Glad it’s not just me BigJim, that Goma seems very skittish on manicured trail centre surfaces. I’m a huge fan of the Saguaro, fast and grippy, I combine it with a Mezcal on the back of the XC hardtail.

Very good tyres for though and the standard ones work tubeless well, though a bit of a pig to get to seat on the rim the first time.

As an owner of the 26″ version I’d jump for one at that price, if only they did a large.

The shock is 190mm, OO have CCDBAir shocks with the correct fittings for £250 iirc.

No use to you now but when I went we stayed at the Twin Trails B&B. Very impressed, comfortable, bike storage and a great fry up with very helpful owners. What more can you wish for?

I do when it’s raining heavily for my 20km trip. It’s not pleasant and can be a bit sticky but I’d rather wear them than be soaking wet from spray.

As said above wrap something round the ankles otherwise they’re seriously annoying. If it’s cold and wet enough to justify wearing them then I found it’s preferable to be a bit sweaty.

7 years out of my XT Shadow rear mech – not a chance I’d have got that from a SRAM

My Sram X0 mech, which I bought second hand nearly 10 years ago and is still going strong and as sharp as ever, would beg to differ.

All this SRAM hate is weird, I’ve run both, both can break, both can be set up wrong.

I’m thinking it’s jerky video and frame rate rather than shaking from the mount. If so then mine did the same initially. I reformatted my sd card and that solved it.

I put it down to the fact I’d initially used it for pictures and deleted at random leaving skips in the storage, that could be nonsense.

A low speed card could also cause issues, I think it’s class 10 minimum.

I was in an identical position to you, wanting something for the occasional uplift trip and picked up a Bluesgrass Explicit for £36 from JE James. I’ve since used it at BPW and Åre, it’s vented pretty well, feels light enough and is a proper full face. I like it.

Sadly the explicit is sold out but they still have the Brave for a few quid more.

Thanks for the PSA, I ordered one in ti. If anyone is looking there’s an extra £5 off for email sign up at Tredz so it seems pretty good value at £30. Hope I won’t look too much like a spaceship.

I think it’s too heavy to use with the vented helmet strap, when I’m using the full face I mount it on the side and I like the results. I doubt this will work but here’s a video on FaceBook.

The Garmin handlebar mount is good,I got mine from Wiggle for a quite a bit below RRP. I have a bunch of cheap go pro mounts from china, the under saddle backwards one is also good but mostly they’re too flimsy, the Garmin mount is a really wide and stable mount.

I always try to mount it upside down though, that tends to help stabilise the hefty thing.

Red 25 is the second (or third if the birds aren’t ground nesting) piece of singletrack trail you come to after the Labyrinth (although the first is pretty flat and featureless). It has the long climb followed by a fast flowy section with many small whoops/jumps.

It’s one of my favourites there and everything can be rolled, however it can also be hit very fast, I’ve had a couple of dodgy landings and the trees run fairly close in places.

RIP Mark, such a sad thing to happen.

I’m really not sure you know what you’re talking about.

Unbelievable, credit where it’s due that was incredible.

Not tried the kevlar but race matrix are the best pads I’ve used on my Formula T1s.

I’ve run these bars for nearly two years now, been to the Alps twice, plenty of crashes, badly landed jumps and the rest. I’m not dead, nor are the bars.

I don’t think of them too much but when I do I actually rate them very highly. Don’t worry yourself sir.

Anything with a long cage should do the trick, my XT clutch seems to do a perfectly good job so far.

I’m not their biggest fan with recordings but genuinely one of the best things I’ve seen live. Trust your gf and give it a go, I think you’ll be surprised.

Though I love 65daysofstatic for what it’s worth.

I picked up a set of Specialized Rovals a couple of years ago very cheap, they’d only be cheaper now. Dt Swiss internals and light, if you can find a set I’d recommend them.

I’ve been running them tubeless front and rear for two years now on my El Guapo, both are the dual compound version and they’ve never let me down for grip. Perhaps a little slower but not to the extent I’m bothered by it or can’t keep up.

Also not had a single puncture in that time, I’m very fond of them.

I regularly used Mountain Trax and AW, I personally prefer AW as they have gone the extra mile to help me out in emergencies and been very reasonable with it.

Superstar one is very good and can be mounted backwards over the stem and you don’t have to remove anything to fit it. I assume the plastic ones have to be slid down the bars.

My brand new set did this, I properly bedded in the pads but they lasted only a few rides and squealed like hell while doing that. New pads from Uberbike fixed them for me, I suspect most other brands would do the same.

With my 26″ Anthem I fitted 120mm forks, short stem, wide bars and it made a big difference to the character of the bike, still fast but less nervous. I’m going to try an offset bushing next. There’s quite a lot of potential in the frame beyond just XC racing.

The Twilight Sad – Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave

A beautiful album by a superb band, all their back catalogue is worth a listen.

Just missed Geoff’s deal on the SJ4000, does anyone have a view on the Amkov AMK5000?

It has wifi and similar specs to the SJ4000, although no screen, reviews are thin on the ground but quality looks ok.

Ahh sorry, I didn’t realise it was second hand. Good luck.

Mine started doing this after 18months, contacted vendor (in this case Wiggle, who were very helpful), sent it back and got a new one under warranty.

Thanks for the advice, I’ll do that until TF return from Christmas holiday. 🙂

A little update bump.

I’ve fully depressurised the shock and tried to cycle it to release the pressure from the negative air without success. The shock sucks down to its minimum length. Is there any danger in running the shock at higher pressure than usual for one ride to counteract the negative spring?

Cheers

I’m tempted, does anyone know if that deal comes with shifter, bottom bracket and so on?

This Commencal seems to fit the bill too.

Probably a bit too obvious an answer but this fills your spec: MEGA TR.

This just might be the end of me eyeing up every 55 RC3 Ti that goes on sale secondhand.

The Funnduro is a very nice piece of kit and a nice short stack height. I prefer it to my Thomson X4 I run on another bike (lighter, opposing stem bolts, lower stack height).

Thanks, I’m pretty sure it’s an RC though I bought it as an HLR. I can live with that, however only having two clicks of compression adjustment doesn’t seem right.

Uberbike Race Matrix pads fixed mine, plus made them silly powerful. I think the stock pads are rubbish.

Big +1 for Fugazi, one of a few bands I can listen to their entire back catalogue back to back. I think Sleater Kinner qualify too.

I’m in the same position, I have a 2009 Talas R, although they perform ok enough I find myself running low pressures to get much small bump performance. I almost bit the bullet and bought the parts but held back not knowing quite how much of a difference it would make.

I’d be interested to hear anyone’s experience post conversion.

The Jekyll review on PinkBike gives an interesting review, I’d love to try one but the cost to me is crazy.

One thing I’m not sure of is how Cannondale make a single sided inverted ‘fork’ which is reportedly as stiff as a very stiff thing but dual sided UD forks are constantly criticised for lack of stiffness. Is it the needle roller bearings that make the difference? Could Dale make a dual sided Lefty for DH?

I was at the ULU show too, it was awesome though my female friend was a little troubled by Tim Harrington’s bare chested calls of “we’re going down together”. I don’t think Frances the Mute is as big a step down as some say, L’via L’viaquez is one of their best.

It’s a shame both they and Sparta seemed to drift.

With Fugazi I’d definitely say start from 13 Songs and work through in order, there’s progression but not a bad album there. Though if you do check out just songs one of them has to be Blueprint, absolutely awesome.

Likewise I really wanted to see ATDI, I did see TMV back in 2002 supporting Les Savy Fav and a couple of years after supporting Frances. I really enjoyed the shows, they hadn’t descended in to total fret w***ery then. Still enjoyable to see in later years.

Still even the latest stuff sounds brilliant compared to Antemasque.