I bought a house that is cripled with damp problems earlier this year. Leave well alone, every expert has a different opinion and it is very stressful. Ours had no obvious tell tales on viewing and was surveyed as A1 condition.

Many of us run this risk. It was left lying on the road. I can’t think how you would get enough angle on a large 4×4 out of a parking space without the bike being left in the way. When I leave my bike like this I key an eye on the surroundings. I think you failed the bike.

Good luck and hope you get a satisfactory outcome for all parties.

Kimi offers almost no feedback to the team on car setup which may be a problem for Ferrari development. Not sure how much Massa or Alonso give in this dept?

Fox launch pros – I cut the back out of them to make them even more comfy. Really nice and have protected me well. The protection goes a little higher up and around compare to kyle staits which i had before and got on well with. Ideal for when you go over the bars and get caught up in the bike… 😆

It looks close to something that may fail over time. My stump jumper took 5 years to finally start cracking from a dent which had corroded. My dent did look a little bit worse. I would ride it as long as it is in a visible place that you will subconsciously check from time to time. .

I think it depends what you use it for. I find it more of a mini playful dh bike than a great all rounder. Hard to explain. Mine has a pushed rear shock which has been tuned for a lot of support compared to a normal push tune so it pedals pretty well but not as well as a shorter travel trail bike.

To me the bike feels short overall and can feel like it is falling into holes and slowing down a little compared to other bikes. This shortness which I think is the chain stays is also felt on tech climbs where it is not as good as some other bikes as it gets a little balled up and you have to ride it a bit more carefully to clear stuff.

Where it does come good is techy dh. It turns and manuals very easily and is an absolute hoot. It also feels very very confident on steep stuff.

For uplift days, the alps and the harder natural type riding it is great. For trail centre stuff it is a lot of bike and you have to put the effort in to get the fun out but I still enjoy it but a shorter travel bike will have more zing for less effort. So depends how and what type of riding you do imo.

I do love mine and it has given me some real giggle moments and some of the most confident descents of my life.

Thanks Mildred, finally sounds positive for UK support

Can Surf Sales finally service these forks?

Not as good imo. The trail is more open and has a lot less features and turns from what I remember. It is over pretty quick.

Ae – Start with the Shredder or Downhill, do the XC and then finish with the Shredder/DH doing the opposite one to the one you did at the start.

Remember that the Syndicate have the ear of Chris Ball with Santa Cruz supplying bikes to Chris at a reasonable rate. Not that I am adding fuel to the fire 😆 😉

Poop chute.

My settings are close to the 15 out. Think I add a couple of clicks of rebound and slow speed compression but my high speed compression is run further open – maybe 20 clicks.

Climbing hard out the saddle is like any other open fork in your normal settings. No special settings with no TRC fitted.

It is not the tyre I expected it to be at all. Way more XC orientated than I thought. Thanks for the heads up. 🙂

I was of the impression the ardent race was to be a regular ardent with minion shoulder lugs so that it was a better front tyre for enduro racing and could corner harder if required when leaned.

Looking at next day tyres it does look like some super hard compound which does not align with this idea. Seems odd as a regular ardent is fine on the rear. I was expecting a maxterra or 60A ardent race would make a better front tyre than a regular ardent.

I think it would be better with your tyres the other way round and the race at the front.

The neg chamber would be my guess. Might not be equalising and is a lot lower than it should be. This is reported to have a knock on effect on damping.

Boo hiss to the naysayers – go forth and melt alloy and learn your own lessons.

Black 8 is a bit meh. Double Header is a better complete trail imo.

Funny option to black 8 is to go under the water pipe and then dive left down the steep chutes

It is all good out there imo, different strokes for different folks. La Plagne had a couple of nice ones in it too, as does the lower part of Rosiere.

First you let a 29er into the camp, now you are hardtailing a singletrack week. There is a whole lot of wrong going on in the alps this year! I call fake, you were chomping at the bit to get the hardtail out this week. good luck to your rear end, both of them!

Zipties is a funny one. I would never have thought they were a bad idea until you noted. Then it seems pretty obvious! 😯 Lovely world.

Mike/Bland – I agree but I have a transfer. My summer job when at uni was an airport baggage handler and I know how random transfers can be. I also know how bags are treated and don’t want my discs in hold luggage lol

I worry way too much, just I have a lot of personal stress kicking off so trying to plan this a little.

The reason I wanted the remainder in my hand luggage was so that I did not rely on both hold bags making it for the first days riding. I used to work offshore all over the place and am used to airlines misplacing my bags or my baggage not making transfers. I can imagine an odd conversation around brake discs…

Butcher is very good but does imo drag more than a 60A minion so depends on your priorities.

My enduro was super silent until the weekend, turned out I had 3 broken pawls in my pro 2 hub and I have just added the chain device for the Alps. Clickity click click.

After very basic sag setup i tend to tune suspension on feedback alone. I quick setup on the road/kerb test but this is always changed out on the trail. Ride the bike and think about the way it is reacting to the type of riding you do. Find the things you don’t like and work out how to tune these out of the setup.

An intersting one is a bike that bucks you. Most people go straight to slow rebound tuning when the initial problem may be too little spring or compression damping.

If you want to get the most out of it you have to put the time in. A third party comment regarding tuning amy be pretty useless most of the time.

My 06 is better in flat out rough stuff and technical climbing. It has a pushed coil compared to the 2012 air shock so that may have some bearing on it although both bikes are setup and tuned to handle very alike.

Combined with what I Aches says; I felt the standard rp23 I has a trapdoor feel to it as it is also lacking compression damping. Both of these probably gave you the feeling of lurching in tech stuff.

A volume reducer helps mitigate this issue from the back to some extent. I currently have a push tune with added compression damping and the smallest volume reducer from fox to have good sag, and good support. Feels very nice and no trapdoor feeling. I really like the bike on tight tech stuff compared to my 06 enduro as it feels more manouverable. It may be the shorter rear stay although both bikes have the same wheelbase. The 06 feels better at flat out madness.

Not looked in mine yet but spraying lube in a clutch mechanism does sound a little odd.

It would be silly to think you can police change or demand but it does still cause a bit of sand in my fanny (american for bottom, not a rude word).

I built an enduro in 2007. Since building it and riding it tons it has gone through one set of cogs, one shifter and a chainstay which has been replaced (tyres and tubes as well). I still think 650 is overhyped marketing for little change but can understand why manufacturers would do it. I would if I were them and they sold.

It is a shame that we lower economies of scale on new 26″ parts with a new standard.

Plastic one has not been up a “mountain” yet.

Not sure about POS but eye protection can be good for dust, mud and sun. Don’t want an eyeful at some of the speeds that are very easy to attain in the Alps.

CRC have had 1000s of my pounds as they have been ultra reliable and have resolved the only sticky situation I have had with a part from them when they got Fishers to do a full rebuild of my Lyriks. Lyriks are now on their 6th year.

But so much choice in that category that I guess the sales numbers for the Stumpy made the decision pretty easy.

Specialized UK was not selling enough enduros for it to be worth the bother supporting them. The Stumpy Evo was viewed as enough bike and has reviewed and sold pretty well.

Only had excellent service from TFTuned and love the fact I can phone and have a detailed conversation about my wishes and get all the technical input required to make decisions. Love the feel of all the shocks they have fettled for me. Some were spot on after one tune, some took a couple of tweeks but TF don’t charge for the 2nd fine tune.

Yup – that would be an ace experience Chris.

26ers all round! 😆

Yeah – think they are ISCG old – not ISCG 05.

I would ride the pants out it until it has some scratches, you will stop worrying about it then.