The Bicycle Thread

[charlesr]

Ah bum. Sorry. I should have spotted that. I'm clearly slipping.

I get a decent discount from my local bike shop anyway because I'm always pushing business in their direction. Most notably, a friend of mine came down from London to buy his frame and forks from them:



?2100 for frame and shock, although he got the Cane Creek shock so that took it to a fair chunk more and by the time he'd added on some Fox 40 DH forks and a bit of a discount it all came to around ?3k for frame shock and forks.

[wod]

thats good always wise to support your local bike shop over online any day. I only have the chain shop evanscycles to use for bits n pieces i will need, they seem ok but not overly impressed with them to be honest.

wow ?2100 for just the frame and forks and i thought my friends 2.5k cannondale full race spec bike was a lot of money.

if i do get the xr4s it will be about 57 for 2 if i use the sale discount on evans so not too bad.

are those bontrager winter tyres only made in 26x2.0 as i cant seem to see any for sale in 2.1 or 2.2 size ?

[charlesr]

?2100 is just for frame (and the shock for the rear suspension). Forks on top: ?1200.

And yeah, winter tyres are thinner - you want them to slice through the mud and grip on the surface underneath, not float on top. And you also don't want any mud building up between the tyre and frame - that route leads to nowhere good.

[wod]

very nice, do your local bike shop have a website ?

found online those xr4s team issue for 20 each and i'm rather tempted to buy to try out and keep my xr2s as well and also get the xr mud tyres later on in winter, then i should have plenty of choice for all conditions lol.

[charlesr]

They do have a site, but not for purchasing really.

[charlesr]

http://www.redbull.com/en/bike/stories/1331574595245/strength-in-numbers-worldwide-online-premiere

New Anthill film free to watch today only!

[wod]

?2100 is just for frame (and the shock for the rear suspension). Forks on top: ?1200.

And yeah, winter tyres are thinner - you want them to slice through the mud and grip on the surface underneath, not float on top. And you also don't want any mud building up between the tyre and frame - that route leads to nowhere good.

Is your friend into a lot of racing to have a bike costing that much ?

As winter tyres are smaller what the general size a standard wheel rim can take 26x2.0-2.2 ?

[charlesr]

You could probably get away with anywhere from 1.8 to 2.3

He just wanted to try Downhill and since he can't afford a Ferrari, but he can afford the bike-world equivalent, he thought he might as well go for it. It is a thing of beauty.

[wod]

You could probably get away with anywhere from 1.8 to 2.3

He just wanted to try Downhill and since he can't afford a Ferrari, but he can afford the bike-world equivalent, he thought he might as well go for it. It is a thing of beauty.

Even on the bontrager website there is no details about the rims used on my bike, all i know they are at850 disc 32 spoke. As you know i already have the 2.1 xr2s on there and just wanted to know what size i could use for future info. I'm sure a 2.2 tyre will be fine there wont be much difference but 2.3 might not sit right on the rim, who knows.

Now you've seen your friends bike, are you wanting to upgrade your frame and forks ?

[Ginger Tosser]

Picked up my new hybrid today......


Ridgeback Quest

Rides nice, just need to sort out clips for the pedals.

[wod]

as the nice weather over the weekend was too tempting and went out for another 3 hours riding, with the warm weather drying the ground the XR2s on my bike are more grippier but with the odd muddy sections in the local woods the tyres are still hopeless though.

Going to order me a 3 litre hydration pack though needed loads of fluids while i was out this weekend and was in a state when i got home.

done something to my right knee though as i can't walk this morning, i hadn't come off the bike so not sure what i've done to it.

[charlesr]

Picked up my new hybrid today......

Integrated rear lamp! Those mudguards are serious. NOTHING is getting past those
Is that a leather saddle?

[charlesr]

Now you've seen your friends bike, are you wanting to upgrade your frame and forks ?

I fancy an Intense Tracer 29. In fact that's the reason he started looking at Intense - he was going to get a Trek Session 8 but changed his mind when he saw the 951.

However, for much of the riding I do, I wouldn't benefit that much by getting Tracer - in fact on 80% of my local very technical singletrack, I was happily pulling away from an Orange 5 and a ?5k SantaCruz Superlight on Saturday night, so my bike still performs. Using SPD pedals makes the lack of rear suspension less of an issue.

If I was getting another bike, then I'd probably get a full DH bike (the Tracer is All_mountain, so goes up as well as down) to enjoy the downhills properly. It's only on bumpy downhills where my frame starts to move around too much - at 25mph in downhill corners, it starts to feel wallowy. Moving to a Tracer or similar full sus would remove that feeling, but would also remove half the fun of the trails!

Currently I can outperform my bike and it's exciting on the edge. If I got a Tracer I think it would outperform me for a long time.

My forks are only just upgraded (got the RockShox Recon Gold RL soloair) and I'm loving them in comparison to the old coil spring ones, although having tried some Reba's, I'd definitely pay the extra for dual air next time.

[wod]

I've had a look and bought a deuter hydrolite 3 bag with 3litre bladder for 40 pound online, which seemed to be the best i could get for around that price. Didnt want to spend much more as only just starting out riding again.

Is your bike heavy especially the frame as you could get some lighter wheels and other bits, if you havent already upgraded it all.

Couldn't you reuse your suspension forks on a downhill frame or would you need 120-140mm travel on the front to make best use of it ?

[SuperBeatBoy]

Had my bike serviced on friday, went out on it yesterday to get to work and came flying on it. the front derailleur came away and for some reason i went flying. might have a fracture on my arm, can't move it and some severe swelling. spent 4 hrs in the hospital yesterday waiting to be seen only to tell me they can't see anything yet and i need to come back in two days, bah. i'm going to have an angry word with the company that serviced my bike soon.