I have an Assegai to try again once my current Mary is worn, which I hope will be the spring to conincide with dryer weather. If that Maxxis lasts ok I might try a DHRII after that.

Very happy with Kryptotal Rr Enduro at the back… I wonder about a 2.6 in the front?

I didn’t mean to start an argument about what is light, or what is soft, but it is kind of inevitable with the stupid naming logic used.

EXO or super ground strike the right balance for strength/weight on the front for me.

A Mary ultra soft could well fit the bill, if I accept 2.4. Shame there is no 2.6.

But a Mary soft is not super soft

Preferably above 2.4 width too

Oh, and DHF and DHRII are available too. What is comparable from Schwalbe, Continental etc.

Closely related to sadmin

Madmin. Admin tasks that drive you mad.

My 9c was the least enjoyable climbing bike I have yet owned. Just felt dead and joyless and energy sucking. I don’t know what was up with it. Much prefer my current Tyee, even with a coil shock.

@Tracey Riding alone is fine, as long as you don’t need help. Even the popular trails can be quiet for a few hours. And most the closer pedal access trails are less busy.

Finding someone to tag along with isn’t too hard. I have often extended an invitation to a loner, and I have occasionally asked to join others too.

A guided tour is the best bet for day one. You might meet someone to ride with for the rest of the week. But the guides do tend to ride from the front, which isn’t much better for looking after your safety.

I’ve been using a Kryptotal rear, 29×2.4, enduro casing for last 4 months in the alps. It’s probably my favorite rear tyre at the moment. Not only does it work, but it has lasted well too. It looks a bit like a Maxxis Aggressor, but it’s much better than that. It does hold some mud sometimes, but hasn’t become fully blocked. Although I must say that I don’t often ride very wet trails. It’s looking bit beaten up now, and I have another to go on as a replacement. Although I am keen to try a Tacky Chan too.

I have it paired to a MM 29×2.6 on the front. I might be curious to try a Kryptotal front, but want to try a MM ultra soft first, if I can find one in stock.

@ads678 I had FASP in my previous vito, and have RIB in my current one. The FASP ones have a slighlly lower stack height and rattle less. But the paint finish is awful and the latch was a bit flimsy. When it broke I had to get a new part laser cut in stainless. The RIB is better built.

A big problem in UK is the lack of dealers. There are 100s of main dealers for the competitors, but only a handful for MB vans. They don’t sell many new, and that means not many secondhand either. Servicing can be done anywhere of course, but buying one of the limited seems hard work. Finding a good one was tough. But they’re well regarded for taxis and executive hire, so they can clearly do the miles.

I was buying in 2016, and ended up with a 2012 plate. At the time they seemed to perform very similar the T5, but were most definately cheaper on a like for like spec basis. I ended up driving from Taunton to Glasgow to buy one. I owned it 5 years, drove approx. 12k / year and trips to Hungary, Greece, Italy, Spain etc. Biggest fault was the air con compressor. Sold it before I fixed to a fellow STWer. Some rusty bolts, but not the metalwork.

Bought a 2019 plate model after that, and it just does what I want. I have the mid length ‘long’ model, and it’s still one of the only vans I have ever seen that has a full size double bed & place for bikes inside without needing a pop-top.

It might be a boring answer, but I think that the UCI stipulate longs for DH racing.

@colournoise and others… I hear what you’re saying, but if Google photos can not recognize the existing folder structure I have then I think it will prove unusable without a whole lot of time. Am I missing something?

It seems that OneDrive has some flexibiliy to manually select folders or sub-folders for back up. I think that might be a good solution because it will sync the photos that I choose. It also has a feature to auto send all photos to OneDrive, but I think that might make sorting and deleting a bit more tedious…

I’m going to try OneDrive a bit.

Oh, work use OneDrive. So I could back up / transfer photos to that. And keep Google Drive for my stuff, but still accessible on PC.

It’s a different answer for everyone. I’ve had different three (or more, or less) bike garages over the years.

My current choice is Enduro MTB, gravel bike, Brompton.

Each are so totally different from each other, and can do things that the others can not. If I were too add a forth bike, it would be a rigid MTB, or maybe a pumptrack bike. Or maybe a singlespeed station bike.

I bought a 30mm hope BB. It came including the spacer for DUB. It does need a specific tool.

What frame have you got? Are you sure it’s transmission compatible? Not all UDH frames can use transmission, sadly.

I get 3 or 4 months out of mine. I guess that’s about 10-15 rides.

I’m not familiar with this Nissan livery, but I like it…

Best F1 paint job?

It’s up there.
Gulf and Harrods are cool too though.

Fina

Sunoco, here on a Porsche 917-30 Can Am racer

Falken

Apple

Lucky strike probably deserve a photo of it’s own

Anyone else remember when BAR wanted to run their two cars in different liveries, but that wasn’t permitted.

Bilstein

Mentioned, but sadly not in this guise

Previously mentioned, deserves a photo

Previously mentioned, deserves a photo

But I’d say it was the car that makes it memorable, rather than the livery.

The best liveries should use both color and pattern in my opinion. Some, like that Jagermeister one, is just the right colour and some text. Effective and memorable, but not the best like Martini, Gulf and Alitalia.

And the iconic ones are those that get redeveloped over years on different cars/bikes/machines and different shapes.

This had the potential to be thread of the week, a rich topic worthy of discussion. It’s a shame that some are listed but no image is posted

Jagermeister

I have a similar issue with my bike, and I have a theory… Are you on a large size frame with plenty of seatpost sticking out too?

Santa Cruz have a very good archive for their past models…

https://www.santacruzbicycles.com/files/styles/scb_natural_960_auto/public/uplink_bearings_15.jpg?itok=GFWD8bOA

I would be interested to try a full roller bearing pedal again, so thanks for making a list. My last one was DMR v12, many years ago now.

My GF has oil slick OneUp alu pedals on her gravel bike, which is used for daily commuting in all weathers. The finish has lasted well, but bearing and bushing needed replacement on one side after less than a year.

Not quite. On my recent visit I met some Austrians who travelled by sleeper train to Genova, and then got the local trains to Finale. So Genova to Finale is no problem. I have no experience on how to get between the airport and Genova main station, but it will definitely be possible.

Another option is an airport transfer bus. The shuttle company Finale Express is just one option, but they’re friendly and helpful and can give you a price on WhatsApp.

Just use Google

https://fawkes-cycles.co.uk/maxxis-minion-dhf-60-tpi-dual-compound-exo-tr-folding-tyre-tanwall-27-5-x-2-30-inch-p30777

MINION DHR II 29 x 2.4 WT EXO TAN WALL

@Tracey great photo

What don’t you like about the Garmin options? What is it that you find fiddly?