The day UKIP get power is the day it becomes infinitely harder for my girlfriend to stay in the UK and…..judging by the types of people that voted in the Eastleigh election…. the day that gay people are probably lynched and strung up from trees.

So I’ll leave.

Ironically a good old fashioned land based war would boost production and bring population down to a more affordable level – so watch out for that idea from UKIP, or maybe the liberals.

Eh….a war would only kill young people. The boomers aren’t just gonna die then the aging population will be a thing of the past – all studies point to us suffering from an ever increasing aging population.

Some brilliant reasoning there man.

I wouldn’t count on it. Get something with a standard shock – higher parts availability etc.

Look’s like Jimmy Savilles downhill bike.

Like bars?. That was the first link that came up, and folk are saying they look good, but very expensive… Considering they’re about half the price of some of the MTB bars out there I’d say that it’s at least in part because MX guys aren’t as interested in chasing lightweight through things like expensive bars. I imagine more gains can be had by spending money on the thing between your legs that makes it go.

Do they make anything that could save considerable weight though, like the chassis? The answer is, a big resounding no.

Dunno, might be something to do with the bikes weighing 10 times as much and travelling several times faster, and having many times more power so less concern for shaving grams? Even then, some moto-x parts are carbon.

Motorcrosses and Superbike riders are all happy to save a 1kg of weight. IMO carbon in mountain bikes was simply brought over from road bikes to appeal to the types who play golf and drive Audi’s. In fact….mountain biking and road cycling is the new golf.

I’ll go carbon when the two wheel motorsport world starts heavily using carbon for stuff like the chassis – instead of one off’s that seem to continually fail (Ducati).

Plus there are at least three companies doing replacement damper cartridges including fast suspension, avalanche and CR1 engineering. So when you have the money, just upgrade to some really awesome internals.

Someone up there said that cane creek dont do an angleset for 1.5 inch tapered steerers.

That was in regard to tapered steerers in straight 44mm headtubes – you have a 44/49mm headtube.

You can fit tapereds and straight 1.5’s into a Mega’s 44mm headtube – you just can’t use a cane creek angleset with them.

Bwaarp… there is a package from Avalanche Racing about to be delivered to my house

Git! :D Let me know what it’s like!

people STILL going on about carbon and its strengths!!! Practically everything high end or medium end is carbon, pro’s the world over use them in every kind of sport, cars are made from them etc.

Why don’t they make motorcross parts out of carbon then?

That Tr250 does look nice, half tempted to buy it and some Boxxers. Then through all my compnents onto it when going to the Alps.

Hmmmmmmmmm…..temptation. Thanks a lot Paul, my bank account might be considerably worse off tommorow.

Let me put it this way, unless you’re an uber strong rugby player type then it’ll be a bastard. I prefer exploring and my Totem’d 36lb SX Trail used to really piss me off. The 2.5 dual ply’s didn’t help though.

I can keep up with 90 percent of hardtail riders when I’m out on my Mega, sporting a 2.35 Single-Ply super tacky High Roller up front and a 60A High Roller at the back.

I could never EVER do that with my SX – it was murderous – even with a freaking granny. Plus when you do ride such a rig everyone expects you to be a hardcore Josh Bender type….instead if your not doing 20 foot drops then you’ll feel like a freeride walt.

However the silly 40 tooth cassettes make a lot of sense to me – nice way to drop nearly a lb of the weight and enjoy the jumps more!

No, one of them rotated downwards (wtf) into a position that made it half a degree slacker instead of fully slack. We measured it, it definately was not the slackest position.

The TR250….is a beast. You could…theoretically…. build it to a decent weight with air shocks front and rear when setup in 160mm mode. But I seem to remember the wheelbase is then actually shorter than a Mega…which kind of defeats the point.

I did think about going down that route! Stunning looking bike though.

Had so many problems with offset bushings in my old mans nomad, rotation, the tolerance was way out etc.

Angleset. Offset bushings are shit, rotate and wear….then again there have been issues with anglesets.

Also, I don’t think Canecreek do a 44mm 1.5 tapered angleset. There is another company that say they do, the owner posted on here. I’ll try and dig up the post.

I gave a link to the mod, it’s a little spacer in the assembly the allows the spring to compress more – as the U-turn springs are capable of compressing beyond 160mm of travel. I’ll contact Loco at somepoint as to regards to whether he can machine me the spacers.

My goal is to get my Mega to 31/32lb with a CCDB on the back and a 170mm u-turn Lyrik at the front with an Avy Cart. I’m going to round the upgrade off with a pair of 35mm wide syntace wheels and to lose some weight a 42 10 speed rear cassette from Italy for ghetto single chain ring XXI – it’ll be great. A lightish poppy mini-dh bike that is fully coil damped with buttery smooth old school marzocchi style travel.

For sure, get the second hand Lyriks if they havn’t been abused to hard. Then if they are u-turns fettle with the spacer mod http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/can-you-make-160mm-lyrik-170mm-611758.html and drop in a avy damper at a later date when you have the money…. if you want to mess around with things like mid stroke damping etc.

They really would be beasts then….but the stock fork is great as well.

Aslo, sometimes you can pick up OEM Lyrik R’s brand new for 350ish.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Avalanche-Racing-Fork-Replacement-Cartridge-Kit-2012.html

Gonna put one of these beasties in my U-turn lyrik Lyrik and then mod it to 135-170mm instead of 125-160.

Also you can mod the U-turns to 170mm whilst keeping the travel adjust….google it.

It’s then the ultimate fork….170mm of coil assisted travel adjust goodness. Just ways half a pound heavier than the DPA’s.

In fact Paul, **** the 180mm forks mate…just do the mod. 10mm of travel is not worth the weight and hassle of swapping them over.

RS lyriks – not of a of RS forks but this seem to tick all the boxes and pretty much everyone running them are v.happy with them – but there seems to be so many versions – anyone running them and how do they compare etc..

The Lyriks will be by far the easiest to get parts for. I have a set of coil U-turns, they’re great and feel like a small set of Boxxers. The 55’s are supposedly a bit more buttery but good luck finding replacement cartridges etc to keep handy on big trips abroad.

My current line of thinking is to buy an Avalanche cartridge to get them as buttery as some old school marz forks, user servicable – plus plenty of parts like springs, seals, maxles etc still readily available.

TBH any of the forks you listed will be a massive step up on the Talas forks – The x-fusions have a higher A2C height for the given travel though – the 160mm is as long as a 170mm Lyrik and the 170mm is as long as a 180mm Totem. The latter will rake your bike out horribly.

Guess it’s all down to looks then! If the OP doesn’t care for trying all the bikes out….it might be worth having a look at sizing numbers, whether a coil will fit the bike’s he looks at (if he want’s one) and look at and understand the leverage ratio/path of the rear suspension. And how all of these will affect the bike.

Quick guide for the OP:

* Head Angle – slacker (lower) = more stable handling at high speed. (66 degree’s is nice and slack for an enduro bike)

* Wheelbase – the longer the more stable the bike is at high speed and the easier it is to ride down steep rocky terrain. On the negative side, it takes more effort to ride the bike in slow technical singletrack.

* BB height. The lower it is the more stable the bike will feel in a corner – but the chance of pedal strikes increases. 13.5 is a good compromise. 14 is a little bit high for me IMO.

* Top tube length – the longer it is the more stretched out you will feel. It will make you feel less prone to going over the front on steep terrain – the negative….it can make your back hurt and fatigue you as you have to squat over the bike more to load up the front when getting it to steer.

* Chainstay length – the shorter the better. It makes the bike easier to manual.

Lastly make sure you get the right fit for your height.

Rear suspension – try to find out if it’s design is how you like it. Ie…..does it ramp up a lot towards the end….is it quite linear….does it wallow in the mid stroke. A good place to start is to babelfish this link.

http://linkagedesign.blogspot.co.uk/

Is that a custom shock length? If it is, I wouldn’t go near one as A) It’s going to be hilarious getting a coil in the right size for Alps sessions B) If the air can assplodes out in the Alps/Scotland….good luck getting another one shipped out to you quickly.

That is if the shock is a custom length though.

Ahhh yeah…..thought all the framesets were. Nevermind then!

Also OP, 180mm forks really are over rated. The Totems I had seemed to flex more than my domains and lyriks both laterally and in the steering/stem interface. I put this down to the increase in forces being put through fork due to the higher A2C height.

I really see no point in them – if you go to 180mm forks you may as well get a bike that is capable of taking dual crowns. Spend the money on a really quality set of 160mm or 170mm forks. The Dual Position Air Lyriks would be ace at 2200 grams with instantly adjustable ride height for climbing.

Here’s a good read. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Pinkbike-Poll-Long-Travel-Single-Crown-Forks-2013.html

My Totems resulted in sod all bump damping improvements compared to my Lyriks and ended up making the bike heavier.

Bare in mind the Dune is designed with something called Forward Geometry, the bike is uber long (1200mm wheelbase, which is as long as a world cup downhill bike) and has a very very long cockpit. To counter this it comes with a 10mm stem. It will be a bit different….you might find the wheelbase has taken new school geometry a bit to extreme….as such I would recommend a ride on one and make sure you can adjust to it compared to what you are used to. Although I’ve heard some good things about the bike.

Is the 215×63.5 shock length on the Dune a none standard proprietary length?

I wouldn’t risk dropping 1.5k on a second hand carbon frame – it could end in tears. If you buy second hand make sure you don’t care about losing the amount of money you’re spending.

Plus Mojo’s really are overrated…….oooh look….Carbon…shiney shiney shiney…..

Might as well retain the option of 180 forks though, whether I fit some or not as it’s no different pushing a bigger fork up a hill!

If you’ve never had a long travel bike, what have you had the 66s attached to lol?

Make sure you don’t **** the geo of your new bike with them. The Mega will be fine as long as they are 1 1/8th and you run a zero stack headset. The Alpine 160 can unfortunately only take a 160mm fork, but this is a really good bike. The Patriot can take 180mm forks but the versatility isn’t there.

I used to run an SX trail with 180mm Totems at the front and 170mm of coil damped travel at the rear. My old style Nukeproof Mega is way more capable on descents despite being a single pivot air shock equiped 160mm front/150mm rear travel. It feels more of a mini-downhill bike than the SX Trail did and that’s solely down to it’s travel and well balanced suspension setup.

Just de- decalling mine at the mo- its true, stickers should be understated not so many as to hide the frame

Heh, this is why I bought a 2010 model as opposed to the 2011/2012 models. The original decals were way wayyyyy nicer.

Now the warranty is out, she’s going to get sprayed Duck Egg Blue with orange highlight’s and orange stencil lettering. In the LeMan Gulf/Steve McQueen colors.

Gonna be schaweeeet!

The 2013 Nukeproof Mega will be in stock in April…..for those guys complaining earlier in this thread.

The sexiest colour is definitely the yellow, the decals on the black and silver models look gopping.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=81836

22nd of April at CRC although I could have sworn some places were going to have them in stock by mid march….could have been delayed. Can you hold off for a month? If not, despite what everyone says about Orange…I’d go with an Alpine 160. It get’s rave reviews in mags and from more downhill oriented types….I’ve also ridden one and can attest that it’s every bit as good as people say it is.

IMO I would buy the Monarch version for 1099, so you have a lightweight air shock with a 3 position compression adjust so you can select for peddling efficiency on climbs….then I’d buy a coil CCDB secondhand. And have two shock options for the price of the new bike with a CCDB.

It’s rated for a 180 fork but if you’re using a tapered steerer it will end up more raked out than a boxxer, it’s only advisable to use one with a 1 1/8th zero stack headset. In fact I don’t see the point of 180mm single crowns for precisely this reason, you may as well run a dual crown for the A2C height.

It will be work and ride just fine as long as you can use a zero stack headset though – as it will run the height 160mm fork with a non-zero stack headset.

Should be stiffer around the head tube/front frame compared to my old model Mega due to the hydroformed large diameter tubing (although I personally never felt it was soft anyway), bit lighter and rocking 160mm of slightly more supple travel. Basically they’ve improved an already great bike although I wish they had stuck to 152 of travel as it seemed a little bit more of a jack of all trades number – although I guess it won’t make much difference in the end to peddling efficiency.

Nukeproof Mega AM 2013 with a Double Barrel Air/Coil will be available halfway through this month – 1099 with a Monarch Plus should you want to spend less.

Buy a new bike with a warranty, it’s harder to tell whether a second hand carbon frame has been abused in terms of cracks etc.

The Mojo is also somewhat old school in terms of it’s geometry compared to a Mega, a Rocket, Orange Alpine 160 or a Speccy Enduro Evo (not sure you can buy a frameset though). It will be less capable on the downs setup at 180/160 than any of the former bikes setup with 160 front and back. Higher BB, steeper head angle, shorter wheelbase etc.

The problem is not that CF is too stiff, but that the feedback it provides differs so completely from conventional aluminium. The property most often quoted is hysteresis, which in this instance, refers to the rate at which absorbed energy is returned. One of the benefits of CF is the fact that it can be made to damp vibration, its hysteresis meaning that the energy absorbed from an input (such as striking a bump) is released in a much more controlled fashion. Tap an aluminium tube and it rings like a bell; tap a CF tube and it emits a dull thud.

This is a property that Ducati had hoped would help them solve the problem of chatter (or extreme vibration over bumps) but it had an unintended side effect. Just as with the original attempts at using carbon fiber for chassis, starting with the Cagiva back in 1990, the damping also removes some of the feel from the front end. When used to build swingarms – as Aprilia had been doing for their 250cc racers for several years – this damping helps remove unwanted vibration, but at the front of the bike, that vibration also contains valuable information. As Guy Coulon once explained to me on the subject of unconventional front suspension systems, what is required of a racing motorcycle is that the information from the tarmac should pass directly into the rider’s brain with as little interference or loss of data as possible. Any system which removes or alters that information means that the rider has to learn to interpret the feedback almost from scratch. All of the experience gained in his many years of racing is of little value in interpreting what he is feeling.

This is what caused the Cagiva to fail back in the early 1990s. The riders, brought up on a generation of steel and aluminium chassis, simply could not understand the feedback they were receiving from the machine. And this seems to be at least one part of the problem with the Ducati Desmosedici: the carbon fiber subframe connecting the front forks to the front of the engine may be damping the vibrations too much, reducing the amount of information traveling from the front tire up into the rider’s brain. Alternatively, it may be returning too much information, providing more feedback than most riders are used to receiving. Filtering out this new (and not necessarily useful) information may be what is confusing the riders about the feel.

As we said earlier, the underlying problem of the Ducati is the difficulty the riders have in getting the front tire up to temperature. The stiffness of the CF chassis may not be the problem here, but the feedback from the chassis could make it harder for the riders to push the tire hard enough to start working.

So is the choice of carbon fiber the main cause of Ducati’s problems? Looking at the theoretical benefits of the material it is hard to say that it is. There could be an issue where the feel of a CF chassis is sufficiently different to traditional aluminium that it is hard for riders with many years’ experience of metal frames to interpret and understand. But with Rossi known more for his adaptability than for his rigid adherence to a single style, this does not seem like an insurmountable candidate. So let us examine the next candidate.

http://www.motomatters.com/analysis/2011/08/08/the_trouble_with_the_ducati_desmosedici_.html

It’s funny that a review of the new V10 mentioned a lack of front end feel.

Basically I don’r get what all this fuss is about carbon, people seem to look at a perfectly good bike and then ask for it in carbon assuming it will be much better. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

WTF is it with Carbon anyway – is anyone producing carbon framed Moto GP/Superbikes…..for that matter is anyone producing carbon framed Motorcross bikes? Nooooo,

If the picture you paint was true and Venezuela had done so badly under Chavez then he would have been voted out of office a very long time ago. However he won 17 elections in 14 years, and he was still easily winning elections 14 years after first coming to power, something which even the most popular politicians we’ve ever had couldn’t dream of doing.

You personally might think that Chavez did nothing for poverty but the Venezuelan people beg to differ.

This is the same Chavez that gained his majority in the last election by massive state sponsored character assaination of his opponents – calling one of them a “gay zionist”.

Again, the Venezualen people would have been lifted out of poverty by a more moderate chacter. A man of higher morals than Hugo would not have exploited populist sentiments for his own personal agenda like Chavez has done.

Well bwaarp, you haven’t explained why this “wannabe dictator” stood and won so many elections ? Providing a link to a US based organisation which is funded by wealthy Americans doesn’t answer the question.

Many allegations are corroborated by other NGO’s – btw the guy who funds the organization has probably done more for poverty than Chavez.

So you think wrecking the countries GDP, attacking the free press, setting up publicly owned companies who only employ people who support him, making sure his opponents are monitored by Chavez’s security teams, holding political prisoners Putin style…..etc ad naueum are signs of a good governance? He’s paved the way for massive political and economic insability down the road, something a more moderate character would not have done (and still been able to pull off the reforms that he did).

The fact that he tried to blame his cancer on foreign enemies just highlouts the increasing absurdity (almost Iranian absurdity) that his office was descending into.

He was a wolf posing a housepet – the country will now go to shit in the power vacuum his death has left.

Wannabe dictator ? Well tell me then, why did he keep standing for elections and winning ? Which is more that our leader has managed to do.

And of the Venezuelan elections under Hugo Chavez, this is what former United States President Jimmy Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his democracy-promotion work with the Carter Center, had to say :

“As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”

http://www.hrw.org/node/108974

He wasn’t a good man – he was a corrupt tin pot wannabe dictator hell bent on power through populism who polarized venezualen politics and consequently **** over the entire countries political landscape.

Good riddance, the guy was a **** ****.

That’s capitalism for you. A massively inequitable way of distributing finite resources and impossible, yes impossible, to sustain. Dread to think what will happen when the developing world catches up with the aspirational west and wants to consume as such.

They will begin to catch up and then global warming will destroy most of the developing worlds hopes and dreams, including India and Brazil – whilst the northerly countries will once again be the dominating economic drivers.

what I don’t get about these websites, is that they are so hard to understand. What are they talking about? explain it to me? I saw a picture which had a genetically modified tree on it, and I sort of lost interest.

For example that picture up there ^^^

WTF does that show? it’s garbled, confused nonsense.

The websites articles are probably written by paranoid schizophrenics. This is what happens when the internet brings people together who wouldn’t usually meet each other – they reinforce each others **** up belief systems and group delusion sets in.

The conspiracy loons are about the only people I don’t enjoy trolling because it usually winds up with you getting targeted by autistic hackers accusing you of being a CIA operative.

I just hate Ducati’s and Ferraris with a passion. :mrgreen:

I love the P1, but if Ferrari’s figures are to be believed ( ) then they are 150BHP/tonne up on the McLaren.

Which will amount to stuff all on the track, where a top speed of 220mph is uneeded (save for Lemans).

The weight of the P1 hasn’t even been confirmed whilst the Ferrari will be producing 960 hp with Kers the P1 will be producing 903. Hardly an advantage that better areodynamics, electronics and suspension setup won’t make up for on the track!