M&S cover up to £4k replacement value for each bike or collection of parts to make up a bike. There are no limits for the number of bikes you have. If it costs more than £4k you need to add it as a named item and then they screw you on the premium.

Have found Hope Pro3’s with Stans Crest rims to be lightweight and pretty solid. Much less flex than with the older 355 rims. Not much better g/£ in my experience and easy to service.

Conti RaceSports are known if be dodgy in terms of them retaining air, especially through the sidewalls. Have had long conversations with them and despite them ‘not knowing of any issues’ they have changed their website to include quite a heavy caviate for something that’s sold as tubeless

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/general/innovation/racesport_en.html

You might want to check diameter of crank axle. If I recall correctly FSA is oversized so you can’t use Hope or Shimano – Explains why their Megaexo BB’s aren’t competitively priced. I had ceramic BB and got rid of the whole crank rather than pay over £100 for a couple of bearings.

Had first run out on XTR this weekend and only positives came out of it. Went through the XX vs XTR debate for quite some time and thing that was major decider was the crankset – truative cranksets are poor compared to shimano and also limit your bb choices. My personal view is that you have to go a long way to better the Hope ceramic bb and XX cranks require shims which don’t really work.

Shifting is much better than M970 and I haven’t had issues with ratios.

I used the 25mm yellow tape – fitted perfectly when pulled tight when fitting.

Just a couple of further builds on people comments.

The Crest rim isn’t designed to be used with the rim strip, just the yellow tape as the Crest features latest version of the BST. Only meant to use Stans yellow tape, not cloth tape underneath.

If you are getting leakage around the valve stem, have you cleanly filed the tape around the hole (tape should not be pushed through the hole as this will cause leakage, and only tightened the value nut finger tight.

Been using Crests for about 5 months and much easier than 355’s before that. Never used a tire lever on either rims if you seat tire in the groove as people mentioned.

C.

If you want Conti Race Kings but with grip try the new X-Kings. The RaceSport version is tubeless compatable so has a less porus sidewall and a UST bead. Biggest plus though is Black Chilli compound which offers amazing grip and less rolling resistance so win win. 2.2 comes in at just over 500g.

If you’re running tubeless I’d recommend 2 scoops of sealant.

Run Crests day to day and 355’s on spare wheel set, both without any problem. When I bought latest wheel set I considered the Alpine rim, but the marginal weight saving seemed too much of a compromise. Can highly recommend the Hope factory wheel sets, super light, strong and very good value for money. Have two sets of Pro 3 SP XC3’s and would buy again. Even with just 24 spokes, they hold up very well, even in Lakes etc.

Had no problem with tires on the Crests, latest Conti X-King 2.2 Race Sports went on easy, as did Race Kings – not used a tire lever once.

I clarified this with M&S last year when I built my latest bike. Any number of bikes with a individual value not exceeding £4k are covered no worries. The question I raised with them was around building a bike with a combined value of all the parts in excess of £4k but no single part more than £2.5k – this would NOT be covered as it would be termed a collection unless it was added as a specified item and additional premium paid.

Another thing to note is that the value of a bike (or sum of it’s parts) is its RRP / replacement cost and NOT what you paid for it, i.e. if you have a £5k bike that you paid £4k for in a sale, this bike would NOT be covered unless you declared it as a specified item and paid an additional premium.

One more thing to note on the additional premium with M&S, you have to pay to insure the full value of the bike, not just a top up on the amount over £4k, so it does get quite expensive.

Access was always possible – they have created a path beneath the dam wall. It’s very easy to miss though. From the road side enter via the car park, and from the other side, go behind the small building on the edge of the dam wall.

Had one for just over a year now and no problems at all. Guess the whole mud things depends on your approach – yes the interior is a bit plasticy but that make it easily washable. Like other guys have said, you’ll get three bikes in the back with wheels no worries, and if you need the extra height, you can remove the false floor.

MPG is good, servicing value for money (first service was just over £200)and does what it says on the time. For outdoors stuff is perfectly utilitarian, and best of all not prisy or overly aerodymanic at the back of the car so you can fit tones of gear in. Freelander was just too prisy and looked like it didn’t want to get muddy on the inside. I have one of the boot liners which makes washing out easy, and just put a plastic sheet over the rear seats.