Yup, shouldn’t be a problem finding work. My wife has worked in recruitment for oil and gas companies and has friends that do. The general consensus is that the oil industry in Aberdeen is thousands of engineers short at the moment.

Just to update, having run mine for a couple of rides. I’m running an XT block converted with the shimano version General Lee to give me 11-42t. I’m running a 32t Raceface narrow/wide ring on the front and at the moment I’ve got a E-13 top guide on which doesn’t touch the chain so makes no noise and only weighs 60g, so I think it’ll maybe just stay.
I’m very pleased with the gear range I get, which is going to prove to be just enough at each end I think, it certainly had been so far. I weighed everything I took off and everything that I put on and in my case, going from 2×10 with a bash guard to 1×10 without has saved 548g, or 1.2 lb. The only drawback initially was that the shifting onto and off the General Lee adapter, and between the sprockets on the General Lee was not great. I had a careful look at the tooth profiles on the General Lee and compared to the now spare XT sprockets and could see that the XT had several slightly twisted teeth either side of the machined ramps (which the General Lee also has) to help the chain move sideways and than to encourage it to drop over to the other side of the sprocket. The teeth on the General Lee are all straight and were holding the chain too well. I had a careful look at the XT teeth and then replicated the shapes on the General Lee with the aid of a Dremel and some careful work. The result on last night’s trip was excellent shifting in both directions. I can give details and photos of what I did if anyone else has the same issue.
Very pleased with it now, overall an excellent setup.

Err, not always no. There are plenty of production facilities including a load in the north sea where oil is either pumped out or some other form of artifical lift is used to extract the oil.

That’s true, I simplified a bit. They don’t usually start out that way though, and sometimes the artificial list is used not because it won’t flow on it’s own, but because it won’t flow fast enough which can cause all sorts of other potential problems.

Why use the word “produce”?

’cause, its not like the ground actually produces oil or gas. Its just there already. It’s being extracted, sure. But not produced. Produced implies new stuff is being made.

If the ground really did produce oil, we’d all be laughing all the way home to centrally heated tents.
Convention I suspect. I guess produce does feel a little like that but extract isn’t quite right either, it implies that you have to pump it out, which is far from true, the pressure of the fluid at the wellhead is anywhere from 3,000 to over 15,000 psi, you have to hold it back.

200 miles East in the Netherlands they’ve got the right idea, yet for some reason over here we’re all running each other over and fighting.

They aren’t exactly scared of a bit of oil and gas over there, does the name Shell (or Royal Dutch Shell to give it it’s full name) ring any bells?

the trouble is by then we’ll have shagged most of the arcitic and antartic and global warming will mean we are all living in a few megacities surrounded by nothing but the cursed earh

No, it’ll happen faster than that.
I work in O&G and have some interests in renewables too. It is coming but we can’t force it along or the country really will go broke.

We’re broke. Any profits should go to fixing that

This.
Renewable energy as a main source will come in time as the costs start to come down and the costs of oil & gas derived power go up. When the tipping point is reached the focus of all of the big energy companies and a lot of talented engineers currently working in oil & gas will shift and things will start to change pretty rapidly.

Fracking offshore is done for the same reasons, to increase production from the formation. Some rocks aren’t very porous so the hydrocarbons only filter through fairly slowly (or not at all) into the well bore to be produced. Fracking increases the area of rock which can produce into the wellbore and increases production. Depending on the well in question it is sometimes done as a matter of course offshore on a new well and sometimes not done until production has dropped off at which point the well may be worked over and a frack job done to bring the production back up.

Conversely, I’m not a fan of speccing your MTB with consideration for matching brands over function. Pick the kit that gives the best performance and weight in your budget, usually that’ll be a mixture of things. It makes your bike feel more custom built to your requirements. I’d always feel a little unhappy with a bike with a complete matching groupset, it feels unimaginative and off-the-peg.

Really?

I’d say so. Wheel size, geometry, suspension configuration (if any), tyre choice and tyre pressure will have more effect on the ride than frame material in my opinion.

Doesn’t 30t with 11-36 spin-out a bit easy?

Depends what you are riding. If all your riding is steep techy up followed by steep techy down 30 or 32 to 11 is probably fine the vast majority of the time.

Why the excitement about 30T rings?

Simply that many folk find 32/36 a little much for their lowest gear if they live somewhere hilly or aren’t all that fit.

Bingo, that’s the problem, as mentioned above it’ll be the size of the small sprocket on the back, not the bib ring on the front that is limiting your gearing. Unfortunately you’d most likely need to change quite a lot of parts in order to be able to upgrade to 8,9 or 10 speed as the hub on the rear may only take a screw on freewheel or if it is a cassette, it won’t take anything other than 7 speeds. Plus you’d almost certainly need to change the chainset as well. It’ll end up being a big fraction of the value of the bike.

you need to pedal faster

This.

I haven’t seen a new MTB with bigger than a 42t big ring in a lot of years, so unless your mates are riding 10 year old bikes, It seems very unlikely that they have bigger gears.
Plus, if you are spinning out along the flat off-road, you must either be unusually strong or struggling to turn the pedals smoothly at a speed most folk are perfectly happy with. If it was the first, you’d be dropping your mates and not too likely to be seeing that as something needing fixed…

All they can possibly do is feel different because they are more flexible. That’s it. There is no increase in leverage, removal of dead spots or power transmission advantage. None.

If the fork is second hand, what was the previous owner using?

With disc brakes even tension and slightly off true will be more durable than needing to make the tension substantially uneven to get it running bang on but there’s obviously a limit to how far out of true is functionally o.k.

The first three replies are correct. The forth one is not.

Is your wife’s prejudice based on driving one? Any chance of persuading her to go and have a shot in a M135?

How much do my sprockets weigh then?

Which 10 speed cassette are you running? :wink:

I can’t believe the hunks of Italian metal weigh less than the sprockets on my bike, which is all I had to compare to, but I’m not 100% au fait with current set-ups.

They do though, regardless of whether it seems likely. I weighed them myself last night on a set of digital kitchen scales. It’s not going to make your bike noticeably lighter but they definitely are measurably lighter.
They are far more machined out on the back than you are likely to have appreciated from the photos on the net.

If going 1×10, do you still need/want a bash guard or is it ok to smack the chain off rocks?

Usually o.k without as it’s higher up and the chain protects the teeth of the chainring which is the usual vulnerable spot.

Can’t imagine you’d save much weight, once you’ve added those clunky Italian sprockets (which is where the poorer shifting comes from) and the chain device you now need.

Well, I was already running a chain device on my 2×9 and 2×10 set-ups as the chain won’t stay on with 3x and no device for me, so that’s no change, and in fact I’m going to try one of the alternating thickness chainrings with the 1x set-ups, so hopefully I’ll not need a device, or if I do, it’ll be a lighter one than the 2x device I was using. Also, I’ll lose the weight of a front mech, front shifter, cabling and a bash guard.
On the weight of the General Lee sprockets, I’m converting an XT 11-36 10-speed cassette, so I’ll be replacing the 3 large sprockets, the ones on the aluminium spider. I weighed them at 186g for those three. I weighed the General Lee replacements at 164g, so that’ll actually be a little lighter.

I simply cant get my head around the general lee route – a 36T at the back is plenty! If not, just walk, its likely to be as quick!

Not everywhere it’s not, and not for every rider. I’m not super fit but I’ve been riding for 20 yrs plus, I’m very keen and I’m in reasonable shape and for me, where I ride, even the 32 to 42 first gear that the General Lee will give will be at the limit of what I’d consider acceptable. Sure, I’ve had bikes with a higher 1st gear than that in the past, but the lower gears are better, they have improved my enjoyment of my riding, so why do without them?
Plus, and this is the big thing, it’s nice to have a bigger range, so why not? If 36t was enough SRAM wouldn’t have bothered with, and wouldn’t be selling XX1 and XO1.
Slow as it seems, even plugging away in a 22t front to 36t rear is faster than pushing. If you are fit enough to carry your bike and run then that argument stacks up but most folk aren’t quite at that level.

Remember, and this is always true, if you buy an old car for £10k that would have been £50k new, your running costs will be those of a £50k car, not those of a £10k car.

That said, I’m running an ’03 BMW 530d that would have been £40k+ new, I paid £6k for it about 3 years ago. I love it and in my opinion it’s the way to go but servicing and parts will be dear, so budget that in from the beginning. It’s been reliable but there’s definitely an effect with older “nice” cars where you end up spending a bit more to keep it spot on because it seems a shame not to on such a nice car, so you do wee jobs you might not have bothered with on a cheaper car.

It’s fine on a hardtail frame. It goes into that gear without damage, that’s all you need. You won’t often if ever actually use that combo so all you need is to know that if you do it by accident you won’t break something.

XO1 will still need a new cassette body if you are converting from 10 speed, which, depending on your current wheelset will either add a chunk of cost or make it totally prohibitive. Also, I’m a lot less convinced by SRAMs implementation of the clutch mech, my X9 one lost a lot of it’s clutch effect over 6 months riding. I’m going to try the General Lee cassette with XTR/XT shifter for a bit and see how that works out.

Hmm, he was doing them as buy it now last week. Anyway, you’ll not find them for less I don’t think, it’s a dear thing.

I’ve just got one off eBay, seller name mop18795, who seems to be in Portugal. It turned up in about 4 days.

It’s not necessarily a problem that you are using all of the travel. I’d expect to use all of the travel on mine on most rides.
It’s surprisingly easy to use most of the travel on fairly small compressions if you are seated at the time, it doesn’t mean that the shock won’t cope with bigger stuff or that it’s set up wrong though, it’s amazing what the damping will do to keep it under control.
Is it bottoming out harshly or doing anything else that feels wrong when you are riding?
Edit: How much sag are you running and how are you setting it?

mfinlayson had his replaced with a new wheel by Canyon. The new wheel seems fine so far. I’ve no idea what, if anything the difference between the old wheel and the new was though.

Well, I’m on a 5 Spot just now and fancy a Burner. With the proviso that I’m a 6ft bloke who descends quite hard and will carry a little extra weight up to allow a little extra speed going down, if it was me I’d go with:
150 or 160mm forks (34s or the new Pikes maybe, probably 34s to open up the possibility of the Avalanche cartridge upgrade)
2×10 with a proper granny ring.
Light Bicycle co carbon rims on Hope or DT hubs
XTR shifters
XT mechs, XTR maybe for bling factor, definately the clutch option.
Whatever your favourite brakes are
Your pref in dropper post
Nice wide Carbon bar on a short stem.

On the gearing, many people can get by with 1×10 but it’ll always be a compromise unless you only ride fairly flat places or are very fit. I often consider going 1×10, possibly with one of those General Lee cassette adapters that gives you up to a 42t sprocket with 10 speed, but it’ll always be a compromise, losing both low and high gears for a weight saving. I could just about get away with it too usually, but some of the local climbs remind me every time that I actually do need all the gears I have as I check for a lower gear every 30 seconds for 10 minutes, so I’d stick with 2×10, running 22/36 on the front and 11-36 on the back.

What do you call the slightly raised & cambered bits at the outside of those curves then ?

+1 :-)
To the OP, was it one of the ones quite early on? I’m guessing it’s the one about 1:54 in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoGGBCe1IPk
In which case, on the current dry loose conditions at Pitfichie, I’d say combination off rubbish front tyre and simply leaning on the front too hard for the conditions. That corner is pretty tight for carrying much speed and I’d agree with those that are saying you simply washed it out and it tucked under on you.

Yup, patch on the inside. Doesn’t need to be anything special, a normal large patch out of a puncture repair kit will work providing you do a few things. First, roughen the area with sand paper and make sure any ribbing or other moulded in texture is removed, then clean it very thoroughly with meths. Let it dry then smear a thin layer of vulcanising solution on the inside of the tyre, let it get dry to the touch, add another thin layer and this time just as the vulcanising solution has got so dry to the touch that you’d think it’ll never work, peel the backing off and stick the patch on. Rub it down very, very thoroughly and leave it to dry for an hour or so. Job done.

I have a spare E:13 Guide Ring in the shed that I could put on if it will shift onto a granny.

It will shift fine if you give it a moment and back off on the pedalling while it changes. If you try and shift under load it’ll be a bit rough / slow. If you ever had an old school 10 speed road bike with down-tube friction only gear levers, it’s like that, fine if you treat it right, a bit rough if you don’t.
I’ve run this exact set-up and for a bike where the granny ring is only going to be a bail-out then it’s fine and may even help the chain stay on the big ring in the rough stuff.

2×10 with a clutch (shadow+) mech is a “do everthing” setup. If your DH riding is quite full-on then get a double chain device too.

I’d agree with this, I’ve been running 2x gearing for years with a chain device on the front (E13 DRS) and got a clutch mech (SRAM type 2) for the current 2×10 set-up when they came out. Initially I removed the chain device and ran with just the clutch mech and that was fine over winter time but as the weather dried out and I was hitting the descents harder and faster I started getting chain drops again so the chain device had gone back on and I’m running clutch mech and chain device which does the trick of providing near perfect chain retention while leaving you with an available bail out granny gear.
Possibly worth noting that I’m beginning to suspect, from looking at my bike in comparison to some of my friends who are running shadow+ mechs, that the Shimano clutch option has a stronger clutch effect than the SRAM.

It’s a waste of time. The first decent hill will bed them in anyway.

Unless it’s wet and gritty, in which case they won’t get hot enough to bed in properly and they’ll just get worn away really fast.

How hard do you try?

If you take it really easy every time it gets hard you’re unlikely to increase fitness very quickly. If you try so hard that blood comes out your ears and you’re still not getting fit then there’s probably something wrong with you.
This. If you go about the same speed every ride, eventually you’ll reach a level where you don’t get any fitter, and if you then go out with faster folk it’ll seem pretty hard. If you try as hard on your own as the group rides make you try, you’ll soon be keeping up more easily.

Reverb

As above. What you propose is perfectly possible, but the frame is only making up a small proportion of the weight of the bike and the potential weight savings are only a proportion of that. You’ll be lucky to save more than 2 lbs by doing just that. You’ll get a bigger difference by changing (roughly in the order I’d look at them) tyres, wheels, forks, cassette, cranks, seatpost/saddle/bars/stem.