Is the bike a 29er?….isn’t boost spacing supposedly a solution to the inherent flex of bigger wheels and a big chap riding one?

The i25 rim is decent, I don’t know enough about spokes I’m afraid.

This is why I love the custom wheel build option on Superstars website.
You can choose their own hubs, rims etc or branded stuff from DT-Swiss, Stans, Mavic etc…then choose the type of spoke you want from bladed, to plain gauge to butted etc…you’ll basically end up with a suitable wheel for the type of bike you own, the riding you do and your weight instead of the usual shite specced on most complete builds.

Yes, no, maybe…

Still to this day the best bike I’ve ridden is a Saracen Ariel from when the brand relaunched in 2012.
It had 140mm of travel front and back but Saracen were willing to warranty them even with 160mm forks fitted, Ride.io website rated it best with a 150mm fork and described the bike as a mini-DH bike.
I used mine on local single track and uplift days at FoD, I got my best ever race result on it too, it would be considered short and with a high BB by 2017 standards and the 68 degree HA is laughable compared to the 62 and 63 degrees angles being written about in the Geometron thread, it was also built like a tank and heavy but there is more to a bike than an individual measurement, they are the sum of the parts…maybe it was the suspension kinematics?, maybe it was the frame itself?, who knows?…all I know is that in the intervening years I’ve had 4 hardtails all with the same or longer forks and slacker HAs, I’ve also had a full on DH sled and a current trail/enduro bike with 160mm of travel and a 66 degree HA….and I was quicker at the FoD on the 2012 bike!?!?

Sadly it was stolen, the home insurance paid out but by then they’d switched to a carbon swingarm and there were horror stories of cracking frames and seizing bushings…problems the mk1 bikes never had.
I’d give my eye teeth to have that bike back.

When WC downhill racers chasing ultimate speed and riding places like Val di Sole are using 62-64 HAs its almost funny to peel back the marketing BS and wonder why we’re being told we need the same (or even more extreme, read the Geometron thread!) to pedal around trail centres!

A LOT of the mountain bike industry is hype, marketing and BS and most people ARE over biked despite what they think.

The bike snobs will hate this but…Superstar XX27 rims are brilliant, got them in 15/142 combo for my trail bike and also 20/157 for the DH bike I sold at the weekend.

Strong, light, cheap…pick two, is the traditional response.
Nonsense I say, with direct sales bikes and companies like Uberbike and Superstar you really can have all three now…the only thing holding most people back is brand snobbery.

Give them as go, the rim is 27mm internal width (as the name implies) and the XX denomination is Superstars intended use guide…they can be used and abused basically… i also have some EX23 rims which are 23mm wide and more trail/enduro related.

If you’re happy paying a bit more they do the Alpine-30 rim (which I also have, yes I know I have a problem!)…it’s a lovely deep dish rim with a true 30mm internal width and looks indestructible but the EX23 and XX27 wheels I’ve been using have been so good I’ve had no need to fit them to anything yet!

Right, I’m a shit rider…my biggest claim to fame is finishing in the top 3rd of the field at the FoD mini-DH one winter race…and that was more a fluke of tyre choice but…

…even I can take that drop.

It’s one of the easier ones there because of the lovely slab they’ve out there for your take off, my technique is all wrong I’m sure but I come in and just before the drop (on the slab) I squish my forks slightly, then the rebound kicks it just as the front wheel leaves the lip, weight slightly back and it’s all good.

People are quite right, he’s running before he can walk…ditch the DH bike and get an aggro HT…thaf drop is also rollable as someone else said, I’ve done that when new to the FoD and you can see it’s rollable when he’s shows you the side view. No nasty vertical drop, just glides out from the lip, rolled it on a 140mm HT and regularly send it on my FS now’s

Please don’t anyone take this as blowing my own trumpet.. if anything by describing my (probably wrong) technique I’ve opened myself up for ridicule…but it works for me.

Had a spin on a 650b Codeine at BPW the other day, very good and did get me thinking about a bike change….

Jesus that’s 200 million turnover for YT!!!!!

67,000 bikes at 3k a pop right?

Edit: there were a few years when their YT Wicked (great bike btw) was less than 2k so probably down a bit on my figure.

Pleased for him, it’s an exciting sport with an unhealthy amount of risk….prior to knowing this I thought only the Athertons got good deals but I’m optimistic about Bruni, Brosnan, Minnaar etc now too.

Giant Trance, the forks on the new ones have gone from 140mm to 150mm I gather but they still pedal well and can take bike park abuse too.

The metal ones are always available at less than 2k somewhere and places like Tredz and Pedalon always have finance options available.

I put mine together as a frame only project, chose X-fusion suspension for budget reasons but both front and back have been as good as anything I’ve ever had from Fox or Rockshox, went 1×10 but I think 1×11 is now standard on them, even the included Giant Contact dropper post has been faultless…wheels are Superstar but a full build has Giant’s own and by all accounts they’re very good.

I bought one early this year on the back of continual good reviews in Dirt’s top 100…just sold it as I’m actually faster DH on my 160mm trail bike!….I’m sure more time on it would’ve helped but it seems you have to unplug your brain and totally commit to get the best from a DH sled, even one as good as a Tues.

PM or email me (i’ll send you my email)…got a garage full of 26 inch tyres no longer used, some never even fitted to a rim!
Will happily donate them to your lad if you contribute postage?

Aluminum Giant Trance weighed today at 29lbs

Up from 26lbs early in the year as I’ve ditched the carbon roadie saddle for a Charge Spoon, swapped the carbon bars for Alu Renthals and fitted marginally wider new rims today.

Still not bad for a 160mm travel bike.
It’ll get heavier over winter, I’ve ordered a coil shock and I’ve got some old school coil spring 36s to go on the front too!….maintenance free winter with a FS hopefully.

I just don’t get the big tyre thing, I’ve test ridden one but it just felt squishy and like undamped/uncontrolled additional suspension to me!?

None of the fast lads I’ve raced against in local and regional DH and Enduro use them and the pros even at somewhere like Val di Sole were using the usual 2.4 – 2.5 width tyres, surely if they generated that much more grip the teams would be all over them?

Yep, car is an old Passat 1.9tdi for £750….god knows what the bikes have cost, the last one was £2,200 in January.

Sad, very sad I know.

Long post, hope it helps.
Got normal community acquired pneumonia in 2016, symptoms were breathless on normal activities, sleeping with my pillows, lethargy etc…saw GP after a few days of being moaned at by my better half.

GP found I had a temp, my oxygen saturations were low, my pulse was fast and when she listened to my chest she said both lungs had fluid in them. She referred me to local A&E who to my surprise accepted me (i was 38 and thought I’d just be walking out with antibiotics)…get to A&E and first chest xray shows cloudy fluid filled lungs so they start conventional treatment of IV antibiotics for the infection and diuretics to flush the fluid.

Someone more senior looks at the xray and thinks my heart looks a bit big, secondary infections from pneumonia are quite common (pleurisy, pericarditis etc) so they admit me to Cardiac Care for ‘observation’….4 days later after many scans, xrays and echocardiograms they decided the enlarged heart was Myocarditis and I’m discharged with 2 weeks worth of further antibiotics and diuretics in tablet form and put under a Cardiologist Consultant for follow up in 6 weeks time, in the meantime more scans and echos as an outpatient.

After the 6 weeks I’m waiting in Cardiology for the all clear only for the consultant to call me in and tell me I the pneumonia caused the Myocarditis as suspected but rather than making a full recovery all the scans and tests, ECGs, bloods etc show that I have Dilated Cardiomyopathy which presents as heart failure… i was 38 remember.

Basically my heart got so damaged by the Myocarditis that its function went down to 20%-ish at one point, it was back up but borderline on heart failure, thankfully no scarring to the heart shown on any tests but the muscle is dilated, big, baggy and didn’t pump as well as it should do.

They put me on 3 meds, a beta blocker, an ACE inhibitor and a diuretic.
I was scheduled for more tests, and almost monthly outpatient appointments with the consultant.
After 6 months I felt good, was back at work, exercising again, sleeping well etc so they discharged me from their care but I had to stick with the meds.

Fast forward another 6 months and I’d become sloppy with my meds, was drinking each evening again and starting to feel like shit.
I had stomach pains, I was lethargic again and sleeping almost upright again… i should have spotted it but I was in denial.
GP investigated for gall stones, even had a scan. Gave me stomach meds like Buscopan and Omeprazole which did nothing…stomach is now starting to balloon and I’m becoming breathless doing normal stuff again.

Other half again steps in and marches me to A&E one night. I gave them my consultant cardiologist letter from before and they took me straight into resus where I again had low oxygen levels, a fast but weak pulse and pain around my liver area…the docs also saw my fluid filled puffy ankles which I’d been ignoring and decided my enlarged stomach wasn’t fat but fluid…I was in heart failure.

Admitted straight to CCU, weighed at 96kg, two weeks later after huge doses of diuretics I was down to 84kg, bearing in mind a litre of water weighs 1kg they reckon I’d been carrying around approx 12 litres of fluid my heart couldn’t deal with!

Transferred to the regional cardiac specialist hospital after that as I was then throwing arrhythmias, those on the forum in the know will know that VT and 3rd degree block/complete heart block aren’t good news..the next step on from complete heart block is usually cardiac arrest… I’m 39 at this point.

Cardiac centre want to fit a pacemaker and internal shock box should I slip into these rhythms again, thankfully a particularly astute consultant noticed in my notes that my beta blocker dose had been increased by my GP a week before I came to hospital, he suspected a reaction and that I can’t tolerate beta blockers…my heart rate at this point on bed rest could vary from 30-110 completely randomly…he decided to stop the beta blocker.

A week or so later as it’s left my system the arrhythmias have stopped and I have a normal resting pulse of around 70bpm and I’m not gaining any water weight. They decide that an electrical device isn’t necessary at this stage and opt for medicine management instead (thank ****, excuse the language)…2 more weeks to get the doses of my new meds right and daily weights, fluid balance chart etc and they discharge me, it’d been about 5 weeks in hospital that time….not fun.

I now see the community heart failure nurse every two months and religiously stick to the meds regime, I exercise like a beast now and have pretty much given up alcohol.
I have to keep my salt intake as low as possible, restrict myself to around 2 litres of fluids a day so I don’t overload the heart (exemptions for hot days, exercise etc obviously) and seemingly all is stable now.

I’ve got it for life however and I have a reduced life expectancy obviously but I feel good, look pretty bloody lean and great for the first time in around 12 months and (this is cliched) but have a different outlook on life…if I want to do something I do it, I’m not going to be around forever, I’m 40 in October and 50% of newly diagnosed heart failure patients are dead in 5-10 years time….i was first diagnosed at 38 so if I’m in that 50% group I’ll be exiting stage left somewhere between 43 and 48 years old…not nice but I’m optimistic I’ll be in the luckier 50% that make it past 20+ years with the condition instead.

Basically doing dick around with your heart, Myocarditis is no joke and the repercussions can be permanent…if you’re lucky it’s just viral and transient, no harm done but….well, you’ve just heard my story.

Buy a Deore mech.

Seriously, I also run a 10 speed Sunrace 11-42 cassette and when the bike shop put the build together the mechanic wasn’t optimistic about the gears working, he said he’s rarely come across extender rings or the new wide range 10-speed cassettes that shift properly.

When I collected the bike a few days later he was surprised and pleased that the gears were the easiest he’s ever set up and worked faultlessly….he said he’d be recommending Deore 10 speed mechs over SLX, XT, XTR etc if customers want a wide range 10-speed setup!

The winning taste she has now will stand her in good stead against a fit again Rach next season.

This.

Tahnee vs Rach vs Miriam vs Tracy will be epic next year….the other girls have got a taste this year of what qualifying in first place and/or winning feels like and they’re not going to give it back to Rachel without a fight…i actually think her injury has been good for the sport, last season she was so dominant the other girls looked beaten on the Friday practice already!

Giant are perceived on here a bit like Spesh and Trek….mainstream, safe and a bit boring
…but I agree with you, my Trance is silly good, so much so that I’ve sold the DH bike as it was actually easier to ride uplift days on my Trance than my YT Tues (the bike incidentally that won the DH world cup series yesterday!)….the way Giant can make aluminum frames so light is impressive too, the ride and pedaling quality from their Meastro (DW rip-off) suspension is excellent.
Enjoy..

740mm Renthal Lites, tried wider but I’m not that tall so went back to a sensible width.

Stem is also Renthal and 35mm long.

Same situation, I’ve relegated my 160mm travel FS to race duties and uplift days only.

Local trails are more fun on my 26 inch wheels Ragley Blue Pig with 140mm fork.

KS Exa Form with a 175mm drop going on eBay for £85 at the moment….lever under the seat though….which I personally like but I hate cluttered bars, it’s an ODD thing, others likev the remote lever on the bars.

Gelert, what are you talking about?

They still make the Switch hubs only they’re now called Switch Ultra and Switch Lite…in fact the bulk of their hub stock is Switch stuff

Yes there’s some fancy pants Fuel and Electro too now (and the Tank for DHers) but Switch spares are a doddle, I got a 10mm axle instead of the usual 12mm rear recently and also end caps for going from a 20mm fork to a 15mm one.

….and if you’re really stuck eBay is full of Novatec/Switch stuff but I haven’t had to order from there yet.

All the WC courses should be like that….let’s have a season of Champery, Val di Sol, Schladming, Mont St Anne etc…the same names would probably still win but it’d be a hell of a show!

This is like back in the 90s when everyone tied elastic bands to the strings of their tennis racquets to ‘reduce vibration’…..that died out pretty quick too.

My M8000 XTs have been great, I’ll be first in line for these too.

Either find some second hand Saints or buy new Zees (i’d do the latter)…..180 rotors front and back set up on that should do the trick.

Cyclist is stretching it, both my bikes are downhill orientated, I tend to do uplift days!

40 this October and diagnosed with a heart complaint.
Been going to the gym since I was 18, keeps me flexible…..most of my similar aged friends can’t squat down with flat feet without their heels coming off the ground , years of deadlifting means I don’t suffer with the usual 40+yr old’s bad back, posture is great.

Do it!

Got SRAM brakes on my YT, I was skeptical but they’ve been good….more squishy than Shimano but some would call that modulation.

I still prefer my latest XTs on 180 rotors, like hitting a brick wall!….modulation comes from using one finger braking.

I’m entered into the tidworth one, just trying to juggle around collecting a car on the same day which is proving to be a headache.

See, I’ve found them to be the most stuck up self important **** on the High-St.
Took my 6 in there as the touch ID stopped working, the ‘helpful’ genius suggested I buy a new one….nope, walked a few doors down the road to an independent phone shop and had a new screen and fixed touch ID for around £100.
I like Apple products but by God they’re a ruthless money making machine.

Saw loads of these at BPW the other week, popular bike and seemed very capable….then I strayed into Go Outdoors in Swansea yesterday and was surprised by the similarity to the Bossnut…i suppose imitation is the sincerest form but I couldn’t decide if it cheapened the Whyte or gave Kudos to the Calibre?!
Anyway, the Bossnut was so well finished that if I’d had my credit card on me I’d have been walking out with one and sticking a 140mm Revelation on the front instead of the nasty Silver Sektor, other than that it was a great bike.

What’s the MTB company that used to recommend asymmetric wheel sizes based on a riders height?….i always liked that idea, made sense to me.
My own experiments of putting 26 inch wheels in the back of 650b bikes has worked well, it drops the BB, and further slackens out the front, in fact it’s how I’ll be running my bike in the Trail Bike category of next year’s BDS.

@deviant the piss taking wasn’t so much the weight but the very strange compromises you made to get there

Yeah, I’ve changed some things around, the sub 100g carbon roadie saddle has gone on the road bike and I’ve got a normal Charge Spoon on it now, the grips are mountain bike specific now too (Renthals) and I’ve ditched the carbon bars for Renthals too, also ditched the plastic Nukeproof pedals for metal Superstar Nanos so I expect an increase…..still holding out with no dropper post though!

Obviously not built for the downs… You big pussy.

You’ve clearly never seen Sam Hill, Brendan Fairclough or Josh Bryceland ride DH….they’re not fans of pedaling either, they choose fast lines and pump the trail….gonna tell Aaron Gwin he’s a big pussy for winning that WC round without a chain and not pedaling?….or Neko Mulally when he took 4th in the World Champs without a chain and no pedaling?

Get with the times old man, there’s more than one fast way down a hill other than pedaling furiously.

Superstar superstar and superstar again!

I have some Pacenti rims on Switch hubs still greatc after years of neglect.

I have theirv own Tactic rims on Tesla hubs still used on my FS and uplift days.

I have some DHX pro-2 DH wheels that are better than the e-thirteen ones the bike came with.

And finally I have some Elite 30 road wheels that have never needed attention in the last 4 years.

I don’t care about the label, in my opinion they build excellent wheels.

Despite the Mickey taking when I claimed my 160mm travel FS was 26lbs I’m going to open myself up to ridicule and post its weight again today.

Difference being I was diagnosed with heart failure this summer and have been given by the NHS a fancy pants calibrated set to monitor my fluid retention and weight each day.

Results later.

Got 30t chain rings on both bikes (FS & HT), the HT is 26 inch, the FS 27.5 inch…. Can’t tell the difference to be honest.

I have a 10 speed Sunrace 11_42 cassette on the FS and an XT 11 speed 11_40 on the HT.

Both bikes are 170 cranks as I’m 5′ 9″

Call me a big pussy but I get no joy from climbing and like it as easy as possible hence the tiny chain rings, my bikes are built for the downs.

She’s being sensible….unless you’re brand Atherton how much do these girls really make?

If she’s made enough to go through uni debt free then she should do it, have a useful qualification to fall back on…isn’t that what a lot of the French girls do?

Ominous if she’s dabbling in CX, she’ll have monster fitness and I can see her coming back into Enduro once the uni is done.

She could do like Sam Hill and be a multidiscipline champion….assuming nothing disastrous happens to the rest of Hill’s season it’s pretty much a formality.

Good on Manon, she’s young and the world is her oyster.

Cheers guys, helpful as always…. Haven’t had a steel HT in ages, I’m excited and I’ll bore the forum with pics when it’s built, it’s the ‘in your face orange’ colour so anything but subtle!