[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Thanks yes I did suspect it'll be a case of 'breaking my ass in' (not a phrase I'll ever use again).
I did read you're meant to measure the width of your sitting bones and ensure the saddle is the correct size to match that? Does it make a huge difference?

Dunno, never done it like that Well, actually, I have seen that done but it's not something I've done myself. It is pretty logical though and does go along with my own experience, albeit anecdotally rather than measured.

I used to be pretty lucky in that I did a lot of reviews and writing for Pinkbike so I managed to ride a lot of bikes and a lot of saddles and just through trial and error found some saddles I liked. I generally prefer less padding and width and instead go with shape. The Selle Italia SLR165 was always good but more recently I've used the SDG Ti-Fly (a block of wood would be more comfortable) and the Fizik Gobi XM. The Gobi is a good one for the sort of riding I do as it lets you get off the back of the bike easily while being shaped well enough that 50-60km isn't too unpleasant. That said they're getting harder to find and I'm on my last one!

[BBri89]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

I did read you're meant to measure the width of your sitting bones and ensure the saddle is the correct size to match that? Does it make a huge difference?

Absolutely... I was in serious discomfort with a saddle that was a few cm too wide... caused all sorts of pain.

A correct width saddle and one that is not too padded can be a big difference. Often less padding/firmer saddle is actually more comfortable, especially if you have decent padded shorts.

For sure on a bike like that you want the padding in the shorts not on the saddle.

[SkyJawa]

Don't know if anyone else has had this but one thing I've really noticed since the end of the last lockdown (so mostly this month) is the lack of courtesy and contempt for cyclists has gone through the roof. Hardly had any issues last year, my riding style is the same but since march the numbers of people pulling out on you, passing too close, impatience in passing or overtaking on blind bends is mental.

I can only put it down to them being annoyed as more people cycle now due to last years lockdown and volume of traffic on the roads has increased since lockdown lifted.

Really making me try and find routes that only take in very quiet back roads but its quite hard to avoid certain sections of busier roads.

[Ennoch]

I think driving in general has got significantly worse since the end of the first lockdown. I was out riding over the weekend and in 30+ miles of motorway (well, the M90 in Scotland, it's not the M25) and saw one single person indicate to change lanes. The amount of aggression I thought was significantly up too, although maybe we've just forgotten what people used to be like in cars? A mate of mine who drives ridiculous distances buying and selling cars reckons that he's driven close on 2 million miles in the last 18 years and said he's had more near misses in the last twelve months from people being dicks than in the previous 17 years. People seem to be driving significantly faster, more impatiently and generally being dangerous a lot more. The noticeable one to me is now how many people are now willing to overtake in 20's and 30's.

I suspect it's a combination of the above and the same impatient drivers meeting more cyclists than they used to, and of course if a good number of these cyclists are relatively new to it they'll probably be rather more bumbling/erratic which will only add fuel to the fire.

[Blacktemplar]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

Dunno, never done it like that Well, actually, I have seen that done but it's not something I've done myself. It is pretty logical though and does go along with my own experience, albeit anecdotally rather than measured.

I used to be pretty lucky in that I did a lot of reviews and writing for Pinkbike so I managed to ride a lot of bikes and a lot of saddles and just through trial and error found some saddles I liked. I generally prefer less padding and width and instead go with shape. The Selle Italia SLR165 was always good but more recently I've used the SDG Ti-Fly (a block of wood would be more comfortable) and the Fizik Gobi XM. The Gobi is a good one for the sort of riding I do as it lets you get off the back of the bike easily while being shaped well enough that 50-60km isn't too unpleasant. That said they're getting harder to find and I'm on my last one!

Selle Italia is pretty much the only saddle I've found fits my sit bones - I've gone through half a dozen different ones until I settled on the Gel Flow SLR. I've got those on all three bikes now.

[Nibbles]

SQLabs saddles for me. I used to get a lot of pain even in padded shorts if I was on the bike for most of the day. Measuring (bit of cardboard and a tape measure) and then getting the right sized saddle means I don't even bother with the padded shorts anymore and ride pain free (or will do when my wrist is fixed).

[JR1664]

There's only one really, really , really comfortable saddle and that's a Brooks

Its just moulding that portion of cow to your sit bones that takes the time

[Ennoch]

So finally, after much hunting, begging and false starts I have actually managed to track down a bike. It's more expensive than I wanted as it's not direct from a distributor, and it's not quite the spec I was after, but it's a bike!

The Forbidden option was out as they've basically sold every bike available to shops until the end of the year, and pretty much all shops have already pre-sold what they're getting. So that was out.

Trek are coming in dribs and drabs but I don't have any source for paying less than retail. Specialized is the same, and while I have a source for Giant through a mate I used to race with now owning one of their shops they aren't letting shops place any orders, and the Reign just doesn't do it for me.

Evil was an option, until I realised the factory they use in Myanmar sacked all the unionised workers last October for daring to ask for more Covid protection. If they'd done something about it then I'd have had some respect for them but their legalistic arse covering made me think they just don't care, so they were out.

After a mate of mine who races for Santa Cruz was told that all stock is pre-sold until next year I remembered that one of the guys I used to race with now does SC I made a call...he had one coming in a few weeks. Yay!



So what's wrong with it? Well it's only got 160mm Fox 36's on it which have been dumbed down since the 38 arrived. And it's got an air shock. The coil version comes with the shock I want, and the 38's, but is basically unobtanium at the moment, and I can easily replace the forks with a pair of Rock Shox Zebs and make money on the deal. I'm back writing for a website so I've got a set of DVO Onyx's coming anyway, or I will as soon as stock arrives in July. I'm also swapping out the brakes for my 9 year old Hope V4's (again, new test ones incoming at some point). I did contemplate a build from a frame but with the lack of Shimano parts at the moment the only drivetrain option was SRAM XO1 AXS at £1200! If I was a bit further down the line with the new site it would have been easier to collect parts but as it is there are only a few companies I can really tap into it really gets going.

My dad actually just picked up a new bike too, a Trek Fuel, from Alpine. It's full XT apart from the chain which they cheaped out on and fitted SLX which just doesn't last nearly as well. However, Alpine reckoned they won't see many chains for the rest of the year and thus he should just order some spares from wherever he can get them! They also reckon that some bikes they've ordered may be two years away. The bike industry really is mental at the moment...

[JustChris]

Originally Posted by JR1664

There's only one really, really , really comfortable saddle and that's a Brooks

Its just moulding that portion of cow to your sit bones that takes the time

Christ (on a bike) that's the Brookes BDSM special.

[SantaEugence]

Well tubeless defeated me this evening. Down to a local bike shop in the week to have them do it I think!
Could not seat the tyre for love nor money, and then the icing on the cake was I pinched my inner tube taking it apart so had to go buy a new one

[Blacktemplar]

Grand day out today up the ‘Bonny Banks’ to Arrochar and back, 150km in total with sunshine all the way. The Selle Italia saddle on the Colnago has seen a lot of action and probably needs replacing, so arse a little bruised feeling by the end of the day...

[BBri89]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Well tubeless defeated me this evening. Down to a local bike shop in the week to have them do it I think!
Could not seat the tyre for love nor money, and then the icing on the cake was I pinched my inner tube taking it apart so had to go buy a new one

What's wheels & tyres are you using?

I tried fitting 28c Conti GP5000 tubeless to my Mavic wheels and nope not at all happening even with a few pairs of hands.

Yet the Mavic Yksion tyres went on without levers and the bead snaps loudly and tightly into place as you inflate it.

I think some tyre/wheel combos just don't seem to work for tubeless.

[Nibbles]

@Ennoch glad you've got the new bike sorted. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it and also comparing it to some of the e-bikes that you'll get to try. My new steed arrives on Monday although it's a Keiser M3i that won't go anywhere but will hopefully help keep me in bike fit until the wrist is better.

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

@Ennoch glad you've got the new bike sorted. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it and also comparing it to some of the e-bikes that you'll get to try. My new steed arrives on Monday although it's a Keiser M3i that won't go anywhere but will hopefully help keep me in bike fit until the wrist is better.

Cheers, I'm hoping it's a relatively quick acclimatisation process but given I've had the Mega (rather than Megatower) for six years almost to the day I suspect it might not be quite as quick as I'd like! When I was jumping between test bikes for Pinkbike and swapping out race bikes every year I got pretty good at jumping on a bike, doing a carpark squish test and be able to go out and smash in some fast laps. I'm not sure I still have that skill Then again with the new site (I'll put a link up once it's live) that'll hopefully re-appear in time! If anyone has any suggestions for what they'd like to know/see about e-bikes then let me know and I'll see what we can do. It's all MTB stuff but I'm all ears at this point!

How's the wrist going, have you been doing much physio on it? The Kaiser might not be movable but it'll keep the fitness up and it'll help the blood flow which definitely speeds up bones mending.

This was a vid from yesterday, we aimed for a 2000m ascent day but fell a bit short at 1800m and 50km. We still got some awesome trails in though, and despite the creaking bike in its death throws, I managed to take a couple of KOM's and was only a second off taking three others. Clearly life in the old dog yet!

[Blacktemplar]

Originally Posted by BBri89

What's wheels & tyres are you using?

I tried fitting 28c Conti GP5000 tubeless to my Mavic wheels and nope not at all happening even with a few pairs of hands.

Yet the Mavic Yksion tyres went on without levers and the bead snaps loudly and tightly into place as you inflate it.

I think some tyre/wheel combos just don't seem to work for tubeless.

My brother in law bought exactly the same Conti/Mavic combo and visited multiple bike shops to be to told 'don't bother, they just don't fit' - most refused to even try for fear of damaging the rim. He finally got someone to do it and they had to use metal levers and ended up scratching the rim & damaging the channel.

Found this article which basically says what you & by BiL found out the hard way - Yksions are the only tyres that fit Mavic rims....

https://intheknowcycling.com/fitting...ss-road-tires/

[moonshine]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

So finally, after much hunting, begging and false starts I have actually managed to track down a bike. It's more expensive than I wanted as it's not direct from a distributor, and it's not quite the spec I was after, but it's a bike!

The Forbidden option was out as they've basically sold every bike available to shops until the end of the year, and pretty much all shops have already pre-sold what they're getting. So that was out.

Trek are coming in dribs and drabs but I don't have any source for paying less than retail. Specialized is the same, and while I have a source for Giant through a mate I used to race with now owning one of their shops they aren't letting shops place any orders, and the Reign just doesn't do it for me.

Evil was an option, until I realised the factory they use in Myanmar sacked all the unionised workers last October for daring to ask for more Covid protection. If they'd done something about it then I'd have had some respect for them but their legalistic arse covering made me think they just don't care, so they were out.

After a mate of mine who races for Santa Cruz was told that all stock is pre-sold until next year I remembered that one of the guys I used to race with now does SC I made a call...he had one coming in a few weeks. Yay!



So what's wrong with it? Well it's only got 160mm Fox 36's on it which have been dumbed down since the 38 arrived. And it's got an air shock. The coil version comes with the shock I want, and the 38's, but is basically unobtanium at the moment, and I can easily replace the forks with a pair of Rock Shox Zebs and make money on the deal. I'm back writing for a website so I've got a set of DVO Onyx's coming anyway, or I will as soon as stock arrives in July. I'm also swapping out the brakes for my 9 year old Hope V4's (again, new test ones incoming at some point). I did contemplate a build from a frame but with the lack of Shimano parts at the moment the only drivetrain option was SRAM XO1 AXS at £1200! If I was a bit further down the line with the new site it would have been easier to collect parts but as it is there are only a few companies I can really tap into it really gets going.

My dad actually just picked up a new bike too, a Trek Fuel, from Alpine. It's full XT apart from the chain which they cheaped out on and fitted SLX which just doesn't last nearly as well. However, Alpine reckoned they won't see many chains for the rest of the year and thus he should just order some spares from wherever he can get them! They also reckon that some bikes they've ordered may be two years away. The bike industry really is mental at the moment...

very nice - I have the SantaCruz Hightower 1 C and love it 0 even it is more capable than me!!

re. chains - following your post, I noticed a real issue getting 12sp chains - i usually use KMC, but cannot find any supply, so ended up buying 2x XT chains as spares for our MTBs , plus 2x KMC chains for our road bikes... the 12 speed chains were expensive at almost £50 each , the 11sp were cheaper at £25 ea

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

If anyone has any suggestions for what they'd like to know/see about e-bikes then let me know and I'll see what we can do. It's all MTB stuff but I'm all ears at this point!

How's the wrist going, have you been doing much physio on it? The Kaiser might not be movable but it'll keep the fitness up and it'll help the blood flow which definitely speeds up bones mending.

The wrist is healing up nicely, physio every week so it's getting more movement back and we're starting more strength work on it this week.

With regards to the new website, I'm really interested in the lightweight E-MTB's like the Levo SL, Orbea Rise and the Forestal Siryon. How close are they to a normal MTB's on the trail? I've always liked the idea of having a little power to help me get to the top a couple more times so I can enjoy a few more runs but I don't know if their assistance is too limited or they get under spec'd forks and shocks to keep the weight down.

[mikeoz]

Originally Posted by BBri89

What's wheels & tyres are you using?

I tried fitting 28c Conti GP5000 tubeless to my Mavic wheels and nope not at all happening even with a few pairs of hands.

Yet the Mavic Yksion tyres went on without levers and the bead snaps loudly and tightly into place as you inflate it.

I think some tyre/wheel combos just don't seem to work for tubeless.

The Yksion are the recommended tyres for Mavic. I have them on the latest Cosmic Carbon SL45 on my Cervelo. I find them great tbh both in 25 and 28mm

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by moonshine

very nice - I have the SantaCruz Hightower 1 C and love it 0 even it is more capable than me!!

re. chains - following your post, I noticed a real issue getting 12sp chains - i usually use KMC, but cannot find any supply, so ended up buying 2x XT chains as spares for our MTBs , plus 2x KMC chains for our road bikes... the 12 speed chains were expensive at almost £50 each , the 11sp were cheaper at £25 ea

Santa Cruz don't really have any bad bikes in their range at the moment, but because they're really similar it does make it hard for people to pick the right bike, particularly as demo rides are hard to come by at the moment. A mate of mine has the Megatower as his race bike and then a Hightower for other stuff and despite similar travel and angles they ride so differently (apparently, I haven't ridden them as he's in Wales and I'm in Scotland!). I just went for the biggest option given what we ride up here, and I've ordered some new 180mm Zebs to go on the front to replace the 36's. Anyone want some 36 Factory's?

Yup, I've just ordered a few 12spd SRAM chains from Portugal along with some XT M8100 ones for my parents bikes. Another mate ordered X01 chains from Germany and got XX1 items instead as they'd run out of the X01. Jammy sod!

In fact ordering anything is difficult at the moment so I've been pulling lots of bits and pieces together from various sources. Lluckily I've still got enough mates in the industry who have been helping, like Craig down at RRP who is sending out a 3d printed Zeb front fender adaptor as the production ones aren't ready yet!

Originally Posted by Nibbles

The wrist is healing up nicely, physio every week so it's getting more movement back and we're starting more strength work on it this week.

With regards to the new website, I'm really interested in the lightweight E-MTB's like the Levo SL, Orbea Rise and the Forestal Siryon. How close are they to a normal MTB's on the trail? I've always liked the idea of having a little power to help me get to the top a couple more times so I can enjoy a few more runs but I don't know if their assistance is too limited or they get under spec'd forks and shocks to keep the weight down.

That's good to hear. Are they going to leave the metalwork in or will they pull it out once the healing's finished?

Yup, these lightweight bikes are very appealing. I saw the new Trek one at my mate's shop up in Dunkeld on Saturday and it looks really appealing, especially as once you remove the battery it rides like a normal bike as the drivetrain doesn't have any extra drag over a normal bike. I am also intrigued to see how some of these newer options stack up with the battery sizes; is a 750W battery actually better, or is the 500W battery more practical as the battery is light enough to carry a spare? There's lots to go at so I'm more than open to actually covering what people want to know.

[BBri89]

Originally Posted by mikeoz

The Yksion are the recommended tyres for Mavic. I have them on the latest Cosmic Carbon SL45 on my Cervelo. I find them great tbh both in 25 and 28mm

I know, but I wasn't sure if that was partly commercial reasons... you've bought our wheels, now we recommend you need to buy our tyres.

It's a shame there doesn't seem to be much tubeless road standard yet

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

That's good to hear. Are they going to leave the metalwork in or will they pull it out once the healing's finished?

The metalwork is in there for good. Apparently the bone was too splintered for it to be strong enough even after it healed so it'll forever look like someone has left a spanner and some nails in my arm under an x-ray.

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

The metalwork is in there for good. Apparently the bone was too splintered for it to be strong enough even after it healed so it'll forever look like someone has left a spanner and some nails in my arm under an x-ray.

Wow, that's some break! Have they said if you'll have any issues with it long term?

With regards to the questions about Mavic UST rims not being the right size for most tyres, that sounds pretty surprising given Mavic were one of the key drivers in MTB tubeless, particularly combined with Michelin. Maybe that they were so far ahead of the competition just meant everyone copied them, there were certainly some older rims that were an utter nightmare to get tyres on and that's largely disappeared. You can easily resolve rims that are too small with extra turns of tape but you can't fix rims that are too big. Hopefully things become better in time but given how awful the cycling industry is with 'standards' that only one company follows I won't hold my breath.