” Kenda Nevegals” no problems?

I can’t agree. I’ve been running them for 6 months and they have two problems:

1. They are very grippy which makes then ideal for slippy winter trails but a bit of a drag on dry trails. I have alternative wheels with Panaracers for that.

2. They have thin carcass that punctures easily. I solved this by ghetto tubeless.

So while I like them, I can’t recommend them as good “general use” tyres as such. I give that award to Maxxis Advantage 2.1, of which I have a slightly used pair that will go on when the Nevegals have worn out.

I was sceptical about ghetto tubeless, but converted when I had an intolerable series of punctures: it’s working for me. It must be frustrating if you can’t get it to work for you.

Maxxis tyres are generally reckoned to give the best results
Kendas are OK
Panaracers rarely work apparently

You have removed the valve core for initial inflation havn’t you? It’s impossible with the valve core left in.

Don’t put any sealant in until you’ve managed a full inflation using soap suds – up to 60psi. This step is needed to “seat the bead” into the rim i.e. to shape the tyre to fit the wheel rim. Only when this deflates, do you add sealant. Even if you later “burp” the tyre flat on the trail, it should re-inflate with a mini pump simply because the tyre bead retains it’s fit with the rim. [but always carry a spare inner tube just in case it doesn’t!]

The trick with the strap around the tyre circumference sound good, though I’ve not had to resort to that.

This is the hardest bit so keep trying; it’s worth it.

The Govn has promised that our children will pay enough tax to pay back, or at least insure against, our debt.

“I don’t think full sus is needed in the UK.”

I agree that a sweet riding hardtail with an ace fork is probably the best overall UK trail bike: Cheaper, lighter, lower maintenance etc and fun.

But a lightish FS is faster and less tiring uphill, downhill and cornering because it forgives your mistakes, increases grip. I’ve stopped riding my weighty HT because it’s significantly slower and harder work. I would accept another HT over my TranceX, but it would have to be a lively sub 25lb with a 120mm air fork.

We’re in agreement about the tyres and I warned my mate who was demoing it not to worry about the cornering issues for that reason.

I dint have a problem with the ride position although the TT is longer and the bars lower than I’m used to – I could get used to that or use a high rise bar. I had expected this position to make the climbing better than my TranceX which has a higher front and shorter TT – but it didn’t.

Short cranks make a bike more long legged. Is it possible that it has 170mm cranks (on an 18" frame)?

Is the seat laid back a bit? That can make it harder to apply body weight to the pedals.

It’s such a nice looker; Dave’s reaction was mildly broken hearted when he handed it back!

Tyres: My TranceX has Nevegal 2.1 at 25/30 with ghetto tubeless. They’re too slow for dry trails but confidence inspiring when it gets slippy.

Pro-pedal: we switched it on and off at various points. I’m not convinced it was setup properly and I understand that setup is more crucial for single pivot designs.

"I’m quite competitive on the climbs on my Five": you can’t rule out the possibility that your a very strong cyclist :-).

The GT is like all alu HT’s, it responds quite well pedal input well but you have to float the rear on rougher trails. The sus fork get’s you out of most trouble.
The TranceX is very sensitive to small bumps – flattening them out. So you tend to sit more up and down. For an FS, it climbs urgently. (It’s my main bike so I’m certainly biased).
The sluggish pedalling of the 5 is what I’m struggling to understand. It felt like much of the effort was not transmitting to the wheels. The effect was noticeable: whoever was riding the orange was at the back and wheezing. Weight wise, it was barely heavier than the TranceX. It’s a puzzle.

I guess you’re talking about continuously and very rocky climbs where you must pedal and there are few flat spaces between rocks to get a pedal stroke in.

Otherwise it is about attaching the climb so that you have enough momentum to carry through rocks to the areas were you can get half/full stroke in. This is hard to see as you approach esp if breathing out of bum.

One thing that’s helped me is realising that I’m dropping my head as I tire. That’s why I fail to anticipate climbing obstacles and stop/strike or slip – I don’t see them in time. I love techy climbs, esp. those I can’t do because it’s a challenge unconquered.

1:10 gradients + 1/3rd gravity sounds brilliant for climbing. It’s nice and dry too, if rather chilly.

However, the dust is rather like talc and will ruin your hubs, BB and headset in half an hour. There are lots of deep dust traps in between the boulder fields too.

The reign and TranceX frames are almost identical so captains comments apply.
I can see where Captain is coming from: The short TT does give an upright riding position which is why they put long stems on. But this makes getting off the back more difficult so you’ll end up putting a short stem on anyway. Moving the saddle back worsens the problem because the front is already light and pops too easily.In the end, you get used to the short TT; at least it makes manoeuvring very easy which is why I say is "agile" rather than "blunderproof"

Bear in mind that the head angle is not slack which I think is why it’s not so confidence boosting on steeps/roughs as say a Meta/Blur. The TranceX is most definitely trail/XC oriented rather than freeridy. I’m great with this because I’m 80% XC, but it may not suit you.

I would deffo try both bikes before deciding what suites your style. If you do try the TranceX, make sure you cane some pedally XC singletrack – you’ll be amazed how fast you end up going.

BTW brakes. I found the stock Hayes Stroker Trails to be excellent, almost as controlled as my favourites: Shimano XT. I’ve tried Hayes Stroker Rides and found them as wooden as some of the earlier Hayes brakes..

I posted a detailed review of my TranceX but it’s only in the old forum which hasn’t been imported yet. Sorry

In Summary: It’s a trail bike works best going at warp speed with agility, up or down. 5" of quality suspension soaks up the bumps to give awesome traction. The front is light so unlike my hardcore HT, it doesn’t suit blundering through and rewards agressive manoeuvring. The same high traction aids climbing with zero pedal bob. The low weight and low BB means it rails corners but suffers when rolling lips, so plan to replace the big ring with a bash if you wanna get rough with it. The TT is relatively short and you feel a bit too racy with the long stock stem. The seat tube is interrupted which makes seat dropping awkward. I chopped the post down but it cant run full-up to full-down. In the end I got a second post chopped right-down with another saddle for freeride days and used the stock longer-one for XC days. The Nevegal tyres are uber grippy but awful for punctures until I ghetto tublessed them. The anodized frame is still looking great after 6 month hard riding with just a few tiny chips from crashed, but no rub marks.

I’m very happy with it now.

Also. have a look at the Bikeradar review.

*chokes* I was eating a banana just as I looked at that odd banana pic.

Knottie: That’s the best pic in my opinion. I could stare at that all day if I was:

a) single
b) in private rather than being in open plan offices.

Cable stretching I reckon.

I meant "at the derailler"

Cable cores get covered in filth, rust and strands fray. They require stiff, heavy sheaths too. But consider the energy you use to change gear. That would have to be stored and actuated at the shifter rather than in your body.

I would prefer that there were widespread improvements in cables. Isn’t this what Gore ride-on cables achieve?

We’re going for a demo ride this Saturday on the Qs, to help Dave decide what he wants:

My TranceX
Demo Five
Demo P7

He was also looking at a Remedy (they do look attractive) but I think it’s too "All Mountain" for his intended use.

I think Giant suspension pivots have a reputation for being are a bit more robust than most. Good job because the Maestro system has loads.

The search issue is a concern. Amongst all the vast amounts of opinion, there is a wealth of incredibly useful info lurking in the old forum threads. I’m guessing that’s what the search tool is best used for. E.g. "Snowdon". There must be hundreds of threads about this.

How about doing offline searches to short-list the top re-occurring threads and creating a special "Knowledge" forum for them? Only Admins would be able to add threads to this forum. It will discourage users from spawning new threads about old topics and significantly reduce your server’s search effort.

e.g.
Snowdon
Lake District
One thread per trail centre name
One thread per popular bike model

I’m terrified by the prospect for servicing/wrecking my Fox 32 F120 RLs. Is there is a guide for complete numpties?

Thanks :-)

For Hardcore HTs, can you not run a big fork with quite a lot of sag?

Definitely worth ago but be prepared to change back because I think it may be bike dependant.

1. On my Mongoose HT, putting on wide bars with a 70mm stem felt immediately beneficial.
2. On the Giant TranceX, putting a 75mm stem made it twitchier but easier to get off the back (TranceX had quite a short effective TT). But when I put the wide bars on, it felt like it had lost something important. I switched back to the narrower light bars.

My theory is that it’s to do with the front weighting/slackness. My Mongoose is quite slack and heavy at the front and I reckon the big bars helped improve the control. My Giant is front light and a bit steeper and the big bars just upset its normal agility.

But deffo worth a go.

Naive, not malicious or racist IMO.

But the worse thing is that it was reported like it was the “crime of century”.

I continue to ignore journalism.

I agree with Jimbo. If you have all day and it’s nice, then do Continental and Summit with a nice relaxing coffee/lunch break in between.

Small pump.

Probably depends on the type of tubeless. Once the tyre has taken the right shape to fit the rim it seems to remember it and this makes it much easier to re-inflate. I’ve got BMX half tubes on WTB trail rims with latex and Nevegals. Last time I burped a wheel, it re-inflated OK.

“less than one hour round even for average riders”

Presumptuous. Haven’t been for a couple of years but then the climbing took the best part of 1.5 hours! Now I’m a bit fitter I could probably do a complete round in 1.5 hours.

I think it’s one of the better hand-built singletrack climbs going with some worthwhile challenging bits that are far more interesting than the usual gravel roads. The descents didn’t seem particularly special, I preferred the stuff at Afan.

Must go again soon tho!

It’s very different from Brenin, Brechfa, Carn and Afan:

pleasant and not too bike specific (walkers and twitchers too)
chilled
pure fun
scenic, open and fast
mixture of “natural” and hand-built
The standard and condition of the singletrack is really high esp. Mark of Zorro.

We rode 2 laps of “Summit” as part of a Welsh weekend road trip with The Beast and Tawr at Coed Y Brenin. It was the highlight of the trip IMO.

I second all that. Want to go again but it’s a trek even from Somerset. Perhaps that’s why it’s not over-run.

Have been into travelling and hill walking for ever, but there’s not that many worthwhile hill walks in Somerset so got a cheap hybrid in 1993 as something occasionally to do locally. Found myself seeking off-road more, then I crashed a lot and broke the bike so got my first proper MTB in 1998. My riding was still sporadic though. Then started riding XC more with a mate from fitness class in 2004. This coincided with not being able to travel for hill-walking as much so it became my major sport. Two more bikes later I’m still at it!

2.1 Advantage seems oddly good all-round in a relatively hard compound. Surprised you want uber-grippy, larger volume tyres for trail centre XC – most faster tyres seem to work on the groomed stuff. I’ve currently got 2.1 Nevegals* which grip great on slippy, natural stuff but feel rather OTT at trail centres. At least they are relatively light. My mate has just swapped the front from a Panaracer XCPro after ripping the sidewall, to a Specialised “The Captain” and swears it’s faster and still OK for trail centres.

*but they were puncture-tastic with tubes and the reason I went tubeless.

A small difference at the drop-out can make a noticeable difference at the arch. I wonder if that new QR spring is wedging itself between the axle and the fork drop-out when you do the QR up?

Try with and without the QR springs.

Winter: 1 per week
Summer: 2-3 per week

Yeah that was quite iffy in the wet! I gawped quite a bit before committing. :-)

Mate had RC31s on his Ti HT. They were very absorbant of trail chatter. After that got pinched, he built another identical bike but with a Nukeproof carbon fork. This is much less absorbant, but his speed increased loads because it’s so much more accurate. I’ve tried both forks and felt the difference (ignoring the wrist pain) immediately.

NS scares me. I looked at some of Chris Smith’s stuff in the quarry near Frome on an icy morning – the frozen wood was like an ice rink.

nice pics

ourmaninthenorth – 100% spot-on

Using bathroom scales and deducting me from me+bike: TranceX – 27.5lbs

I’m in love with that Anthem.

5′ 11″ and normally proportioned

The medium (18″)is good. The large was much too large for me.
You may notice that the TT feels short compared with other bikes which requires some adaptation in body position when climbing steep trails. But it’s not desperate. I’ve replaced the 110mm stem with a 75mm and it was still OK. The main effect is that the steering and cornering feels uber quick.
The main style of the bike encourages very fast, nimble trail riding and is not an “I’m indestructable” blundering lump.
I’d love to try an AnthemX, but I;d probably want to buy one!

It’s no-win-no-fee so the claimant has nothing to lose by trying it. The solicitor should know better than to take on lost causes because when the claimant loses, his work and legal costs are for nothing.

So the solicitor must believe a win is likely. However, if enough cases of this sort are lost, then wise solicitors learn not to take them on under no-win-no-fee.

A pothole on a bridleway is not a hazard because it is a visible and expected feature of using bridleways. North-shore and jumps at a trail centre are expected features of trail centres.

IMO

Crepitus – more of a metal-band name really