I’m running:
Krypotal Front DH SuperSoft Front 29×2.4
Krypotal Rear Enduro soft 29×2.4

Rimpact fitted front and rear.

I’m about 80kg

Depending on the conditions and trails I run,
19 to 21psi front
23 to 25psi rear.

Riding at Aboyne on Saturday. We arrived quite late and the car park was rammed so We parked further afield.
Partway through the ride we noticed that someone else had had the same problem but couldn’t be arsed to drive very far from the trail car park.
I imagine that it was quite embarrassing knocking on the farmers door and asking if they could have their car back 😂

(Edit)The farmers place is bang opposite this spot.

Crank Brothers DH pedals with Crank Brothers shoes.
Getting a foot back clipped is way easier than any other shoe pedal combination I’ve tried. I just need to get my foot close and it seems to sort itself out. As others have said the pins are almost fully wound in, if not the shoe is a bit too difficult to release.
I still have to service the pedals too often for my liking though.

Two rides in on Krptotal R 29 x 2.4 soft and Kryptotal F DH 29 x 2.4 super soft.
Roll better than Hans Dampf/Big Betty rear with a Magic Mary front. Supertrail soft.
Grip feels a fair bit better as well.
On the same trails I’m going the same pace but I feel like the tyre is stuck to the trail. I feel like I’m going to be able to push a bit harder now.

I’m considering getting a spare set of wheel for my Privateer 141 and putting a soft on the front and one of the trail compounds on the back. I reckon that they will make an ace set of trail tyres.

The only time that I get any joy from a road ride is when the weather is warm, dry and not windy, but at the end of the ride I’d always feel that I’d rather have been riding my mountain bike. I choose not to ride the road bike now.
If I don’t feel like going out on my MTB because of the weather, I tend to just sit on the turbo trainer and watch a film, going out on the road in bad weather is just a grim experience.

hairyscary
Full Member
Not sure if this will work. Video on Flickr.
Taken today while I was out riding. The hedge has masses of sparrows in it.

The video disappeared, if it was ever there 🙄
It is of a Sparrowhawk jumping up and down on the hedge trying to get at the sparrows inside.

Not sure if this will work. Video on Flickr.
Taken today while I was out riding. The hedge has masses of sparrows in it.

Beinn a’ Bhùird via Slugan yesterday for me.
It was very hot, t-shirt on the summit and I drank 6 bottles of water in 4 1/2 hours (I would normally drink a couple of bottles)
The climb up to the summit was very hard as the trail was so dry it had become very loose, which also made the descent a bit sketchy 😀

The climb to Slugan. Lochnagar in the background.

The top of the hill, almost.

The descent. Lochnagar in the distance.

On the plateau.

Strava, not sure if the link will work.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7636477931

Road bike.
XC hardtail.
Trail bike.

XC hardtail is going to go as I think I’m probably faster on almost everything on the big and heavy trail bike.

A really humid ride at Dunkeld today. It had rained overnight and was a bit overcast, so even the rocks were sweating.

A half-time pint went down well 😀

About 78kg to 80kg body weight here.
50lb Spring and 2 clicks of HBO from open using 20 weight oil.
50lb spring and a lot more clicks of HBO from open using 10 weight oil.

The forks have just been sold with the bike they were on and replaced with a an Ohlins air RFX 36 M.2.
The Ohlins is good but not as good as the Fox 36 Rhythm with the Smashpot.

Ballo Woods for lots of laps, 4300ft of up in 15 miles! It was absolutely bone dry 😀. Probably head to Dunkeld on Sunday to make the most of the dry trails.

I’m not sure if Weeksy’s link is my bike, but yes mine is an S3.

I have one (selling)
I rode it for 20 months.
It climbs smooth, shallow gradient trails and fireroads as well as any other big bike I’ve owned.
Anything really steep and or techy I found it wandered too much for me aim it where I wanted to go. The low BB and the way it settles into its travel meant I had to be really careful to avoid peddle strikes on rough climbs.

tomhoward
Full Member
It’s not so much what they do, as much as what they don’t do, tbh.

This sums it up for me.

DSC_0563 by MattNSmith[/url], on Flickr

I did a couple of XT’s in quick succession. Gentle knocks on rocks. Back to SRAM XO and no issues.

A ‘robust’ grade 2 bordering on a grade 3 when I did mine.
My physio said that it would be 12 weeks before it would be strong enough to crash onto again.
It was winter so I was happy enough to sit on the turbo for a couple of months.
I was riding after 8 weeks and the shoulder felt ok.

That sheep knows how to strike a pose 😀

Looking at those Italy photo’s I need to get myself abroad at some point this year.

Today was a couple of descents around Ballater on the new’ish bike. I’m definitely getting up to speed on it. I’m riding about as quick as my last three bikes which have all been 160/170mm travel. The new bike is 141mm

I’ve had this with a 12 speed SRAM cassette. No matter how hard I tried I could not make the fouling go away. In the end I just found the offending tooth and filed it down a bit.

On a wee tour of the West Coast with my cousin we stopped over at the Sligachan Bunkhouse. After a few pints and drams at the bar we headed back to the bunkhouse, where the owner got chatting to us. Apparently it was her birthday and she was having a bit of a party at the big house and we should come up! The party turned out to be just three couples and one of the receptionists (I really don’t know why we were invited). What was just going to be a showing our faces, not to be rude, ended up with vague memories of drinking cider from a rams horn at 2am.

The 96 miles to Kilchoan the next day were truely horrible 😂

You could head a wee bit further, if you have the time, and try Drumtochty. Pretty much everything is open and running well.

Edit.
Sorry, just noticed the time comment.

My weekend started early with a visit to Stirling Bike Doctor to replace a worn steerer on my Fox 36’s. All sorted in no time at all 👍

I then headed over to Glen Tilt and attempted to ride up a Munro but gave up just short of the summit because it was so cold, windy and wet

I met a mate at the Glen Tilt car park and had a few beers in Blair Athol. It very rainy, even the ducks were heading for shelter.

Kipped in my car Thursday night and headed to Aberfeldy Friday morning. The trails were running really well, kinda not too dry but not to wet. I did bin it big time though as I didn’t quite judge my pace because of a strong headwind and front wheel cased a gap I was going for 🙁

Then it was on to Laggan for a quick lap of the red and a dirty fry up at the Newtonmore Grill.

Another night in the car at Laggan and then headed to Crask of Aigas by Beauly for another day of fast and well made trails.

Made it back to Aberdeen a short while ago and both me and my car stink 😀😀

Tomorrow is going to be getting the Specialized Status ready to sell.

A quick ride at Durris Woods after nightshift. I felt shattered and weak so gave up after an hour.
I’ll save myself for Saturday and Sunday.
The new bike is very good btw, way more agile than I ever thought a 29’er would ever be 👍

Added a wee bit.

Good work 👍

Ancillotti

The DHY just looked so stunning.

No riding for me today. I’ve been swapping wheels, fitting tyre inserts, setting up suspension, and taping the frame on a new bike.
It has not rained here for about 3 weeks and guess what, the moment I finish the bike the heavens opened up 😂.

Shakedown and suspension tweaking tomorrow and then it’s over to Torridon and Crask of Aigas for a couple of bigger spins on it………or maybe back on the Specialized Status.

Applied online at the beginning of March and had the passport delivered just over 3 weeks later. My old passport had expired almost 3 years ago.
All very easy, although TNT did manage to deliver the new passport to the wrong address 🙄.

I gave up after a year of trying flats. I could not get out of the habit of lifting my rear foot when accelerating and on any technical climb where a lot of drive is required. The back of my calves ended up a mess.
I had no issues descending, but felt more confident that I could get a foot down riding clips.

In the last year I’ve twice had to use my bike to shield myself from dogs that are attacking me.
The first time I genuinely thought that my time was up as 3 Vislas were going for me and the owner was off in the distance and couldn’t recall them.
The second time, yesterday, was when a professional dog walker with 8 dogs had no control over them and a couple of them went for me.
Working dogs only would be my preferred option.

Further reading on the Status.

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/2021-specialized-status.1145425/

The bearings are a doddle to change 👍

I think I kinda focused on the stuff I didn’t like about the 160 😳😳.
I’m sure that the 140 will work better as an all-round bike.

I’m still getting personal bests on some climbs so it can obviously go up a hill.
I used to be more of a plower on a bike but this one has encouraged me to hop and jump stuff. It is a lot of fun to ride when it is pointing down.

I’ve got the 160 version.
The NX stuff went as soon as I got a SRAM freehub from Specialized. Went for 165mm cranks.
The bars went shortly afterwards….I bent then round my thigh 🙄.
The rims were a bit soft as well.
The shock just didn’t work for me, I could not get it set up well, so went all in and bought an EXT Storia.
It is awful on anything flat or traversy, weighs a metric tonne but is ace on anything pointing down.

I knew pretty much straight away.
Pedal strike, over the bars and landed on the point of my shoulder.
I finished the descent with almost no pain.
Visited A&E who told me nothing was wrong, but here’s a sling to wear for a few days, even though I had a very pronounced lump 🙄
I booked an appointment with a private physio for the following day who said I had a robust grade 2 bordering on 3

Rode at Aberfeldy on Friday for the first time. It was soooo slidey and muddy but was still an ace day out. I can’t wait to go back and experience the place when it’s dry.
I was on the last day of a course of antibiotics for an ear infection so was properly pooped by the end of the day, so today has been a chilled day.

As a former herc pilot, we used to fly some pretty fun profiles into/out of Iraqi airfields ……..

I was in the back of one of those to go and fix a broken down Tornado.
Best roller coaster ride I’ve been on.

I also staged to Red Flag on C-130’s. That was a long and drunken journey 😀. We go snowed in at Bangor, Maine for 3 days. Each morning we would turn up to see the aircraft off and be sent away with a wedge of cash……straight to the bar 😀

I went for a gravel ride on my XC bike, starting the year as I don’t mean to go on. 30 miles and 3,700ft of ascent. I was beginning to fade a bit towards the end.

Grip damper on a 36 rhythm here with just a couple of clicks of the Smashpot’s hydraulic bottom out.

This.

Fox 36 Smashpot conversion here, what a difference, couldn’t get the air suspension to feel supple over the smaller chattery stuff without blowing through on the big stuff.

Christmas morning ride at Ballater. It was stunning but my word the wind was cold up high.

IXS carve Evo are the best I’ve tried for comfort. Unfortunately they seem to have changed their sizing slightly and I’m now in between sizes 🙁
I now use Leatt 3DF pads which fit well enough but aren’t as comfortable.