If you persevere it makes sense; because they say long travel hardtails are fun but make no sense when a similar weight full suss would be a better bike. Which is true… but hard tails are for the hardcore and none of them would appear to have macho tattoos so they were never the target audience :mrgreen:

Your lucky if they are only playing the game… just hope your kids don’t get obsessed with the stampylonghead minecraft channel on U-tube.

Great story. Some bikes/frames are keepers no matter what it takes…

Those hubs are interesting. I’d love to see if the almost instant pick up feels good compared to more normal hubs… but the lack of long term reviews and long term owner comments that I can find, and my history of breaking stuff puts me off.

I have two. They didn’t like it when I had an extended network and seem to try to connect to the wrong part of it and get confused. If you can try setting it up on the main network with the extending AE turned off.

Mine are now faultless on a single network which covers the whole house with my powerful Asus Dark Knight router.

Time to update this thread with my conclusion 8)

I’ve ordered an Ion 15 like I demo’d.

I was considering an Ion 16 650b/27.5″ but I simply didn’t feel any downsides to the 29″ wheels on the Ion 15, and I loved the way it carried speed and put a grin on my face.

I’ve ended up going with a size Large which is a departure for me as I usually buy Medium but I liked the extra length of Dipper’s custom Ion and its nearer a large than Medium (I plan to run a 35mm stem). To ensure I get enough dropper post height I’m having it made without the “Ion” gusset above the top-tube/seat-tube.

Colour is a secret…

Messiah – which wheel size did you order in your nicolai?

Thanks for the reminder Rik… I’ll go update that other thread with my decision!

sounds like user error to me

Yup :twisted:

Why do people hate front mechs?

1. They make your chain come off; it’s what they and the ramps/pins/short-teeth are designed to do. I hate it when my chain comes of on a descent or on a nadgy techy bit of trail (usually causing my nads or knee to strike something hard and be sore for a few weeks). Even on my road bike the chain sometimes comes off… hatefull things.

2. In the clag the low-swing front-mech design is a handy shelf to collect mud, this then stops the mech from working as the mud sits in the mechanism preventing the chain from dropping into the granny ring (very frequent where I ride due to the mud… did I mention the mud and riding in it?). Since the chain won’t drop into the granny ring as expected your no longer in a position to force the move in the middle ring because you backed off power to change gear… grrrrr. Much swearing and then a re-start required wheras without the front mech and with reduced risk of the chain coming off you just have to MTFU and make the move.

3. Where your front mech shifter used to be is the best place for a reverb or other dropper-post lever.

4. Big chainrings… I haven’t used one for years as I’m not interested in going fast on the road or on smooth fireroads.

Sweeping generalisations follow.

Evil – a very new design so not many reviews and long term reliability unknown; although split Pivot design is known to be good and Evil have been good with warranty in the past.

Intense – alloy frames are known for poor build quality and cracking. Warranty usually good.

Yeti – bearing issues, although Yeti are I believe very good about them.

How about a Nicolai? I’ve just ordered myself a new one as my last one has been nothing short of brilliant for nearly four years.

XX1 1×11 etc is not for everyone. It’s a drivetrain option which suits a certain kind of rider.

Some of us are awesome* and take our bikes into the mountains.

*I know because Strava says so 8)

Gratuitous top of a Munro pic by messiah.

I tried a 1×9(30×11-34) and it was not low enough for where I ride; although it’s what I run on my winter/forest hardtail as its fine in the winter when the mountains are covered in snow and the forests are inches deep in mud so none of the tough techy climbs are properly rideable anyway (unless frosty/frozen… 8) ).

XX1 32×42 is not as low as 22×36 but its low enough for my awesome legs to get me up the same climbs I used to use lower gears for; but I do have to work a bit harder. But thats okay because I hate front mechs and will put up with many inconveniences not to run one (I used to have a Hammerschmidt 8) )

If your kids are into Harry Potter staying at one of the Universal hotels gets you into the park an hour early so you can experience the Harry Potter area with less people and hence limited waiting… unless the big ride is having a little meltdown in which case there can still be a wait (there is no premium-pass in the Harry Potter area and waits are long so getting in an hour early is a real boost).

I’ve not done NASA as my kids were a bit young but this year we will. We are going to give Disney a miss this October and do more of the other stuff… do not do the Disney Halloween nights, they are very busy and it involves shuffling round looking for horrible candy. The parade was fun but not worth the hassle. On the subject of parades its worth doing your homework and staking out an are 30mins before the parade starts or the kids will not get the Disney Experience and high fives from the characters etc.

I’m really looking forward to doing a Horror Night at Universal Studios this year… adults only so we have had to get a babysitter sorted (nine months away and we are already doing our homework!).

Spice up the beans and add some Salsa for a very poor-boy huevos rancheros… and I’d miss out the beans personally and just go with the Salsa and egg combo.

I’ve been in October the last three year and we are going back again in October :oops:

I was a total Disney sceptic until I went. Its a great holiday as the kids are entertained and being a geek I get to marvel at how they do things and make it all work so smoothly.

Do your homework and be prepared to spend. October is a very good time to go as crowds are small and the weather is warm. Become a Disney liner[/url] and work out your daily plan of attack. We go to park opening where we wait for 30mins or so; but by a mixture of fast-pass’s and clever routing that is almost always our only waiting for the day (we get home and hear complaints from people about waiting times but we don’t experience it). By mid afternoon we are done and head back to the villa for the pool; or go for an arranged meal for chill out time to stay in the park for the show (Fantasmic at Disney Studios or the fireworks etc). Homework is key as the good restaurants like the Brown Derby etc have to be booked months in advance. Disney Animal Kingdom is the only Disney park I don’t really like but it is worth seeing once.

Busch gardens is great, its a zoo and some of the interactive things like giraffe feeding are not to be missed. There is much more too it than just rollercoasters… having said that my 6 and 8 year olds were on many of them this year. Check your heights before you go to avoid disapointed kids. Both kids loved Cheater-run, and Kwazi is a mental old school wooden rollercoaster.

Aquatica is brilliant fun on a nice day – the “non” lazy river is fabulous.
Discovery cove and swimming with Dolphins is an amazing experience, and swimming/snorkeling with the fishes and rays is a big wow for kids (water is cool but not cold, some people will whinge about anything).
Seaworld is good but not a favourite.
Legoland the kids really enjoyed.

What we do now. Two weeks. Frst week and a half in a villa on universal drive near Kissemmee so we can be at any park within 30mins. Homework done and restaurants booked for the days we want to stay in the park all day. Keep a few days flexible for the waterparks to make sure we get the best days for them. Big breakfast and into the chosen park early for the day, if we have to grab some food in the park choose carefully to avaid the worst of the fast food. Once out of the park we tend to eat salads and stuff round the pool at the villa, or go out for dinner.

For the last 3 days of the holiday we book into one of the hotels at Universal. The Polynesian was great but the Hard-Rock is better and have kids suites (things I never thought I would hear myself say but it really is an amazing experience). By staying in the hotel you can walk or take a boat/pedal-cart to the parks and have a priority pass for the Universal parks so hardly wait for anything (surprisingly costs little more than the pass and villa although you will be paying extra for drinks by the pool and meals etc). Not a cheep way to do it but your on holiday so just pony up.

By booking all the above ahead of time and being organised this costs us less than two weeks in Spain. Okay so we spend a bit more when we are there but the cost of living in the USA is cheaper than here.

Be organised so that you can relax and go with the flow once you are there, the less decisions you actually have to make on any given day the better; so make all the decisions you can before you go. ENJOY!

Seen this?[/url]

and this?[/url]

and this?[/url]

Brand is owned these days by the Tandem group who also own Falcon.

Ah yes colour… one of the more troublesome Nicolai dilemma’s :mrgreen:

She also has a sex dungeon… some people have hidden talents.

Nice to meet you philbert31… how did the meet with Dipper go? Did you get something ordered?

Been looking at those, very tempting…

That looks great with the big Rubber Queen :D

Surely a Fox 36 Float reduced to 130mm is the answer? It’s what I ran on my Mmmbop’s and now on my Blue Pig. Robust and stiff fork which feels so much better than the noodle Rev it replaced; well worth it’s extra grams.

Superficial

Yes. Ps check the pressure in the post. It should be 250psi, if it’s less than that, top it up.

This first^^^

One of mine was doing that and it had lost pressure. I also gave it a bleed as I have had it for over two years and not touched it; its been great since.

Taz

Messiah my dilema is the same as yours 27.5 or 29er. Leaning more towards 29er after reading all of this. Really wish test rides were easier to come by.

I understand this dilemma. I’ve been trying to ignore all the 650b/27.5 threads as I can bring nothing to the discussion since I haven’t ridden one. My personal thinking is that over the last few years I’ve been loving my big 2.4″ Conti Rubber Queen tyres and I miss them when running other rubber; one of the big reasons I love them is the balloon like size of them which is very nearly 650b/27.5 (Yes, I know it’s not bigger than the new bigger 650b etc but its damn close to those early ones which started the whole thing). From this experience I was definetly going down the 650b route with my next bike as now that decent tyres and rims are available there are no downsides… and you can always run a 26″ wheel with a big tyre if you have too (emergency) or want to lower the bottom bracket.

I’ve been wanting to try a good 29er for a while; but as I mentioned I didn’t see the point in trying just any XC/trail bike as that is not the type of riding I enjoy. For most of last year I wanted to ride as much as I could on the bike I would be racing at the Trans-Savoie so I didn’t want to change my hardtail or test a 29er and try to get to know a new bike. Now I’ve had the time and the opportunity to try a good 29er I have felt some benefits as I mentioned. What is a little perturbing is that just as I get to try a good 29er the industry has gone 650b/27.5 nuts and almost all AM/Enduro bikes are going that way.

But… and it’s a big one; I think Chainline(Pilot)/Dipper/Nicolai are really onto something here with the Ion 15. This could be one of the first of the truly AM/Enduro optimised 29ers (See also the BMC Trailfox and Specialized Enduro 29er’s). So many of the AM 29ers which have come before seem to be overly compromised by hangover XC geometry and flexy forks/wheels/tyres that they never had a chance of feeling great.

I can’t get out of my head how well this Ion 15 rides, as I mentioned I just got on it and was instantly throwing it about like I had been riding it for years; I think going back to my little Helius is going to be very interesting… I love my Helius and its an awesome AM bike but I think the game has been moved forward by this Ion 15.

I’m a procrastinator but I’m struggling to come up with reasons not to place my order as soon as I can speak to Dipper.

Like!

I’d rather have a bike that didn’t break than one that needs a warranty. Getting a new bike every year or so via a warranty sounds good but having done it the warranty process is almost always a total pain (although my last two {Ragley and Whyte} were relatively painless… partly because I always have 2+ bikes these days :roll: ).

I know of three Nicolai’s with issues. One of those was caused by the owner not servicing the bushings when they needed it; riding the bike hard with loose bushings wore the frame; but the dealer was very good and sorted him with another frame, and I believe the damaged frame was repaired and is with a new owner. The second is the secondhand/demo frame story off here which again involved loose bushings; I can’t remember how that finished. The third is a frame with a damaged bottom bracket shell from a bike being ridden with a poorly fitting or damaged bottom bracket. Nicolai offered to repair this at cost, but BETD were cheaper, and I think the frame was sold cheaply as damaged repairable.

OK… so I’m a bit of a Nicolai fanboi but I’ve been riding Nicolai’s for 10 years and not broken one (first I had for 6+ years and My Helius AM for nearly 4 years)… which with my history of breaking bikes is impressive (my AM has outlasted two hardtail frames… and the AM is the bike I use for the big stuff 8O ).

I think I need to buy a Nicolai hardtail next time :wink:

Alloy save 20g per wheel (assuming 32 spokes).

In my experience they are good for the first year or two but after that any nipple tweaking required is highly likely to cause nipple breakage. For weight weenie or XC race wheels they are a must but if you want years of service go brass.

Tape measure and Angle ap on phone – just make sure floor is level as a datum.

Nicolai Helius AM with 160mm travel
160mm Marzocchi 55 RC3-Ti forks (545mm Axle to crown).

Head Angle – 65
Seattube Angle – 71
BB height – 360mm (Mahoosive 2.4″ Rubber Queen Tyres = 340mm axle height))
Chainstay length – 430mm
TopTube length – 585mm
Wheelbase – 1120mm
Bars – 745mm
Stem – 45mm

It’s a little short for me and the bottom bracket is higher than I would like with the Mahoosive tryes… very nearly perfect though.

The Nicolai Ion 15 I currently have to play with has a CCDB Air CS on it Linky

I’ve had a CCDB coil in the past and the Air feels better (it was on a different bike so that might have something to do with it). It felt like a well set-up CCDB which can be a good or bad thing; they are not lively feeling and I find the rebound too slow from deep in the travel… still the second best feeling shock I have ever used (My Avalanched tuned DHX Air is the best, and it’s lighter :wink: ).

I don’t like using Pro-Pedal and CS type switches so I didn’t bother to try it. Without using the switch I found the bike climbs and descends very well with only out of the saddle efforts getting the shock and fork to become a bit bobby – the CS switch and Pike fork lockout thing would probably help this but like I said it didn’t bother me enough to try faffing with it (and inevitably forgetting to faff it back again).

I had some Pike forks PUSH’ed a few years ago as the damper could not handle high speed repetative hits and would pack down becoming harsh; the PUSH gubbins fixed it.

The Revelation Team forks I’ve had with the Black-Box damper never behaved in the seme way as they had the dual-flow damper.

If thats your problem either would fix it – but I can’t tell you which is better, although IIRC Loco did once say the Dual-Flow damper is a better solution and has some adjustability wheras the PUSH is one set-up fix.

I’ve tried a 1-1/8″ and a 1.5″ Revelation fork on Ragley Mmmbop frames – both forks were the Team version with 20mm bolt through.

The 1-1/8″ was very flexy and I sold it on to run a Fox 36 1.5″ fork. I then picked up the 1.5″ Rev as I hoped it would be less of a noodle than the 1-1/8″ version… which it kind of was. The 1.5″ steerer definetly reduced the fore/aft flex of the Rev but I still found myself sawing at the handlebars as the legs of the fork twisted.

Summary – In my experience 1.5″(and hence tapered ) steerers are definetly stiffer in front to back flex than 1-1/8″; but they are not enough in themselves to make much of a difference unless the whole package is suitably stiff.

Depends how you ride and if you can live with flex for reduced weight, or want a carbon steerer which is lighter etc etc, but I can see a benefit to the standard… although I liked the 1.5″ steerer and still have forks with it :roll:

I went from using a BT-Home hub with a second as a slave on a powerline adapter to a one powerfull unit to rule the house.

I went for an Asus Black Knight which is powerfull enough to reach the whole house. I’ve backed this up with wired connections to the most data heavy stuff and performance is brilliant. Its been worth the effort of running the cables.

I’ve yet to do it but something I liked about the Asus unit is that I could detach one of the three antenna and run it with an extension cable to any problem areas (I plan to do this to get a signal down the bottom of the garden at the summerhouse next summer).

PS.

I’ve also cracked a Flow rim and ridden it for a few weeks with a big blob of liquid-metal strengthening the area until I could find a replacement

Here is the same-old-picture of my cracked 28mm wide LB carbon rim…

I raced it for another 5 days in the Trans-Savoie with this damage :mrgreen: , although I did require a tube after two days.

LB then gave me a warranty and for a small charge I upgraded to the new stronger 33mm wide rim. I have no hesitation recomending the LB rims; but its worth remembering that there is nothing that cannot be broken if your trying hard enough :twisted:

I’ve not warmed to the gripshift. I find it too easy to grab one or two gears more than I mean too. I much prefer the more solid reliable feel of the trigger shifter despite having to stab at the buttons more often.

I’ve managed three decent rides with the ION 15 but unfortunately I haven’t managed to get it up into the big mountains (due to weather and other stuff).

Here is a picture of it in my local forest which is mostly short-sharp-techy-riding

I have to give it back on Thursday so short of a miracle (or taking a day off work which is the same thing at this time of year) I’m unlikely to get more than another (nightride!) local forest scoot with it :(

I had been hoping to give it a real try in the mountains as what I was expecting from what I have read about 29ers is that it would struggle with the techy features in my local forest; but that’s enough about preconceptions/misconceptions/assumptions.

I can report back that the ION 15 is an absolutely lovely bike to ride in my local forest and is one of the best bikes I have ever ridden. I found myself not thinking at all about the wheel size and just riding around the forest throwing the bike into the terrain in much the same way I usually do. There feels to be no bad habits or quirks which I needed to fathom, and hence from the first section of singletrack we were getting it-on together like old friends.

Dipper has the bike set up in very much the same way I do and we are of similar enough build that I didn’t have to faff with anything other than seat position. Equipment wise it’s very similar to my beloved Helius AM so I think it is comparing apples to apples on AM/Enduro type bikes.

The “fabled” 29er improved terrain roll-over does seem to be in evidence as this bike loves to roll through the terrain; and I would say it takes less effort than my 26er to attain speed over rough stuff, and it likes to keep that speed. Due to the mud at this time of year I wasn’t challenging any Strava KOM’s but the ION feels fast, and the grip on techy climbs is great, both of which at this time of year are refreshing. Compared with my Helius I found the big puddles and mud bogs have a reduced slowing effect on the bike and we were able to maintain momentum through things where I would be expecting to lose speed. Some of this is probably due to the wide tyres on the wide carbon rims but I’m sure most of it is due to the 29er wheel size. On the really techy doonhall chutes and rock gardens I love to ride (and in which I was expecting to have troubles) there was nothing eventful to report; the bike and rider struggle through in much the same way as we have to do with any other well sorted bike (i.e. with a grin on my face). Jumps and drops caused me a few issues until I relaxed and just let the bike get on with it; I was trying to pull the back end up and this tends to pull the bike to one side. I was probably doing this as I was expecting the bike to be long and unwieldy but it’s not; I was making the issue happen. As with any good bike the best results are to trust the bike and let it flow, you don’t have to fight it (unless you want to… which can also be fun).

It doesn’t feel like cheating and I doubt I was going any faster (or slower) than I would on my own bike, but I did feel like I was having to put in less effort to get the bike to do what it was doing and that was a great feeling. Little manuals were fine as were hops for puddle jumping; and when required and conditions allowed I was able to get a good rhythm for pumping for speed over the terrain (I’ve found some bikes/suspension just don’t seem to allow this).

Conclusions.
Great bikes are great bikes. What has put me off even trying 29ers until now is forks. I’ve tried to use 32mm stanchioned forks a few times over the past few years and for where and the way I ride I hate them – noodly b***rds of things that have me struggling to keep the bike in a straight line through the porridge, wet roots and rocks which I have/love to ride. The 29er Pike fork on Dippers ION is a great fork and fixes this issue; it goes where you point it and there is no “sawing-action” required at the front of the bike to keep it going there. Damping wise the Pike feels good although I did bottom it out a few times on some bigger hits where the fork feels to blow though the travel; it might need a different volume spacer or some other fiddling (I ride a little harder than Dipper… and I’m used to my Marzocchi 55 fork with an Avalanche damper which is amazing). The CCDB-Air shock feels like a very good match for the Pike fork, again no unpleasant traits but not lively as is the CCDB way. There is some pedal bob when honking out of the saddle with the bike (as you would expect, I didn’t try the switch thing as I always forget to switch them back), and I would prefer if the fork and shock were a little more supple but that’s my personal preference and I wasn’t willing to fiddle with Dippers set up as it was damn good as it was.

The wide carbon rims and big tyres on the ION feel great. There was no perceivable flex to the wheels and the whole bike feels very solid and yet surprisingly light and, dare I say even, nimble.

My Helius has always felt a little short and riding Dippers longer Ion has once again shown me that I do want/need more length in my life (reason/excuse for a new bike made). More width also felt good with the 780mm wide carbon more (I normally run 745mm).

On the wheel size debate I had already come to the conclusion that the next bike I buy will have larger wheels; but that was just due to the marketing pressure of the 650b/27.5/AM/Enduro revolution (and its apparent lack of downsides). Having ridden the Nicolai Ion 15 29er I am now utterly convinced that big wheels bring benefits to the party; hence the next bike I buy will certainly have larger wheels, and probably larger than I thought I was going to buy (although it would be nice to try some 27.5″ wheels first I’m tempted to simply go for the bigger option).

So I guess the big question is would I buy a Nicolai ION 15 after this test ride… HELL YEAH BABY!

Mmmbop’s are a scary light frame and very capable with a 130/140mm fork. I never found mine harsh with 2.2″ conti tyres, although the Blue Pig I have now rides better… and is therefore worth the pound weight penalty (IMHO etc).

Congrats, that’s the same fork I have except mine is 1.5 steerer. I would say you should be okay at 85kg, I was when I was that weight last year :oops:

They are a very plush fork a bit like the old Pike. What you might find is that the fork is much plusher than the rear end of the bike… but faffing with these things is part of the fun :lol:

There a few threads on here about servicing those forks. Make sure there is enough oil them as frequently they came without enough.

Enjoy!

Chunkymonkey… the V2 supposedly has a better rebound circuit which means the range of adjustment is better. I have the older version and I could never get good low speed damping without the fork choking at high speed stuff. That’s not to say it was a bad fork, it was very plush and great at high speed stuff but wallowy for low speed tech and prone to brake dive. I have an Avalanche kit in mine at the moment and it’s stunning as it fixes the issues I had, but it gives away 500+g to the Pike fork on a demo bike I have. The Pike is very good… not the equal of the Avy RC3-Ti but damn good; and certainly the best out of the box fork I have tried anyway.

Beware the Rc3-Ti if your big… you need to be the correct weight for the Ti spring, if you need to add air because your a bit chunky the performance is not as good.

New Pike seems to be the best fork currently on the market, although you will need a new headset… or just a lower cup such as a Hope. Anything older is going to be heavier and probably not as good.

I have brisket in the oven at the moment, three hours in with another hour to go… just added the roasties and the yorky batter is sitting ready to go in 20 mins. Countdown to yumsers :mrgreen: