Give them a shout and ask. If it was us, and we’d sent the wrong colour tape to a customer in Germany, we’d tell them to keep it and just send another (in the right colour hopefully). It may well not be worth their while covering the postage cost back to Germany (which, under EU law, they’ll have to do if it’s their mistake).

Some retailers seem to take the view that they want stuff back as a matter of principle, but if it’s clear you’re not taking the p*** they may not bother.

YGM! Black spokes no problem, total cost about £25 extra @ 40p per spoke.

@Pimpmaster Jazz they’re great – lighter (460g vs 530g) and wider (29mm internal vs 26mm internal) than Flow EX, and they build into a very strong wheel – the rim itself, and the drilling of the spoke holes is asymmetric, meaning you get very even spoke tensions and thus a strong, reliable build. The spoke holes are also drilled at angles which means you get less bending/stress of the spoke at the nipple. We’ve built quite a few now and run a set on one of our demo bikes, and it’s riding beautifully and holding up well to abuse.

@wrecker – thanks for the enquiry. Depending on exactly what you want, from around £400 (that would be silver DT Swiss double-butted spokes, your choice of brass or alloy nipples, delivered to a UK address).

Hope or DT Swiss hubs; Ryde Enduro or Pacenti DL31 rims. Built up by someone who knows what they’re doing, with decent spokes. Bombproof, good weight, nice and wide.

I was going to say XTR Race – I have the trail version and they’re excellent – I’m guessing you lose a bit of power (there’s plenty to spare) and drop some weight – that’d be my alternative to Hope.

FSA have some new high-end disc brakes on the market too and I believe they’re pretty light.

Yes, you’ll be good to go. Enjoy!

Yeah you won’t go far wrong with the above if you want cheap as chips.

27.2mm seat tube or seat post? A 27.2mm seatpost will fit into a seat tube c. 30mm so well within what Hamax recommend. A 27.2mm seat tube means you must be running a very skinny seatpost (no modern MTB and certainly none you’ve listed would be that size).

We’ve fitted Caress seats to MTBs with skinny steel frames running 27.2 posts and they work well. It’s a great product.

Schwalbe Marathon Supremes are very good indeed. Expensive though, especially if you go for the Eveolution Line folding ones. If you’re not spending that much, I’d not bother with the wire bead ones.

Panaracer Pasela are another very good option – nice and light, reasonably puncture resistant, and roll really well.

just trying to help the lad… I’d take the 30% cos in reality theres fek all difference

Yep, fair enough. I’d go for the one at 30% off myself too in all honesty. Don’t reckon my level of performance would justify the saving of 50 grams or so! The SL wheelset is a thing of beauty though, even nicer-looking that the SLRs imho.

Mcconvey cycles av 30% off them at the mo(slr and st)

That’s nice but I think the OP was after the SLs – new wheel which won’t be discounted anywhere by much. Even CRC is only 10% off which presumably many Mavic retailers would consider matching.

What is the difference between the slr and sl?

SL is a new wheel for 2015 – SLR is now discontinued (hence it’s discounted). SL is a bit lighter (uses 4D milling rather than 3D (just don’t ask what the 4th dimension is…) to reduce the weight of the rim without compromising on strength).

Good decision, you’ll enjoy riding it I’m sure.

Ksyrium Elites if you can afford them/justify the cost. Aksiums if you can’t. Very little aero benefit from the Cosmics so I’d not bother with those as a halfway house.

Your lowest gear will be a tiny bit lower than you have now.

Your highest gear will be quite a lot higher than you have now.

The change between cogs on the back will be slightly more gradual (assuming you have 9- or 10-speed at the moment).

The change between cogs on the front will be quite a lot more dramatic that it is at the moment and will probably involve shifting a couple of cogs in the opposite direction on the rear to compensate.

The shifting will feel great! The new 11-speed stuff works incredibly well if maintained properly (and using the proper cables – which many of the OEM bundles you see are not supplied with. If yours doesn’t come with the proper cables, do yourself a favour and get some of the genuine Shimano polymer-coated 11-speed specific cables – it makes a heck of a difference. They’re supplied with the groupset if you get an aftermarket one).

Sorry to hear this. We got two kittens last summer – farm cats “rescued” from a barn – and they’ve gradually settled in and are giving us lots of pleasure. Not looking forward to the day we face what you’re facing right now.

As above, I’m sure you can be proud of the life you’ve given him and 15 years is a pretty decent innings.

Neither. I’d have either Pacenti TL28 or DL31, or Ryde Trace Trail or Enduro. Wider, lighter and every bit as strong.

You can hire a GPS (Edge 800) with the route on, from us, if that helps.

Don’t know about the imba map but I’d probably take gps plus 1:25000 scale os maps, which we also have.

Our ex-hire Genesis High Latitude’s are for sale at the moment – down to £895 from £1499.

Merida also have some deals on 2014 bikes.

As above, you can’t get the parts and I’ve have thought they’d be a bit noodly at that travel.

Pikes definitely the way forward, or stick to 150mm.

We’ve used Easton stems on touring bike builds before – I think they only come in 17 degree rise though.

Ritchey make some nice ones too and they may have higher rises I think.

Failing that something like System EX might be your only option and they’re decent quality though not as nice-looking as a branded stem.

Interesting! We resisted the leopard print ones and have only ordered the solid-colour options. By the sounds of this thread we should have done the reverse…

As above, if anyone would like to demo one we can set up something for you at any of the nearby trail centres, or come here for some excellent natural trails!

If you can’t get to mid/south Wales then give us a shout anyway as we may be able to get a bike boxed up and couriered to you to try out.

Thanks to Alex being the guinea pig we now have bearing kits more readily available!

As above, let us know what helmet it is and we’ll stick the visor in the post.

Why not go for a lighter steel frame? When the frame’s as small as that the difference in weight between top-quality butted steel and aluminium is tiny – the weight will be in the other stuff and if you plan to build it with light kit then there’s no reason you couldn’t make a light bike out of it.

On that note – shameless plug coming – we have an XS Thorn Sherpa ex-hire bike available – could be persuaded to do frame-only or frame-plus-some-bits if that’s any good.

From Manchester via (somewhere) the airline you’re looking at (BA I guess) has lots of competition – e.g. you could also fly on Air France via Paris, KLM via Amsterdam, Lufthansa via Frankfurt – all flag carriers offering a one-stop service (obviously I don’t know where you’re going so those airlines may not fly there/there may be others).

From London non-stop there’s no-one else (or max 1 other option) so less competition = higher fare.

It’s just supply/demand although as you say, from Manchester you are (on the face of it) getting more for less, but when you look at it from the airline’s POV and what price they can command for what they can offer, it makes more sense.

Pike is a good call, easily stepped down to 130 or 140mm. X-Fusion Sweeps would be a good choice too and are more easily adjustable. Depending on when you’re frame’s ready the new Roughcut dampers will be available soon.

We can hire you an MTB tandem if that helps!

Yeah Ardents in 2.4″ are pretty big, and light too.

There’s the black “killer loop” from Talgarth, but that will take less than 8 hours depending on how brisk your pace is. It’s a fair bit longer than the Gap though.

Or combine a couple of routes together? If you have the MTB Brecon Beacons pack you could start in Talgarth, do half of one red loop, link up with the Talybont red and then finish back in Talgarth. That would be reasonably epic.

Hard to see past Shimano – at whatever level/budget – in terms of value for money.

But seeing as the OP asked for best, I’d agree with some of the above and recommend the HT X1.

No difference whatsoever between a 29er wheel and a modern, wide, 700c road rim in terms of size so you can run whatever you like. If you have a super-wide (27mm+) MTB rim it’d be a bit odd (and possibly not very safe) with a narrow (<30mm) road tyre, otherwise fine.

But do bear in mind BB height – going from a 2.25″ MTB tyre to even a 35mm road/hybrid tyre will drop your BB over an inch and pedal-strike may be an issue.

I’d go for a nice wide (35-38mm) folding touring-type tyre if I were you – Schwalbe Marathon Supreme or Panaracer Pasela, for example.

Great – they’re not too badly priced as carbon rims go – and of course you get the backup you want, with them being from a recognised brand.

Assuming you’re after MTB wheels we can do Halo Vapour carbon rims on Hope hubs. Other options available for road/fat etc.

We can also do Enve of course…

Assuming you’re after MTB wheels we can do Halo Vapour carbon rims on Hope hubs. Other options available for road/fat etc.

We can also do Enve of course…

I’m around 6’2″ and would ride either a 19″ or 20.5″ bike from our hire fleet. My own hardtail is a 19″. If I’m riding full-sus I’d tend to go large, rather than XL.

22″ bikes are huge, and I’d generally only suggest that sort of size for very tall folk, 6’6″ and upwards.

But, people prefer different sizes, and different manufacturers measure different things – so hard to say for sure what size you need.

If you were hiring from us, based on your height and no other info, we’d put you on a 19″ though.

Snowbikers is based just outside Dolgellau – on the CyB side of town – and has B&B as well as offering guiding, coaching etc. They’re very hospitable folk, obviously welcome bikes, and serve excellent cake and breakfasts! Highly recommended:
http://www.snowbikers.com/
http://www.coedcae.co.uk/

Pros:

– Tougher – therefore less risk of cutting them in a crash for example
– Slightly less compression therefore marginally better brake performance
– They look good!

Cons:

– Slight weight penalty but we’re talking grams
– Cost £10 per end more
– Less easy to cut if you do need to change length

Overall I’d generally suggest going for them as the cons are pretty minimal.

We’re selling our ex-hire Saracen Mantra Pros for £395. One 17″ and a few 19″ left. They’re in good nick, have been well maintained, and a couple are being sold with brand new wheelsets.

We have an older version in our hire fleet. They’re great. Will be replacing them this year and feel the same as holdsteady about the colours!

Racing Ralphs roll well and give a bit of grip off-road too.