I know of 3 people (2 of them here with me in France right now) who have broken meta 5s. One of them has broken 2. One headtube, 2 failed welds on the top shock mount, all within the first year of ownership.
They do have a problem with quality. Commonfail indeed.

do some work instead of reading this forum

roadside
mountainside
WESTSIDE!

the froggy frame only in blue\white is looking like the replacement for my nomad next year….

and my 08 zesty has the carbon ding dong on it. Seems to work, XTR mech still in one piece after miles and miles of abuse

roadside

mountainside

I know where I'd rather be….. 🙂

that road gap is mahoosive – dude at stif in leeds dislocated his elbow on that recently, coming up a touch too short….

from the side:

mark – gloves are awesome and pads you don't even know you are wearing them – they do tend to "eat" your shorts though, in a kind of bart styleee….

anyhoo – I guess I knew the answers I'd get for this one.
I am using Middleburn Hardcoat Slickshift rings for the middle (sold the xtr one for bucks) and its always sucked, so thanks to Jonny for the advice to try another brand.
so for the sake of an £10 deore chainring that what I am trying next….

what do you mean by "stans strips" – yellow tape or rubber strip?
If its rubber strip you need the tape as well (actually you only need the yellow tape)

Other than that, faulty valve?

best thread award – cheers euro!

lots of Lapierres in the alps, the companies french, maybe them and nico know something about that kind of terrain.

oh and blacks in the alps are crazy stuff, so if you are hammering down them you might want a driver 8 or something

here here nickc

perhaps those who never lose traction are just riding too slow to. Probably saves them lots on tyres too.

look at all the erosion going on here:

"skidding" is good because you learn the limits of traction and also how to control the bike when it looses traction

grabbing your back brake and locking your rear wheel isn't any good, but a wet slick leaf strewn road and a bike with slicks is.

you don't need brakes (you might call that "drifting" then)

try riding switchbacks fast with the back end out, that is faster than the "other" line…..

if you are riding fast enough, your tyres WILL loose traction – FACT!

watch sam hills cornering technique for how its done

I would have thought a maxle was a 10mm bolt through, so you will need to convert your rear hub

makes the rear end stiffer and the wheel doesn't fall out, so all good.

….info upon a new lower specced zesty for 2010

I guess AndyRT is looking for something other than the carbon one splashed over everyones blog, i.e. one you can actually afford.

Like the look of the frame only froggy in blue and white mind….

(zesty 08 owner)

like the look of POC, anyone know of any in stock anywhere?

you’ll no doubt be wanting a minion on the front
less of a platform between the centre and side knobs, so a more predictable slide motion

been caught quite a few times with high rollers suddenly losing grip on the front, only to grab on the side knobs. Not a good look.
Minion on the front everytime.

you’ll find most downhillers use minions not highrollers on the front

I don’t rate the highroller as a front tyre at all

In my experience, they are prone to chainsuck…. (I have a 714)
improved the situation by fitting an e13 lower roller, still not gone away though.

pretty noisy on the downhills as well (low chainstay and shadow rear mech probably to blame) – not that bothers me – just makes the ramblers move faster out of my way 😉

other than that – perfect 🙂

because fox stanchions do wear. They are coated with a special material that lasts to infinity and beyond in california, but about a year in the uk.

i must admit you are in a minority if you don’t like pikes

lyriks have “proper” commpression damping if thats your thing (hi\lo) but at 160mm a bit overboard for most uk riding, oh and the coil ones are pretty heavy

I’ll be there, 3rd time also. On a my “mini DH” bike (nomad with totems) as I’ll be rocking chatel bike park in the mud either side of the event.

also going to try to hit up some downhill tracks (swiss cup off mossettes springs to mind) instead of that god awful road descent in switzerland

its a good crack, especially if you partake of the beer and wine available in the villages on the way around 🙂

yes – did it twice on saturday, some good sections.
will only take you 45mins or so to get round.

timing should be done like the avalanche enduros. Much simpler to keep track of. Clock starts at your allocated start time (one less variable to get wrong) and stops when you cross the line. Sorted.

you know you probably should

the tyres you need are maxxis minion (f) and high roller or crossmark (r)

thats what I use on my zesty and they inspire confidence

go tubeless, and use a standard kevlar minion and use a UST rear, you know it makes sense….

6ft and ride the medium nomad although its now my mini downhill bike and its great at that

they are pretty short (about an inch shorter in the top tube than a medium zesty). try before you buy.

some of the road bits in switzerland are boring.
you can do some downhill tracks instead, i think the swiss downhill track

3rd year on the trot for me

I run 34:15 on a fairly flat commute in your area Ton. Just MTFU for gods sake and get a proper job so yer not posting to this forum all the time.

thats all

get the brian lopes book, he tells you how to do it. pics and all….

it was the new one – its that thin bit on the seatstay I am refering to….

crosstrax in leeds have a zesty 514 demo bike

I have a zesty 714 (last years non-carbon model – carbon is for fishing rods, not bikes)
I have also test ridden a 575 at wheelbase in the lakes.

as others have said, the 575 is flexy in the rear end, pretty spritely though. I don’t like that wierd carbon pivot thing in the seatstays either.
zesty has a longer top tube which has allowed me to run a 50mm stem
I suspect the 575 could be built lighter

zesty basically fit me better, is stiff in the rear end with a 10mm bolt through axle
get rid of those fox forks off it (I have pikes on mine) as they will undoubtedly leak
I’ll be taking it to the alps this year (doing passportes on it as a test before 2 weeks later in the year) will be interesting to see how it holds up versus my nomad

fix totem seal issues by fitting enduro fork seals aftermarket ones. sorted. http://www.enduroforkseals.com/id200.html
hi\lo compression means you can dial theses babies into all kinds of terrain.

and losing 3 rebound adjusters without realising you don’t need it in the leg at all is just shoolboy in its error

i blame that crappy new bike he is riding.

heres a top tip from a zesty owner
you won’t get chainsuck on a 5
I, and a friend with a zesty both have chainsuck issues with brand new drivechains, and it is VERY annoying.

oh the irony.

dog attacks deer on this forum, dangerous dogs attack man on the other forum

you couldn’t make this stuff up….. 🙂

probably, and its “hear”

sadly, Fabian Barel and Cedric Gracias English is better than half the folks on this forum. .co.uk indeed….

not a great loss IMHO

I put PSA for ironic value.

I guess you all sky+ it did you?

warner trying to control a very pi**ed cg was pretty funny on the commentary…

joplins\mavericks suck harder than a whore in a credit crunch

get the gravity dropper.

nicolai helius fr
enduro s-works 06 (with modified DHX 5 coil)

still, happy with my nomad (totems on the front – yeah) and my lapdog zesty, oh and my singlespeed 456, did 35 miles on that today 🙂

freecasters 3 cameras (after one camera man went to hospital after being hit by a rider with no brakes) make it difficult to say. Bottom half.

top bike, cheap at stif now too….. (not that i’d ever ride a carbon bike, for roadies really)