My mistake it was an ’03 plate but mileage is only 32k… looks pretty tidy to me?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201305106699359/sort/default/usedcars/price-to/6000/maximum-mileage/up_to_60000_miles/model/cooper_s/make/mini/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/radius/30/postcode/bs200hx/page/1?logcode=p

Edit: part-service history – that’ll be why I expect…

See I’d be looking at an ’04 or later Mini which I understand had a lot of probs sorted out. There’s a really nice grey S with leather nearby with 40k on the clock and they’re asking for £4500 – barter them down to £4k and would look like a bargain to me!

Look at the copy for the Roscoe, 140mm Fox 34…

FWIW it’s worth, I’d have stopped and I always offer assistance!

I find the snakeskin versions of the Schwalbes make a big difference in terms of roll over, but I’ve not ridden spanish haripins :-P

The Hans Dampf is bonkers hard and very good – the weight is very fair all things considered (930g verified). Doesn’t fit in the back though so a snakeskin 2.25 Nobby Nic has done an admirable job as rear gunner.

Looks a heck of a lot nicer than the Roscoe they were going to make!

Absolutely, and the American Classic All Mountains are mind blowingly good for this. 1750g and I’ve done some tame-ish DH tracks on them.

The race versions are good, but they’re 1450g and it’s a 120mm FS with an eye on hitting things hard – it’s not there’s anything wrong with them, they’re just not a match for the bike :)

27lb Gyro – but tbh the Wheels required hold it back a bit. Fine for covering ground but if you try to unleash it a bit on the descents it pushes back. So I’d say that’s too light in this case…

However, I normally run the All Mountain version of the wheels with a Hans Dampf and a Nobby Nic, plus a dropper. Much more inkeeping with the whole bike and very, very fun. 29lb dead.

Those are real weights, verified on two sets of hanging scales (one of which are Park Tool) and with XT SPDs on.

Well a 140mm 29er Roscoe was designed and then pulled before release back in 2011 I believe, so it’s not a huge surprise.

If the Superfly is anything to go by (surprisingly burly and relaxed for an xc bike), and reports of the Rumblefish, I image this was be a riot!

When you say buy british, you do mean designed and not ‘built’ right?

DSLR if you want to make ‘films’, conventional video camera if you want to ‘film stuff’ like kids and family or dicking about on bikes.

No ‘useable/useful’ auto focus on DSLR and slightly awkward ergonomics means you need to be happy focus pulling and/or working to a fixed focus point.

If you’re an aspiring ghetto film maker, DSLR and a tidy little prime lens is really hard to be beat for the money…

This. This just looks sooo right:

Total disaster I’m afraid! Seriously ugly bike.

Awkward line from top tube, shock mount, shock to chain stays. Hideous stem, rise, spacers + riser combo makes it look a bit hybridish. Too many blue anodized bits of tat clashing with the green frame decals. Cables and hoses too long. Gopping WTB saddle.

I’m not going to claim the Five is a looker but it’s a stunner next that Pivot…

Another 1×10 32-36er here. If I was doing a CRC Marathon 100km, or a 24hr, I’d need a bail out gear but W2 or Skyline at Afan, or a couple of laps of Cwmcarn, on a 29lb FS 29er I was totally fine with those ratios.

I’m reasonably fit but not stellar fit. Probably mid-pack in Sport for XC at a guess (I’ve not raced) – probably mid-pack, maybe sneaking in upper third in Masters for Enduro, I’m a better endurance racer to be fair – top 10-15 at a 12/24 hour solo.

Yeah, for 60g per tyre (29″) which is roughly what I’ve found, it’s worth running the Snakeskins. Even if the terrain isn’t rocky enough, I like the more robust sidewalls for cornering with lower pressures. It would have to be a pretty tame featureless course/trail for me to consider non snakeskins tbh!

Bit of a curve ball but I’ve just been sent a Velocite Flux 29er AL. Size large confirmed on my scales at 1.6kg. £385 – Ti headset and seat clamp thrown in.

Currently building it up on American classic race wheels, 2.25 Ralphs tubeless, Marzocchi Corsa, XT/SLX/X5 mix and some pretty ordinary finishing kit (Velocite carbon seatpost aside). Only got the crank, chain, and cabling to do but looking like a 24lb build with scope for sub 23lb if you wanted to bolt some carbon and skinnier tyres on it.

Only downside is that wheel size is frame size specific. So XS and S are 26″, medium is a 650b, Large and XL are 29er. Interesting approach, but I suspect I’m going to end up wishing I’d got medium but I didn’t want 650b…

Yeah, 87% and confirmed to have the faulty gene, plus her mother dying from BC at 56… I think ‘just in case’ is more a case of ‘avoiding the likely’

It’s not just the slamming, it’s in conjunction with that saddle angle! :cry:

So, how far do you ride? 5 miles each way if I go direct, but I’ve got a rural to urban commute so I’ll often extend it by nipping into the woods for a lap of something. I’ve got a small child so you got to find your rides where you can :wink:
How often? Pretty much everyday unless I’m working away. One car family and my wife is no way near keen enough for a 10 mile each way hilly commute on horrific roads. Plus she takes our son to the childminder so she wins out on the car front.
What sort of bike? MTB mostly, see above. Actually sold my road bike recently.

Ace, one for the spares bin :)

Superfly AL Pro is superb ride but not a patch on the Anthem in terms of weight/value. Medium Superfly Al pro is 28lb dead with a set of midrange Shimano SPDs on.

Value and weight wise, Canyon is going to be your best bet.

What’s it for anyway? Are you just after a lightish trail bike or actual racing/marathons?

It’s a particular good combo that tyre and rim. Mine seal on one press of the track pump!

You could do a lot worse than a Stick-E Nevegal or Blue Groove upfront in my opinion and on that budget. You might find some in the sales. DTc version’s aren’t all that though which is probably to blame for their not so favourable reputation these days. Stick-E Blue Grove 2.35 will be vastly better than the basuc compound Queen or King…

Both Kendas are a bit slow for the rear but some of the WTB tyres come up pretty big and work well on the back and are very fast (Weirwolf and Wolverine) and they do a cheaper version.

If you’re pretty handy, you’ll get down both with the saddle up. I reckon I could manage it personally but I wouldn’t say I’d enjoy it!

29-1s are superb, as are Ralphs…

Presumably you are not saying that you couldn’t ride a Gyro down Snowdon, Torridon etc. You just wouldn’t choose it if that were what you were riding every day.

Bingo, but finding the limits, I did the FOD DH on mine and was well comfortable, and popped in some top 10s on Strava, it’s by no means an incapable, timid a bike.

The Five29 does seem to be getting be being launched just as the market seems to be agreeing that 29ers only really work for XC and shorter travel trail bikes.

You mean as Spesh announce their 29er Enduro? Love it or hate it but the Enduro is normally a significant barometer of the market…

Back/Up for me…

private spec so didn’t have the shop build shortfalls.

Yeah for clarity, I should probably add that my Gyro has spent most of it’s time in a ‘private’ spec.

How ‘horrible’ is the Scottish stuff you’re riding? The only time I would personally consider the Five29 over the Gyro is if I was riding Snowdon/Helvellyn/Torridon type stuff most of the time. Or, if I was after an Alps uplift friendly 29er.

I thought you described it perfectly with your 120/69 vs 140/67 observation – only the Five29 would be a pound heavier in the frame, the appropriate fork will be a pound heavier, and no doubt the appropriate tyres will be a pound heavier. So then it’s 120/69 vs 140/67 + 3lb.

For me it’s this clearcut:

Natural riding (in my case mainly Wales/Quantocks) that isn’t Snowdon etc level: Gyro
Trail centre/strava bombing: Gyro
Non competitive fun XC/Marathon riding: Gyro

Big arse mountains: Five29
Crazy steep ‘nadgecore’ (I’m talking about rideable but not walkable steep): Five29
DH on a 29er for the hell of it: Five29
Alps trips: Five29

Only grey area for me is probably UK Enduro… Afan would prob suit the Gyro, a traditional Inners course maybe the Five29, if you could get the weight down still.

I’m still really surprised by Northwind’s experience (although don’t doubt what he says as personal experiences are just that) as the Gyro has blitzed my climbing, flat and descending times set by Superfly 100 AL and Tallboy AL… my 2008 Five doesn’t even get a look in!

I should probably add that I don’t personally think the Gyro falls behind the 26er Five in outright capability until you start doing big drops and jumps, or in situations when you’d be bolting on a 34 or 36 fork/Lyrik anyway…

Paceman has got it right. At the end of the day, a Gyro is a burly build Tallboy and the Five29 is a Tallboy LT – very simple, very obvious, different intended uses.

There are other manufacturers with bikes in their range with more overlap than the Gyro/Five29 IMO…

The biggest problem for the Gyro will be the name, or more so the Five29 name. Maybe they should have called it the Orange Four29 and Five29, surely that clears things up?

ir_bandito: argh crap, I’ve always liked the Peregrine but that’s well nice! Want! Can’t have…

Superflys work really well in smaller sizes.

If you’re going to lug around the extra frame weight and tolerate the slacker angles going up, why run whippy, flexy race wheels which stop from from actually using any of the bikes capability going down?

Likewise, I wouldn’t run All Mountain wheels on a DH bike.

I’ve seen a lot of crazy light under-built Fives, doesn’t mean I agree with them!

Edit: the AC Race wheels are a 1450g 29er race wheel, they actually hold the Gyro back a tiny bit, they’d be way out of their depth on a Five29. Think Stans Gold Race for something similarish…

I got one of them more XC biased Fives that nudges in around 28lb… if it wasn’t a spare bike I could probably rape the Gyro for nice bits and go sub 27, maybe even 26… not overly compromised either given it’s a non-taper, 9mm back end one from 2008.

Is the Five29 frame really 3lb heavier than the Gyro frame?

Nope, but a Black Gold Five29 was over a Pro Spec Gyro. Factor in the Fork (which is around a pound heavier for the 34 Float) and the kind of kit you’d expect to run to get the most out of their respective qualities, that’s where the weight comes in. I run the American Classic All Mountains on my Gyro (which would be ideal on the Five29 as well and would drop a shed load of weight) and I sometimes run the Race versions if I feel like it. But you’d never even entertain putting the Races on a Five29.

Rusty, out of interest, would you be ok with your only choice being Canyon or Boardman and everyone else riding the same thing? And if that was the case, do you think those two brands would continue to be the same price they are now?

My fear is that before long you’ll only be able to buy a Canyon but it’ll be Orange money… extreme example I know but is the reality all that far off before long?

Although I suspect the reality will actually be Specialized/Trek/Giant following suit in order to compete.

The Conti wirebeads are awful. I weighed a 2.1 X-King and it wasn’t too far off a 2.2 folding rubber queen!

Shows the importance of a test ride ultimately as it’s different for everyone. I’ve still not swung a leg over the Five29 but I’ve got an older Five (but newer than Roverpig’s). I’ve found the Gyro to be one of the funner and more nimble 29 FS bikes I’ve ridden (I’m specifically thinking compared to the very good Tallboy AL and Superfly AL)

That said, 1×10, dropper and nice wheels make a difference, but I was comfortably setting Strava PBs even in standard Pro spec that I’d previously set on the Five, Superfly and Tallboy at various points.

I think it jumps quite nicely myself, and I also see the point of it being a very quick singletrack riding bike. Also, it’s a good 3lbs lighter than a Five29 – maybe the bad tyres were masking any weight benefit the Gyro has? I’ve got a HD on the front and a 2.25 Nic on the rear and I find it to be no slouch for it’s weight and travel. Good technical climber too.

Mind you, I always felt the ST4 made a lot of sense once riding it :roll:

Squarespace is awesome too and well worth a few quid a month. I work in an agency and tend to only work on bespoke £15k–£50k websites, for anything below that, modifying something like Squarespace is hard to beat.

http://www.squarespace.com/

And for portfolio stuff, I wouldn’t be banking or even worrying about search traffic. Word of mouth and sharing it with people she meets will see vastly more useful traffic. Get a nice business card done and get her networking. She needs to be finding excuses to meet photographers and filmmakers where ever possible. Check out the events scene and make sure she’s got a tablet with her site on it and some cards.

I’d also not worry about the website being too generic, less is more, don’t let it get in the way. If anything I’d sink the money into getting some models sorted and getting studio shots done of your daughters work. No one is going to care about the website, just her work.

All IMO as a designer/photographer and someone who sees loads of portfolios and commissions freelancers all the time…

Interestingly, I was leading an Orange demo day ride last week and with 8 riders, every single one was on a Clockwork, Gyro or Five29. Not a single Five taken out. At least half were already Five owners.

Luke: given conventional wisdom seems to indicate that 29ers are for 6 footers or above, I think it’s valid…