Stumpy Jon, any chance you can email over to nik _ _ uk at hotmail dot com?

because a fair number of ppl on here suffer from spreading tums and wobbly bums, therefore they dont have much choice, slow it is!

Anyway, why wouldnt you ride Dalby fast if you are able?? Its far more enjoyable to blast round, and sandwiches for a 23 mile ride?! Maybe at the end.

shes abhorrent. cant stand the fat elitist inbred prat.

Fatty Balding on snowboarding at the 2006 winter Olympics: “this isnt a sport is it? they dont take it seriously, wheres the competition?”

But ice dancing is ok is it you ignorant fatty?

I dont like her.

I have a Apline 160 with Van 36s and a coil DHX 3, its 34lbs. Ive pedalled it round dalby red in 2 hours 15 mins, 25 miles + in the peaks, local rides, trail centres, downhill tracks.

Its not as fast as XC bike uphill, but its fine to ride XC on. The bouns is that is awesome downhill, jumping about and generally mucking around on.

Easily keep up with mates on lighter bikes, but then i consider myself pretty fit. if youre a tubby bloater youre better off buying something more suited to your weak legs and heart.

Be honest about what youre going to do on the bike, if its fire roads and tow paths, and wide well used bridleways then maybe you dont need anything as versatile as the alpine 160, but if you ride the interesting terrain then its alot of fun on the alpine 160.

sadly not

my spring is 450lbs by 2.80, so the stroke will be at least 2.5

the e2e on my DHX 3.0 coil that came as stock on my Alpine 160 is 215mm

aye they do, but not piled up like a wall!

i think its valid, at what point does wearing lycra become offensive? Different people have different tolerances.

Some people would say any lycra is offensive, i guess i am sickened (maybe thats too strong) to see roly polys in lycra. You have to earn the right, you cant just go buy some shorts then go riding in it. You should have to put the miles in first, in the winter too, commute in rain, snow and wind, ride in the mud, hone yourself on the anvil of the bike!

In summary, go fatties, ride the, erm gentle breeze, but for gods sake, no lycra. And before you say im being fattist, im really not fatist. I think you’ll find you are fattist!

you’ve just said its more fun on your Patriot but slower. So get fitter and ride what makes you happy. That would mean less time on your PC talking twaddle though…………..

its not the bike, its the rider. Get fitter.

well i put a pic on a while ago, it looks pretty much like the one on the orange website, i bought frame only and built it up from there.

I wanted a bigger bike that i could use for pretty much everything, wanted a slack head angle, 160 mm and bolt through rear and long wheel base. So i looked at the Nomad, the 160, Intense Uzzi, Meta 6. I wanted coil shocks so out went the meta, uzzi wasnt (still isnt) ready. The nomad, well i liked it, but didnt like the ride as much as i thought i would, so went with the 160.

I had a Stumpy FSR and a 08 Meta 5 with pushed pikes (for sale btw) prior to buying the 160. SO far i really like it, its done all my local rides, tow paths, woods, moors etc plus Stainburn, Hamsterley DH and black route, Dalby red route and i cant really fault it. Its exactly what i wanted, a bike that’ll do everything well.

Got round Dalby in 2 hours 30 mins on it, its fun to ride as you can go anywhere on it, its great to pedal, doesnt bob that i can notice (i sit and spin as opposed to mash thou) seems to carry speed well enough on the flat (im pretty fit though and commute to work 3 or 4 times a week)

Its not exactly going to be the best hill climbing bike, but its got up everything ive pointed it at pretty well, its not a handful, just slower than the stumpy, but better in every other way. I do the clims cos they are there, some are fun, most arent kind of there to get me to the good bits,so i dont care about being first to the top etc.

Overall i really like the bike, the coils feel soooooo much better than air forks or shoxs, so much more responsive and use their travel better and more effectively. It rides easily as well as the meta 5 but feels more stable and capable of pushing me alot further. However it is a big bike, and it is a single pivot, i can tell the difference from the FSR, but its not a bad different, just different. So if you want to use it for all day XC you need to be fit, so be realistic can you or do you want to carry the weight about with you, and will you use the extra umph you get as a result.

If you want a bike that’ll get to the top first, and sprint along in the big ring then get a skinny race bike, but in my opinion mountain biking is supposed to be fun its not road racing, the fun for me is in bashing through the landscape and jumping, dropping, riding whatever i fancy (or am capable of doing) so for that the alpine 160 is pretty perfect!

mine is 34lbs on the dot.

Self build though, with 36 Vans, DHX3 show, Hope Hoops with DT 5.1 rims, Maxis Minion tyres, SLX dual and bash cranks,, X9 rear mech, Juicy 5s, thomson seatpost and stem, easton bars and x9 shifters.

i was on my own, if id of done it with mates it wouldn’t of been anything like as fast! My time was bottom car park to bottom car park, the Alpine 160 is 34lbs on the dot.

well it depends on your definition i guess, but short travel for me is 100mm. Although im sure someone will be along later to tell me that their wooden framed, rigid, single speed, 29er is all the bike you need!