All I carry on a typical 2 to 32r mtb ride is one canister of co2, an inflator, can of pit stop if riding tubs or a tube if riding tubeless, keys and phone all in my back pocket. I don’t need food for a ride shorter than 3 hrs. Water I carry in a bottle. I don’t use an backpack just my back pockets. When riding road bikes I carry a similar amount but add food for rides longer than 3 hrs.

Spoke stiffness is only dependent on its length, shape, cross sectional area and young modulus. Tension plays no part but in a wheel tension plays a part of sorts. If the deflection at the rim is large enough and typically groups of the nds spokes go slack or for a front wheel the right side then wheel stiffness will drop.

So a wheel needs to be stiff and spoke tension high enough laterally and radially to avoid this under normal conditions. Notice how a separate stiffness and spoke tension they are not the same but both play there part in preventing slack spokes. Slack spokes fatigue quickly and fail and it also how a wheel goes out of true. If the wheel is built properly and tension is high enough and the wheel is stiff enough then thread lock is not needed. Thread lock in my opinion is there to mask an underlying problem of a bad build or inappropriate components.

Creating a stiff wheel is also why I prefer hubs that give the best bracing possible. Every little helps. A lot of this is over thinking what makes a good wheel. Speaking as a wheel builder it is pretty simple. A good wheel is one you enjoy and one that is reliable for the use intended. For it to be reliable the spokes must not go slack or at least it should happen infrequently. This is one reason why 29er rims are wider than smaller rim sizes it not just to change the tyre profile it to increase stiffness of the wheel so it survives use.

A bank holiday taking wheels is time never wasted however the only way to answer all the questions you have is fine to element analysis but I am not sure what benefit the answers will bring.

Dammit I have to write again stupid tablet.

Hills are where single speed can shine. Don’t be afraid to run relatively tall gearing. I use 36/17t on my 29er with 2.2″tyres and 20% are not a problem well they are but they are problem with gears too……

Hills are where single speeds can shine. Do not be afraid to use raltivl tall gearing. My 29er runs on 36t/1st and 20% gradients are not a problem. It’s odd really but I am quicker up hills on my single speed than on my geared bike so don’t be afraid of hilly course. The beauty of taller gearing is you ride at 22mph without your legs flying off.

Hob nob I don’t disagree with you for the riding you do a less stiff rim might actually allow your tyres at the pressure you use to maintain a better contact patch. Do you buzz the stays with the stiffer rim or the more flexible one. How deep is your flexible rim and how deep is your carbin rim. I have tried to put an explanation of what you feel in my earlier post.

For me however I have a set of velocity blunt sl rims 28h laced to novatec hubs with sapim grace spokes. These wheels flex, it don’t like them much my rather stiff bike feels like it wollows with them on. Put in a set of stiff wheels and my ability to ride at a higher pace improves probably because I find the bike more control able at speed. My riding is probably very different to yours it just the tracks of East anglia for me.

If its muddy you could be quite competitive however on dry fast trails where you can ride at 25 mph then you will not be at an advantage. So pick your race. And use a Phil wood eccentric bb or the trick stuff version. This is much better than a chain tensioner which are not problem free.

How many people belive centrifugal force is real rather than an apparent force caused by newtons first law of motion. I think the same applies to that interview.

It is also quite important to get rim stiffness and the stiffness of the spokes and the effect of bracing angle to be complimentary.
What I mean is if you have a very stiff rim that is under supported by the spokes can lead to groups of spokes going slack but if a less stiff shallower rim is used with more thicker spokes then that horrible situation can be avoided as the shallower rim actually deflects less opposite the point of load than the deeper stiffer rim if the lateral stiff for both wheels is the same. Odd huh but true. This is more clearly seen in some road wheels. Deep stiff carbon rims with a very low spoke count can deflect enough at the brake track to cause the nds rear spoke to go completely slack. In that case up the spoke count. This is why more mtb rims should have off set drilling as that problem is entirely avoided.

Enjoyed an hour and half of single speed mtb fun on Saturday and a 100 miles on the road bike today. Feeling good. Riding however is not just for weekend.

I can fit 30 mm tyres in my equilibrium disc so the stays are not short. There is even room for mudguards still.

I have the ti version and the whole bike I have built is 9 kg. I have built a few steel bike with mudguards and they weigh about 10.7 kg with 28mm gatorskin hardshell tyres or schwable one 28mm tubeless tyres.

I train on a bike which weighs about 11 kg and I get up hills just fine.

If silver is your thing then velocity do the blunt 35 the dually is wider though I think. Only velocity offer silver rims now.

If spokes did not deform elastically in a wheel then they would loose tension over time which does not happen so they deform elastically when under tension in a wheel. Your entire post is confusing to me.

Got the gamin vector 2 and today my chain jumped of the big ring (fixed that problem now) and it sheared of the pod plug. A very expensive chain jump. I have two sets of vectors and and both have been replaced under warranty. They are working well at the moment but given I have 14 bikes the commuter which I will be spending a lot of time on from next month will get a power2max rotor chainset when rotor bring out there new Groupset.

What increasing spoke tension does in a wheel is reduces the rate of spoke fatigue (a good thing) and increase the load required to make groups of spoke go slack. Once some spokes go slack the amount of flex experienced suddenly goes up. I cannot see how any of this is of benefit. Better tune a wheel reaction to loads by altering spoke count, spoke gauge, bracing angle and rim stiffness than by reducing spoke tension.

What do hill riders are probably describing is they want a wheel with lateral stiffness that is not too high so it does not snap back when heavily loaded then unloaded. It may also be the contact patch remain larger when a wheel is able to flex with the tyre over very uneven off camber rocky surfaces.

This is why I ride rigid and like it. I use stiff carbon tubular wheels in one 29er and wide stiff alloy rims in another rigid 29er and I am happy as every component seems to compliment each other. I ride xc though I don’t downhill so I hope I am not talking out of my arse.

Also when did 25 to 30 pis count as low pressure. I run 20 psi in my 2.2″ race king tyres. There is no squirm and higher pressure make the bike hard to control. 23 psi in the geax saguro tubs seems perfect. Any lower the tub squirms any higher and ride is too harsh.

I did email him and he posted me one. It was a double sided bolt and the Allen keys were still a loose fit and guess what the bolt round at low torque. When I measure the bolt hole it is bigger than 4 mm more like 4.15 mm the Allen key is 3.96mm so rubbish bolts.

The bush ells has none of this it just torqued up and away I rode.

3 bikes that not enough. You need at least one mtb. I am at 14 bikes.

Would you ride a mtb now with canti’s regularly. I have a canti equipped bike it does not get used much. Apply the same logic to road bikes. The axle standards that will stick are 5mm q/r and 15mm/142x 12.
It is possible that the rear spacing may grow in time but the 148mm boost is not exactly dominant for mtb yet.

Soon road bike for rim brakes will grow to 135mm rear spacing. Dt Swiss are expecting this to happen over the next year or so and it makes a lot of sense.

Waiting for disc standard to settle down -well just get a frame with standard Q/R skewers what wrong with these.

Road disc bikes are here already. I would just buy a frame or get one custom made to the axle standard you want. 5mm Q/R is well estabished and so is 142x12mm. DT Swiss make hubs which are easily converted between both. the other standards 135×10 e.t.c are newer.

Then build it up with the parts you want. You also get to choose a BSA BB shell rather than BB30, PF30….. yawn.

My Ti equilibrium disc is a fantastic bike but currently has Record 10 speed and Tetkro Hy-DR’s on it. Feels like a race bike almost apart form the long headtube. When Rotor UNO groupset comes out next year I will get that.

so go for it you wont regret it. Waiting for standards to settle down will mean never buying something. When have standards ever settled down recently.

I have good times on saguro tubulars good tyres. I imagine the clincher version is pretty decent too. Not very good in slippy mub but not much is.

I have some tnt 29er tyres gato jud i think to go in winter and these are very heavy.

All the geax tyres i have used have tough old boots downside is they dont seem fast rolling but fast rolling tyres are not always robust.

While i have the toys like the hr mknitor and power meter none of these are needed to training. I know a cat 2 racer who do not have any toys not even a garmin. He can drop me anytime he wants and has in club rides when he up the pace on bildeston hill.

Even a turbo is not necessary. You need to ride. Hill sprint and reps are a good way of doing 1 to 5 minute intervals depending on the length of your hills. 5 to 10 sec sprints in 53-14 or higher is a good way of building power as well a cadance sprints spinning if you can past 120rpm. Sprinting from a 20mph helps simulate that sprint finish in a race. Local tt courses are a good way of doing 20 minute intervals. I dont have a turbo and i use my power meter more to track my progress than a training aid. I also use a single speed mtb to build leg strength it 29er with 36/17T gearing and on steep hills its a work out. Building strength in your legs is the way to improve ftp but i would not be overly obessed with tracking it i have never even measured it. I dont and every week i get a bit faster and stronger for them hills and sitting on front of a race pack. Turbo are a bit boring it more fun riding although most good time trailist have turbo trianing as part of their riding diet. I am not a good time trailist.

My family are maltese spent alot of time there. The main island is very built up but there is anetwork of poor roads in the north and south of the island you could explore bear in mind though the island is only 21 miles by 9 so a distance ride will be difficult. There are a number of sport cyclist in malta now. I would take an mtb, there are lots of trails in south and norTh of the island. Maybe visit one of the shops there in fact google them and make conatct in advance they maybe able to put you in touch with riders who will show you rojnd. The maltese are very friendly and will help you.

Gozo is a smaller island and not built up at all. Few roads but lots of trails. Not sure about right of access though again a maltese bike shop will be able to advise more. Everytime i go back i see more cyclist mostly on mtbs.

Chaingring become worn when you can feel pointy teeth. If yoj have nod changed the cassette i would do that before shelling out on new rings. Ta rkngs are as good and campagnlolo own. Rings normally last 10,000 to 20,000 miles campag rings are not made of cheese. Stronglight rings are fine but may not last as long.

Scream in pain and then super glue the nail back on to protect the rawness exposed. Ouch i feel for you.

A rigid 29er can roll along at road bike speeds with ease and do trails.

You could havevthevrear wheel on the flyer rebuild with an interal gear hub like sa 5 speed.

Hope freehubs are made of cheese two. Novatec hubs are not bad either. Two chain whips is how i deal with cassette removal if the freehub gets a bit mashed. Then file the burrs down and fit the new cassette. Its not a problem.

I just dont see the point in straight pulls they are not more relaible all they do is add expense. Straight pull spokes are not stiffer or handle tension better. In fact they are not even more fatigue resistant in reality. What causes spoke failure in a real wheel is either poor wheel building, lack of stiffness (i.e bad component slectikn which is bad wheel building) or excessive number of miles. Eventually fatigue gets even the best built wheel regardkess of the type of spoke used. If the hubs you are using only come for straight pull spokes then fine but they would have to have something else going for them as well. The wheelset i did for my self recently is 32f/32r ryde trace trail rim, sapim laser spokes and alloy nipples and xtr hubs. 1625g and very stiff and they seem robust however a 17stone rider maybe too much for these (rims have 100kg weight limit). I have run laser spokes on disc brakes wheels for too long now to have any worries about using them with the right rim and hubs. If you go with straight pull hubs just try working out the spoke lengths it not simple. Plugging in 3x into the calculator and using the spokes suggested will get you nowhere. Straight pull hubs will have a fractional crossing for spoke length calculation. For example miche supertype road hubs use 2x lacing ds for a 24 spoke rear wheel but to calculate spoke lengths you need to plug in 2.8 for the crossing. Miche wont tell you that you have to work that out for yourself. I once asked hope tomhelp with spoke length calc with a rim they dont use themselves for one of there sp hubs they couldnt help. I didnt build the wheel as the time taken to work out the lengths would have been expensive.

If you are dead set on straight pulls then use dt hubs as there spoke calculator will do that for there hubs but the lengths come out wrong for other companies hubs.

Gluong tubs to carbon does not pose any other complications compared to gluing on alloy rims. Done it so many time before.

I run 29er tubular carbon rims on one of my 29er bikes. They are 28 spoke rims laced up with sapim laser spokes. I do xc races on these and some general riding as well. Never been any problem got quite a few miles on them now. The rims seem very impact resistant, they have taken a few.

So dont be scared.

Strada is alone in thinking the archetype has qulaity issues. Built with hundreds and onlynoneni have to reject. The stans rims while popular are little flexible for my liking. A similarly light rim is the ryde pulse sprint, it stiffer and wider too. The pacenti sl23 is also a good rim and having built with both you will a wheel that will perform better than a similar build with the stans rim. The mavic open pro was a great rim 15 years ago. Times have moved on. Woder rims offer improved ride comfort, improved road holding and a wider rim is a stiffer rim so lateral flex is reduced. Stiffer wheels mean longer spoke life and ypu can safel drop the spoke count too.

Op you made the right choice.

Long rides for 24hr are needed. 3 to 4hrs as often as you can. You need endurance. Hill reps are fine but endurance rides are essential.

Turbo work its dedicated. Persoanlly id rather git myself than spend time on one. I love riding i dont like training for the simple gain of more power. Maybe thats why i struggle sometimes in races.

Xc races do feel different to time trails. When i do a tt it is constant effort but when ridingnoff road my power ouput is all over the place.

What surprises me ina crit race my output for an 80kg rider to finish in bunch (i keep on mucking up and doing sustained efforts on the front because i think no one is working hard enough) is only 230w average and peak power is 750w or so. More like an xc race really. Im pretty crap at sprinting i should just go of the front and break and let it hurt.

My training is far more unstructured. It involves riding a fair bit 12hrs a week or so inc races. I ride hilly routes to build up leg strength and spend a bit of time every week on a single speed mtb. All that time and people who spend less still out me but would i enjoy it doing turbo trainkng no i would git myself to end the pain. Currently i see races and i am doing two a week as my intense interval training. The rest of the rides and lower intensity endurance or recovery rides. So entering a race and getting fropped is not a waste. Ride the full course as hard as you can. In time you will improve.

It also take a good while to build strength in your legs.

Velocity blunt rims are alway good and tough. Chinese carbon also works. Lace to them shimano xtr hubs and you have a winner. Dt hubs are good too but i would stick to the 350’s. The 240’s are lighter but that the end of the gain.

I have a thing for wide rims but i would also agree mavic rims like the 521 or 721 are pretty robust even though they are a little narrower.

The best long distance bike is one you can ride for 17 hours and get off and feel fine for it apart from a bit tired.

My current favourite is a genesis equilibrium ti disc as ot is just lovely bit so are all my bikes because they fit me perfectly. So thats the trick make sure the bike fits you well or can with a few minor adjustments. A test ride willkind of show you that but it will have to be a lomg one. A good shop will be able to advise properly.

Disc are great so definatley look at bikes equipped with tektro spyre or hyrd brakes or the shimano hydraulic system.

I ride mine witha rigid fork and it fine even after many hours in the saddle. Depends where you ride thought i suppose.

also the hubs are O.K but I have spotted buying them to many early NDS rear bearing failures after one ride for my liking. Gets a bit expensive if you have to do warranties all the time for something that’s not your fault.

I have done 1300g wheelset with the ryde rims but getting light requires a big spend on the hub or going with carbon tubular rims. 1400g-1500g target give you more options with rims and hubs.

novatec A291/F482 SB-SL hubs are 290g for a pair verified by myself. Stans 340 rims are 385g but a slightly wider and stiffer rim for the same weight (385g to 395g) is the Ryde Pulse sprint rim. Having tried both the Ryde is a better rim but tyres can be a tight fit.

I could rebuild a DA C24 wheel to but there is a big but. the rims are very expensive and aftermarket rims in 16H drilling are not common. The ERD will be different and if you have ever tried to build a wheel with straight pull hubs onto any rim you will know that spoke length calculation is not straight forward. For example I have some straight pull Miche Super type hubs in the shop for building. The DS rear hub has a 2x pattern but for spoke length calculation the crossing is 2.8 Miche won’t tell you that I had to work that out for myself and that did take some time. Rebuilding wheels with straight pull hubs and a different rim is not straight forward which is why few do it.

I have been a single speed rider for years. I have never used a single ring specific chainring. Always a normal ramped and pinned chainring. Currently I have a 36T TA specialites ring on my 29er running to a 17t cog.

In all my years of single speeding I have never ever dropped a chain.
Perfect chainline is key which is my my latest has a royce BB so I can adjust the chainline to get it perfect. Yes us single speeders are obbessive but you dont start that way it happens over time.
I am experimenting with a 10 speed chain currently but stretch looks like it is an issue so I think I will be going back to something like the KMC 610 or similar.

You do not need a front mech as a guide. I have never had a guide never needed one I use my SS for off road use only.

The BB mounted tensioners I have found to be a bit of pain. Had a black spire one once and adjusting it was a not fiddly but not something I did not relish as rounding the bolts always concerned me. Eventually a bolt did round off and that was a pain. I know it is avoidable but the bolts get filled with dirt and in a rush mistakes happen. Went back to a rear hanger mounted one after that. Now I use an EBB and thats even better.

so it is doable without a big spend but there is no need for guides special chainrings. all you need is good parts that are not worn then enjoy and you really will.

I am alot faster on all terrain on my 29er compared to my 26ers past and present.

As for wide rims being necessary they are not but seem helpful. I prefer the feel of a stiff rim and wider rims are stiffer. I have a wheelset with velocity Blunt SL rims 20mm internal width and now one with Ryde Trace trail rims. The tyres are the same the profile though is not. On the wider rims I have feel the bike is more stable over the lumpy stuff and fast bends. I can also run the pressure a few psi lower. to me the difference is real and I might be selling those narrower wheels to some of you who love narrower XC rims. I simply won’t be using them much again.

If 29er have more drag as posted above please explain why then I can ride so much quicker on a 29er on any terrain I have tried. 29er’s have lower rolling resistance because rolling resistance is inverseley proportional to the wheel diameter but that not the only advantage 29er’s have. The contact patch of a 29er compared to a 26er cannot be different in area for a given load but it is different in shape and thats the difference.

I am a wider rim convert. Yet to try wider than 24.8mm internal width. I suspect the will be a point at which the extra width starts to have a down side not sure where that is yet though.

Because when i try wider rims with the same 2.2″ tyre the bike just feels quicker as quick as with my carbon tubular wheel with dugast tyres. Also i have been able to drop the pressure a bit without getting that squrimy feeling in the bends.

Get some of the new or even the older pacneti sl23 rims but the new ones are lighter and wider internally laced to some shimano dura ace 9000 hub. Real world weight will be same but you get a leterall stiffer wheel and one with wider internal width. The wider width will get your tyres to spread more and that means a larger tyre volume and therefore improved comfort. Also sidewall flex is reduced and therefore stability in the bends improves.

A laterally stiffer wheel also gives a marginal gain. All these gains a real but small over the da c24 bjt since you can get them built for a simailr ammount and then have then rebuilt again when the rims wear out is to me a no brainer. wheel the are ap’raching £600 which last 7500km to 1000km before the rims wear out on average that then become throw away is to me maddness as if you look after the hubs they will do far more than that.

Started using the schwable one this january through till march and two tyres the wrecked by puncture that would not seal. On had a sidewall cut the other got a hernia. However most sorted themselves out. I get alot of punctures normally in winter and i have never found a tyre that i want to ride that does not puncture. These seem a good balance.