The end caps are available under a new part number S175900002. £20/pair.

Oneal Flows are pretty good. Air flows through them so it feels as though you aren’t wearing anything.

Pretty hard to lose weight and gain muscle mass simultaneously and it will be slow going.
I’d concentrate on getting your routine sorted to start off with and get a realistic program together. Get it written down and take a pen with you to the gym to cross it off and make notes. I’d work on strength rather than weight loss in the gym, I’d also do legs too as it will make a huge difference to your cycling. Single leg or split stance squats will improve your riding not just your strength. Increase the strength of you biggest muscles and you’ll be burning far more calories.
Stick to intervals for you cardio as you’ll still be riding.
Diet is just as important, don’t cut calories to start just improve quality at every meal. Once you’ve got into your routine adjust calories then to suit your needs. Protein shakes are useful, I’m always starving after the gym and a shake will usually keep me going until I can get a meal.

It might be something to do with the laws on shipping the batteries.

Try Pearce in Ludlow. They carry a decent stock of Specialized spares.

I wouldn’t buy an ebike online. LBS every time. Pearce Cycles in Ludlow for Specialized. They have a good demo fleet in store and have great back up. Not to mention the trails they have built in the area where you can try the demo bikes.

Never had any issues with Stans in about fifteen years. Changed to muc-off purely because it’s British and bio degradable. Really happy with it. Looks and smells good to. Seems to coat the tyre better when you first put it in too.

My local shop fits a helicoil for only a few quid. Cheap and quick. I’m sure most bike shops would be the same.

In stock at Pearce Cycles in Ludlow.

Stumpy evo. Or a stage 5 or 6 are amazing.

I’ve got a 29er comp carbon and love it. It’s the perfect trail bike. It would be fantastic with a 160mm fork.

Demoed a stumpy evo from Pearce the other day. Jumped straight on it. Super composed at speed. Felt like it could be pushed really hard. Unfortunately I wasn’t up to that in the pouring rain the day I took it out.

Pearce cycles in Ludlow have one as a demo bike. I’m hoping to get out on it at some point soon.

My local dealer (Pearce cycles, Ludlow) has a demo ohlins coil shock to fit an enduro.

Rode there last night on the Pearce cycles ride and the conditions were good considering the recent weather. All the surfaces were fast rolling and not really much standing water. We did cut out the open section though and the wet drag of a climb that follows it.

I went from a 2014 stumpjumper evo 29 to the enduro 29.

The two bikes are very different. The low bottom bracket and long chainstays are the complete opposite to the enduro. The enduro has very little front wheel grip compared to the evo.

A 650 yoke will transform the bike. The Enduro does have a nice short head tube compared to the stumpy though.

There are some good trails in Nash wood in Presteigne.
Pop over to Pearce cycles in Ludlow. They know the area pretty well, their mechanic lives in Knighton.

I lived there for about ten years. So know the area well. I don’t really have much interest in road bikes though.
There is a decent shop called deka on the road out to the autostrada. I used to race downhill with the guy who owns it.
There is a really high end road bike shop called sessante al ora which has recently opened up in Milano marritima which is not to far away. They probably do organised rides. Italian roadies are pretty keen though.
For mountain biking I used to go up to a village called tredozio, there are some amazing trails round there, the mountain biking out of Faenza didn’t have a great deal of decent single track but was great scenery. You can go from Faenza to Brisighella off road.

Faenza wouldn’t be a bad base to start. Good rail access from Bologna. It’s at the foot of the appenini where there are some great roads and the food in the region is incredible.
A classic roadie day out would be to catch the old train through the mountains via Brishigella, Mugello, etc to Firenze and cycle back.
Marco Pantani was local too, there is a museum at Cesanatico which is interesting even if you’re not into road bikes (like me).
Can’t think off hand of a shop where you could hire a decent bike though.

@Northwind,
ok it does improve pedalling performance according to GT.
There certainly are no issues with the suspension performance in terms of impact absorption or problems with brake Jack, axle path etc. The latest Furies that the team raced on didn’t have the I-drive at all.

I’ve worked in composites for about fifteen years or so and I can’t believe how cheap they are doing it for. You just can’t compare it to mass produced brands like Santa Cruz or whoever. It’s the production processes and quality control that is the major cost along with skilled, educated labour.

Gee Atherton didn’t do too badly on his GT Fury which is a single pivot. Ok it has the I drive but that doesn’t affect suspension performance.

Whether roadies acknowledge me or not doesn’t bother me, I always say hello. What does annoy me is other mountain bikers in the forest who don’t say hello or anything, especially when they are on trails I’ve spent days, weeks or whatever building.
Most roadies do seem to say hello though.

Just got exactly the same wheels from Pearce cycles. Would hardly call them online other than they have a website but they do build good wheels.

J-tech suspension do them I think. Although they might only do it as part of a service.

I’ve just got myself a Stage 5. The main reason for me buying it is that I’ve had 5 ‘high end’ carbon frames in the last five years. Each one of which has cracked.
I’m also sick of messing around with expensive bottom brackets which need new bearings every three months.
I bought the frame only with rockshox shock as the upgrade to the fox shock is more than what my LBS would sell me the fox shock for. The upgrades on the bikes are not good value.
I think the base model 5 is reasonable value. The bottom of the range Specialized enduro is now £3000.

It’s not that heavy. My Carbon specialized enduro is only just under 32lb once you have decent tyres on.

Look up drink up coffee, Shrewsbury. They’ve had their dodge van at all the Pearce races this year. Great coffee, really nice bloke and he really enjoys the type of locations where you’d have a mountain bike race.

Hillbilly grids are fantastic tyres. I much prefer them to my Magic Mary’s.
Slaughter is a great rear tyre too. I’m not really a fan of the butcher though.

Ohlins Rxf 36 is available with a coil. Not sure they go up to 180 though.

Try Pearce cycles. They are my local shop. They had some on their trade stand at their downhill race last weekend. Not sure of sizes though. They are a ‘snug’ fit.

I can get my Dh knee pads under the specialized pants as the knees are stretch fabric. Trail style knee pads would have plenty of room.

I’ve got some specialized demo DH pants which are really lightweight and have stretch panels. They are also water repellent. Well worth a look if you can find them.
I do always feel a bit middle aged going for an xc ride in long trousers though.

I think there are a number of factors.
There are still plenty of people that are into DH but the quality of long travel trail bikes has probably reduced the number of people at the less serious end as they are so much less restricted in terms of access of where and what you can ride and have fun on.
Another issue is probably the entry requirements of the BDS, while its good to have the premier series in the country more elite focused, it is at the expense of a lot of the people who make up and support the scene. These are the people who actually pay for their own entries and kit and also come to enjoy the event.
The fact that there are no longer UCI points available, means that there also also no incentive for mid pack elites to be there either, if there is a field stacked full of top World Cup riders competing, then they have no chance of getting the points they need to race a World Cup. They are better off going abroad to race and at least get the chance of riding in some decent weather.
The BDS has had some bad luck with weather conditions, especially at some of the Scottish races, which has had an effect, with people not keen on driving all the way to Fort William to get hardly any runs.
There has been a slight downturn in popularity overall and even the Pearce series which sold out in 3 minutes two years ago has entries available for the last three rounds.
The (BDS) races are expensive but with the ever increasing amount of safety regs and requirements that the riders see as essential, I don’t see how they could be any cheaper. Riders always want more uplift vehicles, more bike washes etc, etc but never want to pay any more for them.
I personally think that they have done a great job recently and provided great events at a reasonable value for money.

We’ve just done ours. Decided to leave out speaker/network cables as everything is going wireless. We’ve put an extra cable in to have a booster for the wifi.
We have put an hdmi cable in to possibly connect a wall mounted tv to a DVD player.

Troy Brosnan seems to do ok.

Haven’t got either, nor ridden them, but my local shop has one of each in stock. They both look incredible. The alpine looks a bit of a beast. I think the five is longer/slacker than my specialized enduro and the alpine is even more so.

kelvin – Member
Not Little Dilwyn?
No, not little Dilwyn. Although it’s not far away.

Yes – Molgrips.

Pearce cycles in Ludlow. They’ve put up photos on their facebook now. They have the air version too but this is a limited edition with coil front and rear.

Looks unreal. It arrived at my local shop today (the complete bike). A Specialized enduro 29 with Ohlins coil front and rear. Plus it’s black with gold detail. This has now become my ‘perfect’ bike.
They seemed to think the fork is not available aftermarket.