Five Pro is all over the place… so we know what to expect there… but what is the pixelated frame featured in the front page teaser? Could it be the rumoured ST5? …. I do hope so.

DMR do a low stack BMX type stem for std or OS bars… about 30mm stack.

Also worth looking at FSA stems if you can cope with 35mm stack?

I just got a Straitline Vertical Wedge stem, which comes in a 65mm, which has a stack height of 36mm and a clever wedge system to clamp the steerer. Reckon it'd be OK if you've got 30mm of steerer showing.

Had goodridge on for a few months. Certainly sealed well and the change is lovely and smooth still… but they are super stiff as said and they're pretty bad for cable rub where they move around a lot near suss linkage.

Why can't suss frame designers come up with good cable routing!?!

Incidentally, where you source the cheap frame from ? they got many left? How much ?

They are pretty long frames. I'm 5'8 and like long frames with short stems so I'd be going 18" with a longer fork on it.

If you're going for more XC (110mm ish fork) and like a longer stem (90mm ish, I'd consider the 16"

Not sure if that helps.

Superb writing and pics once again.

Good luck for the final day mate – it'll feel grand when you can see the sea where your journey ends, massive sense of relief I bet.

Hope all this is preserved in an easy to read blog somewhere with a route map and all the pics.

Despite praising the Fuel EX – as I have one and like it a lot….

I'll second the ST4 – which I'm currently lusting after, not sure why… but they sound like my kind of bike. Wonder if I can get a demo of one somewhere.

I've got a fuel ex9. Fairly light build but with 140mm rev u-turns on it. Rides well with forks at 125 but I've got the 140 and maxle there if I want it when things get hairy. Superb bike, can ride any thing on it.

I'm considering the carbon frame when the ally one dies.

Dam you… now I want to go and make flapjack and it's far too late.

Things to consider as ingredients though…
Peanut butter with raisons… bear with me, it's great – replace some of the butter with peanut butter.
Cranberries and Ginger (little bit of grated ginger with dried cranberries).
Sunflower seeds and dried fruit.

Awesome… bet you're super proud.

Just got my 2.5 yr old daughter a like-a-bike type no-pedal thing which she's just getting to grips with. Can't wait till I can actually take her out for a pedal.

If you're a rough rider, I'd avoid them… similar approach for sapim lasers.

If you want a tough built and very light wheel, I'd look to Sapim CX-Rays. Super strong, super light. Strongest spoke available and lighter than revs and lasers.

Currently getting a set of wheels built up with CX-RAYs as we speak.

Not got an alps trip sorted yet… but just finished building this bike up for such things. Just now it's being used as my play bike for local trails (local trails being Innerleithen 🙂

I've run a set of NNs for the past year and been very impressed with them. They've been through loads of 7stanes riding (all trails, including belting around inners and Ae) as well as a fair amount of highland and general off piste, propper mountain biking. Oh, and I rode them for my 7 laps of the puffer this year.

The sidewalls have finally shown signs of wear and so they've just come off the bike… but over all, I'd say that's a pretty good show.

I tried my pals racing ralphs out and was really impressed with the weight and speed and they still felt pretty grippy… not far off the nics, so got a set of those for long rides and marathons for this year. I've got a heavy duty set of tyres for hooligan riding and a bigger more heavy duty bike for serious lunacy, so I'm not too worried about them working for everything.

Must have watched that video a dozen times now.

Man, I want that bike !

Obi_Twa…

Is there a whole lotta stuff up there ? Don't wanna go describing too much on here.

You local then ? Fancy a pedal sometime? Email address in my profile.

Cheers
Stu

Obi-Twa….
Assume you mean the line down the ridge behind the stone circle…. ? Yeah, found plenty up there 🙂

shhhhhhh

Ah…. Haaaa…. just found this thread:
Strange proto thread.

and more importantly, this video!
video linki… ST5?

Seb_C
That's all sounding good. I'm a big single pivot fan… especially with low leverage ratios.

Been looking at the ST4 and liking the sound of it for a few weeks, but keep wishing it was a touch tougher and could handle a slightly bigger fork (mainly one with a 20mm bolt through). The 5 is a great bike, but I'd rather have something a touch taughter at the rear that's also better at climbing. I'm happy with skippy and exciting on the downhill, rather than sofa ride.

Aye – just been reading the route. Looks pretty interesting.

I've just moved to inners 3 months ago and still learning all the extra-trailcentre natural stuff that's here, so hoping this ride will add some extra options to my portfolio of local trails. Been looking up at Lee Pen from the back garden since moving here thinking "there must be a good line down that"… just not managed to find the time to wonder up there yet…

So many trails, so little time.

it's the natural tweed ride… I'd taken the day off work for Monday (when it was supposed to be) though now it's on the saturday maybe some more folk will come. Looks like it could be a cracker of a route.

Linky linky

Tweedlove website

115mm at the back, with 140mm forks… looks like pretty sorted geometry….

Sounds like exactly my kind of bike… now, how do I get friendly enough with someone at Orange to convince them to make me a custom one?

I had a class 5 about 3 years ago now….

Original X ray:

Was on silly strong pain killers for 3 days before into surgery to have it screwed back into place while the soft tissue healed and my body got used to the gore-tex ligaments they replaced the broken ones with.

Post surgery I was in large amounts of pain and on co-codamol and tramadol to help me sleep for a good couple of weeks.

Best thing I did was go see a sports physio for advice about getting back on the bike. Saw him for consultation about 10 days after surgery and he told me I should be starting physio within 7 days (about 2.5 weeks after op). He was brilliant and had me back on a bike after 6 weeks and mountain biking again in just over 2 months… though it was gentle at first, but off road all the same!

Definitely get some advice from a sports physio.

If you've any interest – there's more pics of my x-rays etc (including x-ray of the broken 3" screw… that I snapped doing physio exercises about 2 months post op) here:
LinkyLinky

Good luck with the recovery mate!

I've got an easton vice 65mm stem for sale if you're interested – £19 posted. (email address in profile)

Used to have a Mk1 Santacruz Bullit (2001 frame) that went through various build before being sold due to lack of use compared to my XC bike.

Here she is/was

I've always missed it since it went and having recently moved to Innerleithen I've been wanting for it even more for mucking about on the downhill trails…. so, I picked up a 2005 frame and built it up for a play bike to ride to the top of the hill and then charge down it…

Here's the Mk2 !

A classic SH frame built with tough single crowns and a twin and back so I can ride to the top first.

There's no way that Elsworth should be allowed on this thread.

ahhh – that makes sense, it was the granny ring I'd heard there may be issues with…. so I was never that confident shelling out on none XTR rings. In the end, I sold them for a decent amount and got a good deal on a set of Deus. Happy with the race face now.

clubber…

I'd hear differing things on that. Work ok for you though, yeah ?

There's no question that XTR are superb cranksets… Light, stiff, great shifting, look fantastic (IMHO)….

Worth considering replacement ring costs… I ended up selling my XTR and going back to RaceFace as the ring costs were way cheaper, cranks still look lovely and still pretty light and stiff.

Based on the above, I'd probably go Middleburn X-type from your choices. Are they available yet ? Any prices online ?

I get this quite regularly…. midgies seem to love me, but when I react like that it tends to be localised to one area when there are other midgie bites in other places that aren't reacting… usually looks like it's one biggish bite that's reacting which makes me think it must be a clegg bite.

Usually take a couple of days to calm down and tends to weep quite a bit (nasty) over those couple of days.

Not nice… feel for you mate.

Here she is folks….

Build detail:
Med frame, in slack setup with Fox DHX5 coil.
RS Lyrik coil u-turns
Bonty Rhythm Comp wheels
Wiiiiide Blackspire bars, in Easton Vice 65mm stem. Spoon saddle
RF Deus Cranks, twin rings n bash, Blackspire stinger guide
X9 shifting
Juicy4 brakes.

First ride tonight… surprisingly ok up the hill… certainly good training. Superb jumper and great tracking on the fast down. May have to trim the 80cm bars down a touch for the tight, steeep stuff.

Overall…. Lovely 🙂

Dam it… I've got pals coming over and I'm cooking dinner, so can't come.

Enjoy folks.

Here's a couple of old ones…

Though, they were all before I lost the bottle for jumping when this happened…

I've just had same issue with Blackspire stinger and RF cranks… fitted it behind the BB spacer as you've suggested and had to set the angle of the stinger roller arm low ish to avoid fowling on the rear tyre of my Bullit….. still seems tight enough to work though.

Stu

I find the dry stuff is really good if the weather is dry…. needs to go on a clean chain though, else it doesn't seem to stick.

XC seems to stay on through any weather… though will eventually wash off in torrential down pour…. dust and crap seems to stick to it though so chain needs a good clean between lubes/rides.

I get Steve at iCycles in innerleithen to do all mine… he's always pretty busy, but builds a mighty strong wheel…

failing that, Andrew at Bicycle works is great, but I don't know if I'd trust the other wheel builders in there as one of them cocked a set of mine up.

I've been thinking the same thing.

Move to Innerleithen 2 months ago and I've all ready given in and added a really heavy built 6" play bike to the garage… or I will have when the bullit is finished this week.

There's just so much DH going on here that it seems wrong not to be involved with a bit of it…. Hope I don't get the bug!

Stroke length is length of the air piston/shaft. The bronze coloured bit on a fox.

If this is the same, it'll be fine. If the stroke on the RP23 is longer, the bike will have more travel – hence what kenneththecurtain said.

assume the RP23 is 5mm shorter, it'll certainly go on there…. how much difference it makes will depend a lot on actual shock sizes, including stroke lengths, and how much travel the bike has.

Not mine, just a pic I found on Google image search…. but probably the best looking classic frame Bullit I've seen!