There is some pedalling, but it’s not too bad. I’ve done it on an Orange 222 before when I was pretty unfit and made it around.

If I did it again I’d take my 150mm all mountain bike.

Quality day. There’s free wine and beer at some of the feed stations as well :-)

Are they a lot more supple than the inbred summer seasons?

Currently got one of those and find it a tad weighty and very harsh back end.

What’s an 18″ one of these weigh? No weights on the website that I can see? Lighter than a Soul?

Correct me if I’m wrong… but carbon despite being strong isn’t a very hard material… surely the chain rings and jockey wheels won’t last more than 1000 miles?

ton… a Bullit is far from a DH bike.

OP… try looking at Foes, Giant, Intense all of which have some large/extra large frames they’ve made over the years that are mahoosive.

Just man up, get off the brakes and pedal lots.

There was a run of production z1’s (can’t remember what year) with double disc mounts. Seen them sell for £80 before. Bloody good forks too, open bath reliabilty and pretty stiff for the era.

So can anyone recommend one then? Loads of people have sworn by them on here in the past?

Do they come with adaptors to run qr? I’m struggling to make head or tail of the mavic website :-(

Cheers for this, what does the 20 x 110 mean?

Yeh their warranties are pretty much second to none. Swap a faulty item no problem at all.

Must have been hard to deal with!

I’m going to jump to your defence here mate, lot’s of people blaming you… but I know of a number of people who have had various issues with the pro11’s. Bulb’s and biguns used to be mega reliable but pro11’s are made a lot more shoddily in my opinion. Not a patch on dt-swiss hubs, try a pair, you won’t go back!

I also despise Hope brakes with a passion, unreliable and not nearly powerful enough.

I don’t think you are going to get an answer on here… try writing to Dear Deidre at The Sun newspaper.

…..If you get a response can you post it up here for our amusement please?

Eat right too, you can’t out train a poor diet.

it’s 50/50 training/nutrition both as important as each other.

Matthew Kitney
I can’t seem to understand what you actually get
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 11 June 2013 at 20:50

Discount Supplements
High 5 Race Faster Pack Plus x 3 Pack comes with 3 x 4:1 Energy Source, 3 x EnergySource, 3 x EnergySource Xtreme, 12 sachets of EnergyGel and a 750ml water bottle. This is the normal 7 sachet packs x3 = 21 sachets in total.
Reply · 1 · Like · 14 June 2013 at 12:06

Ian Danger Robinson · Carnon-Plage, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
My pack arrived today, very speedy delivery.
The gels state not for resale, the energy source is marked free trial ?
But its still a bargain & I did get 3 bottles :)
Reply · Like · Edited · 10 October 2013 at 17:15

Email Keith @ Banshee (the designer). I’ve got a mk1 so can’t really comment on your question but he is in my experience happy to answer emails etc and very knowledgable and helpful.

I think his was bought in 2011 so not a new one.

Thanks for the responses folks… plenty to think about her.

David… might try and take a chameleon for a blast, got a mate with one but I’ve never ridden it and haven’t seen him in six months, time for a catch up I reckon!

Saracen… sorry but I can’t get past the era when they were a halfrauds special, I’m aware they are turning back into a serious bike company but that era is still lingering like a bad smell for me.

As for the c456… are they well made? I’m slightly worried about sudden catastrophic failure when dealing with carbon frames, are they strong enough to spend a bit of time in the air with the occasional bodged landing?

Yes it is the bikeradar one… is it really infamous? In which case I need to try a c456 too.

have you ridden a spitfire before you ordered? It won’t dissapoint, I’ve been a serial bike changer for a while until I got mine, it’s going no-where but my garage wall when it eventually cracks or snaps…. which in my experience all aluminium frames do eventually. Absolutely in a league of it’s own.

Just read a review of the carbon 456, sounds like the back end is uber harsh… need to try and get a test ride on a ti 456

Cheers for the comparison of weight… hadn’t actually looked at the actual weights. Interesting that the soul is lighter than a Chameleon.

I’ll have a quick look what a 456 ti weighs and the c456

Yeh I’m budgeting about £400-500 to get the wheels cranks and cassette lighter.

Edit

1.7kg for the 456ti in the 14″ so prob about 1.85kg at a guess
1.5kg for the c456… this might be a winner… need to look into the geometry a bit more.

Re- the soul… bb will be too high I think with 140mm, I want slack with a low bb.

Thanks for the responses guys, as Glasgodan has pointed out a lot of these aren’t light.

Thanks for the heads up on the ti frames that have been mentioned though folks, some of these fit the bill nicely.

As for people saying they don’t understand slack bikes etc… well that’s fine, however they suit me and the speeds I ride down. I’ve come from a background of a decade of DH racing and find most regular head angles on bikes too steep for my personal preference.

I ride a banshee Spitfire for most of my more hardcore trail/peak riding and like riding longer/less punishing rides on a slack hardtail bike. I built up an on one summer season a while back and I keep finding myself reaching for it, however it has a few heavy components and the frame weighs a fair bit so I’m going to try an lose about 5 lb’s out of it so a good chunk of this needs to come from the frame.

I’ve got a nice set of 140mm revs on it and get on with them well so the frame that replaces it needs to get on nicely with the fork.

As for the suggestion of a Bfe… my wife rides one, they aren’t really my definition of significantly lighter than my on-one.

Chameleon might be worth a look though…. aren’t they supposed to be super harsh though?

Rob, they are all exactly the same car… built in the same factory with different badges put on them. 95% of the parts are interchangeable.

Just for the record my reference was about the 130bhp diesels.

What is it?

The diesel will get around 50mpg despite you expecting less.

I’d be surprised if you can find one that’s not a nail for £2k thoughas the tdi ones are well sought after as it’s the pre common rail VAG 1.9tdi engine that was in golfs/passats etc for over a decade. Bullit proof engines that will do 200k miles if looked after… in fact in my opinion the best engine ever built for a daily use car.

Check car electrics and suspension thoroughly as that is less robust than the engine.

Can’t believe no one has said go ride the beast at Coed y Brenin, brilliant trail.

Just for interest sakes the 70mph limit was based on the capabilities of human reactions and a Ford Anglia… something tells me modern cars can stop a wee bit better than one of those.

Thanks for the responses folks, plenty of options to look at here. I’m actually fancying upping the budget and going for some of the continentals as I like the fact they are narrower.

You are probably on to something with this psychologically here.

People are likely to find the hat slightly humorous as it is unexpected and have slightly more patience etc with you.

Terry, looked at the Renault Traffic and similar and came to the conclusion I need more like 6k for a good one. Expensive to insure and a touch thirsty too hence moving on to the people carrier idea. Any vans you would suggest for 3-4k mark. Need to get 5 years or so out of whatever I buy.

Not keen on French cars guys but thanks for the suggestion. Had a Clio years ago that fell to bits.

Build quality of that thing left a “never buying French” lasting impression.

Feel really thick now, that’s pretty simple once someone’s done it. Thank you very much, and thanks for taking the time to scan and upload.

Cheers gents.

Seems like you enjoyed this, I should upload a weekly Maths problem for discussion :-0

Next week… statistics

Having a look at it, isn’t aracers solution for a fixed bridge? Does your solution take into account it’s fixed at one end and free roaming at the other?

Thanks aracer, (and everyone else that’s responeded). Despite having a mechanical engineering degree I couldn’t remember how to solve the problem (use it or lose it I suppose)…. it’s been ten years and only the only remotely challenging maths I teach is A level core 2 which is all pure rather than applied.

Could you solve it by using moments about different nodes and forming simultaneous equations from your calcs?

Also, any chance of having a look at your workings? Seems a touch simple for 22 marks?

It’s estimate as the previous part shows a building floor on this and tells you to negate the weight of the trusses themselves and approximate the load as the 400N point loads on the nodes…. so the approximate is using figure 2 which I’ve included but not the original part as it wasn’t needed.

You can get a numerical answer using methods that are unfortunately 10 years in my past.

Anyone care to/bored enough to hand draft an answer with method and upload it?

Sorry for the delay chaps, got busy at work then forgot I hadn’t posted it up.

Thanks Matt.

Kelvin, that’s not a bad suggestion.. although I’m thinking the volume reducer that was just suggested might have a similar/easier to achieve effect.

Sodajim, no the 2013 onwards (new style one with bearings not bushes) are 140mm. The old version was 125mm but 66.5 head angle with a 150mm fork and still has a low bb at that.

Volume kit? I’ll google this, didn’t know it existed? It’s a kashima rp23 with ctd lever.

Nuke….Yeh agreed, the seat tube is too short though to get a post in long enough for my inside leg… I looked at these as freeborn were knocking them out really cheap a while back. Was tempted to build a short one up for the wife as an all dayer as she’s 5ft1, then realised she’s happy as larry with her bFe so left it.

Faceplanter… Tim, didn’t know you used this forum! If you fancy a peaks ride this weekend give me a shout. Yeh kind of looking for a modern version of the old blur 4x, so a bit slacker and lower bb.