Thanks for making the article available on here Mark. I was really getting into that and then it just sort of finished and I flicked back and forth through the mag a couple of times before remembering that this had been mentioned.

Real shame – the issue is superb otherwise and a real credit to Singletrack (now World)’s impact and contribution to the sport.

great channel, Doddy tech tips are very informative!! especially enjoyed the one about how to lube my chain, or the one about how to put air in my tyres…

What about this one where you can spend 16 minutes watching a man washing his bike?

Standards really are slipping ’round here. Clearly the answer is that you need both!

In all seriousness though, the specification you get for your budget should probably be a factor. For the standard of frame and components you’re getting on your Fuse, you’ll have to put quite a bit more money in the pot to match that spec and ride quality on a FS bike. I know I’d rather ride a sorted hardtail than a gate of a FS bike.

Yeah, speccy-four eyes here and I suffer from the same problem. Blink more.

I toyed with goggles as well, but gave up fairly quickly for two reasons. Primarily goggles anywhere other than on a downhill run makes you look like an Endurbro. Also, misting.

I’ve got a set of Evil Eye Pro Evos in the drawer with an optical insert which is waiting my new prescription. The coverage on them is HUGE and they resolve any issues with wind whipping into your eyes.

In the meanwhile, blink.

Have used <span class=”skimlinks-unlinked”>epicbleedsolutions.com</span> kits for bleeding XT and Deore, and it just works

How did you fair with their interpretation of a funnel? It looked a bit faff-ey to me compared to the proper Shimano jobbie.

New mag looks great. Can’t wait to sit down and have a read (minus c.1,500 words) with a brew and a biscuit or twelve tomorrow.

Funnel all the way. 90% of the time I’m very lazy and just attach the funnel, pop a bit of oil in, and squeeze the lever / tap the hose for a few mins until bubbles stop coming out.

I did a bottom up bleed with a syringe at the calliper end and a funnel to catch fluid. On the basis that air generally rises I think that’s the best way to make sure your hoses are bubble free.

Conversely I got back to the car after several hours to find I’d been riding without the clutch engaged on my 10sp Deore. No chains were dropped, the chainstay wasn’t covered in chain rash, and to the best of my knowledge no kittens died. Conversely shifting up and down the cassette was a joy and I spent the whole ride patting myself on the back for being such an ace mechanic.

I think we’ve all been lied to.

Should’ve sprayed ’em white before you built them up…

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/show-me-your-bikes-with-white-rims/

If you want to add a splash of colour I’d be matching the highlights rather than main frame colour. Personally though, stealth or de-stickered all the way.

chakaping

It’d be interesting to see what different people consider as “product placement”.

As an example of where I see GMBN blurring there lines between ‘News’ and ‘Product Placement’: On a recent Tech Show, Doddy talked at some length about a new POC helmet and some sunnies as part of the ‘News’ section of the show. The whole segment just felt like he was regurgitating a press release whilst someone filled his pockets with twenty pound notes just out of shot.

I know in the bike industry that advertising can range from anywhere between “This content includes a paid promotion from xxx” to lingering shots of specific products (Red Bull sponsored riders shredits, anyone..?) and I’m genunely fine with either. I get it – you’ve got to get paid, and riding bikes is only ever a viable career if you can use your influence to shift a bit of product. It’s when the commercial incentives begin to colour the editorial content in such a way that the content creators think we won’t spot an advert that I take issue.

Nick C

The occasional guff about a set of tyres or a helmet is not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things.

Agreed – I’ve no issue in content creators being upfront about the support they’re receiving. E.g. “We were sent this by XX Corp to review, and it’s actually pretty good” or “This year we’re being sponsored by YY Industries, so we’ll be telling you a lot more about their products”.

It’s when the product placement is presented under the guise of ‘news’ that I tune out.

Probably where they all end up in the NW

Seth, hacker of bikes, seems to put together mostly unbiased and relatively entertaining content.

For anyone who’s in doubt about Ashton’s media-friendly credentials, take a look at his TEDxBristol talk:

ETA – Ooooh, an Animal hoodie. That’ll probably be worth something in a few years!

I agree with what a few have said about Ashton on there. It was great to see him get a platform following his injury – He’s arguably just as much of a legend of the sport as the likes of Peaty and Warner and shoulders above the rest of the presenters on GBMB (no disrespect). I can see him making the leap from YouTube to Mainstream in the same way that Chris Harris did when he joined the beeb.

The format of GMBN really has become tiresome of late. Some of their features in the past were entertaining to watch and whilst EWS was on their tie-up with the series was good. Recently though it does just feel like every video is either an advertisement or some content that’s been thrown together hastily off the back of the past week’s industry press releases. I’ve not watch GCN for a while but their stuff always felt like genuine content to me.

£70 to break out the torque wrench and the GT85 does seem a bit rich. What’s that, fifteen minutes work (twenty if you’ve got a brew on the go)?

Could you do the servicing yourself in less than the time it would take you to do two return trips to the bike shop?

Probably. My LBS is less than ten mins in the car. Whether my wallet would cope or not is another matter. In the past week i’ve fitted and bled two sets of brakes and performed a complete post-winter strip down, clean, lube and re-build.

It’s interesting the number of folk who say they do everything themselves mechanically and therefore (along with using online readiness of parts) have no need for LBS service. I’m in the same camp myself mechanically, except in aforementioned emergencies where i’ve bodged something and need the experience of the shop to get me out of a pickle.

…however these days I’m more and more time-poor, so am increasingly considering the shop for servicing etc which i’d normally do myself. I used to find spannering quite cathartic, plus I have trust issues with others working on my bike (if I put it together I KNOW it’s been done right), but i’m beginning to think that a Saturday afternoon with the spanners an IPA would be better spent either riding or doing other non bike related things.

I guess I’ve always been happy to pay a bit more (and wait a little longer) for parts because ultimately I don’t like the idea of a country full of nothing but distribution warehouses and Hermes drivers making £0.67 per delivery, and have the power to play my (small) part in preventing that from happening. The workshop services are looking more and more tempting though. It’s only really the lead times that put me off.

Great video. I really miss looning about with others on bikes. It’s just not the same doing laps again and again on your jack.

Given my recent experience of using UPS – don’t. Use DHL or Parcel Force instead. UPS seemingly don’t really know how to do logistics and my parcel was returned to me twice with no reason given. Fortunately I ended up being refunded because much like all communications they couldn’t be bothered to respond to the PayPal dispute. Am I still bitter – heck yes. Hours of my life wasted trying to resolve. DHL delivered within 24h.

Re: commercial invoice – you’ll want to fill this out correctly both for cover and to avoid your package being unnecessarily held up by customs state-side.

Jeff seems to have stock: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007R4IPE0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_ADEF6V2FHH1BWVXZ5Y87

Or maybe try your LBS if they’re any good. The only difference between BH90 and the regular stuff is the smaller 2.1mm internal diameter.

What works are you having done. Without more detail then the bringing down of ceilings to facilitate installation of a new kitchen seems rather extreme. Also, bringing ceilings down is a minging job.

I take you you have an upstairs? If so then just lift floorboards and access from above.

I’ve got the same damper on my Rev Chargers. Honestly, I thought it was broken until I did some searching and discovered many others saying similar.

But I figure I’ve never run my forks at anything other than open.

The answer here *really* is, increase your budget a little bit and get a DeWalt / Makita, For what it’s worth I’ve never seen trades using anything else.

Why? Because you don’t want to discover when you’re halfway through putting holes in something that your drill’s not up to the job. This DeWalt set with two batteries looks like a pretty good deal and is where I’d be putting my money. If weight’s a concern you can also get a version with lower capacity batteries which will weigh a fair bit less. Or get carried away and buy the brushless version.

Buy cheap buy twice applies to tools more than anything else in my experience.

I had Brink (well, Plush) swap in a new air spring when I had my forks serviced. They didn’t suggest any supply problems. Might be worth giving them or your lbs a shout before you start getting into the complications of getting things shipped from overseas.

Just a quick note to say thanks to all. Re-tapped the hose guide thread on my Revelations at the weekend. Slightly nerve-wrecking making sure I didn’t tap it at some crazy angle, but all seems well and the new m3 bolt nicked of a set of surplus lock-ons works a treat.

That’s a damn shame. The guys in my local Evans are all top blokes, and have seen quite a bit of my face in the last year or so, since all my LBSs decided to stop opening on a Sunday.

Just in time for the good weather. I was in shorts last time I rode and it felt fab.

Thanks for the PSA all the same though. Had this been a couple of months ago I’d have checked out in a jiffy, but if I were to buy them now I fear they’d just languish with my winter gear until October.

Fingers crossed it went well for you.

Hopefully I’m not too late with dispensing this advice:

Pads, or any other form of applying paint to walls that isn’t a roller and a paint tray is just a gimmick.

The pros use rollers. You should use a roller because it’s what the pros use.

At 200 miles with the riding you’ve described you may not have bedded it in yet. My 2019 Recon RLs improved in performance notably after about two months of summer riding.

I weigh about the same as you @ 75kg and run sag set at a 18% on the 130mm Recon fitted to my 130mm Habit and I’ll reach near enough full travel on most rides (XC loops with a bit of mild gnar and a few drops)

On the bits that matter (e.g. surfaces that bearings will run against), a little bit of wet and dry (100 grit). I also tend to find that a bit of UB-40 and a microfibre removes surface rust on bolds.

I guess you could paint it?

Thanks for the responses, all. You’ve at least reassured me that I’m not doing a mad thing reeming yet more metal out of my fork legs.

I think I’ll try tapping first, and if that goes wrong at least I’ve got helicoiling the hole that I’ve just bodged as a backup option.

My, that a very good looking steed, and a classy, well thought out build. Enjoy getting it muddy – the numbers suggest that’s going to be a hoot to ride.

I’ve got mixed views on Warner. An elder-statesman of our sport and damn fast back in the day. He used to rub shoulders with the likes of Pete, Palmer Rockwell and Vouilloz so certainly knows a thing or two about how to get a bike down a mountain.

Genuinely lovely guy too. He was generous enough to stop and chat to me and my similarly snot-nosed 17 year old mate at Bike ‘97, and used to chat with us local kids when he turned up at our local spot back in the day.

I do wish he’d tone it back on the swears though. I know it’s his personality to an extent, but it gets really tiring after a while, and frankly he’s old enough to know better.

erm, it gets hosed off after any particularly filthy rides, and a bit of GT85 or wet-lube when I’m feeling tinkery. Honestly, I’ve never considered it to be a part that needs servicing up until recently seeing a GMBN video on “servicing your rear mech in real-time”. After seeing that I might pop the clutch cover off every now and then and make sure it’s not full of grit.

Loved that! Thanks for putting together and sharing.

At last! A relatable edit that captures what I love about this sport – just getting out and doing some damn riding!

I’m sure someone will have studied the affect of stem stiffness on watts lost, but whether anyone (mortal or pro) would actually be able to notice in real life is another question.

if you like the idea of buying a Gucci stem, it’ll probably make you feel better about your bike, which in turn will probably have a positive impact on your sprinting. Buy the stem you like but don’t feel the need to justify it to anyone else. I doubt most people driving Ferraris or riding £12k super-bikes are exploiting them to the best of their abilities.

I went from some very ghetto 5+ owner coil-sprung Judy DHs (the original red ones) to a brand new (elastomer spring) Indy SL thinking it would be a step up. Bloody hateful thing. Boingy and awful for topping out.

I reckon there could be a market for selling internals for retro forks that made them acceptable to ride. Whilst I love to looks of the original Judys, RC35s etc, it’s difficult to convey how much of a game-changer the Bomber was when it arrived.