Forget about blogging and photos for a few rides.

Ride further, until you are exhausted and sore. Then you’ll wish that either a) a deranged moorland madman drags you from your bivy and puts you out your misery by beating you to a pulp, or b) someone steals your infernal bike and you can sack the ride and go drink beer.

The problem is, riding a bike that is really really specialized in a certain area.

Road bike is a Ferrari, full suss is a Landrover.

For me, a nice 29er hardtail MTB with fast(ish) XC tyres on is a good compromise. I can ride to the trails in about 40 mins, ride the trails, hit road anytime with little worries, likewise mud, singletrack, rock etc.

I don’t think of myself and a ‘mountain biker’. rather a ‘cyclist’.

XC / trail hardtails with lock out forks means almost anything is kinda fun, ok you aren’t gonna be the fastest, but you aren’t gonna suffer either. Most bikes are too specialized IMHO, unless you are doing well racing in that genre.

Pick the compromise that means you can cycle from your front door and have a good ride.

The mileage isn’t the main thing. How hard you were riding is. If you don’t know about it, learn about heart rate, get a monitor, know where you need to be to do a longer ride. Also learn about fueling. A couple of jelly babies every 30 mins does wonders!

Wow that is out of order. Shaking a child = assault in this day and age. And even then, shaking someone else’s crying child who has just had an accident on their pushbike? WTF!

There really are some utter t***s in the world. Pet owners who put the safety of their ball of mange above that of other humans rank up there for sure.

Needs a good talking to.

Nice frame, shame about the forks.

Cream on arse _before_ the ride is the secret.

Also, after being off the bike, the arse is the 1st thing to complain. Just a few shorter rides will start to break it in and get more comfortable.

Too late now though, have a seat.

More like 5 jelly babies per gel:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Vu0Dgvw8MHg/SU8vwiqh8iI/AAAAAAAADKw/uJRuC349rO4/s1600-h/Caloric+density.jpg

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/bassetts-jelly-babies-per-8-sweets-18042301

And 20 gels? Seriously? That’s £20 worth of sugar snot. I feel ill thinking about it.

That is the equivalent of half a bag of sugar 😯

They are just sugar. Drinking sports drink and topping up with jelly babies / tablet / savory carbs like bread is more palatable and ‘real’.

For most all uses, gels are unnecessary and very expensive.

Gels are shit. You don’t need them unless you are doing shorter fast races, or things like running marathons. They are just sugar, more diluted than in jelly babies / sweets. Better eating jelly babies / sweets if you can. Gels are very expensive, messy, and heavy compared to jelly babies.

If goggles are a pain in the arse, you are applying them to the wrong area of the body…

I think she forgot to put a seat on her seatpost!

Hardtails f+_*_(&_ rock man. Lighter and prettier for a start.

Sarnies are a good idea. Nuts are ok for a snack. Sweet stuff like tablet / fudge is good. I usually plan to stop every 3 hours and have some savory, some sweet, some liquid, and some caffeine if needed. Can of coke and some crisps are good as well!

Best thing to keep you going is sports drink in bladder, keeps you hydrated and gets you some top up carbs.

50 miles isn’t too long unless the terrain is brutal. Don’t take too much.

Everything is a compromise, you just have to pick your one.

The point of gears is to give you the option of more than one gear.

It is just a different compromise. Some people don’t much like the extra noise and complexity and weight of a front shifter and multiple chainrings. They also feel that they can ride most of what they want with a more limited set of gears.

“I applaud this test, but I still feel that variable gears are only for people over 45. Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft. Come on fellows. Let’s say that the test was a fine demonstration – for our grandparents! As for me, give me a fixed gear!”

Modern Mustangs are ok, kinda fun but don’t expect anything amazing – the hire ones are always the lower models unless you pay a load of money, and then they usually come with a limited mileage and $0.25 a mile after that, which could add up! Don’t take big suitcases, there is not a lot of room in the boot, and back seats are tiny and would be a tight fit for even a child, no joke.

I would plan on having at least 3 days a week without having to drive from A to B, to relax and soak up things. Driving all day every day sounds romantic, but…

Recommend the North Rim on the Grand Canyon. Higher and much quieter. Remote though – it is a 40 mile drive in down a solitary road with almost nothing on it, and that is after turning off of a road passing through the middle of nowhere 🙂 Great drive though, just watch for deer if it is dark. The campsite is great, if you have a compact camping kit take it, sleeping on the rim of the canyon in the open feels quite special.

Vegas is better than I thought it was going to be, worth a night or two. Hover damn was a disappointment TBH.

Personally, I’d do the coasts rather than the interior. Driving down the West coast would be great, and you could still pop inland. Go to Santa Cruz and rent some bikes for a day!

Some inspiration may be found with these guys – “Roadkill” https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL12C0C916CECEA3BC

That’s easy, just wrap the post in electrical tape on the contact points.

I’d still be worried about injury. That post would cut a really nice plug out of your heel etc.

Why not just attach the bag to the dropper post though?

Why do you need an extra post?

I’d be worried about having an off and trapping my leg in there, or spearing my leg / foot etc.

Methinks this thread is linked in one or more 4×4 forums 🙂

towzer – Member

“unregulated access,” – we don’t have unregulated access

I am talking about a dirt track in the UK that is open to anyone tearing up and down it in any motoriz3ed vehicle they care to. That is not sustainable as power + aggressive tread + challenging terrain = wheel spin / sink = churned up lane that is wrecked for everyone else.

Regulation does tend toward lowest common denominator yes. And I can sympathize with off roaders. But I don’t see how some ancient law of access translates into ripping lanes to pieces in powerful vehicles in the name of recreation. That kind of thing, in the UK at least, is better on private land with the landowners permission.

You need more angle the wider the bars are.

Why do you need to do that?

Uncontrolled motorized off road access clearly doesn’t work. The extra power tears up the ground and turns accessible dirt track into rutted bog that only other 4x4s can get through.

Access rights for non-motorized recreation works well in Scotland. No reason that can’t work well in Englandshire as well.

I do understand the appeal of ‘off roading’ but I think in general the UK is not big enough to handle unregulated access, the population density, land type, and weather is not conducive to that.

Centre Parcs to Sherwood pines cut through?

Is that another Centre Parcs euphemism?

Lights / batteries screw up all the time due to wet / corrosion.

Not at the moment, it is only just being rolled out.

I have still to hear of any proper benefits to the system though, especially on 1x.

Plugging in my phone / lights / batteries and remembering / managing chargers annoys me enough, having to do that with my bike in order to replace a perfectly good functioning mechanical system that needs 5 minutes maintenance every year had better bring some serious long term benefits!

With a new battery, at full charge. Battery capacity fades with age and use. Use a 1 year old battery for a day, forget / not able to charge it, leave it on draining it = ruined second day.

Miles mean nothing. Is that road miles on the flat, or off road highland mountain biking miles?

How many hours does it run for? How many consecutive 12+ hrs a day cycling can it do, off road?

Why would I want the extra faff and multiple extra points of failure? No one has said any advantages of electronic shifting on a 1x off road multi day system.

I can see there are maybe advantages for road riding with a front mech, as the system can adjust the bodge that is a front mech so it runs correctly, and the bike gets tended to at the end of every day.

Not the point, and veiled insults don’t suit you.

I don’t understand the “I want to replace a simple cable with a battery, wires, and electronics” thing?

I’m with the Luddites here.

My rear mech, cable, and shifter cause me no problems at all. It is almost set and forget. Change the cable once every couple of years, job done.

What is the advantage in throwing out that simple mechanism that takes no further thought, for a complicated system that needs batteries and charging, with all the problems that brings?

Filthy on the road is not nearly the same as filthy off road.

How does it do on day 5 of a 10 day off road tour, in the middle of nowhere?

I don’t believe that. 3 minutes charge is nothing. Also, what if you do that and it lasts 150 miles into a 200 mile run?

Why in the name of all that is good would we swap out a practically zero maintenance thing, with something that needs so much care and attention?

Easy mate.

If you think 1x is fashion, that is your prerogative. I think my list gives some good reasons. Of course 3x or 2x is not unridable, and 1x is not going to suddenly make you better. It just comes down to personal preference.

I am sticking on 10 speed at the moment, as I agree that the current prices for 11x are quite steep, 10 speed offers good VFM ATM.

BTW, all this same howling and complaining happened when they invented the derailleur, then they went from 5 speed to6, from 6 speed to 7, from 7 to 8, from… you get the point.

The setup is the least of the issues.

They add weight.

Add complexity.

More stuff on handlebars.

Chain drop / can’t use NW chainrings.

Expensive to replace chainrings.

Dangerous (big ring).

Clog with mud / hard to clean.

98% of the time unneeded, even with a 9 speed 11-32.

Ugly as sin.

There is a lot to be said for simplicity IMHO, and the front mech is the 1st thing in the firing line.

That sounds like air in the system – which is user error, not design. The boiling point of Dot is much higher than mineral.

No properly set up brake should be ‘to the bars’. If that happened, I think the problem is with the person or people that set up the brakes, especially if it is multiple sets set up by the same person that failed. People are fallible. You are describing a fault condition, not normal service / design condition.

That is for the leavers I think.

Thing is, does it even matter? Who has broken a caliper or leaver body? I can see the whole forged thing being important for things like cranks and stems.

Crossed wires here mate, there was no sarcasm in my post, I am agreeing with you. I loved that the video you posted showed the forged Hope M4 brake caliper in the guys hand, and he clearly explained it was a forging.

My point was we heard in this thread that “Hope make a positive out of the fact their parts are not forged”, they you showed a video where it is clearly explained and shown that they ARE made from forgings 🙂

It is too easy for stuff to get repeated on internet forums as ‘facts’, with absolutely nothing to back them up. I want the facts… measurements, tests, explanation from the manufactures, all IMVHO worth a lot more than stuff like “my mates friends sisters husband pulled his lever to the bars, therefore XYZ is rubbish”.

It could be contamination, poor setup (not centered), wrong pad choice, poor rotors, bad bleeding / air / water in line… probably other things. There are a lot of things that can throw peoples experiences off IMHO.

Hope X2 Race Evo>> 110
Hope Race Evo M4 >> 115

So the M4’s have some more power, but not ‘twice as much’, just a little bit more. But a little bit more power + new vs old + poss better setup + expectation bias = OMG THESE ARE AWESUM 🙂

It from that BikeRadar link[/url].

“Weights are calculated including 180/183mm rotors, post mount kit and rotor bolts”.

Love it! It’s funny how stuff gets repeated as ‘fact’, when in actuality, it is totally untrue!

As pointed out above, this is an untrue statement.

Sorry to pick on you Northwind, but 1) it is not a trick, 2) the parts you are complaining about are not brakes, and 3) there is no statistical proof being presented of any ‘unreliability’ in Hope brakes. You have thrown statements out there in this thread that have already been shown to be false. I understand your personal experience hasn’t been great with a couple of (non-brake) Hope parts, but that doesn’t mean you should continually write off everything they make, especially when other peoples anecdotal evidence contradicts yours.

Woah! It’s only some people discussing MTB brakes, and the merits of qualitative / quantitative comparison. No need for an existential crisis 😀

Not true though:

Brake : Power : Weight

Formula R1 : 107 : 355
Hope X2 Race Evo : 110 : 377
Shimano XTR Race M985 : 110 : 388

I feel the same about Shimano. Still using fluid that seems to stop working in the cold, and if a seal wears out, you need to buy a new brake.

Hah, good link kimbers, I was just there earlier today. Interesting test stats, and useful. I am building up a new bike, and researching what brakes to put on it. Current bike has Hope X2 Race Evo, which I am happy with, but looking does no harm, right 🙂

I think a lot / most / all of the subjective opinion spouted about “brake x is much more powerful than brake y” is useless. Comparing an old set of brake x against a new set of brake y, probably on different days, likely on different bikes and terrain, likely with some expectation bias thrown in, is impossibly skewed. Gimme the scientific stats please, otherwise we get into the realms of hifi snake oil subjectivity dressed up as being golden eared (golden fingered?).

From the tests, seems that Formula brakes are in fact ‘the best’ in terms of maximum power and also power-to-weight.

Brake model / Power (Nm) / Weight (g) / Power to Weight Ratio

Formula R1 Racing 104 334 3.21
Formula The One 121 393 3.25
Magura MT6 103 337 3.27
Formula R1 107 355 3.32
Formula RO 124 418 3.37
Hope X2 Race Evo 110 377 3.43
Shimano XTR Race M985 110 388 3.53
Shimano XTR Trail M988 112 407 3.63
Formula RX 107 398 3.72
Magura MT8 90 339 3.77
Avid XX WC 90 356 3.96
Avid Elixir 7 99 395 3.99
Avid Elixir 9 99 397 4.01
Magura MT2 103 428 4.16
Avid Code R 103 429 4.17
Hope Race Evo M4 115 496 4.31
Shimano XT M785 107 466 4.36
Hope Tech Evo V2 120 524 4.37
Shimano SLX M666 111 485 4.37
Avid Elixir 3 100 442 4.42
Quad QHD-7.1 Nano Light 92 422 4.59
TRP Dash Carbon 85 393 4.62
Avid Elixir 1 100 471 4.71
Shimano Deore M596 104 490 4.71
Hope Tech Evo X2 97 463 4.77
Quad QHD-7 Nano 97 463 4.77
TRP Dash 85 407 4.79
Quad Rapide 97 475 4.90
Shimano Saint 105 529 5.04
Ashima PCB 64 328 5.13
Gusset Chute 89 469 5.27
Hayes Prime Pro 90 501 5.57
Tektro Auriga Pro 77 491 6.38

Hope X2 Race Evo do well in terms of power and power-to-weight, whereas the Hope Tech Evo X2 do somewhat poorly. Quite interesting, maybe the Tech Evo X2 have let them down, if people have been comparing them against the like of Shimano XT.

Reliability is really important to me. I had a horrible run with Shimanos a few years ago, cumulating in both front and back brakes failing within 5 minutes of each other on a night ride in winter (-5). Hopes OTOH have been flawless, I did a huge amount of fairly demanding riding last year on them, and they never missed a beat.

You’ll never find an article of clothing (short of a dry suit) that will stop you getting wet on a bike in heavy and or constant rain. For a start, there are four massive holes in any jacket, and the wet just soaks through. The thing to aim for is keeping warm. IMHO the Gore active shell windstopper stuff is ideal for this. Get the one with the zip off arms and you can use it year round.

For sure, but not having proper control in an emergency situation = worse outcome.

Yes, they both jumped a red light. Yes, stupid move for sure. There but for the grace of god go we…

You are putting words in my mouth. Please check what I said:

Think you may qualify as a roadie, yeh?

My point is, drops are stupid bars for the gen pop to use for commuting. Seriously, how many people (who are not roadies) are ‘tucking’ on their way to work? Drops are a bad design for city riding for the average commuter, as they put the brakes away from the primary hand position, which is awful design. They are built for racing and general controlled road riding, not riding through traffic.

What an effort… amazing. God she was in a lot of pain right after finishing, that is serious commitment and endurance.

aP, you made such a great counter argument there, with such incisive command of the English language. We are all truly graced with your presence and intellectual capacity.

:swoon:

😆

Yeh, Twin Shot don’t blowoff.

I love the forks and especially that system. Four options: full travel / drop with extra damping / drop with full lock / full height with full lock… it is really versatile and I find them all useful. Disappointed they have discarded it for the new forks.