where you based?

I bought it a couple of months ago, but I did have to collect it from Brighton. If you’re after the best price I would suggested splitting it, but ’tis a bit of hassle.

I agree with Will, I got an ’06 enduro off the forum here, all XT and fox, bit heavier than the new ones, but solid and very very dependable, has got me out of a few hairy moments (read that as ‘it has compensated for my lack of skill many times’). Bike was in good nick, and properly maintained, all for £750, can’t complain at that…

IMO bite the bullet and do the job properly, build a proper shed! that being blocks and mortar, much more effective at keeping the thieving scum out. however if that’s not an option, metal sheds can form condensation on the underside of the roof, which will drip, but you can get roof sheets with a felt backing to keep the moisture on the sheet and allow it to run down to the gutter.

Horatiohufnagel, nothing person but your explanation is complete nonsense. Having a larger piston area at the caliper does not mean that the ‘force’ is distributed across a greater area. Hydraulics is based on the piston at the lever being much smaller than the piston at the caliper, so a long distance moved by the lever piston will cause a short distance to be moved by the caliper piston. The ratio of the cross-sectional areas of the pistons will determine the ratio of the distances moved by the pistons. So for example if the lever piston is 1cm2 and the total area of the two(mono mini) pistons at the caliper is 4cm2, the caliper pistons will move a quarter of the distance. Conversely the force applied will be inversely proportional to this, so for the example of the minis the force applied to the lever piston will be multiplied by 4 at the caliper. If you’re with me so far you’ll understand that larger caliper pistons, or more of them, will result in a shorter distance moved, but a greater force applied, and thus more braking power (all other things being equal). Friction being related in the main to force times area of pad applied. Hope this makes sense to all.

Can’t let that go unanswered thomthumb, MM’s hubby isn’t suffering from bad technique, if you seriously think that 160mm rotors are adequate for most people then why do gravity riders use larger ones, can’t help thinking there’s more to it than technique!?

I rode the wall with him yesterday and there were a couple of bits on the descent where he couldn’t stop as quickly as he would have liked, and no his rear wheels wasn’t skidding, there simply isn’t enough friction being produced by the brakes to slow him down. This also makes me think his technique is good as he isn’t causing the wheels to lock up.

I’ve got a mech protector going spare fro my spesh enduro, this stiffens up the hanger and stops it getting bent, and it works with a QR axle. Alternative might be to change to a short cage mech? Unfortunately if you stop the hanger getting bent you will only end up ruining the mech instead, which is a heap more expensive?!

USE shims aren’t all plastic, the smaller ones as Aluminium, they only use plastic for low weight, as far as I remember they say this on their site.

Might not be your cup of tea, but I’ve got a Saab 9-5 Aero estate, which is awesome. huge boot, with loads of cubby holes and nice well thought out bits. I get 31mpg on the motorway, which is ok considering it has a pretty decent 230bhp on tap. Servicing isn’t as cheap as ford, but is cheaper than BMW. With the aero you also get leather seats which are great for bike dirt and kids, nice and wipe clean! I’ve had four people and three bikes in mine, no need for a rack.

I did say maximum pressure increase simonfbarnes, that’s what they would see if they were put in a vacuum, the tyres see an equivilent pressure increase inside the tyre as the external air pressure decreases. But as someone pointed out the holds are normally pressurized, so this increase is likely to be of the order of a few psi, not enough to burst a tyre unless it is right at the top of its working range already.

Just had a bit of an engineers look at this MM, maximum equivilent pressure increase the tye will see is 14psi, which won’t affect yours but considering Mike runs his tyres right at their top end I would let some out of his!? And this does mean taht the forks will be fine unless Mike is within 14psi of the max pressure on his.

I’ve had a £150 decathlon racer for 4 years now, did 3 years at uni with no maintenance, and was excellent! excellent value for money IMO

Well your rim is quite heavy duty, but only thing I’d really suggest is losing the steel bead tyre, jsut extra weight as far away from the hub as possible.

any other experience?

Looks can be deceiving, but I grant you they don’t look CK special, anyone else got any wisdom?

kevlar tyres made a huge difference to a mate’s bike, those fire XC wirebeads are horribly heavy! and being at the greatest distance from the hub this will make the most difference to the feel of the wheels.

RS rebas, merlin are your best bet considering your budget. won’t get you the shiny new maxle version, but will get a pretty decent pair of sl’s.

van nic zion?

perks, I’m with you, especially on the roads in Bristol you’ll only last a short while if you don’t, but then again I guess that’s one way to improve the gene pool

donald, fair enough, hadn’t heard that one, but I think in the majority of cases they prevent injury, or am I naive?

oh, and while we’re at it, why don’t we let everyone not wear seatbelts

So go on, please enlighten me, having commuted for years now, and recently taken up proper MTB’ing, what are the bad points to wearing a helmet, cos none spring to mind to me?!…

Cyclesurgery in filton keep a wide range of orange bikes in stock, including P7 S and pro last time I was in there. And the guys in there are excellent

Another vote for penhydd, decent rental service from skyline cycles.

I’ve got a 9-5 aero estate, best car I’ve ever had, especially good for bikes, loads of space in the back and plenty of cubby holes of storing gubbins. Not particularly efficient, but 30MPG for a car which is was only 0.3 seconds off a boxster (0-60) in it’s prime isn’t bad! go for it, you won’t regret it

I’m with you on this PP, much prefer the steel freebody and spring/pawl design of XCs, have seen too many pro2 freebodies eaten by cassettes!

you’ll be needing some new olives, unlike hopes which you can reuse the olive, LBS usually have these for free or cheap

they did have a large selection of prebuilt wheels a while back, might be worth a ring, pretty sure they do custom builds, and they have the hubs in stock.

have you tried stif?

You also need a cable stop to be part of the casting of the crown I think? Though saying that if you used a new style damper/poplock unit this is a part of the top cap.

you can do cycle to work direct through cotic I think…
http://www.cotic.co.uk/cycletowork/

MM, what’s the plan for your birthday dinner this evening?

I wouldn’t say he listens to me!? they do sound a good deal, if the rims were wide enough for running on my enduro I’d be shoving you aside to buy them myself!

I know I’ve said this before, but it does also give you the advantage of running your tires softer, which will give you more traction.

Hairy, unfortunately MM’s a lady of good taste, I can vouch for her Hubby!

I don’t believe I’m hearing this MM, too bling for you, it can’t be so!?!? Which ride are we doing on sunday by the way?

Haha, fair enough, was a bit worried that they might get scratched and chipped easier as they are powdercoated instead of anodised like most black rims are.

Cool, thanks Druidh, I’m running 2.35 Nevegal/blue groove combo at the moment, so good to here the DS23s are ok with tires this size. How quickly have they got tatty? if indeed they are tatty now!?

Sheldona, thanks, but they don’t sound a great option!

I’d seen the syncros rims, and liked the look of them, but had’t found many reviews?