imajez

I ended up with a blinged out Chisel HT pretty much by accident and have barely used my [also very good] Epic Evo since. The Chisel with Barzo/Mezcal 2.35" is very fast on road getting to trails less close to home and yet still incredible on really brutal trails. I've gotten faster times on the Chisel than on my Evo on challenging trails, where I would have thought FS would be the better choice.

I find my rear 2.35" Vittoria Mezcals still work darned well in Winter. I've stopped using 'winter' tyres, I just drop tyre pressure a few psi and still have loads of grip. An XC/ Summer tread is also less knobbly, so harder to clog up and get heavier.

@vitaflo: feeling fast is not the same as being fast. I did what felt like my fastest ever time on a local strava segment on my old HT which I have the KOM on. Except it was massive 30secs/20% slower than my KOM winning FS bike - same wheels/tyre setup though. High frequency vibrations and being rattled around only give the impression of speed, us humans are easily fooled. Hence why 30mph in an original Mini feels faster and more exciting than 60mph in a larger modern car with better suspension/bigger tyres. This is why roadies thought ultrahard skinny tyres were faster. And sadly some still do.

How much you weigh compared to a pro XC rider is what matters. Pidcock is only 58kgs so 20lbs lighter than you and you run pressures *way* lower than most folk. No point running a lower pressure by using a harder sidewall. That reduces the benefits of the lower pressure. A more supple sidewall and higher pressure may well feel better.

In bikepacking races, Vittoria Mezcals and maybe a Barzo up front are on the majority of bikes. I tried them because fast, reliable and comfy are key for such folk and I've been blown away by how good they are. I've set my fastest times on really brutal terrain [on my hard tail too], they coped fine with our soggy Winter and I'm happy to ride my hardtail for 20km on smooth trails/roads to go for an MTB ride on opposite side of city when I normally loathe riding such terrain on an MTB.

I'd just like to shout out some love to the Specialized Command posts. They are the only way I've been able get a correct bike fit on my bikes because it has the rear setback that seatposts have traditionally had to enable correct fit over the pedals. My command posts have been problem free, because A - I don't let posts slam up and B - I don't put silly high PSI in so they hit that top point even harder if point A isn't done. Maybe a top out damper would have reduced user damage as well as VERY CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS on not letting post slam up. My cynical view is that early droppers used inline posts [which became the norm], so they wouldn't fail even more often. Too many folk also seem to have zero clue that saddle position should be optimised for your particular pedalling setup and should not be used to adjust distance to the handlebars if you have the wrong size bike. Thankfully Fair Bicycle's 'Drop Best' adaptor has recently appeared, which means I won't have to hunt down an increasingly rarer secondhand Command post for any new MTBs. https://www.fairbicycle.com/mountain

@nattyd: @nattyd: Never said they were. Just pointing out that he almost certainly would have won had he not started at back of field.

@G-Sport: Strava tried middle ground subscriptions few years back. They moved away from that. Probably because the issue with monetisation is that folk expect everything online to be free. So most folk are not willing to pay to use a service that costs the providers a lot of money to provide. Regardless of how good the product is.

Tange is a Japanese company, so pronounced tan-geh, not tong-gay. The latter reminds me of some Northern English martial arts folk mangling Japanese with their broad Yorkshire accents. :D

Seems like there have been other sightings... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLNuQgHPWA0 https://en.brujulabike.com/specialized-epic-2024-new-features-prices-models/ Cabling through headset is not a good move.