Not on a through axle you cant. Its a hollowtech BB spanner.

Ah, I didn’t realise that. I’ve only had centre lock rotors on QR hubs.

I’ve used 35c Vittoria Hyper Voyagers, fast and comfortable but do slip in mud. Ran with tubes, never had a puncture.

Then Gravel King So in 35c. Initially I was disappointed at the perceived increase in rolling resistance, but didn’t notice it after the 1st ride. Better grip where the Vittoria’s slipped, I think they’re a great all rounder. Ran tubeless, did puncture but it was a piece of glass that most probably would have punctured the Vittoria’s if I was riding on them.

Now running Gravel King slick 28c with tubes. They’re fast and comfy on the road, I’d consider the larger sizes for gravel too. The gravel/light off road I use mine on is a mix of surfaced and hard packed dirt tracks. The SKs come into their own on hard packed dirt after a bit of rain as they seem to have just enough bite to hold on.

I’ve been looking at the on-one hideousness this week and can’t help thinking it’d be my perfect commute bike (mix of gravel paths, road and bridlepaths).

When I first saw this I thought it was hideous. However I keep being drawn back to it. With the 20% off (which ithink ends today) it seems like a cheap way to get the frame and carbon fork. I could fit the SRAM Apex kit to my Charge Plug, fit my flat bars and SLX kit to this. I probably won’t buy it though.

How would a bike such as this with a 65 degree head angle ride with a rigid fork? I was under the impression you didn’t need such a slack head angle when there’s no suspension to compress.

Sorry for your loss.

Road/gravel bike has a mini pump on the frame, spare tube, adhesive patches and tubeless repair when running tubeless in saddle bag.

MTB has the same again but in a rucksack. I’m running 650b plus so have a bigger pump, and my dropper cable routing prevents me running a saddle bag to store the other stuff so it all gets chucked in a bag.

I’ve only built one pair, I used the frame and fork and it did work ok. I suspect it’d be easier to get the dish and final truing right with a dedicated stand.

If I was building lots of wheelsets I’d buy a stand, I am on the look out for a cheap used stand for truing and general maintenance. It’s not essential if you’re only planning on building one wheelset though.

Similar to the above, I bought a used Worx Hydroshot from the Amazon Warehouse black Friday sale. It was in “used” condition but was complete with all accessories. I had an Amazon voucher so paid under £40 of my own money.

If I had an outside tap or somewhere to attach a hose I probably wouldn’t have got it, but now I do have it I’m happy with it. Previously I used a 5 litre garden pump spray, but this works much better as the power is consistent and the water jet is wider.

You could use it for washing a dog, as there’s a setting low enough to water plants.

I’ve got the 2017 Marin Pine Mountain 1, same frame in a different colour, but with a 120mm Recon fork instead of rigid.

It’s my only mountain bike and it is heavy, but it’s fun to ride. I’ve changed the tyres to Vittoria Bomboloni, but I might fit something more suitable for the wet conditions. I’ve also fitted a dropper.

This years model has got longer and slacker, and moved to 29 X 2.6. I’m sure they’re better, but the 27.5 versions can be had for next to nothing.

Cheers OP, I enjoyed that.

It did look a tad warm, but it was an impressive setup. Almost bike glamping, if there is such a thing.

@scunny no worries, you’re second in line.

@flyingmonkeycorps OK, sounds good.

@drewd interested if OP isn’t. How much?

I’d like £70 collected for it. I’m in Lancs and would be willing to meet up in the North West.

I’ve got a WeThePeople that I don’t use if it’s of any interest? It’s a Warriors frame, which was a signature frame so one of their higher end ones. It has a 21.5″ top tube which in all honesty is a bit too long for me at 5’5. It’s built up with mostly Salt components from a lower end WeThePeople, but it rides well.

Cheers Rich. I’m hoping to be able to do the full 100, but a shorter route might be good.

Booked.

I’ve never done anything like this before, and am nowhere near fit enough yet. I figure I’ve 6 months to get fit, and have a plus bike so may as well do a spot of bike packing on it.

@postierich Will there be a shorter route this year? Or is it 100 miles or nothing?

We bought the Hovag last January and still get on with it.

Silly question, but how do you dispose of the old mattress?

(not in the nearest farmers field I hope) wink.

I used a couple of ratchet straps to fold it in half, then took it to the local tip. It fitted in a 2 door coupe this way so should fit in most family hatchbacks with the seats folded I’d expect. That was a double though, not sure how well a king size would fit.

Anyone know how to take the rotors off the Scandal?

If they’re centre lock rotors you can use a cassette lockring tool.

Sorry for your loss Northwind

Superstar have some of their wheelsets 40% off. If I hadn’t got been gathering the parts to build my own I’d be buying some myself.

I watched this last night and enjoyed it. If you like fast paced action with ammusing one liners it’s worth a watch.

I’m still fairly new to headset standards but I think you need to check the frame head tube inner diameter and the fork steerer.

If your head tube isn’t big enough to allow the ZS cups that can accommodate your forks steerer then no. If it is I’d expect you probably can.

I ordered one last week for my frame with a straight 44mm 100mm long head tube. I’ve not installed it yet though.

I ordered T8-1 EC44/EC44 90-100mm Taper Steerer, but I think T8-2 would fit too. That was out of stock when I placed my order.

Re fitting, I was planning on marking the frame with a mark on some tape so I could see if it starts to get out of alignment during fitting. There are videos on YouTube showing fitting them.

Also male and suffer with it. I’m not too bad if I can keep moving, but once my hands get cold they stay cold. Whatever you get make sure that they’re not too tight as this can make the problem worse. Slightly larger gloves or mittens with thin liners underneath may help.

Flats for me. Superstar Nanos on the hardtail and drop bar bike.

I’ve got some Shimano M530s that I might try again, but I wasn’t that keen on them when I used them last time round.

Fit the mudhugger rear guard I bought a few weeks back, buy a more suitable front tyre.

I’ve a set of Marta SLs and really liked them. They had great modulation. As above though the front brake leaked from the master cylinder for fun.

I’ve never used a 4 pot brake and am very light so don’t need loads of power from my brakes. I’m also not a fast rider, so my experience may differ from others.

I’m also interested in this as I am running Vittoria Bombolonis in 27.5 X 3.0 front and rear, so want something a bit more suitable for winter.

My bike came with Nobby Nics in performance compound and while ok in soft mud they were awful on wet roots. They were also not tubeless and had paper thin sidewalls.

I’m torn between Nobby Nics in a better compound, something from Specialized, or WTB vigilante.

I used to get this a lot when I cycle commuted through Preston. Ironically it’s the passenger shouting the abuse most of the time, and the car doesn’t hang around long enough for you to shout a response back.

I’ll admit it did irritate me, but I’d tend to just call them a **** under my breath and carry on enjoying the rest of my day. Life’s too short to get hung up on stuff like this, even if it is annoying at the time.

I did. The size small was showing out of stock up until this weekend in all colours.

I used the stock alert email notification just in case they came back in, and received an email over the weekend. Trouble is I know I could have had one at the pre order price, so can’t bring myself to pay full price for one now.

^ I did the same. I went to order a size small the night the pre order discount was due to end but all sizes and colours were showing out of stock. It serves me right for being indecisive, but it did make me wonder if they pulled all the stock when they discovered the issue with the thru axles.

Thing is they still work fine for XC, you just get more out of some bits and a bit less in others. Or you go looking for more tricky stuff and go at the corners way harder just for the fun of it. It’s still a hardtail, they’re always going to be good for XC and it’s not a really burly overbuilt frame.

Cheers, they’re all valid points. I’ll pop in to Evans and have a look when they’re in stock.

Cheers Northwind, I’ll give one a go. I wouldn’t say my bike is bad, although I’m sure others may disagree with that. There’s no harm in trying it, if I don’t like it I can always refit the standard headset.

Marketed as a trail hardtail really. Though we don’t really market ourselves too well whatever we say about it : )
Matt B got really into BikeCAD after he started in the Pinnacle dept (dept.. there was 3 now 4 of us). He made the ‘Radmin’ layout and we got a couple made as an experiment, moving on the Ramin geo a fair bit since it’s always better to go too far then rein it in if needed than be too conservative with the geo making small changes. In the end the new Ramin is 95% of the Radmin numbers, the STA is only a tad more normal and the reach only slightly shorter. I’ll be honest- it’s a bit much for me and my local southern singletracker tastes, me being an old-school XCer. I used to ride jumps and drops OK but that was a while back now. That’s why it’s such a great bike, it’s had a wider influence in the design that it would have done from me alone and a few people here were nuts about it. So here they are, a couple of sub-£1000 trail rippers.

Thanks jameso. It does look the part, I get what you’re saying about it not being very XC though. I’m a ride from the front door type but am still tempted by hardtails with modern geometry, even though I’m doing ok with what I currently have. It would appear the marketing towards this style of bike is working on me.

I think it came with 120mm forks on the Ramin 2 and 4, so should be ok in that respect.

I’ve got to say the new model looks fantastic from the image above. Is it still being marketed as an all rounder or is it more trail focussed?

Thanks Chief, I believethe bike currently has an external lower cup so hopefully it won’t make too much difference.

Merlin have Muc Off cleaning items in their sale. 1 litre bottles for £3.75 and kits with brushes for £17.50. They have Fenwick concentrate on sale too.

Superstar have 35% off a £60 spend with the code black35.

Nice!

On one Big Dog? Steel, 65 degree head angle and not too pricey. I think some are in stock and other sizes due in a couple of weeks.

u wot m8

I’ve already got a Marin Pine Mountain One plus bike with a bouncy fork and a Charge Plug 3 all road/gravel bike. There’s quite a bit of overlap with this, although the plug is currently running 28mm slicks and guards as a winter roadie.

This would have been a great winter off road bike, but I left it too long and small is now OOS.

Cheers guys, very helpful. I’ve got some spares already so will have a think before jumping in.

They’re bargains at this price, just not sure I need another bike.