I can also be patriotic and love my country without being a warmonger.

er… No. You actually can’t.

Not if you have the vaguest understanding of the history of the UK with regards to war.

…and yet you’re asking here instead of fitting them and making up your own mind?

ok. 😕

Hate war
Hate killing
Hate patriotism
Hate the political systems of the world
So why on earth would I wear a poppy?

There are no heroes in war. Just poor ordinary people killed and forced to kill others by their own leaders.

Surly.
Shit frame design and quality. Plus pretty much every Surly owner is a dull idiotic bore.
Ironically. I quite liked the owners of the company when we met.

Still amazes me the crazy amounts of money cyclists spend in order to have whatever’s in fashion.
Elasticated velcro straps cost £2 for a pack of 6.
Runners waist packs including (either 1 or 2) bottles cost less than £10
Both of these items have been around for decades.

Most folk on here seem a bit precious to me.
Some don’t even ride bikes.

Ah. My BMX background is from back when BMX first arrived in the UK not the later resurgence of BMX (some did continue through those quiet years but not many). We’re at cross purposes due to age but basically agreeing.
By 8 or 9 before I’d ever seen a BMX in real life I was comfortable hitting fairly big jumps and wheelying for miles on all sorts of shitty kids bikes and mate’s motocross bikes so probably had a bit of a headstart by the time I got my first BMX (around 11 or 12 I think). BMX slowly got replaced by Girls, Drink, music n drugs. That and being the only BMXer left in my town is why I stopped riding BMX in my mid teens. Didn’t ride an mtb until I was an adult but all the basic handling skills were still there so I wasn’t afraid of jumps, drops, manualling etc. A few months after getting my first mtb a girlfriends (keen cyclist) dad entered me in a mtb race. I didn’t have a clue. (I’d never even ridden in a forest. just urban woodland, Steep chutes, drops and shale bings (Huge steep quarry mounds). I didn’t even own a helmet and turned up in tracksuit trousers and a t shirt and a borrowed helmet. On the start iine each side of me were guys in brightly coloured lycra the most serious looking one of them at the front turned round and by weird coincidence he was someone I knew quite well from a group of friends who went to the same pubs and parties. He won that race. I came second.
All my very first mtb rides were with the saddle slammed. By the mid 90s I was riding or racing DH every weekend and XC during the week. but rode small (despite being 5’11”) XC hardtails with 80-100mm forks and 2″ risers and thought nothing of riding decent length XC routes without ever raising my saddle. (I still ride 4X bikes for XC to this day. only difference is one of them has a dropper. If anything dropper posts have made me lazier. Being old now my knees are probably thankful.

I still know a ton of mtb riders but rarely make the effort to ride with many anymore as I really can’t bear the middle aged, middle class mtb riding scene playing on a bike in the woods/hills has turned into. You know… fretting over every new bike part/accessory/clothing/tyre/suspension/wheel choice, Strava chat, Trail name top trumps, Trail dogs (They’re just dogs FFS) T5/6 lust (it’s a van!), coffee shops cyclist seem to need to be seen in.
I’d rather be outside doing cuttys and manuals in a tee shirt on a £200 hardtail (26″ and in small obvs) like kids do than in a cafe talking about SantaCruz’s and Enduro “events”.
I just don’t get any of that. I don’t even like coffee or cake. Why would you when there are still booze, drugs and Women? 🙁

Haha… sorry for going off on a tangent.
If that offends anyone they need to take a long hard look at themselves though. Not me.

I’d guess me n Kayla are probably too tough for you to approach us (first) IN REAL LIFE nevermind chucking us on the pyre. You’re probably burning your money trying to keep up with the latest latest instead of simply riding more and becoming a better rider anyway so just keep doing that.

Gotta agree with you Kayla.
I can ride either. but long bikes (despite being faster in certain situations) simply aren’t as fun

Enthusiasm is awesome! The main difference between a mediocre rider and very good rider is the amount of time they’ve put into actually practicing (doesn’t need to be structured but repetition is key). Often from a young age. often using multiple bikes and often riding multiple disciplines.
Do you reckon more folk actually practice these days?
Maybe you’re right. coming from a BMX background as a kid it was kinda the norm.

Cool, so putting the two together, 130mm of 650b fork plus external cup ought to leave my geo roughly where it is at 150, just with less travel. Definitely something to think about!

Not really.

due to the reduction in fork travel geometry at sag won’t be exactly the same as before.
Due to the longer axle offset 650b forks have trail won’t be the same. (steering will become a little quicker and slightly less stable at speed)

Whether you’ll like, dislike or even notice these changes is another matter entirely but you might as well at least know the facts.

No. I was simply implying contrary to Doug’s post that buying a much longer, more stable bike doesn’t suddenly make you a better rider.

What the guy from Rallion said is pretty laughable Doug.
Every good all round bike rider I’ve ever met is able to swap between a short, steep playful hardtail and a long, low slack DH bike instantly.
Whereas most of the new breed of longer and slacker bandwaggon riders despite now riding more challenging trails still couldn’t ride that little hardtail well to save themselves.

The average mountain biker rides way, way better than they did a few years ago

Do they though? really?
There is a fairly easy way to find out.
Stick ’em on that l’il hardtail.

not riding off the back isn’t necessarily an indication of how skilled a rider is. There are some absolutely incredible rear wheel bias riders out there. A super long bike isn’t always going to be what a rider like that wants (or needs).

You seem to have forgotten all about choice here in favour of simply believing what is fashionable/marketted at us is correct. It’s simply not that black and white.

mainly its in order to place the front wheel further forwards and improve support of the rider on steeper terrain,

*sigh~*

no. it isn’t.

it’s for stability at speed.

Steeper HA bikes are absolutely fine for riding super steep trails at lower speeds so long as the bars aren’t too low.

If you’re looking for the newer magnetless Garmin ANT+ sensors I have a spare speed sensor still unopened in the box. PM me if interested.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/garmins-spd-cad-magnetless-sensors.html

Speeder – No. Production frame direct from Tiawanese factory. a Friday special (a second really). Just a lucky find. ropey angled frames were fairly common around the late 90s. this one just so happened to be ropey in all the right ways. I still have it. kinda.

That is horrendous! ^^

Dude I was running a short 62 deg HA 100mm hardtail with a sub 12″ BB 20 years back.

I don’t really care what is current/fashionable*

😉

*I also dislike Big tyres, overly wide rims, low tyre pressures, and excess sag. (on the 170mm FS you’re interested in I’m running 18-20% sag upfront. 25% rear)

it’s not “incredibly low” chief.
it’s higher than my DH bike. Like I said, been riding low bikes for a long time so am used to them.
other numbers:
420 reach
62deg HA
170mm cranks. and it’s ridden everywhere. No drama.
1175mm wheelbase. like I also said. I don’t like long bikes.
PM me if you’re really need to know what it is.

My hardtails aren’t much lower. too low a BB on a hardtail is detrimental to its playfulness. As is too long a fork. Personally, I’d never use longer than a 120mm travel fork on a hardtail. and even then I’d be running it super stiff.

315mm – Slack (62deg), not particularly long 170mm* travel full sus.

*Bonus numbers matter too 😉

Numbers please.

Which numbers do you require chief?

I can’t stand long bikes but have been riding low/slack bikes for a very long time.
Pretty much none of the current long/slack bikes are actually properly low Groundskeeperwilly.

2 controlled skids? ie. wheels locked?
You’re probably giving your braking system too much credit

Sounds like you might well be a disaster in the bedroom too Dan. Some of us have far more interesting sex lives than you think.
anyway.. .enough of your handwringing nonsense.

Best R A M P A G E vid EVAR

SONY is my favourite electronic gadget manufacturer.
the logo is just so aesthetically pleasing.
All their products are terrible though. They’re rarely updated and rarely even work properly with other SONY products nevermind other manufacturers.
Every one of them.

Moral of my story: Don’t buy SONY products unless it’s just to look at that lovely lovely logo.

Trust me on this.

*whispers* “it never has shown accurate times”.

But… “Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh”…

Probably because stretched out frames and 650b wheels are awful for dirt jumping, trials and street. Take a look at pretty much every taller guy riding that sort of stuff. They still won’t be riding stretched out bikes. And for good reason.

Soderstrom is 6’5″ and rides an off the shelf Spesh P1 (or is it a P3 I forget) Size Long.
I refer you to my first reply

Out of interest. How far is your daily A to B?

Ah “heckling”?

for my use

Any chance you could explain what that actually is?

Where did you buy them from, and who did you deal with for warranty?

Bought online.
Dealt directly with Florian from E13 by Email.

https://thehiveglobal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

or

support.eu@bythehive.com

Nice third hand anecdote.

Replacement parts took 3 days from initial email to postie handing over the package.
Previously I dealt with E13 direct in the US and had the parts in less than a week.

I’m not an E13 fan boy. Not by a long way. Simply sharing my actual experience.

You’re not going to want this:

It’s not steel. it only comes in a couple of colours. and it’s not got funsize stays.

But.

it’s a couple of hundred grams lighter.
With a 120mm fork in Large’d have:
68deg HA.
425mm stays.(I know… not great. but it was designed for silly tyres)
66mm BB drop (bonus of being designed for those silly tyres)
Reach of 455ish.

Worried being aluminium it won’t last 10 years?

buy a few

They’re £250 RRP

Sorry. I had no idea I was so out of touch with steel frame prices. (Jailtime does that)
I’d still rather go with Gary and Brian than Burf and Tam. But that might just be me as I always liked Curtis’ ethos and how they helped out many local (to me at the time) riders. Gotta admit I haven’t really had any first hand experience of BTR. There’s probably not a whole lot between the two.

Don’t get too hung up on my words. by more experienced I simply meant more time building frames.

What 4x frame would you rec with long reach? I’m 6’4″.

Ah… with this information. Nothing off the shelf.

I’d still be speaking to the guys at Curtis. They used to build 24″ wheel DJ frames for Jim Davage (he must be at least 6’5″)

Was going to say pretty much any 4X frame if you can find a seatpost long enough.

Why wouldn’t you want 26″ wheels?

You know… being stronger, lighter, cheaper and (still) easily available with better tyre choice.

£1000 is stupid for that. surely you could approach pretty much any (more experieced) frame builder and have them build you a bike with the same/similar geometry for less. are Curtis still going?

I have a set of 2017 TRS+ wheels complete with exo HR2s.
only ridden for 1 week.
They’re smooth, light, stiff and seem pretty strong/durable.
I just prefer 26″
Yours if you want them. @jimr80

ignore comments from folk with problematic older versions. These are 2017 model.
E13 customer service is great BTW.
Just received a replacement chainguide from them for free

A proper career mode may well come with updates NJee.
Previous GT games were massively updated after release.
some updates good/some not so.

PSN is free.

PS+ is around £30 a year and gives you around 4 free games every month you can play as long as your subscription is valid plus free online saves/data storage – Extremely usefull if your PS4/HDD dies – from experience. :/

There’s a wee group of us locally that ride in the same area and it’s often useful to see where folk have been, see what new stuff they might have found and get an idea of what the current trail conditions might be like. So, if someone has just ridden a trail I might contact them to find out about river levels, felling etc.

Out of interest. How big a group of riders is that? And are they the only riders you follow? or is your activity feed shared with lots of other folk not very local to you and you rarely ever ride with?

Ok. If anyone still cares.

Spent 10 hours playing GTSport now.
Honest opinion. Don’t buy it for an 11 yr old. Buy it if you are a massive car geek. (I’m not)
I’d forgotten what an absolute nightmare Polyphony make navigating menus. it’s an absolute ball ache. and that’s without even going near the car tuning/customisation aspect.
For example. Altering car settings to meet entry requirements for online races in the lobbys (with randoms) means navigating back through lots of menus/pages every time.
It took a mate about ten minutes to even find his Garage last night.
Servers were shit and we couldn’t even set up a race between mates.
(this should improve).
Oh… and I’d also forgotten about all the WAITING… Waiting for EVERYTHING!
Don’t get me wrong. The actual racing/driving is really really good. They’ve just managed to suck all the fun out of every other aspect in favour of making it look all glitzy and Gran Turismoish.
Persevering with it and filling up your garage with cars ready for every occasion is a big part of it. But until you get to that point it’s always going to be a PITA and you’re always going to be at a disadvantage in races unless you put hours into car set-up.
They LIED about single player being a big part of this one. As far as I can see it’s either Licenses, “Missions” or the GT Sport aspect. GT Sport seems to be pre-entering various races and WAITING ages for them to start.
GT5 (I think it was 5 – PS3 anyway) had a “shuffle” lobby setting where you could just choose tracks and car class and each round you’d be given a selection of random (but similar performance) cars. so each round you’d be in a different car. Everyone on the same tyres/settings etc.
I loved that. This is the opposite as far as I can see.

This guy ^^

Be like him.