Lastly I don’t see many sales at the moment, have I missed end of season sales or are they likely to happen still?

Widen your search… And I can’t stress this enough… Now is the winter of our discount tents (well MTB’s) to paraphrase…

I think you’re looking at the right kind of bikes for what you describe, a modern XC bike will be way more capable technically than anything from 15yrs ago anyway, so no point looking at bigger travel bikes if you’re not doing the riding to warrant it… And these XC bikes, precisely because that kind of riding has fallen out of favour, have had the biggest discounts overall…

Spesh were doing 50% off their last years Epic’s and Epic Evo’s!!!

Rocky Mountain Elements are or were more than half off @ Paul’s Cycles!

Trek Top Fuels up to 50% off for some models too…

And a whole lot more deals wise. Any of the bikes I mention above would be excellent for what you describe, there are of course many other alternatives.

I have seen these prices in some physical stores as well as online…

On my 3rd eBike here, currently no regrets…

I was one of the last out of my usual group of riding mates to entertain buying an eBike, but caved in during COVID when everybody else was riding 3/4 times a week and getting fitter as well and I was still working all the time and my fitness went to shit…

First eBike for me was a 2021 Vitus eSommet, the cheapest one with Shimano E7000 motor and budget suspension, but great geometry. I upgraded the suspension immediately, loved the geometry and the natural feel of the E7000 motor, but disliked the fact that the bike was a proper tank @ 26kg (even with only 504Wh battery) and I felt a bit of a passenger on it at times. In the end, the paint started falling off the frame in places (seemed to be quite an issue with a batch of these frames) so I submitted it for a warranty claim, and they hadn’t got any new frames in stock, so gave me a choice to wait or take a full refund… I took it as a sign that I’d had almost 10 months of sporadic use out of it, returned it to original spec (fortunately I kept the stock suspension), and sent it back and got a full refund…

This was at the height of the COVID boom though, and bikes were expensive… Even for those of us working in the trade. I decided I’d wait a while, when I was then offered a loan bike by a good friend for a while, a Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 Action Team… So I rode this for a few months whilst deciding what to buy next. Must say that whilst I wouldn’t normally choose 27.5″ wheels, it was good fun, far more playful than the Vitus was if not as planted. At 24kg and with surplus battery for my needs, it did help me decide to go for a lighter weight bike next time though…

So I bought an Orbea Rise… a 2022 model M10, the carbon version with 360Wh battery, Fox Factory suspension etc. I upgraded a few bits on it, rode it a few times, was just getting used to it and then… Well… I got diagnosed with bowel cancer! And then worse than that, I had various complications, infections etc. afterwards and couldn’t ride the bike at all for about 18 months! When I finally could ride it again, I’d upgraded all sorts on it, bought the Cascade link for it, a range extender etc… But realised that 18 months unable to ride, barely able to exercise at all, had taken its toll. And so just as it was coming out of its 2yr motor warranty, I decided to look around for something else full fat again, but a lighter full fat, with good geometry, preferably Bosch motor, and slightly slacker and more relaxed geometry as good though the Rise was, it felt like a trail bike when arguably I wanted/needed an Enduro bike when I was pushing it harder down some trails…

Good fortune happened, I ended up with a 24 model Orbea Wild M10 (carbon again) with Bosch Gen4 CX smart system, a 750Wh battery (which I was convinced I would swap out for a smaller battery), and wow… What a machine!!! At 23kg I do notice the extra heft compared to the Rise which was just under 20, but it feels way lighter and more playful than the Vitus did. In fact, it’s probably the best descending bike I’ve owned, and arguably it is the bike that has given me the most confidence in the air so far (for the record, I’m not a big air merchant, but the Wild really has given me confidence over some jumps that I would never have previously contemplated)… The 750Wh battery is still largely redundant as I rarely use half of it even on longer rides, but it does allow me to ride 2 or even 3 consecutive days if I want to when travelling for work which is a real bonus. I did try to flatten the battery one day and carried on on my own for hours after my mates had gone home from our sunday morning ride… 65km and about 1700m of climbing later, split between Tour+ and eMTB, it still had 14% battery left but I was totally spent!

Good points have been made earlier in this thread about eBikes being really helpful for people coming back from illness, or people who need to keep their heart rate down… I have been in both of these situations recently, something that I never expected to happen in my early 40’s… Riding a normal MTB would basically have been a non starter for me. I have ridden my road bike a few times, but it was seriously hard going, and not really any fun at all… Having an eBike has really helped me get back on a bike at all, but being able to work more in zone 2 and 3 and keep the effort there if required (by changing modes), has really helped my recovery too.

Currently I can’t see me riding a “normal” MTB again for some time, although I do still own a couple and would like to get to the point both fitness and strength wise where I feel happy taking them out again on a decent ride… Though to be honest, I think any unassisted MTB’s in my future will firmly be limited to lightweight short travel full sus and even hardtail bikes going forward… I just can’t imagine the scenario any more where a 16kg 160mm travel Enduro bike with no assistance is at all advantageous over my 23kg 160mm travel E-Enduro bike quite frankly, regardless of fitness and strength levels!

also tbf schwalbe’s current carcasses are a wee bit crap ime so it’ll be interesting to see what might come out of that too.

Would you care to elaborate…?

Some context as to your criticism might help, especially as it’s not like significantly better riders than either of us win on these tyres win World Cup level events week in and week out…

Some distributors have them…

A handful of shops have them in already…

We don’t have any more @ Schwalbe HQ until the next drop (first drop was all pre-ordered) so sadly I have to wait in line until there is any free stock to get my own… Planning to run an Albert Super Gravity Soft Radial rear and a Mary Super Gravity Ultra Soft Radial front and without inserts, though will see what is spare and take what I’m given I guess!

anyone else had this? Have I misassembled or missed something?

As it’s the newer Rise, it will have the same headset fitted to my 2024 Wild… That is to say it’s a total ballache with all the cables running through it, various different interlocking headset spacers, the compression ring that snaps if you look at it funny etc…

Yes… Mine creaked like a bastard, and I couldn’t do anything to get rid of the creak!

Luckily I bumped into Orbea @ Tweedlove and Lee from Orbea was super helpful… Gave him my bike for a bit, and he took it apart, put it all back together as it should, and (touchwood) it hasn’t creaked since!

So it is possible… But it really is a shit design, I’ll give it that!

Great bikes otherwise mind…

How much money does it take to distract from the reality that the people who should love you more than anyone, actually absolutely despise you?

$252.8Bn seems to do the trick nicely apparently… His current net worth according to google.

Though I’m not sure that’s the threshold… Pretty sure he was a **** to all of his kids before he evn became a Billionaire, so he might have been over egging the pudding somewhat recently!

Definitely not their fault… They’re a pretty tight ship usually I’d say. They’ve suffered bad stock shortages of late I note and that won’t have been helped with the delays shipping from the far east and the increased container shortages that have ensued…

I’m popping past their HQ on Monday morning as I get off the ferry (they’re literally half a mile from Belfast Ferry terminal). If I’ve got time to pop in and see them (they are a customer of ours) I’ll mention this thread out of courtesy…

Yeah, obviously not eidsen the new Rise, but the Wild is prettty sleek and light for a full fat bike. As to Shimano over Bosch, its more the relia ility/serviceability side I’d be foxused on. I wouldnt buy aShimano bike.

Yep it’s crazy. No one in the bike industry appears to realise bikes are stupidly expensive, maybe they all get paid too much ? Rob Rides called an  £8.5k bike vfm/cheap. Wtf

They are getting heavier too which I find odd. The larger battery size is only just lighter than their full fat bike

An ‘affordable’ one is going to weigh more than there full fat Wild offering or very similar

I had the opportunity recently to change (I won’t say upgrade as it’s very subjective) from my old Rise to a new Wild for a minimal amount of money in the grand scheme of things, and I don’t regret my decision… Yes, I still preferred the feel of the Shimano motor, but the Wild is only 10% heavier, is much stiffer, handles better, is far more confidence inspiring on the descents, still as much fun to ride and it’s got more than twice the battery power and range…I am all for lightweight eMTB’s, but they really need to be a LOT lighter and offer signficant benefits vs a full fat, otherwise you might as well just get a decent full fat bike and take advantage of the extra capacity etc…

Bikeparts.co.uk as you say, is just woollyhatshop rebranded…

Which is fine… They do the same good job that woollyhatshop did back in the day.

But I very much doubt you’re going to find the same depth and breadth of stock beyond your typical consumable parts that WHS was always famous for (and still seems to be good for even now) that Wiggle/CRC had… Not only has that business model proven unsustainable, but I sincerely doubt that anybody is prepared to put the necessary $1/2Bn or so investment into Bikeparts.co.uk that would be required to turn it into such a behemoth capable of being floated on the stock exchange for $3Bn+ before it then lost more than 99% of its value in less than a month prior to Mike Ashley buying its carcass… If you see where I’m coming from…?

There’s reasonable margin in many of Bikeparts’s own brand products (brake pads, inner tubes etc.) and best of luck to them, long may that continue… Hopefully they aren’t tempted to sell too many more products with small margins at or below cost price, such as the pedals @oldfart has just bought!

Former Maxima owner here…

Subjectively, they are “all that” and more… Forgetting VFM, they are everything a brake should be in terms of both power and modulation, combined with the nicest lever feel I’ve ever experienced and build quality unlike no other… They feel far more like a high quality Brembo Superbike setup than any other MTB brake I have used, in that you never need to get anywhere near either the grip strength of your index finger or that you never lack the most intricately precise degree of control at all times. There is no “stick in the spokes” moment, just gobs and gobs of incredibly well controlled power with pretty minimal input required. The freedom that this allows you in terms of reducing hand fatigue and to be much more precisely measured with where and when you can brake without either locking up a tyre or overshooting an apex, is incredible…

There of course were some BIG buts…

First big but… Availability of both the brakes in the first place (I bought a set 2nd hand) and spares was as good as non-existent… Since being bought out by DT, this seems to have improved significantly however. Bike-components.de seem to have spares in at all times, and even complete brake sets most of the time too, albeit the chance of getting a discount is non existent and you will pay duty to bring them in to the UK thanks to Brexit! But if what @tomhoward says about Saddleback having taken them on as UK distributor is true (I can find no confirmation, but will be asking around with industry friends in the morning) then it can only be good news.

Secondly… It can get VERY expensive if you have got several bikes… Once you’ve ridden them and got used to them on one bike, recalibrating your brain back to other brakes on your other bikes becomes a royal PITA. Sadly I sold mine because not only could I not afford another 3 sets, getting hold of them would have been impossible at the time anyway.

Thirdly… The 6mm hose really is a no no for most modern internally routed frames… Fortunately Trickstuff seem to have addressed this with a 5mm hose option now as per on their Diretissima brakes, but older brakes will require a new 5mm hose to be able to use on most modern internally routed frames in addition to buying the brakes.

Fourthly… They are a bit of a PITA to bleed… Don’t expect your LBS to be able to do it either… Buy the suggested Trickstuff bleed kit, follow Trickstuff’s bleed instructions to a T, and the bleed will still be mediocre at best… It’ll take you half a dozen times to get a decent bleed on the brake if you’re not used to it, but obviously, it’s worth persevering… And once bled properly, they shouldn’t need bleeding again for a very long time at least!

Lastly… The bar clamp setup is overly complicated and not particularly intuitive. Combined with Trickstuff’s own SRAM or Shimano matchmaker type clamps, it’s all a bit fiddly when setting up compared to a fully native SRAM setup, and due to the pretty small machine screws used and small allen keys required (buy a good set of allen keys like Wera or the like, please don’t use an old worn out cheap set!!!).

I have totally ignored the elephant in the room of VFM here as someone who just wants the best, VFM is irrelevant in my experience. 4yrs ago when I purchased my set of Maxima’s 2nd hand, the performancegap from the competition was vast, but so was the price gap. Hope Tech 4’s and arguably a couple of other brakes seem to have decreased the performance gap somewhat, if you want the best you will still be prepared to pay for it…

I have been Trickstuff curious again myself for a few months now, since coming back to MTB from an enforced layoff effectively means I’m eMTB only now (or might take my XC bike out for gentle rides with the GF, but then the brakes won’t matter) where previously I was chopping and changing between 3 or 4 bikes frequently when I had the Maxima’s fitted to my Geometron, I am finding it harder and harder to resist another pair to be honest! Certainly they are a FAR better investment of your cash than carbon wheelsets, wireless groupsets or the like… Though I’d still spend my budget on the right frame, suspension, tyres and getting it all tuned and setup individually to my requirements first before spending out on some Trickstuff brakes…

Nice!

I have the previous model, the GSX-S 1000F amongst my selection of toys… EPIC motor, great chassis, you’ll enjoy it, especially with the added practicality that the GT brings along with the extra toys too… You’ll enjoy that!

What @BadlyWiredDog said basically…

Did we all miss this earlier…?

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1821480072441635194?s=46&t=erYLLznRIhtpEf3ywL7fng

Elon openly admitting that he’s trying to “f*** s*** up” on purpose basically!

Absolute first rate throbber…

Toast & Bovril… The food of champions!

Glad it’s not just me…

Probably ideal that I don’t these days given I’m 44 and my metabolism is a LOT slower, but as a teen I used to sit through half a sliced Wholemeal loaf at a time, buttered and then with copious amounts of Bovril spread over every slice… All washed down with mug after mug of semi-skimmed milk!

It’s literally the only time I will ever drink milk on its own. I have a bit in tea/coffee, and I put it on cereal on the rare occasion I eat cereal, but I’ll sit drinking pints of the stuff when eating Toast & Bovril!

I’ve heard about the Bosch rattle on a review for the new norco fluid vlt and wondered if it wasn’t as bad as that but the fact you’ve highlighted it as well, I’m even more convinced it would drive me bonkers!

I had a quick play on a Whyte eLyte the other week. Ok so I didn’t take it down a bumpy trail like in the video above, but didn’t notice any untoward rattles when I jumped it off a few kerbs and bunnyhopped it. Certainly it felt quieter and less rattly than the EP8’s I’ve owned or ridden. Seems to be that “some are, some aren’t” from what I’ve seen and heard.

My Bosch CX is near silent when descending, at least when I’m not pedalling that is. TQ is easily the quietest motor out there, but you pay for that in terms of power and efficiency it seems though sadly.

If I was in the market for a lighter eBike again, Bosch SX motor would be my top pick still from my limited experience of each system.

I’d also think I was missing on a very important part of a European tour if I flew out and hired a bike. The ferry. 

Really…?

Hours and hours wasted on a boat, often feeling sick, many more hours wasted on motorways and boring roads getting from home to the boat and then from the boat to the destination on the other side…

Ferry travel is a necessary evil as I see it, if you want to go away with your own transport… And I say this as someone who travels on a ferry a LOT (averaging 6-8 round trips per year either for work or on a motorbike trip over the last couple of years). Absolutely nothing romantic about it whatsoever…

They’re Chinese carbon open mould frames, much like most non mainstream brands…

But then there’s very little wrong with that these days, especially at the price point they sell at.

Can you get better…? Yes, of course you can… But it will cost obviously…

Can you get better for the money…? Possibly, but rarely through a bricks and mortar bike shop that’s for sure…

If you like the look, it fits what you want from a road bike, it fits you well and it’s in your budget, then crack on… Just don’t expect a high end, hi-mod frame with stifness and handling to rival the very best, that’s all…

Please say someone else saw the 2 Chinese divers this morning and also sniggered like a fully grown child? Anybody? Just me?

Bit late catching up but…

Not just you…

Incredible men’s race just now! Sad that Kye Whyte was injured in the semi’s, but a 1,2,3 finish for the French in the final!!! Wow!

Now come on Beth Shriever!!!

Did you used to run a bike shop in Worcester? On the Bromyard Road? If so I’ve probably spoken to you, although it would have been 10+ years ago.

Worked there part time in 2012 for a bit… Set my own shop up in Droitwich back end of 2013 which I ran til mid 2019 when I closed it, and now work the other side of the counter in the bike industry still…

I live literally just round the corner from what was the Green Bike Company in St Johns though ironically, and just about to move to a new house even closer to where it was!

My fitness has dropped off a cliff, the last ride I had to bail because I couldn’t concentrate and I was heading for a big off.

Biggest thing I learnt from spending most of the last 2yrs unable to ride a bike, and significant portions of the 2yrs prior to that unable to ride too, was not to be too hard on yourself… The time will come! In the meantime don’t do yourself a damage…

I’ve returned to work, albeit on a part time phased return, but I’m struggling with being “work fit”. I’m absolutely exhausted after a couple of days.

Don’t push yourself there either… It’ll be counterproductive! If you work for a decent company, they will understand…

Feel free to PM me if you fancy a beer, chat, bike ride or whatever…

Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Northants is Southern!! :-)

The Lickey Hills and Clent Hills are VERY much north of the M42 and within a readily cycleable commute of Birmingham town centre, let alone a train…

In fact, the Lickey Hills are classed as being in the greater Birmingham Metropolitan area!

Northants is hardly southern… A bit far east for ready access to Brum, and a move in the wrong direction for an outdoor lifestyle than the opportunities that lie west of Brum.

For me it would be Bewdley… I live in Worcester already (on the Malvern Hills side), but I just love the Wyre Forest and Bewdley itself… But beware, it floods! Well, everywhere round here near a river floods… Be sure to move somewhere near enough, but suitably elevated up from the river is the key!

Only downside to Bewdley for you would be no train station, you’d have to go to Kidderminster 3-4 miles up the road to catch the train. To me it would be an acceptable trade off to have everything that Bewdley offers on my doorstep mind.

Lived in Leamington myself for a year back in 2005-6, have fond memories of the place, but it’s not a great location for an outdoor lifestyle for certain. Worcester is better than Leamington in terms of proximity to places to walk/hike/ride, but you’ll still be travelling to the Malverns, the Wyre Forest or the Forest of Dean to get a proper fix for any of them, though with 3 train stations all on a main line to Birmingham and now the Beryl Bike scheme (one at the end of my road!) makes it much easier for many people to actually get to and from a train station, it might be an option to consider…

Certainly though with the kids having left home, and the ability to downsize and move to a nicer area as a result, Bewdley is still very much top of my list…

No luck for me again this time… Though have already won £100 earlier this year, which based on the fact I’ve only got £1k invested now, has already provided me a 10% ROI for the year anyway and it’s still only August…

@bigblackshed

Sorry I’ve only just come to this thread. Don’t know where you’re based, but if you’ve been between Hereford and Birmingham for hospitals, then suspect you’re not a million miles from me (Worcester)… If you need a ride, or a pint, or to chat to someone who understands what you’re going through (I had a minor stroke or “TIA” in October 2020, then 2yrs later was having a cancerous polyp removed from my bowel, and all the complications that then ensued)… By all means drop me a PM…

Weight has really ceased to be an issue with bike spec now

Quick example is the Epic Evo Pro that got mentioned, that’s 26.5lb (12.1kg) and that’s £8000!

100% this…

I work for a well known tyre company, 10yrs ago it was expected that an XC race tyre weighed in the realms of 500-550g, now they’re 700-750g… And riders are often weighing them down with tyre inserts too! So that’s a a minimum of 1lb of extra rotating weight alone before we look at any other components on the bike!

Guy Kesteven recently rode a Pinarello Dogma MTB in their highest spec off the shelf (same bike as Pidcock won the olympics on, albeit a different spec) and it was a shade under 10.5kg, or approx 23.5lb in old money… For £12k!!!

You want a 25lb MTB, well they exist… But be prepared to spend SERIOUS bucks!

Modern bikes are longer, slacker, heavier etc. but eminently more capable… I’m not saying you should buy a 35lb+ 160mm travel Enduro bike, but I am saying that you need to embrace the general trend @FormerMountainBiker otherwise you are going to have to spend some serious cash!

The advice further up about just buying a “cheap” (relatively speaking) hardtail for now and just getting out and riding it is great advice. A £1500 HT these days will have 1x gears, a dropper post, a capable suspension fork, tubeless wheels and tyres, decent hydraulic disc brakes and capable geometry, even if its classed as an XC bike, and will be eminently more capable a bike than you are used to.

As for “gravel” bikes…? Unless you want a compromised road bike with knobbly tyres (many do, and they’re happy with it), then don’t bother… A 29er XC Hardtail is eminently more capable everywhere and barely any slower on the road in my experience.

Go and demo some bikes, proper rides not just round a carpark. A modern full suspension bike is so different to ride, it will require learning how to stay in a more centred / balanced riding position especially when it get exciting. None of that hanging your arse off the back because the bike is too short.

Make sure you get some help with proper setup: Controls; don’t try to make the bike feel like an old bike, geometry has changed for the better but it will take some getting used to.

Suspension; not just roughly setting sag, don’t try to making it feel fast by being too firm and losing all the benefits of modern dampers.

Tyres, they don’t need to be any where near as hard as they used to be, they are so much better now. Softer is grippier and faster.

Lots of fantastic advice here…

I think if you go out and test some bikes, many of your old preconceptions about what an MTB should be will be blown out of the water… And you’ll have a lot of fun in finding out about what it is you want an MTB to be!

I’m totally open to the idea of a modern bike hence this thread. Very much leaning towards a short travel FS right now, purely for the fun and comfort factor. My Ibis was 5″/4″ F/R, and overkill for my needs really.

That is considered “short” travel these days… Many WC level XC bikes are 120-130mm travel now… But suspension platforms have got a lot better, so typically you’re not trading downhill performance with climbing ability any more… Although if you suspect your riding won’t justify that kind of travel, then there’s still plenty of XC hardtails on the market with 100mm travel forks and a significant weight saving too…

In London at least, bikes shops are concentrating far more on e-bikes, commuters and road bikes these days. Plus shop staff don’t seem to be as well trained, knowledgable, enthusiastic or motivated, sadly. A lot of the really good shops that sold MTBs are long gone. Makes testing stuff that bit more difficult.

I do sympathise with you there to be fair… There are plenty of decent MTB shops out there, they’re just probably not anywhere near London! There are of course plenty of decent shops in London, but yes, the MTB focus isn’t there in general…

There’s more of a gap between 240 and 350 than there used to be because the 350 still uses the old ratchet design while the 240 uses the new exp design.

Personally that’s more of a reason than ever to recommend a 350 over a 240 these days… ee a fair few issues with the EXP design, but none of note with the older ratchet design… I’ve got a pair of the last pre-EXP 240’s that I’ve owned since new, they haven’t been on a bike in about 4yrs now but I’m loathe to sell them. I’ve had Chris King’s come and go but there’s just something so brilliantly simple about the original DT Swiss ratchet design that I just can’t help but fully admire…

My eBike came with DT 350 Hybrid hubs (Beefier hub shell, larger holes for thicker gauge spokes if required, a 24T ratchet ring) and where the wheels are usually the first thing I’d replace or upgrade on a new bike, I have upgraded various other components but not the wheels…

Hope Pro4’s were ok, required a fair bit more looking after than other premium hubs, but spares are cheap and readily available. Pro5’s seem similar so far from my limited experience of them, though lighter and with faster pickup.

On my own… Not too bad at all! My life may look like chaos from the outside, but I am actually quite organised in my own random way, I promise…

Introduce my Girlfriend to the mix, and her incredible ability to hide things in totally inappropriate places and for no apparent reason, and plenty of arguments and even repeat purchases for things I believe are now long lost ensue! ??

Big thumbs down from experience for me… Not saying there aren’t decent carbon Enduro wheels on the market, but the only ones worth buying are crazy money, and still don’t offer much of a benefit over the best alloy rims these days…

For XC where weight is everything and strength not so important, then yeah go Carbon… For road…? Well if you want a rim deeper than about 30mm then anything alloy is going to be overly heavy, so carbon’s strength to weight ratio and its stiffness is arguably very desirable there…

But for Enduro… Unless you can afford to buy (and to crash) the likes of Zipp 3Zero moto’s or Crank Brothers’ Synthesis wheels (both of which in carbon are barely any lighter than a set of EX471’s built on decent hubs), then they totally aren’t worth it… In the carpark and on the smooth trail centres cheaper carbon wheels might feel impressive being stiffer and “more responsive”, but get them on the typical techy Enduro trails we all love to ride these days, and those qualities (much like a freehub with too much engagement) will prove detrimental rather than adding to the experience IMO.

The Bosch CX I find feels inefficient when spinning, it’s tuned for more like 70 than the 90 rpm the SX/Shimano motors are tuned for.

Don’t confuse the level of assistance it gives with efficiency…

The CX motor is more efficient at higher cadences… All the motor systems are. But it does noticeably punch harder at 70rpm or below than the Shimano motors do for sure… The the EP8 I had previously, you didn’t really get any assistance at all below about 70rpm and were only getting anything meaningful in the 80-100rpm range.

Simon Weir is the man

Riding with him next week… See how it goes!

Canary motorcycle tours get very good reviews

They do, but aren’t they guided only…?

On a Bosch system I’m running 29″, 34T and 10-42 cassette. The 42 is very rarely used; a 10-36 range would be fine, so low gearing isn’t a requirement.

Whilst I suspect you are more typical of newer riders coming to eMTB’s without much or any of an MTB history before eBikes, I personally couldn’t disagree more… I ride with the same high cadence style on eMTB as I do on MTB, and I want to get up any climb that presents itself, so first thing I did was ditch the 34T ring on my Orbea Wild for a 32T (which was the smallest I could find, nobody seems to do a 30T for a Bosch Gen 4, friends on Levo SL’s have got 30T rings on their bikes) and swapped the 10-51 12spd setup out for an 11-51 11spd setup… I still haven’t spun out on 32-11 yet (anything over the 25km/h assist limit and pumping for speed is more effective than pedalling an eBike with no assist usually!), but I do use the 32-51 bottom gear for steep climbs quite a lot.

But then I can sit at 90-95rpm cadence all day on a bike… Which is a LOT more efficient than stomping a low cadence style, if not quite as explosive!

There are very few 32T options

 I’m looking to get a 32t or smaller for Bosch and I am struggling to find any.

I had to get a Wolf Tooth specially imported (UK distributor Saddleback don’t keep them in stock, took about 5-6 weeks, no demand for them apparently, though will order them in as required)… Was worth the hassle though. Much better quality ring than the stock E13 too.

https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/products/direct-mount-chainrings-bosch-e-bike-motor?variant=39966845042723

I’ve just bought a Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RR for nearly £8k less than it cost new – bargain! 2021, One owner, just under 1000 miles, brand new tyres, amazing bike

Lovely bike, but uncompromising sports bike riding position sadly! This is why they were shagging them out so cheap… A mate bought one brand new for £12k down from £18.5k, sounds like you’ve done even better! I went to look at one, assuming it would be easy to make it fit like a normal Speed Triple… It isn’t! Gutted… Same Electronic Ohlins as I had on my Tuono Factory 1100 V4, and even more poke from that lovely triple! But I can’t deal with sports bike riding position any more…

That is indeed a fantastic road and certainly takes some beating.

Shouldn’t need saying, but watch yourselves on that road… Too many have a go heroes turning themselves into statistics along there, and almost permanent police presence as such… It is a great road, but it’s one more to enjoy the scenery if that makes sense…

I am very relaxed about lower power bikes,  65 BHP with a load of torque is plenty.  The fun in riding a bike comes in thrashing them.  That 65 bhp bike is sort of legalish speeds when being ridden hard.

Recently been having more fun riding my Gasgas SM700 (74bhp) when out with mates on their big power bikes than I have on my KTM 1290SA to be fair… Only issue with the Gasgas is it’s incredibly impractical and severely uncomfortable after an hour! It’s also absolutely crap on anything other than twisty back roads, but then that’s what I bought it for…

Yeah, like that was ever likely to happen? That’s like asking me what I’d do once I set foot on the surface of the moon. Magic Grandad was an electoral liability in 2017, by 2019 he was a walking recruiting shop for the Tories. He may as well have walked around waving a huge VOTE TORY banner

So you were happy that the Tories won in 17 and 19 then…? And the subsequent shitshow that ensued…

Cos again, I distinctly remember differently!

I’m glad you’re glad that you think you’ve “won” binners… Again though, this isn’t a football match! It’s not City vs United… Starmer might be eminently more palatable than a hard right wing Tory Govt right now, but his still right of centre politics and policies, not to mention his utter disdain for democracy, aided by the built in undemocratic FPTP system, is just fast tracking the hard right swing that the UK is going to experience at the next election…

And FWIW, no I’m not advocating for a hard left wing govt… I am advocating for the Labour Party going back to being the broad church that it once was and encouraging debate and even dissent within the ranks, especially given their huge majority, rather than doubling down and forcing everyone to become a yes man so soon… A Labour Party without actual left wing voices has no hope of truly representing the masses it claims to want to serve…

You lot are really never going to forgive the Labour Party for winning an election are you?

I’m really struggling with your die hard “Labour til I die” approach here, come what may… You’ve witnessed the party become a centre-right party under Starmer, a “Tory-Lite” if you will… Arguably it was the only way of making the party electable in a nation increasingly influenced by far right dog whistle politics, but at what cost overall…?

How would you have felt if Jeremy Corbyn won in 2019…? You were still die hard Labour back then…

Knew where this was going just from reading the thread title…

So glad I don’t own a shop any more… Used to get questions like this all the time, and of course you know it’s going to be a HUGE bill once you’ve even looked at the bike but the owner thinks it’s a quick £10 job…

I don’t work on anybody’s bikes but my own these days… Well, my GF pushes that rule to be honest as she expects me to fix her bikes all the time, and I’m at the point where I’ve considered even paying a mate with a shop to fix her bikes now as time is precious and I CBA!!!

Starmer will  probably get shut of it next week now the vote has served its purpose… getting rid of the last of magic grandads disciples.

They can join him in backbench, placard-waving irrelevance.

Their spiritual home

Also willing to bet that it wouldn’t take @cougar or any other forum mods very long to unearth historic evidence of your undying loyalty to said placard waving irrelevants either…

FWIW, I really don’t have strong views either way about this 2 child cap… That certainly puts me in a minority here, but there are arguments both for and against that have relevance, and I don’t think lifting it will have the desired effect of lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty in the way that its undying supporters think it would… But I have a real issue with Starmer’s Johnson-esque heavy hand regarding dissenting voices, and believe that it will come back to bite him in the arse much sooner than later!

It might only be the likes of Long-Bailey, Burgon and Zultana right now, but when it’s far more prominent Labour MP’s who have already swallowed more of Starmer’s highly questionable right wing authoritarianism than they should have ever had to, start rebelling too…? There’s a great many Labour MP’s that are far more closely aligned with the current Green Party than they are with Starmer’s version of Labour, and they won’t stay silent forever!

You get used to it. There’s a little pack of lefty hyenas on here who get together and pile on to anyone who disagrees with them.

You’ve got a predictably short memory… I can certainly remember not that long ago (certainly, eBikes were already quite a thing, and 26″ wheels were long dead on new bikes) that you were the self appointed chief “lefty hyena” on this forum…

Wow, clearly a lot of people in here who don’t quite understand politics.

I’m sorry… My irony meter is going crazy right now! You’re going to have to clarify your position of authority for me so that I can understand your position here…

I shan’t read any further comments as I don’t put up with being mocked, so enjoy the rest of your time here.

Or maybe, and quite predictably… NOT!

Blimey this ‘sixth form’stuff is so tedious, coming from a Gumby with a chip butty on both shoulders having been told at sixteen he wasn’t suitable for further education.

In the 20+ year history of STW and all the countless insults that have been flung, this is right up there with the very best of them @BillMC !

Not that I disagree with you of course… Binners is showing the kind of blind loyalty to partisan politics that only the most hardened of football supporters could show… Besides @Binners, I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to unearth evidence of you arguing the case for Proportional Representation historically!

Starmer is grossly overstating both his popularity, and also his ability to rule with an iron fist. Don’t get me wrong, in his first 2 weeks he has done plenty of good (but then so would anyone else who wasn’t a Tory quite frankly!), but he’s really screwed the pooch here… There might have only been 7 official dissident voices, but there’s an awful lot who have clearly abstained and given how Labour stated they wish to abolish the 2 child cap themselves as and when fiscally prudent to do so, it seems absolutely ludicrous to have enforced a 3 line whip for “dissenting” voices here, as those voices technically aren’t dissenting, they merely wish for the process to be hurried up!

Starmer might have been the blunt tool the Labour Party needed to make it electable, but it’s precisely his gross lack of respect for democracy that meant I couldn’t vote for him, that will be his undoing much sooner rather than later I suspect… Especially given how the Labour Party should be trying desperately hard to instill public confidence in MP’s for respecting democracy, not undermining it even further…

I’ve got loads of room around the 45mm G-One Bites on mine… I’ll be trying some 50’s next.

No way a 2.35″ MTB tyre would fit though… Especially not in the fork. I think you would be lucky to squeeze a 2.1 MTB tyre in there to be honest, even then it would be tight for clearance.

Fair enough on the Guzzi… If it floats your boat… They sound lovely!

Be careful though… A friend had that engine in a V85… The thing just kept pissing oil out! It was in warranty and went back to the dealers twice to be fixed, but the problem kept coming back. It also had the worlds noisiest gearbox and shaft drive!

He cut his losses and PXed it against a Husqvarna Norden 901, which despite the chocolate cam scandal on that engine has so far been totally reliable.