Both 😀

Its definitely quicker hitting the drop and sticking high over the roots than going round but it does mean sacrificing a little bit of speed in the lefthander beforehand making a later tighter turn to make sure you get the line sorted. Practice it rolling in from the road (to the right of the drop) to begin with as its far easier and once you’ve built up your confidence hit it on the fly 😉

Had one on my socom a few years ago

Totally transformed the bike, was in a different league performance wise compared to the DHX5, shock was tuned from new for the frame and my weight and only needed a few small tweaks from the recommended stock settings to get it perfect. After having this i tried to run one in my Sunday after loving it in the Socom but it didnt really gel as well on the DW frame.

IF you ever decide to shift it give me a shout, really regret selling mine – sold the white new style version i had off you as it wasnt as good as my old mono one!

Man i miss that bike 🙁

Having used Kyle Straits of all types for years ive recently got some of these: Clicky Light and comfy and seem to offer better protection (although ive not tested that yet!) certainly a worthy alternative.

RR

There has clearly been a bit of a comms cockup then for which i apologise. Please bare in mind we are a large company and the likelihood of the same person speaking to freeflow and then replying to your email is very small. Infact id say it was Nil, its a ridiculous notion to suggest that we would supply the public (or anyone for that matter) with false early due dates when we know otherwise as its only going to lead to disappointment and people moaning/complaining when things are late..

I infact always add a few days onto the date on the system, it doesn’t effect anything and your not going to be upset if it turns up early…

Im sorry for the communication issue, its clear that some Hotlines staff have been informed of the delay and some haven’t. I’m also sorry that this seems to have greatly upset you, the Cotic is a superb bike and I hope you enjoy it.

Brant the website stock/due dates update in the early hours every morning so if that dates been changed on the system today it wont show until tomorrow.

RagleyRider/Neil

I can assure that Hotlines are not BS’ing you. At the end of the day its really very simple we can only pass on the information that is given to us and in this case comms has been a little slow between suppliers>supply chain managers>hotlines sales staff. I spoke to brant in person last week and this wasnt mentioned so it can only have recently come to light.

Lots of lovely stuff posted here but the one i used to draw most as a kid and could still spend hours look at pictures are these

Stunning 🙂

Glad you enjoyed it – welcome to the club 😉

I switched the rear out (Cobra i think) for another 2.2 Cougar (run backwards). Certainly worth a try though 🙂

They size up about right for a 2.2, ive never been a fan of silly fat tyres though. Just do it, love my 714!

Its not a cunning Lapierre ploy, i work for the distributor and our zesty demo bikes are all 514s 😆

We shift similar numbers of each every year. You do get quite a bit more bike with the 514, Carbon rear end does shave a good chunk of weight. The fork on the 314 is a good solid performer but the QR15 FIT fork is one of the best on the market and the bolt through does make a difference if your a more aggressive rider. Pro pedal shock is an upgrade but not really a necessity as they do pedal nicely without. Ive got one on my Zesty which I occasionally switch on on fireroad climbs but only if i remember! XT Wheels and tubeless setup on the 514 is nice and the Hutchinson Cougar on the front is one of the best trail tyres ive ever used. Whether all this is worth £500 really comes down to your budget, as its probably a fair price to pay for the upgrades.

314 is in WMB in the Trailbike of the year test which is out next week so that might be worth a read but whichever you go for you will be pleased 🙂

Are CRC not recycling the boxes themselves? I get a few items a week direct from CRC due to work and the majority of them come packaged in boxes they’ve obviously previously received deliveries in. Surely this is more cost effective and better for the environment than using thousands of jiffy bags? Agreed thats pushing it for a washer but that box lying about cost them nothing, a brand new jiffy bag would cost them something!

To throw another contender into the mix, Answer Pro Taper here, new 2011 ones are looovely and come in 720(AM) or 780(DH) widths. I went for these (780DH) over the Nuke Proofs as they come in a 1/2″ rise which is perfect.

Ive used the standard and the advanced version. Nice tough sidewalls and the 2.25 comes up as a decent size (I ran 2.25 front 2.1 rear). Advanced ones were certainly better due to the softer compound and hook up well as good allrounder. The non advanced one is a bit harder compound and was a bit squirmy at first on harder surfaces, however this seemed to improve loads after a few rides and they were fine, can only assume it was the releasing agent on the tyre that was causing it to be a little slippy on hard wet stuff to begin. Certainly seems to correlate with the BR review as they probably only rode it once 😆

Check out the Hutchinson cougars too (ive been using the 2.25 tubeless ones) and they are sweet.

The ‘acoustic hits’ bonus CD in the special edition greatest hits album is superb.

I may be wrong but that rear calliper looks to be sitting far to high in relation to the rotor.

44mm is the new 1.5

Please note not all of those dealers listed on the dealer listings will be able to supply you frames. Up until this year NP has been a parts brand so there has been little if any “dealer areas” hence two ‘dealers’ in stourbridge.

Now that we produce frames this will change and any shop commiting to stock Nuke Proof frames will be given an area, shops within that area will still have access to Nuke Proof parts and accessories but not the frames. Ill have a word so that the dealer listing has some way of determining who is going to be carrying frames.

oops double post

Clicky

Been running a pair of these on a HT for 6 months now and theyve been faultless.

Supercow – Pretty sure that was ‘Regular’.

Initial plan was to have a short and a regular but we added a larger size and went small medium large instead, so effectivly its the same as the production medium. Thats the bike i rode and felt great on (im 5’10) i ordered a medium.

The R1X is a OE brake. R1 lever with RX Caliper, comes standard on a lot of Lapierres and id imagine on a few other formula speccing manufacturers bikes too. Those bolts are made out of the finest softest cheese though 😀

Jeffus they just emailed, i thought you wanted a yellow one! 😆

That’ll be me there speaking too then! 😆

Jeffus where in the world are you?

That sounds like a rather tasty setup thv!

I was really impressed with the monarch on the mega, no hint of it feeling out of its depth. Went through the midstroke a wee bit easy for my liking but i like things pretty stiff and there is a slight change on the tune were using on the production shock.

Will still give a coil shock a go in mine to see how it performs though.

Well ive just checked all the preorders and yellow is the least popular… so its clearly the best colour 😆

And its £50 cheaper! Ill be honest though i chose it as we had a yellow scalp built up (the one that was stolen in london actually) which was yellow with the matching yellow seatpost and the ISP look kinda did it for me so i want same with my mega!

Jeffus worst case scenario is that if they dont come prefaced you could probably find a shop (and there are plenty signed up as dealers already all over the country) that would be willing to do this included in the price of the frame. The Black and Silver are anodized anyway so it would only ever be an issue on the yellow ones, but im sure brant will confirm shortly anyway.

Working on new years day Brant 😉

Jeffus ive had a lot of time prodding round all the NukeProofs and the welds and general finish quality on all the prototypes is very high.

Cant comment on how much facing will be done on the production models but im sure Brant will know.

Ride quality wise i managed to nab on hour or so on one of our prototypes and loved it, has a real hooligan appeal to it on anything interesting but is nicely balanced on flowing singletrack and climbs too. Impressed. 1st Production Medium in Yellow has my name on it anyway 😀

I had the misfortune of trying the crampons for a day (with 5-10s). Simply awful, i hope for your sake the ‘slight change in shape’ is actually a total resdesign!

They can get podiums 😉

Check the straitlines too, still think these are one of the best pedals on the market (without spending mental bucks).

Look pretty sweet but for the same money you could buy straitlines…

Mind you i have podiums 😆

highways agency site is useful for any issues on major routes. I use it quite a lot on my travels:
Clicky

STW boys here had a look at one a few weeks ago:

Clicky[/url]

Pagey has been thrashing the crap out of one of the proto’s for months now and its been faultless.

Nukeproof Mega?

Ive ordered one up to do pretty much everything your looking at doing for when my little AMR isnt upto the job. Just cant justify having a full dh bike this year but having ridden our proto one this will more than suffice 😀

drop me an email if it floats your boat: luke@hotlines-uk.com

Lots of factors, i grew up riding on wet roots so they dont tend to phase me much (but i still fall off on them from time to time).

First things first, doesnt make as much difference as some while tell you on what tyres youve got, nothing is gonna grip so a wet shiny bastid fat bastid root, whats worth remembering though is that the faster your travelling the less time your tyre has to ‘slip’ on said root. Adjusting your line so your heading into them as square on as possible allows you to go much faster too (even if this might not be the fastest line in the dry).

The hardest ones are big massive bundles of off camber roots, (which unfortunatly seems to how the usually are :D) if its a short enough section then if your confident enough then yes, jump the whole section and keep on it, however when this isnt possible, simply ‘unweighting’ the bike as you head over the worst of it often allows you to carry more speed, stay relaxed stay off the brakes and get ready to try again when you fall off practicing 😀

Best thing ive driven in the category your looking in (and ive driven a few) is probably the vx220t im shopping for a clean one at the moment. Pretty well built and reliable, not bad money to run and after an initial high deprecation they seem to be holding value well now. Also some great tuning options to give it a shove towards supercar performance figures if you wished to go that way.

That or you could buy my lovely (notthrasedatallooohnosirhonest) 172 cup 😉

Hitting the exposed steerer gently on the side (rather than just thumping it on top) is a much more effective method of releasing the split ring.

We’ve already ascertained the 14in frame has a 23.1in top tube – I wonder if that’s what you mean by stupid?

Will still be too big for Ed 😆