always used clarks cheap stuff but liberally applied grease (bearing juice current choice) when fitting. I’ve usually ended up replacing due to damaged outers or when changing shifter before I’ve had any shifting problems.

Uber here. Very similar construction and first bearing set lasted longer than my Hope one.

HR2 both ends (3c front, dual rear) on the hardtail for all year. Providing rims aren’t too wide as it ruins the profile.
Will be trying DHR2 on back of other bike soon (HR2 rear, DHF front currently).
I’m Forekaster curious too.

Just got new factory built stans arch for £385 off ebay. 1785gms inc tape and valves so saving over 400gms on my stock rims. taking another 200gms off with new tyres so I expect to float up the next climb.

I have the AT-LP5 and rate the sound out of it (marantz avr, AKG612’s and q3020i’s). But I do fancy a nice vintage deck and receiver.

Some albums have to be played on Vinyl. Stone Roses for example, sounds terrible on CD release. I switch between streaming and vinyl. Both sound good but there are differences from album to album.

Rift zone 3 (2018) has been amazing ride, especially after a few tweaks. I am really tempted by the Giant Trance 29 though. If I can convince myself it will be a significant upgrade, I’ll try and snag a higher-end one on discount in Autumn. Or just run the rifty another year, maybe with some lighter wheels, which would be good too.

My next short travel trail bike shortlist just got one longer.

Magic Knight Rayearth for sega saturn – been a month already from states (USPS)
Castlevania SoTN for PS1 – been 2 weeks from states
2021 debonair spring – w/c 24th expected

Got new tyres from CRC in 24 hours though :)

happy with a samsung 65″ non-oled. I didn’t do oled as I game a lot and this tv had really low lag, much higher brightness with reasonable contrast and no chance of burn-in. Colour out of the box is nuts, aimed at making them look bright and saturated in shops I expect. Cinema mode or my tweaked game mode are fine though. Sound is crap, I use an AVR and speakers.
There are ads in the UI but they are tiny boxes and I don’t notice them. It has a fast cpu so the UI and apps are really responsive, which is the key difference in cheaper sets. I have a cheaper samsung in the house too and the ui is ponderous on that in comparison.
I’d buy again.

@thisisnotaspoon I’ve not seen the 35 yet but the “charger” damper in the rev charger isn’t actually a charger. It’s another damper using an ifp instead of a bladder. It’s somewhere between moco and a real charger performance wise.

My 5 year old has a Vitus 16. Really nice bike. Fractionally heavier than a Isla but well made, just needed grippier pedals.

Nearly had a stroke watching that! Amazing racing. Inspiring comebacks from the women too.

I’d have bought several on-one helmets by now if they had a website that made it easy to buy stuff on my phone using PayPal!

I couldn’t get mine up, only rims I have had an issue with. Mind they are probably battered as I only tried last year and it’s done quite a lot of miles. Contemplating new wheels for it as it’s still my spare and fun to ride.

Not had a yari but got revs which had moco damping. totally fine, but takes a bit of tweaking to find your setting. like jjprestidge, my pb’s are all on moco. Not current charger 2.1 or the Charger 1 I had previously (though they do feel nicerer).

I found moco needed less rebound damping than I would normally use to cope with repeated hits. air pressure and tokens were set so I had mid-stroke and good ramp up, and then just ran lower tyre pressures to help with the trail chatter.

B17 quoted with 130mm forks I think. They take up to 140mm well but obviously small geo changes here and there.

Just did mine, thin layer of rockshox dynamic grease round the seal. Let the wipers / oil do their job.

that looks weird – does it have some sort of endcap stuck in the dropout?

Mine were marked as “boost” spacing which is a 53.4 chainline, I am running 148×12.
50mm chainline is the correct one for 142×12.

They aren’t narrow/wide but they have shaped teeth to grip the chain for retention. I’m not running a chain device. I lost the chain twice in the first few rides, 1st time out I hadn’t engaged the clutch after refitting! Not dropped it since though – I clattered down campsite descent last night being deliberately aggro to test forks and it was fine. Only 3 months old so will be interesting to see how it is after more wear on it.

M7000 SLX. I got mine for £95 with a chainring. Looks good, the writing wears off quickly but the finish underneath has stuck so far (3 months). I think they are within a couple of gm’s of XT weight wise. BB not included.

3 of us on them here. 1 needed replacing from new as had excessive play (was done under warranty), has been fine since approx 8 months. Including withstanding a horror crash then bent the seat rails. 1 only a few months old but fine. Mine is 16 months old and still fine without any servicing. Maybe slightly more wiggle than it had at new but nothing you notice riding.

we did the fell runner vs mtb’ers fell race in hayfield last year. A bike won comfortably on time. Same course with staggered start. The mtb’er in question was nick craig who went past us on the 1st climb like we were standing still :D

There is bugger all to choose between the forks you’d be getting at that level. None will have expensive dampers. You may but very well may not notice the difference between solo-air and debonair. You may or may not notice the difference between 32 and 35mm stanchions. All the forks you mentioned are decent enough.

But…the bike isn’t just a think to hang a fork off. It isn’t going to make a bad bike into a good one or vice-a-versa. Way too much emphasis on one component IMO. I’ve never looked back on a bike and recalled it being good (or bad) because of the fork on it.

A bit better I found. Like the difference when you do a 50 hour service but not as much as when you do a the 100 hour. It gives easy off the top, not noticed much difference beyond that. Might as well do it when changing them anyway.

must be getting on for 6-7 years with no punctures here. I still carry pump, patches, repair kit, co2 and a tube. And they get used too, although not by me!

v12’s I find will take a couple of peaks winters before a strip/clean/re-grease to quiet them down. then another year or two before they need bearings or bushes. Ran one set for 12 years like that and were going strong when I gave them away.

Still using v12’s after 20+ years. Work, lightish in mag, take a beating and easily serviced if they get squeaky.

The hawk hill can be had £200 cheaper at cycle republic.

I’d have (I do have) the rift zone out of preference to 29″, but they’re similar otherwise. If you can find a bad review of either bike I haven’t seen it. This generation of Marin’s have had great reviews from the press and some top riders on instagram seem to love them. I think some can’t shake off the view of some of their iffy models from previous years though. Their loss.

I’d get the hawk hill out of those choices. It’ll be fun out of the box but with loads of upgrade potential. Looks good too.

Uberbike’s are a decent option.

Was rear axle and rubber frame grommets for rift zone. Axle sorted with alternative and grommets are in stock.

I wish they’d just go direct sales though.

Marin got back to me in 24 hours looking for spares this week. I have to go via a dealer but they offered to contact them with part no.s etc to get stuff ordered.

I use the finish line stuff but it doesn’t really cut it when it rains hard. I get chainring grind after 5k or so.

Slopping a bit of wet lube on after a quick wipe with a gt85 soaked rag doesn’t take long though.

I think the simple answer is most people (certainly the ones I know) who don’t do basic maintenance like indexing, don’t tend to lube their bike meticulously either. So he took a punt as it looked dry and tried to do you a favour.

There could be other reasons, but unlikely any of them involve malice or gross negligence. So maybe just mention it next time you get your indexing checked :)

How much do you pay for an “indexing” check? Cos if it’s more than £2.50 I could have been a millionaire by now :D Why do so many people struggle with this? It’s tension on a cable FFS!

Alpine Trail

The only thing I’m taking from this thread is that llandegla and Swinley sound shite.

Not really bad ones but multiple times set up tyres tubeless to find them in the wrong direction. And pretty much every time I remove pedals I take the skin off my knuckles.
I did once shoot an airspring onto the shed roof without noticing and couldn’t understand the lack of internal parts when reassembling.

Setting up a business involves the same process, regardless of what it is. How big is the market? where is that market and how do reach them? what prices will that market stomach? Does that leave a decent profit margin? What competition is out there? How are they doing? what is your value proposition compared to theirs? etc. etc…

Try and keep your passion for bikes out of it while you answer those questions objectively. Unless you just want to do it for pin money in which case give it a go.

Personally I do it for beers/favours, and have a deal with my “customers” they must have rockshox/shimano equipped mtb’s to make it easy for me :D