I'm an ex Xen and Hex owner who recently bought a Phase. It is a great fitting and well ventilated helmet, well worth the ££. Try fleabay btw, I got mine for £45 delivered.
I have both Flows and 819s. The 819s feel a bit stiffer than the Flows but burp air sometimes (even with UST tyres) when running lower pressures where the Flows do not. I like the profile and stability the wider rims give tyres so if I was buying again, I would go Stans.
Yep mine creaks constantly. If you look over on MTBR.com there are a lot of creaky DW Turners not just spots. I took the links to bits and put anti sieze compound on as per D Turners advice which cured the creak for about 2 rides. Apparently revised links are being sent to owners with persistent problems.
I rode there last weekend too and enjoyed it. However, a lot of the trails are almost unrecognisable since the tree felling and there are still diversions in place. My last visit prior to that, was about a year ago and the trail conditions were awful so I avoided it till now despite it being quite local.
Will be visiting it more often this year i think :D
I just sold my combo :( Owned it for a year but decided to get a big estate for a little more comfort on long journeys. I’m issing it already, its a fantastic little van, cheap to run, super practical and surprisingly fun to drive. You will not regret the purchase!
Problem on Rebas too, I got a set of 2009 replaced on warranty for the same issue. Well known issue over on http://www.mtbr.com, its apparently a problem with the castings on the lowers.