Just fitted a sram praxis BB to my Niner Jet9 carbon and my creaky stupid pf30 cup issues (and sram adaptor cups) are a distant nightmare.

It really does make the horror that is pf30/bb30 a more than acceptable BB format

Didn’t know you could get giraffes with a belt drive!

Yes that what I said to my riding buddies that would have sliced most things. The Rons where what I had in the cupboard and my go to tyres rather than a dig at the burts which I may give another bash as are incredible grippy tyres for their small tread profile and lightening fast

snakeskin is on the side so didn’t help but it makes a hue difference to side cut resistance

Damn it.

Lots of flint here and on last section of my second ride the hurts got an inch cut through 2 knobs and the main carcass. managed to super glue it and it partially sales. limped home and put my old Rocket Rons on

I did it last year on a 34lb Santa Cruz V10 was god fun on the downs but the long ups where not so fun. Sky line was awful on it but blade and the end decent good fun

This year (next week) I am still FS on a 19.6lb Single Speed Jet 9 carbon which is going to be faster and more fun on the ups and probably as fun on the downs.

What I wasn’t really ready for is that a lot of the seemingly down hill trails have random ups and a series of linked downhills, the heavy DH bike was a struggle on the ups sp i realy killed the flow.

One of my mates was on his Single Speed Hardtail and was one of the fastest, was a several other hard tails and a few full sus bikes all had a brilliant time and all coped fine.

Yup not that sort of bike park at all

Cwmcarn has one and that is not far away at all (we stop off there on the drive up)

Lol each to his own taste wise I suppose, red stuff came off my Moondust Niner A9c so my hand was forced but I like orange niners with red bits. I have always had Black bikes so wanted to go a bit mad this time, pearlasant Tang fitted the bill :lol:

Aaaaanyway tyres

Went for a wetter than expected ride today and the Burts where very capable, very surprising which seems to be a constant theme with feed back on these tyres.

They spin up brilliantly and roll noticeable better than the already fast Raplhs. On climbs out of the saddle on wet mud and chalk I has no spin outs(running 20psi front 22psi rear) off camber stuff seemed fine but maybe a little skettchy at the intermediat point just before the side knobs dig in.

The only “oh crap” moment I had was in a deep 4″ deep bit of mud where I turned sharply at slow speed to try and avoid a r.ock and it slid a bit but I think the ralph would have done the same. Breaking on the rear was more prone to locking as well.

Overall for a dry tyre bar mental mud the burt is very capable and worth a try (at £30 quid from wiggle at the moment it is worth a punt) but I would only ride the snake skin

As requested

Not the best quality scale but it tallies with my fancy digital bathroom scales that shows 8.9kg

Will tell you tomorrow :lol: not had a chance to ride my new 19.6lb build

THey feel very fast riding up and down the road and came in at 495g and 515g for the snakeskin 2.1″ and for once a full 2.1″ so happy with the stats.

I have run Rons and Ralphs for the last 2 years (all snakeskin) and loved them and hopeful that although the tread hight is low the amount of blocks and greater biting edges will make up for knob size.

My Aunt is blind, can’t move either leg or one arm so is in an electric wheel chair but she takes her self out with her dog (normal one not a guide dog) going along by memory as to where she is,where she needs to cross the road (or get on a bus) and she managers to pick up her dogs poop, don’t ask me how!!!

That women amazes me and is such a source of inspiration.

leaks and mutton

I have one of those as my second bike and beofre that has a 26er scandal.

You get used to it, the drive side should have a chain tug on it anyway which will set the drive side, I just force the wheel back against the tug on the drive side then center the wheel peering down looking at the fine gap between the rotor and the caliper (with bike upside down) and then nip up qr/bolts when centered. Another thing is if you get it right from the start the toothed faces of the qr/bolts leave an imprint so I can just use those to get it spot on without looking at anything else

Takes seconds

One of the nice things about a single speed is the simplicity of the drive train looks and functionality so putting a tensioner on is a horrid thing to do when you have the option of horizontal dropouts

ride with one brake, swap the broken part over if it is on the front to get a working front and just be a little more judicious with the speed on technical downhills having only 80% of your breaking power.

No need to bin a whole ride

easy peasy, I have ridden all over it on my mountain unicycle and on my SS MTB once a week. Flat all over other than the hill over the tunnel that has bats in and you can no longer go through.

I use one with one and han no issue.

The adaptors fit without removing anything. The hope outer black plasric disc needs to be in place as the thickness is allowed for in the spacing of the adaptor peoples mistake is thinking the adaptor should rotate inside the black dust shield when the guard should rotate with the BB axle in a normal x type set up there would be side loading against these discs so the would rotate as well (one of the benefits of a gxp setup is no side loading on the bearings which they are not designed to deal with so less wear).

Pop the shields out clean make sure the bearings are all the way home in the cups, clean and grease the groves in the cups that the shields sit in then pop them back in, they will then rotate with minimal drag. Press the adaptor in making sure you don’t unseat the bearing from the cup. I used a g clamp and some suitable sized sockets.

I have none over 1000 miles on mine now and it has been faultless and after trying loads of crank bb setups I am now sold on gxp

We have loads of False widows here in Worthing on the south coast.

They can bite and my Mrs has been twice but she hardly reacted at all, a tiny bit pf swelling but nothing major, I have gently handled them but normally move the ones that are inside with some paper, they are not overly aggressive and don’t want to waste their venom.

A work colleague’s father was bittern and he reacted badly and had to go to hospital but that is no really any different to the fact some people react badly to wasp stings etc.

Leave them be and you will be fine, wasps on the other hand need torturing before death as are evil sadistic sting happy monster !!!

I bet I have more real world experience than you to judge having two bikes with similar Geo with thousands of miles on over the same loops all gps logged and my statements is based on actual ride times not solely how it feels”

I am not a tard who believes in every stupid old wives tale, I have a carbon frame and an aluminium frame and you can’t feel any difference from the material, all this steel is real, Ti this that and the other is all rubbish, but rotational weight is a fact, you may want to re-read my post as I even said weight lost elsewhere is pretty pointless and that is coming from someone who has spent 6k on a bike to make it crazy light because I like the challenge and building light bikes.

And as for cheating myself I am sure I would waste most people on my weight weenie 32:18 singlespeed as I have trained hard and am very fit so storm up the hills

The bitterness towards people on lightweight bikes always amazes me, normally is seems to be bitterness from people who can’t afford to spend on a bike.

I ride unicycles as well and have some a stunning 36″ ti Triton (like the looks not the frame material) and Loved how friendly and non agro the community is no-one cares what wheel size yo run (we have far more choice) whether you ride MUni, Trials, Street etc, maybe you have to be a bit loony and not have any ego (you do look a bit stupid lol) so you don’t get all this raaar your stupid for doing blah or OMG why do you ride wheel size blah

Meh

I like things with wheels, I like being out in the wild, I like tech and the excitement of buying stuff and talking about it.

Time to step away from the internet

I have a 29er Scandal at 23.4 lbs and a Niner A9C at 16.2 lbs and I weigh 148 lbs

Being light the 7.2 lbs difference is 5% of my body weight and would be hard for me to lose on my body so very worth while.

The biggest benefit is the weight loss on the wheels which was the best part of 2 lbs and makes the bike accelerate like a rocket and is real world noticeably faster up the hills. My ride times on regular loops from 15 to 50 miles are consistently faster by around 3-5% if not more on the hillier rides.

So you question is subjective more about where the weight is saved, if it is saved on the bars, seat, frame etc that small amount of weight loss will be barely perceived but if saved on the wheels would provide a very real speed gain

Charlie got me a Niner RDO fork in about a week and it is glorious and scary light :)

You all suck my 2 month old cracked Niner A9C beats you all!!! :lol:

I looked into this for the Mrs to use my bike an the SRAM PG-970 seemed to be the one people use as it has separate sprockets so you can get 6 on, I am not 100% there are not different versions of this cassette as most people seem to use the DH version

clicky

I have done loads of 40+ mile wheelies on my mountain unicycle, does that count? :lol:

Doing a “manual” on a Uni is scary stuff (only ever done them by accident on a moving dismount) an easier one is to dragging your foot on the tyre to help balance (can’t o that either) the dudes who coast standing on the frame/saddle are just God like and do not bend to the laws of Physics

“Wheelying” my 36er in the snow

I have seen many things on the net and even sights of peoples popped noggins under heavy truck wheels etc have never made my stomach twitch like those pics did :lol:

My Mrs lost her two big toenails from lots of dancing at a club in questionable shoes a few months back :roll:

Charge Knife meets all of those!

play-dough pancake in a sandwich bag sit on it on a hard surface and measure deepest indentations

but you don’t really sit on your seat bones as you are rotated forward onto your Ischiopubic_ramus the paged linked below is a good read if you ignore the heavy saddle type bias

clicky[/url]

Cable guide adaptors

Will give the offroad one a go, see if I can snag another 1st place :lol:

Glad you didn’t do one last month as I rode hardly at all as was ill with heatstroke lol

Last month I did 720 miles on my SS and I have a very busy life

I go to work from 6-2 when I get home my Mrs goes to work (same place) from 2:30-8 I pick up my 5 year old Daughter from school at 3 with my 2yr8month boy in tow, I then cook dinner, feed kids, clear up, entertain them util bath time, then get them both in bed my 7pm. I have an hour to chill then get dinner ready for the mrs when she gets home. at 8:20 Theeeeeennn 3-4 times a week I will do a 15 mile hilly ride that is 500 yards from my house on the South Downs.

At the weekend I still get up at 5:30 but go for a 40-50 mile ride and am back before 9am to do stuff with the family, I then may do the weekday 15 mile loop in the evening as well.

If I didn’t make this effort to ride at early / late times I would never get any miles in and as busy and stressful as our childcare setup is my riding releases my stress and helps me cope

There is always time to ride if you make the effort, I have just launched lots of cash on a decent bike light as it is getting dark earlier so impacting my evening rides

£8 for a day out too much?

It helps pay for trail maintenance and facilities etc, hell I pay almost that when I have to go to the shops with the Mrs and park for a few hours in town.

Girls in their brand new on finance and will never own cars for me

I think a long ban from Mobile phone ownership would be a far more effective deterrent

Things like this are genuine justification for upgrades to the Mrs :)

Hasn’t the full suspension fad died off yet :lol:

I really don’t know why people include 29ers in the wheel size fight, it is suitably different to have no real threat from 27.5/26 so I am sure we will end up with 29er for XC (which it is awesome for) and probably 27.5 for everything else (only because people are suckers for new things and it is a bigger number so must be better).

The non cycling types who buy the most bikes will just get whatever they are told to in the shops / which colour they like the look of.

27.5 is just marketing and a new thing to sell stuff and impacts frame, fork, rim, tyre manufactures so they are all the big boys who are happy to do anything that will cause a wide scale “refresh” of kit.

I do like bigger wheels (I ride a 36″ uni offroad and moved to 29er for my XC bike so have nothing against 27.5 it is the same change as when I went from my 24×3 uni to a 26×2.4 one other than weight the overall speed was as near as damnit the same (on a uni you are 1:1 fixed gear so you are going to notice it far more than on a bike).

Anyway it gives everyone new battle lines to fight over lol

page 404ing now :(

Anyone know any other good deals on Exposure lights.

They are pricey but I am not strapping a battery bag to my pricey carbon frame!

I have a v2 scandal as my second “spare” bike, the headset has an external lower cup for 1.5″ applications and I believe you can run an internal lower with a 1.125″ fork, but there would be no room for an internal with a 1.5″

With a 1.125″ fork an internal bottom cup you would be fine on clearance

The Scandal has steep angles anyway so running a 120mm will only slacken things by 1 degree ish which I am sure you will not notice and would still be steeper than most other bikes, you could probably limit your fork to 100mm as most can

Are you trying to lower the front or change the angles, if the former just use less stem spacers or flip the stem over

Alu bolts are lighter, and far cheaper, just replace what you can with alu. Mt Zoom bar, New Ultimate stem, Mt Zoom top cap/bolt, definitely needs a lighter saddle – Speedneedle, SLR C64, Bontrager Affinity RXL if you want to sit on it!

Great minds, already have Mt Zoom bar and my KCNC stem is lighter than anything else I have found (and very cheap for the weight)

Was looking at Tune Komm-Vor Saddle

Not sure on Ali bolts as most of the places are going to be rotor and calliper bolts.

Love the new for, instant power delivery and not as harsh as I expected, I managed to knock 1.5mins off my PB for my evening 15 miler (and my previous time was me really going for it where this ride felt easy going!)

Yeah the bar end plugs could go and are a hang over from my previous build.

I am in the lots of small weight losses zone now, I could change the RX brakes to R1s but that is a a fair old chunk of cash for a small weight loss.

I have been looking at a Tune saddle to lose about 125g but loathed to take an expensive punt replacing a saddle I can do centuries on with not a sore in site

I could change the rear cog to allow me to run a 9 speed lightweight chain

Ti bolts through out, replace the Ti 1 pedals (with upgraded axles) to Ti3/4s (but a bit pricey)

I could lost half a pound or more on the tyres but the flint around here tears them up so a pointless bit of weight saving.

hmmmm as if I haven’t spent enough :lol:

16.5 lbs baby!!!

Lost 1100g+ with the RDO fork, the fork feels crazy light.

That pressure is pushing the boundaries of what is safe for a tubless setup as the is no innertube pressing on the bead so you are likely to blow the tyre off the rim!

I run 20/22psi fr/rr and can ding the rims all I want (If I ride like a tit) with no issue. Hell I never ran that with tubes tyres, you must be bouncing off every rock and ledge!!!

I suggest trying a Schwlabe in a snakeskin variety, they seal fantastically and the side walls are great for sharp rocks (I used to trash tyres all the time on the flint here) it also lends so rigidity to the tyre at lower pressures.

I was a late convert to tubless but would never give them up now, some of the gashes and holes they have sealed up has been amazing.

Due to all this heat I have not ridden for 2 weeks and have found it really hard to get back on pace.

Before my break I had just pulled 700+ miles in a month (offroad) and did my first century with ease, yesterday I did my short 15 mile loop and was 4 minutes off my pace which wasn’t too bad but slogging up the long climbs on my SS which I normally fly up I was getting very slightly out of breath :(

sucks man

Sainsburys sell SIS stuff (I like the jells and, bars) and are open to 10pm??

More of a water guy myself wit ha bag of Jelly Babies in my pocket :)

Every weekend doesn’t say much, I have a 2 month old Air 9 Carbon that has 1300 odd miles on it already which could be what some weekend riders do in 2-3 years

Too many variables to give an answer, but really it will normally be replaced due to the owner wanting something new or through accident damage, other than the obvious consumable parts bikes will last a life time