What do you mean by ‘worn out’?

I’d be trying to home service as many of the parts as I could, to keep them going

Thought I had a better pic somewhere online of it than this:

currently on a 120mm fork and 3×9 as spare (main) bike

“I thought loads of you had something nice and steel kicking around “
I reckon narrowing down to Reynold 853 will be whats limiting the response

At the very least;

take the shock off the bike
write down/remember what shock pressure you had/run it at
empty all the air out the shock
unscrew the ‘air can’ (the fatter part of the shock body). Likely you’ll need a strap wrench for this though
clean everything you can
put a bit of suspension grease on the shaft and seals
screw back together
pump back up (likely youll need a shock pump if youve not got one)
refit shock to frame

should get rid/reduce the noise for a bit. Most likely won’t help the oil(/air?) leak though

“Cable housing is too long if It’s rubbing on the crown”
“Don’t most bikes have crown rub? “

Mine don’t have rub, though I route all the cables the opposite side of the headtube to the shifter/brake lever. Was a PITA cabling up my latest frame, was fairly obvious the guides were designed to run it the other way

Many bikes I’ve seen come new with the cables/hoses running the same side of the headtube as the shifter/lever is, and more often than not I notice they have cable rub

PITA to reroute if you’re not re-cabling all the gears, so probably best to helitape rub areas for now.
I’ve also found park-tool ‘glue-less’ patches very good cable rub protectors

What about the new On-One 11mm flats? Kona/DMR money though @ £80?

” dont see why more people dont wear baggies over lycra. lycra just makes it so super comfy”

I’ve always found no baggies just bibs, less comfy than baggies plus bibs?

Baggies also have pockets, offer an extra layer to crash onto and take the impact/ripping, water resistant ones can save your lycra from getting soaked, can be warmer when its cold/windy, let you go into a shop*, etc etc etc

*alright so you don’t need baggies to go into a shop/etc but

” have seen the “Sherwood Pines club” going in the wrong direction at night”
I’ve ridden with them (the shop meet wednesday lot?) in the light on an evening. Can’t say now since there seem to have been a fair bit of repair when I last went, but it used to ride better the ‘wrong’* way as the climbs, sorry ‘rises’ were a bit scrabbley (from all the braking the ‘right’ way) and the ‘downs’ remained smooth

*I think I’ve ridden quite a few sections that were singletrack before the waymarked route went in on top of it, restricting direction?

“you’re not riding it fast enough. Or something”
+1
Rode it last (having not ridden there for a while) in early december, was still fairly dry, still had the summer dry tyres on the XC HT. Keep up the pedalling**, commit in the corners (a bit) and lay off the brakes and for the mostpart*** it really suprised me how well it rode (right way round)

**I realise a good dose of pedalling doesn’t seem to fit with many peoples idea of a good trail. It doesn’t with mine mostly
***Yes, there are still quite a few fairly dull sections I admit

“If youv’e got no strength at all in your hands”

I thought hydraulic disc brakes shouldn’t require you to have to use all your hand strength to stop?
An advantage over V-brakes I thought was hydraulic disc brakes (should) have enough power (and modulation) to brake with one finger, also allowing you to hold on with 3 fingers (largely independant of braking), rather than just the 2 (or less?) smallest fingers?

Hopes I’ve had (no current ones) once bled do have power, it just seems you have to pull really hard to get it. Modulation hasn’t been great (though the lever sort of feels like it does?)

You don’t really need a dropper post, a seat QR on a standard post will ‘do’
But infinte gives (a lot) more choice rather than 40mm fox has picked and max 125mm

So the lever(s?) will go under the bars, good. Can’t say I’ve looked in detail but is that 2 levers?
Only 3 position (2 dropped), rather than the infinite position reverb/i950/etc
The upper rubber loop cable guide looks alright I s’pose, but that velcro thing below just looks gash IMO

Going by what gets said on here whenever Thomson doing something new gets suggested, Thomson won’t make a dropper post (nor handlebars, nor QR seatclamp?)
IIRC they’re not setup to the kind of machine work other things would require. Plus bikes aren’t their main work. Or so (I think) people say

I believe many people find so, but spending £40-50+ on gear cable ‘sets’ has always put me off, from the limited looking I’ve done I can’t remember (but there must be?) continuous run outer cable sets. My current main bike, the last one and my XC HT all require continous run outer gear cable, having no stops

I use basic shimano inner, basic shiman outer and (4mm) middleburn cable oilers, which once ‘plumbed’ into the outer cable allow you to spray WD40*/etc inside and force some crap out the mech end (and some spray in the shifter?**)
Also the O-ring that covers the hole sits proud so that you can position the cable oiler along the outer cable length so that the O-ring acts as a bump stop/frame protector where the cable would otherwise touch/run the frame/fork

*For the past few years the few I’ve seen, WD40 has come with a fatter red pipe as supplied that won’t fit. I’ve been using something called ‘maintenence spray’ (claims to do similar) by someone else (cant remember who)
**Not sure how this affects the life of the shifter though?

The clip on the back/top of the caliper?
You don’t need* it, it makes pad removal a lot easier/normal by getting rid

*If you manage to snap off the raised knobble thing on the centre of the pistons, you do need it to stop the pads falling out
I managed to snap it off my wearing a set of part worn organic pads out in about half a ride, the rest of the pretty wet ride had be dragging it metal on metal and took the central thing off. Also put little metal lumps all over the rotor

My Revelations did similar (1/4 way around stantion)
Checked the upper bush and the same 1/4 way around had worn down to the metal (on the bush)
Swapped lowers with better nic bushed in (had some to go at from some crashed recons my brother bent the steerer on)
It leaks a bit more oil that it should. Just doubled the oil in the lowers and top up when it stops leaking

Sambob, it is
Need to not sleep through my alarm and sort a car out
17miles, fair do’s, first 5 and last 5 are ‘only’ fireroad though? ‘only’ 2 ‘proper’ hills?

I’m not getting anywhere with this am I

Cut Gate in February, not that long after snow melt. Can’t believe there hasn’t yet been complaint it’ll be a boggy ‘mare and a big group will wreck it to death etc

Given you’re starting ending with lots of fireroad, is there yet any plan to do anything beyond ‘north america’ on the langsett side? ie drop down to the bridge and/or loop around langsett reservior, or would this be upping the distance too much?

“I’m talking of the Harrogate. Pately Bridge area of the moors BTW
Whaich is actually The Dales not the NYM”

Pately Bridge (or valley upto scar house reservior) isn’t in the Yorkshire Dales National Park ..

“Are they having a laugh? £100 more expensive that the Reverb… “
“I wonder how they are going to justify the price gap”
They already do this with their forks?
Price yourself above everybody else, then your product must be better ..

Dear oh dear that mudguard ..
“if you were to take just 10mm off the front of the guard it would be 50% less efficient”
But you might be able to see where your front wheel is, rather than a fat peice of plastic
The Fox advert singletrack mag (pg41, issue 71) has a pick of fabien riding with the (or a similar) mudguard. Oh and the ground looks pretty dry

Also, they’ve mounted it under the fork crown? Thereby reducing the room for mud/clag/leaves/sticks/2.3″ conti mud tyres/etc to get through?

“What the hell? cable up the side of the post? so right where my thighs are”
+1

Oh and that lever, looking at it, it doesn’t look like you can mount it under the bars at all?
So if you need/want to turn the bike upside down it’ll sit on that lever, risking breaking it, same goes for if you fall off your bike
How much for a replacement lever? ..

re: route, can I suggest stanage/blackamoor/totley moor areas?
AFAIK you’ve not covered that area on a pootle before?
Not thaaat terrible for mud and generally not loads of height to pedal up for amount of trail/distance that can be covered? is a bit early/low ‘season’ for me atm ..

Guessing Lady Cannings developments aren’t due to be finished for a while yet?

EDIT: though train access would of course be a ‘mare/impossible, unless dropped down (nearly) into totley itself?
Or is that a bit too much of a sheffield local ride than a peak pootle?

“long forks and high saddles just ruin a bikes jumping, manualling and pumping performance”
So short forks and low saddles then, like on say, a BMX?

Black paint?

“2010 RS rev 426 (air”
IIRC doesn’t exist? Must be either a 2009 (or 2006-8) 426 (or a 2010 SL,Race or Team), though spring assembly should be virtually the same on all of them?

“there is a greater body of knowledge on how to make a telescopic fork work”
Yeh, because they all last so long without wearing out, they need so little maintenence and spares for replacing worn parts are so cheap/easily sourced
A few bearings, a couple of shock bushings and air sleeve maintenence (granted not cheap if you add it all up*) must be cheaper than if your fork bushes and stantions go. Requiring a £200+ set of uppers and now rockshox (for one) have made the lowers with non-replacable bushes, you need a complete set of lowers on top. If someone else is servicing it you’re talking £400-500?

“maintenance and replacement costs?”
*Shock service sent away around £80ish (or less for less complex damped shocks) plus ~£40 for a shock shaft if needed? Plus a few bearings, cheaper than worn out forks as above?

“more difficult to clean”
But what NEEDs cleaning? Shock seals/shaft, a telescopic fork (okay not a lefty) has twice as many and many part of them are half hidden away behind the arch. Bearings should be sealed, plus once replaced are new again?

“Exactly, so why double-up the problem?”
Make it simpler still, put a rigid fork up front ..

“winter weight of 160”

160kg?

Err, DT plain guage and at least 36 of them?

EDIT:
“don’t look after them properly”
How do you look after (alu.) nipples?

Skills course (or maybe decent skills book (or video?) and put some time into getting what they’re on about, try putting stuff into practice and going back to said resource)

Also try building up your fitness?

“find it sometimes hard to stick with my riding partners, one of which has a stumpjumper FSR and the other has a full sus santa cruz”
“am hovering around either a orange alpine 160, but i think its too much bike for what i ride, and a orange five AM”

If you decide you want to go down the full suss route, you ought to try a few first and then don’t ‘over-suss’ yourself (too much). You say you want to keep up with your mates, a ‘bigger’/burlier bike isn’t going to help you go quicker on stuff thats up or anything too pedally?
I’d have thought the obvious would be to go something similar to a stumpjumper or santa cruz (which one is it?). So 140/150mm?

Given the build of your crush, could you hunt down a not ridiculously pricey full suss frame to go with that build, 140mm taper forks? (maybe even ebay something?)

” is any SPD shoe going to be good to walk in!?!? “
Specialized Tahoe’s aren’t terrible (They have tread unlike most skate style SPD shoes)
Drawback being the sole is nothing like as stiff as a ‘proper’ XC SPD shoe, riding on cageless SPD pedals (eg M520,M540 etc) they are noticably a lot flexier when pedalling, can hurt your feet around the cleats too but mostly managable (have done hike-a-bike/bike-down between langdale-borrowdale like this). I find they’re better (less flexy/hurty with at least a semi-platform SPD pedal like the newer M530 pedals.
If I think I might be walking something I use these, if not I use ‘proper’ SPD shoes

I believe there are better SPD shoes to walk in available (going by mag reviews from ages ago) though

My brother has gone from 661 to shimano AM45? He prefers the shimano’s. Thinks they’re better in about every way
Id like some shimano’s, AM31 or AM45, but shimano 48’s don’t fit my feet, spesh 48s do, hence tahoes, sport/experts

Stans Crest are lighter and wider than XC717 disc rims, (~340g vs. ~395, 21mm internal vs. 17mm)

“if you bleed the brakes when the pads are worn”

The avid bleed kit comes with a ‘bleed block’* (to be used instead of pads) so you have exactly the right amount of fluid in when bleeding, so fitting new pads isn’t a problem

*though mine came with 2 juicy bleed blocks, a fatter one which bleeds upto a brake that doesn’t work, and a narrower one that works fine. Have yet to try to elixir or code bleed blocks

“that pad retaining clip thing is bizarre. Any one got any pointers??”
Yes, get rid of the pad replacement clip. Its a faff and you don’t*
need it, the spring clip between the pads will keep the pads up against the piston’s

*Unless the pad retention tabs on the pistons have worn/broken off, in which case the pad retention clip is worth using

“Never had an issue – push pistons in – place pads together and place spring round them. Hold the pads rtogether at the grip bit and pop em in”
tbh, most of the time, even with the clip on the back, I’ve managed with them fine too

“anyone who thinks that your bike was a legit buy at £450 clearly isn’t a diamond”
Its a 7 year old mid range aluminium single pivot? £450 doesn’t sound cheap to me, am I missing something?

Good luck in finding it though

“We have one car and a 50cc scooter in the garage, and we both commute on two wheels (one powered, one pedalled). The amount of unnecessary car ownership is staggering”
Yep, sounds like you don’t need yours for one then?

“we have plenty of evidence here that a horse can clear most obstacles rendering the legal necessity obsolete”
As pointed out above, the ‘lowest common user’ as it were has to fall off and sue?
Potholes (though not the ROW budget) you would think would be more pressing though? Though what legal requirements are there to fill them? (Not saying there aren’t any, am sure there are, just don’t know)

“36 teeth cassettes? For me that’s the big benifit”
But you can get 36t 9spd casettes?
I believe they were originally released for 29″ers to replicate a 32T casette on a 26″er

IIRC Shimano triple ring 10spd chainsets use a 24T granny ring, 9spd use 22T. A 22-34 combo is a lower gear than 24-36T
SRAM and others use a 22T granny on 10spd cranks, but again, there are 36toothed 9spd casettes

There is/was a 20T granny ring for some middleburn chainsets if you want even lower?

There was a thread on here a good while back by somebody from rotherham JeJames trying to work out how viable a shop ride would be
I think the result was that (legally) it wouldn’t be ..

There is a number of rides worth of (mostly cheeky) riding in the firbeck/laughton area, north of there across from conisborough to bawtry areas, also west of laughton down toward ulley.
I’ve not explored much further than that though
IME tends to stay drier for longer than say the peak , being more low lying and more easterly

re: Rotherham, the maps make canklow woods (opposite halfords on the dual cariagway) and herringthorpe/listerdale woods worth a try?

“to replace a 60a High roller on the rear “
What will you have up front?
for eg 2.35″ HR up front with a 2.3″ Eskar on the back will tip the bike forward a bit as eskars are noticably bigger

32 to 34T sprocket is about half a gear (..-30-34T on an 11-34T casette, ..-28-32T on an 11-32T casette)
Do you need/want that half gear?

IIRC PG980 as you say is claimed at about 280g? in 11-32T. 11-34T is 20-30g heavier

Shimano SLX is almost exactly the same weight (3g or so in it), I’ve recently being buying pg980/slx depending on which is cheaper, always ended up going 11-34T just to have that half a gear extra. When on up/down/up/down type trails I end up staying in the middle (32T) ring up front, so any extra range in the casette out back is welcome to me then too

Both slx and 980 have ‘spider’s/’carrier’s on the biggest 3 sprockets, so if you got an sluminium/soft freehub body it might be an idea if you’re current ‘all individual sprocket’ casette digs into the freehub body quite a bit?

Shimano XT/PG990 are about 20-30g lighter again, the spider covers 2 or so more biggest sprockets, but generally cost quite a bit more

You’re not spinning hub/rotor/casette weight like you would rims/tubes/tyres, but supposidly it can still make a difference having a heavy wheel when hitting bumps/lifting the rear wheel etc. Though nearly 200g difference in casettes isn’t going to be like the difference in having a hub gear would make? (Have never ridden one)

Maxxis 2.25″, 2.4″ (and 2.6″ and some of the 2.1″s) are all supposed to be the ‘same size’ as it were, all* supposed to relate to one another in the way they are measured. The odd time I’ve seen a 2.4″ advantage it was massive yes
*(on newer treads eg advantage, crossmark, ardent)

(Older sizing being some 1.9(5?)”,some 2.0″,some 2.1″,2.35″,2.5″,2.7″ (inc. High Roller, Minion, Larsen TT?, Ignitor)
Where IME a 2.25″ Advantage is about the same overall volume (tyre+tread) as a 2.5″ High Roller (2.35″ High Roller about the same tyre volume (ignoring tread) as a 2.1″ Advantage

Oh, and which continental sizing? Old teeny tiny volumes (eg vertical) or new ridiculously massive volumes? (eg Rubber Queen)

2.5″ High Rollers are tiny (for a 2.5″) though, You reckon they’re tight? On what (internal diameter) rims?

I’ve only had a spesh storm 2.0″ (almost as big as 2.35″ maxxis) in there so far on XM719(19mm) so not wide rims*, bags of room, hardly an achievement though ..
so more interested in what will fit come summer

*wider rims/wheels have been on my upgrade ‘list’ for a while

“having a front mech is faff on your bars”
I bet it is. Trying to work out what it would be for up there ..
A front gear shifter on the bars however is really no more a faff than a rear gear shifter. Doesn’t look as good granted

“1×10 – for fit people
2×10 – for racing?
3×10 – too many gears!”
Depends on where you ride, how (fast) you pedal, how hard you want your bike to be to ride, if you’d like to ditch a few components?

3×10 gives less range of gears than 3×9 (all within the range of 3×9*), just more overlapping gears. If you find 9spd casettes a bit spread out gear wise you might be able to get a touch closer block with 10spd (thouth 11-32 9spd to 11-36 10spd will give you the same block spacing IIRC)
*Is there a 9T bottom gear casette out yet or not?
1*10 over 1*9 gives an extra half a gear or so of gear range (11-36T casette over 11-34T casette)
2*10 cranks are supposed to have better chainline to use more gears than 2*9 cranks?

“Also, a 32×36 bottom gear really is low enough for anything unless you regularly ride up and down Snowdon or Ben Nevis every ride”
Depends on how fast you pedal? If you manically spin over rough stuff rather than grind away uphill ‘a pedal at a time’ it can make a big difference?

Stans Arch EX?
395/400g, 21mm internal rim width, stiffer section than crests(340ishg, 21mm internal)

IMO/IME a Mavic XM719 won’t support a large 2.3″ tyre (Eg spesh eskar 2.3″) very well
2.25 advantage/2.5″ high roller (both about the same overall volume, but noticably smaller than spesh 2.3″s) Maxxis are pushing it for 719’s I’ve found

The road drop into Trefriw I quite like. Steep with lots of tight corners its one to be weary of boiling your brakes if really they could do with a bleed.
Next time (whenever that may be) I’d be tempted to mix it up and see if there is anything in here?

The climb from Llyn Crafnant I was glad of 22-34T, even if after a lung-busting effort I ended up pushing much of it. The descent back toward Capel Curig is excellent. As pointed out, well worth finsihing with it, and for me at least the highlight of/main reason for the ride

I’d ride it again
Having only ridden it before in August* and September*, I’ve no idea what state it’ll be in at this time of year. There is a lot of moorland/potential boggy areas on the western side of the loop (ie up from A5 upto and along Llyn Cowlyd so I’d guess there’ll be a lot of axle dunking ..

*Was 2007 (the flood year) and 2008 (another wet summer least where I was), so I’d guess wetter than the past few years? What I rode the boggyness that was there wasn’t that bad. Certainly there were short sections (toward the NE end) alongisde Llyn Colwyd that were boggy and weren’t that rideable

I haven’t ridden the route as I think you’ll find in the guidebooks (V-graphics/Bikefax) though.
(Going clockwise)
going up through the ‘garden’ just before this point was boggy and steep, you’ll likely to off walking and questioning the route, just after going across the hill is a nice line-choicey rock outcroppy bit of track
There is a bridleway (heads NE then E) across open moorland/bog. I’ve never tried crossing this, I never quite found where it drops to cross the stream
When I’ve come across the rock based doubletrack heading N upto here, I’ve taken it
At the end of that track you can (not sure on the ‘rights’ but .. )head SE alongside the water channel:

That was 2007, in 2008 they’d chopped all the gorse back. How fast does gorse grow back?
The bridleway section just before here, I’ve never ridden, its looked too boggy, so kept on alongside the water channel until this point. I’ve headed north from here (started off wet, but not muddy) alongside Llyn Colwyd. Others I rode with have cut short and headed back to Capel Curig on the bridleway (heads south), It may be that this might make for another climb upto Llyn Colwyd, though I can’t remember what the others said about that b.way then
Most of the track alongside Llyn Colwyd was okay bog-wise. Some nice hard base singletrack, some rocky-ish ups and downs to test you technically and a downed stone-wall or two to power you way over top of.
At this point I’ve never found (not that I was looking) the uphill bridleway and ended up carrying on flat to the dam, then going under the front-side, before carryin on NE alongside the pipeline to the tarmac road (then up/over toward trefiw