Oh, and the LEV’s remote uses a totally sealed cable with no hydraulic mess to have to bleed and little chance of it getting full of muck

The LEV has a remote but the cable joins to the base of the post and remains static as you go up and down

Only ever had my KS LEV but so far so good. No flappy cable to worry about.

Do you guy juice your own or buy it in? Not sure I will persist if it becomes a faf.

The 2.2’s are now 2.3’s but you’ll be hard pushed to measure much difference, especially between the beads.

I’m sure it’ll be fine

And no one has mentioned the fact that you can happily shift down under load, just mash and shift and up the hill you go!

I came close to buying a Gusset ext24 last weekend to replace my seized Shimano one. Just before I clicked the buy button I thought I’d see if I could do a bit of work on the Shimano and after a bit of a clean up and with fresh grease, d’you know what – it’s running as smooth as a baby’s bum! Not sure how long it’ll last but I’ve got a bit more life out of it.

Either way if your XT is knackered try a Gusset, they even do a nice ceramic one if that’s your thing.

Keep an eye on the website[/url] and their facebook page.

They have had some strong winds closing part of the black run with fallen trees.

try it and see, then tell us if it works or not

Colp – how’s the downhill section off old pale these days, are you still working it? I forgot to check when I was up there the other day.

Speak as I find. Over the years I’ve had three sets of quality wheels from Hinde with no problem

I’ve got a great set of wheels from Hinde too… Luck of the draw perhaps?

Me, bit dark!

kendonagasaki – D’you know I go speeding past there so often yet never thought to turn down. Will have to take a look next time.

Do you ever get over to Primrose wood? Some great bits of singletrack there.

What hub is it?

Sounds like the free hub not being as “free” as it should be.

Live on edge of Delamere and can’t quite place where that little bridge is? Care to share…

Not sure the levers should be solid, but they may well move less than the Avids. I had Tektro brakes before the XT’s and I could set them with Solid levers but the pads would rub like crazy, it was a balancing act to get the feel right.

No experience of Avids so don’t know how they compare, all I know is that the lever is supposed to move a bit before the brakes bite during which time the servo wave does it’s bit and moves the pistons the greater part their travel.

The free stroke screw does indeed work, but not as most seem to expect. Some presume it’s there to alter the pad clearance but this isn’t the case. I wound mine out to for the rear lever to make the brake a little less harsh and prevent the rear wheel from locking so easily.

Mine work just fine, trimmed and swapped hoses without needing to bleed and get loads of stopping power. Bare in mind that these brakes are supposed to have a fair bit of lever travel before they bite. It’s all to do with the servo wave bobbins.

Yeah, those plastic outers crack very easily (I had a spare BB that I experimented with first). I used a small screwdriver and eased it out from the inside. Worked a treat.

That’s where I got mine from.

Interesting stuff dday. I’m on old fashioned 26″ wheels and find the Captain and Purgatory combo just right for rocky North Wales riding.

One thing I find is that the Captain works better back-to-front on the rear, giving a bit more traction tackling techy climbs. If the rear does wash out when braking – it’s when I want it to, and always before the Purg on the front.

Gotta say they go up tubeless really easily too

oooh interesting, not tried a Ground Control, how does it compare to a 2.2 Captain?

Specialized captain on the back, purgatory on the front, job done!

I would, but the wife has other plans for me on Sunday I’m afraid.

My hint for the best bits is to head out of Delamere and into Primrose Wood….

Yep, especially at this time of year.

Only matrimonial conflict I’ve faced was when I shot a syringe full of grease through air and out onto the dining room carpet.

That was a dark day 8O

It seems to be a great saddle, I had been using an I-beam SDG one for ages as I always seemed to bend rail saddles. Needed rails for my LEV post though so went for the Spoon, idea being that it was such good value that if I bent it it’d be cheap to replace. As it turns out, it’s really comfy and hasn’t bent one bit yet. Buy one!

The angle of that seatpost has got to be the reason they’re failing on you. Think about what the forces are doing compared when it’s close to vertical. That’s got to be beyond what its designed to cope with.

Got one! Whether it’ll fit between my Reba and my Purgatory remains to be seen…

I assume the cold weather would have nothing to do with it?

For a fixed quantity of gas in a fixed volume, as the temperature drops so does the pressure. So yes the cold weather will play a big part on how a the seat post works, especially with the small volume of air it uses.

Just to add the schoolboy Maths for those who care.

The relationship for an ideal gas is PV=nRT

P is pressure – the variable we are looking at
V is volume – a fixed conastant
n is the quantity – a fixed constant
R is the universal gas constant, just a number
T is the temperature – the variable the weather is changing

To keep the equation in balance you can see that when temp goes down, pressure goes down.

Oh, and not to mention that cold weather will make all the lubes that little bit more sticky and less effective.

Maybe take the post inside and let it warm up and see if it works then?

My do it all

Frame: Ragley Piglet in ivory
Fork: Rockshox Reba RLT 2011
Brakes: Shimano BR-M785 XT
Gears: XT/SLX/Deore mix
Wheels: Mavic EN521 on Hope
Extras: KS LEV seatpost with a spoon

My pub bike

Frame: Specialized Rockhopper
Fork: Seized solid Rockshox Dart
Brakes: Tektro Auriga with no life in the pads
Gears: Bent XT at the back and my hand on the chain at the front
Wheels: Very wobbly Alex Rims but they still go round…

Anyone know if you can upload GPX files to it?

Think I may have found the cause, the cap at the top was a little loose so I undid it and put a load of light grease under it and did it up tight whilst cycling the post up and down to draw it down. Each time the cap would do up a little more as the grease was taken in until the cap was snug.

Now the post goes down so much more freely.

Really push the new grease with your thumb and keep spinning the rollers so it gets to the back of the bearing

How did you get to the rollers in the first place, I’m guessing you do a bit of a strip down?

Must say I upped the contrast in that pic so it looks worse than it is.

Thanks for the links, gonna see if I can lube up those rollers.

My brother in law got a Giro Feature at Christmas – I was quite jealous.

Looks kinda like a POC but for a third the price!

Front, no argument!

Just to add my experience

I have a 2011 Reba RLT and find that I need a little less pressure in the -ive chamber than the +ive. I run 110 and 100 PSI most of the time, maybe a little more +ive if I’m riding somewhere a bit rougher.

This set up gives me around 20% sag in the attack position and makes the fork nice and plush for bimbling along the trail.

Where I may differ from most though is that for a fast jumpy decent with a few drops and “features” I will lock the fork out but set the threshold to allow the fork to move when needed. This combined with a little less rebound damping seems to stops the fork getting bogged down too much with repeated hits.

Hello

I hired a bike from this guy Click though he doesn’t seem to be open at the monent. I stay in Antibes quite often just round the bay from Nice and he’s local and really helpful.

He gave me a GPS with the trail info loaded up and pointed me in the direction of the Esterel mountains west of Cannes – not too far from Nice. All his routes begin at a train station so even without a car it’s easy to get to the start of the trail.

As for the riding look at the pics below. I loved it, plenty of cross country style single track and some of the most amazing views.

Let me know if you want and more info, I think I’ve got the GPX file of the route somewhere…

Done

2nd that

Think I was definitely better off on the Marin trail then, the streams there flow along side the trail rather than down it! 8O

So I went and rode the Marin in the end against my better judgement and d’you know what…. It was a blast. The sun was shining and the trails were amazingly dry.

Yes the fire roads were there, but they mostly point upwards and every bit of single track left me smiling. I had a bit of time spare at the end so rode the final decent a couple of times, the new jumps there work very well.

Just the fun I was looking for.