Arkose or Norco Threshold A1.

Mavic Crossmax Charge and Roam combo, absolutley brilliant combo, the Charge is my absolute favourite tyre ever nowadays

simple answer, Yes.

sell what you currently have for a few hundred and add the cash from that to the £300 you are thinking of spending and get brand new BETTER forks.

A new damper in a knackered or used chassis is pointless in my experience (Although yours might not be knackered or used!)

get a test ride and decide then, the Range is awesome.

Onza Ibex hasn’t been mentioned yet. Variety of casing choices and bloody brilliant all-round

Very well known issue that, along with others. Stick to XT

Raceface Turbines

^^ and they do the 15X frame which is what i ride. some stellar deals out there on them

its the compression ring

link

the other thing to bear in mind is the Specialized isn’t designed from the ground up as a 650b bike (as per all of Specializeds 650b bikes) its got the 26″ bikes front end and then some new linkages and seat/chainstays to allow the bigger rear wheel to fit. Bit of a frankenbike to meet market demand that Specialized hadn’t counted on.
I’d go Kona without a moments hesitation.

Another alternative to consider is the Saracen Ariel 152, absolute beast of a bike

isnt it a legal requirement to get swap contact details in the case of any accident?

definitely shoulda got their details.

to counter that, i find mine works quite well, certainly well enough on the road to keep you drier. its not a full mudguard, so shouldn’t be compared to one.

They do do a wider MTB specific one.

Saracen Ariel 152. absolutely awesome bike

My Dog’s called Peanut. Cat is called Sprocket, which i thought was unique, till i went to the vets and found out one of the vets had a cat called Sprocket as well!

you do look a right lunatic standing in a field apparently on your own shouting “Peanut” though…

sounds like you have worked it out, with direct mount, you have to remove the B-link from the mech and bolt directly to the hanger.

just plumped for a Bikeray

its bloody impressive for little cash

just get some gorilla tape and cover the whole rim bed

Giant Post for 135.99 – BARGAIN!

The Giant Contact Switch is bloody good actually (most reliable post i’ve ever used) and its only £145 if you look around. can be converted to internal or external routing if needs be as well.
Do not buy a cheap Joplin, total sack of S…!

aside from the fact that the OP is sorted, just drive slower, which you should in these conditions anyway!

I know they are out of stock, but these are awesome

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/wtb-nano-race-cyclo-cross-tyre-2014/rp-prod121980

EDIT: Beaten to it!

pump it up till the bead pings onto the rim (although be careful as Stands Flow rims have a max PSI rating that is a lot lower than that of the tyre…)

another Frequency i-25 user here, very happy, seem stiffer than the Flow and have certainly held up better over the 3 months i’ve had them (i’ve flatspotted and bent Flows a lot)

ditto here with the XTRs, axle failures galore. XTs perform every bit as well, and most importantly, they keep working. thats far more important than a few grams and 2mm

i have just returned my second Hilo SLS (internally routed one) after a grand total of 26 miles (over 3 gentle ride) for a full refund. First one was broken from new (saddle clamp didn’t fit properly and was rough to the point you could hear it graunching as you cycled it up and down.

the second was smoother, but after the 2nd ride, it only returned 110mm not 125 and had a load of rotational play.

Utter crap in my opinion. i’ll never believe the gushing reviews they get stateside again.

You really do get what you pay for, apart from my old Giant contact switch it would seem, that thing was the single best dropper i have ever owned. Totally reliable, barely any rotational play, cheap as chips, just a shame it only had 100mm travel and a layback head..

for the use you are wanting, i’d go 650b and forget all about 29.

i reckon we’ll see it later this year, end of summer. as for pricing, 11speed xtr is basically the same as 10 speed xtr was, so i’d expect XT/SLX to come in at the current price points.

I bought a litre bottle of the stuff from the continent. Bike-discount I believe.

definitely. Its along the same lines/capabilities of the Stumpy Evo’s etc. Its a really good/capable trail/AM/Enduro/latest-hype bike.

I prefer the Alloy one to the Carbon model in all honesty. (I ran a carbon one for a short while last year)

one of the chaps i work with has the Praxis works BB in his Stumpy, been in there fault free for at least a year and he pounds the Cr&p out of it as hes a big guy.

great bit of kit that seems to be nearly fit and forget.

Awesome bit of kit, mates been on one since they first came out, loads of fun.

Had 2013 and 2014 34s preferred the 2013 ones for the damper settings. Both of them had to have the csu replaced under warranty within 3-5 months from new. The 2014 ones were rubbish full stop. Never ran smooth at all. Went to pikes in the end. Had a go on the 29er version of the slant, awesome fork, so I’d plump for that over anything from fox.

In response to the OP’s original question, the point is that it’s bloody awesome, far nicer to use than anything SRAM have ever made and it’s nicer to use than the 10speed stuff Shimano make. Simple

Why would you tho? The xtr shifter is cheaper and in a totally different league to anything SRAM makes

I was also told Squash and the like are not to be undertaken. take it easy

Sorry to hear that.

I’m in a similar boat with regards to Heart and MTB riding, 38 years old and diagnosed with an enlarged Aorta/bicuspid aortic vlave. i’ve basically been told to take it easy, keep heart rate down, exercise at a much lower intensity, Lower my “normal” BP with beta blockers etc etc. Kinda scary stuff all in.

Be keen to hear how you get on and what you are advised.

get well soon

so what sized tubs do you need for 650b…?

another vote for the Attacks, brilliant bit of kit and i won’t use anything else when its wet out.

my other half uses Yodel (i know, i know, i did tell her not to) and they have a backlog of at least a week round our way with no sign of movement.
Not surprised Wiggle have knocked it on the head as promising something that literally cannot be delivered is not good.