650B Elephant National Forest Explorer

what shifters are you using scoble?

The cage on the DT is ready for a bottle of MOET right?

Okay, so today, I and a companion did a quick jaunt to Brighton as it's our "weekend" today (bike shop innit?), the Oak is out of commission due to a stuck stem, leaving me a chance to test out the Elephant.

Girlfriend is leaving for two weeks, so need to borrow her Carradice Super C panniers packed with with 12kg worth of stuff to take back home after Brighton, first an interview with Pearson Cycles in Sutton then met up with my companion and we set off to Brighton.

First thing first, the lowrider stiffen up the fork noticeably, it doesn't flex under braking anymore, neither does it absorb the road vibration as well, however with the 42mm tyres on wide MTB rims, it's enough to compensate for this, after all it is strictly a tourer.

The last bike I rode with a low rider was the Genesis Croix de Fer which handle it admirably well, but this one did it better with earnest, slow speed felt surprisingly sure footed and stable, yet the faster I go, the lighter the steering feel, I can pilot the bike with very little input going down Cooper's Hill Road, yet let go of the handlebar and it still track true.

It's great to not have a pair of panniers on the rear when honking it out of the saddle, feeling the weight of the rear triangle flex and squirm at every pedals stroke, you don't need to grasp the handlebar as tightly as possible when doing so, the only noticeable difference is that the gearing start to feel closer to a race gear than a normal one (note to self - replace 36t with a 33t).

I now wish I've gone to Morocco with a low rider only instead of the saddlebag.

Obviously I wax lyrical about this handling benefit from the Oak as they both share the same type of geometry, but I never carried more than the Gilles Berthoud GB25 capacity regardless of the audaxes I took part in, the Elephants is the first one that I have over 10kg of stuff in the panniers and it show, I'm now pretty excited about the ideas of riding a bicycle almost identical to my dream bike, but with more carrying capacity, bigger clearance, more stack, disc brakes, and no longer need to be so fucking precious about it.

John, my companion is not the kind of person whom you'd want to draw the GPS route for, somehow he managed to direct us into a very tight winding singletrack with lots of overground roots.

The fuck is this?

Fuck is that?

It wasn't easy with the wider front end due to the panniers sticking out, but it wasn't difficult at all, having a massive clearance between the mudguard and tyres, I don't have to worry about object getting stuck, and of course the disc brakes again no worries about going through big puddle, and bunny hopping every little hump I can find.

It was fucking fun.

Till he managed to get his 36h front wheel out of true.

Beside the mishap, we rode up the usual route to Ditchling Beacon (36/25 was O.K.), brought some shit, and then set the beach on fire.

TL:DR - really happy with the robust nature of the Elephant NFE.

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Awesome

Great write up, really enjoyed that. You got my salutes for converting me to front lowriders. Despite unknown fork trail, I can load them up and still feel at ease at any speed. Hope the interview went well, best of luck.

oh come onnnn too niceee

I for one liked the bar tape.

Is fire on Brighton beach legal?

They're Supacaz, really comfortable and a lovely textile, however wear out quickly (my palm is black), last longer than the Lizard DPS that's for sure.

Not sure about it's being legals, the anorexia Jammy lookalike in the photo did it.

Wonderful bike! The wishbone is madness...

How do you like the Spyres?
I'm looking at a front disc brake for my new bike and I'd like to upgrade from the BB7 I have at the moment.
How does it compare to a BB7?

A lots less to fiddle with, I rode with BB7, they were very powerful once set-up, but have to adjusted the non-moving pads closer to even out the wear (which is noticeable when you start hearing squeal), having both side moving mean the rotor won't bend and thus eliminated the squeal almost completely.

Spyres is just as powerful but a much better design, in fact it can easily clear rack/mudguard without resorting to bending/getting disc specific rack.

Reckon the HY/RD is the best one to get, especially with the self-aligned pads (Spyres don't have this), word of warning, replace stock pads ASAP, they were extremely powerful second after fitting, which is a sure sign that it'll wear out very soon, I got Swissstop on, which took a good 20 miles to actually have decent braking performance, and now starting to get more and more powerful.

Thanks. So the Spyres set-up is easy? I'll have an eye on the pads.

Because both pads move, you just squeeze the levers as hard as you can, tighten the caliper to the fork/frame and let go.

If it's not perfect, loosen it slightly and move it with your hand, until both pads touch the rotor at the same time.

Before doing this, ensure the rotor is nice and true as well, mine wasn't yet still got great performance.

Sounds pretty straight forward. Thanks again!

#microadventure. So hip of you Scoble.

Got this planning, 46km worth of climbing fun mid-August for two weeks;

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/santander-to-perpignan

What mudguards you go in this time? They don't look as flush as your Oak.

It not suppose to be, old spare SKS Chromoplastic MTB from the girlfriend bike.

Ok, yup, I see what you mean. Clearance good, toightness bad. Inexpensive too.

Cables look fancy but not Nokon, is it that Yokozuna stuff instead? Any noticeable improvement over Jagwire compressionless or is it just better looking?

Haven't tried Jagwire, but the Yokozuna is stiffer, heavier, and thicker, performance is spot on like on the old bike, I'll give the brakes a good going over tomorrow at work as I haven't been able to since Sunday.

Jagwire should work just as well if it's labelled compressionless, I'll install them on the Oak to reduced the flexy feel.

Got this planning, 46km worth of climbing fun mid-August for two weeks;

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/santander-to-perpignan

Nice route, but I´ll recommend you to visit Bilbao and San Sebastian and I would avoid a couple of roads in the Basque Country area.

I would do, but I want to aim for 100Km+ a days, slight detour mean covering more ground in the Pyreenes.

Nice ed.

Low riders as so easy to ride with. Make it so stable out of saddle up hill. And descending is no issue. The low weight just stabilises it!!

How it look now;

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^ Are those official Scoblebricks™, Ed?

Also, does the Elephant have more saddle-bar drop than the Oak? It looks like a lot for an off-road tourer.