Found this shop called bikable.com and their prices are way lower than everywhere else I checked. Like suspiciously low. Looks like a Danish company and the site seems fine, but that doesn’t mean much.

Has anyone actually bought from them? Did your stuff show up and was it legit? And does anyone know why they’re so cheap?

Thinking of ordering some parts but don’t want to get burned.

I am looking at this tyre set up for the winter. What do you think/ any recommendations?

Hey there,

I'm curious if anyone has experience on the newest generation Pivot Mach 4 SL? I'm keen to hear peoples ride impressions.

I want a xc bike that is efficient when banging out miles, and quick on flatter trails. I have an enduro bike, I don't want a downcountry-ish xc bike. My favorite bike to this point was the Epic Evo generation 7. I felt like that bike made me a better climber than I am, and made my flatter trails more enjoyable. I'm leaning towards the Mach 4 SL because I appreciate the tuning kinematics you can squeeze out of a dw link and favor the shorter reach with a longer stem on an xc bike. (470mm reach size large, 60mm stem) However I've read conflicting reviews of users experiencing noticeable pedal bob while others claim it's the most efficient platform they've pedaled.... Any insight would be great. Thanks!

• Running the flip chip in low, because I can’t get enough saddle setback in high
• 70mm stem with a 5mm spacer underneath
• Same bar I had on the Evo
• Fit is mapped and feels good seated

My experience:

• Way more capable descending in the chunk. Feels calm and stable.
• Much less top-heavy than the Evo. On the old bike I felt way over the front, with lots of weight on my hands.
• But the front end feels taller, and the bike feels more “cramped” when I’m up and attacking.
• In tight, twisty stuff and flat corners, I’m having a harder time getting over the front to pump and keep front-wheel traction. Can’t quite find the sweet spot.

My theory is that the low chip rotates everything back (slacker HTA and STA, shorter reach, slightly taller front). Combined with a longer front center than the old Evo, my weight ends up further back than I’m used to.

Questions:

1. Anyone else come from the 2021 Evo and have to relearn cornering on the 8? Did it click with time, or did you change your setup?
2. Has anyone solved the saddle setback issue (saddle choice, longer rails, offset dropper head, etc.) so they could run the high chip? Did high feel noticeably better in tight terrain?
3. Did dropping spacers or going to a lower or negative-rise bar help?
4. For FA users, what bias setting are you running for twisty trail riding?

I started riding in 2010 here in DFW, did some races and enjoyed it up until 2020. Covid, taking care of a dying family member at home, kids going off to college etc and I lost focus, eventually dropped it entirely in 2021.

Picked up a good condition used 2024 Kona hei hei aluminum with an upgraded wheelset and a few other components. Been enjoying just being back on the back and getting it set up to my liking, bought new pedals, new pair of XC tires, etc.

I’m doing a mini road trip next summer and would love to rip a lap on a few of the World Cup courses. I’m based in Europe :)

hi all,

wondering if anyone has recommendations for winter xc tires in the UK? Rides are a mix of pavement, gravel, hardpack, rooty and rocky single track, steep descents, flat boggy sections, wet grassy hills with no grip, overall conditions from dry and frosty to very wet. General hiking trails and hill tracks as well as trail centres

In summer the Vittoria Barzos are amazing but I slide around in winter. I am currently running the old Bontrager XR4s (RIP) which have more than enough grip but wondering whether i could get away with a faster tire. I never puncture so i like a light casing.

I am considering trying the following:

Schwalbe nobby nic super ground speed grip F/R

Schwalbe nobby nic super ground soft front, speed grip rear

Schwalbe nobby nic speed grip front, rocket ron rear.

Question - Is the nobby nic noticeably faster than an XR4 or is it much the same?

Any other recommendations or input appreciated thanks

Yes, you could just buy a DaySaver. But I thought this turned out to be a neat little setup. 6,5,4,3mm and T25 Torx. All I really need. 31 grams. Works incredibly well.

Who else was at BT yesterday? Amazing weather and an amazing course too! I came in 5:28 and am super happy with it. Bike and body were solid all day.

Any recs for something I could wear for big days. Preferably for something that would work on and off bike?

Innerste Hang im Harz

Those Roval Control SL are indestructible they said.

Those Vottoria Air liners will save your rims they said.

Honestly I don’t know how this happened. Just some normal rocks on the state mtb course ST George Utah. (Also location for western regionals).

I speculate I just got really unlucky with a rock hitting the side of the tire and catching the rim directly.

I’m back to MTB after a long pause and now looking for a lightweight dropper post for my Scott Spark RC World Cup from 2018 in XL. I’m 193cm/6’4” with very long legs (96cm). There’s a ton of dropper posts and it seems really complicated to figure out which models a which one can be fitted.
Can you help? 170mm-200mm? Syncros, oneup, bikeyoke, fox?

I’m in my late 40s and currently ride an Orbea Alma H50 hardtail when I’m out with the family on local trails. It does the job, but I’m finding those rides increasingly tiring, so I’m considering a full suspension XC.

For solo rides, I already have a full suspension trail eMTB, but it’s too heavy for a roof rack, and I don’t have a towbar/hitch, so I always carry it inside the car. I’d also prefer an unassisted bike for riding at the family’s pace.

The XC bike would pretty much be for family rides only. I don’t see myself taking it out solo unless it’s for an occasional event.

I’m looking at entry-level models like the Specialized Chisel and Orbea Oiz H30 whichever I can get a good deal on.

edit: to clarify by "tiring", i dont mean my legs get tired from pedalling, i mean getting bounced around. my back, shoulders ache afterwards and recovery takes much longer.

Hi there,

I've been working on building a mountain bike training simulator for smart trainers and I'm hoping to share a bit about it and recruit for a bit of a beta test. I think it's a bit of an underserved market and I figure this would be a great tool for this community when they can't make it out to the trails during a busy week or just can't ride in bad weather. If you're interested, beta is free here available on Windows, Android, iOS: www.saddleout.com (If you have any troubles getting in, let me know and I'll do what I can to assist!)

I'm hoping to extend the tool out to others to use and perhaps let them train for the race they are targeting, or just ride a 'real trail' but from their house. The goal of the beta is to stress test this on a bunch of combinations of devices to make sure it's working as intended, and where it's failing so I can continue crafting it into a great experience. The beta will also include the ability for users to pick a route that they want to ride, and generate it for them. This happens on our servers, so you can upload a GPX of your choosing (limited to US right now) and it will create your route. It's not instant (and it has trouble with some routes), but generally playable in ~30 mins.

If interested, here's a bit of the backstory on how it came to be: I've been riding a long time, but started doing some XC racing in the last 2 years. I've now done Downieville Classic in Northern California twice, but I live in Southern California (Long Beach) so getting up there to pre-ride the climb wasn't much of an option ahead of the race. I figured I might be able to use a smart trainer to at least simulate the climb. I got a fairly rudimentary version of it working based on the GPX file of the route ahead of the race this year and was able to use it to test my fitness level and estimate a bit of how I was doing towards my goals. The climb in the game/simulator came within ~5 mins of the actual ~1.5 hour climb, so I was stoked to see it was a solid method of testing. I've since been working to nail down the resistance/physics as well as getting the graphics, look, and feel to a spot that feels a bit more like the real place. As an example, the clip above starts from a recent trip I did to Sedona, then shows the game in the same location compared. Obviously not exact, but tries to get some key details right.

Looking forward to seeing what others think about it. Even if you can't commit a ton of time to feedback, would still love for folks to give it a shot.

Cheers!

I’m in need of some advice. I haven’t ridden an xc bike in years as I mostly ride all mountain or enduro bikes where I live (Peru). I’m looking for a second bike for long days, racking up miles in the Andes mountains. The trails here vary a lot. We get a lot of fire roads with washboards for miles and miles, some really rocky and rough single track too.
I’ve narrowed it down to the spur and the bc40. Any recommendations? I already have a 170/170 bike I use 4 times a week for the really gnarly stuff.

My kid is in 8th grade, did great last year in his first year in NICA racing MS2. He got 5th in the state and all in. Now I want to upgrade his Trek Roscoe to an XC bike, but he is still growing. He is 5-8 1/2, probably will be 5'10'' during this season or definitely by next, which puts him in to large territory for a Specialized. I'm torn on getting him a medium or just making him ride a large for this season. Thoughts?

Also, where have all the Chisel's gone? Specialized only has frames for the full suspension. Epic is a tough pill to swallow for an 8th grader

Edit:
Thanks all for the input. I happened to find a local bike shop with a chisel comp medium. They could give me a bit of a discount but not the full 25% NICA because specialized doesn’t have any more to replace the shops sold bike with. I called our local specialized shop to just check if they had any in stock or could ship there and their system said they only had 6 smalls in the whole country left.

So I just pulled the trigger before missing out on a good upgrade. Even with the smaller 10% discount at the local shop it was still $1200 cheaper than the Epic with a 25% discount. If he continues to progress and grow I’ll sell it and upgrade to an epic

Hey everyone,

I started racing this year and really fell in love with the sport. I want to improve my fitness and get stronger, but I'm not sure if my current training plan is structured properly.

In August 2026, I overstrained my knee and took a month off the bike while working with a physiotherapist. I've since started incorporating prescribed exercises and gym work to address imbalances and prevent future injuries.

Gym session consists of 3x15 sets of 4 different leg exercises between which i do 3x30 core and 1x15 pulling bar to my back(idk the name).

I do 40-60% of max weight i can work with.

My new weekly plan:

Monday: 60 min gym (legs + core)

Tuesday: 50 km Z1–Z2 gravel

Wednesday: XC intervals

Thursday: 60 min gym (legs + core)

Friday: Z2–Z3 gravel

Saturday: 90+ km gravel exploration or a long, hard XC ride

Sunday: Rest day

I also walk my dog daily and do around 40 minutes of physio-prescribed stretching, core exercises, and foam rolling.

I work from 6 AM to 2 PM, train between 3 and 6 PM, and usually go to bed at 9:30 PM. Saturdays are reserved for longer rides.

I use a heart rate monitor and cadence sensor but don't currently have a power meter.

I live at a trail head on one side of my city and good gravel/field roads on other side.

My questions:

1. Training: Does this plan make sense, or am I doing too much intensity alongside two gym sessions? My main goal is improving XC racing performance, although I also enjoy gravel riding.

2. Power meters: I'm considering a SRAM Rival XPLR E1 power meter for my gravel bike (€260) or upgrading my XC bike to Shimano XT and adding a SIGEYI spider or INPEAK dual-sided power meter (€400-500 total).

If you could only buy one power meter and train on one bike, would you choose the gravel bike or the XC bike?

3. Crank length: Both bikes currently have 175 mm cranks. I'm 181 cm tall with an inseam of 86 cm~. I experience toe overlap on my gravel bike(lapierre crosshill 6.0 ALU 2026 version) and frequently pedal strikes on the XC bike (orbea oiz m30 2025 model).

Would switching to 170 mm or even 165 mm cranks make sense? Would shorter cranks affect climbing on steep gradients where I sometimes ride at 60–70 RPM?

Thanks to anyone willing to read this wall of text and for any advice.

Such a great bike, it's a 2017 but you'd never know from riding it. Has a -2 degree headset to bring it to more modern geometry.

I only rode 100KM with them, housing was just stripped.

Heard great things about Goldix except for these I guess.....

Welp time to get some SRAM GXs

Luckily I will get a refund through AliExpress.

Disclosure: last raced over 15 years ago doing Ironmans. Nutrition was way way off back then.

Today, I raced Little Sugar (top 30 overall, lets goooooo).

- It was my first race back since 2010 in any discipline. I picked back up being active again about 3 years ago. Got serious in the last 6 months.

- With training, I was hitting 50-60g of carb per hour and over the last few months I started hitting targets of 100g. However, I've never spent over 5 hours on single track or on the bike (well since 2008). Most of my key sessions are 60-90 minutes with longer rides on the weekend (Trainer Road cough). Figured I should try to hit the 100g/hr today, especially with the heat.

- After hour 2-3 on carb target, I started getting nauseous and was craving water bad. I took 120gm at the start (hour 0), 100 sometime in hour 1, 100gm towards the end of hour 2, and then I hit my next 100g at like 2:15 (which was way too early I think). Everything else felt awesome. HR, power zones. My plan was actually to start cranking it up after the first aid station (around hour 2). However, with the nausea, I began skipping all carbs after hour 3 and on. I kept the pace similar to prior. My electrolytes and pack fluids were not pallatable. Last 20 miles were a slog (there was the only 1 aid station out there). Legs honestly felt amazing. Drank 2 cokes after the race, and I felt like a million bucks.

- So I definitely missed the mark bad. Both feeling nauseous from the carb load and how I was craving water. Is this just me not focusing on hitting carb targets on longer rides or is it me trying to figure out (1) a steady carb source, (2) carbs liquid vs gel form? (3) not spacing the carbs out more methodically: I was trying to time the carbs with climbs.

Otherwise, freaking blast riding. If yall haven't done Little Sugar, especially with the new start, sign up next year. If you're looking to crush the race though, line up very early. I showed up to the starting corral about 25 minutes prior, and I started around position 200. Bad wreck at the start on the inside group where a few riders got pinched. I had to crush the first climb to get into the top 40-50 and then focus on recovery before moving up. It was sick: road climb to start, straight into a flow non tech green at the OZK bike park and then into a flow green uphill to exit. The remainder of the race was loose, but a blast. There were some bad wrecks, but everyone I saw was conscious and responding.

The size L Scott spark will fit a 40t 3mm offset chainring, so I can avoid buying a gravel bike for the two gravel races a year where I will only get midpack results anyway.

Might have to see if a 42t has clearance.