MintSauce

If that's his idea of freeride.....he has somehitng coming

None of those can beat a prank ad in the gay personals with references such as 'likes experimenting' and 'open-minded'.....

Sms'd him....it's a prank by one of his buddies

I've also got a few small items in mind. Possibly my bro as well. Will speak to him in the morning and let you know. This is all a 'maybe' though....chat tomorrow

Unless you mean like a sinking ship....the answer is no

Erm....page 2....The Crow's post....?

I was going to take that as a compliment but now I'm not so sure

I tried the dualcontrol, admittedly not enough to get completely used to them. For me, they involve removing one of the forward fingers from the bar. With a thumb resting on a trigger shifter I can still manuevre the bike any way necessary. Place just an index finger on a dualcontrol and the reach causes the middle finger to also lift slightly off the bar. This adversly affects the power of my grip on the bar and means that it's practicaly impossible to man-handle the bike in tight technical situation or lift it off the ground. In some situation I can lift the bike and while in the air click up or down a gear. Same goes for nose-wheelies to place the rear of the bike. With gripshift or daulcontrol this is simply not possible for me.....YMMV.

Don't like them because they're tricky to shift in technical situations. That's just me. Lots of people love them though. Try before you buy.

Mud....I was told what this does is increase the gap between the pads and allows for easier insertion of the rotor when fitting the wheel. However....I don't see the pad move when I do this. Maybe it's serves more as a reminder to not pull the levers. All it means is that it requires a bit more effort to pull the lever but it certainly won't prevent it. From my experience there's no noticable difference in stopping power between the 7s and the Ultimates.

Are we all on the same page...? The reach adjustment is a bolt that sits behind the leaver and is adjusted with an allen key. It changes the position of the lever in it's 'resting' position(if I can call it that) Some models are fitted with a knob on top of the reservoir. This is called Pad Contact-Point Adjustment and sets the point in the lever's travel(as in when you pull it) where the pads make contact with the rotor. It basically allows you to set it so that both levers activate the brakes after the same amount of travel or the same distance from the handlebar. It's a set it and forget it feature. Certainly not essential but very handy. The only catalogue I have is an '07 and the J5 does not have this feature. J3 is listed as 'OEM Only'

I used to listen to music all the time, training and racing. Stopped using them for races. Considering how far back I am in the field, the mood is generally quite relaxed and there's a lot of banter going round, which is rather fun. Now only when I feel like it. I'll take it along on longer races since I'm so far back that it inevitably gets lonely towards the end. If you're riding sensibly(ie not like an idiot) and pay attention to what happens around you, you don't necessarily need to hear other riders. That being said, if I'm listening to music and I catch other riders or they catch me, I do remove one earpiece.

Have a look at the Gravity Dropper. A friend uses one and he swears by it. I have tried it briefly and love it. $250 and they ship worldwide for free http://www.gravitydropper.com/index.html

As mentioned before my favorite was still '06 when the SS race served as 'qualifying' for a go-kart race, the winner of which was crowned SS World Champion

No upgrading until you take those barends of those riser bars!

But she cooks and bakes so well!

XTC1....Is it a new bike...? Mmm....I haven't been keeping up to date. Best try and confirm with Fox/Omnico. The Talas was shifted up to 140mm for the '07 year when they introduced the stepped travel adjustment. I'm not sure if the Float was also moved up to 140mm. If so, then 130mm travel would indicate that it's an '06 or older. For '06 Fox introduced a brake line mounting point on the sliders. If it doesn't have that then it's '05. I have no idea how the Recon performs or how that compares to the Reba. TitusTi reckons that, having ridden both Reba and Fox 29er forks extensively, the Fox is better, but not enough to justify the big price premium. The Float uses the same damping system as the Talas except that it doesn't have the travel adjust feature. Meaning that it's pretty much as god as it gets i.t.o. pure damping performance. With the Reba being reportedly inferior to that and the Recon even further down the line i.t.o. peformance(assuming here....big no-no I know) I'd guess it's some way off. Whether it's worth the 3k difference....I can't tell at this point. For me....after having several friends switch from Marzzochi, Rock Shox and Manitou to Fox, I'd have to say that I would personally spend the extra and get the Fox. That's just me though.....tough decision and I reckon I'm just making it more confusing....sorry

Of course....if money is no object there's always the Cane Creek Double Barrel, but at some silly price like R 7500 or something!

sorry. maybe i didn't make myself clear' date=' but this is the kind of issue that needs - and lends itself - to be treated as a bigger story. and covered more extensively. with more questions asked and more people canvassed. [/quote'] Cool....understood

HR....didn't they have comments from Richard Beswick in the first article?

Well....now I don't have to make up silly excuses for not riding it Not to comfortable on gaps yet!

Freeride hardtails are definitely gaining in popularity....not sure I'd want to try it though Must be weird to have all that travel on the front and nothing in the back