No, absolutely not
35mm steerer tube in a 40mm stem I’d be on the verge probably
I usually want both bolts to be covering the steerer tube as it were
All just my opinion of course

I can’t quite make it out in the picture, but I thought it was mounted for braking/rolling? ie ramps facing forward?

“Front tyre on the wrong way”
Not if you want better rolling and braking?
Its not like HRs ride terribly that way around

“Despite the how much of a stir the purple seatpost has caused, it’s well made, light, with a good clamp and at £22 nothing comes close”
Superstar?
I dunno, I’d say this was close:
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/SPRILOG2/ritchey-logic-2-bolt-seat-post

“folding singleply highroller I’ve only had one of but was a little over 800”

eh?

folding 2.35″ 60a HR is claimed at 690g. Just Riding Along have weighed them more like 645g IIRC

[single ply (wire) 2.35″ 60a HR is claimed at 775g, 42a at 865g]

my ’03 east peak was IS mount

What they all said, drop into the back of torver
I’ve only ridden the bridleway into the back of torver and the road into the back of coniston, and not the bridleway in between the two

I’d say to try to start/finish in Torver though and cut out Coniston altogether

“DH tubes in a singleply to deal with pinches seems a bit like treating the symptoms not the cause to me. But would be cheaper than changing tyres I guess”
single ply/DH tubes would usually be lighter though?

Talc up the tyre tube? I’ve not heard of this before

“DH tube in a single ply is pointless, many get away with XC tubes in Dual plys”
DH tube in a single ply tyre would (generally?) be lighter, especially if it were a folding tyre

If the Dual Ply (or Single) is too big for the tube, having to inflate the tube loads before it even meets the tyre (ie standard XC tube in maxxis 2.25″/2.5″ or bigger* how does that effect things?

*maxxis 2.35″ being a fair bit smaller than 2.25″/2.5″ maxxis (which IMO are very similar volume overall-with tread taken into account)

I’m interested in this, I’m currently Maxxis freeride tubes in folding tyres in the UK, have used single ply (wire) 2.5″ maxxis (I can’t seem to find them to buy any longer) with XC and Maxxis freeride tubes in the Alps
Switching to my spare wheel (2.5″ SP Maxxis/Maxxis FR tube) with a narrower (too narrow) rim seemed to make a bit of a difference to pinch flat resistance

“Nor will an angle set unfortunately”
Why is this?
I thought they were releasing anglesets for Tapered and 44mm headtubes?
Or is there more than one ‘standard’ for tapered headtubes?

The FTM has a 69.25deg HA with a fox 140mm fork, I’m not aware of any (140mm fork intended) bike steeper

“you’ll need make sure it’s integrated 42mm top / integrated 52.1mm bottom, (S.H.I.S. Code: IS42 | IS52)”
Is this the answer I’m looking for? though I don’t know whether those numbers will work or not?

“ultimately the question has to be which one do you like the look of most”
They’re quite different though aren’t they?
PP seemed to sum it up well?
As a generalisation, having ridden only a few (niether being a Trance X or pitch) of them I’d guess:
Giant Anthem X ~= Specialized Epic (~= Trek Top Fuel)
Giant Trance X ~= Specialized Camber (~= Trek Fuel EX)
Giant Reign ~= Specialized Pitch (~= Trek Remedy)
Giant Reign X ~= Specialized SX Trail (~= Trek Scratch)

with the (140mm) Stumpjumper sitting between the Camber/Pitch, and (160mm) Enduro between the Pitch/SX Trail

“the Reign weighs quite a bit more than the Trance”
The pitch will weigh more than the Trance too?

“The reign has more travel than the Pitch also and the geometry pushes it more into the DH catergory imo over the Pitch”
Erm, aren’t they both 150/152mm travel, 150mm forks and about 67deg HA?
Or are you referring to the Reign X(160/170mm, F/R) rather than the Reign?

I thought the shock could be positioned so that there is less unsprung mass (ie the heavier end of the shock isn’t having to move about)
I can’t quite work out whether the shock body/dial end is heavier than the shaft with other internals in or not
The weight of rear tyre, (tube,) rimstrip, rim, nipples, spokes, hub, skewer/axle, rear stays/swingarm/rocker, brake caliper, rotor, rear mech, casette and partially the chain, brake hose, gear cable inner/outer, bearings, bolts and so on will presumably dwarf any difference in weight between shock orientation hence so noticable difference?
Unless having the damping oil/cicuitary largely still or being moved with the bumps makes a difference?

+20 crown race spacer wouldn’t work

If you look at your steerer tube you’ll notice its not 1 1/8″ all the way. Its a bit fatter right at the base (less than 20mm IIRC) for the crown race to fit

I’d be looking at a fatter lower headset cup if possible, and maybe try making up some of the rest with a fatter front tyre if your rims are wide enough that fatter tyres won’t make cornering worse

“If you’re going new, then Trance X…simples”
What? Did you miss this bit:
“150mm tapered RS Revs U-Turn”

” I ended up having to pump them up so hard to stop the pinch flats they felt utterly horrid”
I believe the minium pressure on at least the older and not quite brand new (speed king/mountain king/etc) is 50psi. Not sure about rubber queens and newer, or anything black chilli

Continental tyre tread ‘caving in’ from underneath, tread then folds over each time it hits the floor. Seen in on speed kings, mountain kings, verticals, gravity. All non black chilli?

Continental tubes claiming to be suited upto 2.5″ tyres. Way Smaller, thinner (and pinchflat prone) than Specialized upto 2.2″, Raleigh upto 2.1″
Horrendous with any tyre anywhere near a small 2.5″

’04-’07 XT and ’05-’08 LX aluminium chainrings. Completely dead rings/chain/casette inside of 7 months through summer, inside of 5 through winter

Magnesium rocker links maybe. I’ve read in relation to bikes (so not sure on how different/all magnesium alloys actually behave in reality) magnsium has a very low fatigue resistance. Rockers pinged off inside of 3 years. Split showed the crack had been propagating for some time with loads of tiny cracks up until the final break

‘Professional’ tools, appear blackened/hardened, T-25 head trying to round on first use

Non-servicable freehubs? Lock up mid-ride or snap (loud crack) and go free without warning

Bontrager ACX TLR 55/62a, tread starting to cave in from underneath after about the 3rd ride
Oddly my Bontrager MudX TLR 55/62a (visually very similar tread) haven’t done this whatsoever. Still going strong for the 3rd winter, admitedly not quite as tall tread as when new, so on 2nd bike that doesn’t see the deepest of winter

Any bike with Maxxis 2.25″ supplied on Mavic XM317 rims, presumably with ‘standard’ XC tubes?
[cough]orange[/cough]
They’re pushing it on XM719s IMO/IME. On XC717s 2.25″ maxxis is very squeezed at the rim. Sub 50psi was pinchflat central for me with standard tubes (which don’t seem to have met the tyre until you’ve inflated to about 20psi)

Older crank brothers multitools. Rounded about half the tools on mine far too easily without really trying
A friend had a set of Crank Brothers candies undo/empty the ball beatings out on the first ride

Can’t think of anything else off the top of head right now

“it’s the first infinitely adjustable post I’ve used where the means of adjustment meant you could actually benefit from that feature. There are two reasons for this. First because it had enough adjustment to make this viable (5″) and second because the hydraulic lever makes it easy to control the rate of adjustment”

I’m pretty happy with the abilities of my KS i900 in this respect, it gets much easier with a bit of time/practice. (At first its up/down and somewhere in the middle)
What I’m not happy with is the amount of side-to-side play

Anyone else?

Above all sounds promising

“compared to other 853 frames of same geometry “
Which are these? (other than the BFe – okay so only the one 853 tube)

I’ll admit I’ve not compared
The ‘grouptest’/roundup in the hardtail special of dirt (73?) had the soul come out on top of a load of others

“Avants are like an inverse tardis .. with the seats down I managed three once…”
“3 but that’s with the seats down”

Thats sound terrible
I’ve managed 5 (inc. wheels) in a ’97 VW Polo with room to spare, well if you removed the pedals off of the 6th bike I reckon it might wedge up against the roof then
Might have to put a couple of wheels in the boot of the bag/helmet/people ferrying car though

My mums A4 avant has roof racks, not the Audi ones as the ends mean you’ll likely only get 3 carriers on. The Thule ones will let the carriers overlap the roofrail clamp units (the bike handlebars are still miles away from the edge of the car/wingmirrors)

Compared to her last 3 series touring though the difference between bikes/roofrack and neither seems a lot bigger, 20mpg+. We can’t quite work out why as the BMW (3L D compared to 2L D audi) was more like 10mpg

“bikes that would potentially benefit from the advantages the Hossack/Telelever front suspension system would be race bikes – XC or downhill”
I don’t get this bit?
Why wouldn’t bikes in between benefit if XCrace and DHrace bikes are the extreme ends of the range (for the sake of argument, where the bikes in between ‘fall’ between these two. ie ‘trail’/’all mountain’ bikes?

If you don’t like the look of any of the above mentioned bashguards then theres a chance you might find the shimano hone/saint one acceptable. Swinnertons have the 32T one for £10 (listed in spares somewhere I think) No bolts though unlike the big-enough-for-34T-but-named-32T-clear-FSA-one

“I would have thought the other BMW system would work well on mountainbikes”
From the 2 BMW designs above would the height of them be a problem on MTB’s especially on smaller sized frames. Purely guessing here, but could whyte have chosen to go with ‘loosing’ a link from the top BMW design in order to get the front end down a bit?

The other problem being stuck with the (likely own brand)fork/frame combination? Something people can be weary of?

“Fox Triad shocks available as they were standard on the Stumy FSR Comp”
As you suggested, the i2i/stroke on the alu./carbon SJers are (unusefully) different to one another

Another thing odd with mine is that although I can see the shock bottoms out at about 41.3mm as it should, the ‘max’ mark marked into the shock ‘stantion’ is around another 10mm away ..

Could you live with the few fixed travel increments of the specialized?

What about the KS i950? Cheaper than both (IIRC wiggle/leisure lakes might be cheaper than superstar, at least I think they were), still 5″ drop. Singletrack reviewed it pretty well

“Who still uses the big ring on a trail bike?”
IIRC I think cy does

I’ve not bothered taking mine off, I mean it doesn’t work very well being short on worthwhile height teeth, but even when it does hit stuff I’ve never found it an issue. tbh I used to hit stuff more on my XC bike (now 1×9) as there were more downed logs etc locally than I’ve found on more trail centre/national park sort of stuff

I like the shimano SLX steel/composite chainring as it lasts so well. They only do a 32T, so a 44T can come in handy on the odd road stint or faster open descent
I haven’t found a bashring that I like the look of either

+1 for the 2 right turns near the bottom to slippery stones/packhorse bridge. The tighter left-right bit in the 2nd bit is good to ‘session’ loads of different lines too:

1st bit

2nd bit

original sealed KS i900r with new style ODI compatible remote here, over 2 years now

The grouptest in the magazine (issue 64? the gold one with foldout cover – the grouptest with about 7 in) seems to suggest newer sealed KS i900/950/i7s are much much better with not developing play

Mine has about 1″ side-to-side play ast the saddle nose, which can sometimes help in moving as I pedal, is a hinderance when I need a side-to-side reference point in slowmo technical terrain, eg stainburn
The fore-aft play is pretty bad now too and I think the big creak as I pedal has something to do with it
The clamp on the i900 is very poor. The knotched clamp mean I can choose between too far forward or too far back, flat is not an option
The spacers in the bolt assembly have to bend a lot anywhere near before the clamp is tight enough for the saddle not to slide along the rails over a ride

The newer ODI grip compatible remote is absolutely pointless. If you use it as a grip end the lever is so far extruded from the clamp you have to remove you entire hand from the grip to use the lever. Mine is inboard of the brake/shifter. Because of the ODI compatible bit, the clamp will score you bars so you’ll need something to stop this, I chopped off the ends of a worn out lock on grip to stop this

The ease of setting height is excellent, I can set mine pretty much where I want it while riding so the range gets used, 0.5/1/2″ down to retain some pedalability, 3/4/5″ down depending on how much/where I want a reference point for my knees
5″ drop though still isn’t that much. I’m finding I’m dropping the seatpost itself in the frame more and more to get more drop. I realise many frames with seattube braces/etc mean you can’t run 8″ saddle drop or more, but in certain situations I’ve felt it useful

If I’m to believe the ST review (in the magazine) then a KS i950 would/will be my next choice, I’m trying to hold off on the offchance I get a frame with 31.6mm, as If I get another 30.9mm I don’t believe you can get a 30.9-31.6mm shim?

“really adjustable and quick”
Its not about the lazy element, If you get a chance to use one for a decent period of time you’ll realise quite how useful/usable they are and why many really don’t want to go back to not having one, on at least there main bike? I know I wouldn’t, I’m fairly certain it would step me back in terms of riding

Have you got the old BB out? It have its number/code on the shell. So long as the numbers are similar (ES25, ES30, ES51 etc) and you get the right axle length/BB width then it should be fine

E-type is for chain devices/BB mounted front mechs btw

“single ring XC guide thingy – why spend loads and loads and loads on an e.13 etc when you can spend under £20 on a superstar which does EXACTLY the same job???”
e13 and the other one weigh less than the superstar one

I have the superstar one because it was to go onto the 2nd bike, fitting is a bit of a faff as you don’t really know how much room to give the chain to flap about etc
Was made more difficult as I’m using a 73mm octalink BB in a 68mm shell frame, so I don’t have the option of using the BB spacers without offsetting the BB/cranks, I’ve a filed down washer between the cage and the backplate which seems to work okay, I thought there wasn’t enough clearance as it was catching in top and bottom gears until I noticed my chainring was bent ..

“a DT swiss skewer … be of comparable stiffness as a set of 07 pikes….?”
I assume you mean a 5mm QR sized one

Almost certainly no, but I found going back to an XT skewer after my DT RWS (5mm) broke* noticably slightly less stiff (or so I thought)
*I’ve another on warranty now

I’d reckon a 9mm thru-axled hub in a QR dropout fork would be stiffer, but not as stiff as a 20mm maxle
(there is a DT RWS version as well as QR type 9mm versions)

Not the easier reach adjustment of the R model is really worth having over a 5 or a 3, I went for R’s as they’re a chunk lighter than 5’s or 3’s, that and at the time I could get them cheaper too
R’s are about the same weight (if not lighter for earlier models without the adjustable caliper hose exit) than CR’s or CR carbons

Thats cheating, you’ve already started

“Think fast rolling rears and good/predictable cornering characteristics on the front”
Obviously your trade off is braking/pedalling traction in different conditions and a bit more drag at the front

Also, trying to match up the tyre sizes can get finicky
Bear in mind different tyre sizes between brands and within brands, ie old* and new** maxxis, old(ish)*** and new**** continental etc ..

I assume you are after a ‘solution’ short of moving house?

What tyres did mk3 trails come fitted with as complete bikes?

Also, is your pump guage working?
I know my topeak mountain morph reads about 40psi when its actually about 20psi going by various trackpumps/compressors

How true is your wheel, how tight are the spokes, could you offset the wheel to counteract the wheel hitting the stay under load? (is this anything like what is happening?)

Not being able to fit a 2.35″ maxxis sounds like the frame is awfully tight? There are other (maxxis) 2.1″ tyres as big

Also, what rims are you using?
Anything particularly narrow or which hold onto loads of tyre bead/wall making the inflated tyre take on a forced shape, one that might not be very good at resisting snakebites?

“hope could go the same way as raceface”
They do appear to have quite a number of similarities to raceface ..

[[Hi calvin, if you read this thread again, we decided at 11pm the night before so not sure how easily you could sorted anything, plus it wasn’t the quickest of ascents given those who were with me
Erm, not sure on the forks, they’re still in their box .. ]]

I wouldn’t mind if orange or hope did ..

I see where you are coming from and I can see its a shame they’ll probably lose (some of) any influence coming from being based there. Ultimately though its not really upto us aside from choosing not to buy from them?

Radoggair +1

On One a Rotherham(?) based company already own Titus who were a Arizona(?) based company? Not really anything new

If anything surely raceface (and titus) could become more UK orientated (rather than californian as per too many other things) and that could be a good thing if they were to absorb them rather than merely own them?

XM719’s are tougher (and wider) than XC717’s but I’d like something else than mine now. Not amazingly light for their width and extra price over more basic rims, and keep hold of too much tyre sidewall reducing the tyres volume
I’m thinking lighter less tyrewall grabbing NoTubes ZTR Arches might be better, for me at least

Personally I can’t stand the noise of the Hope Pro II freehub and the pickup speed could be faster, I’ve seen a few reports of split hub bodies, sticky bearings from new, too small bearings wearing out too quick and the rear hub pushes the price of a wheelset up a fair bit

“719’s seem to be fine for wider tyres up to 2.35 Minions IME”
2.35″ maxxis aren’t exactly wide though, especially on XM719’s, the difference between on XM719s and something like a DT EX5.1D (similar width to a flow) is ridiculous

“I realise disco slippers are not going to be much use on the long walk to the top”
I dunno I went up skiddaw in mine a while ago, the studs wore down a fair bit though

I went up/down snowdon the other week, I reckon around half the distance (not height) is easily ridden (my mum rode about that far) with some more ridable with some determination/stubborness

A shoe swap would be a good idea if you have room, one swap and a 100 and bit metre up to the top of telegraph in SPD shoes could work
Unless you’ve pedals that sort of work with flat shoes, you might be walking a lot of it, like the initial road climb?

I found non disco slipper SPD shoes good to walk up in, but found the loss in stiffness in the sole got painful going down rangers (though with cageless pedals)