Recently ridden an sx trail as a first foray into big(ger) bikes, and was most impressed. Had me hitting jumps, doubles etc much quicker than I normally would. Have also recently ridden an Intense Slopestyle which is also cracking.

ROFL – can sympathise as made the same switch as you a few months ago. Persevere – am now doing all the drops I was doing on spd's – 4-5' drops, 8' doubles etc.
50:50's aren't supposed to be the grippiest of pedals – try something like straitlines or easton flatboys.
If you were doing jumps by pulling up on spds, then you were doing it wrong, as I was told by a v good guide in the Alps recently! A quick tug on the bars should do it at speed, or pushing forward through the pedals and throwing weight back should pop the front up nicely if doing something slower.
Stick with it – I'm now more confident on jumps and drops on flats then spds, and have been surprised how quickly it came.

Have a set of The Ones on my 5-Spot and the power of them allowed me to go down a rotor size. Just put a set of R1's on my Titus which is used for fast thrashes. The Ones are light enough for general use and the power + modulation is fantastic, the R1's a bling-tastic for lightweight duty, but reckon they'd do everyday XC well too. Only downside is that replacement pads are not as widely stocked as stuff like Hopes, so carry spares if you are on a trip.

Tyres make a massive difference imho. Have found Maxxis Swampthings awesome in anything wet including roots.

Do both, although think you'd get most out of the mountain biking by going with a local. Rode some trails around Soller which were very good indeed.
As noted above, shimano mtb spds can do both off and on road pretty easily.

Cracking photos mate – one of the best roadtrip slideshows I've seen.

Just been informed by Activesport that the 1.5" version is not being imported. Seems somewhat daft given the 170mm coil would have most obvious aplication to 1.5" framesets! I await confirmation from the importers.

Seca 700 would do nicely off the same battery. Have both, and swap between them & batteries.

2nd Morvern / Morrone nr Braemar.

Bumped into a chap on top of Ben Macdui who'd ridden/walked up from Linn of Dee. Said he'd done it a few times before, as well as Lochnagar. He was on a Cove G-Spot so I guess the ride down was pretty awesome!

have both the arc and seca 700. burn times v similar. seca lighter, better spread of beam, but slightly less penetration. seca has better mount for simplicity but to my mind not as good in either helmet or bar mount for adjustability / rigidity. Hard to say which is better to be honest – be happy with either.

Anything???

Got one of the all-mountain ones on my 5-Spot. Seem ok, nice low stack. Bit tricky to fit as there is very little metal to get a headset press onto, so suggest shop fitting.

Cheers Toons. Did you get any further insight into SS vs Uzzi (vs 5-Spot)??

Wouldn't sell me an Intense frame either. Bit of a bummer as even with taxes worked out almost 50% cheaper than UK prices.

Or you can use the Mavic UST valvles.

Yep ridden that one too. We call it Wedgie for some reason! Some steep stuff over on Redlands too.

Sounds about right – it's a gully that gets deeper, with a few rocks thrown in, before it opens out into a rooty section before dropping onto the main track.

Yep you're right – won't ship Intense frames to the UK. D'oh!

Weird and Emotional – turn R at the end of T2 and at the crossroads go straight down. Brings you out onto the road near the end of Barrys.

mikey74 – seem to remember your local patch is leith hill etc. most tech trail (without jumps etc) is what I've always known as Weird and Emotional on Pitch Hill. Always surprises me!!

Cheers. Would be too big I think.

Bigsi – yes please.

Cheers – unf I'm down south. Have you ridden either to compare to the 5-Spot?

The question is, would you get an SS or an Uzzi??

Unfortunately I'm after a medium, but there seem to be a few floating around.
I found that link last night but doesn't offer much by way of comparison. In fact, it's me that posted towards the bottom saying as much!!!

Agree there's something about Intenses that are appealing! If I were being ruled by my head I'd just get an SX Trail….

Would def be interested in their views, although looking to take the plunge sooner rather than later. I'd also heard rumours that the Uzzi is effectively replacing the SS, although clearly there are noticable differences in their geometry.

Am keeping the 5-Spot for general riding duties, but having had a quick play on an SX Trail recently, want something with slack angles and a coil shock to play on, uplift days, Alps etc. Whilst the 5-Spot could undoubtedly cope, there are better tools for the job!

Yep – import duty on frames is 4.7% I believe, then 15% VAT. Even with that little lot and shipping am saving 45%!!!

About average for a 2.35" – 2.4" tyre. It's the Rubber Queen that's huge. Note that imho MK's are pants in the wet.

Mate of mine runs Pikes on a Handjob. Don't think he ever bothers to wind them in from 140mm either.

The problem with Thors is that when using the correct sag and no platform they blow through the travel. It may be that you are dialling in quite a bit of rebound to correct for this.
I run mine with the correct sag and the platform "on" but with the lightest setting dialled in. This stops it blowing through the travel and helps supress brake dive. This might then allow you to run more rebound damping.
Give it a go – nothing to lose!

I'd email Ibis – found they were pretty responsive when I had some issues with mine.

Yep that's the tape. TBH unlikely to test the Mavic valves for quite a while given the current ones are working at the moment.

The main issue with the tape is that over time if you are a bit clumsy with tyre levers (like me) you tend to damage the tape, which then ultimately starts to leak.

Mine work ok, but have bought some Mavic UST ones for when they give up the ghost. Haven't tried them yet but look like they should work ok. Have just replaced the blue tape with stans yellow and works fine.

They are pants in the wet. Want to buy my 2,4" UST off me??!!

Rubber Queen 2.2" UST come up same size as 2.4" MK and are much better all round tyres imho.

Word of warning – whilst these bikes are awesome, the tyres are not very good on loose surfaces. Am in the process of changing mine to something more knobbly.

The last I saw on MTBR was that the RFX is unlikely to be available until 2010. In fact Dave Turner seems to be getting a little frustrated with constant badgering by the Homers to hurry up and get on with it!!

Think the new DW version is available in raw.

Digger – can you email me details of the sx please… ajryan@btinternet.com

Also found mountain kings pants in the wet. Rubber queens much much better (go a size down though – they're huge).

Mackem – Cabrales reminds me of a holiday a few years back in the Picos de Europa. Went into a shop and the Cabrales they had was literally liquid goo in the middle! Had some on a steak at a restaurant one night – fantastic!

As for favourite cheeses, Lincolnshire Poacher does it for me!