It wouldn’t work, the u-turn mechanism is integrated with the spring, so you’d need a longer spring.

The only longer u-turn forks would be some 2006 boxxer rides, 170-120mm adjustable, and you can raise or drop the forks in the crowns to adjust the geo to suit.

Google “bridge” and the model of your spare router, or – shock horror – read its manual! (probably find it online).

It’s actually a 190×44 shock, IIRC. I’m sure mojo will sell you one.

What do you hope to achieve with the change? (obviously shorter travel, lower and slacker, but what do you want to change about the way the bike rides, and what forks you got on it?)

As per stu_n, i had a prophet and ran it in both settings. Only the XC hole is really usable with the shorter shock, gets *very* low and slack otherwise. (and i’m not just coming at this from a XC standpoint, it’d be “worse” than my socom)

What shock do you have on it at the mo?

I found it better (with pikes on the front) at 140mm on a high volume medium tune RP2 than at 120mm on a rp3 with a heavy tune FWIW.

I could talk about the differences all day though, as I rode it extensively with both settings, there are pros and cons to each…. lemme know if you’ve any specific questions.

Old/cheap memory card? They can only handle a limited number of writes.

4) Diy service, guides on the fox site.?

I’d echo all the above (especially brake pads and wet weather gear) and also say to bleed your brakes properly before you go. Old fluid can make brakes overheat/have issues more easily, and chances are you will be braking more and for longer.

As for the pedals, whatever’s normally on the bike.

Whoever said most DH bikes use flats above I dunno. Most “freeride” bikes maybe, but go to a race and I reckon you’ll find it’s about 50:50 flats and spds. DH != FR…

Float fluid is more like 85wt gearbox oil, no where near the same as 7.5wt damping fluid!

You’ve got a bike presumably worth at least 1k+, and begrudge spending the tenner to service it properly?

Connect the laptop to the big TV?

Watch the highlights?

CPUs don’t degrade, they either work or they don’t. Battery life will degrade though.

Backup your important files, format the drive and re-install XP, will work as well as it used to. If that was fine, it’s still fine…

Nah, but I’m friends with both of them. No races for me this year due to being really busy with a phd… I’m a lanky guy on a socom.

Guy on the alpine would’ve been a mate of mine. He’s a bit of an animal on a hardtail, did well at the endurance DH last year too (10 runs or something, despite a bad crash).

Either swap the bits or ride the alpine. I mean, you’ll be slower on the alpine than a big bike, but will it be any less fun? Will still be a lot of fun I reckon…

As above, I doubt you’ll get cheaper than £70 for anything decent. And you’ll be wanting a full face, and probably some armour too remember…

What’s your current bike? Chuck on some DH high rollers and you’re probably fine, unless it’s a proper XC race bike.

Tyre/rim logo fail.

Contact extra, just had a warranty issue with my socom sorted by them directly, as it was easier/quicker than CRC. They were incredibly helpful – couldn’t have been better.

No alignment issues on my socom, though I would say their QC at the factory is less than great given my experiences (all sorted now though, again thanks to Extra).

If we’re onto the old “carbon breaks” chestnut – so does everything, depends how it’s made.

I had a carbon DH bike (remec). It died at 6 years old, having spent many weeks in the alps, SDAs, NPS etc etc.

What broke?

The alu headtube insert, in a high speed crash at fort bill that put me in hospital in a neck brace. The carbon was fine.

Morelikeme – if a T reg mondeo hatch (*well* within your budget) in edinburgh interests you, then get in touch (iain.wallace gmail.com) as I will be selling soon/now…

“Are people who have old bangers genuinely going to go off an buy a new car?”

I might. I was in the market for a berlingo or similar anyhow, and they’re cheap new. I was looking at say 3 year old ones. But with a discount, and the fact that a new one will have a warranty, can choose the spec I want and get a more efficient engine…. might just make it worth my while (in the longer run) to get a new one. And I can afford to buy new if it works out better for me.

So I plan to go off round a few dealers at the weekend, see what sort of deals they’ll do (i know scrappage doesn’t start till next month, but I’ll get a good idea if it’s feasible or not. And I’d buy new now if it was that good a deal…)

Actually if you read the budget, they don’t expect this scheme to be good for the environment. It’s listed as having a slight improvement on carbon emissions at best, and probably neutral in balance.

For a new headset – onone knocking out fsa XL2s cheap in their sale. Get one of them.

Will that thing go round corners at all?

You have to have owned the old car for over a year, and it must have a valid mot.

See i’m seriously considering a new car cos of the scrappage.

My old mondeo is worth about £400 (cheap for an easy sale), and I want to replace it with a berlingo. Current website price on a berlingo first (old shape one) from citroen is 10k, so 8k for a new one is pretty appealing. Compared to say 4k for a 3yo petrol one, the new one could be diesel and save me about £400 a year on tax/fuel, plus it’ll have new tyres, not need a new cam belt in the next 5 years, have a warranty so less worries about big repair bills etc etc.

I’d not buy on finance tho – maybe that’s the difference? I’d buy new if it means overall the cost of me owning it say 5 years is the same or less – and the sums work out pretty damn close.

4st 7lb – manic street preachers

Pieces of what? – mgmt

there are so many comedy possibilities…hard to choose

There’s a powerpoint of it to that I’ve seen – might help you google it.

Actually, just remembered, the info’s on the windwave site:

http://www.windwave.co.uk/documents/techinfo/rearshocks.html

RF external BB cranks require the washers etc are all correct. Have you measured your BB shell, checked you have all the right spacers in the right places etc. And they’re tightened to spec (which it *tight* IIRC).

get a free PAYG sim, and port the number to that.

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/freesimcard?WT.mc_id=ConFreGeAdd_0978

or http://freesim.o2.co.uk/

or just go into a network shop and ask for one?

Eh? Just call up and cancel the old contract? Why wouldn’t you port the number anyhow?

For my mondeo I just bought a s/h keyfob off ebay. Reprogrammed it myself in about 2min – on the mondeo it’s just done with 2 existing keys and the new one. Then any old locksmith to get a blank key blade copied like your existing one. Total expenditure about £20.

I dunno if you can do that on peugots though… I’d have thought some google effort would tell you though?

A V70 will have side airbags I’m guessing. But dunno if they’re in the seats? The sides of the seats often say on them.

I’ve been looking into this, and as above, you do get suitable covers.

Actually, to be pendantic, the real problem is will it work with an MTB mech? The answer is yes, but not properly. Road mechs swing in a different arc to accomodate smaller closer ratio blocks. Hence why new saint mechs let you change this, and DHers tend to run shimano road mechs (and cos they have shorter cages).

You need a 9sp mech though, although a 10sp will work with some washers to space the cage.

Having said that, you may be able to set a mtb mech up fine. Indeed i’ve had a med cage x7, ultrega 12-25 block and pro2 hub working perfectly on my socom for 18 months now.

It’ll be fine. Go to any DH race and you’ll see hundreds!

On my DH bike i’ve been tubeless 18 months, mavic rims and stans strips. Works better with sealant, and you get bonus puncture protection, but you don’t need it (you might initially though till any gaps in rimstrip are sealed). it’s great, better feel for same pressures and tyres, saves a chunk of weight on a DH bike too. 2.5 UST high rollers there.

Even with latex, swapping tyres isn’t too bad – use a syringe or scoop to get the latex out the tyre after you unmount it. Better would be mavic UST rims and no sealant though. No more hassle than swapping tyres normally is then. If you’re denting an 823, you’d have dented anything else too…

A lyrik is in theory too long A-C for a regular prophet. I think you do need a deep cup for a lyrik to clear.

I had a heavy tune rp3 on as a prophet SL and a medium tune high air volume rp2 as a prophet at 140mm. Both were good, suiting the bike.

As I assume you’re going more FR, the medium tune would seem more suitable, it was better for that sort of thing. I think it would be waaaaay slack with a lyrik on though, especially in the FR setting. With pikes and the deep cup reducer on mine it was getting on for being as slack as my socom…

EDIT: of course I’m assuming you’re running the forks at 160, you could run them at 140.

genius, i nearly cried.

Video is safe, it’s the audio that’s NSFW.

It won’t work.

The spring leg assembly is what limits the travel in RS forks, not the damper leg – that side will extend further.

If you put a pike spring assy in some 130 revs, you’d just end up with 140mm revs. And probably damage the damper at top out.

You’d need to take the spring off a pike assy and fit it to a rev assy. Which would be a PITA.

I think you’re trying to solve a non-problem. But everyone should have a hobby.

In any case, I think pikes work better as dual air (having had both).

See you can avoid this problem by having more bikes ;)

Cos then I have a set of spuds for each one, but only a couple pairs of shoes. So I have more cleats than shoes, so spare cleats.

That might have been the worst justification for extra bikes ever….

I’ve seen more worn out RS than fox. If you ride regularly, and don’t service them, any forks will wear out.

Servicing the foxes is marginally easier, as you don’t need to faff with air valves or rebound adjusters. But there’s not a lot in it. It’s a < 20 min job for either to clean and lube the lowers.

I’d rather do the lowers on my forks than I would clean a manky chain. It takes me less time and is easier to do!

I’ve an XL 08 trance – i think you can see the headtube from space.

Great bikes, you might want to run the revs shorter tho to keep the handling sharp. 20 min job to adjust the travel tho.

I’m 80kg + kit and ran 160s fine both ends in the alps (on avids) on my prophet. Only had heat problems once, and plenty stopping power for the grip on that bike.

Same brakes but 200s on my DH bike, cos bigger softer tyres and better sus mean more grip, so I can haul on harder and notice the better braking. I did have a 160 on the rear for a while though as a spare when I bent a 200, and it was fine too.

I think most folk are probably over-braked. There are disadvantages other than rotating weight, to bigger brakes. It’s harder to get them hot to get pads properly bedded in, it’s easier to ding a rotor riding, and easier to bend one in transit too (more likely).

Try the smaller rotors, and get new bigger ones if you feel you need more power?

Whatever fits best – I do occasionally think folk mincing about trail centres etc. look a bit daft in the full-faces/fake-faces (things with the detachable chin guards) but then I think – maybe they crash a lot? In which case fair enough, they’re wearing kit appropriate for them.