Giant suggest 20-30% sag, if it’s brand new then be aware that shocks can be quite stiff at first, so it may feel a bit unresponsive for the first ride or two, or you may need to add some air once the initial stiction has gone.

Sag tables:

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/backoffice/_upload_us/bikes/models/manual/08SuspensionQSGuide20070609.pdf

Sorry, didn’t read right the first time round.

Dogs are like bikes, nearly everyone reccomends the one they own, and very few people have owned enough different ones to understand the differences. Obviously dogs are a lot more complicated, since they’re all quite different, even within a breed, depending on their personality and upbringing.

However, if you’re both out working full time every day, give up on the 20 mile rides and get a cat.

8O

Are you sure you need one? Lower back pain is generally caused by a poor bike fit/riding position.

25 – 50 miles of pure battery driving and …
Up to 310 miles with extended range with on-board generator
And for that reason, I’m out.

Because you cant be bothered to stop for petrol at 310 mile intervals, rather than 4-500 mile intervals? Even if it cuts your consumption to 1/4?

I’d be willing to put money on the said property easily selling within a month, regardless of whether we buy. It’s absolutely mental!

Surely if that’s the case, then they aren’t asking over the market value? If its going to sell that quickly then the market has determined that, at this point in time, that is a reasonable value for the house. Whether you think the market will stay at that value over the next 5 years is another matter, if you don’t think it will then you need to find somewhere that either is underpriced on the current market, or is not in that part of the market that you feel is currently inflated.

I’m glad people have swung you around to a jumpier bike.
The 456/Blue Pig are all-day XC bikes able to handle techy stuff.

That’s not really right. The bikes that match your description from those two companies would be the Inbred and the Piglet. The 456 and the Blue Pig are the “do-it-all” bikes, or the “hardcore hard tails”, depending on your marketing preferences. Anyway, they’re the ones that I’d be recommending. They’re the most versatile, which I think is the most important thing for a beginner with only one bike. They will also take a few jumps. If Matt later gets really into dirt jumping he can always pick up a DMR Drone for £500. Alternatively if he gets really into Downhill he can save for a Specialized Status, but the 456/Blue Pig will always be a good bike to have alongside those others. Whereas if he gets the Blender, grows a bit and then decides he’s not that into dirt jumping he’ll be left with a bike that isn’t much use.

My advice would be to get the 456. I started riding about the same ages as you, just as jump bikes were beginning to appear. Mine is currently sitting in the garage and gets no use at all, whereas if I’d bought a 456 equivalent at the time I’d still be riding it. Dirt jump bikes like the Blender are designed very specifically for jumping, so aren’t as versatile as the 456 which can do bits of trail, bits of downhill and small jumps. If you live next to a dirt jump set then buy one of those. If you are doing what I was riding at your age, just ragging around the local woods, building a few little tracks and jumps, and occasionally going on longer rides around, then get the 456. It’s a great beginner bike as its far more versatile than the Blender. The Blue Pig is an ok option, but you should go for whichever is cheaper, which is the 456.

Take/send it back, should be repaired/replaced by whoever makes it.

According to a BBC report the other day, Thames Water loses 25% of its water through leaking pipes, so if they were fixed there wouldn’t be any need for the bans. Basically it appears that they are just handing the responsibility over to paying customers, when they clearly haven’t been investing enough for whatever reason. I do have sympathy for people who struggle to pay their bills while utility companies walk away with massive profits and refuse to reinvest in more efficient systems, however I’m not particularly bothered by people who complain that they can’t water the grass or wash their cars/bikes. Just remember that both of those things are a huge luxury to have at all. If you live in a drier (for the uk) area, just plant things that can cope with it. If we were going to build a giant waterpipe to anywhere, we should institute a permanent hosepipe ban throughout the UK and pump the excess to Africa, ideally without the water companies making a huge profit. Obviously that is unlikely to ever happen for a whole host of reasons.

If you want a new bike, for the guarantee that parts aren’t worn out, and for the manufacturers warranty, then there is probably no better value XC hardtail than the Boardman Team. Other brands worth having a look at for the budget end of the market are Cube, Canyon, Rose Bikes and Vitus.

If you know what you’re doing/what you’re buying and how to fix it, then second hand can be better value.

Normally a bike forum is the perfect place to find Luddites espousing their anachronistic views on steel frames, rigid forks and singlespeeds, but I can’t imagine you will find many people who will go as far as to say they prefer v-brakes to disc brakes. Disc brakes are much less hassle than V’s, and offer much better performance. Would have to agree with others above, you must have something wrong with either your disc brakes or your technique, or both.

Giant website is with a Fox, which has a shorter axle-crown height for the same travel as rockshox, and also with 125mm travel. Also they quote the same head angle for a models with 125mm and 140mm forks on, so there is clearly something wrong with their measurements. I’m pretty sure mine is right.

Sag 33% into rear travel and only 25% into front travel, back end drops more, bike gets slacker.

Just built up a Giant Trance X with 130mm Sektors, unsagged it has a 67 degree headangle, and 13.3 inch bottom bracket. So once sagged it’ll be a little bit slacker and probably just under 13 inches at the bottom bracket. How does that compare to your Prophet?

The tests themselves might be impartial, but headlining a test as “The Best £1,500 Trail Bikes” would be a bit of a lie if the choice of what is included in the test is determined by advertising spend.

Well its a silly headline for any magazine, the only way you could claim that with complete impartiality would be to test every bike available for £1500 or less, which would be hundreds.

The choice may come down to advertising spending, at least in cases when they have more reviews than they can fit in the magazine, but as has been pointed out in this thread, there have been a lot of reviews, mostly positive, of on-one products in future publications, despite no advertising spending, so it clearly doesn’t have that much of an effect on content.

I have read the whole thread. The whole thread began based on evidence that Future chose to give preference to items from advertisers, at least in terms of editorial space. There is no evidence that I can see that Future provide biased reviews in that editorial space. There is also evidence that Future rarely have too many products to review, which would mean that they rarely have to give preference to one product review over another. There is evidence that they are very happy to review products from companies who do not advertise with them, and to review them favourably if they are good.

We know that someone higher up in Future had decided to exclude the on-one bike on the basis of advertising. Which is not great, but understandable in a way I suppose. I personally don’t think that this means that the editorial is biased, these magazines are written by people who like bikes, that’s why they got these jobs, and I’m pretty sure that if you asked the staff at your favourite publications (which also include adverts), they would have a lot of respect for people like Steve Worland and Guy Kesteven, who do a lot of the testing for WMB and MBUK respectively.

So long as the reviews themselves are impartial, then the way they choose the products they test is less relevant, at least to me as a consumer. It’s not possible to test everything in a particular category anyway, so there always going to be products that don’t get reviewed.

wrecker,

First off I fail to see why you have quoted my first sentence and a small part of the second. If we are considering your original statement, that FP reviews are not the best products available, but only the best products “available from their suppliers”, then look at what si and ajr have stated, then that is clearly not the case.

Beyond that I am indeed putting forth my opinion on this issue, of which we do not know the full details. We know that the review was cut after it was completed. If not reviewing non-advertisers products was a policy, then why do the review in the first place? You don’t waste money and time reviewing and writing a piece unless you are planning to publish it, so (in my opinion) it must have been cut for other reasons. Now, the reason to remove the on-one section of the test was done on the basis of advertising, as we know.

I decided to see if this issue was mentioned on the bike radar forum, and it is, here: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10002&t=12844562

In that thread, a WMB journo states that they generally find it hard to get hold of enough stuff to test. That is why I came to the opinion that this case is unusual, in having an over supply of bikes, and being unable to fit every test into the magazine.

I never said I was impartial, no one can be truly impartial, but this is my personal opinion, and I think its justified on the basis of evidence from those who are actually involved in the industry, as I have stated above. I can categorically state that I do not work in, or have any connection to, either the bike industry, or the publishing industry, beyond riding a bike and reading some magazines, which is what you seem to be implying?

Well, obviously not precisely, not even correct, as stated by si and ajr, FP are happy to publish reviews on items that aren’t advertised. It sounds like, in this case, there was not enough space to run all the reviews they have done, and one review has had to be cut. Someone higher up in FP has chosen to do it on the basis of advertising, and to make that fact known. Maybe not such a great idea, but these magazines rely on their advertisers for their survival.

In the vast majority of cases they obviously find it hard to get enough bikes in to test, so this seems to be a pretty unusual case. There was even a recent MBUK/WMB? review on budget bikes where they went out to Argos and bought some bikes to review. I’d be pretty happy on the basis of manufacturers and journalists feedback that the reviews are impartial, as far as personal opinion can be, but that the items reviewed are constrained by what they can get hold of and by space in the magazine.

Cane creek do separate upper and lower cups too. Not quite £50, but closer:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cane-creek/40-series-ec44-bottom-headset-ec026967?query=cane%20creek%20ec44
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cane-creek/10-series-zs44-short-top-headset-ec026974?query=zs44

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=51070

Will work. 44mm headsets only use external lower cups for tapered steerers in order to accomodate the larger bearings. You don’t need an external cup for a 1 1/8″ steerer, unless you want one to slacken the headangle, which could also be achieved with a 10mm longer fork.

My 2010 in XL came with a sticker from Giant saying it needs a minimum of 80mm inserted into frame.

Ordered some brakes from them a couple of weeks ago, supposed to be in stock, heard nothing a week later so emailed. Did get a very prompt reply, something about transfers from shop to shop delaying things, but said he’d chase up the warehouse. Sent another email a few days later, asking if there was any news, apparently he was still chasing the order. Asked him to cancel the order, which was done straight away. Placed an order with CRC that day for the brakes and they arrived the next morning, as always.

Can’t fault JE James for customer service, prompt, polite etc. but their stock control and warehouse/dispatch doesnt seem great.

I like fast and flowing, like being able to get on the power out of corners. Wouldn’t mind getting a bit better on steep and techy stuff, so looking for something that adds a bit of confidence on that sort of stuff. It has to be able to climb ok, but only so I can get to the next downhill without too much pain. Not too bothered about big jumps, but leaving the ground on the odd drop or jump in the trail is always fun.

Voodoo Zobop?

Did have a look at that, decent spec and a good price. Bit heavier than some of the others though, and biggest size is a 19″. Reviews suggest it is a bit too downhill biased, and I can’t find any information on the geometry either.

Kona Dawg Supreme 2009 £1600.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=75056

Lots of travel and some nice components. There’s 10% off just now as well, making it £1440.

Ive ridden a few Konas over the years and never been that keen on them, always found them pretty bouncy.

I’d take the YT too, though maybe wait for the 2012 model…

http://www.yt-industries.com/en/bikes-2012/wicked-150/

Hadn’t realised I was still looking at the 2011. At a guess that means they wont be getting any more Large sizes in and the 2012 bike is a bit more expensive. Puts it more level with the Vitus 1 and Canyons spec wise.

Do you actually know what you want for sure? You’ve got bikes from 120mm up to 150mm bikes on that list in a wide spectrum of intended uses. The Trance is going to be pretty light for the Alps unless you’re going specifically for XC riding there, but probably the best for ‘all round UK riding’.

The YT and the Canyon, while impressive bargains are quite ‘big’ for just general trail riding in the UK, while they’ll be barn stormers when you hit the Alps, assuming you’re going to be riding own more than up…

Why not look at the Canyon Nerve XC and hire a bike for the Alps?

Yeah, I want a slacker angled 140/150mm bike, and I think that if I get one that pedals well and has platform/lockout it’ll work for most things. I’m not planning on entering any XC races here, nor am I really planning on hitting the WC downhills in the Alps. The Trance is definitely a bit on the steep angled/short travelled side of the list, I’ve ridden one, and its a good, safe choice, but its not very exciting.

Wicked certainly has the best spec/price, my only worry is that the largest size works out as not quite a 19″ frame, and they don’t even seem to have it available at the moment. At 6’3″, 36″ inside leg, that’s a bit of a problem. I also really don’t like the colour scheme, but that’s pretty minor.

The Vitus has a pretty similar spec, and maybe slightly better geo than the wicked, but it’s a bit more money and completely unreviewed, which makes me a bit nervous. Buying it would be completely on Brants reputation, plus very good reviews of recent Vitus hard tails.

Does look quite good on the geometry, and great value. Not so keen on the graphics though, and again, its one I can’t really test ride. Does the latest MBR actually have a review, or is it just a ‘first-look’ style article?

Has anyone tried one of these? Can’t find any reviews or opinions, but they look like a decent budget-ish option for a slack trail bike, seeing as the Ragleys show no sign of turning up any time soon.