All Mountain Frame.

[Tomm]

What? If it wheelies nice it must be good for riding DH? And this is coming from someone who works in a bike shop?

srsly?

I reckon if you knew your shit and you had tried plenty of frames in the past, then you might be able to gain a bit of information from blasting around the street.

The problem is this bit:

if you knew your shit and you had tried plenty of frames in the past

You don't / haven't.

[Mark W]

I genuinely have no interest left in trying to point out obviously incorrect information and ideas in this thread.

You win, Glen. You win.

EDIT: Actually, I haven't. Glen, I wheelied an old woman's shopper bike. It was really easy to wheelie. I doubt it'd be great at Morzine, or Les Gets, or even on a bridlepath. You really have no idea what you're talking about. Unless you've actually ridden DH or even 'seriously' offroad, you won't have an idea, and trying to suggest that doing a wheelie would suggest to you how 'stable' a DH bike would be for riding proper DH is f**king laughable.

And with that, I'm going to bed.

[Fixed Pants™]

Admittedly, i haven't ridden many downhill bikes as they aren't all that popular in London as you may know... But when i say i know my shit, i might aswell be cytech 3 (certainly 2, and a few months of actual experience off of 3) on the mechanics side of bikes, and i certainly know quite a bit of product knowledge. If you walked into my bikehut and asked me about a roadbike, i'd know about it, likewise with a hybrid, mtb, components just generally anything that we have in the shop, and more...

Mark, drop the wheelie = it's an excellent bike, it's just my opinion of things. Mainly derived from riding a 1.8k spec IH Yakuza, which wheelied like a beast, and also felt really nice to fly over a double, huck down a crater, then hit a kicker out of the crater...

Edited July 31, 2008 by Fat Pants™

[Revolver]

Yeah, cos of the gearing. It's awesome for manuals is it not?

Look, i don't mean OMGZ IT WEELIZ BARE NYC, ITZ A SICK BIKEZ, i just mean, to me, it feels like it rides quite nice and should feel quite nice when it got to a downhill course or whatever.

I meant wheelies were shit in general

and

I've never ridden one of those bikes, lol.

The only proper DH bike i recall riding was a specialized bighit.

And my verdict? I didn't really ride it enough to get a good feel of it. lol. But the dude's forks were f**ked, and it was squishy at the back, which is a change from hardtail. And that's all I can tell you

[Mark W]

I honestly don't care about CyTech qualifications though, to be honest. According to their site, CyTech2 covers cable brakes, 'hubs', gears, headsets and - ironically considering the conversation we had on MSN the other night, and what you've said on here recently - wheel building. That doesn't really sound like rocket science stuff, which is probably why most bike shops honestly won't give a shit? I've got 3 years of experience of actually running a bikeshop on my own, acting as manager, salesperson and mechanic. I think in the week of work shadowing I did at our local shop prior to working there I learnt pretty much everything you'd need to know to get a CyTech2 qualification. I'm not just shit-talking your qualification or whatever, but what I'm saying is is that a CyTech2 qualification doesn't really mean that much, which is why - like in many threads people have posted in on here - you can get people who work in a bike shop who really have no idea what they're doing. Which brings me nicely on to the art of bullshitting. I sold plenty of bikes in my brief stint at Evans, simply because if you've got a basic amount of knowledge about bike related stuff, it's easy as f**k to piece together the knowledge so you can deal with new products, etc. Being able to walk up to a bike in a showroom, see that it's got a Deore groupset and being able to say "This bike's got a Deore groupset, which is a pretty good value for money range that should work fine for your type of riding" doesn't really require an in-depth knowledge of... well... anything, really. On my first day I sold 2-3 bikes, and helped out with another 2 sales, simply by reading aloud what the spec was on the bikes (From simply looking at the bike itself), and talking about it in a confident sounding way, and just listening to a customer. I wouldn't necessarily "know" about the bike though.

Judging from pretty much everything you've said related to bikes in this thread though, it genuinely appears like although you might know more than some people, you still don't 'know your shit'. Again, I'm not trying to be harsh, but you just seem a bit over confident about it all...

Mark, drop the wheelie = it's an excellent bike, it's just my opinion of things. Mainly derived from riding a 1.8k spec IH Yakuza, which wheelied like a beast, and also felt really nice to fly over a double, huck down a crater, then hit a kicker out of the crater...

Most bikes "Wheelie like a beast" if you're able to wheelie, which is the point I was getting at. Incidentally, how big were these 'doubles' and 'craters' and 'hucks' in general? And how rough are we actually talking? I'd give more of a shit about how good suspension worked going over a decent rock garden or braking hard into a rough hairpin rather than riding MTB jumps.

[Fixed Pants™]

Fair points, but, without blowing my trumpet too much, i don't think people realise that i actually know quite a bit, as most people know me as that tfer that works in Halfords, which basically means i'm a twat that doesn't know anything about bikes (probably)... But really, i work in bikehut, and i'm pretty good.

We shall leave it at that.

[Mark W]

Yeah, but if you were a CyTech2 employee, I wouldn't have had to explain repeatedly what made a wheel 3x or 2x, not 4x, and so on? As that would've been covered in training. And equally, as I've been trying to say, just claiming you work in a bikeshop and therefore know your shit simply won't wash with a lot of people, because, as I've been trying to say , I've seen plenty of clueless f**k-ups work in bikeshops in London before, and I'll see plenty working in them in future.

As far as mechanics side of things, I thought, according to your posts before, you didn't even do any workshop stuff and you just did the retail side of things?

[Tomm]

i don't think people realise that i actually know quite a bit

You've been keeping that one quiet...

[Mark W]

[Hendrix]

As I've found, it's all personal opinion when it comes to bikes. Some people find a £500 bike amazing, and a 1.5k bike rubbish.

I know you can get different frame sizes, but it's all what feels good to you. As someone else, you can't say this bike is good because 'blah', someone else might not feel it that same way.

[Revolver]

Basket light

basket lamp

bushel light

...

?

[Tomm]

Yeah, you can't base decisions based on the opinions of people who have ridden the bike in question. You've got to razz around a car park doing wheelies to work out if it's any good. Or, if you really want to put a bike through its paces, do some skids.

Mark: What?

[Mark W]

In un-related news, all of my posts tonight are to be attributed to the effects of Jack Daniels. Typing is no fun right now.

Interesting fact: I have only ever seen/heard two people use that phrase. 1. Jesus, in context. 2. My Mum...

[Hendrix]

Yeah, you can't base decisions based on the opinions of people who have ridden the bike in question. You've got to razz around a car park doing wheelies to work out if it's any good. Or, if you really want to put a bike through its paces, do some skids.

Hahahaha! That's what I do.... :$

edit:

OH! That's what it meant...

Edited July 31, 2008 by Hendrix

[Mark W]

It's what I do when full sus, all-the-gear-no-idea crew turn up to Southbank with their £40+ 'off road only' tyres

[Fixed Pants™]

Yeah... That.

:$ Ok ok that was a bit of a f**kup, but that's due to lack of experience in building wheels...

I am managing to push my way into the workshop, which is why you haven't seen me doing much complaining recently...

[Mark W]

Yeah... That.

:$ Ok ok that was a bit of a f**kup, but that's due to lack of experience in building wheels...

If you were CyTech2, going on 3, you'd just 'know' it though, seeing as it's pretty bloody straight forward that if the spokes cross twice, it's "two cross" and if they cross 3 times, it's "three cross"?

[Tomm]

Oh. It's a bit crytic, that one. Can't say I've ever heard that expression.

So we're suppose to have faith that Fatpants' bike knowledge actually exists, despite all evidence? I always was an atheist *.

*Actually, I'm probably more agnostic...

[Fixed Pants™]

I'm not any cytech yet, but i believe when i get on the courses, i'll be able to get 2 at least, then 3 when i've been shown how to service forks/shocks... Which should be shown when i actually get to cytech 3?

[Hendrix]

I have no idea how to do wheels.

Seems fairly straight forward from what people have posted though; just not good at un-buckling at the mo...

but, ask me how to fix;

No problem. Haha.

Edited July 31, 2008 by Hendrix

[Mark W]

Yeah, but it's a bit hard to believe what you're saying when before you told us you were CyTech2 qualified, and basically CyTech3 qualified, but now you're not CyTech2 qualified at all? So what you're saying is that "When I get taught the stuff I need to know, I'll have been taught the stuff I need to know"?

I have no idea how to do wheels.

Seems fairly straight forward from what people have posted though; just not good at un-buckling at the mo...

It's really, really easy, and I hold the vast majority of mountain bike magazines accountable in propogating the lie that wheels are hard to build.

[Revolver]

I know about 2x, 3x etc and I've built one wheel

Sheldon brown's site + wheel build guide in the wiki + "2... cross..." =

[Hendrix]

I got the gist of 2x and 3x after one of you guys posting about it.

I should try soon, I will fail, meh... Spare wheel somewhere.

[Fixed Pants™]

Yeah, but it's a bit hard to believe what you're saying when before you told us you were CyTech2 qualified, and basically CyTech3 qualified, but now you're not CyTech2 qualified at all? So what you're saying is that "When I get taught the stuff I need to know, I'll have been taught the stuff I need to know"?

I never said i actually have the certificates, but as i can do all the stuff on cytech 2 and some of the stuff on cytech 3, i might as well be... So when i actually go on the course, i have enough skillz to pass it without them telling me much sorta thing.

[Mark W]

But yeah, what I'm saying is that the wheel building shit is the really basic, basic shit, and that's what they expect you to know for Cytech2, so if you don't know that but think you're Cytech2-worthy, you aren't? Again, I'm not putting you down or anything, but when you keep changing what you have/haven't got and can/can't do, it kinda leaves things a little up in the air when people read posts from you. Equally, saying stuff like thinking a wheelie shows you whether a suspension setup is stable or not also makes me slightly question whether you'd be that good at servicing all different types of shocks and forks, which you'd also need to do for Cytech3?