HI Guys

Chainline – Thanks for the offer. I am Bristol based so will be talking with my local Nicolai dealer (Psyclewerx) to see if I can get any demo’s. Given I would definitely give the business to them I think it appropriate I discuss with them first.

Messiah – Invaluable advice and surprising how close your thinking has been to mine

Ok – getting closer 🙂

Great thread guys (maybe my wallet will disagree !!!)

I am toying between 3 bikes as my next bike. Intense Carbine 29er (which I can get a stonking deal on!) or an Ion 16 27.5 or Ion 15 29er. I am a Nicolai addict it has to be said (7 owned in total :oops:)

Messiah my dilema is the same as yours 27.5 or 29er. Leaning more towards 29er after reading all of this. Really wish test rides were easier to come by.

I am on 34T and it is fine but has become more of an issue as the winter has kicked in. My climbs are generally short and steep so you can grind up them. For longer climbs I think this would be too heavy a gear for me on long days out. Next one will be 32T or it may even be a 30T. I rarely use the 11 on a 34T so a lower bottom gear would be of higher benefit.

RF vs Works – Price and RF go to 30T (works only go to 32)

Hora – I hear you but the benefits of lower weight, less drag and cleaner look (IMO) are all worth it. The WC version has seen 6 months use and it looks in pretty good nick to me. I do maintain my bike well and change chains regularly but I have ridden loads in the last 6 months in all weathers (hmmm why am I not fitter then :?:)

Should have added XT shadow plus clutch mech. Worked ok even when I had the clutch in off a couple of times by accident (though would not recommmend this 🙂 )

Enduro Kid

I use the Works Components version and kept the top guide initially. I finally bit the bullet and went for it without as I had a few solo rides in a row planned.

No issue whatsoever Don’t even think about it now.

Make sure chain is as short as you can get away with.

Got to say the Intenses are so nice looking. That of course is not the issue but boy they are nice.

Intense is favourite

Thanks Joe

Not sure Niner is mainstream in UK yet. 🙂

Hoping to go back again this year

Kimbers too true – 1st year taken out before first corner on quali, 2nd year snapped chain and mech by 3rd corner (after a stonking top 15ish start) – Yep best not to take it too serious

OP I believe the last 2 years have not sold out? Fitness is very important but first up you need to be able to ride technical rocky teraiin at speed. The route is not super technical but it is challenging and for many first timers it comes as a surprise as the GoPro vids do not do the technicality justice.

Ride as much rocky stuff as you can to prepare and yes coaching is not a bad call. The Lakes and Torridon are the two best places in the UK I have found to replicate type of terrain. I would imagine Snowdon & the Peaks would also be pretty good. Nothing will prepare your arms for the pump though

It is awesome fun 🙂

Thanks

My heart is leaning towards the Intense but the WFO looks pretty good also.

Spider – Where did you hear / read the Niner suspension un proven comments?

On fast and or steep stuff the Pikes are almost as good as the Devilles I had which is a HUGE compliment

On smaller trail chatter they are better

I am assuming as they are Rock Shox they will be very reliable and will have great back up if they do fail.

2 Tokens, 2 clicks of LSC 85 PSI (I guess I am around 85kgs kitted up) – Brilliant.

I have a Fox 34 on my other bike. After adding 15ml of fox float fluid to the Fox air chanmber they improved markedly. They are still well behind the Pikes though.

I am very tempted by the raw look. My knees tend to rub off paint / anodising on the top tube and my heel on the non drive chainstay

I agree weight is not a key factor but when considering a new bike it is good to bat about the options and the pros and cons.

I have had 5 Nicolai’s – all have been anodised black 😳

Any ideas on how much more a painted frame weighs than an anodised frame

I had heard that because Nicolai does such a solid job on the paint work it could be approaching 1 lb. Seems high to me.

This thread has my mouth watering

My next bike will be an Ion 16 or an AC both with ‘that’ wheelsize’

Will be for Enduro racing as well as just ‘normal’ technical trail riding (same thing – I know)

Truly love Nicolai’s – my 8 year old CC and 7 year old FR are in superb condition. Wish I could test ride both options but will likely come down to a gut feeling . Nice problem to have I know 🙂

I was going to adjust them from 160mm to 150mm but decided not too as they need a kit / new internals. For what it is worth the Axle to Crown for 160 Pikes was only a few mm longer than the 150mm Revs

Both can be adjusted. The Fox’s more easily I believe.

I have both Pikes and 34’s

Now I have 15ml of Float Fluid in the Air Chamber the 34’s are MUCH better

Pike – great out the box, cheaper and RS reliability is typically better. Pikes all the way would be my vote 🙂

Just to clarify my point re the time between stages

I 100% agree the transistions need to be challenging enough that a gentle pootle is out of the question.

The issue with Sunday was the times were calculated based on dry transition times. The haul from stage 3 to 4 would easily have been 15 mins faster in the dry.

Basically resetting everyone’s off times at each stage to allow for a totally different transition experience becomes a logistical nightmare.

Having an overall time to complete the whole event makes people push hard enough between stages whilst allowing an easy last minute adjustment if (when) the weather goes bad

I enjoyed yesterday and agree the stages were good enduro stages. Whole event could have done to be longer but you cut your cloth….

Think Carlos really needs to get an electronic dibbing sytem. The one at the Tweedlove POC was brilliant for example

I seriously doubt the timings captured yesterday will be worth the wet papaer the were written on :-(.

I did 3 this year and will continue next year but now it is becoming established a few tweaks would move it onwards and upwards (even if it costs a bit more

– Electronic timing
– Overall time limit on route not between stages (easier to adjust in adverse weather)
– No set time between stages just dib and go at start with 30 secs min between riders
– Print out of timings available at end (more events than ever now do this.

Anyway, reagrdless – well done Carlos. The vents are great and mainly local to me so I am generally very happy

Cheers Guys

Mount Washington – Good call

Sorry USA

Was my first bike. Loved it and would have another again no problem

There is heaps of very challenging stuff in the area. Some of the trails on Caberston, which I think is where Moseley passed comment on, would challenge most riders to ride flat out, especially if wet (it’s Scotland!!). Lot of variety as well.

Throw in a couple of mid stage climbs / traverses and it will be plenty long enough.

My guess would be if you found last years event technically tough this year will be a step up again (total speculation on my part)

Related question. Are some people more prone to picking up ticks than others?

Touch wood I have never had a tick despite most of my riding buddies regularly picking them up one guy in particualr has some most summer rides Put me near midges though and I will look like I have the measles in no time at all.

OP – Hope it is unrelated and not Lymes

Thanks Guys

Not the answer I was hoping for but good to know never the less

Cheers

Hi Jambalaya

Thanks for all the help mate. Figured it out when I spotted the cross as I cycled over from the top of the Les Gets on the road from The Nauchettes lift

Superb run down to Samoens. Has a bit of everything 🙂

Need to figure out how to get back for 2nd helpings in the next 3 days now.

For anyone else reading. I have been to the PdS 5 times now. Past 4 have been the marked DH runs (which is also superb). It has so much more to offer than that. Sorry if I am stating the obvious but with a little effort there is a lot of sweet off piste to be had.

Hi Again

Heading up to Lac De Joux Plane tomorrow with family

Plan is to do the decent into Samoens and get them to pick me up.

Am I right in thinking I have a heafty climb / push up the fire road from the lake to reach the ride to pick up the decent you guys are all raving about? (More than happy to do the climb but wanted to confirm my thinking was correct to avoid mis navigation)

Does the marked route have a number?

Any final help gratefully received 🙂

Thanks Taz

The bus service is excellent. Did it a couple of times now. Train is a royal faff in comparison

Bus from Geneva to Grenoble – 2 hours pretty much non stop (think it stops once in Champery)

Then either Grenoble to AdH or Bourg D’Oisan (those are more regular so I would do that then taxi, pick up or another bus up the ‘hill’)

It is so easy it is a pleasure (almost) and puts our public transport to shame. Very reasonable price also

Thanks Jambalaya and yes you summarised my goals very well.

If Lifts get me up quickier great but I am very open to going further / higher than the lift

Thanks Guys

Much appreciated

Will give Lionel a shout.

Will do the maps thing as well. Though time out is limited I prefer to have a few routes to do with minimum faff time

Even more excited now 🙂

Euro – I guess what I mean is that they do 2 things that can lead to you becoming a better rider

They allow you to drop the seat for singletrack annd that in turn allows you to use body movement more to control and move the bike underneath you particularly on sections you would not have adjusted your saddle for in the past

They significnatly reduce faff time on rides and as such allow you to cover more ground with less stops making you fitter

Can they transform your skills – no of course not 🙂

They allow / teach you to move your body around the bike to maximise traction.

To my mind they significnatly improve you as a rider and frankly allow you (me anyway) to enjoy my riding more with a lot less faffing at the top and bottom of technical decents. I also drop my saddle on stuff I would never actaully haved dropped it on in the past. This allows me to hit singletrack harder / faster / ‘funner’ 🙂 than ever before

One of the truly break through additions to riding in recent years (as oppossed to the pure marketing nonsense on most other things)

Gutted for you mate

I would love to take a vigilante approach to nailing these scotes.

Good luck in tracing them

I have done 3 of these now as well as the POC enduro at Tweedlove 2 weekends ago.

The POC event was more serious, better organised and much tougher physically. Technically it was no tougher in fact probably a bit easier, certainly than the Quantocks Enduro 1

The Enduro 1 events have all been very different between the 3 venues. However physically none of them have been over demanding. ie if you are reasonably fit and can do a 3 – 4 hour steady ride fitness will not be a problem even in Comp class.

Technically

The FoD last year was not overly challenging. A competent trail center red run type rider would have been fine

The Tidworth event was a real mix. Couple of XC type sections and a couple of short proper DH runs with big jumps & drops (all with chicken runs)

The Quantocks was very technically challenging. Weather did not help but pretty much everyone found stages 3 and 4 very, very tough technically

All of the events have been great fun and very laid back 🙂

Not sure that helps?

Wooly just posed the same question, for the same (or at least similar) reasons, I was about to ask 🙂

Would love honest real life perspective

Thanks in advance Sam

Thanks Njee20

So basically I would need the 168 version?

The road bike saw a lot of use a few years ago

MTB was often early starts and local (6am)

Now the kids are older (8 & 9) I am riding more off road (until the thieving gits decided to end that 2 days ago 🙁 ) . Longer rides are still fairly sparse but I get a lot of 2 – 3 hour local rides, often solo though having riding buddies in the same situaton can help 🙂

Key is to block out time at the most family friendly slots you have (early morning, after bedtime, kids at parties……) and stick to it as hard as you can. Basically accept the flexibility is limited so don’t faff your time away.

If you have any work flexibility try and use it to get some riding done

Thanks Ant – emailed you

Excitable 1 – What system is that?

Had a look at the Eyespye 247 just now. May be what I need.

I do wonder if I will end up seeing a few unwelcome visitors in my garden overnight

Hi All

Appreciate the comments & feedback. Been away all morning and then with CSI, Insurance etc hence no reply

This was in the Westbury Park Area just off the Downs

We usually lock the back door even when in but we don’t make an absolute point of it. We will now.

I have no doubt this was targeted bike theft. There was other stuff they could have grabbed but chose not to. I ride locally a lot. I don’t know if I have been followed home but it is certainly a probability. They knew what they wanted and where I kept it. I think the Hummer was a ‘bonus’

I have pics of the Nicolai with BOS forks that I can dig out(Marzocchi’s are only about 2 weeks old). Not sure if I have a recent Hummer pic.

I asked the question on the 9 sp 11 – 36. Seems it is only available in Deore. Which weighs a lot AND potentially damages your freehub

If their was an SLX or XT version I would jump at it

I guess Shimano / SRAM want us to ‘upgrade’ to 10sp 😕

Was there on Friday and did the W2 with a big mess about in the Bike Park (good but not great IMO)

The divesrion on the White’s climb is truly hideous but at least it is short (and I was on a 1 x 9 heavy AM bike)

The W2 offers good cut out option either way. Greeble’s suggestion is good. We started at Glyncorwgy but I prefer the route from the Afan centre.

Alternatively start at Glyncorwyg and do the Whites with the fitter guys doing the W2.

Or all do the White’s, lunch at Skyline (very good) Fitter guys do the White’s climb again (if you can stomach the diversion again). At the top, turn right and continue up to pick up the final Skyline descent. The Bike shop can give directions