A cautionary tale for your dappled shade…:)

Arbtalk birch problems

That’s a public query forum too, so you can ask the same on there.

It sounds a bit like this would be additional to skis you already own, so I guess you’d have to think about what conditions blades would be “better” in, which is kind of personal to where you are going. Personally I’d rather have some park skis if I was indulging in an extra toy.

I have however tried blades on dry slope a long time ago. Blades have much less effective edge, so less grip. Dry slopes have much less grip for your edge as many snowboarders know (unless you count the halfpipe section at the old Gloucester slope :) ). So it’s not a great combo in my experience – even if you like how they go on snow and don’t hate dry slope anyway. Probably get proper bindings that release upwards.

One of the recent BBC documentaries on coastal change / flooding had a really sad story about an ex-soldier who had sunk his savings into a property “near” the east coast. He knew it was at risk from erosion, but looked at average loss over the preceding decades and figured he had enough time to see out his time there. Anyway, two storms later and his house was falling into the sea whilst he pottered around below it with a mini digger doing his best in the face of the inevitable. The point was – past events and timescales are a poor predictor of future events when you are dealing with climate change and probabilistic events which don’t follow an easily understood predictable path. It is also stressful home ownership.

Depends a bit on you and the trails you ride most.

If you are heavier you’ll probably find more benefit in a tougher casing. If you aren’t puncturing EXO and aren’t planning a major change in riding, I wouldn’t just spend a load on replacements.

Also bear in mind the extra support / lack of suppleness you might find with a tougher tyre. That might also be affected by your weight and riding style. I don’t take reviews to heart too much unless really confident the riding the reviewer does is comparable to mine.

I’m interested in the kind of job that allows 8 days of cycle travel to do five days of work?! I mean, I’m guessing you aren’t looking to book that to a normal salaried job as “COVID secure travel time” :)

There’s a fair bit of choice and every answer is a compromise, so maybe also try to work out how much compromise you are prepared to make on grip in return for fast rolling. Also if you want a particularly tough tyre or a light one – that will affect your choices available.

But you did ask for 26″ suggestions! So as you like your Maxxis, Ardent or Ardent Race? They always seemed “fine” to me but the Ardent is a marmite tyre for some people.

Or Schwalbe Hans Dampf or Rocket Ron? The softer compounds still don’t seem to last well if you ride them aggressively. I always quite liked RoRo’s but they are very XC.

Maybe keep your DHF on the front and stick something quicker on the back? I like DHF front / Hans Dampf rear, but many folk hate brand mixing… :)

Look like normal XC race bikes to me. The bike in that small a size would probably look more in proportion if it wasn’t on 29 wheels, so clearly she thinks there’s enough advantage to that wheel size to put up with the stack height compromise and risk of contacting the rear wheel when getting weight back.

The bike industry always seems to struggle to scale bikes towards smaller or taller riders – just find a pic of a tall riders xc bike back in the 26 days.

There’s some good info on the thread already, especially some of the harder elements of gaining access to a paid role “outdoors” and the tough reality of many of the jobs. I’m in ecology and as she has an interest in wildlife, I can say that my world of work isn’t that different to outdoor education – a large number of people volunteering and snapping away at any paid role in the industry. I can however say that this voluntary base has both young people and people in a career change/ retirement situation.

Once in work, there are a few strands to follow early on (huge generalisations) – a ranger-type role which would be very hands on and physical; a travel-type role which may not suit your circumstances; and a consultant/researcher type role, which will bias study and report writing (which you said she doesn’t like). So that sounds like a tough and potentially not very rewarding direction.

The one thing I’d suggest in ecology is user pressure research. There is an ongoing area of study researching and surveying how people affect designated sites etc, including travel and how they use them. I can see a more experienced person in face-to-face skills and who is approachable could have an angle there and is more niche than most people going in who want physical or protected species work. Check out companies like Footprint Ecology who specialise in this kind of thing as part of your looking around.

I am generally a “stick to the rules” type person but given the attitude of the verderers and their anti bike attitudes i would completely ignore them if I lived in the area

See, the challenge here is to avoid an “everyone loses” scenario. The NF is a busy place, not just with holidaying families; it is in the back yard of parts of the south east with major growth, not least Southampton, and is at the bottom of the M3 a relatively short distance from London. Whilst the verderers and some retirees in the Forest wind other user groups up no end, you really can’t argue that uncontrolled access is the solution if the valuable aspects – and there are many – are to be preserved and restored.

We do need to remember that even if you ignored the verderers there are significant challenges as the whole place is very important ecologically and is legally designated as such.

Yep good points burko, I’ve done a fair bit of ecological work in the Forest and there are challenges around the SAC, SPA and SSSI designations. But these alone aren’t insurmountable and I’d hate seeing them being labelled as the blockage, it’s simply the layering of challenge upon challenge.

Up here in Scotland, we have a Government that thinks strategically about forestry through the now devolved forest bodies.

And to support burko as above, that sounds super. Unless it adds complexity. The verderers are a focus on this thread, but just off the top of my head, in the NF there are key roles for Forestry England, Natural England, New Forest NPA, New Forest District Council, Hampshire County Council, Environment Agency…the list goes on. There are strategic plans – many plans, great plans, wetland management plans (Donald Trump voice applied). A Local Plan? Of course! A Site Improvement Plan? Well yes! A confusing picture of competing priorities can lead to many frustrations.

Thing is OP, it will be a great bike when you take it to some of the places you want to go – if you are coming from a 15 year old hardtail, it will be a really fun change. It’s limitations are by design, so as long as you are happy to do the riding the bike is aimed at you will be very pleased.

The challenge here is that you also want it to do something it really isn’t aimed at. Which brings you to the age-old struggle of “do I own a bike for the riding I actually do most, or the riding I WANT to do”! You are in good company on that one – see any thread here on being “over biked”

Ride it somewhere more challenging and choose your compromise ;)

Want to go further afield when lockdown ends to do Surrey hills and some trails at bike parks (never done before).

My suggestion here would be to wait until you’ve tried those things before making sweeping changes. Yes, on local XC stuff in the south east the stock tyres aren’t going to feel fast, they need some gravity to help. At this time of year the trails arent going to be running fast either, so it’ll feel like a slog even in “xc race” tyres in many places. But it sounds like you bought the bike to expand your riding and try more things, but you haven’t been able to try that yet.

There will be compromises to be made – sorry! Trying to have something great for bike parks and great around gravel paths is a big ask. I’d generally suggest we all make compromises, but…a 30T max chainring size, really??! I’d sell it. I live in the SE and am happiest on a 36T. I do think you’d be running out of gears at a comparatively low speed and the climbs certainly don’t require a mini-ring.

You could also continually refer to yourself in the third person, to sound like you’ve got popular support?

Honestly you’re missing the point, E-bikes aren’t for the masses, the bike companies (with some help from Bosch) have found a way to get at a new higher tier of consumer. They’re for the well off and they won’t replace #Enduro or trail bikes as desirable in the minds of actual MTBist any time soon. Those customers are still going to aspire to spent £5-6k to emulate Sam Hill or Jared Graves rather than double the money to emulate a tubby city boy

Is that the case, though? I thought the main draw of Emtbs was to be able to scoot back up a hill quickly and do more runs down – it was why bikes like the Kenevo got so much coverage and marketing. I’d be surprised if many of those actual MTBist riders weren’t swayed by the “training tool” marketing approach promoted on social media by many of those pros. Whether they are affordable to the masses is a separate question, but these are high cost bikes either way.

Analogous bikes?

A bit like a bike with a motor, but weirdly missing one? I’M JOKING ;)

Sure this has come up many times before, before ebikes, but riding doesn’t follow a path of everyone adopting what is perceived to be the latest / best technology. If we all did that, there would be much less diversity in bikes already (even if you just focussed on FS), but ebikes might be the most significant test of that yet.

It does seem likely that as both normal full sus mtbs and Emtbs are very expensive, most people only buy one bike every few years. And right now, many people will choose to buy an emtb as it’s new and interesting and adds variety to their riding. That will make it look like expensive normal bike sales are plummeting, but it isn’t clear how many people will continue to buy emtbs when the next bike purchase opportunity rolls round.

I do wonder if this will affect the pricing (or more likely the spec) of normal bikes – I mean, if you are spending 8k on a bike that doesn’t have a motor and you aren’t all-out racing, does it start to look like poor value to the general buyer?

The article author looks at mountain biking in a very selective way from what I read. He’s picking on what he sees as “less knowledgeable” riders accessing “his environment” and doing it “wrong”, basically.

I do wonder how he would fair in other parts of the mountain biking world, which he ignores. Would he be completely embarrassed riding in a major bike park, for example when he waits just above a feature or stops on a blind landing, because that’s what he would do on his trails? Or at an indoor park where he doesn’t understand the etiquette but feels everyone should get out of his way? It wouldn’t be nice for him to run into another version of himself in those environments I reckon.

Looking at some local (online) groups, the issue seems to be that they see every riding location as a bike park and whilst that can cause trouble, I reckon they probably understand the “rules” of bike parks quite well. They are just out of context and – like the article author – apparently pretty clueless when they are trying to ride bikes (the only way they know how) in other locations. I doubt they’d enjoy riding the way that guy wants them too – they’d probably rather pay to access instead.

Well, there’s a little-known location where I rode around the 2009 Harry Potter green screen sets.

Swinley, obviously ;)

It’ll probably turn out they shot Bond in the woods behind Nationwide.

Okay an interesting diversion from the OP which maybe was a bit troll-y, don’t care.

But @Muke, that was the one post that stands out a mile. If there is anything we can help with please share more and maybe start another thread?

What If is really interesting, but if you like the idea and need a more accessible version, he also does the Thing Explainer

Thing Explainer

It only uses the 1000 most common words to explain a bunch of things. I’d have loved it as a kid.

It would be interesting to make some kind of venn diagram of the different mtb outlets and how they overlap with different interest areas of bikes, and each other.

I think the STW readership is more accepting of gravel content and even ebike content, in comparison to Pinkbike (as an example, when they hate stuff they really hate it). But there will be things other outlets will focus on that will be a draw away from STW and as a “mtb only” rider I could see a shift further to the more…err…sedate side of things lose more people to GMBN, PB and so on. But an attempt at a more gnarrr STW would be horrific wouldn’t it?! Fine balance clearly, pretty good at the moment.

I like the STW mtb content because it is less hype hype hype than the others and less faddy, but I still want it to be about mountain biking.

Are the cranks the same length across all your bikes OP? I know why many mtb manufacturers are speccing short cranks, but especially with longer legs it can feel quite weird going from e.g. 175 to 165mm

I know the obvious answer is that they need advice from someone who can assess their current situation and the location and advise on permitting route, options and costs etc (location is important as it rules some options out). It sounds like they don’t want to engage with this though.

The properties over the road are also on septic systems and their runoff pipe goes under the road, through our garden and joins in to the ditch with ours. These properties were all part of the same farm until 60 years ago when they started to be sold off.

If I was getting professional advice, one of my first questions would be whether the ‘First Time Sewerage Scheme’ would apply to the properties as a group, to see if mains sewerage can be provided at no cost to them.

Are you perhaps quite time-rich and your friend quite time-poor? Might help explain some of the attitude differences.

I like the idea of your kind of riding OP, but it’s a million miles from my experiences as a parent of young children.

These guys are good, look like a couple of options of thin hats or balaclava styles

Little Adventure Shop Hats

I’ve used them a few times, local company and always been great

There was a programme on telly, I think it was on last night channel 4? “The truth about amazon”.

Presented by “The Explorer Helen Skelton”, I understand. Well, it was about the Amazon…boomtish.

Police first – makes it simple for the company to understand action is needed rather than mess you about and promise a “talking to”.

Even if the company fire him, he’ll jump into another company’s van the next week. So another reason for Police.

“dangerous community guys” kind of has a cool robin hood vibe to it, like the A Team working at a food bank.

Going outside the bike world again, Glen Plake is 56 and rad.

Well, personal opinion but it’s the 30mm, heavier ones getting my cash in that scenario (85kg and a bit rough on kit). I can’t offer any evidence they’d be faster around any given loop, but I’m assuming they’ll be more robust and give more flexibility of choice around the preferred 2.5 tyre size.

Lot of variables there. Are they same materials/price range? Are you going to use the same tyres either way? Are you 60kg or 110kg? Do you have a history of damaging wheels or are you gentle on kit?

If you are a light rider who rides light and you don’t have any plans to regularly use 2.6/2.8 tyres, why go heavy? Likewise if you know you are a bit rough on kit, why go light if it’s just for trail centre stuff?

No probs – happy to honestly answer any questions on it. In mixed modes and being lazy, the battery will go flat 2-3 hours, so it does need some personal discipline for longer rides. But that helps keep me sweating whilst taking the edge off ;)

The Singletrack review was pretty spot on I reckon. The Guy Kesteven review was a bit gushing, but he definitely captured all the highlights.

The removable motor and battery is cool, but keep that area clean as it is a sealing weakness as a result of being removable. After very wet rides or hosing the bike, take the motor unit off and take the battery out, check it’s all dry.

Be aware the new version Kinesis are selling is essentially a “Mark 1.5”, branded as the “Pro”. Minor spec changes, but the main change is a head angle reduction by one degree. No big deal, it’s good they are refining a good bike. Kinesis were great to deal with and couldn’t have been more helpful; I bought through a LBS but they couldn’t get stock as the L4 Rise had sold out – the dudes at Kinesis stepped in directly to get me a bike.

Yeah I’ve got a Rise hardtail, had it since the summer.

Two things I think stand out:
– It’s an alu hardtail. It rides really well and the geometry is great if you like Long/Low/Slack, plenty of clearance for big tyres. But the motor doesn’t compensate for any HT traits.
– The Fazua motor I think requires you to buy into their way of thinking. It’s a great system, but people who want to ride all day with high assistance (or chip their motors…) would be better served elsewhere.

Apart from those key points, the Rise is a great bike. I spend most of the time in the lowest mode, adapted via the app to give 100w of boost. I can ride max 5 hours / 1200m climbing like that, with careful use (85kg, trails around the South Downs/Surrey Hills). Easy to get a second battery if you want though, they are £400 and the size/weight of a small water bottle. To be clear – that would be essential if you wanted to ride a “big day out” somewhere hilly without running out of charge. The handling and geo is great for me (L4, I’m 6’2″).

On the “be aware” side, the XFusion fork is a bit basic in proper rough stuff, takes some tweaking. I think the new ones are coming with Rockshox now though. The Sector wheels are a bit of an unknown and seem to be OE only. My feedback is that the hubs etc have been solid, rear spokes did loosen off after a bit but were easy to re-tension.

So it’s great at what it is for – a “hardcore” hardtail with LLS geometry for blasting round the woods on on big rims and grippy tyres, which are brilliantly compensated for having the motor. I think it’s at it’s best on rolling trails where you are around limiter thresholds or over a lot – for winching up and plunging down steep stuff the bigger bikes would likely make more sense, unless you really love HTs ;)

Mine’s as high as a 5G tower spreading Covid.

Bikes with Fazua motors – LaPierre, Kinesis, Focus, Nox?

The scheme website says how they process the tyres: “Bicycle tyres are shredded and granulated to separate them into their constituent: rubber, steel and fibre”

But I bought expensive Schwalbe SuperGravity tyres and they are happily doing this all by themselves as I ride them! Amazing! I only need to remember to collect all the bits.

Road ride or MTB ride OP?

I suspect not a road group! But to follow the idea of correlation, what I really want to know is what bike brands these dudes are drawn to. I mean, Sick never delivered that many actual bikes did they? I just can’t visualise someone saying all that stuff whilst sitting on a Trek. Dunno why.

Sounds like others have more relevant experience of the Process bikes – I have a HeiHei 29 Trail, which is a different suspension format. It’s a nice bike, but when I bought it the whole “process” geometry was much more cutting edge – the longer reach and more aggressive geometry was something Kona was doing well, but now every other brand has caught up.

My support (for a rear triangle crack) was through the dealer. Hard to know if I would have got a better experience by pushing it and involving Kona directly, but I got a basic fix. No frills or great service story though.

Haha I get your point – yes, I have a 2016 Kona, so nearly up to date.

I think they struggle on value (because of import duties or similar? Not that it would only impact Konas). But I think the dealer network is also tricky, with some big online discount retailers.

I haven’t found the UK support to be great TBH, compared to other brands. I don’t think the UK side is any significant part of their operation.

Orbea Alma?

They seem to be turning out some really good bikes at the moment.