First of all, people like to play semantics games on this, so lets be clear to use the clear terms for all parties where it concerns to competitive sports: trans women are not females.

I fully support the right of every individual to do whatever they want with their bodies and their lives, while being treated with the respect they deserve by society. I fully support that sports in general should be fully welcoming to every single person. I also fully support STW’s right to publish their opinion on the topic, they are fully entitled to it.

I just can’t stand attacks on basic science and biology. I can’t stand unfairness. Competitive sports are not recreational sports. The livelihoods of females who want to succeed and have a sports career are put in jeopardy.
I’m the father of a little female girl who I want to live in a fair society. Should she want to pursue a competitive sports endeavor, I don’t want it to be cut short because a male , with all the inherent biological differences, decided to jump into her competition lineup.

Again, trans women should be treated with respect, but they are not females.
To everyone reading this that happen to agree, don’t ever feel like you shouldn’t speak your mind.

I have been a loyal reader and forum participant at STW for many years. But as a parent, a husband and a friend of many females, this is a touchy subject to me personally. Not that this bothers STW the minimum, but this is my last post here and I will carry my clicks somewhere else.
Over and out

I certainly wont make thing worse, so there’s that.

Living in Switzerland for 7 months, the police here is absolutely ruthless with speed tickets, even a couple of km/h above the limite will get you a a fine of several hundreds of francs and they enjoy catching people in the most unsuspecting places. This seems to work to a degree, as I’ve never seen so much compliance with the speed limits, definitely feels safer than anywhere else I’ve been on a bike, except maybe Dutch cities.

One word of advice though, drivers will stick to the speed limit, but if the limit is 80km/h you bet everyone will be driving at 80km/h, even if it is a twisty road while snow if falling

Indeed a multitude of glue have nefarious effects on EPS. However, the adhesive backing velcro pads is in too small quantity to produce any hill effects

Don’t worry

There will be a market correction for sure.

A lot of it was written on the wall. Bike brands that do the conventional sales model (ie no direct sales) end up forecasting with heavy reliance on feedback and orders from dealers and country reps. Those often are not very sophisticated operations (some are tho, so don’t take offense if you’re one of those) and live a lot in the moment with little strategy and future planning.

So they end up ordering and forecasting based on what they see today at the shop floor, rather than what likely lies ahead. We are now seeing a bigger influx of stock into the stores that is not being met with the same demand as it was during the pandemic.

Anyone with any basic understanding of how markets work saying that this was “the new normal” was almost surely doing so to create an expectation to further capture investment.

Also, notice how little old, experienced players like Shimano increased capacity during this period.

I know they’ve fallen a bit out of favour for the main stream mountain biking world, but I’ve sort of re-discovered XC shoes lately.
Walking traction is simply night and day in muddy and steep ground compared to “AM” shoes, they feel light and dry super quick

Had no idea about the Swarf situation. Bummer, hope he got a good opportunity the put him in a better situation tho.

The whole small boutique brand gig is definitely a tough one to pull off. You’re competing with big manufacturers with and extremely industrialized and efficient production process

What happened to Swarf?

Scott Centric
Riding with one since January, can’t believe how much more confortable and well ventilated it is compared to the typical trail/AM lids I had before.
Also very well scored in the Virginia Tech ratings

By around 2010 I used to be into long distance XC riding. Was comfortable doing 100km routes at a good pace, and then decided to attempt a 180km one that a friend did the week before.

Solo, on a rigid single speed.

Managed to complete it, but the last third or so was so bad I barely remember it. Everything hurt, head, eyes, teeth, even my nails hurt. Slept for a hole day after it

@prontomonto you’ll be fine in Switzerland, just make sure you are polite and respectful to the hikers

Here we go:
1 – 2002 GT Zaskar made in USA, got it second hand from my father
2 – Singular Swift MK1
3 – Surly Ogre
4 – Surly Pugsley
5 – Velo Orange Camargue
6 – Surly LHT
7 – Surly Ogre
8 – Singular Rooster
9 – Surly Krampus MK2
10 – Pipedream Moxie MK1
11 – Bird AM9 V1
12 – Specialized Stumpjumper Evo
13 – Bird AM9 V3
14 – Fuji Jari
15 – Cotic SolarisMax

@doomanic I mentioned Virginia Tech as an example of how sometimes flimsy looking helmets fare better than heavier looking ones, was not comparing with full face helmets

Both the Rampage and the Proframe pass the same certifications, including the ASTM F1952 DH standard. Those certifications are pass/no pass, so there is no way to know if one is safer than the other without seeing the actual test reports.

Looking beefier (the Rampage) is no guarantee of greater safety. A look at the Virginia Tech helmet ratings (they actually rate the helmet’s performance) shows that some of the safer helmets are light, airy road models.

A good resource about the DH certification:
https://helmets.org/f1952standard.htm

Best way to learn jumps/kickers os to practice with flat pedals. You’ll get the hang of it simply based on feedback from the pedals (ie keeping you feet on them)

Lightweight XC tyres need all the support they can use, so wide rims make even more sense there than for enduro and such applications.

The pros are using 2.4s on 30mm rims even for long distance stuff like the Cape Epic.

Been running a 2.4 Rekon Race on a 30mm rim on the rear and the thing is fast, bonkers fast

Been on a set of Lezyne lights since December:
Front – Micro Drive Pro 800XL
Rear – KTV Pro

Been super impressed by them, absolutely flawless. Using them everyday, rain, snow, salty roads, you name it.
Have the rear one on the seat post, but in the shorter days of winter also attached a small cheap one to the back of the helmet

In the true spirit of STW I’ll suggest Switzerland:

https://bikepacking.com/locations/switzerland/

Railways are great and you can quickly go anywhere once you land in Geneva or Zurich.

Except for natural parks, camping is ok above 2000m. Bellow that, is bit “grey-ish”, as far as I’m aware rules change from canton to canton and maybe even between comunes. But as long as you camp discreetly and leave no trace, you will be fine

There are site like mapstogpx.com where you can paste the URL (link) from Google Maps and it converts it into a GPS file

Michelin DH34 and DH22.
They are unlike anything else in the market. No inserts needed, ultra damped ride, it’s like adding 30mm of suspension travel. And the grip is so high that it’s comical, you keep doing the same corner faster and faster and they just grip

Used double Ardents 2.4 for a couple of years a while back, can’t say I miss them. Not super fast rolling, very puncture prone, awful at corners, awful climbing traction.
Currently using a Rekon at the front, its just miles better in every way

Just as an update, ended up building the downcountry bike, a hardtail nonetheless.

Shortly after creating this thread I destroyed the rear wheel on the AM9 while landing a whip. I already had the Rekon Race/Rekon tyres and Hunt Trail Wide wheels for the downcountry build, so decided to throw them in the AM9. The bike obviously became way, way faster, to the point I could keep up with my XC friends, but:
– it would still suck on accelerations or out of the saddle efforts
– it felt terribly unbalanced. You could feel the tyres/wheels reaching the limit way before the frame and fork

After a handful of rides I placed an order for a Cotic Solarismax

Retrap stuff is incredibly good, functional, durable and made in the UK.
And it holds reasonable resale value should you want to sell it down the road

Been riding bikes with reach numbers between 475 and 500mm for the last few years and I feel like the “heavy feet light hands” thing works perfectly well on longer bikes. You just need to assume a more aggressive position, say lower shoulders but strong hips slightly behind the BB. Picture Greg Minnaar, he is the perfect example of that body position.

On shorter bikes one can stay planted on flat pedals with a more relaxed position with straighter arms and more upright torso, but its mostly a matter of habit

@tomparkin will do, for sure.
Not expecting it to be an absolute looker, as some of the kit will be mix and match with whats available, but hope its going to be a very functional build

Actually I think the “relax your ankles, don’t force them down” is a pretty good advice. Combine that with “heavy feet, light hands” and you’re set.

The problem with the “force the ankles down” thing is that then you see plenty of people doing that but with their weight too far forward. By keeping your weight on your feet the ankles will naturally drop down.

The only time I forcibly drop my ankles in when braking

@tomparkin I went for the green one.

Hope it doesn’t get stuck in the customs for too long here in Switzerland. The rest of the kit is arriving this week and I can’t wait to ride it

How is the DP where it touches the dropper seal when bottoming out?
I know that the Valais protects the seal so you can bottom out carelessly, but not sure about the DP

Sure, it’s not a ultra light XC racer on the traditional sense, but surely can be built as an efficient and fast bike. The BfeMax is the real downhill oriented frame on their range

Just as an update, ended up buying the Hunt Trail Wides. I’m sure the XM1700 are slightly better quality, but couldn’t justify the significant price difference and the Hunts are a bit lighter as well

Just to bring some closure to the topic, ended up ordering a Cotic Solaris Max frame.
Reasons for the choice:
– geometry seems to be spot on
– easily replaceable, standard Syntace hanger
– bottle cage mounts under the downtube
– availability

Have most of the kit ready to assemble:
– 130mm fork
– Hunt Trail Wide wheels
– Reckon Race 2.4 rear, Rekon 2.4 front tyres
– Crank Brothers 200mm dropper

Can’t wait to try it, hoping for it to be a efficient and fast but still fun bike

Yes, the build on mine is fairly heavy:
– 160mm Lyriks
– Super Deluxe coil
– Code brakes
– E532 and E512 rims on DT350 hubs
– Michelin Wild Enduro front and Aggressor DD with Rimpact on the back

It used to be even heavier with dual DH34s and a 170mm Lyrik

I was doing the comparison between the XR and the XM and indeed seems like the weight difference comes down mostly to the 25 vs 30mm rim width. Still having a hard time (and you can for sure call this vanity, prejudice, whatever) swallowing paying 500€ for a pair of wheels supposedly for a fast bike that weight over 1700g

Yeah, was looking for tyres mostly between 2.25-2.4. Guess that on a light supple XC tyre like an Aspen a wider rim might help a lot

… nobody?….

Anyway, anyone willing to weight in on the wheel topic? Or should I create a separate thread?

You’re right, sorry for the misunderstanding, I see what you mean

@cloggy sorry, but I just don’t see how the bikes downhill habilities hurt it’s bikepacking performance. I see the same kind of comments being made frequently in bikepacking websites and I always wonder.
Reminds me not that long ago when people assumed that a slack HA made the bike a slower climber (nevermind that Nino is now wining races with a HA that’s borderline enduro from 4 years ago). Thankfully we are losing this zero sum game approach to bike performance and design

Besides the frame, I’ll have to look for a pair of wheels. I weigh at the moment 85kg bare naked, excluding gear a bikepacking load. Would the DT Swiss XR1700 be tough enough? Or should I go for the XM1700?

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I was doing some introspection on the topic today and I think that in reality I had my mind set on the Sirius S5 from the beginning, sort of looking for justifications to look at other options.

I’ll look around to try to see if anything is in stock somewhere. Should I find none, then I’ll look for alternatives

Ok, so I simulated my typical SS gearing for 40km on the gravel bike, and honestly I don’t think I’ll do it on the hardtail.

I’m still attracted by chain tensioning in the frame, as it allows you to get yourself out of a drivetrain failure in the middle of nowhere (happened to me in the past).

On the other hand, having a spare derailleur hanger might even be more effective than an emergency single speed. And most framed with a tensioning system happen to lack those.

So I’m willing to change my criteria to:
– progressive “downcountry” (everybody’s favourite word to hate) or light trail geometry
– as many mounts as possible
– slight preference for sliding dropouts/EBB but readly available replaceable hanger also acceptable
– in stock!!

Done!