Headshot

Precisely my experience with the 160 Pike on mine. Your set up is likely to be a bit stiffer up front to compensate for the sag factor but even so mine is still comfy and I never have issues even with a 70mm stem...

Tyres and wheels do make a slight difference. Also be careful of seat tube angles - they quote real and effective angles and I don't even pretend to undertsand how they are measured.

And following on from the Chromag HT monster truck in teh other thread, there wa a heated debate on PB re how a long travel fork will or wont work on a hardtail. Some rather misguided opinions being expressed. Along teh lines of, on steep stuff, the front will go too low and you'll go over the bars. My point was that a dual suspension biks rear suspension extends on descents to some extent anyway and that my experience does not bear this out at all. What do you long travel HT riders say?

After fighting off most of a severe snot sinus bug I managed to get out on the Kirstenbosch XC loop yesterday afternoon. My bike is set up in the high position, around 35% sag and 26 psi in the Aggressor front tyre. With this set up it pedals well enough to almost never need the pedal lever on the shock. I took it down the same track I experienced the big front wheel slide with the Butcher. I didnt notice any lack of grip there but interestingly started to sense that the tyre gives a bit but never lets go enough to need a serious correction. Its predictable once you get used to it. One of the reviews I read mentioned this trait. While the time proves nothing really, I did get a PB down the slithery Newlands forest heep track descent which may point to greater confidence in my front tyre, or a relative lack of traffic, or both.

Does it not look enough like a road bike for you there Mr Bosch? That thing would be awesome in 26. At $1600 Can for a frame, its a bit of a non starter in any wheel size.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/live-stream-red-bull-valparaiso-cerro-abajo-urban-dh-2019.html It aint WC DH but its better than nothing. I wonder how Tommy S is doing after that rather nasty off. Sam Gaze take note - thats a real crash.

stage 4 ...

I think that goes for many a bike - my Enduro included. It is fun to have a DH bike you can ride up and down though, and they do save you from yourself at times too.

Friend of mine had the perfect bike - Reynolds 531 Le Jeune circa 1992, unridden for years. His wife gave it away before I could lay claim to it...

Love that Ultra in gray and white.

Is this the track where the March race will take place perhaps? https://www.entryninja.com/events/event/31622-grinder-mtb-challenge

So how did you do at the races DnD?

Nice. We were out Jonks way on Sunday for a party and boy was it raining. Trails must be mint after that. Bos, what bike are you on? Foam grips are a no no for techncial riding. I tried them once and hated it. Some nice sticky ODI's are far and away the best. Currently I have Nukeproof Horizons on my Enduro which are also very good. Not sure that wider tyres work better on rocks. What are you running right now?

I have almost managed to stop noticing my new front tyre whcih is a good sign. It just works. My recent suspension adjustments have been the following. Setting the rear sag at around 35% . Increasing the rebound speed to 5 from full open up front and 2 clicks faster out back. I now have the kind of smooth bottomless feel I wanted over repeat hard hits and the bike seems to skip over rather than get caught up on rocks and roots. I felt that the fork dives a bit too much under braking. That could just be the damper or a lack of compression damping up front. Will play around with that next.

So I had another bike suspension and geo tyre test ride this morning ( See Jimmy). Had a peculiar front slide moment on a slightly off camber hard pack with sand over descent. Weird. No issues on any of the rocky fast stuff and the front tyre feels great at slightly lower pressures. Can't say the same for the rear Butcher which burped or flatted at the bead and lost air again after a reinflation. Time to bin it. And the geriatric hiking crew were out in force - all over the trails. It was like dodge body.

http://res.cloudinary.com/yaffa-publishing/image/fetch/http://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/yaffadsp/legacy_bicycle/media/Maxxis-1_0.png The HR II is another close contender for parenthood of the Aggressor... DNA looks pretty close.

Ya, some of those center knobs look very similar. I cant recall noticing the difference in hardness between the center and side knobs on a tyre as much as I have with this one. The Ardents are not dual compound and the center is far softer than the Aggressor. Bodes well for wear. Wondering about braking performance though - more testing necesary. Never mind trail/AM - I am going to go full #enduro with this thing :-)

Want to race at least one of these this year. At 52 am I a master or grand master cat rider?

I managed to get a short ride in on some sections of my test track. So far so good. The first thing I noticed was how fast it seemed to roll. Grip and steering were very good. I felt slightly nervous at first but that disappeared quickly. On flatter sweeping bends where I usually pedal and feel the front give a bit there was no such thing. On Strava my times were good despite not pushing and encountering walkers and bikes Long the way. I think the pressure could be lowered from 25 to say 23 quite safely. Off the wheel, the casing feels stiffer than the Butchers despite a claimed lower weight. Weight was 929 g which is slightly heavier than claimed but still 30 less than the Butcher. More test rides to come but so far it seems to be working as I expected...

Fitted super easily and measures at the same size as the 2.6 Butcher albeit at a higher pressure...

My HT has 23mm Flows on it. They work just great with the 2.4 Ardents I am running and before that with MM 2.35 and Rock Razor.

A tasty HT with Agressors front and rear!

Now now boys - the double entendre has its limits...

The Aggressor has nice hard center knobs and the softer edging knobs seem well supported. Should roll like a demon. (It also smells nice and I like the name) Looking forward to a possible test ride later if my spouse can be persuaded to shuttle me a few km...