London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

James, what the size of the double XT?

i went for the xc (the "compact") version as opposed to the race ones

it's funny how the industries is going back to double crankset nowadays, i suppose the realisation that you can have the range of a triple without the weight of one, even tourer are the same (I noticed 28/46 on some tourer).

DJ - do the XT brakes allow you to attach the shifters to them? Which shifters are you using?

its the new shimano ispec system so for both xt and xtr you can remove the band from the sti and attach direct to the brakes

Hi There!

This is my sweet, Marin Pine SS 29 :)



Work in progress, I have to chage somee parts- only for looking better

So 29er heads, looking at getting some new wheels built up for my Scandal29er. I'm already settled on Hope Pro II hubs of the single speed variety, just a little indecisive on rims. Candidates are Stans Flows, or Velocity Blunt SL, or maybe P35s. Plan on keeping the bike ridgid, and going tubeless, so the Flows are the obvious choice, but the P35s are really wide and could be great, where as the Blunts are similar to the Flows in width without the bead lock lip. Any suggestions? Oh and I'm 6'6" and 115kg so not looking for a weight weenie build.

stans rims

unharmed and myself use them

seem to have endured our inept use and were very easy to install tubeless

well worth the money

(though i have no experience of the blunts)

unharmed is a large chap and we built our wheels together and have ample practice of crashing our bikes and being generally a bit shit and they have survived

I have the blunts, in fact laced to some SS Pro IIs, with revs non brake side, supercomps brake side.

Its a very light wheelset for the strength and width. I did a fair amount of research and the blunts came out on top in terms of width, strength, and weight. To run them tubeless, you simply need a wide 'freeride' 26" rimstrip (just buy the stans freeride kit). The extra stretch needed to fit them on the 700c rim, narrows them to perfect width. You end up with a nice snug fit.

I bought my rims just before the P35s came out though. If I had the chioce agian I would have gone for the P35s. The advantages of a wider rim, far outweigh the extra weight. You get a better profile, more volume, and lower PSI. All of which mean more traction for a given tyre.

With the stans you save the weight of the rimstrip, and will be be less likely to experiance 'burping', because of the better bead lock.

Well I have put in an order of the subs from CRC, and going to give the P35's a run. Velocity do a specific tubeless rim tape for them that works very well so will give it a whirl. Since I've never tried building my own wheels, and this isn't a set I'd like to learn on I need to get them built. Living in Brisbane I can get the bike shop to send them off to Velocity and get them to build them up using Sapim CX-Ray spoke, or get the shop to do the build with DT Swiss Comp, Velocity works out a fair bit cheaper, well a lot cheaper actually. Will wait till the hubs arrive to decide.

Having built mine myself. I will be using DT swiss super-competition spokes for all my disc brake wheels in the future.

They are light and narrow by the rim (where the weight maks most difference);
they are fatter towards the hub (To add stiffness near the disc brake); and
the narrow threaded end means you're nipples are fatter (which is good for alu nipple users).

CX-rays are the daddy of spokes though. Just never used them off-road.

(The Hope hubs are sweet BTW)

I'm about your size and weight, JDB and I get burping on my flows if I let the pressure get too low but otherwise they've been wonderful. My Swift was rigid up until very recently and, as James said, they've stood up to our ineptitude extremely well. They were a doddle to set up tubeless as well.

Well the hubs turned up (lovely bit of gear) and are now with the bike shop getting laced up at a set of blacl Velocity P35 rims with DT Swiss Comp spokes. Should be ready to roll for the weekend. Going to run some WTB Exiwolf tyres while I figure out what to try next. Think Racing Ralph snake skins in a 2.4 flavour are rather popular big bag tyres around here.

Been very happy with my Ralphs.

WTB have updated the weirwolf. I fecking love this tyre. I was thinking the other day that maybe the dark grainy mud you get on alpine trails, was less sticky than the typical light brown UK stuff. So the more tightly packed tread of the weirwolf can be effective up here. They do seem to be Marmite tires TBH.
http://www.wtb.com/products/tires/29er/weirwolflt29er/

So, I think I've borked the splines on my cranks when one arm came loose and am looking at it as an opportunity to upgrade. Everyone seems to be saying that external BBs are the way to go so was browsing CRC and was wondering if the Hope Ceramic version was worth the extra over the Stainless version?

I have the cermic hope BB. Purely because I'm a bike whore. They are a bit lighter, and spin freely. But they wont outlast the stainless enough to justfy the price difference.

You should buy the ceramics anyway....

:-)

phil wood ceramics that is

30 quid more and no spanky colour options :-)

whoops, meant chris king ceramic bb

Stronglight crankset?

On-one swapout Inbred 29er with Alfine 8 speed. £999. I think im going to pull the trigger.

go for it, you can join the brokeback mountain bike club when you get back here

Don't do it! Buy this and you'd still have the change for an alfine wheel!

Shiny...

Yeah but shipping to Oz etc... sound advice though.

And on in double-quick time thanks to Louie at Putney Cycles:

Ben

I could have done that for you, but glad the bike is ready

Saturday ride?

Oh - you have the right tool (hurr)? Saturday is a possibility, yes.

Dirt magazine make the jump...

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/hands-dec...er-faster.html

This makes for good reading too (the Norco engineer, not the Niner chap):
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Burning...e-26-2011.html

there's no denying that 29ers have got their advantages, but that mpora article seems a bit weird.. i don't know where he's riding but for anything properly technical, or even just tight switchback then a 29er is not going to be better/faster.

that niner bloke is full of shite as well.

i do agree that 29ers are great for general off-road stuff though, and if there's any riding on the road involved then they're much better.

Seems to be that is the point of the mpora article that Steve Jones found that was not the case. No idea if you've actually spent an extended period riding a good 29er, but there is no real world reason why they should be slower, not as good in tight technical trails. I've spent years on 26" bikes, and after 12 months on a 29er can honestly not see myself going back. I can happily clear the tight, steep, loose switchbacks on my local trails far better on the 29er than on any of my 26" bikes, and am often leaving my riding mates behind in the most technical sections as they struggle for traction. Big wheels sure aren't slowing me down.

People should be thankful for the sprectrum of bikes available to them. Pick the one they most want, and ride the shite out of it.

fair enough mate, i know loads of people who absolutely rave about 29ers, but i've not found them to be worth it for me. guess they just work for certain people and not for others.

This.

just got the email, my xt785 brakes should arrive next week, the lynskey will then be complete (then have to complete the ss 29er)

Genesis have just introduced a new 29er, the Fortitude. Looks great, 3 setups available 1x9, SS and Gear hub. Frame only, £349.99, reynolds 725 tubing more info here: http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/blog/3...e-full-lowdown

Love it.

They had the ss one in the window at LMNH for a while, looks pretty but v slack head tube

Slack headtubes are the new black.

Geometry here 69.5° is just too slack for an XC bike in my opinion. But the more I watch the video the more I want the orange 1x9 setup...

I got news... my 29er is still in the works. Yup, it's been 15 weeks.

It had better be worth it given that it's going to bankrupt me and it's taking forever.

Thank God I'm listening to The Kills. I'd be a bit down-faced about this otherwise.

My fattie frame geo has been finalised. Just confirming gusset positioning. Despite the 26" rims the externl diameter will be 29 1/3 inches ;)

My frame is being painted next week, should be delivered mid to late January. Apparently they only make less than 100 frames a year. I can't actually remember what I ordered, but I'm confident it will be lush.

so will you be coming to swinley to fall off bikes?

as has been commented by a few people we seem to spend more time stopping at trail heads and discussing stuff than actually riding

its like lfgss but in real life

Sunday?

saturday?

i need to get my bike cleaned up to take it to my lbs sunday - the fork is fucked so needs to be serviced under warranty

and the new hydraulic brakes need to be installed so bikelab have offered to sort it all out for me, they are consistently really helpful

plus Brent may be doing another skills training session at Swinley on Saturday