I’ve got an SAR coil on my bike. Supplied by Stendec via Bad Ass Bikes in Bristol. I’d recommend them very much. Noticably lighter than steel, look really good, but most importantly, the feel is very different. Much smoother through the travel range than steel. I never noticed that the standard steel wasn’t smooth until I tried the SAR. Worth the upgrade I reckon, about a hundred quid from memory. Fitted to a CCDB on a mid-travel VPP bike for reference.

This has showed up on the Orange Instagram page:

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We had a great evening last night @flyupdownhill 417 Project and @leisurelakesbikes launch party for their new store opening at the bike park. #417project #leisurelakesbikes #orangebikes #mtb #bikepark

A post shared by Orange Bikes (@orangebikes) on Jun 23, 2016 at 9:24am PDT

29er Alpine 160?

Foes bikes have always been big believers in using long shocks relative to the travel.

1. Pontypool – Main line
2. Machen – Left
3. Machen – Right / Left
4. Llantrisant – Smilog 1
5. BPW – Dai Hard into Coal Not Dole into Deep Navigation

Just wanted to update this to cheer up all the pessimism regarding the Twrch’s partial closure / diversion.

I have it on very good authority that the Twrch will almost certainly re-open pretty much completely before Christmas (this year!). If not then, early in the new year.

If you want to experience the very best that South Wales has to offer, and you like a bit of winch and plummet, get a local to show you around Machen or Pontypool. I’d offer, but I’m not around next week.

Machen is quite well known now, Pontypool less so. Both incredible imo.

It’ll also stop you from getting all trail-centred out.

I’m sure it’s not trolling, a similar thing happened to me, again in Glyncorrwg. For a reason I won’t go into, I was walking down the White’s level climb when I cam across 2 guys riding up, one of whom was clearly looking for an argument. Started shouting at me, telling me I shouldn’t be walking here, before threatening me with physical violence.

Of course, I had every right to walk there. The land is managed by Natural Resources Wales, and owned by the Welsh Government, meaning that there is an open access policy in place, so anyone can walk or ride anywhere.

In one of Chris’s many interviews about the prototypes, he said the seat angle was as steep as was possible with the given suspension design. I guess the position of the saddle on this bikes means they’d like it even steeper, it’s just not possible given all the restrictions.

Only lasted 1 ride for me. This was down to it being on a FS single pivot 29er, with a long chainstay. As such, chain-growth is significant. My medium cage XT lasted 3 months before being pulled inside-out, so I’ve decided that the 40t ring is too much of a bodge for this particular frame.

Forgot to say in my earlier post; mine is a Large. I’m just over 6ft, and the sizing seems spot on.

The main thing you’ll notice about the bike is; on rough descents, it is seriously fast. There’s a downhill track near me in Llantrisant (Smilog 1 on Strava), and the middle section is a long root-fest. It just smashes through it as if it’s not there.

New 36’s up front, Float X on the back. Both work really well with the bike.

Love mine. More manoeuvrable than the Tracer 29 I had before, I think due to the low bottom bracket more than anything. It’s definitely slack and long, but I still don’t have a problem with it on tight switchbacks. Jumps well too.

A 50mm stem works better than anything shorter, as it allows more weight on the front wheel for grip.

The one thing I would change is the length of the headtube; it’s very long, so flat bars are essential to keep your hands in a normal-ish position.

Spend money on wheels to get something strong and light, to allow you to get the most out of the bike.

For me, it’s an ideal all round bike for south Wales.

Rumour has it that there’s an updated five on the way very soon, with longer wheelbase / top tube, so should be faster descender than the current bike if fashion is to be believed.

No need to buy a new swingarm. The guys at Mojo were mucking about with 650b wheels in a 26 Alpine before the 650 alpine was released. I think they just changed the part of the shock to reduce it’s i2i. The bigger wheels fitted and the bb / headangle stayed the same. Travel was down to about 150 though I seem to remember from talking to one of them. Give them a shout, they’ll talk you through it far better than I can.

Energy, Goodwood and Black Run on Whites are closed this week for maintenance. Not sure if they’ll be open for the weekend.

Trouble with this, is that smooth jumps-n-berms stuff is one of the cheapest and fastest ways to build trails

The opposite is too true in my experience. The price per meter of a surfaced bike park style trail, with imported stone, large berms and and other features would be in the region of 3 times the price of a hand built, unsurfaced section of trail. With all other things being equal of course.

I can heartily recommend the new Fox 36 and Float X shock combo on mine, feels supportive and bottomless at the same time. The Climb mode on the shock is basically a lockout, so it climbs well too with that engaged.

Wheels are the issue as with all long travel 29er. I think the new Crossmax XL’s from Mavic might be the way to go as long as you get the MP3 cover to go with them.

Less of Brant in the next one please.

How do you find those wheels Cy?
Stiff enough for the job?

It all comes down to the type of riding you’ll be doing on them.

In my experience, they weren’t up to the abuse I wanted to subject them to. I dinged the rear and put it right out alignment. Took it to the old LBS, they spoke to Mavic, and to fix would require sending it back to Mavic, where they would rebuild the wheel with a new rim and new spokes. Cost? £220. I bought a Hope/FlowEX instead.

In fairness, I was probably asking a lot of them.

I only found out about their MP3 cover afterwards. If you get them, get this, as the rebuild I required would have been covered.

As has been mentioned, the rim is very narrow, but that might be fine for you. For me, the tyre profile you get from a FlowEX is much nicer, even on narrow mud tyres.

Love mine, does everything I want to do really well.
Bearing life very good so far.
CCDB brings the most out of it. Talk to Box at Bad Ass Bikes about his secret upper link modification. Together with the CCDB, it really makes an animal out of it.
Try and get some burly carbon rims if you can, the one thing I wish I had.

I love my Tracer 29, and despite the fact they stopped making it, there’s hardly anything out there I’d swap it for, Carbine 29 included. It’s a large, and it’s very long (47.5″ WB) but it’s very fast. With an angleset, I measured the headangle as 67, and the CCDB took it to another level, especially the Rob Cooksley’s secret linkage mod. Second hand ones don’t go for a lot when they come up, if you can find one. As has been mentioned, strong wheels are the issue with all these 29ers, I’ve broken a few…

Thanks for the suggestions, the Kenesis bars are very close to fitting the bill.

Currently have 750’s with a 20mm rise, and am curious to try something wider, whilst also getting my hands in the same position as they were on my old bike, which means going to a flat bar.

It was lost a few weeks ago, judging by the last track recorded on it. I found it this morning.

I had to look “ASL” up on urban dictionary…..
I have no such intentions, just someone else’s GPS.

The Rookie trail in Afan isn’t blue, it’s green, which is one level below blue.

The new Penhydd will be blue, in the same way as blue trails in Brechfa, FoD and the Garw.

It’ll also have an optional red loop that will start half way around the blue.

My Intense Tracer 29 is immense. It’s a large with an angleset at -1.5, so the wheelbase is a whopping 47.5 inches. Incredible stability, and grip is off the scale. Not found any really downsides to the length of it either, the main thing you notice is speed (and grip). Its abilities in rough terrain are mind blowing considering its a 140mm bike.

I’m pretty sure it was Jeff Steber of Intense, when he brought out the “Tracer 27.5”

We’ve got one. It was the one used at the London Bike Show the other week:

We’re the UK distributor, so they’re available to hire or buy.

http://www.pumptracks.co.uk

Cheers FieldMarshall, I’ll give them a ring.

I’ll be there on Wednesday, anyone know if they have a phone number, or if they are likely to be open?

Not sure I have enough room in my Camelbak to carry all the food I’d need to do the beast!

Thank you very much, legend.

Off to amazon I go!

MDE?

New Home

Have a look at the first half of this vid:

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/team-mtbcut-webisode-ben-lomond-south-africa.html

Looks fantastic!

Luffy and the Drop Off Girls, you are very much missed, what a ridiculous state of affairs….

Doh! That’s why you need a website not a human, takes human error out of it! Good point andyl, that nukeproof one is 44mm top and bottom, mis-read my own info!

As I originally said ZS4428.6 | EC4940

There are loads of them out there but if it was me, I’d stick to the On-One and keep it all in house:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/HSOOSMTAPER/on-one-smoothie-mixer-tapered-headset

but you’ll also need this:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/HSOOSMCROWAL/on-one-smoothie-mixer-alu-crown-race-for-15-steerer

or this:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/HSOOSMCROW/on-one-smoothie-mixer-stainless-steel-crown-for-15-steerer

to go with it. Hope that helps!
James

Yes, that Nuke proof one from CRC will fit!

James
Willitfitmybike.com

The SHIS code you need is:

Top cup: ZS 44 28.6
With a tapered fork, your bottom cup will need to be: EC 49 40

Sorry to be all tecky about it! Once the website is up and running, you’ll be able to tell it what bike you’ve got and it’ll tell you all the headsets that will fit your bike, and where you can buy them.

Best of luck finding one in the mean time,
James
willitfitmybike.com

Very soon a new website will be launching to help with just this kind of issue:

http://www.willitfitmybike.com

Launch date will be May 18th (with a good tail wind!), and it’ll be a compatibility database for headset, bb’s seatposts and rear hubs – the stuff that directly connects to the frame. More components will follow soon after.

Cheers,
James

Penhydd isn’t ever going to re-open as it was as I understand it – closed for good. A completely new trail is going to be built in that area, but work won’t start until that side of that valley has been clear-felled, following the fungal infection in the trees. I think we’re talking a few years…..

I think what he’s done is bolt a Zesty front triangle to a Spicy back end, giving you 160mm travel, but a 250gram weight saving over a stock Spicy. Worked for him anyway, he won the Urge race with that set up.