papa44 profile

Fabric make a brilliant pressure gauge with a flexible hose which makes it a perfect interface between à shraeder mini pump and a presta valve rim

https://fabric.cc/products/pumps/accubar-pressure-gauge/

I remember when ti frames were the absolute pinnacle of mountain biking so it’s fun to see them being surpassed by silky saws. I personally prefer the silky Zubat having tried most of them however I’m looking forward to Andrew’s deep dive into teeth count and optimum curve circumference

I’m prepared to say it looks interesting and I’d like to try it, however my real problems riding are getting my mega long barge round switchbacks and high siding or tank slapping or whatever it’s called when your front wheel catches into a hard turn and you get booted out the front door. Wide bars and grippy shoes have been the biggest aid to me but I can see how this would help others, it’s almost like we’re all different and need different approaches and different solutions to different problems

Probably the main part of any hobby innit

Some good points well made, but I still think for the majority of riders that terrain is not normally available to them, and for where they regularly ride the lower complexity, cheaper total price and easier maintenance would be more suitable. For me, i live near the Pyrenees and regularly ride in Millau and at 50ish I can afford either an exceptional hardtail or a mediocre full boing, it was an easy choice as I can only think of maybe two trails in my regular riding areas that are no fun on a hard tail. I even ride with a similar aged guy on a fully ridged carbon Open and he rips everything except the bumpiest shit. All that being said if I lived in the alps or the PNW I’d probably be more inclined to agree with you; on my dopey hardtail I couldn’t understand any part of the vink line in chattel

I disagree, you don’t have to go mad, you can always slow down a bit over the rough stuff. it’s more a technical challenge on a hardtail but a good modern fork and big modern tubeless tyres and you can ride almost anything no matter your age or condition. I think we’ve all got complacent about how groomed and fast our trails should be and how easily we can get up and quickly we can come down. I like to overcome a difficult ride it’s what I go out for, coasting down the groomers on a sofa is not the same risk v reward at my age

I was marvelling just yesterday at how capable a modern hardtail is on trails that 20 years ago would have folded my bike in half and/or spat me over the bars. We have seen incredible progression and I wonder how much happier and challenged the majority of riders would be on a hardtail with an extra 5-7k in the bank

True, your point puts me in mind of where bmx was in the 00s, basically scaffold tubes welded together, but as they were meat powered there was still impetus to lose their weight. I feel like e-bikes will end up as emotos with crank arms slapped on, which is essentially how most people use them in London to commute or deliver food. It’s illegal for them to have a throttle or have an unrestricted engine but you wouldn’t guess from looking around. I imagine that actual mountain bikers would not have such a cavalier attitude to thrashing their bike, but I also imagine they are by far and away the minority of ebike riders so don’t get as much of a say in how they progress

Im interested in the trend of E bike parts becoming beefier because an E bike can handle the extra weight, obviously because it has a motor, but surely with all these heavier parts you are going to end up needing a bigger motor? and of course once you have a bigger motor you can then easily fit heavier stronger parts, which in turn.. you know.. bigger motor..?

Arf i came to type word for word what you already have. Could cromag dagga pilots be anymore stereotypical?