Agree that fitness is simpler to gain than skill. It takes a while to come on though. About 8-12 weeks to build a solid base, but it may be different for you.

Plus once you’re fitter you’ll be amazed at how much more focus you have!

Depends on what you usually ride I reckon.

Will be pretty tame for a guy who rides the Lakes and rocky, techy stuff.

If you’re more used to wide, smooth stuff then it’ll be a nice change from your regular stuff.

Don’t know about Enduro but I got faster than I was last year by doing the following:

– Rode more, and rode consistently.
– Rested when I felt too knackered. But not too long, just a day or two off the bike.
– Rode with some mates who are much better bikers than me.
– Rode in different places when I got bored of my local trails.
– Kept an eye on my food and weight.

I did use some sort of periodisation, and specificity of training increased closer to races/main goals.

Air out of the rear shock so you can see what it requires at full length?

On One Whippet – stiff in the wrong places (kicks you up the arse), flexy in the wrong places (noodles a fair bit).

I love my rigid SS Whippet! It has a Ti seatpost which seems to work better than the one supplied.

For me it would have to be my very first “proper” MTB. A Claud Butler Cape Wrath. Spent £500 on it which was a lot of money to me at the time. Bought it from a bike shop who happily sold me a frame 3 sizes too big for me. Spec was brilliant for the cost though. Full Deore transmission, Hayes hydraulic brakes and branded finishing kit.

Spent a load of money on it for new brakes, wheels, and a few bits and bobs in an effort to get it to run better. Eventually realised I was polishing a turd and moved it on. Not a bad sell at £150 after nearly 6 years of ownership!

Guy who bought it was using it as a donor bike for his son.

Wow, I have about 6 links overlap on my hardtail. It seems fine and allowed me to run a 40T with a 34T chainring on a short cage mech.

Using the same length chain with an 11-36 cassette and the 34T at the moment. It seems fine but the chain line is not great.

Slight hijack, but is there a detriment to running the chain longer?

…hold my beer.

Bookmarked for my trip to Bercy next week!

You could use MetroBank. They don’t charge a conversion fee for Euros I believe.

Personally, I’d cry if I broke the carbon so I’m saving up for the alu!

Listen to people when they say “I’d not ride that if I were you”.

Don’t want the Cane Creek Inline shock then?

Guessing this (clicky) is the duff one?

Big Data is like teenage sex.

Everyone thinks everyone else but them is doing it. In truth, only a very few people are doing it.

If you are a business it’s only worth looking at once you’re already operating at peak/close to peak efficiency and if you have deep pockets.

The cost of building the infrastructure to host it, train your people to use it and the time it will take for it to be useful is very high. You may also wind up finding out you’re doing pretty well, in which case you’ll be confirming what you know anyway!

What’s wrong with Evans being the distributor? I agree their mechanics are a bit hit and miss, but they’ve been largely ok when I’ve had problems with kit.

Maybe he prefers the geometry of one to the other? I think the Spectral head angle is steeper and top tube is slightly shorter than the Strive.

Thanks for clarifying. I appreciate it.

That is the carbon version. Thanks for letting me know about that problem!

Strangely, UK distributor’s website says it in stock in November this year. You’d reckon they’d not import them if there was a problem like that. Interesting.

Noone has one of these?

It’s perfectly capable on the steep stuff, you soon become aware that it is 130mm of travel when you’re looking for some grip in properly rough sections in a turn.

Does how much travel you have affect traction? I am curious about this as I’m considering a longer travel bike at some point.

Internal cables are really fiddly if you’ve not done them before.

Take your time, use the supplied plastic tubing with the cable in situ (like njee20 said) before you go further. If you ride in really muddy stuff, or if your cable tension is pretty tight then you’ll probably find that the end caps on the outer has wedged into the opening on the frame. Get a cheap set of dentist’s picks off eBay or an awl so you can prise these out. Don’t deform them with a screwdriver like I did and make life hard for yourself.

Some GT85 or some sort of light lubricant may also come in handy with this.

When replacing the cable you will find there is a plastic guard at the bottom of the frame under the BB. This may have an end cap from the outer wedged in too. Refit this before tensioning your cable.

Consider buying one of those 3rd hand tools. If you’ve not done a cable replacement before, then make sure you get the cable routing and tension right before cutting off the excess length. The routing for the E2 front mech they use is a bit annoying to work with as it’s quite confined.

It’s hard to say. There’s usually more grip available than you think. Sessioning a tricky section is a good way to figure out how fast you can go around it.

I remember visiting mates in Nottingham and thinking they had it pretty good.

That is a good looking bike.

Wonder if the older Shan frames will take 650B wheels with a different hanger.

Why not go to university in a different country? Seems like the perfect time to do it with uni fees being massive in the UK.

QMUL is a decent university. It’s also popular meaning it may not be a great choice for a fallback uni. I didn’t study geography, but is London the best place to go to in order to study a subject like that?

What is your concern? The area she will be living in? If it’s close to Whitechapel then it’s not great. The missus used to live there and I used to work in Greenwich. Round that way is a bit of a dump. You can build as many identikit £500,000 shoeboxes round Canary Wharf as you want but it will still feel like a soulless prison.

However, things may have changed now.

Personally, I feel like London is a slick operation designed to extract the maximum amount of money from you. I’d look somewhere else.

Also, the missus loved her time in London. But a pretty young girl can get in a lot of trouble in a big city anywhere in the world 🙂

Gutted for you mate.

Definitely an overnight job then? I thought most people got broken into during the day when they were at work?

Seriously, how does one go about becoming a builder? I quite fancy some DIY but I have a hard time knowing which end of the nail is up. Is there a City and Guilds course or something I can take?

For some reason I thought the Sherpa was a 26 or 650B!

I’m not a decent enough rider to appreciate the difference between proper mud tyres and normal ones. However, a knackered bead on an Hans Dampf resulted in replacing it with a Spesh tyre. They have a 90 day warranty. Makes sense to look at their offering if you’re concerned about accidental damage I reckon.

I’d just sub in the HT for all of that and get a toy for the bigger days.

To each his own I guess.

As a newcomer to MTB it’s been enlightening to see someone else’s thought process though. I am in a similar situation. I have a race oriented full-sus that was my first proper bike a couple of years ago. I’ve butchered it over time to do heavier duty stuff as my riding progressed. I’ve now decided to return it to a race bike (as time and money permit) and save up for a bigger bike in the future because the hit I’d take on selling it would break my heart!

Something with more travel I guess.

Stanton do a 29er?

Wait, if it’s only for 5-6 times a year why not get something bigger?

I think curiousyellow and jumperalpine are from the same mould.

I’m pretty sure jumperalpine is much better looking.

Fair point.

So you’re down to two MTBs now?

I did, can’t get them in my size.

There’s no TK Maxx close by to check, but I’ll probably go for one of the other options. Cheers.

I thought you said you’d discounted this one because it was very similar to your Yeti?

Where do you buy ’em from?

Are the P/X ones ok for walking about in?

From a Yeti to a Giant?

How the mighty have fallen.