What are the options for running 29″ wheels on the geometron? Is it just the G13 or could the G16 run 29″ wheels front and rear?

Ideally I’d like a long travel 29er geometron.

If the creaking is the bearings, its likely caused by contamination and corrosion to those bearings. This will likely increase the friction, making the bearing ‘turn’ less effectively. At some point the friction will begin to add load to the outer bearing race which is the part that contacts the frame. This, especially in a carbon frame, could be bad news as it may damage the carbon or, if the frame has them, the bonded metal inserts that the bearing presses into.

You might be able to pry off the bearing seals and flush with wd40 or gtg4 to remove old grease and dirt, then repack with grease and put the deals back on. This might help until you get new ones.

it should do yes.

the white spacer is actually the pre-load “spacer” and it goes on top of the spring not at the bottom.

are those ear plugs?

How long after ordering did delivery take for you guys?

Im thinking of doing my 2017 29er Lyrik from air to coil. Do you retain the existing air topcap for that as well?

Has anyone done a Lyrik yet? Any comments?

Some great suggestions, not sure i want a van, it’ll mostly be just my bikes that i transport, probably one at a time. Dont mind taking the front wheel off for transporting it either. I dont do that many miles but would be my only car, although mrs has hers. Thought about an extra cab rather than a double cab to give more load space, but that Nissan Pathfinder looks great, alot of vehicle though as i dont have kids.

That was why i was looking at pick up with the load cover/canopy on it.

I would pay income tax on the allowance, but i wouldn’t be paying BIK tax as im not taking a company car.

No, there arent any rules as such, i dont get a car because i “need” one for my job, its classed as a reward.

One of my shorter training routes is 31 miles and just over 3000ft of assent, I averaged 18.6mph the other day. In a year I’ve gone from 16.5mph through to 18.6mph on that course.

Lots of base miles, a training camp in Spain, lots of early season racing. There’s no quick solution to getting faster. Ride a lot and push your heart rate zones, reduce your body fat.

Training in winter on a heavy bike was painful but well worth it now the summer bikes out.

I bought the propel in the end. Very happy with it. Have done plenty of all day rides and plenty of climbing on it too. Feels great no discomfort at all. The brakes are also fine, although I had the ALU brakes, I hear the carbon ones can be flexy.

Chainline,

Really useful info, I’d be interested in knowing torque values if you can get them. Also how do you go about getting tools?

Cheers for your response, i stripped the fork and replaced the oil with the correct levels from the Marzocchi site. I can recreate the knock with the damper removed from the fork, seems to be something inside the dammper. It all seems to be free from play, but when you stop pushing the fork/damper down and then pull the damper back up sl it works the rebound, at the point you engage the rebound you get the “knock”.

I guess i should call Windwave.

practicality isnt an issue, i could use a bike box, are the bags really worth it? They look abit flimsy…..

Not when there’s a 160mm Stumpjumper Evo filling that void nicely.

Isn’t it 150mm and comes with a Revelation? And prices start at £2.5k?

Sorry, I still think they’re crazy.

I want to use 36mm forks not 32mm so not really interested in the stumpjumper.

Did the bike shop in lille speak English? My French is rubbish!

Who did you use in France Tracy?

Spesh UK suggested buying in Europe

I was looking at the Trek, but Trek UK say definitely no framesets for sale outside the USA.

Has anyone ridden both a Helius AM and a Orange Alpine 160, how do they compare for a ride characteristic point of view?

Scat talking about a Slash?? sounds well dodgy 😉 Ohh its Scant, my mistake….

Anyway, frameset might be interesting, i dont really fancy a full build. Cheers for the info.

yeah i didnt think they would do a frame only. I was just amazed at the prices of the full builds. Based on similar frames, id guess the frame could retail for about £1500, and for another £2,050 quid you could build up a top end bike. I just dont understand how Trek can justify £4,750 for their top end build.

In 2007 i bought a brand new Stumpjumper FSR Comp (base model with x9 and Fox 32 Floats, similar spec to Trek’s bottom end Slash) It was £1500, 4.5 years later a similar build on a bike is over £1250 more. Thats around a £300 a year increase. Manufacturing prices haven’t gone up that much

Sanny – Member

I’d echo Crazy Legs comments.

Met him, ridden with him, shot the breeze, nothing but respect for what he had achieved both in cycling but more importantly for the fight against cancer. I could not care less about what Landis or Hamilton have to say. What have they to achieve other than publicity for themselves and a poor attempt to divert from their own misdeeds? When you watch Hamilton, look at his body language when talking about Armstrong and doping. Lots of shaking of the head and lack of eye contact. Hmmmm.

Ultimately, Armstrong’s legacy reaches far beyond the confines of bike racing. If he did dope, I just don’t care. Whether he did or not, I judge him by what he has done with the Livestrong Foundation and that to me is what counts.

Posted 2 days ago #Report-Post

so because you’re his best mate, think he is cleaner than a nun swimming in Fairy Liquid? I think your bias being as you’re mates with him.

I think he’s been a clever, calculating professional. Of course he used EPO, how would he have achieved what he has without performance enhancing, illegal practises? The whole peloton in the early and mid 90s were clearly on something, given the sheer number of positive tests. Your mate wouldn’t have stood much of chance without alittle something extra in his training routine.

Even though you two are buddies, i bet you didn’t ask him if he’d ever taken EPO, or what he thought about the “crazy” accusations that his positive test had been covered up? I mean, cover ups and back handers in professional sport??? come on as if…………

Completely agree

All Terrain Cycles are my nearest big bike shop and they are useless. I have often called to check something is in stock before going down only to find after a 40 minute journey they don’t have it. Their prices seem over the top too.

Im not too far away from them but they are hopeless, prices are way off the mark and service is surly and patchy. Id rather dirve another 20 mins to JD Cycles in Ilkley (never ordered online from JD though).

I like Merlin, Ukbikestore, bikechain, CRC and Wiggle, Ribble have been ok for the road stuff too.

my heads always that colour. Im shy.

Munqe Chick, my gf said the same thing, so i got her to take a pic so i could see. I havent actually seen a profile photo of me on a bike till now!!! However wheels, forks, etc are all the same size so when ur tall its always gonna look like that.

Stem is 70mm.

for boarding what? a plane? a boat?

i need it for the damper side which is a larger size than the nut on the spring side.

Spring side is a 10mm socket, damper side is a 15mm socket.

they are for 32MM forks not 36MM

I have an Alpine. It is a through axle. Take off end caps, replace allen bolt on one side and thred it in a few times, put long end of allen key in it and knock it all the way through.

I tend to take the rear brake, mech and wheel out, disconnect the shock and then knock the axle out. Then remove the swing arm fully. Then its easy to drift out the bearings and knock new ones in.

Then just put it back together.

30 mins max.

I hope Cav stays exactly as he is, he clearly likes winning and hates losing. Its good to see someone who shows abit of passion and heart.

Far better than the moribund drivel that the "media trained" masses spout.

Cav is a successful (winning!) British sportsman who has a personality and shows it. Good for him.

bravohotel9er

He was trying to tell us that '32' (the brand) were universally regarded as rubbish…well, sorry mate, but they're the best and lightest brand out there, as evidenced by the fact that around 80% of all seasonaires I know wear them and they're carried by every snowboard shop worth shopping in.

32 boot are terrible, utterly hopeless boots. Until recently they didnt even have footbeds. They still use the same last for a size 9 and 10 and just change the liner size. Lots of people wear them because they are cheap to stock and often discounted. Seriously avoid 32.

its very difficult to tell from a photo, and even if you dig a pit or do a block test, its only ever going to tell you what its like on the particular bit of slope you examined.

There are so many variables that contribute to the risk of a slide occurring, and youve mentioned a few above. I was in Cumbria on Friday and some of the slopes i was riding had a fairly solid wind and/or freeze melt crust on them, so potentially there is a hazard there. In the above case id be tempted to say that the actual snow pack looks well bonded, the instability was actually in the base (either sun warming the rock, water running through the pack onto the rock, or depth hoar, or all of that).

It doesnt look like the trigger was a person, so it has to be something else, temperature change, wind, warming rock.

Either way, the one thing the slide certainly tells you is that slopes in that locality, on that aspect, and gradient, are potentially dangerous. The danger will only increase with a rise in temps, this will give rise to a risk of a wet snow slide which can happen on much gentler slopes.

PS its not all unusual, just commenting on a forum while at lunch. Makes a change from all the usual crap about "which bike for a fatty who rides 10 miles a month and doesn't want to spend less than £2,500"

a slight thaw wont be stabilising things nor was that slide caused by "unconsolidated layers" in the snow pack. If it was a weakness in the snowpack formed by poorly bonded layers then it wouldn't of slipped the whole way to the base. A slight thaw will cause moisture in the snow pack potentially lubricating the layers or the ground, making slides more likely. A slight thaw in the day will them freeze in the evenings, causing a melt/freeze layer this will be very dangerous if any fresh or wind blown snow is deposited on top, or if it occurs within the existing snow pack.

So if youre going ski touring id either go do a course, or go and hire a guide.

It looks like the slide took place on snow covered rock, the rock will have warmed slightly and caused the snow to slide off. Additionally given the shallow snow pack and cold temps its likely that the presence of depth hoar has contributed to the slide as well.

It is a slab avalanche and it is on a convexity (not sure of the gradient from the pic) so its definitely an area to watch out for in terms of risk.

Mine is 18" DHX Coil, 36 Vans, Single Ply Minions, SLX Double chain set, Thomson stem and post, Juicy 5s, weighs in at 33.8lbs. Ride really well.

I reckon you could loose a 1.5LBS switching to air, tyres arent the lighest either, nor are brakes so i think 31lbs is do able. But then youd have to have air shocks, the coils are just so so much nicer, esp with a custom tune.

the push tune on my DHX coil 3.0 is really nice, the shock is much better in the mid stroke, not wallowy like it was. Defiantly recommend it.

no a "dhx air" is an air shock, a "dhx5" is a coil shock.

Commencals are just heavy, i sold my meta 5 after a couple of months, wheel base too short, ha too steep.

It was built with pikes (454 air) and a rp2 (air) shock, weighed 31 pounds (with nobby nics), same build kit on the alpine 160 except the alpine has van 36 coil forks and a pushed dhx coil shock and now much heavier maxxis minion 2.35 tyres. It weighs just under 34lbs, so now have have a much beefier bike, which has coils all round and heavier tyres, and it only weighs 3 pounds more.

Commencals are heavy for what they are.

i think the folks struggling with the alpine 160 as an "all day/trail bike" might be on to something, although its got nothing to do with the bike. Mines 33.5lbs with coil vans and a coil dhx. It rides fine as a "trail bike" or an "all day bike" ive done 30 odd miles in the peaks on it, ive done dalby on it, ive done stainburn, lee quarry, hamsterley dh and xc, etc etc. Its ride great. The slack HA does make very tight switch backs alittle harder, but ive not found anything i cant adapt to and ride.

I think if youre unfit or dont ride very often then maybe 33lbs isnt going to work for you, but ive had no complaints at all about the bike.

No issues with the maxle rear end either, works fine.

i sold my commencal meta and got the alpine 160, the commencal was ok, but too steep a head angle, too heavy and definitely never felt as good up or down hill.

im 6'3 the 18" is great for me. Whatever you do, dont buy a commencal meta 5 or 6 over and orange 5 or alpine 160.

Ive got an 18" Alpine 160, echo the above really, definitely do everything on it, from all day rides to trail centres, to local woods. Its ace. Although im 13.5st and find the 450lbs spring on the shock to be about right, i get around 30 – 35% sag. I have no idea how tight the spring tolerances are but 450lbs seems good to me.

maybe because hes moaning about people endangering his "family". However its him who chose to take his young (4 year old?) to a trail centre mountain biking. Which is his choice, however by his own admission it was very busy, he chose to do the red route, and chose to take his son mountain biking, in itself pretty dangerous sport if things go wrong (which they sometimes do).

So hes assessed the risk of doing this with his son, and then decided that taking a 4 year old on a tag along, on a busy weekend, at Glentress, is totally acceptable.

Then when the inevitable happens, (ie someone gets alittle close, but no harm done) he says hed (rip off thier head" etc etc for harming his beloved family. Yet after all hes the one who put his son in that situation, accepting the risk that accidents at busy trail centres on red routes sometimes happen.

So moaning and being all aggressive on a forum about how everyone should watch out for him is abit short sighted, and possibly some of the blame might just lay with the original poster.