I’ve been running them for two years now, two trips to the Alps, quite some crashes and they’ve come through without an issue. Very light, fit and forget and a nice shape.

Thanks to everyone for a great day’s riding and especially weeksy nd frogstomp for giving me a target to chase after albeit in vain!

Glad you decided to keep the Commencal weeksy, I had a great ride on it and certainly changed my view on 29ers. Loved how it felt light and just wanted to pop off every lip and edge, then just smoothing out the rocks. I appreciate what you say about the low BB on the El Guapo, I dropped the pressures to max the sag which didn’t help. I think a longer fork may be in order though.

Cheers all 🙂

Great, looking forward to it. Hope to be there by 9:15 but that’s allowing for rush hour all the way up the M4. Will be on a very silver El Guapo driving in a silver Corsa.

Just spotted one official space on the BPW website so have booked up for Thursday, sorry Weeksy if there was something left. Mind if I tag along gents?

Weeksy, just realised this matches my trip back to the UK? Do you still have the pass?

PS. I will be the crap slow one, take that as forwarning.

Brilliant used it, thanks very much.

Have a £5 dose of good karma from me 🙂

I asked the same question a month or so ago and rather than South Wales Forest of Dean was recommended. It’s quite a bit closer and I had a great time.

Mine were squealing like pigs from new, spent ages bedding in but may have got it wrong as they only lasted a few rides.

I replaced the stock pads with Uberbike’s race matrix type, silent and very powerful ever since.

I ran trail extremes front and rear in the Alps, they never let me down and as has been said are incredibly easy to set up tubeless. They also seem pretty tough, I was the only one not to puncture and there were some heavy scratches to the sidewalls that they withstood.

I’m running them same direction front and rear, I’d like to try the harder compound reversed next time. It may be a little draggy but not particularly noticably for such a large volume tyre.

Thanks all, I decided to go for the Merlin, £635 sent out here seems too good to turn down, forgot to do cashback though, whoops.

Thanks all for the advice, I’m in Denmark and the savings are so large compared to bike shops that it’s very hard to resist. I will have a look for something local though.

I’ll look into any steel options, I hadn’t thought of it but I can see the merit in that.

It certainly could be a D, I’m running one on my tapered El Guapo to run a 1-1/8″ fork. If it is a D then you’ll need a new lower cup F.

Hi IA, despite what I said above I do recommend you check out the AKGs, for that price they are superb and it’s probably got more to do with the shape of ear, head and all that not just the size, they have plenty of adjustment (I don’t use all of it!).

Best thing is at that size they can’t fall in a cup of coffee.

If you’re interested in ear canal ones the Soundmagic E10s can be had for £30, they sound good and are well built, the cable is made of studier material that the Sennheisers at that price and I think they sound better. You can’t really go wrong there.

It really depends on how much ‘not too pricey is’. At the cheaper end I can heartily recommend Soundmagic E10s for buds and AKG451s for on ears, although the latter don’t really suit my big head and are a struggle to get to sit comfortably they sound great.

Both work for me individually but not stacked. CTM, did you access it via a link?

El Guapo would be perfect with the pikes.

They’re quite common here in Denmark, the end of my commute to work is one and I think your concerns are legitimate. Here drivers are much more aware and respectful to cyclists but I have very, very nearly been hit a few times by drivers not looking ahead of them.

Two of my favourites in one scene.

Marge: Have you noticed any change in Bart?

Homer: New glasses?

Marge: No…he looks like something might be disturbing him.

Homer: Probably misses his old glasses.

Marge: I guess we could get more involved in Bart’s activities, but then I’d be afraid of smothering him.

Homer: Yeah, and then we’d get the chair.

Marge: That’s not what I meant.

Homer: It was, Marge, admit it.

I ran a Schwalbe Durano for a while, light, grippy and not all that expensive. Mine failed at the sidewall though it could have been a one off. I’m going to try the Michelin Wild Run’r Advanced next once the weather improves a litter. It could be worth considering.

I can heartily recommend the Chunky Monkeys, grip well, cheap, in the ball park for weight and run tubeless very easily. ‘Eckso’ sidewalls seem tough too, I had them in the alps and were faultless despite picking up a large scratch down the sidewall.

Used, thanks very much for that. Combined with the 10% offer on tyres that saved me quite a bit.

Oh sounds rather good, thank you all. I’m currently living in Copenhagen so relatively speaking it doesn’t seem quite as eye wateringly expensive. It actually sounds rather similar, need to rank the relative prettiness of the female population to be sure though 😀

The GT Distortion may be worth looking out for, seems to fit the type of bike you want and might just be unfashionable enough to fit your budget second hand.

I bought some a month or so ago, came in CRC packaging with no spares, I’m hoping my older Oro olives will be the same as the hoses are incredibly long.

I’m running a Thomson which is very nice but if I were to buy a new one I’d be getting one of these Funnduros.

It’s definitely RX levers and T1 Calipers (I asked them), I thought this made sense if the power is generated by the larger caliper. I’m very tempted by a set, although £80 more for a set of Formula R0s are also a very good deal.

Here is the only ‘s’ specific review I could find.

I’d be tempted by these if you’re in to something a little more lightweight.

I’m tempted by this version of the Nilox Foolish, slightly cheaper if you don’t mind it being red. Reviews are positive.

Think that may be a little off, I believe the diameter is directly proportional to the circumference. So a 36t would have 12.5% larger diameter than a 32 which I think is what Thom said up there.

And that’s the most I can remember from my degree. 🙂

Thanks, I’ll give them a try. If they fit Pikes they should fit Rebas, at least assuming that all 32s are created equal.

DT Swiss 36t star rachets before they rocketed in price, although that was just before I bought a 240 hub so it would have been unlikely.

Not to worry, I think in the wording it came across and I’m not going to go fiddling with the Talas cartridge in a hurry!

What would a damper mod involve? Though perhaps experimenting with oil and seaking out an RC2 damper is my level for suspension tweaking.

I don’t think Locos float fluid fix will work with my Talas cartridge (though I’m happy to be corrected on that one), if Bagstard isn’t interested I wouldn’t midn giving the RC2 a try, I have heard it can make a difference to the Talas model.

Messiah would you be willing to part with the RC2 cartridge? I appreciate it’s not perfect but should be an improvement over the R.

Very interesting, my problem is running 25% sag the fork dives through the mid stroke, I’m also running very little rebound samping so I’d be reluctant to use oil to fix compression if that slows the rebound further. Are there any other possible fixes?

Sorry I can’t help, I have a similar problem with my 2009 36 Talas R forks, I have been looking for an RC2 cartridge to fix it but if changing damper oil could help that would be great. Bump.

I received exactly the same, sadly I had already sorted myself so couldn’t take him up on his kind offer.

Chunky Monkey was so easy to get up tubeless on my roval rims. Do it properly with washing up liquid though but a track pump does the job fine.

I picked up a set of used pikes off here for £75 a month or so ago, they are the first generation model but I’m very impressed with them. No nonsense, very solid and have a good feel out on the trail. I don’t clai to be one of thsoe suspension experts and I’m sure more modern ones have more sophisticated internals and weigh less but for a stiff, reliable fork I think they are well up to the task.

Thanks for the advice, got one up very very very easy on my Roval wheels, just soap and water went up first time and staying that way.

However I still only have one, I ordered two Chunkys from On One, got one Chunky and a Smorgasbord. Very annoying. I ordered a replacment Chunky yesterday but postie has been and gone with no tyre 🙁

Not in to be able to wait for the postie tomorrow so no rides for me this weekend, On One are great, just wish they’d pay a little more attention to the small details sometimes.