As a 5ft 0 (153cm) bloke who’s had to get properly geeky about bike geometry and sizing over the years, even more so since dropper posts, that article was pretty much useless.

As an aside, I can’t emphasise how much the trend for short seat tubes has been a game changer for me.. at barely 5ft I’ve even been able to ‘size up’ to a size ‘Small’ on my current bike – the brand did do an XS as well but I wanted the extra reach / wheelbase and still fit a dropper (admittedly not as long a dropper as I would like but that’s the compromise I chose).

Myself and my wife have only ever run 5-10’s for years due to grip being the no1 priority on flats, but we took a punt a few months ago on some spesh flat pedal shoes for my wife. She’s very happy with them – really good grip (close to if not equal to 5-10 grip), seem well made (not used them for long enough to really talk about durability). Come up a bit narrower than impacts, but comfy. Says they’re a bit colder than impacts, but I guess that’s what sealskin or dexshell socks are for. Worth a go I’d say if you can get them cheaper than 5-10’s.

I can recommend Framed in Llanberis. New owner last year.

Not had the best service in Evolution myself but I might have been unlucky.

Hi, 5ft 0 fella here, and have spent far too long nerding out on bike geo and sizing. Message me if you want a detailed chat, but I’ve found that seat tube (and seat tube insertion) is the biggest limiting factor. Reach is just a preference thing. I can get away with bike with 380mm seat tube (with a decent insertion length), to get a 100mm dropper. Obviously depends on ape index proportions etc, but that’s a rough guide. Ideally you could squeeze a 125mm dropper or even longer with something like a One Up or other low stack post. I went for a S Transition Scout over an XS as I wanted a bit more reach – 425mm. Wouldn’t want less than that personally.

Should be more options these days with shorter seat tubes becoming the norm, it used to be a pain with a lot of brands having long seat tubes.

Wheel size wise, it’s already been mentioned that some short female racers are using mullets. Personally I’ve tried my wife’s full 29er (120mm full suss trail bike), and it’s great on mellow trail centre terrain but a soon as anything pointed properly downhill, my ass was being buzzed a lot. It really limited my movement on the bike, and that’s on a LLS bike where in theory you can stay central. So 27.5 rear wheel is a must for me personally. I’m currently on full 27.5 and happy, but I can see 29 front possibly working but I’m really not sure I could get my bars low enough. I may try it at some point (will “borrow” my wife’s 29er fork and front wheel), but actually I’m not sure I can be bothered!

“Anyone battling their spouse has the wrong spouse” – whilst I can see people’s reasoning for saying this, it’s never quite as simple in real life, and context is everything.

My wife absolutely has always understood my need to ride, but as a kayaker and mtb’er herself, it can be very difficult for her to see me go out every week when she doesn’t have the opportunity to go in the same way. She’d never want me to not go, but she’d feel bad about not going herself at some point down the line. For lots of reasons, she has had less opportunities to to out than me over the years (friends having kids and then not being active in the same way, confidence etc). It’s actually more about me feeling guilty than her – she never doesn’t want me to go, but feels low so I then didn’t want to go to add to her feeling bad.

Having a regular group ride / routine has helped me (Sunday morning mates ride), but the big one is making sure my wife gets out in some way as well. She feels good, I don’t feel bad about going, eberyone’s a winner. Starting a realationship with someone who was well into outdoor activity (incl mtb) I thought was going to be all positive, but after 16 years together I now think it’s a double edged sword. Wouldn’t it be easier if she was into shopping or coffee with friends as she wouldn’t feel bad about not getting out herself?

Try to negotiate a routine. You do a ‘shift’ at some point during the week to get your riding points.

Also, I’ll echo what others have said about road riding – yes it’s easier to get a ride in but my god it’s dull compared to mtb’ing (for me, yes yes I know different strokes and all that). It’s 100% purely a fitness thing for me to help enjoy my mtb’ing more. If I didn’t mtb I probably wouldn’t road ride.

Apologies if this takes the thread a little off topic, but I went for a road bike ride yesterday in heavy winds that got me thinking about road bike geometry. Just some context – long time mtb’er, a bit of a bike geek and like the OP I’d like to think I’ve got a decent handle on mtb geometry and the changes of the last 7 or 8 years etc. I know very little about road bikes. I have one for the turbo and some road rides purely for fitness to make my mtb riding more enjoyable. i.e. the fitter I am, more I can enjoy the descents and not finish rides buggered.

Anyway, road ride yesterday in heavy winds, and I had two or three very scary moments where a gust of wind caught me and nearly blew me off. Fair enough it was just the conditions and it was properly windy, but the bike was properly titchy and it was not pleasant. It just got me thinking though, why hasn’t road bike geometry moved to longer, more stable geometry similar to mtb’s? I don’t mean 63deg head angles and 1350mm wheelbases, but just a bit more stable geo. It just seems that road bikes seem to priorities “quick” handling (even endurance or tourers or whatever seem to be only very marginally different). Steeper seat angles which mean longer reaches with shorter stems and slacker head angles etc.

To my uneducated mind, surely if the speeds are higher on the road than mtb (which they are), and even the twistiest of roads is still wideopen compared to a tight singletrack trail, wouldn’t longer road bikes make it easier for riders to spend less “energy” on controlling the bike? I know that a bigger bike is heavier, but other than that is there any reason why road bikes haven’t got any “stable” geometry wise over the years?

I used to spend time thinking of my “dream bike” many years ago, but as I’ve got older that doesn’t interest me anywhere near as much, as the realisation dawned on me that I’m the weak link in any bike. I still love tech and reading about tech, and there’s no doubt modern bikes are soooo much better than they used to be, but I don’t wish for the latest fancy kit like I used to.

But, given that I can’t resist a good “dream bike” thought experiment, I’ll pitch in!

So, genuinely, if I won the lottery I’d probably just upgrade my current frame’s suspension and brakes really – EXT Fork and Shock (or Avalanche or Push) and a cascade link for a smidge more travel and maybe some trickstuff brakes (if I could get hold of some), but I’m genuinely not fussed by high end gearing, wheels, bars, stem etc. As has been said already, as long as the frame (geo, fit etc), tyres, suspension and brakes is / are sorted, most mid range bits do the job decently these days so I’m not fussed. Boring answer really.

But, despite the above I just smacked a rear mech on the weekend after going over the bars, so I can’t help shake the thought that despite all the shortcomings / drawbacks of gearbox’s (yes yes I know, heavy, drag, no shifting under power), an expensive dangly thing right where it’s going to get smacked still seems like a fundamentally daft idea on an actual mountain bike. Despite how good mechs are these days. So maybe a Cavalerie with the Effigear, or maybe the new Nicolai with that new fangled Supre Drive gearing. That looks really interesting and promising.

As a very short fella (5ft exactly), space at the back of a 29er is a problem for me.

I’ve heard / read people say that with longer bikes / modern geometry you don’t need to get off the back so much and can stay ‘central’ on the bike so 29ers aren’t a problem even for short people. However having ridden my wife’s 29’er (which I loved on trail centre flatter type terrain), it is definitely an issue for me on certain dh / techy trails (e.g. decent sized slower speed drops, sucking up fast compressions/rises/bombholes etc). The tyre marks on the ars*s of world cup downhillers suggests it’s an issue for them too (before anyone gets stroppy with me, of course my riding bears absolutely zero resemblance to theirs – my point is that sometimes ‘getting off the back’ is necessary even for a split second even for an average Joe like me!)

One other issue is that I find the bar height too high with a 29’er with the amount of fork travel I’d be looking for for the riding I do, even with no headset spacers and low rise bars. Seb Stott wrote an interesting piece on Pinkbike on bar height which sort of suggested that shorter people might be better off with full 27.5 due to not being able to get the bar low enough on a 29er for front wheel grip. I’d already come to that conclusion anyway before I read that as a result of trying out my wife’s 29’er, but it was interesting to read his take on it.

So, to add to the commenters above that said that full 27.5 is only for jibbing / playing / whatever only now, I don’t disagree really and 29’ers are clearly the ‘default’ now (with a side order of mullets), but I personally still think full 27.5 is the best solution for short ars*s like me who like technical riding and a reasonable amount of suspension travel. Having said that, of course I’m an extreme outlier – lots of new 29ers sizing start on a size medium these days.

Oh, the “more grip on 29’ers due to the larger contact patch” is a bit of old tosh. The contact patch of a 29er wheel isn’t going to be larger than a 27.5 to any degree all other things being equal. A very marginally different shape maybe (more elongated?), but not larger enough to make any difference whatsoever. 29’ers are clearly faster and more comfortable for a variety of reasons, but the “more grip” line is boll*cks. Contact patch and grip will be down to tyres mainly – width/depth, casing, compound, pressure (probably the biggest thing) etc.

Indeed Marin! 😁 Actually, ours is due a timing belt now… sorry, didn’t mean to derail the thread onto T4’s!!

Very interested in this thread, as the same as Marin above we’ve got a T4 with 195k on the clock. Both myself, my wife and our 7 year old love it to bits (we’ve had so many adventures in it) but it’s definitely on borrowed time now. We had it resprayed a good few years ago but even after that, the bodywork is desperate for attention now (rust). Not having any issues with local garages working on it, but the costs of keeping it going are definitely getting tough to stomach.

As with most on this thread, we’ve looked at T6’s, and they do seem overpriced compared to other makers, and I’m not convinced T6’s are any better quality / more reliable either. Vivaro is definitely on our hit list. We do have some requirements though. Needs to be able to accept a sea kayak roof rack, back seat for jr (as he grows the third front seat will be difficult), but space in the back for bikes – I don’t see the point in having a large vehicle like that and then having to put bikes on a rack anyway. I may as well have a nice comfier / more economical estate car. Lastly, no carpet. 2 border collies and regular, year round, sea and bikes based adventures means we use the back of the van as a warm/dry changing room so sand, mud, salt water etc is guaranteed. Carpets wouldn’t last 5 minutes.

Just to add my vote for the old innertube wrap, but I added some crafty type foam tape underneath it in small chunks to give it a sort of wavy profile. Works well on my wife’s bike.

On my bike I tied on some cut up old Renthal supertacky push on grips on my chainstay – sounds weird but the rubber is amazingly soft, and the grip flanges (the grips have a bmx style flange on them) provide the perfect damper for chain slap. Doesn’t look the tidiest if that sort of thing bothers you but the difference it’s made is amazing. Of course you wouldn’t buy those grips just for that but I happened to have some old ones I never threw out and gave it a go and it genuinely works brilliantly.

“where incomers are increasingly resented with uninformed prejudices and a fear of a loss of Welshness, native speakers and culture. The sort of thing in Rochdale would get you called a biggot….”

I generally steer well clear of these sorts of threads on here and stick to bike stuff, but as a Welsh person this quote has genuinely upset me. I’m not going to get into a debate on here, but I will simply say that please do some thinking and research into the issues minority languages like Welsh and also rural areas generally are facing. I’m not sure what these “uninformed prejudices” are, but it seems to me that it’s that quote that’s uninformed.

Local people being priced out of the housing market is not a North Walian or even a Welsh issue, its an issue many more rural areas are facing (e.g. parts of Cornwall, Simon Reeve has commented on similar issues up in Cumbria), yet I don’t see the people in these places being called biggots. The “fear of loss” of the Welsh language is real, and the fact that my son may well be last generation of his family that can actually live his life in any way through the language of his forefathers of hundreds of years is not a nice thought I can tell you. If you want to belittle someone’s heritage that’s up to you, but I for one don’t like to see different cultures and languages die out, wherever they may be.

A minority language such as Welsh can be the heart of a community, more than just a collection of words, and if you can’t see why the thought of losing hundreds of years of heritage is something that worries some people then there’s nothing I can say.

If you moved to, say, France, Italy, Germany, Austria etc would you just expect everyone else to just speak English (and please don’t say “yes but everyone in Wales can speak English” – this is not a valid argument, otherwise you may as well argue for all languages other than English to be scrapped).

The the OP, take the stories of being made to feel unwelcome because of the backwards funny speaking locals with a huge pinch of salt. Trust me. It’s no different to anywhere else in the world, if you move somewhere and are friendly and show even just a little willingness to integrate (not just linguistically), you’ll get along great.

All good points, thanks.

Yes I did check it’s all together properly after the first little spin, plus it feels lovely under light pedalling (I gave everything a thorough clean before fitting the new chain).

If it is my chainring I could replace it for a lot less than a cassette, but having thought about it some more, this will be the cassette’s 3rd chain so will need replacing anyway next time, in which case any chainring I buy will need replacing too at that point. So if it all works now (either old chain or new chain after a ride or two) than I don’t see the point of changing the chainring now as well. Would be different story on a newer cassette.

Thanks everyone. I’m going to try and get a ride in over the weekend to see if it quietens down a bit.

Sounds like I’m definitely on for a new cassette and chainring when this lot goes though, so I won’t bother checking this chain. I’ll just run it until it starts dropping the chain a lot or the shifting is cr@p or whatever. Then take the hit on a new everything. I guess I could take the opportunity to go 12 speed then, but quite frankly I don’t see the need other than if 11 speed is being phased out or there’s a proper deal somewhere on a full 12sp drivetrain which I guess is unlikely in the current climate.

Apart from anything else I have an aversion to throwing things out that still have potential life in them.

Thanks everyone.

Think I might stick the old chain back on and save the new one for when the whole lot goes pop and put a new cassette and chainring on at that point. At least it buys me some time, as it was actually working only with the old chain.

Just curious, anyone know where they’re manufactured? The website says something about the carbon rear end being made with some partners from F1, but on a quick scan read I couldn’t see anything about who, or where, the ti front triangle is welded.

As a very short arse bloke (5ft on the button, see username), I genuinely think a 29er would be too big for me (arse buzzing) for steeper / tech stuff. I’ve tried my wife’s 29er at a trail centre and loved it, but I don’t think I’d want a full suss 29er for the tech / steep stuff that I love the most.

And I don’t buy the whole “it’s not a problem with modern long bikes as you stay central over the bike and not over the back” thing – yes for the most part I’m central on my modern LLS bike, until I’m not. E.g ‘killing’ a jump / hump, going into a steep chute etc, then I need to go over a little towards the back for split second before going back to central.

So I think shortarses like me will always benefit from a smaller rear wheel. For me, I’d be curious to mullet my 27.5 bike but I do have a question mark if a 29er front wheel would actually be beneficial for me I.e if it would put the bars too high (I already run my bars with no spacers under the stem – yes I’ve tried them higher and I couldn’t get my weight over the front wheel enough in corners, they’re already higher than my saddle).

As it is, my theory is 27.5 both ends is probably best for me at my size, even if it is probably slower. I am an outlier though and well out of “average” size.

Thanks you all for the advice.. Not sure what to do. The £45 service sounds appeealing but I’m not sure if the issue will come back again anyway. Ditto the home service, especially after having to ptentially buy a service kit, possibly ans ifp and and ifp tool. Thanks again.

Ah, thanks for that, sounds like a good option.

Much appreciated.

Yeah I wired mine too, but due to bar set up (Shimano’ short levers and me being small) meant that I was running the levers very close to the grips so there wasn’t any space between the grips and the levers, so they had to go on the grips. Maybe with longer levers such as guides or Hope’s there’d be enough of a gap. As it was, there was no way of avoiding it.

Grips are very personal, so only you can know really, obviously only after trying push ons. Personally, I absolutely loved renthal ultra tacky push ons, they were the comfiest grips for me by a country mile. Lovely.

Fitted them using renthal’s grip glue which for the most part worked well, even in wet UK conditions. What caused problems was uplift days. The straps on trailers hold the grips tight and they would get pulled out of shape and would move in from the ends of the bars, and would never go back properly again, even after re fitting with the glue. After 3 pairs in 2 years, I went back to lock ons (deathgrip slim/soft). Obviously uplifts haven’t been an issue in the last year (not been on any) but I changed back to lock ons just before covid. Lock ons are nowhere near as comfy, but they’re nice enough and it’s nice not to have ffaff with grips now.

If I had the luxury of a mechanic looking after my bike full time then the renthal ultra tacky push ons would definitely still be on the bike!

Oh, patch on the inside of course, and a normal bike patch on the outside to protect the thread.

I’ve actually repaired a dhr2 with a slash a little worse than that, and it’s held all last year with no air loss. I used a strong needle and linen thread (designed for leather apparently) and a tractor tube patch from my local agricultural garage (bought the vulcanising solution from there as well). I gave it a go as like you it was a new tyre (3 rides old) so thought it was worth spending £10 on some stuff to see if works.

As I said, it’s stayed up a treat so was worth it and I’ve got a spare patch and stuff as well in case. Might go double down next time though!

Burgtec’s alloy pedals are made in the uk (Macclesfield?). Ok, machined in the uk, but if you go down the source of raw materials rabbit hole you’d be very limited indeed.

Whilst not wanting to turn this into a Putoline thread (I know there is one of them out there already), I have one issue that stops me going for it. Taking the chain off every time you need to lube it is a ball ache however passionate you are about the stuff. Especially in the current conditions when it will need doing more often.

Secondly and my main reason for not going down the putoline route is the quick links. Most 11 or 12 speed mtb chains come with quick links that are designed to be single use or a handful of times at most. And yes I know the “it’ll be fine, sram and Shimano would say that wouldn’t they” line, but I have seen snapped quick links more than once from being used multiple times, which means I’m not risking it for the purpose of waxing the chain regularly.

Keeping my chain clean post ride and lubed ready for the next ride is not hard or time consuming at all (5 mins total before putting the bike away post ride, and I’m very fastidious about it), and I really can’t see a Putoline chain lasting that much longer. I’m not saying that waxing isn’t technically the best option for chains (sounds like it is in theory), but that the benefits are not worth the hassle (for me, obvs).

FWIW, I think the cleaning / lubing regime is as important if not more so than the actual lube itself, as long as it’s actual chain lube and decent stuff. Have used a variety myself and don’t have a ‘must have’ lube myself, just keep it clean.

Can’t comment on the bikes specifically as I have no experience of either, but from what I can see from online chatter, Cotic seem to be provide very good customer service while Pole leave a lot to be desired in that department (they’ve even admitted it themselves). Pole bikes seem to ride very well (if you like long / stable bikes) but they appear to be a shower of sh1t in dealing with problems. Which they’ve had a lot of with the machined bikes apparently (don’t know about the evolink ones).

Also, the owner seems to come across like a bit of a a*** on forums whereas Cy comes across very well from what I can see. That alone means I personally wouldn’t touch Pole with a barge, erm, pole!😉. Given your spending a lot of money on a frame, I’d want some confidence that the company would be good to deal with if thee were any issues (which can happen to any bike).

I’ve litterally just put a post up about the same thing….!

Seb84 – yes. They were pretty solid until I went on uplift days, even with shitty Welsh weather. It’s the way the straps tighten around the grip and pull at them. And I love uplift days so it became too much of a pain in the arse after a while. Shame, as they are still way ahead for me in terms of comfort. I’m using them now cut up on the chainstay as a way of silencing the chain, looks ‘homemade’, but works a treat for that!

If I had a mechanic looking after my bike full time then renthal ultra tacky push ons every time. They are by far the comfiest, nicest grips I’ve ever had (for me, obvs, grips being a very personal thing of course).

Unfortunately I couldn’t get them to stop creeping inwards from the ends of the bars. No ‘throttle’ syndrome, but they did move inwards. It was annoying for me as I hold the bars right at the ends of the bars (regardless of the bar width). The worst culprit was uplift days, as already mentioned above, despite using renthal grip glue to fit them and wiring them 3 wires per grip as tight as I dare.

Now on dmr deathgrip soft-slim, which aren’t quite as nice but it’s so much easier never having to think about my grips anymore.

Just my 2p.

Interesting read this. I was a sceptic for for years in “Not needed, I’ll use the qr” camp. Eventually gave in and tried one and bought one straight away. Would rather ride a fully rigid single speed with a dropper on rough terrain than a full suss without. Would never have an mtb or bike that rides off road without one. For me they are up there as one of the most important tech innovations in mtb’s. Just look at how they now come stock on most mid to high end bikes now and how many posts there are on the market now – that’s because the demand is there not marketing bollocks. They genuinely do make riding off road a better experience, heck even most xc pro’s use them now for most races.

Would never criticise anyone for their choice of bike or gear, and of course nothing is ever ‘needed’, but dropper posts are 100% undoubtedly a beneficial advancement. I learnt my lesson about being closed minded to new tech with dropper posts so am now much more open and non judgemental about new bike kit until I’ve tried it.

Anyway, as has been said, I thought we had this debate years ago? 😉

B. Am a lifelong camelbak user and bottle mounts never even entered my head at all when choosing a bike. Current bike happened to have them on, so stuck a cage on and gave it a go in the warnm weather this year for short local lockdown rides and it is nice I have to admit. Not the revelation some people experience without a pack, but nice.

Anything longer than an hour and half or so and I’ll still use the backpack, I’m not a fan of strapping too much stuff to my bike and always like to be prepared to get myself back home or to the van if possible without a walk / relying on someone else. So, it is a nice plus to have bottle mounts, but would never be a deal breaker. Went on ride with the pack last week just to try it again and after feeling wierd for the first 10 minutes, I then forgot it was on.

“A. it’s one of the biggest factors in purchasing a bike.
Needs two as a minimum”

Seriously? one of the biggest factors? More important than geometry and fit (no 1 for me), suspension charactistics (kinematics, travel, quality of fork/shock, frame design etc) , equipment (well, important kit anyway like brakes, tyres), handling, cost, warranty / reputation of brand etc etc etc. There are so many things that are far more important than a water bottle and massively affect how the bike actually rides, that seems completely daft. Especially with the well designed packs (bum bags, backpacks, whatever) that are out there now. You’d rather have a shit bike with 2 bottle cages than a good bike without? Of course they’re not mutually exclusive and there are plenty of good bikes with bottle mounts but it seems a bit militant to rule bikes out over what isn’t, to me, anywhere close to being the most important factor.

Also, why do bottles have to be a traditional shape? Can’t some funky shaped bottles be designed to fit frames that can’t fit a “normal” bottle? I guess cost of design / manufacture for such a small market makes it prohibitive.

So, a very long way of saying B. Sorry.

Thanks for the responses all, much appreciated. I’d always thought mixing a sram shifter and Shimano mech was a no no, but if the slx mech would work with my GX shifter and cassette that sounds like a win win.

Fwiw cassette is fine in terms of wear and the chain is as short as it can safely go (checked with air out of the shock when I put the chain on). Thanks.

Worth a try I reckon. I repaired a slash at least that size in an exo minion. Bought some linen thread, leather needle and a tractor tube patch and vulcanising solution. Cost about £12 in total but figured it was worth a try. A bit of sewing and glueing and it’s held up great and is still holding air fine months later. I put a normal bike patch over the stitching on the outside of the tyre too just to be safe. Up to you if you can be bothered putting this much effort into it, but I figured it was worth a try to save the cost of a new tyre.

I don’t know how anyone can say that road riding or racing requires more skill than dh, enduro or bmx (any of it’s sub genres). On a pure bike handling skills basis it makes no sense.

Take the top 20 ranked pros of each one and let them have a go at each other’s discipline. I would be willing to bet my own money on pro dh’ers and enduro riders fairing a lot better at road racing than the roadies racing an EWS stage or Val Di Sole dh.

Another biased “I’ve got a Scout and it’s great” comtribution here!! Seriously though, I can’t give an objective opinion but I love my 2018 one and it’s an absolute riot to ride.

I ride a real mix of stuff, from trail centre trail ride, local sneaky dh tracks, bike park dh tracks (e.g. Antur Stiniog), natural stuff on local hills and mountains as well, and I’ve never once felt the Scout has held me back in any way. I’m sure there are quicker bikes in demanding terrain but its a tonne of fun to ride. Done some of my biggest jumps, drops etc on it and the Scout has never been the limiting factor and it descends great.

As I said, I’m far from objective but for what it’s worth , I love mine!

Molgrips, with respect you’re wrong – the reason that SPDs are bad for pulling up on when bunny hopping is it doesn’t allow for proper weight distribution on any reasonably sized jump. Nothing to do with unclipping. You can still do it properly with clips once you’ve got the technique but you can’t do it on flats without so you have to learn.

teethgrinder – Jumping/hopping technique – that’s the whole point, just pulling up on the pedals doesn’t work (not peroperly anyway). Sure, you may get away with it on small stuff but as soon as you get to bigger jumps etc, you need move on the bike properly to get the lift and correct weight distribution. I’m no expert on the bike but I’m pretty sure someone actually good like Jedi would say that pulling up with spd’s is limited in what it allows you to do. Watch any skills video on you tube and they all talk about the bunny hop technique, and it’s not just for effect or to look good, it’s because it works.

On the other hand if what youre doing now works for you then great, but it will limit you.

Another spd to flat convert here. Rode spd’s for 10 or so years with no issues but a holiday to Whistler got me thinking about swapping to flats (jumps, drops etc). As a few others have said, I actually hated it for a couple of months, feet kept coming off the pedals. Then something just gelled, and although I’m sure spd’s would / could be a bit faster, I can’t see me going back to spd’s now. Flats just feel more fun to me.

Oh, I’m definitely in the get decent flat pedal specific shoes and pedals camp, they work so much better than generic trainers that you wouldn’t be giving flats a fair crack of the whip otherwise. I would argue that you need decent shoes for messing about in the woods just as much if not more tha xc / trail rides. You can always ebay the lightly used pedals/ shoes if you don’t take to kit to minimise your cost. At least you know you’d given flats every chance then.

A couple of questions for the putoline fans on here if I may.

I assume you degrease brand new chains before applying?

I could live with the faff if the benefits are there, but how are putoline users dealing with removing the chain off the bike? – my and my wife’s mtb’s are both 11sp and sram and kmc state that their quick links are either not reusable or limited to 3 uses max. I know they’re arse covering and the links will probably last quite a few uses but I ‘d rather not risk snapping chains.

I tend to use a descent wet lube this time of year but I haven’t got a specific one I must have, currently on Kingud which seems good in terms of collecting gunk. But, I only apply it very lightly and often. I ususlly run the chain through a chain cleaner woth degreaser every 3 or 4 rides which works for me during shitty conditions (season may not be relevant). Putoline therefore wouldn’t be too more faff for me really, I’m just not sure about regular chain removal.

Also, when reapplying do you just pop the mucky chain in the fryer? Does the boiling remove the crap?

Thanks.

I had A similar thing earlier this year. My prefered riding is steep off piste techy stuff so I was tempted to go for a bigger bike. The more I thought about it though I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to be the older guy in his mid forties trying to pretend to be “sending it” but actually the being far from that in reality.

In the end I went for a slack / long 130mm trail bike with 150mm forks as a compromise, and accepting that in reality the bike is never going to be the thing to hold me back, but would suit most of my riding better.

Ymmv may vary of course and you may indeed get the most out of a bigger bike but that was the conclusion I came to fir me. Worked out for me as I’ve done every trail / feature / drop on my new bike that I did on my old dh bike without any problems and I’m loving it.