if you are talking 700c I run Specialized Nimbus Armadillo 700 x 28c on the front (great grip in the wet and a little more cushion) and Specialized Roubaix Armadillo Elite 700 x 23/25c on the rear

have run Specialized All Condition Armadillos in the past – both 23c and 25c sizes and found the damn things near lethal in the wet or when crossing drain covers, stone edging into side roads, etc.

had 2009 Fox 36 Talas RC2 and then 2010 Fox 36 Talas RC2 taper

converted the 2010 Talas to Float with some parts bought from Mojo (easy job, took 15 minutes)

totally transformed the ride quality (small bumps), never missed the travel adjustment as the 130mm setting on the Talas just made my 160mm all mountain bike feel “weird” even when climbing, and the 100mm setting made the bike basically unrideable

just been out for my regular quick 12 mile road loop around N London (lots of climbing and descending) and saw plenty of people out riding road bikes, kids with parents riding and people on hybrids puffing up the hills (new year’s resolutions?)

they only really get damaged when you remove them incorrectly, there is very slight deformation when they are originally installed and the nuts are torqued up, but not enough to compromise their function

because the bottom of the rods are threaded, if you spin the washers off the thread, you can re-use them once the fork has been serviced

occasionally you won’t be able to spin them off, and may need to use pliers to pry them off, which can damage them, requiring fresh crush washers from Mojo

anytime I buy anything from Mojo I always order a bag of crush washers so I have spares ;)

never liked the bad attitude at Condor

a while back, my French buddy and I poppped into the store with our mountain bikes

the stuffy staffer took one look at our bikes (both high-end suspension bikes and no mud in sight!) and said “we don’t really serve your type in here, its probably better to try somewhere else?”

funny that, because I wanted to buy another pair of Condor road shorts (already bought 4 pairs) to wear on my road bike for my daily commuting

@Jamesy

in my experience, LBS (or any bike shop) that won’t insist on use of torque wrenches in their workshops don’t know what they are doing!!

a previous employer I worked for as a mechanic, would not pay for the torque wrenches that I repeatedly asked for, or their maintenance (re-calibration), which told me a lot about their attitude to both their mechanics and their customers

didn’t use one for years, and relied on “experience” as many wrenches know, you get a “feel” for how tight things should be

started using them religiously in a new company (as a mechanic) and was shocked how many bolts were actually overtightened despite my “experience”

if you actually install a component like a Thomson X4 stem by hand with Park multi-tool or P-handle hex wrench, and then try checking it with a torque wrench, it can be quite revealing…

many of the bikes we see into our workshop have had internet purchased components installed at home “by hand” and the majority are overtightened with for example, stretched clamps on the stem faceplates, seatclamps and Shimano HT2 crankarm pinch bolts

always better to be tighter than looser, but we use torque wrenches for every bolt / lockring we fasten, and I purchased a “Pro” (madison) torque wrench for home use as I am working on Thomson, Easton, etc. at home on my own bikes

@elfinsafety

its nothing personal, I don’t know you, and you’re probably a nice bloke…

but when you have cyclists regularly riding through red lights and clipping pedestrians, or skidding to avoid pedestrians who are crossing legally on a green pedestrian light, you start to develop a serious intolerance to these cyclists

since that kid rode into me outside Camden tube station, last year, I’ve had enough of this behaviour, I was very lucky to escape that collision with only some bruising

years ago, I used to be that stupid tw*t jumping red lights until I got ticketed by the Police next to Aldgate tube station, had a lecture from a Police SGT, realised the impact it was having on other people, and decided to grow up and start paying attention to the rules of the road

yes, I see lots of car drivers, taxis and even buses behaving badly, but that’s no excuse for me to ignore the Highway code

its really simple, if you are going to ride a bicycle on the road, follow the rules of the road?

What a pile of poo.

I’ve bin riding bikes on the streets of That London for over thirty years, and I have never caused an accident or injured anyone as a result of my riding. I regularly jump red lights when it’s safe to do so, and only bin caught the once, and that was only cos I was on a 32:16t SS mtb and coon’t ride off quickly enough

@elfinsafety

I hope you don’t ever ride into me, and if you do, I am not capable of getting to my feet

because I am going to knock seven shades of sh*t out of you, or any other RLJ’ing c*nt that runs me down in London whilst I am on foot

I am sick of stupid cyclists jumping red lights, don’t worry about the Police catching you, a pissed-off pedestrian will do a good job on you first

the only advice I could possibly help you with is “grow up!”

have you tried loosening the clamps on each fork leg, removing the 20mm axle, reinstalling the 20mm axle without tightening the clamps, pumping the fork up and down several times, and then tightening the clamps on each fork leg?

the pump track recently built at the “Lordship” Recreational ground in Tottenham, N London is basically sh*t :(

I don’t say this lightly because it obvious alot of money, time and effort has been spent building this new facility

its not a pump track, pump trail or whatever they are claiming its supposed to be, and many london riders who have ventured to the facility on both BMX and MTBs have expressed the same opinion; don’t let the photo above fool you, once you have your wheels on the dirt its just damn frustrating to ride, regardless of your skill levels (I am a former BMX racer and Pro MTB freerider)

its badly built, does not flow or pump properly, has a mismatch of wrong sized / shaped pumps (typically way too sharp) and flat berms, has drainage issues with puddling between many pump bumps and already looks like an old worn-out / rutted BMX track despite opening very recently

too many long flat sections leading into small/sharp bumps you cannot “pump”

you have to pedal around 1/2 the track which is always the sign of a poorly built “pump track”, there are flat straights leading into lame berms which you have to pedal out of, to try and pick up enough speed to get over a size-mismatched tabletop and bumps

and it doesn’t even re-circulate but has a start “mound” that is much too low for the first section, and a “run out” at the end that leads to nowhere except skidding to a stop, turning around, and pushing your bike up the start mound

very poor, considering the ££ spent?

whoever built this abomination has obviously never built and ridden proper pump tracks, or something went very wrong during the handover from the designers to the builders?

riders have approached the management asking to “help rebuild” for free, but met with “we are doing some maintenance including raking some gravel…”

first time I used my L&M Stella 200 (200 lumen) I was stopped in Police in Central London and asked to “angle it down slightly” as they felt it could be dangerous to other road users

the Stella 200 has a rapid flashing mode which I found much more useful for commuting than my more recent Hope Vision 2 which is great off-road with its 480 lumens, but has a painfully slow flashing mode…

I took the Police advice, and carefully adjusted the angle on my L&M so I am very visible but not blinding other road users?

however, on numerous occasions, I have still had cars pull out in front of me, and pedestrians step in front of me (off the pavement onto the road or cyclepath) both with the usual “sorry did not see you? excuse

to which I say “did not say me? perhaps you should visit the opticians for an eyetest!”

thinking that pedestrians rely too much on their ears (listening for motor vehicles) than using eyes, and motorists just don’t care about cyclists…whether blindingly lit or not?

at other times, I have used my Hope Vision 2 head mounted on full power, and found this more useful as you can control the light beam with slight head movements?

I run scotchlite reflective tape on my commuting bike: on the wheel hubs, seatpost, fork legs and rear stays, and some on the backpack too

running a L&M Stella 200 up front in rapid flashing mode, and a Cateye rapid flasher on the seatpost sitting next to a KNOG light which is on constant

what amazes me in London? the amount of idiots riding with no lights at all…or a nice fluroescent jacket and no lights, or lights with flat batteries so dim you can hardly see them!

@ gingerss

^^ you are correct about reputation

I work for a cycle retailer that turns over £100 million+ a year

“reputation” (i.e. goodwill) is often a valid justification for “writing off” the cost of new parts or even replacement complete bikes that have been damaged by misuse or impromper consumer installation, than bothering to argue and having complaints appear on consumer review websites ;)

750mm Renthal on my mountain bike

720mm Pro Atherton (cut down from 750mm) on my hybrid commuter

god knows how big the bars are on my BMX, but they are huge!

running E13 36T front with E13 LG1+ chain device and SRAM 9 speed in the rear with 11-34T cassette

now the trails are wet and muddy, I’d benefit from dropping down to 34T or even 32T but my chain device will not support anything less than 36T

have an XTR front mech, Sram X-0 left shifter pod, 28T SLX chainring and Middleburn 36T shifting ring, sitting there going spare!

but too lazy to install, and have got used to the simple 1 x 9, especially with the remote for my Rockshox Reverb seatpost taking the space of the left shifter pod on my bars?

maybe time to look at the SLX 12-36T 9 spd cassette, its cheap but 500gm so somewhat heavy compared to my current SRAM PG-990 cassette

@ spursn17

I agree he is a dick! simply because he cannot decide to break the law because of his training..would be nice to see him get nicked by a fellow copper whilst he is RLJ on his push bike

I met many police whilst working for the 2nd largest police force in London (hint: transport), and soon realise you cannot make up your own rules and expect others to abide by “the” rules

pack the gap between the oil seals and wiper seals with quality suspension grease like Manitou M-Prep, Rockshox Judy Butter or Stendec

failing that, any good quality (non lithium) bicycle grease will work well

doing this dramatically reduces the “breakaway friction” on the fork, which has big 36mm stanchions and can feel quite sticky until the seals setttle down

the SKF seals definitely feel “grabby” until bedded in, which can manifest as feeling like a mechanical issue, this was my experience with installing SKF seals into my 36 Float RC2

@tin_pin-man

this is what my Police Officer chum shared with me

you may think some light are “safe to run”, you won’t realise you have caused a fatal accident at that junction, caused by your illegal action, as you are riding away when it happens

and, if you are involved in a RTA, forget any compensation if you are found RLJ, which with the spread of CCTV, is not hard to prove…

if you decide to jump some REDS and not others, you are no better than the motorists you berate..

not worth it…people that RLJ are f*cking stupid and have no place riding bicycles on the good streets of London

some little chavy c*nt on a BSO collided with me outside Camden tube station before XMAS, the light had changed in my favour (I was on foot) and he rode through the red light, hit me bruising my jaw and left arm, but he went over the bars and bent his bike, dragged it up the street towards Sainsburys as I chased him, threatening him with physical violence for running me over!

heard a great saying from a friendly Police officer at the pub some years back; “if you ride like a c*nt, you will get f*cked”

he explained further…”you will get f*cked by being run over by a motor vehicle, sued by a pedestrian you have run over and injured, or nicked by the Police, but either way you will get f*cked!”

some months back, 2 roadies in Chiswick high street started giving me lip after I shouted at them for RLJ and nearly hitting an old lady who was crossing on a pedestrian green

should have seen their cocky attitude vanish when the blue lights went on behind and the cops who had seen the entire incident pulled them over…

would not worry about returns to CRC – they are huge and will absorb any extra costs without fuss

my friend fell off his bike, crashed and snapped the handlebar clamp mounting on the master cylinder (brake lever) of his expensive Avid XX front brake

returned it to CRC, said in a handwritten note “it broke whilst riding along” and had a brand new replacement brake within a week, at no charge

not the first time I have heard about this kind of “return” to CRC ;)

still on factory bleed
you’ve done well changing the pads, but you have yet to experience true hatred.

Once you (attempt to) bleed them, you will see the light and rid yourself of them – or you will attempt to live with them, deny the truth and enter a masochistic spiral of self flaggelation as you lose the will to live.

Good luck with that

Dave

@alfabus

its really not that difficult either change disc pads, or to bleed Juicy’s or even Elixir’s if you actually know what you are doing?

been using different sets of Avid brakes since 2005, and sold / maintained 100s of pairs to paying customers, no real problems to speak of, just the odd pair sent back for ‘warranty’ due to a manufacturing fault which is understandable when you are manufacturing on the huge scale that the SRAM conglomerate does

here’s my Specialized Crosstrail which I converted into a decent hybrid commuter

replaced the crappy undamped Suntour suspension fork with a Kona P2 rigid fork

installed a SRAM 1 x 9 transmission, Shimano brakes, Thomson stem/seatpost, Pro Atherton bar, WTB Devo Ti saddle, SPD pedals, SLX crankset with M-Part chain device and Specialized Armadillo tires on Mavic 700c / Deore wheelset, and most importantly full length SKS mudguards for wet weather riding

only “original” part is the frame

it feels really confident to ride in heavy traffic and takes abuse from potholes without flinching, but also feels very spritely under power, like a big wheeled mountain bike

how big is the mountain bike market in London?

when I ran Freeborn’s Esher store we picked up some business from London riders wanting a specialist mountain bike shop who had a large volume of high end bikes, frames, forks, components, tires and body armour, full face helmets, etc.

but most of our customers were from Surrey and Sussex, or further afield (many would drive several hours to buy a bike or frameset)

in central London where the shop I work for is based (part of a big chain with 48 stores)

we sell a reasonable amount of MTBs (we have 92 on the lower shop floor ranging from £300-£4000) out of a total shop floor count today of 192 bikes) but the commuting and road market is much larger in London, and that is where the real money is?

Having London anywhere on that list is also a joke – London has many wonderful qualities but a great location for a mountain biker wouldn’t be on the list.

@epicsteve

no complaints from me about living in London – fantastic transport connections in every direction

we have Surrey Hills (965ft on Pitch Hill), Woburn Sands, Aston Hills, Swinley Forest, Wisley, Chicksands, PORC (we also used to have Esher Shore before it closed) and other riding locations all within an hour of London by train

plus stacks of dirt jump trails accessible by train just ouside London, if you know the builders, and London has over 35 skateparks if like me you enjoy riding DJs and Skatepark in addition to mountain biking

and quick, easy access to all the Welsh trail centres and FOD by car

Gatwick and Heathrow quickly accessible by train, with great air connections to some of the world’s best riding in Europe and Canada

in the past season, we flew from Gatwick after breakfast and were riding the excellent Winterberg Bike Park in Germany before lunchtime!

and 10 minutes ride up the road from my house in NW London, I have 1200 acres of steep woodland with dozens of excellent XC trails including a 3 minute descent off one side and a 6 minute descent off the other side

no problems from me?

running Avid X0 brakes on my bike, with sintered pads

on New Year’s day, went and rode for 6 hours on Pitch Hill, Surrey in foul conditions including deep mud and rain storm, lots of slithery braking action but not heat build up to speak of?

lost 3/4 of the material on very new, but bedded-in disc brake pads

(brakes bedded in by doing 30 emergency stops down a steep hill off Highgate, London) and 2 XC rides in NW london on relatively flat ground in dry conditions

Hope disc brake pads are somewhat different to other “manufacturers” in that Hope make the backing plates in-house, and then ship the backing plates to automotive manufacturer EBC who apply the material to the backing plates and then heat treat them

do other cycle brake pad manufacturers bother with this?

had the sealant turn into a “spiky alien ball” after 6 months, following track pump or compressor to inflate the tubeless conversion

also had this after 6 months, with CO2 used for initial inflation on difficult setups (usually baggy Bontrager or Maxxis tires)

f*cking terrible, just like their pedals and dropper seatposts

don’t bother…..

recently test rode a 2012 Specialized Epic Comp 29er

very, very surprised about the ride quality and performance, especially in the tighter stuff, did not feel like a big wheeler unless bunnyhopping

handlebar was lower than on my 150mm travel 26″ wheel all-mountain bike

the only previous experience of 29ers was riding an Ellsworth Evolve FS at Forest of Dean last winter, which felt really sketchy with odd geometry that did not suit the bigger wheels

What a waste of time and money! They send them half way around the world, to undergo a process that does nothing but add cost and make it look pretty, only to have it sent all the way back again.

Why oh why do we have to have stupid shaped tubes on our bikes when a straight one is stronger and lighter?

Speaking to Steve Wade about this over the summer and he was shaking his head at the stupidity of having to DOUBLE the weight of the Orange Five’s top tube, just so it could have a kink in it that barely made any difference to the stand over height.

@geetee1972

the Devinci’s are not hydroformed for any visual aesthetic or to put a unnecessary kink in the top tube..

when you actually look at why they bother sending their locally drawn tubeset 1/2 way around the world, its to have the wall thicknesses and shapes manipulated to give a definite mechanical advantage

I ride a Devinci Dixon SP – the down tube is actually a complex piece of manufacturing with a very thick base which resists rock strikes and impacts (I have a huge carharrt sticker on this surface which is covered in the evidence of numerour rock strikes), very thin side walls and a reasonably thick top surface, and a complex three dimensional shape to offer maximum support to head tube and bottom bracket, and resist bending from the lower shock mount

lots of companies (including Specialized and Norco) went MAD with their hydroforming, but Devinci have always been a “sensible” i.e. boring (french canadian) company and only bother to do things for specific reasons, rather than visual fashion

They are expensive, but if mine broke I’d replace it imediatly.

^^ this

I snapped the trigger on my RS Reverb remote with my shorts (my fault) and went riding on the same day with my old Easton Haven post

hated the lack of fluidity in my riding as my left thumb kept going for the missing remote trigger..and was riding some very hilly terrain with steep descents where I had to stop and lower the saddle manually, and then raise again for climbing

once you get used to them, its really hard to go back, and it has a definite, positive effect on your riding experience

thankfully got my Reverb back within a few days replaced FOC under warranty and thoroughly enjoyed my next ride!

try grabbing “pairs” of spokes

grab parallel pairs (sets of spokes that are parallel to each other)…they should feel tight when pinched with your fingers

we use a Park spoke tension meter in our workshops to sometimes check if we are not sure, but you get a good feel with your fingers with some practise

not sure about Middleburn

we used to sell a lot of them to customers with shimano cranksets, and many complained about bad chainsuck and poor shifting (lag)

we used to get problems in the workshop trying to setup dual rings with Middleburn, especially the granny gear which would cause shifting problems and chain snagging

replaced a number of these problems setups with genuine shimano rings and the problems went away…

love to buy british, but not sure about the middleburn rings?

always found Race Face rings very tough with good shifting and minimal chainsuck

Santa Cruz are made in Taiwan and China, add Rocky Mountain to this list….

to add to this topic, I would say the Specialized Stumpjumper was a classic design in that it was the first affordable complete “mountain bike” that changed the way the public rode bicycles, and led to a flood of similar bikes from other manufacturers including Muddy Fox, Raleigh, Peugot, etc.

^^just noticed the post above with the Stumpy pic

all of the subsequent “mountain bikes” whether DMR Trailstar, Intense M1 or Orange 5 are just further developments of the “mountain bike” rather than revolutionary designs?

full suspension may seem revolutionary to us hardcore mountain bikers but to the mass market a mountain bike is just a mountain bike regardless of suspension?

whereas your safety bicycles, folding bicycles, public hire bicycles are groundbreaking designs

definitely the Brompton – a real classic design that is used by 1000s of riders every day

also the Devinci “Bixi” (known as ‘Boris Bike’ in London) – which has fundamentally changed the way public use bicycles in cities (about 8 cities worldwide at the moment and more being added)

I could not give a sh*t about “data” I can only relay my own real world experiences

from both 30+ of racing and recreational cycling including BMX, Mountain Bike (XC, DH, FR) and commuting

and from running the Esher Shore mountain bike park for 5+ years and dealing with too many accidents including head injuries, broken bones and more serious..all of the riders at Esher wore helmets as a condition of entry to the bike park

the most serious head injuries were severe concussions, and each of the 12 riders who smashed /split their helmets, I have NO DOUBT (and neither did the paramedics) that their head injuries would have been substantially more damaging without a helmet?

if you are going to get thrown over the bars into a tree, why not wear a helmet?

in my own experiences, I have had many big slams over the years, especially during BMX and commuting :

-having my BMX land chainring first on my head from 6 feet up and split my BMX piss-pot helmet down the middle and give me a sore head for several days

-having a pedestrian in Surbiton, Surrey step off the pavement without warning whilst I was doing 20+ mph, causing me to go head first into the road, split my helmet open, cut my eye brow and need medication for several days

-having a speeding driver in Akeley, Buckinghamshire run into the back of my bike (squashing the stays and back wheel flat against the seat tube) and catapult me head first into the kerb edge, splitting my helmet and knocking me unconsciousness until a Police car found me lying on the road

-taking a detour to avoid some ramblers and suddenly putting my front wheel into a 2 foot deep hole, getting thrown over the bars and smacking my head on the ground, cracking a Giro Xen helmet in 1/2 and having a nasty head ache for days

no doubt, without a helmet in each of these situations, I would not be here typing these messages on a computer:- would either be dead or dribbling into my soup :(

not been at all impressed with 10 speed SRAM – the derailleurs are terrible in terms of durability and the chains seems quite poor too

this is after years of running 9 speed SRAM with no issues

I’d only recommend Shimano’s Dynasys for reliable 10 speed mountain biking ;)

I would say yes, cheap bikes (BSOs) are given as Christmas presents, bought from Halfords, Tescos, Sports Direct, Argos, etc.

the quality cycle retailers like Evans, Cycle Surgery and your LBS won’t do anything like the same volume of Christmas bike trade as those selling BSOs

on the CR Mag (just like XO and XX) you use a long handled allen key (2mm??) on the piston barrel head, which is located facing outwards on the brake lever pivot area

I’d advise removing the master cylinder (brake lever assembly) from the bars as its quite easy to round out the piston barrel head if using a long ball end allen key, as you have to go in at an angle to avoid the bars/grips