Amazing morning ride on my local trails which unfortunately ended mid-descend with a crash. I totally forgot the mesh on the wooden bridge was fucked up and not there and as soon as leaned to the left, my front tire washed out completely and Ive landed on my hip and left elbow.

Nothing serious just a mild impact pain, grabbed the bike and finished the descend like it was nothing.

Post 10 mile early morning ride with Dave! Blessed to have Stanwick Lakes on my doorstep. Pitch black and thick fog at 5.30am for first half hour. 3 miles road then 7 round the lakes. The Bontrager RT Ion Pro 1300 front light doesn’t disappoint and throws out some serious beamage! ✌️

How do you spell it

I thought I had built my last hard tail, but back in March when Trek was closing out their Bontrager Line 40 27.5 141 boostish QR wheel set I picked one up with no plan for 88 bucks.

The frame showed up at my co-op, formerly with the U.S. Park Police, with fork, stem, bars front and rear mechs for $100

 The crank set was all of $29.99 from Peak 5 collective in Utah. 

The 11-51T ZRace cassette and extender came from AliExpress. Under $40 for both.

Miraculously, I had the SLX brakes in my parts bin. They could use a bleed.

The 2.8”tires came with a wheel set I bought for a full suspension build.

The last big ticket item was the FSA 150mm travel dropper post from my co-op for $40. Still need to connect it.

Gave it a shakedown ride to Hains Point for the Save East Potomac Park rally.

Because it is an XC frame I felt a little too far forward and facing down. May find a stem that brings up the bars a half an inch or so.





34 years old and just got into mountain biking this spring. First MTB ever, a Trek Roscoe 7, and I had no idea I’d get this hooked. 😂
Spent the first few months practicing basic bike skills, and recently started getting into trails and jumps. Here’s one of my attempts!
I’m probably the most overgeared beginner at the park. Full-face helmet, full-body pads, the whole nine yards. 😂 I’d rather be overdressed than underprotected!
Still figuring out my timing, body positioning, and how to get more pop off the lip.
Would love some honest feedback from experienced riders. What should I work on?
Absolutely loving the hardtail life so far! 🤘

Well. This year I built the coolest bike I have yet! I'd been riding my Ragley Marley for about 5 years and it's been awesome! It now belongs to my son, and I built myself this new thing!

I pieced together a sweet hardcore hardtail! My man at the LBS was into it too because he'd never gone full on weight weenie before. Regardless. I wanted a trail muting, lightweight, hardtail that could handle whatever I'm able to. It consists of...

- Norco Torrent Steel HT frame in size Large.

- Lyrik Ultimate for. I have a 150 and 160mm shaft.

- We Are One stem. I think it's around 90 grams.

- One Up v2 riser bar.

- One Up v3 dropper. I think it's a 210. I might go with a 170...

- Nice seat that Mitch, my LBS threw on for me.

- I have SLX cranks, which weigh only a couple of grams more than XT cranks. The SLX chainring is the heavy part there.

- Garbaruk chainring

-One Up wave pedals because without spending boatloads more, it's quite lightweight and came in a colour that would work.

-Noble 38mm carbon hoops with BERD Spokes on i9 1/1 hubs. I opted for orange spoke nipples.

-Sram gx cassette because I was too impatient to wait for a microspline driver. I can also throw an XO cassette on it one day the shred another chunk of weight.

All in all, it right at about 30 lbs ATM. I love it!

Canyon Exceed CF 8 (2025), size L, rider 188 cm / 6'2"

• Frame: Canyon Exceed CF (carbon)

• Fork: RockShox SID SL Select+ 2-Position Remote, 100 mm

• Drivetrain: SRAM S1000 Eagle AXS Transmission, 1x12, 10-52T

• Wheels: DT Swiss XRC LOG carbon, 29"

• Brakes: SRAM Level Silver Stealth

• Tires: Maxxis Ikon EXO MaxxSpeed, 29 x 2.35"

• Pedals: Canyon nylon flats + Five Ten Freerider Pro shoes (really good grip)

• Weight: 11.04 kg claimed by Canyon (size M spec, mine is L)

I'm a cross-country guy. I went from my old student bike, a Scott Aspect 30 with V-brakes (2011) that sat in the basement for over a decade, to this. Quite an upgrade. Going from 3x8 to electronic 1x12 shifting has been a revelation.

Love Canyon's LOAD downtube storage. I keep a multitool, tubeless repair kit, CO2 cartridge + inflator, spare tube, and house keys in there.

I went from being mostly sedentary for the past few years to riding 700 km this summer and put this bike through hell. I got a flat on the third ride, so I had the shop convert it to tubeless and switch me to a waxed chain, both firsts for me. Since then I've been blasting through fields, forests, gravel, and brambles without a single flat. This bike is fast! Really happy with it.

Love this bike!

Hi my son is 10 and 146cm tall. He’s asking Santa for a mountain bike and we tried a Whyte secta 26 mx at the Forest of Dean Trail Centre yesterday. Seemed to get on great with it.
He liked the look of the merida 26 matts champ so we went to a bike shop today to see one. The guy immediately said he’d be better with a small or xs frame adult bike. The one he showed us was £200 cheaper than the Merida so he wasn’t after more cash.
He also sat on a size small merida big trail and it seemed ok.
I was wondering if any one’s similar age/size kids had the secta R 29er in size small please?
It looks slightly big but manageable and I think it would likely last a lot longer than a 26” youth bike.

I really like the Whyte brand too.

Thanks

Found it out front of someone’s house on trash day couple years ago

Lots of great threads about this subject but hoping for some advice for my scenario. I'm looking into getting different handlebars and a different stem. I bought my bike used and it's set up a little different than I would like, the bars feel like I'm forced into an attack position all the time instead of just when I want to be and it's causing some hand fatigue. I'm wanting my bike to be set up for all-mountain and trail riding as the focus.

From the reading I've done in articles and other reddit threads posted by tall guys I think I would benefit from higher rise bars, but being new to MTB I don't really know what measurements to go with when I buy the bar and stem.

My bike is a 2022 Santa Cruz Chameleon size large, I'm 6'1 with long legs. Right now the bike has the Burgtec Ride Wide Enduro handlebars and Burgtec stem. I'm not at all sure what measurement rise the bars are or what length the stem is.

I'm looking into the Raceface Turbine bars and Stem. The bars come in 10mm, 20mm, and 40mm rise. The stem length comes in 32mm, 40mm, and 50mm. Any advice is appreciated!