to be fair, dropper post is a must for trail riding. I cannot imagine riding without one today. Some new stuff are worth the money to upgrade, but not all of course. I have a oneup chainguide. Hardly any chain drop unless its really muddy or the chain is dirty.

I don't XC trails with ride high speed flats or road so I can be biased. I really feel 2x is not necessary for trail riding. No need for the extra weight and checking whether you are in the right gear or not. Just one shifter to think about if you need to climb, ride on flat or point down. If it suits you and your regular trails then of course no issues la.

I'm a SRAM guy now. Prefer the satisfying shifting feel of SRAM. Shimano just feels so dead to me. Wait till you try AXS though. Brings you to another new world of how you feel towards gears and shifting.

Anything will feel better than 8 speed really. SLX 12spd is a good value buy. Won’t go wrong. You may enjoy the bike even more.

Two things that I can think of is hub and bottom bracket. You will need to change to a microspline hub run any shimano 12spd. Bottom bracket also likely need to change to fit the crankset. Best to ask a shop or mechanic to check for you.

I only ride Kiara but I haven't been riding for months now.

Congrats and welcome to the world of trail riding. The best advice I usually share with anyone asking is to first try to ride trails like KDCF and Kiara to see if it’s really your thing. A lot of people thought that they would like it, but some never go back to trail riding especially after trying out places like Kiara. Lol.

No need to upgrade to a new bike first really. Ride your HT in the trail and see where your current skill level is. HT is the best to start with because you have to do a lot of the work yourself instead of letting the bike do most of it. A lot of trail riding and even DH is also not just about jumps or big air. Best place to start is Kiara because of the different trails and technical stuff there. Riding in Kiara for example will have you experience going down steep sections, drop offs, rocky descents and gardens, high speed corners, switchbacks, climbs, etc.

After a few times in Kiara, you would already know if you like it or even want to upgrade to a nice FS bike. Don’t worry too much about the techniques or skills. You will find that you can learn it in no time by yourself on the trail or by following others. Of course if you want to improve faster, you can get a coach. Most of us learned it the hard way by ourselves, e.g. crashing, putting a foot down, finding the courage to try, practice, etc.

I would recommend buying a complete FS bike rather than building your own for your first FS bike because you probably don’t know what you want yet. Most of the entry level FS bike now at around 5k to 10k is quite decent and good enough to last you for a while. There is a lot of poison in this hobby. After a few months of riding, looking at other people’s bikes and doing your own research, you will eventually discover what you want to upgrade for your bike (or even upgrade to a new one. Lol. ) based on your preference and budget.

Sigh. Good to know. A lot of my kakis are back riding already. Hope to start back again soon when less busy with work and when the covid situation improves. Home minister not very happy if I go riding without a mask. Lol.

not a gimmick for me. been using one for 5 to 6 years now. you will surely feel the difference when climbing, especially on flatter climbs. i'm not a strong climber so it helps me to find a better rhythm and cadence because of how each pedal stroke seems to be more efficient. When i went back to round chain rings for a while, i thought i felt more "wasted" energy when the pedal stroke goes from top to bottom, if you know what i mean. On flats and downhills, no difference or help. in fact, it will feel weird in the beginning.

32t

It's illegal according to JPJ guidelines as the bike cannot extend beyond the width of the car. Only roof rack is allowed. A lot of people use it but use at your own risk. Polis don't really care but they may kacau if number plate is not visible.

Edit: For some weird reason, I didn't see that it was a pic of a pick up truck. lol. Anyways, don't remember if JPJ has a proper guideline for carrying in the bed of the pickup truck. Probably a grey area for now.

This post has been edited by thurtin: Dec 7 2021, 12:43 PM

Roof/boot rack. Best option for least hassle.

If not, can try remove front or both wheels put inside boot/backseat.

nice spez enduro. how is it? do you like it? tried it once just on the tarmac at kiara. the rear felt really planted and plush.

Enduro bike sure heavier la. How heavy is yours?

Climbing will depend mostly on the rear tyre, type of terrain and how strong your legs are.

If you put such as aggressive tyre like assegai on the rear, its great for climbing on wet/muddy trails, but not so good for dry/road climbs because of the width and rolling resistance. If you prefer this and have strong legs, then ok la.

For me I use assegai/aggressor combo. I am not a strong climber. I just want to point the bike down the trail. Assegai in front is wide and grippy, good for making sure I don't slip off roots and rocks that easily. The faster rolling aggressor in the rear helps a lot for me when climbing the tarmac because less drag and going down the trails in Kiara. One trade off of the aggressor is that I can't lock up the rear brakes when going down faster because if I do, the rear will slide all over the place.

29 and mullet (29 front and 27.5 rear) is the trend for now because thats what the bike makers are pushing. Definitely less new and fancy 27.5 only bikes are coming out now, but parts for 27.5 will be still around for while for sure. I am still on 27.5 and wont be changing any time soon because I got no money. lol.

JPJ says its illegal, but most of the time the cops dont really care because a lot of them are cyclists as well. lol. if you want to be safe, get the roof mounted type.

I don't use a bike rack/carrier but my friends uses thule and bnb brands. Can check them out.

Congrats. Nice bike. This is the beginning of the end aka spending more money on upgrades/new parts!

Kinda hard to visualise your seat and feet position based on your description. Can take a pic? Anyways, have you tried it on the trails yet? How does it feel? As long as your feet is almost fully extended at the lowest point, that's ok.

Like many have said here already, the resting position of your leg/knee when in the resting or mid pedal stroke is not that important. What's more important is during the full downward stroke (when leg is fully extended downwards), your leg should be almost a straight line for best comfort and pedaling efficiency. Your toes shouldn't be pointing down (seat too high) or your knee is not really bent (seat too low). If you are still unsure, maybe can bring to the shop again and ask them to help you figure it out.