@simon – yes, fair point. Looking at the numbers it does seem that way. Not sure as I said if they’ve changed the geo since last year. Interestingly the full-sus bikes are longer, and the V4 slightly shorter than the V3 (though still longer than the HTs).

@scandal we’re undecided whether to hold stock of any Commencal bikes for next year. Basically they are pushing direct sales, but will supply dealers at a significantly reduced margin. So it makes more sense for us to sell other bikes if we want to make a living, but we like Commencal and feel they make good bikes, so are a bit torn…

We can absolutely supply them however, and certainly will be supplying the frame-only on both HT and FS. One area we do see good potential is custom builds as most of the stock bikes come with SRAM (and pretty poor wheels) and we can see a demand for Shimano builds with e.g. Mavic or Hope Hoops.

Caveat – I don’t know how much they’ve changed the geometry of the hardtails since last year. We’ve not got any 2015 bikes in yet. I can’t imagine they have changed the hardtail geometry massively. Also I am assuming you’re looking at a 2015 one not a 2014 one – if not then the caveat doesn’t apply!

In our experience the Commencal bikes are quite long and I would certainly not expect someone your height to need a large, especially with wide bars as I would imagine you’d run. I’d be surprised if a medium didn’t fit you well.

Obviously best to demo one if you can though.

They’re great bikes. Our hire manager has built one up for himself and rates it. Previous models were a bit expensive, this year’s looks much better value for money.

+1 for a Genesis Equilibrium, pick up a deal on a 2014 one if you want Shimano and rim brakes (we’ve got an Equilibrium 20 which would be well within budget) or go for the 2015 disc brake version. 2015 non-disc come with Campag but custom builds are an option – you could have a perfectly acceptable build using 11spd 105 and – e.g. – Aksiums for within that budget.

The best way to decide would be to demo them both. Popular forks – surely there are shops local to you where you could try them?

Makes sense. I think that would make a cracking bike.

They’re not entirely direct-sell – former Commencal dealers will still have access to them. Some will have a demo bike or two (we haven’t decided yet whether to run one or not).

By all accounts, the new V4 is their best bike yet.

Not entirely sure why you’d want to put Pikes on that version though, surely the Meta AM which already comes with that fork (in the Race spec) would be your friend if you’re after something longer-travel? (I’m genuinely curious BTW – we’ll be offering custom builds so if the mis-matched travel is something folk would be looking for I’d like to know).

Does it have to be a 29er?

Saracen are doing a carbon version of their Mantra (27.5″) which is more of a “fun” bike. Also – depending on budget – the Pyga Zero is a lovely bike. Again 27.5″ – race-capable but a bit slacker than most race bikes.

We’ve ridden it all and run guided and self-guided trips on the route.

There is a lot of climbing – and some not great roads. It’s a fantastic route. Obviously I know nothing about your level of ability and fitness but doing the whole thing in two days would be a serious achievement and I would imagine would be very, very hard.

We rode it initially over 4 days ourselves, not long after getting back from a 2-year cycling expedition – and found that quite tough. We were carrying our gear but travelled pretty light.

We offer it over 8 days – which is very gentle and only a short part of each day is spent riding – or over 5 days, which is more challenging. It could comfortably be done in less but even 3 days would be pretty challenging in my opinion.

Better not to rush it and take a bit longer, if you can – unless the challenge is the whole point, of course!

Enjoy – it’s a great ride. If you need any tips on places to stay then feel free to give us a shout.

It’ll be absolutely fine. I’d hardly consider summer 2013 out of date – I’m still using energy products best before 2011.

There’s no way mould will be growing on anything that dry and concentrated.

Agree with the above on sizing – we have a full size run of Surly hire/demo bikes (Long Haul and Disc Truckers) and they do come up larger than you’d imagine. I’d generally go to the 54cm first for someone your height (though you may well also get a good fit on a 56cm) – definitely try both or get a good fitting session with a shop which knows and understands Surly geometries before buying.

Stock is indeed in limited supply at the moment and if you don’t want to wait you’re going to need to find a shop with a frame in the size and colour you want in stock.

For some reason, I want bolt thru with my discs. So, avro or Cayo then.

Or a Merida – the Ride Disc 5000 is lovely for £1900 with Ultegra, 15mm front axle, carbon seatpost, and decent finishing kit.

Beaten to it but was going to say Merida carbon hardtails are looking very good for 2015 and will be available soon.

Don’t know if you’d consider a 650b option but Saracen Mantras are available in carbon and would be a cracking bike for the local trails.

Looks like you have more than a few options to consider!

Yep we’ve done it a few times, it’s fiddly – the bearings are tiny – but by no means rocket science. A competent home mechanic would be fine.

Yeah they come up quite small so most people go up one (Euro) size as above.

On a rigid fork with a steel steerer (assuming that is what it is) then there’s nothing much wrong (apart from the aesthetics) with running a big stack of spacers. In the case of that Cannondale a larger frame might have been more appropriate but it depends on the position required and ultimately, function should take precedence over form, surely?

In the case of a sus fork or anything with an alloy or carbon steerer then the manufacturer will generally set a limit but 30mm or so if probably the most you’d want.

And yes, if it’s a bike you want to go fast on, slammed all the way is the rule!

I can confirm it is a cracker! Had first, short ride on it the other day. Our demo bike should be up and running in about 10 days’ time and will report back then…

Kansi did a good range of folding bikes which we were very impressed with – they’re super-light and the quality is excellent, at better pricing than Brompton.

They have now been discontinued but some shops may have the odd one left. (Cheeky plug – we do!).

Yes, all above assumes that it does mix proportionately, if not then it’s obviously much more complex.

If it is proportional, the easy practical way to do it is to mix an equal amount of 5 and 15, then take that mixture, and mix it with an equal amount of 5wt again.

If you start with 57.5ml of each and don’t spill any, you’ll end up with what you need.

57.5ml of 15wt
172.5ml of 5wt

By my calculations (1 x 15 plus 3 x 5)/4 = 30/4 = 7.5

1/3 and 2/3 would give you (1 x 15 plus 2 x 5)/3 = 25/3 = 8.33333

The Kinesis or the Kona for me – the others are a bit bland. These two look good!

Agree that the riding position on the Kona looks a bit aggressive (TT anyone?) although of course stems should always be slammed…

Have to say I agree with angeldust on this. The scheme is open to all employers, and if offered by an employer, has to be available to everyone within the organisation. If you take it up, you save tax and NI on whatever salary sacrifice you agree with your employer in return for use of the bike. Obviously that tax saving will be at whatever your marginal tax rate is.

Someone in the higher tax brackets pays significantly more into the pot than the rest of us, and will save more as a result. If their employer is prepared to use their own CCL to allow purchases over £1, that’s a nice perk of the job. Especially if they decide to buy a £3k bike to ride to work on…

There are plenty of other tax loopholes which are far more dodgy IMHO.

Decade are also no longer the distributor for Commencal. The Madison link is relevant as they would have been the distributor when the frame was new. Neither company, as ex-distributors, are likely to be all that interested in a second-hand frame from 2009, although both are generally helpful and good companies to work with.

Commencal are now selling direct from Europe and it may be worth getting in touch with them directly, although as above, the frame is probably outside its warranty period and no longer owned by the original buyer anyway.

If your company has a £3000 limit (they must have a Consumer Credit Licence in order to do so) then you will get tax savings on all of that and you won’t find many sale bikes to compete with that, on top of the (effective) 0% finance you’ll also get.

I’m guessing you know this OP so it’s more aimed at clearing up some of the other confusion on this thread.

Chromoplastics are the best option if cost comes into it… PDW Full Metal Fenders complement the frame beautifully if you can justify the price – https://www.ridepdw.com/goods/fenders/full-metal-fenders-road.

Shimano R451 or Ultegra-level R650 are the brakes to go for IMHO.

How about a Saracen? There are some excellent deals on the Ariel 14X frames which are 26″. Longer-travel than your Super 4 mind so may require new forks depending on what you have.

Huge difference between 25lbs and 30lbs.

Not CF, but ticks your other boxes, and could be built for your upper budget somewhere between the two weights – Pyga One Ten. 110mm rear travel, pair it with a 120mm fork, and great fun to ride too.

Why would you want a company like Cycle Solutions to run it for you?

It’s a very simple scheme to administer, plenty of sample hire agreements online.

– Company buys bike
– Company deducts agreed amount from employees pay for a fixed period (technically you reduce the employees contractual pay by an agreed amount, it’s not actually a deduction)
– Company either agrees to continue allowing employee to use bike (usually for no cost) after hire period ends, or can transfer ownership (with or without a final payment). If no final payment is made, employee will be liable for tax on the “benefit in kind” – so 20% of e.g. £250 in the example above for a basic rate taxpayer.

It’s a very good deal for employees, and a good deal for employers too – you get to offer your workforce a benefit that doesn’t cost you anything and in fact saves you some Employer’s NIC costs. But there’s really no reason to have a company run it for you. If you really want someone, Cyclescheme are one of the best IMHO.

Excellent – look forward to seeing you!

anyone have one in stock/ or that i could have a spin round the block on in hants area? ideally 56

Not in your area but if you fancy a trip up to mid-Wales we have a fleet of Equilibrium 20 hire/demo bikes in all sizes and loads of lovely roads to ride them on…

Would certainly recommend them. We’ll be replacing them like-with-like next year.

Cheers NW, much appreciate the sentiment. We hope so too.

We’re big fans of Burley trailers here, use them in the hire fleet so they get lots of action.

The Bee is a great entry-level model although it’s not cheap. Plenty of space for two kids and luggage behind. The new models look like a step up too.

The Cub adds suspension and would be the option to go for if you wanted to do more than smooth off-road duties. (We use the rental cub which is a toughened up version).

Also worth looking at, if your budget stretches, are the new Thule trailers, which are superb products, but top dollar.

Caribbean is great at that time of the year, but high season so prices are quite high and it’s never the best value for money anyway. Mexico tends to be a bit more affordable that the West Indies.

Same goes for the Maldives – great time to go, but expect to pay full whack.

Depending on budget I’d suggest Mauritius – it’s warm and sunny at that time of the year but you can get a bit of rain – which tends to fall on the east coast, so head for the west coast and it’s great. Way more value for money to be had there.

All subject to how much you want to spend of course – shorter-haul beach holidays at that time of the year are tricky, best options probably Egypt or the Canaries, but neither likely to be scorching hot.

Far East is another option where you’ll get loads for your money – Thailand is good in Jan/Feb on both coasts, but very few all-inclusive options and probably not the best way to do it anyway.

I can vouch for Beili Neuadd as it’s one of the accommodation options we use – have had some excellent feedback recently about the place. Stunning location too.

http://www.muckyweekends.co.uk/ is the transport provider we use – would recommend them also.

Knighton Taxis also do lots of luggage transfer for us (and moving people too) and are very reasonably priced and accommodating – not sure how many bikes they can transport, though.

Pyga One-Twenty would be perfect for that sort of riding, going to be at the top end of your budget if you want it to be specced comparably to the Boardman, but worth a test-ride I’d have thought.

I currently have slime tubes at which have a smaller volume limit than the tyres I am running. I have a 2.125 tube and 2.2 and 2.3 tyres, will this cause any issues?

Absolutely fine, rubber is stretchy…

Finally tyre pressure, I have a purgatory control on the front and mountain king on the rear and both suggest 40psi+ even at 35psi the tyre feels rock hard

40+ psi is way too high, 30-35 max is what I’d suggest.

Shop assistant (well owner) here…

I’d only recommend a carbon MTB if a) you have a very healthy budget, there are far better upgrades to spend the difference between alloy->carbon on imho; b) it’s going to get looked after, not ridden every day for work etc

What bikes are you looking at, out of interest?

Wheels Manufacturing do one – good bearings, and seems to be reliable.

Yep, January will be high season there – best value will be had by booking as far in advance as you can (seats are released 11 months in advance).

Sometimes airlines will launch tactical sales for off-peak travel which might provide lower prices than the lowest (standard) fares you could book when the seats first come on sale. So, for e.g., BA often have a seat sale in January and September. If you were planning to fly on BA to (say) the Caribbean in May/June, your best bet would be either picking up the cheap seats when they come on sale in the previous June/July, or hoping that there is capacity left for route you want and the airline offer some reductions in January.

In your case, travelling high season, you won’t gain anything by leaving it – shop around for the best fare you can find and book it right away if you can. Fares won’t differ much from one broker to another.

Yep Pyga oneten is the one I’d recommend…