No matter what you do, she’ll notice it and complain that you’ve messed it up. Lol

Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but does anyone know where you can get a cocker slim enough to dismantle a Supersat Ultra Mag, I’ve tried the screwdriver technique with no luck and don’t have a socket slim enough.

Tom kp

Any tyre with a soft compound that’s ridden hard will wear out. I’ve known people wear out tyres (in a variety of brands and compounds) in less than a week in Morzine or uplifting.

I’m pretty sure there’s someone in the Crediton area that used to do a good job for less than that.

Sidwell Cycles used them in the past. Not sure who they are though.
I seem to remember them saying a BMX was around £50.

I run my Mavic 321s ghetto tubeless with no problems.

Just another quick question. How tall are you guys with the medium and small Capras? Going by the spec sheetsi’m not sure what size to get. She finds her Small Covert to be as short as she can manage, but also likes the length of my 18 inch Alpine 160 (2012 before they got proper long). So I think it’ll all come down to how tall Capras are.
Gonna fiddle with her bike tonight while it’s on the work stand to try to recreate the saddle height/reach etc of the Capra for a comparison and hopefully find someone at FOD this weekend with one to sit on for a size up.

Ta

Tom Kp

The whole movie is pretty good. The picture quality is amazing (that’ll be the RED cameras) and it all just seems chilled and smooth.

Put it through the HD TV, turned the stereo up and watched it that way. It just looks and sounds beautiful and makes a change from the rough and lofi(which I also like) online edits.

Although I’d like to see a Chris Kovarik/Sam Hill edit of the Smith/McDonald Drift Track.

Tom KP

Cheers for the replies. The Alu ones look a bargain, but it’s all about the colour for her ;-)
And to be fair it’s her money and she can afford to get the bike she wants nowadays.
We’re happy with the reach and stack as the medium is about halfway between my Alpine 160 and her small Covert.
We’re just trying to get as many measurements as possible to compare with what she’s ridden as she’s only had a very short spin on the small Capra and I’ve tried the Large Alu one.

Anyone know if you can convert a 150 reverb to a 125 travel if necessary?
I think she’s already budgeted for having to swap to Hope wheels in the near future but I think the e13s have a decent length warranty on them nowadays.

I think Canfield sell some short cranks. Otherwise look at the BMX market. Profile are expensive but I’m sure other cheaper brands will sell shorter cranks. You should be able to find some lightish ones from a race BMX and then just use a BB adapter if it needs one

Tom KP

I don’t like to feel the tyre squirming around so keep mine at about 30psi. After my first run at BPW on Sunday I check them as they felt like they were rolling around a bit in corners and turned out they were both about 20psi. Once back up to 30 they just felt nicer. Glad I did as Rim Dinger was the next run and wouldn’t have wanted anything softer for that.

What I mean is that it’s probably more about what feels right for you which gives you the performance boost rather than a set pressure. And I run tubeless to stop flats rather than to get low pressures or weight loss (my ghetto tubeless set is probably about as heavy as running tubes but it’s never flatted or burped off the rim.

Tom KP.

Had something similar a few weeks ago. Turned out to be frame bearings. Luckily they’re easily to change on an orange with just a mallet, block of wood and a socket. Unfortunately the hearings on the GF’s Covert also need changing and they’re not as simple (and there’s more of them). It started off just when pedal my and then deteriorated to all the time.

If you like it then buy it. They’re a nice bike

Blast down from the top all the wY to Val D’Isere on the greens and blues. Not a breaking bump in sight. Think it’s about 10km with >1km drop

I think the next generation of the Five will have a triangulated swing arm similar to the Alpine and the 324 as they said it was lighter and stiffer compared to the one piece of the 322.
I expect they’ll release another Five 29er if the market goes back that way again. They were so fast downhill.
I think it’s good that being small Orange can adapt so quickly to market trends compared to the big companies that have probably already planned out their product lines for next few years.

Anything under 30psi (ish) and my tyres feel like they’re squirming and folding as I corner. Do not like. The GF runs hers done to 18-20 at times by comparison

Tom KP.

That’s cheaper than a lot of non adjustable seat posts.

Worth a punt with an older frame or winter hack

Invisiframe protection. It’s worth the money if they do it for your frame. We fitted it on the wife’s bike and I’m regretting being a cheapskate and not doing it for mine (I just, used regular helitape).

Is £50 really that much of an outlay when factored in with how much new bikes cost nowadays?

Sorry, 26 for life here so no idea how they compare to other 29er rims.

I’d be really interested in how you guys get on as probably heading over to Europe at the end of the summer and looking at areas to ride. Probably going the wandering vagabond route so do you know if you can just pick up shuttle days at only a few days notice?

Tom KP

We’ve been battering a pair for the last year, tubeless and low pressure and they’re still straight and true without any flat spots. Hope Hubs are awesome as per usual. Initially a few of the spokes became a little loose, but 2 mins with a Spoke Key and they’ve been fine ever since (never had a set of wheels that didn’t need a quick re-tension after a week or so).

Easy to set up tubeless and lots of different axle options supported.

Also remember that hope have truly awesome after sales support. Probably the best company for this that I have ever had contact with

Most people are running shorter stems now, even DH bikes often had 50-60mm stems in the past, now people are moving to 35mm stems so the frames need to be 15-20mm longer to compensate. Also a lot of DH riders and people who favoured gravity rode smaller frames to get lower stand over and make it more “chuckable” whereas now you can get bikes that git better that have lower stand over and we’re all realising we don’t want short bikes because we’re not spinning and tail whipping (at least I’m not). Also longer wheelbases and slacker head angles will make them more forgiving at high speeds.

As far as current bikes go the winner will be something by Elsworth.
There are too many vintage/retro bikes that were hideous

Putting too much air into the negative spring?

The Nomad colour ways are pretty good.

If the 650b wheels with smaller tyres fit in the same space as 26 inch wheels with bigger tyres what’s the advantage? Genuinely interested as I can see a benefit. I thought the whole point of 650b was that you got a bigger diameter than 26 wheels+tyres.

And also if 650b+ is just big 650b tyres in a 29er then why aren’t companies pushing 26+ as well? Or will that be the next big thing in a few years?

Tom KP

Ps not trolling,

My Orange Alpine have the guides on the top tube but I found it easier and more more asthetically pleasing to run it down the seat tube and up the down tube with the other cables. I’ve shrink wrapped it with the rear mech cable which makes it even tidier.

Watch from the outside of a corner, not the inside. And get there really early.
We were about 100m from the Stage’s finish line 2 years ago and had the big screen opposite all day. But unfortunately it was the inside of the corner and you don’t get a good view when the actually come past

I’ve just replaced the shock mount hardware and DU bushings on my bike to stop an annoying creak only to decide it’s the BB as it only happens when pedals have force applied. So try that

Thank the gods I’ve still got a little stockpile of Minions at the moment. I don’t get on with any other brands they always seem to disappoint, either in performance or durability.

I’ve just spent the last few weeks swapping out various combinations of DU bushings and offset shock mounts trying to sort the maddening click/creak/cracking noise on my Orange Alpine only to ride it tonight and realise it’s the bloody BB/cranks!

How did no one invent this 10-15 years ago?

Had a spin on one, it climbs well for a 160 bike and descends well. It’s as good as any of the others on the market (nomad, patrol, etc). If you like how the Session rides it’s probably worth getting over one of the others. I’m still not sold on 27.5/650b yet but as pretty much all new bikes are that’s not really an issue.

Send Ison an email, they’re usually pretty helpful

Sorry away from home at present so internet is a bit sporadic.
Here’s a link to some info on it.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=16842225

Not been there this year, but you used to be able to link up some of the DH runs (ranging from tight single track to WTF?!!) with the fire road. Worth a bit of an explore.
The hill has a massive Folly/memorial tower thing on top and the trails are in the woods at the back of the hill. Worth a hunt. Also Google Nibblesodes if you want to see some young guys belting around it on DH bikes.

Happy hunting

Tom KP

Forest of Dean is about 40 mins away. North Nibley is about 15 minutes drive. Ashton Court, Leigh Woods, Belmont Freeriders is on the other side of Bristol so about 40 mins away.

Lots of road riding about though.

Even though I’ve been here a few years I haven’t really had time to explore anything else. Would love to know if there’s anything else.

I ended up buying some Urge Gangster pads and trimming them as my head sweats a lot and I found the Fox ones weren’t enough. Prob wouldn’t bother again as they’re no better.

Good to know Fox still stocks replacement pads for next time. Only thing I would say is I had a hard job tracking down a replacement peak a couple of years ago when I lost mine. In the end Matt Gardiner had an old one from a returned helmet they let me have for a quid.

Tom KP.

Look also, buy whichever model you can afford. I’ve used some of their beginner ones as well as some of their expensive versions and all work flawlessly.

Tom KP

I agree that the signage isn’t great, but for me part of the fun is to first have a blast around one of the XC trails (often linking parts up with other bits) to get my exercise and fitness out the way and then hit up the DH tracks afterwards and explore to see what’s new and how I can mismatch the runs. I used to love going somewhere new with an OS map and exploring, but work/family commitments now mean I don’t get enough time to travel far from home and FOD is a great place to ride rooty tech stuff while still have a decent car park and cafe.

A decent map at the top and bottom would be good, but I don’t think it needs lots of signs everywhere. What next? Limiting who’s allowed up Helvellyn without a guide :wink:

Tom KP

Why can’t you space out a 2×10 crankset so it doesn’t rub on the frame?

There was a good article in Outside Magazine (it’s online to read) where a keen amateur tried out a range of the main PEDs over the course of a year or so.

Was an interesting read, but basically it’s really expensive to buy these substances from a legit source where you’re likely to actually get the real drugs as opposed to water/sugar pills/olive oil/rat poison, etc.

But why bother? If you’re not competing you could just get fitter and train, eat, sleep better as there are plenty of bad side effects.

Tom KP

Here it is –

http://www.outsideonline.com/1924306/drug-test