Not in a position to buy right now but the bandit looks really on the money. Sure the treks are great bikes and maybe I’m a sucker for niche but treks never really excite me.

Testing is a great idea but living in the arse end of nowhere (well north devon) there aren’t many shops with demo bikes anywhere close and most demo bikes are too big. Might have to journey somewhere with a demo day on I guess

Edit: Looks like the bandits gone 27.5!

http://www.tamedearth.com/product/transition-bandit-275/

westcoast website is from cornwall, they arent the people behind it,just featured it on their website. trails are at keypitts farm near ilfracombe north devon.

It’s privately owned not forestry comission so they have to make it pay. It’s £5 all day to ride with free parking which is less than you pay to park for a day at whinlatter or afan

more stuff here

https://www.facebook.com/NorthDevonMountainBikeTrails

I do like the look of the bantam plus it’s a cost effective way of becoming a proper SC fanboi!

Having little FS experience i’m not sure how much difference a single pivot will male in my real life non-pro riding?

Yeah, actually i rode a canyon nerve am around whinlatter a few months ago and had a lot of fun. 150 forks on it but went up fine!

guess a zesty is another thing to look at?

The blue is a great warm up!

Last time we did both reds and the blue twice in 2 1/2 hours (actually moving) factor in a bit more for lunch and a wee rest at the top of the climbs!

While i totally get the support your lbs sentiment and i can understand gearfreaks annoyance, as a consumer a lot of it is to do with how far you can stretch your (fairly empty in these times) disposable income wallet.

Last time i bought a complete bike, i really wanted to use a localish bike shop. As well as advising me to get the wrong size frame (another story but interestingly they didnt have the right size in stock !!) for a cash payment they would give me £70 worth of accessories free.

5 minutes on google found me the same bike (still in the wrong size but i digress) for £400 less!!! Thats some hope hoops, new tyres and some other stuff as well for the same cost. As a consumer i cant afford to turn that down!

Only ridden mine with 120, not sure what you would gain with less travel. I’ve climbed 1in3 seated with a 50mm stem on mine without undue wheelying!

Are the race sport ones any good or too light weight to last?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/continental-rubber-queen-mtb-tyre-racesport/rp-prod109872

Bikediscount.de maybe the go!

Or are these better?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/continental-rubber-queen-mtb-tyre-ust-tubeless/rp-prod29790

So are these a good price for the ones I want or am I still confused about the different versions of the tire?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121090563851?var=420151911235&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Meant to add, that lynton route was chips exmoor adventure in issue 69

http://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/issue-69/

the lynton/ valley of the rocks route in that book is pretty fun

maybe it’s because the stock caad8 wheels were truly rubbish? longest ride on them so far with 23mm tires at 100 psi was 40 odd miles on exmoor and the only thing complaining was my thighs which i dont think was wheel related! I am only ten stone though, ive heard they aren’t well suited to bigger riders.

they are pretty light i think, the net said similar to mavic kysrium

cant comment about frames but just got an ebay bargain pair of these for my alu caad8

http://road.cc/content/review/1216-shimano-rs80-wheelset

carbon laminated rims apparently. They are noticeably smoother and seem to absorb a lot more of the country lane surface chatter than the stock cannondale wheels that came with the bike.

pretty much my dream bike right there (although i like the orange!)

Realistically the bantham might be all i could afford, anyone know how it compares?

i had spesh rocca which i liked and were pretty good value. currently on ODI troy lee which have bedded in really nicely

Here are my lights:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130941337921?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

and

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280999931866?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Hopefully that works!

I’m not sure i’d go so far as to choose night over day but needs must and a ride is always better than staying in!

Reckon i will, i’m used to surfing 9 degree water and changing in a snowy car park in jan/feb so sure it cant need more manning than that! :-)

Blimey it took a whole hour before someone posted that! :-) :-)

so i’ve only got a hard tail and ive switched between both flats (v8’s) with am45’s and spd’s

Descending i’d say i’m equally confident on either but i guess it’s easier to stay with the bike clipped in.

Where i notice a bigger difference is climbing.

Most of our local stuff is fairly xc and on the more technical climbs, being able to pull up to keep your legs spinning and maintain momentum does help (well me anyway) especially when there are nasty rocks and roots throwing you off balance and there’s no rear travel to soak it up.

Why change perfection?

I just had a quick 40 minute lunchtime blast on my mk3 soul and it is such a fun bike and perfect for 90% of my local riding.

I can see why the complete bike companies might be pushing 650b but i think if you are in cy’s position things are a little bit different. For a start i’d wager he’s often selling frames to people who already have some or all of the bits to build a bike up, rather than buying all new.
Second, the whole long travel steel hardtail thing is much bigger in the UK than anywhere else and that’s his main market.

Finally, he’s small with small overheads and no massive team or worldwide marketing budget and almost certainly orders runs of fairly small numbers which means he could keep supplying 26″ frames and potentially have a 650b model alongside if there were enough demand.

That said i notice that pace have a 650b frame on test in this months what mountain bike mag!

Personally i love the idea of a 5 inch rocket-lite. Once thats out the FS itch is gonna be unbearable i think……..

thats a quality beach break down there!

still feels a bit like summer here!

I had a similar thing with a wheel recently. Not as described and overpriced which i refuted. Offered reluctantly to take it back and refund as the op has

Two days later the buyer told me he’d sold the wheel on face to face for more than he paid me for it!! Obviously someone else thought it was worth the money too!

I would b reluctant to front the money without the stem back. I’d expect an online shop to refund after I had returned the goods not before!

North devon, great waves and exmoor on your doorstep, quantocks an hour away

I have fun trails from my front door and 5 breaks within 10 minutes drive!

Surf when it’s on, ride when it’s not. I’m far less stress about whether there’s surf since I started riding and get my jollies that way.

I’ll always surf if its good tho!

http://adventuresintrim.blogspot.com

I’m 5’6 & skinny the endura mt500 have been good for me

of course it’s also possible that i’m a lazy slacker at heart without the necessary self discipline for serious sport! :lol:

It’s funny actually, i mean i do enjoy a bit of strava competition with myself and my mates but i really just enjoy riding my bike, road or mtb. i enjoy feeling like i’ve pushed myself a little when i get home, be that up a climb or staying off the brakes that little bit longer on the downs.

The idea of actually “training” with hrm or cadence monitors, wattage, special diets and going riding in a specific way to get a better time is where i start to lose a bit of interest. I guess it seems like the fun starts to go and it all gets a bit too serious.

I’ve never found the idea of the gym appeals much either for similar reasons.

i guess i came to cycling only recently from a youth skating and a big surfing habit (which i still have) both sports where there is no “training” no advice on diet in the media, you just go do it, have fun, maybe get better and get fitter as a useful by product.

Life is stressful enough, we can all do with as much fun in our lives as we can shoe-horn in around the necessary things of modern life.

wow, skimming through this i’ve realised i live in a hilly place!

i did a pretty civilised 27 miles with a mate yesterday, chatting etc

15mph average speed but 2900 feet of climbing! we didnt go looking for hills either!

Pretty much any direction you go for a ten mile loop involves at least 1200 feet of uphill gurning.

suddenly the 18 – 20 mph average speeds dont seem so far away!

that said, there are some bloody quick/fit people hee abouts so i know my place!

converted recently and love tubeless.

you will save a little bit of weight, especially if you only need the stans yellow tape and not the rubber strip as well. that depends on your rim i guess. I only needed 60 ml of sealant.

less air cos ur running a lower psi will save weight too.

In reality weight isnt the real reason, they give better grip and feel smoother (to me on my hardtail) and i think im faster since swapping.

Oh and the lack of puncture related faff is fantastic!

Cheers for the help so far. Found a bit of video of lac du Jaunay trails but no idea wher they are!

Surf wise les conches and les dunes are fun – I’m a much better surfer than I am mountain biker so I’ve got that covered!

These are pretty good for the money

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-m10-mountain-bike-cycling-shoe

Comfy not too warm, ok weight wise. They do let in water easily tho.

i just went tubeless. its brilliant so far!

Front is a schwalbe nobby nic on a mavic 319. went up first go with valves and yellow rim strip

rear is a nobby nic on a cheap alex fd19 rim, i ended up using a bmx inner tube as per ghetto set up to get it to seal except i put a presta valve through a slit in it rather than using the schrader on the bmx tube.

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/f19/ghetto-tubeless-conversion-diy-tips-tricks-240026/

worked a treat and was pretty straight forward. Both went up with a track pump

Well i had a great weekend lined up going with mates to afan which was stymied by my daughter getting a temperature of 40 and throwing up all friday night/ saturday morning! I spent most of the day on shift in the landing next to the bathrom with her. doh!

I did manage to sneak onto brendon common / doone valley of exmoor on thursday where i found some sweet single track and the only rain showers for miles around

sunday we managed to escape the house for a last quick blast of dry local trails before the rain came.

i’m 5’7 (nearly) I just bought a road bike a cannondale caad8. i sat on a few different bikes in a few different shops, all agreed that 51/52 cm was the right size (most companies make odd or even sizes)

It’s not better than mtb but as a fresh experience its been great. You can cover a lot of ground fast, you dont break stuff every other ride and you dont need to allow for 40 minutes of cleaning after every ride!

i bought a road bike recently (cannondale caad8) mainly for midweek quick rides without needing to spend 40 minutes cleaning stuff afterwards!

It’s different but the speed you can cover ground on is awesome.

Theres a road 500ft, 1.5 mile climb close to home. First time up it on my road bike i took 5 minutes off my strava time compared to the PR i set up it earlier in the week on my soul!

It’s maybe not all about the bike but it does make a difference

love to but hopefully heading to afan!

Ps nothing here is that technical!

There’s some good stuff, I’d have a look at the segments already on strava.
Pylon descent to saunton is fun, rocky bottom is fun, north Buckland rocky decent is fun.
Order the Braunton/ croyde one of these

http://www.croydecycle.co.uk/mapsandguides.htm#cyclemaps

All the main bridle ways are on there. It’s a case of linking stuff up by road. There are some cheekier trails but they are better at times of the year when there aren’t as many tourists/ walkers about.

Or drive 40 mins to exmoor, the valley of the rocks/ lynbridge ride is great. It’s in single track here

http://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/issue-69/

Or email me too!