‘only’ water resistant but my Specialized BG Deflects are quite good for light rain (they wetted out the odd time it rained properly for more than a shower), fairly weather resistant and so long as its dry they’re good down to a couple of deg C
Being fairly thin (for a water/wind/cold resistant glove) they’re not too bad for riding in either, not getting in the way like other gloves Ive used do (Spesh radiant for sub zero, sealskinz winter cycle)

Also they’re one layer and use a neoprene (or similar) cuff rather than a velcro strap so aren’t a faff to put on/off all the time

My sanderson was an ebay buy, so no biggie, but wasnt quite what I was after, even with a 100mm fork. Looking at the sanderson site, they dont publish the seat angle, and the pics they use are ‘3D’. Maybe it really is quite slack and blaming climbing on the bike isnt entirely unjustified ..
Then again maybe my saddle up descending isnt all I thought it was either

In a similar vein Ive recently turned around a Bontrager Race X Lite ACC post, it has a clamp similar to a crank brothers joplin where the clamp could be done up in any angle

Im only one ride in, so no idea how the layup will deal with it beinbg used backwards? (only a 5mm setback version though). On a Sanderson with 120mm forks, so the seat angle is pretty slack. Reversed seatpost should give a slightly better seat angle and bring down the long ETT a touch

The drag out of carding mill is tough. Don’t worry about it, just see as it a challenge if you return

Downhill rut singletrack, you’ve just got to carry as much speed as your mind will let you and pedal where theres room to, else pedals level

SSStu I presume you mean in between the rotor and hub (and bolts), rather than the braking surface? ..

“difference between the orbit mx and the XL2”

MX is lighter. Both are a lot lighter than a pig/pig pro
XL2 looks wierd. I went with an MX

EDIT: Looking at the FSA site, the XL2 has a lower stack height

“if you have DOT fluid that is a couple of years old, a bleed would be good preparation”
A bleed, or flush out all the fluid and refill/bleed with new bottle fresh fluid?

“fit some 200mm rotors”
But check your fork and frame are warrianted for them. Many aren’t, and risk snapping
some older marzocchi forks were 7″ max (180mm?). Most Rockshox (from tora up) are 210mm
Frames can be 185mm rear rotor max (some 160mm?)

Reading the whyte 146 review on the front page got me thinking, there seemed to be a putting any kicked off line down to the bike weight (at least at first) despite it being on XC wheels (EA70’s)

“almost slick centre section but with grip on the outside for a bit of confidence if the track gets a bit loose”
Id have thought if confidence is an issue she’ll not be leaning the tyre/bike over to get that outside tread to really bite?
Something with some low (rather than almost nothing) tread might be better?
Personally I found tyres with near centre-line-ridge-type tread, like maxxis crossmarks although rolled quite well could slip out under breaking/pedalling (okay a fair bit of) and I never really trusted them in the loose or to corner on properly
My Michelin Dry2’s are maybe a touch lower tread but dont have a centre-line and I find (in the dry and not too loose) to be more predictable and trustworthy all round, while being almost as good rolling.
On-one have the folding 2.15″ dry2’s for £10 atm (as big as 2.25″ maxxis (bigger than 2.35″ maxxis), slightly bigger than 2.25″ schwalbe)
The 2.0″ versions are better rollers though, being a bit lighter/smaller, but still big for a 2.0″
They are still an offroad tyre, so not anything like slick quick on the road

” I think a skinnier tyre will have less rolling resistance”
On a (smooth) road/smooth surfaces yes, in the rough I believe not so, a fatter tyre more easily ‘deforms’ to rough surfaces so rolls better, or so Ive read

“most free running I’ve ever used. But unlike most they are loose ball”
coincidence?

Stans Arch EX (400g, 21mm) is (on paper) better than Stans Arch (420g, 19mm), though on a 160mm+ forked Mega Id think you’d want Flows (22/23mm, 470g) would be more suited?

Mavic EN521 (540g, 21mm)?
DT EX500 (22/23ish mm, 500g)?
WTB (21mm ish) something?
Superstar AM490 looks alright on paper (23mm, 499g)

Why hope hubs specifically?

“on-one whippet. I’ve been trying to work on my skills specifically Jumps and drop offs”
Whats the warranty/on one say about that?

120mm to 70mm stem would be a lot of (effective) top tube difference.A fair few frame sizes worth
100 or 90mm is probably not all that bigger swap nor a too terrible a compromise for a whippet?

120mm stem, 580mm bars, whippet frame? How much drop have you between saddle and bar height?
If you’ve a lot of weight on the bars its not going to be helping (though not definetively stopping you)

“Would DT Rev be a bit weak for my weight?
Would DT Comp be better?”
Am I right in thinking supercomps are the in between weight/stiffness ones (triple butted ones)

Have used S-works Storms (2″) but tubed. No problems here despite peak/lakes/dales use

Think I read 1.55mm somewhere the other week

Are we assuming money is no concern?
erm, maybe something like:
SC nomad carbon, Fox 180-140 Talas or BOS 160mm something, Edge/enve rims etc
Nicolai DH bike with electric assist/power. w. Manitou carbon dorados
Moots 29er Ti Softail, Are there 29er able Maverick forks?
maybe a Charge Blender Ti, dropped 36 Float, etc

All overly blinged, but not toooo flashy, just a little too flashy

Seomthing like that. And then I’d realise Id want to change them all, if only slightly

“O-ring on the Trance’s float is getting pretty near the limit on descending trails around here “
Put some more air in the shock then?

So Anthem X (anthem being a different bike) and original QR rev air-U-turns

lighter?
IIRC 2006-2008 Rev Air U-turn (100-130mm QR) weighed in around 1850g
Your Fox 32s (guessing F100s?) are going to be lighter (not sure waht weight is), RS SIDs (nearer 1400g?) could save a pound or so. On-one had some for £270 or so

£300 for wheels to race on. With an anthem X I assume XC/endurance (not trail/AM enduro or DH racing) stock starting point would be Hope Hoops with Stans Crest rims?
Theres another couple of lighter Stans rims. Dont think Hope do them though

You might find some Specialized Rovales heavily discounted somewhere (the XC/race ones, not the trail/AMish ones). They’ve DT internalled hubs, DT spokes etc, and seem to get decent reviews. Ought to be lighter than Hope/Stans Crests?

Tyres? Conditions, places/terrain/kind of riding, what wheels/fork setup, tyre size preferences, etc etc?

“population are concentrated in the South East which is the driest part of our country, and Scotland has had record rainfall. Why is this a problem”

There is no national water pipe grid?

“Norwegians manage to pump a huge amount of our gas across the ocean to supply us, Russia can pipe oil across the continent!”

How much is oil per litre? How much is water per litre?

As with the mega, a Titus El Guapo will take a 150mm RS RVL with a fat external lower cup headset. The On-one mixer taper something is fat enough
If you think it might be too steep it looks like Works components are doing similarly fat lower cup angle adjust headsets that would fit?
With a 70mm stem, I dont think it feels too steep tbh, it doesnt feel too slack or anything, but not overly steep. With the slightly longer c/stays and the fork would down its a pretty stable climber

I never really got the point of it, it was open to all account holders? so it just seemed to slow down buying stuff. Or was it meant to catch people out who didnt log into VIP before buyiung?

“lee quarry and they’ve gone and stuck a tight right hander immediately after the landing”

Ive crashed into/onto those right handers (from 2nd and 3rd lines on my sanderson). I thought I might be able to turn in time, but no ..
Was going to try the 4th line but the right turn would have ridiculous

“<15st Crest
>15st Flow “

and Arch EX?

“Arch or a flow on the back, crest up front? “
wtf, why?
Surely you want wider/stiffer up front for better tyre profile for cornering/whatnot? Then may as well match the rear? A Crest has the same width as an Arch EX, but lighter/flexier, so maybe ArchEX/Crest f/r might work as an imbalanced set or something?

“umm’d and ahhh’d over whether to go Flow or Crest.
Decided to go for the Flow’s on the basis that there isn’t a huge amount in it weight wise”
No, only about 260g in it. Its not like its rotating weight or anything either

Hmm lots of big drops going on above
A little smaller
(apologies for the image sizes, not sure how to reduce when linking from facebook)

a ‘touch’ dead sailor, since returned and done much smoother

well, I like the view. I realise the ‘proper’ drop is to clear the tarmac uprising a bit further to the right

again, another view

a friend

“they’re certainly not as grabby as they were before”
The rotor wont be bedded into the pads yet

Spesh Tahoes are fairly good for an SPD shoe to walk in. It has actual knobbled tread unlike many BMX/DH/’trail’ skate style shoes so walking up a steep/loamy stuff is more pushable
The sole isnt the best to ride in though, while M530s are better than M520s they can still cause some foot pain/ache when descending a load. They may be better with full platform pedals like M424/545/DX, Ive not tried
I think I still prefer ‘rigid’ type ‘race’ SPD shoes for actually riding, just not pushing/carrying

+1, T30

” why would they have a 120 camber and a 125 SJ’er derrr “

Although the camber didnt pop up until (after?) the SJer went from 120 to 140mm, I thought it replaced the 120mm FSR XC. Similar to the FSR XC the camber also comes with generally lesser spec builds/cheaper than the SJer FSR?
(For 2009 at least the FSR XC and SJer were both 120/120mm)

When was the SJer FSR 125mm?

“30.9 seat post”
I thought cotics were 31.6mm (if they’re not 27.2mm)?
or are you running shimmed dropper post?
if not then 27.2mm flexy (carbon?) post

maybe fatter rear tyre, [maybe on wider rim if you’re on something really narrow (eg mavic 317/717)] and drop the pressures which might warrant thicker tubes or tubeless?

I think youll need a 10spd chainset designed to run with 3 rings, so you’ve got space to fit a bash and you might need the right Bolt Circle Diameter to give you a decent choice of bashrings

If you’re only after the crankarms/BB, you might find buying SLX triple over XT less money with little difference? at least in weight, not sure on stiffness?

IIRC some avalanches came with 85-130mm Recons as new (IIRC MBUK said they handled like an overforked XC bike rather than a hardcore hardtail – cant really remember)
If so, a Recon at 130mm will be 9mm taller than a QRdropout Fox 30/32mm @ 130mm. So your 110mm talas setting should be equivalent to a RS Tora/Recon @ ~100mm, which avalanches must have come with at some point?

IIRC I read somewhere (might have been on this forum so .. ) that the pitch didnt sell very well in most places/at least the US (UK an exception)

When the pitch was released the stumpjumper FSR was 120/120mm (having mostly been 140/120mm in 2007). The Stumpjumper went 140/140mm in 2010? (still QR forks). They’ve since released the 150mm QR15 forked Stumpjumper FSR Evo, Id guess the latest 150/150mm pitch was overlapping (apart from price)? The SJer FSR Evo starts at well above £2k?
Having said that the original 140/150mm pitch, apart from about £300-500 cheaper, must have overlapped the 150/150mm Enduro SL?

I don’t really get spesh’s gap between QR15forked 150/140mm SJer Evo and then the 170/160mm coil front/rear Enduro Evo. I’d have thought the 160/160mm air f/r enduro cant have sold that badly?

re the giant reign, from when the 120/127mm Trance X (now 125/127mm?) came in, the giant reign went more hydroformed (shock stopped going through downtube) and I think got steeper angled (69deg HA w.140mm fork). Ive seen one or two (might have only been mbr) saying why buy a reign over a trance x?
Since then (though hardly well publicised the reign has got a whole load slacker angled (now 67deg HA w. 150mm fork?) bringing it more into line with more DHish orientated trail bikes (eg orange 5, spesh pitch etc).
Tis a shame they dropped the frameset as even the ‘more hydroformed’ 69degHA one was £800 (trance x was £1000, might be more now?)

“Spending more on your bike carrier than your bike seems a big newbie mistake”
Well the thule catalogue seems to have hit that nail pretty square?

“don’t think i could do it with one”
(youll get the most out of your brakes my setting up so your one (first) finger is at the end of the lever for greatest leverage)
You might find it easier if you alter the lever reach
Many bikes/brakes come with the brake levers wound right out away from the handlebar (tbf they can need to be to bled/setup)
There ought to be someway to move the levers range of movement inward a bit. You might have to check the brake manual but there ought to be about a 2mm allen key hole (if you dont have an external reach dial) somewhere around the lever to adjust it

“Is there much difference between HT and FS”
Always had a 100mm hardtail, then had a 150mm full sus”

You sure you need to ask the question?

I wasnt saying come on hurry up, I was merely curious
EDIT: Oh and it seems I had a moan about bridleway ‘improvements’ too

Theres one for the baggies vs. not argument then

SLX should be able to move the shifter/levers part of the shifter side-to-side in relation to the handlebar clamp part of the shifter (2 bolts, and 3 holes in a line)

The high seat one, SPDs offroad bafflement, why ride uphill?

“”Do you really need such big discs?””
Well do you really?

“amazed at the number of people who still ride with the brakes and shifters butted right up against the grips”
If your bike comes like that and you dont ride with anyone who has played around with their lever positioning (or you haven’t noticed/been shown) then I can see it happening
I’m more amazed at the amount of bike shops/manufacturers that setup bikes like that

“if i run my shifters outboard of my brakes then if the paddles are in the right place my brake lever is too far from my little fingers”
You shouldnt have your little fingers on the brakes?
(If* you’ve got hydraulic discs) you ought really to only to use your first finger on the end of the brake lever for maximum leverage, the other 3 fingers on the grips/bars to hold on
*If not then 2 fingers? first and middle?
Some (newer) shifters allow you to move the shifter around in relation to the clamp that holds the shifter to the handlebar

“go ride some proper trails with rocks and stuff?”
Some trail centres have them. Less and less bridleways seem to have them as they get levelled?