I’m a shoe lightweight by these standards:-

Bike shoes x2 (only because I’ve just replaced them and haven’t thrown the old ones away yet)
Casual trainers x1 (all I ever wear from spring-autumn)
Slippers x1
Hiking boots x1 (winter use only)
wellies x1 (but never wear them)
ski boots x1

Just another quick question to add. Is the Forekaster better than the HR2?

It’s a while since I’ve been on HRs, but I would imagine the Forekaster is faster rolling. Probably a little less grip though in most situations, but for XC and light trail they are totally fine. For more challenging trails front grip is the limiting factor with Forekasters. But I’m pretty happy with the compromise and the rear is great.

So the xl seems compariable to other brands after looking around. Probably 1cm between sizes like the sb130 Which is very similar tt and seat angle etc. Trouble is I can’t see a demo one to try so it’s difficult to know really.

It was the seat tube length at 508 that killed it for me on the XL (with a 150 dropper post), but I’m right on the line between L and XL at 6’1″.

Forekaster 2.35 all round. They seem fast enough with reasonable grip levels. Certainly much faster than DHF/DHR etc.

I have a friend who does a fair bit of mushroom foraging, and I once made a similar point to him. His response was that you don’t tend to get a bit sick from eating a dodgy mushroom, the outcome tends to be either a delicious meal or death from total organ failure. There is very little middle ground.

That was my understanding too. So I don’t go anywhere near mushrooms outside of the supermarket. I wouldn’t enjoy them anyway knowing that I might be in for a slow, painful death!

What level of qualifications are you looking for? “Engineer” can mean just about anything from the guy who fixes your washing machine to someone who designs/develops spacecraft. Industry specific experience is also important. “Engineer” covers a vast range of skillsets that no single person could ever hope to have. For example I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked in motorsport in various design, development and technical management roles. I probably wouldn’t have a clue about your industry.

I think setting them up properly and keeping them serviced is far more critical than Factory vs Perf spec. I would expect the Kashima coating to last longer, but I can’t say I’ve had any issues with the standard coatings. If you can easily afford the Factory spec then it gives you peace of mind (placebo) that you have the best setup, but otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it.

I think you’ve just got to work out for yourself how the industry trends fit in with the kind of riding you are actually doing. Not all new bikes are super long and slack either. I just replaced my 5 year old Spesh Enduro with a shorter travel Canyon Neuron CF. The geometry is almost identical, but the target category has been slewed. Bikes with this kind of conservative LLS are now seen as XC/trail rather than trail/enduro, which now look more like DH bikes of a few years ago. So I’m not sure I want to be riding around the likes of Woburn and Cannoock on a modern slacked out enduro bike. But at least there is some choice. Everything is a compromise anyway.

What is the towing device?…Is it the car, the towbar or the bike carrier?

I would take it to mean the towbar installation in general i.e. bar + mounting points on car. Bike carriers have their own load limits, think mine is 60 kg.

I don’t think they’ll disappear, I think they’ll be in a very crowded market when the big manufacturers nail the EV build and productions lines.. then I think it’ll be a bit niche’ like riding SS fully rigid MTBs was back in 2011.

The EV market is anything but crowded. The appetite is there for massive growth with room for everyone to get involved. For all the PR talk, nobody is flooding any market with EVs anytime soon. Hybrids are what the mainstream manufacturers are really trying to sell over the next 10-15 years, because they fit much better into their current business model.

It’s hard to see their design developing forward, even the Alfa SUV has Tesla like headlights.. and that’s pretty much blatant copy… the soft round A5 look is dated already… and not because it’s just a fat A5 it’s because it looks ghah and bloated… I see EV’s becoming more sleek and refined and edgy…

That’s just fickle styling trend. Tesla focus on aerodynamics (look at the Cd figures for all their cars), drivetrain efficiency, practicality and the whole UI. I’ve never had anyone comment on our Model X looking dated either, but that’s pretty subjective. In reality it is quite dated in its design cycle – based on the 2012 Model S platform. In some photos (especially with a wide angle lens close up) it can look bloated, but in the flesh it’s a well proportioned car. People just don’t realise how big they actually are.

Might be what you thought, but not what most others expected. Musk hinted on Twitter 9 months ago that the price was going to start around £33k (SR+ £34K?), some predicting sub £30K, turns out to be over £38K for the base model.

There are 2 sides to this. Those who had been following it pretty closely (like me) and those just flicking through the news and mags. The base model is not even on sale in the UK yet. The SR+ is actually pretty well specced compared to a BMW at the same price point. At the other end of the scale, the Performance plus model ended up a full £10k less than initially predicted before UK launch. I know this because we had one on order.

As I understand it, more likely Global / EU / Gov legislation that’s driving decision making in VW and others. Big fines coming in EU next year for car makers not making the effort

BT (before Tesla) the automotive giants were telling their governments that long range EVs were not viable and nobody would even buy them. That argument doesn’t really hold after what Tesla achieved in their market sector. Tesla set an example for others to follow – which was always their intended mission as explicitly stated.

Basically the chains are actually ok, but the tensioner isn’t really up to the job.

That’s a pretty common issue with chain drives. Porsche 911 was a classic example. Chains last forever, but the tensioners had loads of issues.

Are you sure the seats are working properly or not just worn out from some 120 kg couch potato driving it for years? We had a V50 back in the day and the seats were excellent, one of its best features. So before you get into re-engineering the interior I would try to sit in another V50 and see if the seats are just as bad. Or as above, just sell the car and move on.

Well, if he said “**** the environment, let’s just burn the place down”, it would be very bad. If he said nothing and pretended there was no problem, it would be better. Saying that we should address the problem is much better still.

+1
He’s in the public eye and making a statement that actually makes sense. It obviously clashes massively with his jetset lifestyle, but he is still not wrong. For him, doing “something” might be selling his private jet. For an average guy in the street doing “something” might be buying a more efficient car. If we all do nothing then there will be no progress at all. If everyone does “something” it will make a big collective difference.

I’m not sure if the support straps solve the issue. I don’t think the primary concern is breaking the tow bar off, but the impact on handling, which straps won’t help with.

“risk of damage to the towing device” is what Skoda are saying.

I’ve just put those into a chart in Excel to see what the curve looks like. What’s particularly noteworthy is the way the weights drop off very sharply just after 30cm to 60cm. If it’s roughly linear across that range then you’re down to 68kg at 35cm and 61kg at 40cm (crosses fingers that has done late night maths right). That’s alright if you’re on light road or XC bikes but not brilliant if you’re carrying 4 decent sized beefy MTBs.

I wouldn’t read too much into the shape of that graph. From 0-30 cm they are basically just eating into the safety factor as the maximum allowed load is identical, but there is more leverage at 30 cm. Then they have decided on an arbitrary point (60 cm) to basically halve the allowable load and then imposed a maximum limit at 70 cm. Although it’s not a very useful limit as you are allowed to carry 0 kg there if you take the graph literally! Personally, as a mechanical engineer, I would take that 35 kg limit to extend out to the 70 cm limit. I think that’s what they almost certainly intended. If it can safely carry 35 kg at 60 cm, it can definitely cope with more than 0 kg at 70 cm.

Look at the £150k Porsche Taycan, you can guarantee that it’s going to be beautifully manufactured and will have performance to match, at least, plus they’ve pre-sold a massive 30,000 of them

I’ve been following the Taycan a bit too (being a long time Porsche fan). I think you will find that a lot of those 30,000 reservations are nothing more than letters of intent and people were expecting it to be in the £70-80k price range. It’s hard to spec the 4S version below £100k. I’m sure it will be a great car, but it’s not going to sell in vast numbers at that price level. They might tempt a few Model S owners away, but once you get used to using the Supercharger network it’s a hard decision to make.

I was going to respond but don’t have the time. Read this… it will explain.

That’s a pretty odd way of looking at it, but it’s in writing so it must be true. Their argument seems to be that Tesla has not taken a significant share of the overall global car market and therefore it is not a disruptor. Yet every EV that mainstream manufacturers release is instantly compared to a Tesla, even if not a direct competitor. They have become the defacto benchmark for future cars. It’s almost embarrassing for the likes of VAG to be in a position of playing catch-up and almost monthly announcing a revised accelerated plan for EV development. Not disruptive at all I would imagine. Without Tesla there would be little incentive for them to make the effort, which is why they fell so far behind in the first place.

Once the VW ID is out, and proven, that’ll be it pretty much for them..

Actually the ID.3 seems to be driving Tesla 3 sales right now.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/canceling-id-3-reservation.142141/

Reservation holders are losing faith in both the pricing and specs causing them to switch to a Tesla 3 (a car they may not have previously considered as VW fans). Fact is Tesla have made the Model 3 very competitive with UK pricing well below what was expected a year ago. The ID.3 now looks pretty expensive for what it offers and I wouldn’t be tempted by it ahead of a Model 3. I think Tesla made it to market in time with the Model 3 to sell a shit load of them. Already starting to see them driving around on a regular basis. Central London is flooded with them!

“If you have to ask, then no it isn’t.”

😉 cheers for that.

Looking for feedback. I’ve been running RF Next, and can’t decide if they are worth the cash. I’ve had to warrenty them with bonding issues too – so good point regarding second hand, noted!

You’re welcome ;)
Last 2 bikes came with carbon cranks (X01). No problems with them, but there’s nothing amazing or exciting about them either. So as I was trying to say it all depends how much the extra cash means to you. If you are on a strict budget I definitely wouldn’t bother. Wifey has some RF alloy cranks on her Juliana and they look just as good.

I think you have to understand the vast cultural differences at play here. My wife is Bulgarian, but came to live in the UK when she was only 19, so has grown to fully understand racism and its consequences. Unfortunately her parents are more influenced by their communist roots where racism is part and parcel of the culture. They just don’t get it, even after living in the UK for over a decade. They are decent law-abiding professional people (doctor and uni lecturer), but some of their racist comments are just shockingly embarrassing. So I would imagine there are a lot of native Bulgarians who have a similar outlook, especially the less educated masses. So I really wasn’t that surprised at this news.

Not sure you can call it ‘disrupting’ (which is doing the same thing but in a different way)

Not sure I follow you there? Tesla are making cars (same thing) but with long range EV powertrains and a more modern UI (in a different way). Even their ICE competitors consider them to be “disruptive” and they have more or less kickstarted the mainstream EV market in a way that cars like the Leaf, i3, eGolf didn’t. I think it’s a good thing for the industry and customers alike. Now we will likely see a wave of other desirable EVs that people will choose on their own merits compared to ICE cars, rather than putting up with serious compromises just to look a bit “greener”.

Can’t you just accept that other people have different preferences? Doesn’t make them wrong, or fashion victims.

So there’s no fashion in mountain biking at all then? Righto.

, it’s also personal preference.

Sure, but if you are over 6′ with long arms, you would expect to need wider bars than someone who was 5′ 7″ with short arms like the OP. Or are you thinking bigger bikes should really come with 900 mm bars?

Except for all the riders with long arms and/or broad shoulders for their height who are riding trails that are on the faster, more open and rockier end of the scale.

Sure, but 800 mm bars on a bike fitting someone 5’7″ with 120 mm forks doesn’t seem like it would be a great match for the majority of riders in that range. I think that’s what the OP has discovered anyway. Yes, you can always take a saw to them, except for some carbon bars.

Is it worth paying the extra for Carbon

If you have to ask, then no it isn’t.

The former is a good gauge of the quality of the rest of the car. The latter tells you where it’ll start to rust. All of my BMWs have been damn near perfect for the former, but Mu mini had a poorly aligned rear door – it leaked as the seal wasn’t properly engaged My Z4MC had stupidly thin pain on the inside of the rear hatch…that’s where it rusted. A mate’s Mazda 3 had paint so thin on the shut lines of the doors that it was rusting noticeably at 3 years old.

Okay, so I’ve looked closely at the panel gaps on my 2018 Model X and they are considerably more consistent than the ones on our Nissan Qashqai (which are actually quite poor in places). Actually I remember when we bought the Model X, the car they had in the showroom at the time (mid 2017) had appalling panel fits – worst I’ve ever seen and unacceptable. I spoke to the sales manager about it and he told me newer cars being delivered were much better. I took it with a pinch of salt and waited a few months until they replaced their showroom car. Lo and behold the next batch of demo cars they had were much better. To the point that panel gaps were a non-issue. Following the Tesla forums at that time backed up this observation, along with dozens of other improvements they made to the car over that period. So I finally ordered one in Oct 17 for a Feb 18 delivery. 30k miles later it’s never missed a beat. Sample of 1 I know, but it is my real personal experience.

As for paint thickness, the finish on my pearl white is as good as anything I’ve had before (including Porsche and BMW) and it’s all aluminium so I don’t see it rusting! I admit I haven’t actually measured the paint thickness, but I’m not really concerned about it. As an overall car it is a sublime way to waft around. It feels quicker than my 911 C4S due to the response/instant torque and the UI is a million times more advanced and functional. So I wouldn’t think twice about ordering a Model 3 based on my own experience with Tesla.

Nearly everyone saying Teslas are junk are really trying to convince themselves that their Merc, Audi, Porsche, BMW, Jag, RR is still a better car. Yet the vast majority of people who buy a Tesla coming directly from those marques do not choose to go back, me included. In fact it’s pretty common to buy a Tesla and then quickly end up replacing all your other cars with a Tesla or other EVs too, which is what we are in the process of doing in the next year. That must tell you something and perhaps gives you an idea why Tesla are disrupting the market. They are not perfect by any means, but they are doing a lot of things that traditional manufacturers had totally missed.

Disclosure, I live about 20 miles from the Fremont, California factory so I could see owning one in the UK might be a slightly different proposition. That and the price is more £££ I guess.

No, pretty much the same experience I’ve had in the UK. Pricing is actually pretty competitive over here now too. At one point the performance models were even cheaper over here for some reason.

Remember The Sixth Sense? The world is just like that, except it’s not dead and living, it’s over 35’s and under 35’s. We’re invisible to them, they just hear vague whispers telling them what to do, which they promptly ignore.

The plus side of this effect is when a bunch of teenagers are running around stabbing each other with knives, they completely ignore you too.

Anyway I’m 51, my wife is 37 and completely ignores me. Again not necessarily a bad thing.

really not keen on the ‘open clamp’ style holders on the Thule/Whispbar racks, with carbon bikes

I use a Thule rubber frame protector on my carbon bikes with the Whispbar clamps. I also only fit the clamp so the open side is pointing sideways around the seat tube rather than up or down on the top tube where it could potentially be bumped off the frame over rough ground. I see what you mean about the closed clamps being foolproof, but I wouldn’t want them loose enough to potentially move and rub on the frame either. It’s a shame nobody in the UK seems to make a tyre only rack fixing as it makes life so much easier when fitting multiple bikes. These are relatively common in the US.

Edit: Looking closely at the Whispbar clamps, they actually have a little tab sticking out on the open end to prevent them from coming off the frame. So it’s really not an issue unless they were extremely loose.

Regarding nose weight, our car is rated to 75kg, but are we saying that it will definitely be less if used for a bike rack? If so, ball park how much are we taking? The manual doesn’t say anything about bike racks. The rack is 17kg, our two MTBs are about 27kg and then got two kids bike an orbea Mx 24 and an islabike beinn 20. Probably another 22kg there? So maybe 66kg all in?

I would say you are almost certainly overloaded, at least in theory. The 75 kg nose weight means nothing really as my example above shows. How much it actually reduces is also anyone’s guess if there is no manufacturer guidance. Some manufacturers state vague things like “max 2 bikes”, others give precise rack weight limits and others appear to say nothing at all. You might want to speak with your dealer or contact the manufacturer direct for an answer.

However it just doesn’t seem right – I’ve got quite short arms (even for my 5’7” height – short legs too) so maybe I am not as well suited to very wide bars?

A case of fashion over function I’m afraid. Definitely sounds like you need to chop them down to suit your frame. I don’t understand why most manufacturers don’t spec narrower bars on their smaller frames (although I know at least one that does). Actually I do understand, it’s a fashion thing and helps to sell bikes. FWIW I’m 6’1″ with arms like an Ape and 760 feels about right for me. My wife is about your height and 700 feels good for her. 800 would be a comedy width for her.

Our 10 year old taller than average daughter still fits a 24″ wheeled kids bike with room to spare. We tried her on a very small 26″ bike in the summer and it was still too big (but not by much). So you definitely need to try her on a 26″ before committing to it. We also have a very tall 7 year old and she only just fits on a 24″ and still prefers riding her 20″ bike. Based on that I would guess your 8 year old is not really ready for a 26″ unless she is exceptionally tall or can tolerate riding a bike that’s really too big for her. I know some can.

In true Single-track style, everyone’s recommended bikes without knowing anything about the riding you’re gonna be doing!

When you say ‘trail riding’, is that trail centres? If so, which trail centres?

Or do you mean cross-country style trails?

The downhill trails, are they uplift assisted and used for DH races?

Would you plan to also go away for trips to Alps or similar on your new bike?

Considering the OP hasn’t bought a new bike for 15 years and is just getting back into it, I would imagine he’s not looking at EWS territory here. But yes, more info on specific trails and what he meant by DH would help narrow the choice down.

The overlap in capability between different bikes is large enough now that almost any 120-160 mm modern “XC/Trail/Enduro bike would work pretty well over a wide variety of trails. What his mates are riding should be a guiding factor too. If they are all on lightweight XC bikes, then an Enduro is probably not a good choice and vice versa.

At just 52 (next month) and with a lifestyle risk calculated at less than 5% it’s all come as a bit of a shock (apparently you can’t dodge bad genetics)!

Scary indeed as that is pretty much me too! I will be 52 in December, had a lifestyle check-up last summer and scored <5%. I haven’t had any symptoms yet, but my dad did have a heart attack in his early 50s, although he fully recovered and made it to 79 when he eventually died of another massive heart attack. He did have high cholesterol though and his diet was old-school fry ups and fatty red meat. He was on blood thinners long term after his first heart attack. He had also pretty much given up on exercise in his 40s (after being a competitive tennis and football player in his 20s and 30s). I was hoping I could avoid all this by eating well and keeping fit, but who knows? I’m still not sure if my dad’s problems were genetic or lifestyle or both!

Anyway, hope your recovery goes well and you live a long healthy life. I will definitely keep an eye out for any mild symptoms too and certainly not ignore them after reading this!

11 Speed SRAM is definitely ‘sweeter’ than 12 speed SRAM, no experience of 12speed Shimano.

11 speed SRAM (X01) has been faultless for me over the last few years. Only had very limited experience of 12 Speed so far, but seems much the same. Not even sure I would be able to tell which was which in a blind test.

They seem to do great drivetrains, great exterior looks (from a distance) and for Tesla, great suspension and handling, but the interior, paint and fit and finish is just awful. The two model 3 I’ve been in have had substantially different panels gaps on both side of the car, the paint was whisp thin on the panel edges and the interior was all over the place.

I don’t understand the obsession with panel gaps and paint thickness. It’s not as if they are perfect on cars with a perceived reputation for “build quality”. I had a dubious bonnet fit on a brand new 911 and I’ve seen some shoddy fit and finish on various Mercs and other “high end” cars. Tesla is merely average these days in that respect (much better than they were even 2 years ago). But they are simply great to drive compared to their ICE equivalents. That’s why they outsell many of their direct ICE rivals. But diehards will always fall back on the quality issues and perceptions, which are not even of much concern these days with Tesla. For me it’s all about the whole driving/ownership experience rather than walking around the exterior with a micrometer and paint thickness gauge.

The VW ID has it nailed IMO. Perfectly matched to customers expectations and priced accordingly.

That’s not what reservation holders are saying on the SpeakEV forum. Now it’s becoming clear that it will be more like a £40k car than the £30k car they expected, many are having second thoughts. Ironically it’s actually boosting Model 3 sales as people jump ship.

Amazing but slightly scary in that we just might be the only example of intelligent life in the universe. Given that the earth is 4.6 billion years old, the earliest forms of life first appeared around 3.5 billion years, but yet intelligent life in the form of humans only appeared 200,000 years ago. So it probably takes, on average 3.5 billion years for intelligent life to evolve, which makes the chances of it happening at all extremely slim given how violent the universe is and the chances of life having all the right conditions and their planet being stable enough over all that time to allow the evolutionary process to work.

We very well might be all alone in this universe after all. In fact probably are. Life is precious.

I’ve always thought given the sheer scale of the observable universe – some 10 billion galaxies containing 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 billion trillion) stars, then the chances of life arising don’t have to be very high at all to still see a significant number of intelligent civilisations. In reality life is probably inevitable in many places. It would actually be even more amazing if there wasn’t any other life given this number of chances.

What is very highly unlikely though are two intelligent civilisations arising within a reasonable contact distance of each other. There is a LOT of empty space out there with vast distances between stars and galaxies. So they will all be pondering the same question as we do. Are we alone?

I’ve no idea if the seat even folds.

Yes the rear bench does fold flat and is split.

What’s everyone’s view on residual values in say 3 years. It’s probable that battery technology moves on and your old Tesla will be potentially like an old laptop?

I would be more worried about 3 year residuals on a new diesel today. Battery tech is not moving on so quickly either. Supply is the biggest challenge they will face over the coming years.