Buy the no bullshit deore! lasts longer! So what if it takes a hundreth of a second longer to change! Once its in gear it aint going nowhere! 8)

You just come across as a jealous cock Binners! You’re able to call people bell ends because they have a clean, nice bike!?

My bike is expensive, and spotless, but I’ll wager it gets ridden more than yours! I like to maintain it, so it stays working better, why have something nice and trash it?

My bike is expensive, and spotless, but I’ll wager it gets ridden more than yours! I like to maintain it, so it stays working better, why have something nice and trash it?

As Njee says, every sponsored xc racer I’ve been behind in race has been on a spotless bike in fact their drive chains dazzle, as for Binners, he’s Hora’s best friend.

Enough said.

I’m really not jealous. Though i am a cock! My bike was hardly cheap, so I can hardly have a pop on that score. I just find spotless bike’s incomprehensible. It’s inherently contradictory. I know I’ll come back later and my bike will be absolutely coated in crap! Covered! I’m riding on boggy moors and it’s put some serious rain down. I’ll be going out tomorrow to do it again so there’s precious little point in cleaning it. It’ll get a cursory hose down. Mainly because I want to get to the pub to watch the united game 🙂

If your bikes spotless, you must have an awful lot of time on your hands. Life’s too short I’m afraid

I am probably below the STW average in terms of ability. Above the average in terms of age. I like to ride my bike and keep it clean but I don’t wash it after every ride. My bike may be above average in terms of cost but leans against an 18 year old VW Golf worth about a grand.
What does that make me?
I would say it makes me some one that enjoys their hobby to the best of their abilities. It also makes me some one who puts as much cash and time into it as they feel appropriate. But most importantly, it makes me happy.

1 bike has X.0
Another has XT
The third came from the parts bin and Decathlon.
Am I a bell end?

STR – No matter how much you spend on it, it’s still a Specialized

😛

If your bikes spotless, you must have an awful lot of time on your hands. Life’s too short I’m afraid

Not really, but I don’t waste my time watching a bunch of overpaid primadonnas run around for 90 minutes. That’s plenty of time to clean a bike! Life’s too short to fancy a bunch of ‘men’ who don’t even know who you are, I’ll stick to riding my bike, that’s more healthy!

What are these “rear mechs” of which you speak ?

People on this forum really are a bunch of smug tools sometimes

Oh, and…

cynic-al – Member

STR I think you’re a bell end if that helps?

Ha, not really, but made me chuckle. Love you too al

Bike will be filthy later and stay that way until I can be arsed to get it out of the shed again

Still the same bike binners

Houns – mebbe so, they make good bikes 😉

Personally I resent you low life pond feeders who take advantage if those of us who stump up for top end kit. While we have the decency to pay proper money for leading edge new technology, it makes me mad to think tthat, in just a few years time, that technology will have filtered down to the “plebs” groupsets just so the masses can get their dirty little hands on stuff that works almost as well… AND I bet you wont even keep it spotless will you!!!?

SRAM shifters are all shite though, that’s why.

performance, has been said already is just a longevity thing for most. And me.

I never see any one riding 5k bikes where I live to be honest & I’ve never been to a ‘trail centre’… I have been riding off road since mid 90’s though.

I expect that all types of people buy bikes, simple as…

Meticulous bike washing = extra time out from the wife 😉

Erm, what about weight? I know if you’re plodding round trail centres you could argue that it makes no difference, but I’m sure someone racing XC (or even 24s) would rather their bikes weighs the least it can. Thus an XTR groupset would be preferable to a Deore one. Yes, lots of people should lose the gut first etc, but after that?

Erm, what about weight?

Have you seen the iDave diet thread? I don’t think many folk here are looking to save 25g on a cassette for a 24hr solo. 😆

No, you should know that the answer in such circumstances is always ‘have a dump’, it’s forbidden by the leaders to spend money on a light bike unless you have less 2% body fat and even then it’s not worth it 🙄

To get back to the original post…

There is a lot of crap talked about minute differences in performance from one level of kit to the next. I doubt it really makes much odds but if it floats your boat then go for it. There are worse vices.

The thing that irks me is the notion that you can’t do certain things with certain kit. If you’re good enough then your kit is good enough.

Far too many people certainly think bikes aren’t as capable as they really are. Can I ride a trail centre on a 4″ race bike etc. The bigger issue with the OP, which we have picked up on, is the insinuation that X7 is expensive! 😉

If your bikes spotless, you must have an awful lot of time on your hands. Life’s too short I’m afraid

Maybe people like to look after their stuff?

No that’s not allowed, to fit in you have to have a mid-range bike and never look after it. Taking care of your property is unacceptable and a sign of too much time, or someone who never rides. 🙄

The OP does have a massive point, a lot of folk are going to be forced to downgrade as the cost of components inexorably climbs.

Good for them I say.

Thankfully, SLX today is as good as XT was just a couple of years back.

Bike business based around WANT and not NEED shocker.

🙄

Next up – “designer clothes do not make ugly people attractive”, and

“Not everyone is the same” revelations.

uuuuuurgh. Rode a mates bike with X4 the other day. the shifters flex more than than a flexible friend. Felt dirty riding it. SLX all the way for me if im on one of my pansy bikes with gears.

A few years ago, when I worked in a bike shop, I bought some XTR stuff cos I got a big discount on it. M952 rear mech and shifters. I still have them, and the shifters in particular have outlasted XT and Deore ones on other bikes. Actually, the XT ones were a bit crap imo and not as good as Deore!

I dunno. I think the M950 stuff lasted really well, not so sure about more recent revisions. I think when these shifters do eventually die, I’d replace them with XTR again, cos I’d assume the XTR stuff is stronger and more robust than the cheaper bits. Deore and XT mechs don’t last as long as my XTR mech.

So for me it’s about buying stuff that does the job and lasts, and if it means XTR is actually ‘better’, then I’ll cough up for that. If, like Binners, I coon’t actually ride my bike propply and fell off all the time bashing stuff, then I’d probbly just buy Tourney. As regular replacement of anything more spensive would be an utter waste of money.

Front mechs though; I still have the original LX one what came with the bike and is now 10 years old. 🙂 If it ain’t broke, don’t upgrade…

A lot of current stuff is nowhere near as well made as equivalent stuff ten years ago or more though, that’s for sure. It’s meant to wear out quicker so you upgrade more often and the component manufacturers continue making money out of you…

To those that say they don’t have time to clean their bikes; if you have time to fill your fat little faces with a bacon butty and cake at a trail center try using the time to clean your bike instead, you’ll be thinner and you will not end posting on here about how all kit is rubbish and doesn’t last very long

we dont all ride trail centrees and if you think at 10:45 on a cold winter’s night that I am going to spend the next 15 minutes cleaning my bike then you are very much mistaken.
I do clean them I just dont do it every ride

To those that say they don’t have time to clean their bikes; if you have time to fill your fat little faces with a bacon butty and cake at a trail center try using the time to clean your bike instead, you’ll be thinner and you will not end posting on here about how all kit is rubbish and doesn’t last very long

😆

Love it Tazzy, love it.

I’ve just cleaned mine, now I’ve got to decide whether it’s worth taking my X.0 shod carbon bling-machine to Landegla to see how close to the hour I can get on the black, that is if I don’t get held up by lardy, I mean both bike and rider, weekend warriors on their crappy cheap and dirty behemoths.

XT throughout. Harder wearing than XTR. Brakesets on their second bike since 2001. Virtually no maintenance and still going strong.

“Trickling down” some “bling” even as we speak, due to an upgrade to something extremely current, wildly expensive and bling-a-dee-bling-ey…

LMAO at some of these posts.

I ride XT, always have. I trust it as it works for me the way I like. Saying that I honestly recommend SLX to anyone looking to replace parts as it looks pretty damn good value for money.

And I clean my bike after pretty much every ride. Not because I have too much time on my hands (I have two crazy young children) or I necessarily want a shiny bike but because I ride mainly up Woburn and other areas that are full of sand. And that stuff can soon start to cause issues and wear stuff out if it stays on a bike too long.

Cleaning my bike regularly might be the reason I have just replaced my cassette and chain for the first time in 8 years. There is method to the cleaning madness. 🙂

ho mr woppit looking at your bling cast offs as we speak

XT throughout. Harder wearing than XTR

Hmmm. Based upon scientific tests of the hardness and durability of the materials involved I presume? 😉

Extra photos on the way, konadad, just waiting for photobucket to load… 😀

i have a well riden dirty expensive bike…..

Cleaning my bike regularly might be the reason I have just replaced my cassette and chain for the first time in 8 years. There is method to the cleaning madness

yea but you can only get a few thousand if that out of any chain, ride more clean less

Eh?….i’ve had chains last years both on mountain bikes and motor bikes, all depends on how they’re looked after.

Never let it get rusty and cover it with lube/WD40/ACF50/GT85/grease etc and you wont go far wrong.

… And never ride it just to ensure no chain stretch…

Chains don’t stretch.