Ah thanks GaVgAs, clearly visible on Google sat map. Never noticed that before. Will have to go exploring. Looks like there are a couple of lower traverses skirting the summits on the West side. Are they both worth doing if heading South?

tomaso, I’ve not tried it that way round but I can heartily recomment the reverse direction:
Staveley; up Dubbs to top of Garburn (all ridable now); Ill Bell etc, (mostly ridable up with a couple of short descents that are OK too); down Nan Bield; Maggs Howe; HP PLantation; Staveley.

Criminal to miss out Nan Bield at the moment. It’s pretty dry at the bottom end now (STRAVA!)

What nbt said!
The climb from the East to that point might have recovered a bit by now but the climb from the North was absolutely destroyed when we did it in Feb. Machinery still working it then and mud a foot deep all the way up from the res.
The top section, where the arrow is, after the two climbs intersect, is fine though.
I’d push up the beast instead. It’s only short.

myhermes last time I sent forks anywhere. Signature on delivery can be specified (extra cost), as well as insurance and they’re about the cheapest too 🙂

Used it, worked with cm10 too. Thanks Leku

Oh Christ Tom, not again!
Sorry to hear that mate.

Some very nice descents off the front of Blencathra. 🙂
Not that I’d have every ridden any you understand, what with them all being footpaths an’all 😉

Lakes/Peak/Calderdale mainly here.

Rear, still not found anything to rival Maxxis dual plys tubeless. 60A Minion for all-round, or Larsen TT for Summer.

Front, 42a Minion (SP/DP, as appropriate) or Chunky Monkey, all tubeless. Also like the look of the Magic Mary that I’ve got for the new bike, but not used in anger yet.

Garda is my favourite.
Good review and useful contacts here:
http://bikemagic.com/mountain-bike-trails/mtb-travel-guide-lake-garda-italy.html

I use the bolt though kit on pro2evo, in conjunction with that superstar axle that you’ve linked.

I fitted it initially on my meta 5 with (previous gen) pro2 hub, about four years ago, specifically to stiffen up the back end. It worked well and I was very happy with it.
Moved it onto a Five for two years and it was faultless on that. When I eventually destroyed the wheel and replaced with the newer pro2evo (which is a different adaptor to that for the original pro2), I went for 10mm bolt-thru adapters again and kept the original SS axle.
Never ran anything else except 10mm bolt-thu on that bike so can’t say if it made the Five any stiffer or not.
Same bits now reside on my 456ti, not that it will make any difference to the stiffness of a hardtail but just because it’s a bulletproof bit of kit. Heavy but you ain’t going to break it.

Northwind +1, any gloves with linings that aren’t firmly fixed to the finger ends.

All tops, nothing ever has long enough arms!

Baggies, they never stay up around the waist. Constantly pulling ’em up!

Hydrapak range currently half price at Merlin.
http://www.merlincycles.com/hydrapak-44318/%5B/url%5D

Laguna and Morro are both good sized packs for allday rides.
Of the two, the Morro is of slightly tougher construction.
Hydrapak bladders are about the best out there IMHO

I’d say go CCDB in one form or another if you can afford to spend the money.

RP23 (2011 stock one with the big volume aircan) didn’t ever feel right on the Five for me and tended to blow through it’s travel too easily.
The volume tuning spacer thingimies that fit in the aircan did help to reduce this significantly as they make it ramp-up sooner. Worth trying.
I eventually went CCDB (coil in my case though) and do think it’s worth the weight penalty TBH.

Had very bad experience with a GEAX TNT tyre running tubeless, that was a Datura though. The kevlar of the bead unravelled and peeled away from the sidewall. Went with a bang when landing a small jump. 🙁

From memory, I think the Crossmark is a faily small tyre in volume terms.

Smorgasbord is good tubeless as tmb467 says, and it’s not that big a tread.

4 Passes aka tour of gable[/url]

Skiddaw, Ullock Pike

Nan Bield from Stavely

Oh and is Llanberis path regarded as a technical descent ?

No.
It’s just a fast blast down a wide track.
Some sections of both Rangers and Rhyd Ddu are technical descents.

Calderdale (More than enough to keep you busy all weekend)

or Sedbergh (Calf & Bowderdale or High Cup Nick from Dufton)

or more Lakes, (you can’t possibly of even scratched the surface of the place)

Dual ply is the only real solution to side wall failures on the rear, but they ain’t light. Dual ply Maxxis need serious mistreatment to fail.

ChUnky Monkey up front has held up well for me in the lakes as a large lad!

I’m with Tomaso. Dual ply Minion DHF on the back/Chunky Monkey on the front. Tubeless on Flow EX.

2.5 42a DHF single ply soulld be enough on the front (or a dual ply if you want bombproof)

2.35 or 2.5 60A DHF dual ply on the rear.

As this one started before noon, I’m going to assume it was an April Fool post, (likewise PUSHima).

…but as it’s now after-noon, I’ll stick with a sensible answer.
The best XC shock may well be the RP23, with volume reducers if appropriate.
The best AM shock, will be entirely dependent on your view of what constitutes “AM”. Personally, I’d say CCDB coil is the best I’ve used, but RP23 is still pretty good if you want something lighter.
…and of course different bikes and different riders will all prefer different things.

456 evo Ti full build is £1,800

I’m definately getting old.
Loads of folk saying that used car values are through the floor and here’s me thinking that used car values have suddenly gone through the roof.

Bought my current Mondeo estate at 3 y/o and 40k in 2008. Paid a ticket price of nearly £7k but that included an artificially high trade in so maybe real cost of about £6k.

Run it for another 120k over 6 years, now thinking about a change. Worth nowt now, so that’s a £1k per year cost of depreciation.

If I look at an equivalent motor now, they all seem to be at the £10k mark. On the same 6 year cycle, depreciating to nowt, that’s £1.6k per year in depreciation. Second hand motor cost is therefore up >60% by my logic 🙁
i.e. a 60% price hike

UK trail, probably the 4 Passes.
UK trail centre, Hebden Bridge 😉

if it absolutely has to be a real trail centre, then Fort Bill WC track.

I’m living the test scenario at the moment.
Took all the kit off my Five and transplanted to a 456 evo ti.

Destroyed the rear tyre on the first outing!
For some reason I’d talked myself into fitting a single ply tubeless on Flow EX.
Dual ply Minion now back on and life is good again.

….so I’m going to suggest that (unless you’re sat on the saddle) there’s probably fairly little to separate wheel strength required for FS and HT. What you’re hitting and how fast you hit it probably have much greater significance.

[edit] wot ndt said much more eloquently [/edit]

Same combo on the front of my hardtail.
Stans yellow tape/valve/fluid.

Went up fine with a garden sprayer as compressor and a good rub with fairy liquid.

Did have a few problems burping when trying to run at low pressure for grip on Calder-tech stuff (guesstimated 15 – 20 psi)
Upped the pressure to about 25 psi and it’s been faultless at that.
6’3″, 13 st, not delicate!

Profile wise, they are massive. Almost fills the fork bridge on my ‘zochi 44 and I can only just fit a muckynutz in there.

I wouldn’t have considered Crests for either of those bikes.

I have Crests on my Rockhopper, I like them, but they’re not man enough for those bikes, unless you weight next to nowt and ride very delicately.

last updates were in here

I had a bad expeience with a Datura TNT last Winter when I tried it tubeless on Flows.
On its first ride, the rubber around the bead separated from the kevlar string and it went with a bang as I was landing a small drop.
Returned it and received a refund.
I know it’s hardly a scientific study with a sample size of one. Might just have been a random manufacturing fault but it was enough to put me off.

Not been up there for a week or so but it was OK then.
There’s plenty of never-get-too-boggy bits around there anyway.

Would it make any difference if I bled the brakes with the pistons a bit further out. Effectively overfilling the reservoir?

Not 100% sure but I do tend to do this anyway.
I assume you’ve checked they’re centring/retracting evenly and you’ve not got a lazy piston.

(Happy owner of three sets of XT brakes)

It’s definately NOT the pad spring strength.
The pistons retract when the fluid pressure is released. It’s not so much a case of sucking fluid back into the system but more the effect of the seals on the piston returning to their original unflexed shape (due to the elasticity in the seal). This is a good thing. It’s designed to work like that.

Yes, you will probably find that you need to tweek the reach adjust a little as pads bed in and later again as they start to get low.

I’ll be there and happy to cobble together an appropriate route if you want.

feeling hungry now…

Fruitcake in one hand, big chunk of cheese in t’other. Nibble alternately.

Just done the same myself.
Transplanted everything off my Five onto one of those 456Ti frames that are on offer at the moment. ‘zocchi 44rc3ti fork work well on it.

Two weeks in and just about got it set-up to my liking now. It seems equally capabale on the slow-tech stuff and much lighter, despite dual ply minion on the rear.
Next test will be to see how it goes on on rougher stuff like Garburn at speed. That’s where I suspect I might start to miss the CCDB coil and the rear travel.

Yeah, I think I should be able to make this.

Got the CM and smorg combo on my bike recently both in dual compound flavour. Anyone else find the smorg a bit squirmy on the rear?

I tried the same combo on 456ti, tubeless on Flows. Mixed results:
I destroyed the smorg on the first ride. 🙁
In hindsight, I must have been kidding myself that I could have got away with such a light tyre on a hardtail, when I’d previously had to resort to tubeless dual-ply as default choice on the back of the Five, for riding the same stuff.
The smorg did go up well tubeless but I felt the rim contact a few times riding up square edged steps etc before it gave up completely after about 5 minutes down rubble strewn descents. That would have been about 25-30psi.
I’ve gone back to dual ply minion tubeless on the back.

loving the CM on the front though.

Yes, agreed. It’s massive. 2.4″ fills the fork bridge on a ‘zocchi 44 and I can only just squeeze a mucky-nutz in there.
I didn’t like being run too soft though and burped on some descents at maybe 20 psi.
>25psi and it’s been great.

ADH pierre et vacance

I’m booked in there too.
Dropped them an email about bike storage and they said there was not any secure storage BUT they allowed you to take bikes up to your room and store them on the balcony (which I took to be code for “lock it in your room, we don’t mind”)

Plum, are you “in”? Travelling with JC?

A 99% legal Hebden ride. Wrong wrong wrong

Yes, the cheek was notable by its absence 😥

It was great to get out and meet a few new folk on the trails though, and it’s a real bonus when you can put the bike back in the car CLEAN! (almost unheard-of)

I tend towards “as much as possible without it packing down”