Yep it’s big alright! Having looked at it on Monday and said “never in my lifetime” I haven’t stopped thinking about it since!!! Am liking the earlier kicker although it took me 3 attempts to judge the speed right as the uphill robs you of so much momentum. The hip is also good, but makes lining up for the lower gap more difficult than before.

Based on recent chat with Steve Wade, Orange aren’t doing anything in carbon right now, but realise that it’s something they need to consider in the near future.

The HD is certainly not a bike you jump on regardless of set-up and get the best out of, certainly compared with a typical 4-bar say.

As GT notes, it’s taken me a while to get comfortable with my HD, and to be honest am still not there in the 160mm setting, hence the CCDB order ahead of a trip to the Alps. I have it pretty much dialled in the 140mm setting, running with 160mm forks and a Pushed RP23, and love the way the bike rails due to the low BB height and snappy acceleration.
I’ll keep you posted as to how the CCDB works!

Is it just me, or do others feel the way that logging activities across the Hurtwood has been conducted and left the landscape, makes it difficult for the estate to take the moral high ground here?
I now live in the area, so as well as riding, I walk there with the family so have a vested interest in access, trails, and the visual appeal of the landscape. Recent activity has spoied much of the visual appeal, and whilst I get the fact that the woodland needs actively managing, much of it looks a mess and in the process they have trashed a number of bridleways such as the one that climbs up the hill from the bottom of Barry’s.

Yup – Max Turner! She prefered that to anything related to the Cove Stiffee!!

Heihei, if you still have both whats your thoughts on a side by side comparison ?

I’d agree with much said above – the DW is a more efficient design esp for climbing as it props up the rear under power. It’s stiffer, and the linkage design pops you nicely out of berms. On the downsides, it’s a bit heavier, and my DW was an ’09, and needed to be slightly slacker & lower, which the current ones are.
All that said, on the rare occaisions I ride the HL version, it surprises me as to just how good it is still!

Ideally I’d have both in the stable and keep the HL Spot for those nostalgic times when I wanted to ride something different!

That’s what I did! Wife wouldn’t let me sell it as it was the bike we named our son after!!

First time I’ve been and went with JPCapel and our two youngest (4yrs old). Sensational event, even for 4 year olds. Second the comments re: Danny – top bloke, but for sheer quality of riding, he was outdone by the freestyle MX’ers – the whips they were pulling were just unreal!!!! And my boy low-5’ing them as they came back round to line up again was pretty cool too! Think I might make it an annual pilgrimage!!

Awesome bike and better in 140 than in 160 IMHO. My build is pretty pimp (BOS forks, 1×10 XTR, and carbon Haven wheels and weighs 27.5lbs. Love it!

Excellent write-up! I have the Deville forks on my HD and love them, and am thinking about swapping out the RP23 to either the VIP-R or CCDB. How close does the VIP-R get to the CCDB in terms of performance? Key for me really is grip and control, which is where, on previous bikes, I’ve found the CCDB to excel.

Duplicate post!

As the op notes, I was one of the riders who saw rider #36 at the tower after the event. Whilst part of me thought this would be great fun, I agree with udder on this one. Ok so 36 riders this time with no issues, but what happens when 50 or 100 turn up? As mentioned above, there is a lot of sensitivity about biking in the area, and it’s far too easy to latch onto this type of event and create negative stories.

Keep it underground, don’t do it in the same place twice and I don’t have too much of a problem with it, but to make this a regular thing just invites trouble.

I’ve only done one and loved it. Was then gutted that my local one (Shackleford) was cancelled due to lack of interest!

5’10” – 5’11” is a real problem height on the DW 5-Spot. I’m right at that height and took Dave Turner’s advice and went with the large, whilst my mate who is the same height went with a medium. We ended up with the controls in pretty much the same place, but the medium always felt much more nimble and chuckable. A big element of this is that the large has quite a lot longer head tube compared to the medium. I never really got on with the large so ended up selling it and getting a Mojo HD – not sure I’d done it if I’d gone with the medium.

Goes to show the value of a test-ride for both sizes – I test-rode the medium and wasn’t quite sure, hence asking DT’s advice. It’s difficult to find a large to demo but wish I’d persevered!

Did Glen Nevis with an ex-girlfriend in the mid-90’s – worst ride of my life, as she got so annoyed with me at the hike-a-bike stuff I ended up having to carry 2 bikes most of the way up!

When I asked On-One about the geometry of the older Lynskey Ti 456 they told me it wa the same as the current one. I don’t quite believe it as I don’t remember them being as slack as current nos suggest.

As an alternative, the Ragleys ride very well – back to back vs the On One, they climb better due to steeper seat tube angle but other than that pretty similar. Otherwise, a Brodie Holeshot, or Kingdom Foia?

Yep there is plenty of good stuff on Puttenham Common, but as a lot of it is sandy a bit of local knowledge is required! There is also some good linking stuff to Shackleford, some of it cheeky, including a bit of shore & jumps hidden away. It’s my local patch so I’d happily show you around, but be quick – we’re moving in 2 weeks’ time!!

I spoke to Malcolm at Cane Creek in the US about running a CCDB on my Mojo HD. As above, the Mojo was designed around an air cane which has a rising rate. He concurred with the view above that a harder spring would be best, but thought that given the adjustability of the CCDB and the quality of the damping it could be tuned to work v well.
There are a few folk over on MTBR who run CCDBs – may be worth asking.

Unsurprisingly they ride pretty similar to the 456 Ti (did back to back with JP’s Ragley) – main difference is climbing the Ragley is better due to steeper seat angle whilst On One feels more laid back (for same reason) on flattish singletrack.

Bushbaby here. Compared it to the Macpac and found it more comfortable and a few more extra features. Ours saw loads of use in Scotland, Lakes, Wales, Pyrenees, and more locally in Surrey.

Ran the SX’s (current version) and recently swapped them for carbon Havens. I would say the most noticable difference is the lighter weight. SX’s are pretty stiff, and the Havens are too, the carbons being perhaps a bit stiffer but not massively so. Both seem pretty sturdy and have been used to hit 10-12′ gaps & 6′ drops on a Mojo HD without too many problems.
One thing of note that SX rear wheels can be switched between 12×135 and 10×135, whilst the Havens are either 12 or 10, but the 12 can be switched between 135 and 142.

Saw and heard Clapton playing his guitar and singing to his daughter up at the judges seat – sounded pants.

Got R1’s and The Ones – prefer the feel of The Ones, and they are slightly easier to set up (although it’s a relative thing – neither are easy). The Ones are also more powerful by a reasonable margin. That said, I’m running the old style of The One levers whilst the current versions have the same levers as R1’s so maybe makes the difference less. The Ones weigh about the same as new XTR btw.

Mine are the wheels GT is referring to, and not a huge amount to add to what he says. I can’t justify to anyone but myself how a pair of wheels are worth £2k, but I feel like I got value for money in terms of performance they bring to the bike. I would say that there are plenty of other more cost-effective upgrades you can make on a bike (FFS you could buy most top-end frames for not much more), so despite the fact that they offer a big improvement over other wheelsets (previous set was Mavic SX which is a v good wheelset), you’d want to consider if there were other things to upgrade first (going 1×10 with XTR springs to mind which prob saves more weight).

Guy,

How was the Herb? Was seriously looking at this before I got the Mojo HD but there was no way of getting a demo. How come you are selling??

Cheers,

Adam (one of your first guests!!)

Intense Slopestyle. Is this the same Ed that normally nails everything on a Stiffee??

when i can get a offset headset, ill drop the fork to 140 (525 a to c) it should keep the ha about the same but lower the bb a little…

Mate (JPCapel on here) has just fitted one of these to an 09 DW Spot that he got from the bloke in Israel.

Nope – closer than that 😉

Awesome – look forward to trying it as it’s soon to be my second local after the Volunteer!!

DTP – yep saw Hot Burito a couple of weeks’ back and thought the gap jump looked tough despite being on the big bike! Nice looking trail though and certainly a “step up”!!

Think it’s awesome, and love his enthusiasm. Makes me laugh outloud. Mrs reckons I should write to the Beeb to make sure they do more TV!

They won’t wear a great big groove in your forks though!

Si – are you lending this out for demos at all? I really really want a Ti version of the Sov so am keen to try frames that look close on paper!

BOS Devilles on my Mojo HD which replaced 36 Floats. At the margin, Devilles not as stiff, but still track very well through the rough stuff, and prefer how they ride.
Second the fact that Roger at R53 is super-helpful.

Not a big fan of the ginger one.

Big fan of it here….called Blandford Fly. Very refreshing.

As an update to this, I have now ridden both back-to-back, as I still have my 456 and mates (Geetee1972 and JPCapel on here) have now bought Ti Ragleys.
I would say that the main difference are as you would expect, namely the steeper seat anlge on the Ragley means it climbs better, but the 456 feels more relaxed when riding seated. The Ragley feels a tiny bit stiffer too.
Both great bikes – if I were to buy from scratch I’d prob get the Ragley, but it’s not a big enough improvement to sell the 456 for one.

Witnessed a failure last night where the head rotated in the post. Apparently it’s bonded so also going back to Fisher.

Not used one on a VPP but have on a DW (5-Spot) and thought it was awesome. It’s worth dropping Malcolm at Cane Creek an email – he’s awesome at coming back with advice. I recently spent 15 mins on the phone to him talking about a possible set up on a Mojo HD, so he’s very happy to offer bike-specific set-up advice.

I did a night ride with the chaps from Hawkshead YHA a few years back when on hols in the Lakes – one of them was pretty large! Nice guys and great fun – would recommend.

Intense Slopestyle would fit the bill nicely, and the original version can be had 2nd hand for pretty reasonable money. SX Trail would also be good. Ridden both and like both – own the Slopestyle though 😉

8.5×2.5 in old money, or 215×63