No mate, I’m still waiting too. Hope it’s here for the weekend: lots of walking planned but the forecast is terrible 🙁

both wheels, and saddle off in thebzck of the current three. I have to pull one third of the rear seat forwards to get the bars in. Once it’s in, I can push the seat mostly all the way back, concealing the bike. You should be absolutely fine in a five.

As Squishy, on the saloons, split folding is an option – not standard fit.

3rd the ER6. Also look at a Versys too, which is also really nice to ride. My wife thought it was the most comfortble she’d ever been on the back of a bike on the weekend I had it as a loan bike.

The z750 is surprising docile and also worth looking at. Some Kawasaki price rises going through now, still some pre-price rise bikes out there though. Try Kawasaki Newcastle. Good bunch and some pre increase bikes too – they’ll deliver…

Test riding a zx6 and zzr1400 at the weekend, erring towards my last daft little sports bike before growing up 😉

I go by feel. Tight on the bb cups, bloody tight on the main bolt. I do use a torque wrench on carbon parts (when I can be arsed), squashed a few over the years.

Not trying to arsey, but do people really think it’s that much of a faff to screw the adapter into the crank and undo the Allen key? It’s different to XT, but you wouldn’t call it harder (although I agree it may not be obvious the first time)…

Sorry, clearly feeling argumentative. Throw me a Curly Wurly

I’m 5’11” and felt too cramped on a medium (tried it for a year, the feeling never went away), just to confuse things (I was running it with a 100mm stem and layback post, which was killing the handling). The med top tube is only 22.5 horizontally, but the slack seat angle does increase it’s effective length as the post goes up quite dramatically.

I’ve just bought an 09 large. I need to get the position right but first impressions are that it’s the better size for me – although I don’t have much nut clearance over the top tube.

Finally, the 09 large used a 31.6 seatpost, versus 27.2 on a medium. Joplin here I come (didn’t like the idea of a 27.2 Joplin, when it finally arrives, plus it doesn’t have much layback at all)…

I couldn’t possibly agree, that would look bad 😉

Couldn’t watch it if we had to bare those terrible Monster Job adverts before each segment! Good throw away TV with a curry on a Friday night. We spend a lot of the show wondering whether Simon’s shagging Paula…

I did have a life, once.

American idol here too. Although never the results show, which is normally a drag. Not that I think that excuses me in ANY way…

For me it’s the speed, efficiency and purity of it. You’ll struggle to understand on a mountain bike on the road. It shouldn’t be so different. But it is.

for my own encouragement and maybe your amusement at my failing, I’m going to post on Twitter my progress… Need everything I can think otto shift this gut. mufflerflux on there, my name on here is too long.

Good effort Franki! I can’t see how you can get that much slack in the chain, that close to the chainrings on the exit of the rings. Does it take a really sticky freehub, I wonder?

Has anybody EVER jammed a chain between a tire and chainstay? That must take some doing (impossible probably)…

Quick Edit: Why do these always remind me of smokey grey Shogun XTs… Weird.

Because the new ones are shiny. No more. No less.

At least in my case.

dj. I think there’s a difference between 08 and 09: meaning the 09 large is much closer to the 08 medium.

I’d say medium too. With such a slack seat angle, you can go quite small and still get a decent saddle to bar stretch though.

I’m 5’11” and just bought my second Meta, this time large. My nuts sit on the top tube when I’m straddling it… Certainly wouldn’t suggest large with any shorter legs…

Should of said too, that I think shocks are so good now that the configuration isn’t as important as the geometry. I look for head angles, top tube lengths and bottom bracket height. Whether its a single swingarm, four bar, faux bar, linkage or whatever doesn’t bother me too much (as long as it’s not a dog). There’s not that many of them left either…

Tough one. Had a Sugar, ETSX, Sworks Enduro, HL Flux, ASR, and now I’m on my second Meta 5. For my riding, i’ve easily preferred the Meta over everything else – just seems sorted. A recent review talks about flex – really haven’t a clue what theyre on about. My tire and wheel will flex more, I’m sure…

That Indy’s lovely. Really lovely.

The stem changed has improved things, although hardly took it over anything worthy of the travel…

I agree with all so far who like. And those who don’t…

It should be a love or hate colour – although somehow I can’t decide which. Paradox Green?

If you’re reasonably confident, just type msconfig into the Run dialogue box and fill your boots. It’s free, but I suppose there’s some safety in creating a recovery point first…

am convinced that small discs working at a high % of their capacity give better performance than big discs working at a low % of their capacity.

You might be right, but I’ve got no idea if working temperature versus performance on mountain bike brakes is parabolic or linear. I’d also have thought that a larger rotor has better leverage.

I ride 180/160 and for the kind of riding I do it’s more than enough power. The same size rotors on current XTR wasn’t confidence inspiring, but great on Louise/Saints. You’re almost certainly right that it’s all about expectaion.

We’ve had complete brake failure on our tandem on long (road) descents with Magura Louise 180/180 – which I think a larger rotor still would have resisted more. Had a few scary corners, with cleat marks left in the tarmac…

a bit of white and/or pink a la klein attitude team colours would be nice.

I did wonder if it would look better with white forks, maybe some Floats (I do like Vanillas though – and the bank account is starting to look unhealthy)…

Problem is Druid, I’m not as fast as I feel I should be with a colour like that… I could blend in on the old one!

I used to have a Supercaliber a few years back that was this colour with a blue fade and blue SIDs – it was lovely. This one isn’t quite as classy a green.

Well it wasn’t quite perfect, artistic licence on opeing post…

I had a Thomson layback post and a 100mm stem on the medium, and I felt like I was pushing behind the pedals rather than on them (the old plumb line trick would probably have shown my knee about an inch behind the axle) and I was getting a little bit of knee pain after long rides.

I wanted to get the same stretch without have the saddle as far back or putting on an even longer than 100mm stem. The 09 large has about an 1″ extra on the top tube.

Fair point, I accept some are probably worse than others. I used to find my old Maguras a bit tricky and relied for most of the time on zip-ties to keep the brakes open over the course of a few days. Did the tick, albeit lazy…

But I was wondering if there was some other trick others were using (I’m guessing not, but thought I’d ask).

There are a lot of people suggesting their brakes are well set up. I don’t get it.

Back when you had the one rider in a big group who had zen-like powers with cantilevers I’d understand the comment, but with hydraulic discs, what is there to set up that will affect power (other than basic bleeding)?

I’m curious.

Bone. Are you making an assumption that 350 represents a cost price? Any number of reasons why they sold him a frame for that price that have no relation to cost or profit.

So yes, it could be true. But it is not necessarily linked to cost, either from the factory, importer or retailer. It could be completely arbitary.

Male order? Pervert. 😉

Most retailers in most high street sectors work on between 25 and 35% GP.

It will be higher on low value items in bike shops (think tyre levers and stickers for example), but bikes, parts, accessories and clothing will make about 30% GP at full retail. If a shop owner is lucky, then they might make enough to pay the rent, rates and staff. God forbid they should want to pay themselves too.

I don’t work in the bike trade. But I’m right.

Similar to Rusty. I normally think my Auntie Nora, naked. Works every time…

Coffee

Did you not see my second edit at the bottom?

No need to kick your toys out…

What you going to scratch without them?

KoL – Youth and Young Manhood.

Paul Simon – Graceland

Two different moods I suppose…

And my omelettes are boring… 😉

And I didn’t mean driving oneself before you all start – I meant as a passenger! 😉

Well I call mine my phone.

But it is an awesome bit of kit that makes everything else look like beta test samples. The only physical problem is using the keyboard while driving in a car, or travelling on a train, I find that the keyboard can be a bit hit and miss then – certainly more so than my work BB.

But what really makes it are the unbelievable quality and value of some of the apps. I downloaded MotionX for £1.79 which turns it into a really, really decent GPS for the bike (especially for tracing rides and speeds). The Facebook, Twitter, Weather, Flickr, TiotiTV, Shazam etc etc apps are all great – and I would say I use the laptop a lot less now on an evening.

Could I live without it? Yes. Do I need all this information to make my life happy? No. Do I like having it anyway, and find it a genuine pleasure to use? Yes.

And I’m a PC fan. I don’t really like Mac OS any more than Windows – in fact I prefer the latter…

What does surprise me is the number of people who can be arsed to knock it. What’s with that, and why do you give a ****? Are you telling me it really bothers you when someone refers to their phone as their iPhone? I mean, really? What’s your reaction when someone says something really offensive. Lighten up, you’ll die young.

EDIT: Too much cognac – how many errors in the above?!

EDIT No 2 (ten minutes later): I realise it probably doesn’t bother you that much, you’re bored, and you’re just filling the board with the kind of random crap that makes this place interesting.

I’m just tired. And grumpy. And a little bit drunk on a school night.

Yup, lots of other traffic on a wall of death…

Riding a bike as such isn’t dangerous, but I reckon too many other risks from oil, traffic and so on to take my kids on the back (not that I’ve got any yet). Not sure I could do it.

Whoosh, I know.

Nioce shot Horatio. I especially like the kid’s shoelaces waiting to get caught in the chain…

EDIT: Damn it Chomp! Too slow Smith 😉

I love my Meta 5 (although just bought an 09 frame and it’s a freaking hideous colour).

Only complaint from most riders is the quality of the paint. Never found it a problem but did cover the swingarm and top tube with some 3M…

As Hora’s thread elsewhere – I find the Marin has WAY too high a bottom bracket for the way I like a bike to feel.

Second the Meta 5. Can’t say I’ve even found it a problem for pedal strikes either. Even if I had (did I say I hadn’t) , I’d still easily prefer that to sitting on top of something with a 14″ plus height and feeling completely disconnected…