It’s in stock with the distributor, and we have an order to go in today/tomorrow – so could have it delivered to you before the end of this week, if that’s any good?

If you’re not bothered about having a gear-shifter style lever we have some of these going very cheap:
https://www.bike-components.de/cache/p/xl1/6/7/PRO-Universal-Remote-Lever-for-Koryak-DSP-Dropper-Posts-black-universal-67832-247514-1549026737.jpeg

What ^^ he said. Bear in mind, margins on Fox aren’t massive, but many dealers might give you a small discount if you ask.

Do you have a friendly LBS who stock Fox? If not, feel free to give us a shout and we’ll do what we can to help. (But if you do have someone local to you, use them – they’ll appreciate the business, just as we would.)

Seems like a well-designed and constructed bit of kit, we have one in the hire fleet and it’s always well received by dog owners. Not all dogs get on with it though!

If you’re within striking distance of mid Wales you’d be welcome to give ours a try.

113mm, according to https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/si/SI-0094A-001-ENG.pdf

Yes – they’re the same pad.

We do a kit for TR frames – includes all the bearings you need, in Enduro MAX flavour, for £85.  Actually £76.50 with free delivery for STW members.

Worth paying for quality bearings IMHO, especially when it comes to frames/suspension..

I rode with Fred, the owner of Black Sheep Adventures when he was in Wales last year – they seem like a decent outfit.  I think they have road and hybrid bikes:

https://blacksheepadventures.com/rental

The Pike RCT3 is a good fork and I think at that level, personal preference comes into it to a very great degree.  Is there anything specific you feel could be improved, performance-wise, for your riding?  I’d start with that question.

In terms of spec though the only Fox forks which would objectively be “better” than an RCT3 Pike would be the Factory Series.  You’re probably looking at a 36 I’d have thought, if you don’t want to sacrifice stiffness compared with the Pike.  Whether you prefer the FIT HSC or FIT4 damper is down to you, really.

I’d also have a look at MRP if I were in your shoes.

Some great ideas already on this thread.  I was going to say Italian Lakes or the Dolomites.  Several towns in the south of France as have been mentioned.  You could do Reykjavik too (it’s a city I guess but not really in the sense of a “city break”) for a long-er long weekend.

transition scout

That’s exactly what I came on this thread to say.  This is exactly the sort of riding this bike excels at and is brilliant fun for.

Our ex-demo, very very good condition indeed, large, build is up for sale at £3499 (over £5k build new) so would perhaps suit your mate very well indeed (size depending).

Edit to add I should have said the demo bike is the carbon Scout… wouldn’t be asking that much for an alloy demo bike!

Sounds good to me!  Will see you there and I’ll put the kettle on.

Yep we’re in Hay. Credit cards fine. Officially closed tomorrow but happy to swing by the shop and show you the bike if you want to come and see it.

<span style=”color: #444444; font-size: 12px; background-color: #eeeeee;”>Just found out that there is no availability of small or medium sizes until mid-April. Do I have the patience to wait…..</span>

We have a 2017 Medium in stock if anyone is interested – reduced from £999 to £799.  Could, by the looks of things, get hold of a 2018 Medium for anyone who wanted one too.  Smalls a bit harder to come by but feel free to give us a shout and we’ll try.

I assumed OP was after the (older, pre-Addix) Evolution Line not Performance Line, tbh.

Got a 2.35″ here if that’s any use to you?

Aztec is Madison’s own brand of brake pads, rotors etc. They’re decent quality as you’d expect – on a par with Clarks, Fibrax or similar I’d say. We’ve used the rotors on our hire bikes and never had any issues.

Not sure why you’d feel the need to change the rotors from what you’ve currently got though, to be honest?

Good to see all the positive comments here already…

They’re our “local” suspension specialist, and we send most of the stuff that we don’t do in-house there. Always cracking service, extremely knowledgeable, and stuff comes back when scheduled, so can’t fault them really.

We’ve had this before with that Praxis BB. There’s a Wheels Manufacturing one which has fitted when the Praxis one won’t as it has a lower-profile/thinner/narrower/whatever sleeve.

We have the bushings in stock along with all the other spares… but what they say is correct – there are small variances in size of each bush, and each post, and you need to try a couple to see what fits properly. We keep ~10 in stock so we can fit one when we do a service but they’re not really practical to sell online.

Silly, I know – but it’s the way it is.

If you want to chance your arm, happy to sell you one, but it may or may not work. Alternatively could send you a few so you can find one that fits and send the rest back, perhaps.

I’ve got a set of handbuilt wheels on mine now, but previously had a pair of DT Swiss R32 which were really nice, and which we’ve used on a couple of similar custom builds with great success. Tubeless-ready, stiff, fairly light, and look great.

As above – thanks squealer for the mention – we are indeed selling our 2017 hire and demo fleets at the moment.

Most relevant here – although I’m not sure whether it’s right for you or not OP – is our Scout Carbon (Large). It’s about a £5k build with few to no compromises on spec and we’d be looking for about 60% of that to let it go to a new home. It’s Invisiframed so in good nick (although annoyingly does have one small chip in the paint on the front of the head tube just where there’s a gap in the frame protection!), has not been used heavily or abused, and has been well looked after.

Lots of other bikes too if anyone’s looking for a bargain, all will be listed on the site as soon as possible but meanwhile feel free to give us a shout with your requirements and we’ll come back with anything we think might suit.

We’ve run a small sportive series for the last couple of years and have been gradually tweaking what we offer and gathering feedback over that period of time. I think for the riders who come on ours, it’s a mixture of things:

– riding a route in an area they don’t know well (for some), which has been designed by someone who does know the area well. (We seem to get good feedback on the routes and definitely don’t use busy main roads!)
– not having to worry about navigation – yes, with a Garmin it’s fairly easy, but not everyone who rides a bike has one, and not everyone who has one wants to worry about navigating with it.
– the food – not always a highlight on all sportives but I think it is on some.
– the camaraderie/competitive element/feeling of being part of an event. Not a race, but people are always keen to see how their times compare with others (and yes I know there’s Strava, but again not everyone uses it).
– something to aim for/train for/commit to.

I’m sure there are other reasons too… horses for courses though and no-one is forced to enter an event if they don’t want to.

Yes it’s doable for sure, if you want carbon you might have to make some judicious choices when it comes to parts but sounds like you’re OK with that.

No carbon Smuggler in 2017 and given the other changes which have been leaked, does it seem likely there’ll be one in 2018? All will become clear in a few weeks but I’d not advise holding out for a 2018 carbon Smuggler (wish I could say more!).

Pygas will hopefully be available in the UK again after Eurobike so a Stage or Stage Max would tick all your boxes.

To answer OPs question – 29×2.5″ 3C Maxx Terra DHF should be in stock next week; 3C Maxx Grip not until September.

(Maxx Terra is the all-round compound, Maxx Grip is the soft, super-gripp, heavier and not so hard-wearing version).

Vagabond. You mean the bike that went out of stock almost instantly. No denying it’s a good bike but a mare to get hold of.

We have a medium in stock, if anyone wants one – and could probably get hold of a large and **possibly** a frameset too.

We recently came across this brand as we helped out a couple who have been supported by them, in preparation for an Alaska-Tierra del Fuego ride.

They had a couple of their steel hardtails (Reynolds 853) and they looked good – nicely made frames, and decent quality components. Can’t comment on value for money as I don’t know what the retail price would have been but one thing I can say is that they didn’t have any of the usual corner-cutting techniques you see – hubs, BB, all components were in line with the spec, tyres were top-of-the-range Schwalbe Evo jobs which you don’t often see on complete bikes below the top end, etc.

I had a quick look at their website at the time and must say I was impressed. I don’t think your dad would be losing out against any of the more well-known brands by going with his LBS on this. If they’re like any independent show I know they’ll have done their homework and picked that brand for good reason. There are way many more bike brands available than shops can possibly stock, so no-one stocks brands because they don’t have an alternative these days.

As others have said, it’s not that difficult to do if you are careful and take your time. Also if you do it in the described way, you can keep doing it until you get it right so not much to do wrong.

Otherwise Invisiframe will sort you out, and don’t charge a lot for the service.

If for some reason that doesn’t work out, we’d be happy to help you. We’re a bit over an hour away and further away that Shrewsbury (based in Hay on Wye).

Commencal were an absolute nightmare for hub parts when we were a dealer. Best bet as above would be to find out who the actual manufacturer is and see if there are some instructions – Novatec is a strong possibility but Formula might also be the one.

Can buy all small spares from Germany

Yes, but as above you can also buy them from any UK dealer. Post from Germany on a tiny item like this is surely overkill?

OP – if you need some getting, just give us a shout and we’ll sort you out.

We ordered a couple of these recently, cost very little.

Any KS dealer can sort you out, or as above – go direct to Jungle.

We have a 2017 29er on the shop floor so I just went and had a look at the clearance. Loads of room in the back with 2.25″ tyre – I’d be surprised if a 2.4″ on a wide rim wouldn’t fit in there with plenty of mud clearance. I’d certainly be happy running one myself.

Genesis make the bike though, so you should probably take their word over mine…

Thanks chaps. Dealer seems happy for us to walk away but then I presume they’re better poker players than I am.

Hadn’t thought of speaking to Renault UK but no harm giving them a shout, so will do that.

How did you manage to order a custom specced van without a deposit?

If it’s very bespoke, I bet they can’t sell it on easily

I don’t know, to be honest. They didn’t want a deposit which I was surprised about.

It’s not *that* customised. Different rear door, which is unusual in these vans as far as I can tell. Some optional extras but nothing which is ridiculously unusual. But I’d not have thought it’s something they’d easily sell to someone else overnight.

Will the dealer be stuck with it if we don’t take it, or will Renault fleet take it back into their pool (despite it having had modifications at the dealer (towbar and ply lining)? If I knew this for sure, I’d have a better idea what our bargaining position is like.

Thanks all.

If the spec is so specific, what will you do if you can’t get it for the original price?

Possibly order another one from another dealer (and get a long-term rental in the meantime which is what we’ve had until now). Possibly buy a cheaper van without our specific spec (main thing is we’ve had a tailgate rather than barn doors, which seems quite rare on these vans, it’s also had ply lining and towbar fitted at the dealer but obviously those are common). Possibly re-think and buy something else entirely…. This is what we’re trying to work out.

I’m sure there are other vans avaialable

Yes, there are loads, of course. We don’t *have* to buy this one.

(I presume you have the quote on paper?)

Yes, well in an email.

I recently drove a Renault Traffic for a couple of days

Seem to get mixed reviews. We tested Ford, VW, Merc, and this, and the Renault/Nissan/Vauxhall seemed best for us. Have had one on rental for the last six months, it’s fine.

nissan and vauxhall sell the same van under their branding, usually just different bumpers and badge.

whats so special about a van.

Yep – we’ve been driving the Vauxhall. Thing is with a tailgate, which we want, they’re rare. Nothing is so special or unique about it – just spent a bit of time testing and deciding, ordered six months ago, and now want what we want at the price we agreed.

What explanation did they give?

a) That the list price has gone up since we ordered and we have to pay a price based on the new list price with discounts. They’ve since backed down on this after I showed them the quote we ordered from.

b) That the max discount Renault Fleet allow them to give has dropped from c. 18% to c. 15% and they have to now stick to that. This is the bit I’d be interested to know if there’s truth in.

c) That the quote we agreed on was based on us paying in full in cash, not taking Renault’s 4 years 0%. This is despite all of the quotes we had from them being on 0% from the start.

d) That our understanding of the deposit requirements was wrong, and instead of paying the VAT as a deposit we have to pay 20% of the total, inc VAT amount. (i.e. 1/5th of the total not 1/6th of the total inc VAT). This we could live with as it just means bigger deposit, smaller monthly payment, but it still means we have to put down a chunk more than we were told which we’d rather not (as there’s no interest on the rest of it, so why pay more deposit than we could).

Tempted at the moment to just walk away…

Must not be jealous…. must not be jealous…. Great write-up OP, and stunning photos. Look forward to reading and seeing more!

Not ridden a Smuggler, testing XL bikes is always tricky

We have an XL demo bike, if you are anywhere near (or ever ride anywhere near) south Wales, feel free to give us a shout.

It’s brilliant BTW.

Clicked on your OP to say Smuggler, but see you’ve already considered it.

It’s pretty much what you’ve described though. Have you test-ridden one? Few people come away thinking they need more travel.

Weight is much more to do with the build than it is with the frame, as I’m sure you realise.

Firstly looking to find best value courier to send to mojo and also know wether due to my forks being under warranty do mojo cover the postage cost

For a one-off courier I’d go to a broker like Parcel Monkey or Parcel2Go.

As above, if you bought the forks or bike from a shop, take them there, they’ll cover the courier cost back to Mojo for warranty work. If you bought online or direct, you’ll need to cover the delivery cost there, Mojo will cover the cost back to you.

We generally use Parcelforce but any of the major courier companies can do this for you. What specifically are you wanting to know?