Whinlatter, south loop. uppity stem now swapped back ..

cheeky somewhere in south yorkshire, again uppity stem now swapped back. really what was I thinking ..

Its sort of next to the roadsign?
Above woodhead pass, transpennine trail

No bike but I quite like the sign ..
Kirroughtree

I used 2.1″ Maxxis Crossmarks (70a) @ 40/60psi f/r on my XC hardtail in anticipation of some offroady bits. While they were fine on the roads (keeping the rear nice and hard), aside from climbing the old coach road and dropping to 40psi (was nearing the campsite anyway) I didn’t really have any need for tyres ‘so’ chunky
The climb out of rookhope ought to be doable on slicks and some smooth pedalling
(Granted I missed out some of the offroad bits round nenthead/allenheads and the big climb beyond penrith due to time/others in group)

Since doing so I’ve ridden the pennine section of the transpennine trail (from manchester to nr. doncaster). I thought it’d be similar in railway paths with less offroad so I opted for my rigid bike shod with nigh on slick continental sport contacts (1.6″). I also reccomended a friend get some slicks rather than keep with his knobblies (he asked whether he should), and another use a trek 1000 road bike (slicked up as I’d ridden with someone on the C2C on a flat barred road bike do all but the non railway path offroad stuff)
Turns out in march much of the railway paths are sloppy and there are some rocky bit over the top of the pennines
Apart from another (non MTBer) friend on slightly treaded slicks and another on knobblies (who destroyed himself even with very high tyre pressures), we had a great time. The sloppy bits were suprisingly rideable even with 80psi slicks, fast going and fun, reasonable on the rocky bits (very fast on the tiny bit of down) too (not so much the tiny bit of wet grass over the tops).
Anyhow, with a bit of MTBing skill and some smooth pedalling nigh on smooth slicks will do you fine IMO

317s on an Alpine 160, really?

They’re not overly heavy at 440g IIRC(disc version), though they’re pretty narrow at 17mm internal. A 2.35″ maxxis was about* the maximum I ever would run on my XC717 (same 17mm internal width I believe)
I once ran 2.5″ maxxis briefly as I was using them as a spare wheel, the angle the tyre had to make to meet the rim was really ridiculous. I needed 50-60psi to reduce the pinchflats (which I still managed) with maxxis 1.2mm freeride tubes

If you can afford the extra outlay Mavic XM719 Disc rims are about 20g heavier and 2mm wider. At 19mm internal they’re not amazingly wide but they’re certainly give you a better tyre profile with a 2.35″ maxxis and you cen get away with 2.5″/2.25″ maxxis IMO (though a bit at the expense of the tyre profile)

Hmm, on reflection I might be getting toward you’re abusivenss there nickf. I may be a little lighter atm, but its quite possible I could go the other way in future, I’m probably fairly overdue a move to a 140/150mm 20mm forked FS sometime and along with hopefully losing some fear toward breaking my current bike on silly drops etc, if a bigger bike were to give me even a bit of the progression boost my FS has done then it could end up a bit of recipe for disaster If I choose crests

When you say destroyed a couple, is this just dinged rims/a bit out of true or proper pringling of wheels/breaking the rims?

SL would fall into the cross country recons

Have a look on the rockshoc website under the cross country forks bit and look at the recons in there. As far as I know (though I know for certain very little of what I put up above) the SLs shouldn’t have changed
If theres 100mm and 120mm pressure reccomendations printed on it, then you’d think it might be adjustable between the two. IF this is the case, then to get them to 120mm you have to remove a 20mm spacer out of the spring assembly (in the upper LH leg*) to get them to run at 120mm

*I think for the sake of not losing oil it probably isn’t possible to take the spring assembly out from the top and you’d have to do a full strip down as per the rockshox service guide (downloadable somewhere off their site) which is pretty straitforward to follow. Just need some suspension oil

What is the wording on the fork (ie its full name?)

AFAIK it depends on whether it is the ‘trail/all mountain’ model or the ‘cross country version’
Also whether it is coil, coil U-turn or solo air

Trail/all mountain models are named 327, 335(turnkey lockout) and 351(motion control) or were until recently
All are available in coil U-turn 85-130mm (some 95-140mm models later (all if not most with 20mm thru-axle?) or solo air (which is internally adjustable from 80-130mm(130mm requiring no spacers in the spring), there may also be some 90?-140mm internally adjustable models?

XC models (XC, SL and race – I don’t know which is better than anbother) I believe have a maximum of 100mm. Some are fixed travel coil, some are solo air which may or may not be internally adjustable between 80-100mm?

I believe the sector/sektor has replaced the trail/all mountain recon now

Nickf, it sounds like I may fall into the same category ..
When you say ‘I’m a clumsy ox, and very hard on kit’, could you elaborate at all, ie riding what sort of stuff on what sort of setup?

I seem to think I’ve read somewhere (either old posts on here or notubes site) the new style lip holds tyres better than the old style lips on arch/flow/olympic/race etc though it still seems pretty small

I’d be replacing Mavic XM719 Discs (19mm internal) wanting something slightly wider as they’re limiting my tyre choice, without giving a too round a shape and losing the egdes 2.35″ High Rollers are sensibly about it. Compared to a DT EX5.1 for eg the mavics do seem to hold a LOT of tyre wall as bead

340g crest compared to a 470g flow is a big difference, over 0.5lb between a set of rims, especially when the flows are heavier than my current rims ..

Looking through (pretty much all) pics, it seems I can’t manage ‘really rocky’ just fairly rocky
Oh and I can’t decide what to put up, I quite like lots of them, so please don’t hate me for screendumping somewhat:

bailing








managed in second time around







Apologies again ..

Anyone ridden/have any insight into ZTR crests?

“Not reallllly my scene, but some great shots”
Its a mountain biking forum. If its not your scene are you not a mountain biker?

I was going to suggest cannock chase (not quite equidistant, but in the middle), but you said no ‘trail parks’,
Only the locals/regulars will be able to tell you if the ‘off piste’ non signposted stuff is worthy of a meet point or not though

Theres always ‘I no shpeik ing-glisch’ and ride on?

I got stopped on stanage edge by a peak park ranger last year. I pointed out it on his map as a bridleway, he then stopped telling me I couldn’t ride on the footpath

Bar ends are definetely upside down, and on riser bars. Stubbyish bar ends can look okay, mostly better on flat bars, but anything with a bend in really detracts from a bike IMO
If you really must have them, and don’t want to buy any more, then try removing the plastic bungs from the ends, take a hacksaw (or angle grinder etc) to the bar ends just below the bend, clean up and square off with a file, reinsert the plastic bungs and you have some stubbyish bar ends, slightly lighter and less eye-scaring than they used to be

XC717 discs?? Rebas?? Elixir Rs, eggbeaters, XO carbon, yet alivio (square taper?) cranks and no name front mech? I’m confused

Frame looks a bit odd though. The angles and BB drop almost look as if ought to have a taller fork?

Weigh it?
ideally frame only, no headset, seat qr, bb etc etc and clean

With a 73mm BB shell you have just enough space between the frame and BB cup to fit it (assuming truvativ GXP uses one 2.5mm spacer as per shimano?) This gives you no adjustment for the guide however. I’ve since tried spacing the chainguide piece from the backplate, but this will only help you if the chain happens to too far outward, which is unlikely
(I only have this problem because I’m using a 73mm octalink BB in a 68mm BB shell frame, so to account for this spacing the guide out 2.5mm from the backplate will put it in the proper position if I had a 73mm BB shell frame and had the XCR between frame and BB cup)
If you have a 68mm BB shell (if its a FSer, then its more unlikely) then you have 5mm space between BB cup and frame in which to mount the chainguide and the supplied spacers

EDIT: Just read the above post re: GXP, 73mm shell and no spacers.
Also just clicked on the link, I thought the XCR backplate was 2.5mm thick as per shimano BB spacers. They say they’re 2mm, which would give 0.5mm to play with positioning if it were replacing one spacer

Pace 204? 100mm rear, 68.5deg with 100mm fork, 67.5deg with 130mm fork IIRC?

I’d get Shimano XT on the grounds of freehubs with faster pickup and that don’t shout to everybody I’M NOT PEDALLING! and bearings that won’t need changing all the time, so long as you don’t leave them to loosen (and will benefit from extra grease from new)

Hope will allow you to run most axle standards with a change of internal bits though where XT won’t

I’ve just seen CRC has 11-32T (280g) and 11-34T (310g) SRAM PG980’s for £28 ea.
Best I’ve seen for 11-32T (282g) and 11-34T (315g) SLX’s is £34 on merlin

CRC have PG990’s for £39-45 depending on colour. I can only assume they’re lighter than PG980’s, though I’m pretty sure they’re still heavier than XT

Merlin have XT 11-32T (256g) and 11-34T(n/a) for £48 ea.

So £/g wise thats 24g for £20 from PG980 to XT in 11-32T? Slightly better than 1g/£, which can only be made worse by it being a casette and it’ll want chucking at some point

“If they brought out a ST5 where would it sit in the line up?
Would they drop the blood?”

“I think the ST5 would be 5″ front and back (unlike the blood with uneven travel) and the ST5 would be easier to ride uphill but take some of the fun and pop of the ST4 mixed with a bit more hard hitting of the blood”

Logically, an ST5 would replace the 5. Given the reputation of the 5 I wouldn’t be suprised if they were tl sell both side by side?

I don’t get orange speccing Mavic XM317 rims with Maxxis Advantage 2.25″ tyres on some of their bikes. Its a 17mm (internal) rim with a tyre as big as a 2.5″ High Roller/Minion. IMO a 2.25″ Advantage is pushing it on a Mavic XM719 (19mm internal)

I Think Deore casettes have always been about that heavy. (same goes for HG60 and SRAM 950/970) 11-34T models weigh more again than 11-32T casettes

Part carrier casettes like SLX or SRAM 980 get the weight under 300g for 11-32T, just over for 11-34T IIRC* (XT is 256g for 11-32T?)

*though I may be wrong

“Unfortunately it came with the 2011 spec’; gone are the 160mm Fox 36 forks and double and bash, and in come the triple and 140mm 32 floats”

The orange website (for 2011) is showing 2 blood models:
a 160mm double/bash Blood
a 140mm triple Blood Pro

Anyone?

For a 16″ frame the on-one site recommends 60-80mm stems btw

“Reducing the travel on the 36 by 20mm might be a good move”
I’d go with reducing by 30mm, to get it the same height as a Fox 32 140mm QR15

I had a pair of DTC 2.1″ folders for a fair while
I could get the rear to pinchflat a little more easily than some, but just pumped the rear up a touch more, I was after reducing the rolling resistance slightly as their not the fastest (though not slow either)
To corner well I found I needed to run a little softer in the front than I might normally, I put it down to the rounded shape, but once set I thought they cornered pretty well
Although a touch small volumewise I was more than happy to ride rocky stuff (like borrowdale/walna scar/jacobs ladder/cut gate/etc) as fast as I could before the eyes shaking got the better of my vision
Mud performance wasn’t that horrendous either, the rear needs to be backwards to have any hope of not spinning out

tbh it was shaping up to be my favourite tyre, predictable in loads of conditions/terrain, not overly pricey meant the middling weight for size was forgivable, I even thought they looked pretty good on the bike
Ideally a kenda 2.2″ would exist, but I could try the 2.35″?

Then the rear sidewall/bead gave way, around 10 miles from the car. I tried a tyre boot, inner tube patches and plenty of tape on the inside, but the buldge was still noticable when riding.
Got back to the car (was on backroads from Cli-machX to Dollgellau so all tarmac), but haven’t used one on the rear since
I’ve since found out a couple of other friends have had exactly the same problem with them

I’ve had hassle from peak park rangers, one of which was adament I was on a footpath (stanage plantation – the one with the much photographed slabbed ‘hairpin’ up top), that was until I pointed out on his map (and the key) its a bridleway
Though none have wanted names/addresses or mentioned the £500? fine

“wrong with Knog page, is it because theyve got skinny tyres??”
The knog month for 2010 wasn’t a problem, it was 2009

Shimano SLX (centrelock only) can be had for £35, 1.5 times as fast as a pro II, though still 4 clicks per revolution slower than a current (centrelock) XT (36)

EDIT, at wiggles price, looks like the XT one is the one to get

It looks like they’ve dropped it for 2011 but Lapierre passport would be SSable:

Various softtails from the likes of Salsa, Moots, Global etc etc

I remember in WhatMountainBike some time ago they had an interview with I think Matt Carr? He singlespeeded a Trek Fuel (it doesn’t pivot around the BB shell) with a short cage road mech

“The 2.2 is roughly the size of a high roller”
The 2.25″ overall (volume + tread) is almost identical to a 2.5″ high roller (high roller has taller tread, slightly smaller volume I reckon)

The 2.35″ High Roller is slightly bigger than a 2.1″ Advantage, again HR tread is taller. So maybe the volume is about the same, I’ve not looked that hard

(As with all tyres, rim profiles will make a difference. Between Mavic XM719’s and DT EX5.1Ds 2.35″ HRs look like completely different sizes. The mavics seem to hold more tyre as bead reducing sidewall available to make up the volume, though the (wider) DT’s seem harder to put the tyres on)

I like the big cushioning volume of my 2.25″ advanatges, though they can’t dig into surface slime all too well
The weight is pretty good for the size, though the sidewalls can wear (I’ve tried patching one), standard tubes just won’t work , not (just?) because of the thin sidewalls but because it takes ~20psi to stretch the tube to the size of the tyre. The tube is then very thin and I needed 50-60psi to resist pinch flats. (~300g) 1.2mm maxxis freeride tubes are(/were my) the answer

The rounded profile gained by using seemingly the same size side tread to middle tread (I reckon would be awesome if they used the HR/Minion side tread), meant I hated them above about 35psi as they didn’t seem to want to corner, less than around 30psi although they seem to be deforming to the trail and seemed to corner well enough they did loose stability/rigidity being a bit wobbly and constantly worrying about pinchflatting them in really rocky stuff

I reckon 2.35″ HRs (60a. fold.) ride better almost everywhere (inc. mud, and I reckon roll faster, esp. road), just they’re around the same weight but a fair bit smaller (and much less ‘cushy’ to ride)

“The 2.2 is roughly the size of a high roller”
The 2.25″ overall (volume + tread) is almost identical to a 2.5″ high roller (high roller has taller tread, slightly smaller volume I reckon)

The 2.35″ High Roller is slightly bigger than a 2.1″ Advantage, again HR tread is taller. So maybe the volume is about the same, I’ve not looked that hard

(As with all tyres, rim profiles will make a difference. Between Mavic XM719’s and DT EX5.1Ds 2.35″ HRs look like completely different sizes. The mavics seem to hold more tyre as bead reducing sidewall available to make up the volume, though the (wider internally) DT’s seem harder to put the tyres on?)

I like the big cushioning volume of my 2.25″ advanatges, though they can’t dig into mud all too well
The weight is pretty good for the size, though the sidewalls can wear (I’ve tried patching one), standard tubes just won’t work , not (just?) because of the thin sidewalls but because it takes ~20psi to stretch the tube to the size of the tyre. The tube is then very thin and I needed 50-60psi to resist pinch flats. (~300g) 1.2mm maxxis freeride tubes are the(/were my) answer

The rounded profile gained by using seemingly the same size side tread to middle tread (I reckon would be awesome if they used the HR/Minion side tread), meant I hated them up front above about 35psi as they didn’t seem to want to corner, less than around 30psi although they seem to be deforming to the trail and seemed to corner well enough they did loose stability/rigidity being a bit wobbly and constantly worrying about pinchflatting them in really rocky stuff

I reckon 2.35″ HRs (60a. fold.) ride better almost everywhere (inc. mud, and I reckon roll faster, esp. road), just they’re around the same weight but a fair bit smaller (and much less ‘cushy’ to ride)

“If you have a fragile (usually aluminium) freehub body then XT is a ‘safer’ bet though SLX should be useable just might need some persuasion to allow it to be removed when necessary”

SLX is part carrier, biggest 3, next three pinned together (like SRAM 980). I’m not sure if thats better or worse that a 7 sprocket pinned block deore/970/950?

“surely tubeless rims is an upgrade?”
No, they are an upgrade

Though they’re not much of an upgrade if they are a bitch to change tyres as some can be, or if they’re a non beneficial width, weight etc ..

I’d be sending back

Marzocchi MX 80mm 1 inch”?, or are you after a rigid fork?

Stumpjumper sounds just right. I reckon thats what I’d choose, about the right compromise in travel, angles, suspension, marketing jargon etc ..

I was about to suggest you could get QR15 lowers for your (fox?) fork, but thinking about it, do SJers still have those 9mm DT thru-bolts on the front?

Dropper post?

Do ’10 SJers come with pretty narrow bars (660mm IIRC?), mayve a touch wider might be nice, 685mm, 700mm?

Maybe consider fatter tyres (and tubes if you go much fatter) to make it feel like it has more travel (but not OTT sticky), though the stock purgatory/captain* would seem a pretty good balance?
*perhaps something without such a defined centre tread?

Of course, all only if you ‘think’ you need/want to beef up the bike a touch

“cut gate? would have thought with it being so exposed it would be reasonable?”
Most of the northern side is in a dip, I would imagine (never been up there in snow though) drifts could be an issue?

Inflexibility might have a role at least. What angle is your saddle, the further forward will help to reach the handlebars, as well as perhaps shifting your saddle forward etc ..

Is your saddle at a ‘proper’ height when pedalling (very almost straight leg at bottom of pedal stroke)?

Bars higher than saddle (At proper pedalling height) is most likely wrong though

Newer ones (which yours isn’t?) may run Fox 32 QR15 150mm’s (axle-crown=525mm), but a Fox 36 20mm 160mm (axle-crown=545mm) is 20mm taller* (more leverage on the headtube when hitting things at typically much greater speeds/forces due to the increase in capability/’egging-on-factor’ the fork may give. 20mm axle, more uppers overlap (being taller for the travel), 36mm stantions etc making for a much stiffer fork won’t exactly do the frame any favours

(*so 30mm taller than a Fox 32 140mm QR15, 34mm more than QR)

Leave it at 130mm (it’ll be 515mm tall, the same as a Fox 32 140mm QR15, it’ll be stiffer, should perform better and you won’t screw up the geometry (most likely most so uphill)
Just avoid the 160mm setting

Dependant on what seatpost size they take, maybe a 2007 (or earlier) commencal meta 5.5/5. ie before they steepened and raised them up for 2008

Bent in a crash with a seesaw, it was up, the wheel stayed perfectly true?
Knocked the steerer tube out just to see how easy it would come out. Been left for any usable spares since