Where do i start…

Norco Sight 1 26 2013
Norco Sight Carbon 2014
Saracen Ariel x 650 2015
Mondraker Dune XR 650 2016
Santa Cruz Hightower CC 2017

To be fair, the santa cruz has only had 2 bearings fail in 200 miles and sure enough lifetime warranty had a new set wing its way to me free of charge in 48 hours. the rest of them are still smooth, but still, the rest have all failed within 6 months, some within a few weeks of purchase (mondraker) resulting in cracked frames and mucho warranty. I am not alone either..

I hear you oldfart, you are not alone. doesn’t matter the make, i go through frame bearings like cups of tea.

its not a left hand thread. sounds like the bit you refer to as a conical shim has come loose from the carbon, its meant to be fixed as it is the nut for the axle effectively.

Mavic Crossmax charge XL is utterly incredible. By far my favourite tyre and way better in all conditions than a magic Mary in my experience.

kcal..

Whats the fit like on those Madison DTE shorts? considering a pair later this week.
are they slim fit, or big and flappy? I’ve found madison kit can be a bit of the latter on my lanky frame..

quick google at the Asym i29s in 29″ that i have and found this in about 2 seconds:

26″ 538 35mm TBA 559x35c 32 / 4.5mm
27.5″ 563 29mm 538g 584x29c 32 / 4.5mm
27.5″ 563 35mm 570g 584x35c 32 / 4.5mm
29″ 599 29mm 583g 622x29c 32 / 4.5mm
29″ 599 35mm 612g 622x35c 32 / 4.5mm

Can’t imagine there’s too much difference to that

I assume you’ve checked the rotor is tight? had that numerous times over the years where people complain their brakes judder and squeal only to find the rotor is not tight

Fits description of SRAM brakes….. :D

Screw in or press fit? guessing screw in by the “external” bit mentioned above

It just goes in with an o ring, new ones have better routing.

Such a fun bike tho!

Another vote for the Hightower, santa Cruz have sorted their sizing nowadays. Awesome bit of kit.

just don’t extend it all the way up…. :lol:

Test riding mine tonight. they feel ace in the parking lot test. far burlier than they look in that pic as well.

i’m very tempted also, but would also like some real world reviews.

I’ll use the hardtail for night rides purely as its cheaper than the full sus, which means i don’t mind putting it away wet and dirty.

currently building up my HT for winter, cannot wait to ride it again.

the 11-40 and 11-42 XT cassettes did drop the chain when back pedalling as they were not 1 x specific, the 11-46 is and doesn’t drop the chain.

XT everytime, purely for the fact you won’t need a new wheel when the cassette wears out. SRAMS XD system is rubbish if not greased properly from the factory and usually ends up in pieces and unable to get it off the freehub. not to mention the cost of the cassettes…

plus, double upshifts… single upshifts across 12 gears is just horrid.

Price of cake, if you can unscrew the old one, you just screw this one in place. Only tool.required is Allen key to get it off the bike and a shock pump. Make sure you deflate before fitting.

yeah, you can buy the debonair upgrade see here

buy a debonair can?

swarf can be recycled into more material for making bikes easily.

6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

never going to buy one anyway

That DMR is just disgusting to look at. as hard as it is to believe, it makes the BTR look beautiful..

If it was my choice, i’d be on the Stiff Morf or Cotic BFE.

Mine turned up yesterday. very very nice set of forks. can’t wait to get the travel reduced and put on the bike.

no shock for me. boo hiss.

oh well. :lol:

You’d think that would be the case dazh, but you’d be wrong. Proper waterproof shorts are a winter revelation.

well i just had it confirmed that they did not take payment for my X2 shock i order about 4pm. so very doubtful i’ll get what i ordered.

oh well.

just bought a set as well… hopefully travel spacers are included as i need to drop it to 140 for the winter hardtail..

That is port blocking gunge.. :lol:

the bike actually feels like it has suspension now. Previously it had a horrific 2 stage feel with a big knock around the 25-30% mark, presumably where it was sucking the grease through a bleed hole.

My Monarch RT3 has been terrible, compress the shock till it gets to the point that it equalises the chambers and it has a big dive through the travel before becoming ultra hard to compress. i haven’t been able to resolve it in months, so…

Took it apart fully at the weekend and found loads of emulsified grease inside. Cleaned it out, rebuilt it with some Fox Float fluid and popped it back together. Its like a different shock now. took 5 minutes, god knows why i’d not done it before.

I’ve got a lovely pic of it below

is it a 200 x 50 shock? same length and construction as a 200 x 57 but with less stroke. you won’t use all the available shaft. its certainly what it looks like. How much of the stroke have you used? if its 50mm then its probably fine.
Never had an issue with the CTD, mine was awesome and still is. have you tried different volume spacers?

Use the travelodge and book an accessible room, you can take your bike in the shower then.

Not that I’ve done that before… :lol:

just extend the scheme, its free and then you do a zero value transfer at the end of the term.
Win
Win.

easy peasy, its not the toughest course in the world by a long stretch. just hope they sort the feed stops for next year…

aaaannd the purchase is on hold… :lol:

I’m doing it with 2 mates, route looks fairly gentle and there are plenty of feed stops by the looks of it. should be fun

I’m about to bite the bullet and buy one for my Hightower today… cannot stand the Monarch RT3 it came with, just cannot get it to work right.

Not only that, they are just utterly cack, especially the debonair version.

Mine didn’t come with mounts. I just use another helmet for night riding.

interesting they have specced a flat mount rear caliper mount on an mtb frame on the Mantle…