Evans only this month charged me £11.50 to cut a steerer and fit a SFN. Its a rogue store/member of staff.

Not sure I disagree with your outrage.

£11.50 seems VERY reasonable for that, given it requires the fork to be taken out (including brake to be removed normally), use of cutting guide and hacksaw, then files, and then the tool to set the star nut. Then the front end of the bike has to be put back together. All for just over a tenner, that’s pretty bloody good.

Edit: just re-read your post. Are you actually pissed off at £11.50 for that job, or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

6079smithw – Member
Would rather have a Cube HPC Stereo 29er

I wouldn’t.

Are you a fatty boom boom?

If in doubt, flat out.

http://troll.me/images/futurama-fry/not-sure-if-ironic-or-just-stupid.jpg%5B/IMG%5D

So, a 333mm bb would be okay and I will not die then?

We’re all gonna die someday. I doubt that will cause it though.

It will ride better with the wheels it was designed around, and be prepared to smash your cranks a bit. But I doubt it’ll kill you.

It’s a pretty big frame down by the BB though, so I would definitely run an lg1 or similar, just for the peace of mind that you won’t smash the shit out of your frame.

As a temporary measure, it’s probably not the end of the world, but you’ll probably get a fair bit more crank-strike than usual.
If you’re gonna do it, run a chain device with a skid-plate, just for a bit of security.

Highlights of the year for me so far:

Got Married:

Got a new job with my current company, with a wee bit of a pay rise 🙂

Spent a month travelling around Germany and Austria as part of said job, where I got to visit and ride some really cool places 🙂

Had a short holiday in Münich with the missus

Got to be best man at my best mate’s wedding 🙂

Introduced a couple back in April, who rather suddenly got wed at the end of last month!

Did a bunch of riding and racing all around the UK, including:
10 Under the Ben
Twentyfour12
Bristol Bikefest (The Steve Worland ride singletrack hard & drink a swig of cider per lap memorial cup 2014)
Mondraker Gravity Rally
Various mini-enduros
and a Weekend’s riding around Kinlochleven, Ft Bill and Glencoe as part of my mate’s stag do.

All in all, this has been a pretty good year 😀

the (very limited) number of people i know who had or have yeti’s have all had problems with them cracking after a very short period.

575s?

The really old one where they had carbon bonded into alu, aye. But have you seen how beefy the new one is?

The reason top end full-sus bikes crop up, is that people can’t distinguish between the ‘want’ instilled in them by marketing, and true aesthetic qualities.

That’ll be those wicked “marketing people” again, manipulating poor Joe Public who can’t make his own decisions, and forcing him to buy something he actually hates.

What a load of bollocks.

Yeah, I think the questionable Geo is a thing of bygone days. I’m 5ft 8, and found a medium absolutely bang on. Could have gone for a shorter stem, but it was comfy with an 80mm.
Yeti Geo always comes across a bit mental on paper, so i try not to pay attention to it. For example, my old asr5 was a medium, which technically measures as a 19″ frame. Seems mental, but in reality it fitted like a glove.
I tried a small as well, and that was fine with a longer stem, but it was technically an 18″ frame.

@ the OP- you could always give OnePlanet at Llandegla a ring to see if they have one. That’s not too far from you, and a pretty good place to test a bike

Ooh funcy. I rode an SB6c the other day and it was very nice. Probably a bit too slack and long travel for the riding I do though. scary fast though.

Aye, I sorta made the same decision. The SB6C is absolutely brilliant- goes downhill like a bat out of hell, and by all accounts it climbs better than the SB66 did, but I prefer something a wee bit smaller and nippier myself.

The SB5 has that same quality that the ASR5 did: when you point it downhill, it feels like a much bigger travel bike than it is. It out-climbs and out-descends the ASR5 without a shadow of a doubt though. Much faster bike, and a lot more planted on the descents. It is a fair whack more expensive though, so it’s difficult to compare the two, as they’re sort of in a different category in that respect.

To get back to the OP’s point though- the 575 is a deceptively good bike, and it’s simple look doesn’t really do it justice. It looks a lot more basic than it is, but I reckon it will out perform any other single pivot bike out there *awaits flaming from all the Orange lovers* 😉

I currently ride an SB5C, and have had an ASR5 in the past, but got to test a 650b 575 a while back, and I have to say I was blown away by it.
For a relatively inexpensive bike (I say that, as it’s about the same price as a Mega) it was a remarkably good bike. Cos it’s got the ASR/dogbone system, it felt pretty active on the way down, but climbed really well (just like my old asr5 did)
I jumped on it straight away, and even with an 80mm stem it felt great!

Best thing would be to give one a try- you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Where abouts are you located?

In true STW style, I’m going to suggest my own bike.

@Midlandstrailquestgraham

+1 for Charlie’s Euroflage. It’s so horrific, but your eyes can’t help but be drawn to it.

Sorta like those fashion ads on telly which use women with “distinctive” looks- like the one who has been prancing around with the big gap in her teeth. Not conventionally attractive, but certainly eye-catching.

Never mind! Found it:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/965-for-odi-grips

Thing is, its all standard kit hung off a very generic (basic) frame, so it almost doesn’t matter what you go for. At that pricepoint they’ll all be much of a muchness.
If I were you though, I’d go for the higher spec model of the two, as it sounds like it already has better forks, right?
Forks ain’t cheap, and the £80 you’d save by going for the cheap model won’t get you very far towards an upgrade. If you’re taking it offroad at the weekends, you’d be better off spending that wee bit extra now, than a few hundred quid in 6 months time when you’ve trashed the original (basic) kit.

Just remembered this belter, from my recent trip to Germany

My favourite German term is “Fuß Hupe”

It is used to describe small dogs (eg. chihuaua) and literally translates as “Foot-Horn”, because of the noise they make when you stand on them.

Not quite Belfast, but Cycleology in Armagh are a Mondraker dealer, and am pretty sure they have Foxy Carbons in stock.
http://www.cycleologyni.com

That’s ok Steve. People are only going to notice if you get anywhere near a podium yourself. And we know that’s not going to happen…

Do Yeti really think people are going to pay £5000+ for the new ASR-C when it only comes with a 2 year warranty?

You’d have a point if you were right. The new models have a 5 year warranty.

http://yeticycles.com/#/bikes/asrc

What is the warranty on my ASRC?

The ASRC has a 5-year manufacturers warranty

pretty sure it’s just the base spec one which has a 135qr axle. The “R” and above are 142×12. That’s the only difference as far as I’m aware.

to produce a new tyre size will cost absolute nits

Well go on then.

You take the time and effort to design a new tyre, suck up the cost of prototypes, and the time taken to test them (or perhaps pay someone else to, so you can continue with your normal job.)
You’ll have to find a manufacturer who can produce the quantity you need, in a reasonable timescale, but chances are you’ll have to place a minimum order with the factory. The more you produce, the cheaper they get, but as we know, its still a pretty small market. The more you produce, the greater the risk that you’ll bot sell them, so probably best to produce a small(er) run, and pay a higher price to begin with.

Having them shipped over to you in the UK, shouldn’t cost much, right? Having them come all that way from the far east only costs pennies, surely.
So once they’re over here, where are you gonna keep them? That minimum order from the factory probably wont fit in your shed, so you may need to rent some storage space (but that’s only a fiver a month, right?)
Then you’re going to need to let people know about your tyres, and how tremendously good value they are. Magazine ads aren’t free, and neither is banner space on sites like STW, so you’re going to have to pay for that.
Once the orders start coming in, you’ll need to take time to package and ship them. Or alternatively you can sell them to bike shops and have them do this for you. They’re going to want a cut though (bike shops aren’t charities after all)
Of course, to get the word to these shops, you’re going to need to take time to go round and speak to them, or pay someone else to.
How about the cost of warranties? as invariably there will be some defects, so you’re going to need to factor in this cost to make sure you’ve got enough money set aside to take the hit on that. How about tyres that get lost en route to the customer? Couriers who will offer insurance on items sent cost more than normal, but its not ok to charge shipping to your customers, so you’ll need to take the hit on that. Alternatively send with a cheap courier, or royal mail, but accept that you’ll have to suck up the cost of any items lost by them, and send out replacements FOC.

All of that sounds pretty simple and cheap. All in I reckon you could develop, produce and bring to market a new, amazing fatbike tyre with an SRP of £20, with enough margin to discount by 50% when people call it a rip off, with absolutely no basis or reasoning.
[/sarcasm]

In all seriousness, just because something’s expensive doesn’t make it a rip off.
Surely you accept that when something is still a niche industry/product, it’s going to be expensive, right? Surely you weigh up these things when deciding to buy a fatbike, knowing full well that spares and kit are specific to the bikes, and not widely available.

This argument has been done to death on this forum. Maybe there should be a new sticky thread, explaining fundamental economics, entitled “why things cost money”

Hey Yokaiser,

No way! I had wondered if anyone on here would remember the shop.
It’s still there, but was bought out and renamed a couple of times since then.
My folks owned that shop, and the 2nd one in Kilmarnock. My old man also used to have the autoshop in ardrossan, if you remember that. Long old time ago that was!

Cheers
Scott.

Ibex are sweet. I just tried the lynx recently too, and quite liked it.
It’s not quite as grippy as the ibex, but I like a tiny bit of slide 🙂

Hey Bencooper. I’ve just spoken to Ceeway who have exactly what I’m after (I scoured the page for ages, but clearly had my eyes shut…)

Cheers for your help anyway!

Hey Shep,

Yeah, that would work, but the kit I posted up earlier would be perfect.
I’m not in a crazy rush, so I’d rather wait for the right thing.

Cheers!

Sweet! Thanks 🙂

Funnily enough, I had originally titled this thread “Bencooper to the forum, paging Bencooper” but thought it might sound a bit cheeky.

I’m not in a huge rush, but I’d kinda like to have it sorted in the next few weeks really. When are you next likely to place an order with them?

Cheers.

Brendan is definitely the most flowiest rider I’ve ever seen, too.

edit: Ah beat me to it!

torsoinalake – Member
Kyle Strait needs to lay off the pies.

You should go tell him that.

@Mascy- the OP’s not asking about a bigtop though. It’s a bit like someone asking for a review of a Nissan GTR, and you saying “my mate had a Micra he didn’t like very much”
Apples and oranges, dude.

Fwiw- The arc is a flying machine. Proper threaded BB too.

As soon as I saw the title of this thread, I had a feeling it would be about Plymouth.
This makes me sick. My wife currently works at Plymouth Uni for a pretty meagre salary (less than the cost of one of those chairs!) and will be unemployed as of November. Due to cutbacks, her contract is not being renewed (as she was told it would be) and they’ve just made a load of people redundant.

It’s been controversy after controversy there recently. My favourite is the one about Wendy Purcell, the former chancellor of the uni who, despite being paid the princely sum of £280k PA, still saw fit to embezzle tens of thousands of pounds from the Uni. She did all of this while pissing away uni funds on ridiculous things, such as this: http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/pound-24k-cost-uni-conference-trip-Miami-revealed/story-22901402-detail/story.html

I appreciate that it’s important for unis to be well connected, and to have a certain aspirational aesthetic (a lot of students judge a uni by the way it looks and feels, and if it looks shit, it will not attract more students) but the vast sums of money wasted at the expense of staff is absolutely ludicrous.

@ Jon Taylor- that seems a pretty silly thing to suggest when he hasn’t even contacted them yet. Jumping the gun a bit, don’t you think?
A polite email would work just as well, shirley.

What size SB66 are you after? There are quite a few kicking about online on the cheap at the moment.

There’s no such thing as a 150mm travel shock as such- the amount of travel a bike has depends on the swingarm to shock stroke ratio really, as the swingarm is essentially just a big lever: the longer the lever, the bigger the travel. That’s a pretty basic explanation of it, but that’s the fundamental principle.

ASR5s use a 200x57mm shock(i think.) If someone’s fitted a shock with a longer stroke, they’ve potentially turned the bike into a death trap. If they’ve fitted a shock with a longer I2I length, they’ve ruined the geometry of an amazing bike.

You’d be better off trying to find a cheap 2nd hand shock, rather than bodging one to fit, that’s too long to begin with.

To be fair to the SB95- It’s pretty much bombpoof, and doesn’t feel like a bike gangly 29er when you ride it. Chuck a short stem and a wide bar on it, and there’s really very little you can’t do on it.

As has been said previously, it sounds as though you’re trying to choose between 2 or 3 very different bikes, so maybe it would be good to re-evaluate your priorities in terms of what you want the bike to do, and how much you’ve got to spend.

You’ve said you primarily ride XC, so something like the Bronson or new SB6C would probably be too much travel for what you’re after (IMO, of course)
I managed to get a wee spin on the new Yeti SB5C down at 24/12 the other weekend, and that seems to me to be a pretty much perfect do it all bike. It’s 127mm travel, so short enough for XC, but there’s nothing to stop you razzing around and having a blast on more aggressive stuff (or even winning the odd Enduro race, a-la-Richie Rude!)

You monster…