Suspension both ends; fine, feels balanced, don’t care how much travel.
Rigid both ends; fine, feels balanced.
Hardtail; nope, feels wrong.

Yes I have definitely had this feeling for exactly the same reasons.

I made an almost identical post about 5 years ago.

However when I was younger I ran a hardtail no problems and now I do tend to run my 29er hardtail with 80mm of suspension in the winter/for races.

So tastes can change.

But I do prefer the 29er with rigid forks if I can get away with them. Although on the downs the Suspension is good it just makes the bike feel “bobby” when climbng/on the flat.

I’d agree with Dave more now. I used to spend alot of time keeping my old bikes working / up to date.

But now adays its easier to sell the old one, and get a new one on cycle to work/interest free.

You have to do less maintenance + you just buy a new bike with all the new standards.

Upgrading is such a pain now.

I recently brought an planetX RT80. I had a merida cyclocross with stans alpha 340 schwalbe tyres.

The RT80 is about 1/2 km quicker. My first ride I beat my usual route by about 4 mins (@over ~ 1:22).

The stiffness of the frame was the first thing all the power from my feet felt like it was going in the wheels.

Also the wheels were heavier but appear to be quicker.
1. More aero
2. Stiffer
3. Probably in better condition.

The bike also seems more aero and rolls better.

I would say if u can afford it get a new one it will be quicker.

The whole point is nothing to do with aero. It is for control. Your hands hook into drops better than when they are draped over a flat bar and your wrists don’t suffer as much either.

I can kinda see this point especially with respect to wrists and a rigid fork. I can see that perfectly flat bars are nt maybe the best for a rigid bike offroad.

However a bike that is meant to be partly ridden onroad and offroad. Should have a “semi” aero position for the on road section.

You don’t use the tops as much as you’d think, and if you’re riding mainly on the hoods it usually means your bars are too low.

I agree with this but then what is the point of using road bars/hood/brakes at all. Then the user might as well go for the type of bar u are using above and MTB levers.

Im not saying what is the best solution.

Im just saying the current Road bar setup on CX bikes is a fudge that was no real advantages for any use.

Ditched the drops for my adventurey bike. 600mm flat bar w/cheap Shimano Hydros, Ergons, oh and clip on aero bars if there’s long road bits involved.

This makes sense to me.

And I’m guessing you’ve not done much CX then……..

No but I think alot of Singletrack readers get CX bikes as they want something to link bits of trail (think smallish hills ie chilterns, not Peak district) with road sections in between.

In theory they should be perfect for this, but there not.

They are good on road but due to the design off the bars much much worse than a 29er offroad.

Whether CX are perfect for CX racing is another story. But I still cant see the advantage of the position the drops give u on a CX course myself.

I think what they are good at is improving your riding, the position is so awkward u have to improve to be able to ride in it decently. In that way they are a bit like single speed and sometimes a change is good to improve ur riding.

You’ll also spend more time going along and up on a CX bike, where a lower position helps, as does being a bit more aero.

I agree, so have this as the standard position.

And then another higher/wider position for off road/DH.

The problem with the top levers is although they are higher, they make your effective bar very narrow (as other has stated) and are therefor also useless off road.

As you have said you have your drops high enough to be comfortable to ride offroad downhill.
Do you ever ride on the hoods now ?
Which sections do you ride on the hoods ?
What are the advantages ?
Is it just thats is a little bit more comfortable everynow and then ?
Is there really any point having this position anymore ?

If the drops are high enough to ride DH offroad there also probably high enough to ride in comfort on road.

For an ideal cyclocross bike the position a road bike produces on the hoods should be replicated for road sections.

This is “semi” aero and also very comfortable for long rides.

However the position for offroad should try and mimic an XC MTB bike.

Mimicking a “fully” aero position for the offroad sections is clearly wrong.

And your DH arguement is, um, puzzling.

Explain why I would want to be in a lower position off road than on road ?

Its like saying a XC 29er should have a high front end than a DH bike.

No, if it made sense to descend offroad in a lower position ; then DH bikes would have low front end which they dont.

The only thing the drops have going for them is the brakes are more easily accessed and you get a more solid grip of the bars than the hoods.

But these “advantages” are really down to a poor bar design for road/offroad use.

On-Road drops do make sense as if you really are trying to descend quickly then being in a more aero position will increase ur speed.

The Velo Orange Casey Crazy bars probably make the most sense to me.

But a riser bar where u hold onto the middle section for road bits also makes sense.

This is one of the reasons I sold my cross bikes. It makes no sense to descent off road in the drops.

On fully road bike drops makes sense as its is more aerodynamic, which is good even for descending.

Moving the bars to such a position that you can descend in the drops means that the standard position is less aerodynamic. And also pointless.

To be honest is anything the bars should be the other way up on a cross bike if you ask me.

You dont need an “uber” aerodynamic position as you have knobbly tryes on.

What you do need is a standard position that is “quite” aerodynamic for the road sections (ie narrow + low)

And a higher/wider position for offroad.

Top levers are pointless as they are even narrower and hence are no good offroad.

I like Egg beaters and I normally get a decent life out of them.

But in the end after 3-4 years I always find the engagement becomes loose.

There’s no way of tightening it is there ?

The rebuild for the pedals is just for the bearings isnt it

definitely wouldn’t get a CX bike, if your coming from a 140mm+ ish MTB bike.

I brought a CX bike, to use as both a road + offroad bike. But I just converted it into a road bike. Now I’ve got a proper road bike and I’m about to sell it.

If you wanted something quick on the road as well as off road, then you’d be much better with a rigid 29er, narrow bars, very light tyres. (bontrager team issue 1 1.9s are good or maybe thunderburts).

Ie an early 90’s MTB with all the latest gubbins.

There about a million times better than a CX bike off road.

But yeah lighter tyres.

See I wouldn’t be including Big Dipper here.

The entrance off the road is good, but then it just turns into a long flat drop.

I’d class it a good CX route. In the wet if its slimy and you get enough speed it can take some skill even on MTB. But alot of the time its just rolling down a hill.

It is a useful path I use it on my rides but to me its just a linker to get from one place to another.

I still havent done them 2 ! Have been meaning to for ages will try to get in this summer.

This is why I dont think the OS map is that good. There are soo many bridleways its difficult to pick out the good ones.

Lambridge Wood DH

Hi Jim,

I’ve joined your Strava group.

I’m based near Reading and know the Chilterns area south of the M40 pretty well.

I’d probably disagree with what is said above at least for the area south of the M40.

This area of the chilterns is full of bridleways and miles and miles of good CX trails, but in my opinion there arent actually that many great MTB dh’s.

“I suggest getting an OS map and just explore.” again this good but I have wasted alot of time exploring trails that turn out to be boring fire road.

In my opinion the best way to ride the chilterns is

Summer/Dry Weather – 29er Rigid with very light quick rolling tyres. Quickly
buzz between the best bits of trails. The rigid bike, makes the fairly tame trails more interesting.

Winter/Wet Weather – dont bother go to Swinely/Cannock/Elsewhere or for a road ride instead.

———-

Here is a route I did where I took in alot of good trails ->

route 1

This is a route I did which took in Grims Ditch which as you say is good

Route 2

This is a good example of some Routes I like to take in on my commute home ->

Commute

———-

Ok some DH’s I like

This includes the Up but the DH is one of my favourites in South Chilterns

Nuns Gulley good

Is a footpath but my favourite descent in the south Chilterns

Grims Ditch

Very Difficult Climb guess would be Good as descent mind

Quite difficult to follow this the whole way but good and varied

———-

Other bits I like

Pack and Prime Lane

Warburg hill

Furze Platt Single Track Good !

bluebell run in spring

I never really get bike services.

What exactly is he doing, most BB’s/Head Sets/Wheels are cartridge bearing nowadays.

They need to be replaced you cant grease them.

Surely you can clean and lube the chain your self.
Identify parts that needs replacing surely is obvious too ?

is not going to be the revelation I was hooping

I dont know what wheels / tyre combo your coming from.

But I went from some pretty average wheels/tyres, straight some really light stands rims, 2.1 racing ralphs and tubeless all in one go.

The combination of doing all 3 changes at once did make the the bike noticeably easier to pedal.

rons or ralph 2.25 or maybe 2.1

For an actual XC race

I like thinner is Im trying to link bridleways in the summer.

Only ones I can find bargin

it might be different if you could actually
1. buy tubeless tyres
2. buy tubeless tyres for a reasonable price.

Anyone know any shops with Schwalbe Pro One Tl/Easy 25mm in stock >?

On my alpha 340 rims. A normal tyre will not stay on tubless.

In fact you need to be really careful with pressures full stop. Even with a normal tube.

Im really regretting buying them to be honest.

I had a set of ultemo ZX or something that did seem to work well however, so its not all tyres.

never really got the point of drop bars off road

any one got a strava link to this would be good to see route. one above no longer woreks

second wheelset definitely.

I dont generally have a problem with the cassette.

Disc may need to be realigned which is a very quick job.

As said Ridgeway then back along the kennet and avon canal.

Although saying that I found the canal quite boring.

Where are you based ?

“My wife has many qualities, but one thing she still hasn’t fully grasped at 35 is that people are DIFFERENT.”

I’ve never heard anyone say this before, but this is my Mum to an absolute tee. She finds it very difficult to understand why anyone would do any thing different to her.

Its very very frustrating.

My wife is in someways similar to my Mum (arent they always), but this is one thing she doesn’t do ! And Im very thankful for it !

“schwalbe durano, 28”

I have some of these. They are good and reliable but different slower than my 25mm Ultemo ZX.

Depends what you want I suppose.

I thought 75% of racers in the Tour De France are on 25mm now.

I think there a move to larger tyres in general both MTB and Road.

I used to love reading Fiction books as a Kid read loads and load and loads. Alot of SciFi + Fantasy to be fair.

As I’ve got older I stopped reading quite so much fiction.

I still do enjoy the occasional fiction book however.

A couple of years ago I started watching Game of Thrones. I really loved the first series so decided to read the first book.

However I found it very hard going particularly to begin with. It appeared to me the sentence, “John ruffled Ayra’s hair playfully” or “John patted Ayra on the head lovingly” appeared at least once a page for the first 20 pages or so.

I expect this is because actually because George R. R. Martin is good with plots (ie good story teller) but not actually a good writer but no one wants to admit it.

I’ve also tried reading some Bernard Cornwell as well but the prejudices of the writer just come out so clearly and that annoy’s me and I have to stop.

Also I used to love Terry Pratchett but I find him quite hard to read now, he’s not as funny as when I was a kid, and to a lesser extent his world view and political positions do come across in his writing and it kinda annoys me that Im being preached to again.

I’ve actually found more less obvious stuff easier to read Fiction wise recently I really enjoyed Wind in the Willows + Jungle Book.
Also Anthologies of short stories are good too.

What I find in my mind is the story is going to be amazing multiplayer characters will be complex and rich. But I usually find the story to be simple and the characters flat and just being reflections of the writers personality. The common one in Fantasy books is the author will be American have had a bad experience with Christianity as a child/teenager and the Christians will all be evil and the pagans good, its so obvious and boring next !

Sometimes I think I prefer TV programmes because having a team of script writers tends to remove these issues.

One extra thing to try is visit the dentist + Hygienist.

If there is any decay in the teeth obviously the dentist should sort it.

But also make sure they really clean near the gums.

Even if you dont have much pain in the mouth it come be Teeth/Gum issues.

I’ve had this a couple times. Last time I was SURE it was nt my teeth and didnt go to the dentist for ages (even though it had happened before). Once I’d got my teeth sorted within a couple of weeks I was a right as rain. Should of gone earlier.

the canals paths round me get soo muddy in the winter so sounds like a good thing.

I got a CX bike a couple of years ago. But to be honest its just morphed into a road bike with disc brakes (and bad angles).

For me drop bars are sooooo much worse than flat bars (for pretty much everything other than aero positions) to the point that its completely pointless using a drop bar bike for anything other than out and out road.

Im quite happy with skinny tires, rigid forks, narrow bars etc but putting drop bars on the bike just ruins it for me offroad.

can some one define what “cooking” is before I answer this question

It seems to involve “ingredients” and from “scratch”.

Me and my wife like stir frys and we like rice, also we dont “need” particularly strong flavours, we also like vegatables.

So normally the plan is fry up what ever meat we have, ie chicken, turkey, beef, lamb. Boil up some rice.

Then cut up a load of vegatable’s what ever we have ie onions, peppers, runner beans, courgeuts, brocoli, what ever is there.

We then normally add a few herbs/garlic or ginnger to add a bit of taste.

This takes no time about 20mins, no thought and no skill. It often quicker than putting a ready meal in oven (although u cant sit down).

Is this “cooking” ?

surely this is due due to lower energy + material prices.

I remember shimano stuff going up alot I think just after the recession ie 2009

would be useful for communiting the folding aspect is really useful.

Particularly useful for Boris Bikes where you dont bring your own bike/lock.

I agree to some extent dont really understand why u’d take a 4 month old to centre parcs.

if the kid was 6-12 I might say suck it up.

I dont really see what you can do as a family with a 4 month old in centre parcs.

To be honest I’d rather go without the kid at least u can do the activities then.

I’ve got a 5 month old at the moment, and with a 4 month old like you say you just want to go some with nice views cos in reality you cant do anything much.

Could lose some weight off u/bike if you want to be faster up hills.