I’m prepared to get flamed here but, surely to “develop hill climbing power” as per the title one must increase muscle strength? Squats, deadlifts etc? in addition to building stamina.

Wouldn’t hill climbing as a means to hill climb training only really develop endurance? (albeit with some limited strength increase).

chakaping

I really like the look of the carbon Enduros, but they only come with the Spesh fork don’t they?

In the UK & Ireland they are complete build only. Rest of the world, you can get them as a frame only option.

Even in that vid Brendan F and his mates who are sponsored by Spesh have swapped the fork for Lyriks.

They are also sponsored by Rockshox, but if previous offerings are anything to go by, the Spesh fork would be dick. Maybe a sympathetic dealer would discount a bike by a few hundred quid if he kept the fork.

Well, apart from the fact that they are U.S sizes aren’t they? I found they mighty uncomfortable for walking about in. And I’m used to vans etc.

Light – check. Slack – check. Tough – check. Freeridey/minidh/trailcenterrazzing? – check.

Some advertising.

Reading this thread with interest as I’ve just moved into a new house with a garage and was considering a ground anchor and chain to secure the bike. Then I watched this video. Eye opening stuff. Presumably there are ways to get through U locks easily too.

I currently keep my bike in the house but worry about going away at weekends etc, it’s only a broken window away from being nicked.

Gamut’s smaller/smallest? chainring is only slightly bigger than a 32th ring.

I hate front mechs, dropped chains, fuss and clutter etc hence I’ve been using 1 x 9 for 6 years or so now and am currently using 32 x 11/34. I am on a very slack SX trail. I can get up most climbs I encounter albeit with effort. Out of the saddle climbing is a reality (more the bike than the gearing) and on longer rides I do find myself wishing I had something more, but the simplicity is worth it.

I only find myself spinning out on the fastest, least technical descents. All in all, it’s pretty good. The difference between 11/32 and 11/34 is surprisingly noticeable on the climbs too.

I thought it was the worst of the series, and not a patch on Follow Me, which despite having some duff sections is stunningly shot and captures the speed and scale of what the riders are doing very well.

FWIW I think Seasons is the most enjoyable mtb film as a whole, as it’s so good all the way through but some of the sections; New Zealand, and Whistler in particular in Follow me are on another level.

There was one before it, but this is the one I remember.

Assuming he already has a standard multi tool or 5, you could get him a Gerber or Leatherman style multi tool which are always reassuring to have on longer rides. You never know when you might have to mercy kill a moose or something.

A nice new lid. Or shorts. Or glasses. Or camelbak or something.

peterfile
this thread is wearing slightly,

Agreed.

one_happy_hippy – Member

What you want is an RS7 with the new Suntour 180-1400mm adjustable fork. Meant to be awesome bit of kit

It must be awesome alright….lol…snigger…sorry.

Your RS7 is very nice by the way. I wouldn’t ruin it with a dropper post and single crown forks etc but hey.

peterfile

So cram it? Charming.

If YOU read the thread you would see that the last 2 pages of advice is that you shouldn’t really be buying a DH bike for any sort of riding other than DH.

IF YOU……nevermind.

My reply to this

one_happy_hippy

Foes RS7 apparently loads of US rider use them in stead of nomads..

was to highlight that the RS7 would not make a suitable Nomad replacement as it is a DH bike not an AM bike. Quite obvious to me, but maybe not the OP. We are saying the same thing, but you elected to tell me that the Foes was a DH RACE BIKE IN BOLD!! which I obviously knew, and hence you came across like and arsehole. :-)

peterfile

It’s a DH race bike, why would you buy it to do any distance or climbing?

I wouldn’t. But if you read the thread you will see that the op is confused between something like a Nomad with a 180mm fork and an actual DH bike. He’s also stated that he intends the bike for 15 mile rides. So cram it.

one_happy_hippy

Foes RS7 apparently loads of US rider use them in stead of nomads and designed as a race specific 7″ DH bike.

They peddle really efficiently, but a super slack seat angle and head angle (it’s more like 64 than the 66 foes say) means it would be a pig to do any distance / climbing. Also, even an full bling build will struggle to get under 38lbs without silly components.

The OP will never get all that moon on his stick.

PeteG55

Specialized SX Trail is probably the bike for this kind of riding.

Agree. It’s been ridden to a top five finish at a DH World Champs, so I think that shows it’s DH credentials, the seat angle isn’t stupidly slack so you can peddle it, and it actually pedals very well (though the slack ha limits it on climbs).

My 2007 one, with coil totems and shock weighs under 36lbs with 2×2 ply tyres. Considerably less with single ply. Shame spesh aren’t bringing any into the uk this year.

We currently have the equivalent of the fancy-pants plastic M-16 A1 rifle which jammed and basically killed a load of soldiers when it was first introduced in ‘Nam, when what we need is an ugly cheap old AK which you can bury in the sand for 6 months and it’ll still work fine when you take it out.

Yes but the AK is quite heavy, suffers from terrible muzzle climb and nasty recoil, while the M16 eventually evolved into the M16 A2, as used by the SAS who probably know a thing or two about guns.

You want the AK-47 of mountain bikes? Grab an old steel frame out of a skip, stick some rigid forks on it, singlespeed it. Job done.

I’ll keep saving my pennies for that 2011 Enduro carbon in green with 1×10 XTR.

The self service tills are infuriating, this is compounded when some grunting acne riddled mop head pushes past you to scan his little bar code thing without so much as a hello.

If they only knew how closely they were flirting with death!

xiphon

My mk1 ’99 Monsters do just as good a job as the 2011 Boxxers IMHO.

I completely forgot about Marzocchi who are actually trumpeting about the fact that they’ve regressed their technology. 1999 technology 2011 prices Whooohooo!! (but hey it’s got titanium so it’s worth it).

Skyline-GTR

U just got owned mofo! wanna quit while you’re behind?

That’s pretty manly talk there, but it seems you just swallowed some marketing mans verbal diarrhea. So Fox forks now have kashima coating, just like race teams had, well that’s wonderful but I don’t see that as a wondrous new thing or valid reason for a price increase, more Fox finally addressing the serious problem they had with stanchion wear on their hugely expensive forks.

The Rockshox blackbox damper was race only kit last year, now it’s in the mainstream in several forks.

Sorry, is that supposed to blow peoples skirts up? – in your initial post you said that prices have increased in line with performance, I don’t see that. So Rockshox have tweaked their damper and called it Blackbox so it sounds all factory, oooooh please take my money, take it all!!

Companies like Fox and Rockshox are taking the piss with their prices tbh. In 2005 you could buy a Fox 36 with rebound, and high and low speed compression. Has the 2011 (kashima coated obviously) Fox 36 really changed that much? If you took the pepsi challenge on old vs new would the difference be so startling? Doubt it.

Everything is going up in price due to tax and shipping cost increases, so you have to accept them as a fact of life these days.

Thought you’d throw that in to bolster your argument since you neglected to mention it earlier?

Fork manufacturers sticking the arm in, that seems like a fact of life. Six years ago if I wanted a 42″ tv I could buy a massive rear projection one or pay thousands for a flat screen, now you can pick up a HD LCD for £500, while same time we get the same old tat with new stickers and we pay through the nose with an annual price hikes for companies to address their design flaws and call it progression.

Yes, economies of scale play a big part in that equation but we, the consumer are really getting shafted/hammered at the minute by stupid bike and component prices right across the board.

Skyline-GTR – Member

Last year’s factory race kit is this year’s trail kit.

Except, it’s not.

Skyline-GTR – Member

so the prices have increased in line with the performance.

lol, very funny.

Skyline-GTR
I don’t see a problem with that.

You don’t see a problem with skyrocketing prices?

Skyline-GTR

The good thing is, older stuff still works the same way it used to, and you can buy it for bog all these days.
Horses for courses innit!

Aha, so where are fork manufactures hiding these old forks in their current range!?

Why limit it to DH forks? To get any decent 2011 fork at rrp you won’t have much change from a grand.

*And by decent I mean…a fork that would’ve been £400-500 a few years ago and would’ve made you think “oooh that’s a nice fork”

wwaswas

Diablo would be too heavy for helmet mount, imo. I got a Lupine pico recently – great light but a bit pricier than the Joystick

Too heavy? 110 grams? I don’t even notice the weight.

wwaswas

yes, I didn’t get a diablo as if you throttle it back to get a reasonable run time it puts out the same amount of light as a joystick and then you wonder why you bothered.

Because you can bimble about on low or medium power, with 3-10 hours burn time but, when you need to do fast/technical stuff, which generally aren’t a big factor of most night rides you have the option of 900 lumens for the 3 or 4 minutes you might need it, leaving plenty of battery.

Northwind
<stock response>
Here is a pair of Flows on their way to a win at Leogang

Have you got a photo of them going in the bin after that? If I was getting them for free I’d have no concerns about reliability.

Sam Hill and Steve Peat seem to use DT Swiss EX1750’s for their race runs, I’ve got a friend who’s 9 stone dripping wet who could get through a set in a day.

Like I said, I’ll stick with mavic until I know someone who’s given Stans some real abuse on my local trails.

I’ve used Mavic 819s and 823s and I’ve really been impressed with them. I’ve only used maxxis tyres (ust and non ust) and found that on the whole it works pretty easily, and is definitely worth the extra dosh. The larger dh ust tyres are generally lighter than their 2.5 2 ply counterparts so that’s a bonus too.

I’ve found the rims to be some of the best I’ve ever used in terms of strength to weight. The 823s are genuinely bombproof. The 819s, I found to be stiff and strong, but I needed regular trueing on the rear, and have put some big flat spots on it. I snapped my front rim in an “incident”. I think the riding I was doing on it was a bit too much tbh.

I was wary of stans rims due to their light weight. I couldn’t find a rider who was doing anything more than light xc stuff on them. If I was building another set of xc/trail wheels I’d choose 819s.

What you’re looking for doesn’t exist, not as far as I am aware, not exactly. The closest things to that, off the top of my head would be the Scott Voltage or the GT Distortion.

Voltage is adjustable 140-180 and can run a 160-180mm fork. Distortion has 112mm travel in the back and looks to be designed around a 160mm fork. As above you could go for a custom Nicolai or similar. I think you’re looking for too much moon on your stick tbh.

Another idea, not sure if it would work might be a 2010 specialized sx trail. Will take a 180 fork no problem, and if you can get the shock mounts from the shorter travel “sx” model and a spare air can, you might just have your solution as the two are interchangeable iirc.

Very impressed with my Diablo. Picked it up for £165ish iirc. 110 grams. 900 lumens (and genuinely 900 as opposed to grossly inflated claims).

Hotlines are the distributors for staightline, and they are owned by CRC. Even if you get them somewhere else you’ll still be buying them from CRC unless you order them from U.S/Canada.

Proper demonic descending is going to require strong wheels, heavy sticky tyres, neither of which will help with the climbing. Compromise is gonna be a reality. On paper at least think the bike which best fits the bill would be a 2011 S-Works Enduro with a strong/light build. In green :)

I think it’s a 24 seven crosser. I think they might have done two versions of it. I would get in contact with 24 seven if they are still going. Small company, very helpful and very customer focused, they would probably help to identify it for you.

keppoch – Member

Hmm true, the one in the more dirt pic looks like a 24″er whereas the one I have is 26″. Similarities but the dropout area looks a bit different too.

If I recall correctly the original one was designed to run 24″ or 26″ inch rear wheels. It definitely had a huge bolt through rear axle like something off a traction engine though.

Looks like a deviant?

Edit: maybe not it had a bolt through rear.

I sold a bike to a police officer last year who by her own admission had never ridden a bike. Through the course of the sale she told me that she would soon be going on a one day training course with a guide who I knew.

This then would apparently mean she was sufficiently qualified to be one of the first PSNI advanced cycle skills trainers.

Dealt with a load of other cycle cops, did not meet a single one who knew how to ride bike, what type of bike they rode, what a drive train was……nothing.

esselgruntfuttock – Member

What’s as good/better? at what exactly?
and less dosh than what?

Err, it’s in the question. As good or better than a Maxxix Advantage Exception.
& less dosh than a…Maxxis Advantage Exception.

Less rolling resistance? Better pinch flat protection? Better grip on wet roots and rocks? Better traction in deep mud? Better traction in loose over hard surfaces? Better cornering characteristics on the limit of traction? Less sidewall flex? Lighter? ……better how? What don’t you like about the advantage, apart from the price.

Irish person here :) Last time I was down there the wife and I stayed just outside Kenmare in a nice rented cottage. Nice enough wee town, bit touristy, but an acceptable balance between being near the countryside and having stuff to do of a night, selection pubs restaurants etc.

Handy spot for getting around the Ring of Kerry, lakes of Kilarney.

Two of these would be a good start.

Combined with a motorcycle shackle, armoured cable and some decent chains.

Sorry but is a tensioner, or lack of it the best criteria to build your new FS bike around?

sssimon

what about the sticking cables and hoses for gears Jim? lets make the gears wifi and the brakes telepathic

Shut your noise. You know what I meant.

Panaracer Mach SS?

Surrounded By Zulus

A pair of nail scissors does the job just fine.

I’m guessing that you’re mid 30s ish.

31. Which presumably is the age of explosive nose hair growth. I’ve been using nail scissors but I was hoping there was a technological marvel that I could just shove up there and eradicate the problem. From time to time.