I’ve come out on the right side of the market this week, son No.1 needed a road bike with a double on it so we could sort out the frankly bonkers U14 / Youth B gearing for him – FWIF 6.45m gain so 48/16 or 46/15 on 25mm tyres – as it’s not achievable on a single ring like the younger age groups are due to having no low gears for climbing if he actually rode it somewhere other than a closed circuit.

Also with the added factor of him being an average sized 12yr old at a smidge under 5’2″ it was time to look for XS road bikes in good condition that don’t weigh a ton; we happened upon a very nice Ridley Helium SLA with 5700 105 (2×11) and some decent (enough) qr wheels with RS400 hubs for just over £300, which is nice.

Bigger disc, if the frame / fork will take it and (I imagine) flat mount callipers can go to 180mm.

Swapping callipers won’t make the slightest jot of difference if you stick with SRAM as they’re essentially identical, a bleed is always worthwhile but SRAM road are a bit of a PITA to bleed correctly, definitely watch the SRAM YouTube guides and follow them exactly.

Spesh Rockhoppers are a cracking buy, we’ve had one and it’s about to go to child No.3

30mm rim is too wide for a 2.25 inch Maxxis Tyre. Even the 2.35 Maxxis are pushing it on 30mm rims. The sidewall is exposed and will be the widest part of the tire.

Really, given a lot of XC rims are 29/30mm ID and XC tyres are normally in the 2.25″ to 2.35″ range, you don’t tend to see people continually suffering from pinch flats on hookless rims on those. Speaking from personal experience my Hunt Provens are hookless & 29mm ID, I run 2.35″ wide spesh XC tyres under 20psi front and rear and don’t have an issue, one of my mates does the same with DT Swiss 30mm ID rims with tyres like the schwalbe ray / ralph combo at similar pressures and he’s stupendously fast.

Silt XC alloys are definitely worth a look, we’ve got 2 pairs and they’re excellent.

Pressfit GXP and shimano are the same other than the NDS bearing on the GXP is something like 22.4mm ID as opposed to 24mm for the shimano.

Just smack a new HT2 pf bb in there and insert your shimano crank of choice

No wonder MTB fans take the pi55 out of roadies……

Do they though, or just the MTB riders who think they’re awesome and in reality they’re probably not. Granted some Pro roadies are highlighted as being poor descenders – in their peer group – but lets be honest, they’re not.

The only differences I can see between the cages for M6100, M7100, M8100 and M9100 are the cutouts and profiling to make
it lighter on higher spec models

They may look similar, but they’re not.

SLX & XT are made from 7075-T651 Aluminium Alloy, XTR is alloy inner & carbon outer

As for the OP, bang an XT on there, they’re pretty good. Personally I’m on XTR and mine is currently 4.5years old and as good as the day I got it.

What do the original sellers / shop say? It’s unusual to pay a shop with a bank transfer is it not?

I fitted a pair of 120mm Fox 34 Factory FIT SC with the 3 pos lock-out to my bike to replaced a set of borked 32’s of a similar ilk for general X type stuff including racing XCO, XC and some marathon type work and they’re ace.

If your centre lock rotors are moving on the splined mount on the hubs, they’re not installed correctly or either the hub or rotor is knackered. Or if you’re using adapters, the interface between the disc and adapter is knackered. I’m pretty certain they’re meant to be done up to 40Nm, just like cassettes, so bloody tight!

They existed in MTB long before road bikes went to disc, so don’t go blaming the roadies.

What’s better about this Chisel than your current Carbon XC bike?

The colour :-D

I can’t help thinking the new Canyon Lux Trail CF 6 is far better value though.

I’m not sure why folk this this couldn’t be built up to 13kgs on a medium budget (£2500). Would likely go:

frame

light wheel set (1600gms)

fox 34 (1800gms)

Shimano SLX drive chain

Racing Ralph’s (640gms each)

near to 13kgs seems very obtainable to me.

I’m seriously tempted to chop my current Carbon XC FS in for one of those frames and given it’s got a Fox 34 factory SC (1510g), Hunt Proven XC Carbons (1500g) XTR gruppo (2750g) carbon finishing kit and a pair of Spesh Fast Trak / Renegade tyres I’d be looking at around 12kg all in or there abouts, more than reasonable I’d say. And the Pink is mega.

I like to try and keep as much mud and road grime off myself and the guys i ride with as possible. So proper, full fixed guards and mudflaps FTW. They won’t fit on my summer bike.

I also use lower ratios in winter than summer.

The first bit I get, but the 2nd? Do you ride totally different roads on this here winter bike?

Why is an integrated bike deemed hard to maintain? My road bike has Di2, hydraulic disks, pressfit BB and is now 4.5 years old, still on its original BB and headset and the Di2 has obviously had no maintenance and the brakes just the odd change of pads.

It’s all hidden / integrated cable routing, gets used year round and washed regularly, I really don’t get the desire for a “winter” bike nowadays. Di2 or AXS gearing = zero shift cables to look after, hydraulic brakes = a set of pads every once in a while and the occasional bleed. Screw in or Pressfit BB makes no difference, they both wear out, both are dead easy to change, both are cheap to buy.

Decent wheels with good quality hubs are obviously important, mine runs on carbon DT Swiss with 240’s, they just keep on spinning.

Was it Ribble, I didn’t quite get that from one of the posts up there.

Try the new chain, see what happens, if it skips new cassette, if it doesn’t you’ll be OK. IME 3000km is absolutely naff all on a road set up, I changed mine at 0.5 with around 8000km on it

Rivello off sports pursuit – size is as expected or Castelli – size up one

Lets just make everyone ride single speed steel HT’s from the 80’s to level the playing field then eh!

It’s top level racing, where things are developed and if the developments are within the regulations then it’s all fair game. Those developments lead to market release of products, frames, suspension, wheels, tyres etc so we can all benefit one way or another, granted within pro cycling there are things that are pro issue only for a while but they eventually make it to the masses.

I use Shimano 105 ones with mine, no problems so far

I’ve had a Vivioactive in the past and the touch screen is pants as is the battery life after 2 years, I got an Instinct Solar 2 last year and its ace, use it for my everyday watch, SUP, running, cyclocross racing  – where it’s exposed to the worst conditions known to human kind and it’s survived a whole season (20 races) unscathed.

Not having a touch screen is a bonus in my eyes, they’re a PITA whenever it gets wet.

ESI RCT is excellent, made from the same stuff as their grips, stretchy so you can make it as thin or as thick as you want (up to the thickness of the tape) it has no sticky stuff on it as it grips to itself, lasts well – I’ve got it on my CX race bikes, dead comfy.

They’re not quite as tough, but are more supple. If you’re pinching the TNT casing have you considered another psi or two?

Rema Tip-Top or the Weldtite ones are as good as each other.

Northwave do specific kids spd shoes, but at a UK4 adult shoes are readily available and given how small some of the come up your choice may be wider.

We’ve had the Northwave, Planet X ones and now Shimano XC5s

I’ve got Prime XC Carbons on mine, and they’re ace. Not much use given you can’t get them anymore!

Change the mech to a Force or Rival one, they actually have metal parts in them unlike Apex.

12yr old on a 29’er is absolutely fine unless they’re shorter than average. My 2 eldest (just turned 12 (5’1.5″ and just turned 10 4’9″) are both on 29’ers and have no issues with them at all for XC type riding and racing.

The eldest is on a Lapierre XR7.9 in small and the middle’st is on a Scott Scale 950 again in small.

Those Ride ones are licenced by Fox as “official” does changing to a none licenced product effect the warranty?

Either way I got mine from Ride and they are bang on and fit really well.

I was a bit disappointed to see a Dangerholm full bling weightweenie build based on a Scott Genius was still 13.6kg, and thats starting with one of the lightest frames in class. It feels like its just not possible to do real world thrashable trail bikes that are sub-13.5 unless you live somewhere thats pretty gentle on wheels & tyres.

This……………

My Jeffsy is around 12kg but it is a very blingy spec and I think the new ones are heavier anyway. Still at the lighter end of things.

I’d love to see that on some scales, given most modern 120mm XC bikes don’t weigh much less in reality.

But back to the OP, when you consider what the bikes like the new Epic Evo 8 are designed to do, and what top level XC racers do on them I’d be surprised if you’d have any issues with one.

Fulcrum wheels are excellent IMHO, I have 2 sets of Racing 6DB – cartridge bearings, easily serviceable just like the 5DB’s, these have been used for racing CX for 2 seasons and have never skipped a beat. I also have various lower end ones and a set of Racing 3DB which are bloody excellent.

Tubeless is dead easy on any of the wheels badged as 2Way fit, and unless you’re fitting what amount to lightly treaded MTB tyres, 20mm internal will be fine.

It will wear the crank threads (not the pedals) prematurely and then there’s the risk that you accidentally cross thread one every time you do it. I wouldn’t.

If you’re ham-fisted and mechanically unsympathetic, then this may apply, otherwise you’ll be fine.

The first 4 on your list are old, pre 2020 tech, pretty much everything is DPS, are you referring to rear shocks or forks?

What bike is it going on, what size is it, is the frame subject to a custom tune from the manufacturer as an awful lot of them are, if not, can you get the tune requirements from the frame supplier?

Everything form 2019 to 2021 is push to unlock, everything post ’21 is push to lock – w.r.t float rear shocks anyway.

Galfer seem to be well received or just get some more centreline ones?

What year at the forks, are they open or locked when there’s no cable connected?

What lever are you using?

Are the forks 2 position or 3, the 2 position and 3 position forks require different levers as the 2 position is a 0 / 10mm pull to fully lock, the 3 position are 0/7/17mm pull to give Open / firm / locked, if the lever came with the forks it should be the right one – unless you bought them form Merlin recently and they supply the 2 position lever with 3 position forks!

Here are the instructions on how to do it on the fox help pages, a quick google of “fox lockout lever fitting” brings it up.

Brecon Gap doesn’t really make sense as it’s an hour further south, there’s loads of decent riding in the vicinity if you check out something like Strava heat maps.

Rekon Race are pretty fast and plenty strong enough, they are however down right scary in mud when used on the front.

I had a set and my eldest did also and they are great in the dry and on hard pack, but he came back to me and said they were terrible in mud and I agreed. So I swapped his bike to a Racing Ray up front and a Racing Ralph out back and they’re much better.

Personally I’m now on a Fast Trak control T5 up front and  Renegade Control T5 out back, and it’s a great combo, tough and fast with no issues at the weekends national round up at Kirroughtree – plenty of punctures on the Bonty’s mind ;-)

I never used CRC as their tyres weren’t necessarily for UK markets and from chatting to some in the industry OEM tyres designed for hotter climates or different climes to our swamp lands. So different compounds etc. no idea whether true or just heresay.

Utter tosh, the only difference is the colour of the logo for Maxxis, you just have ot pick the right compound for what you’re after, easy with some – like Spesh’ harder with others – like Schwalbe. If you think about it, do you actually reckon a company will run a different R&D and production line for a different country?

Its like buying OEM drivetrain parts from the likes of Merlin and also CRC / Wiggle (back when they existed) same stuff, different packaging.

Fox 32 is for Marathon racing.

At normal people level or elite / pro level? Pro / Elite Cape Epic bikes nearly all had 34’s (when using Fox)