Don’t know about the Heckler but the Orange bikes climb perfectly well.people will tell you that they need a good expensive shock (and that was true in the past, but even basic shocks nowadays are better than most 10 years ago. A simple RP23 makes a Five climb well.
It’s more about the geometry, pivot placement and rider than the single pivot. And orange have got the pivot placement and geometry right.

Tom KP

I just tend to give my excess bike clutter away. There’s always someone at work or on the trail that can’t afford or justify an upgrade. Bristol and Bath both have bike recycle places that do up and give away bikes for charity, etc. They always take stuff.

Still got 2 spare bars though.

Tom KP

The 55RC3 have a short A2c. Mine are 170mm and they replaced some 160mm Fox 36s and my front end is slightly lower. Lovely forks though.

I didn’t notice after about 10 mins of riding. But it you’re worried the head angle will be a bit steeper then spend £20 on some offset shock mounts from http://www.offsetbushings.com and that slackens an Alpine 160 by about 1 degree.

Tom KP

My Alpine 160 is running sweet. And it’ll have to as I can’t afford a new bike. I can still keep up with my buddies on bigger wheels (at the mo).

I won’ say #26forlife, but it’s definitely #26fortheforseeablefuture

And to be fair I’d probably only get a 27.5 Alpine or Five (or maybe a Geometron).

Tom KP

The black/red is fun and worth a blast but the blues very dull. I’d happily go and do the red/black twice instead though.

I was chatting to one of the drivers this weekend, he said as far as he knew all the bikes stolen were from off the top of cars while the owners were up at the building. None from outside the cafe…yet.

I reckon all you need is a £5 cable lock for outside the cafe and the thieves will take the Nomad next to yours as it’s easy to walk up to a bike like you owned it without notice but harder to hide cutting/breaking a lock in front of everyone.

If it performs anywhere near as good as the BOS Kirk on the GF’s bike it’ll be brilliant.
Lots of people say BOS stuff if a pain to set up, but with her fork and shock we just followed the instructions in the manual and used the recommended base settings.
Much better performance than other air sucks we’ve had in the past, probably on par with my CCDB coil. And the Devilles are just divine when I’ve back to back compared the, to Pikes and Fox 36s.

Tom KP

Do people not get their threaded bottom brackets faced anymore?
It’s not expensive for an LBS to do (although a decent tool can be costly) and along with not overtighteningbthe cranks it pretty much eliminates poor performance of HT2.

Tom KP

I’d quite happily have a bike where you ‘need to rag the utter crap’ out of it. That’s sort of the point of why I go riding.

It’s been said that these bikes aren’t for everyone. But they do seem to go pretty fast.

Tom KP

Can you still ride the bike without the Shapeshifter? Does it default to the DH mode or something?

Tom KP

Best pedal I’ve ever owned. Used to use it for XC, DH, DJ and riding to the shop.

I’m looking forward to trying one, they seem to have been built with me in mind. I love the bike I’m currently on, but would like it a little longer as my style has changed since I bought it in 2012. Slack bikes just need a bit of technique change. My Alpine currently has a 64* head angle, 1200mm wheelbase and fairly long chain stays and it’s great going up and down.

I’ve heard the Geometron is good on wet roots

You can get longer Reverbs so they can be inserted further. I only realised this after I bought one and found out that it was only just long enough for me.

I’ve never thought about the minimum inserting mark on posts only being for the post and not the frame. I’ll have to watch out for that on any other bikes I ride in the future. I guess it makes sense as the seat post company won’t know what bike it’s on. Food for thought.

Tom KP

The guy said he thought it was a realistic price for those bars – £50, a quick look on CRC has them for £125, if you ask me a drop of that price means they’re most likely ‘a bit dodgy’ to say the least. But then I guess there are alot of people who ‘know’ that genuine expensive branded gear is the same as cheap Taiwan/Chinese knockoffs and there’s no real difference.

Personally I’ll stick with buying kit from proper shops (local and online) as there’s someone I can sue if it turns out to be a wonky copy that’s being sold as genuine parts.

The GF rides 750mm (might be 760mm) bars with a 50mm stem. She’s about 5’6″. I run 780 and am 5’11” but would happily go wider.

Tom Kp

Fabian Barrel advocates moving the cleats back. https://vimeo.com/30128286
We drilled the slots further back on her AM45s when the GF switched to SPDs as she found she was less stable with the standard position (She’d switched from DH and 5.10s and wanted her feet to stop getting bucked on really rough tracks). She’s found them to be much better at speed and not really compromised her pedalling.

I can happily switch between SPD and flats on my MTB and have found I’m no quicker up or down with either. I tend to swap for a least 6 months at a time to make sure I give them a fair trial (both XC and DH). The main reason I’m running flats at present is that I have a spare pair for the wet weather.

Tom kp

Tuck trousers into your sock?

You can buy a GoPro for £100. It’s the basic one, but still a pretty great bit of kit.

Looks like a cool format. Wish I had the time and money to enter something like this next year.
Sounds like it’d be a bit more fun than many of the other races.
Tom KP.

Really good pedals. I’ve got a pair of the older Nano with Ti Axles and they’ve been going strong for years (90kg rider here). They’re proper light compared to my steel pair.

Tom Kp

Signed.
Anything to reduce the number of RTCs I have to deal with at work.

Although the average speed on an A road on Bristol is apparently 4.25mph (second slowest outside London after Reading).

Think Enduro MTB mag reviewed it in their jacket group test last week

We were there this weekend and it was rather wet and windy to say the least. Even with waterproofs we were all soaked by the end of the day. But still riding and having fun. Whenever I’ve been in the Alps in similarly wet weather it’s been a much less enjoyable experience.

Why ildoes the guy in that picture have a large dildo attached to his bars?

Lighter springs for that fork do appear to be as rare as rocking horse shit.

Good to know if I ever loose 25kg. Or put on weight and need a stiffer Spring. I’ve seen lots of people asking about lighter springs online and no one has ever mentioned swapping the spring out for a Fox 36 Spring.

Keep us posted on whether it actually works in the long run or catastrophically fails.

Tom KP

It can also contain the bacteria that causes Tetenus as well so I wouldn’t rub it around too much unless your boosters are up to date.

Are ‘gravel bikes’ just CX bikes for people that don’t/don’t want to race CX.
Not trolling, I’m just curious. Neither are for me, but as long as it makes people happy, doesn’t hurt anyone else and is consentual then anything goes.
The same way I see Enduro bikes as All Mountain bikes for racing (if you’re not racing it’s not enduro?).

Tom KP.

As I said, for a 160(ish) bike I consider 32lbs to be a light bike and sub-30 to be lighter than I’ll ever need. I was mainly asking about the weight because no one has really mentioned it appart from saying it’s heavier than most bikes but still rides well and you don’t notice it. Normally when people say things like this without giving numbers the bike turns out to be a complete anchor

I would have thought it would have been improved performance on descents rather than climbing (depending on the weight). I know our old TR450 ride better than any other bike I’ve ever ridden (DH bike) even compared to newer, lighter bikes as that had all the weight low down and central.

I can’t imagine a much heavier bike climbing better. Might be more stable and planted, but on a long slog you’re still going to be expending more energy compared to the same frame without the extra weight.

I personally think that a bike around 30lbs is light for what I need, but I wouldn’t want anything over 35lbs for general trail riding/enduro/all mountain (current bike is 35lbs and it rides as I want it). But going for a new bike I’d want to stay around about 32lbs without compromising the strength of the components and frame.

Tom KP.

Cheers. Like I said, weight isn’t the decider, but no matter how well designed a bike is if it’s a proper porker it’ll effect climbing on a long ascent. 3.2(ish) plus shock doesn’t sound too bad to me for a long travel frame so it’s still in the running (not much more than a Transition Covert). As I said, I don’t tend to race up climbs, they’re mainly there to get me to the top for the fun stuff.

Tom KP

Are you wearing a wetsuit?

I’m not too bothered about weight (within reason), current bike is 35lbs and I like how it doesn’t seem to get deflected offline compared to some lighter bikes I’ve ridden. But it’s more about having to winch a heavy bike up long climbs.

Anyone know the weight of the frames? I’m not a weight weenie but I’ll be looking for a new bike in the near future and the Geometron is on my list. It ticks all the boxes I’m looking for: Very slack, long front, no silly short seat stays and no fancy suspension system.

I’m currently on an Orange Alpine (26) and not sure whether to get another newer one, something with less travel like a Five or the Geometron. Just trying to decide what sort of riding I’ll be doing for them next 3-5 years after I buy it.

Tom KP.

A couple of laps of Verderers and done DH yesterday morning showing a mate who’s new to biking around and then a full day at BPW today with GF and her brother.

Awesome weekend.

Tom KP

Cheers guys.
Life saver.

Tom KP

Minions

The GF has Guide RSCs on her new bike and says they’re much better than the XTs from her previous bike.

I fitted a -1 degree headset to my bike which has a tapered HT with tapered forks.
Think Fox do the 36 with a straight steerer (and I think Mojo did a limited run of 32s with straight steelers this year). You can get 170 Lyrik forks with straight steelers (On-One had some last month).

I’ve got an Aldi one from a few years ago, it’s alright and works well, but it is a bit ugly. I much prefer a light wind proof gillet as I find it easier to regulate my body temperature on the climbs