No.

After about 3seconds with google 32h or 36h only:

http://www.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/products/mountain/deore_xt/product.-code-HB-M775-L.-type-..html

If you’re coming from a 26″ singlespeed, as pointed out above, 32:18 on a 29er is equivalent to the magic “it’s the law” 32:16 on a 26″ bike, so 32:18 is an excellent 29er singlespeed starting point

The BrightonBigDog[/url] guys just made a cool little course preview video:

BrightonBigDog course preview

Can’t wait until next weekend!

The actual usage rights is an important point, was it a waymarked bike route on a track, or clearly signed bike only, no walkers like you’d find at the start/end of many section of trail a somewhere like CYB? Or just an indicated bike route with coloured markers that may well have been a specifically made piece of bike trail, but in fact open to all. I think we may be being spoilt with the somewhat luxurious trail setups at the big trail centres. If you’re outdoors, it’s an uncontrolled environment, it could just as well have been a deer not a child.

On the flip side, I was just shouted at by some riders for going “the wrong way” though a random, unmarked, piece of trail in my local woods where the local authority tolerate bike usage, that I’ve been riding, quite happily in both directions and sharing with walkers, dogs & kids, for the last 15 years! Go figure.

I’d chose an exposure light over others for the following reasons:

1)The simplicity of having everything in one can, not a separate head unit and battery and wires around the place, battery bag scuff marks and connections to come loose

2) The great QR light bracket, stays on my bike (one on each bike) all year and the light goes on in 2 seconds, always pointing just where I want without having to adjust every time

3) Battery meter, yes some other lights have them, but so so do the exposure and lots don’t, 4 level settings; green, amber, red and flashing red and automatically protects the battery

As for which model, well a joystick on the head and then on the bars, for the maximum light, a 6-pack for silly 1800lumnes for mid week blasts with a still crazy bright 10hr setting for long night rides and 24solo summer races. To go super lightweight and/or cheaper, the now updated and venerable MaXx-D is a truly great light and a super partner to the Joystick

Hope that helps! I used to make my own lights but now have a big box of unused lights, that are just as bright as my exposures, as the faff of batteries and head units separate just seems too much now, plus soggy battery bags in the winter and scuff marks on the frame are now a thing of the past. I switched to exposure lights for racing due to weight, QR brackets and easy attachment and removal with perfect alignment every time. They’re light too.

If you’re never going to use it again, eBay is the answer. I store up a few parts and sell them off once every year or two to save time.

I’d keep it as a “just in case” spare, I have a whole box of this kind of stuff, really useful for keeping my bike, or those of friends, going.

+1 for avoiding children

Riding bikes is a pretty effective way of avoiding children IMHO :wink:

Rob

NO! Do not lube the nipples of your spokes!!! They will work lose over time if you do, most people apply thread locker to nipples, lube will not ease a locking compound and will be ineffective at beast and, at worst, encourage movement and loss of tension when riding.

That video above, and the other linked, are a good resource, much clearer and less ambiguous than some text. Good luck and enjoy your ride :-)

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Simple really, although most people don’t do it as “real life” always takes up too much time: Sleep lots, eat well.

Echinacea can help too (used by several friends)

Rob

Frame material will make no difference! The things that will affect it are:

1) Your weight
2) How much you have sticking out the frame
3) How tight you clamp it
4) The fit between the post and frame

Throw it in, add some carbon gripper compound if you want it to not slide with the minimum clamp load, and enjoy. Carbon posts are great as they’re (normally) light, strong and won’t corrode onto your frame like an aluminium one might.

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Squirt lube (and their cleaner too)

A new experiment here, but so far very happy. I ride every day to work or for enjoyment so am really enjoying the benefits (if used properly). Apparently the benefits are limited if used incorrectly.

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Lovely summer singletrack one Josh Ibbett and I made the other day (well, we both rode, he made the movie!)

CLICK HERE AND ENJOY!

Any shimano MTB or flat-bar road shifters should be fine

You’ll need special road caliper brake brake levers though, v-brake levers will have the wrong cable pull. Shimano make what you’re looking for, see THIS LINK HERE[/url]

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

just like balfa said – not new shifter time. Me, and plenty of my friends are running double setups, on double ring setups, with double and triple specific cranks with triple shifters just fine.

Just check the cablke clamp position, don’t adjust your front mech too low when you remove your big chainring (this matters as the cage is profiled) and persevere with setup.

Wrong mech height is the most common cause of mis-shifting in my experience.

Hope this saves the cost of a new shifter!

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Had just the best day out on Wednesday a proper “this is why” (copyright Jo Burt!) moment.

There’s a video, of it all HERE

Hope you enjoy it, we did!

Rob

A couple of, I hope useful, questions:

– How do I charge the light without leaving my bike in the middle of the kitchen?

– Can I take the batteries out of the bars in daylight/summer as I don’t want to carry the weight of my batteries around with me 24/7?

– Can I swap batteries mid-race when doing a 12 or 24 solo or just team racing between laps?

– On race day, where do I put my number and still leave myself able to see???!!! If you’re going for “high end” you’re going to get a lot of people wanting to do events/challenges.

– If the lights are in the centre of the bars, where do I mount my comoputer, GPS, HRM etc.? If the lights are to the outside, won’t my cables just get in the way? I like my cables, but not enough to stare at their shadow all night. If I’m buying a high end bike, I’m probably going to have a GPS etc. to put on it.

No, I don’t want to have to swap bars several times a year, getting grips on and off is a right royal pain and lining up controls is too much if a hassle in itself. I also don’t want to buy a set of lights for each of my bikes. If I’m buying a high end bike, chances are I own several bikes.

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

HEREWell done Dasiy_Duke, a great achievement, the SDD is a great day out and I’d recommend it to anyone (maye with a one-way first though!)

These kinds of rides are so long, they always throw unexpected failures, punctures, eating issues at us, which is part of the reason for doing them. It’s the “can I do it?” element rather than “I wonder how fast I can go?” that makes the ride special.

Anyone who finishes, overcomes theor own challenges be they eating, punctures, gears or just battling the inner demons of self doubt, is a proper hero.

Enjoy basking in your, well desrved, glory.

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

P.S. My double is HERE ;-)

I’ll be there. And here’s some words I wrote, specifically answering the questions in the first post:

Rob Dean’s Tips for SITS[/url]

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Nope, RockShox & Fox forks all have increased offset too.

However, you can run old forks with new frames and vice versa. One of the Trek women runs a SID on her G2 Superfly as it’s lighter, I ran a Reba on a Gary Fisher for a bit too. I’ve never ridden and “old” fork on a “new” frame but I’m sure it would be just fine.

On 26″ bikes we never worry about head angles and fork offsets and difference with time and 99.9% of bikes work just fine!

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

As above, it’s probably a small spit in the tape from assembling the valve.

I just did my first set without paying attention, made a single slit with a knife, pushed the valve through and the slit extended past the valve and never sealed properly.

I re-taped the rim, made a round hole (or, a star of slits works just as well if that makes sense) pushed the valve through without ripping the tape further to do so and now I find it works every time.

God luck with your 2nd set of tape!

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

P.S. don’t forget to tighten the valve in good and snug :wink:

Oops, I appear to have typed that before drinking my morning coffe whilst having breakfast. At least t was clear what I meant even thought I typed the oppposite.

Yup, just like I was corrected, head angles are (and I’m playing safe here) changing (slackening, but I am willing to be re-corrected) to accomodate forks that, correspondingly, have increasing fork offset, which negates the need for a steep head angle as a measure to quicken up steering.

But at least the numbers I quoted the first time around make sense!

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

The trend these days is that people are going for steeper head angles and the forks are getting more offset as a result, not dissimilar to Gary Fisher’s G2 geometry.

Evidenced by the following quoted head angles, comparing the venerable Scandal to the latest offering for 2011 from Santa Cruz:
Santa Cruz Highball – 70.5
On-One Scandal – 72.0

Having owned, ridden and raced a Scandal, an original G2 Scandal and now a Highball (yes, I am a very lucky boy indeed!), I would say the difference is marked and would recommend the Highball (or at least the Highball geometry) over the Scandal. That said, they are both damn good bikes, so you can’t go that far wrong ;-)

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

I’ve done it with an old P7 frame with an ovalised 1″ headtube and a Chris King headset. Did it 10 years ago, used loctite, it’s still going strong today.

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

[list]ESI grips are good. They don’t wear hard like the normal foam grips and in the night, when it gets damp, they stay grippy.

I find the Endura Singletrack glove good, gel padding to keep pressure off the nerve canal in your hand, but not so much it feels ungainly, like the similar padding in the Specialized body geometry gloves.

I used to suffer with numbness in my little fingers and a little in the finger next to it until I hit this formula. I used to find a flat bar and bar ends worked as an alternate as moving your hands around helps too and this offers different positions until I got in the habit of looking after my hands during an event,

Enjoy!

Rob
http://www.bigrobracing.co.uk

There’s a second question:

“What to do with all the cash if I sell all my other bikes and leave myself with just one?” :wink:

Rob
http://www.bigrobracing.co.uk

Ooh – An Alfined swift… now that’s a low maintenance thought…..

Easy! A 29er hartail, just like my Santa Cruz Highball of course

Here’s a pic of actually commuting to work too!

With a lockout fork, of course, as you say. It’s fast and light enough for XC. Did a great job leading a few laps of TwentyFour12 24hr solo (until I swapped bikes with a puncture and the rear mech exploded on the other).

I wouldn’t bother with a second set of wheels and tyres, just pop a fast rolling tyre on the back, something like a Crossmark or a Saguaro with a reasonably solid centre rear tread. My experience is the faff of swapping cassettes, wheels, re-aligning brakes isn’t worth it and the knobblies stay on. The cost of a full wheelset, spare discs, tyres, cassette pays for a lot of new rear tyres ;-)

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Yup, I have both and it all works together just fine. As above, the bar mount is the same part.

Rob
http://www.bigrobracing.co.uk

Flat bar or very low rise bar here. I also use a zero stem and have used a flipped stem with a “normal” riser. It all looks just fine and, more importantly, works well and is comfy :-)

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

I’ve cut a 3″ strip off the bottom of a buff and I use this as a lightweight sweat band in the summer, the top is open and my head then stays cool. Was very happy with that idea!

I’m left with a shorter buff which I can then use single layer rather than the double layer of a full buff folded back on itself.

Rob
http://www.bigrobracing.co.uk

I use one off road. The mount is plenty secure. However, I mount it on my stem or when mounted on the bar it’s been on the OS part next to the stem. It would be less stable on a “normal” 25.4 bar, but should be fine with a shorter o-ring.

Rob
http://www.bigrobracing.co.uk

If you want the fastest wheels, a set of NoTubes Crest rims should be top of your shopping list. They’re a little flexy and improved trail manners can be had with some Flow rims for a teeny weight penalty.

However, the most important difference for handling with a longer 29er fork is a QR15 axle instead of a normal QR

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

hola! A bit late to the party, but I chose the XXL based on top tube length to make sure I didn’t have to run anything silly like a 130mm stem to get a sensible race bike position. The XL is just a wee bit too short.

Josh Ibbett uses the XL and he’s 6’3″. I’m 6’4.75″ at the last official count. At that size, seat tube length and standover are not an issue, it’s just seat post length! This is the only MTB I own where I can get away with only a 330mm seatpost rather than a 400mm post.

Hope that helps?

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Erm, aren’t the latest Campag wheels all sealed catridge bearings? This means there are no such things as cones, let alone adjusters. See here: LINKY

If so, the bearings need replacing. This is simple, takes 15 mins and will cost <£10 for new bearings from eBay, you just need the bearing part number, printed on the seal of the current beaings e.g. 6905RS

Hope that helps

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

It’ll depend on your cassette and wheel/tyre size as these affect your effective gearing of course.

Assuming you’ve got a 26″ wheel with a 2.1″/2.2″ ish tyre a 32T ring will be a good all rounder. With a standard cassette you’ll miss the bigger gears on flat road sections and spinny gears for the steepest of climbs. A 34T with an 11-36 cassette is a good solution if you’re swapping everything

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Yup, spacers on the inner ring to get the right shifting. Also, you’ll need a 64mm BCD ring, not a 59mm BCD ring.

Rob
http://www.bigrobracing.co.uk

24 solo for me, on my beautiful new Highball, see you there

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

Maxxis Crossmark are a good option. 2.1″ width a decent side knob for slidy dampness and a good, stiff centre tread for hardpack/road or just going fast! They’re pretty light too.

Enjoy!

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

I’m sure it’ll be fine. More important that the safety aspect however, do the cables cover it so it doesn’t spoil the aesthetics! :wink:

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

A chain drive driving through an internal gear drive will always be more friction than just a chain drive (assuming the chain drives are similar). However, as an Afline owner, I suspect this is probably only measurable in a lab. I love my Alfine (an 8s one).

I suspect the main sluggish contributor difference is in the weight of the bike and electrical assist, coupled with the resistance of the electical system powered by you when pedalling, rather than any fault with the hub.

Oh, and tyre pressures of course. And tyre weight. And rim wieght. etc. I’d love to know just how much the full bike weighs?

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk