Mine’s the last of the original Anthems, so steeper than the newer Anthem X & only 80mm forks on it, can be a bit lively at times on the steep stuff, but I love it. The slightly slacker Anthem X is a bit more relaxed & easier to control on the more technical stuff.

Welsh Trail centres?
I leave my 456 with 150mm forks at home & take my carbon Giant Anthem-all 23lbs & 3.5″ travel, plenty of bike for most UK trail centres & great fun

Shimano mineral oil? Available from any Shimano dealer

Mine haven’t got any play a year after they first went on the bike.
Gets jet washed etc. so no, shouldn’t happen.

14(& a bit)” I iz massiv!

Is there any chance the caliper body is damaged with corrosion or not

Possible but unlikely to cause major problems.
They use a phenolic composite piston in the HFX9’s & alloy caliper, the pistons tend to wear a groove where they sit around the seal, causing them to either stick or start leaking.
You can almost pump the pistons out before the split the caliper (makes life easier to remove)
Fit new seals & pistons, rebleed & job done.

Difficult one to answer not knowing how fit you are now,age, what you consider to be ‘dead fit’ what you want to achieve etc.
Don’t forget though as well as training you need rest to allow your body to recover from training.

I didn’t look how much the french pay, or do they all get the 75euro rate?
Really looking forward to it & great excuse to buy new shiney bits for the road bike!

Change to winter bike & carry on riding.

I quite agree, but it is a bridleway.
Live & let live etc.
I’m not condoning the building of dangerous trail hazards that are designed to hurt cyclists, but we don’t have sole use of the trails.

Is this the end of biking as we know it?

I would have thought they’ll be a global ban on cycling as a sport due to the potential dangers.

Just a thought, but some trail obsticles are put in place by horse riders for themselves to use as jumps, they’re not put there by upset ramblers/dog walkers/landowners.

Anyone had any joy filling in a contact form on DX?
It’sasking for the SKU, which I’ve copied from it’s own website & it’s telling me it’s in the wrong format.

Yes, Giant have fitted a minimum insert sticker for some years now, I remember seeing it on the NRS’s around 03?

cos i don’t wana contaminate my brakes, ive heard having even a bit of dot 4 in a system that uses mineral oil makes a balls of them

It can, the wrong fluid can make the seals swell up & fail.
Worth trying it though, you should soon be able to tell if something’s not right after you bleed it & put some pressure through it.

No recall in the UK annouced yet though?
crack with the junction of seat tube & top tube? Sounds like seatpost run too high to me!

Give it a sniff, DOT fluid smells differently to Mineral.
But make sure you don’t inhale/drink any of it.

This is why I don’t reply to ‘show me your ******* bike’
The last thing I want is to advertise what I’ve got.
For the record, my storage facility does resemble something like fort knox & isn’t even on my property.

Breakless or brakeless?

A school without a slide projector???
Now that really does make me feel old!!!
My mother gave one to a charity shop a month or so ago, might be worth looking in a few see if you can find a cheap one there?

Buy/borrow a slide scanner & do them yourself?
Or can you not just use the slides & a projector instead, or do they have to digital files?

Good ol’ friendly LBS, they usually come in new frames, so worth asking there.

Hope hubs handbuilt onto Open Pro’s?
Did a pair for someone who raced 2 full seasons of cx & training before they needed re rimming as braking surface was worn out.
About as reliable as you’ll get & easy to service hubs.
Either that or Kysriums IMO.

Same as JEngledow tomorrow (but not in the same place)
local ride sunday morning & Photographing a Christening on Sunday afternoon.

Having spent 8 years fixing, building & riding bikes, IME Shimano is more reliable.
Sorry if you don’t like that Mat, but just how it seems in the workshop & out with the guys who race (that I mechanic for anyway)
Have niggles with both, but seem to replace more actual broken & problematic SRAM components than Shimano, well, all except for chains.
Edit, sorry 8 years professionally fixing & building- a touch longer DIY & riding 😉

I’m in the process of setting up a repair business, based in North or Nottingham, feel free to contact me via my profile if you want to have a chat about it.

How close to Doncaster do you need the mechanic to be?

Sherwood Pines in 5 mins ride from my front door, used to ride there 2/3 times a week, but since the trail ‘improvements’ I’ve been there once since the summer.
Some of the trails are very good fun if you can find them away from the main marked trail, but ther amount of traffic on them has wrecked them, especially while it’s this wet.

I’d clean it up & use it.
The ripples in the down tube?? That would be a concern to me unless:
A. it is very very minor &
B. It was cheap.

I’m heading to the Peak District on tuesday if you want to come along?

‘will’ on here rides his in the Peak District a fair amount, SS too for extra gnarr. Doesn’t seem to have many problems with it either.

Joe Blow at home & it’s ok but nothing more.
Had a Giant own brand Pro one in the shop & that was fantastic, but came with a price to match.

Love Tubs, are you an ‘engineer’ by any chance?

Think BETD can sleeve it back to the original size, about £40 I think, or french BB’s are available that tighten on themselves instead of the frame, but you’d only be able to use square taper then iirc.

Anthem X complete bike (2010) can be found for around £1000 for the X4, with Fox Forx as standard. Strip the rest of the bits to sell on & you’ve got a very cheap bike. Same frame as the rest of the range too.

If only I’d seen that before the end!
Someone has got a serious bargain, what a classic design & at a fraction of the price of a ‘proper’ Manitou softail.

Depends on where/what tyres/conditions etc.
eg have got 32psi in 2.1 Nobby Nics on DT 4.2rims, 26psi in 2.3conti’s on 717’s & 38psi in Maxxis 1.8 medusa’s on 717’s at the moment, but sometimes run as low as 22 in bigger tyres 2.35 High Rollers etc.

Get married (feb)
Mountain Mayhem solo again
Sleepless in the saddle,either solo or team
couple of duathlons-Clumber Classic for one.
Some big proper mountain rides, really want to get out in the wilds instead of being stuff in traffic jams on the trails in the Peak District & locally.

There’s no law from stopping them using them for whatever they want.
The image belongs to the photograger who took it or the agency they’re working for if it’s an agency.
But it is considered very poor practice to use any image like that without a model release form being filled in & signed.
Ask them, I’m sure they won’t mind.
I know I’d rather sort things like that out before the shoot, as any decent pro would.

Holly

Smudge

Oscar

Leena

Della