Cross bike with discs would be perfect, or a nice 29er hardtail.  Not doing it this year, but I’ve enjoyed it in the dry and the mud.  Both great, just require an adjustment of expectations!  Personally I think its worth making the quickest start you can manage then its less crowded up the muddy sections where people tend to get off and push.

…and just take a look at the new santacruz Blur and highball.  xc is back in fashion …and probably suits many for ‘mountain biking’ for lots of us here…

there’s no evidence for this, and if we go down this route are we prepared to settle on a maximum combined bike + rider weight, because there are some people on normal bikes heavier than others on their e-bike

This is a good point….

I wouldn’t in -4C, it’s not just the hard hurty tarmac and other stationary objects, it’s the thought of sliding into a passing car…Personal risk assessment required.

Thanks for comments on size and seat tube.  Long dropper and test ride is the answer for us lanky folk.

Looks lovely; longer lower arms race in action.  Seat tubes are now so short on an XL i’m concerned as to how this works for the 6foot 3 + rider when pedalling at full saddle height- that’s a lot of seat post. Makes the test ride critical.

Climbing on Zwift; it’s ‘easier’ than real life because most people  have the trainer difficulty at 50%. So actual gradient is reduced by 50%.  The watts required for a given speed is the same.

Well i’m lucky enough to be in; time to fit a humongous cassette!!!

Short seat tubes to run longer droppers is fine if you have stumpy legs- no good if you are 6ft plus. Conclusion is that dropper s need to have even longer drop for larger bikes or longer seat tubes need to be maintained on larger sizes. People do seem to take their exact requirements for their body dimensions and assume the whole of bike design should be based on what fits for them. Goes for both extremes of height or weight…

The demo days seem a great way of sorting out any doubts, one way or the other- the only way is to have a go yourself, then you can decide whether an enthusiastic review (or marketing vid) matches your experience. I plan to do that in the new year and decide whether a Solaris or FlareMax would suit as an all rounder (I’m def an XL so Soul a little small). It certainly entices me to attend a demo.- so its done its job well.

When I saw one in actual ‘real life’ albeit in the Rapha shop, it looked aesthetically quite pleasing as well…

Yes we do need another peice, as is evidenced by the comment under it…

I walked past it last week and thought it looked great! Also, watch out for some of the road surfaces in the mountains, I came across some interesting holes whilst driving around…

I think it’s regressive to sexualise the age catogories in this way especially as it seems to be a successful and influential event in the mountain biking world.

Well, I subscribe and I’m enjoying watching the magazine develop and grow! (Goes off to buy t-shirt)

Having to watch it 20 times in an afternoon doesn’t help. I’ve taken my watch off and put it in a draw…

It took a while but there we go – e-bikes are basically cars – this thread is comedy gold

He didn’t say e bikes are basically cars, he said the behaviour is the same as someone in a car honking a horn when approaching a cyclist and expecting them to get out of the way.

Well I ride my mtb in Rapha…:)

It’s going to be dry and fast :-)

The Snap was easier than I expected. worked first time, using bluetooth on iOS

Just for the record it wasn’t windy :) Also seen as I’m 75kg and 1.93m interesting that I look wide :)! All good fun yesterday.

Thanks for posting the video Crosshair!

It’s also the fastest time of anyone this year

ahem..might need to take another look :) sorry…having said that I was drafting you :-)

Ok thanks I would be interested in a C one.

Snaps; carbon or Al?

Tyre up to max recommend pressure. X2 full turns once the roller touches. Then perform a normal spin down. I assume that you did an advanced spin down when you set it up the first time from new. Don’t repeat this.

Good point, yes you can, I agree, depends on gears. I have a low of 34/25, but never use it in Zwift. If I upped the realism I guess I’d need to use some easier gears. Anyway the Kickr tops out at 10% of course- and you can tell- but to me it feels very realistic at lower gradients. Main thing is its accurate with the power.

On a Wahoo Kickr Snap most people won’t be spinning up 10% hills at 50%, unless you are very strong and can put out 500W for a few mins!!! I’d suggest the optimal figure varies trainer to trainer and rider to rider.

I just did 2 hrs ish. x5 volcano and up the mountain etc- no stability issues at all- I must be lucky! On iOS.

Cadence- Get a Wahoo Ant+/blue tooth cadence sensor- attach to cranks- works well.

Or you could just tidy the garage up and ride. Or stick all the stuff behind you and hey presto you can’t see it!

I’d like to see more brands using shorter seat tubes, now that we have nice long droppers – to give us stumpy-legged folk a greater choice of frames.

I’d like the reverse please so us long legged people can use droppers without having lots of exposed post….and while we are at it longer head tubes…

Far too many frames with short seat tubes these days :)

Seven!

ride

Thanks for posting!

Anyone who thinks that is a well made surface that will last probably needs to have a geology/geography lesson..There must be a better approach to path/bridleway construction than that?

multiyork

Not sure how we got to the point where riding your bike cross country was considered ‘niche.’ I suspect it’s what most riders do most of the time…Its normal trail riding.

I think unless you go for good carbon frame or a Ti frame the weight saving isn’t massive. Some of the Kinesis frames in Al look good. I looked at the Bowman as well- too small for me too. having said that See Niner RLT 9 for a lighter steel frame- not cheap though.

…but that would build to about 9Kg overall- 19lbs ish. Still light enough for its use?