This article is excellent:
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesday-Silence-That-Squeaky-Disc-Brake-2011.html

I know what you mean but they’re always going to be necessary on a full-sus unless it pivots around the BB.

you still need a delicate mechanism dangling off the back of your bike

Apparently that was a pre-production prototype which used a rear chain tensioner, however the production version is supposed to have a front tensioner like on this bike:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Pinion-Gearbox-First-Ride.html

I think there must be two versions.

Those two photos are definitely of the same bike, just different sides.

Here’s a pic of a Pinion frame without the gearbox mounted:
http://fotos.mtb-news.de/p/960686

Looks like the piece with the mounting holes in it is cast aluminium and the tubes are welded onto that. Unknown whether Pinion make these castings or leave that to the frame manufacturers, but either way it’s basically just 3 mounting holes so there’s no reason it couldn’t be made in another material (e.g. steel or carbon).

Thanks for the link! All sounds good to me.

Wonder why they went with a tapered headtube rather than a 44mm one like on the Solaris… any ideas?

Here’s a review of one:

http://twentynineinches.com/2010/10/07/mi-tech-tyke-29er-final-review/

Does anyone know what Maßrahmen means ? It costs an extra 100 Euros ?

I am pretty sure it means a custom build, i.e. custom geometry.

Not heard of them before but they are hand made in Germany which is usually a good sign!

Just looked into the details of those Mi:Tech bikes a bit more… Their Pinion frame (26er or 29er) is €2150 (~£1750) including the gearbox/cranks/chainring.
Also they will do custom geometry for an additional €100
Seems like very good prices to me, especially when you consider the supposed Nicolai upcharge of £1400 for Pinion…

Personally I want a Pinion on a steel hardtail… not something that seems to be on the cards yet though.

Pinion on a belt drive 29er hardtail:
http://www.mi-tech.de/Tyke%20Pinion%20P1.html

get any thing bigger like a turner xxl and the top tube is far to long!

Do that and run a shorter stem would seem like a better idea to me.

I have brought in Danny for Fort William as I think he has the potential to win there.
Finally given up on Riffle after having him on my team since the beginning of last year (no doubt he will finally pull a good result out now!).
Graves was a disappointment at Val Di Sol but I am going to stick with him and see what he can do this weekend.

There aren’t many polo ponies in Peckham…

I just checked out the price of an XX cassette to get an idea of how much this will cost… 😯 ❗ 😯

There’s a full list of frame manufactures who are doing Pinion models here:
http://pinion.eu/discover-pinion/partners/

They are all pretty expensive brands. I’ll wait until On-One do one i think 🙂

Can’t see Shimano coming out with anything like that for at least 5-10 years. I’m sure they will one day though.

No need – Pinion have got it sorted I reckon. Once someone other than nicolai starts making compatible frames then the cost will be realistic.

Yeah I wish they would come out with a Hammerschmidt Mk2 – it’s a great idea and is worthy of further development.

… with chainrings in sizes 28/30/32/34/36/38

Reckon 10-36 would do me, with a 34t, or 11-40 with a 36t but I guess they’ll offer options.

According the the Bikerader article they will only be doing 10-42, no other options as the new mech is designed for those specific sizes.

I would love a 1×10 with say 11-42. I’m sure there is a good reason this wouldn’t work.

Conventional rear mechs won’t handle much more than 36 teeth I believe.

Seems like a good idea to me. If you can get the same spread of gears from 1×11 as ou do from 2×10 then why wouldn’t you do it and ditch all the problems associated with front shifting.

wonder if it does 10-36, or even 11-38?

There is some analysis over on Pinkbike and they reckon it will be 10-42 !

No checks on flying out, but strict on coming back. In my experience

This happened to me last week, luckily was able to redistribute the contents of hand luggage between our group so everyone came in under 10kg.

However one guy had lost his print out of his boarding pass… that cost him €60 !!

I would also be interested in the 25mm/110mm version. Have signed up for updates.

ANyone got any pics of the TrailDrop on their bikes?

I also think that the Pinion gearboxes are the way forward.
I have been looking at Endorfin Bikes (who seem to be the only company currently offering hardtail MTBs fitted with Pinion). Their cheapest conventionally geared bike (SRAM X9 equipped) is £2000, their cheapest Rohloff bike if £2500 and their cheapest Pinion bike is £3150. No doubt the Pinion is expensive, but then again if it never goes wrong and lasts forever it could work out to be a bargain in the long run.

559mm (bead seat diameter – the radius of where the bead of the tyre fits under the rim hook) which we know better as 26″
The “650’s” hung on a little, 650c (571mm bsd) for pursuit front wheels, small road bikes and some tri bikes, 650b (584mm) until recent times on French touring bikes and now on “mtb 650b”.
622mm is current road/hybrid/touring/29er standard.

So a 650b wheel is only 25mm bigger in diameter than a 26″ wheel? Is this really correct??
I do not believe that anyone could tell the difference when riding them if it is that small.

Yeah email GD direct -they usually respond very quickly.
I did this a couple of years ago and the conversion kit was around £70 if I remember rightly.

I have lovefilm and the choice is poor. I browsed netflix to see if it was worth swapping and it was far far worse.

You racing the Gorrick on Sunday?

Ha! This question shows how little you appreciate my situation 🙂
I have not ridden my MTB in about 18 months I think. Just don’t have time any more – way too much going on at home all the time. Of course living in London doesn’t help since it means going for a ride takes a whole day.
I am eagerly awaiting the time when my son can start riding an MTB, since that is realistically when I will be able to start riding again regularly.
In the mean time I am getting my bike fix at the local BMX track – my son loves riding there on his balance bike. I will get him his first pedal bike later in the year and hopefully next year both he and I will start racing BMX… 🙂

Good luck with everything, keep in touch and let me know how it all goes.

Hey mate. Firstly, congratulations! Good work.

Have not read all the responses so sorry if I am repeating them but here’s my opinion:

Try option 3 and if it doesn’t wok then go for option 2.

I have got two kids now and all I can say is that once kids come along you stop giving a shit about work and all that matters is that you can leave on time and you get paid every month without fail.
Seriously, family life can be stressful and if I had to worry about where the next work was coming from on top of all the other stuff I have to stress about i’m not sure I could take it.
I have been in the same job for a long time now and before I had children I used to have fairly regular worries about whether I was achieving highly enough and developing my career, but now quite frankly I couldn’t care less about all that stuff and am actually much happier at work now I have more important things to attend to outside it.

You are a highly skilled and employable guy so you will not have any problems finding a good and interesting job. Do that now and make things easier for yourself, and once your family is a bit older maybe you will want to have another go at doing your own thing.

All the best, P

Thanks for the tips!

@Stoner – I have those worktops in my kitchen and they have been treated with the Ikea wood treatment. they need regularly re-doing to keep them waterproof which is a pain…
Do you think I could just switch to using the Danish Oil you recommended, or would I need to remove the Ikea stuff (i.e. by sanding them down to bare wood again) before applying it?

Shimano here

My Charge Duster Ti

The good thing about printing at home is that you can print, then adjust your image, print again, and continue to do this until you have the prints looking how you want them. Not really possible with a highstreet printer without a lot of back and forth.

I thought her performance on Jools Holland was incredible, but then I thought she was awful on SNL. Wierd.

I really love this remix of Video Games:

Thank you!

Anyone? Someone must have one on their desk… 🙂
Thanks,