To counterpoint the Conti Baron (not that its a bad tyre), how about a schwalbe muddy mary?

I haven’t tried either of those, but I really love my DH casing swampthing.

It’d not a bad idea to pick up some cheap stems that are 100/110/120mm to try out some different positions. Your saddle looks like it needs to be tilted back to get it level.

Part of it will be just getting used to a more aggressive position. My road bike felt a little like torture, and now my mountain bike feels like a sit up and beg position, so it might be worth persevering and doing more stretches to improve your flexibility.

I would have said WTB rocket V, but I get on with that just as well as my spoon, so I’m not sure. See if any stores around you have saddle “rental” programs where you can try out a bunch of different ones for free or a small fee.

If you feel that you’re sliding forward, try adjusting the saddle angle and possibly raising your bars, you should be supporting your weight on your sit bones, not your hands.

A saddle measurement might help as well.

Try opening it in a text editor, then re-saving it from there. Given that you can’t even change the extension, it sounds like you’ve got a corrupt file. It might not be salvageable.

AFAIK they’re decent tyres, just unpopular because of the yellow stripes. If you don’t mind the looks, then why not.

I’ve got an Orange Five with an extra high volume air can, and I had the exact same problem. It felt car park plush, but used all of it’s travel on small bumps. I weigh 70kg, yet it was using all of it’s travel all the time. Popped in the biggest volume reducer, and problem solved. I feel like it improved the mid stroke as well, the shock is still plush and active over the small stuff, but when you push on a bit it’s much more supportive. I run mine on level 3 propedal for climbing, then keep it completely open for the descents.

Can’t you get the other bearing out as well and then take the swingarm off? From that point it shouldn’t be too hard to tap the inner race off the pivot.

If you fancy yourself a radder day out, go to inners instead. The marked routes are far more fun than the dreary glentress black, and the unmarked stuff is incredible, but you really need a local to show you where it is.

Maxxis don’t really have anything like what you want, it’s the biggest weakness in their range.

Off the top of my head
Conti Baron / Rubberqueen?
Schwalbe Muddy Mary / Magic Mary?

Just saying ‘screw the weight’ and putting a minion on?

If it’s looks alone then B.

But tyres are important enough that you should pick the one which ride better… unless you’re riding to a photoshoot.

Probably?

I’m pretty sure shimano and SRAM road and mountain 10 speed chains are all the same width. Campagnolo might be different though.

Spacing it an extra 25mm apart is probably right at the very edge of sensible. You might get away with it…but you also might wreck the frame. Weight up the cost of buying a new frame versus building a new wheel and see what makes sense.

According to the ETRTO, it’s probably ok if the inner rim width is 17mm or above. As for how it feels, that depends on how hard you are pushing the tyres, what pressure you have them at, etc. It’ll be fine for canal paths, but probably will be awful on a DH run. Where your usage and tolerance for tyre feel fit in there is entirely up to you.

The QR skewer angles – get them sorted!

The rear one is perfectly acceptable assuming it can’t be closed horizontally facing forward. The front one is a complete mess however. Also, too much rear brake outer cable, curves should be aesthetically pleasing, not gigantic loops. The stem is also far too high.

(In all seriousness, hanging it by a pedal is absolutely fine – if the pedal couldn’t support the weight of the bike, how is going to handle the force of someone in a full on sprint?)

If your headtube is a 44mm one, then possibly yes.

If you currently have a zero stack internal 1 1/8 lower bearing on your bike then your chances are good. If it’s 1 1/8 with an external bearing, it’s not possible.

Could be anything or everything. Chainring bolts, stem, headset, saddle, seatpost, quick releases, dropouts, bearings, BB, you name it.

Work out if it creaks stood up or sat down, push and pull on everything, and one by one clean, grease, and re-tighten every bit of your bike. Consider it some extra maintenance. Eventually you’ll find it.

Halo do a set as well, just don’t get too eager with the spanners otherwise you can break them.

Seatpost in a vice and twist the frame (but you can bend the frame if you push too hard!!)

Have done this with great success to an old clockwork frame, but in that case the post was steel as well, and the two had rusted together. The frame was fine, but the post was ruined. It took a lot of force to get them apart, and once they were the seattube was hot enough to burn my fingers when I touched it (couldn’t resist).

I’ve had an infuriating creak on my bike for the past two months, and only just worked out that it was the chainring bolts when there was a loud clunk and one of them fell out.

Turns out that all of them were loose despite being threadlocked, so I’ve given up on alu bolts and I’ve got some lovely stainless steel ones that are going to go on with loads of grease.

So to go off anecdotal evidence, I’d advise you to check your chainring bolts :-)

Here is exactly what the freestroke adjustment does.

“Shimano: Free stroke is defined as stroke of the lever before the pads start touching the rotor. The free stroke screw simply changes the starting point of the master cylinder piston. If the screw is all the way in, the master cylinder piston will be all the way in, and the free stroke will be the shortest. Turn the screw out a bit and the master cylinder will start further out. Because it has to travel further before it closes off the reservoir port, the free stroke is longer. In the picture of the clear brake posted above, the free stroke screw is turned all the way in.

I’ll admit that it is confusing because it seems to have the opposite effect when you turn the screw. The stock position is all the way in and that’s where most people like them. If you do nothing but turn the screw out, the pad contact point moves out. So it feels like you’ve made the free stroke shorter. The problem is that turning the free stroke screw also effects your initial reach adjustment. The pad contact point came out, but the starting position came out more. So it’s always at least a three-step process. First set the reach adjustment so that the lever starts where you want it, then adjust the free stroke screw to get the amount of free stroke you want, then turn the reach adjust knob to put the lever back where you wanted it.

I would personally like to see a lever that allows for an even shorter free stroke adjustment but as it is, when the free stroke screw is all the way in, the master cylinder is right up against the reservoir port. So really the only way to give people less free stroke would be to sacrifice clearance between the pad and rotor.”

As for the XT brakes, you could try bleeding them with the yellow spacer, that forces the pistons to be all the way in.

They might use sag around 20-25%, but it’s mostly masses of high speed compression damping. At that level they’ll have custom shim stacks in their suspension to get the damping exactly how they want it.

Formula brakes have tiny pad to rotor distances. Check that your rotors are straight, and give the pistons a quick clean and lube with some brake fluid, it’s probably DOT 4 or 5. You might as well give them a bleed at the same time to make sure that the pistons will retract all the way in.

The clunking when you lift it at the seat definitely sounds like a worn shock bushing. Order one of the bushing tools off ebay and replace them yourself, it’s a pretty easy job.

Bottom bracket and fork sound like a job for a shop with the right tools and experience.

All of the jumps are clearly marked, or they’re tabletops which you can roll over. I doubt you could find a track in the alps anywhere that didn’t have a single jump on it, so why miss out on some excellent riding for such a strange reason?

Alternatively, get yourself on a skills course with some flat pedals and learn how to jump properly. Not only will it make you a better rider, it will also make your local tracks more fun too.

The ETRTO has a rough guide to give you an idea of appropriate tyre and rim combinations.

Assuming it’s a “true” 2.4″ tyre (ie. contintental size not maxxis), you’ll want at least a 19mm internal rim width. Not to say that you couldn’t fit a tyre that big to a smaller rim, but you’re running an increased risk of rolling it off, etc.

I think specialized bikes and pedal strikes are just because of their really low BBs.

Just look for the usual frame stuff, afaik there weren’t any issues with cracks or snapping bits.

Shorter crank arms might have a fractional difference in fit, but you’re talking about a few cm, something easily adjusted with seatpost height.

As for riding with them, shorter cranks allow for faster spinning, but I honestly don’t know how much difference there is. Sheldon Brown says that different crank lengths make little difference in actual riding, but other people will have their own opinion.

I’m 5’8″ and I ride a 16″ frame as well. It’s the reach that’s going to be where any problems might lie. The curved top-tube ones have miles of standover, so compare the reach between the 14″ and the 16″ and any previous frames you’ve been comfortable on. I do use a 65mm stem on mine, I find it’s a good compromise between climbing and descending positions.

I’d try it as it is first before even taking any off, you might decide you like it that way.

Some idea of budget would be helpful, and also whether you have any kind of preference for brake brands in general.

There are lots of people saying they get on just fine with double piston brakes rather than quad, but of course it depends on your riding and local terrain.

I’ve been very impressed with my shimanos, so I would recommend something out of that range. The downside is they aren’t serviceable, and can be quite on/off. Many would recommend hopes, because you can get everything fro them from hope, and apparently they have a more modulated feel than shimano.

I’d be surprised if it was due to tyre pressure, that usually results in a crack closer to the bead hook. Like everyone else says, it looks more like a manufacturing defect, but good luck getting it replaced if you bought it second hand.

My 700c commuter singlespeed is currently running 42 – 16, (69 gear inches) which is a little too spinny on the flats, but I ride it around Edinburgh so I need something I can haul uphill.

On the genesis, try a 40 – 17 to start, then change it up or down on the rear sprocket at required.

Just to offset this, I had a click that was only coming under power on the left pedal, seated or standing. Turned out my left BB cup had seized solid. My own fault for not checking it more regularly, but it hadn’t done any damage to the crank spindle, so everything is still ok (whew).

I have heard you can fill the freehub on the hopes with grease to quiet them down a little bit, might be worth a shot.

Won’t it wear unevenly and probably a bit faster than usual? It shouldn’t explode randomly or anything. Given the state you described it being in, the cup might be worn already, so take a look at it when you get new balls to put in it.

I think he’s trying to ask about the Shimano “Unzen” hydration pack. -10 points for horrible title though.

Generally when people ask about hydration packs the recommendations are Camelbak or Osprey.

How much of the double specific stuff do you have right now? I’ve got 5700 level triple everything (shifter, derailleur, crankset) on my road bike, and I would love to swap it for a double, so long as it’s black and not silver.

I’ve seen a friend do this with an old pair of forks, and it worked absolutely fine.

I’ve seen a 34t ring on an orange 5 with a 1×10 set up, ie. in the middle position, without any trouble. I run at 32t on mine and it’s fine, but I suspect if you start running a 36t with a chainguide, the upper guide would probably have to be pushed quite far back to avoid it hitting the swingarm.

Are you confusing hole to hole with bolt circle diameter (BCD)?

This link should clear up your confusion.

A “standard” four bolt chainring has a BCD of 104mm, and a hole-to-hole measurment of 73.6mm. It sounds like you need a 104mm BCD chainring, which gives you a massive range of choice, depending on your budget and requirements.

I was there a week ago, and it was dry-ish in some places, still a bit boggy in others, and there was still a silly amount of snow on the ground that was imposssible to ride through.

In the dry bits it was much better than the time I’ve spent there before, but it still was irritating trudging through piles of snow.

The downhill tracks are all clear though I think.