I’ve got one, but given that I’ve only ridden it 3 times so far, I’m not sure how much use I can be. What do you want to know?

First impressions are that despite 140mm forks it climbs better than expected. The weight isn’t ridiculous (mine is 27lbs with 1×10) and it felt comfy and planted on my first proper ride.

A Soul would be more suited to my riding style but it is a 2nd MTB so the cheapness of the BFe frame made more sense.

Here is a gratuitous pic:

PS- Here is a garmin GPS trace.

For the 2012 SXC race course, you start along the firetrack from the centre running roughly eastwards, cut up the steep path by the burn until you pop out at the firetrack, which you turn right onto and follow it up the hill round the hairpin. When the hill opens out and becomes rocky you cut off down left through the rocks, coming out at a grassy clearing which you follow staying left and heading into a loamy section through the trees. At the bottom of this, you cut across a firetrack and down a chute into the next section. At the bottom of this, there is an off camber bit of singletrack which runs parallel to the firetrack and pops back up onto the firetrack after a while. Then follow the firetrack for a minute or so (passing a junction) until you cut into the left down another chute and through a singletrack section which brings you out near the centre.

If you do a search on garmin connect, I’m sure you’ll find a GPS trace from the SXC race which started at Dounans. Be warned though – that race goes up a tough climb called “Heart Attack Hill” before continuing up the firetrack and back down some fairly steep stuff, part of which is probably a bit overgrown as it was cut through the trees for the race.

Do you live up that way? I’m quite keen to re-ride that course at some point and was intending to head round with a mate who missed that round.

My LBS (The Bike Chain) has a handy box of various teeny tiny Avid brake bits which would probably contain these O-rings. Try your (or indeed my) LBS.

I think the answer is somewhere towards the latter half of this thread[/url]

Discussing Olympic swimming over lunch with friends recently, and how you can do any stroke for the freestyle leg. Including, in my words, “doggy style”. Doh, I mean, erm, doggy paddle.

1×10 with 11-32 out back for me, and currently a 41t up front. Lower gearing helps for traction on muddy climbs rather than trying to mash a big gear and just spinning the rear wheel.

If it is the same as the Cotic 44mm headtubes, Nukeproof do one (I gave up waiting for stock) or the Hope 2H cups will fit.

Thanks all, sounds promising

Excellent, thanks. I’ll try shortening it and only buy the oil if it goes tits up then.

Based on my 30 seconds of riding my father’s bike, it is great if you can live with a slightly heavy bike. Felt very comfortable and solid to me and if you’re not racing then the weight will be fine. It sounds ideal for your kind of riding. He is certainly very happy with it and finds it comfortable.

Only thing that might annoy you after a while is BB5s instead of BB7s. I have BB7s on another bike and the extra pad adjuster is quite handy.

Have you got a proper chainring bolt tool? Whilst you can sometimes get away with holding the “female” bit with a screwdriver, you can’t beat a proper chainring bolt tool.

Edit:- the above two entries just appeared as I typed that. Doh

How many spacers did you put on the BB?

The BB shell width should not make any difference. If you Hardrock was 68mm, you should have been running with 3 spacers in total (2 driveside). On a 73mm BB like the BFE, you should normally only use 1 spacer on the driveside.

If that isn’t the problem then I would just start your setup from scratch – slacken off cables and retighten, adjust limit screws appropriately etc. You cannot really expect to transfer across without having to adjust screws etc.

Does Guiness count against me?

Was it washing down your Spanish steak?

I’ve got 10 people* who will testify that JohnClimber was doped up to the eyeballs when he passed those two roadies on his Hardrock, so I’ll take 2002 please.

*2 of them are roadies who seem upset about being passed by a MTBer

Either (i) your forks are manufactured incorrectly (not inconceivable), (ii) the Hope 9mm/QR15 adaptors are not fitted equally, causing one side to be wider than the other, (iii) the wheel is out of dish from new, or (iv) you need your eyes and measuring tape tested.

The chances of you crashing and moving the rim left or right without pringling it or knocking it out of true are about 1 in a billion I reckon.

Personally unless it is hugely obvious when riding I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. Presumably the rim is straight and true.

Damaged forks? Cones need adjusted?

As above, I ran a similar setup on an Anthem for a while using a different crown race after Giant swapped my 2010 frame for a 2011 under warranty. I’m still alive*

* At the time of writing

Or indeed, not your fault.

That too. We had just got to the point where we didn’t have to declare the last time someone ran into the back of us on our application (it was over 3 years ago) … and some chump in a van rear ended the car at 20mph while we were stationary. I’ll need to declare that for the next few years now.

I’ve looked into this for Mrs PixelMix (our car is in her name) and have decided it isn’t worth the cost. You still lose out if you have an accident which is your fault so it doesn’t fully protect you – insurers still take that accident into account.

Worth looking at different insurers policy on how the protection works.

EDIT You only want one DHCP server, so either turn it off on the Modem or off on the Express.

+1

I think the ethernet socket can act as a WAN or LAN socket. You probably need to switch between the two using the setup utility. As above, I’d suggest hitting the reset button and starting the setup of the AE from scratch.

Is your ADSL modem wireless? If so, you just setup the Airport Express using the utility so it is added to your existing wireless network.

Superb! I really fancy this but reckoned two days. Interesting to hear your take on the North or South direction issue. Most folk seem to come out in favour of starting at Fort Bill but I was always convinced that the opposite direction would have the best riding.

Having ridden it over 2 days, South to North, I reckon that is the way I would do it again if choosing. Probably not much in it, but S to N means you get the Loch Lomond walk out of the way on the first day, so you can enjoy the riding more on the second day.

Thanks for the write up teacake – you’ve got me thinking again about doing it in a day (which was the intention – my 2 day stint being a recce ride really). Hmmm….

A 6ft6 friend rides a Canyon 29er gate hardtail. He previously had a Canyon 26″ wheeled full sus.

Good to get out last night. Nice to put some faces to names and find a few new lines. Cheers.

I’ve just considered this and plumped for the SLX.

I have old XT on another bike and have never found that the bite adjustment does anything noticeable. As mentioned, changing the pin for the screw is possible. I think there are supposed to be marginal weight differences, but from what I could tell, there isn’t much in it. At the end of the day, I couldn’t justify the weight difference for the XT badge, although I tend to look at XT level bits.

Edit:- To respond to the above, the Deore is a chunk heavier but functionally similar. I’ve also just ordered Deore brakes for my wife’s bike as it seemed good value.

Hmm, the forecast appears to now include lightning, sunshine and showers. That should liven things up a little.

Will try to remember a light but hoping to get most of the ride in before it gets too dark.

I’m sure I’m running one of the BBB Shimano 9 speed compatible ones in my 10spd X7 mech.

Better with the Garmin Fit app, then export from the Garmin Connect website to Strava IMHO. Works for me anyway.

10 months commuting on BB7s on my CX bike with no problems.

I once was unable to stop at the bottom of a steep tarmac hill at a set of lights in heavy rain with V-brakes. I had to swerve around the car sat at the lights and pull alongside it to avoid running into the back of it.

99% of the time V-brakes will be fine, but if you have steep wet descents, a disc on the front might just be pretty useful.

You could also go disc front, V and canti rear to keep costs down? I guess you are looking at Pompinos, Day Ones etc, and there is no reason why you couldn’t bung on a cheap disc fork (Pompetamine fork on a Pompino for example)?

Would deleting them on one device then delete it on the other.

No

Hope Hoops with Crests here too. Had them for 10 months or so run tubeless with Maxxis Raze. Tyres were tightish to get on but a spot of fairy liquid did the trick. Would buy the same again if buying tomorrow.

Kinesis have some smart looking wheels out soon I believe, which are designed with their Pro6 frame in mind.

I had the same problem with a Thomson. Took it out, cleaned it to remove some of the grease, added some toothpaste to the post around the clamp area and it hasn’t slipped since.

Just to provide a bit of balance, I rode Glentress with a friend on Saturday. We were riding at a reasonable mid-tempo pace round the black and didn’t see too many people, but we did say hello to pretty much every group we saw/passed (about 8 groups in total) and got a hello back. I also slowed to check a group with a puncture had everything they needed (they seemed very grateful I had asked, although they did have everything).

In the past I have also borrowed tyre levers from a friendly passer by on a ride at Glentress when I had forgotten my own levers.

So there you go, not everyone is too serious, and in my experience, there are plenty of cheery folks at GT.

Have a look in here

GT isn’t too bad for midges. I’ve never needed spray there.

You will be fine on the red or black depending on whatever length you fancy. The routes can all be done with wheels on the ground and the black is just a little longer and rougher.

If you want a fun but not too taxing day, red in the morning, coffee and cake, then blue in the afternoon? There are only shortish bits of overlap between the two (the first climb) and the blue has lots of fast fun sections and is a great trail.

Folks will no doubt be along shortly to tell you about all of the other options and bits but if you are on your own, it is probably easier just to follow a normal trail and not have to worry about which way you are going all of the time.

I got a top from them recently. No complaints here.

I’d suggest that there are parts of the north of the city which are handy. We lived in Trinity for 4 years. Lovely quiet, leafy area with free parking and nice neighbours but still 3 miles from Holyrood and you can actually get out of the city very easily as if you are going West or North – you don’t have to go through the city centre and just nip round good flowing 30-40mph roads. Trinity also has great off road cycle connections on old railway lines. Walking distance from Leith or the city centre if you want, although buses are available too.

Rents in Edinburgh have dipped a little recently after rising steadily for the past few years.

Properly jammed or just a bit sticky? Stuck jockey wheel? If my jockey wheels need a clean/lube after a muddy ride the chain won’t go backwards very easily.

I’d look there first and then consider overhauling the freehub if you still can’t fix it.