Top or downtube is fine. Just want to do it light to stop it moving. Top carrier is the one you want, puts all the weight on the wheels not the top tube. Don’t want to suspend the carbon frame.

I ran my Renthal Fatbar at 780mm stock for a few months. Liked it. Found it a bit wide for trails surrounded by trees. Cut it down to 760mm and haven’t changed them since. Been pretty happy. Sometimes consider moving up.to 800mm so see how it feels.

I got a Hilka gun and Lucas Red and Tacky from eBay. Deflate shock. Clean away oozing with a rag. 10 mins once a year. Maybe twice.

Haven’t tried the Ergons in a while. Father has them on his bike in France but not ridden it in a few years. Didn’t love them, didn’t hate them either. I’ve got a pair of Specialized body geo gloves that are OK – but I find there’s padding missing behind the knuckles. Those grail gloves look quite different t though. Thanks.

I’m not sure I can justify the spend on these, do they really work?

I just have to sit on a bike and my hands get sore. I’ve tried different bar sweeps, saddle positions, bikes, stem lengths, etc. I don’t grip too hard and in fact I’m consciously making sure I don’t. My hands still hurt pretty quickly, especially between thumb and index finger.

I used to use ODI Rogue (haven’t for a while, but recall they were OK). Recently have tried the Brendogs, the ODI Pro things that are half waffle, half padded, the default Santa Cruz grips that came on the bike. None have helped.

I might try Rogues again, or the ODI F-1 foam things.

I’d go large too if I were you. Had same dilemma with my Hightower, albeit L vs XL. I reckon the Large would have felt slightly small, the XL felt slightly big, but I just put a shorter 40mm stem on it. Pretty happy with the fit now.

edit: looks like a cracking deal!

On my road bike I wear a Gabba with a couple of thin layers underneath and am always comfortable up here in Scotland through winter. Hands are a bigger issue.

On the MTB I have a OneTen equivalent to the Gabba which was heavily discounted on CRC a couple years back. Has a silver lining across chest and fore arms for added wind resistance.

I use these both all year round with varying base layers. In winter it’s usually a thin base layer mesh T-shirt, then an old Nike dry fit T-shirt , with a Helly Hansen long sleeve base on top. The Gabba or OneTen over it all. When it gets to spring I drop a layer or two.

Quick short 20km loop on the West Highland Way yesterday on the MTB and a parallel 20km road loop  today. Recovering from a sore knee so short rides.

You can over think these things. My eldest had a wooden one, fixed steering, cheap. From great little trading company. By 4 he was riding his first Isla cnoc with me to the park. Youngest had an Isla balance bike with proper steering, posh alu, etc. Hated it. He rode his first proper bike aged 8. Cheap wooden one was just fine.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0036SUP1C?ie=UTF8&tag=theukusho-21

Putting my saddle forwards 5mm and shortening my stem by 10mm helped me. Backpacks are the other common cause.

Go direct to Jungle, they handle ks warranty anyway. They did my Integra twice. No issues.

http://www.jungleproducts.co.uk/warranty/returns/ks/

I reckon the Wahoo bundle of speed, cadence, and tickr that comes with the ELEMNT is pretty good value. I use the HR on most rides, with the LEDs set to show the HR Zone. I find it a good measure of fitness, though my ideas of lots of zone 2 training to shift some fat aren’t working out – I’d need to be pootling along a canal path to stay in zone 2. :D

I also like cadence, helps for pacing climbs. I’m a high cadence spinner for the most part, and have got used to having it on my road bike, so decided to go for the bundle and pop it on my MTB. I don’t see how it could ever fall off. It’s held on really securely around the crank with a couple of zip ties – it’s going nowhere.

£50 for a good HR sensor, speed sensor, and cadence sensor – seems like a good idea. The HR sensor is almost free.

Solicitor will help for compensation for injuries though, whereas I’d imagine the insurance want to settle costs. A friend came off his bike, after hitting a pothole. His solicitor ended up getting him £14k in compensation from the council for his injuries.

Makes a difference. I feel like its about an extra gear, give or take. I’m running a 28t oval on an 11-42 cassette down from the stock 30t round whilst my fitness recovers. Haven’t lost any top end off road. Will probably go up to 30t oval in a couple months so I don’t get too lazy on the climbs.

I just got these. Looks like the pilgrips are borrowing from DMR Deathgrips? They have a waffle bit on the bottom too.

Oddly I read the EVOC continually slips, but the newest Camelbak Repack LR doesn’t. The Camelbak is top of my list. Still, that’s a tempting price! ah… it doesn’t come with the bladder so that pushes it up to Repack pricing.

There was an article discussing this I stumbled on a couple weeks ago, one of the biking sites and a physio. Backpacks tend to compress your lower back causing pain whilst the bum bag doesn’t as it is suspended below your lower back. I’ve been considering a Camelbak Repack since watching.

Most of the backpack load is through the thoracic region (mid-back), with the lower back acting as a suspension between the strong and stable pelvis and hips, and the backpack. Therefore, the lower back has to work incredibly hard to maintain a neutral position, and the surrounding soft tissue structures (muscles, tendons, and ligaments) become very quickly overloaded, causing pain.

If you take the cash, you might end up building a lesser MTB with it unless you add to it. I’d sell it if you have no MTB plans any more. But if you are going to ride MTB still it seems like a great bike to keep. I say, make time for it. A year ago I barely touched my MTB and rode my road bike. Now it’s flipped. You don’t need to head to trail centres or gnarly terrain to enjoy the MTB.

For me it’s all about effort not braking distance. With discs I can one finger brake with very little effort allowing me to focus on the approaching corner in control. I didn’t like the rim or mechanical disc on a steep descent towards a hairpin. Felt like to much focus went into stopping rather than cornering.

Is it clean? Mine was doing it last week. I’d forgotten to hose my bike down after previous week’s muddy ride. Something must have been seizing up in the rear mech. I couldn’t go 20 feet before the chain dropped. Hosed and brushed it clean, back to normal. Rare my bike stays dirty but never had that issue with Shimano. Most odd. Only a few months old. All good now.

I’ve been happy with my Strada. Few local trips and a 3 bike trip from Glasgow to the Dordogne.

I had those cranks on a 2008 Kona Kula Deluxe. I used a Park CCP 44. They came of really easily with it.

Or take a look at it on big ring and 27, make sure you have a comfortable amount if S bend in the chain around the cassette to pully interface. Shift it up to a higher gear and note how much the pully moves. Going from 27 to 30 will be about the same in the other direction. If it looks like you’ll still have a nice S bend moving up to that imaginery 30 then you are probably OK. Get the cassette, try and see. If it looks like it’ll tight, buy a chain as well. You can’t be sure without trying, but there’s a chance you won’t need. It’s a difference of a couple of links. I did need it going from 28 to 32 on my road bike, but got away with it moving chain rings on my 1x MTB.

My opinion of the Wahoo in a nutshell is that it’s mostly brilliant, but while many people will find its navigation abilities perfectly adequate, some aspects of those abilities suck. Chief of these is that if you need to go off-course (which I find is often) the Wahoo is really unhelpful. See my review linked on page 1 for more detail.

Agreed. Though in fairness, the similarly priced 520 is even poorer. The higher end Garmins are better in that regard, just, but lose out on other features. They aren’t as good as incar satnav that’s for sure.

whats the hack for a tether? I kinda refuse to pay 14 quid for a piece of pissing string, though I know ill regret it if I dont!

You still need the bit of string. I had a spare from my Garmin, but ebay probably has them for buttons. You take the battery cover off (there’s a wee screw. Loop the tether around the screw, behind the rubber cover, and screw back down. I’ve lost computers before (under a moving car tyre) due to no tether. The ELEMNT needs this bodge, the BOLT has one already.

Sunrace.

lol

On mounts, if your mount has a rotatable insert, then it’ll fit. Wahoo is 90 degrees to Garmin. Also worth noting it comes with an out front in the box (which I use on my road bike). I use a top cap mount for my stem on the MTB.

I love my ELEMNT. I went for the big one because it is supposed to be more durable, I wanted the extra LEDs, and the bigger screen. I sold a 520 to get it. BOLT can take a leash, ELEMNT needs a hack (take off the charger cover, loop leash around screw, and put back on.

What it does better:

– linking directly to 3rd parties like ridewithgps

– strava live segments (tracks multiple simultaneously, switch between, and chase your own PR rather than follower)

– better screen

– better navigation

– LEDs are a nice touch for navigation and HR

I have an Osprey Viper 9 with a 2.5l bladder that’s been really comfy. Not too big, might be too small for you? It’s great though. I’m considering getting a Camelbak re-pack waist pack for shorter rides.

I’ve never used Beacon as my wife and I have iPhones and share location using Find Friends. Does your phone have something similar, surely there’s a free option if that’s the only reason you use Strava Premium?

I went ELEMNT rather than RFLKT as I had a few times where my phone ran out of battery. I do love my ELEMNT more than my 520. I vote for the ELEMNT or the BOLT. I like the bigger screen and the LEDs (which I use to display HR zones). Allegedly the ELEMNT is sturdier than the BOLT.

ELEMNT doesn’t come with a lanyard / leash eye. However you can loop one under the scree holding the charge cover on. I recommend that – mine hasn’t come off, but a few times it’s been twisted half off, no idea how. I run mine on the stem top cap (maybe vibration).

Hoses were plenty long for both Trigger and Hightower. I had to cut them down. Particularly the Hightower as the rear doesn’t run around the head tube.

Adaptors – I had to run 180 on the trigger as they interfered with the Cannondale 160 adaptor. I had to get a Hope 180 for the Hightower as they interfered with the SRAM adaptor on the Hightower. They are quite chunky callipers.

Days, really? Everyone that I know who has one needs to charge every day.

My series 0 needed charge every day. I can get over 3 days out of my series 3 easily and do when traveling. At home its easy to charge every night. Generally uses about 15% a normal day.

Watch is perfectly fine for a long days cycling, but if you are interested in live data, live segments, etc then it’s a pain as it’s usually under a glove or sleeve. A computer on your stem is easier to read. So depends on what you need. Mate uses his for Strava just fine.

I’ve got the wider width Specialized Power on my road bike. It’s pretty good too. Not really an MTB saddle though.

Fabric Scoop is comfy.

I didn’t do it in one jump. I went from a SC Superlight 26 to a Trigger Carbon 27.5 to a SC Hightower in the space of 18 months.

Thoughts:

– climbs are a bit slower, though arguably with more traction – whether thats down to the wheel size or tyres, fitness, or that I’m currently 5kg heavier – hard to say.

– flats and slight descents are faster. The 29er just rolls quicker over rough terrain. Despite lower fitness I took over a minute off a 9 min segment on a slight descent over rough chunk – I reckon I can run a gear or two higher pointing down because it flattens a lot of small to medium chunk.

– descents: I’m faster most of the time, sometimes by just a few seconds, sometimes by quite a bit. I put it down to the stability of the 29er – the big wheels make rough stuff seem smoother, I can carry way more speed before I start to feel like I’m on the edge.

– technical stuff: not sure. I’m more confident, but still a scaredy cat. I certainly ride more stuff now than I did on the Trigger. I think that’s confidence in the bike, but I could just be slightly less scared now. :)

– switchbacks: it’s plenty agile and I’m much better through the tight stuff on the 29er than I was on the Superlight or Trigger. They aren’t all barges. I did put a 40mm stem on to speed things up a bit (and reduce the reach).

One mistake I made – I didn’t ride before buying. My local SC dealer only had a Medium in the Hightower, and indeed in the Bronson and 5010 in the past. When the killer deal came up, it was online for an XL (which I was sure I wanted as I’m between sizes). I’d have liked to try both the L and XL as sometimes I think the XL is too big. Then again I regularly felt the L Trigger was too small.

Long socks with shorts? They’ll be riding in sandals next.

Bez, I’m not a big Nav user so I can’t comment much on that aspect of the Wahoo. What I can say though is that I’ve never had any impact on iPhone battery with the Wahoo app installed. I’ve been using it several months now and I never force quit any apps so if it was somehow hanging onto a process (which it shouldn’t be able to do when suspended) then I’d have seen the impact. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s got zero impact on phone battery. According to iOS, in the past 7 days it’s used 1% battery.

I like SRAM. I’ve run XT for years and decided in the last two or three to use my XT shifter in push push, allowing me to keep my index finger on the brake lever. My current bike came with GX 11. I’ve taken no time to adjust. Feels just as good as XT.

Can still downshift three gears from a single push. Don’t need to upshift more than one. No issues.

I kinda wanted to try SRAM so happy bike came that way.