I’m pretty much in the who cares camp so suspect all being well mine iwll look rather similar – though none of my saddles are white 🙂

So – to continue this thread and the OP’s question about HT’s and the Red.
I tend to find there’re riders who’ll fly past me on a HT on ground I struggle to deal with on my Five, never mind the HT. Like one of my mates for example who can ride things on a HT I can’t bring myself to go near on any bike.
So apols in advance for extending the question, but what’s your views on rider ability PLUS HT.
For example if the Laggan Red is nae problem, but I wouldnae go near the Black (nor Ayers Rock thingie (and yes I’ve ‘tried’ to get myself ovr the edge), where does the Nevis Red sit? Happy with the GT ‘black’ apart from the entrance to Worm Hole …
You folks know loads more than I – asking cos don’t wanna waste a long drive to a place where could be wasting my time n money.

Interesting – which kind of dropper ? And in what way did it fail ?

Run both.
Puncture very rarely on hardtail with tubes.
Had one in the last year tubeless on FS which was a monumental PITA to fix in bloody cold weather, raining, latex everywhere cos was a sidewall problem. Saying that it would have been a pain with tubes, but probably less so as i woldn’t have bothered trying to seal it first and i wodn’t have got as covered in latex either.
Saying that – still tubeless on FS, still tubed on HT.
It was a pain to set up tubeless though – that’s another thing. But used to it now.

Cracking day out. Weather – well hey ho. Course was fabby, found some of the natural stuff challenging but that’s just my own abiity talking. Great fun.
Overtaking manners generally good which helps make the dsy at these kind of things.

Top job from all the builders, organisers, sponsors. Trailfairies for course stuff, I assume The Hub had a part to play in organising … roll on next year.

What I did recently was …..

Stick tyre on, inflate dry with CO2 just to prove to myself the bead seats, then just to make sure it’s holding I stuck a track pump on it for a bit …. it’ll still leak air cos tyre is porous but used that to keep it ‘in shape’ for a bit.

But once you know that works you can either just stick the sealant in, then CO2 it to inflate (make sure valve is at top of wheel (i.e. furthet away from sealant) if you do this as the CO2 can make some of the sealant go ‘off’ and rubbery.
OR try this ….
I did this and it worked fine … I wiped both sides of the tyre at the bead with sealant. Then I CO2’d it, but no worries with sealant going off cos there’s hardly any in.
Then let it deflate naturally as the tyre walls are porous, but the bead will now be ‘stuck’. Either remove core and stick sealant in if you’ve got one of the sealant atachment things, or detach a small bit of tyre and pour it in, and cos the bead it ‘stuck’ now, it will just inflate with a track pump.

Never had uch luck with multiple tyre makes, wheels, when using soapy water.

Re cassette – not tried SRAM, but I’ve got an XT cassette running on my main bike and it has lasted well.
On same bike also have those SPXC6 wheels with 24 straight pull spokes. Haven’t had any problems at trail centres. Don’t use them all the time, but when i do they seem to be fine – Strathpuffer on a full suss, or GT/Inners for example on Black/Red.
And they’re fun.
I had the same worry re how long they’d last, but I’ve had them a year and they’re perfect.
Wouldn’t take them on a long mountain route as I’m pretty sure they’d be ‘unwell if they lose just one spoke, but trail stuff, fine.
Also beieve that if they’re built right, then they’ll take as much as anything else. It’s poor build that has these going ‘off’.
I’ve got 355’s on mine, but would now go for Crests.

Hope that helps 🙂

Warming up eveywhee bar the East and North of Scotland it appears.
8-10 deg in the central belt, even higher down south. Still 3 degrees up on the NE coast and North. Not high enough temps to be melting good ice though.
PS. you can get a frost at 3 degress or less I believe, depending on various other conditons

Anyone riding the trails today/tomorrow to check them out?

Could be fun …..

I’m 5’9″ and have an 18″ after having spent one evening on a 16, then one evening on an 18, both at Glen Tress.
I couldn’t tell the difference to be honest so I spent a fair bit of time talking to The Hub folk and went for 18. Been having a great time on it for the last year and a half. I am running a 70mm stem with it as a compromise.

Replacing brake blocks on an old bik that are not designed to fit.
They work. Top !!

Currently using Platypus for Hillwalking, Source (in Deuter bags) and Camelbak for Riding.
Source/Deuter the best – can use them for anything, and if either the Camelbak or Platypus finally give up then Source bag will be re-used.
Source ones velcro nicely into Deuter rucksacks aswell as a small extra feature.
But mainly they fill sooooooo easily, in any conditions, be it from a river at minus temps when my wide neck Platypus fills but I can't close it due to the press fit being too cold, and the Camelbak is fiddly cos of the opening and narrow fill Platypus' are a PITA filling from natural sources.

3 of 3, though the riding to work bike is struggling with gearing just now despite new cables, cassette, crankset and chain. Think the hanger is goosed but it's an ancient old Bike Co-op bike, and live nor work anywhere near the place anymore.
'5' is rock n roll
Kona HT is pretty good though front fork remote lockout disnae work anymore – disnae spring back – have to haul the cable !

D1 – Drive to Kirroughtree. Ride it after you get there. Job done.
D2 – Drive up to Aviemore / Newtonmore area. Newtonmore is nearer Laggan, Aviemore nearer Rthiemurcus forest. I'd go for the latter. Relax, chill, whatever. Or go for a local ride.
D3 – Laggan Wolftrax for half a day. Ruthven Barracks for sightseeing. Walk up 'The Glen' for handy walk with wife. Loads to do.
D4 – Half day either up into the Cairngorms to one of the lochs – an out and back the same way route of the mountain variety which I can look out later, or a few hours round Rothiemurcus – easy stuff in Rothiemurcus forest but great fun and in the shadow ofthe Cairngorms. Nice. As someone said Bothy Bikes can provide local routes too/maps.
D5 – repeat some of above, do anything not done already.
D6 – If you like harder stuff – the Red at Fort William if it's still open, or just go do half a day on "Ten Under the Ben" at Fort William which isn't as hard but is definitely Red and is definitely fn having done a few laps of it at the event this year. Shops and cafes available in town while you ride half a day. Drive back to Newtonmore
D7 – drive home (if your really keen drive home via a Borders trail centre. Bear in mind allowing 2hrs from newtonmore to Edinburgh, 30/40 minutes to Peebles, then you've still got to get to Mx I guess.

I used three different garages last year and no joy. Like some say, most are these new-fangled types that don't give continuous high flow.

But nevertheless, sometimes it's just the tyre + rim that's the problem IMHO. I found with one particular combo of tyres and rims that it simply wasn't going to happen so I gave up. Despite subsequently doing this for half a dozen rim / tyre combons successfully, when I went back to the original combo I'd tried last year I still couldn't make it work, and this time I got a bike shop compressor, wrapped the tyre round the middle, used every conceivable 'trick' and no joy. So I think sometimes it just ain't gonna happen (that was a rim strip option as they were Mavic rims).
Another set of (same type – 317's) Mavic rims and another set of the same tyres (Nobby Nics) did go up using Co2. No problem either !
Inexplicable. Same method used on both. One set took 15 minutes, another set took 3 weeks of trying on and off. And much frustration.

So for all the instructions on the site, given I follow them to the letter, and successfully make it work on some combos I think it's actually down to tyre + rim and whether there's some sort of incompatibility.
Personal view.

V smooth to use. Fairly short post so watch out tall riders with small frames. Nae bother for me though.
Sadly, been leaking oil since it arrived, and is now dropping 1.5" as soon as I sit on it when it's fully raised. Disappointing after only two rides.

I dunno … I found it great to be out again, but confidence severely dented. On what I conider to he 'hard' terrain, a yeat later I've nae bottle. After 2 months I couldn't physically do the same stuff, but after about 4 months I thought … this is better … not sure if it's simple to get back to wwere one was tho'.

Cracking pics, and thanks for the write-up. Not many cloud free days in Glenshee.

Unfortunately – that road is the standard route for many walkers up those Munro's – especially walkers taking young children to the hills.

Wasn't aware of the MTB angle now in place, which sounds like great fun, but something will have to be done re the walking/biking thing.

How will (and I include my own family in this) a 4 or 5 year oldreact when they see a bike coming at them. Answer – completely unpredictably.

All of this written with no knowledge of whether there's something in place to direct one group one way and another another of course, or whether this is a new track built separate from the one I'm thinking about too – if it's brand new, marked as MTB only and the existing one is still there, then possibly just some marking req'd.

PS. Walkers with headphones on – I don't wear them, but some do – not really sure that's cause for tagging them muppets 🙂 unless of course there's something that says "watch out – downhillers about" that they'll have definitely seen in which case you'd simply expect people not to be there, headphones are irrelevant.
In my time I've seen more MTB'ers with headphones than walkers is another thing.

Ducks now, pending some sort of walking/biking debate 🙂

Kind of get that re the XC3/XC6's – I only got them cos I couldn't get ProII Hubs + 355 or Crests – very bizarre situation but ended up being very happy with them in the end. Agree they're prob not much lighter though, so back to the OP question – Crests on ProII Hub sounds like a great idea.

Thanks all – that gives me some good ideas.
Budget not fixed but was thinking say £300ish; could go higher if persuaded, particularly if going tubeless seemed worthwhile and required spend on new tyres.

PS. If going tubeless and wanting lightweight, consider not buying tubeless ready tyres – just get normal ones if you're getting Stans rims and let the fluid fill up the pores in the tyre.
With Stans rims you only use a ridiculously thin and strong yellow tape to seal the rim, then just fit the tyre with some fluid and off you go. Sometimes a faff getting the tyre up inflated for the first time, but Ive managed the last lots with just a track pump. It's the beauty of the Stans rims setup in my opinion.
Worked for me with Rocket Rons, Nobby Nics, Maxxis Ardents

Echo the Stans Crest recommendations – and if you want to start reducing spoke count, think about Pro3 Hubs on Stans rims – they did exist when 355's were the rim as the SP-XC6 and SP-XC3 I think, so could be the new Crest rim can be built on to those Pro3 hubs too.
With that you're down into one spoke gone and the wheel will be so out of true it'll be walking time I think, but it's a lightweight setup. And many folk say the strength of a wheel is in it's build quality, so a decent rim with less spokes will do a lot of folk.
I've done about 30 hours on SP-XC6's around Innerleithen and Glen Tress, tubeless, and Ten Under the Ben – still straight and true. Though have changed back to a heavier wheelset now just in case and want to keep the lighter ones for a looong time if I can.

Yeah – that sounds like my experience in Torridon on random terrain and likewise in centres – I just can't take the sore back pedalling uphill with the saddle down.

Tis a fair point Northwind, though may be some time before I can ride that course.
P'raps in my next life 🙂
never down any 'downhill' in my life so usually just reach a point where I want to put hesaddle down but get fed up having to get off the bike to do it.
Pretty sure I'll be getting a remote though anyway.

drop in grip

Apols if a daft question – what does this mean compared to normal grip round corners etc – is it specific to drop-offs or something?

PS. Notice they're 2.1 or 2.35 – I've got used to 2.25's on Schwalbe and Maxxis – do you use 2.35's ? IIRC you're another '5' rider yes?
I'm gonna put these on some Arch rims.

Yeah – hence fancy'ing a move to something heavier but wanted to hear some other views. The rockier bits of GT black are pretty rough edged for lightweight tyres. And i wanna keep the RR's healthy for the odd sprint round the NoFuss 10's Series events 🙂

So Northwind – a kenda fan then from that ? Heard a lot of the small block seems always well regarded. Heard nowt about the Nevegal so will go Google 🙂

shedfull – very insightful – I too suffer from prolonged calf and achilles problems which podiatrists and physios keep trying to treat in various ways. i was fine running a hakf marathon in 'later life' but suspect my subsequent problems are as much MTB related as that's the newest activity to me over the last couple of years. I've oft said this to physio/pod's that I feel it's cycling that's leading to running soreness thru some sortof relation. Interesting to hear your thoughts on this too !

Cheers.

They get a mention in this months MBR I see. Marked as one of the 50 MTB Essentials.
Well I just hope the i7 is a good unit and turns up in the next week :-).

So has anyone already got one of these and got a remote lever kit and know how good the remote function is? Is it worth the extra dosh?

Now available for pre-order at superstar finally 🙂
Looking fwd to getting a hold of it 🙂 irrespective of it's appearance !!! Just want one of these that work to save the uppy downy seatpost stops 🙂

Aye – I've liked the Rocket Ron's on dry trails. For rougher ground though, and wetter weather I fancy generally more grip, wondering if a heavier tyre will handle better in the rough stuff and be any grippier or whether that's nonsense given it's the rubber that grips not weight as such – but usually the 'heavier' tyres are more suited to rougher ground??
Have both you see, and trying to decide how to set the bike up.

Nowt other than riding the bike up n bown the street to tell the pads to work with the rotors nicely. Then back in the garage till this weeks evening rides … hey ho 🙂

I'm up for joining one of these – is it a std Wed thing then ? (newbie).
Working in the Gyle so could always head direct to wherever if it's Pentlands.

I wore a short sleeve 150 this morning for my ride. Thin and comfy, and on it's own ideal for riding for me. I use the same mountaineering too once it gets to Summer – both involve lots of effort, rucksacks/camelbaks and Merino has done the trick for me now for years. I just go to long sleeves when it's cooler and then layer them in Winter.

Thanks for that – really helpful. If i could turn back time 18 months now 🙂

So what does the Hadley do then? Presumably still a QR type arrangement in the std dropouts ? But 10mm instead of 9mm?

Ignoramus question now – sorry in advance – how's that work then?
Just not sure what the difference is between that and what I've got other than one mm. So the swingarm still has the same dropout and therefore the same capability to 'drop' the axle if I change to 10mm? Just a bit stiffer maybe?
In fact am I being daft – does the Maxle arm mean you've got an axle like the 15QR I have up front? vs the current one which can fall out ?
This is prob daft, so pls help clarify if you can.

Think its about 500 or something to get a new swingarm – i may be wrong though.

Oh noooooo. If I'd only known more when I ordered it. Bums.

+1 Squirt here. And i don't feel i need to leave it to dry and do a 2nd coat either – first time after a complete chain clean it's handy, but after that once and done is good enough – works great, things are smoother. Spot on.

All very bizarre – not sure what peep-peeped means nor Trailquest.
Reason I say this is that tells me there will be others like me who simply don't know what these things are and won't be aware.
I will of course now prob go and find out but that's not the point.

Saying all of that I usually know when someone's coming up behind me on the trail and make a point of letting them past and if I'm approaching others on an overtakable bit of trail like Wolftrax today with three abreast in front of me I usually just say can i get past on the right/left etc. Voice usually tells folk it's not their mate behind them.

All in all seems a bit mental to start swearing at folk without waiting a sec though.