Have rode both, the Capra is better at everything. Although the Mega is still pretty good.

Like I said the stand over just in front of the saddle is even lower. It’s an ace bike, I’ve been ‘borrowing’ the bro-in-law’s aluminium one with RS suspension and it’s bloody brilliant and nothing needs changing on it. Although the Monarch Debonair isn’t a patch on the BOS Kirk or my CCDB it’s still better than 99% of people need.

Tom KP.

Actually I think I forgot to subtract the 40mm from the seat rail height. If that makes any actual difference to your choice I can recessive it tomoz.

We always stay at La Pré campsite in Montriond.
The showers have u limited hot water. It’s less than 10 minutes ride up the river to Super Morzine and the ground drains fairly well. There’s a little shop around the corner for pastry and bread in the morning. And a bar/cafe/pizza takeaway 5 minute walk away. And a bike wash in the campsite.
And best of all it’s downhill all the way back from Morzine with your bag of post ride shopping.
The lady that runs the campsite is friendly (although she truthfully speaks not a single word of English). And there’s usually a good friendly crowd staying there. It’s no where near as boisterous and loud as staying in Morzine itself.

Tom Kp

The wife is 5’5″ (might be a bit shorter) but has really short legs (regularly has to alter all her trousers) and she gets on well with the Small Capra. The 150mm reverb is probably about an inch and a half – 2 inches higher than the lowest (she found that when it was fully dropped it actually seemed too low for her liking)I think your wife would be fine with it. At the worst you might have to switch the reverb out for a 125mm travel one.
She’s got a carbon one and we’ve had no problems with it so far.
They’re not too long in the top tube either so she should be fine that way.
I can measure from crank to saddle when I finish my shift this afternoon if you like? Or anything else that you want measured to compare to her current bike.

The wife loves her Capra

Tom KP

Nope

Exercise more, eat better and generally get lighter and fitter (apologies Hora if you’re a lean fit person already as I don’t know you).
I’ve always found that the better base fitness I have then the quicker I can get to full speed. I’m no athlete myself these days (even at my fittest I wasn’t an XC Whippet) but there’s definitely something to be said for keeping the weight down and general levels of fitness up. Even 30-60 mins a day working out can have a massive effect on your riding.

Go for the -2 unless your bike is already pretty slack. I wish I’d gone for more than a -1 when I got one as 64* is good but fancy making it slacker to see how it goes.

They were about £80 before Xmas when I looked

Tom KP

I like riding with mates (and strangers you meet), but as I work shifts I tend to get a lot of weekdays to ride when all the grown ups are sag in their offices (probably googling the weather for the weekend) so tend to be a solo rider. TBH I love it as I can go as fast as I want, take detours,session sections and generally explore and get lost without getting moaned at.

Anyone know how easy it is to check and top up the oil in a set of Marzocchis 55 RC3 Ti Evos? Been meaning to check them since I got them.

Tom KP

If my previous experience of Hope customer experience is anything to go by there’s a chance you could end up with a set of Pro 4s (we have previously been given upgrades in the past with things). Fingers crossed.

They are pretty special in this day and age of companies that sell you something and then don’t give a shit when there’s a problem. We’re Hope wheel users for life in this household as they rarely go wrong and when they do they sort it out better than anyone else.

Tom KP

I know I asked before, but is the bike still rideable without a working Shapeshifter thing? I know it sucks either way, but I’m just interested.

I predicted when they came out they’d go the way of the Kona Magic-link and be gone within 2 years. Do bikes really need all these on the fly geometry adjusting tech? I had heard that when it was working they rode pretty well.

Tom KP

Currently running 1 and a half pairs of Zee brakes and they’re the most disappointing Shimano brakes I’ve ever had.
Lots of bleed problems compared to my previous XT and SLX brakes. All appear to be due to leaking Pistons in the calipers. Only way I’ve been able to sort it is buy swapping out the dodgy calipers with an XT one

The Works headsets are great, over a year here and no problems.
I can honestly say that every bike that has had the head angle slackened (with either these or offset bushings) has been improved by the process.

Tom KP

The Works headsets are great, over a year here and no problems.
I can honestly say that every bike that has had the head angle slackened (with either these or offset bushings) has been improved by the process.

Tom KP

Yep. A pair of Guide Rs and a pair of RSCs, both currently running sintered Superstar pads (previous history with these pads are normally noisy).

You can fit 2 people, it and bikes in most normal,sized cars. Spent 3 weeks bumming around the Alps in a Puegoet 306 with 2 bikes, 2 people and shed loads of spares. The 1.9/2.9 HDI is cheap and reliable. One of the last good Puegoets in my opinion.
Focus estate? Cheap to buy, reliable with cheap spares. Astra estates are reliable as well. Depends what your budget is and how much you’re willing to pay on insurance.

They’re not too heavy, I’ve had no problems riding them around trail centre’s when I’ve had a spin on a friend’s. I k ow people make a lot of fuss about bikes being under 30lbs but that’s something you can gradually work on as you upgrade over time.

They’re a reliable bike that pedals well and descends nicely.

I went the other way, demo’d just about everything in the 140-160 market 4 years ago and settled on the Alpine 160. It’s still going strong and not in a rush to trade it in. Only had it’s first hearing change last year (£20, a hammer and block of wood).

I’ll only be interested if you have the option to record in just one direction like a normal camera as well. And the picture quality needs to be at least GoPro standard, most of the others look a bit crap(I’m looking at you Sony Action Cam).

No problems with YT the 2 times we’ve bought from them. And in my opinion they make better bikes. I’ve never been impressed with the Canyons that I’ve tried. They’ve just not been as good or as fun as the competition.

Tom KP

Didn’t Push do an aftermarket linkage for it that improved the rear suspension?

Tom KP

The Capra’s an awesome bike, not just a cheap bike. The bro-in-law has an Alu one with RS suspension (that I’ve been riding it for a while) and it’s fast, comfortable, comfortable and confidence inspiring for £2k it’s as good as the Nomad I borrowed in December (twice the price). The GF has the BOS equipped carbon one and that’s even better. It appears that switching from her well specced Covert to the BOS Capra has increased her speed both up and down and cured her arm pump over night (hers was about £3k) and she’s faster on it than on her old TR450 on all but the steepest, roughest stuff.

And they’re good looking bikes. I’m 5’10 and the Large is fine.
Tom KP

We’ve had now problems with The Tech Enduro rims and they were abused for 12 months. I’d happily run them on a DH bike as well as my trail bike.

Tom Kp

I would have thought ‘too many’ was the point at which they start compromising your proformance and results by not hinging you E ought one to recover, train, etc

No, it’ll be a perfectly good bike for 99% of all riders. We just like to buy into the hype surrounding new bikes being so much more amazing (even if we pretend we don’t).

Tom Kp

If it’s too heavy for your liking all you need to do is borrow a set of scales from some of the STW regulars and “ta-da” instantly <28lbs.

Regardless of its stock weight they do ride very nicely and are not slouches when pointed uphill.

Tom KP

I agree with the people saying road bikes last longer. My 2007 Bianchi Nirone is still going strong and I’ve only changed a few things (like saddle, stem, tyres and pedals) for personal choice/comfort.
But in that time I’ve had 4 MTBs and replaced loads of worn-out components.
My 8 year old road bike is all I need for the 1,500-2000 miles it does each year and all it’s really needed in that time is some tyres, tubes and a good clean/lube every so often. The 20 gears still work as good as when I first got them whereas my MTBs have gone from 18 to 9 to 10 speed and numerous mechs.

Road biking and commuting are also straight out the front door rather than a 30 – 60 minute drive for something fun and all I need is a helmet, pair of shorts, pair of shoes, a jersey, a bottle and a Twix so I can go from sofa to riding in under ten mins.

I don’t think MTBing is on the decline (just go to FOD car park at the weekend and compare it to 10 years ago), I just think people are starting to shop differently by using online stores and direct sales companies. And then moaning that the LBS won’t lend them a tool, fix a bike for biscuits or match the price CRC, Merlin, etc offer their mass bought or grey imports.

Tom KP.

My Hydropak bladder has a little black cap that stops dirt getting onto the mouthpiece. My cheap gelert one doesn’t. The cap’s really useful. But then I tend to save my drinking for when I stop at the top (or bottom) as I find it easier to drink when not huffing and puffing up a climb.

Tom KP

+1 for Offsetbushings.com. Good quality and great personal service.

Tom KP

My Orange Alpine worked out at -1 for the pair. It will vary depending on the size of the bolts and the length of the shock/stroke.

I don’t bother with electronic gizmos to measure my rides, but have just been through my diary and I managed 102 days of riding off road this year (more days if I include riding the road bike when commuting on work day but that’s 30 miles of tarmac so doesn’t count as fun). Some of those days were a quick hour spin around FOD while others were 10 hours of descending in the Alps.

Alas Santa didn’t buy me a computer whatzit to go on my bike.

Tom kp

Just wrap some electrical tape around the rims (works as well and much cheaper) and reinflate using the valves you already have.
Or the yellow Stans tape is good as well.

Tom KP

Renthal bars in whichever material and length you fancy.
Also been a fan of Funn Full On bars

Not ridden the original Bronson, but had a quick spin on the newer version and really liked it.
It’s going to make buying a new bike really hard next year.

Tom KP

Hope hubs and Mavic Rims. Can’t go wrong

Modern Enduro bikes are awesome nowadays.
If you get one and find it “steam rollers” the easy stuff then just ride it much faster through those parts to get your thrills. Loads of people ride 29ers and they don’t complain about it smoothing out all the trails (itms their main selling point). We ride 160 travel bikes here and they just make you want to push yourself harder and faster.
And nowadays they pedal up hill really well and are pretty damn light as well.

Also I had a spin on a Transition Patrol a while ago and it was much better up and downhill than the Covert and not much heavier than a Bandit.

Tom KP.

Hope Hoops, Stans Flow on HOPE/Chris King/whatever.
Hope Tech Enduro rims are certainly sturdy enough for pretty much anything.

I’ve got a 2012 Alpine. It’s set up with a CCDB coil and it did have an RP23 (that I later got Pushed). Never used the Pro Pedal lever and haven’t got loads of compression dialled into the CCDB. I’m running 1×10 (32t chainring), flat pedals (although have also happily run clips, it’s just I have 2 pairs of flat shoes as 5-10s take ages to dry in winter).

I’m not the smoothest rider (or fittest at the mo), there’s a lot of pedal mashing and standing up on climbs and even at 35lbs it still climbs well. But it’s bloody amazing downhill. I’d just like my next bike to be a bit longer.

If I was buying again I’d get a Five without hesitation as I love how the Oranges ride. There’s more to making a good climbing bike than the number of pivots. All suspension designs are a compromise and all will bob when climbing or lose traction if your technique doesn’t match the bike. You just learn to ride your bike.

Tom KP

Orange Alpine, low maintenance, high performance. They’re pretty much designed to be abused in the mountains for a season. Bearings are easy to get and change, fast as a fast man’s fast thing.