For anyone that is at all interested in this topic should listen/read ‘This Naked Mind’.

It was recommended by the guy that does Stone King Rally at the end of his recent Downtime podcast, I gave it a listen as have/had lately been thinking about my own alcohol use.

In short it has a lot of down to earth info about everything in the GCN video.

I used to drink about 3 to 5 pints of strong cider a week, not a lot compared to some, but an amount that had slowly increased over the years, and I knew in the back of my mind that it had become a habit instead of something that I actively enjoyed.

After listening to the audiobook I actually don’t want a drink any more. It’s not even a case of ‘Oh I really crave a pint but the book says…’ I actually don’t want to put poison in my body, it takes a lot and gives next to nothing.

It’s hard to talk about this topic without upsetting people.

I havent drank for 10 weeks as of tomorrow, so it’s still recent, but I’ve lost weight, my blood pressure has gone down and I no longer get cramp at the end of a long ride anymore.

It keeps the paint looking nice.

Will stop cable rub.

:D

It’s designed to improve your ride.

Yeah sometimes you have to skid a tiny bit, come ride Hebden with me and we’ll have some fun, seriously :)

There’s no downside to continuing to run the STFU other than the quite dorky looks so I’ve just left it on, bike is so quiet I don’t want to mess with it.

And yeah the bike is jumping about when locking up the rear, but it (OChain) deffo reduces the kicking in the pedals so it’s worth using one of you want to minimise that sensation, it’s not a particularly desirable bit of feedback in that situation.

For anyone that cares, there’s a guy on YouTube that built a sensor kit to measure (and record his own sensation of when) pedal kickback occurs, I can’t find the video now, it was linked on pink bike home page too.

He could definitely feel when kick occured, but also missed quite a few events. The results are more nuanced so watch the video if you care.

It’s also worth noting that he now runs an Ochain, so presumably likes it.

I’ve had mine 12 months or so now,and bought it used, it now needs servicing as has side to side play causing a noisy chain, so no biggie, it was quite hard to find a service kit for it as mine is an early / old model, if you want to buy one id recommend getting a new one, I’d like the R version to play around with the other settings.

Edit: found it

https://m.pinkbike.com/news/does-pedal-kickback-actually-happen-i-use-data-acquisition-to-find-out3.html

Vorsprung suspensions pedal kickback video features the best explanations for what the Ochain does (or doesn’t really) help with.

I have one on my Stumpy as I find it gives a lot of feedback through pedals when locking rear up on really steep trails, combined with stfu chain silencer it’s a really quiet setup, 6° setting.

“Cowardly and pathetic”

:lol:

Bless your heart. Don’t worry about what people think, just enjoy riding your bike, at the end of the day it’s just a big toy for playing in the woods.

Yep!

To check creaky spokes you can literally just sit on the wheel (without it in the bike) and roll it back and forward like you’re riding a space hopper (as we all do).

Stealth as: I’ve got some Genesis carbon rigids available from my Tarn hard tail that I haven’t used for ages, great condition with the headset preload bung.

The spokes may be unequal in tension.

Squeeze each pair of adjacent spokes on one side of the wheel, compare how stiff they feel compared to another rear wheel that’s in good condition.

The squeaking is from the spokes rubbing together where they cross over each other. However the sound is quite different to a usual creak like a loose bolt or dry or worn bearing.

I have one, 550-610lbs on a 2022 Stumpjumper Evo. Used it for 18 months so far.

In my experience, it’s excellent for changing the midstroke and general dynamic ride height, it seems to have very very little effect on actual static sag. I use mine on an Ohlins ttx along with rebound HSC to quickly change the setup of the bike for different trails, for that it’s really convenient.

E.G I get around 15mm sag at both extreme ends of the adjustment, 550lbs will be almost exactly the same as the 610lb setting.

You can or course still use the regular preload setting to stiffen it up.

Don’t Ergon do some grips that are tapered to simulate more back sweep? May be an idea to give you more options.

The perfect winter bike is the one you actually want to ride.

SS is great but it’s a very specific kind of build, e.g. you can’t sit and climb technical trails, and they’re not very sociable, meaning there’s basically one speed that you can climb at, and it’s usually faster than sitting and spinning, or slower so you’re off and walking.

I have a road bike, a steel 130 hard tail (was single speed for a year, now 11sp) and a fs.

Apart from occasional turbo trainer spins with the road bike, I ride the fs, because it’s safer on sketchy trails, set up perfectly, and more fun.

I would (and have) spent money on making sure you can easily keep your main bike running, e.g little pressure washer and cleaning stuff in boot, good wet weather gear

But it sounds like you want to buy a bike, so fill yer boots ?

Ok….

Put a bit of light lube or oil on your  springs in the pedal.

There was a thread on this recently

You can use any shock with it…

I drop 2 psi when I fit inserts, using the same tyres.

Front shorty exo, 19psi with rimpact original

Rear specialized butcher / hillbilly, black diamond / grid trail casing, 23/24 psi with rimpact original

I’ve had Tech 4 v4s since March.

They’re sublime.

I’ve had Tech 3 E4s several times in the past and the new Tech 4s are superior in every way, way powerful enough, I’ve gone down from 200mm rotors front and rear to 180 front and rear and they’re still way more powerful than the E4s and the CODE RSCs I had before.

For what it’s worth I’m about 76kg in birthday suit and ride the Peaks, Saddleworth, Wharncliffe etc so not the Alps but I’m a brake dragger and they’ve never faded.

Anyway, I’m running TRP 2.3mm rotors, the clearance is perfect, the rotors are cheap and they work nicely with the Hope all conditions pads.

Huggggeeee thread on mtbr with lots of info about what you’re asking.

What do you weigh?

I’m 75kg in my birthday suit and run a ttx coil with a 525 to 600lb springdex with literally no issues, stock link, I usually use wrp mullet yoke but it feels the same with the stock yoke too.

Cascade link requires you to increase your spring rate so you’d end up using a pretty hefty spring in this case.

Any other questions let me know.

Excellent video, more brands should be open about this point of view as it’s extremely pertinent, anyone that plays guitar also should take this view point!

The slight flip side is if you get super excited to ride your bike when you’ve bought a new bit of kit then there’s nothing wrong with buying stuff you don’t ‘need’, even more so if that makes the difference between riding and not riding. However like the video says people should understand that most of the time the bit of kit won’t give them any more performance, maybe just a bit of inspiration.

Have you had a car that you didn’t give a crap about that you would drive like you stole? Responsibly of course.

Have you had a hardtail that you could skid and slide around, properly ringing its neck?

Have you had a short travel full sus that would feel fun everywhere because you were always inches from getting spat off it intot he weeds?

The above is all being underbiked, it’s getting the maximum from the gear you have, getting your money’s worth.

Being overbiked is the opposite, like having a healthy bank account, it’s nice, but it doesn’t give you the fear to crack on and earn some monies.

It’s safe, but perhaps boring?

I am pretty much overbiked at the moment, used to ride a 5010 which was hilarious everywhere, but a bit limited in terms of set up options, I now ride a stumpy evo which is far far more capable, ever so slightly not as much fun on my usual trails, but it has a wider setup window so you can tweak it (geo, cockpit, suspension, tyres) to really excel depending on where you’re riding.

Yep I’ll change my original reply as you never mentioned the Epic Evo 😂

Go for the regular stumpy, it looks like you want a bike that leans towards the fast pedally efficient side than the ploughing slack sled side, it’s easier to build up the regular stumpy light than it is the Evo.

I have an Evo alloy with a coil, mullet, OChain, insertsl, big brakes, it’s a weapon downhill but the stock build and geo is way closer to what I have now than the bike I’d want for the riding you describe. If you were riding the lakes every week then the Evo would be the one to go for.

The downtime podcast guy did it last year and spoke about his experience at length in one of his podcast episodes, gave a lot of honest feedback as it didn’t exactly go to plan for him and he did put a decent amount of preparation in.

I heard on a podcast ages ago, can’t remember which, from someone that works at SRAM or KMC and they recommended leaving it on as the lube is really well penetrated into the chain so it makes sense to leave it there, perhaps give it a wipe or very slight light lube before first use then clean and regrease like you would normally.

Not really a silver bullet.

You’re supposed to get into the lowers with some clean rags and clean out all of the debris that collects around the inner legs, bushings, and the wiper seals.

Have you ever found a load of grit in the bottom of a saucepan if you’ve cooked some veg or shellfish and not washed it properly?!

You can pay the bill upfront and take the lowers off, do it properly, or pay the bill later on when the stanchions start wearing from all the grit that’s building up… I dislike maintenance so try to have a) nice tools to make it easy, b) convenience by having all my suspension servicing stuff in 1 place and c) keep a log book with a reminder that in x (3) months you have to do it again.

Sucks being a short arse doesn’t it Andy 😂😂

If you’re after a bike with more stability then you’d be better off looking at a Bronson or a Hightower, or something with more travel and a longer chainstay to be honest.

Make them reliable, people don’t buy an orange for lightweight, they buy them partly for the simple design and ease of maintenance, all that is lost if the frame cracks, as has happened to many of my local riding pals multiple times. A new frame or a new swingarm with a respray is no good.

Back this up with a better warranty that gives peace of mind to the original owner.

I’m local (but my nose is normal) and would love to own an orange but until the above issues are fixed there’s no reason to buy one.

Got tbh I wanted a pace 529 but couldn’t afford and had very few problems with a Genesis Tarn (vertical dropouts) and a Surly tensioner, once the chainline was PERFECT it’d be faultless, could climb from Hebden centre up the main road to Heptonstall in 32×18 fine cranking the hell out of it on clips.

Really great interview, quite touching to hear Rob speak so honestly and passionately about his role in downhill.

…this changes everything

Pace 529 has sliding dropouts.

I was going to post ‘buy the tool’ when you posted this thread an hour ago but didn’t wanna be that typical STW guy that doesn’t answer the question you’ve asked lol

Even better: buy a proper slide hammer and bearing press set, that way you’ll do a nice job with your frame bearings, and every other bearing you have to replace from here on out, it’s not worth damaging bearings, sockets, or (the worst case) your frame when instead you can enjoy using a proper tool, don’t need anything mega fancy.

It’s absolutely bonkers that it doesn’t have ISCG mounts 🤯

I think if you’re really into the engineering then they’re worth the money for that, or if you’re a particularly heavy ebiker that’s damaging stuff then also yes, personally I think they look like a great design but I’ve never snapped an axle, bearings last a couple of years and spares availbilty being good (Hope hubs) doesn’t make it worth £550 for a rear hub.

I was ready to buy an Orange frame in 2022 but constant reports of them cracking put me off, nothing to do with fashion.

Orange’s USP is their simplicity, they need to stop chasing lighter weights, instead make them durable as hell, slim down the range and keep on top of geo and suspension design, nothing wrong with single pivot.

Cos they’re dirt cheap so why not muck around with the setup.