I’ve just bought a second hand Gyro, and am really impressed with it.

Not owned a filing cabinet before, and tbh, had always over looked them. It just rode so much better than any of the other short travel 29ers I tried I couldn’t overlook it. The thing that surprised me most was how light it rides relative to it’s weight. I’ve not had mine on scales, but everyone seems to have them in around 30-31lbs.

I had some long chats with GaryLake (http://www.cyclistno1.co.uk/blog/orange-gyro-mid-term-review.htm) who helped out loads.

I’ve ordered a few M6x20, M6x15, M5x12, M5x15, M5x20.

Will have to find more info on the chainring bolts.

Thanks so far.

How do I establish the M size though?

Also, any thoughts on the chainring bolt size?

The magpie has bitten though… I’m looking at coloured Ti bolts from http://www.pro-bolt.com/

Tempted to get a selection of 12, 15 20mm bolts and return what I don’t use.

The confusion over chain ring bolts comes from them listing 5mm height and 7mm height bolts.

I was up near that weight for a while. My 100-130mm revs on my Soda held up fine. This was 26 though.

Now down near 100kg after a hard 9 months, and the fox fork on my Gyro 29er copes fine. It feels very stiff.

What’s the easiest way to work out what you need to order? I want to put ti and some Ali bolts on mine.

Currently running 180mm and 160mm. Never have an issue with overheating. I’ll keep downsizing in mind, but for the weight saving on offer, there are other components to swap first.

SOAP, you have mail.

bartimaeus, hadn’t seen those before. Will go on the upgrade list for the future.

It means I’ve got an uncut set that I can sell on.

Not a huge fan of the branding, but it looks to fit the bill. Cheap enough that I’d not mind cutting them too.

Toyed with a Renthal 10mm rise @ 740mm as they would be easy to sell on if I wanted to change. Not sure what a 10mm rise would feel like in real world riding though?

My (used, but new to me) Orange Gyro turned up!

Thanks to the guy above posting coffee too, you reminded me to order mine!

Chatting with Gary on email now ;)

I had read your post already and found it very useful. I don’t think there was a huge amount in it acceleration wise, both were notably better than the camber though. I definitely need to get one on demo to see how I get on with it and climbing. I’ve no love for climbs, but I don’t want to be making life too difficult!

I’d have the Continentals off straight away for something lighter and switch to tubeless too. So that would help.

I’m going to get to a few LBSs and see what options there are on a frame build or tweaking a Pro to get the balance. A wheelset under 2kg is going to be important I think.

To update this a bit, took the Camber back last night, the more I think about it the more I think it just felt like a bit of a barge!

I popped into Banjo Cycles in Newbury last night and they let me have a quick peddle on a Whyte T129 and an Orange Gyro Pro.

Both of them felt much more like a 26″ bike than the Camber did, I was very surprised. Ok, there is a big price difference between the two and neither were set up for me, but the Gyro felt very nice after just a lap around the block. The HA is slighlty between that of the T129 and the Camber and it feels to be around where I want it. The Whyte felt significantly cheaper than the Gyro and even though I think it weighs less, felt much slower to accelerate (both felt faster than the Camber though!)

Need to get a demo on a Gyro Pro and see what it’s like to ride properly.

GaryLake, is it your long term Gyro reviews I found online?

I’m about to send a bike with Paisley. £21.50 for a bike in a box. Then £25.99 for £750 of insurance.

I’ve used them a few times for gearboxes and car wheels and they’ve always been fine.

Will see what my few LBS have in and available to try. Thanks for the advice.

Been reading up on the Whyte T129 and quite like the sound of that. The S is all sold out, but my LBS are happy to tweak a 129 to up the spec (basically shifters and brakes)

The problem is that there aren’t any Demo versions available! Does anyone near Reading have a large T129 I could have a quick pedal of?

Anthem X1 was my starting point, but then found out it was going to be incredibly difficult to locate one. Plus, I need to demo anything I buy.

Just reading up on the White T-129s too.

Firstly, thanks to all for the replies, these are exactly the sort of comments I was after. I was sure that a large amount of it was going to be technique and adjustment to the different dynamics of the bike.

My Soda has 100-130mm Revelations on and I quite like them. Not a huge amount of flex and they behave well.

I’m going to take all the comments on board and try again tomorrow to see how I get on.

The next thing is to decide what other bikes I want to demo. Most of my riding is at Swinley, so thats the sort of terrain it needs to be suited for. I am happy to have the balance more towards XC than AM/DH stuff so I’m not thinking I need anything more than 130mm of travel at the most.

Any suggestions for alternatives around the £2500 mark?

I’d love a santacruz, too much money for me at the moment though.

Will look at options from Cube too.

Really not sure what side of the xc/trail line I want to sit. Trying the Camber and the Epic is going to be interesting. Any thoughts on the reba on the Camber?

Wow, the Canyon Nerve AL 29, is amazing value. It’s also sold out!

Pure light weight trail bike.

Got a demo ride booked on a Camber Comp Carbon later this week and will also try the Epic Comp.

Canyon is new to me, will look them up (I’m out of touch with stuff, haven’t bought a bike for years!)

Need to look into it I guess. I could wait until August, but That’s still a fair way off when I want to buy a bike now and enjoy the summer using it!

TFR’s come in varying levels of strength so you need to be careful with what you use.

Someone like http://www.autosmart.co.uk may be worth speaking to.