If you are serious about getting faster, buy a race 29er like hobnob says (enduro race not xc race, obvs) and learn to ride it.
They are different, it will feel wierd at first and there will be some adjustment.
Will be an order of magnitude faster than fiddling with tyre pressures and patterns, and swapping shocks.

This is the reality. The big thing on this is compromise & where are you prepared to make it. If you want a fast race bike, it’s going to feel like crap riding round Swinley. It will be big, sluggish & awkward.

For the same reason a smaller bike with trail bike geometry will feel fun & nimble in the same place, yet feel twitchy, sketchy & loose when you start to push on, or ride steep stuff & feel ‘harder’ to go faster on.

Without wanting to sound like I’m taking the piss, but going by past threads that’s pretty much what Weeksy’s looking for.

Which is absolutely fine, if that’s the compromise :)

I might sound harsh, but to me it’s got all the travel of a proper Enduro bike, wrapped up in some dated geometry with the wrong size wheels. Looking at your link, that’s a significantly smaller bike all round, in fact it’s smaller than my 110/120mm XC bike. And they love to eat shocks.

Same sort of money on Pinkbike I can see:

’20 Reign SX
’21 NP Mega
’20 Ransom

All of which would be a significantly better option IMO.

Edited to add all my suggestions are 29″ – for the reason you stated about going faster.

Learning how it responds, how to set it up the way you want, how to get the best out of it and what it can offer you.

And that takes over a year? Really? Assuming the spec is something I am used to, in terms of adjustability, I reckon I can I set a bike up 90% of the way there, before I even ride it. The last bit within 2/3 rides, at the most.

I genuinely cannot fathom it taking any longer – the reference point from even a week ago of ‘testing’ is almost utterly irrelevant on an MTB when trails & conditions evolve almost each time you ride.

So a £3k bike now is not far off as good as a £3k bike was in the mid 2000s, but it’s no longer top of the line because they’ve inflated what the top of the line actually is.

I’d argue a £3k bike now would be significantly better than a £3k bike that’s nearly 20 years old, in every single scenario, regardless of it’s spec.

Yeah, that’s nowhere near enough time to get to grips with a bike.

What do you mean get to grips with a bike?

That is insanity to me. What the hell is wrong with a bike at 2 years old?

Really, insanity?

Loads of people swap out bikes that quickly (or, shock horror, even quicker) me included.

I sold two last year, both less than a year old. Lock me up! 😆

Removing the health side of things, which sucks, probably not what you want to hear but I honestly think unless you get a very lucky break, you won’t even get close to £8k for it.

There are Pro’s selling for less than that. I sold mine a few months ago for a decent amount less & that’s when they were like vapourware with zero availability. I’m fortunate enough not to pay close to retail, but it only ‘just’ covered it’s cost.

For a grand extra, you can go and get a brand new on 0%, for a few hundred quid a month, which opens up a massive market vs someone with £8k burning a hole in their pocket. Which, if they have, someone one like Berkshire Cycles will do them a deal on a new on for similar.

It might change your outlook on keep or sell, but you might need to adjust your expectations if you want it gone. £6-6.5k is more realistic based on what I have seen them going for (and experienced).

I’ll be surprised if they open on Sunday, it’s looking like a wild weekend.

Currently sat looking across the hills from my home office watching some seriously big trees blow about, safe to say i’m not going out on my bike in this :)

I don’t think anyone is calling the 130mm Yeti an Enduro bike are they?

Not in my world for sure, they are firmly in the trail bike category. Although we are seemingly in a slightly strange world where most trail bikes these days are essentially short travel enduro bikes, with 36’s on them, big shocks & DD or similar tyres. I guess its good to have the choice & I did in fact race a few enduro’s on my old SB130, but then I also cracked them for fun.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the most fun bikes I’ve had were 125-130mm travel. Steamrollering stuff on an Enduro bike is faster but I’m fairly convinced most people would have more fun on less travel. But who am I to say?

More fun, or different type of fun? For sure my Spur is a great bike & bloody good fun. It makes most things entertaining to ride & can still get down pretty much anything I have thrown at it. But for outright speed, my big bike is way more fun (and safer!). But then it weighs over 5kg more.

At the end of the day choice is good, even if it does confuse.

Drop me a message nearer the time. I will probably be on the leg bike as the climb is pretty easy there. If it looks like its going to be horrific weather, I may not be out at all!

Anyone fancy showing me and a mate round Lydney Woods this weekend? Either day works.

9am on Sunday for the other ride might be a bit early for me, but as Pillowell is literally <10 mins from my house, I don’t mind showing people round it.

Am riding Merthyr Vale on Sat though, so assuming I don’t write myself off there…

I have only heard/read good things about the SID, other than the bushing problem, which does seem to be fairly significant in quite a few instances. A bit more isolated I would have taken a punt, but equally I had a Pike Ultimate anyway, which only needed an airshaft, so it was a bit of a no brainer.

They certainly don’t feel as good as a Fox 38 Grip2, but they arn’t bad given how little travel they have in comparison :)

I think there are a few Top Fuels out there, I was considering one instead of the Spur & it really came down to what was about second hand, as I had most of a build in bits anyway – short answer the Spur won, but I would have happily gone for the TF instead.

I assume you mean the SID fork, rather than the shock? If so, I didn’t actually build mine with one, I went with a 120mm Pike, because I read way too many issues of bushing play on the SID & slow repair times on from SRAM UK.

I’m probably not the usual Spur demographic though, as i’ll ride everything I usually ride on my bigger bike/ebike on the Spur, just a bit slower/more sketchily, on a big loop 😆

I’m confused, have they got short travel, burly trail bike confused with (as much as I hate the phrase, Downcountry)?

To me, Downcountry bikes are XC bikes, with fun geometry. Not trail bikes, that weigh nearly as much as enduro bikes, with 1/3 less of the travel.

Maybe I am biased, as I have a Spur. If I wanted a bike that weighed nearly as much as my Dreadnought, i’d ride that.

Weird.

Has any brand nailed this “downcountry” thing yet?

Transition Spur, Spec Epic Evo, Revel Ranger, Trek Top Fuel, etc. There are quite a few bikes out there that fit in the box. I’d also consider stuff like the Izzo & Tallboy over the Canyon cut & shut :)

I’m not too hot on the names, but I think they are the ones over the Pillowell side (by the campsite) – the ones that generally are tight as hell through the trees up at the start?

Other than maybe one or two nadgery corners, I don’t think there is anything I have ridden that’s tough in those woods.

Weird how we all think differently about trails, Doey’s does tend to run well in the wet, but does puddle up impressively.

Whereas I wont go near Lydney/Pillowell when it’s been raining. Apart from I find most of them a bit flat & dull.

It’s my summer weekday lunchbreak spot & that’s about it for me. It’s much rather ride the steeper, rocky stuff off the side of the tramway.

Weather looks grim all week, so likely won’t be out if it is as bad as it suggests, am very bored of riding in filth now. If by some miracle it improves, i’ll be there at the original time. Likely on a black & blue Dreadnought.

DH22 is made with the Magi-X compound as is the DH34.

Magi-X (DH) is different to the Wild Enduro Magi-X. It’s considerably softer. Hence why they now make the Wild Enduro Racing Line tyres in the DH compound.

Those with wild enduro fronts, are you using the GUM-X or MAGI-X compounds?

Doesn’t matter, they are both shyte 😆

DH22 & 34 are decent (but they wear at an astronomical rate) and are so heavy they have their own gravity field.

For my big bikes the standard go to is still an Assegai MaxxGrip front & DHR2 on the back. Pick the compound and carcass that works for the type of riding you do and the speed you like to go & that’s about it.

Is that the stuff opposite Nun’s Chuff and Cliffhanger?

Kind of. Further up the valley though (opposite inbetweener/alien). They don’t officially ‘exist’ so as not to attract attention from the forestry.

It’s the stuff that’s across the valley from those, you either go up the horrible climb by the side of the RSPB site, or through the Bix Slade / Spion Kop Quarry

Or up the tramway and left, it’s probably the most mellow way up. The other climbs are dirty, on anything other than an ebike, especially if you are riding a few of the trails on that hill.

FWIW, I think they pretty much ride well all year round, other than total slop or frozen ground, as they don’t get the sun.

I’ll confirm pending the weather nearer the time if I’ll be out and what I am going to ride.

Mini hijack – don’t suppose anyone can point me in the direction of the above mentioned trails could they? I can’t see them on trail forks

Google Mary Rose Young pottery. They are in the woods over the road. Go into the fire road & turn right up the hill, keep aiming for the peak and you will see a load of the trails on the right. Most are easy flow trails, there is a load of hidden steep stuff there again.

I don’t ride a huge amount of the stuff over the road from the cycle centre around the Rubber Duck climb, as it’s generally a bit haggard & tame.

If I’m over that way it tends to be around Bixslade quarry (tramway trails) which are less ridden, but steeper & harder (but not too bad really).

Happy to show people around, although it’s hard to judge what people will consider too much or ok. At the end of the day if something is a bit OTT, that’s fine, it’s not a race 🙂

If the weather isn’t shyte, I’ll probably be about. I’m not riding anything in the cycle centre though 😆

Either way, the one that’s freshly serviced & tuned to your bike/you is going to outperform any shock that isn’t.

Personally, having run the Storia (V2 & V3), and now on a ’22 DHX2, I am boldly saying the new DHX2 is the best shock I have ever used. I now run one on both my bikes.

Coil works really well on the KSL. I am running a new DHX2 on it, also the full 65mm stroke. I am potentially controversially going to say, the new DHX2 might just be the best coil shock i’ve used :)

I can measure it for you later if it helps.

Bottomed out on the collar, or the bottom of the post ?

Bottom of the post. Running a 31.6 as apparently there is a touch more clearance as it chamfers down internally (literally a few mm).

It sits about 5-6cm out of the top of the collar on the seat tube, and was touch/go whether I was going to be able to run the full length, but I was, just. A super low profile seat might work like the NP one to gain a few extra mm, but would need a shorter clamp bolt as it would touch the base of the seat otherwise.

Sizing is a tricky one though. Swung my leg over an S5 and it felt huge, on paper should be the same size as my G1

My S4 ‘feels’ pretty much identical to my large Dreadnought in terms of sizing. I’m not a fan of massive bikes though, so feel wise, it’s right in the sweet spot for me.

The bigger issue is the ST length. I can only (literally bottomed out) run a 210 dropper in the S4. There is no way I could run it on the S5. I’d rather run a slightly smaller bike with a decent length dropper than something with a 170 post these days!

I assume that this is the main reason it is so unstable because rather than using it for its intended use, people are just trying to make money from it?

That’s essentially how I treated it. I started with about £1500 in Bitcoin, that became about £5.5k when I backed out (bottled it). Took my original investment out, re-invested the £4k, which became about £12k. Pulled some out, as back in November ’20 it was pushing on £12k a coin & all I could feel was a bubble, so I decided to bail out.

Had I shown a bit of commitment, I could have had a lovely payout, as I sat back and watched in pretty much quadruple in value in 4 months. Ah well.

Have just started again in the last 24 hours actually. Gone back to my roots of the original £1500, but i’ve spread it across BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC & a load of minnows who have tanked. I will try an keep an eye on it to move stuff on when I can & that’s about as much science as I can give my brain to whilst working. Will see what happens.

Even bought some Euro’s this week at 1.20 to the pound :)

Definitely not something I could achieve, without living like a monk (nor would I want to, I don’t think).

One of my riding friends is a bit of a freak, 185cm, 68kg & has an FTP of 308w, which is 4.5w/kg. He does an insane amount of training, and looks like he would snap in a strong breeze, that said he can ride a bike though.

I’m a much more slovenly 188cm, 85kg & 275w FTP which puts me at 3.2w/kg, which is fine. I could probably lose 5kg fairly sensibly whilst still being able to lift decent weight in the gym, and fit it round life, a job, a nice beer & dinners out & push it up to ~290w with some training, which would get me up to a whole 3.6w/kg.

Or I could just carry on as I am & enjoy myself :)

It’s the best, worst race in the world!

I’ve done it 3 or 4 times, but not for a few years now. I think it was 2015 the last time which was ‘the’ year. The weather was spectacularly bad & the main race was unrideable in places as it was axle deep mud. I’ve never been back.

The qualy track was always more fun than the main race, although I know they finish it higher up the mountain now. There were (and no doubt still are) sneaky lines everywhere. You just need to look away from the main line.

Had a few decent results, qualified 2nd & 3rd a couple of years on the trot, which was an experience being at the very front of the pack on the main race on the Sunday, literally surrounded by pro riders. I think my best result in the main race was 48th one year, which could have been better, but as others have said, once you are off the snow & it traverses across the mountain back to AdH, its almost impossible to overtake in any volume, as it is essentially singletrack, you just get stuck in a train of riders. The years I have done less well are downright tedious trying to get through that 5km of trail.

The main race is an absolute sh*t show on the snow if you arn’t accustomed to it & mind blowing how fast the really quick guys are. There was some bits I was doing over 60kph on & I was being overtaken at significant speed still. The further back you are, the worse it is, as it ruts up really quickly & becomes almost unrideable.

I’d do it for a bucket list bike adventure, just don’t go with any expectations. As a separate point there are some absolutely belting trails down into the valley, so make sure you got an explore when you are there.

It would be fun to go back and do it on a considerably more capable bike though.

Was watching the PMBA at Llangollen from last year, I’m a little confused as to why the PMBA is regarded higher than Southern Enduro as it honestly looked easier.

I’ve never raced enduro at Llangollen, but I did race the national DH series back when it was there back in the day. It was steep, kinda not the most ‘enduroey’ of venues if you ask me – feels like it would be 3/4 DH races which you have to get yourself to the top to do, which was a bit like Caersws Mini Enduro.

As for how hard it was, the stuff out in the open was always the tamer trails, but I would say they are a significant step up in difficulty to all of the Southerns (apart from maybe the full Minehead, which hasn’t been used for a while but only then there is one tougher stage with some techy bits on).

Still waiting for someone to be stupid enough to make one of the PMBA stages in Death Woods there :)

OEM are great. If I can’t get OEM, i’d only consider Galfer, Trickstuff or Swisstop.

Everything else i’ve tried has been varying degrees of shyte.

As wet weather riding shoe, they are pretty good IMO. The grip is decent (not amazing), they don’t feel too odd to wear & they keep my feet dry, not a lot more I can ask for.

I will caveat it with the obvious, sensible comment of I only wear them with waterproof trousers. I’m not one of ‘those’ who wear them in the pissing rain, or after a downpour, in shorts with my socks poking out, wondering why my feet are getting wet…

I run the same tyres when racing as I do normally, which is a MaxxGrip Assegai DoubleDown on the front & a MaxxTerra DHR2 DoubleDown on the back. The most I would do is swap out the front if I was racing somewhere natural like Minehead & it was pissing with rain. I would throw on a Shorty on the front.

Can’t/won’t use lighter casing tyres as I can flat them too easily when riding normally & i’d be p*ssed off if I compromise a race because of a flat due to trying to get away with a light tyre.

I’ve tried many tyres over the years. I tend to give all my Specialized tyres away as they are universally crap. The only WTB tyre I have used which is decent is the Judge (like a DHR2 on steroids). Michelin have been a hard no (Wild Enduros are remarkably puncture prone) but I have been testing a DH22/DH34 combo which might just edge out the my favourite Maxxis combo in terms of grip, but they are over 1.5kg each & roll like treacle. Schwalbe, I got so fed up of knobs tearing off, I don’t even look at them any more.

I was forced down the Michelin route above due to availability of Maxxis, but I have a big box of Assegai’s & DHR’s about to drop, so i’ll likely go back to what I know/like soon enough.

That said, if he can’t tell the difference, then as long as it’s a half decent tread pattern & suitable for the conditions, then crack on I say :)

Fixed that for you

Very true, but the obvious **** charging up the busy pedal/push up at 25mph resulting in constant near misses as they overtake, tends to stick in the mind.

It’s a gateway to Siryon ownership 🤦‍♂️

I wear one when I am required to for racing & generally curse it the whole way round.

I have tried various lightweight versions, and have never been impressed with them, so when I have to wear one, it’s a proper version (Troy Lee D4).

Definitely wouldn’t wear one for normal riding.

I know dozens of MTB ebikers, none of them do this, as it destroys range, obviously.

A weekend at BPW or FoD (cycle centre) and you can pretty much tick every single e-biker stereotype out there.

Full fat bikes, derestricted, tearing up the fire road with the saddle down, in turbo doing 45rpm.

Then riding down the trails slower than they go up 😆

Generally they have multiple batteries & swap them out.

I don’t get it, at all, but hey, we’re all different right.

IIRC (worth checking) it’s the same hose as the Level caliper – might be some of those?

Which version of the freeriders?

Different versions of the shoes have different compounds. Which did you buy?

I guess I’m looking for steep ish / tech ish but nothing death defying. I’m average skill level / short of a bit of bottle sometimes – but working on it.

At FOD I rode the Dh trails / some off piste stuff. Ridden a fair amount of mallards / Dowies / enduro trails / some frying pan stuff (maybe “black gold”).

I haven’t ridden the Ceris 2 chute yet or gone to the likes of Staunton and other areas so far. Plan to ride some more of that stuff this year.

I think based on that, then go & find the official harder stuff mentioned above at Afan official then (6ft under, Stage 4, etc). They will be a step up to the usual off piste you are/have been riding in the FoD.

If you venture out to the steeper sides of FoD & are comfortable, then you would likely have a great day at Masts, Barry Sidings, Ponty, etc. But unless you are happy on that sort of sustained steep & committed type of trail, then I imagine it would be a frustrating day. At least with Afan, you can ride a bit, warm up, get comfortable before dropping into something you need to be on point for.