I’ve owned both and am very happy with my current Reign (2015 alu reign 1).

The patrols not a bad bike but it just didn’t live up to all the hype, the rear suspension can be quite harsh over fast repeated square edge hits and no amount of shock tinkering sorts it (I put a ccdba on mine to try and solve it), if you read through the pinkbike forum there’s a fair few people complain about this.

I also had to warranty the first frame as it cracked around the shock mount and both frames had shock alignment issues (again see the pinkbike forum).
It was also noisy (chain slap, cables etc) and the bearings were pretty much all shot after 3 months, which seems to be fairly common on them.

Saying all that though it was a quick bike and jumped really well it’d rail berms really well too.

As for the Reign, it’s not the lump people think it is, mine comes in at just under 30lbs and it climbs/pedals as well as the patrol, jumps better and goes downhill way better (much, much plusher) and is a much better fit for me, it may not be quite as poppy as the patrol but I feel it does everything the patrol could but with much better suspension.

Also the alu ones also have a lifetime warranty and I paid not much more for it new than I sold the patrol for as it was last years model with a 40% discount.

The 46mm offset makes hardly any difference going downhill, I’ve swapped out my pikes for some 42mm offset lyriks and after swapping back for a bit decided there’s actually f’all difference, maybe very slightly slower steering with the 42mm but that’s it.

I managed to fracture my c1 along with 2 others in my neck and 4 in my back a few years ago, like you, got lucky and had no nerve damage, got out of that bastard j brace and body brace after 6 weeks and was riding again in a week.
I had to go easy for a bit as I broke my pelvis and a few other things at the same time which caused me more grief than my neck/back.
I had a few lumps and bumps for a bit but the only real thing I notice now is the fact I’m an inch and a bit shorter than I was before my off.
Keep exercising and moving and things should get back to normal pretty quickly

Thanks for that, I may go with it then as the invoice will have my name on it and my local bike shops a giant dealer
cheers

Easiest way I’ve found to fit them is to use the fork steerer as a press, proper bodge and may knacker bearings but I’ve managed it a few times using an old set of bearings (hope headset) and fork.
Just assemble everything as if the cups were pressed in, tighten down headset top cap bolt so that the cups are lined up and crank away on the top bolt, I got the cups around a third of the way in easily then tapped away with a hammer and block of wood to get them fully seated, it worked suprisingly easily the few times I’ve done it but as I said it may well knacker your bearings etc if the cups are a really tight fit

I used a broker to get mine, been a self employed contractor for years and had no problems. The broker takes his fee from the mortgage company and the deal he got us was better than most I could get going direct and was no different from what a permenantly employed person would have been offered.
The only extra charges I had were from my accountant who had to submit info to the lender.
Oh yeah and they’ll ask for the last three years worth of sa302 forms which you need to get from hmrc, which can take awhile

Beware creaking csu’s on the 350’s. I’ve a set of NCR airs and they started creaking after a few weeks, Windwave were brilliant as always and replaced the uppers, unfortunately the new ones started creaking after a weeks too.
It’s a shame as they work really well and are as plush and controlled as my old 55 rc3 ti’s (which also creaked as did my fox 36 before them).
I’m on pikes now and am happy with them so far but am half expecting them to start creaking at some point (think I may be jinxed)

I’ve got some 350 ncr’s, cost me £500 and are way better than any pikes I’ve used, admittedly they did need to go back for new uppers due to creaking crowns but this took less than a week and the service from Windwave has been really good.
I’ve had fox’s and rockshox with creaking crowns and my old marz 55’s did it too (all replaced under warranty) so I’m not that surprised the 350’s started creaking.

The big plus for me with marzocchi is the 2 year warranty and the ability to send the forks direct to Windwave rather than going through a dealer like you do with rockshox. As I think no matter what you buy there’s a pretty good chance it’ll need some warranty work at some point

Not sure if it’s an Alpine five or not but the five seems pretty capable to me…
that flippin five

My mates lasted 4 hours riding before they went back for repair. I think they might be going back again

Be interested to hear what issues you’re mates had and also which model his forks are (NCR or CR)

Those forks look nice. Time for a dropper?

Blown away by the forks, particularly as they cost the same as pikes.
Yeah, the seatpost has definitely seen better days, just waiting for the marzocchi dropper to come out as I can get a discount if bought through the shop I got the frame from (Windwave will discount any marzocchi product by 15% if bought with a transition frame/bike)

I’d say black, not that I’m biased or anything, heres mine…

I agree with the op. There’s a large number of road cyclists that are arrogant **** constantly antagonizing car drivers. A few seem to have managed to get themselves on a mountainbike forum by the looks of the comments above.

What they seem to be able to not comprehend is the that yes, some drivers are in a rush, maybe with an emergency for a loved one who’s in hospital, wife in labor etc, etc. but these **** are too busy with their “**** the driver” attitude to even start to be a little compassionate towards a fellow human on the same piece of road as them, who may not be out for a leisurely little ride.

Also the same **** don’t seem to realize they’re putting their lives in danger by riding like dicks around a few tons of metal traveling at twice there speed. regardless of whos to blame the cyclist will come of far worse than any car driver in a collision, whats the point of risking your life for some **** up selfish attitude.

The 1.6 ford motors use the fluid based dpf, which have a more issues than the non fluid based 2.0 tdci lump.
I’ve got a 08 2.0 litre Mondeo which has now done 120k with no problems, hardly ever notice the dpf regening.

I know the vw group cars seem to suffer with a fair few dpf issues which after some research (mainly owners forums) put me of them. Saying that though I think all cars with dpf’s are prone to problems if you do low mileage, short journeys.

It seems all the manufacturers are having creaking CSU issues, I’ve had some 2011 Fox’s do it, and I definitley haven’t been the only one see here I started that thread years ago and people still add to it now, I had 3 new uppers on them under warranty before finally giving in and going back to Marzocchi.
Now my 55’s have been creaking for the last year and are going back for new uppers under warranty also, both Mojo’s and Windwave have said they’re replacing a fair few CSU’s when I spoke with them, both were quite happy to replace them though without any arguments.

I’m a bit bummed out to hear Rockshox now creak also, I was considering a set of pikes but think I’ll stick with the 55’s now

[So it only counts if you get hurt or killed?]
Or slightly put out, as stated in the post.
I Suggest you read what your commenting on before getting back on that high horse Drac

Here we go again, another roadie trying his best to start a car bashing thread on a mountain bike forum.
Nobody got hurt or even slightly put out, no laws were broken, leave it alone or save it for the roadie forums so we don’t have to get f**ked off with all the up their own arse roadie crap.

Grum, normally the missus does that as most of the stuff gets more creased when I do it

This kind of thing pretty much sums up the STW lot. To make such a big thing about how your taking the moral high ground over something that the majority of people either couldn’t give a **** about or just see as a bit of fun. bunch of namby pamby, we know best, hardly ever ride our bikes cos we’re to busy criticising stuff on the web type of people. Stop your bitching, get on your bikes and try having some fun yourselves.

Took the wifes car there for a set of front tyres once (Bracknell branch)
They kept f**ing up the balancing, the thing vibrated like mad, they kept telling me it was fine, I kept telling them to get funked and sort it out, then the extra large fella in reception who was having trouble breathing, tried telling me it was due to oil settling in the tyres and going hard and balancing machines wouldn’t pick this up!!
I started explaining why this was a load of utter sh1t on so many levels but the confused look on the useless idiots face just made me give up.

Anyhow, took the car to an independent and got it sorted.

Trekex8, 3 months in either the body brace or neck brace would have driven me crazy!, I had very lucky escape with not damaging my spinal core. According to the specialists I’ve seen I’ve healed like a 14 year old, only thing is, I still break like a nearly 40 year old, the days of bouncing are long gone.

Scaled, decided to go riding whilst hanging from the night before, a little dab of the brakes before a fairly big gap scrubbed off just a bit too much speed, I new exactly what I’d done but my hungover brain didn’t even think to leapfrog the bars, needless to say, my hangover got a lot, lot worse.
Lesson learned though, no more riding with hangovers.

Cheers Lardlover, lucky for me it was all just bones, no nerve or muscle damage, so healings going along quite nicely.
Enjoy the morphine. with any luck you’ll be back on the bike in no time.

I share your pain, I stacked it 7 weeks ago just as the weather was picking up and the woods drying out and broke 7 vertibrea, 3 in my neck and 4 in my back along with a broken pelvis, 5 ribs, cracked sternum and a fractured shoulder socket, just spent the last 6 weeks with a neck and body brace with the first 4 of those on crutches. The most painful thing I’ve done since then is sneeze, whatever you do don’t sneeze.

I made it out for my first ride last night and am definitely going to have to get on it to get fit again, that and maybe get a slightly better padded saddle. I can see the summer slipping away though whilst I work on getting back up to somewhere near the level I was at previous to my crash.

Good luck with the recovery.

Frozen joints will be your biggest problem, all you’ll hear is people telling you to take it easy don’t move and allow nature to take it’s course. Definitely get advice from a specialist on this as if your shoulder freezes you’ll have no end of problems.

I’ve always stuck with the advice a specialist gave me when I broke my Scapula (shoulder blade) in two and that was to get the joint moving as soon as I could, I started with little movements, just letting my arm hang and circling it around as far as pain would allow, over time these movements got bigger and as a result I needed no physio and suffer very few ill effects today. If I’d not had the advice and just had the fracture clinics I’d probably still be suffering today as they really were useless.

I’ve just recovered from a broken pelvis around my hip socket along with a few other things and whilst I had to be non weight bearing for the first 4 weeks I kept it moving and am now walking (almost) fine without the need for physio 5 weeks on. Just sitting around not doing anything and feeling sorry for yourself can just prolong the pain.

Speaking to a specialist who knows your specific injurys is the way to go, I found the fracture clinics to be useless in this regard.

Hi,
I’ve got some 5.10 freerider vxi’s size 10 as a warranty replacement from evans cycles which I’m selling, they’re still in the box and have the tags.
I’ll take £50 for them, let me know if your interested.

I broke my pelvis (similar to yours with a acetabular fracture) along with 7 vertibrea a few ribs and a shoulder socket 4 weeks ago, I got lucky in not needing surgery as everything was lined up where it needed to be and have just been given the all clear to ditch the crutches and start full weight bearing, this has all happened way quicker than I was originally told after my first ct scan and xrays etc.

I did spend 5 nights in hospital, with the first 3 of those dosed up to my eyeballs on morphine, I found that took care of the need for a sh1t, also not being able to get up helps as gravity plays a part in these things, a few days after getting up on crutches and being off the painkillers did have me doing the most monumental sh1t I’ve ever had mind, then it was just a case of working out how to wipe my arse whilst wearing a body brace and a neck brace, took some figuring out…

Had the exact same problem when I coveted mine to a 142, solved it by switching the freehub seal round the other way as it binds up against the hub body when tightening up the wheel.

The first mk4 I bought was the 2.5t titanium x estate, with all the toys, nav, radar cruise blah blah blah and cost me £14000, it was 10 months old with 2k on the clock and dealer owned, list price was £30k for the same spec new, so yeah they depreciate pretty rapidly, although the ST220 estate I had before that cost me £5500 and I sold it for £5800 after 18 months of ownership, so that was nice.

I’ve got a 08 plate 2 litre tdci (140hp)and have owned it for the last 3 years and covered 60k in it (now on 112k) apart from my aircon just starting to play up I’ve not had one problem, still on original clutch/dpf/exhuast etc, the cambelt is almost due though (every 120k) so that may cost…

There are few things you need to look out for though, steering racks can be a costly problem, something to do with the seals breaking down, although most of these seem to happen early on in the cars life and will have been fixed under warranty.

Also the aircon condensor gets holes in it quite easily and lets all the fluid out, dealers will shaft you for this but a replacement cost’s around £90 and is fairly straight forward to change, tell tale sign is if the air con has a hissing noise to it when it’s low on fluid, this has just happened to mine.

Make sure you avoid the 18″ rims on the higher spec cars, as tyre wear is a major issue with them, my old 2.5t (petrol) estate had them and would eat tyres in less than 10k miles and they aint cheap.
I still only get around 20k from the little 16″ rims on my current car, they look sh1t but save me money…..

Knolly Chilcotin or maybe endorphin if you want a bit less travel

Check for play in the rear chainstay pivots, I know three people who have bought 2013 megas and all had play in the bearings/pivot points, all became obvious after the first ride on them.
They all got fixed under warranty, something to do with needing spacers in the pivot points. It’s a known issue and is easily sorted.

Definitely keep the chilcotin. I’ve got one with a ccdba and wouldn’t swap it for anything, built up with 55rc3 ti’s it weighs 31.4lbs and pedals fine but still handles the downhill, jumps etc as well as my old delirium it replaced.

Its my third knolly now and can’t really see me moving to another brand anytime soon

We managed to get our money back for a two night stay in Coombe Grove Manor in Bath, stayed there for a wedding a few years ago and the place was shocking, they also charged £170 a night which was a major pisstake, it only really came about when the other half sent an email to complain to the customer relations team and recieved an abusive phone call back, pissed me off and we then decided to go for the full refund, which happened after a few well versed emails and calls to the relations group manager.

Try moving your BB spacers around, if you’ve got one on each side, put two on the drive side and none on the other. Or you can always take some spacers out from behind you chain device (if you have any in there), do which ever affects your chainline the least.

Another vote for avoiding Brooksons here.
I was with them when I set up my ltd company after composites got outlawed, they made more cock ups than I care to mention, late filing, messing up accounts, nearly costing me thousands more than I needed to pay. I switched to a local accountancy firm that suggested I may be able to take legal action for their incompetence after all the errors in my accounts were found.

Wet and closed (well, all of the blue run is)

I’ve found all the exercise in the world doesn’t make me lose a significant amount of weight, with cutting out all the little snacks and cakes at work and watching my sugar intake, I managed to drop from just under 13st to 11st8 within 8 weeks before my wedding, it’s suprising how easy it was once I got to the point when it was noticable, also found the less cr8p I ate the less I wanted it.

If you really want to shift it your gonna have to drop the sugar intake.

Owned a mk4 mondeo 2.0 (140hp) for that last 3 years, cars done 106000 (50k by myself) with no problems whatsoever, it’s still on it’s original clutch.
I do most of my driving on the motorway though, so can’t really say if it’d have dpf problems with a lot of short journeys as most modern diesels do. I’ve only ever noticed it doing a regen twice.
The mk4 motor is a whole lot more reliable than the older ford diesels.

The video should have been titled ‘overly aggressive, confontational **** gets his comeuppance’ saying he didn’t deserve it is just dumb, he chased after someone then approached him screaming abuse in a threatening manner, personaly I’d see him a threat thinking he could resort to violance anytime and would have smacked him too.
If that was a lone women in the car he would have no doubt acted the same and left her scared sh1tless.
It’s the only time I’ve ever wanted to congratulate an audi driver!

Anyhow, I thought this was a mountain bike forum, what are a load of roadies doing on here starting arguments? I don’t remember seeing any audis on any “singletrack” I’ve been on.