IXS Trigger FF sometimes comes up on sale around £100 ish. Really light and airy to pedal around in. Mine fits really well – it’s got a dual on the back like normal half shell helmets to tighten the harness thing inside – I prefer that to my 7idp full face helmet which is a lot heavier / warmer.

Just to check – you do have phr washers and compatible nipples to go with them? You need to use them otherwise you could crack the rim.

Personally I’d use the same type of spoke both sides of the wheel. I just use ACI double butted spokes from Cycle Basket as they tend to be the cheapest double butted spokes from a decent manufacturer. I always find Sapim very expensive in comparison, and DT Swiss are similar.

Pre Brexit you could get dt spokes cheaper from Rose Bikes but that got killed off. So I’m ACI all the way – even on a road bike wheel I re-spoked as the Pillar spokes kept snapping.

Another vote here for freesat if you have a redundant sky dish and cabling already. Works great here.

I’ll be running the Axis on low except when I’m on the unlit parts of the cycle track. Will also have it aimed down rather than straight out. There’s the little trace on the bars as well for visibility to cars. You can see my sharpie bodge to the top of the trace – stupid design where it lights in all directions so it’s very distracting when cycling if you have it on day flash. Colouring in the top has made quite a difference so far. Will see how that goes when it’s properly dark – if it’s not enough then the black insulation tape is coming out.

Couldn’t find my moon GoPro mount so picked up an exposure specific one (bought from eBay – it’s a 3d printed one) and giving the axis a go:

I need to play around with angles of the garmin mount / light but I think this will do the job. The garmin GoPro mount actually untwists from the out front mount so I can either do that or just take the elastic band thing off and take the axis with me.

I’ve got an axis – I’m slightly underwhelmed with battery life. The light is decent other than that – it lights up corners well to fill in what the bar light doesn’t cover (Maxx D – which is flipping ace). It’s not big / heavy at all – looks much smaller than a mate’s Diablo.

I haven’t had a joystick but I wonder whether it’s got the same size battery but lower lumen output so has a better battery life? Not looked into it though.

I just use a 598 with my carbon mtb frame. Although I’d be more nervous about my carbon road bike as that feels like it has much thinner down tube walls.

If you want a front wheel mount like the Upride there are also 2 options from Yakima / the front loader and Highroad. I think (but don’t quote me) they might have steel in them where the Thule has alloy so over time they can rot out. Can’t remember where I read that.

I always make sure when I put the crank bolt in that’s it’s got generous amounts of copper slip grease in the threads. Torque it with a torque wrench to the torque quoted it should be at.

Can’t say I’ve ever had an issue undoing the crank bolt – I use an old torque wrench that has a decent length handle (it’s a cheapie Lidl one that the torque function has died on but the ratchet still works) and just stand on the pedal whilst pushing on the torque wrench handle. It’s tight but usually undoes without issue.

Rowberrow Warren on the Mendips for me yesterday. Not too gloopy / bike wasn’t bad enough for me to try washing it afterwards – main trails all running great, with the bit that is graded red in the dry / black in the wet a bit slippery. Pinging about on roots and rocks with no grip whatsoever – but it was fun (it’s not really a black whatever the sign says).

Weather was glorious – sun and blue skies

What would be good is a comparison to some competitors – Sram G2 / Shimano 4 pot / Sram Code / Hayes Dominion / TRP Slate / Hope E4 etc.

How do they compare for power / modulation etc?

I’m 43. Cycling vo2 max is generally between 57 and 60 according to Garmin (you need to record rides with a power meter to get the cycling vo2 max). My max HR is 192 in the last 12 months – but once I’m at 180bpm I’m struggling g usually.

How do you find your HR zones on Garmin Connect?

Not sure in terms of pull ratios – but I think the whole setup only cost about £200 or so with the cheap shifters / secondhand rival rear mech / bargain 105 cranks / 105 11 speed cassette – think it’s an 11-32 / discounted new force front mech / Amazon kmc chain etc.

Personally I don’t like mechanical Shimano gears – if you slightly catch the smaller inside gear shifter as you’re trying to do the shift where the brake lever moves inwards the whole thing just swings inwards not doing anything at all. Hated it. Happy with Shimano di2 as that doesn’t have the same issue. Double tap is my next favourite groupset I’ve used after the di2. I’ve had rival 10 speed and rival 11 speed and both just worked well and I didn’t have any issue with them.

I thought I’d replied but my long reply must not have posted.

Ideally you want a small set of spring compressors but they’re quite spendy – this sort of thing I think:

https://amzn.eu/d/fvkfTfD

I had the same issue with a rockshox spring in a cane creek shock – for the same stroke / spring travel they’re a lot longer. Got it on there but had a fight getting it off.

In the end I used 2 sets of mole grips to compress a few coils of the spring enough to get the spring collar at the bottom of the shock off. It was a battle and I’ve taken some paint off the coil but it did the job.

With your spring it’s progressive so one end of the spring will be easier to compress than the other I’d imagine. They’re effectively 2 stages of stiffness.

Planet X have outstandingly cheap mechanical brake sram shifters – Rival and Force. I picked up some rival shifters for peanuts to go on my turbo bike – you can pair up a mixture of Shimano and Sram 11 speed group components. I’ve ended up with 11 speed rival shifters and rear mech / force front mech / Shimano cassette / Shimano 105 cranks (Ribble bargain) and kmc x11 gold chain. Works really well for very little outlay.

If you’re on a normal (non e-bike) the quickest routes back up are quite brutal.

I normally park in the main Cwmcarn car park and pedal up the tarmac Forest drive but then cut off and follow the fireroad to the start of airstream 2 on Twrch. I follow that to the steep concrete ramp then go up the tarmac from there to the off piste. I find that’s a  nice warmup before hitting the steeper stuff. Equally you can go all the way to the off piste on the tarmac if you want to do that.

You can ride it a bit like a non uplifted BPW for a smaller climb – sessioning the top halves to the fireroad and then back up. Then sessioning the bottom halves seperately.

The top half has a steep ish push up at the Wacko end – it goes out of a clearing on the fireroad where some rock has been carved out – did you find that?

From the bottom you can either pedal along and up Darran Road (I’ve not tried this but I think it literally goes straight up the hill), there’s an off road way back up which is also quite hard going – I can pedal most of it but there are a few steeper / loose bits. Or you can pedal along the canal, back up to the Cwmcarn car park and then back up Forest drive.

We did a day of it early 2023 – ended up being about 30km and just shy of 1500m of climbing. I was broken after that, but it was a great day.

Another vote for the v1 Forekaster – that was fairly fast rolling yet dug out surprising grip in the slop.

@J-R well there is that too!

Although I ride with a variety of people – some who get more time out riding / weigh less etc. I think I’m middling out of all the people I ride with despite my best efforts.

When I first started turbo training for added fitness I was on TrainerRoad and did an awful lot of sweet spot training which got my base level up fairly quickly. These days I’m on Zwift and either do a zone 2 ish plod watching the tv, or I do racing. So I’m getting base and threshold but not much in the middle. But then mtb is possibly filling out that middle but a bit as it’s often like doing intervals.

Cafell at Cwmcarn doesn’t let you settle on the climb – it’s reasonable long but is constantly changing gradient or going round a switchback etc – I love that I’ve got that extra burst of power / cadence available to go over rocks / up little steeper bits without blowing up like I used to.

Zwift recently decided my ftp was 276w after a quick (for me) Cat B race where I had a really strong first 20 mins before I started to fade a bit and dropped off the front pack. Think this is broadly as fit as I’ve ever been.

At Cwmcarn on the weekend I rode Cafell with a mate who’d never ridden it before. I had to stop a bit for him as his fitness isn’t there at the moment, but I can’t think of a time I’ve ever found that climb as easy.

Being relatively fit just adds so much more enjoyment / less suffering to mtb rides.

Could you run some rockshox / fox gravel bike suspension forks?

You could just go to a tougher rear tyre – looks like the SE5 is quite light – found a review that suggests the 29×2.6” one is barely over 1kg.

I’m generally liking the enduro casing Contis which are quoted at 1125g but are probably more like 1200g. Not as heavy as a full on DH tyre and I’m pedalling them round quite happily on a Transition Sentinel that weighs 34-35lbs depending on which shock I’m running.

I have run the original rimpact in lighter tyres but I find them a bit annoying. The valves seem to clog up quite quickly with sealant and then it all has to come apart to sort it out (it’s not just the unscrewable core – but the side facing holes in the rimpact valves).

That said – they may well do what you need them to.

I use dt Swiss tool on the squorx nipples and use a dab of waterproof grease to stick the washer to the nipple. Generally works – although if you lose on it’ll come out if you generally shake the wheel with the valve hole at the bottom. Sometimes you can fish it out with a spoke if the shaky thing doesn’t work

My Dolan GXC has a fork with mounts on it – actually wanted some without as they’d look cleaner but only the mount ones were available.

They are expensive though. Maybe someone else has the same fork branded differently for cheaper?

https://www.dolan-bikes.com/alpina-carbon-gravel-adventure-fork-3-bolt/

I’ve had a couple of Cannondales, always had a soft spot for them. Sadly never had an mtb from them – always liked the look of the headshok hardtails and some of the super vs. Out of my price range first time round doing mtb as a teenager.

I still like the look of their road bikes but less excited about their current range of mtbs.

Had a Caad9 in the Liquigas colour scheme which I loved – and was one of the USA made frames.

Later I had a Caad12 disc which I liked, but never loved in the same way for some reason.

My local woods are red claggy / clay based mud, but also with some roots. My favourite tyre there when it’s wet and greasy or sloppy is a 2.6” Hillbilly T7 Grid Trail (previous design). It doesn’t clog easily and just finds outrageous grip. I’m not convinced any tyre finds grip on wet roots – maybe softer rubber / lower pressures would make it better – but at 18-20 psi in those conditions it does a decent job.

To be it doesn’t seem to drag too badly – my other front tyre the rest  of the year is a 2.4” Kryptotal / Enduro soft. I think the Kryptotal has softer rubber and a heavier casing.

Not sure if the new Hillbilly is as good at clearing mud – but haven’t tried one yet.

I also have a 2.6” Magic Mary Addix Soft / apex snake skin casing front tyre for my hardtail. Vs the Hillbilly it clogs a bit more and doesn’t brake / turn quite as well in thick mud. On hardpack I think both tyres are broadly similar – the earlier Hillbilly (gripton / grid casing) was worse though – you could feel the knobs bending and the grip getting a bit unpredictable on hardpack.

blackhatFree Member
But squared profile means you can get beyond the bite point more easily and you’re eating dirt without a warning

I’ve found this with a few tyres – a 2.3” dhr2 on the front wheel and a 2.3” Butcher T9 – also on the front wheel. Felt good for grip until the moment it didn’t and I was lying on my face taking soil samples with my teeth.

I’m much happier with a more gradual loss of traction which you seem to get when tyres are more rounded.

Rear tyres I’m less bothered about the profile of.

Machynlleth area is good. You’ve got Dyfi Forest for  trail centre and off piste tech – then you’ve got Dyfi bike park for your uplift.

In south wales you could have your uplift day at Dirt Farm instead of Bike Park Wales and then you have Forest of Dean / Cwmcarn both close to those areas among other south wales tech riding spots. Barry Sidings / Smilog / Tirpentwys etc

I wonder if the rebuild is your issue.

I had a Hunt 4seasons rear road wheel that I fairly catestrophically mashed the rear rim hitting a huge pot hole. Dented and out of true. Had it rebuilt onto a crash replacement rim using the same spokes and I got several snapped spokes over a period of time until I got annoyed with it.

Rebuilt the same rim onto the same hub with new ACI double butted spokes (wheel originally had Pillar triple butted spokes I believe) and haven’t had a single one snap yet. And since then I’ve moved to having to take more kit on the commute to work in a pair of pretty weighty pannier bags.

Spoke count is only 24 on that back wheel too – even one spoke snapping can put the wheel quite out of true.

With mine it’s only single skin as far as I’m aware – but attached to the house with quarter of it under a bedroom. I built a stud wall down the middle of the double garage and insulated that side (the other side is the other half of the garage which isn’t insulated). I put in a plasterboard ceiling and  insulated above it with rock wall. I insulated the back of the uk and over door with solid foam insulation and put a rubber strip on the bottom of the door to stop drafts coming under it. That was ok, but then I went the hole hog and built a stud wall behind it floor to ceiling and used insulated plasterboard inside the stud wall. Stays a decent amount warmer than the insulated part of the garage in winter and stays cooler in summer. I don’t have any heating in there but it doesn’t need it as I’m always working out if in there – either weight training or turbo training.

I left the block pillar in the middle and in one corner bare block – but painted it white with masonry paint. All the plasterboard walls in plastered myself and painted white. The floor is a mixture of cheap laminate and then horse stall mats (must be about an inch thick) under the weight lifting part. I put a plastic membrane down on the floor under the rubber matting / laminate.

Been like that for years with no issues.

Fitted a new rear tyre with the enduro in mind (did have a Xynotal enduro / soft on there but switched it for an enduro/ soft Kryptotal given all the rain) – front will either be as pictured or a Hillbilly if it’s gopping in the run up to the race.

Back to spds as I think I’m generally faster on them than flats.

New shock seems good – can run a softer spring than the last coil shock but without bottoming as the hbo is there to catch it and the damping seems a little heavier anyway. Seems very plush yet can still pop off jumps.

My Gore jacket (it’s really a road fit / no hood / quite light) is a size medium and it fits ok. I’m normally medium or large depending  on the make. I weight train so about a 40” chest so not small.

I’ve got the large Ion Shelter and it’s quite roomy – may have got away with a  medium in hindsight but I followed their size guide.

I ran a Supersoft / DH Kryptotal front tyre on the back for a few rides. This was all I could get on the day at Dyfi with a DH casing (no rears in stock).

I can confirm it was ridiculously grippy but on a subsequent day riding a loop round the Shropshire Hills it dragged awfully. I sold the tyre whilst it was barely used as I don’t have much cause for anything as strong / heavy / draggy as that.

No idea what the figures are like but I picked up an Ion Shelter 3L jacket from Sport Pursuit for a bargain price November last year. Not got wet through it yet – and it’s certainly lighter / less bulky than the 2 x Royal Racing Matrix jackets I’d had before that one.

Looks like they have some at a good price on there at the moment too.

Could you just screw insulated plasterboard to the existing ceiling? Not as much insulation as filling the void, but would be a lot easier.

@jamesfts

Where are you riding? I sliced the sidewall of an enduro casing Xynotal in Dyfi Forest (on Tony the Tiger) – jumped off some rocks and landed on some rocks – looks like the sidewall compressed with the landing – right against a sharp rock.

No idea if the DH version would have survived / any other mid weight casing other brand tyres though. When I was buying a replacement tyre the following day for the bike park the guy at Dyfi said sometimes it’s just luck and even DH casing tyres around there get damaged.

I used to run Exo maxxis tyres on the rear but I holed one (with a rimpact in there) last year just in the local woods (which isn’t that rocky) so think I’m riding too hard for those on the rear wheel now. Suspect they’d be fine on the front though.

I don’t think I like really squared off tyres as you tend to have to lean them a lot to get the edges biting in. That’s fine when you’re in the zone and confident but when you aren’t and you go into something a bit tentative there’s less grip.

That said I liked the 2.4” front Wild Enduro Magi-X on a 30mm rim whilst it lasted. Probably only got 3 or 4 months out of it before the knobs were looking really undercut and mangled. Managed to get it warranty replaced and sold the new one on. I’ve never done that to a front tyre before – I’m not a heavy rider and mostly not on aggressive trail surfaces.

Why not buy a spare pair of lighter / narrower rimmed wheels for the gravel bike to keep road tyres on – and keep your existing wheels with gravel tyres on for gravel rides?

That’s assuming you can’t get bigger volume tyres on your road bike which may solve the comfort on that bike.

Just got a Kryptotal enduro / soft rear to try instead of the trail / endurance one this winter. Kryptotal front enduro / soft has been on my bike all summer and it’s been great. Will stay on until it’s hillbilly conditions.

Those Top Fuels for £1999 that @chakaping are worth a look. Decent spec for the money with a full carbon frame – Trek frames are normally more expensive that that on their own.

You could always pickup Sram AXS or Transmission (assuming the frame is UDH) at a later date of it really bothers you.

Thanks @benman – guess we’re going with that then! Think mine is the meteor vortex pro or plus or whatever it was called about 5 years or so ago