Ordered several sets of these a while back for spares. £20 was always going to be OEM, but that mostly comes down to having no box. Mine have alloy end caps, and the cleats the come with don't have the useless 'winglets' on them that the after market version do.

The Krysium Elite are fantastic wheels; strong enough for even the biggest rider, light enough for everyone else.

Merida own the factory in which the Boardman/Carrera bikes are made, so no doubt it also pumps out some Spesh and the like too.

Boardmans look to be fantastic VFM, the £1000 carbon road bike and cross bike are both amazing for the money. I'd be a bit wary of their full suss though.

Interesting to see an alloy stepped post. The reason I was asking is that the carbon version has a habit of snapping.

And I thought my winterbike was excessive! At least I have an SLX chainset to bring reduce the shine on the surrounding hand-me-down XTR.

Interested to know how the frame lasts.

The seatpost you are using there: Is that a carbon one with a step-down in size halfway down?

I've had one shifter go like this, handily it decided to do it both times while I was racing, ended up being stuck in the big ring.

Shifter got moved to the training bike, and oddly hasn't been a problem since.

Is 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' worth a read?

Had a VW Polo (3dr), was pretty awkward to get a single bike in, lots of indents in the internal space due to the way the rear end is designed.

Now have a 2003 Fiesta, a far better car for getting the bike in. Being a 4dr I can put a single bike in upright in the rear passenger seatwell without removing of folding the seats. A tarp stops the car getting manky, and the wheels can either sit on the back seat or in the back with the luggage.

If I need to take two bikes, the seats fold flat pretty neatly, leaving plenty of room for 2-person weeks of luggage and camping kit.

Minion F+R.

I think most tyre geeks will mix and match tyres to get the best combo for specific conditions, especially true with those that run Maxxis tyres.

Most people don't worry about it too much though.

And I meant to ask, don't Campag void the warranty if you off road their kit?

I would doubt it, seeing as the sponsor several pro CX teams.

Twitter has a 40% retention rate apparently, users who create an account and keep using it.

I find it very useful, especially for communication between the small software development communities I'm part of, and for keeping up with bike industry bods.

It's usefulness is a matter of opinion, I personally follow no celebrities as that's a complete waste of time.

Same applies to 10spd Campag chains. PITA the join.

Someone did make a quicklink for them, may have been KMC. Whoever it was, they stopped making them, so I bought a mini stock to carry in the back pocket.

At home I have a Park Master Chain tool, so no real issues.

Instead I use the Ti-Ni KMC chains with a KMC link – very bling. The only non 11spd Campag chains I think.

Veloce is still 10speed, and old-new-stock 10speed of al varieties is still widely available.

Campag levers feel solid on bumpy hard stuff when you're covering them as the main lever doesn't move, Shimanos can feel a little unsafe in some situations. Which makes them seem ideal for cross, but I got mud in the thumb shift mechanism and they failed, so Shimano wins there.

Campag for 'cross is just wrong, even Ernesto himself said so!

Meant to say – I've had really good warranty support from Campagnolo over the years, not that I've had to use it much.

Yes.

+1 on the Campag hood shape.

Less of a issue now seeing as 2009 campag levers and 2009 onwards new shimano levers have converged on a virtually identical lever shape.

Campag stuff tends to look less tatty with usage; there's no lacquer on the levers that is obvious when it rubs off, something I hated with Shimano 105 levers I had.

All comes down to personal preference I guess.

Radars with vented lenses also work well, possibly better due to lack of frame.

Going faster also helps.

Are those brake-bosses specifically to mount the mudguards?

Gaggia Classic +1.

Evans are running a ride on the 27th of this month around that area, £10. Probably a good way to get a taste of the local trails. http://www.evanscycles.com/ride-it/qe-forest-park-stirling-27th-28th-february-2010

Stuff at Go-Ape is crazy good, map of sxc course here: http://www.squadraporcini.com/3.html

Which ones Dougal? Certainly hadn't heard of a particular problem.

No particular problem or model, just lots of failures. Scale (especially the first two years), Genius and Spark rear-ends. Scott seem VERY generous about the warranty though, so they're obviously willing to stand-by their product, and considering the sheer number of these bikes they've sold, they probably have a fairly low incidence rate.

How does it compare to other carbon frames?

All my previous bikes were alloy; an M5 followed by a few different Kona Scandium hardtails. The MSC was the first bike to convince me that carbon might be worth it, having seen Scotts snap left right and centre.

I'm definitely not the right person to be testing them as Nick says, but I wouldn't be riding one if I didn't think it was going to get me through a couple of hours of racing without breaking. If it did snap however, Steve @ MSC UK gives some fantastic support for the bikes, and stuff is pretty quick to come form Spain if he doesn't have what you need in stock.

On the riding front, it's pretty awesome. I give it no special treatment when it comes to picking lines etc, and apart from a few superficial boulder-scratches on the downtube, it's still crack free.

Gee pretty much hits the nail on the head when it comes to my racing approach; no silly stuff, no race-only or silly weight limits.

Andrew – 1140g, but carbon rims that are probably a pain to run tubeless? No thanks.

Jo – He's not even old enough to buy you a drink!

is dougal still on yon msc thing?

Had two options:

– Receive a 2010 one, the only difference over the 2009 being the headset and seatclamp are colour matched.
– Ride the same frame to see how long it lasts.

I went with the second option, saves me a lot of hassle with postage and stuff too.

Here it is, 20.57lbs with a number board.

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As a resident of London I would be quite happy if the 2012 games were not here as would many of my friends.

No-one is forcing you to live in London.

dad was bit poodle bit bearded collie bit springer

Had a bearded collie/springer in the surgery the other day, was apparently beardy + springer mental. Does the poodle in it calm it down a bit?

Overshoes.

1. German Wirehaired Pointer
2. English Springer Spaniel
3. Old English Sheepdog

Forum etc still down.

As far as I can tell everything is on hold. The ongoing clearfell work, and that planned for this year covers most of the forest, and as such much of the trails are likely to be destroyed or at least covered in brash.

I'm moved some brash around to make some bits rideable, but I'm honestly surprised that no-one had got organised before now to do this.

I'm in regular contact with an ex-member of the Blairadam team, and from the gist of it, it all went a bit sour between the FC and thus the members after the race was held there last year. I can't help feeling it's Carron Valley all over again as intimated by DB and DR above.

I'd like to know what's going on, the lack of communication from anyone is slightly annoying.

Juicy Ultimates can be had for pretty cheap at the moment (Fishers are doing them crazy cheap at the moment, so if you get trade prices from somewhere, they are sweetie money).

Love mine, heaps of power.

Blairadam today is very rideable. Frozen solid singletrack, very grippy. Forestry roads very slippy in places due to the ongoing timber haulage.

Same oil levels as 2009 forks.

Left: 93ml in top, 5ml in bottom.
Right: 5ml in top, 5ml on bottom.

Service manual, should be page 7 if it's the same as the copy I have here: http://www.sram.com/_media/techdocs/95-4015-023-000%20Suspension%20Fork%20Rev%20B.pdf

That was asking to be nicked. Gonna buy a commuting hack now?

I love me some climbing, all sorts in fact. Even better when I have someone with me to punish for the company. There better be no dogs, kids, fatties or mincers in my way when I'm raging it uphill on purpose built trails though! Grr, etc.

I'm still a fan of the snow, sorry, it makes a nice change from wet dull dreary weather, even if it does make riding harder.

Same here, not missed a planned day of riding so far this winter. The dog loves the snow too. ;)

The onus currently is on me not to run someone or their dog over, but I think it's a very odd state of affairs to be in when in a place of supposedly targetted-use trails with people of similar interest and competency.

I very much doubt that would stand in a court of law. 'Sorry guv, I didn't see the highly-contrasting n00b who had crashed in front of me until I'd run him over and burst his spleen. Have a bit of consideration for others.

Euro – By your argument it's totally irresponsible to have a dog anywhere.

Mods – Can we make this a sticky topic? It must be asked at least once a month.

Incidently last time I looked an outfit called 'Tarty Bikes' had some singlespeed / trails green hubs availible.

That's because Hope made the stuff too well, and Danny's not been able to break any yet.

Definitely something you should have to earn, not buy.

Fraser Spiers has a good go at attempting to explain why everyone's up in arms about the iPad:

The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS […] The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.

http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html

Spot on I reckon.

tj i think the key is in the 'purpose built cycle trail' bit tbh

So does being on a purpose built trail give you some sort of magic right of way over all other users? If you see a walker, or a horse, or a dog on the trail, you slow down and consider the situation, you don't plough on through then try to take the incident to accident claims when it all goes tits up.

Fair enough on the blind corner thing, but then I've run over weekend warriors who've binned it just after blind corners. There will always be an element of unknown even at a trail centre, and unless the FC ban dogs (which legally they can't do, just like other trail users), then all parties are going to have to take responsibility.

Have hit dogs twice (both times on the Water of Leith) where the owner was not in control of their animal, one time I came off. The worst thing was the dumbass owner wasn't even interested in checking his dog was OK.

Extending leads – Don't get me started.