“This man is correct”

But slightly off topic ..

“1×9 isn’t ‘jey’ at all, that’s more ‘freeride-core'”

well if you say so ..

“if you went 1×9 how does the chain stay on the front ring without a chain guide?
It doesn’t. You need a chain guide”
Mine stays on just fine. Correctly shortened chain, unramped (longer teeth with no ramps) chainring works for me 99% of the time (crahes and chucking over gates being the main exceptions)
Using one of these in a 34T (with an 11-32T casette)

“bit of a slog the other direction for a short steep down”

Maybe, but what a ‘down’ it is

If you don’t use the big ring or granny ring, and want to save weight, why not get rid of; the granny ring, the big ring, the front mech, the front shifter, front cable inners/outer and aprox. 3 pairs of chain links?
Stick an unramped (they have much longer teeth and no shifting ramps) middle chainring on and go 1×9 spd?

If 2.35″ high rollers are on the limit, then 2.25″ advantages/ardents/crossmarks will be too big, as they’re the same sort of size as 2.5″ High rollers

“people say Specialized don’t last two minutes in the Alps”
Mine did, and a further 6 months after visiting morzine/les gets

It hasn’t got any bushings mind, just cartridge bearings

I found maxxis single ply high rollers (in a 2.5″) were thick enough to run with normal XC tubes and not puncture all week

I’ve never heard those before, nor do they come across as sounding ‘right’. Maybe because they words used for other things?

Woolie hat shop had full length steerer revelations (sounds like you’ll want a few spacers under the stem if you’re 6’4 for about £300

140mm Fox 32 forks are I think 511mm arch-to-crown. 130mm Revelations are 508mm, fox are quite low

140mm revelation bolt thrus are 518mm, and the QR one 521mm I think, so taller than fox

I believe its 1st April –> 30th September, 9am – 5pm voluntary bike ban on the bridleways on snowdon

“I thought he was amusing.

He then decided to ride up Stoodley Pike in Calderdale on a sunny summer Sunday a couple of years ago with all his crew tagging along behind him.

I’m not so keen now”

Even if he were to have led a bike ride on a sunny summer day, why should that make you have a negative view?

“there was a time when the climb from the ford to the Gate via the hairpin bend on Jacobs Ladder was all grass .. That’s long gone now due to the amount of mtb traffic it gets”

Its a (well publicised in the MTB press) bridleway, where do want people to bike ride? Being walled off it surely encourages not only the mtb traffic, but the rainfall of the hillside it cuts across too?

“New shorter stem – something like a 50mm thomson x4”

Why?
It has a 130mm fork, with roughly a 90-100m stem. Its not not ridiculously long, but long enough that the bike ought to be able to climb quite well
Presumably the rider is quite tall so cramping the cockpit will make it pretty poor to ride?

leeches?

The two vehicle in the pictures look very dissimilar in many ways

“30.9 seatpost (will fit a Giant as well).”
My giant (XTC (’06) is 30.8mm, and yes there is a noticable difference in fit)

“use a shim if his new frame is a Trek (or similar sized seat tube) as it runs 31.6 seatposts”
I don’t think you can get 30.9mm –> 31.6mm shims. Just too small a difference

“All I need now is a list of frames with a 68mm BB shell to narrow down to a final hunt list”
Seems a bit of an odd choice to narrow down frames? A new BB wouldn’t set you back a lot

“the prius is that its proved a pretty ugly expensive car will sell well because people want to drive a car that doesnt contribute to greenhouse gas emissions”

But it does contribute to greenhouse emissions
It uses petrol in order to generate the electric in the first place?

Have you put the biggeat chainring on the wrong way around?

“look like I’ve been dragging them behind the car for the last 6 months”

But so will any SPD pedal surely?

M520s are only about 50g heavier than XTR, are £20 if you know where to look and work exactly the same

Are you sure somehting else isn’t up for clipping out to become dangerous? Like loose cleats?

Do you mean jumps or drops? (you were referring to 1ft, 2ft ..)

“It is marketed as a All Mountain tyre but seems a bit lightweight for that.”

Care to elaborate?

“Also the 2.25″ is at least as big as a 2.35″ High Roller!!”
If they’re the same size as 2.25″ Advantages (both being newer maxxis treads) they’re the same size as 2.5″ High Rollers

Just Riding Along reckon Advantages are about the same speed, but advantages are grippier. The lack of contact tread between the middle and cornering edges would account for this?

see here[/url]

High Rollers being discontinued?! Where did you hear this?
High Rollers must be their most popular tyre?

“seems to be that chain flings around all over the place without a tensioner and that a Jump Stop and bashring is the best way to keep it becalmed.

It’s a pity cuz I’d love the simplicity of 1×9 without those bits and pieces cluttering up the bike.”

Using an unramped (one not designed to do any shifting) has longer teeth (deeper than the chain) stops the chain falling off 99% off the time (lifting over gates/in crashes are where it tends to come off), and lets you get away with just a chainring though

They will have only followed you thinking you might give them food

Will you seriously not take the same route because there might be cows grazing next time you pass through?

“are you objecting to people peeing near you, or near the trail ?”
both

“lack of mechanical ability (grinding gears…)”
are you including people who ride singlespeed bikes?

Riders who ride round rocks/features cos they are too cool to use their (6″) bike as intended ..

Litter is far worse though
And people who relieve themselves by the side of a track/trail, you can’t be bothered to go a few metres away, where nobody has to be near you

I didn’t think there would be any in there getting higher mpg than advertised, but a few of them do. 11.6mpg less than advertised is pretty bad though for the kia

I was going to mention something like Maxxis Crossmarks, but thought they might be too lumpy for what you want them for. Should be half the price of swalbes for the folding ones or about a third for the wire ones?

Come to think of it I have ran my 2.35″ HRs on my XC717 rim (contrary to what I said before). At lower pressures they do feel a bit rubbish on the narrow rims, they squirm about a bit when cornering a bit harder

I ran mine at around 40-45psi (on the rear) and they were fine, but mostly to keep the rolling resistance down on the back with 15.5st. on top of them

Obviously he is pootling along too much

I’ve never felt the need to sh*t at the side of a trail. If it was ever that bad I would have gone before the bike ride. If I didn’t need to go before the ride, its never bad enough that I couldn’t wait until after bike riding

IME equal pressures work best. More negative drags the travel down (and makes them much more prone to diving under braking and so on)

Orange ST4?
Commencal Meta 4 (or it a super 4?)

Both slacker angles than the norm for the travel

Not as beefy as a 4X bike or 6″ bike short/slackened but ought to be a bit better all round?

Were you in any way in the way? Even when other ‘lines’ were available giving more room, could you have been in the way of another line they had been looking forward to riding?

I’m not saying that makes it all okay, but sometimes people stop in places which could spoil the ride for others muchly. Sometimes in the way of riding something that would never crossed their minds to ride maybe something someone has been really looking forward to?

I don’t know the specifics of course, just a thought?

2.2″ ACXs run absolutely fine on XM719s. Bigger volume tyres run fine too (2.5″ high rollers/2.25″ advantages

EN321s are a bit heavy. EN521s are as wide, but a little lighter, but not as light as XM719s

If you want to run really big tyres and keep the weight down DT Swiss EX 5.1s might fit the bill. Still not as light as XM719s though

About the limit I’d think (So long as its a maxxis 2.35″ as they’re comparivetely small)

They’re pretty close in volume to Bontrager ACX 2.2″s and mine run okay (So long as the tyre pressure is kept quite high) on XC717 rims

I’ve not run my 2.35″ hgih rollers on my XC717 rim though

“bear in mind that Manitou A2C is low compared to Fox/RS so the 140 minutes are only a teeny bit longer than a 130 revelation”

CRC say they are 515mm A-C for 140mm. All fine, but low to fox? A 140mm Fox 32 is 511mm. A rockshox 130mm is 508mm

CRC have pike 454 airs on for £320 at the moment don’t they? = 2100g or so

If you are wanting use quite narrow profile grips, lock ons will be less comfy due to the minimal space to get the harder backing structure and padding into the space

With something fatter theres more than enough room to get the backing structure and lots of padding in. Like ODI rogues. Though I imagine many with less massive hands could find them too big

I use lock ons simply because I can take my grips off by undoing 2 bolts. Not having to faff about taking the skin off my hands trying to remove a non-lock-on one. Same goes for putting the grip back on again

Decathlon?

An FSA one for £14 posted. Comes with the extra long chaingring bolts (or at least mine did)

Who was the friend? Was he ‘informed’ by one of the big bike mags by any chance?

Of course a 5-6″ travel full suss will be fine for most riding, but it strikes me as a bit of an odd recommendation when you say you’ve never ridden offroad.

You should easily be able to get a full suss well under 30lbs for less than the cost of an Ellsworth frame. They are very high end frames by a comparivetly small manufacturer

If you really want a full-suss then fine, but I’d be questioning where and what you want to ride. If you are near freeborn then its not like the lakes, peaks or black trail centre routes are you local playgrounds and would possibly question a full suss at all? Definetly a 6″ travel machine anyway.

Though its your money, and you bike, so don’t listen to my limiting of your bike buying decisions

Whoops!

Should have guessed it would have been a JD driver ..