Can I cut it?

Yes you can!

I have no idea why you would ever go with a SWB, don’t really understand why VW even make them

I’m the opposite. Guess that’s why they make them! ;)

My 56cm road bike goes sideways across the back

3 trail bikes go in complete, diagonal, in a SWB with a bit of careful packing

2+1 seats are good, not sure if they are standard?

I soundproofed and insulated the metal, made a big difference to panel boom. Carpet lining next, makes it even better. Also getting some LEDs in the tailgate as downlighters, did it in my Vito and it was great for getting changed in laybys in winter!

What are you planning on using it for?
SWB fits in a standard car bay and swallows 5 bikes with the front wheels off, plus loads of room for kit.
If you have parking space at home, don’t park in town and want it as a family camper, LWB gives a good bit more room in the back.

Go Highline spec if you can afford it – cruise, cornering fog lights, air con, multi function steering wheel.

The factory heater looks good, but you can get an aftermarket one fitted with phone control. Text it from the top of the last descent in winter, straight in to a cosy van! When my 6 numbers come up I’m getting that…

Captains seats!
Front parking sensors are good, I would spec them for LWB
Electric folding mirrors are superb on mine, but out gate posts are narrower than unfolded so I use them twice a day.
Twin sliders if you plan on carrying passengers regularly

The benefit of a 150mm back end is wider flanges, which need a wider hub body.

A standard hub does 135 or 142 in a variety of axle fits, 150 does 150 or 157.

In theory you could make spacers to fit a 135/142 into a 150 frame but you would not get the wider flanges and potentially a weaker axle as it’s less supported.

Short answer, you need 2 back wheels.

Fast flowy downhills are where I use my dropper most. And steeps. And tarmac corners. Even techy climbs. And getting off. And stopping for a rest…

A bit like your first ride on clips, you need you need to practice. Go for a ride and make yourself drop it every time you stand up. Use it lots, practice. Then make your riding style take advantage of the greater movement it gives you. Keep plugging away and it’ll become second nature. Or maybe your riding doesn’t need one. But I bet it does.

Sounds like rather than cost the job your are trying to value the house and negotiate with the seller? Bear in mind the relationship between spend and return is not 1:1.

The only way to tell what they add is a professional valuation.

We have looked at a project on our place which would be very expensive, so we asked estate agents for a with/without valuation and they came back and said there’s no return, just do it because you want the space.

It’s also to do with slip and grip and surface traction, not method of propulsion… I can’t use words this morning so here are some pictures

Motocross is generally ridden the same as MTB

Road bikes can let you hang off the inside

That’s that roadies say about Mtb though don’t they…

Looks like a huge rush, massive risk though and I do wonder what happens when it goes wrong and the poor folk who pick up the pieces. No room for crashing, insane learning curve.

My mate does this, sent me a picture of him jumping off the Jungfrau. Wild.

Nearly got divorced over a single drop of lining paper once. We hadn’t even got married at that point!

We now pay someone, she’s brilliant, fast and very reasonable. Recommendation in Sheffield if anyone wants it, drop me a mail.

I got a v3 from JE James last week.
Not a bad guard, the seal protection bit seems to make sense.

:D

I recently bought some factory built straight pull wheels. The back creaked quite a bit. 1/2 a turn on each spoke nipple silenced them.

The Croozer bracket is held on by the QR axle. On my big bike I drilled it out to a 12mm hole and used the bolt through axle.

Needs flat dropouts to work.

It’s great to ride with, you can feel the weight but it doesn’t really affect handling, just great resistance work. In fact I made it up Sheffield’s ‘bastard’ climb at the end of the Parks, 1×10, Nukeproof Mega, Croozer and 2 year old!!

Use the proper tool. A hole punch, like this:

very slowly. then dug up again.

Some idiots smashed not one but both side windows on my van, showering the baby seat with broken glass and leaving us with a 10 mile drive home in the cold and wet with a 1 year old and no windows once. Utter utter pillocks.

They took a first aid kit (can only hope they cut themselves on the glass) and a map, left a socket set, Oakleys and a grand’s worth of fairly easily removed audio (sub, amp, head unit).

Weird.

The only thing that helped me was if their life is that bad that they need to do this, we are still better off than them. After anger and frustration, I felt a bit sorry for them.

The original track, 2000/1 maybe, not only started much lower but also turned left at the fire road after the tight trees, before the motorway. It the then ran across the hill with a long flat pedal (just what you need at this stage after riding that terrain with a 150mm fork) before dropping down and entering the car park in the corner at the very far side from the gondola! Even by 2005 there were big changes from the ‘original’, then it’s changed a lot since.

Anyone know what year the motorway was added? Possibly 2002 looking at the early times, big drop after the first race.

The elevator section after the Tissot arch was pretty special. Even riding it was tough in those days, let alone death grip and jump into the back of the 4x berm which took me all weekend to work up to.

Anyone know when the 4x track was added?

We used a trailer from 1. He loved it, warm and cosy, toys to play with in there. We did a loop under 2 hours mostly off road but used to stop and get him out, unless he was asleep which he did a bit on the road. Was ideal, have me time to ride either with him or with my Mrs.

One great thing with the trailer is we could easily swap mid ride. Ours has 2 hitches so we could do this. I towed the climbs, then swapped and took off dh, then swapped.

Hardtail ideal for something like a Croozer trailer. I had him on my 150mm bike and had to use lockout or else he got jolted while I comfy!

Cotic looks great, up to date geometry’s, stay 26″, cheap forks available…

…or go fully 650b with a Cotic or Bird. Don’t mess about with the wrong wheels, I thought about it, was advised not to and now my Bird Zero AM is built, it’s obvious my feet would be dragging in the floor, it’s got a very low bb with 650b wheels

Park do a 4 sider which is good

http://www.parktool.com/product/four-sided-spoke-wrench-sw-40

The 2 sider flat is a good bit easier to slip onto the nipples. If you are really pro, 2 sider for the fast initial build and 3 pointer for final tension and future maintenance.

My Spokey Pro was good but started ejecting the metal pieces when the nipples got stiff, the plastic seemed deformed a bit.

I got a DT and it’s great. Shown here as the classic.
https://www.dtswiss.com/accessories/proline-tools

Our Wednesday night group realised recently how spoilt we were. We spend all week debating which ride to do, then often change at last minute, then change again mid ride. Rarely cover the same route back to back. Rides usually feature some good tech stuff and end at a good pub. More often than not from the door.

I built a new bike and put a list of must-do and favourite trails to hit and it must have been months worth!

We’re under 3 hours from the Lakes, Wales and 4 to Glentress. Nearish to Llandegla, Gisburn, Sherwood Pines.

We’re spoilt in Sheffield.

Bolehills, Parkwood, Greno, Wharncliffe, Endcliffe Park, Rivelin Valley, Rother Valley and then Lady Cannings, hopefully RADMires soon, then the almost endless Peak District.

Also good parks, pubs, music, industrial history, great outdoor scene and links to the M1. West side nice and leafy, not far from Manchester airport.

Downsides?
Shopping maybe limited, city centre lost out to Meadowhall but that’s not a factor to me.
No main roads head West, but the drive is scenic!
Can’t comment on night life any more!
Some narrow terrace roads so can still feel crowded.
It’s not as ‘obvious’ as other places in terms of a city to visit (compared to say York, Leeds, Manchester) but lots to explore. As somewhere to live to access the lifestyle it’s great.

I made it home 25 years ago and no desire to leave yet.

Some good tips here

http://www.419eater.com

Make sure you get them to send you a photo

Hi! :)

I suspect…

Someone like my Mrs would roll along happily at the same speed on any of the bikes. She stated this, by the way. She’s not into pushing it in any way (although did do 8 runs of Pleney in a day on a hardtail once!) but just enjoys being on a bike

I’m a decent descender (raced DH on the same team as DC for a few years, him Elite, me back in mid pack age group, making up the numbers and doing words/pictures) but lack any real speed or skills. I suspect I’d still brake early, miss lines, bottle jumps and smash into stuff on any bike until I really put the time in to learn it. Might even be initially slower then slowly unlock the potential. A recent shock change then move from 26 to 650b shows this, on Strava anyway.

These guys are pushing the limit and using all the bike, so exploiting all grip available but getting the biggest rewards.

That’s just my theory, would be great to have a clock on a wide range of ability and see if there’s a sweet spot. The ‘industry’ might not like it though :D

At the end of the day Tracey nails it for me, pure speed is fun but I also like skids and my new bike is loads of fun, my ear to ear grin is the only measure I need even if Strava isn’t telling me it’s faster!

I think they also need a mid pack benchmark rider

All those folk are getting the best out of anything and push it to the limits

Would be interesting to see how big an impact technology plays under a flat average mildly unfit rider. Bigger gaps at the technology trumps talent, or smaller as the rider is the limit…

As above, shouldn’t and does are 2 different things. I always expect a couple of shakedown rides where everything is checked and tightened while it settles and beds in, especially on a brand new frame. Linkage bolts are the prime suspect, and if one comes loose then I’d check all others…

A Transition video surfaced, then vanished, recently showing a full strip, grease,
loctite and torque of a box fresh frame. I suspect it vanished as it was too honest and lots of customers (rightly) expected this already.

242 getting harder to get hold of. 243 is the one, same strength, greater oil resistance.

Get the biggest drop you can get away with.

Saddle height less seat tube length will give you the space to work with.

Measure saddle height from a bike you have have.

Seat tube size from the new bike website.

Allow from saddle (or measure to the rails), Charge saddles are 50mm.

A 150mm Reverb needs 215mm from bottom of the collar to middle of the saddle rails. A 125 needs 25mm less of course.

I’m told the way to deal with it is to place your own hand palm down on top of the other person’s hand

I link thumbs and go for the butterfly

The wee fella from Mark’s video is Jackson Goldstone, he has come a long way since the balance bike. Here’s an awesome and sad video all at the same time:

Don’t underestimate the effect of weight. It’s a lot for a little person to cart about, and you’ll end up carrying it at some point!

I made a decent weight saving on the wee fella’s Islabike, cutting down that long seat post and using an alu BMX post for a fiver. It also gives more ground clearance when they progress to the bumps.

She showers in the kitchen sink?
Am I right?

I actually look better in a full face

Then tape some side cutters to the down tube to remove the zip ties…

CofG too high. Put it near the bb for mass centralisation.

The latest one I’ve picked up on is maybe more an Americanism than bull but everyone seems to talk ‘to’ rather than about

I’ll talk to this slide
I’ll now talk to the detail
Here’s the product I’ll talk to

OK then. I don’t think it’ll listen though, talk to us about it

‘Izating’, ‘ifying’ of even both together, izatify….!

If you bought rims, you get 2 spare per rim.

If you are building DT rims, you can do that using a spare spoke to feed the nipples in through the rim and tighten using a standard spoke wrench, if that makes things easier and cheaper…

Zero AM also comes in black if it’s just the colour you don’t like.

I am just under 6′ and riding a medium with 50mm stem/750mm bars. They recommended a large for lots of pedalling but the reach and top tube on the medium is larger than my old 2011 Nukrproof Mega. I wanted a short seat tube for pumptrack/bmx track so went medium and they agreed, ring them for a chat?

It’s awesome. First weekend I jumped jumps I’d not made before (on a 4x bike), rode drops, for PBs on flowy single track and a few seconds off on rocky Peak DH and did a 15 mile ride.

For all long rides Id have a large but the medium is much more suited for what I want it to do.

Bird would have me on a large with a *generous* 570mm reach

TR is 472mm reach.
The medium tr is longer than the zero am, but fork sag will affect this…

Elite Cannibal for MTB. £6.99 on Wiggle, Evans price match. Vice like grip, too my hucking and rock bashing and stair rattling in its stride with a full bottle, no ejecting. Impressed.