Press fit bottom bracket and OverDrive 2 steerer tube.

Whats the difference in weight between a Deore and XT crankset?

100-120g or so, quite a pricey leap though. SLX Is very similar to the XT weight. Carbon bars would be a similar cost for the saving.

Could lose a lot more £1/gram on wheels and tyres.

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=496

Seems like a steal at the moment, or his Pacenti/Tesla sets for £259.

Also worth mentioning, most people around Llandegla I see are riding 17-18″ bikes, probably the best size for the area.

HTH

Absolutely loved my 2008 Meta, by far the most fun bike I’ve ever owned, I was always a bit big for it at 6’6″ though. Riding a 22″ Five now, feels quite sedate in comparison, very similar sort of thing though.

2009 was THE year to avoid though.

On top of bars, inside shifters and brakes here.

Bit of a stupid angle, old style fat XT M770 brakes though.

I’m in :) Part of the Chase Trails team of 4, not one of the two who arrived at crazy hours to sign up.

I believe Santa Cruz make very similar ones. But much, much cheaper.

Unless you want XXL, in which case your only option is the Peruvian Silk t-shirt for 5x the price.

I’ve got nothing to say, but this thread deserves to be above the other one :-)

Just pull the stickers off and get of these on there:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Bicycle-Decals-Transfers-Stickers-3-/321062132829?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item4ac0cb5c5d

Is it that rare though? I’m now riding a brand new Kashima’d up Five after working stacks of overtime last year and never getting out, my riding went to pot but I had loads of cash to chuck at it. I’m sure there’s loads of people in similar situations.

At very least try to avoid the maxles with no support in the middle:

The older ones and newer ones both have full support for the whole axle. It’s not a dead cert fix but should be less likely to snap. Never had an issue myself, using a standard Pro II and latest style Maxle at the moment.

Stick a shock pump in your Camelbak and take it along with you on a ride. Just remember the numbers in there last and work from there. Never really got on with setting by sag, such a vague measurement that’s totally throw out based on fork/rear setup, compression damping/spring rate etc.

I’m totally crap at the moment and riding a Five if that’s any consolation :-)

Too much time off over winter, only riding my Tricross, normally just seems to take a ride or two to get back up to speed but I’m really having a hard time this year. Just need to get the hours in, keep riding and riding.

I used to be more embarressed on my Mojo, it was far too small for me and I found it impossible on uphill switchbacks or anything downhill. Looked like an absolute tool with a £3k carbon bike pushing it up all the hills, the Five fits me sadly so I’ve not got that excuse anymore.

With a soda stream you can drop some weight on the whisky too.

Just one? May as well go all out and get a Tallboy LTc or something! :) See how she likes those potatoes.

32 front + 10 rear with 29er wheels will still be a fair pelt. Similar to a 26er a couple of clicks off hardest gear.

Really like it :) Completely incapable of doing any riding that would justify it though.

If it’s a newish Reverb it’s very easy shortening the hose, the hose screws onto the bar mounted lever. Didn’t have to bleed mine at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwetOx-DIkc

Look very similar to Arch Ex, same width, 20g heavier but they do come with eyelets. Very tempted :)

Are they annodized or painted? Ie are the coloured ones drastically heavier like Stans.

Hoses are a lot tider than on my Five to be honest, the guides seem to fire them out sideways. Love the new shiny silver ones, is it some sort of clearcoat or just silver paint?

Built up a spare parts bike a few years back, with a cheap full sus frame I found on ebay.

In retrospect I want to dig it out the cupboard under the stairs and build it up again. It even had some Floats for a while, its biggest failing was the rear shock was absolute turd.

However they don’t when it goes down.

That’s when we switch to our Luna Panels.

Apparently work a bit better as a rear tyre, just bought one of these and a £15 Chunky Monkey for the front. Bargain. It does depend on whether you want a huge 2.4″ on the front tho :)

Heavy like a full sus, jarring like a rigid bike, expensive like both added together, they really do seem to do everything :-)

Thieves probably wouldn’t know to nick it on the plus side.

From what I recall my 2001 Specialized Enduro was 30.9. We didn’t even have seat posts back in those days, lump of coal on a sharp stick, if we were lucky.

The problem with running bugger all air is they seem to dive like mad going downhill, tragically I think the best Floats I’ve had were old 2008 oil bath ones. My new 2012 RLC kashima ones I can’t quite get into the happy medium with. Running them a bit too hard at the moment so don’t get full travel.

Just standard Oury here don’t like lock ons at all… too thin feeling for me.

Exactly the same here. Very easy getting the standard ones on and off anyway after a few goes.

Don’t normally see so many calls for Ourys in these threads :) +1 for Ourys here! The compound seems to differ depending on colour, white ones are crazy soft, black, quite a bit tougher.

Ebay them for £700 and buy 2 sets of Revs if you like.

Err ok, then this one is BETTER value than the original one I compared to if you prefer?

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/orange-five-am-full-suspension-mountain-bike-id66014.html

The very fact it can be vaguely disputed shows Specialized have gone a bit off the ball? Five prices are very slowly crawling up, Specialized are zooming along. Zesty 314 or EX8 are miles better value than both.

Kit gets lighter and stronger, carbon gets into more models.

Well only because they stop building low end models entirely. There’s 1 alloy Stumpy? The cheapest carbon one is £3k.

2010 Stumpy Comp

£1799 – 3 years ago, higher spec (although admittedly much more in line with a modern Camber).

Also- the carbon expert evo is closer in price to the Five than the Comp which you linked.

Errr, this one?

But it’s not everyone, I’m specifically saying Specialized has drastically gone downhill value wise. EX8s, Cubes, Lapierres etc, all great value, vaguely in line with inflation.

Specialized on the other hand, decided to ditch 26″ entirely and ramp up all prices across the board.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/carve-comp-2013-mountain-bike-ec042220

The new Carves are an awesome example. £200 forks, £100 X5 group set, £80 wheels, £60 Elixir 1s, err £800 M4 frame?

Easy digging Orange every few minutes, but to be honest they’re virtually the same price as supermarket bikes now anyway:

2013 Stumpy Evo

2013 Orange Five AM

Better wheelset on the Five, fork could get argued both ways, not sure what the budget Float 34s are like. SLX vs X7/X9? Have fun with that PF30 BB.

At least you know your money has gone to a smaller company with bugger all buying power. Rather than, err, research? 15 years of research and we decided our initial linkage design was correct.

It was only about 2-3 years ago Specialized were popping out Pitches for just over £1k, with a top set of Pikes, solid wheels and really well thought out solid kit. Few years on and everyone is fine paying double?

Besides, 3-4 year old Stumpy frame will get £300-400 on classified. 3-4 year old Five, easy £800 or so.

Keen on trying some Pacenti TL28s here, I’ve heard they’re not great with rock impacts but it’s just for widening up some XC tyres :)

So many ways of blowing £40 for far less savings. Titanium anything for a start, QRs/pedal axles/saddle rails/bolts.

I’d rather buy those tubes than a top end cassette to be honest.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=91007&gclid=CKz7iZblx7UCFZDKtAodWUcAAg

(I love that the 9 speed XT one I use is lighter than that anyway :roll: )

Depending on where you’re riding, tubes can last for years.

As soon as light, expensive components start getting spoken about, every quickly changes the topic to fat people and poo.

A shiny Zaskar, I had one of the new fangled carbon ones in an attempt at appeasing the retrobiker in me, but it was rubbish. As well as Trek Y frame (purely for novelty), Proflex 857, old style Kona steel bikes, quite a few I’d quite like if I ever had the shed space :(

Using a Tricross (although an older one with rim brakes) in a Minoura myself. The turbo came with a cheapy QR as above, that I’ve just left on it, clamps in fine here.

It makes my bits go amazingly numb after about 20 minutes, but that’s another story :D

I’d really like to get on with longer bars and wider stems, it seems like what the cool kids all do. I bought some Sunline 745s and I’ve gradually cut them down, 1 more cut and they’re the same as my 685s that I really get on with. Rubbish :(

Magicshine MJ-872s are popular for the, flood light everything for miles, sort of lighting. Decent up/down controls as well instead of the 1 button mode select like a lot of the XML ones.