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

Sounds good to me.

Any of you folks got any shortish (50-70mm) stems with a 25.4mm clamp that I could try out before switching out my current one?

Any of you folks got any shortish (50-70mm) stems with a 25.4mm clamp that I could try out before switching out my current one?

yey..i have a 0 & a 50mm..if needed to test

That'd be awesome, i'm not in London until Thursday so will get in touch closer to the time, thanks!

2011 is the year of the MTB! Watch this space!

I'm seriously, seriously tempted by this frame:

Rightly so. It's beautiful.

Selma Ti, yes, Selma Scandium, not so much.

Also, I prefer the new On One, especially with the Niner-esque forks. Perhaps, if I win the lottery in the next few weeks, I'll build up a singlespeed around the new Ti29 (when it's released) and carbon forks.

The chances of winning the lottery, when I don't play it, however, are slim.

Not a fan of the bare Ti look (I know i'm probably in a minority of 1 with that) plus my current bike is all black/light blue so switching to the scandium Selma is quite a tasty prospect!

Get a ti frame and then use a fairly transparent coloured lacquer over it, a la Blue Quinn's bike (which is red over chrome, I believe).

Would the Ti frame really be £5-600 better than the Scandium/Carbon one though?

In my opinion: kinda.

I know that Rock Lobster put a shelf life on their Scandium frames (http://www.rocklobstercycles.com/xc_scandium.php), so on the basis that you'd go through, say, three scandium frames in the life of the ti frame you're better off buying the ti. Obviously there would be advances which would devalue the ti frame over time (relatively speaking), so perhaps a two scandium frame equivalence, once you factor that discount in, is more appropriate. Obviously it will also depend on how hard you ride, etc.

In addition to this you would get titanium's ride characteristics (which I think are almost universally positive for a hardtail/rigid MTB) and the fact that it can "take a hit" a bit better than a scandium frame. I'm guessing weight would be similar between the two.

Plus titanium is cool.

Given the current On One pricing, I think it's fairly likely that the new Ti29 will be between £800 and £1,000 which is probably only about £200 to £400 more than the Salsa (I'm assuming it's £600 or so) you were thinking of. I know that the Selma Ti will be fairly expensive though, more like £1,500 for the frame.

Long boring essay over.

£550 for the Scandium/Carbon (seen it in a sale for £430 at one point though) and £1200 for the Ti. I don't think I could justify the price. While the Ti frame will outlive it assuming no catastophic failures/crashes, these would be difficult to rule out for such a long period of time imo.

Actually reading up on Scandium frames i'd be pretty hesitant to get one. And even though Ti would be a much better frame material I couldn't really justify spending that amount of money on a frame unless it was guaranteed for quite some time. I think i'll continue to play it safe with nice solid, relatively cheap steel frames.

The On One Ti29 isn't going to be £1,200. The Lynskey made Ti29 was £1,100 and the Van Nicholas made ones will be cheaper.

Personally, I'd rather dig deeper/save for an extra month and drop £800 on the On One Ti instead of the £550 of a Scandium frame.

If you're a big guy On One have a couple of Lynskey made Ti29ers lying around. No idea when they are getting the Van Nick made ones in though.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/news/products/q/date/2010/11/12/twentynine-inches-report

Looks like you've got until April to save up the £800 or £900 for some titanium.

The prices I was quoting there were for the Selma frames, on On One's frames. I think i'll stick with my 4130 Haro for now and treat myself to a Ti frame if I get close to winning races.

The Selma Ti is less expensive than I thought then.

Any of you guys up for going to Swinley on Thursday/Friday?

Might pop out for a gentle roll and try and get my bearings around the place.

Weekends are better for those of us that work.

Today was strangely difficult for me. Clearly I have lost a bit of fitness over the xmas period and gained some weight, so the hills were more difficult. What was more scary was my utter loss of confidence in the morning. Far to nervous, clutching at brakes the whole time. This made for a tense ride, as I could not relax my arms so it became a viscious circle of frustration. Thankfully just before lunch we practiced a drop in that I bottled a few times, but finally took the plunge and started to loosen up a bit.

Hendrik brought along a friend/neighbour who was full of beans, confidence and energy. As usual Hendrik had whippet speed and he seems to be pushing the pace a lot more. Tom. as ever regaled us with his "I was there, back in the days of purple anodise, when MTB was good" type stuff, but he is a treasure trove of useless MTB trivia and very amusing with it. Having no sense of flow the mornings pace was a struggle as all my energy seemed to be used battling with my bike.

After lunch things seemed to relax, we found some less technical more flowing terrain and finally my desire to clutch at the brakes abated and the fun returned. I do really enjoy the trips to Swinley as I feel my overall MTB ability is improving, and there are sections now that can be completed that were an impossible challenge a couple of months ago.

There were a few oddities for me, since the bike fit and the change of saddle height it does make shifting my weight back a little more difficult (saddle move up and a little forwards after the fitting) though I would concur that I might have a little more power now. The biggest in the afternoon was how much my back wheel jumped around at the merest hint of a root or rock. Initially I thought this was just my jittery ness worrying about it but it was commented upon by others.

As ever looking forwards to my next venture to the forest.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/61608543

No worries, can't wait to get back to London as I have a few upgrades for the Mary that need fitting. Also any of you that ride SS, what gear ratio have you been using off-road?

I've been using my road ratio (68GI) off-road (I forgot to bring my other sprockets with me) and have been finding it pretty good. When it comes to technical ascents it's pretty difficult at times but bombing along fireroads I definitely wouldn't want anything much smaller.

Thoughts? (Aside from the obligatory "Your knees will explode")

Thanks for putting the route up James, should come in handy.

I cannot believe you managed off road with a gear ratios of 68, did you not finding uphill a hindrance?

I have 61GI which were fine on the flat and downhill, but the climb kill, but that's the highest I'd go (44-18 on 26").

Same here dude, I mean if you gave me and MTB and told me it was running 68GI I would never think of taking it off-road. Unless my math is wrong but it's 35/16 on a 58c tyre. Off-roading I managed to take it up some quite steep hills and like I said it was only on the twisty technical ascents that I came unstuck (not helped by the relatively long wheelbase I guess).

I know gear ratios are usually personal preference but it just took me by surprise that i'd be comfortable with something that far off the usual (around 55GI or so I guess). Was just wondering if anyone else had similar ratios.

My calculation said it's 63.5GI, rather than 68GI (assuming it's 29" 2.3).

Ahh, realised my mistake there. Twas a simple math error on my behalf. Coming out at 64.2 now for the 2.35 tyres and 66 for the 2.55s. Though they're probably not that accurate either as tyre manufacturers have a tendancy to be a pretty inaccurate with their measurements at times.