Pace RC104, option of running gears or single speed, 26″ wheel, and I believe they have them on special offer at the minute.

Damn, you made me look at the RC104 and then the RC129…E Type vs Austin Allegro 🙁

Things are tighter so there is a noticeable reduction I’d say.

Not to pass judgement over either format, but does anyone remember when the design, geometry and frame material seemed to be more important to the ride experience than the size of your wheels?

Those where such innocent days…

As Cyclistm says.

I found a disassembled smartphone scattered across a remote hillside road, soaked through after days of rain. I gathered it up and once home popped it into a bowl of dry rice, left it in a warm place and after three days charged it up and used it to call the suddenly delighted owner.

So there is yet hope 🙂

Tow paths are the worst. Commuting 25 miles to Edinburgh along one saw 13 punctures in a year. Thorns mostly, but on one occasion a nail pinned the tyre to the rim!

There is no God :’-(

I understand the draw of a carbon HT, but I just wouldn’t buy one again. The ride is lovely, and the lightness makes a big difference. But…

…bits will come off. Probably nothing serious, but you’ll always be thinking…’damn, that rock really whacked the downtube…’

Steel and Titanium, that’s where it’s at for the sort of bike you want. Of the two, Ti is the closest to the feel of carbon, but little matches the sparkle of a high-end steel frame

Here you go, and from now on I promise to stop hijacking a thread for a different bike 😉

Couple of good runs with the Thomson seat clamp now. Movement on the first run, but tightened up a bit more (though not straining the bolt), and everything stayed in place. Fairly big ride with fast, long, off-road descents but the post didn’t shift.

The Thomson clamp goes beautifully with the Ti frame incidently. It’s gorgeous!

Just back from a ride on 140mm Velvet DLAs. I’ve been using a pair for several months now, and they’re an excellent fork. The DLA feature gets used all the time, and the lock-out is genuinely locked-out. It makes a huge difference for climbing.

Tuning the fork to your riding style takes time, and can be a bit frustrating, but once dialled in, they live up to their velvety name. I’ve hammered them on some pretty hard-core terrain, and they haven’t let me down yet. I’m happy to let rip with them into anything nasty.

In terms of performance, I’d put them alongside higher end Rockshox forks.

Bloody Nora rickmeister, that’s some of the nastiest cable wear I’ve ever seen. You live a charmed life clearly. Trouble is, it can happen very quickly, often within one or two rides. Forks are a classic danger point for cables sawing their way through the aluminium. A little preventative helicopter or duck tape sorts it out though.

I’ve seen the blood running down my legs during a ride because of ****’ clegs, but I can’t recall any after effects other than another new insect-based phobia to deal with 😐

Filing cabinet digs aside, Orange, and the 5 especially, is one of those English classics that represents the essential soul of British mountain biking.

Sneer at them all you like, but God help us when the day arrives and the hills and trail centres are full of Cannondale, Lapierre, Specialized and Cube, and there’s not a Cotic, On One, Charge or Orange in sight.

Jonny Ives definitely is![/url]

Oh come on. Someone had to 🙂

Just back from a very quick blast long the moores, trying to sort out my slipping Thomson Elite seatpost. I digress. Anyway, on the way back….

…the route back takes in a steep set of steps, and I’ve noticed that with my SLX clutch mech engaged (as it always is), the chain jumps from the small rear sprocket and jams in between the cassette and the frame when descending them. Every time.

The shifting is absolutely perfect, and it can take a slamming at Glentress Black without complaint.

Very odd.

Publish your costs then..

John Humphrys or what? 😆

shallow? – yes

shallow – yes.

The argument for changing to 29″ is that it makes it all smoother and faster, and a similar debate raged 10 years ago as full suss elbowed hardtails aside with exactly the same argument. And that’s where my problem with the 29 format lies. I shelved my full susser after I realised how bored I was becoming with the trail centre and drove roads around here. Going back to a 26 hardtail brought the trails to life again.

That’s partially an admission that hardtails and 26″ wheels make things…more challenging(?) but it’s also about acknowledging the fact that what makes MTBing so engaging is the sheer level of physical control involved. You could convert to a BMX or unicycle on the trails of course, but they would place greater limitations the terrain you could ride.

So, full suss and 29″ is all about increasing speed and smoothness, but that’s not entirely what makes MTBing so interesting.

Should be fine. My gmail works a treat. I came from an iPhone 4S, and now use an HTC 8X as my bike phone and an HTC One as my daily phone.

Of the three I’d take the One over the others by a country mile. It’s a fantastic device, and Android 4.2 is superb.

Get proper tubless tyres. Big difference to ghettoed tubed tyres.

That’s certainly what it looks like Bill.

Now that’s an coincidence! I’m been having the same issue ever since I bought a nice Thomson Elite silver finished post for my Ti456E. Looks like I’m not the only one then.

The clicking can be resolved with a good application of anti-seize to the post, but that will probably result in slippage. In fact, I’d be surprised if the clicking wasn’t the sound of the post gradually working it’s way into the frame. That’s certainly what was happening with mine.

So while anti-seize will solve the noise, but it’ll make the slippage worse. I’m using a Hope QR, and it’s ‘hope-less’ at holding the seatpost in place. I’ve ordered a Thomson non-QR clamp in an attempt to resolve this.

It’s worth pointing out that my SDG i-beam seatpost never slipped or clicked in the same frame.

…hmm…Thomson…

Over-biked…possibly. Under-skilled…definitely!

Triple with 11-36 here too. Covers all eventualities and shreds even the most ridiculous of climbs.

Bloody Nora. I missed this surprising, little scandal. It really must be Cucumber Season. Can’t help but feel a tiny bit disappointed.

Anyway, *cough(USA)cough*

I’d change it fairly soon. It’ll snap when you’d least want it to. 🙁

I’m still trying to suss out Ti. I’m currently hitting Glentress Black each week for ‘a laugh’. It’s a test for any bike, let alone a hard tail, and it’s a fairly painful rider experience. But the ride quality is excellent. Considering the harshness of the trail, the only difficulty comes from having to stand through the numerous rough sections. Other than that its a lively yet smooth and planted ride. Well, as smooth as any hardtail ride could be on GT Black.

Would I go back to steel or carbon? I’ve had carbon frames begin to de-laminate, and steel has a weight that’s expensive to mitigate, so Ti solves both of those issues. The raw frame looks great too. If I ever grow bored of owning a hard tail, I’d be open to any sort of frame material, but only if the design and ride was good, so in that respect, I haven’t been converted to Ti. That said, it makes for a spectacular, brilliantly riding, compliant bike. The frame’s actual design goes a long way to achieve that of course.

The orange is the padding. Double check that you’ve got the correct version though, because there are different finishes at various price points. Other than that I prefer the black to the black and grey. I’ve got the white and orange version. Everyone seems to have a POC these days!

Lalala I can’t hear you!

I did have a brief vision of the Fireline when descending Shane McGowan today, and weirdly then had an excellent chat to a bloke about his Titus on the Redemption climb.

The t456e was fantastic on the climb and drop throughout though. The only limiting factor was me 🙁

That’s me on the right. Happy days….

Well worth getting one that fits these:

Source Hydration Bladder

The bladder is the core of the pack. Make sure it’s good.

I don’t have one but I came so close to buying the ‘Builder’s Tea’ version. Fantastic colour!

I not only designed a covered cleaning area on a build I was involved with, but an mtb changing area with an open shower in it. Brilliant! If only the plans hadn’t been changed at the last minute.

Now it’s a utility room and a hose point.

Lycra…it’s great, and not just for the road.

Some of us struggle on alone, like the last of the mammoths, bearing the fading, tattered flag of 3/4 tights off-road while the woods echo to the vulgar, deafining rustle of loose polyester…it used to be so different.

Damn the zeitgeist! 😥

Oh, yeah…and never underwear under Lycra.

mine’s eventually in full spec mode now I got my XX1 for the Nicolai.

Oh man that’s nice. This is the only 29er frame that tempts me away from my Ti456evo, and yours is an especially nice build.

For reference, this is a Brant quote from Feb 2012:

“So I predict – 29in bikes will become bikes. 26in bikes are bikes already. 650B? They’ll be those bikes you can’t get tyres for anymore. Not that you can now. Which is good as we’ll all have someone to laugh at. And everyone likes someone to laugh at.”

Just saying

0:-)

Gopping! Love it!

Take road bike but fit a Sram With Fli kit first…

It’s so subjective.

My Explosif was a revelation; that ‘sparkling’ feel…I’ve never replicated it since, and I really miss it. It had that magic. My 06 ScandAL was ‘buttery smooth’…weird but lovely. My carbon hardtail was like the ScandAL but even smoother, and my 05 Marin Wolf Ridge was a great vanilla-flavoured ride. My current frame, a Titanium 456 evo is different from all of them: Stable…solid…planted? Yet agile, and neutral? I can’t quite describe it, but it’s nothing like any of the others. Its elusive!

Anyway, frames…it’s all a bit Dumbledore.