alpine 160

finish line wet lube for me most of the time (green lid). Tried some fenwicks stuff a while back which isn't that great in comparison.

Just treated myself to a merino wool howies t-shirt – cut just like a normal t shirt, howies logo on the front. I prefer the casual look to the racer look – £50 and comes in green,red or blue.

fsa do a 440mm post – got one on crc a while back, about £25/£30 i think.

I'd say 16" too. I'm 5'10 and ride an 18" with inline post and 50mm stem and i'd say 18 is just about right for me but think it would be a touch too big for you but i wouldn't consider going either way without a test ride – it's not as if your going to struggle to find one now is it!!!

661 raji's to replace your lost ones-the best full finger summer gloves imo. Leisure lakes had them cheapest i could find online.

I'm in the armed forces and you'd think with such an emphasis on fitness they'd be signed up to a scheme but apparently not (royal navy isn't anyway).

camel trail is a good family option, also worth looking at the bissoe to portreath trail,family friendly,a bit more interesting and a bike friendly cafe at bissoe and a pub at the other end, job done.

Bear in mind that the newest models are built with a 140mm fork in mind, the 160mm 36's would take it slacker than an alpine 160.
If your mainly using it for fr and dh then the alpine 160 sounds better suited and will be loads lighter than your mini dh.
If your after a trail bike that'll take a bit of extra hammer then go for the five.
I have loads of confidence in the capabilities of my pike equipped five, either way you won't regret it, never quite understood the mini dh – weight of a dh bike without the travel!

Specialized eskar 2.3 2bliss front and 2.1 crossmark rear (which will go 2.25 when worn out) on my five both tubeless.
The eskar is a really grippy front tyre, love it and the crossmark is surprisingly grippy for such a fast roller.

few weeks late for me too! Got some in chrome a few weeks back, so far so good. Tempted by bling colours but went for chrome to avoid them looking crap in a few months time.

another happy fox flux owner here, the xen was top of my list but picked up an older model flux for a bargain price so got that instead. The xen is available for £60 from evans if your not too fussed on colour (matt gold). As said before though its what fits your head best thats the most important factor.

white grips are a big no no for me, pointless in this country. My jump bike was bought 2nd hand – an identiti 666 in bright green with matching bright green halo tyres-looks ridiculous and makes me a little embarrassed when riding it but i like the tyres so living with them until they are worn out then i'll replace with black versions. Subtle is def the way to go imo.

also own both and as silly as it sounds i found the five tens too grippy and impossible to reposition your feet if you needed to whereas the shimano shoes seem to have the perfect level of grip for me. As said above the five tens take ages to dry and weigh a ton when wet – i had the high version. Both look ugly but perform well, shimano's just that bit better for me.

jamie YHM

I have one going spare too if anyone wants it drop me an email and its all yours and its valid for another week.

edit: double post, apologies.

if you've snapped some carbon super light bars would you really want to replace them like for like? I personally would avoid any product that had failed on me like that as i value my teeth. May not be a manufacturing fault but i wouldn't risk another set.

my eskar 2bliss burped on me when run on joe no flats kit equipped mavic 317 with stans sealant the other night when i was cornering hard into a jump, spat me off and refused to seal again so had to put a tube in. Apparently they are tubeless ready rather than ust so only compatible with ust rims. Keeping a tube in now as i love the tyre. I'm sure they'll work fine on other combos but i won't risk trying again.

what about a meta 6 from real cycles? 09 models heavily reduced with full warranty-if it cracks you'll get a newer better made model,if you don't crack it then all is still well. Comes with crank bros joplin post and e13 guide for about your price range. You'll struggle finding a five frame or similar for your price range unless your very patient or lucky.

the sub 5 is designed around a 100mm fork with max 120mm so i'm not surprised it doesn't climb well with pikes! I've got 100mm rebas on mine which feel spot on.

5 bolt hence the price, not many people who need a bash ring are still running old school 5 bolt cranks. A bargain if you have 5 bolt cranks and need a bash ring i suppose!

More of a plodder up the hills but a fox rp23 would definately be a good upgrade for your five, the newer ones are slacker so def won't be better climbers than yours if you get a decent platform shock.
I have an 03 sub 5 with 08 swinger 3 way and an 07 five with rp23 and the 2 shocks are worlds apart in performance up and down.

Bananas with built in bike pack friendly banana guard outer!

not as grippy,don't last as long but look pretty good. Use mine for the dirt jumps on my hardtail where i don't want masses of grip. Am40's are my trail riding shoe of choice, despite the dodgy appearance they are truly ace,prefer them to my 5.10's.

i'm not always impressed with the mag but thought this months was a pretty good read despite the climbing feature and the 29er test. You can't appeal to everyone all of the time but i don't often regret buying the mag. Keep up the good work st.

topeak alien, mines a decade old and the chain tool used many times.

Specialized eskar 2.3 on the front (2.2 maxxis crossmark rear). Very pleasantly surprised by just how good a tyre the eskar is, not fast rolling, especially if on the road but off road i can't recommend it enough, £23 and tubeless ready with sealant added.

5.10 do the karver if you want to stick with 5.10, they are the chris kovarik model, ugly as sin but have a lace flap thing similar to the equally ugly shimano am40's that i have.

Superstar nano techs/kona wah wah's (pretty much the same pedal), shimano am40 shoes if you can handle the dodgy design – had 5.10's before these and found they had too much grip (difficult repositioning feet if they happened to end up in the wrong position) and were too bulky.

Should have gone to specsavers :D
I do own a pair, highly rate them apart from the looks – the wife gives a dissapproving shake of the head when she see's me in them!

slx cranks on ribble cycles are £60 minus bb or £8 more for double and bash version. Bargain if you ask me.
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/mtb-bmx-bike/Chainsets-Shimano-SLX-M660-9-Spd-Triple-Chainset-ex-BB/SHIMCHAM300

The new remedy's come with a carbon armour downtube protector in reaction to this issue – not sure if its available aftermarket to fit to older ones but maybe worth looking into mate.

Underground resistance – It's amazing how tough kids are really. Highlight of my year so far was in jan post surgery getting poppy on her specialized hotwalk for the first time since we got it her back in august. Definately take strength from how she gets on with it, can't be anything but positive.
missingfrontallobe – hope the radiotherapy does the trick mate and you get back hitting the trails very soon, poppy just had 3 weeks of it,knackered her out a bit! All the best mate.

Cheers mate, she's doing good though, in remission and hoping to be finished treatment by october. Puts things into perspective, hope the other half is doing ok now. Oh and hope your hernia is sorted in time for the back end of summer – i've entered the exmoor explorer in august, just got to hope poppy stays well and my lack of training doesn't hurt me too much :D
Top tips to survive riding downtime –
bike dvd's,
ebay,
stw classifieds and forum,
Mags – singletrack,dirt,mbr.
Make sure your bike is in tip top condition ready for your next ride.

Take it easy,
Steve

It's kind of tough trying to get your bike fix through forums and other people. Riding is something we tend to take for granted until its taken away for a while. I'm in the navy, spent the first 6 months of last year away so no riding then came back in the summer looking forward to making up for lost time. Then in august my 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with neuroblastoma (cancer) and we've spent most of our time in hospital since. Makes me really appreciate the rare opportunities i get to ride.
All put into perspective for me really. Riding is important to me, a great release and a real passion but i'd give it up tomorrow for a well daughter.
No time for feeling sorry for myself, just get on with it and using my downtime to save hard for my new five – perfect opportunity whilst i'm not riding regular enough to be breaking components every week!!!
It is tough whilst the weather is good but lets get some positives in this thread, i'm sure we're depressed enough lol!

The L refers to lightweight i think mate. They will run without sealant but your better off sticking a capfull or so of stans etc in as without it the ust system only protects you from pinch flats.
I have ust 2.1 kendas and 819's and use 1 and a 1/2 capfulls of stans.

Thats where my mates meta 5.5 xt cracked, if its under 2 years old and your the original owner and have proof of purchase then take it back to your dealer and they'll send it back to madison who will replace it with a 2010 model. The 2010 frames are being manufactured somewhere different and are so far not having the issues of last year (cracks at the seatube weld and shock mounts).
My mates was about 3 weeks turnaround, madison are well aware of the issues.
I know this isn't first hand experience but is fact (before any defensive commie owners pounce).

Sailor 74 many thanks for that advice, nice to get tips from mojo as they run fives on their team bikes. Really helpfull.
OP apologies for the thread hijack.

Goby – theres an ex demo on oranges website which looks pretty good for 2k, check the offers section.

Sailor74 would you like to share the set up tips? I'm sure some blood owners would like mojo's advice and personally i'm interested how they say to set up the rp23 on the five, cheers mate.