Its:
Quieter
Cleaner
Easier to clean
Doesn’t trap mud around front mech
Lighter weight
Less clutter on the bars
Really does have all the gears you’ll need
Chain doesn’t fall off
Easier to maintain
Cheaper to maintain
and
It looks cool.

what bike is it? and how old

just one end?

You know you want an Ariel… It suited you!
The Spesh stumpjumper 650 is a Spesh, and a poor attempt at jumping on the bandwagon that Specialized missed.
Just get an Ariel!

Have you adjusted the clutch tonnage up wear?

as far as i can tell yep. just got one, its awesome!

currently on XT’s and a mate has Saints. both on similar trail bikes.

put it this way, when i can afford them i am buying saints, sooo much more control its ridiculous!

Hacksaw, then bin and reinstall Shimano!

Lol.

Never use a camelback with energy supplements for one thing, unless you want to clean it EVERY ride, thoroughly, twice.

i only ever use water in mine and it gets cleaned once or twice a year, still tastes as new.

They never taste great to be honest, but i’ve only ever seen them mould up or go gungy if you add in supplements, even if you leave water in it for weeks, mine never moulds up..

Easy to follow though, signage is good enough and its great for newbies and separating bikes from walkers/horses etc.
I think the first section from the tower was built by a child given the fact most of the jumps have low branches hanging over them, anyone over 3foot will take their helmets off on them if they give it too much effort!

tasteslikeburning,

I rode it last week for the first time and totally agree, save for one part that has 2 fade away jumps, it seems to be more to keep cyclists off the main bridleways (which is fair enough and more interesting i suppose) but little flow for the most part and kinda dull. Its a bit like Swinley forest if you ask me, good every once in a while for a pedal, but not really a laugh. good for newbies tho.

Doubt i’ll ride it much more to be honest.

Has anyone tried Metrics yet?

Again, good to hear!

nearly succumbed to the PIKEs on Merlincycles for £399…

held my nerve and didn’t buy

@ TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR

Thats what i wanted to hear. i’ll be getting the fixed travel ones and dropping the travel internally to 150.
Good to hear that even though you’ve had issues the performance makes up for it.
I never go for adjustable travel, i just don’t use it and it always adds an extra “thing to break” i don’t think any manufacturer has cracked the travel adjust properly yet.

I’ve found some reviews, not as many as you’d think!

The Vengeance has been around a while and i am tempted by that, but also keen to try the new Metric as its lighter, Despite its looks!

I’ve tried the pikes, distinctly unimpressed, smooth, but the pair i’ve had a few goes on are unreliable and when they are working as they should, a bit “Meh”

The fact they are a lot cheaper is a bonus, but certainly not the reason for swaying towards them. just sick of the big 2 being overpriced and not much cop (currently running Fox 34 Factory kashima 160 floats.)

saracen ariel 14x or 16x. awesome bits of kit

white proofing stuff?? the proofing (DWR coating) is invisible…
Do you mean the stuff inside the jacket lining? sort of rubbery? thats just Altura night visions, they all do that after a very short time i’ve found, nothing to do with the re-proofing process.

Saracen Ariel 16x

no issues with my KMC chain, other than noticeably quieter than the XTR it replaced.

OP – could the noise be a slightly bent mech hanger?

My X01 creaked from new, there are issues witht he cassette and mech, all covered under warranty that SRAM are aware of. mainly its the cassette, take it off and grease the hell out of the slined/threaded bit that you screw on. as in a LOT of grease.

as for the rumbling, stiff link in the chain maybe?

creaks are probably the cassette or rear mech, well documented elsewhere.

Did you set the chain length with the suspension fully compressed?

i’ve never had an issue with a shimano chain other than noise, XT chains are as heavy duty as you need.
the reason i asked the questions is this:

If it broke at the join initially, then it wasn’t joined properly, so not much chance of a warranty/refund (if you did it yourself)
The second failure was probably caused by the first damaging another part of the chain.
If you used a quick link, was it the right width for the chain? was it SRAM, was it new? SRAM ones are only meant to be joined once. and if you used a quick link on a SHimano chain, not much chance of a warranty.
However, if you had a shop install it and it broke on the join then you would be well within your rights to get a warranty.
Also, you mentioned you’ve just gone 1×10, have you amended you chainline? i always find i need to move the whole chainset inboard a 1mm to correct it when going 1 x 10.

Where was the first break? did it occur on the joining pin? were you using a joining pin or a split link?

I jusr fitted a Works Components 34t to my Slx double. The chainline is awful in the low gears (10?speed cassette) and falls down 3 sprockets whe back-pedaled. Was thinking longer chainring bolts with a spacer to move the ring slightly towards the center? I don’t want to ride it as it is and am waiting to hear from WC as to solutions. The chain also slightly catches the second smallest sprocket and skips a little (at the top of the cassette) when back pedaling. Any suggestions?

Stop back pedalling… this is where most dropped chains will come from.

Hi Guys, another message from Dean for you:

Hi Guys

Just to let you know we are in correspondence with the Council and are trying to work out how to run the event next year.

The Council have not technically said we can’t use the Bridleways in the future, but have put so many restrictions in place at such a short notice that they are saying we can’t use them for this event.

Although you are perfectly entitled to go and ride as you please, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t rock the boat at this point in our negotiations.

Thanks
Dean

hi,

got my replacements last night and fitted them, i still have play in the linkage. going to talk to them later on, but if anyone picks this post up, can they confirm if they are having the same issue or not?

cheers

Dave

Hi Guys,

I work closely with Dean and the RideIt! guys, Dean has asked me to post the following up:

Hi guys.
Thanks for your comments.
I’d just like to clear up a few points.

We had more entries than last year which is why we sold the event out last week.
The Nottingham event was cancelled due to requests we couldn’t fulfil by the Ambulance service, not the council who were fine with the event.

Over the past few years the amount of red tape and forms to fill in has escalated. When we started running events no one really needed to know, we just informed the Police and that was it. Now each council/county has what’s known as a safety advisory group ( SAG) which you can submit information to ( Although this is not a legal requirement) and they distribute that info to all interested parties like Police, Highways, Ambulance service etc. Or that’s the theory. They are not a standard format and vary between counties, some are officially run, some just say “Thanks for the info, we’ll get back to you if there is a problem” Some say they will pass on information and don’t ( Like Nottingham) Some counties/areas don’t even have then, like Bedfordshire when we started the process for this event. ( Buckinghamshire/MK have an SAG and we submitted plans to them with no come back)

Now times all of the above by the fact that you need to do this for each one your ride goes through, there are 16 of these SAGs in Kent for instance, and you can see what a huge task that “Officially” organising an event entails.

Then you need to try and contact other interested parties like the Forestry Commission who will charge you for every rider that passes over their land – Box Hill is approx.. £2 per rider so 1000 riders will land you with a £2000 fee.

In the case of MK, Bedfordshire Council were copied into emails with Bedfordshire Estates over a month ago and knew about our event then. They only insisted on all the conditions last Friday when it became obvious that we were going to go ahead with event. I reiterate – this is the first time that a council has asked for these conditions, most are really happy to have events as it’s part of their remit to get people out in the countryside and we help with this.

Thanks
Dean

unless you are locking the wheel up or pedalling when braking, then you will be freewheeling still. it’ll be a knackered/gunked up freehub.

i had a look at this at the london Bike Show and i must admit i failed to realise it was a 29er. sadly i’d just bought a new bike, otherwise i’d be buying this now. amazing looking thing, just looks “right”

Avoid the blue one i smashed up in 2003 and then rebuilt…! lol :lol:

The Ibex is hands down the best tyre I’ve used in 28 years of mtb riding!

Northwind, the new IBEX from onza is tubeless ready, easiest tyre i have ever set up on stans rims.

and its an ace tyre in 2.4, oodles of grip, if a little heavy

Raceface Turbines, XTR, £4500 build…

doesn’t look out of place to me!

top guides aren’t infallible, and if it does come of, you will then have a jammed chain…
at least with no top guide its a super quick “pop it back on” rather than getting the allen keys out.

I’ve run works components n/w rings for the last year with XT, Zee and XTR mechs. I am yet to drop a chain and the bike doesn’t get an easy life. i wouldn’t bother running one, infact, i have an e13 one sat at home that i used for the first 2 rides with a N/W and then removed it.

I’ve previously used those guides you linked to (same as superstar) and they aren’t great by any means. Easy to lose the chain and a sod to get it back on without tools

First problem is Avids. Second problem is Avids.
I know that’s no help at all!

silly question, how far in is your reach adjustment? if you have it quite far in then the lever will travel a long way back before biting, a small amount out might make a WORLD of difference…try it.

it looks more like a crack in the paint on the cable guide. i wouldn’t worry about that.

scrape the paint off the guide and see if its actually a crack or not.

Or go to the Doctors.. :lol:

as per skellnonch, HANGER

seems to me to be a good bit of marketing, did nothing for injury related scarring with me.

given the weather we’ve had this winter, i’m surprised it lasted that long!