my old man hasa superlight with 120mm fox's which i pinched while he was on holiday and put my pikes and wheels on it. it felt alright, head angle was good but front end felt a little high for my liking, i prefer low and slack. its quite flexy when you rag it as hard as you can with pikes and strong wheels on it too, id consider a heckler with a shorter shock to reduce travel maybe? or a 5 with a shorter shock? or a blur 4x?

singletrack trying to be mbuk?

u iz 2 old n ur byk iz nt sarcin enuf 4 pump trakz!

mr firestarter, is your seatpost not in back to front?

i thought about putting mine in that way but forgot to try it. glad i forgot, had a hefty bollock/back of seatpost collison last week and im still sore now, bet it would have hurt more if they had got wedged under the cable entry bit!

make a shortlist and watch ebay, see what comes up. you wont get a light freeride bike that you can pedal uphill for 3 hours otherwise. (by the way, where are these 3 hour uphills? just so i can avoid them!)

dont do it! i really like the look of one of these but a test ride put me right off. wallowy, not that fast and not that fun. lots of bikes pull off the 6 inch bike thing a lot better. try one out though, i could be a fussy SOB!

nice, is it a race bike with fun handling or a fun bike with silly light parts? not sure it matters!

someone posted a full suss bike from decathlon on here the other day, it was 800 down from 1000 but was probsbly worth half as much again. id go and have a look there but take someone who knows their stuff as decathlon usually dont!

ive had the same problem for ages, tried loads of stuff but maxxis seemed better than most, intense were good too, just heavy. still happening most rides though so ive given up and got a dual ply minion on the back and so far sticking with a single ply up front. theres no two ways about it, its heavy! only really noticed it on the first climb of the day though, after that i really didnt notice it and i was trying out if i could get up some big and tricky climbs without my granny ring as i keep losing my chain and am considering getting a single ring and guide setup.

it was dead good to hoon it through rocks without that thump followed by the hiss of doom!

lopes used it in that event where the frech killed everyone, some kind of enduro dh event i think.

its 160mm rear travel with 67 deg head angle with 160mm fork, can use up to 180mm though.

its all on pinkbike.

yup, what he said ^

my blur 4x. would have kept it if i could have afforded it as well as my orange 5. i couldnt and think i made the right choice for most of my riding. the 4x was wicked for a blast round hemlock stone though!

that will help a fair bit, as will suggestions above, as will running your chain as tight as you can get away with. i think belting a cham round means you lose your chain fairly often. i got sick of it tbh and went single ring with chain guide. worked a treat.

yep, i found it a little harder to get my minion to seat and seal but leaving it with a tube in overnight then a bit more sealant than usual and it was fine.

its worth watching the 'how to' section on the hope site as theres a couple more steps to bleeding the tech levers than their other brakes.

i did the same with my rear when i took the caliper off to route it through the swingarm. easily sorted!

i dont understand

if i had to wait that long id probably go for a custom colour to make the wait even more worth it. as it was i couldnt wait so just went for the colour they had in!

enjoy them, best bike ive owned for a while!

i reckon it totally depends on your priorities…

my mate (twang off here) uses a float 140 qr15 on his. he is a fairly light guy and rides a 16 inch frame so gets away with giving it some stick in the peak etc.

i used some fox qr15's on my blur 4x and found them noticably less stiff than a pike, im 6ft and 13stone and tend to ride through rather than round stuff so a bit different to twang.

ive got a 5 now with 36 talas and they are ace for me. not much heavier but noticably better than my pushed pikes, plus slacker head angle for daft dh stuff. 130mm setting for traverse or easy dh stuff, 100mm for climbs.

if you think you will get the use from the 36's, def go for the maxle option on the frame. makes a big difference!

leisure lakes use argos for paintwork

i love chams, should never have sold mine!

thats a great looking SS, what are those tires like?

i run 36's on a five. the 115 will be great for climbing, going up at 160 is a PITA. on the new 5 with 36's the head angle is supposedly slacker than an alpine 160, nto sure about previous models though. running 160 forks on a five i think you are sensible going for tough kit, it makes you go a bit mental.

get well soon, i want to see these new trails youve found!

no worries JG,

twang you cripple!

ready to ride at 9, possibly earlier if your keen?

i know they wont rival a proper fast tread tyre but my experience of them has been terrible when things get rough. for a big, heavy, dual ply tire im impressed is all.

mines the 2.35 60a on the back. are they any good as a front tire? what with them being a called a dh F and all?

maintenance is the key, it takes ten minutes to service, worth doing after every couple of muddy rides on i900, a bit longer on a GD.

hi brant,

cant get in to my hotmail at work and my work email wont send out of our system. they havent twigged on STW yet though.

i bust a gravity dropper through my own fault a while back, i put it in a work stand, clamped just below where the cable enters the post. the clamp wasnt tight enough, the bike slipped and the bonded bit that the cable goes in to came off. i sent it back and they gave me a new one under warranty, good on em! i still use one of these now, although they only have 1 (or 2) positions they are easy to service and use and last pretty well even after a few heavy crashes etc.

Ive also got a pure racing one, its not broke but the vertical needle bearings have scored the back of the post despite regular maintenance and grease. so far this hasnt affected performance though. also, very easy to service.

hope this is of some use.

rubber strip, not been using any tape on my last tire but ill try some of that. ill check the valve too.

its losing all the air in 20-30 seconds so too fast for sealant to sort unfortunately.

cheers!

a five with 36's and a maxle rear end has a slacker head angle than an alpine 160, a bit lighter and more versatile too if you go for a talas for the other 11 months of the year.

my only issue with the foes that i had a go on was tyre clearance, looked pretty narrow even with semi-skinny tyres on. rode grand though.

cheers all for your advice, bit of an update:

blowing the tire up with a tube helped a lot, the tire seats nicely now. got a new problem though- air is coming out around the valve core. i found a small split in the rim strip which ive fixed but its still happening. anyone?

thanks!

unfortunately havent got access to a compressor, its going up just not sealing properly.

set of hope hoops from winstanleys?

at £16 they are probably the steel bead version so not that light. they come up big too so be warned! ive only heard good stuff from people ive known use them but ive never tried them myself.

santacruz blur 4x is pretty much 2:1, 115mm from 50mm stroke shock. prob too short in the top tube for you though.

the new superlight is 100mm travel from 50mm shock so 2:1. my dad rides one with a 120mm fox float up front and loves it, i borrowed it but put some heavy wheels on and it was pretty good, took some getting used to a steeper bike and a bit flexier than my 5 but no more than most full sussers. a very fast, fun singletrack bike but didnt suit my 'crash through everything' take on riding. sorry dad.

veggie option of chips, tater fritter, onion rings, peas and gravy here. om nom nom indeed!

cracking little bike, i keep thinking about going 1×9 but not sure i could hack it on some of the bigger climbs.

what do you reckon to those crazy grips then?

nice one mama, bikes like that make me want to stop riding uphill and accept the fact that i would have more fun just riding down. unfortunately i dont have enough leverage over any of my mates to make them uplift bitch!

oh its a bullit not a heckler. wicked!

looks nice mama, whats the spec going to be? i nearly went for a heckler but went for a 5 cos of the maxle.