I used to have the Anniversary model Stumpy FSR from 2004 which I think was the top of the range frame and it was M4.

Nah, S-Works stuff is always a couple of years ahead.

http://www.specialized.co.uk/us/en/bikes/archive/2003/2003s-works/s-worksm5ht

Edit: Curse you njee!

I wouldn’t expect it to be much more amazing than a standard oldish Stumpy HT in all honesty.

Bought a 2012 S-Works M5 Stumpy 29er frame from Bike Scene recently, lovely frame, ~1800g though which surprised me.

£400 or so given the age? How old are the Sids, same age as the rest?

What shifters? SLX or above has 2 optional positions where it attaches to the bar clamps, you can remove the little windows as well to save space. Run all of my bikes the other way around come to think of it.

I’d disassemble my old Stumpjumper and get all of my friends and family into my old “FSA Pig” headset. Whatever the emergency I’m sure it would survive it.

man in the picture needs a frame the right size

Boardman only makes bikes for children, XL has a 57cm seat tube.

I love that size isn’t an issue, as long as it’s a 29er, easy win!

You’d be welcome to, but Froome hasn’t returned mine after winning Le Tour on it.

Mine was doing this, creaking and cracking like mad. I think the shell isn’t quite true on my frame, really needs facing. Stuck a brand new BB in it and got the exact same issue.

Went for a ride in a big rain storm over the last few days and it’s fixed! I think grit has lodged in the area that was creaking.

Cos mechanical STI shifters never break?

More because you don’t need a diagnostic computer to find the problem I’d guess :)

I went for an Ultegra Ultimate AL from the outlet. The Ultimate AL has the same geometry as the top end SLX frames and gets flawless reviews everywhere. The frames are more in line with CAAD10, top end alloy frames, than bog standard ones.

July Cycling Plus had a group test of £2100-2800 Di2 bikes for example, despite being the cheapest bike on test by over £500, it was the lightest on test and the only aluminium. The competitors all being value brands too, Haibike, Boardman SLR, Focus Cayo, Vitus + Cube Agree.

The frame weights are in the ~1200g area. I just couldn’t see any solid reason to take their bottom end carbon frames over the top end alloy frames.

Road ride with the local club on Saturday, got back feeling fairly fresh so went out again and kept going for a full century.

XC race organised by the same club on the Sunday, small chilled out event, very good fun! :)

Caught that chap up on the next straight and zoomed off \o/ If the aforementioned chap is reading this on here, I’m game for a rematch at the next round :D

http://app.strava.com/activities/69059515

Lovely day here, followed by sudden heavy rain shower out of the blue. Thunder and lightning followed. Not in a hugely exposed area though, didn’t even ponder that I could get struck to be honest.

I thought the first few flashes were street lamps blinking.

Glad I could help, I think everyone else completely misunderstood the request!

http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Natural-Water-Based-Lubricant-Gallon/dp/B005MR3IVO

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/wheels/road-wheels/factory-road-wheels/mavic-ksyrium-equipe-s-wts-wheelset-2013.html

Ksyriums a bit too hefty? The Elite is 150g lighter for another £150.

I know BMI is flawed but for a 6foot man your just overweight, just to give some perspective.

Putting those numbers into:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmicalc.htm

24.7 on here and the NHS website, “normal weight”.

Not sure about the Defys, but on the TCR side the frame weight difference is tiny:

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/backoffice/_upload_au/WinWithGiant%E2%80%93RoadFrameTestData%E2%80%93FINAL.pdf

They’re last years numbers I think, this years Composite has a full carbon fork, it used to be heavier than the alloy frames forks. Even then though it’s only 60g heavier than the composite. You’d save about 250g on 105 over Tiagra.

Anything aimed at comfort/distance would feel similar, Cannondale Synapse, Trek Domane etc. Most brands have one. The Giants are fantastic value though.

If you don’t want to spend more on a higher end Composite, they do make top alloy frames as well.

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/2013.giant.defy.0/11833/65276/#specifications

To the above poster, the Allez is a stiff racey frame, totally different to a Defy. It’s more in line with the TCR SL bikes.

By “more adjustment”, do you actually just mean they’ve got bite point dial, which the XT calls Free Stroke adjustment? They do look like they’re from space, but to be honest there’s not a huge amount of adjustment is there?

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/fitness/article/how-we-test-hydraulic-disc-brakes-24345/%5B/url%5D

Random link, can’t recall a grouptest actually saying the Evos are as powerful or “feel better” than new Shimanos.

Shimano fail and bin.

My old 2008 ones are still going strong, worst case scenario, your brakes explode. You’re down £30 for a new caliper or lever.

http://www.singletrackbikes.co.uk/m7b131s397p18726/SHIMANO_SLX_M675_Post_Mount_Brake_Caliper/RS_GB

You can spend some of the £150 you’ve saved getting £100 SLX instead of £250 Hopes.

Latest Shimano feel great as well!

I, on the other hand, was fecked.

Ah, but you’re carbon based too :P

Still not sold on carbon frames. Owned dozens of aluminium bikes, never broken one, owned 2 carbon bikes, cracked both. You generally chuck an extra £1k cash about a pound of weight savings, seems to be a rubbish trade off imo.

Hardtails I’d keep longer than 5 years. Full sus, especially something with as many bearings as a Meta. I don’t think 5 years is too bad.

You could probably swap the frame out for relatively cheap on the flip side, generally lots about. Generally just treat the frame like a big component here, if anything it’s a good one to swap, few hundred quid and you get a totally different bike.

Hideously envious, sounds like a top adventure :) Have fun.

New bike prices are getting absolutely ridiculous now. 6 grand for a push bike is nuts. In fact I reckon anything much over a grand is stupid money.

New car prices are getting absolutely ridiculous now. $1,000,000 for a Mclaren F1 is nuts. Infact I reckon anything over $15,000 is stupid money.

Can you think of a broad area of retail where you don’t have the full range of prices? Mobile phones cost between £10 and £700. TVs cost between £100 and £10,000. Every one has diminishing returns, pick where you want to be on the scale and buy it.

I’m content spending about £2-3k on a modern full sus mountain bike. If I earned double my salary I’d be tempted to spend more.

Tragically dropper seatposts and huge wide bars for me.

AWOL just looks like a Tricross disc?

Love the rigid carbon 29er Stumpy!

DT240 here, wouldn’t trust the 180 personally.

He had a better grasp of punctuation.

Ok peterpoddy, I’m a boy of my word

Fixed.

That Gee Atherton fellow, he always sticks to the easy trails.

People are moaning about stanchion wear, which is caused by dirt being left on the seals over the course of months. Not going out for a ride and your forks exploding.

The only Fox I’ve had with stanchion wear are some that I bought off the forum. My own sets I keep the seals clean, no issues in any, the oldest at the moment being about 5 years old. I’ve had multiple sets of Rockshocks dying, for a variety of reasons, never have a set of Fox died.

It’ll steepen up the geometry, putting you more over the front wheel. Sound like a rubbish idea to me. Do you want a 150mm beefy bike, or a 120mm speedy trail bike?

Clearly not an issue if you’re not actually mountain biking on it.

Current plan: sell 26er frame for inflated price to someone who “must have” one, buy 27er frame, put on 26er wheels, enjoy longer, lower Five

Higher bb on the new one, not sure it would make much difference. You’d just get longer chainstays :-)

maybe, about 20 years ago, when we paid for things in goat-hides, and bags of grain, you could have bought an orange clockwork

Well yes, that was pretty much the context of the conversation. :-)

oh go on then! – it’s £1800.

What’s £1800? You’ve just made up a number, multiplied it by (1.03 ^ 20) and used that as reference.

The discussion was more whether:

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?year=2013&brand=Specialized&model=Rockhopper+Comp+29#.Ud_F7m1gukw

is better relative value than:

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?year=1993&brand=Specialized&model=Rockhopper+Comp#.Ud_Fl21gukw

With inflation the older one is slightly more expensive, not a lot in it tho.

Full XTR and a 4.4lb steel frame for the equiv of £2.2k? :)

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l531/Major223/Kona%20Explosif%201993/1993_kona_catalog_explosif.jpg

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?year=1993&brand=Kona&model=Race+Light+Explosif#.Ud_Gam1gukw

Lucky you guys don’t know what I do for a living or you’d never fly on a huge commercial jet

Do you pack those dinners boxes, they’re often missing essential bits :-)

nah, you can get a specialized rockhopper for £600.

back in the day they were around £450-500, allow for inflation, and disc brakes, and suspension, and you’ve got a bargain.

On the flip side, try and find a hardtail with a high end double butted chromo frame + forks and full LX/XT level groupset for £600 these days.

These bits are being far more mass produced these days and shipping stuff around the world has got a lot easier I’d imagine.

You can get a modern Rockhopper for £600, but barely. They’re down to Suntour XCM forks, Acera/Alivio gearing, A1 frame. Pretty much identical to a £300 Hardrock from 5 years ago or so.

Total rubbish. In reality very few are, the size 15in Specialized have 90mm forks, but almost every other bike is 100mm.

Slightly dramatic reply there to 10 mm :) My point still stands.

I’m using a 23″ 2012 Stumpy HT at the moment which uses 90mm*. Prior to this I used a Scandal which was corrected for 80mm. Cannondale still use 80-90mm on all 29er hardtails? I think Specialized + Cannondale alone would constitute “a lot” on the subject of racey bikes? :)

*http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/sjht/stumpjumperelitecarbon29#specs – this years models, 80mm for smallest, 90mm for the rest.

but isn’t approx 1kg for 60mm of (underdamped/non adjustable) travel really not that impressive? How much mass does the lightest short travel conventional airsprung fork have??

~1500g for some top end 29er Sids. I bet the most common rigid forks on here is the On-One style jobbies, which weight almost exactly the same as the above.

A lot of race frames are still built around 80-90mm forks anyway. 20-30mm travel lost, for 1lb weight saving. Looks to be mud proof and have a ton of clearance at the top as well.

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/clothing/shoes/product/review-bontrager-ssr-multisport-trail-shoes-12-46399

Wearing a pair of those at work right now, getting far less odd looks than I used to get in proper disco slippers.

Using touring pedals on my road bike:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=28051

Shimano MTB cleats, single sided, thin, light, road style pedals. There’s an A530 and A600 too, the top being 280 odd grams per pair, which isn’t far off Dura Ace road pedals.

Set on 20″? I’m currently conflicted over keeping my 22″ or freeing up some space for a road bike, as it’s all I’ve really been doing recently (on a cyclocross :( ) and I’ve got a 29er full sus.

2012 frame + Kashima RP23, full ~2009 XT, 2012 Fox Float 32 RLC FIT Kashima, Hope Hoops with Flows, 2012 Reverb (newer style one) and Smorgasbord/Chunky Monkey tyres.

22″ in their 26ers is about the same size as their 650b model in 21″ (same top tube, shorter wheelbase, lower bb).