Heinous profile

This is gold, the Ripmo V2, Arrival, and maybe the 130LR seem like they’re not miles apart on paper, all coil (and Push) compatible. I’m really leaning towards an Arrival right now.

I’ve tried storing very and horizontal, vertical definitely worse for my Acura’s, whereas as my shimano’s are bullet proof.

There was a lever bleed port seal damaged from factory, so I replaced that along with the revised pistons and seals sent, but still there seems to be a tiny leak in the rear somewhere. I really like them when they are going well, the modulation and feel is so much better than my Shimano, but having said that, I find you can ride Shimano brakes until the fluid is like toothpaste and they still work well.

Great read. Mine are about to get a full tear down. Only a year old, they’ve had piston rebuild but seem to ingest air slowly - hopefully new seals throughout sort it.

Yes. I’ve tried this in different settings and had similar helmet adjustments in the past. I’m going to run a tiny Velcro dot between the two layers to manage it until the merit arrives.

The Giro spherical MIPs has my attention. My TLD is great, but in large g outs, drops, the occasional badly gauged square edge the helmet rotates forward on the mips liner enough to be very distracting and get in field of vision. It’s 1-2 times a ride.

It’s become a bit of a deal breaker.

@Andrew - should we all have gone 110x20m years ago? I suspect 12mm was close enough to existing road standards that they could just remove axle and bearings. It does look a little more elegant and I've not seen 12mm axles fail or flex.

I’ve found them to be flawless. I’ve a set here that’s 12 years old and only needed two pairs of bearing on that time despite a thrashing. The other is a little newer but seems just as good.

Paul Comp do Boost SS

I agree on the overly light gravel wheel front. I used 32 CK’s on Stan’s and HED rims, but was given a pair of i9 gravel wheels, 24 spoke, by the distributor. I was super sceptical but they took at absolute hammering on mtb trails. Sadly they were stolen with my Moots.

I’mnot a big PVD fan, but his maths is good. Check this post for the 6BvCL. Summarised below:

The 110×12 CL wheel is 12% stronger pushing to the right and 14% stronger pushing to the left compared to the 100×12 CL wheel

http://www.peterverdone.com/100x12-should-never-have-existed/

There’s something about the way CK are built that just makes them so satisfying to ride and work on. Hadley, i9, Hope, DT all make nice stuff but none of it lasts as well, sounds as beautiful or if you’re in to singlespeed  with freehub, takes Fun bolts.

Having said that, I still prefer a screw on Paul Comp hub and WI trials freewheel for SS. Simpler, bullet proof, quieter. I guess if we think about SS with a freewheel, a rear hub becomes just a tube with two bearings?

I ran a 27.5+ Stanton for a couple years before my 29” BTR. 

I wouldn’t go back to + tyres. The cost, heft and seeming fragility of them is a total hassle unless you’re riding somewhere like a beach or snowfield.

I find the 29” more comfortable, much better to accelerate and the handling is much more responsive that a 2.8-3.0. I also really didn’t like the rebound effect of a 2.8 in really rough stuff. Basically an undamped air spring.

I ran a 27.5+ Stanton for a couple years before my 29” BTR. 

I wouldn’t go back to + tyres. The cost, heft and seeming fragility of them is a total hassle unless you’re riding somewhere like a beach or snowfield.

Posted by: Poz

Posted by: Sethimus

my 2022 ride, just build up <3

Nice looking ride. That’s the most bike looking e-bike I think I’ve seen. I had to zoom in to confirm it.

Tidy! My wife has a Rise and it’s awesome. Really good value, excellent spec with no corners cut, and the lightweight makes it really rideable and manoeuvrable for her.

Posted by: Endurimil

Posted by: craw

Is there another brand that has done more to legitimize HTs as a daily driver on the gnarliest trails as Chromag? They earned that spot.

Possibly one of the British isles based bike companies.

Stanton, BTR, Curtis?

It’s pretty location specific, lots of companies have brought great hardtails to their people, it was one of the cool things they could still do until quite recently.

You can build Ti and Steel bikes to ride similarly. Cost will be different, but I agree most hardtails are heavily overbuilt and ride quality suffers - especially with dropper posts which aren’t always thought about in the frame  context.

At the same time I’ve seen Waltly frames (2) that had weird compromises that a more established builder with a brand they cared about would have refused to do.

One of the single biggest differences I notice between good frames and less good frames (cost aside) is how straight and true they are. They roll noticeably better.

One of the real benefits with better builders is the rider doesn’t have to understand the whole system of nested choices that exist. They can describe the characteristics they want and the builder can execute. There’s a cost, but it’s worth it for most people.

I'm running the Formula option for my shifter and the Wolftooth option for my dropper. It's flawless. Just be sure to check the formula options when you order as they are side specific.

Posted by: Vikb

In terms of downsides the BB is quite low. 

Wow, I checked the geo and that's a super low BB. Do you find it's less responsive in tech stuff, harder to bunny hop etc?

I had a short pedal and a long hard look at an Arrival the other day. Good lord, I had special feelings. Really special feelings.

The tube spec should influence the ride as much as the weight. I’ve ridden plenty of bikes that felt heavy but weighed only fractions more than lovely bikes that rode ‘light’. The tendency to massively overbuild rear ends on trail hardtails is really dumb.

This is a new development for the Druid - a cascade guard / keeper that replaces the lower roller so reduces drag a bit.

Removing the roller means the clutch in your derailleur will get a bit more of a work out, but if you’re in Shimano you can service it.

I’ve only had a couple rides on this but can report it holds the chain great and does seems to reduce chain drag a fraction.

The bad news? It’s noisy AF. I will run it further out (there’s very limited room to adjust position) and apply some mastik tape to hopefully sort the noise.