Mountain Biking general thread

[ZedLeg]

Some of that trendy riding, Rich

How busy was it? I’m going to visit the Forest of Dean again but I’m planning to choose a quieter day.

we've been doing this "trendy" riding for the last 20 years (should really be better!)

Aye, most of the reason I'm completely broken today is doing that kind of trendy riding in the late 90s

[Gavin]

Toying with the idea of getting a new bike. I bought the Acid 2.0 last year second hand and it is a decent bike but it has triple ring front and being a CUBE (Or at least this particular one) it is expensive to get a dropper fitted and if I trade in the virtually new Trek I bought for my wife, who then got a LaPierre which she prefers, and has sat unused by and large in the shed......

My Daughter has also rocketed to a might 5 foot 3 so can fit a medium bike so she prefers the Cubs to the Trek so for the 3 times a year she would bother cycling I could maybe get a full suspension....

Trouble is I am tight so don't want to spend huge amounts but equally don't want a heavy as lead bike so I am swithering between a decent hardtail or a 1 year old £1500ish FS?

NOT an e-bike though as that wouldn't suit what I do

[dinny_g]

Looks Ace Rich...

you should see if you can get the series of shots - see if he has you coming round that berm by the padded tree

- are they still called berms ???

[Rich B]

Yeah, I got back into riding after uni (2001/02) when the whole freeride/northshore/DH thing was really kicking off and haven't stopped since.

We used to build loads too - jumps, berms, drops and daft northshore up in the trees, but the whole landowner/insurance situation kind of out a stop to all that, so we basically just ride prebuilt bike parks and trail centres now.

2002/3 doing the same shit - though I don't ride in jeans any more!

[ZedLeg]

Aye, similar story for me. I BMX'd as a kid and the freeride/4X thing was starting to get big as I was starting to hit 6 foot so I moved to a 4X hardtail with a long travel fork. Been my favoured style of bike ever since.

[Rich B]

Aye, similar story for me. I BMX'd as a kid and the freeride/4X thing was starting to get big as I was starting to hit 6 foot so I moved to a 4X hardtail with a long travel fork. Been my favoured style of bike ever since.

iStarting in BMX is always a good base for this sort of stuff - I've always been a mountain biker so had to unlearn my bad 1990s bunny hop style etc!!

Though I've completely forgotten how to ride a hardtail in the last xx years.

[ZedLeg]

Yeah, coming from BMX I was a lot more comfortable in the air and using berms than folk who were trying out that style from cross country mtbs or whatever.

I never really got into full sus, couldn't afford it when I was younger and as I've got older I wasn't really doing the kind of riding where it was needed.

Modern hardtail design has come a long way as well. It's cool that you can buy something with pretty aggressive geometry and a 100mm travel fork as a reasonably cheap general use bike.

[Jobbo]

Toying with the idea of getting a new bike. I bought the Acid 2.0 last year second hand and it is a decent bike but it has triple ring front and being a CUBE (Or at least this particular one) it is expensive to get a dropper fitted and if I trade in the virtually new Trek I bought for my wife, who then got a LaPierre which she prefers, and has sat unused by and large in the shed......

My Daughter has also rocketed to a might 5 foot 3 so can fit a medium bike so she prefers the Cubs to the Trek so for the 3 times a year she would bother cycling I could maybe get a full suspension....

Trouble is I am tight so don't want to spend huge amounts but equally don't want a heavy as lead bike so I am swithering between a decent hardtail or a 1 year old £1500ish FS?

NOT an e-bike though as that wouldn't suit what I do

Now is not the time to be toying with the idea - new bikes are hard to come by and used bikes are close to their new cost, so you'd have to really want or need it to pay or wait.

[Ascender]

Has anybody tried one of those "bike racks for impractical cars" which will let you carry one bike on something like a Boxster? I'm sure Chris Harris has had pictures of them before - they seem to use suction cups?

Just wondering if they're actually any good and/or prohibitively expensive?

[Rich B]

The Seasucker ones seem to have a very good rep, but not tried them myself.

[Rich B]

Whilst I've been WFH I've been doing a quick little 5 mile circuit each day on my single speed (700c road wheels/tyres but only one gear) for a bit of fitness. It's got a couple of hills, but nothing too bad. I thought I'd jump on the ebike today to see how much faster I could go!

12kg Single speed:


24kg Ebike:


Pretty clear that my assist stops assisting around 19ish mph. I might up the limiter and give it another go one day!

[Jobbo]

I love the calorie counter.

[Gavin]

Toying with the idea of getting a new bike. I bought the Acid 2.0 last year second hand and it is a decent bike but it has triple ring front and being a CUBE (Or at least this particular one) it is expensive to get a dropper fitted and if I trade in the virtually new Trek I bought for my wife, who then got a LaPierre which she prefers, and has sat unused by and large in the shed......

My Daughter has also rocketed to a might 5 foot 3 so can fit a medium bike so she prefers the Cubs to the Trek so for the 3 times a year she would bother cycling I could maybe get a full suspension....

Trouble is I am tight so don't want to spend huge amounts but equally don't want a heavy as lead bike so I am swithering between a decent hardtail or a 1 year old £1500ish FS?

NOT an e-bike though as that wouldn't suit what I do

Now is not the time to be toying with the idea - new bikes are hard to come by and used bikes are close to their new cost, so you'd have to really want or need it to pay or wait.

I'd agree if it were 6 months ago but our LBS have plenty new bikes in now. I have a 1 year old Trek which I could sell/trade in too so if I get close to what I paid I'd be happy. I may end up doing nowt though as I cannot decide and don't want to make an expensive mistake.

[John]

My ebike is going back to the dealer as the carbon rear triangle has started to crack. No spare parts available to repair and no stock to replace the bike either so not sure what I'm going to do yet.

[Jobbo]

How old is it, John?

[John]

Seven months old and covered less than 500 miles.

[Gavin]

My ebike is going back to the dealer as the carbon rear triangle has started to crack. No spare parts available to repair and no stock to replace the bike either so not sure what I'm going to do yet.

Holy cow! That is a scunner. I have no idea why but CF bikes are not for me, I know they are light and strong but I have maybe watched too many F1 cars fire sharp shards across too many racetracks. I know it is not logical.

Glad you noticed it at least, rather than a failure out and about!

[John]

Many of the bike manufacturers seem to be going towards carbon now, not much choice in alloy at all if you want a highish spec.

[Rich B]

I've seen far more cracked alloy frames than carbon. There's a great Santa Cruz video that shows them testing CF and alloy frames, it's pretty dramatic.

https://youtu.be/w5eMMf11uhM

[Gavin]

Well I tried my usual LBS to find out the Trek Fuel EX5 is June 2022 for delivery - @Jobbo that will teach me to believe the window display and "we have loads of bikes in stock" posts on social media!

My other LBS however has an Orbea Occam H30 coming in in the next month or so, or so he hopes, so i have got first dibs on that.

Now to explain to y dear wife "HOW BLOODY MUCH?"