best bike item of 2014?!?!

Carbine

My plane ticket to Israel. Great riding, friendly people and a good riding scene, would love to go back.
Places trump products for me these days. Using a Garmin more has helped there, a product for finding more places really.
Some good new kit this year though, fave is Nano 40C tyres on the CX bike. SRAM CX11 is cool. SP dyno hub, Edelux II light and a USB-out on the road-tour bike isn’t new but new to me, impressed. My MTB hasn’t had anything significant changed.

I’m going to check on CRC to see if they sell a tool that helps me put my head up my arse, but also increases my condescending ego ability. Save me spending any more money on coaching with Jedi.

Euro and alpin you are really making my point for me. Unless you are winning world cups I think you might be overestimating how good you are.

I don’t get it. I’m not talking about how awesome/average/crap i am. I’m saying that it is possible to become one of the very best without coaching. Do you recognise any of the 4 bike riders i posted on the other page? (i would have posted more mtbers but i don’t know much about them tbh). I could fill the forum with images of very talented riders who have had no coaching and that’s the point i’m (badly) trying to make. If it’s possible to become Mat Hoffman without coaching then is it not possible to become 5% of Mat without coaching?

So, if you want coaching, go for it. It can open up a whole world of fun. But try and remember there was a time, long ago, when there were no bicycle coaches and cyclists got by just fine.

Thomson dropper, easy.

For me too. First dropper I’ve had (reviews of reverbs put me off the idea for a while), but it’s been excellent and oozes quality.

Dropper posts in general are a great addition to any bike.

Another vote for 1×10 and NW ring. I like!
I would also happily throw more money at The Jedi. No matter how long I have been riding, skills coaching showed me some basic but essential changes to my riding style that increased my confidence, gave me a whole new set of challenges, even on trails I’d been riding for years.

Lay down £1000’s on a new bike, makes sense to spend a fraction of that on your own skills.

It’s about enjoyment at our level. If coaching improved your riding by 1% and enables you to enjoy it more then it’s good value. I’d wager some good instruction would improve any of our riding by a bigger margin than a pair of £200 Syntace pedals…..

i dont know why people want to learn how to jump, just find some where and practice. i would say 99.9% of use would make a lot better riders if we learnt how to corner, brake and learn lines better. just saying like

Jumping is fun though. 🙂

Better doesn’t always mean faster…

alpin – Member

i’m sure spending some time with people that can jump would be just as beneficial as paying for a coaching session.

As long as they’re people who can both clearly understand what it is that they’re doing, then explain it in a comprehensible way. This isn’t really that common- the amount of well meaning crap advice I’ve had from skilled riders probably outweighs the good.

It’s still not a bloomin item though

Zefal HP-X pump. Big, heavy, pumps tyres up quickly and perfect for life on my winter roadie. That fact it looks good in a retro kind of way is even better.