On looking a bit more, I can’t find any retailer listing both the Race X-lite and Race X-lite ACC (Aluminium core) and given bontragers website only has the ACC one (in both road and mountain bike sections, are they the same thing? (race X-lite and race X-lite ACC)
Bontragers website seems to show the ACC one being suitable for both road and MTB use

3 in a pack

When I came to use one a while back, (on a continental) it wouldn’t stick properly. At 20 psi there was a buldge in the tyre

I reckon you’d be better sticking it back together with a big (thick?) inner tube patch. If you can’t find a big enough bike one, you could use a car or motorbike tube patch (or tractor or lorry/bus one) instead?

Some deals here

Scroll down until you get to the first kona, ignore everything before it, and the mongoose otero, GT ruckus

I quite like the look of this for under £1k:

“the crown race is one of them non-split variety”
Your point being?
Vice, cloth/towel, screwdriver + hammer = job done

“wind the Revs out to 130 on the Handjob, wack the Ignitors on and go pedal up them climbs”
You could wind them down for the climbs surely? Its not exaclty a workshop job?

“and pray on the way back down”
Why exactly? You’ll be on a 130mm forked, 2.35″ tyred, very capable hardtail in the peak, not a DH race course

an ’06 Giant XTC SE

Just fancy the slacker head angle and thought I’d ask for some opinion on running a longer fork on a 26″ wheeled bike

So what is this much hyped geometry?

26in forks have 440mm axle-crown dimension, with 38mm rake.
29in forks have 470mm axle-crown dimension, with 47mm rake

I’d assumed they meant offset then

Sorry, I read that as 47 MILES not km

29 miles won’t be as bad if its the route I’m thinking of they published not so long ago and the pitch as it is will probably be fine and you’ll benefit from the extra beef in fun factor (not that you’d neccessily be ‘needing’ the extra travel/angles/tyres etc..) I’d still be tempted to swap the supertacky with something a bit more managable if it were me

“47km Cut Gate Killer from MBR.”

Does that take in cut gate AND jacobs ladder? (but misses out doctors gate)

A 160mm forked pitch with a maxxis supertacky for 47 miles sounds like a bit of a death wish to me on the roads and some of the climbs round there

2.1″ Advatages should be big enough. If its sloppy [cut gate was a couple of weeks ago (not bad, but deep(ish) tread tyres were useful in the odd bit] than ignitors may not quite cut it?

It may sound a bit daft, am I right in thinking a pitch with a pike fork is already pretty slack? So dropping 10mm off the front could still be more than capable of the peak?
Revs are tall(ish) for their travel anyway (higher than for eg fox 32 or magura menja) so you could stick the 130mm rev onto the pitch? It ought to effectively lengthen the top tube a bit and keep the front end down on climbs on the road whilst still being plenty high enough for descending?

“And rake angle is set by the frame – not fork”

I was going off on-one’s 26″ fork using 38mm of rake and the 29″ one using more. Somewhere on there they say other manufacturers compromise the 29″ bikes by using 26″ rake on the long fork intended for 29″ wheeled bike use

“why do you want to do it?”
The front end is low enough with a tall(sort of) 120mm fork on it and don’t really want to get it much lower
(It came with a tall (As high as the 120mm fork would be at 115mm) 100mm fork so not overly tall for it I’m thinking

I’d like to try a rigid fork on it as I like the steel one on my commuter when off-road. It doesn’t have any suspension correction or disc mounts so don’t really want to swap it across

“Yup two chains on teh bottom one, presumably just two sets of rings and a flip-flop hub”

Aren’t flip flop hubs fixed on one side though? Off-road fixed could be somewhat difficult
Also, if you put a driveside crank on the driveside, you’ll need a driveside pedal too (would need to rebuild a non-driveside pedal with a driveside axle for an SPD to work, or a forward weight bias type flat pedal (like a proper MTB one). Once you’d done that, the pedal would unscrew with pedalling anyway?
Unless its a crank arm intended for a tandem, with the pedal threads the correct way round to use on the non-driveside

“does the A bob like hell when pedalling? “
Should that be:
does the A bob like hell when pedalling singlespeed?

“the rev’s by my tape measure work out at 520+ “

Really?! They’re meant to be 508mm @ 130mm

Did you measure to the very bottom of the fork. The arch to crown measurement is supposed to be from the axle centre to the the bottom of where the crown race sits

trek fuel EX 2009 frameset

They only do a few as framesets, the fuel EX frameset being the carbon fibre one, not the full aluminium one. The 2008 one was £1700 RRP (2009 one being £2000), so there maybe some discounts kicking about.

Evans cycles have this one on their website

Read the BB cups, put them in the correct sides (they say on them which way they thread in). The frame threads will likely go before the BB ones will

68mm BB shell, frame mounted front mech, no chain device = 1 spacer on non-driveside, 2 on driveside
73mm BB shell, frame mounted fron mech, no chain device = 0 spacer on driveside, 1 on driveside
Add BB mounted front mech or chain device to in place of one BB spacer as required

Insert the BB cups BY HAND until against the frame. Use the tool to torque it then and only then

Cleaning the frame/BB threads and then adding copperslip helps put them in too

second the V graphics one

If you’re bothered about the weight, get the 2.35″ 60a folding high roller = 695g (according to maxxis), or 646g according to JustRidingAlong. I really like mine, seem to roll pretty fast on the road and more than grippy enough for everything I’ve ridden with them so far (skiddaw (not my idea), whinlatter, lots of snow, hamsterley, NYmoors, cut gate(peaks), amongst other (less demanding) stuff

Some 09 Dual-Air Revelation 20mm BT, but get the shop to add in the supplied spacer to put them down to 125mm. I think they’ll then be 503mm arch-crown at 125mm, which is still taller than a fox 32(501mm @ 130mm) or magura menja(500mm @ 130mm) (though thors are taller for the same travel)

“Think Cy sells them as a package for Souls, so should be Ok height-wise”
I don’t think he does for the soul/simple/soda
The thor is higher than a pike/revelation at the same travel anyway (menjas are lower)
I thought it was a extra leverage ripping the headtube off issue under heavy use with a longer travel/higher fork rather than whether it screws up the geometry?

Getting it insured?

I thought unless they knew when taking it out, they don’t want to know when you come to claim? I’m sure I’m mostly wrong

They’re alright in the wet. Just not perfect, but then what is? The compound is a tad hard for my liking. I used them from august to january without major problem. The lack of increased contact area at the edges was more of an issue for me I reckon. Though it was easy to tell and easy to control, they used to slide a bit when really pushing it on trail centre whoopy left-down-right-up type contouring trails

Still a good all round tyre though, for its decent 2.2″ size, in a folding sidewall nothing comes close in weight (unless you go to swalbe money (which I think ACXs may well be now .. , they were £18 ea. when I got them)

“Their X-Alp series sounds exactly like what you are looking for”

How does that differ to a ‘normal’ ‘XC-racer’ type shoe? The tread just looks a little less chunky and spread out

They’re not exactly going to pass as hiking shoes/boots or trainers in the pub either with the buckle, which going from friends experience with (specialized and shimano) buckles isn’t going to cope with mud/grit very well at all

My 08 426 Dual-Air ones are like that.
Engaging the lockout, and using the floodgate adjuster as if it were the compression adjuster works to dial in the compression, but only when locked out. You can then run two compression settings by flicking between ‘locked-out’ and unlocked.
Not exactly ideal though

ACX’s are quite a lot harder compound than mudX’s which is a shame. An ACX with the compound of the mudX would be ideal for me I reckon. They do roll quite well, but are wider so on the road that will offset it a bit. In the wet (rocks/concrete)they’re a bit skittish though

“As for the hassle of changing shoes before / after – you can’t be serious surely? “
It’d be easier if I didn’t have to bother

“[cough] Lidl [/cough]”
According to the page they only go upto size 11, which won’t fit

“661 filters”
They don’t look to have a lot of tread for hike-a-bike in wet mountainous terrain though
“Pimpy in white”
I suspect they would turn brown-ish pretty quickly

Thanks for all the input

“dont know if you class it as a tractor”
Its a self propelled (as opposed to a trailed one powered by the towing tractor) sugar beet harvester

Its not a particularly big one though. Most farmers pay a contractor to lift their quota (by the sugar plant) quicker with a machine more like this:

“Three bloody quid…!!!”
When thats added up over everyone else, just think how far that could go into trail maintenence and trail extension/additions?

“Chip piece of pad away putting front wheel in.
£20 for new pads”

Was the chip so bad that it reduced the size of the pad significantly? Could you have not used it anyway? even for one ride? For it to ‘chip off’ it probably wasn’t bedded in well enough to start with
£20 gets you 4 pairs from superstar

“keeps leaking out when unscrewing pump”
Usually its the air depressurising from the shock that makes the noise/pressure loss. When you connect the pump to the shock, the pressure in the shock/pump pipe has to equalise so shows a lower reading than the shock was when you pumped it last/before you connected the pump. Mine is about 15 psi difference
[It could be its leaking in use too]

“Gears all out of sync. Bent hanger”
You could try bend it back? The mech should give you some leverage?
Otherwise, you should have carried a spare hanger, like you bike manual might (the giant one did when I read it once) tell you to carry one
Or you could’ve tries to live with out of sync gears for the rest of the ride

“Should have stayed at home”
You said it

“County ???”
“international maybe? “

Nope, its a muir hill. One of these, but with an excuse for a cab

“no knowledge of how to drive it”

Can you drive a car?
Can you understand the concept of multiple gearboxes in series using one clutch pedal?

I’d say thats all you need to drive one. Just make sure the brake pedals are disconnected from one another

As above, 2.25″ advantage/ardent/crossmark(?) =~ 2.5″ high roller/minion
2.1″ advantage is about equal to a 2.25″ cinder, 2.3″ continental, 2.2″ bontrager ACX, 2.1″ Kenda Nevegal, a little smaller than a 2.35″ high roller

I saw a 2.4″ advantage once on a shop built nomad just outside of aviemore. It was really was huge! They’d specced a 2.25″ advantage on the back, presumably the 2.4″ wouldn’t fit in the back of even a nomad! The 2.6″ ardent must be insanely big

JRA reckon the advantage is better than the ardent:
http://www.justridingalong.com/news/product-reviews/maxxis-ardent-review/
the lack of tread between the centre rolling edge and cornering edges just doesn’t look right IMO

“ride flats. Moon on a stick otherwise”

I don’t like them since getting used to SPDs

My feet fall off on drops, I have to pedal slower, I have to ‘think’ about keeping my feet on the pedals when it gets rough. They hit the sides of ruts easier ..
Though they would suit every other off the bike need much better

Send an email to trek uk

860g! at £1100 for two rings
£150-209 for XT doesn’t seem so bad against that

“with 130 revs which were really nice but I needed to put them on something else so put a set of old 125mm TALAS on. I dont think it rides as well but cant really put my finger on it”

130mm Revs are 508mm arch-crown
125mm Fox are I think 496mm

So theres more hieght difference than you may have thought, altering all the angles/effective measurements of everything

I think the ‘lite’ one is only available in 1.95″ (which is still reasonable) and has slightly lower tread than the normal ones and are lighter.
‘Normal’ DTC (harder tread in the middle for rolling, softer tread on the edge for cornering) are only available in 2.1″ and bigger

Rode it on sunday

Not all dry (when is it?) but still very rideabe mostly. Theres a few bog bits in the parts where the path is a lot lower than the heather, but mostly rideable
I reckon (can’t remember too well though) its drier than it was in july ’07 2 weeks after the floods

somewhere near the middle:

near the top:

Yes its quite do-able

Now theres a mixed setup you don’t often see (on here at least)
185/185mm discs, (upto) 130mm fork and flat pedals
yet
part carbon XC(race?) frame, upside down stem, flat bars and bar ends?

Its 12kg additional on top of your standard 20kg
The bike box can be anything upto 32kg (and purchasing the bike allowance counts as a bag so doens’t require you to up your bag number (of 1)

I took a 29kg bike box and 9kg bag last june and the woman at the check in (east midlands) let me through on the quiet (Though I had zero hand baggage). Other mates with me got stung with the £6/kg.
On the way back I made sure my handbaggage had as much weight in as possible (though left out anything remotely considerable as dangerous (tools etc..) Bike box + bag combined were just under 32kg then

a 1 1/8″ (1.125″) steerer tube is 28.575mm

Unless its a 1″ or 1.5″ steerer tube

“mojo/fox do an ad campaign a while back with a guy selling dodgy luis vitton handbags and fox forks on the street?”

Are they suggesting somebody is making counterfeit fox forks?
If AM ones are the only ones to buy, what about the ones that come supplied on bikes?

“the shop who sells OEM to you will have to deal with any issues for you”
Doesn’t an AM fork go through the shop anyway?
Even if the manufacturer offers no independant warranty, you still have your retail warranty?

“Constantly in the bike mags, they are always banging on about shorter stems being so good”

Should that read:?
Constantly in mbr, they are always banging on about shorter stems being so good

“I’ve has a set of revelation 426’s with a steel steerer, for instance”

Really? How old are they? I thought (from reading rockshox’s website when choosing mine) both the 426 and 409 were aluminium steerer tubed
Are they from a complete bike?

“merlin mostly sell oem”
So? They buy stock in bulk that bike manufacturers buy to build up bikes?

“believe there’s a similar case with the Rev 426s on Merlin and CRC, are these OEM too”
No. 426 is standard spec. 409 is generally OEM (on-one, sometimes merlin, sometimes CRC have them in). The only difference is the floodgate adjust is via an allen key, not a dail, the lack of a shock pump and rockshox box

If you actually go onto rockshox’s website you will find that all differences are listed on all models. Eg Tora 289/302/318, Recon SL/XC/327/335/351 etc..

Warranty wise, surely it falls under the sales of goods act regardless?