As above, parking for Saracen’s Head is a nightmare at weekends unless you get there early and make it a base to walk from. Best to either park at Yat Rock and walk down or park on the Doward, make a walk of it down past Slippery Jem’s caves, over Biblins Bridge and down to the pub that way, then hand ferry back across the river and back up to where you parked.

If you fancy splashing out a little on your last evening, then The Stonemill restaurant near Rockfield (just north west of Monmouth) is fantastic. https://www.thestonemill.co.uk/

https://www.nologoracing.com/en/product-category/mtb-en/

NoLogo – does what it says on the tin. BMX world champions use it, so it’s the required level of cool.

Ha! I did the same recently. Ended up with a far nicer frame than I originally wanted, so had to put nicer parts on it to justify it. Putting cheap, heavy bits on wouldn’t have felt right.

Also, new cartridges available for £30. Nice and simple for home mechanics.

Sharkattack – they’re Tranz-X posts, so same as lots of others. Reliability is good from my own POV.

Lifetime warranty means lifetime of the bike, not your lifetime. Read the small print and Carrera probably suggest their frame has a life of around 5 years too.

Anyway, to say a bike with geo numbers like this has trail bike manners is pushing it a bit, no? Unless a trail bike is something else these days.

50mm. Don’t get sucked into the short stem mantra. Look at riders like Jared Graves or Richie Rude and they’re all on 50mm stems. I went from 35mm as the OEM stem to a 45mm stem as I had similar issues to you – sorted it with the 10mm extra. Short chainstays and short stems are a nightmare for front end grip.

My other bike has a 50mm and I wouldn’t want it shorter. I can’t be learning the new ways of riding at my age. :-)

Did you need a mech extender or goatlink?

No, just straight onto the normal mech hanger of my 2018 Orange Five.

I’m running XT shifter and SLX mech with SRAM chain on mine. The SLX mech is said not to go down to 9, but Marin specced an E13 cassette on their Alpine Trail 7 last year, so it should work. I very rarely drop down to the 9 cog, but I’m pretty sure it works. I’ve got quite a long chain on mine due to high forward pivot point and the mech seems to almost loop right back on itself in the 9 speed, similar to how a 12 speed SRAM setup looks in the bottom (top?) gear.

Bloke called Phil Ball on Insta has a couple – one’s a mullet I think. He’s in Scotland.

https://www.instagram.com/phi1ball/?hl=en

I’ve not had a backpedal problem at all on the ZTTO. The old GX 12 speed on the other hand was a nightmare, but I think that was more the fault of the NX rear mech.

Chakaping – yes, it was £109 with all the taxes and postage and that. But look how light it is! 😬

You must have got a better exchange rate, Yak. Well done.

I’ve got the ZTTO 10-46 XD cassette on my bike. Very light, 9-46 teeth, use it with XT shifter and SLX mech. All works fine, although the cassette isn’t quite as cleanly machined as a SRAM XD cassette. Done [checks Strava] 108 miles on it so far and although it doesn’t quite feel as nice as a SRAM, it’ll do just fine. The margins between the two are slim enough not to be bothered, put it that way, plus you get a 46 granny gear over a 42.

I ordered direct with ZTTO through Ali Express – took 10 days from order to delivery.

EDIT – I use a SRAM chain.

Are the V8s thin? I found that the cheaper pedals were difficult as they were often thicker than the good pedals. Something 17mm or less will make a good improvement.

Check ZTTO on Ali Express.

Just had tyres delivered from Bikester using DPD. Just under £80 for the pair with no other charges.

I’m on Vodafone unlimited data for £30 a month. Sim only and bought a Huawei 4G router. Massive improvement over the landline.

There’s a busy Marino group on Facestalk if you’re on that. Worth asking there, but you’ll probably only get positive feedback – not sure you’d get anyone slating them on the group if you want a more rounded picture.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/220557769424981

Earl’s Court is good for value hotels. Check Ibis Styles, Mowbray Court, etc. but avoid City Continental (hateful place).

Bizarre that they’ve launched this new version now when they won’t ship until April 2022, but they still have the current model on the way with delivery due in Autumn for those. Why not get rid of those first, then launch the new one? Very odd.

Ships April 2022…

Thanks

I prefer single pivot (linkage driven or otherwise). Just seems more predictable feeling.

Which Orange thread? I can’t find it.

Low bb is nice for carving turns and stability, but you can go too low. A higher BB is easier to initially tip into a turn and usually easier to pop the front wheel, but there are extremes at either end that just go too far and push the bike into too niche an area. Same for long, low, slack (I don’t want my hard tail to have similar angles to my enduro bike – just becomes really hard work and destroys rims). I prefer a hard tail that is a bit more general and it sounds as though you want that too.

As mentioned above, check out Hardtail Party on YouTube. Some excellent videos on there to compare bikes and brands and by watching those you’ll start to pick up the lingo so you can answer your own questions on what you think you might want.

For me, something like a Ragley Marley would be good, but you’ll have to be looking at a recent year second hand model at the moment unless you put down a deposit with a local Ragley dealer and wait until they can get you a frame. Hardtail Party man loved his!

Good luck!

OK, I thought the niggle might be that the seat tube was a bit too long or something.

What travel forks do you currently have to move across? That will likely hone the choices down. Plus whether your wheels are boost hub spacing or not.

Still worth doing. All of the final sections are still in use plus you can always mess about on the jumps and drops lines and loads of other stuff to play on.

(plus a bit of an issue with my current frame that isn’t much of an issue but is a constant niggle)

What’s the niggle? Might help inform a more suitable frame.

Thank you tenfoot. Mine’s a 2018 Orange Five in medium and I was wondering if the Fidlock idea would work. Have you simply zip-tied the Fidlock ‘bosses’ to the top tube? Looks like yours is a large too, so I’ll have to check available space.

Slap in a normal headset and that Pole is ripe for a mullet.

As above, SRAM XG1175 cassette and SRAM chain with SLX 11 speed mech and XT 11 speed shifter. Works perfectly. I think it’s important to get the SRAM chain to go with the SRAM cassette, but the Shimano mech and shifter work fine.

I assume the Octane Prone 29 has the wrong dropouts?

i followed them on Insta for a couple of weeks, but they’re idiots. It’s all everybody else’s fault, naming websites and magazines that wouldn’t give them the time of day, talking about ‘experts’ without actually backing it up, etc. Just chancers and as for not showing their geometry – no thanks, no informed buyer would take that sort of BS. It’s a shame because the mullet idea is one I really like, but these knobbers aren’t helping anyone.

Bought a ZTTO 10 speed cassette for the boy’s bike and it looks fine. Only been on one ride with it so far, but no complaints. Looks similar to an old SRAM cassette from the outside, but it has a spider. Quite weighty, but it was like £27 off Ali Express, so can’t moan.

I have a 12 speed Deore 6100 mech for sale. It was fitted but never taken on a ride.

Anyone have any experience of Silt?

https://www.siltmtb.com/collections/all-mountain-am

Found a good candidate this evening. Current version of the YT Jeffsy 29. It’s got a flip chip, steepish seat angle, highish BB height. I can live with a small water bottle.

Rare as hens teeth though at the moment, even 2nd hand.

I’ve been casually looking at this for a couple of weeks –
https://www.mulletcycles.com/product/the-peacemaker/

Looks are an acquired taste, but $2,000 including a shock is decent money. Shame they don’t give you much on geometry saying that’s like their Coca-Cola/KFC recipe. What a load of balls!

Cheers, mboy. Didn’t realise Cascade were doing mullet links too.

Can we start a list of suitable bikes? Flip chips, very low BB 27.5 bikes, etc? I’ll start –

2016 – 2018(?) Specialized Enduro 29 – compromise is slacker seat angle
2020 Evil Calling – seemingly few compromises but does end up slack in head angle.
Various Geometron models – made for messing about with geo.

Trek Slash might be alright, but the actual (rather than effective) seat angle is very slack, so dropping in a smaller wheel would only exacerbate the problem.

Add more and I’ll do a summary post now and then to bring it all together. Pros and cons of mullet version would be useful.

What bike did you convert, Doug?

Luke – I was thinking starting with a 29er might be better, but you present a good argument.

I previously mulleted a 2016 Specialized Enduro which starts out tall and steep. Adding one offset bush and the 27.5 wheel made it quite contemporary in BB height and head angle, but obviously the seat angle suffered. I have long legs and short body, so stuffed the saddle forward and it was OK.

I ride FoD singletrack, so the MX set up makes more sense than if I was doing moorland hacks.