Have ridden both sizes quite a bit. As a general rule I’d say 29+ is excellent for long fast stuff in rough terrain. 27+ is noticeably more maneuverable in tighter twistier stuff. Both give loads of traction, a nice comfy ride and a bit of that ‘monster truck’ fat bike feeling.

The notion that 29+ isn’t suitable for smaller riders is typical patronising cr@p

For production frames it’s basically impossible to avoid toe overlap on small 29+ frames. You can make that choice on a custom frame that you are going to deal with it or make other adjustments to minimise it. But a production bike with toe overlap will not pass EN regulations.

650b+ is for manufacturers wanting to jump on a bandwagon by sticking new wheels in a 29er frame.

I disagree, both wheel sizes are significantly different from regular 29 or 27.5 sizes. The original thrust behind 27+ was exactly so that you could fit fattish tyres to an existing frame. I don’t see how that helps manufacturers sell bikes….

Track is definitely the purest form of cycling sport as there are no climbs, no peletons, no tactics, it’s just you and the other guy toe to toe, fastest man wins.

As per Crazylegs, probably as a result of its simplicity track racing is incredibly tactical and strategic.

I’ve got the more water repellent version of that Mavic jacket and it’s very good. Lots of wide reflective tape placed so that it can actually be seen, not just some cheesy thin piping. And bright as a very bright thing during the day – I reckon hi-viz orange is more visible than yellow which can get a bit lost against a background of green trees/grass.

Should also have mentioned, I wouldn’t say Chronicles are hugely better than Knards in the really wet stuff. And Bomboloni’s aer now available in the Singular webshop. :-)

why 275+ and not go the whole fat hog?

For me the advantages are speed, versatility, and width.

27+ is lighter and rolls faster than full fat while giving you much of the traction, roll-over and floatation benefits of fat.

You can easily swap in some regular 29″ wheels if you want to, great for people who already have 29″ wheels around.

You have standard width hubs and BB. I don’t really like adapting to the wide Q on a full-fat bike.

Plus, you don’t have to answer quite so many ‘jeez, look at those wheels’ questions.

Sam – you fancy showing us the new geometry charts?

Don’t have a version which is postable here as yet but if you are interested drop me an email and I can send you a pdf. They are pretty much the same as the current Swift with the exception of a little slacker head angle and addition of a small size.

Done Mavics with the threaded inserts which were a pain but not the end of the world. You mean there are rims with regular size holes and no holes in the inner wall? That sounds like an enormous PITA and I fail to see the advantage….

7500km, less than 1000 on the mtb…

No, they are both previous batch – blue one is in the livery of the new ones. Yes, even the old (cream) frames will fit a 27.5×3.25 and the new ones will have a smidge more clearance.

Sam – do you have any more info on this ‘new’ Swift?

– Back to the old blue but with a black downtube panel.
– slight reshaping of chainstays to work well with any 27+ tyres.
– added rear rack mounts
– added bottle cage boss under downtube
– slightly slacker head angle and longer rake fork
– option of fork with anything cage mounts

That’s about it, everything else the same as the previous batch.

Sam – do you have any more info on this ‘new’ Swift?

– Back to the old blue but with a black downtube panel.
– slight reshaping of chainstays to work well with any 27+ tyres.
– added rear rack mounts
– added bottle cage boss under downtube
– slightly slacker head angle and longer rake fork
– option of fork with anything cage mounts

That’s about it, everything else the same as the previous batch.

Not much of a fan of Bulldozers in full fat flavour but haven’t tried the 29+. Currently really liking the Bombolonis as well and still have some in stock – drop me a mail if interested.

I’d like it if you could send across a whole plan from TR to the TP calendar, would make it a lot easier than doing it by hand!

Yep, that’s exactly what I wanted it to do. Here’s there response I got from TR – who were extremely prompt and helpful I have to say!

Hey Sam! Thanks for the suggestion! We actually have big plans to add both of those features in the near future. Right now we are focused on finishing up the revamp of our desktop app, but once that is complete, adding a calendar feature that allows you to save, edit, and track your TrainingPlan will be one of our top priorities. The option to sync your training plan to TrainingPeaks is a little further down the line, but it is definitely on our list

It does seem odd that she is barred from racing with men if that’s her choice. IIRC there was a case of a canadian (?) downhiller a few years back who was going through surgery/hormone therapy. Early on in the process there was some resistance from female competitors at having to compete against her, but as the hormones took effect any advantage was quickly negated. She continued to be competitive but by no means walked all over the women’s field.

mismatches between the gender identity of the athlete and the physical attributes that they have

True, if I were a woman I’d be pretty damn fast – as it is I’m decidedly average….

Agreed on the Swift :-) New version has had a few little tweaks to work optimally with either <29×2.4 or 27.5+ tyres. Leaving Taiwan this week (finally…) so will be available in January.

Had a FB chat with them and apparently an in app calendar/planning function is in development to be launched soon. Interaction with TP calendar is also planned but a bit further off.

I just think it would be a good way to give you a nudge to say ‘you should be doing session X today’. Good call on dropping them a mail Whitestone, will do so. I contacted them via FB when I was having some setup issues and they were very prompt and helpful.

Am I right in thinking that syncs completed rides with those programs? What I want to do is to upload the plan (like this) to a calendar, maybe in Training Peaks, but even just as a calendar file to load in to Google Calendar would be fine as well.

I’ve already got it syncing completed rides to Strava and TP.

Just signed up for Trainerroad to try to add a bit more structure to some winter training. Looking to begin one of their plans tomorrow (short power build) and am trying to see whether it is possible to export a Trainerroad plan to easily integrate with a calendar?

I don’t know what UnReal is but Signatures is the best snow film I’ve ever seen.

Koski type hooded vertical dropouts.

Disc Kites are very nearly on the way (fingers crossed they will be on a boat leaving Taiwan on Wednesday. Meaning they will be available mid Jan.

In the end I opted for a standard BB as I didn’t want to add the weight of an eccentric or the potential pitfalls of pressfit. So not readily ss-able, otherwise it will do all those things. Though an eno hubbed rear wheel to swap in there makes it reasonably easy :-)

Why not put them on the inside of the fork blade?

I think in future I will include them in the box, then people can stick them where they want – so to speak ;-)

Yeah, it’s the 3/4 race, think I’m on 29 points at the moment so might just make it with a couple of good results. Anyhow I am entered so we shall see. Forecast is now looking pretty horrible….

Sounds good, thanks for the feedback. More crashes than Hillingdon? Noticed that it’s a C+ race so hoping to accumulate a few more points before the end of the year :-)

Can we please have one with a tapered steerer?

Maybe, there are a couple of things holding me back… 1. probably over 75% of the Swift builds I see are rigid. 2. A tapered headtube looks rubbish with anything other than a tapered steerer fork. The tapered forks on the Rooster and Puffin ride great with the big tyres, but are overkill with a regular <2.4″ mtb tyre. Plus they weigh a lot. Yes, you could use a straight steerer and zerostack lower cup but that looks horrendous (see Krampus). Additionally, I am looking in to the possibility of sourcing some straight steerer suspension forks specifically for us.

Can I have all those stickers you don’t use,

Maybe not quite all of them as occasionally people want them, but you can have a bundle if you like for the cost of postage – just drop me a mail.

might even be the same tubes just not paying Reynolds for the 520 stickers.

Yes, they are Reynolds 520 blades. I do pay for the stickers, just don’t put them on because I don’t like them.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys, glad you like your Swifts! Just had word the new ones should finally be here before the end of the year. I have a couple of old stock XL frames I can do a killer deal on if anyone is keen.

I’ve removed anodising from loads of stuff having gone theough a silver parts only phase some years ago. As above, it’s easily enough done with some caustic soda and some care. I wouldn’t be concerned about loss of strength as most colour anodising is very thin and far from structural. What you would need to be wary of is caustic staying too long inside the rim cavity – just do a small section then rinse thoroughly and repeat.

All that said, I currently have some polished Velocity Duallies on one bike and they look great when alll clean amd shiny but are a bitch to look after….

Bloody hell, seriously?

Edit: just checked the news, awful…. He was really one of the most electrifying players I ever saw.

hope that whatever you’ve wedged under the roller doesn’t snag on anything……

Like what exactly? The friction of the towel against the roller is a lot less than the tyre. I wasn’t saying it’s a better solution than a resistance unit or turbo for regular training, but for warmups at an event I’ve found it a great way to get some harder efforts in when just spinning the rollers does not give you the resistance you need.

Different tyres make an enormous difference to the amount of resistance. On training wheels with chunky 28 gatorskins on them at 80psi they give a pretty solid amount of resistance. With race wheels at 180 there’s virtually none at all. A good trick for adding some resistance during warm ups is to wedge a folded up towel under the back roller – you need to experiment with thickness to get the resistance right.

B12, Krill oil, Creatine and Beta-Alanine.

I may have something Amedias – drop me a mail.

Sam@singular etc.

Have the same problem after having been racing track at night – max efforts at 10pm… pretty much all of the above as well as chamomile tea and herbal nytol.

Absolute bullshít – that was at least 2m forward….

No, I think being able to fit them in 29ers is a side effect that the industry probably didn’t intend.

I think you’ll find that was very much the original idea.

Is it just me that doesn’t have any lack of grip or traction with standard 29 wheels on 2.3’s

Try them and see.

Traction, it’s all about the traction

Horrible news! Also had the pleasure of visiting Charlie and Jacquie a few years back. It’s hard to overstate the impact Charlie had on the mountain (and indeed road) bikes we ride today. A true visionary.

Kenny, drop me a line, would be great to hear from you!

I want to move to Majorca, great mtb, road, and even a nice indoor track. Fabulous weather, good food…. if there is some nice gravel as well….

The squeak is just the shell rubbing against the rails. A number of possible fixes for it, best I’ve found is gluing a small piece of cloth (I used a bit of old cloth bar tape) at the point of contact. You can also just smear a bit of grease in there but that tends to be a short term solution.

As a long time Swift user I really like them – similar shape without going saggy over time and more weather resistant.