my future. Very good solution as you do get to clean your bike before much muck dries.

What type of riding will you do?

4x, dirt jumps, Bmx track, street – go for the small (it will be). Anything else is a medium IMO.

My Soul has a 2011 Revelation up front. This combination has led to nearly perfect weight balance in the bike. As a result it handles exceptionally predictably, espcially when lauching off drops and jumps.

That combined with the compliant ride and perfect geometry means the bike practically rides itself. I regularly am shocked when I ride obstacles that I consider at the top of my ability, and the bike just makes them feel so simple. It’s a ridiculously good bike.

I bought this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-slx-m660-front-derailleur-for-triple-chainset/

and used this adaptor:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-m510-band-adapter-286mm/

If you use the top pivot version:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-slx-m661-front-derailleur-for-triple-chainset/

then the front mech mount interferes with one of the bottle mounts on the frame as evidenced here:

You could run any of those gear setups on your bike no problem. It really depends on your commonly ridden trails, fitness, personal prefernce etc. as to which is ‘best’ for you.

I personally have a 2011 3 x 10 SLX groupset on my Soul and the good news is that it has been excellent. Living in Scotland I do choose to tackle some steep climbs and I am certain that the 3 x 10 setup was the correct choice. I use the 22 and 32 rings quite a lot and the 42 a bit. I like to keep my chainline pretty optimal and shifting onto the 22 regularly helps me do this. I also like to spin a faily high cadence in the saddle to climb, rather than stand a power up things.

The seat tube is 28.6mm OD but the Shimano front derailleurs come in one size – 34.9mm. You therefore need to use a specifice spacer to space the clamp down for smaller seat tubes. When I ordered my derailleur it did not come with any spacers, I therefore tracked down of my own from a mate who had some spare.

Hope that helps a bit!

I might be able to help you find a road bike, if you can help me find a cheap woman. My other half costs a bloody fortune! 😀

kudos – how did you ‘start’? Did you read a book, watch a video, go to a class?

I would love to give it a try too as I put very little effort into relaxation at the moment. For me relaxation activities are ‘things that I want to do’ which are rarely things that actually help me to relax.

Had a look at some videos on youtube and I have read a couple of webpages but nothing that really helped me get into a properly relaxed mindset.

Agree with alanbill.

I’m no doctor but I always taken the approach – if it hurts during or directly after an activity, give it some time. If it doesn’t cause you additional discomfort, carry on but don’t go too wild.

True or false?

He actually had to strap a pair of binoculars on to see far enough down the trail ahead because of the speed he was riding at.

I, for one, am waiting patiently for the SLX version for 2013. I don’t *need* a new rear mech but it would be lovely to improve chain slap.

Let us know if pull the trigger on on OW and whether it lives up to your expectations.

Is there potential for the rotor to have a slightly raised edge on one of the machined gaps in the disc? I would take the rotor off, inspect, lay on a flat surface and then go over the breaking surface with a sanding block. Once you are satisfied that there are no burrs, raised edges or anything else that might gouge a pad, refit.

Cool, Thanks alfa 🙂

Why wouldn’t anyone use it today? Is it too far away from/ too close to payday??

Arrrgh. You have the code now!

Anyone else want it?

Boom! Done

I have them on my Soul with a pair of 2011 SLX brakes (180/160). Look nice and don’t fade, even stopping my 85kgs. But then, when did Shimano brakes ever have a problem with brake fade? I got them because I ordered a groupset from an online retailer and there was no difference in price when choosing the brake disc options.

Oh, how familiar!

I remember getting my first bmx at a very late stage (early 20’s). I’d been riding a lot and I thought I was getting pretty good at street on an MTB and buying a BMX would just help me get even more awesome! One word – no. My first experience on a BMX was disasterous with all the things that you describe about the unsteady, harsh ride etc. I very soon realised that it would take me a very very long time to get good at BMX.

If you are getting back into riding BMX there really is only one thing you can do. Practice for a short time regularly! 20 mins every night or something on really basic stuff. You’ll soon get used to the bike again and then you can start to enjoy riding it.

After realising I wasn’t going to doing massive drops, tailwhips and grinds off every bit of street furniture on my bike I actually just started riding around on it a lot without doing many tricks at all. The tight handling and harsh ride definitely helped improve my smoothness, my bunny hops and manuals improved a lot too. In the end I was surprised how much it helped me with my mountain biking. Needless to say, however, it’s now sitting in my attic 🙁 Maybe I should dust it off again.

With my 2011 Rev RLT Ti’s I got 2 x 20mm 1 x 10mm spacers. That gave me the option of 100/110/120/130/140/150mm of travel. Mechanically there is nothing to prevent you from reducing the travel as much as you wish. You just need to lay your hands on the appropriate spacers. 🙂

Oli, before you top-up/ bleed. Try this:

I had a similar symptom from my SLX brakes despite perfect bleeding. Turns out the pads were simply retracted too far from the disc and therefore not making contact until quite far through the lever travel. All I did was remove the wheel from the bike; pump the appropriate brake twice; replace wheel. Voila, perfect lever travel, perfect firmness, great power 🙂

I’ve never had to do this for any other brakes I’ve used – Hope & Hayes

bol – Member
I had the 2010 revs you refer to on my Cotic and they were some of the best forks I’ve ever had. Just dot use the last 10mm. Much better and lighter than older revs in my opinion. Unless you’re going to race it, 120mm is an ideal everyday setting for a Soul.

Agree 100%. I have my 2011 Rev’s set to 130mm on my Soul and I will be adding a spacer to reduce them to 120mm when I have to service the fork. 130s is just a little slow handling on the tighter stuff for my tastes.

I tend to think that in DH the riders who appear near the top are quite often the taller ones. Peat, Minaar, Gwin, Atherton etc. I would speculate that their height gives them longer wheel base bikes that leads to a more stable ride and long levers with which to absorb bumps and put down the power. Of course there are many expections to this generalisation such as Hart and Brosnan but these guys seems to go better at the tighter technical tracks.

In XC then one of the dominant factors is power to weight and as such the smaller riders normally have an advantage here. There will always be certain advantages to being of a specific morphology, it does depend on what discipline and specific track as to whether those advantages yeild anything.

Also, at the end of the day, natural riding talent is the great leveler of any perceived advanges a rider may or may not have.

Fortunateson09 – Member

I’ve yet to ride a hardtail that doesn’t feel a bit rubbish with 160mm forks – I certainly wouldn’t fancy forks that are fixed at 160 – maybe some Talas 36s would make sense so you can just wind them out for occasional mega steep stuff and leave them at 130ish for ‘normal’ stuff?

This!

I’m very happy with my single bike that I use for everything but it’s pictures of frames that nice that make me think maybe there is room for another! That welding is exquisite.

What shock are you going to use?

5’8″ here, 30″ inside leg. I ride a small soul with 260mm of seat post showing and a 70mm stem.

To be honest you are so in between frame sizes both small and medium would be a ‘good’ fit IMHO. I bought my small because I wanted something chuckable + jumpable, at the expense of all day comfort and climbing ability. The small is quite long, so I don’t ever feel cramped but it is a fairly upright riding position. I run a low front end to try and balance things – low rise bar and only a couple of headset spacers. If I were to want better climbing then I know I would probably benefit from a medium size frame to help me get more weight over the front wheel.

Where abouts are you based. Any chance you could get a sit on someone’s soul before you buy?

10 speed SLX group here and yes, significant noise, especially in the lowest 3 cassette sprockets. I have found a wet chain lube and tuning of the B-tension can help attenuate the noise but you can’t remove it. Predicting that once my chain stretches a bit it will get quieter???

In the mean time I will just rely on my heavy breathing and grunting, as I kill my self on rides, to cover any excess noise up!