@charliedontsurf May I nominate @LAT instead? His “I saw the best chains of my generation destroyed by poor lubricants” is a genius adaption of Ginsberg’s Howl poem and actually inspired my little contribution. Love and cheers!

Now for that little contest of yours (which might be the most un-hippy thing to hold and do): „The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to ride, mad to slide, mad to make a big save, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or consider a commonplace handlebar, but ride, ride, ride like fabulous yellow lube exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the tubeless tyre pop into the rim and everybody goes “Awww!““

Funny that you mention summer.
„I waited all year for her and now all I can do is wait and see her go.“

Cotic Solaris MK1 – originally bought 2nd hand as rigid bike for winter season gravel dashing, but kept coming back as main bike in different guises. Most recently as 79er Mullet with 130mm forks. Ace!

JonEdwards – Member
So being a jammy sod (…)

Ha! It says ‘Advertisement’ above your post which I don’t quite get as it certainly isn’t ‘booked’ as an advert but no matter what: thanks for the insight and the “real world” pictures which – indeed – do not make it look that otherworldly ehich is good in my book. 😉

Normal Man – Member
Here is the interview with Cy about the new Soul:

Love the video incl. the openess about the On One/Brant Richards connection at the very beginning of it all: On could think though that Guy Kesteven is better at writing than interviewing live but hey: still enthusing and very informative! 🙂

Sorry, me again. This is an M frame, I guess. What fork length is it please? 120mmm Pike? thx!

Stunning pictures by the way! 🙂

https://www.flickr.com/photos/coticltd/with/37863997465/

kelvin – Member

A few more photos now here … http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul#gallery

More next week… everyone busy today… have a good weekend peeps.

Many thanks! <3

kelvin – Member
Small and Medium bikes are built ready to shoot

Sideviews of build up bikes in S and M would be really helpful. Please! 🙂

colournoise – Member
Possibly covered here…

Thanks!

Well, it says, that they managed to “find the balance point on the head angle where you would get the confidence you need in the front end, with nice crisp turn in for the singletrack, without making it over responsive and nervous. (…) 67 was the magic number.”

Which underlines that they know what they’re doing. But I would like to understand it, too. 😉

OK, I’m still a little shocked as I expected it to be more ‘conventional’ than the new BFe. Now it’s actually even more extreme in terms of length/reach. But Cy know’s what he’s doing, so…

…can anybody explain to me the rationale behind giving the “more agile/less high-speed/less gravity oriented” brother of the BFe an even longer front end?

@taffman1980: just reading that you want to go for Ardents on the front AND for greasy/wet conditions.

Well by all means don’t get an Ardent then! While they are fine on the rear in the dry and okay-ish on the front in the dry thy have a tendency to suddenly let go in slippier conditions.

If you don’t want to go the “narrow mud-tyre“-route I suggest something like a Highroller for the front in mixed conditions. Highroller is a little better in the wet than Minions, too.

„What for?“ is a good question.

I ride 2.35 Minions and similar width tyres (Ardent, Larsen) on the back in summer,
but 2.0 Bontrager MudX (or recently Maxxis Medusa) on the front in winter, while sticking to a cushy wide tyre like a 2.35 Beaver on the rear.

Why? Well, I like the positive slop slicing grip of those open tread front tyres and their narrowness might help, too (and they don’t come any wider anyway), while I wouldn’t want to miss the cush of wider rear tyres.

Might look a little stupid but works a treat! 🙂

It’s simple:
– steel frame believers are happy bike riders if they own a steel bike
– carbon frame believers are happy bike riders if they own a carbon bike
-> both are happy – what more could you want from your bike?

Too simple? Well, but there might be people around who can’t be bothered to test bikes all the time. My first bike was steel, my second aluminium. The aluminium one was terrible. I went back to steel and never looked back (apart from my FS which is aluminum). Am I missing out on advanced technology? Probably. Do I care. No. I’m just a happy biker. 🙂

But now to something far more serious:
You @dannyh don’t do steel frames any justice if you take an blatant 250 GTO Replica as an equivalent for steel frames. Shame on you for this malicious mispic. Then again I didn’t find an appropriate pic of an original either.

Anyway I think of steel frames more like a Lotus Seven and a carbon frame maybe like a Lotus Elise.

Quick update:
– went out last week again, lower temperature than first try (now -3 to -6°C), additional windstopper gillet under soft shell jacket
Result: less cold than week before (when temps were around +6°C), still clamy and coldish around shoulders at the end of the ride due to evaporative chill effect)

– went out yesterday with my old standard set of clothing for coldish weather (warm baselayer, heavy merino mid-layer, windproof gillet) while conditions were inbetween (+3°C to 0°C) and surprise: it was pretty much OK for most parts of the ride only slightly cold around arms after short breaks but OK as soon as I got going for a few minutes. Only at the end of the 4h ride after stopping and chatting for 10 minutes in the cold and then heading back home I felt pretty cold (who wouldn’t). I added a thin hardshell windbreaker jacket (Endura Helium Jacket) which sorted the cold completely after a few minutes. I felt warm and dry for the rest of the ride.

Coming home the inside of the jacket was pretty wet the baselayer and merino more or less damp.

Which proofs my point:
(at least from my point of view and for my kind of sweating and perceived warmth/cold…)

– a soft shell gets clamy as a whole and cold as result due to evaporative chill

– a hardshell is separated from the base- and midlayer by a buffer of air, ist may also keep dampness more inside. All of this results in less evaporative chill.

-> Gore Tool Jacket for sale! 😐 😉

with a 2.25 Ardent in the back of my Solaris I never experienced clearance problems

Good for you! I’ve heard of people who like to ride 2.35 or even 2.4 tyres… 😯

Have you tried the HR’s the other way round?

yeah, thought about that, too – not tried yet, though

Another update:
– switched front-to-rear, as Highrollers on the rear were almost as useless as Ardents: sudden slip, just a little later, those ramped middle blocks are sh#te for traction when slippery to muddy
– but above mentioned Spesh Enduro truly excellent on the rear!
– same tyre was side-knob flapping into oversteer all the time when on the front
– Highrollers upfront now, perform OKish but not as good as Bonty MudX (less control, more glide)

-> 2.0 Bonty MudX on the front, Spesh Enduro 2.4 on the rear? Will probably look like a dragster but might work.

2.2 Conti Rubber Queen reduced at the bike shop. Might be the solution for more tyre-space for those gluey-muddy-rides around 0°C…

Many thanks for all the replies!
Seems like 50% get on with soft shells and 50% experience similar clamy-cold effects.

And ’tis true
– 6°C was maybe a little too warm for that sort of kit (Gore Tool jacket meant to be very warm)
– I will give it a try at -4°C tomorrow night (similar intensity but shorter ride)
– for the mid-3hours of the ride the jacket was fine and only got clamy-cold in the last hour when I stopped and then backed-off a little on the last tired transfer miles back home, less climbing, less intensity

Many thanks again – I’ll give you an update when I have tested different layers, temperatures etc.

P.S.: These three would be a nice team. 😉

Many thanks again! Quite like the idea of having a team of two or three different characters to show the variety of the sport and have also different roles (inspiring, cray, corporate, success in sport, success in managing). One could then easily do a little podium discussion at the end with questions from the audience etc.

@Sui:
– not looking for a testimonial, thus target group is not the point really
– it’s not about selling someone a product but about giving an insight into a different world
– most well-known olympic golds would probably be beyond budget

Thanks anyway! 😉

Marc Weir?!

Rob Warner is out for above mentioned reasons.

I want someone who can introduce people from a corporate world to the scene of a sport like biking. So they need to bridge between the two world a little.

Spoilt for coice! 🙂 MANY thanks indeed!

Have Tracy, Pete, Barel on the top of my list now.
Time schedule-wise some of the ‘not racing so much anymore’ might be interetsing, too.

What about Ned Overend?

Guy Martin might not be corporate enough… 😉
Missy Giove neither.

58.210 signatures – many thanks to all who’ve signed and shared! 🙂

Approaching 57.000 and one day to go!

Revised “Here’s how”-part as the translation on openpetition.de doesn’t seem to work:
– click on this link: http://bit.ly/19RiytZ
– choose your country in the drop-down that says ‘Deutschland’ on the left ( e.g. ‘Großbritanninen’ for GB and ‘Irland’ for Ireland)
– enter your full name under ‘Vollständiger Name’, your Postcode and town under ‘Postleitzahl Ort’ and your street and house number/name under ‘Straße Hausnr.’
– if you tick ‘Anonym unterschreiben’ your name won’t be visible in public (we don’t mind if you stand with your name for trail access, though)
– if you un-tick ‘Informationen zu dieser und ähnlichen Petitionen bekommen’ you don’t even have to enter your e-mail address
– hit the big yellow UNTERSCHREIBEN-Button on the right and you’re done

“Can you believe that singletrails are illegal in the Black Forest in Germany? Please sign this petition so Hänsel & Gretel can shred some real MTB trails. Who wants to ride on fire-roads anyway?”
https://www.facebook.com/hans.rey.92?fref=ts

😀

We’ve had a lot of international support during the last days. Amongst others Endura and Singular Cycles shared the topic on Facebook and Cotic spreaded the word via Twitter.

Many thanks to all who’ve signed!

Here’s a little summary of what it’s all about and how you can support us during
>> THE LAST 3 DAYS!!! <<
of our petition for trail access in south-western Germany: https://www.facebook.com/DIMB.OpenTrails/posts/461231367331845

Please ‘share’ and ‘like’ to push the visibility of our campaign.

Cheers!

Many thanks to all who have signed!
The share of British signatures has risen substantially. 😀

It’s called ‘Bollenhut’, is part of the ‘Tracht’, i.e. traditional dress in some regions of the Schwarzwald/Black Forest and shows that she’s still available. Married women would wear black ‘bollen’ on their hat.
Those ‘Bollen’ are basically pompoms.
-> for mor information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Forest

‘Nough? 🙂

Approaching 53.000!

Revised “Here’s how”-part as the translation on openpetition.de doesn’t seem to work:
– click on this link: http://bit.ly/19RiytZ
– choose your country in the drop-down that says ‘Deutschland’ on the left ( e.g. ‘Großbritanninen’ for GB and ‘Irland’ for Ireland)
– enter your full name under ‘Vollständiger Name’, your Postcode and town under ‘Postleitzahl Ort’ and your street and house number/name under ‘Straße Hausnr.’
– if you tick ‘Anonym unterschreiben’ your name won’t be visible in public (we don’t mind if you stand with your name for trail access, though)
– if you un-tick ‘Informationen zu dieser und ähnlichen Petitionen bekommen’ you don’t even have to enter your e-mail address
– hit the big yellow UNTERSCHREIBEN-Button on the right and you’re done

Many thanks!

Mugboo: Signed, can you sort our access out next please

Would love to! 🙂

There’s one difference though:
– our stupid rule is ‘just’ 18 years old
– your stupid rule is from the mid-fifties if I’m not mistaken

Even in our case the main problem is protection of vested rights and a general resistance to change on behalf of some of the rambling associations and landowners.

But there’s hope! We’ve put social media to good use to engage with bikers and convince them to take an active role. It’s a little tricky as bikers tend to be less organised and more individualistic, so less keen to engage in a group. But you need some lobbying in order to succeed.

On the other hand local activities seem to be just as important. E.g. to talk to local authorities and the local representatives of rambling associations. Offer help with trail maintenance. Put a face to the anonymous biker. We’ll see if it works over here.

Anyway, thanks for signing!

Just a little update:
– tried 2.0 Bonty MudX on the rear and… hated it! Too shallow! Got too used to wider/taller stuff…
– fitted leftover 2.4 Nobby Nic on the rear and – as always – Nobby Nics are certainly not great in the mud BUT they keep you going. Somehow and with a lot of slip I made most muddy inclines despite the rear being clogged up. Amazing! But 2.4 with mud rubs Soul chainstays -> not sustainable!
– I’ll switch to a High Roller as soon as I can get hold of one.

On the front? My brave Minions were send into hibernation as I’ve found a dusty Specialized Enduro 2.4 tyre full of cob-webs (literally) in the very back of my LBS’ tyre rag. After being dusted off the LBS gave me a very fair price and still giggled. They have a very nice open tread and super soft rubber on the shoulders. So far I like them.

Cheers!

You’re wasting your time. It’s still summer for at least another month or two. Isn’t it?

I like your thinking! Not sure if that works on the rear, though? 😉

another bonty Mud-X

Hm, havn’t thought about them as a rear tyre based on “how they look” but certainly worth a test while the Minion ist still okay for the front.

If it works I could try to get the wider and/or softer compound ones for the front.

Cheers! 🙂

Another example with slightly more telling pics: 650B Soul

I wonder what’s the point of fitting 650B in anyones frame if you can only fit shallow tyres as a result.

I’d much rather have tall and fat tyres on 26″ wheels: similar diameter and rolling advantages compared to 650B with the added bonus of more cushion.

Or am I wrong?

Anyway love my 2.4s in the rear of my Soul and they look real tall.

“makes full suspension bikes look very silly”
“induces grins”
“slightly bemused”

Whatever this bike is – it must be fun! 🙂

And “slightly bemused” is probably one of the most charming ways to describe a bike.
I like! A lot!

@stevemakin: oh, wow, thanks for your reply! Sounds relevant for my case. 😉

Can you explain in a little more detail why you would keep the Krampus and in which way they are same-ish and yet different.

See, I think of this bike as a simplistic bad weather alternative to my 26 hardtail with fewer things to go wrong, e.g. no suspension fork. So one reason for going 29 and possibly 29+ is to provide some float and comfort despite rigid forks. Another reason is traction in corners and up hills. I understand that Knards are useless in the wet.

So my question is probably: how much float does a fat-tyred Solaris provide in comparison to a Krampus?

By the way: why do you run Krampus forks but “only ” 2.4 tyres?