An air spring I pulled out the other week – this was factory fresh a few months ago…Yes the transfer port was blocked!

In awe following Tahnee’s recovery on Instagram. Might be some good rehab tips there.

Yes deffo. Air piston globbed with grease and not enough oil in the lowers. Crush washers missing completely or on one leg. 2 out of 3 sets with issues for me.

Marin multi-trac (e.g rift zone, hawk hill), 6 of 12X24X6, job done! The rear pivot uses a bushing (an igus plane bearing).

Most of mine were seized after 2 winters, so won’t leave it as long next time. The bushes were as new.

I used those to do mine recently. Worked a treat, really easy.

I’d just started again at 47, had a few lessons at Projekts in manchester before lockdown. Now I’m a bit out of luck for local places to skate. It’s all muck round here! I might have to get up really early and go up to marple memorial park or something.

I ride 120mm F/R and prefer it to longer travel bikes. I have to work a bit harder downhill to keep things smooth, but I never flat (last puncture was 8/9 years ago) as a result. On the flats I feel it pops off stuff better, needing less compression, so small surface features turn into ramps rather than flattened in the sag. I appreciate the efficiency when climbing. I get a better feeling for the surface and what the tyres are doing.

I’m also slower on the descents than mates with more travel. And less comfortable on the really clattery stuff. And I avoid really big drops. And have less confidence when it gets really steep.

The compromise works for me over 95% of what I ride. But it’s clearly not for everyone.

I had a mustang v2, did sound nice. Only 2 issues for me with modelling amps in general. 1, I spend too much time fiddling and less practicing. And 2, never found one my Gretsch sounds good through, though solid bodies are fine. I have a small hybrid amp now, but use the iPad with AmpliTube for fiddling about with sounds.

Always scared of commenting in these sorts of threads as a white middle aged man. I do ride with women a lot and don’t hear much misogyny personally, but maybe I just miss it. I do use women pro’s as examples to my kids (both boys), to counter the “boys are best” silliness they pick up at school. I would hope in comparison to other sports it’s better. But society as a whole has a way to go yet and mtb doesn’t exist in a bubble.

The valve stems are too short, so you can screw all you like it doesn’t compress properly. Just whip one out of an inner tube. You can test it by winding out the core a turn or two, it will register pressure but I wouldn’t trust it long term.

Had this on pikes. Replace the valve stem. Fixed.

No reason you can’t learn the skills. I’m late 40’s, been in computer security for over 20 years, self-employed for 8 years, fully WFH bar the odd client visit. But part of what allows me to work like this is contacts built up over those 20+ years and the experience working in lots of large companies (banks etc). If I had to start from scratch now, I wouldn’t/couldn’t do it.

I would expect a lot more IT roles will be moved out to WFH after this pandemic though. I have clients who do not intend to go back to how they were when it’s finished. So all sorts of roles could end up with WFH as an option. I’d start building some tech skills, looking at certification paths (I’d be looking at aws certs myself) and just keeping an eye on the job market.

I’m on plusnet but use a bt homehub has it’s better than the one they supplied. And can be had really cheap as there are loads on ebay and the like.

I think we need a new discipline or a change of existing one to drive development. Trail centre grand-prix’s! Blur the lines of xc and enduro. queue a range of lighter trail bikes that can do 20 laps of cannock and still smash a black run.

I’m on the fence with these incremental updates as to whether they are a good thing or just fixing things that should have been right first time. What’s the situation like in Fox world? Or DVO/Ohlins etc for that matter? The last non-Rockshox fork I owned had elastomers in it!

I got some pads, took nearly 2 weeks. chainring a week. so not as quick as usual but everything has arrived in the end without chasing.

Ltd company here so the only thing on offer for me is cheap debt.

I don’t feel any need for another bike so I guess that fits. Rift zone – done trail centres on it, done long xc rides on it, did ard moors enduro on it, do local exercise / strava’ing on it, ride with the kids on it. I’d replace it with similar but don’t feel any need for a +1.

seconded for Giant Trance 29. Short travel 29ers rock for all round enjoyment on natural trails. My rift zone is fun up, down and along. not quite as keen on the spec of the new ones though and I’ve spent a few quid getting this one right. So if buying again today I’d have the Giant.

I’m riding the peaks on stans arch factory wheelset in 29er. 1760 grams. feel well made, hubs engage well and have a non-obtrusive, fishing reel sounding buzz.
some on ebay brand new for 380.
i’m riding 2.3 tyres and they are designed to take a 2.5 max. Maybe look at Crest if you are running narrower on your XC bike, as they are lighter still.

I upgraded from solo-air to debonair (2019) and now to debonair (2021). I did change travel between them though so kind of hard to state for certain the differences. I will say the 2021 spring sits noticeably higher in its travel than the two previous. And it’s a bit less of a faff to setup. The fork feels great, no complaints with it. I also have a charger 2.1 damper.

Just gone down from 30mm to 26mm with tyres down from 2.6 to 2.3 in 29″. And it feels better for it, way more surface feel and darty. Nearly half a kilo lost too, which isn’t going to hurt climbing. I’ve kept the old wheels and tyres so will be interesting to swap back after a while and see how they feel going the other way.

@Drac – I made a conscious effort to yes. Not that I checked companies house before making any purchase, because that would just be stupid wouldn’t it?

I avoided it for 5 years due to their tax situation, but in the end I buckled. Initially I needed something for work the next day and only they could do it. Slippery slope from there..

All that’s been demonstrated here is that people anchor their views and values on different perceptions of society and history. be that due to their favoured source of current affairs, historical context, character, personal experience etc. Fundamentally though, you probably need a cup of tea and a moment of reflection if you’re hating on Britain with other British people, via the medium of a British invention while residing in Britain. There is half a globes worth of people who would swap places with you in heartbeat, and many die trying.

Mine arrived from j-tech this week and fitted it yesterday. First impressions are it works as intended. I’ve dropped from 140mm to 120mm here so it’s not a like-for-like comparison. I also changed seals for skf’s while I did it and the wipers were a little dry. This is in a 2018 rev with a charger 2.1 damper and had the 2019 debonair in.

Having said that, it does noticeably sit higher in its travel. On slight-to-medium inclines it actually looks like its at full extension when seated. So, for one I was glad I changed my order from 130 to 120 as I’m trying to make the bike more balanced. Pumped up to usual pressure sag is much nearer to 20% than 30%. But curiously I was able use all but the final 5-10% of travel, where it was 10-15% left for “emergencies”. So I’m going to try more pressure or an extra token – which is the opposite of what I expected I would be doing. I am reducing travel though.

It doesn’t feel any stiffer off the top. It just goes. So not expecting any worse for small-bump compliance, though I still need to ride it more and tweak it. Fitting was O.K, not quite as easy to squeeze into the stanchion with it being hollow compared to a 2019 but wasn’t too much of a struggle. And I didn’t need to do any messing about to get the chambers to balance properly. Just pump it up to near about, bounced it about a bit, did final adjustment.

Whether it’s worth changing from a 2019 shaft if you’re not changing travel, I couldn’t say.

Moloko – time is now.

So I test mobile app for security and privacy issues. I also have a client who is one of the leading geospatial data analytics companies. I’ll be downloading and using the app. I’ll probably have a poke around it out of professional curiosity, but nothing I have heard or read convinces me that installing it is a bad idea.

Seriously if you are that worried about your privacy then you shouldn’t own a smart phone in the first place.

Everything I have an interest in has been either invented or massively influenced by the British in a way few countries can claim. That makes me proud and content to be British, if that is what patriotism is.

That doesn’t mean I agree with every policy enacted or don’t have sympathy for those hurt by them. There isn’t a utopia.

lowers then full annually. same with shock. forced myself to learn and get tooled up for it. do mates bikes too as long as they have 32 or 35mm rockshox!

rebound is about 7/8 clicks off slow.
another thing – if you find that the adjustments aren’t doing much (should be obvious) check your oil levels.

I’ve just gone XT 11-46 to Sunrace 11-46 (MX80) and wish I had ages ago. Better all round, smoother shifts, better ratios, looks good! On M7000 mech and shifter with kmc x11 chain.

marin rift zone has fit the bill for my similar criteria. but i’d have a trance 29 in a heartbeat.

Yeah I found it dives too much when ran open and no amount of tokens helped. Just that one click of compression seems to make all the difference. It’s worth playing a bit more with pressure and compression before you bin it, as it can be a decent trail fork when you find the sweet spot (assuming it’s all working correctly).

I really like the moco in my reba’s. It always surprises me how good it feels after spending weeks on effectively a top-end pike (debonair+charger2.1 in revs). But this was world-cup winning technology 10 years ago!

I’m running 1 click of compression, sag at 25% with 2 tokens I think (88kgs). I think the steeper HA on that bike helps with getting weight on it too, as it won’t move off the top as slick as the newer fork (maybe a solo-air thing).

@trumpton I did have the old v12’s and they just lasted. I gave them away after 12 years and duty on 3 bikes and were still spinning as smooth as new. The new slimmer ones don’t seem to seal as well, but if you are prepared to service them regularly they should last forever. I’ve got 2 pairs here one of which has a bearing which is starting to go. But I’m 14 stone, big bike, gritstone area, jetwash through boggy winters etc.. can’t complain.

In fairness I had a set of v12’s for 12 years without replacing a bearing. Last set 5 years just stripping and regressing from time to time. When I think robust I think v12.

@Alex Early days and not done a long ride yet. It was an impulse thing as it seemed good value while was shopping for other stuff on the site.

M6000’s. with 180mm rotors F&R.

I have no problem blowing money on upgrades but never felt the need to mess with the brakes bar swapping out the rear 160mm rotor.

Was a committed Rocket user but trying a chrome railed Burgtec Cloud just now. Didn’t notice it first ride so that’s a good sign.