shorter

it doesn’t open up the routes/terrain available tho does it?
it quite clearly turns anything vaguely technical into a spazzy tripod or walk so in actual fact riding CX will cause you to stop looking for or ignore many more challenging sections.
CX bikes may well allow you to cover more miles and cover ground faster on the dull pedalling sections of your ride but for actually riding stuff they are nowhere near as versatile as a decent mtb.

weird two models of cranks to narrow your choice between, no?
and Why 175mm?

Cool! 8)

it is singletrackworld and it’s not like you’re new here

I’ll loan stuff to anyone, tbh I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t. But when it comes to giving stuff away I do tend to apply a little thought including “Should you know better”. So the family we bumped into at Nant y Arian with the puncture and no tubes or pump- they can have a tube to get them home, and a bit of advice fixing the bikes up too while we’re at it.

But the guy on the £5000 bike at glentress walking down the fire-road with a flat, sorry chap, you can walk. Either you should have known better, or you will by the end of today. Uh?
Why should the family not know better too?

I have ridden with “that guy” he puts one on when he assesses the situation to warrant enough risk to require one. (as do I)
Absolutely fine for guiding/coaching company, event organisers etc. to make rules to cover themselves.

sheared at the bolt head, aye? this happened a few years ago to a set of Saints I (still) have, I drilled right through the centre of the bolt then simply wound it out with an old screwdriver jammed into it. replaced with a standard metric bolt o higher quality IIRC

😯

bushing wear?

😆
He’s simply far too heavy for the spring he’s using and trying to compensate by turning knobs.
Don’t be tight, the correct weight spring should always be included in your budget when buying a new or S/H fork/shock. Correct spring weight is the starting point for the set-up of all suspension.

You can always wear loose trousers/long sleeves over decent hardshell protection if you’re a self-conscious worrier.

I’d rather have a camber than any other suggestion so far for what riding you’ve described

Look at the more lightweight stuff thats now available rather then the full on storm trooper DH kit.

*facepalm*

Like my g-form pads a lot, though much to GW’s disappointment I still haven’t fallen off (whilst wearing them).

So..what is it you like about them? seriously? my only disappointment is in you still recommending kit you have absolutely no experience of with regards to functionality.

I don’t actually care what protection anyone else wears to ride their bike.. folk who comment on others lack of/over protection should mind their own business.

atrocious conditions today, would have been miserable doing an MTB ride or a road ride, but on the cx bikes it was brilliant
tripoding your way down easy descents? that does indeed sound Brilliant!! 8)

Pretty much anything that the average MTBer would call “trail riding” you can do on a CX. Some of it faster, some of it slower.

do people really go around categorising their rides as “trail riding” these days? 😕

there have been pics posted on STW in the past of riders going down steps and getting air out of bombholes on CX bikes.

Wow!! really? What is STW’s fascination with riding down steps all about? my 2yr old can ride down steps on her 10″ wheeled bike, there’s absolutely nothing difficult about it and so long as you run your tyres hard enough pretty much any bike can be used for it.

If you think that mountain biking is just about going down hill as fast as you can and jumping off things, you’ll hate it.

thing is Duirdh, for some, mountainbiking actually is ONLY about going fast DH and jumping.. takes all sorts, eh?

Personally, having weighed the two springs I have in my garage – a Nukeproof Ti and a Cane Creek Steel, both being identical in dimension (450lbs/inch 2.25″ stroke) the weight saving is about 280g.

they may be labeled the same stroke/rate but other than that your two springs are not identical in dimension at all.
OPs question seemed to be specifically about replacing a Steel Fox spring (quite light as steel springs go) with a Nukeproof Ti spring(quite heavy as Ti springs go) I’d be surprised if his total weight saving was over half what you’ve quoted above.

To maximise the saving, go for a spring with the right a shorter stroke length, that way you’re not carrying around extra coils you don’t need.

Just make sure there’s still at least 2.5″ of space between the coils.

been running shorter stroke rear springs on my bikes for years.

Cougar’s right, the skill in old arcade machines was in learning those paterns so you could complete the game and start again.. in the early 80s I spent afar too much time hanging around inside (and outside 😉 ) arcades, there were quite a few games I could complete multuiple times and that one 10p would last an hour and a half easily. You could learn the reels on puggys too and make a pretty decent living out of your winnings (until caught)

ChrisL – no offence but you strike me more as being the type of kid who’d rarely leave his bedroom rather than hanging around arcades.

TINAS don’t flatter yourself, you’ve never wound me up 8)

messiah. Gwin lost his chain in both his quali and final run at the last DH WC running a clutch mech AND DH chain device WITH a team and full time professional mechanic looking after his bike.
A clutch mech without a guide up front wouldn’t hold a chain on for just pissing about in the street.(for me anyway)

we may even see less fannies riding around with one chainring and massive dinnerplate sprocket cassettes and no chain device by then.. (it’s only 1000000 or so “1x?” STW threads away

hopefully there’ll be nice 5 or 6 speed cassettes around by then along with decent bolt thru hubs with short freehub bodies and wider dishless flanges.

Chuckie egg was brilliant on the spectrum but absolutely rubbish on anything else.

WGAF about your frame? when you lose your chain cranking hard out a corner and smash your body into the front of the bike before getting spat out the front door?

A shimano ramped chainring will work absolutely fine with a proper chain device.

If you don’t need a chain guide on a single ring with rear derailleur set-up a fashionably set-up mtb is probably overkill for the riding you’re doing.

Just plug an old C64/Spectrum into a **** off big LCD TV

That’ll “upgrade” the graphics 😉

Nope!
What does your current steel spring weigh?
and what rate is it in lb?

Fox steel springs aren’t all that heavy and you’ll be lucky if a Nukeproof 2.25 x 400lb (for ref.) spring comes under 300g.
You’ll lose more weight the longer the spring length and higher tha rate but I still wouldn’t expect more than 150g saving even if you are a pieboy.

is a 100g saving right in the centre of your frame really going to help you?

OP – Speedball (Remix?) is already available on PSN to download..
as is Alien breed

Not really fussed about any old game getting remade, many were amazing first time round but to stand the test of time a remix would pretty much have to be a completely different game. remakes/sequels of older games often completely lose the addictive simpleness of the original IMO

<EDIT> except roll playing/adventures and strategy games which I didn’t really play the first time round.

“I was keeping up with loads of bikes, covets, 5’s, no probs.”

“I can assure you it was me not the bike”

Fashions, “rules” and accepted wisdom on bike setup should not be blindly accepted…

Agreed! 8)

think I’ll try 104cm tho. sounds spot on! 😉

😆

Have you ever ridden a BMX?

you can jump pump track tables or manual rollers on one of these too..
I’d honestly struggle to find a bike you couldn’t

but if you’re happy riding round drops that’s cool!

Any lbs that sells cheap kids bikes like concept, emelle etc can get hold of a suitable crankset

Better for sit down manuals too 😕

Remove the other crank arm and BB – it will be loose ball FAG style (you can cheat and just remove l/h cup) clean, re-grease an re-asemble. ( new bearings if req.) Source a new crankset of similar length and fit it to the (clean) axle to the correct torque. Done.

LH BB cup adjusts bearing preload, lockring holds it in place

Unless you are going to be hitting 50ft doubles on a supercross bmx track I wouldn’t worry too much about exact gear ratios.

The blenders slack seat tube angle seems pretty daft to me. It not only compromises it’s ability as a fun all-rounder but is probably part of the reason it doesn’t have nice short chainstays. Has Charge ever explained their thinking with the bike’s odd geometry? Not that it matters, they got their image/marketing rightso still sold loads of them.

Taunton. Fits all your criteria

Dunno, are you going to try them and tell us?

Kayak – it is indeed a US thing to run your rear lever on the right. But if you only ride one brake it also makes sense to use your stronger hand.
I run just a rear brake on both my bmxs but as I ride much more mtb/road than bmx I run the lever on the left.

The actual gearing isn’t all that different between a racebike and a DJ/park bike. Park/street bikes have smalller chainrings for clearance but have micro sized rear sprockets to make up for the smaller chainring.
Both are swappable cheaply if you don’t get on with the standard gearing.
Biggest difference going to a pure race bike will be weight, nice light race bmx’s accelerate soooo faaaast! (But don’t expect one to last too long dirtjumping if you’re a beginner)

i do road rides on my road bike, mountainbike rides on my MTB and cyclo-cross rides on my CX

and never leave home without wearing the correct outfit for each no doubt?
I do road rides on my roadbike, one of my mountainbikes or BMXs. Mountainbike rides obviously need to be done on a mountainbike so I’ll use either a hardtail, rigid, full sus or DH mountainbike depending on the terrain/uplift situation. I don’t have a CX bike but from an early age I’ve ridden roadbikes at most of the sort of places you see CX bikes, TBH I don’t really see the appeal of riding off road with weak rims and limiting yourself to only riding the sort of lines they can cope with. I’d imagine you could probably ride a CX bike almost anywhere you could ride a fifty quid supermarket mtb only difference being the CX bike should be a lot faster on the seriously dull bits of the ride so if you are strapped for time and like riding as much dull terrain as possible in that time it can only be a win win situation.