Dialed bikes love/hate or Cotic simple.

Medium, your similar to me and I have just enough room under for a down gillet for the snow.

Back to the topic. I've been running my Nicolai Helius AM with an air shock for three months, first run today with a coil and I think I prefer the air… the horror of it!!!
It runs higher with the coil shock and I actually prefer the way the bike settles into the air shock travel. Spring weight is correct and sag is bang on with both shocks so interesting results. Not 100% happy with the air shock as it packs down a bit so next stop is a chat with tft about options such as PUSH which I did with great results on my last bike. Or maybe a new Manitou ISX6???

Upgrade for performance only… figure out what you want to change and why.

"A massive steel leviathan with blades covered in gore."

I hope this idea doesn't sink…

Very happy with the bearings and service I got off him. I will use him again and he is recommended by me.

Bent axle? Spin the cassette and see if it wobbles – mine did so I replaced the axle and I can see the bend in it.

All my forks end up looking like that :roll:

I smooth it off as best I can and keep rideing.

Nicolai AC

I'm very happy with my four4th LED. Not sure how it stacks up to the others available but I find it brilliant (better than a friends Hope).

http://www.four4th.co.uk/index.html

Over the last 20 years I've had BLT, Nighsun and Lumicycle. Nightriding has always been fun but these modern LED packages are making it better; think extended run time and neater/lighter set ups = more possibilities and hence more fun.

Edit – helmet mount is so much better than bar mount IMHO.

As above, go dual ply on the rear, its the only we can get through a mountain ride without needing pumps.

I like my 19 steel. It's great for the forests etc but I need a bigger gun for the mountains.

BETD over here too.

None of the above. It's a sinister alien plot where they are using the bales to grow human look alikes that are going to take over the world.

Glenshee have always run the old chairlift through the summer for lazy walkers and the bus and car loads of tourists who pass through. Some folk have even got married at the top!

Putting in the bike track is simply another little thing to get more utilisation (and get bums on seats in the cafe – which has always had good food). I wish them the best with it but what they will be allowed to do with the hill will not be to everyones taste. I have no doubt that hooning off the top will be fun and compared with spending £15 at a theme park or the cinema your getting a whole days entertainment instead of a couple of hours fun and six hours heartburn.

I get 6 months to a year out of the RF sig bearings.

They are a bit of a pain to do – I have a well stocked garage and am handy with my hands and it's not a job I look forward to.

I bent two Roox posts… from my experience I can recomend you get a BlackSpire – very long and very strong (limited sizes though).

http://www.blackspire.com/qs/product/83/5953/263253/0/0

http://www.rushcycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b113s84p3277&rs=gb

An 18inch 95 Columbus max explosif is sub 4lbs… go retro!

I've got a Nicolai gearbox bike that has all gears you could ever need and 180mm travel both ends… and I may even sell it.

Wow… that's eight minutes of my life I'll never get back.

The higher you go in Scotland the nicer folk get. The low level ramblers are usually the grumpies.

Re erosion… a few bike tyres from the brave is sfa compared to a bus load of walkers with metal tipped walking poles… and I see no calls for the banning of these moron look at me with all the gear for the Himalaya[/i] accessories.

Stoney is a great place to live. Sea on one side and moontains on the other.
The only downsides I can think of are the high costs of housing and the ugly North East of Scotland women… if your happy to live in squallour and sleep with trolls the area offers ace biking, interesting surfing and great skiing/boarding come the winter.

I use maildroid ap for yahoo… can you configure it for hotmail?

As above… Bhuchaille to Royvoan has some epic rocky steps… your choice whether to carry up them or have near death experiences trying to ride down them :lol: Not for the wet!

Sanny – My guestimate for the MacDhui circuit mentioned above would 7-8 hours without the summit detours. I would want the weather to be perfect – top of big mac is not the place to get lost, and once you've committed to crossing over and back in a day your bail-out routes are severely limited … and I'll be jealous :mrgreen:

3-4 hour rides in the area… I would be peiceing epic bits of stuff together – I'm mostly about the interesting techy stuff so I'd want to get as much of that in as I can and limiting the fireroad drags.

Burma road has some interesting singletrack off it. Smooth climb up to the cairn before the saddle and descend to Ballinluig on a not that clearly defined path… with some good sized drops and boggy bits to catch you out. A few ways to do the next bit but you want to get along to Alt Chriochaid and up to the phone masts at Creag a' Mhuilinn (we tend to go across the heather and through the woods – no path). Techy landy climb up to the masts (what kind of 4×4 can get up here?). Once at the masts go round the back and pick up the path down to Alvie – there is a 10ft deer fence to climb. This takes you to the old Alvie DH track and is great fun – it gets rockier towards the bottom! At the bottom head to Alvie Lodge and cross the A9 to pick up the Speybank spingletrack to Kincraig (which is lovely). Cross the Spey at Kincraig and go through the Sculpture park at Inshriach forest through to Feshie bridge. Then fireroad through to pick up the bothy bikes descent to Loch an Eilein.
Very difficult to give better descriptions as it's a jumble of local knowledge stuff linked together but hopefully clear enough to follow. Plenty of easy bail-outs to the road if running short of time.

If you want it buy it.

Seriosly. I regret not buying something like this when I had the chance.

Let's not turn this into a thread about Pike's…

The Pike damping system was rubbish for me, even with the push upgrade I still frequently flipped a seal in the damper… very frustrating. Solid enough feeling fork as are Travis which are 32mm stations…

The question is what fork are these hardtails designed for?

I think it should be the subject of another thread but what 140mm fork for all these hardcore hardtails that are designed for 140mm forks?

As far as I can see most suitible 140mm forks are of the XC persuasion now and it's not till you hit 160mm and 170mm options such as Fox 36's and RS Lyriks that you'll get a beefy feeling fork for hammering the terrain into submission :twisted:

Note… I've ignored the Pike as it's rubbish :evil:

The first review of the Foia is interesting… if the've not found the limits of Pike forks and single ply maxxis tyres then their not ridding a hardtail hard enough :lol:

Foia looks nice, but only a 140mm pike on a DH hardtail?

My thoughts exactly… needs to take 160mm at least for Fox 36's or RS Lyriks. Also the 27.2 seatpost limits uppy downy posts and for me the high top tube as opposed to a dropped design limits it's appeal.

I've submitted my wish list… which I suspect will be similar to many other peoples… based on my venerable Balfa Minuteman and very similar to a Sov but in Ti obviously :mrgreen:

1.5" stems are almost all lumps… some scary expensive ones are not that heavy but your choice is limited (I have a 60mm Gravity Lite which is 170g and very noice!).

Tapered steerer gives you more choices and what i would go for (but I got some cheap 36's with a 1.5 steerer so that swung it for me).

How did you get on?

As a 19 steel owner I'm interested – email me if you would rather not post… email in profile

We are blessed with so many trails that most of us don't need to travel far to find something. I usually bike from the house but if I am going to throw the bike in the car for a half hour drive to the trails I will go where I know is amazing rather than head for an explore and a scratch about (I wish I had the time to explore again… maybe as my kids get older and can join me?).

Sounds like you've got yourself a little spot of Nirvana planned – enjoy… and once you've got something needing bedding in give us a shout :lol:

Aye, the DH loons have been busy :roll:

It's a quiet enough area that as long as your not silly I would not expect problems. Much like Swanley used to be… for years mine were the only tracks I would ever see… oh to go back to those days 8)
The Drumtochty challenge is the only bike event that happens in that forest but I don't know if they tend to stick to the fireroads or plan in singletrack (not my cup of tea you see).
Some of our gang were talking about adding XC trails to the current DH trail network… but I suspect much of that excitement over new trails and will end up as empty talk.

I think it's a great area to build if it's on your doorstep… but getting other folk to come and build with you might be difficult as many of us have trail projects closer to where we live :wink:

From my experience getting help with trail building is a very sharp double edged sword!

There is only one DH type track that I am aware of.

As for dealing with the FC… my advice is build what you want to ride… tell nobody and post nothing about it anywhere.

Photo from May last year (2009).
The Derry Lodge to Hutchison path was improved about 5 years ago. The path above the Hutchison Y stated out smooth but soon got interesting to what you see in that photo. Perhaps it's now been "improved"?

I've got loads of photo's Sanny but not many online.

Stuartie_c's route would be the one to use. Descent to Hutchison a blinder.

Climb from Derry up to Lairig an Laoigh saddle not bad.

Descent down to Falls of Avon good fun with plenty of trickyness and opportunity for occasional over the bars moments.

Falls of Avon to Aviemore as he suggests.
Big route for a day.

I did warn you that anything above the Falls of Avon is a hike :lol:

2-7-27
Glad that's not my wife's stats.

Maxle or maxle lite? Sounds to me like your Hope axle has snapped or bent… remove the wheel and see if it falls into two bits or if your cassette wobbles when spun.
Maxle lite's kill Hope hubs.

My knees are evil and must be destroyed.