I hates my hope e4’s for months – zero power and confidence killing. Never clicked it could be the Uber race matrix pads. As a last attempt before selling them i thought i’d try hope pads.

Night and day. So much better and heaps more power.

Would never touch anything else except maybe Galfer – hopes are rebranded Galfer pads. Even have Galfer stamped on the back!

Ditch the kmc imho. I thought the same but old / new kit made no difference. I think internal dimensions are fractionally smaller than the big S’s and i think its flex that causes it. When chain line gets more angular it causes the issue.

Clue for me was the speed the anodising wore off the chainring teeth and yhe side of the chainring that lost the colour.

What chain? KMC?

I’ve been plagued by this for months until recently. I’ve always been a KMC man but first my full bouncer, then hardtail then both drop bar bikes developed the same rumble under power. All running 1x. And all following new chains post March 20. Tried alsorts from jockey wheels to BB spacing to chainrings to different cassettes and never fully went.

Then swapped to sram chains and instant silence. Running across a mix of shimano, sram and Sunrace.

Came to the conclusion KMC now prioritise bling over function. Not the first to be reporting KMC issues.

Thats what i’m running so yeah…should be fine. Just be careful of different wear. Apparently! Cant say i’ve had problems but ant mechanic would say dont mix old /new and so on.

12sp will run on 11 sp too. Tis only the out dimensions of the chain that vary. 11-12sp have same internal spec. I had clearance issues so swapped all my 11sp to 12sp chains.

Only issue i have found is KMC chains are recently shat. And internally 11sp chains are too narrow for SRAM 11sp mtb mech jockey wheels.

I’m fairly sure MBR did a review of them and have something floating round my head that they weren’t astounding tyres.

Found this https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/components/tyres/mountain-bike-tyres/pirelli-scorpion-mtb-s-tyre-review/

There’s good and bad in all brands. Depending on the site, i had an interesting chat with Bird and also Leisure lakes about procurement practices of that big orange brand that owns the big blue brand and which market products are intended for. so go with eyes open. Specifically they were actually talking about tyres and little things like the med market tyres will have slightly different compounds to the same tyre intended for our british climes. No idea how true but neither spoke overly highly of said retailer. OEM taken off bikes & sold as new and so on.

No means intended to be a rant or thread hijack but as you say, there’s usually a reason for unusual things :)

I like to speak to someone so have gone back to supporting my LBS or smaller companies I can still get on the phone to.

TBH a lot will depend on set up and ride style so good for one will be crap for someone else. I’ve got minions on one bike and superb. Same tyres on another and utter disaster.

At the moment I think “in stock” counts for loads so possibly answered your own dilemma? if a good deal Might be worth a punt.

BUT, i do hope they’re better than their car tyres. Had Scorpions on my XC60. Grip was shat and they didnt last!

Not cheap but the new Conti Kaiser / Der Baron are hands down the best tyres I’ve used in winter slop. Got em direct off Bird. Cried at the price but after a couple of rides and clearing stuff I’d normally slip and slide and riding past everyone slipping and falling off the crying turned to quiet smile.

I give em to my tight arsed East Lancs mates. They can make a set of tyres last about 17 years. “Mullet…..thats a penny farthing isnt it”??!!😁

exposure do make good lights. But there are defintely better options. Especially for the road.

Hopefully I got this imgur thing right but top 2 piccys – 3k lumen with a cut-off. pitch black country lanes…become daylight. ANd not blinding from the front. Outbound Lighting.

Bottom 2 – 1150 lumen expsosure blinding.

I usually run the Outbounds’s on adaptive which starts high then gradually dims as your eyes adjust to prolong battery but put em on, let em rip and never have to think about dip / bright / faff for buttons. Fit and forget….well I still have to turn them on! Cant recommend them highly enough.

Roadie Night Riding

But still a blind everyone style lens even if they do call it road specific! They’d be far better off designing a decent lens and reflector.

Not missing anything. I’ve had their sirius and the strada road specific. Nothing road specific about them. The sirius has a small lip to try and stop the light spill upwards and the strada a lens to bend light sideways. But the lenses are nothing but tinkered with MTB blind everyone on full.

IMHO overpriced and you can get better for less. Even the offroad exposure ones i’ve now ditched. Magicshine offer better value and better beam on the trail.

Personal unscientific tests i’ve found do everything you can to NOT look like a road cyclist at night. Ditch flashing lights and hi vis and try to look like a motorbike.

Tis all down to speed perception. At night its really hard and most motorists think cyclist = slow = i can pull out. But i can be crusing at 20-30mph. Just like a car in town.

And moon aerite on the bars. Again – perception. Most motorists judge space from the red light. On a bike your bars can be another 30cm out. A car door mirror 10cm so thats 20cm of space they dont need to give you. Stick an aerolite on the drops and distance is judged relative to the light.

Just my unscientific experiments but i’ve got to the point night riding on road for me is now safer than daylight road riding!

I’ve worked through loads of lights and come to the conclusion practically every offering in the UK is plain and simple useless for road riding if you want to see with them. Even so called “road specific beams”. Too much light spill blinds anyone and everything. To bee seen then anything less than 100 lumens does the job.

To actually see with then Another +1 for stvzo but also anything with a shaped beam.

i use Outbound Lighting downhill package. Got em on kickstarter before they launched officially. Absolutely stunning lights. Not STVZO compliant but their shaped beam has the same effect. I run both the road and trail on the road. Both lights on full on unlit country roads and theres more light than a car headlight. To the point i can see cars noticeably slow AFTER they’ve passed me. And with them set properly I’ve never been flashed once from oncoming vehicles.

Its like riding in daylight with them on and from the front i look like a motorbike. after 3 years of 40ml daily commute with them I’ve never had a car pull out from a side ride in front of me at night. Plenty slam the brakes on and i can watch the front end dip as the “ crap….kill a motorcyclist and i go to prison” overrides the “kill a roadie cyclist and I get a medal” thoughts.

FWIW i run ultegra calipers but some cheapass shimano rotors – organic pads only.

At the end of winter i swapped pads for some disco brake pads and instant howl like a banshee. Lower grade shimano rotors dont like any metal pads whatsoever.

Back to resin pads, a bit of squeal. A little brake caliper alignment and all good. Back to silence.

I presume the wheel / arch and or frame contact is the only issue? No contact = no issue?

Hopefully it’d only be short term anyway.

Exactly my thoughts. Gotta strip one bike first so reluctant to do if i only end up putting it back together.

20yrs ago i was told point blank NO to Tioga Factory 2.3 with Bomber Z1’s. Similar crash and die stories. Resulted in an amazing bike to ride!

re: the VAT etc – nor do many US sellers or any european sellers that ship to the UK.

I bought a 45650b ages ago and experienced all the negatives on here.

I recently bought a London road as i wanted a cheap frame for my turbo. Unbelievably it came withouth BB threads drilled. Fully expected a horrendous experience but in fairness to them their service this time was faultless and I had the frame back and a brand new replacement (having purchased a “second” off ebay) all within a week.

They are a price point lower than everywhere. Something has to give.

Credit where credits due. Called USE last week and cant fault their service at all.

The problem…..the routing on my frame is ridiculously tight and sharp, despite being set up for internal routing. Think those knife sharpeners that create a tight V from some rollers that you then run your knife through to sharpen it. Thats the routing style inside my KTM. Restricted the cable movement. Then the post tightens naturally when it drops.  Apparently first few shipped werent tightened too much To resuce the risk of overtightening. So tight / restrictive frame choking the cable movement combined with not overly tight bottom nut conspired to undo the post. Later production posts are now much tighter so wont be a problem

anyway, brand new post and cable along with some bits and pieces and some ideas from them to try and fix my frame issues.  They’ve clearly spent time thinking about a solution so not just a fob off “give him a New post to shut him up”. Thanks guys and much appreciated. And in all honesty far better help than had i gone through my LBS.

So the million dollar question…..have i fitted the new one and does the new one work?  Sure it does. But in all honesty my frame is a complete faff to route cables through so I’ve not fitted it yet. Its cranks off,BB out then at least an hour to thread the cable from down tube to seat tube and I’ve currently got an externally routed reverb. will probably leave it like that for now. Only finished building the bike 10 days ago and cant be bothered to strip it down already.

BUT that’s no fault of the post. When i get some time spare it’ll probay be going on my Rocky Mountain that has sensible cable routing and internal frame guides for cables & hoses  no faffing and simple fit and forget routing.  Or possibly my winter bike which isnt stealth routing but does have an open bottom on the seat tube.

Anyway, happy…..for now!!!! :)

Thanks….at 50-60 it wouldnt rebound fully but maybe just that post. Will see how i get in with the replacement.

If she can sort shock pumps and helmets too that’d be good :-)

Maiden voyage so had practically a complete tool kit just in case. Seat post went then a while later came off (thought i could temember how to ride downhill with my post up!) landed on my pack and bust my shock pump and also bust the straps on my helmet so expensive night……but helmet is very old so cant complain at replacing it.

And before anyone says i need to replace every 5 years or so post your email and I’ll send you a video of just how much effort my sledge hammer too to break it.  I thought it’d be “degraded” and easy to break.  Dont care what the manufacturers say, that little experiment said it all!

Spoke to Imogen at USE and apparently they’ve had a few problems with the first one’s shipped…..not being tightened up enough which is sounding like mine.

Said she’d get a replacement one out as soon as they get it back so looking up.

Not sure where the “Contact Us” form message went but hey ho….fingers crossed.

Hey tdog……I’d love to say you inspired me but it was more of a polite rant at the joker I met on the trail yesterday.

Conversation started “commencal; nice bike but youre brave…..dont their frames keep breaking” and then ended up with “reverb’s……they’re sh1t as well…..always breaking”. IN A SINGLE CONERSATION. AND I WAS POLITE TO HIM!!!!!

Deep sigh. Keep calm. Cycle on and feel smug that I wasn’t on his Apollo, no matter how “sh1t” my kit appeared in his mind :)

Its all relative.  Yes reverbs fail and the MK1’s has a supplier issue so a complete batch had a duff valve but SRAM are the market leader.  say they shift 1mil units pa and have a 1% failure rate.  That’s 10000 units and potentially a lot of negative press so jo punter thinks they’re unreliable.

Given the lack of availability of the USE I bet they dont even shift 10k units this year but lets say they do and they have a 5% failure rate.  Thats only 500 units and way less bad rep than SRAM. But which is worst?  I’d go with SRAM any day of the week at that rate.

A wise man once said “opinions are like ar53 holes.  Everyone has one but do you really want to look at one?”

People will always jump to the negative…..we’re british….thats what we do.  But social media and the web dont always make for properly informed decisions so read the web, take it with a pinch of salt and makes your own mind up.  Look at the bad rep commencal had for frame cracks.  Everyone had a mate that knew someone but most of the web was the same bike being touted round and round.

But I’m a little excessive on bikes.  Currently running 4 dropper posts:

2 x reverb = flawless

1 x Brand`X failed in less than 20 hrs riding.  3 months for a warranty replacement.

1 x USE Helix failed in 10 miles or about 1 hour.  WHo knows on warranty.

One of the guys in the group i ride with had a MK1 fail after 18 mths.  Repaired under warranty and had it back within 3 days of posting it.  That’s service.

Sure slag reverbs but at £160 for external routed vs the brandx at around £120 vs Helix at £250 then the plethora of posts in the £250-£300 mark they’re still damn hard to beat for the money.

Then there’s my Gravity Dropper Mk1 from late 90’s……now there’s a quality product!

Have to say I’m pretty surprised given USE waited so long as they “wanted to get it right”. Maybe I’m unlucky but even compared to my Brand-X dropper this is most definitely seeming like a verion 0.9.

But also look around – not many places seem to be selling them and USE havent even bothered to answer conact form messages.  Wonder if theres more too it…….or maybe I’m just a conspiracist!!!  Certainly wouldnt recomend one anyway.

I’ve got an early version Gravity Dropper. From before the introduced the remote version……Russianesque! Industrial but just keeps going. I’m half tempted to get a shim and use it!

Heard diddly from USE but kind of academic now. 10 miles into its first ride….horrendous crunching sound and clutch no longer engages. Air pressure pushes up but no clutch so it slowly sinks. Trailside cable adjustments no joy so limped the last 10 miles with slowly sagging post.

Back at the car took out the post and it appears its unwound itself and the plastic bottom has unscrewed itself. Tried screwing it back in but think the clutch has been digested when it came loose.

Shocking quality so its now going to be a warranty and if i can persuade Tweeks money back too. Bought a reverb from Evans for £160. My other 2 reverbs have been flawless.

So all up, well p’d off. £270 down the swanny as I’ll never use it again and surprisingly for USE its not convinced me its a quality item.

Maybe a little hasty…..after riding round my garden loads and fine tuning the bike / getting it set up properly I’ve sort of got used to the spongy lever and can control some of the noise and eliminate the slipping / ratchet grinding. Going off distance the lever moves rather than feel tells me where its about to move or not.

But I’m left with 2 annoying issues:

1) Absolutely no speed controll either whippet out of the traps or under control but wont go all the way up

2) it overextends on rebound so everytime i sit on it theres a clunk as the top ratchet engages to stop it dropping.

Mailed USE so will see what they have to say about it.

Just fitted one to my new build. First impressions are I’m gonna ditch it and teplace it with a reverb.

My frame routing is tight to get the cable through but heres what I’ve found just from fitting

1) Once the cable outer is in its in and not moving. Top sits half way down the seat tube. If i need to remove the seat the out doesnt come up far enough to let me takenout the post so need to undo the cable. But with the outer half way down the seat tube i cant rethread the cable unless cranks off and bottom bracket out. It wont go in my car unless seat comes off.

2) it says to pump to 50-100 psi. At 100 it come up like a greyhound off the line. Any less and it wont full extend.

3). Its noisy at first disengage / when it grabs to stop. To the point it sounds wrong. If thats clutch parts its gonna wear VERY quickly.

4)  cable feels really spongy and cant tell whether clutch has disengaged or reengaged. And it doesnt always engage firat time. Might be cos my frame shape makes for a tight down tube to seat tube bend

5) doesnt always rengage so slips down a bit.

I’ve tuned and tweaked as the instructions say and Granted a lot of the issues could be my frame shape but I’m not even gonna take it on the trail. External routed reverb for me.

Lot of money wasted :(