Indeed, I must admit they feel stiffer than the M970s, and they’re only 540g.

The classifieds are there for a reason…

S-Works Carbon BB30 :-D

Rubbish how? Shift far better? Ok then…

You can fit whatever you want to the M970 chainset, the only odd thing is the middle ring is quite thick, so I’d advise matching outer and middle ring to get half decent shifting.

TA do one to match the profile of the spider, as obviously non-Shimano rings won’t have the right profile.

If you don’t believe me, here’s my old M970s with other rings…

And I’m in total agreement with Dibbs, don’t buy the parts if you don’t wanna fork out for the spares!

‘minimal spare cash means that to try something new the old stuff has to go’

Assuming you lose only £100 when you sell something that you’ve used, you’ve lost £7000 over the years, that could buy you 2 really nice bikes!

Fair play to you, that’s proper mental!

I’ve had about 15 since the 1999.

160/140 here too, I’d go 180/160 on a bike for the Alps though.

‘I have only heard bad things about them’

Not read every reply to this thread then!?

Whilst I don’t think they’re perfect, it’s definitely a great system, I changed my road b/b after 4 years and about 15000 miles! My MTB ones last 2 years on average. I’m not complaining! The cranks are not only stiffer as cited here, but also lighter.

Depends if you want to finish, or to win.

If you want to finish, then self preservation is key, so riding within your limits, taking regular breaks etc.

If you want to win, then you’ll need to **** yourself up and just ride flat out for 24 hours, with maybe 30 minutes off the bike in the whole event.

My King rear hub needed constant fiddling to stop it coming loose, there was loads of drag in the seals, and it was heavy. Small point, but it was also a totally different colour to the headset, as I’d bought all 3 bits to match that was a bit annoying, although I know anodising is hard to make consistent.

I certainly wouldn’t buy another of their hubs, although I think their headsets are excellent.

I’ve also never known a King hub ‘fail’ just need maintenance, I have seen a number of Pro IIs fail, often seriously, although for the money they’re a fantastic bit of kit.

And I said I agree with you, I was just playing devils advocate if you will, and suggesting a potentially valid reason why there aren’t more jumps up there.

Yes you can get some machined red 20mm end cap things that fit into a jig, no idea where we got our from mind, doesn’t really help, but they do exist!

I just don’t understand the ‘it’s dangerous, you need to be able to hear traffic coming up behind you’ thing. How do you tell the difference between the sound of a car that’s going to approach and pass you safely, vs the one which is gonna mow you down? Do you get off the road whenever a car approaches, just in case?

I find the wind noise without headphones makes it harder to hear cars anyway, eliminating that and listening to music means I can hear cars better. Anyone who doesn’t check over their shoulder before turning is a moron anyway, irrespective of whether they’ve got the hearing of an owl or are stone deaf!

Jumps are fine, but they need totally rollable and obvious, you can’t have dug out jumps, or people suddenly finding they’re 5 foot in the air aiming for a tree, or they’ve just been kicked over the bars by an innocuous looking hump. You’ve only got to look at the number of novices around the area to see that. You can see why the trail builders/land owners have avoided them totally, as they are more likely to cause crashes in those unaware of them or how to ride them.

Not punctured a Mud-X or a Nobby Nic in the 3 years I’ve been using either!

Road: yes
MTB: no

It’s usually one of the best draining ones, and it’s gritty, not claggy, so you’re not gonna need the 1.5" tyres.

There’s nothing particularly technical, there’s some tight twisty stuff adjacent to the arena they usually use with some nasty twitchy right angle bend-short uphill-180 bend-short downhill type stuff. It’s often quite a long fast lap without too many big climbs. When I was a young ‘un I always used to remember it as one of the courses I could always ride everything, no massive ups, and no massive downs!

I’d take the racier of the 2 bikes! If the FS is a Fuel/Epic type racey bike, take that, if the hardtail’s more racey, take that! You’re not gonna struggle too much on either, and both camps will be well represented!

I won’t be there at the first one, I always get a kicking and get pissed off! I’ll see you at the 2nd round though! Enjoy.

Is 140mm not overkill for round there? I’d say so. Particularly for someone who evidently has the riding skills of a trail God!

I think I agree with the general tone here, although there seems to be a lot of contradiction.

Fair enough people may not like all the trails, want more technical ones etc, but that doesn’t mean they can choose where to put them, particularly if they’re potentially dangerous to other users.

As for the new entrance to Yoghurt Pots, I agree, the first couple of turns are ok, but the few after the turn off the Doc at the Radar Station are far too flat and need some serious building up!

Got some poor shots of mine now! 21.5lbs with Mud X tyres. It’s very fast.

21.5lbs with Mud X tyres, weighed on the same scales/stand as Daffy’s, which IME seems pretty accurate.

Agree that the Co-Pilot Limo is the best bet, or the LOCT Body Space if you’re ‘baby’ is a bit older and you want to do proper off road riding.

The concrete slope’s not that hard really, it’s smooth and traction’s good after all, you just have to set yourself up for it correctly.

*Waves willy*

I did 3 laps in 2hrs 26 at the BUSA champs in March, think my quickest was 44 mins or something. I’d definitely say under the hour is quick, particularly if you want to enjoy yourself.

The concrete slope is very doable, but it’s a proper little barsteward!

Front mech depends on the year and material of the Epic. The carbon ones require conventional (high clamp) ones, as the frame tapers near the b/b shell, whilst later metal ones require top swing (low clamp) to clear the gusset on the front of the seat tube, earlier ones you can use either IIRC, I’d say top swing would be a safer bet.

Bottom bracket size is a function of your chainset. XTs are 113mm on most frames, LX are longer, often 118mm, but you need to check for your exact chainset.

Edit: I need to read posts, it’s a 2007, if it’s an alu Epic you need a top swing, carbon is conventional.

Currently got the Roval Controle Race SLs, which came on the bike luckily, as I wouldn’t wanna pay the £600 asking price! 40g lighter than standard Controles, achieved through a carbon front hub shell.

They also have Aerolite spokes, but still, £150 extra… Seem like bloody good wheels though, and 1380g. Plan to get some Stan’s ZTR Race 7000/American Classic wheels for racing, at 1210g.

Not the best shot of my new Epic, shouldn’t take them in the half light! It’s awesome though, very quick, excellent handling. Not fallen apart yet!

If the clamp’s on the bottle boss it sounds like you need a top swing!

This is quite good: ‘This exchange will start from 31st of March 2009. Until this date, and to facilitate the continued use of your bicycle, Mavic will offer a set of Aksium wheel that customers will keep after they have received the replacement R-SYS front wheel.’

However, it obviously shows they think there’s an immediate danger to the user, or they’d have waited until March to pipe up about it!

I know a number of Triathletes who use them, and like them. Can’t comment on their website.

Not yet got photos of my latest, but it’s lighter and faster than anything else in this thread :-)

Bikes have got more expensive in the long term though.

A 2001 S-Works FSR cost £2600, for 2009 an entry level Epic is £2700, the S-Works is £4500.

However, frames are now carbon, and actually the Epic Expert is a similar spec to the 2001 S-Works. Whilst the 2009 S-Works is a far superior bike.

I think the short term price increases can be attributed to things like the weakness of the pound, cost of raw materials (we can thank the aviation industry for taking all the carbon) etc as mentioned above. In the long run, bikes are probably better value than they used to be, or certainly not much worse.

Conventional brakes can get very hot, hot enough to melt tubular glue and roll tubs off the rim, or cause blowouts in clinchers. Like MTBing though, if you brakes properly you’ll be fine, if you drag the brakes the whole time, you won’t be!

Yeah that’s not a road bike, there’s no point at all in discs on a true road bike. On touring bikes they make sense. They would add a lot of weight and probably make the bike less controllable.

Cheers guys, good to know there’s always last minute salvation to be found on here :-)

I didn’t actually know Nirvana did a mid week ride, that’s worth knowing! Heading out with someone else from mine in Cranleigh, but may well see you guys up there! Enjoy!

Perhaps because people, like you, still want the old one :-)

Yeah I noticed how busy the Surrey Hills were yesterday, probably busier than they ever were over the summer! Leith Hill tower was crazy too.

Still, dusty bike in January is pretty awesome!

We’ve got one of the stock £2000 bikes in the shop, a 2008 one, and it’s nearly 28lbs. They should rename it Superheavyforasupposedlyraceybike.

That one’s build with Rebas, Pro II/WTB wheels, Thomson/RF finishing kit, X.9 and Truvativ group.

It wasn’t as hard as it sounds RB, the 2 laps of the Karrimor were boring, but by the time you’ve done them you’re well over half way! It was a slightly stupid scheme hatched the night before, hardly a well planned epic! Didn’t get overtaken the whole day though, which was good!

I did the 6 hour pairs at BBF 2007, and got mental cramp about 200 yards from the finish, whilst leading! Some nice bloke waited with me while I was ranting about how I’d lost it and got me back on the bike, good event!

Doing all 3 of the old CyB routes in a day, twice. 98 miles, 16000ft of climbing at 11 hours. For obvious reasons.

Fizzer: Noirs are heavier and more expensive than XTRs, the GXP bottom brackets are also terrible.

Good luck with that!

As Daffy said, if the M960s are in good nick get them, otherwise just get XT, you could find you’re one of the many people who buys XTR and then is shocked at how much is costs to replace parts!