Yup, the Whyte G160 works I just moved on. So much promise but too much compromise. Entirely my fault though for not identifying what kind of bike I really needed, and for being drunk when I bought it.

Do you a good deal on a 160 works Cokie 😉

What about Newcastlton, that’s the worst trail centre on the planet never mind the UK!!!

I have a Wideangle, dropped a works components headset in it to slack it out a little and plugged in a 140mm Yari. It’s fabulous and my Foxy sees very little use at the moment. Bearing in mind how slack the Mondy is I find the Chromag really confident on the steep stuff.
As an aside, I think 140mm is perfectly acceptable on a hardtail, I live in Innerleithen and am riding everything from steep/tech enduro trails to the DH courses on it. I feel 120mm might struggle a little with that unless on a 29er.

Time clips.

I did it on a Niner EMD, prefect bike for it IMO. As Cheese says, you need something you can carry easily.

Out

No problems at all with mine so far, I ride in the Tweed Valley all year round. I have the 2014 XR

Quick thread bump, just fitted a pair to my Mondraker Foxy XR, couldn’t be more impressed, significant performance increase over the fox 34’s that came off it and easily as good as the pike I had on my 29er. I was concerned with the lack of lock out but I needn’t have been as they are great both seated and on the pedals climbing. I’ve only had two rides on them, can’t wait for them to bed in.

Element, have you tried climbing without the lockout, just ask as I’m looking at the CR’s and want to know if they are gonna be a pita for climbing.

YT Capra or Mondraker Foxy XR.

Mondraker have pulled back from the 10mm stems, they’re at 30mm-ish now – which again is really no different to a lot of bikes out there on 35mm stems.

Also as I mentioned earlier, they shortened the top tube by 10 mm this year so they put the 30mm on to compensate.

BTW Northwind, you had an Ellsworth so your comment on looks is invalid 😉

The Foxy XR just seems to suit me, yeah it fell out of the ugly tree but if you buy a bike for how it looks over how it rides you’re an idiot. I also think that bikes with this sort of geometry are quite terrain specific. The Foxy handles well enough at the likes of GT or Inners XC but that’s because it’s not getting pushed, show it something steep, slippy and scary and it clicks immediately.

Interestingly I had a loan of a Rocky Mountain MSL 750 for a couple of weeks there, it had a 50mm stem and felt far more twitchy than the Mondy. One thing I did notice is that I could push the front end of the Rocky a bit harder so I’m going to try the 30mm stem next. Also, bear in mind Mondraker took 10mm off the top tube this year, so the 30mm is only really a 20mm 😉

Mondraker Dune XR or a Foxy carbon.I nearly went for the Pyga but got a 29 Covert instead, that was a bad move. The Foxy XR however, total barnstormer.

zero reach stems though? – a sure sign he’s gone too far.

I don’t understand this comment, once you get used to the twitchyness they are great on the correct bike.

^ Yeah cos you only use your legs to ride a mountain bike………..

And prize for the shortest time to deviate from what the OP wants to know goes to………..

http://www.onoffcomponents.com/stems/

None more short.

Deus Ex.

Crackin’ bike mate, love my XR. Ignore the luddites and ride it like ya stole it. (nothing loose on mine btw)

After buying my Foxy XR I had anticipated my first move being to flog the 34 FIT on it and get a Pike as the pikes on my previous bike were so damn good. After riding them for 6 weeks I can see no real reason to change other than Fox’s usual problem of being pretty crap at small bump. Great fork, stiff and has never thrown me any surprises. I am 85 + pack.

Biggest for me has been changing back to smaller wheels after having ridden 29″ for the last four years both HT and suss. 29’ers are superb for the majority of riding but my Foxy XR 27.5 just makes me ride like a tool all the time, magic. 😀

After 3 years of Schwalbe I’ve now moved to Michelins, the stupidly named “wild rock’r 2”. GumX compound on the back, MagicX on the front. Have never ridden a grippier front tyre in all conditions. Having them front and rear was a bit draggy initially but the levels of grip are phenomenal. I pedalled more and got stronger, now I don’t find them draggy.

Dalbeattie is better but has far too much fire road, Ae, as already mentioned, is ass.

Rickon, you’ll forgive me if I disagree, deore are not identical performance. I can cook a set on a 20 mins descent, never had that with XT, SLX or the T1s’s I’m using just now.

I have tried 100mm, great for steering,120mm steering not so great but comfier on the wrists so eventually set at 110mm where it has stayed, feels great and turns great.Fork is a Rev RCT3.

Ran into a couple of folk on the climb up who didn’t know the place so was showing them a few of the trail heads on the way up. About 10:30, was on a foxy?

It’s one of the fun things about the Golfy, it’s like extreme circuit training. For every descent there’s 1000ft climbing 🙂
Were you there today? It was riding surprisingly well considering the amount of rain that’s fallen here in the past few days.

Not that I know of, just sack it and do Repeat Offender or 3G 😉
The top is pretty difficult with the ruts being so deep, if you go past where you would usually drop down the the treeline and just follow the fence that will take you down to the fire break between the top and middle sections.

Evidence please.

Using one of these for the last 4 months, great lid.
Met Parabellum

Have tried all three, went with SLX as just as good as XT with the aforementioned aesthetic details. Deore are great for the cash but overheat and lose the lever.
Ice tech rotors and finned pads DO make a difference as one bike has nuke proof pads/standard rotors, other has icetech stuff and way better. With the nuke/standard I have to pump the lever to get a brake towards the end of a 10 min descent.

In summer nic 2.35 front, Ralph 2.25 rear. Winter Damph 2.35 front nic 2.35 rear. Have tried purge on the back and just can’t get on with it. Nic will buzz stays under heavy cornering btw but not badly.

Well like I say, probs won’t fit you right but if you need to get a general feel for the thing……….

Had a 456 carbon before moving to 29, still miss it, mad wee bugger that it was 🙂
XL would give you room to experiment, initially I felt a bit “central” position wise but after a couple of rides realised that it was an intentional part of the design, good weight distribution front and back so v good at technical climbs as yer arse is always over the back tyre for grip but you have a very “in” feeling when descending.
If you are ever up Innerleithen way before you buy give me a shout, you are welcome to try it out.

Incidentally, freeborn have the frames in white for £899!

Coincidence or what! Still have my Medium Solaris with 70mm :). TBH the Medium was too small for me but it was going cheap second hand. I’m 5″11 and got the Large Covert and running a 70mm stem which feels like it needs shortened to 50mm for me to make it spot on for me.
I was expecting it to be a total dog on the climbs but it just isn’t, really capable and that’s using the cheaper monarch option too. As for the down, every time I’ve crashed it’s been because I was too busy grinning from ear to ear 🙂

What height are you?