I’ve been using a set of Flows for about 2 years now. I’m not a smooth rider by any means. They’ve held up to some serious abuse. Two or three times a week on trails where most people ride DH bikes. Obviously my 26″ rim is inherently stronger than the 29er but I’m sure you’ll be fine with it. Crests would probably be perfect for you.

To me the Flow EX is a full on DH rim, considering how strong the Flow is. In fact I’d happily put Flows on a DH bike.

I’ve used it all (pats self on back) pretty much. So I’ll relay my experiences. First off, between each groupset, the differences are quite subtle. But the difference between say Deore, and XTR is quite a bit.

My opinion……if you’re going 1×10 then the saint shifter is a wonderful thing. Best you can get. If you’re going 2×10 then I’d go for XT shifters (more feel than XTR which is a bit light on the push imo). It shifts nicer than SLX too.

Braking wise I’d go for XT since mine have been bullet proof for many years while I’ve watched my mates faff about bleeding their XTR’s ad nauseum. In terms of cranks, I’ve only ever run 1×10 (and 1×9 before it) so for me it purely comes down to looks and weight. I’m currently running XTR cranks but would happily run any other shimano crank arm. Rear mech – I run a Zee. Since I’m on a 1×10 I like the fact it’s got a super short cage, but can still stretch to a 36 tooth cassette. It’s also cheap and since I get through about 3 or 4 rear mechs a year anything else would be stupidly expenseive. For Cassettes, nothing less than XT. If you’ve got an alloy freehub a steel spider will chew it up, so alloy it is.

I’m currently running an XTR cassette and I’ve been impressed with it’s longevity. I don’t clean it fastidiously, but I do change my chain fairly often. I’ve gotten about a year out of this one. One more winter and that’ll do it though. I run Sram chains as they are cheaper and come with a power link, usually I run a PG1070.

I’ve made similar sauces, but stored them in standard plastic sauce bottles. No such issues.

drovercycles – Member

Does it have to be a 29er?

Saracen are doing a carbon version of their Mantra (27.5″) which is more of a “fun” bike

I just checked that out. I haven’t looked at the Mantra since I used to sell them 4 years ago or so. The geometry on the new one looks fantastic.

Check how easy it is to get spokes, bearings, freehub, replacement rim etc for the factory wheels of your choice.

Only slightly relevant, but here’s a video of Martin Maes in Valloire, really shows the speed these guys are racing at and just how long some of the stages are.

And another one from whistler, which probably gives no idea of just how rough it is. Both stages look fantastic. I know I’d want 160mm if possible for that kind of craic.

Superficial

. From what I’ve seen a lot of the EWS is pretty open – a few tight sections on some stages but nothing crazy. Most people seem to opt for long/low/slack.

It’s regularly described as World Cup DH on trail bikes. Take a look at this.

Dirt TV 2014 Enduro World Series Round 6 Whistler | Full Highlights

glasgowdan – Member

Hes racing fast. Shorter stiffer bikes are faster.

Maybe try asking him via Facebook or twitter?

At a guess, maybe racing at that level he might see additional moving parts as potential failure points. Or maybe the shorter travel bike pedals better. Or maybe it just fits him better.

njee20

Are they? For straight line speed and absolute power we peaked in Group B in 85/86, undoubtedly technology has vastly improved, but the cars are slower now.

No debate as to whether todays cars are quicker than the mid 90s. Which is what I stated. Are today’s cars quicker than Group B? Debatable. In a straight line, a Group B car would be quicker yes. But that’s not rallying. Modern Rally stages are structured to have a lower average speed so generally have less flat out high speed sections,more corners. And on those stages today’s cars would be quicker.

(sorry for going ot)

richmtb – Member

The motorsport analogy doesn’t work though because the governing body is constantly finding ways to make the cars slower safer. So a 2015 WRC car could be much faster than it is they just don’t let it. Also people have been razzing round forests in cars for an awful long time so a 1995 Impreza is all ready pretty far along the evolution of a rally car.

Downhill on the other hand was still in its infancy.

Yes and no. People have been razing around on bikes for over what, 150 years? So in evolutionary terms a 1995 bike has come an awful long way from yer dandy horse or velocipede. With regards to FIA rules, they are really there to keep a lid on development. Motorsport budgets are vast compared to dh racing, so the regulations stop the cars from being totally deadly, rather than stopping them from being fast.

Todays WRC cars are much faster than rally cars of the mid 90s. Lighter, torque vectoring diffs, carbon breaks, composite construction, to say nothing of the engines and their power delivery. So, not a bad analogy imo :D

Stevet1
I’m genuinely not sure. I acknowledge top pro riders are leagues ahead of normal riders, but 8″+ sorted travel either end, disc brakes, slack angles, short stems, grippy tyres etc versus effectively an xc hardtail with a 3″ elastomer sprung Rock Shox Judy on the front, skinny tyres, canti brakes etc.
Would make an interesting magazine article.

It’s a good question. But first you have to remember how relatively non technical tracks were back then. The perceived advantage of the V10 may be negated by a race down a massive fire road for example.

Even if we imagine you’re racing a very technical track, just imagine you’d be going up against a young Palmer or Peat. I think even today, if you challenged these guys to a dh race on those old bikes they’d post some good times. Better than most people.

I think your question isn’t far off saying, if I had a 2015 WRC Rally car could I go back in time 20 years, and beat Colin McCrae win the WRC ? And the answer would be a flat no because it’s the driver not the car.

Leon – Member

20g = 20% ish of the total weight though.

To put some background on this, I’m not being a weight weenie! Over the years, I’ve tried a few attempts at helmet lights, and I always wned up with a wobbly helmet which I don’t like.

I suspect a lot of this is to do with the helmet mount, and I understand exposure have got it right. Keeping the weight closer to the helmet should stop it pulling on the helmet so much.

Everyone’s different of course, and what might irritate me, you may not notice and vice versa, but reading that would make me wonder if your helmet fits well, and where about on the helmet are you mounting the light. When I was playing about with an equinox I tried mounting it in a side vent, and a front vent just out of curiosity. Both caused the light to pull on the helmet noticeably more. Granted, it’s a heavier light but I found mounting it in my most rearward vent, practically on the back of the helmet worked best as it does with my diablo. That way it’s not pulling the helmet down or side ways since I ride with my head down/forward.

18 grams?

Ok to disagree?

I run a Joystick with a single extra battery, which on full power equates to +4 hours use. This means I just turn it onto full power and leave it there all ride. Very handy plus aren’t ever worried about turning down/off etc if we have a stop/problem etc.

Hey, it’s the internet. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t. Just bear in mind you could set up the diablo to run mid power and get roughly the same burn time as the joystick on full, and probably more light. And still have that 1300 lumen option if you needed it.

mocha

I’d discount the Diablo – too heavy on my helmet anyway.

I wouldn’t. I’ve happily used one almost exclusively as a helmet mounted light for five or so years. The difference between it and a joystick is barely noticeable. My friends axis is a great light and gets very close to my diablo in terms of beam (bearing in mind the mk 2 diablo is a mere 900 lumens).

frood – Member

Diablo is bright but not great battery usage wise – you’ll not want to use it in max power very often – better off with the Joystick or Axis…

I’d have to disagree with that too. For the last three weeks I’ve been doing a 34ish mile ride that’s roughly 3 hours moving (half an hour stopped), and about a 50/50 split between on off road riding and road/tow path. The diablo has been fine and hasn’t come close to running flat. I use it on full beam on every trail. Mid for fast fire roads, low for tow path and flashing for the road. As long as you remember to turn it down when not on steeper trails it’s fine.

I can’t imagine their are too many places in the uk or Ireland where you’d get an hour’s worth of descending on technical trails….at night necessitating full power . Since you’re getting 600 lmns for 3+ hours, I think battery life is a moot point for most people.

If I was regularly doing more than that, then I might consider something else, but tbh I’d probably just get an axis or another diablo to supplement/ back up.

re charging in a biscuit tin – I checked with my weapons expert next-door neighbour and he confirmed that it would make the explosion worse as you’ve confined it and then fed it material for shrapnel. Best thing is lots of space to allow the energy of the explosion to dissipate.

So an empty garage or similar, should anyone happen to have one without it being full of crap…

I’m pretty sure it would have to be under pressure to have the frag grenade type effect you’re describing. The biscuit tin wouldn’t be well enough sealed and the explosion wouldn’t be big enough. I’d say the biscuit tin would at least slow the spread of any possible fire.

A similar thing to the op happened to a friend of mine, her chinese lights nearly burned down her workplace.

I wonder if/when someone is killed as a result of these chinese lights will people maybe start to see them as less of a bargain :roll:

Meta Hip-Hop.

Leku – Member

Superstar Ultra Mag Pedals are £40 & 330g. Any good?

I’m guessing they are magnesium. If so I’d avoid them. I don’t think magnesium is up to the task for mtb pedals. Too brittle.

Okay, here’s what to do. Tell them you are sorry but you can’t do it. Admit that you’re just not confident enough, you don’t have spare batteries, memory cards, bodies, lenses…..thousands of pounds worth of equipment necessary to do the job but you will bring your camera and you’ll give them all your shots, along with whatever the pro they hire gives them. So they’ll get loads of extra pics for free, and they can hire someone cheaper as they’ll have the safety net of your shots.

I shot some pics at my sisters wedding (rudely stepping on a pro’s toes). Glad I did though as mine were much, much better. I was quickly asked to do a couple of weddings after that for friends of friends. Money was offered, I was tempted. When the possibility of losing the shots and maybe getting sued dawned on me I wasn’t so tempted.

ezB

It’s about as uuseful as 5th Gear doing a road test comparing an Aston Martin with a Skoda Superb. You get what you pay for in quality, but it doesn’t mean the Skoda isn’t useful. And the Aston Martin is out of most people’s budget.

Disagree. Your analogy is flawed. If Skoda/Kia/Whoever advertised their product as being twice as powerful as the Aston then you might have a point but they don’t. Or if the engines just seized after 30,000 miles and you just scrapped the car. Or if they randomly burst into flames while you were re-fueling.

The Aston costs 5 or 10 times what someone in a decent job can make in year, drinks fuel and is incredibly expensive to maintain, so it is out of most peoples reach. £150 – £200 on a bike light isn’t beyond most peoples means.

A better analogy would be to say a Chinese light is like a Chinese chainsaw. Cheap to buy, may or may not work well. If it breaks you might as well bin it, oh and it might just fail catastrophically resulting in a very serious injury.

Why not 1×10 with an 11-36 on the rear. That way you won’t have to dispose of a perfectly good wheel/hub.

Would the Devil enjoy that though?

Is this some sort of road affliction?

If I could afford it, I go online and order 1k’s worth of gear for mtb’ing right now.

mattsccm – Member

A 10 quid job from Trespass or Mountain warehouse will do the same job as something 5 times as expensive if the cut, thickness etc feel right to you.

But that’s the thing. They probably won’t have the cut and the thickness. I’ve got a drawer full of cheap tech tees. I rarely ever wear them on the bike as I prefer to wear my good ones. I’ve got a nice Altura one with a massive drop tail and just the right weight. Either that or my ice breaker merino, or my mountain equipment polygiene mid layer if it’s really cold.

The other thing is that the more expensive ones, ime last quite a bit longer too. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

nickewen

Second hand Nukeproof Mega, the old shape one (but with the updated chainstays) circa 2012?

A brand new 2014 mega tr comp is about £1600, not far off his budget. There’s plenty of sale stuff about atm.

Those aren’t street dogs. Thems country dugs.

Anyway, don’t run. Face the dog. Stay calm. If you’re in a stand off, make plenty of noise. If you have something to hand get ready to give that to the dog if it does attack. The dog will probably bite onto anything you offer it so grab anything you can.

If it does bite, then keep pulling whatever you have away, and it’ll keep biting that item.

I’d recommend buying a new bike. You’ll not spend much more, and you’ll have warranty and hopefully support should anything go wrong with it. There are good bargains to be had this time of year, and even base spec full suss are now pretty good.

Buying a second hand full suss, unless you are very mechanically astute can be a mine field. Typically, you are just buying someone elses problems. I’ve seen £1200 repair bills to get second hand bikes back to good order. Extreme example, but they are out there.

Buying a used frame and building it up will almost certainly work out more expensive than you think unless you are very disciplined.

That O’range does look very expensive. What about this?

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXXLSFB/planet-x-xls-shimano-tiagra-flat-bar-road-bike

Fox tech-tee looks like a casual enough t-shirt. I don’t think anyone would really notice. Some of the designs are a bit garish. Man made too so they’ll pong a bit.

Merino, bamboo and polygiene fabrics will smell a bit less terrible after a ride. You might even get a couple of uses out of them.

jambalaya

I pay £480 a year and hardly use my car so I think the daily trip on a bike is well funded.

+1 on that. Until recently I was taxing two cars. Still paying tax on one I barely use.

jambalaya
It should be compulsory to carry ID if you are using the roads, “number plates” aren’t workable on bikes

Can’t really agree with that. I could just as easily commit a crime walking down the street. As yet I don’t need to be carrying ze papers.

frankconway – Member
lapierre xr 729 29er in medium with electronic rear shock, weight 11kg; this is 2014 model having covered 330 miles at £2400 negotiable with full warranty – rrp is £4249, fantastic reviews; if i could justify another bike, i would buy this and wouldn’t be telling you about it.
if you can’t find it on that well known online auction site, ask me and i’ll tell you where to find it.
PS – i have no connection with the dealer; i’m just telling you that there are great deals out there and this one – to me – is the best deal i’ve ever seen.

First off, it’s a carbon Lapierre. So it’ll snap. Or the bushings/bearing will wear out and wear into the frame, before it snaps. Then it’s E:i so it’ll shear gear teeth off the servo, or the battery will pack up. And at that point you’ll find that Fishers don’t warranty oem EI parts on bikes, only after market parts. And then you’ll find out that Hotlines don’t stock any either so they’ll have to send a letter via carrier sloth to France to beg Lapierre to send them one.

Then it’s most likely got Easton wheels, so after about 300 miles of use the freehub will pack in and you’ll not be able to find one, anywhere, except mail order from the states and it’ll £100. And that’ll be unwarrantable too since easton don’t “do” warranty. And are pretty much in distributor limbo hell.

Still looking like the best deal you’ve ever seen?

Check the tune on the current shock. If it’s and older fox it’ll be written near the bottom of the can. Three coloured strips for redbound, compression and boost valve if it has one. Newer fox just have a bar code.

I think rockshox do something similar but I can’t remember. You’ll want your new shock to have a similar, or better tune for your bike so if buying off the shelf look for the same tune, or you can get any shock and send it to someone like loco tuning. They can put an appropriate tune on it to either match or surpass the factory one depending on your needs. They may be able to get a better tune for your current can meaning you don’t need to buy a new one.

loddrik
Anyone got one? How are they compared to a Joystick?

Cheap and nasty compared to a Joystick. Riddled with problems. Issues with batteries and buttons.

Another Ardent fan. I’m currently using a WTB Wolverine I had lying about since I ripped the sidewall on another Aredent, it’s a tiny bit faster rolling and a bit more fun in the corners (less traction, more action) but I’ll be putting another ardent on as soon as I can.

Personal preference of course so you’ll never get a definitive answer but yeah….Ardent until things get very muddy. I

Last night I was heading to the trails around twilight with my Diablo on flash. Overkill or so I thought but it was the only light I had with me and I wanted people to see me coming, not do the whole, jumping scared thing at the last second.

Despite the 300 lumen flash I was surprised just how many people, either daydreaming, looking at their phones/dogs etc just didn’t notice me. I came up behind two girls jogging, and despite my light well, lighting them up and casting a shadow/flash all around them they were completely oblivious to me despite shouting, their earphones were set to deafening levels so I had to get passed them only to scare them out of their skin :roll:

Then of course I get a jogger putting both hands up over his face to let me know my light was too f’ing bright. I just waved. It’s been a long time since I jogged but I seem to remember being able to look away from things I didn’t wish to look at and still jog.

Ever thought about a usb rechargeable light? Probably cheaper in the long run.

It’ll chew it up pretty badly. I’ve got a 7 year old pro2 that’s still in vgc as I always use xt/xtr.

AlasdairMc – Member

I’ve had two experiences in the Edinburgh store that make me think that they don’t ever train their staff.

I think it would be wrong to assume that they do.

Most recently: I’ve been looking to buy a fatbike, so asked if I could part-pay for one with the Evans vouchers from Tesco, and the rest on interest-free. I was told that this was fraud!!
Next, I decided to change my tactic and asked if they would instead discount the 2015 bike by the value of my vouchers, in exchange for those vouchers, and I’d put the rest on interest free. Not so – this was illegal!!

The staff member has probably just chosen his words poorly, but I would imagine he’s refering to the T&C’s impossed by Evans finance partners which are generally pretty robust and sternly worded. A similar situation would be if you ask your local tax office whether you can buy a bike on teh cycle to work scheme over £1000 and just put cash towards it; they’ll tell you it’s tax fraud.

AlasdairMc – Member

Apparently it is against the law for Evans to discount any new bikes for six months from release.

First of all there’s this

iamtheresurrection
Not splitting hairs (and totally OT now) but it has to have been made available for purchase at the higher price (not just advertised) for 28 days, not six months for price comparisons…

also, quite a few brands have conditions of sale imposed upon them where they are forbidden to discount their bikes until a set period at full price in order to protect their brand. So the staff member may have been referring to either.