LazyTrailRider

Hehe, I've secretly been jealous all this time ;-)

So, I was getting fed up with having miniscule ground clearance when driving to my usual riding spots and having to take bikes apart and stuff them onto seats folded flat... It was time for a new ride:

Yep, even the 110 needs a Pike to fully exploit the chassis I reckon...

I run 35% on my 110, and have recently stiffened up my120mm Revelation RCT3 to around 17.5%. I'm hitting much bigger gaps and drops lately, so have been upping pressure to get it to a point where I'm only bottoming on the odd occasion where I'm *really* doing something silly. I must say, compression damping on the Pike is way better here, my RCT3 is maxed out already so I'm needing to compensate further with air pressure.

I've had a pair of Spez BG Sports for 7 years, and had a pair of Answer Accelerators for 10 years before that, both without issue. Waiting for my 2FOs, they're definitely *much* prettier than the Impact Lows

Some sexiness just arrived...

Haha, definitely some oozing going on there!

Maybe I'm going to spank the technical sections a bit more...

Let's just say it oozes sex appeal.

So I might have just ordered a new cockpit for my OneTen... Drooling already!

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I've ridden a few Pikes in comparison to my Revelation and the biggest difference is how well sorted the Pike's compression damping is. It keeps itself set up so well without dive that you end up having significantly more travel available in most situations, without losing small bump sensitivity.

Great going Doezel!

Oh, just a quick update on my opinion on HDs. I used to run a 2.35 Pacestar HD in the front (yes I know) with a Rocket Ron 2.25 in the back. The Pacestar has now been moved to the back and a new 2.35 Trailstar HD slapped onto the front. So far, it really does feel much better behaved. I've only done one dry & dusty ride with it, but most of the Pacestar's sketchiness seems missing. So far so good...

I'm halfway with you on this. I have also owned and/or used pretty much everything out there, hate every single Avid model I've ever tried, and generally still swear by my XTs.... but.... have you ridden with Guides? I tried a set a few weeks back, they're seriously impressive. They have this meaty lever resistance feel that Shimano stuff generally doesn't have. Really good power, much more modulation than Shimano. In short, I would not mind slapping a set on.

Haha. Awesome. We missed the proper party Rat was talking about this year. We had dinner and a few drinks at our hotel (right at the finish line, Mr Hill also stayed there) and then walked over to the "official party" spot, but.... deserted. Seeing as we'd blown R1000 between my GF and I on just a few drinks up to that point (@#$, the exchange rate nailed us!) we called it a night, but were woken up around 1am by a pretty wild-sounding party close by. It could only have been them...

Definitely. I have incredibly @#$ quality lenses in my current day-to-day prescription glasses (which also happen to be Oakleys, albeit the Servo model), there is a day and night difference between these and my genuine Oakley ones. Clarity, surface imperfections, scratch-resistance. All these things differ hugely. Like Kingalton, I'm also going the LASIK route soon.

Yip.

This is a seriously hot bike. Yowzers.

It's simple, the Enduro is an amazing climber for what it is. Way better than one would expect. In my experience (I rode a 2015 S-Works 29 for a day) I found its climbing ability on par with my Pyga OneTen. Granted, this was with a CCDB, and in climb mode, but it was still surprising. I expected it to climb like a dog with that much travel. Nope.

Absolutely. Few people realise how much riding gnarly stuff at speed kills your body.

Besides what everyone else has said, consider this: Is your life really worth the only 50 or 100k saving? If someone can't even properly treat body parts to prevent rust, you can be pretty sure they don't give a @#$ about safety beyond the absolute minimum guidelines enforced upon them. Not worth it.

Oops, sorry!

I'm surprised that no one has used the word "moment" yet...

I have been wanting to come back and comment on this... As you may have seen, I rode these on the 2015 S-Works the other day. Of all the blingy goodies on the bike, I was most surprised by the RSCs. I was expecting them to be like all the Avids I'd tried before, but boy was I wrong! Two things stood out: Modulation. Specifically how early the ramp-up starts. My XTs are extremely precise, but they're essentially in free-fall until you hit a definite bite point. These start biting really early in the stroke, extremely lightly, and then build up very predictably. There is no "oh crap, it's locked again" point. Lever resistance. They have a really solid feel to them. I initially thought it would tire my fingers out, but it actually provides more control. They feel more akin to something you'd find on an MX bike than on a bicycle.

No, it's different, not better. Ralphs roll well, but they do *not* corner hard well when used on the front, they're simply not designed for that. For general XC/trail use, Rons are actually pretty good on the front. Ralph/Ron is a good general-purpose combo.