Isn’t that just a hybrid?

+1
It’s a good looking hybrid with discs, but still….

There’s a point below which there is so little sealant in the tyre that it’s spread out too thin to seal a puncture, so don’t be too stingy. Two Stans scoops per tyre for me too.
As to the when part of your question, as late as possible in the tyre fitting process, so ideally, just before fitting the last part of the second tyre bead.

I noticed that too when I’d fitted mine. I’ve no idea if it still does it as I’ve never noticed it when riding. I’d very strongly suggest that you do no more than dribbling a little lube into the interface between the cage and the mech knuckle before you have ridden it a few times. I’ll bet that it’s fine and you’ll not improve it by trying to “fix” it when most likely, nothing is wrong.

Heating doesn’t usually work in this case, aluminium expands more than steel. It can be useful for steel parts stuck in alloy frames though.

Did this, but it doesn’t ALWAYS come out in the end. Eventually, I think I lost patience and when it started to move, just pushed it further in.

The way we used to approach it was to start out with the usual stuff and then once it became clear that you weren’t removing the post alive, we’d drill a big hole straight across the post not too far above the frame and install a 1/2″ stud and nuts through that. Then absolutely soak it in penetrating lube and try gripping the post in a bench vice (the stud / nuts stops it twisting) and use several people to try to turn the frame. If that doesn’t work you split it with a hacksaw blade, usually just one slot is enough and if it doesn’t come out easily at that point you go back to the vice and penetrating lube. Once it’s split, the gripping the post in a vice and twisting the frame will get it out every time, albeit sometimes accompanied by horrible creaking noises.

Hacksaw the top off, then cut slivers into the remaining tube. It’s a long process that should work

Another +1 for this.
I’ve been involved in removing a few in my bike mechanic days and this will always get it out in the end but it’ll take a while and you need to be careful.

Grease everything. Take the clamp apart, clean all the parts carefully and then grease every area where metal touches metal, clamps, captive nuts, under the bolt heads, on the threads and particularly around the saddle rails themselves. There’s always movement at the rear of the rails and movement means creaks. As mentioned above, make sure the clamp plates face the right way, there’s an arrow on each one that should face forward.

I actually laughed in delight several times, just superb!

Cleats quite well back, so the axle is maybe 10mm behind the balls of my toes. I find it better for bumpy, steep and technical riding and no worse the rest of the time. An added benefit is that it’s easier on your calf muscles and I find I don’t tire so quickly.
Have a read of this:

POWER TO THE PEDAL – CLEAT POSITION

Not done it, but thought about it. Remember that the Avid brakes were designed in the first place to use the washers, space has been allowed for them in the shape of the caliper. You’ll need something the thickness of the spherical washers that normally sit between the caliper and the mount to replace them in order to get them to sit where they would have done before, the spherical washers outside the caliper (under the head of the bolt) can just be removed with no problems. Alternatively you’ll need to make custom adapters. Basically what you’ve done is taken about 5mm thickness of washers out so you’ve moved the caliper in by 5mm and now need a 10mm smaller disc.

Bought this…
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321145505242
…and problem solved

That’s the kit. Quite an easy job too and should fix your problem. I’ve done one lever on each of out Avid equipped bikes, half an hour will get it working like new again.

It won’t.
Again, this is just me interpreting the drawing, so I could be wrong, but as far as I can see, it’ll only do anything in that very first part of the stroke so it’s purely there to ensure that the pressures on either side of the piston are balanced when the shock is full extended. As soon as the shock is further into the travel the seal will engage and pressurise the air above the piston in the normal way, providing your normal springing. Even when the seal is in line with the port, the difference in the diameters of the seals on the shaft at the left and the body at the right will still make the shock try to extend but as the seal on the body is a bit smaller than the one in the air can it’ll not be extended quite as firmly, which will help the shock to move initially. Immediately after the seal moves past the port you’ll still have some pressure both sides of the piston which will be helping to move the shock and then as it goes deeper into the travel the air above the piston will be compressed, and the air below will expand until it’s not doing anything to help, so the spring rate will ramp up.
So overall, it’s part of a system to tweak the initial break away friction and spring rate progression of the shock.
I’m sure LoCo will correct me if I’m not understanding that right.
As above, the noise might not be that, and I guess if you are getting it deeper into the travel it would suggest it’s nitrogen in the oil and it’s not good.

You can see where it is on the cross section view at the bottom of sheet 2 and from there figure out what it’ll do.
I’m not an expert on shocks but it looks to me like it’ll defeat the seal on the air piston temporarily in the first part of the stroke, which will do two things, equalise the pressure on either side of the piston and since the seal isn’t holding pressure it’ll greatly reduce the seal friction from the largest diameter (and therefore draggiest) seal in the system as the shock starts to move.
But as I say I’m not an expert, I’ve never seen inside a shock before. I’m just an engineer reading a drawing ;-)

Just beaten to it. Everyone else has covered the what to stand on / in, this is the answer to getting changed in a carpark:
http://www.secretspot.co.uk/wetsuit-accessories/towels/

Every time I read one of these threads and look at peoples wildly differing experiences I’m forced to conclude that while it sounds like we are all talking about the same type of riding, the variation in riding styles and terrain ridden is really so big as to render any recommendation other than “Try it and see how you get on” more or less useless. :-)

Climb to descent ratio is 1:1 on both routes ;-)
It’s all personal preference I suppose, but I actually feel like the layout of the black makes the the climb to descend ratio feel better than the red where the descent seems to go by very quickly for the climbing. The black descents being rough can only be a good thing in my book.
As mentioned, you can do the red climb, continue past where you would normally turn off to Spooky woods, climb a small amount more and pick up the Boundary trail. You then can do the majority of the black route descent either including Deliverance / Redemption or not as you want.

Unless they’ve changed the Aescents, they have very little padding, they were originally designed to be a shoe that you could both walk and climb very easy stuff in, hence they have no padding at all under the forefoot to allow enough feel and flex to rock climb a bit. They wouldn’t be any use on the bike, far too thin and soft.

Lyriks, 36s and Devilles will take a 650b wheel. Often a travel reducer has to be fitted to prevent the fork getting the last 5 or 10mm of travel so that the tyre doesn’t touch the crown at full compression.
I believe some of the smaller forks also have space but possibly only with smaller tyres on the 650b wheels.

You take off one ring and adjust the end stops on the front mech. Job done. Optionally, consider fitting a bash guard or a slightly larger “middle ring” (now your big ring).

It’s fine, I’m running that exact combination. Went up tubeless no bother too.

A tubeless rim is a clincher rim. Just take the valves out and use an inner tube or go tubeless and use the valve.

This. Note that Tubeless and Tubular are not the same thing.

In the simplest form, if you want more power just increase the diameter of the rotor.

That will make the single biggest difference.

More rotor = more area for the pads to work on = more friction.
Not really. Bigger rotors are more powerful because they generate more braking torque due to the larger radius, just like using longer spanner makes it easier to undo tight bolts. The surface area has almost no effect.

Actually, I am having issues getting my suspension right. If I set the sag right I’m blowing through the travel.

Is the shock, by any chance an RP23? If so, assuming you haven’t already it’d be worth trying the modification described in this:
http://forums.mtbr.com/turner/dw-5-spot-rp23-mod-503070.html

It works well on a lot of frames.

http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/325i

I guess the 15HP is a thoroughbred in a sprint flat race?

I’d guess so, Not too surprising really, you’d do well to make a vehicle weighing 1/2 ton that could hit 40mph on a soft grass surface with power output of 1bhp.

BHP is the number of horses pulling the other direction to stop you moving.

It is not used on boats as the horses might drown while testing it.
The horses pull a lot less well when they are swimming anyway.
The really bizarre thing of course is that the actual peak output of a good horse has been measured at close to 15hp. 1hp is what an average working horse in Stevenson’s time could produce all day.

One of these?
http://store.rc4wd.com/Trail-Finder-2-Truck-Kit-wMojave-Body-Set_p_2108.html

Agree with those suggesting stopping and getting off and keeping the bike between you and dog until it calms down a bit. If it doesn’t calm down, walk calmly away until you are clear. Dogs have a very strong chase instinct and trying to run or cycle off at speed will trigger it and almost certainly get you chased, sometimes even by a dog that would have ignored you if you were walking.
The reverse of this effect is why as a dog owner you should never chase after a dog that’s running away from you. You run the other way and it’ll chase you and soon catch up whereas if you chase it, you won’t catch it at all.
Also, as someone mentioned, a fit farm dog will be able to touch 30mph in a sprint along the flat, you won’t outrun it on an MTB without a steep hill to go down for a minute or so to tire it out. If it is just behind you nipping at your wheel/ankles it’s because that’s what it wants to do, not because it can’t go any faster than that.
Edit:

The chances of actually being properly attacked by a dog are very slim

This, the dog just want you to go away and in the past showing aggression has got that result for it, so it acts agressive. It’s extremely unlikely that it wants a fight, it’ll know you are a threat to it if pushed so it just wants you to go away. Just do what it wants quietly and calmly and it should calm down pretty quickly

Best things to happen to mountain bikes since they were invented
1. Proper working gears
2. Proper working suspension
3. Dropper posts

On the basis that in 22 years of MTBing i’ve never had a bike where I couldn’t get the gears working fine, I’d put it as:
1. Disc Brakes
2. Good Suspension
3. Dropper posts
But, in answer to the OP, droppers do that to all bikes, it’s a huge improvement in how MTBs work and genuinely changes how you ride for the better.

+1 for dirty cables causing drag. The Mech spring has to pull the slack cable through that the lever releases as you change to a smaller sprocket, if the cables aren’t running freely enough it’ll struggle to do it. You’ll be able to tell if it’s the mech or the cable easily enough if you undo the cable from the mech and try moving the mech by hand .

Another one here. Running Dual air RLTi Revsand never touch the adjustments at all, I have them how I like and don’t feel the need to change it. I specifically seek out forks with no travel adjust or lockout because they work better, are more reliable, lighter and cheaper.

Yes, I’ve often run a Rubber Queen on the front and a Nobby Nic on the rear. It’s a good combo. I do line up the logos with the valve stems though.
Currently running a Hans Dampf on the front with the NN on the rear. Make of that what you will.

Ah, I understand :D

Why not simply remove your big ring, swap your middle ring to say a 36 or 38t and run 2×10 like that? You keep your low gears for bail out, and if you aren’t using your 44 at the moment, the top gear should be fine.
I’m running 22/36 on the front and 11-36 on the rear and most of the time it gets ridden in the 36 on the front but I still have a properly low bail-out for when I’m tired.

+1 for Crossmax STs. I’m running a set on my own 5 Spot for exactly the described useage, running Hans Dampfs and they are spot on. Light, stiff, strong. Only downside is that Mavic rims aren’t very wide but they support the HDs just fine and mavic rims and way more ding proof than most of the competition so you win out on durability there. Proper UST compatible too.

Another one that likes lots of lever free travel. I want the levers to pull up pretty close to the bars before the brakes are really working, my brake finger is both more sensitive and stronger well wrapped round the lever. However I want them well out the way when I’m not using them.
Personal preference. I wouldn’t run brakes that can’t be set up that way.

Most of the rolling resistance comes from the rear tyre, it’s more or less proportional to the load on the tyre and the rear is usually carrying at least 50% more load than the front so you can make a big difference to how fast the bike rolls by swapping the rear for a faster rolling tyre.

“brindling”

Brinelling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinelling

3 series estate is pretty small – we had one for 3 yrs and just replaced with a 5 estate, which is more proper size

Yup, seems to be common to think of a 3 series as a Mondeo sized car. It’s not, never has been. It’s a Focus sized car with a boot, the estate Focus and 3 series are the same size. Focus probably has a better boot though.
5 Series is a good sized car though, I can get my large 5 Spot in the boot of my saloon E39 5 Series if I take the stem off the steerer (and the wheels out obviously). Normally it rides in the back seats with seat covers on and wrapped in a tarp but it’s nice to get it totally out of sight if you are away for the weekend and will want to leave the car parked with the bike in it. I can easily have the bike with both wheels and all my riding gear and a weekends worth of luggage for two in the boot and nothing visible in the car when it’s parked up.

Another one that can’t tell the difference here, having ridden both alloy and carbon Easton bars. I struggle to believe the “carbon flexes more” thing personally, carbon has substantially the highest modulus of any material used to build bikes (steel is closest), so for components of a fixed size such as handlebars carbon bars will flex less unless they have far thinner walls, which I don’t think they usually do.
There may be a little difference for absorbing buzz on road bikes but I struggle to believe you’ll feel it past suspension and MTB tyres.
Other folks experiences may vary though.