Sad. Bernie was never the chirpiest of shopkeepers, but knew his bikes.

Me too and liked it quite allot to start with.

Why buy a frame with an ebb in the first place if your not going to go SS ?

Because its a great frame and the eccentric BB means you can monkey around with the BB position a bit. Plus it makes for a fairly stiff BB area which turns out to be a very good thing.

Specialized Butcher, Hans Dampf, Minion DHF?

Do an ebay search for outer isles/skye/NW Highlands, see who’s selling what + offer your services.

Joes got it covered. Bad design for UK conditions, you have to keep it greased and replace the band which corrodes pretty regularly as well as thread locking the non drive side end cap.

Aren’t clearances on the back of the codeine really tight for anything other than a skinny tyre?

Grand Thanks Eddie.

Eddiebaby, any pics of how your rear guard is set up?

29 or 29+ …

Looks like lots. 25,300 ish according to the GPSies site, but probably a few more.
Beyond what my previous daily climbing total has been. 8 ascents of Snowdon-ish?

As most of you will know, Stu had his bikes nicked a few weeks ago now. They were his companions through many adventures and bought with money inherited from his dad. They are irreplaceable.
But as he is now MTB less and as he’s setting up this event for us, essentially for free, how about we stick an extra tenner or so in the tin to help him towards getting a new frame?

FWIW, I found a dropper post really made a big difference to how much you could push the bike. Probably more than any other bike I’ve ridden.

Not shit. At all.

Think its another example of Cy trying to do the right thing and being honest and realistic about the wider bike industry.

They both 50mm? Found some tyres pretty fight on a 50mm rear rim. Look spanky though :-)

Nice write up Ben.
Yellow is a bad colour for bikes IMHO.

Relieved to see front mudguard age on there at last Kbrembo. I was starting to fret.

In other new Mudhugger “orange ” 29er rear guard fits a treat and still enables post dropping.
Not pretty, so no pics.

2.4 ardent which is pretty big. Was pretty tight on Rabbit holes, fine on 32mm wide lightnings.

Only non sticky mud. Not clay-y woodlands yet as its been too wet last couple of days. But in gritty mud, cleared fine and cornered better than expected as the side knobs bit in. Great on wet rock/slate whereas the Knards were getting proper sketchy. Will report back when I’ve done some more filth riding. Can’t see them being great in very claggy mud.

Chronicle works well as a front tyre. Impressed.

Chronicle is proving to be a great front tyre so far despite the recent filthification of trails.
Pre filth.

Good news that the 27.5b+ fits. Recon that’ll be a fun set up. Chronicles have arrived just in time too. Not going to be great in proper sticky mud, but great on wet off camber rock so far.
Pedalling position on the Jones looks terrible.

Thought you’d like it Brant.
Nice pics, again Mr K.
GWS Andy.

I’m 5’11” + a bit. Fits like a glove, (I’m normally 18″ bike sized). Rides great. Like Krembo, my go to bike.
I’m in Pembrokeshire if you ever make it out this far west, you’re welcome to have a play.

Be interested to get your take on em both.

Nice summary Miran. Would agree with most of that.
Weight hasn’t been an issue since switching rabbit holes to wide lightnings. Certainly wouldn’t want to lose that balance of strength and compliance.

Can’t disagree with that Ninfan.

Is part of the problem also access? Its not improved much.
Money has been put into trail centres, but not linking up existing tracks/bridleways/working out linking sections, so people have relatively easy safe local loops which encourage families/kids to get into riding off road? Loads of these in France which are well used.

In Scotland there are sensible access laws, lots of adventure riding potential, but still rubbish in England and Wales. I know there were some moves from ST to try + make something happen. Local advocacy by the likes of Cotic has made a difference in their community, but what about the bigger bike industry? Putting something back, that will help their future sustainability?

Agreed.
My experience of the bike is very different from GM’s. IME Back end feels really comfortable, does what you ask it to and allows for great handling. I ride allot of different terrain including rocky techy stuff which it handles brilliantly. Its not a skill compensator, not a ploddy neutral ride. Think it’s improved my bike handling loads.

Original Trek ss was about my favourite bike ever as well. That said the Stooge with knard front gives it a run for its money.
29ers have evolved allot.

Have you ridden one? The steel feels great. Not sure whether Ti would bring allot to the party. I know I could save the weight difference :-) If you’re anywhere need W Wales you’re welcome to try mine.

I’ve been running revs on my Gyro for a while now. Feels great. Would like to try a slackest to run it with a slightly slacker front just to see what it rides like. I suspect you’d lose a bit of the map crossing potential, but gain some capacity for better handling when it gets very fast/steep/techy. Not that its rubbish at those things. Segment looks like a progression on the same lines, slacker longer front centre/shorter back end. Never found the longer CS a problem TBH.

Nice. Bet it’ll be a hoot. If you get the chance to compare one with a Gyro, would be interested.

And there are other options coming out before too long.

Whilst we’re making bars requests, black or white for me pleases :-)
American Classic wide lightenings + Knard tubeless is a mission.

Depressing news. Have been waiting for this.
Does it still have the horrible massive logo on?

2nd allot of the Lurcher comments above.
One of ours is Beddlington/whippet mix the other has more deerhound. Lovely dogs, great in the house, sleep allot, steal food compulsively. Smaller one is feistier, both will take off after small running things, (more to play with than eat, but lurcher play is fairly rough to the uninformed observer) but have good recall and you need to be on the ball / careful about where/when you let them off.
Spending lots and lots of time with them training when they’re young is essential, especially with rescue lurchers. Lovely gentle beasts.

The more I’ve ridden mine, the less I think 29+ rear end would be a good idea. Would be very interested to try 650+ rear though.
Trialling some bargain American Classic wide lightning wheels on mine (32mm wide). Very light, but still holds the tyres in reasonable shape.

Stooge frame.

Another Stooge 29+ front here. Feels great, rabbit holes give the tyre a great profile and no noodling.
Similarly waiting for better wet weather 29+ tyres. Plenty in the pipeline, apparently…