The alternative to a gear-box bike i guess is a Hammersmidt up front and a Roloff at the back. 28 gears that your can shift without pedalling.

I like the idea of high-single-pivot-round-mid-mounted gearbox affairs. Lower unsprung weight, constant chain length, central weight distribution. If someone makes that with 6 inch front and back, fully dropable saddle and at a reasonable weight for days out in the peak, I’ll order it right now.

Moon on a stick? Me?

OOOOH YOU need to definitely watch this space…

really this is one time i would love to get the soap and box out but im going to let the proof be in the pudding on this one for definite

the nicolai idea is great but it hasnt moved in 10 years and unless your nicolai your pretty knackered for designing anything other than uber fetish german frames round it

Well I hope you’re right and we’re going to see some more developments on the subject. How long are we supposed to keep using bloody derailleurs? Let’s move on.

And why has nobody given the Honda style “mech-in-a-box” setup a go? Okay, it wasn’t as exciting as the ridiculous rumours suggested once the covers were unscrewed, but still, surely having the drivetrain out of harms way, and out of dirt’s way, in the middle of the bike was a good idea, no?

Theres one sat in Race Co in Stourbridge that Paul keeps trying to sell me. Geometry and suspension both feel nice in the carpark and the gear box weight is quite low/central to the bb. Didn’t feel like the lightest DH bike but far from the heaviest. Looks quite nice in the metal.

What’s the drag like through the drivetrain? Noticable at all?

I have a GBoxx sat in my shed, that I really must do something with.

You should, yeah.

I’m disappointed by the lack of interest on the GBoxx stuff. I was expecting it to kick off a bit more over here after the Sabbath was uncovered as it looked like a normal bike with a gearbox, as opposed to some uber-german uber-engineering-fetish thing few of us over here can relate to. Unfortunately it seemed to disappear into relative obscurity really quite quickly.

If I was in the market for a DH bike the Sabbath would be at the top of my list as it ticks the right boxes IMO.

“I myself am not a fan of the dark, it’s in the dark I see the boy’s face”

Best League sketch by a country mile.

The Chesnut Centre[/URL] is a quick drive up Winnats Pass and along the road a bit. If you like otters and that.

If you only have a few hours riding experience and find being watched makes you nervous enough to crash you should not be taking a test to be allowed into real-world situations!

That statement seems aimed at my original post.

A few hours of experience is – realistically – all anyone has when they go into their test, whether it be bike, car or larger.

And it’s not uncommon for otherwise perfectly capable people to be bad at testing. There will be countless bright and intelligent people out there with poor exam grades because the stress of exams takes it’s toll.

And thinking back to my bike test, ear hurting from the earpeice delivering crackly, barely audible instructions into the sweaty rental helmet with greasy scratched visor, your high vis bib flapping in the wind, under the watchful eye of the examiner and everyone in the test centre, the stress of knowing how much you’ve got to perform at that specific moment can be a bit much. Suddenly the thought of having to confidently perform a swerve at a specific measured and quite high speed in the pissing rain and wind (and trust me, getting quickly to 30 seems very unnatural in the confined space of a car park/testing centre pad) doesn’t seem so easy.

There’s more to it than “finding being watched makes you nervous”. Off-road test situations don’t ever realistically replicate real world situations, either mentally or practically.

I’m not saying the swerve test is easy or hard. I’m saying that I see the point of people (industry and otherwise) who feel strongly enough to speak out against it on an internationally broadcast BBC report. And to dismiss it at the stroke of a few keyboard fingers seems a bit short-sighted.

It looks fun to me.

It looks easy, but I think it would be quite tricky doing such a thing on your test, being speedgunned by the examiner, in full view of the test centre waiting room and car park, in the wet, when you’re nervous and have only a few hours riding experience.

[miffed chunter]

Blinking bike manufacturers all conforming to different fitment standards… 🙁

[/miffed chunter]

Ugh, I bet DT is well chuffed about that counterfeit rubbish.

I don’t want to keep causing confusion here, but that headset you linked to on Chain Reaction looks very much like an integrated headset, while it looks like (from your picture and the info available) the bike needs a semi-integrated design.

Semi-integrated and internal are the same thing – integrated isn’t.

Integrated headsets, like the one linked above, have the bearings sat directly against the frame, with no cups pressed into the headtube.

From the chain reaction page:

• TH Brand 36/45 degree micro angular contact bearings (blue seal) fit directly into a 45mm OD headtube

Semi integrated/internal headsets use cups like a traditional headset, but they sit flush in the headtube to give a low stack height.

Headsets are a right ballache. I think there are approximately one million combination of standards.

Tinsy – Integrated or internal?

Hard to tell from the images available online, but it looks like and internal headset on the Kraken to me – see link:

http://www.moredirt.co.uk/bikes/1594.jpg

EDIT: On the Halfords website you can zoom in on the bike image and it deffo looks internal to me.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_273391_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

It might be an internal headset, not a 1.5?

from http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/06/its-all-in-details.html

This may come as a shock to the newer riders out there, but there is absolutely nothing cool about trying to race somebody on your commute…

I never knew there were so many rules of commuting etiquette.

outsourcing?

This is ever so slightly off topic, but being quite interested in the magazine publishing world it’s certainly something I’d be interested to know.

Have you any idea (if such information is available to you) how big a market the casual buyer is to you? By that I mean does more of your revenue come from the repeat buyer or the casual buyer?

The very thing that appeals to me about Singletrack has always been the less bitesize articles – everything is more in-depth – and this will never lend itself to the casual market as much as the bullet-point editorial style of the competition.

I’d imagine the vast majority of casual buyers (even when faced with the louder retail version of ST) will still be drawn to the competitiors’ much louder, brash and dare I say more superficial offerings. So how much would be lost by not trying to be part of that race?

The idea of the clean cover is great, and as an LBS customer the one I buy, but understandably you feel this wouldn’t grab enough attention amongst the competition on the shelves of Tesco/WHSmith etc.

Since I became involved in such things I’ve had a particular interest in editorial design and it has always surprised me (not surprised me, more nagged me) that few magazines outside the niche worlds of fashion and design dare put out such sparse cover designs for fear of getting lost on the shelf.

It has always been something I’d love to put to the test – the theory that a sparse cover could be, in the current race for attention, the perfect way to stand out amidst the noise and action of the magazine rack.

I’d love to hear the results of a small experiment using the clean cover on a busy rack. To find out* if, on a rack full of noisy covers, a sparse leafy Singletrack cover would be totally lost or if it would work the negative space and stand out a mile.

*not enough to offer to cover the revenue losses it might bring, which I understand is the bottom line 🙂 It’s just an interesting concept.

I had a close look at the SLX double & bash’s guard in the LBS the other day and thought the same thing – doesn’t exactly compliment the chainset.

Fortunately it looks like any would fit, I’d be looking at a clear polycarb one from ethirteen or something I reckon.

However, when browsing the other day I came across a bashguard that said something along the lines of “SLX compatible (with cutout)” which made me think it might not be totally straightforward. Wish I could remember which one.

Too much shock pressure? Rebound set too fast? Weight further forward than you’re used to?

It was your first time out on a new bike, don’t be in any rush – give yourself time to get the feel of it before thrashing it too much. If it’s a brand-new bike, the shocks wont even have had time to bed in properly yet so don’t expect too much too soon.

Track ends.

Me too.

And for what it’s worth, my mate has a Remedy and it’s bloody great.

If you buy the Fuel, one day you’ll be out on the trail and see a Remedy, and you’ll wonder if you should have just spent the extra dough.

If you buy the Remedy, one day you’ll be out on the trail and see a Fuel and you’ll remain perfectly happy with your choice.

Buy the bike you want or you’ll regret it.

Good pics. Nice save 🙂

A truly joyous and deliciously off-topic post.

PeterPoddy – you managed to rescue it after both those accidents? Bleedin’ ‘ell. That would have sent it way past it’s bin-time for me. Respect.

You forgot to add in a bit about drinking bat’s milk.

😉

Because, like the vast majority of people living in the comfort of the developed world, your natural instincts as a human – those of survival – have been rendered redundant by our so-called society, and in order to feel a little more alive your brain is looking for ways to distract itself by focussing your attentions towards a hobby, and the constant chase for the perfection thereof.

And I ask you, who is the real sick man?

Is it the man who innocently wastes all his hard earned cash on unneccessary bike components to combat his general feeling of impotence by unsatisfactorily replacing the animal instincts that have been key to the survival of his race thus far but are now a complete irrelevance?

Or is it the businessman, in his suit and tie?

Does the Chameleon change colour then too?

That’s a pont – why don’t they paint it with ink that changes with the temperature like those Global Hypercolour t-shirts back in the early 90s?

Global HyperCruz!

Orange P7 all the way.

My servowaves have a much nicer lever feel than my none-servo waves.

I’ve got the bike stored upside down and wheel-less next to me in the office as we speak, as I’m planning an after-work ride.

Fingers crossed there’s no air in the system then!

I’m 27 and after a lifetime of riding mountain bikes I did the Direct Access last september.

I must admit I went into it quite confidently as I assumed my years of real biking would help me get to grips with the art of motorbiking. In truth I found it helped very little – certainly I didn’t seem to have any advantage over the other guys doing the course at the same time.

The feedback you get from a mountainbike – and the way you can manipulate it beneath you do make it do what you want just isn’t possible when you’re riding around cones, sat in the saddle, knees pressed against the tank of a shonky GS500 under the watchful eye of an instructor/examiner.

In fact I was the only one there who managed to drop the bike whilst on a lesson, getting cocky whilst practising U-turns. I never considered the bike’s finite steering lock and went down. Once it goes, it goes, and the only useful thing my mountain biking taught me there is how to get back up off the floor without being too embarrassed.

If you are thinking about it, go into it with fresh eyes and don’t assume anything. That way you’ll probably be more receptive to the teaching.

It’s good fun though – get it done :o)

davidrussel – reading your post introduced me to the feeling of going from completely placid to unspeakably enraged in a split second.

Issuette.

Wow.

He’s getting about 1000 calories a day from soft drinks. Assuming from the above that he doesn’t do much exercise, does he not eat much else or his he gettng fatter?

That much sugar must cause problems too – does he get a bit shakey?

This aimed at me?

He’s not a small chap, put it that way. I would imagine the sugar intake is causing issues that will show symptoms he doesn’t recognise as abnormal, and that will eventually lead to some unpleasant problems.

But at the moment, he’s just fat.

Wouldn’t they be warm? Eurghh!

Well yeah but it’s a long walk to the fridge. Multiply that by six for one day, and the result by 5 and that’s quite a few feet he’ll be walking throughout the average week.

Couldn’t have that.

Our company provides complimentary cans of pop – Coke, Tango, Dr Pepper, whatever – as a legacy from the days when they used to have a free drinks vending machine in the building.

It gets delivered by Tesco once or twoce a month and fills a store cupboard from floor to ceiling, all in 6 or 12 can multipacks.

There’s one fella sitting near me who every morning goes to the cupboard, grabs himself a six pack of Dr Pepper and plonks it on his desk as his daily supply so he doesn’t even have to get up to fetch fresh cans throughout the day.

I can’t imagine what his dental bills are like.

anything with a boomerang might interfere with the pivot.

Noted, cheers for the heads up.

So far it’s seeming like a bit of a no brainer – even from people who own the more expensive competition. Nice honesty, appreciated 🙂

Are we helping you with some kind of assignment on the 80s here tomzo?

Hmm, interesting (and money saving) comments on the Stinger…