Or just carry on as they are? I run SS rings till they pretty much fold over. Tons of life in those

I’ll just lie here and nurse this virus. Again.

Wild card: Jones Plus

Down jacket and bag is a good combo. You need something to be warm in post ride and pre sleeping.

Excellent! Looks like a cracking trip :D

Takisawa, make sure you give the Puffin a decent chance before moving it on. I bought my Fatty to scratch the itch and initially I was a bit underwhelmed. After a while, though, it clicked and now I have to pretty much force myself to ride my other bikes.

That is lovely. Want.

Agree with all the above. I’ve had good customer service from Paul’s in the past.

I went for 4.8 Liteskin front, 4.4 Snakeskin rear.
I hope.

Dunno about the JJs but I’ve ordered some to find out. I swapped my rear Floater for a Maxxis Mammoth (£39.99 at On-One) in the summer for a noticeable decrease in drag. It’s a bit slippy in the slop, though.

Just ordered some of those cheap JJs for my Fatty Trail. Also have some BR710s in the shed waiting to be laced onto JRA Snow Pig hubs. Should make quite a difference.

RIP

^ Sounds a lot like my Swift with Jones bars. I had Fleegles on before and they were very good. A flattish bar with some sweep is avery versatile thing.

They’re good

Sounds like you’re in love with the idea if a Swift, which is a very sensible place to be. My advice is to go with your heart. No one ever regrets buying a Swift and it’s such a versatile bike you can change the set-up – to anything from drop bar ‘gravel’ to B+ – if you feel the urge.

I use a variety of set-ups. Most common is a bottle mounted low in the frame, which allows space for a small partial frame bag under the top tube. May supplement that with a small bladder in a waist/bum bag. Often carry a fold-up bottle and sometimes a Sawyer filter on longer trips where I think I might need it.

Good effort! Fingers crossed for you

I use a garden spayer. Even easier conversion than the extingusher. Does fat bike tyres no problem.

Just lever it off. It snaps into place.

I had the same issue, and the same question about how to get access. Don’t worry, you won’t knacker anything getting it off.

@Northwind -that’s interesting. Think I’ll get one to try. I can always stick it on the front if it’s too big for the back.

I did something similar on one wheel. No way could I get it to work a second time. Foam packing in the rim bed makes the process easy, reliable and repeatable IME.

I’d have thought a 4.8 would be atight squeeze. A 4.4 might go

I’ve found Floaters to be a good all-round tyre. Others hate them. I ran a Mammoth on the back for quicker rolling in the summer but it’s unsurprisingly poor in the slop.

What’s wrong with JJs for trail centres? Again it’s the slop they don’t like and you don’t get much of that at most trail centres, do you?

It’s you. Carbon’s not going to save much more than a pound over aluminium on a sturdy hardtail frame.

Yup, the Rango frame was on sale for a fair while for a frankly hilarious £999.

The DH thing is a monstrosity. The Rango’s interesting. If they could provide some decent (ie accurate and informative) info on it and drop the price to something more reasonable for a catalogue frame I’d quite probably buy one

I have a Swift and a Stooge. Both are great but the Swift is what you’re after, I reckon. You won’t regret it.

Fastidious. LOL.

Dickie, however, is a big chap who rides a lot and puts some serious power through his freehub. I think I’ll take my chances.

Pretty sure the freehubs are the same. Dickie may be able to confirm.

And thanks, mb51 but unfortunately that’s not a 170mm fat hub

Considered it, russyh but they’re purple and I already have blue, yellow and orange on the bike.

Hey, Dickie. I figure I’ll build them up and if they blow up I’ll buy new hubs. Can’t bring myself to add another £230 to the bill just because something bad *might* happen. And this way you get the opportunity to say “told you”

This ^

I have a pretty much stock Fatty Trail and it’s definitely not 28lb. The original inner tubes weighed that on their own.

It is a great bike, though.

I’ve tried various methods on my Fatty Trail. The best for me has been foam (polystyrene radiator insulation from Lidl) under a split tube. Went up first time with a track pump and has been problem-free ever since. Not tried packing film but you need foam for anything else IME.

I bought a cheap Fatty Trail to see what all the fuss was about. I was initially quite sceptical but it slowly worked its way under my skin. I now seem to ride it virtually all the time and if I could only have one MTB (shudder) it would probably be a fatty.

I generally ride my rigid Swift when bikepacking. You can still ride pretty technical stuff, you just approach it differently, and it eats up the miles in between.

The On-One rims are really under-sized and need packing out to get a good seal. Get some thin foam, cut it to fit the width of the rim, or a little less, and tape it in place. I have used both super-wide Gorilla tape and a split wide 24-inch tube for sealing. I think the latter is better. Good luck.

Seven bikes, two guitars

I made one from a garden sprayer and a valve from a dead inner tube in about 10 minutes. It’s fantastic – 1000 times better than my old coke bottle version.

I have a Stooge and a Swift with 29+ fronts. I love ’em and the Stooge especially is astonishingly capable for a rigid bike.

Tazzy built one up with, I think, a100mm Reba and said it was great. I can well believe it.