The most recent one I saw was “Not Bad”. Too much dirt jumping in general but it was well shot with a good soundtrack and Brook McDonald’s bit is jaw dropping. To be honest there are so many good web edits out there they almost make the “films” redundant.

Bloody typical of bike shops isnt it…..you take the bike in for a new chain after 20,000 miles and they tell you that you need a whole new drive train.

Strength in Numbers was okay on the whole but had one or two amazing sequences. It’s free on redbull’s youtube channel, broken into segments.

Conti sports contact or Gatorskins always get favorable feedback.

Brian Lopes ran an Ibis Mojo HDR 650b with 26″ wheels at the recent Air DH race in Whistler. Accordingly to lopes this was to lower the bb in order to improve cornering and jumping.

And for some reason that makes me feel like punching myself in the nose repeatedly.

wrecker

Too expensive. By far.

Hand made in Germany. 5 year unlimited warranty, transferable upon sale. Much rarer/special/boutique than any Santa Cruz, Turner, Ibis or similar. Horst Link.

There are plenty of mass produced, made in taiwan, frames that are close to that price, some higher even.

If I was the op, the only thing that would stop me would be the fact that I’d want something custom, in terms of geometry, colour, finishing kit etc.

chiefgrooveguru

You’re right – just the seat tube though.

Yessss. I know.

A Zesty 514 is actually a bigger bike than the 314 (presuming we are talking 2013 bikes). There is a difference between the alloy and the carbon. I think it’s only 20mm or so on the seat post, all other dimensions are the same. Something to do with clearance for dropper posts.

As others have said though at 5’9 you will definitely not want a small Zesty. The medium 2013 bike is too short already in my opinion. Considering how short the top tube is on the small I’d not recommend it for anyone over 5’5. I know a few people around 5’6 who ride a medium comfortably. I’m 5’9 and I had a medium 514. I prefered the reach of the large frame but I just didn’t have clearance I wanted with the saddle down. I even contemplated hacking the seat tube down a bit.

I think a mix and match approach is best as there are pros and cons throughout the groupset.

XTR for cranks, cassettes (if you’re flush), rear mechs if you don’t brake them. XTR shifters feel too vague imo and the brakes are more temperamental than xt.

XT for brakes, cassettes (if you’re not so flush) shifters if you run a pair.

Saint shifter if you run 1×10. Saint mech for the same or Zee if you’re a wrecker.

doug_basqueMTB.com

jimjam, isn’t the trabec about 30g heavier than the Notch?

butterbean

You do realise the Mavic is lighter than the Trabec? (And the Flux, Xar etc)?

I was a bit perplexed by this, especially since my initial impression and so many others was that it felt pretty heavy. So I weighed one toady, turns out the Notch weighs about 360 grams or so. Not the 319 stated, considerably heavier than the poc. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet I guess.

I love the fit of the POC trabec, to me it’s barely noticeable on my head. However I can’t justify the price when my 2nd Fox Flux is so good for less than half the price.

Personally I found the Mavic helmet to be noticeably heavy considering the price and uncomfortable. I’d much rather have a Giro Xar or or even Hex, or Fox Striker, all of which I think are better lids. I like the look of the bell super and IXS trail lid, both of which, if comfortable might stop me wanting a trabec. So far though the trabec is the nicest helmet I’ve ever tried on.

It’ll probably lower the bottom bracket slightly, improving corrnering, give you a wider range of comparatively lighter tyres in turn improving grip and or rolling resistance. It’ll accelerate slightly faster, decelerate slightly better and changer direction slightly better.

Oh and you’ll have lighter stronger wheels.

But it’ll roll .7% worse. I wouldnt chance it.

tazzymtb

there is a trek 29er downhill bike on the way

I’m pretty sure there won’t be. If that’s the bike I think it is then it’s a prototype which they said will not be exploring any further.

The sidewalls are much, much thicker. The compounds, I presume would be similar to the higher end versions. I’ll never buy another Schwalbe tyre again though as they last me a few weeks before going to sh*t.

FIT damper is definitely a worthy upgrade. It’s noticeably better. It’s hard to judge or quantify the kashima benefit as any fork I’ve tried it on has been of a higher spec anyway.

wobbliscott
Crimes, its not necessarily your music. The first generation is yours, but as soon as you copy it, it’s not.

The vast majority of it is my music though. I had (note the past tense) a huge CD collection which I spent many months copying on to my pc using winamp I think it was. The bulk of the rest was from a mate who I lived with at uni, who had a similarly vast collection, which he had bought and paid for and I took what I liked.

If I had to guess I’d say 90% of the 80 gig on my ipod was totally legal and legit. fyi.

Okay, so I wasn’t just being overly cautious. I’ll have a google about for programs to copy my music onto the laptop. Thanks guys.

Zee.

lewymtb

My question is, does anyone have issues with flats for Enduro/all mountain/climbing/single trail riding?. And will you end up with pencil calves lol

If you’ve got decent pedals and decent shoes then I struggling to imagine what issues, if any, you might suffer.

Flat pedals for medals.

yunki

really!!!?

no I **** wouldn’t.. I’m a housewife and visual artist, not a payed journalist..

If you were sold a strawberry yoghurt that tasted of rancid pus and gave you galloping diarrhoea and you complained about it, would you then be expected to produce a good yoghurt to prove that you have enough experience to denounce the yoghurt as shite..?

no

Yeah yeah, rancid pus, diarrhoea. But what if everyone else thought the yoghurt tasted fine? A bit different from the norm perhaps, somewhat home made maybe. Taste is always going to be a subjective thing, and given Jones’ popularity and that of Dirt I’d say you’re in the minority. If you actually are a visual artist I’m sure you know fine well that some people like your work, others will call it shit out of hand.

And….

That said, I could probably still write an infinitely more coherent piece than the examples of monsieur Jones’ lazy and demented spewings that have been cited in this thread

You post on a mountain bike forum, presumably you own and ride a mountain bike. You obviously believe you could do better going by your grandiloquent posts. Hence my earlier request.

To attack someone, then say you don’t need to prove yourself because that’s not your job, but to finish and say you could do better anyway is conceited in my opinion.

yunki

it’s just very poor writing

Would you care to post up your own bike review for scrutiny?

munrobiker Forefront in my mind now is the 2014 Specialized Stumpy Evo Comp- any other ideas?

Apart from a 2013 stumpy evo carbon (which are still available and spesh dealers are doing very keen prices on) I think you nailed it. Two of my friends have the aforementioned 2013 carbon evos and they are just incredible.

If “do it all” genuinely means from one extreme end of the biking spectrum to the other, ie xc race to dh race, then I think it’s the perfect balance.

Junkyard

Have they considered the fact that the best bike for a 10/10 rider may not be the best bike for a mortal such as I. Personally I would rather hear the opinion of a useless northern mincer than a riding god as i am closer to one than than the other

Imo, at a basic level a reviewer is expected to have a level of expertise in whatever the subject is he or she is reviewing. Otherwise, why listen to their opinion.

With regards to DH bikes (which is Jones’ main field) a reviewer should have an extremely high level of competence in order to determine whether the bike is actually any good in comparison to it’s competitors. If you can’t ride extremely steep, rough, technical, terrain quickly then how can you judge the relative merits of a bike which is designed to do exactly that?

If you can’t do large jumps or drops at speed, typical of what someone might encounter on a dh track, then how can you tell how a given dh bike will cope in that scenario?

Furthermore, I believe it would be much easier for an expert rider to suppose,speculate or consider how a beginner might find a bike, than it would be a beginner to judge a bike’s suitability for an expert.

Northwind

Bit of a balance innit.

Absolutely. You wouldn’t want someone completely illiterate for example. But it would be equally worthless to have a rank amateur rider review a downhill bike or an am/enduro race bike and compose a beautiful review of how well the bike rides up and down gravel paths.

In any aspect of life, if you need an advice or opinion on a subject you will generally seek out the person who you regard to be the most expert person you know in that field.

Grammatical niggles aside, I like his writing style. Sometimes it makes my head hurt, but most of the time, when I read his words, I hear his voice in my head, and his enthusiasm pours off the page.

It’s also reassuring to me to know that he is an accomplished rider. I’ll take the opinion of an expert bike handler over an expert word wrangler. As Wade Simmons says “if you’re not a ten out of ten rider, then how the hell can you judge if a bike is a ten out of ten”.

I still think there is a need for slightly more editorial constraint, but when you consider the volume of content dirt generates across multiple platforms, it’s easy to understand the slackness in that regard. I’d rather have the great coverage of national, european and world cup dh, and local and international enduro on an almost rolling live basis with some spelling errors, than have it two days later in the queen’s.

I had the 55mm version. Lovely stem, and very light but not very stiff imo. I went back to my Thomson X4 which is quite a bit heavier but noticeably stiffer.

b45her

some one should tell dan atherton about this second because he chooses to race on a 26″ wheeled prototype rather than the new 650b force.

He raced a 650b bike. His 16 year old team mate rode a 26″ wheel and beat him.

How many money?

Where can I get a “I pay vehicle excise duty actually” shirt?

Did you have a mechanical failure or a crash George? I don’t think I’ll buy anything else for the foreseeable. A load of my friends run them too with zero issues.

honourablegeorge

Yep, the 820.

So do you wear boxing gloves when on the bike?

honourablegeorge

My Zee mech lasted less than an day. Not what I’d call tough.

I had an XT shadow plus rear mech last one ride. Fairly tame low speed fall, bent it beyond repair. XTR shadow plus rear mech on a demo bike….one day, cracked the cage. I’m on my second zee mech now, they are superb. I couldn’t believe the wallop my last one took. I thought I’d written off the frame, never mind the mech but the mech had taken the full impact of the crash (log sitting parallel to the trail) and still worked.

You were just unlucky.

Northwind

Current Saint shifter is, IMO, the best shifter ever made, it is lovely.

Agree with you 100%

Saint shifter. Zee rear mech. The saint shifter feels stunning. The zee mech is tough, shifts smoothly and the clutch works beautifully. I think it’s better made than slx and xt, both of which have plastic clutch levers. I’ve hit a log square on with at maybe 15mph with a zee mech and it survived and got me home. Albeit twisted. I doubt a saint mech would survive anything a zee wouldn’t. Cetainly without being twisted beyond repair.

The XTR shifter is nice but I find it a bit vague compared to even xt and nowhere near the feel of saint.

honourablegeorge

Don’t get that at all – have Saint on the DH bike, XTR on the trail bike – you click them they change.

I’m guessing you don’t have the current M820 10spd saint shifter? Either that or perhaps you wear boxing gloves when riding?? :?

honourablegeorge

Zee mech is miles weaker than Saint – it’s more Deore level than SLX, IMO

In the past 12 months I’ve been unfortunate enough to have broken every shimano rear mech from Deore up (except slx) and the zee is second only to saint for toughness.

havinalaff
I only just built the bike. Used to have one and sold it. Its like an old love affair and as is in the uk is perfect for me. Im really happy with geometry as is.

If you can get a lend of the linkage for your holiday, all good. Personally, I feel like those SX’s are getting to borderline classic status. i’d not want to be adjusting/modifying/molesting it…just keep it as stock and as original as possible.

mikewsmith

Although they are not as stiff as the 36, that does not mean they are not stiff. Took a demo bike out with some 34’s and was happy through the big boulders and baby heads. A great move by fox, the 36 is overkill for all but the most extreme stuff but there wasn’t another option as the 32 was far too flexi in comparison.
The CTD damping has come in for a bit of a hammering recently, having ridden the 34 CTD I was impressed. There is some advice to add 15ml more float fluid in there to improve the feel which may sort a few of the reported issues. I’m speccing the 160 CTD with Trail Adjust on my new bike.

Each to their own mike, personally I found 34s way below par. the extra stiffness of the 36, plus the better damping, plus the near negligible weight difference means for me 34s are a pointless excercise in gram counting. I’m not doing “the most extreme” stuff, but I am pedaling up to ride down dh tracks. The type of riding the enduro there excels at.

You can also take into consideration the fact that most dh bikes are 20mm so any proper tough wheelsets you might have lying around are likely to be 20mm and if recall correctly 20mm hubs are actually a few grams lighter than 15mm :)

At the end of the day if the op is chasing figures on a scale then he should go for a lighter fork, but if he’s chasing figures on a stopwatch (say at an enduro) then he’ll be quicker with the 36’s.

Swap the 36’s for something lighter, maybe 150mm Magura’s/Revs?

chakaping

Please don’t take this advice.

I would agree with chakaping here 100%, and also take umbridge with people advising you to go for 34s. That’s some very bad advice. Fox 36s are vastly superior to their 34 counterparts, and virtualy any comparable fork, not just in terms of stiffness but also in terms of damping. The 200grams or so difference could easily be saved elsewhere. I’ve got 2012 36 fit rlc talas with kashima coating and they blow every other fork out of the water. It’s a massive down grade.

You could get a selle slr tt saddle which will drop about 80 grams. That’s half the difference in the forks. Also, if you really wanted to feel a difference fit some lighter rubber. Nobby Nic evo 2.25s front and rear for example would save you a pound or more straight away but it would feel like 3 or 4 as it’s off the wheels and they are faster rolling (that’s only if they’re up to your riding). And if you were feeling really silly you could say, plash out on some Haven carbon wheels or something. I’d go full xtr on brakes and drivetrain but I really wouldn’t change very much else. Lovely lovely bike.

120mm

or

140mm

or

160mm

As much as I dislike them, I have been doing some 29er testing of my own recently. Results – meh.

On some short trails on a local loop myself and another rider swapped between a brand new 120mm full sus 29er, and my zesty (with forks set at 120mm) both with comparable tyres. On a rolling start there was little to separate the two bikes. The 29er was grippier and more predictable, but not faster. The zesty “felt” much faster, and much more fun.

From a standing start the 29er got smoked every time. I was expecting it to accelerate slower but not that much slower. Throwing in some jumps on the trail though really left it floundering as it was nigh on impossible to get the front wheel up. On the climbs and on flatter less twisty trails the 29er was less work, it seemed to need less rider input, perhaps less involving but again not discernibly much faster if any. Maybe over much longer trails that might manifest in quicker times as riders stay fresher.

I think I might have finally found the bike I need to tame those vicious bermed corners.

whatnobeer
.

Another good one is Cinelli

Cinelli: Kin-er-ell-iollii.

psling

How about Marin then..?

It’s M’rin, like Marin county I suppose.

Anyway, here are the definitive pronunciations.

Shimano: She-mow-tow
Trek: Track
Lapierre: La-per-eeee (Lap-er-ee-aye would also suffice)
Commencal: Come-mer-shal
Specialized: Spesh-all-ist
Pinarello: Pin-ah-reel-io
Wilier: While-er
Schwalbe: Shwab-al-ee
Mavic: Mav-er-rick
Colnago: Coal-nag-leo
Norco: Nor-dik
Giant: Gee-aunt

ChristoGinger
i’d expect your just going faster as its smoother on the full sus your not really noticing the added speed. This would definately make it appear harder on the off camber sections, but should work both ways.

I would concur with this. You’re going faster but not necessarily noticing the extra speed until you try and commit to something difficult.