Beware the TKmax Impsport ones. Thin lycra between fingers means they are crap at keeping your hands warm when its cold/wet/windy.

Went to school there + lived in Achnandarach, so used to ride up to the mast on my uncle’s sturmy archer equipped Raliegh in pre MTB days. Not been up for too many years now, but you can almost certainly link the ride up the crags (mast) with some of the trails around Duncraig + theres a shore path that runs to Plockton. No recent knowledge I’m afraid. Could always bob over to the Bealach for some hill intervals.

Some pretty good basic maintanence advice.
Here

Just a bit taller than you, In line post 70mm stem 100-130mm forks, always felt perfect.

Good spot. Ta.

What everyone said about lurchers. Ours is a great family pet, but not a trail hound built for hours of pounding rocky trails, but will happily head off with me for an hour or so on softer ground.

Have they finished the logging at N y A ? Think there were some trail closures near the centre.
Info
Might be worth giving them a ring before heading over.
01970 890453

Nice.
Moving around on the bike to make it go betterer. HTH
Fastest I’ve ever been round Y Wall today. Ace bike

Or, Cheap 69er frame on classifieds just now….
;-)

Emailed a link to this to some of the local riders. Hope you get it back.

Orange proportionally put allot back into MTBing, treat their staff decently (I’m told) and have great customer support. I guess that stuff could be cost saved to put out cheaper bikes, but I’d prefer to pay a bit more + support a company thats trying to do the right thing.

Rubbish phone pic.

Aye, nicely done.

Sounds like the new Orange ST4 is what you are looking for.
Review here.
Everything that was good about the old frame but with added stiffness and GRRRRR.
Won’t climb quite as well as your Anthem, but as very very capable on technical singletrack, technical climbs and descents.

the warranty is 100% better

Having just had a frame warrantied by Orange, have to say they were brilliant.

The new ST4 is worth considering too. NOT an xc whippet frame, but hugely capable trail bike. Stiff when you need it to be, plush as, good technical climber, great descender massive amount of fun. Everything that was good about the old frame, but significantly better.

Customer service comes into rating bikes IMHO. Just had a frame warrantied by Orange + they were brilliant. Great communication, went the extra mile to sort things out, couldn’t have been more helpful. (No it wasn’t a 5)

Got one of the new ST4 frames coming as a warranty replacement. Only know a couple of people who’ve ridden one, but the angles + effective top tube look spot on. If its not all that, I’ll be bunging it on here + trying one of them Cannondales Ben was raving about in the mag.

Nice film. Last weekend was as busy as its been all summer. Roll on winter.

Fairly sure it would.
120 Reba maxlelite’s here too. Work very well with the frame.

Look up.

Agreed. Test rode one of the CAAD9 ‘dale cross bikes + the frame felt great, alu forks felt harsh but despite a bit of tinkering juddered like buggery, fork mounted hanger might have helped.
Be worth looking at the new Cotic X as well.
Nice

Sounds good. Sigh of relief then :-)

Nice.
Hope it rides as well as the old one.

Waiting for Cycle to work to finally happen at work then the order'll be going in.

Split the difference? Great climbing, horrible descending bike.

To be fair Cannondale's sizing is weird for those of us lurking just below the 6' mark. I fall between the medium + large and would definitely had a rush as my next bike, but the medium is too small + the large is a gate.

Haven ridden with Ben, Matt Jon W and Ed, they are all really good riders and know their stuff technically, Tim K did a respectable time in the Keilder last year + has podiumed twice at Mayhem. Maybe not poster boys, but very competent real world riders, who ride in real world conditions.
Singletrack have given bikes/components bad / honest reviews, to an extent I've not seen in other mags.

BUT reviews are always going to be subjective to some extent. See reviews of music/books/films. No review is ever going to be the absolute truth and may not relate to you or the riding you or I do, IMHO.

Could you get 28mm tyres and mudguards in there?

Is that the Dyfi?

Rubbish mobile pics

So we know they're great at lots of things, but how have you managed to turn your jallopies into bikes that can cope with long sloggy climbs? Moving the seat forward on the rails seems to have helped allot, but I've not managed to eliminate the slight wallowyness that is stopping it being a great all day bike.
What sort of shock pressures are you using?
Anyone tried a small volume can with firmer compression tuning?

Ace Job Matt, Andy, Annie + everyone else involved. Good to meet up with friends + ride bikes on a great course.
Really good to catch up with you Aiden.
Ace riding on Sunday in the blazing sun on some of the local gems.

Blazing saddles and Orange have been turned over fairly recently, so would be worth pointing them at this as well.

Would have to see one in the flesh, as I'm not sure how they'd work with my 6'2" fouling the back wheel/ scraping the tail or putting allot of pressure too close to the tail. Thought about getting an old tagalong + adapting it for bunging mine + my daughters boards on for heading up/down Newgale hill.
Couple of the local lads have old style carriers, but they look a nightmare when its windy.

Super tacky single ply Minion up front is only very slightly more draggy but way better in terms of cornering + grip IMHO. Tried Ardent rear, but Crossmark (60a) works better. Ardent up front on XC bike is great in the dry.

Better than it was then. The black was a bit wet last Saturday, but should be dryer by this weekend.
Beware of stray SSers on sunday sloping down from SSUK, which is where the Drop-off bus will be BTW.

Great trails, plus Drop-off cafe bus at the Byrgwm car park.

Fair review. I wouldn't say its a great climber. Its a good technical climber (with pedaling finesse), but it needs a bit of shock tweaking and saddle (fore -aft ) adjustment to make it 1/2 decent at long fireroad type climbs. It pretty much demands that you maintain a fairly attacking position and riding style to get the most out of it + that seems to be the point of the bike. Its definitely not a skill compensator. Its good fun + great if you like long low bikes that corner well. feels really balanced in the air + over smaller jumps (I wouldn't know about big jumps…) somewhere like Brechfa + Afan its a blast + on the descents on the Dyfi properly flew. With tyres that are sticky enough, wide bars + short stem, Reba maxles on, you can corner at stupid angles + push it hard. This seems to bring the best out in the bike. I'm sure it could be set up for grinding out fireroad miles, but there are other bikes that do that better + you'd be missing the point IMHO.
It prob'ly took me 3-4 rides to totally get it set up right + recently moving the saddle forward 10mm made a big difference to its sitting climbing ability. The trick seems to be to encourage it to be the bike its designed to be: an ace singletrack carving funmonkey.
Lots of threads on here if you do a search over the last couple of years.

Thats great. Do allot of coastal riding, but higher up the cliffs which the west coast demands. But thats got me thinking about the potential for link other sections. mmm… Thanks for posting that.

Minion fronts, front and back, both the right way round.
Super tacky minions were quite hard work on the Dyfi, but ace on the DH.
Now running a 2.25 cross mark on the back, which is holding up well.

Will spending £900 to replace them with some fox forks make me better.
Unlikely. I live far enough down the food chain from £900 forks not to worry about it. But I think the improvement in kit has enabled more riders to push back boundaries and which opens up whats considered possible or even normal for an average MTB to ride. MTBing's evolution is tied in with this process IMHO.

Tyres, brakes, suspension, geometry e.t.c e.t.c. is more than twice as good as it was 10 years ago.

Cheers for posting this, I've been looking at the Tripster as a C2W commuter (on rough roads/some tracks), green laner / bigger roady days type bike. Whats up with it?
Plant X Uncle John frame has disc mounts.

Looked at the Crois de Fer but its too heavy.