Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Or the lockout cable sticks and you spend half the race trying to unlock your forks as I’ve had before! Was nice for road climbs if you want to stomp out of the seat, but otherwise I’d rather have a well set up fork that’s on all the time

What is it? Looks great.

Starling Swoop. Did I drink the coolaid? Do I just like supporting smaller businesses? Is there an appeal to the ease of service of the pivots? Who knows. It’s good.

Ride safe on the new whip!

Nice!you got the ramp control on there too?

Tired fingers from pressing levers is also a factor. I had trouble shifting in the end ...

That looks banging

AXS gears and dropper.

Slight dredge; Thanks again for this route.
I ended up cutting it down for my Wednesday morning ride (back by 1pm) which meant cutting nearly all of Peaslake out. However, it was a superb route. Really enjoyed coming over and out of Leith hill, nice and flowy if not a little disorientating at times. Will be attempting the full thing on a weekend at some point.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42916471

I was out on the Ranmore / Mickleham trails yesterday evening. Finally got a post work thrash about. Trails were perfect, with the dampness subsiding, but not dusty yet. Shame the nights start drawing in in a months time!

If you want accessible trails (i.e. a bit more winch and plummet than xc loop) then the stuff closest to Westhumble train station is the best bet. A lap of Mickleham, then up the Denbies vinyard climb and as many laps of the trails off Ranmore Common Road as your legs can manage is my perfect summer 2 to 3 hour blast (not so good in winter as it gets chalky/slidy).

Only downside is, other than the climb from Denbies you don't really get the big views the top of Leith/Holmbury/Pitch hill provide. Easy detour to go eat a flapjack at the view point by Ranmore car park though - they have a coffee van there at weekends too, although not cheap.

Probably costs more than most people's bikes on here. Definitely cost more than mine.

Your bike costs less than £900 brand new?

I couldn't possibly even sit down on a bike if I knew the seatpost cost less than £600

I get that it’s funny to miss the point, but given that people run their hubs without grease to get a faster race time choosing a seatpost that you can still actuate late in a race doesn’t strike me as extreme.

Anyway, if Dogs’ bike costs less than a GX shift kit and a Reverb then I’ll eat my hat.

I'm taking the piss (because it's not mountain biking unless someone's ribbing someone else) but I can't really talk because my gears are electronic bleep-bloop ones too.

I don't think I've ever managed to get arm pump from using my dropper lever though.

I think that depends on how knackered you are and the type of dropper level - the one on my ex-girlfriends bike took a huge shove to use when it was adjusted perfectly, the Wolfs Tooth ones I find to have a very easy push required.

I've never raced XC, so I probably shouldn't wade in until I've understood exactly how tired a thumb might get. I'm coming from a type of riding where it gets pressed once at the top of the hill, and once again at the bottom. If I manage to do that more than five times in a ride, I've done pretty well for the day. But I couldn't justify electrifying that process.

I chose a cable actuated dropper for my Enduro bike for exactly those reasons, but I put the AXS Reverb on the trail bike, also for those reasons.

i defo see a point in electronic droppers (i have wolftooth lever and a one up dropper) but no way I am paying 500 odd quid for one :(

I've never raced XC, so I probably shouldn't wade in until I've understood exactly how tired a thumb might get

This is where I have to swallow pride and re-evaluate all my previous outbursts of "electronic gears? why in the hell would you want that???" ... In the end I said "Ok, maybe in XC marathon events there is a place for electronic shifting" ...

The thought of the sorta pain the 24h riders must've gone through ... unreal.

oh yeah also reverbs are awful to service at home

I had similar thoughts too re the gadgets.

Throw droppers in the bin and ride singlespeed = problem solved

Yeah ... Nah!

Bring back triples and V-brakes while we're at it