1500 miles inc on my XX1 Eagle – have changed the chain once but still on same cassette and ‘ring. Used in all weathers.

Interesting to see that the new Bronson is being offered with 27.5 or 27.5+ wheel options, whilst they have dropped the 27.5+ option from the factory Hightower builds.

The Bronson launch video is just brilliant!

Hi,

Thanks for the advice, but they already do far too many clubs to start another one!

Was after advice on which brands to look at/avoid.

Thanks guys. Certainly does sound like (de)crepitus so will give some VMO exercises a whirl.

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”>slowoldman
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There should be a Nordschleife 24 hours

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There is and it’s epic!

Wifey has an F31 335D xdrive estate and whilst it’s an impressive piece of kit, it’s not that big (can’t get my 29er in the back without removing a wheel) and as she does a lot of short journeys, not as good on fuel as I had hoped. Buying again I’d probably look at a 330e or 340i if space wasn’t an issue.

It’s nice to drive and goes well, but you can feel the weight of the engine when you push it hard, but at 7/10ths or less it rarely feels 4wd and sounds pretty good too.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I thought the course and whole event was fantastic! Tough course and rain would have made it super tricky in places, but my mates and I all had an amazing weekend. Significant improvement in my result over the past 2 years which is nice to see although annoyed at myself for having 4 super clean stages and then having a silly off 10m from the finish on Stage 5 and then dropping it in one of the brilliant berms at the end of stage 6 after having ridden them cleanly 4 times in practice but that’s racing and fatigue for you!.

Well done all involved – roll on 2019!

I just stayed here and can highly recommend it. Bike wash, secure storage and great breakfast! 2 min pedal from the centre of Inners.

Gledeknowe Guest House in the Scottish Borders

Awesome trails! Did 3-5 in the morning and then 1 and 2 in the afternoon. Some dodgy taping at the start of 3 meant I actually went down 3G at first so had a nice extra steep run to wake me up.

Going to do 6 this morning and probably 1 and 2 again this afternoon.

There was a great vibe in the village last night and it was great to beating pizza and drinking beer while watching the mini cyclo cross event around the tow centre.

Just praying the rain holds offf now… 😬

Incase anyone’s interested. Ended up doing a 20mile loop. Golfie has puddles again. (Wolf/Boner). lower Pony is bone dry. DH tracks are dry from the quarry down/damp in places above but on the whole it’s all running grippier than last week when the whole hill was pretty much dust and marbles. Zero dramas running dry tyres  (hard compound DHF/SS) anywhere.
Tracks are all taped.

That’s great to read. Thanks for the update! 👍

We didn’t practice all of the stages last year (Stage 1 was part of a stage from 2016 so we felt we knew it) but just about lived to regret it as it had been cut up beyond recognition and I went off far too hot and came off 3 times on a 2 minute run! With 2 days to practice this year, we can do 3 stages a day and at least get a heads up on any tricky sections.

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Pretty gutted I wont be there

56km though sounds tough! 100km over 2/3 days with practice & plenty of climbing

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It was tough last year that’s for sure. I actually found 2016 easier which was 82km over 2 days of racing. (plus practice) but they seem to want to get the racing done in a day now for some reason.

I’ll be riding down that way tomorrow evening. Conditions will be DHR/DHF front SS rear friendly same as the other 364 days each year.

That’s the spirit! Hopefully it’ll be drier than at the recent QECP Day Night race where the ground was so wet that my plus tyred bike almost floated!

Can any locals comment on current trail conditions?

I bloody hope the weather is like that Ben… was bloody awful last year and almost broke me…

I have em and love em. Came on my Hightower so bought some more with my second wheelset so it was easier to swap. No issues at all so far. Have been used and abused over winter with no bearing issues at all.

They’re VERY noisy !

Unsure they’re any better or worse than Hope – think they’re lighter if that matters and make a much more noticeable buzzzzzzz

I’m blaming the tyres rather than admitting it was my lack of skill! Compared with last year my times were shocking yet the fast guys were still fast somehow regardless of the gloop!

I swapped back to my Minion DHF/DHR2 combo last weekend but after almost comical levels of zero grip at the QECP Day night Enduro (which was the muddiest I have ever ridden in to be fair) I’m wondering if a Magic Mary up front might be a better overall option? How are people finding these after a few months of use and abuse? Holding up OK?

The Minions are incredible in the dry and have taken plenty of abuse (lots of visible sidewall scratches and scrapes but no pinch flats or punctures despite a very hard and rocky week in the alps and several days in Scotland and at BPW), but they are looking pretty worn now (out back especially) and don’t really dig in when it’s gloopy.

I have a Hightower CC – started off as a 29er but added some 27.5+ wheels and prefer those most of the time. It climbs brilliantly and handles everything else far better than a bike with ‘only’ 135mm should. The only time it felt slightly out of it’s depth was on some properly gnarly stuff in the Alps where my mates with 160mm seemed to be having an easier time.

Never ridden the Ibis and I’m sure you’d be happy with either option, but the HT is the one for me.

PS3 game bought. Sorry to hear you’re having a tough time but fingers crossed it all get’s back on track soon.

Enjoy the heating!

40 today and bought my first Porsche 3 weeks ago. Actually the slowest and ‘cheapest’ car I’ve had for about 10 years but I now only drive at the weekends and it makes me smile every time I look at it and grin inanely when I drive it so it’s all good!

Great pads but deffo size up. I’m always a medium but needed a large. Got mine for Kuston Cycles eBay store who seems to usually have them in stock.

Wore them 8 hours a day for 6 days in the Alps this summer and didn’t get any chafing and the protection is great as had a few heavy offs that they just shrugged off.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/2017-pike-rct3-29-140-boost-1

I think we tried Toggl before Harvest but ditched it for some reason – not very helpful I know but it wasn’t me investigating it or using it much I’m afraid!

I went and had a great time! I’ve ridden Swinley more times than I care to remember, but the route included enough new bits and variations to make it interesting, and the racing element gives it another dimension that’s for sure. I didn’t feel overly well prepared for it really but had my best ever placing and if I’d pushed a bit harder and knocked 1.3 seconds off each stage, I’d have been on the podium which I’d never have expected when I started racing again last year after a 25 year hiatus! Something to aim for next year that’s for sure, although my speed over the last three stages may well be down to the fact that my parking was running out (was given a ticket on the way in by someone so thought I’d use that for an hour or so whilst registering and faffing about and then buy a 4 hour ticket before the race started, but obviously forgot). I sprinted the transitions between 7-10 like I was in Le Tour!

Harvest is good – we use it as there’s an iPhone app and our engineers can update it offline and it syncs next time they connect. Exports to Excel if needed but has some pretty good built in reporting. Does everything on your wish list.

We moved away from it a year ago to a proper project management tool and are now moving back!

My son and I started 5 years ago (4 and 34 respectively). It was great fun although as we progressed he did find it hard to keep focused during the 90 minute classes at times. Our Sensei has 4 kids and is very patient thankfully! We progressed up to brown with red stripe and then I injured my shoulder MTBing which meant I had to stop for a while. He carried on and is grading for his brown with black stripe in a couple of weeks and then hopefully his black belt this time next year. He’ll have just started in year 6 by then which I think is something to be proud of.

The main reason I did it was to do something together – neither of us are aggressive characters and I;m veru much a lover not a fighter even after 5 years of Karate.

I also did boxing training on my own near work which I much preferred TBH, that was until I started sparring properly and had my nose bust several times (yes yes, I know that I should just learn to defend myself better!). Just do boxing training now for fitness, not to fight.

Go for it – most oldies at my club started with their young kids.

Swinduro today – good course and great vibe. Was only 12 seconds off my first ever podium in vets too which I’m very pleased with. Reckon I could have pushed harder and found 1.2 seconds per stage if I’d known!
To be fair it’s more of a multi stage XC race but was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

My wife and I have BA Amex Cards and do 90% of our monthly spending on it as most places do take it these days. Haven’t paid more than £25 each for a business class flight in europe since and have just booked two first class tickets to New York for our wedding anniversary in January for £500 each instead of £4.5k!

I’ve currently got Minion DHF/DHR2 2.8s on my Hightower and the 29er Shorty/DHR2 combo was indoubtedly better in mud, but the pluses are better than I expected. When it’s really gloopy they tend to slide over the top of gloop rather than bite through it.

Monkey 47 is my ‘special’ gin of choice. Possibly a better gift for a Gin lover would be an evening at https://www.theginstitute.com

Not cheap but a lot of fun – you get plied with copious amounts of super strong G&Ts whilst learning all about the history of gin, and then get to go into the botanicals room, taste them all and then mix your own small batch gin! The best thing though is that they then record your recipe and you can order it online for evermore.

You leave with a bottle of their own Portobello No 171 Gin and your own. I think it’s great value.

I recently did a week in the alps at the White Room and rode a lot of very rocky trails. The Minion Plus’s were amazing and apart from quite a few visible scratches on the stickers, they came away intact and without any punctures.

I did run them slightly higher than normal at 15/17 psi

SohoBikes have an SC demo day at Aston Hill in a couple of weeks – might be worth trying both sizes there.

Anyone tried the different chains? My bike is full XX1 Eagle but I need to replace the chain and am unsure the XX1 is worth £60 when a GX is £25? Almost no difference in weight.

I have both but so far have just swapped them once per season – 29er in winter and 27.5 plus in summer. Plan to take both sets to the Alps and see how they compare out there.

As I am clearly ignorant on all things gravel/road, would I be ‘safer’ to just fit some tubes in these tyres and run them at circa 45psi or change them for some proper 700×32 Tubless Ready tyres and run these tubeless at 45psi?

I’m inclined to just spend a tenner on a couple of tubes given that I only use the bike for ad hoc commuting but don’t want to risk this happening again?

I’m 75kgs so 170lbs ish and they turned out to be 40mm tyres but as stated above, NOT officially tubeless ready although a lot of people claim to run them tubeless without issue.

I can’t afford to risk it again so will buy some with a big fat TLR sticker on the side.

funkmasterp – Member
commute into London this morning
That was the first in a series of bad things happening.

LOL – I only do it once a week as it’s 25 miles and takes up too much valuable MTB time otherwise. The first 12 miles is through the ‘burbs and then there’s 11 miles along the Grand Union Canal and then a mile from Paddington to the office so it’s quite a nice run as a rule. Today’s off happened about 11 miles in and looks horribly like it was totally my fault for fitting non Tubeless Ready Tyres and over inflating them too!

These are only 32mm but I think they could be a sensible option? Any alternatives?

https://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Bontrager/AW2-Hard-Case-Lite-TLR-Tubeless-Ready-Clincher-Tyre/D8QZ

or these at 30mm

https://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Mavic/Yksion-Elite-Allroad-Tyre/9P5N

Haze – Member
Any tips?
Try tubeless tyres for running tubeless

Maybe a good place to start! I read about loads of people using these tyres tubeless so (foolishly) assumed they’d be OK! They were cheap as chips at On One so no loss (injuries aside)… Buy cheap, buy twice never rung truer!