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

Yep, that kind of setup

If I enjoy night riding may go for one of these

http://troutie.com/Products/Detail/Spider-Eyes-

I met Chris who makes the lights last weekend, it is an amazing light as it illuminates a big square in front but has other lenses/ LEDs that give a more diffuse light immediately in front too.

He also had a 7000 lumen hand torch he had made for himself. It could light up a welsh valley.

Ready for a long weekend in the Lakes, just got to fit my crud catchers I think, looking at the wet forecast...

Rode it over the Dales at the weekend from Settle to Skipton, set up really works. The mountain kings are great for the money, really improved the ride. Bike feels stable and capable at speed down hill, but also climbs well. 60mm stem made it a little harder to keep front end down on the real steep inclines but that's partly down to my skills not being what they once were... Just need to work on my technique.

dis biek, so much fun.

Cheers gridds for the frame and post, and tstr for the forks.

60mm stem made it a little harder to keep front end down on the real steep inclines but that's partly down to my skills not being what they once were... Just need to work on my technique.

Your seat is also quite far back and the bars are pretty high too ( although obviously before fork sag ), both of which can't be helping you on steep uphill stuff.

I can appreciate you might want the bars set high for super steep downhill sections of trail, but do you have particularly long femurs?

The position has evolved like that for riding steep and/or rocky stuff... Weight was too far forward before... Front wheel lift when ascending is preferable to going up and over when descending.

Also like the lively feel of this set up.

Does look fun though.

Kind of like the same thing I would ride, if I ever went near anything even remotely resembling a big hill ;-)

Troutie makes mental lights. He's posted 20,000 lumen prototypes on STW.

And he is a lovely guy. We were riding together at a fatbike weekend.

Really want that light now.

This non?

Fishy looking lights thread >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That looks awesome.

I have a 7000Lm light on the way for winter trails.

I'll plug these here too, Four4th Lights, 3 years hard use. Still going strong.

I'm going to replace the Lead acid battery pack on my Smart dual lights with probably something like a Li-ion from Maplins/whatever I find on the interweb. LED light are good but I find it difficult to read the terrain even on LEDs which have been diffused widely. Halogen may not be as bright but it's much easier to see with them.

Never had a problem, something you just get used to.

I'll plug these here too, Four4th Lights, 3 years hard use. Still going strong.

Great company. I'm always tempted.

Currently using DX stuff, which contains great LEDs, and batterys. But everything is incredibly poorly put together. I have a basket of stuff from them, and it all needed resealing, and glueing.

As I have a dropper post on the Fatbike, and really need a powerful rear light to give drivers ample warning of my existance in poor visability, and poor driving conditions. That saddle rail mount looks amazing.

I'm going to replace the Lead acid battery pack on my Smart dual lights with probably something like a Li-ion from Maplins/whatever I find on the interweb. LED light are good but I find it difficult to read the terrain even on LEDs which have been diffused widely. Halogen may not be as bright but it's much easier to see with them.

It helps to run 2, and have one more focused. But I do find I get lot more 'wash out' riding in snow. Than I did with my halogen set-up.

All this light talk has me digging out my old L&M Arc lights.

I doubt the NIMH battery is going to hold much of a charge after just sitting in a cupboard for nearly a year, so I thought I'd send it off here.

http://www.recellyourbattery.com/light-and-motion

Anyone got any experience of having this done. It's a fantastic & reliable light and I don't fancy forking out for a whole new LED/LI-ION set up right now :-/

We did our first night ride yesterday and had an utter blast. Exposure maxx d lights on handlebars and a joystick in the helmet did fine.

Hope to get out now twice a week off-road, one daytime and one nighttime ride.

Would still like the troutie light but it is not needed.

Since when necessity been a prerequisite for upgrades?

7000 lumens! I could do with that this weekend for my 200km off-road ride in mid wales. I guess my puny 1200 lumens will have to do!

Did Dusk Til Dawn at Thetford this weekend. My first lap came, I sprinted out of transition, fumbled for the button on my borrowed Hope lights, they came on for 20 seconds, flashed and stopped just as I entered a bomb hole... Rode off trail, crashed. Bum.

Did the 9 mile lap with just an Exposure headlight which was pointing too low, so had to tilt my head back the whole time.

Borrowed some others for rest of the night.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Still, lesson learned.

Was great fun.

It's made me consider upgrading the bike - a Kona Fire Mountain. Thinking 1 x 10 on the cheap, so I can move to 29er later and keep parts. Just weighed bike on bathroom scales and it's nudging 14kg...

Won't a lot of that surplus weight be in the cheap fork though? Seems like you wouldn't save much weight if you can't upgrade the fork or wheels.

Which you obviously couldn't if you're getting a 29er.

If you wanted to stick with 26" wheels ( and why not ), I still have that Kona Explosif that I can't see me building up again.

Forks are decent - I replaced the originals with RockShox Reba RL Dual Air 100mm.

Just priced up Shimano rear mech with clutch, shifter pod with mount for my Hope brake, set of Pro2 wheels, XT crankset and Hope ring with integrated guard, wide-range cassette, chain and cables - came out at £740.

Would be able to sell rings from cranks and current (pretty much new, but OTT) Hope XM721 front wheel for ~£150, so about £600...

Too much for me right now, by far, but would leave me pretty chuffed. Plus I could just get hubs built onto new rims at some point if I wanted to go 29 - leaving me with just a frame and forks to buy.