A few happily recall chasing women/prams/children down the street shooting them up.

I’m actually pretty doubtful of this claim, yes they might have decided to strafe civilians but it’s pretty hard to pick out women and children when your doing 350 – 400 mph a few hundred feet off the deck. I’ve done just that in a single engined vintage fighter as a backseat ride – save for the strafing people part.

Also Germany didn’t start bombing London because they failed to subdue fighter command, they did it after bomber command accidentally bombed one of their cities (Berlin I think) instead of a military target.

All sides during the war seemed to be pretty guilty of some awful atrocities as well and I never buy the line “oh well they started it so they reaped what the sowed”.

Tell the world to **** off and conveniently forget you are 30.

Last time that will happen – think I heard it was the last time in like over a billion years or something/maybe “forever”? Too tired to work it out…

100 years….twit.

If it was 12.12pm of 12th of December 1212 then maybe

Anyway as long as I don’t die before I get to see The Hobbit

Is it because I’ve studied just a teeny bit about radioactivity for my undergraduate project that I always fail to be alarmed by it?

It seems that radioactivity is a big scary monster to most people.

I’m not sure the Geo with a 160mm fork is any more capable than a mega, certainly more so than a Nomad – I wish yeti made an 18.5 inch frame that was as long as the 19,5 inch large (which is only just longer than my undersized medium mega in terms of wheelbase) but it’s close enough that the 1.5lb of weight shaved off by going to the carbon bike is mightily tempting. Basically the only reason I can think of for them being thought of as long legged xc bikes is that the seat tube is quite long for the wheelbase length when compared to my mega – but that’s exactly what I am looking for. My medium mega is as long as I want to go but I want more seat tube length as my legs are way out of proportion compared to the rest of my body. So for me the frame looks to be great for putting together enduro/mini-dh bike.

So the question is, does the carbon bike kill or deaden trail feel?

Also plush sucks balls, as long as I can tune out the linear shock rate and add some more bottom out…I don’t care about mid stroke plushness….I want something that pushes/pops off trail features. Much more fun and I feel faster – for my riding I feel harder/racier shock tunes don’t get bogged down in ‘gnarly’ 🙄 terrain as much. They float over it.

A long TT is good though, it allows you to ride more centrally on the bike without having to hang off the back – meaning you don’t need to shift your weight around as much – long and low is where it’s at! I feel that the Mondraker is taking the idea of a long tt coupled with a 10mm stem a bit to far as the bikes are boat like in their length and a 10mm stem sends shivers down my spine but the Alpine 160 also has a relatively long TT.

An SB66 coupled witha 35mm stem sounds a nice compromise.

I reckon the OP will need 2 cans of petrol, some large bottles of bleach and a body bag for this date.

Ok so my next wheel setup is going to be a set of Syntace MX35’s (35mm wide tyre’s at 1600 grams for the set)….600 gram Bonty XR4’s and these tubes.

That way with the uber wide rims I’ll get less squirm from the single plys and will hopefully be able to run stupidly low pressures with these tubes and save a bit of weight over normal tubes!

Oh yes, I’ll be the space monkey for you guys.

Tubeless is a pain in the arse for all-mountain/dh – for all mountain tyre’s if you don’t want to burp and run UST tyres you save no weight at all and for downhill although tubeless does save weight because the UST dual ply’s are no heavier…they still arn’t quite as reliable as a good old heavier tube + dual ply on the rear and a lighter tube at the front.

Tubeless has benefits – lower tyres pressures and less rolling resistance – not weight unless you go ghetto.

If I went to some non-tlr Bonrager XR4’s and these I could knock almost 1 lb of rotating weight off my all-mountain bike if they are resistant to flats and don’t burp like lightweight tubeless setups do or pinch flat.

WANT.

The price is a bit dear though.

With maxxis high rollers (so not tubeless tyres) I added 25g of tape, 50g of sealent and the valve must be about 5g?

Stans setup? My High Roller 2.35’s didn’t inflate very well, squirmed and burped. Not only that, I wouldn’t like to use a light single-ply tubeless setup near sharp rocks – stopping to put a tube slashed tyre is irritating beyond belief especially when the ghetto setup took you ages to setup in the first place. I rather like the idea of this.

Thanks for all the reply’s. I think I will go for a set of carbon bars. By the sound of it the havoc 35s don’t sound like the best option. Just one more question. What carbon bars do you recomend? I like the look of the eastons but I would rather go for a set that that come highly recomend. I also like the look of the enve dh bars but I can’t find any review on them yet. Thanks again for all your help

If you want low rise I would heartily recommend my Syntace Vector Carbons which are available in three different back sweep combinations. Plenty of trail feel and stiffer than my previous Alu bars – just the right amount of stiffness I feel.

What I really like about the Syntace bars are the reinforced stem clamp areas (aluminum mesh wire) that stops the stem from marking the bars.

Glad to hear of the good news.

My childhood springer spaniel was put down by my rents whilst I was away on advice from the vet, based on vertigo/nystagmus that was diagnosed as a hemorrhage. Vet didn’t wait for 24 hours like you should (spoke to Cambridge veterinary hospital). Vet’s never got back in contact with me and the dog was cremated before I had a chance to have the body sent to another vet.

14 year old dog though, so she had a good running.

glucosamine

This, at 10 my Springer suddenly seemed geriatric. Bigger fluffier bed and glucosamine and within a 3-4 months she was like a puppy again – she carried on being active and mental till she died.

Me and my girlfriend are now waiting till we’re stable enough to get a puppy. The wait’s quite hard, keep seeing lovely Springer Spaniel and cockapoo pups (which my missus adores) for sale.

think you’re falling into the classic megafauna trap of thinking that some species matter, and others don’t.

You should check out Peter Kareiva’s thoughts on this. Loads of articles on him and his views available via a google search eg I think you’re falling into the classic megafauna trap of thinking that some species matter, and others don’t.

I’ll leave you with a Guardian quote.

Peter Kareiva, who works for the world’s biggest conservation group, the Nature Conservancy, argues that conservation should aim to protect wild nature not for its own sake, but if and because it benefits humans. The Earth, say the neogreens, belongs to homo sapiens now. The value of nature is measured by what we can do with it.

Although from a utilitarian standpoint I would say that it’s probably useful to protect both the interests of environmental groups and cyclists – aka creating as many happy people as you can and limiting the amount of irritated people. From a scientific standpoint if it’s useful to protect these nesting sites so that the birds as a species can survive and we can keep as much of our planets genetic record intact and living then I’d say that’s also another important reason as to why the birds should be protected.

Any reasons beyond that are just a load of shite.

OK I’ll bite! I was a local in that area for around 25 years. Just to the west of Swinley is Wildmoor Heath where those same birds were supposed to have frequented.

Funny, in all those years that I’ve walked, run and cycled both there and Swinley Forest, I’ve never ever seen any. Yes, sometimes I had binoculars with me.

So how strange that Highland cattle and ponies were introduced to the Heath, put into paddocks and semi-regularly were moved around. Won’t somebody think of the birdies?

What really pi$$es me off is that it is a high density area and people need to have open space to walk their dogs, take their kids out etc. You know, recreational land not a blinkin’ museum.

I’m sick of hearing about conservation, biodiversity, eco this that and the next thing. Too many bloomin’ jobsworths spouting crap.

Completely agree with you, in fact for the lolz….yes I am sad….I was considering writing a long essay that more eloquently and philosophically states “Our ancestors were natures bitch for 100,000 odd years – now it’s our bitch”. She/he can think of it as payback for introducing us into this world with weak physical bodies but plenty of self awareness to contemplate the vast array of suffering she/he has dished out on us such as disease and predation. Do you think predators treated the first human ancestors to walk out of the jungle with respect and kindness? Think of it as misotheism but applied to nature.

Species get wiped out all the time by acts of nature (humans and their behaviours are ultimately a product of nature btw, whatever we as a species choose to do is at the end of the day the fault of nature and the universe)

Nature isn’t beautiful or good. It’s not ugly or evil either, it just is.

The only time I’ve suffered ‘racism’ as a quater icelandic, quater welsh half hungarian white Englishman was in France and Scotland.

The best one was a French local who unleashed a torrent of abuse at us on some ski lift at Morzine one summer, no reason other than we were English and he thought we looked at him a bit funny.

Anyway we reverted to type and retorted with two fingered salutes and lots of things like “**** off you Vichy Caaaaaaaaaaaaahnt” and the classic “Come and have a go if you think your ‘ard enuff”

Good times.

:: £600m more on scientific research infrastructure.

Win. Now the sector just needs to convince them we need to government funding at the same levels Asia putting in.

I hate the conservatives a tiny bit less now.

From the Russell group

The UK’s investment of 0.56% of public expenditure in higher education is one of the lowest in the OECD. Even including private expenditure on higher education this was still only 1.3% of GDP, well below the OECD average (1.6%), half that of the USA (2.6%) and below South Korea, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Chile, Argentina, Russia, and comparable to India. (Source: OECD education at a glance 2012 (data refer to 2009).
• Over 2010-11: the 24 Russell Group universities accounted for 71% of the IP income generated by UK universities; the estimated turnover from companies spun out from the 24 Russell Group universities was 49% of the total sector; active spin outs from Russell Group universities accounted for 63% of those which survived for three years.

His response was, ‘ that he’d put wire across before but this had resulted in a kids mouth being split

I would like to say based on this, hospitalize him in self defense.

Going to the police is a more sensible option though.

So XT’s are as powerful as V2’s then, basic physics and dyno tests disagree with you. Because last time I checked both X2’s and XT’s are about 10 percent off the power of a set of V2’s and that correlates my experiences with them.

Your experience with Hopes is probably what is called….USER ERROR.

Cheap, reliable and easy to maintain if you need to bleed etc

ARRRRRHAHAHA You can’t maintain them as there’s no bloody spare parts and the Hope’s are widely regarded as being the easiest to bleed!

Just ordered some sintered pads too are the tech m4 calipers the same as m4 is it only the levers that are different as they look the same to me , in pics anyway.

I’ve already typed this but it vanished ??

Get the Race brakes don’t bother with the tech levers unless you’re going for the V4 or badly want bite point adjust. You get more power with the race levers but the calipers are the same.

I’m seriously tempted to replace my V2 203/180 setup with a V4 180/160 setup. Lighter weight, insane power and better modulation than my V2’s. Bit of a brake tart. Mmmmm nomnomnom

By coincidence I was just reading the Dirt 100, and ya know what? They recommend the XTR (and Saint) but add “if your budget won’t stretch to these then apart from a few frams and a less polished finish the XT version is identical”.

Spoilsport.

I’ve had X2’s and XT, personally I found a big difference in power with XT’s being better, the X2s look much better but I ride my bike not look at it.

1) Did you have Tech levers as they arn’t as powerful as race levers?

2) Did you have the Evo Race/Tech lever as they are substantially more powerful.

3) If yes to the second, you didn’t set the brake up properly during the bleed, pad alignment and bedding in process. Or you had contaminated discs/pads.

There’s simply no way they’re not as powerful as XT’s, hell they’re not far off my V2 Evos which are second only to Formula R0’s in stopping power.

Block the number with a call screener?

I did notice the whole lapierre team ditched the 35mm standard pretty quickly

I did actually fathom a guess with my mates that 35mm carbon bars might reduce trail feel. Guess what?

We come back round to my previous point on the Mondraker thread of manufacturers pushing marketing ideas and the personal preferences of the odd racer as technical solutions for the consumer to try to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.

According to the reviews on the new 2013 V-10 the only downside of the bike are the 35mm Easton Havoc bars which are apparently to stiff and confer **** all trail feel.

And that’s why Dirt mag included them in their Top 100 for 2012 and also note a distinct lack of SLX/XT in the top 100 just the XTR. Maybe because the X2’s are the same power as XT’s and almost the same weight as XTR’s all for almost the same price as the XT’s.

Just got a set of x2s in the post today… Oil dots on the inside of the plastic bag they’ve been packed in… Would you send them back?

No, my V2’s have ports on the levers (and I think my old mans X2’s do) that let excess oil from on top of the diaphragm out.

It’s probably excess oil. Check the functioning of the brakes with an old disk or wipe the new ones with brake cleaner after, if the pads are contaminated send the pads back to hope. I guess you could sand the pads down though.

Look for leaks and check lever feel and bleed them as you will have to cut the hoses anyway.

see the deal on hope’s first, i’d probably have spent the extra – they look cooler, feel nicer and there’s not a lot of difference in power.

There’s no difference in terms of power with the Race Evo X2 and definitely not with the Race Evo M4.

Ahh yes that was the one…Kali composites

Really want to do an independent study measuring the effectiveness of various helmets myself….just don’t know how to go about sourcing them for free.

Why not think of them as having whichever condition it is, or be more specific with their impairment.

Is a blind person disabled or blind? Deaf – disabled? Someone with a mobility impairment – disabled? Aspergers – disabled?

Calling them disabled is daft.

Ever think of becoming a spin doctor?

David Cameron called, he want’s you as a political adviser to the disability benefits program.

POC MIPS

or perhaps that new one with the single piece/monocoque shell/eps…..I forget it’s name

No difference between the X2 evo and the XT in terms of power unless you’ve set the X2 up incorrectly.

Nothing to choose in power, XT more immediate power, X2s more feel/lever travel, both reliable, XT cheaper but parts hard to come by, X2s easy to get parts for.

What he said.

you either want to as fast as you are going, or you don’t.

There’s a very fine line between railing a berm and going wide and over the top of the berm and hitting a tree 6 foot in the air.

Some tips for the X2s.

1) Bleed them exactly how Hope tell you to bleed them

2) The pads take a little longer than most to bed in

3) They come with organic pads, swap these immediately for sintered. As organics are horrible in the wet.

4) Use Hope pads, the brake authority and superstar pads are shite in comparison. Not sure about Goodridge or Clarks.

I thought you could fit Goodridge lines to 2012/2013 SLX/XT/XTR sing the 107 kit fittings.

Nahh they usually have 35 to 50mm offsets. Really interested to have a go on one as it’s similar to a Moto setup but I’d be genuinely surprised if the steering is as slow as I’d want it with 750mm bars. I’d rather slacken a bike out to get an increased wheelbase length as the two go hand in hand for their intended use.

I’ll jump ship onto a Mondraker if it does work…let us know how you have to change your riding style to suit the bike etc

Also if I remember correctly Nico Vouilloz toyed with this concept and ended up dropping it? Although my memory could be cloudy.

Anyhow, I’ll sum up what I was trying to say….a fast steering response doesn’t make up for a big turning circle when riding tight trails. These characteristics are quite different.

Yup, I still think it’s a marketing ploy designed to try to give Mondraker a theoretical edge in the marketplace at a time when the world economy is being squeezed hard. Did you guys even take note of the steering damper on the race bike I posted earlier?

As Fabien Barrel is a pro racer I’d also go as far to say that his judgement as to what the public needs and wants is going to be impaired. He’s fit and strong and an excellent rider and has access to factory tech such as steering dampers – he can probably muscle these bikes through tight technical sections through ability and strength – they probably reward a very aggressive rider that make’s few mistakes. He also mostly rides in the Alps – which is much faster, more open and suited to very very long bikes with massive bars.

However hilarity will probably ensue when your average UK rider tries one. I’ll state again, unless you live in an area where you can run massively wide bars like Fabien does (think 800mm as opposed to 750mm)…….then I don’t think you will enjoy taking this bike airborne…the stem length will leave very little room for error.

The same has been happening with superbikes for a long time – track focused beasts designed by racers that end up being a pain in the arse in the real world.

I want a sling over for sure but I’m not expecting anything much.

If they bring out a decent steering damper I’d be sold on a 160+ bike – I just don’t see the point of it on a 140mm trail bike. I want a 140mm for tight technical singletrack with drops, bit’s of steep interspersed with lowish speed jumps etc – not hooning down steep descents which a 1200mm wheelbase is suited for.

1170 is the maximum wheelbase length I could handle at 6 foot for UK riding. Despite the short stem it’s still going to have the turning circle of a Harley.

There you go folks, Cesar Rojo and Mondraker Bikes are officially stupid. Sad to think they could have avoided this disaster if they’d asked for advice on here.

You could look at it like this; all the other bike manufacturers in the world are obviously stupid because they didn’t go down this route when Gary Fisher tried it.

Obviously. 🙄

In case you hadn’t noticed MXers have to use steering dampers to cope with unwanted input with these ultra short stems and they are far far heavier bikes! They even have massively wide bars as well! Now imagine dealing with a sub 30lb trail bike as opposed to a 200lb monster at 35 mph in the Alps with a Zero length stem.

But ooooh look, this is new and shiney……Fabien Barrel said it’s good….he doesn’t have any conflicting interests and will definitely give impartial advice about something he’s paid to ride.

Despite the long top tube because of the Zero stem this design isn’t helping you load up the front wheel because of the amount of rise the stem adds.

The only thing this does is give your trailbike a 1200mm wheelbase (about the same length as a large V10) and at the same time make the steering really twitchy

Meaning that your handlebars get deflected easily by rocks and may cause you to more easily case jumps unless you are running 800mm wide bars. How many of you are A) Tall enough to run 800mm wide bars B) Ride places that necessitate a 140mm trail bike with a 1200mm wheelbase and 800mm wide bars. Imagine trying to use that at your local wooded trails or tight singletrack. Then out in the Alps or at Fort Bill the 140mm of travel is going to be out of it’s depth.

My Mega’s about as long as I’d want to go on an All-Mountain bike.

Stupid idea (unless someone brings out a decent steering damper) that never caught on the last time someone tried to do it. The fact that the mondraker team seem to be using steering dampers that don’t appear to be made by Hopey speaks volumes.

Even then I wouldn’t want a 1200mm wheelbase on a 140mm travel frame. The wheelbase advantage is totally lost on a bike that’s meant to be a trail bike.

My guess is Fabien had nothing to do with forward geometry and the Mondraker marketing department did.

Anyone care to prove me wrong?