Aparantly you want the ‘G’ hanger. I think all the current specialized MTBs use the same one

A 10st. rider could have a bike and use it once a fortnight riding round local roads bridleways and towpaths
The same bike could be used by an 17st. rider jumping/dropping off of stuff and riding into everything going 3 times a week

Even as a rough guide a fixed period of time simply for a material is ridiculous. One could be a really thick walled beefed up frame and another a thin walled frame too

“hardtail which can handle 1ft drops with a lardy pilot on board”
Thats just about anything then ..
Up that to (2-)3ft drops and a hardcore hardtail makes more sense

What do you currently have, where do you ride?

Kona Ute and commute with it

mbr having a go at it here

If you can ride aggesive variable size steps/stairs elsewhere it shouldn’t be too bad?

“surely out of those 3 only one is a bike for life?

Yeah, the Pitch”

With a lifetime (frame) warranty is it the only one for life?

“mostly X9 (shifters/mechs) and Race Face finishing kit”
They’re both way to pricey. Shimano XT ought to a cheaper equivalent. SLX is similar but slightly heavier (but more robust)
Raceface is all pretty pricey for the weight of the bits
Look around at each component spec (to see if the weight is alarming) and try to find them all cheap through Easton, FSA, Bontrager etc.. Hope/Thomson will be a fair bit more

“around £100 for a chainset and this would mean to me an SLX chainset”
SLX triple is 889g. XT triple is 853g (and about £40 more)

“brakes (around £150 budget) – the hubs are centrelock”
SLX are a little over £150, but should be far better than hayes stroker ryde or magura julies. Phone up merlin and ask them how much they’d do SLX brakes with centrelock rotors for? They’ve got a pair for £170 with 6-bolt ones

Elixir Rs seem to getting very good press too. Supposed to be more powerful than juicys but lighter than the 3,5 and 7

“and usually travel quicker, than tractors, diggers”
How many decades ago was this?

Overtaking cyclist in a tractor is the much harder on a conventional (non high speed) tractor as you may only be able to go 5-10mph faster than most roadies seem to go along at

“motorists accuse cyclists of “thinking they own the road”. Any cyclist thinking he owns the road is clearly delusional and I don’t think many such cyclists exist. What the motorists seem to mean is actually “why do these people not understand that I own the road?”

Don’t cyclists, horses and pedestrians have a legal right to the road? whereas motorvehicles have to pay for that right with Vehicle Excise Duty (not road tax), although since the fuel ‘crisis’ of around 2000 agricultural vehicles don’t have to pay it (but still have to have the VED disc and display it)

“pig – eats and sleeps in its own SHIT!!!”
As do most farm animals kept indoors or penned off?

Marmite is nice, but not on its own (does that mean I don’t love it OR hate it?). With plenty of butter on toast or crackers is nice

I’ll add remotely soggy cereal, especially wheatabix or shredded wheat

“then tighten the cable”

And use pliers to give it a decent pull, not your hands

Was the originally question not to do with how flexy the fork is as opposed to how stiff the suspension travel is?

I remember reading in a magazine (mbr – so questionable) that 2007 Fox 32s at 140mm were very flexy, but the ones reduced to 120mm (on specialized and others) weren’t noticable flexy

Spicys seem to have pretty slack head angles

They also have very slack seat angles (so very far back with the seat up), the 316 I rode had a layback post and was clamped quite far back on the saddle rails and I didn’t get on with it (until I moved the saddle fully forward)

Could be something to do with that?

I’ve bent big a big chainring back with an adjustable spanner before. Admitedly it wans’t single speed but I didn’t have any problems afterward

Manitou

You can get adapters for post mount calipers and IS fork mounts for 160mm rotors. They’re pretty common

5″ drop, no slop here – I’ve had no issues with mine at all

ISIS BB with large ball bearings

There are a few that last

Square taper generally last, but will be (a little) flexier (having a narrower axle)

Maybe not then. I’d just assumed that a 100-140mm £600(+) fork would at least have some sort of in between

Try riding the thors round at 120mm for a while, decide if you like it?

I’m assuming the Fuel EX 9.9?
I’d avoid the EX 6.5 and stick to EX7 (though heavier than an EX9.9) or above as the suspension design is supposed to be a lot better

At that sort of price I’d also look at a Specialized FSR XC Pro at £1400ish, is supposed to be 27.5lbs and comes with rockshox rebas (better than the treks recons) as well as other good kit. I’m not sure if theres a ‘WSD’ version though

There’ll be loads more to look out for

“Does any one have crown heights for the 32 and 36 series”

I think its 511mm for a 140mm QR Fox 32 and 545mm for a fox 36

How much will a warehouse (and the land it stands on) set you back though? Else rent would be pretty pricey, as would rates? Then pay to build the thing.
I’d guess you couldn’t get enough coming in the door to cover it?

Also, peaks mud isn’t that bad when wet in the middle of winter. Well at least not all of it

EDIT: a few posts seem to gone up between going to write this and actually posting it ..

Also, isn’t there already a BMX/4X/pump track in sheffield already? Where did singletrack go when they did an article on somewhere a bit like this (not quite rays admitedly)

Are you allowed to top it up at all? to get the IO ID

Else something similar (another SS would be a bit pointless though?) and then get an alfine wheel later?

2.5″ HR single ply 60a = 880g (2.25″ advantage size) work well. Slowest tyre I ever used though. They do a supertacky too

2.4″ Advantage (although massive) folding is 845g?

UST advantage

High Rollers, Minions, Larsens, Ignitors (And others) are old tread maxxis and come up small

Crossmarks, Advantage, Ardent plus a load of new XC tyres are new tread and come up big

Ragley? Not out yet though

That was the normal ones they do. Although I’ve not had a problem with them

Superstar Sintered £25 for 4 pairs posted

Theres some steep biggish ones off of the road corner in that google map link, but not towards the car park, could it be those?

Does heat just help the pad from falling to bits?

“is an SLX cassette on an alloy carrier?”

yes, albeit a slightly narrower one

“on-one axle looks like a standard qr, whereas the DT Swiss can be tightened by screwing. Does this mean the DT Swiss axle can be tightened more? “
That is pretty much the selling point of a DT RWS, 5 or 9mm. They reckon 50% more

[arm chair engineer mode]
Although an issue with all frames, I’d guess its probably much more of issue with straight single pivot designs wear the shock attaches directly to the swingarm. If the swingarm is in torsion/flexing/whatever from trailer side loads the swing arm pivot and shock pivot are having to resist this?
An Orange 5 or Santa Cruz heckler may not be too bad given they have pretty big swingarm pivots and beefy swingarms so they themselves may reduce the flex quite well unlike some other single pivots

Linkages may help to reduce the flex on the shock but ultimately theres surely going to be some side loading on the shock due to side load on the rear triangle?
[/arm chair engineer mode]

Perhaps (partly) to do with being new? May just need a re-true up just because new wheels do or perhaps they were poorly (factory) built? Give that a try first, then maybe get some new ones when you do them in?

What commencal?
What type of jumping?
Why can’t they be jumped?
What tyres (and size) are you running? how much bigger could you go? (frame clearance, rim width, without slowing you down too much)

DT E540s?

Mavic XM719s? Narrower, but still strong

Other than wieght, what problems will a 14mm nipple cause over a 12mm one? Not enough thread on the spoke?

CRC was just a quick look to guage whats available and roughly how much they cost

On-one had some carbon FSA ones for £20 last time I looked. Might have only been 350mm ones though

“all the sizes are available in 1mm increments in the range to suit your build”

I had a quick look on CRC who only stock every 2mm (in even # lengths)
I’ll look a bit harder

Am feeling quite stupid now for not seeing le. and ri. as left and right now ..

Sorry, yet another question:

When it comes up with the precise and rounded spoke lenghts, I presume the le. is length and ri. rise? Whats the difference? Is this something that will/would become apparant when reading through wheelbuild guides (such as sheldon brown – does park tool have one as well?)

Right

Next Question:

The calculator works out to the nearest mm of spoke length

Having a quick search I’ve found spokes in 2mm (even) increments

When the calculator specifies an odd mm length, do I have to use one of this length? How much leaway is there each way to use a 1mm longer spoke or a 1mm shorter one?

If for eg:
Spoke length comes out as 261.5mm, rounds to 261mm
Can I use a 262mm or will it poke into the rim tape?
Can I use a 260mm or will there be too few nipple threads to take the tension?

Not just for that eg, but how much leaway should I have either way?

A shim is more of a faff if you move your seat up and down but I get on with mine okay. A plastic one on a carbon post in an alu. frame if that can make any difference. Just hold your finger over the shim as you pull the post out of the frame and its fine

I think that is the floodgate

If so it alters how locked out the fork is when locked out (from full to nothing at all)

The fork is locked out using the motion control damping (hence why it still moves a little when locked out). I thought with a poploc remote you could only adjust motion control to unlocked or locked out and not set in between?