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

What gear ratio have previous SSers run on the TD?

36x19 for Alexandera Houchin

https://bikepacking.com/news/alexandera-houchin-2019-tour-divide/

From what I have seen most are set and forget Alexandra Houchin was on 36 x 19 which is pretty nails on some of the climbs (Indiana is 3620 mts). Chris Plesko came in 2nd(?) behind Mike Hall in 2016 was on 32 x 16. Cant remember what Jenn Hill used.

(Sorry assumed Inbred had a gear hanger!)

Clearly this is "order the Stanton now" kind of situation.

Cobble a groupset & forks together from people willing to sell stuff on here while you wait for the new Deore to be back in stock.

Clearly this is "order the Stanton now" kind of situation

Yeah but if you say that directly to Hippy we are in for another 20 pages of "arguing with a gorilla". Kind of need him to arrive at that himself..

Cobble a groupset & forks together from people willing to sell stuff on here while you wait for the new Deore to be back in stock.

This!

You could look at sourcing your own Helm for the Pace, gives you options, but potentially a bit over specified if you only want 130mm, a Pike would be fine for that and likely a lot cheaper.

I'm aiming for something in between a race XC bike and a full-rigid TD rig. So, weekend warrior XC trails but then maybe swap fork for rigid and ride TD on it. I didn't want superlight race oriented XC bike and I didn't want super slack jump bike.

Bigger than I thought but then maybe I'm too used to thinking about 25% climbs whereas west coast stuff is maybe a lot less steep, just much higher. I know the road climbs are like that.

Sliding dropouts on it. It's 34x17 at the moment but I'm dropping it to 21T and then I need to find wider bars for it and maybe ghetto tubeless the wheels (actually rear is probably TL ready).

@amey https://www.pinkbike.com/news/first-look-trek-e-caliber-2021-XC.html

if you say that directly to Hippy we are in for another 20 pages of "arguing with a gorilla"

No you're not!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDB5gbtaEQ

I went from riding a 29er inbred (but with gears) on the trails near me to riding a Genesis Latitude (designed around a 130 fork...but I found a fork cheap at 150 and its fine) and it made them infinitely more fun. Specially steep stuff.

It would also take rigid fork and has multiple cage mounts. but I am in Ireland so cannot sell it it you.

Yeah thats pretty much what I shuffle around the Chilterns on - Sherpa and Broken Road and I will happily take either the next time I do a GDMBR pub crawl (2022/3 when retire).

I also quite happily use both at Swinley or Surrey Hills and for rougher bikepacking rides in Lake District, Scotland and Wales. I have a 2013 Turner Sultan for trail centres and more rough stuff which is more bike than I could ever ride and see no need to replace.

Personally I'd go for something thats designed for 120mm forks max, slack but not super slack, quite a light frame with a good reputation for all day riding. There arent many frames that fit that criteria these days as most seem to be winch and plummet LLS longer travel bikes with more burly frames designed for longer forks.

Personally I'd go for something thats designed for 120mm forks max, slack but not super slack, quite a light frame with a good reputation for all day riding

Bang on a set of the new 35mm SIDs and that sounds perfect.

ha ha I did wonder if this was the whole point of this thread resurrection...

Yeah the SIDs look good. Trouble is there aren't a lot of frames/bikes available like that these days.

This thread was originally what lead me to buy the Tripster for Trans Am. But its been renamed because I want to ride more dirt.

Let me guess, they will be available in May 2027?

If you sleep with the right people.

I'll get my coat...

I'd consider one of these. I think they're made to order, but there may be some held in stock

Swarf Spline

Inbred a perfect divide bike then if the fit is good. Run it singlespeed or geared with 2.2 fast tyres. Even have the sliding drop outs in case of mud/mech disaster need for singlespeed.

Is the outcome of this thread that @hippy doesn't buy a new bike?!

Is the outcome of this thread that @hippy doesn't buy a new bike?!

Yeah but if you say that directly to Hippy we are in for another 20 pages of "arguing with a gorilla". Kind of need him to arrive at that himself.... oh er... hang on...

(Ignore my whinge about the Sherpa only having one bottle mount - pics of the Mk3 show seat tube bottle mounts as well)

No, he has a perfect divide bike and so now can buy a 160 FS Gnarpoon

Just get the (probably too small) P7 in classifieds and have a bike within days to ride while you wait weeks (months?) for a suitable bike to be available/delivered.