Yes. On Flow rims with yellow tape only (couldn't get them on with a rim strip). Took a lot of wheel milk before they sealed properly (they'd be fine all day but deflate over night). But once they were sealed then I didn't have any problems. Never had them burp although I wasn't running much lower than 25psi.

I think I'd have to agree with some of the comments above, i.e. you'd want a very good set of coil forks on the front of any bike with a CCDB.

I have an alpine five which came with a mantiou evolver isx 4 shock and Fox 36 Talas forks. The rear shock was first to go replaced by a pushed van r. This transformed the bike but the fox forks never really felt quite right. I replaced these with some coil lyrics, now the back end (in some situations)feels poorly controlled compared to the lyrics with there high and low speed compression damping.

Perhaps I was always looking for a excuse to upgrade, but I can see how a very good coil shock could make a bike with some air forks feel a little unbalanced.

I successfully repaired a scratch in the stanchions of my fox 36 talas forks. Just use some araldite and rub smooth with wet and dry paper (1500) as suggested. It took me a few coats before the scratch was fully filled and be patient with the wet and dry (it took me quiet a while to get it perfectly smooth, probably worth taking off the forks and doing it in front of the TV :-))

Nothing to challenging for the average STWer I guess.

Unless you unintentionally venture off line!

69er P7 frame anyone?

FS would be better!

Really, why? I haven't ridden anything that wouldn't be more fun on a hardtail, while (and here's the important bit) I still have the energy to enjoy myself, to brake when I want to and ride aggressively.

The ONLY time when a FS is more fun is when the trails/DH's/rides are to long to do the above.

For me thats long (>15 mile) loops in the peak, and most alpine riding. Anywhere else where the downs are short or there's time to recover on longer rides. I'll probably be on a HT. I'm sure that everyone has a point a which they'd be having more fun on a FS (if you say no then you're lying! megavalanche? a monster 100km Peak loop?), we're just all different.

Obviously I have no idea if your forks are full of water but…

Earlier this year I had a set of revs and some fox 36 talas forks serviced. Both had lots of water (maybe 1/2 pint in the fox's although I can't quite remember)in the lowers, making both forks feel very stiff and generally horrible. I never (well almost never) wash my bikes with a jet wash and generally use a dirtworker. But the advice I was given was to always wash a bike upside down. Having said that the revs had done a couple of hard winters and fox's are known for having lose seals so perhaps it's just always wash bikes with fox forks upside down.

I wouldn't have thought (based on my very limited experience) that water would do anything worse than add a little unwanted compression damping. Go out for a ride and get them serviced when you get back.

You must have been one of the guy's that just seeked in front of me at the finish, I came 185th :-)

I though 2hrs would have been enough, it was last year, and I certainly wasn't alone. Lots of people only just made or missed the start. If everyone decided to leave 3hrs or more to get up then loads more people would have been late. There were women queueing in alpe d'heuz at 9.00am, thats 4hrs before there start time! 2000 people is a lot to get up the mountain, it's obviously never going to work if everyone turns up at a similar time.

I missed the start of my qualifier (Some people started queuing far too early). So only managed 115th, missing out on a mass start again! Still it was way more fun than last year; I've never seen as much dust!

Hopefully they'll take note and assign times for being at the lifts on the day of the qualifier like they do for the main races.

I could be wrong but just doing (lots of) press-ups is probably a bad idea. If you get too strong in one muscle group (i.e. triceps) without strengthening your biceps it’s easy to injure yourself. Climbers are notoriously bad at getting sronger biceps than triceps which leads to elbow injuries (myself included – hence I can’t do many press-ups but can do plenty of pull-ups). I’ve no idea how many press-ups would be too many (possibly way more than 100), but attempting to get stronger in a more balanced way has to be better.

I did it for the first time last year and will be there again this year.

wrt doing it on a hardtail, a few people do but do but I’m not sure I’d want to. A afternoon playing on the qualifer (on a HT with 6in bolt through forks!) may be fun but not 6 or so days of riding. If you’re out for the week then after a couple of days praticing the courses you’ll be pretty battered. I’d consider hiring, even if you don’t book anything just make you have enough money to get something for the race if you need to. Although there won’t be much available.

Not sure what rims strips you’re using but there’s a good video on the Stans no tubes site. The most important things to remember seem to be 1) to spend a few minutes spreading the tire on the rim and then 2) hold the tire by the valve with one hand whilst pumping with the other (with the valve core removed). I’ve definitely had some head aches but it’s usually when I forget point 1.

Lots of walking through deep mud carrying a 45lbs halfords special :P

From what I remember from last year there’s not much climbing. The downs, however would be way more fun on something with less travel. If you’re out for a week I’d put up with it (plenty of other people do), if you’re just going for the passportes event then I would take something else.

I’ve never managed to boil mine in the UK, and only managed it a few times in the alps in 16 days riding.

Yes, ok that makes sense.

Very true, I guess thats why some other mags quote down tube lengths in bike reviews.

Nope I’m confused. Surely if the bike with the steeper SA will feel shorter, then a 72 SA bike with a long tube tube will feel even longer than a shorter bike with a steeper SA. Also isn’t the SA irrelevant once you’re stood up.

Perhaps that’s just orange sizing then. Have you ever looked at how much they change the TT length on some of there models. I have an 05 and an 07 P7 both completely different. In fact the 07 is something like 20mm (supposedly) longer than the 08, but when you get them side by side they actually look and feel the same.

Has anyone seen or ridden a Hemlock with a coil shock?

I guess it depends what you’re used to, 600mm ETT is quite long for a 17″ frame, the same as the 18″ alpine 160, which is also the largest size.

I had to say I agree with davidtayforth. I’ve got an orange alpine (the prototype one with 140 at the rear)and a Dialled Kobe, both with Talas 36’s. The orange gets ridden in the peak (proper) and alps, where it’s fantastic. But almost everywhere else (most places in Wales, lakes, peaks (lite), Warncliffe etc), when I expect to be hopping off things and generally messing about, I’ll ride the Kobe. It’s just generally more fun, up and down, as it’s easier to bunny hop, manual, etc, and with tubeless set-up you get a bit of bounce over the rough stuff as well.