They don’t stock anything – long waits. Check online review sites – they are terrible. BikeINN, RunINN, etc.

The simplest thing to do is fit it with no air and compress it to check for clearance. It’s going to add a little more than 10% to your travel, so the chances are that the extra 7mm of stroke will result in the tire hitting the frame, probably the seat tube. I imagine the longer the stays, the more clearance you have to long shock.

Folk have been doing exactly this on the Hightower in 29er mode, then flipping the chip to 27.5 mode to raise the BB and add a bit of extra clearance at the seat tube – runs very very close though.

if you only ride against yourself you can do all that without strava

Not without Live Segments you can’t. When I’m slogging up a hill and I know I’m a few seconds behind my PR, I am more likely to keep at it than drop a gear to make it easier, which helps with my motivation and eventual fitness. Otherwise it’s all just data after the fact. I’m fitter because of Live Segments. Works for me.

Easy to do. I bought a cheap press fit tool (but with proper races to fit the bearings) from eBay or someplace for I dunno, 15-20 quid? An another 10 quid or thereabouts on an icetoolz springy thing that looks like a whisk for making cakes. Use the ice tools to get the bearings out with a mallet and then the press to put the new BB in. I went for a threaded PF from wheelsmfg for a bit more solidity which sadly needed another tool to wrench it on.

edit: sounds like you have everything you need to do the job already. It’s like a 5 minute job and dead easy. oh, and some parks grease too.

Bleeding the Hopes is less faff than Shimano and quicker for me at least. Agree that getting the reservoir level is a bit of a challenge, but something we should be doing on other bikes too really.

Edit: looked at that video. Their old video doesn’t have that funnel or anything. I do it with a screw driver, a wrench, and a clear tube running into a bottle from the caliper. Pour fluid directly into reservoir.

I love my E4s. Best brakes I’ve used. Mine moved to the new bike to replace the Guide R after already replacing the XT on the previous bike. I also used to have M4s.

I’d go Tech 3 – the adjustments are awesome to get the feel you like. Also allows you to get the front and rear feel the same despite the cable length difference.

Down side of mine is the bling. On my old black and red bike the black and red bling of my hopes was awesome. On the black with mint and orange decals they look out of place. They feel awesome though which matters most.

Poop. It means theres low amounts of either dialled in. Low rebound means little rebound tuned in Vs medium. So low is more open than medium. Same for compression.

I wouldn’t be so fit. I use it only as a means to improve fitness against my own times. I even switched to Wahoo so my live segments show my PR to chase rather than who I’m following. I think it’s a great motivator and training tool. And whilst I’m not at my fittest, with Strava I can see how far off my PRs I am.

It’d be a shame to be without it on my many solo rides.

I don’t care if I’ve done more Kms than someone else, and I don’t know anyone who does.

Given its supposed to snow Tue, Thu, Sat, and Sun, I really can’t imagine Glentress being fun or rideable?

I’ve learned to enjoy the quiet time, nice ride, no chat, no worries, chill. It’s a bit less enjoyable on a big ride, or a ride that’s a bit more remote or new – some company helps there with either confidence or motivation.

I can’t really give an objective comparison. When I went from a 26 SC Superlight to a 27.5 Trigger Carbon I don’t really notice the wheels but I felt much more confident on the bike – could just be more modern bike and wider bars etc. When I went from that to my current 29er Hightower I felt a big difference – it’s the front wheel looks huge, it definitely felt like it carried more speed down fast flowing Singletrack and through the rough stuff (though as it’s winter and I’m not fit I’ve not beaten any PRs, also dog walkers so I slow down). The surprise for me was, and it’s obviously down to comparing apples and oranges really, but my 29er is more nimble/agile than the Superlight and Trigger, and I’m also more IN the bike than ON. Maybe it’s not really any different, maybe I’m just more confident, but it feels like it.

Just to counter the notion that 29er is less agile and more tricky than 26er. Rather than one bike is that Vs another regardless of wheels.

Seems like you are running a lot of rebound? Isn’t it a bit slow? There’s a mojo masterclass on YouTube where they talk about it being as fast as possible whilst still in control. Fast enough to recover past the sag point then oscillate once back down.

My Cannondale was fine whilst I had it. Trigger carbon with press fit. My Giant road bike lasted 1500km before needing a new BB (developed a slight creak), at which point I replaced it with a wheelsmfg threaded press fit thingy. I’d not let it put me off a Jeffsy.

According to strava I’m about 50/50 road and mtb. Skewed toward mtb past few months cause I got a new Hightower and ignored my road bike. I usually do a couple of short road cycles a week over lunch and a big mtb cycle at the weekend.

That mech also works with the 11-50. I ran it for a couple of weeks on a new 11 speed drive train on my Trigger just before selling it. No issues at all. I might have installed a goat link. Can’t remember. Just checked, no goat link. Just worked out the box..

At this price point surely a Triban from Decathlon is the answer. My mate has put many many miles on his both commuting and holidaying in France. Seems great for the money. Granted rim brakes.

I love my Rudy Project Rydon. Had them a few years now and built up collection of lenses of which the cheap racing red get most riding time on or off road. I use them on vacations or driving in sun too. Have clip in prescription lens so cheap to sort when my prescription changes without impact to lens collection. Got from RXSport who are great.

Think carefully on lens colour, not the outer appearance or mirror finish, the actual shade of lens applied to your vision.

Red / Brown are great for boosting contrast off road making roots and rocks easier to pick out. Or onroad in overcast conditions.

The typical grey that many lenses come in (I have three) are crap for MTB, fine for bright days on road, and leisure use. They muddy contrast making it harder to see. I made the mistake of photochromic grey rather than brown.

Polorising lenses are great when driving or at the beach. Not so great when riding. Whilst they cut glare, they also hide damp slippy surfaces. You don’t want that.

I ran an 10 speed 11/42 with an XT long cage and goat link on my last bike with the Sunrace. In fact it’s now on my son’s bike. The ghost link was not really necessary but improved shift a little.

I’ve come to realise that I suffer colder hands than most. Some folk on here swear by gloves I’ve since bought and found not much better.

I’ve got Gore Windstoppers that are supposed to be the best winter gloves. They aren’t. I use them for autumn and spring.

I’ve got sealskinz lobster gloves which are pretty great on the road bike but cold does for in after an hour. Useless on MTB – too bulky.

I’ve got the oft recommended Galibier gloves. Better than Gore, but I still suffer.

When it’s really cold I wear a pair of rubber gloves (mechanic style) under my Galibier. Helps a little but isn’t super comfy.

Also tried silk and merino liners. Didn’t really help much.

I think the topaz gets a lot of recommendations because it’s a really good shock in the same price range as a Monarch or DBAir. Also user serviceable so lower running costs than most. It’s top of my list to replace my Monarch shock this year. I don’t care whether it’s piggyback or not.

Supersix HiMod Disc for me please

It’s very bike dependent. My 29er is more nimble and better controlled than the 27.5 it replaced whilst also having the benefit of 29er wheels rolling better over tech. Pretty sure it’s more draggy on climbs though, but that could just be down to the minions.

Fit lanyard to whatever you get. Even if like on my Wahoo you need to secure it behind a screw in battery charger cover. I’ve lost a lesser computer when it jumped out it’s mount during some button pushing and ended up under the wheels of a car. Loop lanyard around your bars as a leash and if it pops out of mount it dangles from your bars instead.

On my MTB I use a little mount that replaces the top cap on the stem. It’s great. £5 on eBay. Road bike has an out front mount. Ps I don’t use an etrex.

If you are running a slammed stem at -6 degrees, with the bars still higher than your saddle, surely you are on a bike that’s much too big for you? My own bike is borderline too big, but my bars come in a bit lower than my saddle with a +6 angle, 20mm bars, and 13mm of spacers.

Maybe you need a flat bar. If you shorten the stem you will lose some of that -ve drop. So you need to stay at 50 unless it’s too long. Maybe you need a +/- 10 stem run inverted.

Not sure. I’ve had mine open twice this past week to take bands out and then put them back in. Air out. Oring off. Outer pull down.  Adjust bands. Reverse. No issues.

Hope E4s were the last really nice component. The Hightower that followed them a year later is even better, but nit really what the OP intended. I was pretty pleased with my Wahoo ELEMNT last month.

Just a couple of extra bits of food for thought:

1. Strava Live Segments – if you have an interest in this and the £3ish per month premium that goes with it, do you want to chase your own PR or the PR of the faster person you are following? I find it demoralising to see a friends times that are minutes faster than I can get anywhere near, and prefer to chase my own PRs (which are currently a long way off too!). Garmin shows following PRs, Wahoo shows your own). So worth thinking on this, it’s why I traded.

2. As Bez outlines, Wahoo is much better for getting routes from other sources. But that may not matter to you. No need to sync or USB, just open the app.

3. Mid ride with Wahoo you can open the ride summary and see how you’re doing – loads of stats, including all the strava segments you’ve done vs your PR. I like this for a mid coffee break.

Best

Won’t argue with your opinion, we are all different. I’d just point out that most satnav systems, including those in a car, and even computer games, tend to use direction of travel because it makes sense to the majority. I couldn’t live with N up in a satnav. So it’s no issue for me, though we should have choice, and I thought we did in the wahoo but maybe I’m wrong.

I’ve never zoomed out far enough to see any detail loss, maybe I’ve not drifted far enough off course, maybe the larger element retains it longer, not sure. Will look and let you know if it’s an issue on elemnt.

Turn by turn isn’t my #1 use on mine, but what I have I’m happy with. Can’t compare to the 8xx as I don’t use, but it’s so much better and cheaper than what’s on the 520. Other features on the Garmin, such as screen visibility and strava live segments from following taking precedence over my own pr on Garmin were bigger issues I couldn’t live with on my edge 520.

Edit

So I checked, and yes going beyond 500m shows way less detail. That said, things get so small that I find 500m is too tiny to be useful and 200m shows more than enough distance ahead for me to plan what to do next. I’m usually riding at 200m on road and 100m off road. Direction of travel. If I have turn by turn enabled then I don’t know where. am going so I leave it on maps view all the time, on which I have customized to add cadence and speed, and I use the larger elemnt side LEDs to show my HR. Covers what I need.

My biggest complaint is that I can’t customise the live segments screen. Applies to both Garmin and Wahoo. I want my cadence on there.

My thoughts… go Wahoo. I just sold my Garmin 520 and picked up a Wahoo ELEMNT Bundle (the larger screen version). It’s about the same price you pay for a Garmin 820 but comes with speed, cadence, and HR sensors. On it’s own it is cheaper, yet better featured.

What I like:

– outstanding battery life
– if you like Strava Live Segments, you can chase your own PR rather than the fastest PR of whomever you are following, unlike Garmin: main reason for the switch
– it integrates with the likes of Strava, RidewithGPS, Komoot, etc much better than Garmin
– that big screen is so good
– for road bike use, you can open up the app on your phone, pick a destination in Google maps and it’ll send turn-by-turn to the ELEMNT
– the LEDs are great for both Turn-By-Turn and in my case, HR zones (or Speed, Cadence, Live Segments)
– it integrates so well with RideWithGPS and the like that it’s a snap to get an MTB or Road route, with turn-by-turn using the app. In fact, if you add a ride to your list in one of those websites (I’ve used Strava, RWGPS, Komoot) then it will sync to you device without effort. Only negative is no Strava turn-by-turn yet, unlike Garmin, but its coming.

Really, it does everything the Garmin does, only better. I really like it. Best GPS I’ve used, and great value.

I use Hiscox. Don’t even need to list my bikes separately. Covered under contents at home, and possessions when out.

Bad Habit?

https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s183p7417/CANNONDALE-BAD-HABIT-CARBON-2-2017

Mark. Meant to say, if you cable tie the two cables at the BB / Bottlecage area together the move around a lot less – I looped a cable tie over one cable, through a small rubber tube, and round the second cable – like a bridge/link.

Back to 4 spacers. Popped it back in half way through the ride today. Just feels better with 4.

I’ve just taken a spacer out of the Monarch. Running 3 now and 2 in the Pike. Not taken it to the trails yet, but it feels maybe better balanced and slightly less progressive. Still feels impossible to bottom out but given I don’t do jumps or big drops that’s probably normal. I’m 82kg and run around 205psi.

Mark, just pull the cable through at the bars to straighten out some of that curve at the bottle mounts?

I thought I’d stopped after getting my new MTB (and new stem) in October last year. Then over Xmas I decided I needed an adjustable torque wrench. Last month I bough a Wahoo ELEMNT (but at least sold a Garmin 520 to part fund it) – I wanted a HR strap and speed/cadence sensors for the MTB (since I already have on the road bike). Now I’ve ordered a chainring for the MTB which required purchase of a BB tool to remove the old one (RF cinch fitting). Gah!

I’ve got a spare 650b tire in the garage, part used, and no bike to fit it to!

Like Sam I got the S build of the regular HT (it was on sale at Biketreks and they offered me a deal that even my wife couldn’t resist!). I absolutely love it. I used to split my time 50/50 with my road bike but I’ve not ridden that since early November now! I just love MTB so much more since upgrading to this from my Trigger.

I didn’t like the Guide brakes and had recently got Hope E4s on my trigger so I swapped those out. Moving to a 28T oval today I hope too as I often find I need just a bit too much effort on steep tech climbs on my local trails.

Wondering how you all have your suspension set. I put two tokens in my Pike (my 29er came with 150mm) and it feels good – not as plush as the Lefty Supermax, but good all the same. 1 token felt too divey. The Monarch out back is a mixed bag. When I’m going for it on something more techy with some small drops and lots of speed, the rear is awesome – the best its had really is Carron Valley (twice as its a bit out the way for me) – can’t wait to try it at Glentress. On slower trails it’s not as sensitive. I could put in an extra spacer to run less air (it’s stock 4 spacers) but as I already never get close to full travel I think that would be a mistake.

No plans for a shock upgrade (yet) and it’s hands down the best, and most confidence inspiring bike I’ve ever owned. At 6’1 the XL is probably slightly big, but the L was going to be slightly small.

I’ve got an eBay version of the stem cap Crag posted. Needed a spacer above the stem so my rather large ELEMNT would for over the top of the rehthal stem.. The Garmin fitted without the spacer. Neater than the SRAM reverse mount thingy I used to use.

Another vote for Osprey. Have one in my backpack.