Uvex have some excellent glasses, several of which are not dissimilar to Oakleys in design but come in at half the price or less.

We’ve had one in on demo – not my size sadly but I’ve had a quick go. Others (customers and staff) have tried it extensively and feedback is very good.

As demonstrated by Manon, “only” having 120mm of travel is a non-issue for most riding. It’s really a very capable bike and very well-designed.

We’ve fitted C17s to our two new tandems (in the hire fleet) which we took out for a test ride last night. As others have said, they feel very similar to a broken-in leather Brooks.

We have demo saddles (and will have a C15 demo saddle soon too) if anyone is interested in trying one – they can be posted out anywhere in the UK for you to try, we knock the return postage cost off the price of a purchase so you can try before you buy at potentially no cost.

Yes, 29″ tubes will probably work fine. 26″ might work better as they’re closer in size. They’re all stretch after all. No, you can’t easily patch them.

Better option would be a 650b tube with some stans sealant injected into it, IMO.

As above, you can bodge a rack onto just about any bike. If I were looking for something that I was planning to carry luggage on, though, I’d pick one that had been at least vaguely designed to do that job and has the right fittings.

Ridgeback Advance would be pretty quick – http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/advance-7-0#details

Thorn know a thing or two about bikes like that and their Audax is a quick bike – http://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/Thorn_Audax_Mk3_lowres.pdf

Something from Genesis could work too, their Equilibriums are comfortable carrying light loads (we’ve toured on them), the CdF/Croix de Fer/931 range would be even better load-carriers but a bit less nippy, and the performance road bikes would probably carry a load better than most full-on-road-bikes and perform VERY nicely.

At first glance I thought that was a Pyga which is what I was going to recommend – their Oneten 29er would be perfect I’d say.

Yeah, it’ll work fine.

If you want something longer-lasting then we recommend Wheels Manufacturing BBs – they use a very good, sealed, Enduro angular contact bearing – seem to run smooth and last a long time.

Not super-expensive either.

Pick your levers and calipers and match them up:

Tech 3 levers – more adjustable, maybe better ergonomics, maybe more powerful
Race levers – lighter, cleaner-looking

X2 calipers – lightest
E4 calipers – more powerful 4-pot design but a little heavier

Any of the levers are compatible with Hope’s SRAM shifter adapter.

1. Hope. Or any bike shop with a Hope account.
2. Any bike shop which sells FSA if you want original bearings. Enduro bearings are better, again any decent bike shop can get these for you.

GP4000S IIs are coming in June in 28mm. For now you can get plenty from Schwalbe (Durano good for puncture resistance, ride quality, and longevity, Ultremo ZX for something racier) or Vittoria.

And definitely no need to run them at 100psi, nor would your rims thank you for it. The whole point of wider tyres is that you can run them at lower pressures with less risk of pinch flats, which leads to more comfort and lower rolling resistance (assuming less-than-perfect tarmac).

The only slight disadvantage is weight, but a good 28c tyre can weigh less than a cheap 23c. And despite the weight, the other advantages almost always outweigh this.

We sell next to no 23c tyres now, 25 for roadies and 28 if they’ll fit.

As above, ISO and JIS tapers are different, you can make allowances by changing to a shorter/longer axle, but just swapping like-for-like won’t work.

Sheldon Brown explains it in detail…

If this happened in our shop, I’d want to know about it and I’d hope that a customer would come back and complain, so we’d have a crack at putting it right.

Which size are you after? I think the 26″ ones are in but the 650b and 29ers might not be yet.

We’ve found x-kings good but you could try a Racing Ralph snakeskin as above or an Ardent or even Ardent Race – Maxxis tyres tend to be tough.

Mavic shoes are pretty narrow if you go for the standard fit.

Or Shimano custom-fit?

Yep, agree with the above, we’ve not come across any reliability issues with the newer hubs.

MP3 is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion, it doesn’t cost much and gives you complete peace of mind that you will be sorted, should you destroy the wheels in e.g. a crash.

I don’t think you’ll find anyone in the UK advertising them below 10% off the RRP (so £594) but if you ask nicely someone might do you a bit of a deal – no-one is going to compete with the Germans on price I wouldn’t have thought but your preferred dealer might meet you in the middle somewhere and you could then take out the MP3 package.

They’re strong, stiff and not too heavy. We have a set on one of our 26″ demo bikes (the wheels themselves are also available to demo). Main con seems to be the cost – but they’re pretty decent value really – and non-standard spoke replacement, but Mavic spokes don’t seem too hard to get hold of these days.

… and Thrustyjust, I am certain that Madison/Shimano will sort out your issues for you, if you get in touch with your dealer.

Funnily enough we’ve just had a customer in with exactly the same issue (on an XT wheelset). He’s had three crack now – and asked me whether we had other customers suffering from this (we don’t).

So I’d also be interested in responses to this thread…

SRAM have stated repeatedly that they will not accept warranty claims on grey imports. They absolutely can trace the origin of all parts via serial numbers. As above though, your contract is with the retailer and if it’s faulty, they are liable to put it right.

Things get trickier if you have a problem more than six months after purchase as it’s then up to you to prove it was faulty, rather than the retailer to prove otherwise.

I would base my decision on whether I thought that the retailer would look after any problems in the absence of support from SRAM and whether you think that you could prove the product was faulty if it developed problems down the line.

How good a deal is it compared with what you could negotiate with a retailer selling an official UK product with bleed kit etc, and SRAM warranty?

Cheers drovercycles, I live in Oxfordshire so might be a bit far for a test ride.

Interested to hear why you don’t think it’d be great as a normal mtb though?

Caveat – I’ve only ridden one for 5 mins around the car park although I’ve ridden a fair amount on the Krampus.

Main thing is just my first gut impression. Maybe partly the bars, which I loved – and would have if I was going to be touring/bikepacking – but I didn’t think they’d be that great for general MTB use (though I’m sure others would disagree on that).

The ECR is (compared with the Krampus) a little shorter, and a little taller in the head tube, so the riding position is a little more upright and relaxed (especially with the bars).

I might feel differently if (when!) I get a chance to ride one properly…

I can vouch for the Genesis steel bikes, we run a fleet of the Equilibrium 20s and I’ve spent a fair amount of time riding one.

As others have said, the headline spec won’t stand up against a carbon/alloy bike in comparison, and certainly not with what you’d get in terms of shiny bits from Planet X or whoever. But they are nice, well made bikes, and ride very nicely indeed. Plus you can get one from your LBS which might be a benefit.

I can recommend both the Pyga and the Saracen – although having dealt with Norco in the past too I’d vouch for their bikes. Test ride as many as possible I’d say!

We have a Krampus demo bike and it is fantastic fun to ride.

I’ve only had a short ride on the ECR but from that, and looking at the details, I think it would be an awesome bike for bikepacking/touring but not as good for singletrack or for use as a “normal” MTB.

It ought to be possible to sort out a demo ride on one if you wanted to.

Agree with the above, the Thule Proride is excellent. We use four of them on the roof of one of our vehicles and they get a lot of action.

Park Tool Event Stand is just about perfect for 4-5 bikes if you just use one (of the two supplied) crosspieces without the connector. Very solid construction, we use them for our hire bikes and they work well.

Your Flow rims need a Tubeless Ready tyre – not UST. So either go for a 2014 model-year Minion and HR2 labelled TR or go for one of the older folding ones not labelled TR and take you chances!

UST = full tubeless standard with super-reinforced bead as used by Mavic etc, both wheel/rim and tyre must be UST to work together. Not all that common these days but Mavic have had UST tyres available for some time and still do them.

Tubeless Ready (TR) tyres will work in a tubeless setup/conversion with either a tubeless ready rim, or a conversion kit (e.g. Stans) or even a non-kit conversion (couple of layers of stans rim tape plus some sealant). Mavic have not officially done TR tyres before this model-year. Any tyre marked TR in the Mavic lineup will be a new (2014) model. Whether there is any real change from their previous tyres is up for debate. In our experience most of their older tyres go up fine tubeless, as do most folding tyres from most other brands. Some need a bit more sealant/rim tape/washing up liquid to help them pop onto the bead.

Surprised CRC could not tell you this…

Sportful do a long-sleeved top called the Pista jersey (also comes in SS and sleeveless(!) versions) which might suit – it’s a lightweight fabric and comes in white, blue and red as well as black. Their kit is nice stuff. Go up a size unless you want shrink-fit!

Rigida/Ryde do some really nice, super-wide, light, 29er rims with offset spoke holes drilled at an angle – should build up into a very strong wheel and give a nice shape to a wider tyre. Have a look at the Trace Enduro 29.

Yeah agree with the above – you are absolutely owed a full refund. No doubt the seller would appreciate it if you checked with your local sorting office (get the ‘phone number on the Royal Mail website) and made sure it wasn’t lying around somewhere at work (if that’s where you got it sent).

If the seller is not a business, and has proof of posting (not delivery), they can claim their costs back from RM. If sent via a business account then they can only claim for loss if sent using a tracked method – but that’s not your problem. Business sellers have to choose between sending untracked (cheaper but you have to self-insure for lost items) or sending tracked (more expensive, but expect fewer losses and can claim when something does go astray).

Either way, it’s not your problem that it got lost. Ask the seller to refund in full once you’ve checked with Royal Mail, and if they won’t, go to eBay claims process. You’ll get a full refund including P&P costs (if any).

We’ve just ordered ours from Massi, through R53 – http://www.r53sport.com/

They’ll do the design work for you if you want them to and from what I have seen the quality looks good. You can have a mixture of styles as above to get to 20 which is usually the min order.

A couple of points to follow up…

Bike maintenance is not rocket science, but neither is it something that every (wo)man and his/her dog can do successfully after watching a couple of Youtube videos. Most shops would not let a junior mechanic at this sort of work without supervision. It also requires some reasonably specialist tools to do a proper job. While plenty of keen home mechanics could do the job just fine, that doesn’t mean that the best thing for the OP is to have a crack himself to save a few quid.

Secondly regarding the recommendations of the European sites for purchase…. Again this might be a good option if you know exactly what you want/need and are happy not to have a full retail product. A lot of what is being sold is (allegedly) OEM leftovers – so you won’t/may not get seal kits, bleed kits etc as you should. It also means that the SRAM tech centre won’t (supposedly) touch it with a barge-pole so you’re left with sending it back to the continent for any warranty/after-sales support. Should the original retailer go bust, you may have no rights whatsoever with SRAM as it’s been bought through an unofficial channel.

This won’t always be the case – I know that some of what comes from these sites is full boxed product. But worth being sure you know what you are getting before deciding that it’s such a bargain.

For some people this won’t matter – for others it will. Worth knowing the full picture before deciding which route to take.

If you were a customer of ours, I’d hope that you would do just that – come and have a chat and let us know what you’re thinking. We certainly wouldn’t hold it against you.

On some things we’d be able to discount a little and meet you in the middle – on others we’d rather you bought online and brought to us for fitting. We’d prefer to know in advance and have the opportunity to win the business if we could.

Of course you don’t owe your shop a living but no harm in giving them a shot I’d say.

It doesn’t look like either CRC or Wiggle are doing this, sadly.

Well I’m sure if you were to speak to your friendly LBS they might be able to help…

Deore absolutely fine if you want to save a few quid, very impressive quality for the money these days. SLX is the sweet spot in terms of value for money if you can afford the extra cost vs Deore, IMHO.

Yep, as per drlex, the Topeak ones are good.

The lower (A-H) bit comes complete with crown race. The upper (1-6) bit does NOT come with the top cap or bolt, you need to order a Hed Doctor if you want those bits.

Cost of lower + upper + hed doctor = cost of complete headset + £1 I think.