From running an ecommerce biz myself, I seem to remember what Chats saying as being true…

Kenda Blue Groove Front, Kenda Nevegal or Small Block 8 Rear.

Cheers guys! Yes, I'm very much in love with the new blue ones! In terms of travel, I've got a set of Floats which I've had dropped to 100mm, I could get them set back to 120 or 140, 100 seems to be the norm for jump/4X though… thoughts?

I'm really worried about what size to get though, instinct says go for a 14.5" but not sure… I'll try emailing them…

Lanesra, are literally such an ass that you actually bothered to bump this from page two, just to be an ass?

Fools Gold

15QR is great! Massive improvement (others argue not mind) over a normal QR fork… I've owned 9mm Floats and 15QR Vanillas and have tried 15QR Floats. I'm all for 15QR 🙂

And a Zesty is just fine down Cwmcarn DH course.

Cwm Carn xc, Mendips, FOD, any welsh trails

I have met people who think 100mm is enough for the UK, but tbh a 10, 20, 30 etc ft drop is the same height wherever you are…

To be fair to Nick Egg, None of the places you ride are hardly 10, 20, 30 ft drop territory and you've not stated the need to do this as a requirement. In my experience a 6" bike would not be any faster or enjoyable than a 5" bike at those locations. In fact, at Afan and the Quantocks, the ST4 was a more suitable and enjoyable bike than the Five (and I'm saying that and own a Five)

Knee and Shin pads are never great for XC, 661 Kyle Strait knee pads are pretty good for XC but you'll struggle to get a shin pad on as well.

Well the word Brit has never been used in a derogatory way to such an extent – it's not the simple shortening that's the issue…

Second thoughts,

what breakneckspeed said…

Former Tour de France champion Frederic Moncassin wins

😯

Kenda's work best as low pressure as you can get away with. I'm 12st and I run mine 25 front, 28 rear. I'd run the front at 20 if I could be arsed with tubeless…

I mean, I'm sure a DMR or somethign would be more than fine, but look how blue it is!!!

I'm just a sucker for anything made from folded sheets in Halifax (it's an illness, I know) and I am looking to swap my Genesis iO for something a little more… 'gnar'

one who is just dragged around by their hubby…?

My wife certainly needs to be dragged out, but not because she doesn't enjoy the riding, more because she's just a weekend, hide under the duvet sort who initially needs to be dragged out even just for breakie!

I find my wife's bike gets worse than mine because she doesn't ride as often as me in as bad conditions (bare with me). So her bike is always in "ok" condition and it gets ignored in order to maintain my own constantly filthy fleet. Eventually the neglect of hers adds up and it turns out every component is dead when I get round to it!

Yes!

People mention not being able to corner properly on them but surely, if tyre a) lets you corner faster and harder without crashing than tyre b), the problem is with tyre b) not the rider surely?

MT500s are great but try to limit your walking around in them, I forgot and was walking around the carpark all day at the Bike Radar demo at Afan, the soles are in ribbons :'( Whoops!

That white pompino is lurrrrvly!

Yeah why not, one ride old, bit mucky with Afan spray (it's done a moist lap of W2), names your price?

Avoid if you're less than 12st – even with the "sit right on the nose knack", it's simply too heavily sprung for the lighter rider.

Does that even register on the GNAR-o-meter?

Bloody Halifax… Had a Credit card with £5k on it. Had 2 letters in two weeks boasting about how they've generously upped my limit, to £7k then £10k, and then two weeks later they take away my 9.9% rate and put it up to 19%!!!

Clearly an attempt to get me to max out the new limit before stinging me with a new rate!

I think a lot of it is down to what you're used to, I can happily ride around on MKs once I remember they're on, it's when I forget I'm not running my usual Kenda combo and start taking liberties in the corners that the MKs come up desperately short in comparison.

In fact, I don't even mind it on the rear, it's the front where I get bitten.

Horrid things, black chilli compound and all!

I think I've crashed everytime I've had the misfortune to ride a bike with them on, I forget and assume the Kenda Stick-E BG/Nev grip levels are going to be there, next thing I know I'm face down on the ground! 🙄

I'm sure I just typed singletrack, not facebook….

Also, based on a lot of maintenance schedules I see going on when out and about, properly serviced and maintained Deore is way way better than neglected XTR which I see plenty of! 😀

Tbh, when I inevitably rip my X.9 mech off (I can't believe it's still in one piece after some of the stacks it's had) I'm only going for X.7 I reckon…

And I ride to the MAXX0R too!

it's basically a more aggressive type of cross country riding.

Read: mincing about round Llandegla..?

I don't own one but did about 100km on a '09 model, no ghost shifting so don't think it's specific to the bike…

Foxy: I've got some time off in November, I'm doing my CTC Trail Leader award and then hopefully knuckling down to it in the week I have off afterwards.I'll keep you posted!

GaVgAs: The ST4 responded very well to having a set of Nevegals on it. The Contis were seriously letting it down. I actually found it a more capable descender than a Meta 5.5 I rode around the same time. It was ultimately a bumpier ride but it seemed to track straighter and more accurately than the Meta.

Vanilla?

Came rushing into this thread secretly hoping it was related to the latest BT homehub, that despite a computer science degree, I cannot get to hold anything resembling a wifi network for even a second.

Nevermind… 🙁

Go faster?

Yes Matt, I'd have to agree with the others here. While it might be component related, I've seen it personally on two ST4s ('09 and a first ride, brand new 2010) and MBR had issues as well. I too had to help a friend remove his front mech trail side to untangle the mess.

Don't get me wrong, I'd have one in a heartbeat, but it would play on my mind.

They're brill but chain suck is a concern and a ST4 pro is barely a 1lb lighter than your Turner… so unless you can afford an SE spec don't expect weight savings.

ST4 is nearly as well built as a Five, it's just about being lower and snappier.

Spesh don't offer lifetime warranty because they believe in the product. It's a numbers game. How many hardrocks and rockhoppers do you think they shift that only do commutes or very occasional light offroading. They know they won't be replacing these under warranty and the more of those they shift, the more likely they are to not lose out offering the lifetime warranty on the more used bikes, lower volume, higher end bikes.

Orange's are a bit more niche, lower volume, enthusiasts bike (not that proper enthusiasts can't ride a spesh) and they probably can't afford to play the numbers game.

Besides, 12 years of Oranges and I've never broken one…

(Of course if I do break my Five it'll be covered new for old on accidental damage to goods away from home)

Needle nose pliers and pull like a bastard seemed to work for me.

Me Agreeable: that's the ones (well sort of, the brown one's are a smaller but similar spieces), we have about Six around every doorway in the block I live in! They look quite small but we found one that must have outgrown it's hole or something because we saw it on the move (argh huge it was) and the next day there were only two left and lots of empty funnels. 😯