Now there’s something I can celebrate with you, Joss the Boss PtII coming good already! Well done that lad

I’ll rise.

Put it this way, I’ve lost weight, and gained weight – I know that I’d rather carry an extra stone of fat, than have a bike that weighs a stone more. Ergo, the weight on my back is less noticeable than the weight I’m trying to hop up and over obstacles.
Your back and leg muscles bare the brunt of a back pack more effeiciently than your arms and stomach muscles would need to if all the weight is down low.

Would you rather carry a new born baby around in a (baby friendly) back pack style holder, or out in front of your knees?

And bunny hopping, manuals, wheelies, clearing gap jumps – prefer to lift the weight with your back/legs, or lift a heavier bike?

It’s not about stuff being lighter in a back pack, it’s about a more dynamic distribution. But hey ho, different strokes.

I’d rather listen to the new Stone Roses single than the new RHCP stuff.
IMHO, RHCP died about 20 years ago and were replaced by imposters moulded from Dave Grohls turds.

what is it actually good for?

War?

Huh.

smart arses

I personally prefer to carry weight about my person rather than on my bike. Much more dynamic

/\ genius.

I’d use it. No, I wouldn’t actually.

Superstar have 25% off this month, stems for £7.50 and bars around £15 iirc

Ok, was fed up pondering so have committed. Decided not to risk chainline with 1×11, so have ordered MX3/Saint/Zee with Superstar 30t NW.
Will probably pick up a Sram chain to complete the set up, possibly a goatlink in the future if it seems necessary.

Will report back with findings for anyone that’s interested once it’s had a good testing.

Sounds good. What’s the ‘link’ refer to on the Zee mech?

*Edit: just seen reference to GoatLink elsewhere so assume it’s this. They look a groovy little gadget, are they needed for an 11-42 set up though?

Yeah I think that may be the deciding factor actually. I’m worried about chainline with a 4.0 tyre, let alone 4.5/4.8

Seriously tempted to dump £140 on an import M8000 1×11 set up though

Ha! Fat chance, I can barely get up these hills as it is at the moment

Argh! I’m stuck in a loop. Can’t commit to purchasing the bits as I can’t decide what the best route is.

I’ve priced up several options, 10sp mix of Saint/SLX/sunrace 11-42t, 11sp SLX, 11sp XT at (give or take a pound or two) £140, £153, £155 respectively – I already have a 30t NW superstar ring on order.

Therefore, I’d be daft not to plump for the 11sp XT, right?

It would eliminate any set up issues, although I am slightly concerned about the chainline on my fat rear end with the extra gear over the spokes.
Also, I bought this bike as a cheap fun machine (£520 for the whole bike!) so it feels a bit wrong just throwing XT at it.
For some reason I feel like I should be looking at a lower end 10sp set up similar to that listed earlier in the thread (Deore/Zee etc). Plus I really like the sound of this Saint shifter… So, back to square one!

Make my mind up for me please guys

Liking the look of those genetic bars. I run a midge but find the drops too short. Controltech sell bar extenders though

/\ he’s been dead since he started shaving his brakes

DOUBLE FAT!

Contrary to pretty much every long term review then I suppose.

My only other experience of Formula was a set of R1s that I didn’t touch in 3 years of ownership – they were great, and light!
Transalp tour failure sounds like air in the system to me.

Worth a shot at £103. Happy to have egg on my face and switch to SLX/etc if they end up being duds, fingers crossed they go and last as well as the reviews claim.

Managed to grab hold of a set in the end! Well chuffed.

Will ne bedding them in tonight, fitted them yesterday and trundle around my street revealed lots of lever range, but desperate to be bedded in correctly, stupidly, I think there may have been some muc-off left on my rotors so I may need to throughly clean them and sand pads.. Or change pads… Hopefully a 40mph decent will burn that crap off nicely!

wtf is fence?

Is it like lamp? I love lamp.

Guy’s, im trying to settle on which clamp to order but my mind is blown..

I barely understand what i-spec-b mean’s, let alone find a compatible clamp from the details provided – can one of you help this numpty out?

I intend to fit a Formula R0 brake to a Saint M820 i-spec B 10sp shifter.
Haven’t purchased the shifter yet, so can pick up a standard bar clamp version instead if i’m unable to work out which matchmaker to purchase.

Yeah I’ll persevere, you’re right about adapting style – I’m used to being lazy! Having said that, I hit a hidden rut at about 30mph last night which I’m fairly sure a suspender would’ve just soaked up – if it were any deeper I’d probably have been in a bit of trouble..

Running a Knuckleball bar, but wish it was the ‘chewy’ option – I’ve got the firm, and for carbon, it’s firm. Less buzz than Alu though.

What’s the best price that Blutos can be picked up for historically?

I’ve tried my front tyre down as low as 4psi but not quite sure I’m achieving the fabled 2″ of cushion that fats are famous for – my wrists are well aware this morning that I went for a ride last night!
I’m enjoying g the back to basics fully rigid experience after years of front suspension – but in the fast descents I’m beginning to crave a little extra help up front.

Had several miles on a tow path last night towards the end of my ride and noticed the additional drag from the tyres for the first time. Not sure I’ll be happy switching to heavier/draggier tyres! Goes great up climbs and grips nicely everywhere though. Staggering how much off camber grip there is

Thanks for finding that

I cant or I’d have to kill you

It’s ok, tell us, and then kill mosey

Your Mrs is awesome.

Think I’ve read the thread 3 times now. I almost know what I’m talking about 🙂

Haha! You’re welcome. Heck, maybe it’s perfect for rims?

Sounds like there’s a gap in the market

Yeah I think the purple and yellow would look retrotasticallygoppingly awesome!

Not sure y’all picked up on my little joke though, did you see the brand of tape in the link?

This stuff looks perfect 🙂

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190909656591

Bookmarking. Love the look of those Hope/DT wheels at slam 69

I think Northwind has changed his. should be straight forward to do, I’ve never searched but there’s probably a plethora of colours/widths to choose from

Ive had 2x Chinese lights fail on me mid ride. I’ve also witnessed others failing mid ride, over heating a common issue. As is loose connections.

Some Chinese lights are pretty good quality nowadays, but they tend to cost around £80-£100. So imho I’d rather pay double that, have excellent local support and have integrated batteries – far superior to carrying batteries around in bags.
You can usually pick up virtually new Max-Ds, 6 packs etc for 30/40/50% cheaper than list price – my latest maxx d cost me £175 and it’s awesome. Bloody awesome in fact. If the Chinese fan boys could have a Maxx D for the price of their current light, they would.

I used to commute to work by motorbike, and along the M25 so would regularly see directly into the cockpit – I would lose count of texters and callers and lane swervers – I’ve seen it all, drivers eating cereal from a bowl with spoon in hand, people reading the newspaper behind the wheel, I must’ve seen a thousand girls applying make up. Staggers me.

You’d probably be on to a winner if you could integrate the battery – Exposure rule the roost on the point and for good reasons as stated above.
For service and longevity, I am completely happy with my Exposures

Ive had a faultless Reverb in the past, am currently on a faultless Thompson.

Command Post gets a lot of love from its owners too.

My anger day:

People talking in the corridor outside my hotel room at 6am this morning.. I’m trying to eek out every minute of sleep time FFS!

Hotel door that won’t shut without having to SLAM! it. Tut.

Stupid a-hole that parked his car so close to mine in the hotel car park that my shirt untucks trying to squeeze in. Sigh.

Swipe card at the office that wouldn’t allow me access to the room – the room that it was given to me to access.. WTF????!

Person in front on me in the dinner queue gets the last portion of chips so I stand in line like a numpty whilst the other dinner lady coughs all over the food. “You should get some medicine for that” one says to the other ..
“You should freaking stay at home whilst dying of Ebola!!!” – I want to scream at her.

Man on my training course clicking his laptop mouse, constantly, despite us all being asked TO IGNORE MOBILE PHONES AND EMAILS DURING TRAINING COURSE!! RESPECT THE TRAINERS WISHES AND QUIT WITH THE CLICKETY CLICK YOU PRICK!!

Leaving office and stuck in traffic.. Leave gap for driver to merge in front – he essentially ignores my very existence, not even a hateful glance of thanks – NOTHING!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH TOO!!!

Back to hotel room. GODDAMN DOOR! STILL GOTTA SLAM IT!

Cleaning lady has turned my Bluetooth speaker on in my absence!? WTF?? DONT TOUCH MY STUFF BIYATCH!!

Sunny out today. was a good day.

/\ just spat my taboulleh out in delight at that!

Ok, will try ghetto and if no joy the fatty stripper stuff looks promising.

easier to manual/wheelie than other bikes I own.

100%!! No-one told me that fatty tyres are essentially wheelie cushions! 10mins into my first ride i was promptly pulling my best wheelies for, well, forever!
Unfortunately I took it a bit too far at the park and landed straight on my monkey bone – writhed in agony for a while whilst the local yoofs laughed at my plight.
Still, nothing a day’s best rest and a bunch of co-drydamol can’t fix.

Yeah I’m going for Saint shifter thanks to the advice here. Just waiting to find out what brakes I pick up before ordering I-spec or standard shifter

Henderson looks good, what’s the pricing likely to be?

I can’t get my head around the requirement for the foam layer. Can you explain why it’s needed to build the rim bed up? If the rim is airtight, it’s airtight, right?
So the tyre ‘should’ inflate onto the bead if given a sufficient puff off air?
In my mind, I’m guessing that the foam mearly acts as an air volume reducer in order to bring down the required amount of initial air to seat the tyre.. Is that right?

In other words, is it not possible to seal the rim with several layers of that heavy duty PVC tape, and then blow the tyre onto the rim?
I guess the risk is loosing the tyre off the rim when on the trail, and not having means to get it reinflated onto the rim?