Thanks – good to know. Its a shame I bought shimano ones thinking they would be most likely to work with shimano discs…

I found my answer on the shimano website https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/deore-m610/SM-RTAD05.html

There it says
“Use this disc brake rotor adapter to attach the 6-bolt mount type disc brake rotor to CENTER LOCK mount type hub. Cannot be used with the 6-bolt disc brake rotor that is installed with an aluminum adapter (SM-RT86/RT76).”

Having just wasted a couple of hours trying to figure this out, I think it probably works on on the rear but definitely not the front. Oh well… Now to try and find a centre lock disc in stock!

Sorry to resurrect this but I’m having a similar issue using a 6 bolt rt86 disc and the shimano rtad05 adaptor.

Are you still running your disc with the correct rotational direction? If I put it all together like that then the disc is too far from the hub center and rubs on my fork leg.

Which side of the disc did you put the adaptor on? The side which has a round countersink or the one with a star shaped countersink? A picture would be hugely helpful if possible.

Markus Stitz has just posted a bunch of mostly gravel routes in East Lothian. You can find them on his komoot: https://www.komoot.com/user/642038402014/tours

I’ve done some of his routes (not in East Lothian) and they were very good fun.

This was helpful. I did a lower leg service on my Zeb’s and afterwards noticed oil leaking from the rebound knob. Thought I’d perhaps not done it up tightly enough but now I’m thinking I just don’t have the crush washer.

Thanks for the info.

Nothing on Matador is what I would consider big (even at speed). I would say that the “grass” drop in which Cathro did is pretty gnarly if that’s a good reference. I can’t find a video of it now but it’s quite steep in person.

I reckon there’s probably some pretty big stuff tucked away in quiet woods but also that the people who know, know not to share because of how busy the valley is.

I expect this is the case which makes it hard to discover, by design I suppose. I live in hope that a benevolent local can guide me somewhere special one day. Or maybe I’ll just make a wonderful discovery. That’s definitely happened before in other riding areas I’ve been at. Off the map, off strava, and some incredible features.

If you want to understand the lack of accuracy then it’s worth spending a bit of time looking at the raw data from a gpx (or other) file. It’s only a text file with timestamps and location info so it’s pretty easy to understand. If you combine an understanding of that with the lack of precision in GPS (which can wildly by device and conditions – tree cover is bad for this) then you’ll realise why some people have “impossible” KOM’s.

Personally, it’s a bit annoying if someone has a clearly impossible KOM but it tends to go away on longer segments. Unless people are in a car/motorbike/etc – which is pretty obvious.

I used a service called myus to buy some stuff from pinkbike classifieds in the USA. Was a pretty decent service but only a $250 purchase. Not sure how different it would be for an expensive frame but the service was good. Made it much easier to convince a US seller to post to a US address.

I went through a couple of switch infinity units on an sb6. I was greasing with the right molybdenum grease but stanchions got worn and bearings seized. But then I also broke a couple of frames and after that I gave up.

I’d echo the comments above. Wouldn’t buy another Yeti as a result of the warranty faff.

Is it happening to both brakes?

I had a similar issue with Saints and eventually I just bought a brand new lever. Problem went away immediately. I had long suspected a leak of one lever as there was a tiny bit of oil residue on the underside of the lever just below the piston. It was a tiny amount but even a small leak will be letting air in. It did my head in for ages. I tried every bleed method there was and nothing solved it.

If you have this on both brakes then maybe you’re just very unlucky or it’s something else.

This I can believe.

Looks like despite the 3 degree steeper effective seat tube angle, the actual angle is much slacker than the old Nomad. Old and new cross over at roughly stem height so anything above that is slacker. Would be good if Santa Cruz could provide the saddle heights used to get the effective angles.

I’d be pretty keen to get some more details – I’ve always wanted a custom painted frame but never quite had the balls to do it nor the money to pay someone like Fat. Do you have an email address for contact?

That seems pretty conclusive. Is it a bad caliper or a bad lever? Can I replace one of them? Or should I just bike the bullet and get both?

I’ve been through several sets of pads with this problem so it’s not a pad issue.

I bought a pactimo one and it’s been one of the best purchases I’ve made. It’s windproof and water resistant on the front and breathable material on the back. I’ve found that to be a winning combination and very flexible across a range of cooler temps (0-15C).

I bought mine in an outlet sale and actually bought a 2XL womens version for about £20 (reduced from £95) which fits like a mens M/L. Unfortunately they don’t have any in their sale atm but maybe worth keeping an eye out.

I have an ISM Peak which I used on my commuting and “gravel” bike. Most comfy saddle I’ve ever had and I don’t know why its in a draw not being used anymore. It is the only saddle I’ve ever had which didn’t give me ANY numbness or comfort issues and I was happy to ride 200km/day on it.

I subsequently did a full saddle test with at least 7 different saddles on my road bike and none of them remove numbness entirely. I ended up with an SMP on my road bike which is good but in a different way.

On my mtb I’ve ended up with an SQ Lab 611 after a string of other popular models. I find them all pretty bad for numbness. The SQ Lab one is better than the rest but again, not perfect.

The ISM Peak just seemed to put all the pressure right into your sit bones and thus it was extremely comfortable once you’d gotten over the first few rides. If you want to try mine then send me a PM and you can borrow it. I’d quite like it back though.

I’d really like to trial a G1 for something more than a couple of hours. It’s a massive commitment to just buy one and hope that it will feel good after a month of adjusting to it. But it’s the only thing I’d really consider as a next bike so I’m a bit stuck! I don’t mind sitting and spinning up fire roads as long as the position is comfy (like a lot of other people have mentioned).

Yeah, from Hibike in Germany. Fortunately the GBP:EUR also picked up a couple of points in the last few days.

I just bought a 180mm Zeb Ultimate to replace a 3 year old custom tuned 180mm Lyrik. I got the Zeb for £730 delivered and at that price it just doesn’t make sense (for me) to go with a Fox 38 – which I couldn’t really find at a sensible price anywhere. An Ohlins RXF m2 coil would have been my first choice but I would only buy with a warranty and they’re priced above £1200 everywhere!

Fingers crossed I don’t get a creaky CSU Zeb.

It’s quite hit or miss. I contacted them about a cheapo bike I bought and was told “We don’t know when it’s being built and don’t have any idea when you’ll get it”. At least it was a response. I enquired about another helmet/sock order and didn’t get a response after a week of waiting which makes it hard to cancel…

I think I’m going to move into the camp of never buying anything from them again unless I can wait 6 months and not worry about whether it actually turns up.

That’s a brilliant idea. I needed exactly this just last week but was too lazy to make something so disconnected the caliper and popped the pistons out completely. Let me know when there is an overpriced 3D printed version for Saint calipers so that I can be reminded to make something for cheap out of wood.

It depends if you just want max coverage or if you want more “advanced” features built in to the hardware. I went with Synology rt2600ac and the satellites MR2200. The setup has been faultless but it wasn’t the cheapest option. The google mesh units are well reviewed if you just want basic but extensive coverage.

Also, I know this is somewhat obvious, but distance is often not the issue. It’s the material through which the signal has to pass. Concrete is particularly bad for wifi signal in my experience.

NZCol
Member
Well outside of a DH bike there’s enough to keep you interested within pedalling distance of town. I’m pretty confident I can keep up, can you though ?

Have sent you a PM.

dmorts
Subscriber
You might that find that the ‘average’ rider in the Tweed Valley is actually pretty darn good. Where have you moved from and where did you ride previously? Have you ridden Inners or Golfie before?

Riders who hang around No1 Peebles Road Cafe in Innerleithen will probably be at the level you’re looking for.

That’s what I’m hoping. I’ve come up from Bristol where I rode FOD and Cwmcarn etc. I’ve ridden Inners a couple of times before and really enjoyed it but was on my own so probably didn’t find the best stuff.

NZCol
Member
Happy to meet and ride in the Pentlands, some reasonable riding but more XC than Golfie thrutch. There’s a Tuesday pie ride goes from Bonaly Store as well.

Thanks for the only genuine offer on the thread. Unfortunately I’m not well geared for xc riding as I’m overbiked. I am up for some road riding though.

mrsheen
Member
Maybe use Strava to identify the regular top 3% of local riders by segment then somehow contact them?

It’s a reasonable approach which I often do to find new routes to ride etc. But I can just hear the product managers at Strava discussing this: “So any punter can message good riders and beg them to ride together! Proper meet your heroes stuff”. Response “Sounds well annoying”.

hels
Subscriber
Funny thread!

Mind that “Riding God” is quite subjective and based on self-assessment. Unless you have actually won any Enduro World Series races – or perhaps UCI Downhill world cups of course – when it is based on proof.

But seriously the incidence of said immortals I would think is pretty high in the Tweed Valley as a percentage of the general population.

Hang around on the street corner in Innerleithen outside Number Two coffee place, and follow anybody you think looks Super Gnar enough for you.

I agree. This is a funny thread. But I’ve met plenty of very very fast riders who don’t race EWS or World Cups. In fact, I’d draw a clear distinction between “very competent” and “literally the best 50 riders in the WORLD”. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that one of the immortals in the Tweed Valley happen to notice me posing on a street corner. Look out for the guy with his top off and a sign saying “Looking for a hard ride”.

I know, I’m a ****. But it’s much less noticeable in the real world.

Been following this thread with interest as I’m moving up to Edinburgh in a few weeks. Ridden at Inners/Glentress for a couple of days and had a great time but I’d be very keen to either meet up with some others for a tour or get a local guide for a day of exploration. Recommendations would be welcome. I promise I won’t slow you down…

@mowgli – thanks for the offer, it may turn out to be the only viable solution. I’ll PM you with more details.

@squirrelking – thanks for the suggestion too.

I tried some Hope end caps (for Pro4 rear) which I found in the garage and they don’t immediately work. They do fit on the axle but they aren’t the right depth so they don’t reach the bearing. The other issue is that they don’t have a rear flange like DT Swiss end caps so they wouldn’t cover the bearing much. Machining them wouldn’t help.

DT Swiss appear to be more likely to work but we’ll see.

Just to add, the newmen hubs use 6803 bearings and hope pro 4 use a 6903 bearing. They have the same ID so the axle diameter is probably the same, which makes me think I could use some hope end caps as shown on this diagram: https://www.hopetech.com/_repository/1/documents/Pro-4-Rear-Hub-Assembly.pdf

Good info. I’ve just pulled it apart and got the calipers out.

The axle itself is 17mm OD with a total length of 127mm. So the ID of the endcaps is also 17mm and then steps down to 12mm (where the axle ends inside the end cap). The length of the endcaps themselves look totally standard. One is 15mm and the other is 22mm. The rear “flange” is 25mm on the short end cap and 25.5mm on the longer one.

Are QR end caps shorter by 7mm to get from 142mm to 135mm? If so, then I think some DT Swiss end caps might solve this as they look very similar visually (assuming DT swiss are using 17mm axles too).

Give Newmen a call/email, they’re dead helpful.

I did try this but I got a response that said there is no solution.

@submarined – interesting, because their previous generation hubs DID require you to adjust bearing preload. The hubs I have are generation 2 and don’t require that.

I’ll try to find some DT Swiss QR end caps and keep my fingers crossed.

I thought I should turn this thread into a solution rather than another dead end for some future person who is dealing with the same or similar issues.

My particular issue was that the wheel just didn’t spin freely and I felt like it was sticky all the time, both in the freewheel and on the axle. I had the bearings replaced by a bike shop (twice) and that didn’t seem to solve the problem so I decided to buy some tools and crack on myself. The main thing you need is a bearing press and I found a decent and low cost option at bearingprotools.com (no affiliation to me).

The wheels – mine are Cannondale branded (as per the topic) but the hubs are made by Formula. It turns out these shitty hubs are used very widely by Cannondale, Boardman, Cube, Giant, Syncros, Scott and possibly others. That was a helpful link to make because searching for spares became much easier.

The freehub is a 3 pawl design and is a total no frills design. The bearings in the freehub are 6802 and they can be pressed in easily from both sides as the freewheel slides off the axle. The freehub itself is labelled FH536 and you can find lots of places to buy a new one for about £30 (which comes with some cheapo bearings already installed).

The axle is a very thin aluminium looking thing and has 6903 bearings. Once I’d taken this apart I realised that the two bearings were not making a tight contact on the inner race and it looks like the axle itself has been worn down. I haven’t taken calipers to it but it’s obvious by eye. I ordered a new axle only from GiantBikeSpares although the axle is the same in lots of different kits so I just bought the cheapest.

I bought NTN bearings from bearing king as they were the cheapest legit NTN bearings I could find although I have previously bought from AireVelo too. I replaced with full contact NTN bearings and the difference in bearings is immediately noticeable in hand. The NTN ones are so much smoother than the stock ones (comparing new with new).

Overall, they aren’t great hubs and shouldn’t be on a £4-5k bike but that’s the way things have become. You can keep the wheel running smooth/fast by ensuring the freehub, axle, and bearings are newish and well greased but in the long run I think switching to a dt swiss star ratchet design is probably more sensible but YMMV.

Finally, to press in one of the 6903 bearings you need an over axle type press because the axle has to be in place due to the design.

Hope that helps some future person!

Where to buy spares:
Westbrook cycles have lots and lots stuff listed under Syncros Formula hub repair kit. What’s a bit odd is that very similar kits are listed under different brand names and for different prices so look carefully before ordering.
Cannondalespares.com has a bunch of stuff
Giantbikespares.com also has loads (and actually has slightly different stuff to cannondalespares even though it’s clearly the same product – worth checking both)
Bearing King for NTN bearings (or AireVelo – but they are generally more expensive)

If you want to save £95 then come out with us on a Wednesday evening. We generally ride 3-4 of the same descents that Wye MTB ride (in fact we may have “pioneered” some of the less well known ones!). We do, however ride to the tops of them so expect 800-1000m of climbing of an evening 🙂 We do save them for winter generally, as they ride fine in the slop, whereas the mountains ride better in summer.

Can you share details of the Wednesday meetup? And when you say “the mountains ride better in summer” I assume you mean the alps/dolomites/etc. But do you mean somewhere in the UK???

More info recently posted in this thread: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/nice-down-the-forest-of-dean-today/

I had a decent explore yesterday and think I found quite a bit of stuff. I saw plenty more which I didn’t get to ride due to time. In general I was very impressed – the trails are much, much better than the stuff around PABA. If you want to ride enduro style trails and don’t mind slogging up fireroads in between then this is a much more fun day out. I also realised that the segments are all on Strava but they are all hidden…

In case it’s helpful for any other noob then here is my gpx: https://www.strava.com/activities/3488648959

In particular, the section called Billy’s trail is so much fun. For a split second I thought I was in Squamish. I also thought Bunker and Widow Maker were lots of fun. Very keen to get back for more!

[If I shouldn’t be posting these trails for whatever reason just let me know and I’ll remove]

I’ve found a bunch of routes around there so I’ll try my best to find some stuff today. Thanks for the tips and maybe I’ll bump into a local!

Was going to head to FoD tomorrow but Staunton sounds interesting and I’ve never been. Can anyone provide any beta? I can’t find anything on trailforks but did find a random route on viewranger. Thanks!

The problem with pressfit BB’s is not the BB, it’s the frame. If you follow Hambini (generally hilarious) then you’ll see that the biggest issue with BB’s is lack of alignment between sides and lack of concentricity. This is all solved with a solution like Hambini or BBInfinite provide because the entire BB shell is machined from one piece of aluminium. The downside is that it’s generally more expensive than other solutions but having a single machined block in which your BB bearings sit is the only way to sort the problem. Anything that screws together from either side is never going to be perfectly aligned.

Despite the above I still prefer the threaded BB I have on my mountain bike because it’s just so much easier to work on and I’m really not bothered about losing a few watts due to lack of alignment.

As a method of ID verification and reducing fraud. ie. if you have access to the account then it’s likely you are the person or have authority to act on behalf of a business.

1. it’s been a rather massive failure – it took way too long to come to market
2. Needs stronger government enforcement of penalties and standards
3. Some open banking aggregators have built quite nice (although niche) businesses as a layer on top of the open banking protocol (see Truelayer, Bud, Figo)
4. It is still missing features which are extremely useful (account name would be one example).

Good luck with the interview. I presume it’s with Lloyds?

I had a friend do the vast majority of our L4H3 Relay conversion last year. I just got very lucky and he happened to be inbetween jobs and has done 6 van conversions for friends/family.

We had the same challenge in that we wanted garage for bikes under a fixed bed but also needed to sleep 2 adults and 2 children. Quite a challenge once you get down to it! We paid about £12k for a 2 year old van and then probably that again on the conversion (split between parts and labour). I can share some pics of the layout if it helps. The main thing for us was getting an L4H3 so we had enough space for a kids bed at the front above the seats. The other kids bed is above our feet in the back. I imagine both would be ok up until about 8 years old but after that it would be getting tight.

I think the DIY route can work if you have a workshop/garage and you have plenty of time to get things done. There are a couple of small things I would have changed but my friend did the conversion in about 5 weeks so it was ready for a trip to the alps! That was priceless!

Good luck.

It’s a step up from any other bike park in the UK and requires a high level of skill and confidence. The jump line can be rolled by anyone but you’d get pretty bored if that’s all you could do. The Slab track isn’t that bad tbh and seems overgraded for a triple black. The chute of doom was more serious and harder to ride imo.

I have to commend them for building a bike park like this because it is great to have but probably excludes 90% of the regular bike park crowd.