Wasn’t SH quick in the very rocky stuff though and lost it on the flat climb or at least didn’t pull away on the peddling bit? wouldn’t that mean the bike was good at DH stuff or the DH bikes aren’t that much better?

In my experience with DH rigs vs Enduro (with the caveat that I rarely ride a DH bike) is that they let you get away with stuff -if you ride precisely then the difference isn’t huge. With tracks like Val Di Sole it’s so steep that speeds get silly very quickly and it’s full of blown out holes so the ability to plough straight down the rocks/holes is a big advantage. I’d recommend hiring a DH bike for a day – great fun and you can just smash it into stuff then pop out of the other side.

Today, SH went round the ‘straight line’ rock garden thing (only real ‘rough looking’ feature) but carried great speed into the next turn (interestingly the frenchies were doing the same) so made up for it. The course looked relatively hard packed other than the dust as well so the extra travel of a DH rig wasn’t that necessary. But in general as i said – he’s very good at riding a bike quickly.

Hill finished 6th in the Elite mens, as a newcomer to watching DH WC how did that happen? Does it say more about the track not being very DH? The bike difference between DH and Enduro? Or the ability of riders in the “elite” mens at the moment? Or is Hill still that good even though it isn’t his main discipline and the rest didn’t matter?

A lot of folk will say it’s because it’s not a real DH track and there is something in that though I don’t think that much. I think it really boils down to Sam Hill being really good at riding a bike and being more used to his enduro bike – also enduro bikes are really very capable these days. He’s on a confidence streak from the EWS and that counts for a lot as well.

Looking at the splits he didn’t really make any time up on the pedally flat bit at the end.

Hills run was amazing, really good to see him throwing the little bike about, hope he gets a medal.

Hope mick wins it, he deserves it with that run.

EDIT: or not…

Balls, they aren’t cheap either are they.

Might just file it down, I guess I’m just trying to get it to fit snguly in without rubbing?

Run them all year with no issues. How would I know if they are too squared off? Will I be able to tell or do I have to wait for pinkbike to tell me that they’re not suitable and I need to buy some enves?

Worried I’ve been riding them without knowing all of this time now.

Yes it’s fine to run boost and non boost.

2.35 is fine.

It will all be fine.

Years ago everyone raved about the Mega and lots of encouragement to do it. One of those bucket list things every MTB rider should do. Saw the videos and while a bit crazy it looked like something I could maybe survive with bike and bones intact. Thought I may give it a go some day, but for laugh purposes, not competitively (I’d finish last anyway probably).

Now it’s got so big, egos so big, so competitive, and everyone’s prepared to take a lot of risks, deliberately crash into others to get the best line, cheat, etc. It doesn’t look attractive to me any more and I think my chances of surviving without injury to self or ride over bike breakage is slim. I’m not aggressive enough to barge my way through and get out of danger so I’m likely to get the shit kicked out of me or run over.

So you’ve not done it but are assuming that it’s changed? 🙄

I did it last year – crashed/mechanicals in qualifying so ended up in the Saturday race with the ‘mid pack warriors’ as someone put it and it was one of the best races i’ve ever done. Contrary to popular belief on internet forums most people are out to have a good time and ride a bike down a mountain which makes for a pretty good atmosphere. I would encourage anyone to do it and I will definitely be back, hopefully with a decent position on the main race.

https://www.trailforks.com/region/caberston/

Don’t go in the yellow bit (realistically all of the trails off the ‘back’ of the hill). Still plenty to ride.

thats some ride bloodsm

Haha, well you would know as I got the idea from one of yours on here!

I did this last week. It was lovely.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1055312329

It’s not clear exactly what kind of riding you’re after – steep natural stuff? trail centre? XC epics?

I could quite easily spend 5 days riding the tweed valley without going further afield.

You could do but you’d miss a lot of amazing riding of a different character to what the tweed can offer.

buenfoxa – emailed.

Cheers all, got a loop from the Dyfi enduro route this year as an option but if there are better trails around then I’d be keen to get a few options and opinions. Happy to advise on Scottish steeps if anyone ventures up and needs it also. Sharing’s caring.

Anyone?

DHR2 exo rear and snakeskin schwalbe front were fine last year and I destroy tyres like they’re going out of fashion.

People like to obsess over them but in reality you’ll be fine on most tyres.

I agree with getonyourbike. Not sure what they are trying to achieve but marketing it as an ‘international’ enduro (the hardest they put on, a step up from Vallelujah/KaQotH) with those stages is odd.

It’s not radically different to past tweedlove enduros.

The highlight will probably be S4 unless it tips it down (it’s not long recovered from the EWS 2years ago) or S2. That ‘Long Black’ stage 3 is going to be a lot of pedalling!

Took advantage of the weather and did Ghlas and Lawers today. Followed what seemed to be the suggested route of up Ghlas first then down to the bealach, up Lawers back to the bealach and then branch right and down the valley. Really enjoyed it but will need to go back and attempt it the other way around as I think the descent down the front of Ghlas would be 99% rideable with a bit of commitment. Top of Lawers down was interesting with the wind – blew me off line more than once!

Also nipped up Meall nan Tarmachan as the above only took a couple of hours, didn’t technically reach the top just went to the peak at 923m then turned around. Had a look and it looks pretty steep from the top back down that way but possibly rideable – anyone done the whole ridge? From the 923 top back down was good – mostly hardpack singletrack with a few open fast grassy bits and some good rocks to launch off.

Top of devils point to corrour is all a goer.

Top of Cairn toul down to the col is problematic. Can ride bits of it but some is too rocky.

We did it the other way from linn of dee and did all four along to Braeriach and then back over lairig ghru (wouldn’t repeat, would go back and ride down to corrour as you plan to)

Also a bit of a cheeky one but if anyone has a broken/snapped southpaw lever that they aren’t using then I have managed to lose the ‘bolt’ bit from the ‘nut and bolt’ arrangement that the lever pivots around. No idea when it fell out but it has and they want nearly a £10 for a new one so if any charitable soul can do it for cheaper it’d be much appreciated.

Email in profile.

Cheers.

Bit of thread resurrection as i’ve got so much info from here so it’s about time I posted something. This year’s weather has been unbelievably good of late so i’ve managed to get up a few hills. Mount Keen and Ben a’ Bhuird a few weeks ago delivered some great riding and some changeable conditions! Stunning sunshine up Keen on the saturday and horizontal blizzards up Bhuird the next day.

This weekend saw an attempt to knock off the four munros on the Braeriach ridge. Drove up to Linn of Dee late after work on Thursday night to get an early-ish start on Friday. Porridge and Coffee consumed we span up the glen in some unbelievable clear skies and sunshine. Properly perfect conditions with a good amount of snow still clinging to the corries but warm and sunny with a mild breeze. The track to Corrour is decent and all rideable with a good amount of technical moves to keep you interested. A quick bite beside the reeking toilet (didn’t dare open the door) and it was off up the path to the Devil’s Point. Original plan was to come back along the ridge and descend this but it didn’t work out in the end, more on that later. Hike a bike up to the saddle and then a spin/carry up to the first summit of the day, the Devils Point. This was all rideable back down to the saddle and a good amount of entertainment – if a little short.

Bike’s back on shoulders for a good long haul up to Cairn Toul, bar a small spin along the ridge in the middle this was all a carry – and a pretty brutal one. Thankfully the views were unbelievable so this more than made up for it! Made good time up to the summit and stopped for a celebratory pie.

Looking over to Angels from Cairn Toul.

The descent from here to the saddle between Cairn Toul and Angel’s peak was a let down – a lot of carrying across boulder fields broken up with a bit of nice technical riding. The carry up to Angels was short enough though and afforded amazing views back the way we had come. From here it was a fast ride down the other side and a push up the ridge across to Braeriach. There was still a lot of snow up here and it made for fairly slow going on terrain we could probably have ridden had it been bare.

Looking back to Angel’s Peak and Cairn Toul in the background.

A final carry up to the summit of Braeriach and a pause to look back at what we had done so far. It was at this point that we considered our options. The original plan had been to retrace our steps along the ridge, skipping around Cairn Toul and then descending back down the single track to Corrour. This would’ve been the best idea but for some reason we decided to descend Braeriach towards Aviemore and then cut back along the Lairig Ghru. Everyone had warned us not to try to ride the LG. Literally everyone. But we were drunk on sunshine and the descent down seemed more inviting than going back along the ridge.

The descent down is quite good fun in a ‘bouldery scree slope’ then ‘just on the edge of rideable’ tech sort of way. I enjoyed it bar ripping a sidewall ploughing through a boulder field.

Some views to descend to.

Ridge riding down towards Aviemore.

Then we hit the LG and thought it would be a short climb back up, a good bit of riding back to Corrour and then home – we were wrong. The climb up is horrible and goes on for ages, particularly after a long day. The descent has sections that are quite fun to ride but these are broken up with awful boulder fields that require bike on shoulder, it’s not a pleasant experience overall and not one I will repeat if possible. The sun setting behind the ridge we had traversed did make for some amazing views and light so it wasn’t all bad – though it did almost break me when a rock hit my rear mech and it made a bid for my spokes. Managed to stop it before it destroyed itself completely but it remained bent and made some interesting noises for the rest of the ride. Once at Corrour It gets much more pleasant and the final bit of singletrack down to the river crossing is really good fun. Then we were back – a big day but an amazing one that will stay with me for a while. Now I just need to write an angry letter to the chippy in Braemar which for some reason closes at 8 on a Friday – madness!

I then drove to Blair Atholl and kipped in the van there for the night. The intention was a solo mission to get up the Beinn a’ Ghlo triple but when I woke up I was a bit knackered and the temptation to get back for the rugby and a curry was too strong so I struck off for Carn a’ Chlamain instead. I’d done this once before but hadn’t made it to the top because it was cold and snowing so seemed a good time to make another attempt. Another amazing day and the descent is an absolute peach – flying down switchbacks reminding myself that I should take it easy as spannering myself on my own in the middle of nowhere isn’t the best idea!

Looking up Glen Tilt.

Looking over to Beinn a’ Ghlo from Carn a’ Chlamain summit.

Still buzzing off of it all and planning a load more for the next few weeks, hope the weather holds! I’ve got loads of pictures from the days and not sure what i’m going to do with them all yet. I might write them up into some kind of photo story on pinkbike or something if I get time/it rains.

Mondraker crafty – marketed as a 650b + but may fit 29. Also a bit steep.

I think Mondraker have a new bike coming out in the next week or so. I don’t know but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a 29er enduro/trail bike.

Two main options from the bottom of Zorro/TF plan.

1- Do the normal black climb but instead of turning left continuing on the black route, just continue straight up the walking path in front of you. It’s steep for a little bit but then levels off and spits you back on the black climb after Britney spears/just before the final haul to the mast. Much shorter.

2. Turn left at the end of TF plan and continue on the fireroad for a bit. You will come to a steep fireroad coming off the main one on the left. Push/ride up this and it’ll bring you to another fireroad which is part of the black route. Ride the fireroad along (effectively the black backwards, you’ll see Soon Plooms coming up on your right) and this will spit you out at the free ride park where you can go and ride whatever you like.

Yeah should work.

You’ll be fine with XT calipers though so I wouldn’t waste the money.

Banshee spitfire

I’m not racing this year due to niggling injuries but hopefully it will be great. The first year was one of the best races i’ve done to date (Tweedlove, have it at yair again!) and last year wasn’t bad though the weather couldn’t have been much worse. I did get a little bit fed up of racing similar trails doing the triple crown last year but I suppose they’re all in the valley so are going to be of the same character.

As far as I can tell (though I don’t own one) the rebound assembly isn’t changed a great deal other than that the HSR is re-shimmed to your weight/terrain/frame and then the LSR adjuster is now more effective, although the mechanism doesn’t change.
The main difference seems to be that they rip the LSC needle adjuster out and substitute it for a preloaded poppet valve and then repurpose the three position adjuster to control the preload on the valve. Again they then custom tune the shim stack like the rebound to suit your weight/terrain/frame. The 3-pos adjuster then dictates the transition to the shim stack.

The custom valving on it’s own would probably make a decent difference and I imagine the compression assembly change makes it even better. Certainly everyone seems happy with his work.

Lever the top hats out with a screw driver and then use either a socket the right size and a hammer to smash the bushings out or something tapered to drive into the bushing (you’re replacing it anyway) and then rotate it back and forth while pushing and it’ll come out.

Bit of assumption here but…

The HSC is just a spring loaded valve allowing oil to flow through the HSC shimstack when a predetermined pressure is reached. If you have too little HSC dialled in then the valve will open at a lower pressure and screw up your LSC also (when the valve is closed LSC has the most effect). So you need to have some HSC dialled in to keep the valve closed at shaft speeds that should be dealt with by the LSC circuit (bumps and general chatter)

I am assuming that the FOX RC2 works similar to other dampers, someone shout if it doesn’t!

1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

I’m pretty sure that using that metric >99.99% of the population would fail somewhere very, very early on in step 2. [/quote]

Not if they’re doing crossfit ‘pull ups’…

You should be able to sort the pedal bob on the inline. Do you mean seated climbing or sprinting out of the saddle?

Firstly, suggested PSI doesn’t mean much. What sag are you running and what LSC/HSC?

No, there shouldn’t be any thick grease in there. Clean it all out with some IPA/rags and then go here to find oil volumes/weights http://biketechtools.com/forks/oil-volumes/rockshox/select-fork

I would do the foam rings and the dust seals as well while I was there. Leaking oil is probably a seal somewhere internal.

BV means boost valve – this is position sensitive damping that means the compression damping ramps up at the end of the stroke.

SV is standard volume, LV is large volume so presumably you would want the LV to replace your previous large volume shock.

Well that made me laugh on a Monday morning 😆

I like the look of your bike Mr Pole but then I like 29ers, currently on a Banshee Prime. You can send me one and i’ll test it to destruction, I’m very good at breaking bikes.

PS. It may not be the prettiest bike on the market it’s definitely prettier than the Geometron!

They are one of the worst companies around if something goes wrong. The main problem being you can’t phone them, they don’t respond to emails and their ‘callback’ service only seems to exist on paper.

Set of Pikes being warrantied, sent them back and they forwarded to SRAM/Fisher. A month in got told it was warranty and I’d get a new set, then waited over another month being ignored etc before they basically said they had no idea what was happening and had no idea where the forks were. Eventually I just got my money back. Two months + off the bike.

Comparing them to the obvious, CRC, every time I have had a problem I’ve phoned them and they’ve sorted it. It’s not difficult to have a phone.

I don’t think the new reverbs are much better, mate has one and within a month or so it already has that ‘sag’ that the old ones did. I’m not saying don’t get one just don’t expect to have to send it back for warranty any less than the old one.

I have a turbine, it’s good so far (~7 months), only have to adjust cable tension every so often as it sometimes tightens and then when you sit on the post the brake isn’t fully locked on and it sinks. Have to let a bit of slack out at barrel adjuster.

No idea about the Thompson.

Bottom bearing? IME they’re all shite. My latest Hope one lasted 2 months from new before disintegrating. Had FSA, CC before and they’re all the same. Guessing they just can’t handle Scottish winters.

I’m sure someone will be along to say they’ve had a hope/chris king thats been in the bike since WW2 but in general i’d treat them as consumables and be prepared to replace them every year at the least, or sooner if you ride a lot/in slop.

Just had a look at my Strava from last year. At the point we met the German tourists walking up stage 2 in the mist I was doing 28mph

Must have been practice day as it was wall to wall sunshine on race day. It was something a bit different and enjoyable – they had issues but they didn’t stop me enjoying the weekend.

It was a grand day out last year. A lot of mincers threw a strop because they had to pedal. Good scenery and fast tracks – not steep gnar but there is more to racing than that.

Can’t make it this year but sure it’ll be a good one. Go with an open mind.

Food for thought. I presume for the Macdui/Cairngorm route you mean ascend via the path up the ridge to the west of Cairn Lochan? Then come back down the same way but hang a right at Lohan Buidhe and follow the path to top of Cairngorm.

Then main ascent back to ski centre? Can’t see any alternatives on the map but does’t mean there aren’t any.

Cheers for the info.