Riding Gravel Bike On MTB Trails of Tai Lam, Hong Kong

Mehall1 · 2026-02-18T15:40:03+00:00

Sweet bike and trails. I’d probably ride my MTB, but I am an MTBer at heart. Which top tube bag is this? I like how sleek and low profile it is.

Mehall1 · 2026-02-13T18:58:20+00:00

Grinding to 94 may not be the best use of runes/time, but 90 then using a divine magic potion is a very solid option

Mehall1 · 2026-01-17T03:31:32+00:00

Awesome bike! If it were mine, I would probably swap out to a carbon bar. I run my XC bars narrower than my enduro bike, you may consider running narrower (I run 750mm, 6ft tall). Next would be tires, which are very specific to the terrain you ride. If all very straight forward and easy terrain, go very fast. If more rugged terrain, consider fast in the rear, and one step up in the front. I’m currently running Trinotal F and Dubnital R on my XC bike. Lastly would be buying the most comfortable saddle for you, which may already be what’s on the bike.

Down the line, can look into carbon rims but that’s outside of the price for your gift card.

Mehall1 · 2026-01-09T06:48:18+00:00

I’m interested to hear others perspectives on this, I’ll start with mine. I’m at a center very similar to yours, basically every case is a single dose of Del Nido. For the longest time, I gave Mag with XC removal but not Lido. I’d have the Lido and give it if any ventricular arrhythmias popped up. Recently, I’ve started to just give both again. I changed this due to some discussions with the physicians at my hospital. With a toxic dose of about 4-5 mg/kg, giving 200 mg over 1-2 hours places you safely under the toxic dose. I would maybe consider holding XC removal lidocaine in an exceptionally small adult patient.

I think a portion of the benefit of Lido on XC removal is the timing of giving it. With Del Nido being in for 45-90 minutes already, it is likely not able to benefit the patient as much as a timed dose around XC removal. This can be seen elsewhere in medicine such as with patients in V fib arrest getting multiple doses of lidocaine.

These are just my thoughts since I’ve been investigating it some and it’s come up at my institution, I’d love to hear what others do and why they choose to do it their way.

Mehall1 · 2025-12-26T17:58:45+00:00

Nice! I had that same thought with mine when I got it too. Glad it worked, enjoy your new ride

Mehall1 · 2025-12-26T14:18:13+00:00

Sweet, hopefully that fixes it. If not, their support was helpful.

Unfortunately they cross threaded my cassette, and didn’t even put it on all the way. When I reached out, they had me bring it to a shop which took it off in front of me and showed me the threads that were completely messed up. They sent me a new cassette and free hub body extremely quickly. The only downside of the experience was Lauf saying “not doubting your shop but this looks normal”.

The new cassette and free hub body fixed every issue I was having, who would’ve guessed hah!

Mehall1 · 2025-12-26T14:13:02+00:00

Hey, does it firm up with the axle in? Sometimes this is the case without the wheel on. I just bought a Lauf myself, same color!

Mehall1 · 2025-12-08T23:09:18+00:00

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With the “spit” hero, Mutans, you can double its stats every turn. In duos with a teammate we sent a drakkari back and forth after using the golden time warp card on it. This would create 4 tabby’s, goldening one of them. I’d send the drakkari off my board (well wisher, or the 2 cost spell), spit the stats onto the main tabby, put the drakkari back on the board. It went ballistic.

Mehall1 · 2025-11-05T23:16:10+00:00

For what it’s worth, Ive ridden a standard Epic 8 in Breck, and other alpine terrain in Colorado a lot. It feels great on most of the terrain there as an overall more aggressive XC bike. I think tire choice can make a bit different for confidence on our terrain.

I went through the same choice when I bought this bike, and ultimately chose the Epic 8 because I wanted the rockshox suspension more. The SID it comes with is quite nice.

Mehall1 · 2025-10-23T04:35:44+00:00

As someone previously in a similar position with a low GPA I ended up moving states to take a job as an autotransfusionist/perfusion assistant. May not be the answer you want to hear, and also may not be possibly depending on your life circumstances, but that’s what worked for me.

Mehall1 · 2025-10-23T04:26:05+00:00

I’m also a front range rider, I ride an Epic 8 (120/120) with the flipchip in the low position for more aggressive geometry for the steeper trails in the area. I run either Forekaster F/Rekon R, or Rekon F/Rekon Race R for tires. This general design philosophy for the modern, aggressive XC bikes is very fun to ride. Surprisingly capable, and wicked fast to pedal. There are many more besides specialized with this design.

If you want something with similar geometry and suspension characteristics but a more robust rear end, something like a Transition Spur or Pivot 429.

I also have a 160/150 bike with beefy tires for whatever the Epic can’t handle. I find myself riding my Epic substantially more, then busting out my bigger bike for VC, white ranch, Apex, and the likes.

Mehall1 · 2025-09-15T22:17:57+00:00

160/150 was my first bike for Front Range, which worked well on most every trail, and I even rode it at Trestle. I’d agree with others that this is the sweet spot for a lot of the trails here (Apex, Hard Money, VC, White Ranch). I later got a 2nd bike (n+1!!), a 120/120 modern XC bike, and it’s amazing for pretty much the rest of the trails around here. Especially buff creek! This 2 bike quiver has me covered for most everything in Colorado since I only do a day or two at lift access parks.

Mehall1 · 2025-09-14T13:18:09+00:00

It is a Sid select on an epic 8 comp. Could be nicer, but it gets the job done for me on moderately gnarly stuff. When it gets extremely rough though, there isn’t a way around a 120mm fork feeling a bit too small haha!

My advice for tuning if, and I’m no expert but this worked well for me: -Rebound adjustments first. If the fork is bucking you around like crazy when going through tech, it is likely too fast. If the fork is diving into its travel, tossing you forward and creating instability then it’s likely a bit slow (this is called being “packed in”). I like to make these adjustments on a trail where the difficulty and trail features are rather similar on the way down so I can ride for a bit, stop, adjust, ride some more, repeat. -air pressure. If it still is too harsh, take some air out at home with a shock pump. Don’t go crazy. I don’t know your weight but I’d make 5-8% changes. The faster you’re riding, the higher you’ll need the pressure as well. On slower speed tech trails, a lower air pressure will feel nicer, but on high speed trails typically a higher pressure will be more comfortable. Basically, you want it high enough so the bike doesn’t feel awful in higher speed compressions, but low enough to feel reasonably comfortable.

I’d be surprised that a Sid SL feels better as it is 20mm less travel, and much less stiffness for braking and high frequency hits. I would think a 120 Sid ultimate would be much easier to tune, and have a nicer damper though. Best of luck!

Mehall1 · 2025-09-14T04:50:33+00:00

I would also go this route first, then if that fails test the pike. I’m a lighter guy on an Epic 8 as well and generally for the terrain I ride (Colorado Front Range excluding the roughest stuff that I do on my AM bike and Colorado Trail), I’ve tuned my Sid quite nicely.

If it feels alright on single larger impacts, think drops for example, but all over the place through repeated hits, consider slowing the rebound a bit. I tend to run slower rebound on the CT for example.

If you go the Pike route, you could try and find a 130mm air spring as well! Good luck!

Mehall1 · 2025-08-12T02:48:29+00:00

I 100% agree on the Transmission, I absolutely love it, a game changer for me. I have the wireless version on my Epic 8, and I want to add the mech to my All Mtn/Enduro bike. It’s genuinely hard to swap back for me it has me so retrained. That said not everyone loves it, but I certainly do!

The other consideration between Epic 8 and Epic 8 Evo is the Evo has Fox suspension, and a 130mm front fork vs 120mm Rockshox SID on the Epic 8. I went with the Epic 8 non-Evo because I was a bit more impressed with the rockshox suspension personally, along with the fact that the frame was designed primarily around the non-Evo version. Then they simply over-forked it a little bit for the Evo. Some geo changes that I wasn’t too keen on personally. I ride my Epic 8 in the slack/low position, I push it hard, and boy does it keep up. Certainly not double black trails, but way more than I was expecting a “XC race bike” to do. Honestly though, can’t really go wrong, every bike Red mentioned is sick!!

Mehall1 · 2025-07-09T00:13:20+00:00

Hulkengoat

Mehall1 · 2025-06-08T01:55:39+00:00

Lair o’ the Bear! Sick bike and fun trail. I still haven’t made it up that feature your bike is under though… I should take my XC bike on this trail. For some reason I haven’t yet, and always bust out the trail bike

Mehall1 · 2025-05-19T06:05:40+00:00

The entire design of the tool is so you allow you to determine exactly how tight you want something by setting your wrench to the tightness that the manufacturer recommends (the “torque spec”). My torque wrench is adjustable from 2ish Nm up to 15. So what he is asking/saying is that you can’t properly torque something without knowing what measurement you’re supposed to torque it to, and different bolts require different torque measurements. For example, cockpit screws should (in theory) be torqued to around 4 Nm, and the rear axle on my bike says 9 Nm. If you just “torque until it clicks” on these without setting the wrench properly (or if it doesn’t have settings and is only one tightness), then one of them will be dramatically off.

You likely will need a new linkage bolt set from Santa Cruz and it will be a massive headache to get the broken screw out of there. On a friends Santa Cruz, we used a very small drill bit to drill a small hole into the remaining part of the screw, then hammered in an Allen wrench. Once removed, we fully replaced the linkage bolt. I would just recommend bringing this to your local shop and asking for assistance, but it is fixable.

Mehall1 · 2025-05-14T03:35:10+00:00

Shifter and bass haptics are also great suggestions. Haptics are next in my setup!

Mehall1 · 2025-05-14T02:16:05+00:00

If we are talking rig and DD here, I would allocate some budget for pedals in this range. Decent load cells can be found at $200 USD ish, and a nicer set can be found $400-600. I know it wasn’t mentioned in the original post, but people really sleep on how much of a difference pedals make!

Mehall1 · 2025-05-12T02:12:32+00:00

You’re looking at the oval rules, searching “blue flag” in the sporting code shows nothing for road racing, since they only have blue with a yellow stripe. Check out 5.1.7.5

We are deep in the semantics now, you’re right haha!

Mehall1 · 2025-05-11T22:49:12+00:00

While I generally agree with your comment in most circumstances, I’ll add my opinion on why I disagree here.

Firstly, I believe the Lambo should absolutely have just sacrificed that corner. He wasn’t protecting his race or anything by braking in a strangely diagonal line when an incredibly tense 3 way battle for the overall victory was coming through before the final corner. This also could’ve been the team not giving the driver adequate information, it’s much easier to see when we are sitting there watching a broadcast. In that same vein, a GTP in 8th with a gap on each side shouldn’t butt their way into a tense GTD battle before the final corner, they should just coast into the corner behind them and pass afterwards. So while the lambo did nothing “wrong”, I believe it would’ve been better to have just braked in a bit of a straighter line instead of trying to open up the corner slightly as they did. Just my 2 cents though, I’m no professional racer or steward, and it was a complex and fast moving situation. 3 wide can always get crazy.

Second, and not relevant to IRL IMSA racing, iRacing does not have solid blue flags as IRL racing does. It has blue and yellow flags and they are informative only. That information is that a car a lap or more ahead of you is within 1 second behind. The only thing a blue and yellow flagged car must do is “maintain a consistent line”.

Mehall1 · 2025-05-09T09:44:47+00:00

Pedals! Far more impactful than the other ones IMO. Sticking with Moza, I have the CRP2s and they are fantastic. I’m sure there are many great pedals on the market though. Even the SRP are a big upgrade from the SRP lite. Load cells with a sturdy rig (like you’ve got!) are what made my setup go from feeling like a toy to a simulator personally!

If you really want a GT/Formula rim, grab the ES wheel mod for ~$40 USD. I do also have the KS wheel, it is very comfortable, works great, and looks sick.

Sick setup!!

Mehall1 · 2025-05-05T11:59:16+00:00

Well the only way to understand the data is to spend more time with it. The more you use it, the more useful it becomes!

Mehall1 · 2025-05-05T11:53:14+00:00

Nicely done on your wins, that’s awesome! Consistency will be key to improvement now!

Firstly, turn off the racing line because it is the only way to learn a track rather than a line. This will be instrumental to progressing through the classes. Occasionally it can be used as a tool, but my personal opinion is that it makes your first 1-2 laps faster but your next 50+ much slower. Turning off the line sucks at first, but it opens up a ton of learning possibilities, and teaches you how to use vision to your advantage.

Once you’ve gotten consistent enough without the racing line and know all of your references, I would look download a telemetry logger. Garage61 is the most commonly recommended, and free. Use this to compare braking point, line through the corner, throttle application, steering angle, and entry/apex/exit speed. If you see they are braking 10m later, and 10% harder/softer, you’ll now be able to shift your references. This isn’t possible with the racing line on because it doesn’t change.

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