I think i’d go for 130 /140 travel at the back but with fox 36’s at the front. Like an orange 5, yeti SB130. modern suspension is so capable at the back you can have the climbing benefits less rear travel brings. But burly forks on the front for the descents.

i bought a tube from that seller a couple of weeks ago, it’s the real thing

i’m going to put it in my grease gun and use to grease my Santa bottom link

Bought a Ibis HD3 when they launched the HD4. I had lusted after a Bronson but the Ibis was such great value for money. I’m really pleased with it. The 35mm mm internal 27.5+ wheels and burly Maxxis Minion Wide Track tyres give it fantastic grip and solidity but it has a relatively short wheelbase so turns well on the techy trails. Be aware its a boost 27.5+ frame though so perhaps may not match your existing 150 fork. It came with a Fox 36 / 160. This is very much my Alps / Enduro Bike and has replaced a Nomad 2.

My Wife has a Bronson and loves hers and a Bronson would be perhaps be a better choice for a 150mm fork.  If you are wanting to do the parts swap you mentioned the Bronson would be better suited than the Ibis as you can pick up a non boost one

Other contenders may be beefy 140mm rear travel frames such as the Orange five or the Bird mentioned above.

Some of the new versions of many bikes are much more dedicated downhill sleds than previous models as a quick glance at the specs of the Ibis HD4 and the latest Nomad / New Bronson will show you.

find sheldon browns gear calculator online

put your current setup in

it will list the gear inches for each of your current gears

note the gear inches of the second lowest gear

compare this to your proposed set up

e.g if your current 2 lowest gears are 20.9″ and 22.5″ your new proposed lowest gear will be harder to pedal than your current lowest gear but easier to pedal than your current second lowest.

FWIW you must be a strong rider running those ratios. i’m down around 18-19″

I run a Hope 30mm bottom bracket with a set of race face Turbines

You may want to get some of the 1mm spacers Hope sell. ( BBSP105 ). These allow you to fine tune the width so the side to side adjuster can work well.

After a wet or gritty ride take the cranks off and regrease under the alloy end caps and you should have a very long service life from your hope bottom bracket

Last year my next SL’s went on the pedal insert
they replaced them with some G4’s. These have just failed even quicker
shame as i like the two sets of turbines i have, solid all alloy construction

Hi
I would recommend Robens Kestrel or slightly larger, more stable, free standing Robens Raptor. You can get the Raptor for £250 on Ebay. Excellent tents and 2 vestibules make them ideal for 2

Just spent a week in Selva mountain biking. Had a great time, lots of good trails, a bikepark within easy reach, the sella ronda route for a good day out. Enjoyed it verg much and think there is another weeks worth of trails to be done. We went on a package with Thompson, breakfast an evening maels included, hotels quiet in the summer, most other guests walkers.

I have used middleburn, Shimano XTR 970 both with the Thorn chainring which is excellent. More recently i have tried the Race face direct mount turbines with a narrow wide ring, this was fine to even though i’m using a cheap 3/32″ 8 speed KMC chain

I have an El Mar
loving a 650 B+ ( wtb i35 rim ) with 2.8 Nobby nics at the front, good with rigid forks,
a quick try of the rear says that a 2.8 will be about the limit at the rear

Same problem here. Try a Salsa el mariachi in XL size. Good long top tube. You should pick up a mint used one for your budget. M

I was recently in the market for a 1x crankset and after considering the alternatives I ended up with a set. Similar to Middleburn x types but with more of an AM feel . They use a 30mm version of the normal 24mm hope bottom bracket. There is some thoughtful engineering in the design. I think they will be a good longterm bet.

try Just Riding Along, Oughtibridge

I have used a Revelate one, owned a bikepack EU one and now have the Wildcat one
I much prefer the Wildcat….i’ll try to explain why

None of the seat bags are waterproof so you still need the dry bag.
This makes the wildcat lighter
( Weights….. Wildcat 172g + dry bag vs the bikepack EU. @ 372g + drybag )

if it is muddy the seatpack acts as a large mudguard and ends up filthy.
With the Wildcat you can just unclip the harness and slip out the drybag leaving the harness on the bike. You wipe the mud off on the wet grass and finish with a cloth. You can then take a nice clean bag into your tent / tarp.

In the morning you slacken the compression straps on the Wildcat, slip the drybag in and then compress it into a small stable package. Easy and quick.

With the fully enclosed seatpacks it is much more difficult to stuff your drybag in. My mate and i both found it necessary to take the seatpack off the bike in order to get the drybag in. It took far more time and you end up covered in mud

The only slight concern of the Wildcat approach is the vulnerability of your dry bag to being punctured when passing thorn bushes.

I have found the stabilty of each bag pretty good. Id give the Wildcat 9/10, The revelate 8/10 and the Bikepack 7/10 for stability

Hope this helps

Thanks for all the replys
In the end i have gone for a brightbikelabs.com revolution from the states
pricey but seems well engineered.
I’ve ordered my Revo aswell so i let you all know
Mark

I’ve used ACI Alpina many times without problems.
Very similar to DT comps but much cheapness

Went a couple of years ago on the AM trip with Switchbacks
Bubion is a lovely little village high in the hills
Sept or Oct shouldn’t be too hot
Mike and his guides looked after us well
Accomodation in villa’s in the village – no complaints
140mm / 32 forks ok but 160 / 36’s better
rock can be abrasive so double plys recommended. Having said that i was ok on my single plys.
pads but not full face as the van is used to make the hill climbs easier not remove them alltogether
do a search for “lemmings bubion” and this will bring up a good vimeo clip of the famous Lemmings trails which was definately one of the the most memorable
Overall would recommend heartily

Thanks for the pleasant Jenny Aguter memories. Always been a fan of Gina Mckee myself ( currently the mum in Hebburn )

Hi Jim
I couldn’t find what i wanted off the shelf either.
Contact Matt @ 18 bikes. He recently made me a 853 steel touring MTB.
I idea is that i can run it as either a off road tourer with 100mm forks and frame bags or as an on road tourer with a rigid fork, rear rack and panniers.
The spec is as your wish list but for 26″ wheels. It features Interchangable pivoting dropouts so i can run a Rohloff or derailieur gears but don’t need a EBB. Chainstay mounted disc, rack mounts, 3 bottle cages, mudguard mounts, custom cable routing and clearance for 2.25″ tyres. There are some pics on their flicker page, Hope this helps, Mark

+1 for Beeswing. A fantastic little campsite. We rode 3 of the 7 actually riding from the campsite whilst based there. Did a couple of others as car assist then relocated to Peebles to do Glentress & Innerlethin.

Hi Mike
This is a fairly common problem
Almost certainly the blockage is at the joint where the System cold feed joins into the heating pipework. The blockage often can extend 6″ or so up the pipe but above that is usually clear. There is often a build up of either side joint into the main pipe.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to blast it out of the way as all the hard bits will just find their way into the system and may cause problems in the pump etc.
I suggest you get the system drained down and chop the offending section out. Compression joints and gate valves should be used so the section can be inspected / cleaned again in the future.
Poor pipework layout is often the root cause of this build up. This should be put right as well. Whilst the F&E tank is isolated from the system give it a really good clean flushing all the dirty water down the system cold feed pipe and into a bucket.
This whole job can be messy and time consuming. The last one of these i did took 4 hours. The biggest danger when refilling and recommissioning the system is that you will burn the pump out due to an air lock so get a Plumber to do it unless you are absolutely sure you know what you are doing.
Hope this helps, Mark

Thanks for the suggestions everyone

i presume you can only take a hacksaw to a crown race if the headset uses cartridge bearings

Mark

@rik…maybe i have been unlucky but i have had problems.

Boiled some Hopes down Kirkstone pass that then refused to work well after.

Stored my bike upside down overnight when camping and the one of the brakes refused to work the next morning ( air probably )

had a bit of a crash and strained a hose loosing some fluid. rode down a mountain with only only one brake

I don’t envisage going round the world either but i will be carrying a spare gear cable anyway when touring and recon i can bodge a fix on a pair of BB7’s if they have a problem. my BB7’s dont’t work as well as my Formulas but some brakes are better than no brakes.

Thanks for all the replys guys

@druidh
To explain why the wishlist….I use my bike 2 ways at the moment

1) For road touring with my better half – Using a standard rear rack and 2 x 25L rear panniers, with 2 person tent strapped between them and a front bag.

2) As a pure bikepacking bike, no rack just seatpack, frame bags, 1 man tent strapped to front bars and camelbak

I am using std hydraulic formula RX brakes and the rack ( non disc specific ironically ) fits no problem with suitable spacers

However i bought some Avid BB7 mechanical discs which i would like to fit as they are likely to be more reliable in the field.
This causes issues with the rack.

@ still s8tannorm
Thanks for that. Last night it was a Surly Troll all the way but it going to be lardy ( 2.6 kg for the frame…my full sus frame weighs that ! ) and pricey ( £360 ) so i may give the on-one a try. I can always rivnut a couple of extra sets of bottle bosses into the frame

@ winston_dog
Thanks for that, i wasn’t aware that carradice made that sort of thing. Only problem i can see is the weight; 16L capacity for 1000g where as a “Revelate” style seat pack 12L capacity for less than half the weight

Mark

cheers for the responses everyone. A Surly troll seems ideal

@druidh …. so you can mount a mechanical disc brake ( eg BB7 ) with a rack easily.

Middleburn X type 175mm cranks c/w 5 bolt spider ( approx 60g ) = 610g
need to add rings and bolts to this.
you could go for a uno ring if going 1 x 10
my set up with 20,30 bash and alloy bolts = 782g complete
Hope X type bottom bracket = 109g

2012 SLX FC-M660 24,32,42 = 812g complete
SLX / XT bottom bracket to match = 90g

If you can find a second hand one try a Thomson Masterpiece

my 30.9 x 350mm layback in black = 188g.

beautifully made as you would expect

Hi Trail Rat

can i suggest you consider a Salewa Denali tent. My better half and i cycletoured with it this summer.

Features
£160 on ebay
It has two entrances which is brilliant, especially in wet weather.
not too heavy at around 3 kg to share 2 ways.
sheds wind and rain well – it’s shaped like a limpet

I love my gear and have a Hilleberg Nallo 2. The Nallo is a superb tent but we find that for uk 3 season cycletouring the 2 entrances mean that we use the Salewa in preference.

only downside against your criteria is that it pitches inner first

Nomad 2 with coil U-Turn Lyriks gets my vote
This combo will let you ride up the hill / Alp as well as down it

Don’t get too hung up about the rear travel. In my experience it the 36mm stanchion forks at the front that will make all the difference to the descending.

Many 140mm rear travel bikes with a 36 fork at the front would out descend a 160mm rear travel bike with 32mm forks up front.

A bike for life is really about how good the warranty is… not what it’s made of

I’m on my third Raleigh Ti frame, but it had a 15 year warranty so no problems. i won’t get a fourth if it breaks though as they don’t make ti frames anymore AFAIK

They do clean up nicely though, there’s no paint to chip and they don’t rust.

My advice. Buy the hubs and the rims. Measure them yourself then buy the right spokes.
I just built a set of wheels using Arch Ex’s. The ERD i measured was different to what’s written on the rim
I use ACI Alpina spokes – do an ebay search – very good value for money.
be carefull using DT’s spoke calculator to check everything is spot on.
If you are going to do it yourself get the wheel pro ebook…excellent, no nonsense, advice and plans for home made wheel jigs and tools that really work well.

Hi,

Hubs – Hope or DT Swiss 240S. Hopes are slightly heavier but cheaper and much easier to swap between axle standards
Double butted spokes and brass nipples.
Rims – Arch EX or Crest depending on duty

I like the Stans rims as they are very wide for their weight / strength and so if you are running wider tyres they sit well and don’t roll round. I use mine with tubes but you have the option of the tubeless too.

to give you some actual weights to compare to your existing wheels
my newly built wheels to go with that nice fork you sold me last month are

DT Swiss 240S oversize 15mm front, std 240S q/r rear, both 32 holes
ACI alpina ( 2.0/1.7/2.0 ) so similar to DT Comp ( 2.0/1.8/2.0) spokes
brass nipples
Stans Crest rims
weights are 703g / 804g = 1507g

If you went to Arch EX the weights would be be 53g per wheel more

Hope this helps

The 10mm A/F nuts on the bottom of Fox Forx are threaded M8

If you are on a budget can i suggest ACI Alpina Spokes
They are 2.0 / 1.7 / 2.0 so just a bit lighter than DT Competition
I’ve got 2 pairs of wheels built with these spokes by Merlin and they have been fine over the years.
I just bought a box of 144 of these spokes with 12mm brass nipples for £15 + postage from Ebay…Just search for ACI Alpina.
The reason they are cheap is they are untrendy silver.
If you are just starting wheelbuilding ( as i am ) i would recommend you stick to normal spokes and brass nipples to start with as alloy nipples and thin spokes such as DT Rev’s are more difficult to learn with.
Having looked at your earlier questions on rim choice i can recommend the ARCH EX rims. Nice and wide at 21mm with a strength in between Crests and Flows. They are light too at 395g per rim. I got mine from “Just riding along”
I built my first ever wheel today ( Arch EX on DT hubs ) and it was very satisfying. However at six hours to do a passable job on one wheel i ain’t ever going to make money at it.
I have learn’t using Roger Mussons, wheelPro guide to building wheels. lots of excellent advice in there. You download it as a PDF.
Good luck

Hi Gibbo,

If you have stripped the forks down and are wanting to soak the foam seals in something then Fox / Mojo recommend cleaning the rings in the same suspension fluid that is in the legs and then coating with fox float fluid.

If you just mean what to use after you have cleaned all the mud off the stanctions then Fork juice is good i’ve heard. TF Tuned recommended finish line Dry chain lube with Teflon and thats what i use. Clean the stanctions then put a line around the stanction just above the seals. Pump the forks 20 times then wipe the muck away.

hope this helps

Hi, Can i suggest Coil u-turn lyrics, Wind them down to 115 to climb, out to 160 for the downs. They work great on my Nomad and on my mates Yeti 575. In my experience the extra stiffness at the front moving up from 32 forks to 35/36 will make far more difference to the decending ability in the Alps than the difference between 140 and 160mm at the back.

Hi

Went in October 2011. A week of glorious weather, tracks were in good condition, dry and dusty with front wheel traction at a premium. Not excessively rutted out nor bad stutter bumps. Lemmings was epic, flowtastic was fantastic

I’d love to go again sometime

Perhaps you can beg, steal or borrow some alternative shocks to try. I’ve got a 2010 Nomad2 and it performs well with both the normal Monarch air can it came with or a Fox DHX5 coil.

Jonke ( see above post ) probably demoed his Nomad with the Monarch

It sound like something is wrong because to my mind the one big thing about the vpp system which i love is the way the suspension seems to “rear up and forwards” when you put the power in rather than the horrible wallowing / folding in half feeling i think you are describing .

If you are going to put 160 forks on the front then consider U-turn coil lyrics. I’ve got these on my Nomad and love their adjustability
For singletrack blasts i tend to wind the front down to about 140mm as it sharpens the handling. Wind them right down for a granny ring climb or out to 160 for those steep rocky downs. This setup is great for non lift assisted days in the Alps or riding up up the back then down Walna Scar.

I’ve also tried both the standard monarch air shock and the full nine yards DHX RC4 coil on the back. The DHX is definately better on high speed descents but on anything slower their isn’t much in it for a rider of my limited ability

Hi, i just bought an 18 month old ex demo pro spec one. Paint is obviously good quality as it has survived well without any extra protection

Reasons for considering the ST4

i’m 6′ tall and need a 600mm top tube. On many bikes this means a larger frame than the 18″ Orange.

I like: the clean lines, tyre clearances, shock well away from the mud, easy to clean

The frame is solidly built with well protected, good sized bearings, which look easily servicable

I wanted a bike with a good rear shock and front fork that i wouldn’t have to upgrade. The Pro spec gives you this.

Riding impressions – I took it to a trail centre at the weekend

Climbing – I’ve set it up with plenty of sag at the back but it still climbs well with or without the propedal on. I’ve ended up setting the pro pedal to setting 1. On other bikes i’ve owned you have needed lots of extra air / lots of propedal to compensate for a wallowy back end.

On the road or long fire road i like to stretch my back out a bit by climbing out of the saddle. Lock the front fork, slip the pro pedal on and it does this just fine.

Riding along – I found it supple and good at smoothing judder when pedalling seated over rough ground. Climbing traction was very good. i’m sure lack of excessive pressure in the shock helps all this.

Rocky Descent – As others have said the back end feels like it has more than its 110mm when you are going down. I’m sure the long stroke, large air can, boostvalve version of the Fox RP23 plays a part in this.

Up front the excellent Fox float 120RL QR15 fork swallows rocks and dropoffs really well.

Corners – It’s good and flickable and i felt more “in” the frame than many other bikes which keeps you stable in the corners. FWIW i had no feeling that the bottom bracket was too low.

Conclusions

From the reseach i did The early ST4 had a few problems ; a flexy back end, many of which broke, chain suck, low bottom bracket and that ugly and difficult to clean shock position. I think the new ST4 has sorted all these things out.

Downsides – It’s a bit pricey as a frame only. Its not the lightest either -My frame and shock weigh a fraction over 3 kg, so whilst an off the shelf pro spec one is nearly 30 lbs you can get it to under 27 lb by losing lard whilst keeping wider rims and 2.25 tyres

All bikes are a compromise. You wouldn’t race on it or take it to the Alps but for most things in between it would do a good job

If you had both 100mm travel and a 140mm travel bikes in your stable and wanted to replace both with just one bike then the ST4 would be a good choice

See if you can swing your leg over one.