Olympics MTB

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Originally posted by Tony Lockhart:
Not sure of the exact split, but there seemed to be as many full squidgers as hardtails and as many v-brakes as discs. The winner was on a v-braked hardtail....

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XC is closer to road racing than the sort of MTB riding most of us do, however some of the sections on that course looked good fun.

I just thought that, whatever the surface, there would have been a clear cut choice made. Anyway, I'm keeping my Vees and hardtail after seeing that!
Just need to sort out which forks I'm having for Christmas. My weight varies between 15 and 17.5 stone and I'll have £300-ish to spend. Any ideas?

Tony

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Originally posted by Tony Lockhart:
I just thought that, whatever the surface, there would have been a clear cut choice made. Anyway, I'm keeping my Vees and hardtail after seeing that!

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When the conditions are dry then having disc brakes is less important. I have a lightweight V-braked hardtail that I keep for dry conditions. Of course living in Scotland means it doesn't get much use...

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Just need to sort out which forks I'm having for Christmas. My weight varies between 15 and 17.5 stone and I'll have £300-ish to spend. Any ideas?

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You'll probably be wanting something coil sprung and one option I'd recommend from personal experience is the Fox Vanilla R.

Fox Vanilla...
Funnily enough, my own path has led me to these. It's very difficult trying to trawl through various mags and forums looking for info that can be relied upon.
I assume that Fox Vanillas can be adjusted and tuned to suit?

Tony

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Originally posted by Tony Lockhart:
Fox Vanilla...
Funnily enough, my own path has led me to these. It's very difficult trying to trawl through various mags and forums looking for info that can be relied upon.
I assume that Fox Vanillas can be adjusted and tuned to suit?

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I've got the lowest spec model, the R and it has rebound and preload adjustments. It can also have the travel set to either 80, 100 or 125mm using spacers and the like (I think these are supplied with the retail forks but not with OEM models) - mine are set for the full 125mm as my Cotic is designed for that. There are other (more expensive) models with compression adjustment and lockout but I don't find those all that useful. My Epic has Fox Float 100RLC forks and it has all sorts of adjusters I never use!

Both the Fox forks I have are fantastic but the Float 100RLC's are (for my use anyway) not worth the extra £200 or so over the basic Vanilla R's.

BTW I'm no lightweight either (about 14 stone currently).

Thanks very much, Steve. Just what I need to know. I think I'll be combining my Christmas and birthday presents this year.

Tony

Good choice Cliff. LX is a fine gruppo.

Dan

I've had an '03 Epic for quite a while now and have upgraded several bits on it. The drivetrain is currently the original LX shifters, LX front and XT rear mechs but I've replaced the original Specialized chainset with an LX one. All that works fine and I've no pressing interest to change, despite my other main MTB having an XT/XTR drivetrain - LX works just fine. One of my group rides an '04 Epic Comp and as far as I'm aware so far he's upgraded nothing on it.

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Originally posted by Cliff Patterson:
btw Steve did you change the chain without changing the rear cassette ???

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I changed the cassette on mine to an XT 11-32 from the original LX 11-34 when I changed wheels, but since then I've changed chains a couple of times without changing cassettes.

I change chains every few months (I use cheap PC59 ones - £26.99 for 3) probably well before I really need to, but cassettes seem to last much longer.

Cliff -- You have just bought an £1800 high spec mountain bike and have absolutely not the slightest need to change anything. It's perfectly capable of doing anything you are likely to do on it and lots more besides.

So when something wears out buy a good quality replacement befitting a nearly £2k bike. If something actually breaks buy something much better/stronger.

Matthew

"I'm guessing that the rear suspension and disk brakes will help lots in those conditions"

*Functional* upgrades do help but stuff like LX for XT is not really functional. It's the same but lighter and longer lasting.

You have a high quality all-day XC/Trail bike and, unless you are planning to race, do 2 week trans-alp epics or make an audition tape for the Extreme Channel you need change nothing.

To the North East Epping Forest is great. Going south -- you are in Dulwich as I recall -- you have Dorking, the North and South Downs, etc. and really quite a lot of riding withing an hour's drive.

Nothing in Inner London save a few laps around Richmond Park or else some illegal jumpy/singeltracky stuff in certain parts of Hampstead Heath.

Matthew

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Originally posted by Cliff Patterson:
what wheels did you change to?

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The wheels on the Comp are decent enough although you might find that the Roll-X Pro's aren't the best in wet conditions. I used mine for a winter in Scotland though, so they're not desperately bad.

My bike didn't have disc ready wheels as standard so when I needed to change the wheels when I upgraded the brakes. It's now got Hope XC hubs with Mavic X317 rims - no idea what the spokes are. For tyres I'm now using 2.3" Conti Verts and I've liked them enough that I've also got a set on no.2 bike. BTW the original Epic wheels and tyres are still giving good service on no.3 bike, although the tyres are just about shot.

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
Cliff -- You have just bought an £1800 high spec mountain bike and have absolutely not the slightest need to change anything. It's perfectly capable of doing anything you are likely to do on it and lots more besides.

So when something wears out buy a good quality replacement befitting a nearly £2k bike. If something actually breaks buy something much better/stronger.

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I'd agree. The Comp has excellent 100mm Fox Forks (RL's I think), decent wheels and disk brakes and a drivetrain with nothing below LX on it. If it were my bike and for the sort of riding I do I'd perhaps change the tyres but I doubt I'd change anything else.

When I bought my '03 Epic there wasn't a model with the right spec for me, so I bought the base model at a reduced price (£1000) and spent perhaps £500 upgrading it. If the '04 Comp bike had been available I'd probably have bought that as I think it's a very good setup for the cash.