orientdave

For those still reading and interested, I can concur with what many are saying here about tyre reviews (too universal to be useful), what Waki says about hardtails / tyres and the Continental and ZTR flows... they do a damned good job in that combination. I am running a non UST 2.2 Mountain King (not ProTection) on ZTR flows with Stans Latex and after some initial serious teething problems (burping) they now are offering my just the right amount of rolling speed, grip and predictability for my particular riding style, bike and trails. Would I trust that wheelset on my 5 inch full bouncer? Never!

Yeah Kustomango, it is a summer only bike park. The place itself is a Ski slope that essentially lets Hamaguchi San use it to run a bike park in summer. However, he basically has to level it every October and rebuild it every April!!!! (which is what he will have been using the digger for). Check out IZUMI FUKUI bike park on Facebook for more photos. https://www.facebook.com/fukuiizumi/photos_stream. The uplift is on a flat bed truck because the ski slope literally closes down the entire site for the summer. There are no toilets (one portaloo with a note on it saying if you want to do a number two, you might want to use the public toilet 10 kms down in the valley!), no running water (Hamaguchi san brings a poly tank every day for emergencies) and no electricity of any kind. We all absolutely love it however and is my go to bike park of choice because it is only a couple of hours drive away, everyone is really cool and friendly and the lines are FUN! The park is used for a slopestyle kind of event every Autumn called JAGAROUND and there is a video diary of that somewhere on PB..

Sorry for it not being a hyperlink... however, this is the bike park they are at, and the big jumps are in the middle of the Interceptor line and bottom of V10 usually. http://www.funfancy.co.jp/jagaround/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9E%E3%83%83%E3%83%97.jpg　

Mmmmm, many people who live here would find it hard to agree Rob. Mad Max (the man called Hamaguchi san who is responsible for the Izumi Fukui bike park where this was shot) is the only man I know of in Japan who is trying to build any kind of big mountain bike park, and it is poignant that Andrew and Niki were the builders of the above. The reality for riders here is that if you want jumps, you have to get together and make the trails in collaboration with land owners and most are rightly very concerned about injuries on their land. The result? Precious few flowy, jumpy trails. Bugger! If you want tight singletrack though we have it in spades.

And depending on when you come, I and a few mates around the Nagoya area can give you some pointers if you let us know where and when you are going to be..

Ben Reid and Brendog seriously fast again...... and seriously down in the order again...

You look at stuff and think, how can I make this better, and we are indebted as bikers to all the engineers who have gone out on a limb and tried something new to find that not only, it works, but others also experience it first hand and find it helps them too. However, we as consumers are struggling to come to terms with the relative advantages of 20, 24, 26, 29 and now 27.5 inch wheels. It does not take long to notice how, even within the industry itself, the jury is still out on which is "best" in which situation. So, when I hear people like Jeff say that the reason they got into 27.5 is based on "trends" and their creation, and "the industry" that decides it wishes to focus on the new products, I will stand up and shout out to the rooftops "washing powder". Only the thing is with bikes, they are a higher order good (economics, look it up people) that we buy infrequently compared to detergent, so while we may be happy to change over washing powder when the box is empty, engineers better have a DAMNED GOOD REASON why I should follow them... and trend does not deserve to cut it people. Do a better job of showing us the reasons why new is better you engineers and designers, lest you forget we, the consumers, pay your salaries and deserve honest truth over trend wrapped up in "leveraging compensated endorsement".

Waki, often, hidden deep inside an innocuous comment, lies a truth waiting to get out....and I see that in Jeff's comments above. I listened intently to everything he said, and those two comments hit home with me as having an element of the radical about them (radical by the way everyone doesn't mean extreme, it means at the root). as Natalot says, from the non-engineer consumer's perspective, we want to be told by the industry, and especially the media, which products will give us more smiles per pound/euro/dollar etc. Take this as an example from a humanities graduate (me). When I see the endless ways in which a washing powder company that tells us their new formula washes whiter, and their old formula is now sh%t (although we were told the old formula, when it was new, was the best things since, well the formula before that), I begin to question the rationale behind the marketing... especially when it comes to finding a balance between "honest truth" and "leveraging compensated endorsement capital". The same thing is true with the bike industry. You are an engineer (love the frame by the way, looking good as well as having geo that I get on very well with personally), many of us are not, not even armchair ones, and you are a designer.... continues

Waki, what is the point you THINK I am making here?