Distance 2,915.6 km
Time 229h 51m
Elev Gain 68,346 m
Rides 97

Looks like nothing compared to some on mileage, but reasonably happy that most of that was on the MTB and I seemed to have climbed quite a lot of things. At least 4000KM next year as will definitely have broken 3000 by the end of this one.

EDIT: Does anyone know how to get last years ones on Strava for comparison?

Just got a DHR2 for the back in 2.3 flavour after I destroyed a Vigilante in record quick time – not been out on it yet though.

Hoping it’ll pair well with the Magic Mary up front and have me sorted for most of the year, might change it if we get a dry summer again.

I do understand that’s the way the world is going (God help us, a discussion for another day) but I can’t see why, on an individual level, someone would have a problem with other people wearing open face helmets?

On another note I am pretty excited for the venues for the SES to be announced! Cracking fun this year.

I’d like to see full faces as mandatory in all enduro races.

Why? If you want to wear one then go right ahead but why force people in to it? Everyone who enters is big enough to decide for themselves.

They look more like a city/road bike shop? Although the coffee does look good!

I’m almost 100% sure that this is a fairly obvious troll after that last vivid story, but a little part of me keeps making me read this thread whenever anything is posted…

On the off chance you are serious, go and ride your bike. Take the rack off of it and go and do one of the many first class trail centres in the country, that’ll be a good place to start. After you’ve found out how good biking actually is you’ll probably stop getting notions to build ridiculous looking fatbikes.

Golfie was decent at the weekend, muddy and slippy but nothing mental. Repeat offender a particular highlight, riding lovely.

Didn’t dare chance lone wolf… that’ll be getting left for next summer.

Loving the rack on that STD! Full marks!

Somewhere to store the sandwiches for after you’ve smashed out a lap at crankworx. Semenuk’s getting on board I hear.

Huge fan of the sam hill impacts. Agree with northwind that they feel pretty stiff when you first get them coming from old freeriders. They definitely break in after a few rides and the extra stiffness over the freeriders becomes a good thing.

Good shoes, dry quickly, robust for when you toe punt rocks, grip like nothing else and look good. Also don’t have that flat bit on the sole so you don’t end up on your arse if you have to walk anywhere.

It’s not going to ramp up significantly in the first half of the travel no. But it does definitely make a difference, maybe not a huge difference but a difference nonetheless. I’m just saying try it, i’m not saying miracles are going to happen. I just know that loads of LSC and high air pressures are not going to make for a comfortable ride!

I would be wary about putting loads of LSC combined with 20% sag. Will probably result in a harsh ride and the best bit about the pikes is that they are supple and yet ride high in their travel when set up correctly.
I would consider a token as it makes a noticeable difference. One friend was running his at near 10% sag to get them running as supportive as he liked but then popped a token in and could run them at a more realistic level.

Good luck.

Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but my understanding is:

As you are a light rider, to get the correct sag your going to have to run very low air pressures. This will mean there isn’t a great deal of air in your forks and so will probably result in the ‘diving through your travel’ you describe. I would use the Pike’s bottomless tokens to make the air chamber smaller. The manual does give recommendations but if it came with a couple, i’d put them both in, and possibly look at sourcing a third. These are very easy to install, details in the manual. (Let air out, unscrew top cap, thread tokens on, put cap back on, pump up).

I would do the following:
– Install the bottomless tokens.
– Put air in to get 25/30% sag, whichever is your preference.
– in a car park, bounce the front off of the ground. Try and get the wheel to follow your bounce, as in it should travel up when you pull up and then down when you start to land. Kind of difficult to explain on here, but basically if you notice the fork is still recovering from the last impact when your pulling up again, the rebound is too slow. If the fork is springing you into the air or shooting out quickly, its too fast. As your light i imagine it will need to be on the slower side of things. A point to note: The rebound your adjusting is the low speed rebound, the high speed rebound for larger hits is the ‘Rapid recovery’ stuff and is not adjustable (at least, easily).
– Set the LSC to 0 (all the way to minus) and go and ride something short and steep. If you feel you require it, add a click. This will stop the front diving on low speed things such as braking or small bumps. Again the high speed compression (HSC) is internal. So for those canyon gap jumps, the LSC won’t make any difference. The higher the LSC, the stiffer the fork will be over small stuff, so it will ride higher and won’t dive under braking but will be less comfortable. I would get away with the minimum you can.

The pikes are excellent and when you get them sorted out i’m sure you’ll be happy with them.

I wonder if next years SES will be bringing out a similar FF rule for the full on Enduros while the Enduro Lite series would just need HF given they’d be less technical. That would appease the people saying its making it harder for beginners cos of costs.

I really hope they don’t do that. I’m almost certainly not going to be racing in the ‘lite’ category and can not be arsed lugging a full face around all day. Whether the stages have climbs in them or not, you still have to get up the hill (1200m of climbing in last weekends SES, twice if you practised the whole thing) and doing that in a full face is hot and highly unenjoyable. Whatever Enduro becomes, it should still be enjoyable.

One was predictably shite, moreso than yesterday. Two should’ve been fine but I had a nightmare and binned it twice.

Three and four were mercifully good though! Clean runs and smooth lines. Happy days.

Yes it was wet, muddy, freezing at the top of stage 1 for a 25 minute wait and windy but overall I had a good day – though it was in jeopardy after stage 1 and 2!

Correct, Alastair lees then down and to the quarry. Pretty muddy also, but riding quite well overall.

The long off-camber sections on 2 could be interesting. A lot of potential for binning it!

I liked them all. Even the muddy hell of stage one was quite good fun. Once you accepted it was so muddy and everyone was riding the same stage then it was a bit of a laugh.

Also discovered a new love for the magic mary… what a tyre.

Cool, cheers, huge fan of old school. Just gotta get a new brake rotor in the morning as just discovered mines bent and good to go. Quite looking forward to it now.

Fancy confirming what they are? Lone wolf as thought? How many stages at the golfie?

Also in for this. Not feeling particularly on my game but I suppose it’ll be a giggle. Rode most of the golfie trails now, but predictably not lone wolf. What’s it comparable to?

Also had uberbike pads that made a noise like a dying banshee. I faffed for a while with cleaning everything, then sent Uberbike a brief email to them to let them know about the problem then chucked em straight in the bin.

Superstar ones purchased and quiet returns.

I’m also interested in this. Maybe i’ll sit down and try and work it out this evening

I just decided on my winter tyres for the mud and went for WTB vigilante on the back (non team-issue so should hopefully roll a bit better) and a magic mary on the front. Haven’t fitted them yet, will probably wait until october.

Glen Esk is good for getting lost for a day, some good stuff there but can take a while to find. Clachnaben as you say and some other stuff around the cairn o’ mount – Kerloch is good and some DH type trails at Drumtochty castle.

Swanley near stonehaven is also good, a lot of variety in a fairly small place.

The Protein Works also have a 10% off today apparently, just got an email.

Stools are as normal as ever

http://www.theproteinworks.com

Good stuff, relatively cheap, can get a massive bag and loads of flavours to choose from – I’d recommend choc mint.

I imagine it’s a lot cheaper than High5 as it’s not bike-specific…

If you use code GT79665 then you’ll get a free little bag of a different flavour so you can try that (250g bag if i remember)

Disclaimer: I will also get some free stuff if you use the above code – if you are the type who hates people that post sports pursuit links then feel free not to use it.

Nothing? I know a lot of you race the scottish enduro series so must know what i’m talking about! especially if you did stage 1 in feb…

Same issue here.

Had shimano XT’s with original pads, they were done (not down to backing or anything, but done nonetheless). Put in some uberbike pads on a fwe recomendations and within one ride they were howling unbearably. Took the pads and rotors off, cleaned with IPA, sanded the braking surface off of both and then baked both pad and rotor in the oven at highest temp for half an hour. Noise is now siginificantly reduced – think whining as opposed to full banshee – but still not as good as they should be.

Next stage for me is to get some shimano pads and stick the rotors in the dishwasher. Bed in again and hope for the best. Unless anyone has any suggestions before I spend >30 on a set of pads?

Got a set in the CRC sale to replace a 3 year old pair of freeriders that had developed fairly large holes in the bottom. Had them out for a couple of rides now and I’m thoroughly impressed. Much much lighter! Haven’t tried them in the wet yet but imagine they’ll dry quick. Seem to fit my feet well, the toe box is large which can make the rear of the foot feel a bit like it’s not being held, but it seems to be. First ride definitely felt different from my old shoes but by the end of yesterday’s I was pretty convinced that everything was going to work out with them.

Going out again in an hour, but first impressions are: lighter, more robust and still stick like Velcro – no blown off feet to report. They do seem stiffer so maybe that’s where the lack of ‘feel’ reports are coming from.

It’s such a shit design. Mines been back twice.

I had a trail king on the back and a Mavic Charge on the front. Trail king just got replaced by a Geax Goma (as yet unrated) and the front will probably be going soon as its coming to the end of its life. Will probably shove on a Hans Dampf or a Magic Mary season depending.

I have also replaced the brakes for XT’s and the rear wheel for a halo – but this was because I broke the originals. The race face wheels are pretty good and despite conflicting opinions go up tubeless with yellow tape, valves and stand fluid. Although when I broke mine it proved impossible to get a RaceFace rim as there were none in the country.

Fox forks and tyres went straight away, though I tried the forks on the 527 demo and they weren’t as bad as i thought they’d be*. Gears are spot on. Tyres were useless.

*This doesn’t mean they were particularly inspiring…

No issues at all, as far as I know it was preproduction versions were too wide. I took precautions and helitaped the chain stays on the first rear triangle, but no issues so I haven’t bothered with the new one.

Got one and love it, rides brilliantly but…

I did have to get a new rear triangle when the rear bushes wore away the frame. They sorted it on warranty, assured me I just got unlucky and did give me a demo 527 to try when it was away. So we shall see if it happens again, not heard of any others doing this though.

I do like my tubeless setup and don’t see me going back…

but in the last month i’ve had two different tyres puncture and not seal, I can’t help but feel that sealant could be better than it is. They weren’t big holes by any stretch of the imagination and i’m using stans fluid which is supposed to be excellent.

Heading up at end of august. Going to have three days riding in that area before heading elsewhere so was thinking of doing a lollipop type route one day and the Beinn Damh loop the next day (a bit shorter so might do something else after or just go to pub). So looking for suggestions for day 3? I’d rather not drive too far away as going elswhere after anyway and I refuse to believe there is only two decent mtb routes in the area!

In what way did it not fit? Seems to be plenty of tyre clearance on mine

What diameter? G/F has an OEM one on a new bike that could potentially swap as she wants a longer one…

Will it work on an XX1 cassette I wonder…

Also wondering this, though not for Di2, would the XTR mech and shifter work with the wider range SRAM cassette?
Of course you could just go full SRAM, but for interests sake…

That norco looks incredibly nice, can’t seem to get a price on a frame only in the UK though.