Zees are great and I probably would have got some apart from my inner tart not wanting to put downhill brakes on a XC bike. The resin will work good and last a while in this weather, then get some sintered for the winter.

Got another XTR on the way from ebay also brand new. Less than £220 for both all in

Definitely tubeless, wheels are ready for it just need to get some valves.

I’ve extensively used the butcher in the past and never had a problem apart from mega muddy conditions, but always on longer travel bikes.

I think I’m over thinking it a bit much to be honest. I haven’t had a MTB for the last few years and I’m lacking a lot of confidence and a new grippy tyre does help but I also don’t want to ruin how little effort it takes to pedal this thing around compared to all my old bikes…

Cheers for the info guys, this is only a 100mm travel XC bike but more likely to be on easier trail centre stuff rather than big marathon xc rides for now.

So want to keep it on the faster rolling side but I always lack confidence without a nice grippy front tyre are least…

So probably stick with a tried and tested butcher for the front as not sure about the eliminator then maybe a slaughter rear while it’s dry…

My op was supposed to say purg grid on the rear, always went for a tougher one for the rear.
Also should of added I don’t particularly want the ground controls in 2.3″ as I like them for most of the stuff I’ll be doing but just not quite grippy enough, maybe be ok for the rear but not front.

I was thinking the slaughter could be a good compromise.

Is the eliminator faster or slower rolling than the butcher would you say Tracey?

I finally got myself a tool cabinet for the garage, assigned a draw for “bike specific tools” then put them in there and realised I have hardly any really. Used to work in a bike shop so had everything I could possibly need so only needed the basics at home.

I’ve sold s lot off stuff lately very quickly (including 2 bikes) definitely a seller’s market.

Facebook definitely has its share of … Well idiots. Was selling a brand new purple hope chainring and a guy messaged me saying he was interested but wasn’t going to pay £30 as you can buy “3 of them with the pedal arms for £50 brand new”.

I’d be looking at something like schwalbe marathon I used to run them on an old MTB commuter that I rode through some dodgy areas both broken glass a regular feature, always getting punctures, never had one with marathons.

They are horrible heavy things though so there is a compromise obviously, I’m not fully up to date on the different versions they do.

I don’t have much I can say other than I’ve been in a similar situation making a post like this in the past, life can be rough, I’ve been through being a single dad and had social services involved etc in the past but things eventually got better and life isn’t so bad anymore.

You’ve done amazingly well to look after 4 kids on your own! I was on my own with 2 of them and it was difficult to say the least.

There’s no magic answer or solution I can give you but coming on here to say this or just talking to anyone about it is the right thing to do.

What tyres and terrain?

When I worked in a bike shop we sold dragon bikes (occasionally) sold about 2 of them and pretty sure they both ended up being returned after not long because…. Well they are rubbish basically

I picked up a commencal meta HT 24 for my lad 2nd hand for £150.

It’s not quite as fancy as the new ones so 1×9 and coil fork but actually feels lighter than the 20″ giant that he’s passed down to his brother.

Coil fork is very lightly sprung so works well, SRAM db brakes are more than enough, very impressed so far.

View post on imgur.com

I know I’m basically talking to myself at this point but I was a little worried about these being the non-servowave “race” version but after a little test ride they feel very very good a bit less off/on than the usual Shimano feel but with lots of power still there.

Not ridden anything worthy of testing the outright power but looks good so far just need to search for a matching front one now. (Which is the magura one that’s actually broken…)

I’m after some 120mm 29er forks if anyone spots any, been beaten at the last second to a pair of rebas for £100 and a pike for £200 (not new)

So less than 24 hours after buying it on eBay the XTR is fitted

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

Been mostly frog bikes for the first few then a rigid 20″ giant I got for £40, now the oldest is 9 and on a commencal meta HT (24″) I paid £150 which is the most expensive to date. Have 2 boys 18 months apart so they get a about 3/4 years of solid use between the 2 of them before getting sold.

Probably look for a cheap 26/650 frame after everyone is selling their pandemic panic buys to stash away and collect parts for the next stage.

Mad another £50 and you can have new ones that work in whatever colour you want.

I’ve sold a new-ish (fitted but hardly used) hope stem and chairing this week and got within £10 or so of the rrp for them

Have you tried the hope brakes?

I bought them for a “dream bike” sort of build and preferred the shimanos I had before.

I do generally also use SRAM chains with Shimano drivetrains though, just habit from when Shimano didn’t come with quick links

Made a stupid/rash decision and bought a xtr9000 bnib from eBay for £100. Advert says it’s a right lever but rear length hose but the pictures it definitely looks like a left lever in the pictures… I’ll wait until it turns up and decide what I’m going to do for the other brake.

Just measured my brake hose (using a bit of string to make sure it’s accurate without having to remove the brake) and the rear is 1650mm so 50mm longer than the eBay hoses, back to square one!

Large frame with a under BB hose routing means it’s quite a long way evidently

My point about the “just riding off a kerb” story is just be honest (to a degree) “I was out riding some trails but didn’t notice anything happen or crash, then it broke on the way home” is a lot more likely to be believed than his mum “he only ever rides it up and down the road” whilst it’s covered in mud etc

Thanks for the link but made my decision, someone on eBay selling the xt 4 pots for £205 with sintered pads (nearly all the German sites have resin) with only a few days lead time so going for those

EDIT: they have both 1600 and 1450mm listed for the rear hose length on the same advert so going to need to check that first, be really annoying to buy some that won’t fit…

Been looking around and hardly any of the cheaper options are in stock… So I’m torn between spending £150 on some 2 pot xts and then regretting not buying the 4 pots for £50ish more… But I start to get a lot more hesitant pulling the trigger when numbers start with £2xx

Can confirm exactly what has been said above specialized are usually very good with warranty.

Also the bit about “riding off a curb” pretty much every broken bike I used to have back when I worked in a bike shop was “just ridden off a curb” when the parents were stood there while the kid was looking sheepish keeping his mouth shut 😂

Once had a kids dad kicking off big time that his kids entry level hardtail had snapped a mech hanger or something for “only riding around the park” next day another kid was in the shop and told me his mate was in yesterday with his bike he broke casing one of the big jumps at Cwmcarn.

One kid I remember just came in on his own without his parents and said “I tried a massive jump, crashed and this bit fell off my fork please don’t tell my dad” so we got it fixed out of some spare bits for him because he was so honest.

The maguras (MTS) are the original brakes on the bike that is 7 years old so they haven’t done bad. But one of the lever bleed screws are knackered (luckily you can flip them upside down to bleed) and the other one keeps going soft and getting really noisy so i believe it is leaking at the caliper.

I’m also just not really a fan of the lever design/feel of the magura.

Thought I made a decision on deores but they aren’t in stock anywhere that’s doing them cheap. Also forgot my xt shifter I’ll eventually use is ispec ii and Zees are ispec b so they won’t work really either

On bike discount slx 4 pot are £202 and XT 4 pot are £203 or you can get the 4pot front/2 pot rear xt for £175 so really confused myself again now d’oh

Still can’t get the bike Inn website to work but found them elsewhere for a for about £120 for 4 pot deores. Think I will go with that option as realistically they will work fine… Better order them before I convince myself otherwise

The shop i used to work at in Newport (leisure lakes) was previously also a broadribb branch, however the guy running it for them started his own shop near by and I believe it wasn’t the most amicable of splits, so the shop was sold to leisure lakes.

That bike Inn website doesn’t give me any options for Shimano says they are unable to ship to the uk

£185 for Zees Vs £203 for xt 4 pots on bike discount. Deores not available as a set but about £160 for both as a set.

Scope creep makes me think £25 is worth it for the Zees over the deores then it’s only another £20 for the xts…

I used to work in a bike shop so I don’t mind bleeding them etc

I tried hopes out of curiosity once, look great and I do like the fact they will last for so long with all the available parts etc but I just didn’t like the way they felt

Zees were probably my favourite I’ve had in the past so it makes sense to go for 4 pot I guess. Can’t really have too much brake power…

I have a brand new 11speed xt mech and shifter sat in my spares box that will be fitted to the bike eventually, so the inner tart in me wants xt to have a matching groupset but the other part of me knows I’ll probably end up using the saint cranks I have in the spares box so it will never match anyway!

I had a homebrew ebike (a £100 carerra with some Chinese stuff on it) come into the bike shop I used to work at managed to get it to do 35mph on the test ride (flat road) with v brakes that hardly worked. I never saw the owner or the bike again…

V3 has Garmin pay doesn’t it? So it’s just the music and battery life really, aside from a few physical differences.

With the Mrs blue light card discount the V3 is £112/125 ) depending on colour choice) and the v4 is £180/195.

To me just over a £100 is a lot more reasonable when it gets to nearly £200 o start thinking do I really need it.

I’ve been considering this myself but for the price difference I’m thinking about just getting the 3 as I can’t really see any features I need that justifies the £70 extra… Just want basic GPS recording and being able to see messages etc.

Will always have my phone with me as well if I wanted to have music or whatever if I bother to go running again. Unless I’m missing something obvious I can’t see there is any massive advantage to me having the 4

I’ve got a black c mount in coincidentally found in my spares box today

Haven’t done it apart from once when my kids scout group had to WhatsApp pictures of them all doing it, all my friends family on the NHS don’t care about it.

I’ve been doing more research today and looks like LG is probably the answer some reviews of the cheaper stuff mentioned getting audio sync issues when not using native 4k content. Already had a TV with audio sync issues and drove me mental so not having that again.

Managed to pick up a 24″ commencal meta HT for my eldest for £150 which was reosonable. The lady told me she had tons of messages but let me have it because I was first, so I paid full asking for it.

Oldest had his new bike so the youngest got the 20″ hand me down, so I put his 16″ frog bike up for sale for £140 and sold it within a day for full asking so basically cost me £10 to move them both to bigger bikes!

The I thought I was really pushing my luck as I had a crap carrera hybrid that I bought to take on holiday a few years back to ride with the kids. I had fitted some avid brakes and better shifters from the spares box. I I took all these off and then put it up for sale for £25 with no shifter or brake cables and not even brake pads and I had people biting my arm off! Could have easily sold it for £50 which is what I paid about 4 years ago when it was fully working 😂

Just wait it out someone local will buy it, demand is so high at the moment.

Sold a kids frog bike recently had loads of people asking me to send it but I didn’t have a box and would be hassle risk.

Eventually someone who lives less than 2 miles from my house came and picked it and up and paid full asking price.

Everything xt with an XTR shifter is what I would get from trying different combos the shifter is the most noticeable difference.