The increased friction is a non issue when you learn how best to use the hs. Stay out of the overdrive as much as possible for normal riding and especially power moves… but engage it for gnar dh to move up the sprockets and keep the chain tight… but also if you stall a flick of the thumb has you ready to twiddle out. All this with huge ground clearance and no chance of losing the chain… Love it for techy gnar stuff.

For where I ride a 1x 9 would be best with a 22 at the front… the hs overdrive is what says on the tin.

Am and fr bottom brackets interchangable and both in 68/73 and 83.

I bought mine sh off here after a brief trial of a friends… to try is to like. I liked it but my frame arrived with no front mech cable stop so my arm was twisted… very happy with result.

Only difference between am and fr is weight/strength.

I like mine; for xc there is no point but bring on the gnar and it becomes a really nice thing to have. No complaints with it so far and I am a warranty magnet.

If VPP is so great… of the six friends I have who bought in only two still ride them, and they mostly ride their hardtails instead and the VPP’s sit unloved. The rest sold on and are back on single pivot (and an old elsworth id). Personally I find they have a dead feel I don’t like… much prefer sp or 4bar.

1. Take freehub off, clean it up a bit and visit any local garage or work/machine shop with a welder and some biscuits/beer/£s

2. Quick squirt with the welder and off you go to grind/file it smooth and refit

3. Fit

4. Hope you don’t die

I’ve bodged a sprocket onto an old Hope splined hub. It works and flipflops fixie to free.

Frames fail under me and I have frequently made use of warranties… for that reason I’m out :mrgreen:

Truvativ spec their own bearings which are non industry standard sizes; therefore when a BB dies it’s for the bin… and unfortunately Truvativ BB’s tend to die an early death. The Howitzer system must surely be on borrowed time… why they persevere with it when everyone else has run a mile from ISIS and gone two piece is a mystery to me; especially when they have the GXP on the Stylo and Noir. I think the GXP is a good system and does away with the loading issues of Shimano (etc) and the dodgy RaceFace system… at least with the GXP WHEN it dies you can use a Hope Bottom Bracket (if you believe in them :roll: ).

If your determined not to go SLX you could look at the Stylo double and bash – but the ring sizes are poor and you should add in the cost of a new bottom bracket shortly… it’s simply not worth it when SLX is that good.

FSA Afterburner or Gravity Lite are better alternatives to SLX than any Truvativ option – but good luck finding either of them cheap enough to make them a viable alternative.

With this many frames and sizes available global domination beckons… :D

Nice crank… shame about the unique and heavy Howitzer bottom bracket… not a bargain at that price, cheaper on eBay if you must. SLX is so hard to beat.

Dropout twisted on mine, sent to Pace to get it rebonded and the leg twisted in the crown = in the bin.

Another frame I had which was excellent for DH and jumping was a Nicolai BMXTB – it was aluminium and a little more twitchy than the Balfa

I made the mistake of weighing my Minuteman… 6-1/2 lbs of steel… but it rides and flies nice.

Point243racing
http://www.balfa.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=6_43&products_id=40

Possibly worth speaking to Jamie to see if he has any Balfa Minuteman frames kicking about… I love my Minuteman :mrgreen:

converted to ss after the chainstay snapped.

Balfa Minuteman, the original :wink:

Is it a single malt or vatted? Cardhu is not often seen as a single malt, very much desired by the blenders. Either way its usually a nice smooth speyside type I'd sram.

Fox 36 Floats = lighter than Pikes

I've got two 8.5 x 2.5 shocks which I switch between. A simple Float R and a DHX4. They both work fine and the air felt good until I tried the coil. Neither is brilliant and I will either get them tuned or buy something else… its fun to play with options and it's taken me 4 months to get to the point of figuring what I like.

R = rebound adjust only.
RC = rebound and compression adjust.
The 2011 is supposed to be a better shock hence the difference in price.

From experience Push is a good upgrade as it allows the shock to recover from big hits better as it gives a second rebound tune or blow off, which means you can use the normal rebound for smaller hits. With only the one rebound circuit I've always struggled to get a shock that recovers well from big and little stuff. Some compression tune ability is a nice to have but not a must have. I've always found pro-pedal to be pish. Better off without as it numbs the shock, best removed.

Recently gone from 180mm front and back to 160mm… cant say I noticed much change in the suspension but I noticed the change from 43 lbs to 32 lbs :mrgreen:

We can't go over it, can't go under it… we'll have to go through it

Now you have decided I am safe to post this…

Some innovations are good and some are not. I have a Rohloff gearbox bike languishing in the garage – the drivetrain is draggy and it weights quite a lot, but it was fun for six years.

It's replacement has a HammerSchmidt and is 10 lbs lighter. The HS is not perfect, for the application much better than a front mech IMHO.

Geometry has changed a lot in the last 10 years… going away from the roady "arse up face down cheat the wind" performance oriented to a geometry that actually aids the better riding of more interesting terrain.

where is this gnarly pleasure drome ?

It's a mountain… in Scotland… close to where I live…

Last year I built a retro ride – Dave Lloyd Cats Wiskas – 2" travel forks, flat bars and bar ends with Canti brakes. I snapped two pace forks (including a modern RC31) and eventually decided to limit what I tried to do with it before I broke it or it broke me.

It was fun but ultimately limiting. I took it on one of my favourite big rides thinking it would be capable. It was okay on the climb but I had no chance of making a couple of the tricky bits on the descent which I tried a few times but eventually walked. When I got the bottom I was happy but it was more with relief than pleasure.

My Whyte 19 modern geometry hardtail with 120mm forks is a pleasure to take down round that route…

What would we have made of Glentress and Laggan etc 20 years ago? In all Likelyhood some of the bits we all love and all ride now would have been deemed unrideable. Innovation is great.

No… I meant that it can now be ridden instead of walked round.

Probably the biggest innovation in the last 15 years has been in the terrain we now ride. I was thinking as I rode up a hugely horrible climb on my 32lb 6" travel AM full suss last week that even when I was the Scottish MTB champion I could not ride my 24lb hardtail up this bas&*rd; and yet I'm less fit now but I made it to the top with a heavier bike and no dabs (yes, I could have walked it but I ain't no soft southern jessie, if it can be ridden it has to be).

I didn't have much time to think about the same on the descent but back in the day it really was a struggle on the race hardtail with many sections that needed walking… once again the big bike worked it's magic and the descent while still difficult was brilliant and I rode it all.

Oh how we laughed at Proflex and the other first suspension bikes… it will never catch on… disc brakes are heavy and you don't need all that power… SPD's will never replace clips and straps… thumbshifters are the best… elastomers are all you need for suspension… 2" inch travel is enough for world cup DH… you don't need a bigger tyre than 1.9".

We still have a load of roady orientated out of date bits and pieces that could do with some innovation. I snapped a saddle the other day… would not have happened with the I-Beam on my other bike.

HammerSchmidt is awesome – make it lighter please?
I've not gone for a droppy seatpost yet but I probably will soon once they get more reliable (I hate rattles on my bikes).

I'm not for going back and I watch each year for the little things that are real improvements… (although I do enjoy riding my 20 lb rigid singlespeed just as much as my other bikes) It's all bikes and it's all great.

I'm a believer :mrgreen:

So many good options now – don't ignore steel just because it's heavier on paper… it really does ride so much better for a hardtail IMHO.

A good friend of mine had a Crush last year and has just bought a P7… he liked the crush but is now absolutely raving about how good the P7 is. It's his first steel frame for over 10 years and it's the feel of the frame he is loving.

I love my Whyte 19 steel… but will need better tyres for the winter as the Maxxis Aspens are a little slick.

If your 150mm forks are wallowing about then they are either poorly set up or crap.

A decent 160mm fork on a hardtail frame designed for it will be ace… plugging one on a frame designed for 120-140mm may work… or it may chopper the bike out by raising the bottom bracket and making the seat angle so slack that the handling is rubbish (been there & done that).

It's all about disposable income and self justification.

I was going to by s 36 Float R for my new bike but picked up a cheap RC2. I've no idea how good the R was going to be but I love the RC2, playing with the Low/High speed compression has been ace – for some people the extra adjustability is worth the outlay, for others its pure oneupmanship and having to have the best.

As long as people buy them and then sell them on second hand to me a year or so later with little or no use I'm happy.

Changed the dropouts to the mid setting on yesterdays ride. I was slipping about in the mud and the shorter back end really helped…

Yes, even with a pishy shock.

I've heard the same. There was some talk of a Shimano fix but most of my friends now replacing with XT. Shame as I like the short cage…. but not with a short life.

Say no Dandywhores :wink:

Here is a pic of my 2010 after being pressed into service at SSEC after the failure of my venerable retro Kona Explosif… I'd only had the Whyte a week at this point and the dropouts saved my weekend :lol:

I really like this bike. It has the lovely feel of steel in spades and the geometry really is excellent for most stuff. The slack head angle makes it a high speed carver and hence it's great fun at speed. I used it at SSEC 2010 and a friend borrowed it for the 10 more at Moray; so it can do the racing thing yet it's comfy enough for all day rides. It cuises along nicely and whips up to speed fine, drop the saddle and it's a complete hooligan for slaughting trail centre type smooth jumpy pumpy trails and most forest singletrack stuff. The only time I've had it out of it's depth is in the big mountains and some of the dumber stuff I ride… but thats not really the bikes fault (Scottish Mountains when I really should have had my big bike but the Whyte was in the car and the weather was good… so I had to MTFU… it was still ace but I could feel me and the bike were beyond the sensible zone). I think the Reba SL's are one of the limiters and a better/beefier 120mm fork would help… I'd love to try it with a 120mm 36 Float as the Reba damping is a bit easy to phase and it's not as stiff as I would like.
I don't think a longer fork would work as the seat angle is perfect as is and the bottom bracket need be no higher; in fact I think I would prefer a slightly lower bottom bracket for low speed rock garden work but thats getting fussy.

The adjustable dropouts are cool – I've experimented quite a bit and settled on having them long – it makes the bike more stable with no real side effects… I think a slightly more stable bike can be hussled along and thrown about when needed, whereas a fidgity bike can turn into a ditch magnet and scare you silly. The Maxxis Aspen tyres are a hoot… not sure how they will handle pure winter but over the summer they have been ace even when it's been wet – very surprising when you see how unknobly they are..

Now for the downers. The seat quick release is shocking… but at least thats easy to change. It's a shame the seatpost is a 27.2 (brochure said 30.9 in 2010), and my post has scored badly making me think the frame finish is not that good.
The BB30 bottom bracket is a little tight and has been on all the three I have seen… why can they not get this right? It's just two bearings pushed into a frame FFS!
The SRAM X5 and X9 kit on my 2010 is a bit low rent for £1600.
I had a paint related issue with mine but Whyte and Alpine Bikes sorted that out so I can pass favourable comment on the customer service 8)

I'm just shy of 6ft and ride a medium – I've got about an inch to the min insertion on the seatpost.. which won't drop right into the frame because of the bottle mounts on the seat tube… but I keep having to remind myself that this is not my bike for the dumb stuff… despite it "almost" being capable enough.

Can you tell I like it :roll:

Ticks the box for flavour of the month bb chichi linkage design :D

New on-one 456 ticks most of the boxes, and with a cane creek angleset you can kick out the head angle another degree…;)

Just not sure about the quality with the new builder… but time will tell and there is always the warranty or second hand demand to fall back on.