andretraut

My wife can't stand the sight of my Stumpy S-Works 29er, she hates it and even call it names like Sterry Stumpy. She claims I spend more time with my bike than with her!

Rather inflate with a compressor at the garage than a bomb, because the gas could cause some sealants (like Stans) to clogg-up. Bombs are for emergency road side repairs and not for home maintenance.

Bergbok and DeLaCo, have you ever been to a mall where a mime artist pisses who off with his sh*t? Now the dude I was talking about reminded me of a mime, if I sit up, he sits up, if I drop, he drops....pretty irritating if you are out on a training ride I would say. Getting rid of the dude in any possible way is rather saving him some injury than causing it, because if I suddenly start my interval training, as I often do, while he is scrathing his ass, can you imagine the f*ck-up to both of us. So before the two of you really get your panties in a twist and loose faith in cycling, rather chill and stop being (wheel) suckers!

I can't stand wheel-sucking from strangers when I am out on my training rides. Diffrent story if you are training in a group, and every body takes his turn up front, or the stonger riders shield the weaker ones in head winds, but a stranger just latching on is not cool. The other morning a roadie sucked my wheel on my 29er, and after a few kilo's I got fed-up with his presence and started a TT pace, and left him behind. He can be glad I did not execute plan B by feathering my brakes a bit, as he was sitting virtually on my wheel.

There is no golden rule, except for a stack height limit of 40mm for carbon steerer tubes. Start riding with the maximum stack height, and then drop 5 or 10 mm at a time, placing the spacer on top of the stem until you find your ideal position. Once you have settled on this position, take your bike on a long distance ride, and if you do not experience any back pain, or numbness in your hands after 100km, cut the excess tube off. You could leave a 5 mm spacer above the stem, but anything more than this looks stupid. I prefer no spacers above the stem, as specified by my bike brand, Specialized, but the lower the tube is cut, the more the resale value will drop.

Hi Eraser, it is FSA K-Wing Compact. Awesome bars, I like the flat top and the bit of raise they offer. Very comfortable!

Looks like a leka tuff bike you've got there. Will have to join you in Tokia soon!

I'll go with the Merida, although both are great bikes. Merida just specced a bit better.

Not maybe helium in that back wheel?

TimW and Bat-ass, I could'nt agree with you more!

Forget to mention, I do own a 6.5kg Tarmac also, so I might as well keep the Stumpy.

How do you think I get to my favourite trail, carry my bike for 15km on my back. Getting to my trail is part of my training dude, and getting there is about 5 min quicker on bigger wheels! Do one have to spell out every single move to be understood by a chicken!

Hey chicken, have you never seen a mtb riding on the road, on the way to single track? So if you use your road bike to ride jeep track, and other non-technical terrain you must be very desperate to ride on big wheels, and also look very stupid!

I am with Eldron and all the other 29er owners on this one... it boils down to a choice. I own 2 mountain bikes. The one is a dual suspension Merida 96 Team 26er with top-end components and weigh in at 10.5kg. The other one is a Specialized Stumpjumper S-Works 29er HT, also with top-end components and the weight is 9.5kg. My point : Both bikes are in my opinion great and the one is in terms of components and value not inferior to the other. So when it comes to riding these bikes, I make a choice based on terrain and purpose of my ride, not because the one is better than the other. It is also worthy to mention that I own two vehicles, a LDV and a sedan. Taking a cruise, my choice of transport is my Audi, but transporting goods, my Corsa Utility is very handy, and better. My take on this topic is that the 29er is faster on my morning tarmac training ride, as well as non-techinical terrain. The 26er beats the 29er on rough stuff, and is quicker on acceleration when I need it. I love both bikes, and consider myself fortunate to have a choice when it comes to my mtbiking and my motorised transportation mode. What I have noticed is that all the cyclists (or bicycle riders for that matter) who are yet to convert to big wheels, are very negative towards this move, and offer various reasons why 29ers are not great, until they finally take the plunge. Very seldom a 29er rider will bad mouth his ride, given the fact that chances are great that he or she started on a 26er, and have first hand experience of the two options availble to mtbikers. Instead our favourite forum is flooded with bulsh*t from people with very little experience on a topic, and have absolutely no clue what they are speaking of. One day in the very near future (heaven forbit, cause I still love my small wheeled Merida) 26ers will be posted on this forum together with steel framed bikes, and everybody will post ' that is soooooo sexy', velly velly pwety!!!!! and 'sweeeeeeet ride, just love the old days' . Until then, lets all enjoy cycling and forget about small peni wheel syndrome!

Get a copy of the latest Bicycling magazine featuring a sub R20K 29er shoot-out and base you purchase on what you like!

My previously posted ride, now updated with new (training) wheels.

My ride... 2011 Spez S-Works Stumpjumper with 2 x 10 XTR

Rather a loose screw in the shoe than one in your head!

You can't compare cheese to chalk!

Sure it was the 29er that caused him to fall, and not maybe his grips, chainring bolts or maybe his chamois cream. I think it was a small techinical error, but I also think that janneman72 is green for not owning a 29er!

The Mavic 317 has a swallow rim bead, and requires a tyre with a proper tubeless bead to seat properly. My advice is to get a tubeless tyre, which is way cheaper than replacing the rim with a tubeless rim such as American Cclassic or Easton. Inflating that tyre to 4bar and then reducing the presure to 2.5 or 3 bar will not solve the problem, and you are always going to wait for the next burp.

I ride with Sludge All Terrain in my road bike tubes (Continental removeable core), and during a recent training ride I noticed some pressure loss in the front wheel, however still rideable. Quickly stopped and inflated with a bomb, and within 45 seconds, I was back on the bike. Tube still hard after a week!

Personally not much.... cause.... - I already have 4 bikes - No more space in the garage - KTM is not my brand - Sceptic about Epic bikes.....

So that is where my rotors are from....cool!

If Energade can damage your shock seals, imagine what it could do to the o-ring in your arse!