Nearly there. Changing the gubbins in the fork was quite enjoyable and it all went together very easily. The forks certainly feel smooth in the workshop but I’ve not had them out to play yet.

The fork has gained nearly 150g with the change from the RC2 cartridge to the Avalanche open bath. 200cc of oil in the leg is much more than would have been in the RC2 cartridge. Only 120g between these Float 36’s and my Marzocchi 55 RC3 Ti fork now…

Top of a munro.

Hanging out in the garden.

There is a weight penalty to running the coil shocks but I prefer them most of the time… although perhaps my new air shocks will change my opinion 😈

DT of the cola, TT of the pepsi. If you’re asking for visual reasons.

+1

Not keen on the super swoopy DT or the straining dog TT look… but I’d go for whichever was stronger or easier to make if there was enough of a difference either way.

Ton, its the award winning Marine Hotel in Stonehaven up in North East Scotland… probably a long way to go for a beer!

Brilliant to watch as usual 8)

My local is new brewing its own beer 8) Lasts nights tap was “wheat trial”, not my favourite style usually but i really enjoyed a few of them… I like beer.

Off to my local tonight and there is usually a fine selection of Belgian ales. Last time I was there I was drinking “Duchesse De Bourgogne” sour beer.

🙄

Pitfichie is pish

Yes.

I could have put that better 😉

If your looking for full on uplift and DH action you’ll not find it close to Aberdeen.

For doonhaller riding you’ll need transport to Pitfichie or Scolty where there are epic doonhaller trails… and a reasonable probability of other stormtroopers.

If AM is more your bag it’s ace round here… but you might want to hook up with local riders for a little guidance to make the most of your visit.

Grow a pair and earn your turns… some epic riding up here if your willing to ride (or walk) up a mountain.

I used to have a Rev Team fork which I ran at 140mm. At first I loved it; it was so light it felt great especially on dry trails but over time I started riding it harder and found it flexed more than I was comfy with, especially when conditions get claggy. I eventualy broke the U-turn gubbins and replaced it with a Fox 36 Float spaced down to 130mm of Travel. The 36 Float is a fork that really can be hammered and ridden in a way that the Rev did not like.
Last night was my first ride back on another Rev Team having swapped the 36 back onto another bike; and once again I found the Rev wanting in the stiffness department. Considering the Rev in question is 1850g and the 36 is 1250g the weight penalty is not as much of an issue as you might think. But I’m going to stick with the rev for the moment and see if I can get used to it as I want the 36 for the other project.

I liked the Bos Deville’s I have borrowed and at 2000g they are between a Rev and 36 in weight… not as stiff as a 36 but noticably better damped and stiff than the Rev.

The only person I know who has 34’s likes them… industry review experts might not be in love with them but that does not mean they are not a good fork… taper steerer only though.

I like Renthal.

I asked for the BJ… Steak and Broken Jaw day apparently!

Superb… needs the right helmet.

Ti because there is a company in China who will make one off Ti frames for them without expecting them to buy X-hundred like the big brands do. But there is that cost issue to working in Ti… although the results will be custom which may be a good thing if that’s what you want/need.

I’ll admit to being fascinated by what Kingdom are up to… designing bike frames and getting them built… brilliant!

More pics of the green and blue one please… it looks reet lush 😳

I’ve emailed Mike and will report back

Seb Kemp does a Charlie Brooker on SRAM marketing and the internet’s “dumb-as-a-hammer” hero’s[/url]

Made me smile 8)

Thread resurection time…

My 26″ rims are built but not ridden yet. Sub 1500g on Hope EVO hubs with Revolution spokes and alloy nipples (400g saving over the Hope/Hoop/Flow they replaced). They were easy to build and true unlike some superlight rims I’ve built in the past.

Set up tubeless no problem with my Conti Baron/RQ combo… and now hanging out in the garage until I put them on a bike.

When are the new Alpine’s due?

I enjoyed the vid. I’m still not sure if size matters though; which makes me 29er-curious.

It’s marketing, Sherry. Quite smart hand-shandy marketing, too.

FYP

I’m liking the Kinesis Strut 740 which is on the front of my hardtail at the moment. Very light at 175g and not broken yet.

Afternoon sneaky ride away from work whilst “making a site visit”. Riding a route I know well I went for a wee north-shore type feature which has a little wooden ramp to ease the transition down from a 10ft vertical rock face… as my front wheel rolled over the top I saw with horror that the transition ramp was gone so this was going to be a 10ft drop to faceplant. I threw the bike to one side and aimed myself for the heathery soft looking bit and tried my best to tuck and roll rather than put the hands out and end up with broken arm or collar bone. Made it back to work but my neck was stiff for a few weeks after… it could have been so much worse.

Lunchtime BMX crash at the skatepark was bad enough that could barely walk home afterwards. RICE was all that was required to fix it.

None of this would ever stop me riding solo.

Glass Ceiling for technical roles?

I’m a technical kind of guy, I like being involved in the making of stuff and seeing projects through to the end so I like what I do. I’ve ended up changing jobs to stay technical rather than buy the shiney suit and move into “sales”, or swallow the semon and join “management”. Technical people do tend to be their own worst enemies though as they don’t like courses or meeting managment semen-swallowing targets etc which counts against them come appraisal time. At a certain career point to remain technical becomes difficult as your in the HR world of pay bands where HR call the shots (or so you are told); once you top-out on a pay band there is no pay rise they can give you (or so they tell you)… and to remain technical the pay band is nowhere near what you would get as a consultant. So to remain technical and increase your pay comensurate with your experience (and value) you “almost” have to go consulting… which means you get paid well to do the jobs the graduates don’t want to do since they all want to be in management (they haven’t found out the further they go up the management ladder the more onerous the semen swallowing targets become).

Obviously there is more to it than that but for industrys which requires technical expertise many are not very good at nurturing technical people. I blame management and HR which are full of chancers, cheats and liers… if you can’t do the job manage it 😉

My wife and friends use the George Hotel on George Street. Great location and special enough to be worth what you pay.

Scotsman is brilliant if your traveling by train though… go in via the back door under North Bridge. Cocktails in the bar here and at the Balmoral over North Bridge for true decadence.

Not an EVO gonetothehills 😉

Kingdom bike project had some on their website.

No change in feel from the Sunline V1 I took off as far as I can feel.

Kinesis Strut 750’s on mine. Scary light at 175g but seem to be holding up fine and feel great. I’m not scared of them.

I think you’re right Paul, those are pretty rare beasts here and reviews are scarce on the net. I doubt they are bad bikes though as Cannondale have good heritage in Enduro/AM with the animal Mark Weir racing for them[/url]. See also Jerome Clementz[/url]

Looks pretty good dousn’t it 8)

Load of awesome in here.

Thanks geetee, here’s hoping it all gets sorted for you. I liked the Bos Deville’s I borrowed and I was going to buy them until the whole R52 thing happened. Avalanche has been an itch I’ve been wanting to scratch for a while as well though. Good to hear your arms mended 😛

I reckon messiah is secretly planning on taking down Joe Barnes winning streak at the MacAvalanche this year

Nice one acehtn 😉 I’ll not handycap myself by having my bawbag sliced open and stitched up the week before this time 😐

I’ll not be at the MacAvalanche this year… I’ve got an entry for the Trans-Savoie though 8)

It’s not about the speed… it’s about the geekery

How about spending the money on a skills course?

Thanks for the input xiphon… but this is not about getting faster so my skills are irrelevant; it’s about me making improvements to the feel of my bike in the way that I want for where and how I ride.

If I wanted to get faster I’d be needing bigger wheels surely 😆 🙄

Hi geetee, the geek in me will report back at some point 😳

Are you running X-Fusion instead of Bos now… any reason?

If they discount it enough we will buy into it (never mind the consequences) 🙄

Hi Loco. Thats what Craig said he does with them; and there was a bag of bits and bobs in with the DHX so pretty sure it’s guts have been ripped out and replaced 😈 No more position sensative Pro-Pedal-Pish(tm) as it was replaced with the Speed Sensative Damping (SSD) 8)

I chose to do the mods to an older DHX4.0 as Craig advised. I bought a NOS which I bought from ebay-USA and had sent straight to Craig at Avalanche. This way I get a brand new shock with the dial for compression adjustment rather than the more recent three position switch; and the bottom out adjuster of the 5.0 is removed as part of the mod anyway (unless you really want/need it).

Would you like a look inside when it needs a service?

There is no profit in riding old bikes… you need to buy new bikes… our new bikes… so we show you a new wheel size which we say is better than the old wheel size… and were going to stop with the old wheels size so you have to buy a new bike.