“non-technical in the peaks…? “

The two don’t really go together do they

Last time I went with a particular set fo friends they’d invited me along for a bike ride in the peaks, wanting me to come up with a route that was ‘flowy’ as in trail centre flowy ..

Back on topic, you could try heading a little further south into the white peak, so anywhere south of hope (including the south edge of hope valley). Have you got the VG graphics white peak book?

Why so much love for morzine?
I’ve not been anywhere else but personally wouldn’t be reccomending it quite so hastily
Make sure plenty of lifts are open, and it doesn’t rain all week ..

A couple of suggestions

– Maxxis Advantage 2.1″ 62a/eXception (folding) = 595g
Quite chunky (Chunkier at the edges), some ramps and roll okay

– Bontrager mud X (TR, folding) 2.0″ = 550g. Softer compound than ACX’s. Roll well for a mud tyre. More of a racing mud tyre than a trailraker so work well year round. Nice to have in wet summers. Only downsize is they’re not very big in volume so pumped up don’t give you a lot of give when trying to jump (even small stuff)

– Kenda Nevegal 1.95″ DTC-lite = 580g
Kenda come up quite big so a 1.95″ should be about a 2.1″
Not a mud tyre so do block up in thick mud but generally okay. Not overly chunky but lots of rolling ramps.
DTC = Dual compound so harder on the rolling edge, softer edges

I’ve not used anything else similar that fits what you’re after or hasn’t been mentioned I don’t think

The singletrack review (this is the anthem isn’t it, not the anthem X?) said it didn’t run well at 100mm (let alone 120mm), 80 or 85mm forks worked really well with the bike
Giant only ever supplied it with 80 or 85mm forks

Its not that much no, but compared to the cost of the flight & extra for sporting luggage allowance and it adds up. It wouldn’t be hard to get to 42kg for bike and luggage though

“it’ll still be pretty reasonable”
£6 per kilo over last june from east midlands (with easyjet)

“who left his cardboard bike box in the pouring rain for 20 minutes rendering it useless and almost impossible to carry”
Wrap in cling film, agri/duct tape all edges ..

32kg is pretty tight
I had a 28.5ish-lb bike with tools/camelback/heavily padded cling filmed/taped box came to 29kg. 9kg rucksack too. On the way out the check in person let me off (keeping it quiet) that I was 6kg over. I had no hand baggage though. Friends I was travelling did have hefty hand baggage and got stung at £6/kilo
On the way back I took the camelbak as handbaggage and put as much non-dangerous weight into it. Box+ rucksack was 31.5kg going through Geneva

Oddly, another friend packed his handbaggage foolishly and forgot he had a massive first aid kit with scissors with 5″ or so blades, it went through the X-ray and they let him on the plane with it?!

sorry, getting my words mixed up. I did mean axle-to-crown height

Even taking sag into account, an F29 or Reba 29er would be a better bet than an F100?
Could always run an 80/90mm version

Realistically it needs a 150/160mm fork, perhaps with adjustable travel or some form of lockdown/eta for steeper climbs

All you need now is some wide(r) bars and a 36T bashring ..

If it helps you descend more stuff with the seat at pedalling height you may as well keep the high bars, or at least keep them as high as the saddle
Wide(r) bars would put more wieght onto the front too if you are worried about not having enough weight on the front wheel

My 2.35″ kevlar walled high rollers have noticably better puncture protection than most tyres I’ve used (with the exception of 2.5″ wire walled high rollers) I’d go for them. The dual ply one will be about half a kilo heavier each

The Ragley mmmbop or bluepig when they come out? CRC says late june

Kinesis XC2 (and XC120) are very light for the money

Do you have any more info on what the bike will be used for, what are the extremes of his riding, jumps/drops, rockiness, lots of road, XC racing? and what parts?
eg Fork model/travel?

If he’s building form scratch its likely to be much cheaper to buy complete

I’d like to see whole and built frames too

I can see the expresso colour working, not as well as custard mind

The builders tea I don’t like, it may be a close match to someones local dried mud so may help it look less dirty?

Alpine bits onto the heckler?

I rode all of the climb on the west side last time I was there

There may have been a very high number of dabs though ..

linky?

“Landing skewwiff on spd’s could also feasibly result in twising out of them”

Perhaps, but at that extreme it might be ending up in a crash landing due to twisting at the bars too?
Mostly your heels will dip as you land though, as with flats

Of those people who mention knee pain/aches/problems with SPDs, how many of you have been using specialized BG shoes?

(2nd and 3rd pics being specialized)

Are they the ‘worst’ bits

It looks awesome

Is that travel or the amount of exposed stantion? There should be more than 130mm of stantion showing for 130mm travel

” I work in a bike shop, FFS, I had plenty of resources”

But did that shop stock specialized (shoes)?

Lots of interesting stuff said in here

“be swapped for caged SPD’s”
Why not normal ones?

“the preserve of more adventurous riding, as do flats”
“Top DH racers use .. flats and ride steaper and more technical terrain”
But many(/most?) of them use SPDs though?

“SPD’s pretty much everywhere else bar mountains”
Any reason?

“I went the whole hog and put flats on it to complement the bigger tyre, longer fork, wider (710mm) bars, shorter stem”
Why does that in any way complement them?

“an’t bunny hop without them so again i think technique on flats is always going to be better”
Why does this matter though?

I ride SPDs offroad after getting them and getting used to them. I like not having to think about keeping my feet on the pedals in pretty much any situation. For now I’m not too bothered about having honed skills if I can get on/by with riding what I want

Golspie looks good when/wherever

“10mm travel difference does not necessarily mean 10mm in fork length”

It does from 130mm revs to 140mm maxle Revs though. perhaps not with sag then, more like 9-9.5mm higher assuming the same sag percentage?

I don’t know about the wet, but golspie rode pretty well in ice/snow over new year

Surely you’ll essentially have 140mm forks in the space of a 130mm fork?
Thats all very well having the correct height/angles at sag
Have you thought what will happen when the fork is bottomed out (or close to)? It’ll dive further/lower and will be steeper. As you’ll want to run a little more sag being a longer travel fork, your sag point will be slightly steeper/lower too

Whats so wrong with just running a 140mm Rev when you’ve been running a 130mm one? Its only 10mm? Why all this faffing?

Re-read the shimano instructions and follow it exactly, making sure you understand the consequences of each step so that you know when its exactly right

Perhaps, but I have to take my front wheel off to put in the car (or usually both if its one of my mates cars)
I change tyres, have punctures and attempt to sort out brake squeal often enought that I’d have thought its had enough chance to go wrong from going in/out often enough by now

“Snob!”

I think its the pump, bottle cage and saddle bag he’s on about
All it needs now are the bar ends and mapboard .. assuming you’ve already got the socks/sandals and beard?

runs ..

No problems no
The lever feels a little flexy when its getting really tight, but I just stop tightening then. I can tighten it up a lot more anyway

I’ve not had any mud in the internals I don’t think (its sprung so the only time its exposed is when you pull it apart (So the 2 sets of connecting teeth detach from one another)

“Why not stick a 29er front wheel on whilst you’re at it? You might as well screw the bike up TOTALLY….! “

That would probably work much better actually ..

Assuming the same size tyre
Given that a Lyric or Fox 36 have arch-to-crown height of 545mm
a F100 is 471mm arch – crown
60mm travel difference and 74mm arch – crown difference

A Reba 29 100mm is 510mm arch-to-crown
+ 1.5″ of extra wheel height ~ 38mm
= arch-crown+29er wheel of 548mm

So only 3mm taller? Could drop that with a slightly smaller front tyre
I think its a goer!
much more than an F100 26″er anyway ..

“Could be a problem as thats where I do most of my riding! “

To be fair, I’d swapped pads in the alps to goodridge organics after the slither of superstar standard pads I had left lasted 4 days of very wet alpine riding, swapped to goodridge organics (thats what I took with me), discovred a crack in my frame almost straight after so didn’t ride them again until I got home and swapped all the bits to my HT frame. It took 1.5 wet rides to take them to the metal and spent the rest of the ride wearing through the backing plate

I do it as tight as I can without hurting my hand on the rear (internal cam shimano one)
Up front use one of these (not technically a quick release):

Then postition the lever under the fork leg so that it cannot undo on the lever side

Bought after seeking and reading too many articles on QR, vertical dropout and disc system flaws and the russ pinder incident. My front QR was developing some play too

Juicy pads become a lot easier to replace if you ditch the metal retention thing in the back of the caliper

The tension in the spring spider pad thing is enough to keep the pads up against the retention tabs on the pistons
The only problem with that I’ve had is when the retention tab on the caliper snapped off after some goodridge pads went to the metal on a wet NYMoors ride

You should have leant the dropbar on the painted stair banister ..

full-wuss:

hardtail:

rigid bike (not sure how this is the best picture I have of it ..)

“after setting the shock and forks up for me”
“Headangle too steep to be a quick descender, seat angle too slack to be a good climber”

Are you sure he set it up right?

The pedal bodys do wear. New cleats (keep the old ones) will help but won’t be like new cleats and pedals

I keep winding in the spring tension to offset the wear

“From what I’ve read the GD is the only model that actually works for more than 2 rides. “

My Kindshock/Purerace/Superstar i900r has lasted much longer than 2 rides with no trouble and no play and 5″ drop

Not available in 27.2mm though

Can’t remember the make but someone makes a 9″ drop one ..