Quite glad I’m tall and riding 29ers to be honest.

Would be a pain buying into 650b and needing new wheels and forks, on the flip side wouldn’t want to buy new 26″ bits for risk of them losing all resale value instantly.

Unless you’re really tall or short, it’s cliched and overused, but tiny 29ers are awkward as are 26″ bikes with 3 foot of seatpost sticking out. We’ve got both in the house.

On a completely unrelated note, if you can test a 29er trail bike I’d give it a go. Clicked instantly with my Stumpy and have been beating all my personal bests every single ride with it since. It does simplify the trail a bit, but it’s sort of what I was after anyway.

*insert Groundhog Day gif here*

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/stumpjumper-fsr-comp-evo-29-2014-mountain-bike-ec053580

That one and a £500 wheelset would be my choice :) Some Roval Trail 142+ would fit nicely into it.

2008 Meta 55 XT, didn’t change anything on it aside from tyres in all the time I had it. Awesome bike. Swapped to a Five with much more expensive Kashima RLC forks and RP23, neither end feels as plush as that bike used to :)

I found they had more grip in a straight line, but have slipped out a few times unexpectedly leaning around corners. Both of these could just be due to the longer wheelbase I guess.

on another note the bronson looks better too!!

I do like that yellow one :)

Haven’t ridden either of the new ones, used to prefer the old Heckler to Blur LTs though. Owned a Five and Meta, really like single pivots personally.

Claiming one is better because your friend just bought one. I can’t disupte this, it’s solid logic. The likes of Mega Avalanche is won lots by Commencals and Lapierres, ie aged single pivots and 20 year old 4 bar designs.

It’s lucky your mate didn’t sign up, hardly would have been fair for everyone else, against that rebranded Maestro/floating pivot tech would it?!

I’m just going to put this here, and walk away slowly before the fireworks.

Or two riding side by side having a chat despite holding up a car which they wouldn’t be doing if they were single file.

..and the net result of this is what? The cars have to slow down and find a good time to pass.

The alternative, they ride in a longer single file line promotes drivers trying to pass whenever they fancy. Oncoming car? Never mind they can quickly nip back onto the line of cyclists.

Honestly, if a car was driving head on at you, would you have a head on collision, or automatically swerve into the soft targets? I think it’s just self preservation.

Riding 2 abreast is a very sensible part of the highway code. People just need a bit of patience.

On the old note, I wear a helmet all the time anyway. I’d have zero issue with them enforcing it on roads from a personal perspective. Quoting figures of children sat on the sofa really doesn’t concern me, should they be out grinding Strava segments on busy roads?

It’s a shame that a road accident instantly backfires into a completely irrelevant conversation. Rather than focusing on the massive systemic problems with road/bikes at the moment, the focus lays straight on the fact he didn’t have any polystyrene on his head.

Oh and the big fallacy that its safe on a bike in Holland, with 200+ deaths in 2011 it is worse than the UK by almost 100%.

haha, just got to that fantastic FACT. I love how you can disregard the fact that:

There are more bicycles than residents in The Netherlands and in cities like Amsterdam and The Hague up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike.

I wear blue shoes and have never been bitten by a poisonous spider, lots of people in the world however have, from this data I have hypothesized that blue shoes make you INVISIBLE TO POISONOUS SPIDERS.

There’s a disarming number of comments about Brant keepin-it-real Richards’ various offerings here on this thread..

My old Scandal 29er was one of my favourite frames I’ve ever had. Tragically the new one just didn’t ever really gel with me, no idea why it felt different. The idea of it being an XC race frame… so we’ll put half a pound of dropouts on it!

The old one is lighter than my M5 S-Works Stumpy frame I’ve got now.

Ibis Mojo is the one I’ve wanted to like the most, yet got on with the least. The sizing is just madness, an XL Mojo has a similar wheelbase to a Medium Stumpjumper FSR. I was somehow in a position where I was over the front downhill, yet somehow off the back uphill and completely unable to do tight switchbacks on it.

Loving the amount of Tricrosses and Stumpy FSRs in here :) Ride both at the moment and love them!

Done!

You guys must have considerably better hair cuts than mine, I’d be perfectly fine with them enforcing it. Arguing the toss with ancient pseudo-science either way is useless.

Why not just enforce it on the road? The above picture isn’t on the road.

They said exactly the same when seatbelts were enforced, it’s equally people thinking their freedom has been taken away. Really doesn’t make a bit of difference. The above argument about “bad driving” fits the case perfectly, why wear a seatbelt? Can’t everyone just not have accidents? Great logic!

I really fancy a Disc Trucker at the mo:

http://surlybikes.com/bikes/disc_trucker

To replace a Tricross that’s on it’s last legs. The brakes were always rubbish, discs are much more appealing!

I found myself quite enjoying wizzing

“regardless of the fact no one has made square taper chainsets in about 5-6 years?”

Really? I am suprised as I have had no trouble at all in buying new square taper BB and chainsets.

Given the first half of that line was “CRC still have MORE square taper BBs”, I’m not surprised you’ve had no trouble :roll:

You know what I mean :P

The stupid pricing is only for the sports.

http://www.nowtv.com/movies

£8.99 a month is what I paid last time, they keep offering me free vouchers if I sign up again. So far I’ve had £60 of vouchers, 3 months of films and I’ve paid about £20.

If you wanted it solely for watching one big event it wouldn’t be too terrible would it? What’s the alternative?

It just unclicks out at either end, I’ve taken mine off a few times when going out on the road.

I’ve had 2 Hexs now, rather tragically I threw away the old helmet, but kept the peak, for exciting colour combinations! :|

Seem to be a few that are sold as both 650b and 26″ though?

A pre-650b Heckler? :P

Edit: Oh actually, weren’t they 1 1/8 steerers? A new one, just get over the wheel size thing.

Dear bike manufacturers, I want a gearbox bike!

Did you not know the bicycle industry have already solved this one, and called it singlespeed, no gearboxes

Yeah, you’ve got this gearbox bike idea wrapped up.

I’d love light hub gearing personally :( Smaller range as above, like an Alfine Di2, but half the weight. Gear cables are rubbish.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/iphone-5-16gb-store-ultimate-500-plan-three-29-pm-with-no-upfront-cost-using-code-1630118

That deal?

I once went out on a 40 miler out and back ride. The first 20 miles i did in 35 minutes, i was absolutely flying. the next 20 was just over an hour and a half, bloody wind!

Just shy over 20mph over 40 miles then, good work!

According to endomondo my best 50 km is 17.5 average, and it’s lumpy here too.

Yet your fastest 31 miles is 17.5mph? ;)

My average for the month is just shy of 17mph according to endomondo. Mix of 18-20mph speedy solo rides, relaxed low heart rate 16mph rides and chain gangs somewhere in between the two.

Normally do over 30, 40 miles on Mon + Wed + Friday, longer on Sat is my norm.

Doesn’t sound too bad, wind makes a massive difference!

As above, I rely a lot on my HRM for longer rides. No long mtb rides recently, ~160ish miles ridden over the weekend though, 105 on the road on Saturday. Felt fresh enough to go to Cannock Chase on the Sunday and still get some personal bests.

Spiking your heart rate up to crazy levels and burning off sugars, is the sort of thing you can only do a few times per ride, it’ll wear you down quick. Diet before and after big rides is one you need to be careful with as well, fuel up! Protein afterwards if you need to be riding again soon.

Something with electrolytes in while riding. If you’re not used to sugary energy drinks, don’t hammer them during the event.

but the 6k one has a xx1 groupset thats 1k not xt at £500 like the one your quoting the build on

Ahh, was it not fathomer you were talking to?

FATHOMER – Jesus that is nice, seriously serisouly nice

what is it? blur? and how did it cost no where near 6k? it cant be far off with that spec

XT chainset isn’t it?

£700 odd for XX1 these days :) intruiged to see what X01 will go for when it’s been out for a while.

The clamping force is just bracing it so it doesn’t unscrew itself while riding. Really isn’t as critical as it is with normal QR imo.

how did it cost no where near 6k? it cant be far off with that spec

You people are crazy with money, full price bits:

£2500 frame
£650 forks
£500 XT groupset, converted to single
~£350 wheelset?
£50 tyres
£200 seatpost

£1750 left over, how on earth could that have ever cost £6k :)

I’d have the lighter one personally, the clamping force isn’t holding the wheel in. As long as it’s fully screwed in prior to clamping, and there’s no slack in the lever when it’s done up.

Actually, on a similar note to above.

CRC still have MORE square taper BBs, than they have PF30 + BB30 bottom brackets added together, regardless of the fact no one has made square taper chainsets in about 5-6 years?

So, 26″ wheels, the most common size of wheel on the planet, used in their millions all over Asia as a main method of transport. These are going to be phased out, because an eldery mountain bike icon said 2cm bigger would be better?

Seems like a stupid time to jump ship. CRC have:

240x 26″ wheelsets, 19x 650b wheels.
276x 26″ tyres, 18x 650b tyres.
124x 26″ forks, 7x 650b forks.

Enjoy paying top prices for essentially the same product.

if I see a cow, I have to give it the silent treatment…

If I remember correctly from primary school, “moo” is the standard phase for this scenario.

I for one thought that the majority of stw users would be buying into what will be the standard

How long do you keep your trousers on for, op?

I was totally of the opinion that hardtails made a lot of sense in 29er and fun full sus trail bikes made more sense in 26″.

I then found a cheap Stumpy FSR 29er frame which I built up, it’s arguably the most fun bike I’ve ever owned.

Pop goes that theory then.

Depends what you want I guess, my Stumpy 29er does literally make trail riding easier compared to anything else I’ve ridden. I can see it’s a bit of an acquired taste. Love zooming along personally.

Is that normally the case though? My mountain bikes (~22″) all have a ~640mm top tube, my road bike (62cm) has a 600mm top tube.

Very bizarre if they have just taken a road bike and stuck a flat bar on it. The Roubaix is pretty upright for a road bike anyway.