Is it 29 or 27.5 or mullet? The pic with the white sidewall Maxxis looks Mullet.
How well sealed is that swat box? The one on my Stumpjumper does leak a little and I have to dry out the tool bags now and again. I would be concerned about the tools and the shock being in a moist environment that’s partially sealed.
Stashing tools around a bike is good design (in some cases) but nothing new and even though I use my SWAT box I agree with @thegeneralist, build a better bike and let me worry about where the tools are stashed.
Having said all that it does look a lovely bike, but I would worry about where that SWAT box is positioned, rock strikes, water and a big gap in the frame where it needs to be extra strong. Does the frame have a lifetime warranty?

@damascus – Just sent a message with some info, but a good idea to ask on here, see also in my message about using the Facebook Group.

@bigfoot – many thanks, tried the micro adjustment at the back and that seems to have cured it. Don’t know why I hadn’t looked at this before, there was no “manual” in the box, so I really didn’t pay any attention to it. It’s a helmet, don’t you just put it on your head and ride? :-)

@bigfoot, it has an adjustment to make the rear part of the cage go up and down, will try adjusting that and see how it goes. Thanks

Good review and nice helmet, very similar to my Bell 4Forty. Like the pricing bit of the review, you don’t always have to pay the RRP. Nice one @Ross Demain

Forget the price of the Yeti. WTF!!! Who wears dungarees????? And at £450 you’re having a giraffe. Wear those with any of the boys and girls I ride with and you will be the butt of the jokes forever more. And another thing, £130 for a shirt! For cycling! The worlds gone mad. Have all those people with £10k+ E-MTB’s got nothing better to spend their money on? Are the dungaress and shirt E-MTB specific by any chance?

I bought the same pump as the OP in May this year and have had no problems at all with it. It replaced my Lidl/Aldi £5.99 track pump that had done great service over many years, but finally gave up the ghost and failed when pumping up my Schwalbe Tire Blaster to 10 bar for the umpteenth time.

Good piece and good advice. I would add to the stolen bikes bit, if possible ask to see the original purchase receipt. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but if they have one its 99.9% not a stolen bike. I’m Looking around on e-bay/Gumtree/Facebook at the moment and there are lots of “pandemic” purchases now up for sale “bought it last year, but now not riding it…..”, especially as we get into the winter months.

@donslow – we did the route a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. The route has only officially existed for about a year so no way are there going to be any KAW specific signs. The SDW as a walking/cycling route started in the 70’s so the signage you see now has had 50 years to be put in place. It was quite nice though to connect with the SDW and be able to follow the signs rather than keep checking the route on our phones.
Also the KAW route spans 4/5 counties and trying to get all of those councils to put up KAW specific signs would be a nightmare.
Just as a warning, anyone attempting the route without a decent set of maps and/or the .gpx files (and a fully charged phone/garmin/ etc) is in for a bit of a shock. Especially on the eastern side between Reading and the SDW (meets at South Harting) as the route twists and turns all over the place on lanes and BW’s.
We alternated between our two phones, one in use and one on charge with a power pack, the one not being used was put in “flight” mode to save the battery power.

@StuF – depends on what you are looking for? Gnarly singletrack then go to Puddletown Forest. Wide tracks with stunning views then try the South Dorset Ridgeway or the Inland Coastal Path to the Purbecks. Or for a bit of both try the Purbecks.

@ampthill – I think its epic, great views and lots of ups and downs

@jimmy748 – depends on what your view of epic is? The tracks between the Purbecks and Weymouth, which is effectively the inland coastal path, are great to ride and have stunning views and if you don’t live near the sea then you would probably consider this an “epic” ride.

My mate Rich at the top of Bronkham Hill on the South Dorset Ridgeway looking down to The Fleet and the English Channel

Am I missing something? What makes those Premax Creams women specific? I know I failed my biology o’level, but surely skin is skin no matter what gender or race you are. So the only difference I can see is marketing bullsh*t and the target audience. I think they are missing a trick, if it says “chamois cream” anyone might buy it, if is says “women specific chamois cream” that probably excludes the majority of the male half of the world’s population.

@poopscoop – Yep that’s the one at Winchester Hill Fort. Fortunately we were going down which was great fun, but as we descended I clearly remembered walking up most of it in 2016 when we did the SDW over a couple of days. It was very dry at the time, but the surface was so loose we couldn’t get any traction and just kept spinning out in the low gears you need to get up there.

@jameso – Gotta agree with you, there is no definitive bike or set up for this ride. There are so many different surfaces and terrains. While I had great fun on my FS Stumpy if I had to pick one bike for the trip I would say a HT MTB with some reasonably fat 2.0-2.3 tubeless tyres just to reduce the chance of punctures (it is hedge/blackthorn cutting season) and make the ride a bit more comfortable. But then of course you have to take into account your own riding style, what bike/s do you have available to you and how much kit you are going to carry.

@boxwithawindow – No problem. We were mostly very lucky with the weather. Sat/Sun were perfect riding weather sunny but not to hot. Monday started with heavy rain but we had a short day planned so we had a lazy breakfast waiting until the rain blew thru before setting off. Tuesday was our big day, 100km and 5000ft of ascent, we had heavy showers on and off all day and we took shelter a couple of times but in the main just rode thru it. Wednesday was sunny all day a great way to finish.

@boxwithawindow – A few pics of the ride ….

The climb up on to the Ridgeway

View north from Court Hill campsite

Salisbury Plain

The Ridgeway
[/url]
Devil’s Punch Bowl

Devil’s Punch Bowl
[/url]
Winchester Hill Fort (SDW)

Meon Valley

Climbing out of the Meon Valley

@mudmuncher – Both on MTB’s. Me on my carbon Specsh Stumpjumper FS with 2.3 tyres and my mate Rich on his Bombtrack Beyond +1 (no suspension back or front) with 2.5 tyres. Richard’s wife carried the camping gear between sites in their T5 so we could travel light which made the riding more fun, especially for me flicking the Stumpy around on the downhills. We both run tubeless and with a combined 440 miles of riding we had no punctures and no mechanicals.

@boxwithawindow – Really enjoyed it. Ok some sections aren’t what you would choose if doing a day ride, but it’s 200+ miles so it can’t be all gnarly downhill singletrack. For me the best sections were day 2 and 3, 10 miles across Salisbury Plain, 40 miles of the Ridgeway and the 9 miles of Thames path into Reading. Photo’s are more of the personal kind, and haven’t sorted them out yet, will try and post a few later today.

Thanks for all the advice boys and girls, extremely helpful. The Sonder Frontier looks favourite at the moment, ticks all the boxes and looks good value at under a grand, even with sus forks. I had meant to say in the original post that my budget was around £1k. There are some quality bikes mentioned like A.L.I.C.E., Salsa and Surly etc, but they are a lot more expensive and currently very difficult to get hold of. Need to get my name on the waiting list, make some space in the garage by selling my 2005 Scott Genius (anyone interested?) and maybe get the wife to make a Sonder my Christmas present this year!

@trailwagger – that’s a lot of bosses! What bike is that.

@hopkinsgm – the Sonder Frontier ticks the boxes and under a grand even with some front suss

You could try contacting the Quantock Rangers for advice on the car park – https://www.quantockhills.com/meet-the-team

As Damascus says this could be dodgy if someone hits you. I had a low slung sporty Merc hit my tow bar last year, he hadn’t noticed that I had stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let some folk cross! Never actually touched my car’s body work, but the damage to his from hitting the tow bar and then reversing off of it was massive, you would have thought that he had seriously rear ended somebody. Add an extra 6 inches to my tow bar and it would have gone thru his radiator and anything else in the way.

Still reading Issue 138, 1 Article per night before turning off the bedside lamp. Will 139 arrive before I run out of things to read?

We did this a few years ago. Rode up on the road then “hike a bike” up the steep embankment to the BW. I remember it as being wet and very slippery over the rocks, put the brakes on and you just kept going downhill! It’s gnarly but all doable. We had a good laugh all the way down, definitely dropper post terrain!. Is the watch tower still there about half way down? Great views from the top of it.

Might worth checking out (if you can) what the relationship is like between the LBS and Orbea. I had a very similar issue with a Scott part and after a couple of months of waiting the LBS finally admitted that Scott wouldn’t deal with them due to being at loggerheads with them over unpaid bills. I went to another Scott dealer (LBS) and they got the part in 48hrs.

Lose some body weight, far easier and cheaper (actually saves you money) than changing components which will probably fail anyway due to not being beefed up enough for an e-bike. Saw a group of overweight e-bikers recently who could easily have lost the equivalent of their bikes in body weight. If you ride an e-bike it’s going to be very heavy compared to a “bike”, get over it or get a “bike”.

Really poor presentation, ok English clearly isn’t their first language, but the two presenters looked and sounded like this was the first time they had seen the script. For a company like Bosch and for something as important as this get some pro’s in to do the presentation. Just because you have a senior position in a company it doesn’t make you a great communicator in front of what sounded like quite a small audience most of whom were streaming rather than actually in the same room. I switched it off after a few minutes, including the naff video, and read the STW highlights instead, I was embarrassed for the presenters. Maybe it was more professional in German?

Cost of Ownership issue, the more expensive and complex the product the higher the cost of ownership over the life of the product.
The current cassette on my Stumpjumper has done in excess of 2,500 miles and is on its second chain. I have a new chain and cassette ready to fit, but I am almost tempted to just change the chain just to see if the old cassette can cope.
Prices have gone up a lot since the last cassette I bought (June 2020) which cost £36, now £56. Similarly the chain was £14 now £18. Brexit or pandemic supply and demand issues or a bit of both plus natural inflation??

Did I fall asleep and wake up on 1 Apr 2022?????
Actually not as I am listening to TMS and England’s bowlers destroying the Indian batting line up or line down as they are now :-)
Haven’t noticed it anywhere else in the thread yet, but “£30 for a pair of socks!!!!!” you’re having a Giraffe.
What next?
I have a slip streaming buff with special rib sections to use under my helmet that reduces drag and causes the resulting slipstream to give me more down force and corner much faster. True story (another comment from Eddie Izzard)

My Garmin 310xt gave me half the calorie count of a friend I ride with, who also had a 310xt. The difference was he used an HR monitor, when I also used my HR monitor the count was about the same. I guess it’s all down to the Garmin algorithm used for calculating calories based on ride stats.
My Garmin Instinct (built in HR monitor) which I started using last year gives a figure on the lower side compared to the 310xt. This figure is more realistic in my view and never gets anywhere near the 2000+ calories the 310xt said I was burning.
I would never take the calorie count as an absolute/accurate figure, but rather just use it as an indicator of how hard the ride was when compared to other rides.
Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics and Garmin Data! :-)

Thanks guys, Will give it a go. Will cook them first to soften them up, should still be ok to mount on a hair rig and try a little flavour enhancer. Cheers

£17.49 on Bikeinn website, a big however …….. postage is £7.49!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bit of a cheat, but I rode on Wednesday (Dorchester), Thursday (Purbecks) and Friday (Ridgeway between Dorchester and Weymouth). However this pic is from Wednesday when we came across a bouncy castle park at Poundbury, about 15-16 of them with hundreds of kids playing on them.

Spooky, literally as I was reading this thread the postman pops the mag thru the letterbox. Great timing for a miserable (weather-wise) weekend.

They were one of the original e-bike makers and make very good solid bikes, but everyone else has caught up and gone past them now. I would look elsewhere if he is going for “big mountain” days out, lighter better spec’ed bikes out there. You can buy a range extender or spare battery for most bikes, they are expensive though (£400-500) and don’t forget that you have to carry that extra weight (4-5kg) with you all day.

I live a few miles south of Puddletown. The MTB tracks in Puddletown Forest are not marked in anyway, apart from the odd BW sign. There are plenty of trails marked on Trailforks if you have the app. The main fire trails are easy to follow and you will see lots of locally made trails to the left and right, which are the steep and gnarly bits, I am afraid its a matter of go there and explore. If you go a further 30 minutes east (by car) the Purbecks provide some great riding and great scenery. Like a lot of places at present Dorset is full of tourists, travelling by car can be painfully slow and everywhere off of the beaten track seems to be very very busy with walkers. From the description of what you want Child Okeford sounds the best bet – http://okefordhillbikepark.co.uk/
I haven’t been to Haldon for a while, but found it quite tame, even the “black” run and would guess that at the moment it will be rammed with kids.
Quantocks are brilliant, its either up or down, not much flat. Do 4 or 5 of the downhills and you will easily clock up 2500-3000ft of climbing getting back to the top sections.

@DezB – perhaps the title should be changed as well – Who is Tim Pidcock?
:-) :-)

Thanks all. Ordered some of the Burgtec Bartender, I thought they looked better than the Deathgrips and the more I looked at the DG’s the more I didn’t like the “mushroom” section on the inner part.

Good on them, keep up the good work!

@singlespeedstu – Thursday’s definitely count, I’m retired, every day’s a weekend! :-)
This is Middlebere Heath (Dorset) at the end of Thursday night’s ride in the Purbecks, perfect end to the day.