Why would anyone buy these Hope/Alex rims rather than flow EX?
I’m struggling to see the benefit; just as expensive, narrower, heavier.

Just as expensive? Err, no – significantly cheaper now that you can’t buy Flow EXs as Hope Hoops
Narrower? Yes, but 23mm ID instead of 25.4mm ID isn’t too dramatic a difference
Heavier? Pretty much identical weight

Given that they’re significantly cheaper, only slightly narrower, and the same weight (give or take a few grams), you might ask why would you buy the Flow EXs over the Hopes? To be fair, both wheel sets get fairly mixed reviews. For me the balance of the reviews meant that I thought the cost saving was worth it. Only real issue reported was detensioning of spokes, but I assume this would be the same if you bought a Hope Hoop with any other rim, plus it’s easily fixed.

If you take a look at the emtbcoaching web page then you’ll see they coach normal mountain bikers too. What’s to say he wasn’t riding a normal MTB? It is possible that he’s just faster than you.

You have 4 wheels on your road bike?

I had exactly the same quandary as you. Pushed the button on Hope Hoops with Flow EX rims only to be told they were no longer in stock and not being made. Couldn’t justify the extra cost of getting them custom built over the Hope Techs.

Mine went straight up with a used Maxxis HR2 Exo 3C and a new Schwalbe HD Super Gravity. As above, 25mm Stans yellow tape applied myself, Stans valves, some Stans fluid, soapy water on the bead, inflate with track pump. The rear dropped a little pressure when left for a few days after the first few rides but has held pressure perfectly since.

Very happy with the wheels so far.

Whether or not the damage was the result of user error (and it sounds like the OP did as much as possible to install them correctly), they have agreed to warranty them. I’d be annoyed if it took that long. If there are supply issues then that’s maybe unavoidable, but I’d want to be kept informed as to what exactly the delay is caused by and given a date for when I could expect them,

Okay, I’m removing the Bombers from the wife’s bike

What, you have to strip them off the bike? I’ve got a spare pair hanging on The Shed wall for moments exactly like this.

They were hanging on the wall ready for just such an opportunity, but I decided to fit them to the wife’s bike. She’s not the most confident of cyclists so I figured the Bombers would serve as a warning to people to give her a wide berth.

Who pissed in njee20’s coffee this morning? :p

To be fair though, I’m inclined to agree. Most of these posts seem to be in an effort to advertise a sale rather than it getting lost in the ‘for sale’ page, and the advice is always the same – just common sense really.

Having said that, the threads are easy enough to spot and ignore if desired so I won’t be stripping my Bombers off the bike and forming a lynch mob just yet.

Very happy with my Rev RCT3s, would definitely recommend.

Sounds like BB thread wear may be the issue then, although I’m not using any plastic spacers, just the aluminium Gamut chain device plate.

Another big fan of TLD gloves here

Was fine last weekend and would have expected most of the remaining ice to have gone by now. As tomhoward said, the fire road up to the Hope Line was sheet ice nearer the top, but all of the actual trails, including the Hully Gully end, were absolutely fine.

There’s Middleburn Slickshifts. Hardcoat version is £36 from Stif, so even more expensive than the Blackspires, but mine is still going strong after 4 years and many cassettes!

Happy days! Ta

Can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through. Take care.

^^^this

I doubt there’s much in it TBH. I’d pulled the trigger on some Hope Hoops with Flow EXs only to be told that Hope were no longer making them. As I couldn’t find any for the same price elsewhere I went with the Hope Techs.

Weight is near as dammit the same (according to specs). Flow EXs are slightly wider, but I’ve found the 23mm internal width of the Techs to give my 2.35″ High Roller2 and Hans Dampf a very nice profile. No idea which is stronger, doubt there’s much in it. I suspect that eyelets make very little, if any difference.

If it were me, I’d go for whichever is cheaper.

No problems so far with 2.35″ Maxxis HR2 EXO on my Hope Tech wheels. Never had any problems with them on my Mavic XM819s either.

Missed the bit in the OP about being “non-computerised”. Forget doing the webpage yourself – a bad web page is worse than no web page when it comes to attracting customers. Either pay someone, or do as others have suggested and focus on social media instead.

I’m 26 miles from them and a bitch to get too

Well that’s a large chunk of your £10 offset by fuel savings then.

I beg to differ with hatter. I’ve had one on the back of my Allez for 3 years with no issues whatsoever and I weigh over 100kg.

It’s pretty easy but will take up a fair chunk of your time to get it looking good. There’s a lot of different things to think about (especially the responsive design side of things) and unless you enjoy the process then it could be a major headache.

Our Penbol Weddings website was my fist attempt at creating a website. I hand coded most of it and used WordPress for the blog with a custom theme to match the rest of the website. Getting the WordPress styling to match the rest of the site was probably the biggest headache. All in, it probably took me about a month of coding in my spare time.

It all depends what your background is and what you want from the website. If you’re happy with available templates then the whole process is dead simple and you can get some content up in no time. Hand coding, or modifying templates, requires more effort. I loved creating our website, but I have a background in programming so picked it up pretty quickly.

You wanted the process sped up – £10 doesn’t seem like an astronomical amount to pay for that. If you’d been willing to take it to the shop, as is the normal process, it probably would have been free.

Presumably you were commuting with a different light before – couldn’t you have just used that?

*I may not own a cat.

Of course you don’t. It died, and it’s the OP’s fault.

Alternatively you could send me your fat bike!

Given you can drop the travel for the climbs if needed, I wouldn’t worry about the extra height. More travel and a slacker head angle should equal more fun on the downhills. Only thing I might be slightly concerned about is raising the BB height, but this shouldn’t be much of an increase (especially factoring in sag) so unless the BB was high to start with I wouldn’t worry,

Just got some with standard spokes in 26″ flavour. Very happy so far, but only a couple of rides in so can’t say much. Tubeless setup was dead easy, give my 2.35″ High Roller 2 and Hans Dampf tyres a nice profile, feel stiff, no noticeable detensioning of spokes so far.

Except don’t road bikes have 130mm rear spacing and MTBs 135mm? I believe front hub spacing is the same,

Had the same problem myself recently with a set of Pro 2s. It was a problem entirely of my own making as I had neglected to put any grease on the 15mm adaptors before installing them. I managed to get the bearing off the end cap by using a rubber mallet to drive the blade of a knife in between the bearing and end cap. Once I’d made enough of a gap, working my way around the bearing, I could insert something either side to support the bearing over the gap in my workbench so I could knock out the adaptor.

Very happy with my 2014 RCT3s, would definitely recommend. No experience or knowledge of the Sweeps.

@ocrider – moderate gnar desired! I’ll be on my own so nothing too ridiculous. I guess something equivalent in technicality to UK trail centre red/black routes.

timb34 – you, sir, are a legend!

Those routes on utagawavtt.com near Mont St. Baudille look perfect. Many thanks.

Fantastic information, cheers all. Looks like I’m going to have to venture away from waymarked stuff to find what I’m after.

Rocky is good :)

@cchris2lou – do you know what the black trails north of the lake at Salagou are like
(these ones).

Thanks, I’ll have to check out Milau – don’t mind driving a couple of hours to get to the trails.

Great report Stoner, thanks for the link. Any chance either of you have any gpx files or links that you could point me to on Strava? (email in profile)

If you only had one or two days for riding, which rides/areas would you do?

Is it worth taking the full sus (Orange 5), or would it be wasted there?

Thanks for the info. Hoping for a bit more tech, but not found any videos as yet.

Nice one. That homeaway site turned up a few contenders. Now to run them past SWMBO and the people coming with kids to be told why none of them are suitable!