Not sure. In the shed I have Racing Ralphs and Panaracer Neomotos in 650b, I might test those out before I buy anything.

Flowerman, as for sizing I am 6 foot and happy with the fit on a large. I don’t think I would want the reach any longer, but it could be extended by a slightly longer stem (the large has a 60mm) or bars with less sweep back.

I have had a few rides on mine now. Nothing too tough but have got to know it a bit better.

Rear shock seems good, I just set mine up to the pressures in the book and it works fine. For most riding I keep it in the 85mm setting, it is only when the trail heads steeply down that the 140mm is a benefit. In the 140mm mode it has taken everything in it’s stride so far. The bike goes great on steep descents. Switching into the 140 mode feels a bit like the seatpost has slipped slightly as the bike settles into it’s travel, it does bob a bit in this mode, so not as good for pedalling bits. I have moved the shock lever to the left side of the bars (I think someone suggested it on the thread). Looks neater and easier to use. I had to extend the cable loop under the bb as this was hitting the frame on full compression, despite this the cables are longer than I would prefer, but really can’t be bothered to trim them. Lots of helicopter tape needed around the fork to stop cable rub.

The Crossroc tyres aren’t great, I have noticed a lack of front end grip, which I put down to the tyres. I have to run them harder than I would like to stop them burping. Will probably change the wheels to something a bit better at some stage.

Currently planning to head to Afan next weekend, so be interesting to give it a decent test around there.

Yes large is a great fit.

Working from home today, so took the new bike out for a spin around the block at lunch time:

It seems great so far. First impressions are that it is definitely a bike with several personalities; works great as an xc bike (admittedly the HA is a bit slack for proper a proper xc bike). Then point it downhill and it seems to turn into a totally different machine. I had a few issues with the rear tyre burping air, not sure what caused it, but something isn’t quite right.

The carbon 2 in large is about 12kg. My digital scales are a bit rubbish, but each time I weighed it gave a weight just under 12kg. That is with spds fitted, a single direct mount ring on the front, no front mech or shifter, and tubeless at the back (I haven’t taken the inner tube out at the front yet).

I am not sure what model the cranks actually are. They weigh about the same as a set of carbon X0 cranks I was going to fit, but the S1400 description implys X7 cranks. I guess they are some sort of SRAM OEM made up model. Seem pretty good whatever they are. I ended up using the original cranks as my other BB30 cranks didn’t fit due to the axle being too short.

I ordered mine on Saturday. Despatched on Monday, delivered Tuesday. That was standard delivery.

Bike now partly taken apart. The chainset was really hard to remove, it took loads and loads of effort to get the 10mm bolt to budge, but it did in the end.

Spotted a missing cable tie, just below the dropper post entry point. Parkesie, worth checking yours as without it the dropper cable was rubbing on the swing arm.

The tyres go up easily without tubes, although they need sealant to fully seal. Currently allowed to work on it in the house as it is a new bike, but thought using sealant was pushing it!

core, you are the same size as me. I haven’t ridden the bike yet, but in the picture above the saddle rails are 72cm above the bb (same as my other bikes) and it seems about right for me. The dropper post could go up another 3cm in the frame, so I could fit on a medium frame, but prefer a slightly longer TT. I would have thought a large would be fine for you. Or wait a day or two and I will let you know once I have ridden it.

On the carbon frame the shock cable is run inside the down tube. Enters on the left side by the headtube and exits just below the shock. Is there a exit hole near the shock on yours?

Slimjim, I would say it is fairly long (which suits me) although I haven’t taken it for a spin yet.

Looks like mine 🙂

Mine is a large.

Only difference I can spot on yours is the front disc hose is routed the correct way. Mine goes straight up the leg, but seems to work fine. You also have a red cable, all mine are black.

I need to switch some bits over from another bike (cranks, chain, cassette), remove the front mech, and tidy up the cables before I take it out for a spin.

Mine has just arrived.

There are a couple of (un-used) cable guides down the back of the seat tube. These are there to run an external cable, so down the back of the seat tube under the BB and up the down tube. It is fitted with a stealth that looks neater.

The wheels are fitted with tubes, but tubeless rims strips are fitted and valves are in the box.

Supplied with carbon cranks (which I wasn’t expecting).

I will post some pictures up this evening.

I want to put my non-Stealth Reverb on it – the guy at Paul’s says there are no hose guys as the hose is ‘semi internal’ as it goes through the frame and pops out somewhere in the seat tube….will a ‘normal’* length Reverb be ok? Obviously it’ll need an unavoidable certain amount of hose/lever dismantling to feed it through – anyone done this?

If I get mine today I will confirm, but from what I have seen the dropper cable runs externally underneath the down tube, and then enters a hole at the base of the seat tube. From there it runs internally to the base of the seatpost. So I am not sure how you would make a non-stealth reverb fit any of the internal routing?

It is shown here:
http://media.cannondale.com/media/uploads/manuals/014_Can_OMS_130728_Trigger_en.pdf

I have been through a few PCP schemes.

To confirm the comment above; the GFV makes a large difference in the monthly costs. I bought my current car from Audi, at the time it was 6 months old with low mileage. I used a separate finance company who offered a much higher GFV than Audi did, from memory it was about a £2k higher after 4 years. Interest rates were comparable, and it means my monthly payments are about £40 a month less. Audi did put the spin on it that the lower final value would mean I would have some equity in the car at the end. The way I see it is the finance company is taking the risk on the final value of the car not me. For example who knows how the current emission scandal is going to affect the used value of VAG cars (maybe not at all, but it could do…)

I keep meaning to change my wife’s car (currently owned) to a lease or PCP car. Most likely we will get something from one of the cheap deals that appear from time to time, rather than being too fussy about the actual car. That seems to be the best way to make leasing financially work.

scotjohn, that was part of the reason I bought mine, as my wife had just got herself a new bike. So it was only fair I has a bit of an upgrade too.

I also bought a Trigger from Paul’s over the weekend. I had been tempted by a Trigger and a Lefty for some time, and the price seems great for the spec. I am 6 foot and went for a large carbon 2. Now just waiting for TNT to deliver it – And then I need to sell some bikes to justify buying it….

I will change it to 1×10 straight away, but other than that it will stay as it is for a while. Although already thinking about wheel upgrades as I have a spare set of 650b rims in the loft, and I am not sure on the weight/quality of the Crossrocs?

I have a Strada Evo 3. No problem with fitting three bikes on, but it does sometimes needs a little bit of playing with to make sure nothing is touching. I often have two 29ers and a small 26er on there. If I am only carrying two bikes, then I use positions 1 & 3 which gives loads of room between bikes.

The 4th bike fitting on these is a add on bracket and that bike is fixed to bike number 3. You might want to check the weight limit of the rack for 4 big bikes.

By 2 bolts do you mean the standard 2 bolts that hold any calliper on (i.e. you would have to centre it every time) or some lefty specific bolt that you just nip up?

It is two Lefty specific bolts. You loosen them a few turns and then the caliper and mount slides off. When you refit it goes back in exactly the same place as it was before. They use a 5mm allen key like the Lefty hub bolt. So not too difficult, but maybe a consideration if you are taking your front wheel off all the time.

A few years ago I bought some Kenda ones, sorry I can’t remember the name. My LBS went through a few suppliers and Kenda had some in their BMX range which they ordered in for me. They were fine off road, you just need to make sure the frame clearance is okay, they worked fine on a Cnoc 14.

I am on my third lease contract. In my experience they allow for fair wear and tear, but check the scheme follows the bvrla guidelines. I haven’t had any issues at the end of contract, but my first car was stolen before the contract ended (a few hassles in that, but no more than a private car), and the second I part exchanged for my current car, with the garage settling the outstanding finance, and they didn’t even look at the car.

I normally just chuck a large groundsheet in the boot before putting a bike in, and haven’t managed to damage a car yet.

I am very careful of my cars anyway, so don’t really have an issue with their lease t&cs for damage. My pay scheme for work sort of forces my to privatley lease a car for work use. We also own outright my wife’s car, but thinking of switching that to a leased car in the future.

My wife rides a Small Scott Spark 29er and gets on really well with it, she is 5’4″ish. Happy riding it for XC or on technical stuff.
To give you an idea of size here is link to a picture of her on the bike :
http://www.xcracer.com/torq-in-your-sleep-2015.html (4th picture down in the blue kit) I think Emily in the picture below is on a small Whyte 29er – and she is pretty quick too.

For 2016 I have noticed a lot of the small frames are switching to 650B, so there aren’t loads of small 29er frame available.

It depends how quick you are really. I went earlier this year with my family and we did 3 days riding, although my son was only 9 so a lot of the trails are an all day ride. In comparison I have been by myself and ridden everything (apart from Skyline) in 6ish hours.

Personally I would do Cwmcarn on the way (obviously depends where you are driving from). Then drive to Afan and do one or two of the trails. 2nd day head to Brechfa. 3rd day ride the bits of Afan you didn’t do on day 1.

From his quoted comment above he was leaving and joining the course in different places. So maybe leaving the course at the team transition area after the finish line, and then rejoining 40mins later at his pit area before the finish line?

Sounds fair enough to me. Having personally put in hundreds of hours of training for 12 hour races I think it is disgraceful that anyone would even consider cheating. Well done to Gorrick for taking it seriously. I hope the Army Cycling Union have a similar response.

In my case insurance paid out two weeks after the car was stolen, at that stage it hadn’t been found. The police were pretty on the ball too, although I think that was to do with a spate of vehicle thefts in the local area at the time so there was a bit of pressure on them to catch someone.

Normally my wife and me do quite a few of the rounds, but the change of times this year for the lady’s races meant that we couldn’t both race if we had our kids with us. My wife did two rounds, I did one. I think in previous years we have done 3 or 4 each. It isn’t really worth us both spending the day going to the race for only one of us to take part. I think we are the exception where we both race, so don’t worry about changing the times just for us!

Personally I think the extra technical features are appropriate in a regional XC race.

Given the choice it would be great to have a series where each event is slightly different. So maybe one a normal xc race, the next event 3-4 hours, then a xc eliminator event, maybe a night race? but I guess that would be tough to arrange and doesn’t fit in with BC guide lines for a regional xc series.

I feel your pain. I had my Impreza stolen in similar circumstances. I almost caught the guy stealing it, but luckily he was driving off before I got to the him. In my case it took a few weeks before it was used in a robbery, chased by the police, and was then found dumped a few days later. I didn’t want the car back after that.

Hope insurance is playing ball and paying out without any fuss.

A length of duct tape rolled into a golf ball sized ball, with sticky side on the outside, should do the job. Worked for me in the past.

I really enjoyed it. I hadn’t ridden my bike much in the 3-4 weeks leading up to the race, so was just doing it for a bit of fun. After a pre-ride on Tuesday I was slightly concerned it could be a repeat of the BM race earlier in the year which was pretty tough. In the end the dry course was great fun to ride, and nice to ride sections in a different order. I finished 8th in the Vets 6hr, which I was pleased with given how unseriously I took the whole thing. With hindsight I went out a bit too easy, but wasn’t sure how my legs would cope later in the race.

Packing up the tent on Monday morning was a bit of experience!

Peculiar lap times for the solo winner, anyone know him?

He rides for the Army Cycling Union so is known by them, and probably by the organisers. Does Strava have the answers? Maybe long pitstops followed by smashing out super super quick laps.

Area Manager for a UK brick manufacturer. A fairly varied job, with my time divided between meetings with architects, contractors, developers and resellers. I also spend a bit if time on site looking at brickwork. I have been lucky to be involved in the design of some great brick buildings over the years. It has it stressful moments at times (last year was one of them!) but on the whole a very enjoyable job.

My background is in civil engineering so a slight change from that.

Catering is normally by Quavers. They will do food at night and breakfast in the morning.

Don’t worry there is the normal amount of climbing. From last nights lap I made it 152m per lap, last year was 174m.

For anyone who has ridden previous races at Minley you recognise lots of sections, although some of it is back to front. The new bits seems okay, maybe a bit spongey in places. Like any course if it is wet on the day it will cut up a bit, but I doubt it will be anywhere near how bad it was at last winter’s Brass Monkey round, and that wasn’t too bad considering the weather.

If anyone is looking to buy some shorts cranks I have a spare set of Sinz ISIS cranks I have just taken off my son’s bike. I bought them from the US as I was struggling to find short cranks here. From memory they are 140mm long and fitted with a 34t Middleburn ring.

At 5 years old I would say just the Blue would be fine, plenty of fun stuff on there. Just watch their speed on the first descent as I have seen a few novices go straight over the berm! My daughter is 6 and she hasn’t ridden much of the Blue I tend to cherry pick bits for her to ride – although she is soon to go onto a 24″ bike so I guess distance will increase. The Blue loop is pretty easy to follow, it is just the Red that is currently tricky due to the diversions.

The surface was getting broken up in places, but the trail pixies appear to have been hard at work over the past few weeks as lots of holes have been filled in.

I have been using hydraulic Di2 on one of my bikes since the start of the year. I haven’t ridden it loads, a check on Strava shows about 1,500 miles so far. It was worked perfectly since fitting, that includes a few muddy rides. It hasn’t needed any adjustment since it was first built. Inital Di2 set up is pretty easy, there are a few online guides that help. I have charged it once in that time (the battery was reading 50% when I charged it). The biggest difference in performance is the front mech, it only takes a light touch to shift, and the mech auto trims as you change at the rear. The rear isn’t so different from mechanical.

If you use a Garmin, then a Tatelabs Bar Fly mount provides a very neat mounting position for the front junction box – much better than the stem mounting that Shimano suggest.

The hydro disc have been perfect since fitting. They were pretty easy to bleed (if you are used to Shimano brakes) and have worked consistently since.

Here is mine. A slightly strange mix of a Chinese carbon frame and wheels with Shimano Di2

I used Altera ones on my Mk1 Octavia hatchback, seemed pretty good. Sold them years ago, I am sure they must pop up on ebay from time to time.

12hr solo for me. I did 15 laps last year, I had time for a 16th but wanted a beer! I pretty much blew up after a few hours due to the heat and not drinking enough, so just hung in there for most of the race. Must remember to stay hydrated if it is as hot this year.

For this year too much other stuff got in the way of riding at the start of the year. So I was half thinking of selling my place in April, but have got some miles into my legs in the past couple of months. Really not sure how I will do this time, I will just keep pedalling and see how it goes.

I will be riding on a Rocky Mountain Vertex hardtail.

I have used them both in a 29er flavour. The SB8 are faster rolling off road, not sure about on road as they seem very noisy. In the dry the SB8 are more grippy, with a bit of moisture on the ground they aren’t grippy. Ikons can cope better with a damp surface. So I would say the Ikon is slightly slower, but more versatile. Braking with an Ikon on the rear seems better too.

On my bike I ride mainly in the summer I have SB8, my all year bike normally has Ikons on (currently Ikon on the front, Burt on the back).

The Airshot hose will screw straight onto a presta valve, you don’t have to remove the core. However it is supplied with an adapter which lets it attach to the valve once the core is removed,it is easier to remove the adapator from the hose than remove and refit the core. The only reason to remove the core is to allow better airflow as the cores can bung up with latex after a while.

I haven’t tried their wheels, but I have been very happy with the Ican CX frame and forks I bought 6 months ago.