Had mine for nearly 18 months now, they are my only pair of riding shoes and get used weekly in all conditions. Agree that the fit is narrow, but so are my feet, and you probably have to go up 1-2 sizes. Still working perfectly despite a few scuffs and scrapes, been used in the Alps, Spain, all over the uk.
I personally didn’t like the inner sole so swapped to a specialized footbed and found them much better.
Would happily recommend.

I’m the same height as you and XL stumpy 29er fits like a glove. I had a 2014 and replaced it with the 2016 version which has shorter chainstays and slacker front end and it really shows through in the ride.
Ridden them everywhere from the Alps, Sierra Nevada, all over the uk including BPW, trail centres and natural riding.

Great all-rounder

Locks and cables are not infallible buy they are deterrent.

If you’re that worried about it maybe cancel your ferry and go on the tunnel instead. That way you are in your car at the whole time with the bikes on the roof! 😛

I stick a D Lock and a long cable in the boot to lock the bikes to each other and to the roof bars for a bit of peace of mind when we’re travelling and the bikes are unattended. I do this in motorway services too! (Also paranoid!)

^^^This^^^
For tight fitting tyres I bought one of those cheap plant sprayers, (the little hand held ones for about £1), filled it with a mix of water and washing up liquid, then spray the tyre bead before you inflate it. They pop on easily at about 20-30 psi but pump up beyond that and leave them for a bit.

Be grateful shes ok, buy a new mech hanger, give her some TLC and move on?

Edited for STW!

Then a guy called Alex from Box stopped in his black Audi (Q5?) and offered to take me and my bike to the RUH. It was then, as I was lying there wet, bloody and cold that I noticed the carbon santa cruz on the roof, so I declined and said I would wait for the ambulance.

Seriously though, nice one Alex!

I had an awful feeling it was going to turn bad as Alex drove up in an Audi………..

Imagine if Alex had been driving a Skoda Octavia…..STW might have broken the internet!

I could be wrong but I think the Endura mesh padded boxers have stronger elastic at the bottom of the legs rather than silicon.

Did my right one, had it plated, was told it would be 8 weeks and was off the bike for exactly 8 weeks until they told me it was ok to ride again. There was a big caveat from the surgeon who basically said, yes you can ride again but do no fall off on it yet and stick to roads or gravel paths, nothing major.

I was happy to get back on the bike but it took quite a while for confidence to come back and I missed out on an Alps holiday too.

Maybe have a look at some “touring shoes”, Shimano and Specialized do some and Im sure there will be others. Tend to have stiff-ish rubber sole but easy to walk in, and even if SPD compatible just dont bother to cut the SPD rubber bit out of the sole and use like normal?

Spesh Tahoe Sport
Shimano MT-34

Thanks duckman, that looks like a lot of fun!

Duckman ^^^ what size is your sentier 29?

You would have thought with a 12 page thread on moleskin trousers you cant be the only one!

Bit of a thread revival but keen to see how people are getting on with these now?
How are those that bought the XL finding it? Im verging on 6’5″ and wondering if it’s big enough?

Came with all the adaptors needed, proper gauge, one for blowing dust and grime and a bag full of adaptors for other stuff like paddling pools and air beds. Been messing with wheels and tyres, five so far, this week and its been a god send. Purgatory’s and Butchers onto various rims. Got one to replace on the back of Katies tonight and hopefully done for a bit.

Perfect many thanks! Free delivery and free returns so rude not to!

The portable compressor looks like an updated version of the one we bought when they were selling them off. Blows up and seats tubeless tyres in seconds.

Tracey, did it come with the right adaptors for presta valves or did you need to buy those separately?

I could get my XL stumpy FSR 29er in my evoc bag without any issues. You will likely have to remove the rear mech, (although a good idea to do that anyway) and tyres can be a bit tight in the wheel pockets, (HR IIs 29×2.3) but it all fits with a bit of practice.

About 16mm

I rode over Holmbury, Pitch and Winterfold on the weekend and still very muddy and lots of standing water on the singletrack bits. If you use the fire roads and wide tracks for climbing they are all fine.

Did someone say rich list….

Have you checked if its covered on your home insurance? If you have accidental damage away from home and the bike is insured or under the bike £limit then you might be ok.

Specialized rim tape £3 a roll (23 or 25mm)

Not much sign of anything drying out in the Surrey Hills.

The small XT Platform works well if you use the right shoes. If not then there isn’t much benefit:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/shimano-spds-with-platform-xt-trail-etc-foot-contact

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/recomend-me-some-grippy-spd-shoes-for-xt-pedals

You could have a look at AirBnB and pick a location(s) you might want to stay then look at somewhere that would suit the 4 of you for a month, (self catering) and see what the cost is?

It was an amazing experience, and really refreshing after the best part of 20 years of working. The down side is it does change your priorities somewhat when looking to the future.

I’d totally agree with that Hob Nob but you could also say that’s a positive too, (that’s possibly what you meant?!)

Take the bike! My thought process hadn’t got that far yet!

Priories!

I’ve just updated my original post with details about the car situation. We thought about buying one but given we were able to travel whenever we liked we made the most of the cheapest internal flight deals we could get and some of the distances were too great to drive really.

I can honestly say my daughter didn’t really bat an eyelid at the upheaval. She just got on with it, had a ball, slept in a different bed in a different place nearly every other week. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and neither did she.

DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!

Took a 6 month sabbatical in August 2014. Like you it was the last chance before our daughter went to school and a few other things fell into place to make it happen.

My wife is Australian so we spent the time travelling all over Oz, catching up with friends and family but also doing lots of stuff for ourselves.

Honestly it was an incredible experience, especially being able to spend so much time with your young family, the memories will live with me forever.

Was it expensive? Heck yes but worth every penny and you have to ask yourself, when will you ever get the chance to do something like this again? We rented our flat out as a short term let through an agent which basically paid for itself so that helped. We stayed a variety of places and often we had the most fun in the most basic of places just because the locations and people were so good. We also got some great deals on longer term car rentals by building a relationship with a local agent of a national chain and kept going back to them for a new deal wherever we were in the country.

Oh and best of all I took my MTB with me and got to ride some amazing (and very dusty) trails all over the country.

Why does it matter if someone has said the bike shops aren’t any good? You just need to go to a few and swing a leg over a few bikes, ride them around the car park for 10 mins and get a feel?

Sorry, I hadn’t seen your other thread but now appreciate the dilemma.

I’m a Specialized fan, mostly because their bikes seem to fit me well at 6’5″ and 15 stone and my experiences of their customer service has been great. I have also owned a Rockhopper 29er (briefly) and am not sure I would recommend it.

I bought one very cheap in the end of year sales to use as a family bike, trailer towing with the kids etc. There was nothing inherently wrong with it and it fitted me fine, but mostly the geometry felt quite out of date, the front had a fairly steep head angle, shorter travel fork, so it was a bit twitchy and it definitely felt a more cross-country riding position, (bum up, head down!) rather than a trail bike where you don’t feel so perched on top of it. Its the only spesh bike ive ever had that I wasnt sorry to see go.

I’m not sure what I would recommend from the website in your other thread. The Orange Clockwork would be worth a look but I see they are now 100mm fork, I think the original 29er version came with a 120mm fork which worked really well and made it all a bit slacker and more fun.

Try and get a couple of test rides on different bikes to figure out what you like and understand the difference between the geometry. As others have said if you are prepared to look outside the C2W scheme or second hand then you can probably get something a bit better.

It’s not always a precise science with seat tubes but you’re assumption of L/19, XL/21 etc is a pretty good guide.

FWIW, Im the same height as you and have owned five XL specialized bikes including a couple of rockhoppers and they fit just great.

I dont mean to sidetrack your thread but what lead you to the rockhopper 29er as your CTW choice?

I bought a Velbon 444 for this reason as it is collapsible and can be chucked in, or attached to a rucksack pretty easily. It’s not the last work in absolute stability but as a compromise in size/weight/portability it has been fine for what I use it for.

Beano ——-bike bags —- putting bikes inside a car —–storing inside a flat —–or various other reasons—–all covered many times——search

Maybe if you put a bit more effort into explaining what sort of bag you want and what you’re going to be using it for you might stand a better chance of a reply?

Or use the search function?

A friend and I got one of these each last spring and our kids love them. Only used it on tarmac bike paths and gravel fire roads so far but it has been great for getting out as a family. It’s narrower than the handlebars so you don’t need to worry about the width when you’re on the road and while you riding side by side having a chat, the kids are behind you are doing the same!

Took it out last weekend, first time this year and it was great!

Definitely no denying it’s a monster, but the BBC site chose a picture taken from a clever angle.

These give a better sense of scale.

Farmer catches 100-year-old alligator that kept killing his cows

In my experience I would suggest you are better off looking at the shape (backsweep, upsweep and rise) of the bars you already have and know are comfortable.

I bought some RF SIXc bars last year that most swear by and they gave me terrible hand ache after every ride. Went back to the Nukeproof Warheads I’d had before and absolutely no pain at all.

Warhead 780s now available as a carbon option.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/recomend-me-some-grippy-spd-shoes-for-xt-pedals

If you buy one please post some pictures of you riding it. 😀