Which frame exactly? What sort of riding do you want it for?

ffs, I realise LAs have a duty to upkeep byways/bridleways for horses to use, but even with a 10ft wide mud/gravel path up and over there how many horses will actually be going over the ~605m pass?

this was one of my favourites too
As was chapel gate I believe you mentioned too

The salsa is very good with a nice long lever
All the reviews I could find said it was very good too
I found a load of reviews saying the hope one wasn’t very good amongst the hope lover reviews when I looked

Yes, most treads are pretty obvious now I reckon

+1 on the RR’s, crossmarks, speed kings, small block 8’s, fast traks in the slop

Before I realised they did High Rollers and Minions in more ‘trail’ triendly casings/sizes/compounds I could never work out why anyone would ride around on DH tyres

100mm Argyle are 2.5kg ish IIRC
the new solo-air 140mm Argyle (I think its red?) is coil pike weight about 2.3kg. I can only assume it has a steel steerer tube at that weight

If you can find one a Dual-Air Pike (upto 2008), 2009 20mm Revelation or 2009 Recon 20mm* solo-air (both also use IS mount pike lowers IIRC) and space it below its ‘official’ 125?mm lower limit is likley to be your lightest ‘tough’ option

*May be very diffilcult to find as I believe they might have only come supplied on one or two bikes, eg maybe one Commencal Ramone and a Felt Trailshot

I was under the impression that the newer 20mm (post mount, bulges in lowers) Sector/Revelation/Reba lowers aren’t quite the same in toughness as the pike ones

What is the limit on M&S per bike?
Though I’m not sure I seem to think someone told me it was £4k?

You can add you own? What take it to bits and ‘machine’ in some extra stop holes/indents?
My view of the GD has changed somewhat ..

Hmm GD website is saying 5″ in 30.9mm only, it’ll fit my current frame, but If I want something that has 31.6mm in future it won’t fit, if only if was 27.2mm ..

“and need a 31.6mm sizing”
Pretty unlikely spesh will offer a 31.6mm as (pretty much*) all their frames are 30.9mm, hence (pretty much*) all their seatposts are 30.9mm too
*I know there is a 27.2mm seatpost hardtail or two for 2012, there may be or have been others, I couldn’t say

“I’ve heard there is one on the board at Thomson”
I thought Thomson wouldn’t offer handlebars (to match seatpost/stem) and only do a bolted saddle clamp (I’m guessing a QR lever would require some kind of forging?) as they are pretty much only kitted out for CNC type machining (bike parts being a sideline?), so Thomson getting into hydraluic internals makes me question that?

“new competitors have come out since the Gravity Dropper now, with not one actually being better”
Can you get a GD with more than 4″ drop? Can you get a GD with more than 3 factory set positions?
I’d like a GD, but I’d want at least 5″ drop and at least maybe 0″,1″,2.5″ and 5″. Ideally more, ideally wherever I’d like, like the swivel chair I’m sat at now, or my KS i900 before it stopped staying down or the ‘patented no slop’ system wore out and became very sloppy even with new key guide pieces

I’m interested in these too, both the traversee EL and AL

The rim width is described as 26mm, I can only assume this is external, anyone know what the internal width is?

Hmm, so the stiffness is questionable then
Anyone know if they’re more like ZTR Crest flexy or ZTR Arch stiff?

If spesh is lopping 40% off loads off wheels for all their dealers whats the chances they’re bringing out an all new model for 2012 ..

I think you have answered your own question

“Any reason for CK over a standard set of Hoops? “
CK freehubs pickup 3 times as fast as hope?
(Superstar superleggera pickup 5 times though)

If you get to use halfords/bikehut then the £1000 chris boardman full suss will likely be better spec than almost anythign else
http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtb/fs_team.html

“have matching green hubs and I’m a colour matching whore”
Superstar do 2 greens, either close enough?

“You aren’t wearing a peaked helmet are you? That will mean you have to raise your head slightly further”
+1
if so, take the peak off

Not me but was riding with them at the time
Both folding panaracer fire xc’s (quite loose fitting) on mavic 317/XM317 rims (not that tight fitting either)

while climbing, spat a rock out to the side

after landing a drop

Just out of interest why have you limited your choice to fox, and when its going on a heckler (which isn’t as high end)

Have you considered getting the wheel relaced with a new hub? If you choose the right hub you may be able to use the same spokes, if you lace it up yourself as well (and get a trusted LBS to tension/true it) you can keep your costs down a bit
If you need new length spokes to go with a new hub then it can often be cheaper to get a new wheel built than new hub/spokes/wheelbuild. Even if costs were close with a new wheel you sell the old QR one on

“Can you run 10 speed with a triple up front? I assumed not”
Shimano offer 3×10, though in 24-32-42, an 18T range
IIRC SRAM are also offering 10spd compatible triple chainsets

I feel like I’m missing something, why won’t a 10spd casette fit onto that hub for 90 gear ratios?

front mech will deal with a 22T difference? 11-36T 10spd casette + the 3spd hub would give a fair range?

You don’t have to brake for upper cliff, the jump/drop in between the rocky bits is better without doing so at least

Also if it doesn’t have ‘oversize’* 31.8mm bars/stem you may well need another stem as mtb ‘standard’* size is 25.4mm, whereas IIRC road ‘standard’* is 26.0mm

*though it seems most half decent bikes have come with the bigger 31.8mm for some time now, maybe they should be called standard and undersize bars

I assume you mean here btw?:

The thing that threw me on those was getting round the bit of a right hand corner near the rop and the line I found I wanted to run my front wheel round meant my rear wheel with a bit of brake feathering (okay maybe a lot, but still rolling) on the rear meant I had to be loose enough to let the rear slide about round the corner. I took me a few goes to get used to before I did it
Seing someone else on an 80mm hardtail saddle fully up just sail down it spurred me to make myslef ride it

the extra distance forward drop bars will drag you quite a bit forward (presuming you don’t try fitting a 40mm stem to ‘compensate’) so you may end up with the bike being too big for you. I believe road bikes have shorter top tubes to allow for drop bars. For eg (not an out and out road bike granted) Cotic Roadrats come in long and short versions to suit flat or drop bars

To work with drop bars you’d also need different brake/gear levers
IIRC (I know little on this) drop bar brake levers won’t work with normal* V-brakes (assuming thats what you have) and assuming you have mtb/hybrid front/rear mechs then drop bar gear levers won’t work with these either. Both to do with how much cable they pull. again, I don’t really know this stuff so don’t go quoting me

*perhaps mini V-brakes? (merely guessing here)

I like standard cable, standard outer and middleburn cable oilers. Only problem now is WD40 have changed the little red pipe that comes with it to a size that no longer fits. Not that WD40 is the only thing you can use to clean out the insides

Much cheaper than sealed cable kits and if you cut the outer in the right place the O-ring on the cable oiler will act as a bumper/spacer to keep the cable from rubbing on your frame

usually not. Only if its only been on for a couple of rides after a snapped chain. I look at the pins on the powerlink, If I can see a big worn area (usually if its barely gold then the pins will start to look fairly worn) I’ll not put them back into a new chain

I agree with Northwind

I went for 2010 dual air U-turns over 2011 dual position airs (both 120-150mm) because I know 150mm won’t work most of the time, its just too slack/tall for my bike. 120mm is good for climbing, but I needed a more middling position for when its not really steep up or down

2 step style travel adjusters IMO can only work if your bike is designed to work around the upper travel amount, with the lower one for climbing. If your bike works best most of the time somewhere in the middle then it won’t work?

Reviews seem to suggest it depends on the individual fork

Weightwise 20mm isn’t always heavier than 15mm. For eg Rockshox’s Maxle Lite* axle was (maybe still is) a lot lighter than fox’s QR15 axle according to mbr. Obviously the forks aren’t the same (though fox has more QR15 bits going on in the fork lowers)

*IIRC Pikes have the older heavier than Fox’s QR15 Maxle axle (Also used by Magura Thor)

If you’re trying to work out what which forks weigh I found most (if not all, can’t quite remember) forks weights were claimed without axle, and (many?) rockshox are quoted using the lighter QR fork weight

How/why does one look bigger/toughter than the other?Do they differ in travel?
If it were me I’d probably weigh them and see which was lighter

the difference, I believe M475 aren’t deore, more like alivio, at least the outer nuts differ and the QR is a lower spec one than the ‘square’ deore/SLX IIRC

As for M495 ..

£500 for an alu. front triangle? I was offered £350 for a carbon front triangle

“which explains the value of a lifetime warranty”
My bike shop told me my ‘lifetime warrantied’ frame had had about it going by the chips (rock strikes riding in the peak mostly) inside of 3 years old (shock warranty is 5 years). Spesh did warranty the snapped rockers it was in for though

“Its the freehubs that are the problem…. “
+1
more than the short lifespans, the sudden failures I like least about them. Either something snapping to lose all drive or something dislodging to lock the almost lock up completely but requiring constant pedalling to try to prevent ripping the rear mech off

Also the freehub isn’t the quickest (16 point), shimano SLX centrelock can be had for similat money and weight as XT 756 but twice the pickup speed (32 point). Its possible to bodge the SLX freehub onto a (6 bolt) M756 XT, but its obviously not meant to work
Theres a gap between the freehub and hub body so dirt will get to the seals in the back of the freehub much more easily, you’ll need to ditch a couple of spacers from the axle assembly to keep the 135mm spacing, and the rim will need re-centring (negatively so, the driveside spokes will have to be a steeper angle under more sress. I’ve not noticed many more spokes going than normal, nor on just the driveside, it has let me get a 32point pickup hub without having to rebuild my 6bolt XT hubbed wheel though

As above, keep on top of any play in the hub, keep it greased and replace the ball bearings and cone nuts once in a while. If you don’t you’ll get some pitting in the races, the driveside is part of the freehub so that’ll be replaced in time but the nondriveside is part of the hub body(?) so you’re stuck with it. Its much harder to keep on top of play once you’ve got even a little pitting in a race IME

I’d like to go cartridge if/when I get some new wheels but I want at least 32 or 36 point pickup, hope pro IIs noise levels don’t sit well with me (so I believe thats dmr and superstar standard out too), nor do I really want to spend more than £100, ideally less than £50
770 centrelock 36point oversize axle/caged cup/cone bearinged XTs would probably where I’d spend now

Dirt Issue 73, March 2008 it says, Might have a reread

this topeak one
Log into the ‘VIP’ club and you should get another 10% off

I reckon the best thing about it is the head that pushes the chain pin isn’t part of the chain tool threaded part, meaning the head stays put on the chain link pin instead of spinning off as you turn

The handle unscrews to make an extension for an allen key/multi tool for extra leverage

Yes they do

“would not like to travel at 60Kph in a tractor, especially with 10ton of grass on the back! I once drove a John Deere with a 50kph gearbox and it was terrifying! “
I’ve been in few at 65kmph with a 45ft trailer with straw on
I’ve driven tractors at 50kmph with 14-15T of maize on and it doesn’t feel terrifying. 50kmph doesn’t get long to get used to than 40kmph (40 over 30). Just as when you first learn to drive a car, 60mph can feel scary, but do it more and get used to it and it feels fine?

Hmm, An XTR shifter and an unused casette/chain/chainrings bought a few years ago (didn’t realise how long the SLX rings last over old LX/XT), if decent kit becomes impossible to find once I’ve got through those (should have another 6 months on the current setup at least) then I could always set them up on the 2nd bike

A 10spd SLX might be an idea just so I’m not stockpiling 9spd rings then (though my mums/sisters MTBs will need them in time)

Thats not what I was saying, I don’t trust them enough to use on my main bike when I’ve seen pictures of the cross section of snapped hollowtech cranks

I know people change cranks for more fickle reasons

Besides, I’m a crankset short for another bike, I’d rather buy new ones for my main bike and move the older used ones across to the secondary XC bike

There are words as well as pictures

The Fendt is a 60kmph production tractor, just that one above (shiny one) might be a computer model of a special edition in black
in green:

Often on here (new) bikes for eg get described as agricultural or looking like a tractor. I’m a bit confused by it, I was hoping to find out where it comes from, what people mean when they describe stuff as such?

“719 weights are quoted without the nipples. Thus, they about the 500g mark”
Well yes, I think all rims are quoted without nipples?
I assume you’re referring to the eyelets though? Fair enough if so

“Flows are probably a better deal – i think they’re lighter than a 719 set up”
I thought XM719 Discs were in between Arch and Flow for weight, IIRC, Arch(black)~420g, XM719D~455g, Flow(black)~470g

I wonder whether the Arch and Flow are due a revamp like the Olympic/355 have largely become the Alpine/Crest? A bit lighter/wider (maybe 21mm?) Arch would suit me down to the ground I reckon coming from XM719D’s

What rims and tubes are you to use? I found narrow rims and standard XC tubes meant lots of punctures under 50-60psi, front or rear (2.25″ btw)

Mavic XM719 I reckon were only just about wide enough to get away with them, though cornering was never really right without running the front pretty soft and noticably fairly unstable
Maxxis freeride tubes let me run more sensible pressures without pinchflatting all the time

Mostly ridden (successfully/appropriately) in the peak btw, though a load of other stuff too

The sidewalls aren’t exaclty beefy. I’ve a sidewall slit in mine. Though the claimed weight is 660g, fairly uncommon for the massive size they come up as, I reckon overall (volume plus tread) are the same as a 2.5″ High Roller/Minion