I’ve owned all 3 versions: HL, TNT and DW 5 Spots plus a DW Flux.

DW link has moved the performance envelope up a level right across the range i.e. a DW Flux is as capable as the older (HL/TNT) Spots, the DW Spot is as capable as the older generation RFX, and so on.

The 5 Spot has gone from being designed around a 130mm fork on HL models to 150-160mm on the current version. In that time I’ve gone from Revelation/Pike/Fox 32 to Lyriks.

The beauty of the Spot has always been its incredible versatility – you can do a lightish XC oriented build, a midweight build, or a heavy-ass bombproof build and it’s like owning a totally different bike for each.

I loved my HL Spot, but I would not go back from a DW to an HL or TNT version – no way!

Ideally I’d have both in the stable and keep the HL Spot for those nostalgic times when I wanted to ride something different!

Our 2006 Kia Sedona is a proper 7 seater – with full leather, semi-Captain’s seats in middle row, frt/rear aircon, Turbo Diesel, Auto, 30mpg.. etc.

Plus, sliding doors both sides so the kiddies don’t smack the doors into the car parked right next to you.

And they’re inexpensive to buy.

Whingeing, spoilt trouble maker.

Drug taker.

Cheat.

Should have been banned for life – as any drug taker should.

As Traildog says, your intended uses are not typical conditions for knobby CX tyres so anything with centre knobs will wear quickly.

However, there are several CX tyres with a file tread pattern and side knobs (a bit like the Maxxis High Roller semi slick for MTB use) which would suit… you’ll get good wear characteristics on road, with good cornering grip off road from the side knobs.

Have you thought about these:

– Schwalbe Sammy Slick

– Specialized Borough Armadillo CX

– Schwalbe CX Comp

– Conti Cyclorcross Speed (comes in both 35 and 42mm widths)

I’m sure there are several others in this vein…

Cotic X is versatile.. OK, not ideally single-speedable but you can use an X for Road, CX races, Trails, Commuting, Faffing about on

It’ll run slicks, CX knobbies, Monster Cross, 29er etc and can run either Disc Brakes or Canti’s.

That’s why I bought one.

But a medical problem means I did not even get to ride it and it’s now up for sale if anyone’s interested.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cotic-x-56cms-brand-new-2

Mboy, if’n yer interested I am selling a brand new 105 STI 10spd shifter setup (internal gear cables), plus I also have brand new 105 rear derailleur and 10spd cassette…. All cheaper than online.

CX bikes are great road bikes. I was a sponsored CX racer in California in the 90’s and got into road bikes through all the road training I did on my CX bike, and loved it to bits!

Sure, road bikes are lower, more aggressive and have slightly sharper handling… all fine if you want a pure road blast or are a shaven-legged road racer (I used to do that!).

But… look at modern geometry on road bikes and what is selling today. Trek’s Madone ‘geometry for the rest of us’ has taller headtubes to relieve the lower back pain commonly caused by too-aggressive road race geometry, and so do Specialized with their Roubaix, Secteur and other models, and so do many other manufacturers these days.

Face it, unless you’re a Pro and/or are riding 5-6hrs every day, a slightly taller headtube is a good thing. We’re talking 1-2cms difference here. People talk about this “relaxed” geometry like it’s some kind of sub-standard wussy riding position.. is 1-2cms really that different?

The “weird” steering reported by some riders on first outings on CX bikes is not caused by taller headtubes but by the slacker HT angles and increased trail generally found on CX bikes. These characteristics offer better stability over rough ground, but are not bad on the road either. After one ride most riders forget it. Steering-wise, a CX bike isn’t as razor-sharp as a road bike, but so long as you’re not actually competing in a road race, who cares?

If you’re gonna get a CX bike for road use or just tooling around on just make sure it has water bottle mounts – some of the higher end/pure CX race frames don’t.

I’ve had 3 Cotic’s and they are nicely made frames.

The X is both disc and Canti compatible so gives you some options there but unless you’re 100% sure of Alfine in future the Singular’s EBB would be unused dead weight.

Mind you, I’m biased, as I’m selling a brand new Cotic X, size 56cms for £300.

Pics below of Cotic’s frame build quality.

Just to put the other side of the argument….

Have had a Gravity Dropper and Spesh Command Post. GD was reliable, Command Post was complete crap and cost a lot in repairs.

Search on here for ‘Reverb’… there’s a big thread covering all the problems the Reverb is suffering, with lots of STW’ers having had seal problems, manufacturing quality issues, returns, warranties yadda yadda yadda… the story goes on.

It didn’t sound like it’s ready for prime time yet – more like SRAM are doing Beta testing via consumers(!)

Any numbness in your arms, wrists or hands?

Get an MRI done.

I did and it showed that I had 2 ruptured discs (ouch!).

29er rims and 700c are the exact same diameter so you can use skinny road slicks on 29er rims if you want.

That’s what I do: Continental GP 4 Seasons (28mm) road tyres on Stans ZTR355 rims. WIth this combo I have the option of rim brakes or disc brakes on the one wheelset and switch the wheels between a 29er or a CX bike.

Fortunately my CX bike (Cotic X) has 135mm rear hub spacing, so exactly the same as an MTB.

If this thread has whetted anyone’s appetite for a Cotic X I have one going cheap here

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cotic-x-56cms-brand-new-1

I will shortly have all the parts required to build it as a complete bike for approx £600 too..

If you are interested, I have a brand new Stans ZTR 355 29er wheelset that I had handbuilt, Stans 3.30 hubs (both QR), DT SuperComp spokes, alloy nipples etc, yellow rim tape fitted. They cost me £400 and have been ridden 1 mile up the road on my Cyclocross bike.

I’ve completely changed direction in bike choice and have these for sale for £330 posted.

Hubs are 6-bolt compatible.

lexie, I’ll give you a hint. He’s not into you.

Definitely won’t be getting my money.

I have debated it long and hard. I have spoken at length to representatives of the FOTH, fundraisers etc asking how they spent their annual budget, what their priorities are etc. and in conclusion I see no positives at all.

They take your money and spend it on making the trails ‘safe’, on trail and car park maintenance, and on managing the area e.g. removing the Rhododendrons.

So far as making trails ‘safe’ you can take that to mean boring.

The amount of trail maintenance they do is neglible to the point of being invisible.

Yet they are very good at ripping out the Rhododendrons, which unfortunateley I rather liked, as did the majority of people I know.

They also are proud of having returned the area surrounding the summit of Holmbury Hill to ‘ancient heathland’ by chopping down all the trees in that area a few years ago… it was a shameful, ecological disaster . And for what purpose? The area was much nicer with the trees and as for ‘ancient heathland’, well ancient as of when exactly? Take any area of the the UK, go far enough back in time and you’ll find it was probably forested.

The FOTH is very good at destroying many of the trails that are fun/using diggers to put them beyond use.

OK, I understand that these are ‘new’ trails… but ALL the trails were ‘new’ at some point and were made by humans: walking, cycling or whatever.

I just don’t get what the beef is with the Hurtwood and why they feel they need to ‘control’ the area so negatively. It’s an area that the landowners themselves desired the public use for recreational activities.

What was clear from the discussions I had with representatives of FOTH was that the more money they raised the more of this they’d be able to do: more controls, more restrictions, more resources.

– Where would it end?

– Why do we need more control?

– Why should we pay FOTH to implement more restrictions?

Ask yourself this: If the FOTH went out of business due to lack of funds what would happen?

They will tell you that all the trails would shut and the car parks would be closed down.

Really?

I suggest things would continue as they do now. Do you think that all the walkers, runners, dog walkers, families, cyclists, horse riders, Duke of Edinburgh teenagers etc would stop using the area?

No.

Have been using one on my DW Spot for over a year – fantastic fork for it. No issues with climbing.

Loved it!

Exciting, fast, dangerous, colourful… wicked.

Am going to the Woking and London rounds in person with the wife & kids .

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, they are Marxocchi’s – their 2011 44 RC3 Ti 150mm QR15 forks.

I sent them back to Windwave, they have changed the seals, fully serviced them and returned them claiming they are fine – however they are not and the max travel is as I say, either 125mm with the correct air pressure in or 140mm without any air at all.

The thing is at this point I do not believe these forks will ever produce 150mm and am somewhat suspicious of Marzocchi’s claim that they are in fact 150mm forks.

I will call Windwave tomorrow and discuss the matter with them, but if they can’t produce 150mm of travel I don’t see why a consumer should pay £550+ for a product that does not do what the manufacturer sells it to do.

a stack of 36Gb SCSI drives?

I recently bought a Western Digital USB drive the size of a matchbox that has 500Gb capacity for £75.

How times have moved on!

Mind you, I remember selling 200Mb drives to go alongside HP-UX Servers circa 1990 that cost several tens of thousands of £.

I’m thinking of the big one: 100kms.

Hopefully it’ll be dry and dusty!

You will love it I’m sure.

My 2009 Flux came in at 28lbs with not especially lightweight kit so 26-27lbs very achievable.

Several owners on MTBR have built theirs below 25lbs.

It’s an excellent singletrack flyer!

Good grief! The OP’s original question was perfectly clear and I would have thought instead of all the sarcasm a simple “No, there’s nothing in/around Cranleigh until one gets up toward the top of Winterfold” would have been more helpful?

You love your wife too much to put her through that kind of stress – but you’re OK with lying to her?

Sounds like a relationship problem, not a bike/spending problem.

Be open with her, honest with eachother. If she really can’t understand or doesn’t agree with what you’re doing is there a valid reason why not e.g. can’t put food on the table for kids, etc?

If not, maybe you should both examine what issue she has with it – is it just that she doesn’t want you to have it but happily spends money on things for herself?

IME if you buy the bike and hide it from her, it’ll all come out a few years later and will further erode the basis of trust between you in your relationship.

I speak from personal experience…

what happens to energy gels after the best before date?

They become energy Bars! :D

… and here’s what happens to those morons that use public roads as racetracks.

Serves ’em right.

You may not care about your life, but you shouldn’t put others at risk.

YouTube

Coming from SS, I only need to run gears due to moving to a full sus and as I have coped pretty well with a 32 – 16/18T even a road cassette at 11/26 or 11/28 seems quite manageable.

So 1 x 9 or 1 x 10 is irrelevant.

Just put a single cog on the rear with a derailleur to cope with the changing chain length under compression and you’re done.

MacBook Air.

Bought one last Nov and it is simply brilliant.

There are some Windows apps that I have to use for work, so I run VMWare with Windows 7, Outlook, Word, Excel etc all that stuff.

It runs Windows better than Windows itself. My previous Dell, IBM etc laptops would often hang, crash, lock up, require rebooting etc. Not the MacBook.

wellhung – can I take your entry please?

Just call Greg at Turner – he’s very responsive and will sort you out.

What awhiles said.

Whilst they are becoming popular, understandably, they are very dangerous to cattle who try to eat the wire bits, getting them stuck in their throats then either dying or suffering an awful lot of pain.

I live in a rural area and have seen it.

Plus, why send airborne trash all over the country? It’s no different than chucking McDonalds wrappers out your car window.

I used to live there.

Mt. Tam is worth either riding up, or just hiking around, just to say you’ve been there and ‘taken it all in’. But, there has been a lot of conflict between riders, walkers, and Forest Rangers with speed guns issuing speeding tickets/citations (yes, really!).

There’s much better riding to be had further south – my old stomping grounds were Skeggs Point on Skyline Boulevard (an awesome spot) which is approx to the West of Woodside, and Soquel Demonstration State Forest south of Los Gatos.

I hear the riding around Aptos in Santa Cruz has developed immensely too.

If you do go to Mt Tam (and you should), nearby things well worth seeing are the Muirwoods, where you’ll see the most ginormous Redwood trees and it’s a fascinating park to see/experience, plus Sausalito – go and shop for sun dried tomatoes with the 1960’s San Francisco hippies all now in their 60s and 70s and driving their BMW 7 Series and Lexus’ etc… plus there is of course everything that San Francisco itself has to offer.Do see Alcatraz while you’re there – but MAKE SURE you book in advance. You will not be able to get tickets on the day.

I lived there for 5 years, so if you want any more gen, gimme an email via address in profile.

There’s a few STW’ers on the MTBR Turner Forum – myself for example, plus NickHart, Toons and others…

I’ve had 2 DW Spots – one (2009 model) with the rear cable routing outside the rear swingarm, and my current one (2010 model) with it running through it. It make b*gger all difference and you don’t ever look at it anyway.

You will love the Spot though – absolutely fantastic bikes.

My wish list?

Chairlifts all day….

Chalet girls all night… :D

Shit sorry to hear that Dogger, still look on the bright side, that was a good bit of cardiovas training there!!

Yep – and it showed me just how unfit I really am!

Ours was dramatic.

Early evening was out on a the road bike when phone rang – my wife, saying our 10yr old daughter had taken a hard tackle at school Rugby match (which was supposed to be “tag” rugby, not tackling!!!) and was massively hyperventilating and that she’d called an ambulance.

I was in Lurgashall, approx 30 mins ride away. Absolutely stomped home, full of fear and nerves, almost puked.

As I came down the hill to our house I arrive to see THREE ambulances in the road/driveway and OMFG an Air Ambulance helicopter in the field by the river. My heart nearly burst through my chest cavity when I saw that.

I flung the bike away and rushed in to see daughter and wife surrounded by 2 Doctors and 5 ambulance people, but thankfully she was OK. She was still massively hyperventilating but after another 30mins or so the Doctors managed to get her calmed down. She’s OK now, thankfully, but my God, as a parent, situations like that make you very glad for what you have in life.

Many thanks for the detailed replies folks – some very good owner reports and insights here.

Sounds like positive experiences overall.

Many thanks.

Huh?

Sky TV schedule says it’s “Wonders of the Universe” on BBC2 at 7pm?

The OP says the guy just tapped it, not smacked it hard with a whopping great sledgehammer.

Given that, there’s no way that tapping the axle lightly would drive the BB cup out of the frame stripping the threads in the process.

Conclusion: the threads were already stripped by whichever numpty previously worked on the bike (you say it’s an ex demo) and had been lightly reassembled.

Your mechanic definitely does not owe you a new frame as some have suggested (unless you bought the bike from him/that shop).

Solution?

First, get the BB threads rechased, either by the shop or by your local machine shop/engineering shop/agricultural engineers.

If that doesn’t work, contact Specialized UK and see what they suggest. Unlikley they will warranty replace it given that it’s the result of damage, but I have found them very helpful in the past.

When you say “try” racing, you mean you actually think you can compete? Or you just want to enter a few races?

If you really want to compete, you’ve got 2 options… Neither are cheap!

1. Spend a fortune lightening your bike, being ruthless about weight everywhere. Go for very light wheels, super fast tyres, Carbon bars/post, razor for a saddle, 4ti eggbeaters, silly light brakes etc. And still end up with a bike that’s 2lb overweight cos you’re riding a steel frame, not a carbon one…

2. Buy new bike, specifically for XC racing!

Or… If you’re happy just to have a go, not bothered about being competitive, just would like to give yourself the best advantage you can without spending too much money… Lighter tyres (Nobby Nics, Racing Ralph for example) should be port of call number 1. Swap the platform SPD’s for a much lighter version as next step. Then step 3, go tubeless if you haven’t already…

The 3 steps above won’t cost more than about £100 all in, should save you 2lb in weight easily, and all of it rotating weight. You can then, should you want to, start messing about with lighter components here and there, and some lighter wheels if you fancy it, but I’d not bother to be honest… For £100 you can save 2lb in rotating weight, and that will have a marked effect!

mboy speaks the truth… wise words.

I would add to this with a choice of inner tubes. There are surprisingly large differences in weights between different brands of inner tubes… and I don’t mean the poncy ‘lightweight’ racing tubes either, I mean the standard off the shelf butyl ones.

My own casual purchases over the years mixed with some lazy summer afternoons messing with the digital scales shows that some Ritchey and some Specialized inner tubes weigh 40g-70g less (each) than other brands. That may not sound much, but it’s all rotating mass and the 2 inner tubes combined can be 80g-140g (up to 1/4lb in old money).

And at approx £4 per inner tube it’ll be THE cheapest weight saving you’ll ever make (short of taking a dump just before the race!) :D

hungry monkey – Member
[smug]
i live in morzine

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[Double Smug]

I work with a cheerleader…

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[treble smug]
I’m married to a Cheerleader! (although she is bonkers…)

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