Get the shorter offset I reckon. It feels more stable, holds a straight line better, less twitchy, possibly a tiny bit more grip. Most noticeably I find I’m making less steering adjustments mid corner.

Longer offsets, along with steeper head angles, were intended to speed up steering to make 29ers feel like 26ers a few years ago. Back then longer stems were more common which sort of kept a lid on things getting to twitchy.

For a good few years I used to swap from a suspension trail bike to a light rigid singlespeed for winter. Of course that’s about 6 months of the year in this country. I struggled getting back on the full sus. It felt heavy, sluggish and vague. Took the fun out of riding. I don’t think being fit standing up on a singlespeed translated seamlessly into jumping on a geared bike either. Always took a good 2-3 weeks riding the trail bike before it felt like I was getting back into the swing of things.

Now I’ve got a gravel bike and could see a similar situation arising if I rode it exclusively for ages. However I don’t see myself using it for every ride like with the rigid. So I wouldn’t expect to get back into the Flare Max straight away. Give it some time, and maybe a diet…

It’s hard to say if a Lefty is better but definitely different, for that I like them. Been a while since I’ve had or ridden one but they always used to be way stiffer than equivalent normal forks, very little twist or bend. I believe that’s been toned down just a touch for comfort on the latest models. As they run on needle bearings rather than sliding on bushings these can be felt moving as it goes through the travel. This may feel odd to some, I didn’t mind. One benefit here is the suspension can keep absorbing bumps rather than binding under hard cornering or braking. This is something that mostly goes unnoticed by the masses aboard their normal forks, but it is happening, even with modern high end ones. It just might take a ride on a Lefty to realise that.

Don’t know about servicing. Back in the day there used to be a main dealer that did it a couple of miles away which was handy. Getting the wheel off is fairly straightforward, although doesn’t need doing as often since a tyre swap can be done on the bike.

I sold an item on ebay a little while ago and this happened. Thought about what it’s worth considering the condition, then added a bit. Not much but just to see what happened before reducing if needed. Sold in a couple of hours. Okay that’s great I got more than I was expecting. A week later I found the item back on ebay for over double the price, more than it costs new from some places. A month later it’s still for sale and some of his other items look like they might be getting flipped similarly. Doesn’t bother me, so long as I got a price I’m happy with, but the price he’s asking is well beyond optimistic.

I sort of found this out. For me the post was over 3 years in and still working reliably long after the seals were toast, a bushing was worn out and internals were getting scored from muck and no lube. Needs servicing more often. Fortunately Silverfish managed to bring it back to life. Service is a bit pricey which probably puts people off but the extra parts they replaced weren’t too expensive.

Anything from Pro fit the bill? Shimano’s component brand so it’s good stuff and lots of their bars take Di2.

https://www.pro-bikegear.com/global/en-gb/road/handlebars/PRO_HA_VIBEAEROSL

Yep, think the 2.6 has slightly wider and lower knobs so I can believe that one doesn’t squirm.

Specialized have always been known for thin sidewalls. I’m not too bothered by a small amount of sealant leaking, particularly on the rear as the tyre gets older with a bit of sidewall wear. But the latest Butcher, mounted on the front, started pissing sealant all the way round on both sides pretty much straight away. Need to get around to returning it.

Perhaps even worse, the redesigned Butcher has much taller knobs than the old one. Resultingly the tread squirms about and feels very vague. This has been mentioned in a few bike reviews lately. Bizarre that the Ground Control and Purgatory are more confidence inspiring now.

Wasn’t Pivot somehow involved in developing the press-fit standard with Shimano?

As above I’ve seen Pivot talking about how frequently their people fly out to the factory in asia to check on quality. One would hope they’re pretty good given the price.

I had a second generation Salsa Horsethief. It seemed like they’d gone the extra mile to make the welds really neat and consistent, used higher quality pivot bearings, and the matte finish was super tough.

I’ve not really noticed many tolerance issues with frames other than I had a MK2 Cotic Solaris where the seat tube was significantly oversized. I really should have tried to warranty it. Hambini would have had a field day. Also a Whyte where the dropouts are a bit too far apart until the axle brings them together.

I kept riding the rear wheel in that state for months each time one of my rims started cracking. Just XC and trails, regularly checking for further deterioration. I’m slightly lighter at 72kg. It didn’t explode. But I think any 1.5m drops might be asking too much.

I had a pair of Hunt XC wheels. The hubs seemed rather nice. No rim dings but the ride quality didn’t impress. They may have been updated but at that point the XC rims were quite deep and therefore laterally flexy and vertically harsh. Also owing to the inner rim profile, the way Hunt hadn’t applied the tape properly (which split) and the valves (which didn’t fit the rim shape or seal) they were a bastard to set up tubeless. The 60 day ride and return policy was made use of and Hunt were decent to deal with about it.

Well I’ll be the annoying person who’s had at last count at least 12 press-fit bikes over the years, some cheap, some expensive, alu or carbon frames, probably done 25,000 miles with no BB creaks (touch wood). And I hate creaking. All were Shimano or Race Face cranks and bottom brackets. What I’m not a fan of is belting the crap out of high end frames to get the cups out. As such it’s not something I’d consider when buying but would prefer threaded.

Arch MK3 rims are notorious for this, over tensioned or not. I had a wheelset from Superstar for almost 4 years. By the end they were on the 5th rear rim and 2nd front. I assume Superstar check tension? The last two rebuilds done locally definitely did. Result was always the same. Shame as the ride quality and weight of Stans rims is very good.

I’d be looking at something from DT Swiss. Or my Newmen 30mm rims seem tough. Otherwise I’ve just had wheels built up with Spank Flare rims. Early days for reliability but they ride nice.

Replaced a 12spd GX mech with XT. As above it works just fine, shifts more consistently actually.

Cocking and nearby Didling on the South Downs.

Also Upper Dicker and Lower Dicker near Hailsham.

Interesting reply from Specialized. I thought the idea of a max tyre pressure on the sidewall was the manufacturer had tested by inflating until failure point and then halved the failure pressure which is shown as max pressure and perfectly safe to use. So that Butcher shouldn’t blow off until about 100psi.

I have the Redshift stem. Solidly made and makes a big difference reducing vibration. I find gravel bikes with drop bars are really quite difficult to hold onto when things get rough, particularly on the hoods. And this is coming from someone that used to spend about half of each year riding a rigid mountain bike with no problem holding on. Feels nothing like proper suspension but it really helps with that. The recommended settings seem right, firm with no bobbing. Don’t think it was really intended for mountain bikes because not having the extra leverage of drop bars will reduce the travel and make it firmer.

That Kinekt one looks to be a lot more complicated with 4 pivots and heading towards twice the weight.

Depends on the bars really. Easton EC70, Answer Pro Taper SL, Pro Tharsis 740 all visibly flexed when pushed down hard and had a very nice ride quality. Thomson carbon, heavier and possibly correspondingly there’s no real sign of movement, but they don’t feel awful. Spank Vibrocore does just what it says on the tin. OneUp, yes they’re better than other 35mm bars for sure, but I reckon still stiffer and harsher than many 31.8 bars.

Could try moving your bars up. This will shift some of the weight/pressure from your wrists back onto the saddle and pedals.

Ergon grips, reduced pressure points and where your palm sits actually flexes slightly.

Another aspect that doesn’t get mentioned very often is on a suspension bike the oval ring is continually changing the anti-squat number. Also where the rider puts the most power in is actually the softest point in this which is not ideal. I’m not sure how noticeable this is, maybe it depends on the bike, but some people say it causes bob.

Pedal kickback becomes more pronounced with higher engagement point hubs on some suspension bikes. I’ve had all the DT ratchets, 18 teeth felt horrible, so much wasted crank rotation, 36 is just about right in my opinion. Got a 54 now which is nice, more than enough really, not too much buzz, but being on a VPP Intense I can feel a bit of kickback occasionally that probably wouldn’t be noticeable with the 36.

Might be worth watching this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGxYZ9Rh2t4

DT 240/350, or if I could justify the cost definitely Onyx. I’ve noticed some alternative ratchet style hubs are a lot louder than DT. Got some older Newmen wheels and the rear hub is very loud, also the bearing adjustment system is crap but they have gotten rid of that since. Wouldn’t fancy anything that buzzes like Industry 9 personally.

I noticed the phone app will now layer heat map over a ride.

I wouldn’t pay for full leaderboards. Not with the accuracy of most peoples GPS and all the e-bikers out there these days. The route builder was quite useful, particularly as it worked nicely off road and would lock onto heat maps. I may pay for that at some point.

Hermes usual max parcel size is really quite small. Also be sure you understand how they work out the size. Add width and height together, double that, then add length, got to be less that 245cm. Next to no chance of sending a 29 wheelset with them.

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/i-think-oval-chainrings-give-me-knee-pain/

There was a thread on here (and talked about elsewhere) last year suggesting oval rings actually cause knee problems. I had big problems with my knees a few years ago and going back to round chainrings noticeably improved the situation. I think it’s something to do with rhythmic changes in resistance and cadence from the oval ring causing a kind of successive impact or strain on the knees when pedalling.

I also found that after several years and many thousands of miles on ovals (yes I was one of the early fanboys) the benefit was lost because my muscles had gotten used to the way they pedal. So much so I had actually gotten weaker and it was starting to feel like the oval was making it harder, not easier. Really noticed this most when I went back to round. Took months to get my leg strength back feeling normal again.

Your results may vary…

Yeah I noticed this. Giving BKXC a Ripmo seems like effective advertising. He’s popular and it will be used in pretty much every video. Others like Awesome MTB on the other hand, less than 10% of Brian’s subscribers but they seem to get showered with new bikes every few weeks. Not really on when there’s a shortage/long wait for real customers.

Yeah I noticed some quite long periods with a north easterly through spring. And just generally quite a lot of wind this year.

Also, sat up the top of Leith Hill sunday. I know it’s fairly high up but nearly being blown off my perch multiple times in a gale on a dry sunny summer day with my sandwich steadily accumulating dust seemed odd.

Sounds like you’ve narrowed it down to the mech. But I did find the smallest XT 12 speed cog is quite easy to clock wrongly. The cutouts on the back sort of look like there are two ways to mount it but really one of those makes just enough difference for that gear to skip and shift bad.

Well I was starting to think they were quite good. Then a few weeks ago my last CRC order arrived looking like it had been through a car crusher, fortunately only tyres inside. Now found they’ve audited something sold on ebay as oversized (hmph!) and taken £9 from paypal, almost 2 months after it was delivered. Seems they want photo proof it was the right size despite having no proof it wasn’t.

Just to confirm I’m tall at 6’4″ and would prefer a longer front and shorter rear in most situations to keep the bike fun and agile. I’ve not found that makes a bike feel unbalanced once used to how it rides and where to position rider weight. That being said in the greater scheme of things 430 isn’t really that short, some bikes now and loads of 26ers used to be much shorter. 440-445 isn’t so very long either, many early 29ers were 450-455 or longer. Somewhere in that range there might be a chainstay length that’s spot on and goes totally unnoticed out on the trail. I had a bike that was 437mm and never thought about it. Since the new Meta AM 29 got mentioned the geo looks ideal to me for schralping. The steep seat angle should take care of any short chainstay related climbing issues, although potentially at the expense of seated cockpit length.

I’ve just got a frame back from Carbon Bike Repair. There was a scrape out of the top tube which had damaged the first few layers of carbon. Communication was excellent and repair is spot on, damaged area looks and feels brand new. Took a bit over 5 weeks but I understand there was quite a backlog when they reopened after shutting for the virus. It was quite expensive for such a small repair but I don’t really know what the going rate is or how much work was involved. Obviously would have been considerably cheaper if not painted to match.

Have you measured the S150 chainstay length? I can’t remember off hand but it’s longer than the 435 claimed.

I have a short travel 29er full sus with a 430mm rear and it does make the bike more agile and fun to ride for me. On really steep climbs longer stays help hold the front of the bike down. I also have a cross bike with a 425mm rear and that does feel a tad too short at times, usually climbing. I think with longer, slacker, lower bikes the idea is you lean the bike over more to corner so chainstay length doesn’t play such a big part in that anymore. It’s all a balancing act.

I’ve got one. On the good side the geometry works well, it’s relatively light, quite fun and engaging to ride and one of the more poppy bikes I’ve ridden. On the less good side Giant’s 35mm bars and TRX carbon rims are at the stiffer end of things and the paint seems to chip easier than I would expect. Pedalling I wouldn’t say it bobs or is bad at all but it is softer than some. Depends what it’s compared to really. I don’t think the shock tune helps here as the middle setting is very close to the soft one, so it’s either that or the firm setting which feels like a hardtail.

I’ve always liked the Rocky Mountain one. Anything with a real head badge rather than a logo or brand name painted on is cool. Intense, Salsa, Singular are nice.

Sorry to say it looks to me like it has warts. I’ve used small taper head ti bolts to make things look a bit cleaner before but there’s only so much one can do when there’s that many of them.

Yeah I’ve never had 2 pairs of baggy Endura shorts fit the same. We’re not talking small differences either. As I discovered last week this also goes for their gloves.

I once slashed a tyre at the halfway point of a long ride. Disastrously I’d gone for a minimalist weight weenie XC approach only packing 2 CO2, a tyre lever and a tube. No one to call, no train going the right way, bus wouldn’t take bikes. I worked out the 19 miles home was just about walkable but quickly gave up on that idea. Decided to eat the cost of a tyre and hope the rim was okay riding back flat. That was the last time I took CO2 rather than a pump…

Had a couple of 3C Maxx Terra Shorty tyres do this. Weird as there wasn’t much wear and they were only used on the front. I just kept using them until the summer tyres went on. Not seen this on any of my other Maxxis tyres. They were used in freezing cold weather so maybe there’s something to that theory.

Now that’s interesting about the rim because I broke a Specialized/Roval carbon one a while back. Took 3 months of messing about by them to get what clearly should have been a warranty issue finally sorted, at my expense. Must be said everyone else says good things about them but they lost a long time customer with that one.

That big jump into the 52t is annoying, just like it was with XT 46t cassettes. I have Eagle and do use the 50t but also don’t need it. Last drivetrain I got was the 10-45t Shimano because the gear steps are even, close together and 45t is plenty low enough for me.

Guess I can see the benefit of running a bigger chainring to get a higher top gear but my bikes are mostly full suspension. Bigger chainrings reduce the anti squat so make pedalling spongier.

Instead of something more useful like “here’s what we’ve done to make this stronger, lighter, longer lasting or shift smoother/under load” it’s just another Sram marketing gimmick.