Thinking of building one of these, possibly with rigid forks due to budget and the muddy conditions never leaving my local trails. If I do it will be my only bike for the foreseeable future. By the summer (if we have one) I hope to have the budget for some new forks.

So i’ll use it for woodsy riding and on Dartmoor. With some XC racing thrown in.

So my question is how GNAR do you all get with the rigid forks? Seriously what is the most demanding terrain that you can cope with?

Hi, yep I’d like to know aswell. small group of us heading Afan next weekend & thinking of W2 or skyline. Any trail closure/open updates would be great!

thread hijack – Herman Shake – are you saying Mk1 PA with a short travel 29er fork would work……I have a very nice pink mk1 PA frame sat by my desk right now that I was thinking of building back up for the rest of the winter year…Also how balanced is the PA with rigid 29er up front…..

Mister P, are you liking the fortitude? can you provide an overview please?! As i’m drawn to them….

amt27 – Good to hear! I made that comment as it reflects where my career ended up and a realisation that I wanted to do something that involved manufacturing in the UK. Profit is not a bad word, i just believe it is great if design can be used for good, such as bringing some manufacturing home.
So what do you make and where are you???!

Well i’d say Uni is bloody expensive these days, therefore I guess it should be considered carefully, which you are obviously doing.

Regarding Product Design, if you chose to have a go at that, then yes, you would really need to do an undergrad degree to learn all of the skills needed to be useful in the profession. Then a uni course with a sandwich year placement is a must, otherwise unless you are obviously the next Jonathon Ive you’ll struggle to get noticed above the pile of cv’s.

A good suggestion would be to not gamble yet and go and find a nice art and design foundation course for a year. It’ll give you a better understanding of the different disciplines. 10/12 years or so ago, Falmouth College of Art had a great foundation course and Falmouth is a great place to spend a year.

As for Product Design as a career, i’m well over it. The reality of churning out bits of guff in a For Profit economy, manufactured as far away from the UK as possible to meet margin/profit demands ground me down. Hence studying an MA in Design:Sustainable futures to try and find a way of using design for some good.

My current thinking is that with (product) design skills it’s far more rewarding to work for yourself and add value in a measurable way somehow. I hope i’ve found a way forward with the work i’ve been doing.

Hi,
I’m a product designer by practice / experience, BUT currently sat here being distracted from writing the final bits of my dissertation for my MA Design: Sustainable Futures…..digital draft has to be sent to the external tomorrow night.

Does it sound like I could help at all, or is it mainly Graphic stuff you are interested in?
If Graphic i’ve been following the American graphic artist, James Victore’s work for a while. I like his notion that you should do work that matters, and to make it matter, it has to matter to yourself first. He does a good open question Tuesdays thing, kind of mentoring and is on the money. Worth a look.
(you can probably tell i’m in dissertation mindset)

Mostly Balanced – Very good point indeed. I got a bit carried away there.

It’s innovation, it’s iteration, it’s evolution. It’s neither right nor wrong. Suspension was an innovation and that’s quite nice.

Evolution is also why we are not still dragging our fists on the floor. But maybe it didn’t work too well as it may have been nice to have kept a bit more hair on the body (and in my case head) so we didn’t have to wear so many clothes…just speculating…

Jus

Oh no. Been reading all about the Krampus. It makes the decision about “which 29er” much easier. Forget it, get a Krampus instead. End of. Saving has officially started.

Anyway, they sound ace. I’d love to try one. Anyone have one in the South West / near Dartmoor? I’m thinking they’d make mince meet of grassy/slightly boggy moortops and loose rocky descents…

This thread has started to get me thinking Fat….one more question (forgive me if it has been covered before).
What about sticky mud sticking to tyres, mud clearance and the uber weight of a 3″tyre pastered in mud….

I agree with all those that say 29ers look right now and 26ers don’t. I have been thinking this since I saw a pic of myself on the medium Pitch I used to have. It’s 26″ wheels looked like a kids bike. And i’m only 5’11 not a typical 29er riding giant!

Have been intensely finishing an MA for the past 6 months so haven’t done my normal amount of riding. But when it’s finished (November) I am planning on swapping to a 29er hardtail to get me back into riding. Looking at this thread i’m like a kid in a sweet shop and don’t know which way to turn!

Geordiemick00 I really like the look of those Genesiserz. I am wondering if that is the bike for xc racing and singletrack….but am worried that the geo is for rigid only (if I want to upgrade to a fork i the future). How you finding it?

@jambalaya – Don’t worry, do not stress! I wouldn’t want to have 26er and 29er bikes for that same reason. But I try to be a one bike (offroad) type chap. However my 26er wheels are pretty tired and going to need replacing soon, so it seems like a good time to make the swap over. I’ve ridden quite a few 29ers over the past year or so and for what I ride I can see benefits. It’s just the forks that are the real bugger to have to purchase again.

17″ dims look perfect (for me). Cheers!

Mike, How about HTT lengths for both sizes?

@jambalaya – Won’t they fit. Damn that’s a shame. ;-)

I suppose it will be for long travel forks. Was hoping it would be a UK designed option to a Solaris that was lighter than an Inbred and would not build up too heavy

Hello,
Me Bro in law and I did our take on this at Easter. We wanted a bit more offroad than the sustrans route and we wanted to bivvy. So we followed the Two Moors way. Kind of. We started at Forland Point on the North and headed south following the Two moors way. Rather a lot of it was rideable!

We left Foreland point at midday on the Friday and bivvied in some woods on the southern edge of Exmoor that night. Saturday was a big day of riding and took is across the nondescript bit between Exmoor and Dartmoor up through Chagford for dinner at the Warren House inn. We Bivvied saturday night in some of the old mine gulleys behind the pub. Was a good spot for the night. I must admit a large part of the Two moors way in the hinterland between the two moors proper looked unrideable and time consuming.We felt like it would take forever, so we cheated slightly and took a road route from Witheridge to Drewsteignton/Castle Drogo.

Sunday’s aim was to ride some of the Dartmoor routes we know that were just about enroute and get to Prawle point for dinner at 6pm with the family. So our Sunday route was Warren house inn over to Grimspound. Up onto Hameldown and descend towards Ponsworthy. Climb up to the top of Dr Blackalls Drive and decend to Newbridge, then followed the Two moors way proper all the way through Holne (for Lunch), Scorriton, up to Pupers hill and all the way across country to the train track near Redlake. Sped down train track to behind Ivybridge then took the roads through Loddiswell, Kingsbridge and finally on to Prawle point.

We were proper knackered but look forward to doing it again! If I knew Exmoor better maybe we could have fitted in better riding there, but all in all the riding was pretty good despite carrying bivvying gear.

MrBen100 – Spinione’s rock! And I love the fact there is one doing a poo in the background of your picture.

Here is Gylly!

On one at the beach

and on top of Snowdon!

This is why I love STW!

Someone says it’ll be fine, someone else indicates that it won’t work, kit will get destroyed!

I’ll do the maths….

I can’t add much, but want to say that:
I’d never seen many 5’s in the flesh…until last night’s ride. One of my riding buddies turned up with his newly built 5. I have to say I really liked the look it it. Nice and simple, purposeful even. But then I am a simple bike man, I ride an aluminium rush.

Any way, my friend has moved to it from an old 575, followed by a Cube Stereo, followed by an almost current 575. He’s been riding on it for about 3 weeks, so not that long, but so far he feels it’s a far better all round bike than either of the aforementioned bikes. Type of riding, has been South Dartmoor and East Dartmoor including Hound Tor and Lustleigh Cleave area, and the Occumbe Farm DH place near Paignton.

It was lighter than I expected aswell…

Road – The coastal road between Padstow and Newquay has some epic views and killer steep hills!

However there is some good MTB riding in the woods around Bodmin, but I think you’ll need a guide to find them

Convert – Good stuff thought you may be in Design Ed! It’s the future of manufacturing!

Where do you work / what as? Design Engineer?

Fenred, how much does your build weight? Inbred 29er, reba and crests….

Chunky(Stu) It would go wouldn’t it….Lefty needed though.
Masses of rear clearance….i was possibly one of the only people at 24/12 this past weekend whose frame did not completely clog up…

Mike,
Have a MK1 PA (pink) and love it. Although riding a Rush at the moment. But I intend to convert to 29erness at some point in the next year. If there was a 29er version of the PA, then that would be the bike for me. SO, very interested to hear more of the PA29er plans….

At about 2.30 am Saturday morning we were awoken by a gazebo landing on top of our van!
Then both our gazebos crumpled.

After that it was all ace.
And to cap it all, one team of our little group managed to pull of 3rd in Male 24hr pair.

I STILL do not know where “shred splitter” is….

To clear up the confusion I started about Mud X’s. It was the 1st and only time my friend had used them! He is used to bloody great big 2.35 Nevegals and probably had to Mud X’s pumped up too hard…It surprised me he didn’t get on with them as I have seen others getting on very well with Mud X’s at Newnham in the wet.

Northwind, thanks. Was wondering if anyone had experience with Slant 6’s.

Having re-read this, I should probably outline my real dilemma.
I have a Kenda Blue Groove 2.1 DTC up front. Despite not liking it at first I have come back to it and can not fault it in all conditions. But the question is, what Kenda tyre to pair it with at the rear?
A Nevegal is a bit too draggy for what I want, been there before…I am worried that an SB8 will not cope with the wet and slippery roots very well. I’ve just been using a Maxxis Monorail and it’s poor grip on roots when climbing did my head in…

Wasn’t this a You Tube sensation a few years ago?

Unless it’s absolutely biblical the course will be fine. With mud anxiety one of my team mates last year put a pair of mud x’s on. They only lasted one lap until he switched back to his Nevegals. The terrain has a mix of roots and rock, with few really earthy sections to get boggy. His mud x’s just slipped off all the roots and rock like football studs.

In moist conditions at Newnham i’ve had best results with Advantage 2.1’s.

Drac, I hope not? Bro’s maybe? Gylly is from Cornwall, where is Jake from?

OKay, so as this is rapidly becoming a Border T love in, I can’t resist posting some pics of Gylly!

Deadly, Molly’s a little tacker isn’t she?! Very cute. Regarding the swimming – haven’t had any problems with Gylly, he seems to enjoy swimming. However, prefers to wade in from the shallows rather than launch of a bank and doesn’t like waves at the beach much.

null

Exactly what everyone else said.
Adding to that ours (Gylly, almost 2) has extraordinary GPS abilities. You only have to take him somewhere once and that’s it, it’s been logged. Then if he likes that place and you are anywhere near it again, the Border stubborness will see him pull, stop, sit down, lie down, anything possible to get him to that destination.

You and your partner sound exactly like my wife and I about 2 years ago, similar description of house/garden and work commitments. Gylly comes to work with us everyday and sits in our van. We are lucky enough that if it is too hot in the van he can come into the office, albeit tied to my desk. But also doesn’t mind being left at home for a few hours either. Also we are lucky enough to be able to send him to a local dog trainer who does ‘Dog Day Care’ twice a week. He goes one a week (a tenner) as much for him to have a mess around with his mates as anything else. The big plus point is that when he comes home he is absolutely knackered.

Ok I will shut up now.

Such awesome dogs, such character, fit whilst being lazy, clever yet stubborn. You have to be stern with them and stick to your guns when training them.

But what about the Rush – surely they are going to reinvent the xc singlepivot carbon machine one day…….
(I know i’m repeating myself)

It looks lovely and is perhaps the pinnacle of mountain bike innovation right now, but i’d love it if Cannondale made an new version of the Rush (for when my ally one bites the dust). I can’t be doing with more stuff to maintain!
Just imagine, up-to date carbon tech, carbon rear end, instead of twisty ally one, bolt through rear axle, 0.5° slacker, tiny bit shorter in the TT, neater cable routing……

Thanks guys. Thought and hoped it was that simple.
Bash ring – not sure i’m gnar enough for that. Don’t run a bash on the triple set up, so will I need it?

Also do I just buy another middle as a replacement?

Thanks all. The alpkit looks great for the price. Is it tough enough for everyuday though? Will it last? Or is it a plastic backed material that will delaminate over time?