Apart from being available raw, Stanton Sherpa?

I think you’d find that, much as 2mm sounds like only a tiny bit, it’d look like a lot when you offered it up and by the time you’d filed the ring to fit it would be looking pretty sorry for itself. Plus, you’d have removed quite a lot of the contact area that carries the load from the cranks to the ring, there’s quite a lot of force goes through that interface.

f I rebreak my hip or do something else long-termy-recuperatey I’ll be right on the internet buying one of those electric cubes, and any haterz can suck my balls.

:D
I feel like its somehow wrong, but I do want one. Of course all my riding mates would then disown me and I’d have to ride on my own, but imagine the ground you could cover if you could cruise up the climbs so fast.

Pikes have a different rebound to most and require more clicks than you would think.

I don’t think they actually do need more clicks though, how are you checking your rebound setting?
What I have noticed is that the rapid recovery rebound system does make the rebound appear to be very fast if you normally check by compressing the fork and then trying to lift the wheel off the ground. In this situation it does exactly what it says on the tin and tries to get the fork back to full extension as fast as possible which can make you think it’s set too fast. If you set it by rolling around on the bike and actually bouncing your weight into the travel and seeing how it recovers you’ll get a better idea of how it’s set.
The very rapid rebound with the weight off the wheel is exactly why it sits up in the travel so nicely through repeated big hits / rock gardens /rooty sections etc.

I don’t accept I’m not 20 years old any more…

that doesn’t stop it actually being true.
This.
The industry doesn’t care whether you believe it or not, we are past the tipping point. It doesn’t mean your 26″ bike is no good now, but the only real question is how long will you continue to be able to get high end 26″ equipment for. Personally I’m hedging my bets and when I bought a new set of Pikes for my 26″ bike, I got the 650b ones, just in case. For now I just have plenty of clearance and next time I change frames, if I decide to go for bigger wheels it’s only the frame and the rims and tyres to change.

It’s often easiest to true for roundness first, so if it’s fairly straight and pretty tight you could try de-tensioning the whole wheel a little bit then have another shot at getting it round. You’ll have more headroom to play with to tighten spokes to pull it in. Once it’s round you can tension it up a little more and do a final tweak on the straightness.

^ miles?

Safe to assume there’s an extra zero on those. His lessons on speed limits must be interesting :wink:

Airdrop between iOS and OSX is a nice feature too.

Yup, still some trapped air. In the lever if it goes away after a few pumps.

Presume formula is for riding weight, incl kit?

Yes. It shouldn’t make too much difference though.

Looks fine.

Indeed, I was surprised how little it looks like the wheel is too small for the fork on mine.

Yup, that’s what I’m running. I look on it as future proofing. As above, all it means is the axle to crown is 10mm longer, so 160mm 650b Pikes are no different than running 26″ Fox 36s, which can take 650b anyway.

set mine from the basic formula given by Stan, which is so basic, I can’t remember it,

Double your weight in stones, plus 2 psi on the rear, minus 2 on the front. Gives 15 rear, 11 front for a 42 kg (6.6 stone) rider.

There’s less than half the materials of a pair of forks.
Probably less to design and I need a new one and am unhappy.

No less to design I don’t think, at least with forks you can have the spring and damper in different legs whereas the shock has to make it all fit in one package. Plus, the cost of forks and shocks isn’t in the (very small) cost of the raw materials it’s the machining and assembly that’ll cost.

SRAM links come apart easily with a pair of these (or similar).. haven’t had any issues with reusing them either..

This.

The rings for 3x will give you more options i.e, 22, 24, 32 & 34 rings and are the same pcd.

That’s where your method becomes considerably more hassle than just eyeballing it

Without a doubt, and I just eyeball it normally but if you are very picky about it being straight and suffering from a bad case of stem blindness, there’s a way of getting it straight.
When I was building bikes full time I just nipped it up approximately straight, set up the levers, cables etc and only did the headset and stem at the very end when I lifted the bike out the stand. Either that or swung the bike front wheel down enough that I could easily look straight down on the top of the bars, albeit from in front of the bike, not riding position.

If there are at least 2 iPhones (or other similar device) in your household with the digital spirit level app (or you have an actual digital spirit level) then you already have what you need to do this. Easiest with an assistant, stand the bike up on it’s rear wheel and place one device across the stem face plate and one across the fork crown, get them both reading the exact same, and tighten the stem.

My decision in this exact situation was to go with the Revs as I felt that the Charger damper was probably going to be wasted on a the front of a hardtail, and the Revs are a tiny bit lighter, plus I was 100% convinced that the Merlin sourced Pikes definitely had the better damper. So I’ve got a pair of 29er RCT3 Revs modified down to 120mm coming from Loco.

It’ll take a lot longer than 1 week to master, don’t give up yet!
As above, you should be right on the balance point, not below it. If you are below it you need to be accelerating continuously to hold the front wheel up. Likewise, if you are trailing the rear brake you won’t be able to maintain it for long. I’d also disagree with those saying saddle down, saddle up will get the front up more easily and bike balanced with the front wheel nearer the ground.

My BB7s are either on or off.

Not true, it’s always possible to modulate a brake, just be a bit more calm and delicate with them. That level of control is similar to what you’ll need to master wheelies.

Regular heavy pedal strikes with big platform pedals will kill most things. You’ll get on a lot better with a crank intended for DH use if that’s your usual riding.

Shimano cranks and less ham fisted spannering

This, everything else on the market is going to make you very angry indeed I suspect.

Wow! what on earth are you doing to them? They are totally solid and reliable for me and everyone else I know.

Got any old handlebars? They are pretty good as a drift for knocking old cups out, rounded edge fits a bit better and lets you hit it harder.

Any tips?

Hours of practise :-)
I just used to try and wheelie up all the hills coming home from school and them Uni. Wearing a heavy backpack doesn’t hurt either.

As above, what you want if you aren’t going to be climbing mountains or exercising hard in it is what is dismissively known in outdoors shops as a dog walking jacket, i.e it actually is waterproof and windproof rather than sacrificing one or both for weight and breathability like most of the high end stuff does. The good news is jackets like that are much cheaper.

Fireworks should only be sold to professional fireworks display teams with proper qualifications.
Selling explosives to the general public? How is that ever legal?

Agree. It’s cost me a fortune in house repairs around 5th November and New Years as our dog properly freaks out when she hears fireworks. No problem you’d think, just stay in those two nights and look after her. We do, and those two nights are fine. The problem is there’s always some idiot within earshot who decides to have a big private display on some other night within a two week window around that time, while we are out at the supermarket, or out for dinner and we come home to find that we no longer have carpet in our downstairs hall.

Yup, Durable water repellent, just means that the water should bead up and roll off reasonably well. Not the same as water proof. The idea is that you’ll stay comfortable, not that you stay dry.

Yup, I can wheelie continuously for a good minute or more uphill, including corners in fire roads. Manuals, on the flat I’d be pleased with more than about 30ft but through 2 or 3 rollers is no problem.

I’m confuddled by all that tape?

So it stays nice and shiney underneath? Which doesn’t really make much sense
Me too, I never understand preventing a little bit of rubbing that doesn’t even look all that bad in person, close up, by covering the frame in tape that looks terrible even from a distance, in a photo.
Presumably it’s the prospective resale thing.

You’ll get away with it short term but, despite the theory, it will work it’s way loose over time. It shouldn’t, but it will.

This, it happens even faster on BMXs, where the headset only stays tight if the steerer protrudes a good way through the stem and you run a top cap, tightened down proper tight AFTER you have clamped the stem on. I do both of the above on MTBs too and the headset stays rattle free indefinitely.

I think overspeccing things can spoil them too, there’s something very satisfying about a bike, or anything else that is exactly fit for purpose with nothing extraneous. I think it’s part of the reason that 1x drivetrains are appealing.

Perhaps, because you expect so little of it you aren’t thinking about how the bike is riding, but rather about riding the bike?
It’s easy with expensive bikes to get caught up in paying attention to whether it’s all working as well as it should do and concentrate on how the suspension feels, or how the gears shift, or what that noise is and completely spoil a good ride on a really nice bike.

Someone will be along with more detail in a minute I’m sure but you aren’t all that heavy, I’m certain you’ll be able to get the RP23 tuned to feel great without too much trouble.

Don’t know about the sill but the wheel arch will definitely be rusted through, those blisters are where its rusted through from the inside.

I’ve seen other stems with a similiar design, you fit it in the narrow part then move it along. Might be an issue with some funny shaped bars

That would work I suppose but it feels like different for the sake of difference to me.

Odd design still. That front plate must be in more than one piece or it’s impossible to fit around the bar as it wraps over 180 degrees.

Type 4, ZS49/28.6

I’ll give you a shout about that then, cheers.