Is the broken freehub a warranty job? Or is that considered wear and tear or crash damage?

my switch hubs have been fine. had them for over 2 years only changed the bearings after 18 months.

Superstar also offer a free lifetime truing for the original owner and also have a crash replacement policy to get you back on the bike on the cheap.

I had a quick look around on the web a while back on a cheap place to get my RS forks serviced and everyone was roughly the same price.

If you really want a big saving do it your self. The lower leg service is quite straight forward and not too hard, lots of videos on line showing how to do it.

chiefgrooveguru
I run mine pretty hard because I don’t like the front bobbing about with maybe 15% sag

Have you got the basic RL version? That’s my main bugbear with Fox forks. Look at getting a compression adjust upgrade So you can use your forks correctly.

The one about you not being allowed to profit from a link ?

doubt he is making a profit at that price? I’m sure it cost a lot more when he got it.

The Rebas will be about 200g lighter and a bit more flexier. The Revs will also have better damping and internal components. The Reba is basically a SID with cheaper internals to keep the cost down.

I have a 26″ Rev and SID (same chassis as the Reba) and yes when the trail gets rough you can feel a bit of flex going on but its never really enough to distract me from what I’m doing. It’s not like it wobbles about like jelly.

I’m also quite a heavy rider and been riding the bike quite aggressively. If you are a lighter rider or have a smoother style then you probably wouldn’t notice much.

I think you’ll be more than fine with the Arch EX and possibly even go for the Crest.

I’ve been running a Crest wheel set on my long travel hardtail for a couple years now and not had any issues. I weight 90kgs and used the bike for ploughing through rock gardens in Peak and Lake district, Wales and regularly do small and medium sized drops often to flat.

The wheels have been great and stay nice and true. only slightly dinged the rear rim in a crash but just bent it back and its been fine.

Are your local trails very rocky or rough ground? if so maybe the Arch EX to be on the safe side. But if its woodland trails I think you’ll be fine with a Crest

I’ve got a set of 2010 U-turn RS Revs and totally love them I tried to replace them with something new and shiney but couldn’t find anything with the same level of adjustment that wasn’t at a ridiculous price.

They’ve been pretty reliable, only giving me a bit of bother this year but turned out to be something quite simple and cheap to fix (thanks Loco)

I briefly tried a set of Sektor Dual Positions when demoing a bike and found them very divey. Not sure if that was the basic damping on them or a side effect of the dual position system?

That’s normal for non OEM stuff.

Hi guys,

great thread, I’ve only just stumbled on it. This thread has given me the motivation to go try something similar this summer. I’m not a well seasoned camper so will wait till ideal conditions before giving it a go.

If I go in the summer time and pick a weekend where there is no chance of rain. Will I be OK sleeping in just summer sleeping bag and a mat under the stars? Or do you still recommend a bivy bag and tarp etc ?

my superstar wheelset with their cheaper Switch hubs have been great over the few years I’ve had them. only needed to replace the bearings once. which was easy to do my self. and run pretty silent.

yep should be fine. The way seatposts and frames connect hasn’t changed so there is no reason for shims to not to be OK to use.

wouldn’t the longer wheel base of the XL be better for DH?

as above, why? they have not changed.

But yes the the dampers should be interchangeable but the RCT3 is not actually a better damper. Its the same system but just adds the open – threshold – lockout dial. the damping is the same so unless you use the RCT3 lever you won’t notice any difference.

been using some sworks captains on shimano ust rims. they normally inflate fine without issues and have never rolled off the rim or burped.

I find the sidewalls are a bit thin and I don’t like the feeling of the tyre squirming so tend to run slightly high pressures.

^^^ +1, just tried that a few hours ago when a new continental x king refused to go up. went up in seconds after seating one bead using a tube.

You are pinch flating tyres? 8O

I’d try tyres with a thicker sidewalls first.

Forks: look at either Rock shox Reba or if you’ve got the cash go for SIDs. Merling always have these at a good price.

Wheels: Superstar with your choice of Stans rims.

Flown with Canadian Affair to Vancouver at it was on par for the price. No complimentary extras but then I didn’t expect it for that price. But the plane was clean and staff and service were fine.

Also flown with Air Canada from Vancouver to Toronto and that was a bit nicer. I had slightly more room and staff and food were a bit better. The ticket was bought as a gift so no idea what the price was but it was a better experience.

somewhatslightlydazed – I wasn’t having a dig at you. I don’t clear many of the jumps either and am far from being a riding god, so I’m in no position to laugh at any one myself.

Its a blue trail in an area where you will get a lot of people new to riding bikes. Meaning you can’t build anything too steep or with mandatory obstacles. You need to build things that can be rolled over by a novice. But at the same time, a more advanced rider can choose if they wish and have the skill, to go much faster round the berms taking a higher line or try to clear the jumps.

Different trails have different challenges. Just happens the challenge at the new Swinley trails is taking berms as fast as possible and doing the jumps.

If you don’t like the challenge laid out by the trail that’s fair enough, different people like different things.

But to say I didn’t try to the challenges and found the trail a little unchallenging is a bit silly.

The trails are great fun to ride fast. But unless you like jumping over those table tops (or doubles or whatever they are called) there is nothing on the new trails that you have to really worry about (apart from loosing speed before the jumpy bits).

errmm doesn’t that apply to any obstacle? If you’re not going to ride it properly then of course it’ll be easy.

Trying to do the jumps is the challenge and provides the rush.

Anyone else think the Red is a bit boring? It didn’t seem to have the fun or flow of the blue.

Just seemed like they put some single track for the sake of getting over to the labyrinth and back. I think I’d rather just take the fire roads and get there quicker go up and down a few times then head back an continue with the blue.

Maybe I got lost and missed all the good bits?

Do want the super zoom or better image quality?

You won’t get the same amount of zoom on a SLR without spending £1000.

Most cameras at a price point are very similar to each other. I’d recommend sticking with the same brand you already have as the menu system and buttons might be similar so hopefully you’ll be able to get more out of the camera.

they get a bit rusty and full of grit making them hard to turn.

sometimes simply taking the uturn adjuster off, cleaning and regreasing solves the problem. failing that you can get new bearings and springs from tf-tuned to do the job properly.

Been using them for years and not had any problems.

yep take it apart, clean and try again. maybe a bit of grease in there making it slip?

A low volume 650b tyre is the same size as a high volume 26″ tyre.

Make sure you have something big like the Rubber Queen or Ardents as mentioned and it probably won’t be that different from someone running more conservative 650b tyres.

What way did the Superstar headset not fit?

Looking at the Smoothie tapered headset the Superstar Tapered T2 (ZS 44/28.6 | EC 49/40) headset should have been the correct size to go for.

Email On-One to check what headset standard it takes. They don’t seem to say looking on the website.

info on the smoothie headset suggests its the same headtube in the new 29er frames as in the C456 which is what I have and the Superstar T2 headset works fine for me.

My C456 has an uninterrupted seat tube so you can drop the seat the whole length if you want. I *think* that’s the same for all 456 frames but you’d need to check.

I’m 6 foot but want a compact frame for chuckable fun. Would a 16″ be far too small?

Depends on how chuckable you want it? On One usually have long top tubes so you might get away with.

I’m 5’10” and used to have a 18″ c456 with 50mm stem and felt it was just right for the bit of every thing I do on it from long xc rides to DH tracks.

Basically be well behaved and do exactly what the Doctors tell you.

If they say keep it immobilised, then do just that. If they say raise it up / down when resting do that. etc …

Do you have a zero stack headset? You might be able to use a oversized external bottom cup with the tapered forks?

The post office should accept oversized parcels. I think they use Parcelforce for that?

I’ve sent a wheelset in a massive box box twice and had no problems.

The correct pressure depends on many factors: personal preference, tyre volume, tyre construction, rim width, trail conditions … blah blah blah.

Start off with a similar amount of air as before and experiment by taking some air out, test it and repeat and see what works for you.

That’s annoying, just spent loads of money servicing and replacing broken internals to my Revs otherwise I would’ve had those forks :(

Yes its possible. I was tempted to do this a while back as I too really wanted a 44 RC3 Ti but could find one anywhere. A few websites advertising them but none would actually have stock.

I saw the RC3 Ti damper for sale for about £300 the Micro switch TA forks where about £400 so the whole thing would’ve been £700 + labour cost to get someone experienced to do the work.

I decided it was WAY too expensive and I can’t really complain about RS Revs I have at the moment I think they are fantastic just wanted something new for the sake of shininess.

Forget about the “Veggie but eat fish” thing. Where do people stand on eggs? In my book that’s not vegetarian but many “veggie” dishes contain eggs.

Eggs are clearly animal DNA so how can these meals be classed as vegetarian?

if you take a rock & smash it down as hard as you can on the downtube would you be confident that you wouldn’t make a hole on the carbon one

No I wouldn’t be confident but then I wouldn’t be confident doing that to any frame.

So because you had a carbon frame that was broken by a rock strike you think all carbon frames are weak?

You realise s**t happens? sometimes you get an unlucky rock strike that puts way more force than any other rock strike. chances are the same strike would have broken a Alu frame too. I’ve also read many stories of people damaging frames made from Steel and Alu from rock strikes does this mean all common frame materials are rubbish?

Back to the OP’s question though:

I had a look at Trek frames last year and the dealer told me there wasn’t much weight difference between the carbon and the alu frame versions something like 200g. The carbon versions where designed to be stiffer and slightly over engineered so weight saving weren’t massive.

Saying that I was very impressed with the stiffness of the alu frames when I demoed the bikes and didn’t notice any flex, so not sure if the carbon versions would have made a difference to me.

The money saved by going to a alu frame with higher end components pretty much counteracted the weight difference between the frames anyway.

If you’ve got the budget to get carbon and high end components then great go for that. Otherwise on a limited budget I’d go for the alu frame with higher end components.

Surely any issues caused by over clamping is a user error? You just need it tight enough to stop the bike swaying about on bumps. It doesn’t need need to pass a deflection test from being hit by a car.

eg theoretically you can clamp the bike by hand to stop it being bumped about. Which wouldn’t cause any damage to the bike. So just use a similar amount of clamping force with the mechanical clamp too?

Just like all typical breakages it’ll take 6 weeks to heal fully.

The 2 weeks of sling use will be to try reduce any swelling and to help the initial knitting process happen. Your body will try to form a blood clot in the holes over which the new bone tissue will form. If you keep moving about you can dislodge the clot making it harder for the new bone tissue to grow. It’ll still grow but take more time.

regarding the numbness, this is because nerves are cut during the surgery. Some nerve tissue growth will happen but the sensation won’t ever be like before. The more you cut the more scar tissue you’ll have and more numbness. massaging the area regularly can help encourage nerve tissue growth.

I’m not a doctor or medically trained in any way but I have broken many bones, with the last one being a collar bone which needed screwing and plating and I like to ask a lot of questions so I’ve picked up some knowledge along the way.

I’m a big fan of my SIDs they happily cope with hard riding not just a “XC racer” fork IMO.

If on a budget look at the latest RS Reba. They share the same super light chassis but the Reba has slightly less refined internals to keep the costs down but is still a good fork.