I'm 5'11" and the medium I borrowed felt huge. I'd love to try a small because the medium felt like it had potential.

I just went from a 34lb pike forked beast of a hardtail to Whyte 19 trail with 120mm reba forks. I can pretty much ride the same stuff but I'm way faster on the climbs and only a little slower on the descents. The usual trade off of losing the bombproof feeling to gain some climbing legs, It's what I set out to do and I'm more than happy with the Whyte. I'd like a better fork than the reba which gets a bit squiggly and feels out of it'd depths at times, but I'm still tweaking the set up so who knows?

17 years of electrical tape here, works a treat.

While you were mincing in Englandshire – some Cairngorms action :P

Gratuitous Nic Pic 8)

Good customer service… crap wheel build. HTH :roll:

See what I did there?

Good wasn't it :mrgreen:

It's brown.

I ran one for a few years and liked it. The jockeys eventually died and I moved on to rnr lube which is fine for about 35-50 miles in my experience. Running and looking after the hoses etc can be a pain depending on the bike.

As above. I nearly died laughing when I saw what passes for knobs on them… but on the trail they are brilliant until you find the mud… but even then they can be surprisingly good when you give the rear a wiggle and get the side knobs to bite.
Feels fine on the front to me but I run it pretty soft.
I found the performance dropped off a bit when they were pumped up hard so I'm going to ghetto tubeless them shortly and I think with lower pressure they should be even better.

3 rides… do I win?

I've never got bored of a bikes colour. You can never see much of the paint under the mud, and on my 15 year old Kona there is not much paint left… but plenty of memorable scars…. the patina of age and use, my old friend.

I love my Whyte 19 steel. Not as stupid stuff friendly as friends 456's, P7's and prince Alberts, but a great off the peg choice for a great all rounder. Some of the sram kit is a bit low rent but that all gets changed over time, the bits that count are great. I even used mine in ss mode at ssec2010. Adjusting dropouts are ace.

Kodex strutt bar from balfa.co.uk

Cracking day for it. You have me jealous.
Forms of Avon can be ridden.

G-spots are excellent.

Cheers, I was thinking of trying some Dakine shorts… but I just stuck my finger through the end of a year old Dakine glove so I'm not that impressed with them either.

Love the one your with.

Kodex do an 750mm x 11° – available through balfa.co.uk

Is there a bike hiding under all that nicheness?

A couple more pictures for andrewh…

Wait until you see the colour of their eyes before pulling the trigger.

Something a little different sir?

Bikes can be very different with similar fork travel.

My Whyte 19 has 120mm Reba forks with bolt through. Handles XC and flat like an XC bike but is a bit more stable and has forks that can handle some abuse. It may tempt you towards the silly stuff but when there they bottom out and are generaly out of their depth.

My old Balfa Minuteman had 140mm Pikes but worked best at 120mm. This bike was total hoot on silly stuff descents but a bit of a pain on anything slopey upwards or flat.

Much more to it than simply travel and weight – the Whyte is the more versatile of the two and was even pressed into SS duties for SSEC2010.

I've not been impressed with Finish Line or Weldtite – I've used both as my "posh" bike grease for the nice bikes. I use a tub of Castrol LM for my beater bike duties and for purging SPD pedals etc where I use a lot of grease – and I have to say the Castrol seems to have more staying power.

I'm on the lookout for a better grease though – considering Rock-N-Roll Web Grease but why bother when Castrol LM does the job so well?

I'm thinking buy a big tub of LM and spend some pennies on a decent Dualco Grease Gun.

My 2p – the Hope headset will be fine in a Hope headset kind of way. I think the sealing is a bit suspect because mine was full of cack after a year but because the bearings are stainless there was no corrosion. When you "Need" a new headset get a deep cup job. FWIW I like the ACROS headsets – well sealed and deep cup but not stupid heavy like the Nicolai FET set.

The Nicolai FET set is daft heavy at about 500g. I have one in my spare parts box – I picked it up cheap and will either sell it or hang on to it as a frame saving option; it would survive a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.

PS – my Helius AM will have a 1.5" headtube and an ACROS headset 8)

"You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself!"

CRC and ukbikestore are out of stock but you get the point.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=39505

silverfish

http://www.silverfish-uk.com/products/468-race_face_bike_components_x-type_bearing_cap.php?r=1m6d5b7s0

I ran a Scottoiler for about a year – I was happy with it at the time but the when the jockey died I moved onto Rock-N-Roll which was much less of a faff (although I do carry a little bottle of it with me for long rides when the chain gets squeeky).

Got a bottle of squirt to try now but if it fails to impress I'll be back to the Rock-N-Roll which I was happy with.

Resurrect again – I'm heading out in a weeks time with the family… was thinking hire an MTB but perhaps a little roady-ing might be a fine diversion.

Why 853? I bought my a Whyte 19 Steel which is 631 when I could have bought any number of 853 frames for the price. I loved the features of the Whyte and the lower spec material put me neither up nor down since it rides awesome – there is a more to how a bike rides than the particular steel (or material even) that it is built from…

Grease… there are so many kinds. For years I used the finish line white teflon stuff but it seems to dry out and generally be a bit rubbish. I then had some lovely red stuff which I cannot remember what it was but it was super thick and stayed where I put it – although using it for Hope hubs was a mistake since the pawls would not move and it made the hub feel sticky.

I've now got a tube of Weldtite which is red but I'm pretty underwhelemd with it other than it being the same colour as the good stuff I had – but fien for the hub application.

So… one grease for bearings that rotate a lot like hubs… and another thicker one for headsets and pivots which do not rotate a lot… does that make sense?

Yes – like living in Holland. No mountains and no forests anywhere near 8)

Unlike Holland the coffee and tea shops really do only sell coffee and tea (to the coffin dodging locals), and the only scantily clad ladies in the windows are the mannequins in the charity shops.

Good wine and whisky shop though 8)

I bent two Roox posts before I got the Blackspire.

Plenty of roadies about.

Blackspire post is longer than the seattube on my ickle nutter bike.

It's not light. WTB Speed-V and Fizzik Gobi saddles are quite tall which can help.

Opticians?

New "cake" shop?
New "motability scooter" shop?
New "rain mate" shop?
etc?

Bottom bracket stiffness problem solved with a little emery cloth and elbow grease. Whyte are aware of it and have fixed all the ones heading out now so I doubt this will effect many other bikes out there.

Another cracking ride with it today after putting the gears back on, which was a piece of piss thanks to the solid cable runs with 'D' clips and lock-on grips.

Today I found that the Reba's bottom out with an unhealthy clunk when slammed from a great height… but that's hardly the bikes fault :roll:

Home just before midnight… the afternoon ride was worth staying for due to some lovely singletrack and the high probability it will be a long time before (or if) I return.

Belgium next year… I'm sounding out the wife for a trip with her and the boys etc.