Budget you can’t beat Luminator to be honest.

I ride Four4th and they are awesome. Especially if you are doing short trail runs. Crank it up to max then back down.

7 months and 1600 miles on Deore 12 speed.

The mud killed the chain pretty quickly as soon as the weather got bad. Shifting was noisy, but still functional.

Before that, it was solid.

New XT chain gone on this week and I’ll see how it goes this weekend.

Hmmm.. stacks to think about. Maybe I’ll go with the DHF but in Max Gripp compound?

On first glance seems like the Magic Mary is out of stock in 29 x 2.6 in Orange.

Awesome advice everyone! Much to think about!

Maybe a DHR on front may be the way forward to start with.

Or maybe more talent..

Cool, will soft compound get torn up with some tarmac riding? On the weekly ride I usually do around 10 miles on the road to get to the trails

That is a cracking dram. Very different to the usual bourbon and sherry cask finishes.

I’ve got GoreTex C5 trousers and Trail Hoodie. Great pieces of kit. this weekend I thought the hoodie had leaked after I came off on Thursday, but it turns out my jersey had snuck out of my waist band and was flapping about soaking up water..

I have actively hosed myself down in the Gore-Tex and I was dry.

I also use the Pro-shell on my motorbike touring kit and it’s great. Just not cheap.

Cheers Ben!! Much appreciated info and much to think about!

12.5kg is well under Privateer’s 14.5!!

I loved the 9C and if I could make the sums work I’d order the 9C, Deore with XM1700 and XT shifter straight off!

So when is the Aether 9a out and when can I order one! Money is waiting.

The Privateer is coming in at a better price point that the Bird, the 9A is going to be around £600 cheaper than the 9C and the 9C is a cracking bike.

I guess Bird don’t get such a good deal on Fox as they do on Rock Shox as they have only just started doing them, but to spec up to Fox it is an extra £800 odd, which is a fair chunk of change.

The Privateer is sub £3k all in, which is damn good all in all. Heavy though, someone said it’s around £1 a gram to save which is about right on the frame.

Back on the 9C, I’m 170, with a 30′ inseam and had no issues with size at all in Medium. I was originally concerned about the post height, but I inserted it all the way in and ended up raising it about 25mm out of the frame and probably could have gone more.

Bird are long, I’m considering the 9A/C or a Privateer 141. The Privateer comes in somewhere between the M and ML for the Bird across most of the measurements. The Privateer geo is a little more aggressive too.

However the Bird (especially for the 9C) is a fair bit more expensive, especially if you spec it up with Fox and SLX.

But I believe the 9C will be about 1kg lighter and the 9A about 750g lighter.

It may come down to price as the 9C is looking to be about £1.4k more.

I’m 170cm and tried the medium. Perfect for me.

The Medium Long would have been too much.

So I took the 9C for a 4 hour test ride round Swinley a couple of weeks ago.

I tried the Medium and was coming from a Zero 29.

It’s good. Very good.

It’s really well balanced and whilst it is a little on the slower side to get going, being a 29er it picks up speed and rolls really fast. I was hot on the tail of my mate one his Aeris 120, and he knows the trails.

Climbing – it isn’t a Hardtail, but it gets up there with minimum fuss and bob, even without the suspension being dialled in perfectly. Out of the saddle is not too bad.

On the fast smooth berms I found it gave more confidence than my Zero, and the grip was always there. Tight corners need you to muscle the bike in, but that is possibly down to the wheel size.

If you get it wrong and lose speed (as I did a few times) it does take some effort to get going again.

I didn’t notice any kick back on the drive train.

Decending, it loves it and even when I got it wrong the bike took it in it’s stride. It is very playful and I got a pleasant surprise on some jumps.

I found myself more in the centre of the cockpit than my Zero and it did feel tall to start, but I got over that quickly and brought the saddle up so that I could use all the 150mm drop of the post.

It really is a great do it all bike. The demo bike could have had better brakes and I’m still no SRAM fan and the dropper post really needed a service, but even at base build it is very very good. I preferred it to the YT I tried, both in ride and price.

If I could get the build I want so would have one on order and also the other question is whether the carbon is worth the extra £600 over alloy for greater stiffness and a 200g weight saving. For someone of low skill and talent..

But that carbon, in green..

Report:

Bib shorts (as usual), GoreTex trousers, sealszkinz socks and 5/10 DLX. Fantastic.

Got in covered, after an encounter with a bog, and just hosed myself off.

Short compression top, merino, mtb jersey and hard shell top – too hot. No need for the hard shell layer, even at 5 degrees.

True and the goretex are waterproof, so I could just hose them…

Nice!

Bib tights tomorrow with baggies. Don’t really need to wear pads to be honest. Just need to accept that the tights will get muddy.

Persil are really coining it in from me now the mud is out!

Ah, we’re on mountain bikes. Some of the stuff we do is gravel suitable, but you’d be far quicker than us and other bits probably not.

I was in the same the same position at the beginning of lock down when I bought a new bike to get back into riding.

Randomly met a bunch of guys in and around Epsom and we ride together at least once a week. We do dearly mornings, night bikes and recently did London To Brighton at night.

We’re mostly beginners and ride around Epsom, Esher and do head out to Peaslake and the Surrey Hills way.

Covered over 1000 miles since June or so.

I used to get mega gas bad bloating with Maxi-muscle, switched to MyPortein and no issues.

However it depends on whether you want a recovery drink or a good carb drink to refuel?

So I’ve been out tonight for a night ride and before The last trail, Telegraph a mate dropped 5psi out of my forks.

Totally changed the ride.

Front was way more compliant and I wasn’t skipping about everywhere. I think I must have been at about 15% sag.

Combined with unconsciously moving back in the corners and not keeping my head above the bars, all lead to a washy front end.

I only managed one run, as it was 23:00, but I’m hoping to get a run out on Wednesday and learn some more.

Probably doesn’t help that since I bought the bike in lock down I’ve gone from 74kg to 69 and was probably running too hard as well.

Thanks everyone, I’m going to try and get my chin over the stem and more bend in my elbows.

I’m on a Bird Zero 29, which is great. I’m coming from a 1996 Univega 504, so massively different. I do have a dropper post, which is a revolution!

Tyres are Maxiss DHF AND Maxiss Discetor on the rear.

I think it’s more the shape, I’ve dug out my Felt saddle (which looks very much like an older WTB shape) and am going to give that a go on the next ride.

I’ve had the saddle maybe 10 weeks or so, but been getting in maybe 100 miles on it a week.

It’s only after around 3 hours or so.

Good idea on the tape, I’ll give that a go.

According to the Ergon website, I’m well in the S/M size. I can’t seem to get a Volt, so may try Ergon and see what happens.

Thanks, I used WTB back in 2010 and always liked it, a bit solid, but looking at my old one, it is much flatter than the Fabric, which does fall off a fair bit. I had a Felt saddle that came with my old Complusion that also seems to be flatter with more padding.

I may just go with a Volt and see how it fair. A massive pain in the butt (pun intended) that I can’t try a few out.

Thanks again!

Interesting I’m considering the Joystick on the Helmet and the Lumenator on the bars. Although we have an endure planned so I’ll need extra batteries and the Exposure cell is another £100.

Maybe I’ll give both of them a ring tomorrow.

Kryton, definitely interested which Lumenator (17 /18) is it? Got a few more details? Please PM me.

Currently the 18 and 800 is on an offer, but turns out I rounded wrong. It’s the Joystick and Toro for £350.

Currently the guys I ride with kick off around 5:30 am each week and we plan to keep going, so I do suspect I will get use out of whatever I get at least until it gets really cold.

Hmmmm.. thanks guys. They are brand new brakes, so maybe I’ll give it a go and see how they feel.

I think maybe it’s because I ride motorbikes and I like the shorter bite points.

Seems a lot of people like the bite point close to the bars.

Yep, mine are separate. The levers are disconnected from the calipers and hose. I assume the olive is in the lever, like simon.

So I guess I cut down, put the hose into the lever and tighten up. I’ll need the olive if I want to shorten again.

A mate who works in a bike shop says good things about X-Fusion Metrics.

I was so into MTB’ing in the 90’s! I remember my switch from an Altus equipped bike to a new one at Christmas.

It was an Univega Alpina 504 in Orange. Kitted out with STX-RC and SLX 27.

Within a year I had put on some Judy XC’s (which I still have, actually still have the bike).

It ended up with Mavic 519’s on XT hubs, full XT and Manitou X-Vert R’s and HS33’s. All orange and black. I loved that bike! I went to the hills in Spain on it. Crashed on a jump and then went to a saltwater water park after! Oh the pain!!!

Next year will be a project to strip it down, get a disc boss welded on to it and try and get some 26″ straight steerer Fox Floats for it and then slowly rebuild it.

Cheers Robo. Seems straight forward!

Really good info, I’m considering these for a Zero AM build for my wife.

Cheers, I want to do an classic XC build to compliment the Zero.

Thanks all! I didn’t know that the price wasn’t great.

I think I’ll keep an eye out for an older Soul or SolarisMax for an XC build

I’m just wondering whether I’ll end up buying it for the sake of it..

I do get what you mean about them being very similar bikes.

Hmmm.. food for thought.

That said, I could probably shift the frame again if I didn’t use it…

Holy cow!!

I’ve just got a pair of 661’s to begin with that seem to fit pretty well.

Time to dig out the flats today and go for a ride in the park with the wife to start learning not to pull on the pedals.

I’m taking the advice and going flat for a while. I think over the years, especially as the last bit of cycling was commuting on the roads for 30 miles a day, I have picked up some really bad pedalling and bike habits.

I’ve got some Mallets on the way for later on and the Frogs are going on sale.

Cheers everyone!

I’ve got a 2nd hand FS going. I’m 5’7.

Thanks everyone! I’ve had a response from Speedplay who are telling me that the Frogs are discontinued, so that’s that. Even worn pairs of Frogs and cleats are going for silly money.

On the plus side, whilst rooting though my old MTB stuff I found a pair of DMR V8’s. I think I got them for messing about trying tricks and DS-ing.

So when I go for the casual rides with the wife, I’m putting these on to get used to flats again.

In the meantime I’m looking at some Crank Bros Mallet 3’s in prep for my new bike.

I think I’ll end up trying to mix and match.

Cool, thanks for the recommendations, I’ll look at the Crank Bros pedals.

Unless they have changed a lot over the last few years, Shimano just don’t seem to have enough float for me.

I’ve contacted Speedplay, but they seem to pretty much focus on the US now, so something more sustainable will really help.

Depends on the price, I have a pair of Anker Sound Cores, they’re joined by a cable, in case one tries to go awol and they’re cheap enough that if they pack up I’ll get another pair.

The more pricey ones are water resistant too.