+1 for advising against the Knog. It’s utter garbage. Far too quiet! I do like the look of those Timber Bells, IMO it’s a bit pricey for a bike bell!

I’m 6’3″, I have 2018 Sentier VRS, XL fit’s perfectly.

I love this bike BTW. 100% recommend

Thanks guys

It is a hardtail too, btw.

I went there weekend before last. First time. I’m pretty new to MTB (roadie, got a hardtail last summer). I have done Cwncarn (Twrch) once. I absolutely loved it!!

We stayed in Afan lodge, great location, great food.

We did The Wall first, then had lunch as the café in Glencorrwg, which was perfect btw, food was spot on. Then did Blade. Omg it was hard on my hardtail and no skill haha, especially the last rocky descent to the café!! I was so tired, I walked a couple of those last bits as arms were totally dead and couldn’t see beyond the rocks, next time I will ride those, they were fine. But so much fun! Although it was very tiring, the views at the top made it worth it (shame about the vast tree felling though)

I loved Cwncarn, but think Afan more so. I’m not had the opportunity to ride any bike parks yet. But [as I’m still new] I’ve not really into jumps etc. I love the natural single track stuff. Amazing. More!

That explains the hair loss then

Am I supposed to be oiling my clippers!?!

I just recently bought a used Elite Direto from a mate, who’d bought it new and did not like indoors riding at all. Previous to this, I used my 4iiii power meter and a dumb mag trainer.

Got to say, the direct drive smart trainer makes the whole Zwift experience so much more fun and engaging. I’m getting a little bit hooked on it. Happy with my purchase.

His reviews aren’t limited to MTB. He also reviewed a TT bike, which I used to own.

https://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/time-trial-triathlon/product/review-giant-trinity-11-40912/

My 3/4 year old Cannondale Supersix road bike looks brand new, and gets babied.

My 5 month old hard tail is well scratched and scuffed. I was worried about damaged it at first, but once it got a few scraps it was kind of liberating, as then I got just got on and enjoyed it!

Drops (and aero position) off road is horrible.

I’ve thought about putting flat bars on my Cannondale CAADX. I don’t enjoy riding it as a ‘cross bike/off road. It’s considerably less fun than my hard tail for all off road riding.

But the CAADX with flat bars would make an awesome super commuter, it has mounts for guards/rack. Flat bars, and flat pedals would be a better setup for commuting through town traffic IMO.

I’m not sure the shorter reach is a concern, as with a flat bar you’d want to sit up a bit, and be less aero/over the bars. So a shorter reach, would position you that way?

Perhaps the UK market isn’t big enough to warrant developing a lovely warm, waterproof, quick drying boot with the 5:10 grip?

Surely it’s all about the sole on the boot. Unless it’s Stealth type of grippyness then not going to be as much use?

FB is an EVIL all consuming, invasive, persuasive, addictive, (AI) intelligent beast! But other than that, it’s fine is suppose…:-D

“or see if I can kill FaceBook.”

PLEASE DO! I just recently deleted myself from it, hard as it was

Fanny pack, YEAH! Love it, it’s excellent for not epic long rides. Bottle in the cage, frame strap for spare tube.

A newspaper?!?! As above, I haven’t had one of those in the hosue for a long time! Might have to start buying the Sunday paper again

Or just give in and spend £25 on a boot dryer

I was reluctant to leave mine on the rad, thought that heat might be bad for them, dry glue out etc??

I got some from Aldi. Tested them Sunday, in very wet conditions. Worked excellently, until the rain was biblical and water ran down legs into the socks. There is no way around that of course.

They are £9.99 at the moment in store.

I just replaced the truly awful level that came with my BrandX Ascend dropper. I used the Wolftooth, (Shimano I spec 2).

It’s excellent, has made a huge difference.

I used to geek out on this stuff way too much. I was big into time trialling. Got fitter and fitter, ftp was better than most I raced against. But in a TT race,FTP is just part of the puzzle – FTP/CDa. Then got sick of it all and jack it in. Too focussed.

Don’t go on the timetrialling forum, they’re all mental and will argue for decades about the concept of FTP 😀

TrainerRoad ramp test is definitely the best approach for inexperienced testers, I would thoroughly recommend this to the OP. You can’t pace it wrong, and it only gets painful for the final 3 mins, keep turning the pedals until you really truthfully cannot do anymore.

A 10 mile TT is a good approximation, but I used to hold 105% of my FTP, so for inexperienced you’ll likely get the wrong FTP estimate. Having said that, a 10m TT is far more fun than an indoor 20 min FTP test. 20 min test is just plain horrible. Nobody wants to do that. The ramp is actually quite fun.

Another option is Xert. I had a lot of fun with this platform. You do not need to test.

Thanks for sharing your tips, tricks and opinions guys. Much appreciated.

I did used to use Squirt on my time trial bike (it has lower friction, so saves watts, so faster!). And that used to get very black and grimy. Yes it must be the stuff from cars, I guess a lot of tiny particles from brake pads, tyres and diesel. Gross

“you’ll need to develop a bit of tolerance to drivetrain filth unless you want to spend forever cleaning the bike ”

I feared that! I’m someone who used to shake his head at a dirty chain on a road bike. Obsessive! 😀

I’m not too worried about honey. Don’t consume it very often. Mostly it’s in some cereal bars or somewhat.

I understand the issue.

It is hillarious when you mention to people the “proper” vegans don’t eat honey either, that tips them over the edge haha!

The universal rule of “don’t be a dick” applies here.

Agreed! It’s ridiculous, PR, brand protection. Maybe in the future he shouldn’t reply to work emails when drunk though! 😀

I’m vegan, and of course an avid cyclist. It’s nice to be doubly hated by the majority 🙂

(although recently I switched to MTB from road, so a little bit less hated as out of sight)

Sold my TT bike this summer after 2/3 seasons of racing, only because it was escalting, and racing traffic assited dual carridgeways for PBs seemed less than sensible to my mind. I was good at time trialing though, I’m built for it.

Bought a CAADX CX bike “to get away from it all”, “all” being the roads/cars. Riding gravel is bloody boring! Can’t be arsed to race CX if I’m totally honest, so she’s hanging on the wall now.

Bought a hard tail, bingo! funtimes!

Need to polish up the CAADX and get it sold.

I have the Bontrager rapid pack, it’s brilliant. Nice snug fit, minimal bounce. It’s made from stretchy fabric, so can stuff a lot on there. I have tools, food, a gilet, arm warmers etc and could fit more.

It has a central pocket for a wter bottle. But I use the bottle cage for that, so stick a couple of bananas in this central pocket – perfect!

I get by on a hilly 40 miler with it, and a 1l water bottle in the cage

This summer, I made the switch to the dark side, from the road bike. And what a summer this has been!!!

TBH I’m actually looking forward to the wet months. I ride all year, all weathers on the road bike. Some proper grim rides this past winter, it was very cold one. But it’s still a laugh when out with the group.

But all this talk of mud, I’ve yet to see it, and I am looking forward to getting mucky. Ask me again in January though and it might be a different answer!

My only quandary is clothing. Roadies have evolved very good and sensible array of clothing options and layers. Will have to just suck it and see what works for me.

Thanks. The exposure stuff is great quality (I have a TracR rear), but those are a little pricey for me

It’s all about the racing!

Just training on it is dull imo. – If you’re just following a training plan, and a target power for X mins, then watching the little fella pedal soon gets boring, so just use Sufferfest/TrainerRoad or whatever.

Where Zwift excels is fun competition. I used to use the races as motivation to get in a really hard session, and I find it enables me to push much deeper (nearly puked a couple times). Doing a session really as hard as you can once every week or two, combined with working on long and slow endurance outside is a great way to improve fitness.

And yes, definitely register with ZwiftPower. Racing is pointless without results and Zwift themselves don’t provide a results service (ODD!) so it falls to ZwiftPower. Also for ZwiftPower results to be valid, you have to use a power meter AND a heart rate strap. And you have to make sure you select the appropriate category. If you don’t do these things you get DQ’d! I was in cat A when training and racing (I’m sure I won’t be now) and cat Bs were getting DQ’d if they raced at or above 4w/KG (cat a)

What is the goal of the training? Racing?

I used to race time trials, and went through various training systems. I tried Polarised (AKA 80/20), TrainerRoad, Zwift and Xert.

Polarised is logical, but I got a bit bored of lots of very easy riding. In essense, you ought to be doing a lot of long hours at low intensity (nose breathing), then once a week (or more) an very hard workout.

TrainerRoad plans are excellent, I had a lot of sucess following this, but it’s inside – turbo training (TT training is a lot of turbo blagh!)

Zwift was a lot of fun, the crit racing in particular! Balls out!

Xert was the best of all. Very clever system. Very flexible. You’re “guided” but the clever software, not stuck in a structure. I won’t detail – you’d need to read up. Took me a while to get my head around, but it’s very logical, with definate lean towards polarised.

For me and my development, the best thing i did was buy a power meter – thouroughly recommend!

I stopped all that nonsense now, and just ride my MTB around the woods just for the fun of it!

I started road cycling 2014, after years of inactivity, smoking and being generally rubbish. Stopped all that, lost weight, got fit. Fell in love with being out on the lanes, the freedom, the sounds and rhythm – tyres swooshing, perfectly tuned and lubed gear quietly humming, heavy breathing but in control, looking for a burn in my legs, finding it and holding it. Loving the hills, loving seeing my friend’s pained faces whilst we’re chasing each other to the top. Malvern Rider describes it perfectly, I read it and instantly thought, that’s it, but I had a roadie kind of version.

But cars….motorists…all the anger in our beautiful country, slowly killed my passion.
This spring, I was just losing my mojo, wasn’t feeling the strong compulsion to get out on the bike. But I’d had this thing in the back of my mind for a long time, to want to get away from the quiet tarmac lane I’m on, and into those woods over there. I’d wonder, what’s over there, or in there, and what’s at the top of that grassy hill.

I sold my TT bike and bought my first proper hardtail. In an instant boom, I was back in love, oh wow, this is amazing!! I’m in the woods/heathland just near my house, I didn’t know this bit was here! I can work just as hard up the hills to get the HR buzz if I want, but it’s just so peaceful and beautiful. I’d stop at the top of a hill, there’s nobody here, no roads, no angry people, it’s dead quiet apart from some birds of prey soaring, it’s absolutely gorgeous, stunning, calm and peaceful.

But I’m a roadie, good legs and terrible handling! I joined an awesome local club, and have learned stacks. How to ride the thing (did a couple of basic skills courses) and more importantly, got shown where to find the good stuff. Met some great people, and it’s nice that MTBers end the ride in a pub rather than a poncy coffee shop 😉 It’s only 7 weeks since I’ve been riding MTB, so quite nervy on the steep stuff, but love the singletrack.

I did kind of get lucky and buy my hardtail right at the start of the best summer I’ve ever known (I was born 1980), and have had the luxury and riding hard, dry and fast trails! But I’m not soft, I’m actually looking forward to the mud!

I’m 6’3″ too, and bought the 52 cm. Perfect fit

I’m a roadie, just turning MTB (what happened to me!) Done all the road stuff for a few years, getting more and more into it, sportives, then racing, then TT. Got pretty good. But got slowly fed up with all the agro from drivers, the war bikes vs cars etc…yawn! Just stressing me out, and it’s not going to change in the UK ever.

Last year bought a CAADX, to escape, on to the trails and get away from it all. Nice bike. But this didn’t quite do it, it’s really limited to fire roads and gravel.

So just about 6 weeks ago I sold the TT bike and bought my first proper HT. Haven’t ever ridden MTB properly. So joined a local club – Dorset Rough Riders, great guys! Learning loads.

OMG I’m so hooked, this is so much fun!!!

Anyway..

This is the bike I settled on after some research, and my target and budget were the same as yours. The Vitus Sentier VRS+ 2018. Great spec and geometry for the money. I’ve little to compare it to, as I haven’t ridden a MTB since I was a kid, and that wasn’t anything like MTBing really. It’s flippin good fun to ride, and get’s me down everything I’ve tried so far.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-sentier-vrs-hardtail-bike-slx-1×11-2018/rp-prod159772

Hi.

I have a 2018 CAADX, I just fitted some Hunt 4Season Gravel wheels. Look really good for the price. Came (actually) tubless ready, taped and supplied with valves, and some spare spokes, adapters for centre lock> 6 bolt.

Only had chance to use them twice, on gravelly type stuff, feel good.

HUNT 4 Season Gravel Disc Wheelset