I’d say from my own experience it depends where/what you are riding, and your experience/skill as a rider?

generally, a more experienced rider can get away with riding a shorter travel bike on challenging terrain because they have the skill and experience to do this. I met guys in Whistler riding 100mm bikes as fast as the guys on DH bikes.

I’ve ridden 200mm travel bikes on this terrain

I’ve ridden 100mm travel bikes on this terrain

its about the rider, not the bike.

longer travel bike will keep the ride more comfortable and provide some margin of error when mistakes are made, but you get it wrong on any bike you are still going down hard, and no amount of suspension travel will stop that happening!

check the rear caliper is not leaking

I built a brand new £7,000 mountain bike this week for my bike shop, which had Formula The One brakes and both were leaking out the box from calipers and master cylinders, and DOT had soaked the pads

both brakes straight back for warranty

only damage I have seen is to high end road bikes hung vertically in bike workshops and sales staff come to take bike for customer collection, don’t lift gently off hook but try and pull bike off hook, putting hole in nice carbon fibre rim = expensive repair

@mtbtomo

I learned this the hard way whilst working for Evans a few years back

one of the sales guy came into my workshop and begged to borrow my vernier calipers to measure a seat tube for a customer who had his seat post stolen

despite my protestations, eventually I caved him and lent him the tool (my own tool, brought into work to make my job easier) Forgot about the loan as we were really busy.

the guy ended his shift, could not find my tool anywhere in the shop?

Next day whilst waiting for the shop to open, found my calipers lying in the road against the kerb, next to the shop!!

the thing I find funny about all these wheel size arguments, is that the first production “mountain bike” was originally intended to run a 700C wheel with big volume knobbly tire (what we now call 29’er)

the originators tested both 700 x 2.1″ (29’er) and 26″ x 1.95″ and actually preferred the performance benefits of the larger wheel / tire combo.

but for a supply problem with the 700C knobbly tire (in contrast, Schwinn had a warehouse full of ‘Beach Cruiser’ 26″ knobblies), what we have always called the “mountain bike” with its legacy 26″ wheels, would have actually been a 29’er from day one of mass production

I spent most days since 1986 riding 26″ wheels on the dirt, and since getting a 29’er last Winter, have not looked back or ever missed the smaller size

once you learn to ride the larger wheel properly (not a test ride, or jumping on a mate’s 29’er for a lap) the benefits become very noticeable, and for me its all about being able to go faster whilst expending less effort

I can turn the dirt trail into a pump track more effectively with the bigger wheel

Schwinn with their “beach cruiser” tire in 26″ provided the business confidence for the originators of the production mountain bike to go ahead with their ugly duckling

be aware that most Specialized tires – both road and mountain – come up much larger in width / volume than given size

been using Specialized tires of all flavours for years, and found their Purgatory 2.3″ is actually a larger volume tire than Maxxis High Roller 2.5″

most chain stores won’t allow customers to undertake their own repairs “on the premises” due to previous customer ‘incidents’ which have gotten the H&SE and insurers involved. It happens more than you might think..

sounds stupid? if you want to see stupid, let the public loose with tools, especially sharp ones like screwdrivers!

perfect example comes to mind when I used to work in skate industry:-

13 year old customer at skateboard shop lent a phillips screwdriver and spanner to install skateboard trucks to new skateboard deck sold by shop.

Accidentally stabbed himself in leg with screwdriver, punctured femoral artery, nearly bled to death on premises. Thank god he did not get to cutting the grip tape as the shop had also loaned him a stanley knife to trim the grip tape!

Not the incident any shop really wants or needs.

Most chain stores have strict rules of “no tool loans” and “no tools to be used by customers on premises”

stems are the same. Easton don’t do much (if any) OE specific product, its generally their aftermarket product bolted to a production bike

You often see the cheaper Easton stems (i.e. EA-30/50) on production bikes, rather than the top of the range Easton stems

@bikeneil

^agreed.

29’er is actually the most sensible choice for a hardtail because the larger wheels really benefit the hardtail rider; much more than running larger wheels on a FS bike

Loctite 242 ;)

@LoCo

Very valid points. Big challenge for bike biz in the long term. If industry expects or cares for lbs to survive then dual channel approach is unsustainable.

Interesting letter and valid POV, unfortunately retail changing very quickly. I currently work for 3rd largest chain store bike retailer in UK, even we cannot compete with grey import on-line retailer’s on shimano, SRAM,etc. We are still buying from UK distributors, trade pricing typically 10% above grey sale pricing on internet.

It’s a problem but until manufacturers stop selling low priced bulk stock to anyone cash rich…it ain’t going away

Best solution for lbs is selling ‘protected’ brands that don’t dump stock into aftermarket, bike service, bikefit, shop rides, etc. Anything internet cannot offer!

@jimmy

you can get lucky and get one of the “good sets” but these were rare among 100s of set of duff brakes

basically the fault was related to a design issue in the master cylinder inside the brake lever, and also the material used for the master cylinder diaphragm which would soon develop pin-hole leaks due to an aggressive reaction with DOT brake fluid

for mid 2012 onwards they redesigned the MC and started using Nalgene for the MC Diaphragm, which pretty much cured the problem

all of those Kirk frames ‘went floppy’ within a few months of ownership, sold through Halfords if I remember correctly?

cost the manufacturer and retailer a huge amount in warranty claims, they soon disappeared after that..

three year old bike?

this is smack in the middle of the era when SRAM where ‘having issues’ with their lovely Elixir brake systems

I must have dealt with 100s of the offending items and all got replaced

warranty (they would basically bin the offending brake and ship you a new brake FOC) is 2 years, you are beyond that now…

see the post above mine (bikeneil) for best advice

hell yes, I went riding..twice!

Mountain biking on the ‘Heath in NW London this morning for about hour and half, wet and muddy but fun

Then around lunch time, went out for 2 hours on road bike into NW London and moved East only to run into road works and traffic jams

ended up in Lee Valley on canal coming back past Stratford Olympics venue and into Mile End before reconnecting to the road; feels awesome riding road bike on wet canal path with lots of pave to skim across, glad I fitted Specialized Roubaix tires last week!

I have built 100+ Di2 road bikes both custom build and production bikes (10 speed Dura Ace and Ultegra, and 11 speed Dura Ace and Ultegra) and also a number of Campag EPS

have also repaired many Di2 bikes with “issues” including crash damaged components (normally rear derailleur) and firmware incompatability – normally where the customer has replaced a damaged component with a new item bought from on-line retailer and installed ‘at home’

also seen torn cables, damaged shifters and battery charging issues

Mountain biking? Have seen a number of customers running Di2 Ultegra in 1 x 10 setup on their MTB with custom made bar shifter mount using time trial buttons. nice but niche?

personally? have been using SRAM 1 x 10 for 2 years in X-0 flavour using 32T or 33T chainring and 11-36T cassette.

very durable, but range of gears lacking for steeper muddier climbs, more of a problem in the winter!

recently got to test ride this SRAM 1 x 11 bike for several hours in the mud, very impressed with shifting performance and gear range, could motor up anything steep and muddy

Can not see any need for electronic shifting as it would not offer anything this 1 x 11 setup did?

The rear mech on the SRAM mechanical is always cheaper to replace if you smash it in a rock crash, or bend it by getting a tree branch wedged in the chain, etc.

Open to all ideas new and old, but perhaps the electronic is a seeking a problem that does not really exist. On my road bike, totally prefer mechanical Ultegra, especially the shifting “action” which is tactile in mechanical, and very ‘sterile’ in the electronic version of my groupset

need a triple-specific left shifter (often only available as pair)and a triple-specific front derailleur

not cheap

personally I’d have kept the compact chainset, and install a wide range cassette (11-30/32)and mid cage rear mech for lower climbing gears

some of the ‘bling’ that goes out of our shop..no idea how its being ridden, hope they are enjoying their bikes though!

only way to get one “cheap” is to work in bike trade (and margins are poor so not a huge saving) or on cycle to work scheme

you don’t generally see any discounted Bromptons in bike shops

normal

don’t worry about it

could not care less what other people are riding, whether they are going fast or slow on cheap bike or expensive bike is not my business

what does bother me (as a bike mechanic) is when people buy pro-level bikes (carbon fibre frameset, Shimano Dura Ace, Zipp wheelset, high end finishing kit) and treat it like total shit, never clean or maintain and just run it into the ground.

Not from being so hardcore that their high mileage prevents any maintenance, but because they just cannot be bothered and do not understand what their money has bought

then seemed surprised / wonder why their bike does not work, or the hub is damaged and they are facing a massive bill.

its sad really..no bike deserves that treatment, whether cheap or expensive!

I don’t ride the “best bike” on the road, have a Specialized Tarmac with Shimano 6700 Ultegra and Hope road wheels, but certainly keep it well maintained which means it rides beautifully and costs less money to keep running

we charge £50/hour for our workshop in Central London and customers are more than willing to pay for good work

constantly asked to do “workshop favours” for people both through work (for example people working for one of the 3 companies in our group) and outside of work for friends of friends

in my experience its just not worth it, either turns into grief or people not willing to pay a rate to make it worth my time (most recently re-cabled a road bike and sorted the gears and the guy thought a packet of biscuits was a good ‘reward’)

I’d rather put it through the workshop properly, or decline the job privately (even though I have a comprehensive home setup)

also, cannot think of anything worse than coming home and working on more bikes!

saw this yesterday morning in St. John’s Wood in London, tree surgeons got their calculations a little wrong?

would have been nasty if passing on a bike…

costs for manufacturing goods in Taiwan and China have actually substantially increased during the past 2 years, they are not the ‘cheap’ manufacturing base they once were, unless you are talking about sub-standard or counterfeit goods

in January 2013, the Chinese Government gave workers in their A-grade factories a 19% pay increase, this has also impacted workers in Taiwan

despite the lower costs of living, skilled workers with in-demand skillsets can achieve very good wages, and often have skills we no longer have in the West.

when you figure in rising materials costs, rising manufacturing costs, rising shipping costs (putting those goods into big containers and shipping across the Ocean)

plus the increasing costs of living in the Western markets where the distributors operate; prices are only going up!

as an example, a popular “big” brand manufacturing in Taiwan had to increase their ‘crash replacement’ road bike frame price from average GBP£600 to £850+ in the past 2 seasons to cover the increased production cost from their supplier

not to make more profit, as the crash replacement is not a profit driven motive, but one to keep the customer riding ‘the brand’

I would trust a Taiwanese made frame from one of the quality brands, much more than a domestically made frame from a smaller brand; simply because in my experience the Taiwanese made frame will be manufactured to a higher quality control using superior techniques that are often unaffordable in domestic manufacturing, and the backup from the quality brands is second to none

this is what we use (professionally) in the last 7 bike workshop I’ve operated

this wheel jig

this spoke key

this tension meter

had a brand new road bike (entry level Cannondale) into my workshop on Wednesday from a customer of wheelies

the build he received, was a f*cking joke to be honest

took my mechanic a good 45 minutes to put it right and safe to BS6102 standards :(

we charged the customer £30 for labour.

I work in the bike industry and deal with “warranty” claims on a daily basis for both road and mountain bikes

many distributors will claim “bearings are not covered under warranty” (they state they are open to abuse i.e. customer jet washing bike, using Muc-Off, extreme conditions, etc.)

to take the customers side though, I’d expect (and retail law in the UK) that goods be “fit for purpose” for a reasonable time after purchase

if bearings fail within mere months of purchase, there is perhaps something wrong with the quality of the bearing fitted to the frame, or the type (specification) of the bearing fitted to the frame

some of the bearings fitted to brand new frames are very poor quality (cheap) and graunchy out of the box, with a severe lack of grease when your prise the seals off. how these are expected to last in mountain conditions is beyond belief.

I have seen high-end brands that previously used quality bearings, switch to cheap bearings, to save money on a year’s production run:-saving $40 on each bearing set quickly adds to profits when producing 1000’s of frames

bearings should last a reasonable amount of time (a season?); of course, assuming that the customer has not jet washed their bike after every ride!

I have also seen this many times on road bikes, where the lower headset bearing has failed after 4-5 months of normal, intended use. in this instance I would normally replaced that bearing FOC as a goodwill measure.

never had a problem getting out of bed – spent years at boarding schools where a scary matron would shout at anyone still in bed after alarm call

can get up and out of house, including breakfast and ready to ride to work in 1/2 hour

to give you an accurate idea of just how light modern carbon fibre frames can be (compared to other materials)

my Specialized Stumpjumper 29’er hardtail frame in 17.5″ (medium) is just 1.22kg with seatclamp and water bottle bolts

its actually lighter than my Specialized Tarmac SL2 road bike frame, also carbon fibre!

@mindmap

2 year warranty on all SRAM ;)

stop using cheap front mechs, the pivots do not enjoy our climate and quickly degenerate when exposed to road salt or aggressive cleaning products

next time it happens, switch to 6700 Ultegra, should get a good season or two from that mech no problem..

Park mini-brute CT-5

workshop quality (investment cast body) with replaceable chain pin

@c klein87

cannot see moving from Thomson 31.6mm to any carbon fibre 31.6mm post would make much difference on a mountain bike

on a road or mountain bike using the smaller diameter 27.2mm seat tube, the post would make a bigger difference. there is a reason the big brands use the smaller diameter 27.2mm post on their hardtails (whilst retaining 30.9mm or 31.6mm for their suspension frames) and that reason is comfort

if you are talking about the differences in comfort on a 27.2mm road frame between difference choices of seatpost, I can speak with experience.

The Thomson Elite will be harsh compared to a carbon-tubed seatpost with bonded aluminium-alloy head/clamp, which in turn will feel harsh compared to a full carbon S-Works or Easton carbon seatpost, which in turn will feel harsh compared to a Specialized CG-R (Cobbler Gobbler) Roubaix-style carbon post which has a suspension damping element designed into the CF post head

27.2mm posts of any material always feel more comfortable than larger diameter posts because of the seat tube itself, combined with the smaller diameter and more flexible seat post in that size

no idea about the rider but there are 2 versions of the Shiv on the market

the one for the TT people (it has to be UCI legal, something to do with regulations on the aero properties i.e. how big the down tube and fork blades are??)

the one for the Tri people (damn those UCI fools and their rules..)

I have worked on, and custom built lots of Shiv Tri but not the TT model, until next week when I have a £8.5K custom build with Dura Ace 11 speed Di2 and Zipp 808 for a customer, should be an interesting “learning” experience

was 40 this summer.

sold my last FS (Devinci Dixon) last January and bought a 29’er hardtail (carbon stumpy)

never missed the FS in the South-East of England, find the hardtail is more fun to ride, I go faster and much easier to look after in Winter

could only see myself buying a FS if I moved somewhere with lots of elevations and rocks (not the South-East then..)

owned a 50mm Renthal Duo and 50mm Thomson X4 at same time on different bikes

with same bars on each bike (750mm Renthals) did not seem to be much in it really?

currently using 70mm Thomson X4 on trail bike, works just fine, nothing to report

“old” pikes seemed to shrug off this kind of regular abuse without flinching

lyrics seemed more than happy to also withstand regular abuse without many issues

although I also ran Domains and found these a little tougher and less flexible under heavy impact / hard braking due to the cromoly steel stanchions

would be very interested in the new “Pikes” to see if they straddle the bridge between the 2 older chassis, as I have a new build coming up soon and the Pike is on the short list

-cross country mountain biking (current popular term would be “trail”)

-recreational road riding (not interested in “races”)

-commuting to work and back

different bike for each type of riding :)

if you have the older Hope Pro II hub, you can easily convert the axle to the 135 mm x 10mm “screw-in bolt” setup which is ideal for singlespeed bikes running horizontal dropouts. This kit is still available and not expensive

you can see it here:

You can then use a singlespeed conversion kit to mount a single cog onto the freehub body, but be aware it will tend to chew into the softer aluminium alloy body more than when using a multi-speed setup with spider-style cassette

Hope also did a singlespeed specific version of this hub with offset pawl/ratchets and a shortened, tougher steel freehub body (I believe this would take up to 5 cogs?)

best to speak to Hope directly, very friendly people!!