The World's Fattest Man with no bike! aka - find hippy a new bike aka - Just get ( fill in blank )

Close enough to not make difference in bike design. Reynolds themselves measure a figure of 207 GPa for ALL their steel tubing regardless of quality.

https://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/rtl_steel_alloys_extract.pdf

7.8g/cc densities for all too:

https://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/materials/steel/s-853/

industrial shredder

I've been called a lot of things before but that's a new one.

Ok, that kinda makes sense why they have the two options. Spending 3k on either when you've not ridden it seems like it's asking for trouble though.

Another question I've been pondering is how does some mug like me tune a flash, new suspension fork if they have no idea how it's even supposed to behave?

Out of curiosity, if you've got the Sherpa what's your use-case for SS?

Forks have recommended setup guides depending on your weight, terrain, bike type etc

That would be perfect but who the fuck buys 3k worth of bike and sells it after one ride?

(yes, I can think of a few reasons but you'd think they'd list one)

Ok, so that saves me £350.

"Error: Parameter out of range. Please try again with a valid weight in kilograms."

LOL. Can I interest Sir in an extra high pressure shock pump?

Another question I've been pondering is how does some mug like me tune a flash, new suspension fork if they have no idea how it's even supposed to behave?

As LB said, the manufacturers guides are easily available

If you wanted to go full nerd, a couple of people 'on here' have one of these gizmos

https://www.sram.com/en/quarq/series/shockwiz

Presumably you just stick it at the defaults and then maybe try going up or down with whatever you can adjust and see if it feels better or worse? I do like the idea of running diags on my bike like that but let's be honest, it's the rider that's gonna need a fucking lot of work before the shock setup does :)

Presumably you just stick it at the defaults and then maybe try going up or down with whatever you can adjust and see if it feels better or worse?

That works

Also you can go on a ride with your mates and spend most of the time out stopping and annoying them, while everyone waffles on about compression damping

The only compression damping I think I'll have to deal with...

Makes me question what the point of any frames being made out of 853 is then?

I guess comes down to perception bias. Some will perceive 853 rides better, some will perceive there is no difference (usually before even test riding, looking at how tubing has been used, geo or other factors such as intended use or rider weight).

I have had 4130 frames that ride superb (Town Crier) and 853 frames that were terrible (Mk1 Sir9/Mk1 Solaris), but thats just my experience and based on my own perceptions.

Spending 3k on either when you've not ridden it seems like it's asking for trouble though.

Cant remember last time demo'd a bike before I bought it. Think I seem to take the approach of buying EVERY bike and randomly sooner or later one fits me and I like it...

Out of curiosity, if you've got the Sherpa what's your use-case for SS?

Sherpa; geared, rigid, all day Chilterns/Ridgeway bike
Sir9; Singlespeed, maybe plus tyres, maybe hardtail short local blasts. Make Swinley/Crowthorne Woods/Barossa less dull bike. Have always had a SS MTB in shed.
Also have a Broken Road hardtail which use for bikepacking as well. Think one of three may well go when have got Sir9 up and running which will take me 6 months, knowing me

Makes me question what the point of any frames being made out of 853 is then?

It's the same has having brand names on clothing. It serves no purpose but has some kind of social cachet or identifies you as a certain tribe member?

Put it this way, £350 will almost certainly pay for at least one 853 sticker...

853 is stronger in tension and so the tubeset can be made thinner for the same "strength" allowing for a lighter frame for the same tube OD (but flexier), a stiffer for the same weight (using a larger diameter tube) or a combination of both. This is why 853/953 road frames can be very nice

That doesn't really apply to MTBs though as thinner walls buckle and dent more from the type of use a regular MTB can face. Hence when CEN testing came in, lightweight production 853 framed MTBs disappeared overnight as wall thicknesses went up. Longer forks and more rad terrain being ridden didn't help either.

Probably realised that skinny CX tyres cut through mud better...

Seller has decent feedback though, decent pictures and has kindly included a car registration in the photos which makes it seem less likely it’s of dodgy provenance

Cant remember last time demo'd a bike before I bought it.

Good point. I do typically do a bit of sizing chat with Scherrit and kinda know what I want/need with road/TT stuff though. Because MTB is so far removed from my normal riding I just don't know what certain geos feel like. I don't know if I'll like a bike's handling or it will do what I want it to do. So, dropping £3k on something that turns out to annoy the piss out of me is the last thing I want to do. This is probably why I've been umming and arring about MTBs for a year now.

Gotcha. I'm waiting on some parts to turn the Inbred back into an actual MTB.

Also you can go on a ride with your mates and spend most of the time out stopping and annoying them, while everyone waffles on about compression damping

And then when you get to the end of the ride they say "my fork is broken, and it has nothing to with putting 120psi in my fork."?

putting 120psi in my fork.

75% sag can be an issue I suppose

Yeah I would agree that CEN and longer travel killed the "Steel is real" we all associated with the Konas etc we rode in the 90s and steel frames went through a phase of being a bit dull in comparison. I think a few designers are starting to get their heads round it now in tubing choice and coupled with better geo are producing good steel frames again.

Anyway this is becoming a bit STW now and derailing Hippys saga....

I always found demo bikes never quite fit right, stem to long, wrong seat, gears etc Also try and get an XL on demo! For me its only when I have got a bike set up how I like that I can assess if its a keeper. Hence the principle of trying every frame until I randomly find one that works.

Fork: 30% sag

hippy: sag aloo and a garlic naan

I just buy whatever is on sale and then make it work with my vast array of previously experimented-with components.