Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

I was thinking the same thing while I was out there walking 30km up a fucking climb.

"You know, I could have been cleaned, drunk and in bed already"
"Even if I crashed I could've been in hospital about 3 days quicker than this"
"Fuck me I hate travelling with bikes, if I just rode local shit..."

The thinking behind the Madonna v1 was a bike for the guides who worked in Finale, as a bike that would last a whole season with absolutely minimal maintenance, and what maintenance was required to be as easy as possible - hence, bearing caps over all the bearings to keep crap out and prolong service life, fully external cable routing, massively over-sized (but commonly available, they're headset bearings) main pivot bearings.

A Jibb frame in M weighs 3.8kg though, not including shock -because it's aluminium and because it's deliberately over-built. A Scott Sparc weighs 2.15kg including shock. That's quite a difference.

Sounds like the Spark FTW!

If weight is your metric, it’s a huge victory for the Spark

I see there's also cheaper alu Spark frames that could be an option.

I'm taking my Jibb to Singapore the weekend after next, I get the impression that there's going to be a lot of flat, a bit of climbing, a very small amount of descending (in SG), but some proper tracks over in Malaysia. Very excited by the prospect of a monkey stealing my water bottle.

There's also hybrid ones that have a carbon front triangle and alloy rear for somewhere in the middle.

You should take up cyclocross @hippy especially as we know how much you love cleaning bikes.

this

Yeah, I think I saw one of those. Trying to decode their model names and work out which is a comparable frame is a PITA.

Maybe if I lived in a dry country. You can poke your mud courses though.

I really really wanted one of these, by the time I was ready, they were no longer making them.

I hadn’t realised they were out action until yesterday.
Bit of a shame, no idea what happened though.
Did you speak to the chap? Gone for good?

I can only presume not enough money and interest in it, despite everything. Believe he had some plans regarding telemetry and tuning, or at least he did last time I spoke to him.

Fucking great bike, never getting rid of mine

never getting rid of mine

Swap you for some magic beans

have you intercepted Hulsroy's shipment?

Euph?

ooh matron etc

I did 13 races this season and only used mud tubs once. Half the races I was on file treads!

You were sick for mud season, no? (League races at East Brighton, Hog Hill and the Regionals).

I was :-( but 4 muddy races out of 16 would still be better all round conditions than, say, the Atlas mountains in February....

There was no mud in first half of AMR. Unless you count the river crossing.

Some decent discounts on Five Tens here, an extra 10% off with code ACTIVE10
Just got myself some XT ones for £67 delivered

https://www.sportsshoes.com/products/?q=trailcross&fl=brand:fiveten

In my experience the goretex ones are excellent

FIVETEN15 gives 15% discount on there.