22T front ring and a Deore 12-36T casette is possible, though most rear mechs are designed to run upto a 34T casette sprocket though? Depends how far the B tension screw goes on yours, how big/worn jockey wheels are and how much you mind a jockey wheel/casette ‘buzz’ in bottom gear ..
Middleburn also offer 40/30/20T rings, but I believe are only available for 5 bolt crankarms. I’m not familiar with 5bolt, but I know middleburn crankarms will fit for one
20:36 would be about another gear lower than 22:34

I believe the stock answer are superstar nanos. standard or thru pin. Under £50, fairly thin

When I looked at the exotics the spec had them saying they were a fair bit smaller area than the superstars. If you don’t have clown feet then you may be quids in (I believe they being cheaper?)

“Go for a pair of straitlines, .. last a lifetime”

Basque mtb disagrees:
straitline review at bottom of page[/url]
superstar nano review[/url]
Also, review for Nukeproof Electron (plastic body), end of review in comments at bottom
Found this site quite useful. AFAIK its the same people who often have videos in midweek mini movies?

“1.You can’t retap material that is’nt there.
2.’Just clean up the thread with a stanley blade'”

As per others above, I’d be tempted to have the threads chased first and see how much of the frame threads are left
This is helped my there being a bike shop very local to me that has done this for me a few times before for very little and I have no reason not to trust them. Its a shame they’re a small ‘olde’ road shop. Still, thread chasing and fine wheel tensioning locally is very useful. Virtually everything else I’ve ended up doing myself due to other LBS’s (eg JEJames .. )

If there are none/they’re badly worn then I’d be looking to have a new insert in if I valued my frame enough
(a couple of my frames are worth less than the cost) and it was possible (not sure how much depth an alu. BB shell in a carbon frame has?)

He reckoned he could buy a Blackspire Stinger with a top mount for a direct mount/E-type front mech. Like this:http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=40530

Dont’ know if that opens up your options? Suppose it depends how badly you want a single ring/guide setup?

” Currently lightening it up for more AM type use”
Whats your plan for a front mech out of interest? (Or are you splashing out on a hammerschmidt?). My brother has a voltage FR, he reckoned he worked out a plan for a front mech (slightly unconventionally), but has yet to try it out as he’s happy enough with the 34T/11-32T combo of the basic model for what he’ll use it for

“you’d be too tall for one”
True, they’re not big. My brother has a large (or is it long?)which came with a 400mm post. When I’ve ridden it (6’2) its been quite a bit too low for a ‘proper’ pedalling height

For me though. I reckon I’d not want to spend a loads and loads atm, I’ve very little experience riding proper DH or FR stuff (or bikes) and it wouldn’t be my main bike either
Probably a Rose Beef Cake FR I reckon for the vague uphill aspirations (front mech), maybe a single chainring bike, maybe something by someone else similar to rose

“mainstream bikes will all have you needing a stupidly high poundage rear spring or high pressure in the shocks to feel ok “
Yep, my ~11st brother who’d barely (10 mins on an SX a few years before?) ridden anything bigger than his 130/120 XC full suss, ended up going 1 fork spring harder and 2 rear springs harder than stock after about 2/3 rides on hbis voltage FR

From what I’ve read on here re: getting Spesh UK to bring in other spesh stuff, your options seem to boil down to flying one in from america or flying/driving one from europe, (eg calais)

I can navigate my way to here:http://www.specialized.com/fr/fr/bc/SBCProduct.jsp?spid=62195&scid=1100&scname=VTT, I don’t know what the french for ‘dealers’ is ..

Dented or chipped?
The stone chips on the underside of my carbon (S-works) Stumpjumper (though ’07) are mostly paint chips. One or two go into the lacquer, one with carbon weave showing. (Since helitaped)

“that shi t was sold in the uk by a certain retailler”
Yes superstar sell them
Wiggle also sell them
Leisure Lakes also sell them
I guess others do?

Singletrack mag seemed to like them? They reckoned the i950 (and newer sealed i900) should last a lot better than the older sealed i900

“On a normal 18″ frame I’d not be able to fit a 6″ dropper post”
Bare in mind that the KSi950 supernormal (the 6″/150mm drop one) has a post length of 430mm. So it ought to fit you?

I keep wondering whether I should get an i950 150mm, (you know like every other bike part out there to buy .. )
Since going back to a normal post I’ve barely missed my i900r* tbh, even with my frames 3″ or so of saddle drop. I thought I would miss it terribly but just not so. Granted I can drop a standard post on a smoothish, flattish surface at slow-medium speed, and the wear on my post marks my ‘proper’ up position really quite well but still

*out of warranty, it won’t stay down, side-side slop** was pretty bad in the end even with new guide pins (rest will be worn). Just never been bothered to try getting it fixed out of warranty
**tbf it could be an advantage on loose rubbly climbs .. though a PITA when trying to ride anything slow/really techy

I suspect the CEN regulations are a factor for many
Though some (eg cotic) seem to have barely added any weight pre/post CEn introduction

Orange site would appear the Blood has been discontinued
Santa Cruz Nickel?

They’re quite different though aren’t they?

“James – coz they are too rare”
They are, but there are available on XTR (177.5 on last gen. XTR), which he’s wanting

“considering 165 or 170 on 2*10 Xtr on the new 29er…”
Why not 172.5, 175, 177.5 or 180mm?
Especially when you are 6ft tall (and for a 29er?) what is it that is making you consider the shorter lengths?

34″ inside leg, running 175mm on FS, XC HT’s, jump(ish) HT, though mostly because thats what I had or what I bought
170mm on the rigid commuter/other bike. Swapped them from another bike that I wanted the rings from. Original 175mm crank rings were rivetted. Slightly easier feeling* spinning on the 170mm’s seem to make sense to me on it. Slightly lacking feeling* ‘grunting’ uphill though. Not that it does anything like the ‘grunting’ uphill that the MTBs do8
165mm I’ve tried on my brothers 7″ FS. Nice easy* spinning, but not much grunt, though you can’t put a lot into climbing on that thing, too cramped/short post
I like the idea of 180mm maybe for realy trying to push down leant over in corners, but I guess I wouldn’t notice much difference over 175mm’s, AFAIK I’d have to fork out for XT/XTR and may well make spinning smoothly slightly harder

*Quite how much is percieved I couldn’t say

“Nah all 3 of my bikes have maintenance issues, and are still dirty”
+1

Well, the 3 I use/aren’t in storage
All dirty, all still on the same tyres they’ve had on since spring (ie balding or semi-slick), though unusually for me, none have anything stopping them being ridden maintenence-wise. Just niggles, and lots of them

Need to get the mud spikes on I think

“it has a small linkage on the seatube and a small pivot on the seatstay dropout making it a foux bar”

It would makes it a ‘faux bar’ aka a (linkage driven) single pivot
If the pivot were chainstay mounted it would be a ‘proper’ four bar/FSR/Horst link setup

As I said before though, I don’t know what this droplink thing is, is there something we can’t see behind the (triple?) chainring? Though in my limited viewpoint on these things can’t how that would work, if it were just that?

Well I think the hemlock topped out at £1100 in the end (with one set of rockers), that was what, a year ago? made of 7005? alu. QR rear end, no ISCG mounts? RP23
This one is R853, X12 rear end, ISCG mounts, though base model shock is lower? I’m guessing £1300-1500, ish. more? I’ve no idea

Am I looking into the video too much or is that a (linkage driven) single pivot rear end? Or is the drop link like some kind of maverick-ish link (though I’m guessing BB is still within front traingle)
Actually no, that couldn’t work? Being some kind of unrestrained 5bar?
Again, I’ve no idea ..

I don’t like/buy sliced bread

I’m sure 29ers are not for everyone
As 26ers are not for everyone
As 24ers are not for everyone
As 20ers are not for everyone
etc

“29ers look absolutely awful”
I’d agree small/medium sized 29ers (as it seems almost all 29ers are pictured by manufacturers at least) don’t look great
What looks worse though? A too small 29er or a too big 26er?

no nothing

Also looking along the charge picture for whats-her-face*, oh shes there, who else is there, hmm, is that the odd looking one from mbuk?

*you know the one, the one thats been in previous charge calender pictures?

I don’t know whether you get it or not. Though given mine has just come with issue 70, so if they never send you anything normally, how/why would they send you just the calender? Unless they send it digitally?

Anyhow, Knog 2012 calender page, I’d say a let down, similar to the ‘scrapbook’ style of above, but black and white and done over a picture of somewhere urban
At least the previous knog pictures were actual pictures, even if they (generally) a bit naff

“the best trails are found not advertised”
Too true, and not fair

Some I have liked from this year:

The internet also tells me I ‘need’ to try ‘shipman extreme’ but I haven’t dared yet ..

EDIT: Sorry, How can I downsize pictures linked from facebook?

2.3″ tyre you say? But what model/make tyre, they can differ loads

If you’d consider SRAM then at least PG980 also has a simialar 3 biggest type carrier and virtually the same weight as SLX (pg990 i think has 5 like XT). Not sure what the 10spd SRAMs are like though

“i’ve gone through the “main pivot” bearings twice in 9 months”
What bearings are you using?

Just clicked on that giant one above
Looks exactly the same as my BBB one. Apart from a very occasional getting stuck in the ‘torqued click’ where next time you use it you don’t realise its gone past the torque you wanted its been excellent. The supplied 3,4,5,6,8,10,Torx25 bits seem better fits than any of my other tools including my previous best parktool allen key

I was assuming a short cage (MTB) mech would be designed to run as single ring/full size casette setup (ie upto 34/36T casette) being an MTB mech not a roadie one, very much a personal expectation/assumption rather than the reailty of an X9 mech

Surely its a combination of both? I’m assuming a (MTB) short sram mech is desinged for singe ring full size casette setups?

A 22-36T setup is a fairly big gap and an 11-32T casette isn’t small either. I suppose it will depend on if you will ever use 36-32 and/or 22-11 also as to how much chain length difference the mech has to take the slack for?

I think I bought my forks from there. Having thought I’d read something before about them and not 100% trusting of smaller shops ‘in stock’ indicators, I phoned them up to see if it was in, the guy on the phone managed to get them in his hand, described them to me to make sure it was the right model (was a RS revelation .. ), did the transaction over the phone and sent them out. Arrived as quick as anything else normally does. Plus was the cheapest price I’ve seen for that model too

“and be a few hundred grams lighter.Winstanleys Revs”

Not the case. RS Revs are (almost?) always quoted for the QR dropout versions (1750g). 2009 20mm Revs used pike lowers making dual air or dual air U-turn both around 2kg. IIRC the nly thing making 2009 Rev 20mms lighter than pikes was the lightly lighter maxle lite axle and perhaps a slightly lighter CSU?

“Only 4cm less than a ks i950”

Theres a 150mm KS i950 30.9/31.6mm ‘supernormal’ now? 430mm though
Also 30.9/31.6mm i950/i900 125mm, ~400mm IIRC
And 27.2mm i7 100mm

350mm post length is a bit of a deal breaker for me. Only 2 of my bikes (a rigid commuter and an alu. XC bike) need a little longer than 350mm posts, neither of which I would consider for dropper posts ..

I’ve also been challenged by a peak park ranger, again the ‘you’re not allowed to ride here’ dropping down the plantation bridleway off stanage edge
On asking where the bridleway to the plantation drops off the edge he reffered me to the stanage pole main track (not a bridleway)
It came to him getting his map out, me pointing out where I had come from and where we were and him then checking the dashes in the map key to find its a bridleway ..

(I’ll try getting round to emailing later, not just moaning on a forum etc .. )

re: looking for s/h Revelation’s

IIRC they made (w. 20mm Maxle):

2009 Dual-Air, 140mm as new*, over 2kg (pike lowers – IS mount)
2009 Dual-Air U-turn 110-140mm, over 2kg (pike lowers – IS mount)
Both available in 409 (allen key floodgate adj.) or 426 (tool-free F.G. adj.)

2010 Dual-Air, 150mm as new*, ~1750g?** (‘powerbulge’ lowers – post mount)
2010 Dual-Air U-turn 120-150mm, ~1850g** (‘powerbulge’ lowers – post mount)
Both available in SL (allen key FG adj.), Race (tool free FG adj.) or Team (Blackbox Motion Control – dual flow rebound/compression?) plus perhaps an XX and/or World cup*** model? don’t know

2011 Dual-Air, 150mm as new*, (‘powerbulge’ lowers – post mount)
2011 Dual-Position-Air 120 or 150mm, (‘powerbulge’ lowers – post mount)
Both available in RL (allen key FG adj., Dual-flow rebound), RLT (tool free FG adj., Dual-flow rebound), RLT Ti (Blackbox MoCo – dual flow rebound/compression), XX (hydraulic remote lockout lever), World Cup***, XX World Cup***

*internally adjustable lower
**My 2010 Dual-Air U-turns are about 1850g, though on questionable kitchen scales ..
***World Cup/XX World Cup (w.carbon steerer/crown) might only have neen 15mm axle? Not sure

“was under the impression that anything with travel adjust is generally heavier and not as plush”
I didn’t mention anything about travel adjust?

Dual-Air is fixed travel
Dual-Air U-turn* is ‘anywhere in between’ travel adjust
Dual-Position-Air** is ‘2-position’ travel adjust

*available on upto 2010 forks
**came in on 2011 forks

“think the Revelation would be ace but they isn’t a solo air model unless I’ve missed it?”
There is no solo air no, though I don’t see the advantage of solo air over dual air?
Dual-air is also fixed travel (Apart from with spacers internally as per solo air)
Dual air has a +ve and -ve air chamber, but so does solo-air, its just that solo-air balances itself out and so only has one valve (+ve and -ve being independant in air pressure on dual air)

The other ‘obvious’ 20mm, 140mm, sub 2kg, fixed travel fork would be the manitou minute (also available in 120mm and others)

Xfusion/Society 140mm forks are 15mm IIRC, though really not sure

IIRC a sram 970 11-34T is around 450g
I’d have thought a 12-36T @ 425g isn’t bad at all for a non-carrier type casette?

I’m guessing they won’t be stiff enough along the length of the sole to be worthwhile for using with SPDs, IMO obviously

No there is now a cheap Elixir 1

I’d be buying them from on-one at £40 an end I think
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/BCAVELIX1/avid_elixir_1_disc_brake
Though the chinese ones have G3* rotors pictured, the on-one ones say they come with the G2** rotor which is still fine. Niether are the latest avid rotor

*G3 was in the first generation elixir brake
**G2 was in juicy’s/earlier codes

“Leaning towards covert I’m already crappy uphill”
Heres a logic I’ve not thought of before ..

“Bandit, which correct me if I’m wrong is supposed to be more about XC”
Its a 140/130mm FS. I thought it was a ‘trail’ bike of sorts. It will do XC (as a covert will), It will do ‘all mountain’ (likely not that far off a covert? just with a little less squidge?)

I don’t think it helps that the build-ups transition seem to photograph (often?) have semi-slick tyres on. I’m guessing they’re trying to differentiate it from the covert? If you compared it to bikes similar to it then you’d find burlier builds used to advertise it more likely?

Hmm, not rly sure how you can convince ‘mates’ if they’ve decided they’re not up for it. They’d be missing out

here we go, ’trail map’[/url] of Long Mynd. Might want an OS map plus go into a local bike shop (Plush Hill, Blazing Saddles etc) to get a paper copy of it

I went up 1, down 3, up road to gliding club, right along tops, across 11, down 12/14, up/down 15, up 10, across tops again, down 7

Would probably try swapping 3 for 2 when I go again just to see what its like. Could get some scary speed down 3 though, especially when the gate appears ..
Though loads more to try. Hmm, need to go again me thinks

“My birthday week so get to ride where I want .. I would prefer the Long Mynd as like more natural riding and very rarely visit trail centres as not a real fan .. I have only ever been to the Long Mynd once”
Theres your answer

The Long Mynd not only has the obvious bridleway signs to direct you, but its almost a halfway trail centre as they’ve numbered most of the bridleways along Long Mynd. Local bike shops have the appriate maps with the numbered bridleways on them (an OS map is still a good idea just in case I’d guess)

Minton Batch (near the SW end of Long Mynd) is a must IMO, though it was pretty dry when I did it. Was the only bit that had evidence some of it can suffer when its wet (probably everyone rides it)
I also liked a load of stuff looping around N of and into Carding Mill
Climb out of carding mill was tough, but worth it if you ‘enjoy’ the challenge of a tough ‘no dabs’ climb

I’ll try finding the map online if poss ..