You’ll limit yourself with saying internal storage – I’d drop that requirement.

Wireless shifting is alright but I don’t think it’s a game changer unless you have a front mech (which decent mtbs don’t have anymore). Both sram eagle and Shimano 12 speed mechanical are decent.

Some bikes to look at:

Epic Evo

Transition Spur

Trek Top Fuel

Santa Cruz Blur

NS Bikes Synonym (was also the Vitus Rapide fs and several other bikes)

Sonder Cortex (possibly)

YT Izzo (borderline trail but sometimes cheap and then uncaged one is fast)

If you can get the tiles tested I would. Don’t mess with asbestos – if they are that then pay the money and get it sorted properly. I know someone whose husband died of asbestosis.

Not used one but the lens is very flat and the lumen output isn’t that high. It feels like it’s more of a be seen sort of light than massively light your way. Looks like a neat solution as long as your out front bracket is at the right angle for the light. If you have one of those stem mount out front brackets you aren’t going to have any angle adjustment.

@jaminb – I’d be wary of cracks – you could check if it’s just lacquer or actual frame cracks by lightly sanding it back.

Is the comfort (or lack of) due to it bouncing off bumps etc or the actual position on the bike?

I had a Caad 12 Cannondale that I commuted on for years, but my lower back was playing up and it was a bit harsh over broken roads. Switched to a carbon gravel frame and both my back is happier and the broken roads are less bad. I think I could have gone bigger than 30c on tyres without materially losing a huge amount of speed. I’m still cracking out some decent Strava times on my commute despite higher tyres / less racy position on the bike / being a few years older.

Cool thanks – I’ve ordered the garmin go pro bolt in mount.

Going to try the moon first as that involves no extra outlay. Next option after that is the GoPro mount from exposure that’ll fit the axis.

Would like the Strada but that’s mega £££ for a 14km commute (each way).

Don’t know  much about the Cube but probably hard to make it much comfier unless you can fit bigger volume tyres on it. Might get a bit less vibration with carbon bars and seat post but it’s small gains.

Arkose looks like an alloy gravel bike with mostly lower end parts on it. Biggest gain (assuming heavy wheels) is a nice light set of wheels and faster rolling tyres if you have gravel ones on there. Hunt 4seasons wheels are what I have on my road bike / gravel bike mash up – think they’re meant to be 1550g for the pair and I’m running 30c gp5000 tyres on there. Roll along really quite fast. Think they do a 35c version of those tyres which could be a balance between speed and volume?

Guess I could give the axis a go – or I have a moon GoPro mount so I could use my existing meteor and just stick a bit of tape over the charge port for extra protection

Cool – cheers guys. So it’s looking like I need the below adapter to give a friction / go pro adapter on the out front mount.

Then it’s finding a light that attaches to it – ideally not meaning I have to unscrew the light everytime I go to work.

One of the exposure clip in mounts would do the job I think – maybe just with an extra rubber band round the light to make sure it doesn’t fall out the bottom if I hit a pot hole.

I do have an exposure axis I use for nightriding off road I could put in one of those but it’s a little overkill / I’d rather not hammer the battery on it with commuting.

The Sirius might do the job – but it’s quite pricey.

Will check  out the magicshine light above and a few other brands that have light to GoPro type options.

edit – the magic shine 1300 looks like it could work

First ride out last night with lights since last winter. Started in daylight but the light under the trees faded pretty quickly. Still on the Maxx D / Axis combo. Still flipping bright and excellent for visibility.

Still think the Maxx D is epic. The Axis – not convinced and probably wouldn’t buy again – I don’t think the battery is high enough capacity for the power it’s putting out.

I’ve never heard of a trail called Lyme Disease. Rocky is the one reliable one that always seems ok / open. Maggot seemed to get blocked off then not blocked off – haven’t ridden it this year I don’t think. Sh*t tent I haven’t ridden in years but the top looks open.

Was at Bourton Combe last night for a quick blast – running dry and dusty at the moment. Really fast.

@nickjb – there are 3 lines on the picnic bench side again are there? I knew there was one left but the exit onto the fireroad looked awful when I was there a month or 2 ago as a logging lorry or something had shredded the edge of the fireroad.

I use a Sram centreline 220mm rotor with a Code RSC on the front of my Sentinel. Moving from 200mm to 220mm gave a useful increase in braking power I thought.

The centreline in 220mm are said to be  2mm thick rather than 1.85mm thick (smaller sizes). I do notice when they get hot that they run slightly – they don’t when cold. So they must be slightly warping under heat.

I think if buying again I’d try the new hs2 rotors.

Leigh Woods isn’t as good as it used to be – one big hillside that had some good off piste in it was entirely wiped out a few years ago as they logged the whole thing with a plan to replant with native species. I haven’t really noticed new trees yet several years later but I haven’t looked that hard.

There is still some off piste if you look for it – although quite a bit of it is frowned upon these days. Hard to explain where it all is tbh – ideally you need someone to show you round.

AC has had quite a bit of work done on it by volunteers led by some of the pedal progression folks. Lots of it is now flowier – all berms and rollers. It’s ok for a quick blast.

LW official trail has been neglected for a long time – it’s a bit cut up but still ok.

50 acre is a short lap between LW and AC – it’s left more natural – it’s very rooty and pedally.

Bourton Combe is more fun tbh – it’s up the Long Ashton bypass near Flax Bourton (tucked next to a quarry). There are 2 bridleways through it and all the trails are unofficial. But they’re pretty fun for a quick blast.

Belmont hill is all about big jumps / gaps. I haven’t been there this year as it as a bit above my pay grade.

We’ve found because we have Virgin media cabling in our street that openreach haven’t bothered with fibre. We can only get fttc rather than fttp as a result. And the nearest cabinet is quite a long way from where we are – so the speeds would be a chunk lower on downloads vs Virgin. Otherwise I’d have moved by now.

Every few years we have the dance with Virgin where we downgrade some of the package etc to try and reduce the cost that they’ve gradually been increasing over and over again.

Last time I said I’d lose the Virgin tv boxes and just go to Broadband only as they’d said there was no other way to reduce the cost. Then magically someone rang us and offered us a deal to keep Virgin tv as well as the broadband. I did cancel our extra box though and replace it with freesat.

Yeah just keep it in Sterling in your Revolut account and it converts automatically when you make a transaction. If offered to pay in Sterling or Euro in a shop, always pick Eur. The Mastercard / Visa rate is usually expensive at the till va taking the Revolut exchange rate.

If you have the free Revolut account, note that once you spend £1000 overseas in a month it then charges you 1% per transaction extra. They want you to pay the £4.99 month upgraded account version to up that limit per month to £3k (from memory).

@jedi – I liked my float x as air shocks went. Expected my x2 to be better (once rebuilt with 2024 bits by Silverfish) but can’t feel any discernible difference really.

@rockthreegozy

I think the Super Deluxe coil is being replaced with the Vivid coil. Couldn’t track down a super deluxe coil in stock in the size for my bike. Vivid has the ‘touchdown’ damper thing that the Vivid air has – meant to disengage compression damping for the first small bit of travel to make it track the ground better. In theory.

It seemed to grip really really well – stutter bump root sections were much smoother.

I’ve gone 50lb lighter on the spring and first few runs down the little drop line at FOD I was bottoming out I think. Dialled in some hbo and a little hsc and it suddenly feels bottomless instead. Looking forward to riding it some more.

Got the new Vivid Ultimate coil in the end. So far it’s absolutely mega – can run a softer coil then on the Cane Creek Kitsuma I had before, but the damping / hbo on the Vivid means I’m not bottoming out at all. Feels bottomless at times. Yet more plush over roots than the Kitsuma as it’s a softer spring.

I’ve found doing deadlifts with a kettlebell I’m each hand is much better for my bulged lower discs in my back. You haven’t got the bar in front of you so can hold a better posture.

I also found with my issue that the tightness / pain felt in my lower back was made worse by tight glutes. This was discovered by a sports masseuse who suggested I regularly do the ‘pigeon’ stretch. It’s been an utter game changer for me.

Yeah but what about the instabangers (imagine there’s a laughing emoji here)

Ripmo is meant to be good – but when it came down to that vs an alloy Sentinel there wasn’t going to be a Ripmo AF in my life. I wonder if perhaps they look better in real life than online – don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the wild.

That Bold for £2999 is loaded with some seriously nice kit. Not sure I’d fancy all the internal routing and internal shock but it’s a looker.

That Ariel 30 isn’t really down-country is it? Long reaches / slack / heavy and unless they’ve changed them they have stupid super boost rear hubs. I Looked at them a few years ago and rules them out. Was comparing them to a Bird Aether 9 which sadly turned out to be out of stock at the time. Happily a local shop had a Transition Sentinel which I bought and loved it (but I’m no way what should be recommended for Matt in this thread!)

What about the Trek Fuel Ex 8 that’s also on sale at the same place as the Top Fuel?

Still efficient for pedalling but same travel as the instinct. You get the Fox 34 Rhythm rather than a Lyrik select and you get 4 pot brakes rather than 2 pot. Maybe the Bontrager wheels are slightly better than Rocky Mountain own brand hubs with Wtb rims on the RM too.

With the POC knee pads they just felt terrible fit wise as no bend / flex and that was in the house with heating on. So not cold. Fox and Ion d30 felt immediately more flexible / better shaped so I went with those options instead. I think the POC pads also only had one strap instead of 2 so felt less secure.

I heard the erg was better on the v2 than the v1 but still not quite as smooth / quick as the kickr core.

If you want easy adjustment and power per leg is it worth considering that new Zwift bike / frame thing and then add some Assioma duo pedals? If you wanted dual power on your road bike outside it would be easy to switch the pedals over to that too.

Apparently it’s not just Zwift compatible – it’ll work with stuff like TrainerRoad where you don’t need to change gear.

I bought some POC pads (maybe VPD Air or something like that) and they were a poor fit as they didn’t bend / fit round the knee nicely.

I’ve used d30 pads that fit much better – Ion K-Pact and Fox D30 Launch (not the pro with the hard top cap). I’ve crashed a few times in the Fox ones and my knees have always seemed to come out unscathed – so can’t say I’ve found any issue with d30.

I’ve never tried taking in a solid door frame with them though.

On the light thing I use an exposure mount which basically fits in anything that has central vents I think. On my Chronicle there’s a stick on go pro mount. That is not moving for anything – even when I’ve caught the light in a branch it doesn’t come unstuck.

I tried POC helmets as I think they look great but I found the Tectal gave me a headache – think it was just a bit narrow. So maybe not that make for you. Giro Chronicle fits me nicely (but is a few years old now – although some still on sale) – but this time round I picked up a Specialized Tactic on sale. Really comfy and has plenty of protection. Didn’t cost the world either.

Also tried on the next helmet up (Ambush 2) and it fitted horribly – narrower and felt smaller for the size.

Twrch then blue are fine. If not riding the Risca stuff I’d like ride Cafell with the Pedalhounds DH then go and ride Twrch, but ride up the tarmac to the top of a section called airstream 2. Take airstream 2 not airstream 1 when you get to that bit of the trail. 2 is bermy / rollery etc. 1 is just very tight and not that fun (in my opinion).

On the Twrch there is also a bit once you’ve climbed up into a woody bit (after airstream)  where there is a straight on or a right down a bermy bit of trail. Don’t go right – it’s really boring and pedally and just takes you back in a big loop to the fireroad up to airstream again. Stay left!

There’s a bit of most things at Cwmcarn depending on what you like.

The blue is short and not wildly exciting – it’s alright if you finish something else and want a quick 20 min extra lap.

Cafell and Twrch are xc loops – but they’re not like other xc loops really. Both have decent elevation, some fast and bumpy descents and hard climbs etc.

I’d say Cafell is harder on your fitness with climbing, Twrch is harder on technical climbing.

There are a couple of runs classed as downhill – 1 goes off the top of Cafell – and is pretty fast and flowy. The other goes from the top of a hill that you can get to from about halfway round the Twrch where you go up a short / steep concrete ramp.

If you like steep / tech off piste the you want the Risca side of the hill – you can either go to that concrete ramp I mentioned on the Twrch or you can pedal up the tarmac Forest Drive and look out for the off piste trails. Most of them are on Trailforks.

No Zwift race today then presumably!

Get it signed up Weeksy!

Endura fs260 pro have always been comfy for me. Just trying out some Gore wear ones that were on sale – not tried them on anything longer than 28km on the road so far. Pad is a bit thinner than the enduras I think.

Sweet. I ride a mixture of stuff – sometimes if I’m tight on time I’ll just ride of mixture of DH trails / the 2 enduro trails / rubber duck climb sort of stuff. Have been to a few other off piste areas this year, but not as much as I have done in previous years. Ridden Rowberrow quite a lot as it’s quicker to get to  and a bit of Cwmcarn / Risca.

@HobNob – was rather hoping the stages would be mostly downhill with climbs mainly on fire roads! Are you entering then? I’ll be in the ‘veteran’ class sadly ?

@mandog – the more the merrier! I doubt I’ll camp as I only live in Bristol. The last ‘race’ I did was the Cheddar Challenge XC back in the 90’s and I have bad memories of camping in a field so muddy I couldn’t get the car up there. By the time I’d gone up and back with all my stuff I just dragged my bike in the tent and crashed out without any fun. The race was then so muddy the mud spikes I had on were completely clogged and it was 2 laps of sheer misery!

Fitness shouldn’t be an issue – but speed downhill might be. My main aspiration at this time is to finish in one piece and not last!

Initially I’d up the pressure a little and see how that is. Leave the volume slavers as they are as it sounds like you’re getting most of the travel already.

I find on air shocks adding lsc can make them feel harsh pretty quickly.

On a super deluxe a Megneg can help with a bit more mid range support as long as you aren’t too heavy if the above doesn’t sort you out.

Just my local woods (Bourton Combe near Bristol) after a few weeks off riding as on holiday.

Picked up a new Vivid coil shock, so BC has got an ideal section of trail that has log drops to flat / few berms / couple of jumps and some rooty sections to repeat over and over. Actually didn’t take much tweaking at all to get some kind of reasonable setup – think it’s only got 5 or so clicks of adjustment on the hbo / lsc / rebound. Not touched the hsc at all yet. Might try a softer spring this week to see if I can get away with it.

Local woods were near enough as slippery as they get after the rain – getting stopped with a summer rear tyre on the steeper bits was a challenge.

Looks like sensible trail geometry to match the 250/140mm travel.

Decent groupset / acceptable wheels (rims might be a bit soft) / 2 pot brakes might do the job / suspension is ok but bottom of the range Lyrik & deluxe shock.

If it’s for an allrounder it looks like a decent price for that kit with a carbon frame. I’d prefer the headangle to be slacker, the head tube to be longer and the seat tube to be shorter and steeper but I’m being picky.

I looked into this a while back and bought myself a dedicated bike to leave on my Kickr Core and I also picked up a rocker plate setup.

If you’re using TrainerRoad in ERG mode there isn’t much to beat the smoothness of the kickr core for this. The Wattbike Atom  is meant to be better than it was when it was released at ERG but I read differing views on how quick it was to respond to short intervals if you’re doing threshold / sprint stuff.

Out of all the smart bikes I think the Atom probably is the one to go to for reliability and support though if you really want a smart bike. The Wahoo Kickr bike is probably smoother and has better gear changes etc – but if it goes wrong the support doesn’t seem to be as good as Wattbike’s is.