We’ve had a Kangoo e-van for the last 18 months and it’s used for 80% plus of our journeys, saving a fortune in diesel.

It’s brilliant, and we’ll certainly have more EVs in the future.

Yep, I’d pretty much guarantee they’d have no issues doing that for you.

(We certainly do, happily, with our hire – and as above, the guys at BPW are decent.)

Mrp has anyone ridden/used them?

Yes, have them on our Smuggler demo bike and really rate them.

Mboy has done a fantastic summary up there ^^ and I can’t really add anything to that. They do take a bit of fiddling with to get right (so actually aren’t ideal on a demo bike – I’ll probably swap them out for something else and put them on my own bike at some point) but have lots of adjustability to allow you to dial them in as you wish.

As above, Revelations way better than Sektors, Pike better again.

MRP Stage would be another good one to consider.

The new Fox 34s are excellent too, and way more affordable than 36s.

X-Fusion Trace would be another option if you want something more afforable.

Lots of dealers have their own demo bikes though.

We have a large Smuggler – I realise we’re not that close to Leicester but it’s worth the journey, if you fancy coming down!

We’ll have a large Scout to demo too, as soon as there are some more available (not much point offering a demo of a bike you can’t buy).

The Salsa framesets aren’t cheap – some might say they’re not amazing value – but Salsa dealers will have access to some very competitive pricing on build kits so we can do complete bikes at more attractive price points.

Sorry to hear about this MR, sounds like the last thing you need. Glad to hear you’ve found somewhere better.

And no, our deposit is not in a scheme.

If that’s the case, you’re entitled to it back, and may be entitled to compensation on top of 1-3 time the deposit value. I think the LL has 30 days to protect it in a scheme – if they don’t, you have a strong negotiating position as the return of the deposit plus compensation would be pretty open-and-shut if you took them to court.

Legally, as long as it’s a “deposit” and not a “partial payment” then the shop can make it non-refundable if they wish (and you agree). What constitutes deposit vs part payment is open to interpretation of course, but I think 10% is generally considered to be about right.

Look at it from their point of view – if it’s a bike they don’t hold in stock normally, then they’re going to lose out if they order it in and you change your mind. They’d probably end up selling it for more than 10% less than you’re paying.

Can you agree a mutually-acceptable way forward with them? If it was us, we’d not want to order something in for someone on the off chance they might want it, but nor would we expect someone to commit 100% to a bike without seeing it. Perhaps ask them if they’d carry the deposit across to another purchase of a different bike with them, if the one they’re ordering doesn’t suit? What are you specifically concerned about – sizing, spec, or performance of the bike? Is it something which you’d be able to be 100% certain about seeing it in the flesh, or something you’d only know about after (possibly multiple) rides?

Nice write up RP, sounds like you’ve bought a great bike for all the right reasons. Enjoy riding it lots more!

Has anyone tried if other brand shocks fit in the smuggler?

We’ve not tried swapping any, but in principle there’d be no reason why something from Fox, Cane Creek, or whoever, wouldn’t work. But, I’d encourage you to give the Monarch RT3 a go first – it’s what the bike has been designed around and the suspension really does work well. It’s extremely progressive, so compliant over small bumps but incredibly capable when things get more serious.

Can you say what specifically you’ve found lacking with previous Monarchs? What versions of the shock have you been using?

Again your dropper won’t fit (but another would – sell your and buy 30.9?):

http://www.transitionbikes.com/2016/Bikes_TransAM275.cfm

If anyone hears of any XL for sale then please give me a shout.

Our first stock has arrived, including an XL frameset in stealth black…

Plus not sure if I need an L or XL.

I’m 6’2″ and our demo (Large) is a good fit for me (total coincidence, of course…) with wide bars and a short stem.

looks like Cyclescheme ltd?

That’s through any independent bike shop then. (Or at least any which has signed up with Cyclescheme which is likely to be most shops).

Those Travoys are indeed an excellent piece of kit!

Sizing is much more “normal” than most cycling brands – if the sizing guide says it’ll fit, it probably will, in our experience.

It’s nice kit – we’ve toyed with becoming a stockist but can’t find room for it in the shop at the moment. Would certainly be pleased to have it in our range if we could.

Yep Scout would definitely be my answer. Can be built nice and light if so required. Pyga One Twenty would be another good option, slightly less biased towards the downhill and more of a ride-all-day-in-the-mountains style of bike, but nevertheless still a blast to ride.

If you’re after a real bargain, there are a few 2015 Kili Flyers left at silly prices. After that, 2016 is full carbon only, great bike though.

They’re very good wheels, especially for the money. Wide rims, easy tubeless setup, well-built, not a bad weight. Hubs seem reliable but they are almost as loud as Hope. We’ve used them on several custom builds and have a set on a demo bike.

Our ex-hire hardtails might be worth a look? Genesis Core 10s with brand new, unused wheels, tyres, cassettes, chains and rotors. Will be £395. For the £500 budget you could upgrade the fork to something reasonable too and have a very decent hardtail.

Transition Patrol – 685mm standover. Small frames still available from 2015 (one of the advantages of being your size!) so 20% off and you could have an absolutely cracking build for your budget.

Or you’d get the carbon version with a slightly more value-oriented build, but the small frames won’t be available until December.

Ouch. Sorry to hear about that OP, glad you avoided any serious injury.

At the pressures required for road tyres, non-tubeless compatible tyres definitely do not work without tubes. Surprised you got as far as you did to be honest. Where on the internet did it suggest this would be OK?

Genesis make the Core 26 which is a great kids proper MTB. Rigid forks, but suspension compatible if you want to add a lightweight 26″ sus fork. 1×9 but you could make it 2x or 3x if you wanted to.

Its a shop advertising through Pinkbike, I’d imagine you could order direct from the shop

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1828336/

http://pedalsbikecare.co.uk/

That’s Pigyn of this parish I believe. Transam would be my suggestion too, and at that price, they’re great value.

The part you need is Y03K98080 for right and Y03L98070 – £2.99 each but not available (in the UK at least, I’d imagine worldwide/Europe the same) until December.

We’ll have stock as soon as they land.

We do a lot of long haul and disc trucker custom builds as we find it works out better value than the stock spec. Have all the main sizes in the hire fleet too if you want to try any.

it’s only 140, and has a little steep HA. looks like a great trail bike, but I’m after something with less pure intentions!

Should have figured that from the clue you have, having a 150mm hardtail I guess.

Although the Commencal is 150mm rear and only half a degree slacker than the Pyga with a 160mm fork (which is what works best). That said it’s unbelievable value, and they are great bikes (we were a dealer before they went direct, and from what I know the bikes are even better now than they were then).

Transition Patrol would be my other recommendation which I think has already been mentioned. New ones land shortly…

There are some excellent deals on Pygas at the moment. Not sure it’s appropriate to link to our own site but you could have Lyriks and a Pascoe for your budget, which would make for a cracking bike.

CC company is jointly liable with the supplier to ensure you get the goods. That has been done. If someone at the card company is advising otherwise, I’d want it in writing and I’d bet they’d not be willing to give you that. Also redundant if you’ve used a different card company anyway.

Some credit cards (don’t know if Tesco is one of these) give additional “purchase protection insurance” or similar, which covers you if something you’ve bought using their card is lost/damaged/stolen within 30/60/90/whatever days of you buying it. Could that be what is being referred to in this instance? If that’s the case, it might be pretty handy for this sort of thing, but again I’d want to be reading the small print to make sure I was covered.

I think paying the £60 to insure with your courier is the best option, and what I’d do. Whether you should have to pay them extra to insure against them failing to do their job properly, is a whole different discussion…

Yes, you need to.

Assuming you asked for it to be delivered to the address where it now is, the supplier will have proof of delivery there. They’ve done their bit.

What you now do with it is up to you, and your responsibility. But I think you knew that.

Why not import one yourself frame Bikeman in the States?

I just don’t get why you’d do this (in this case – obviously if Ison were unwilling to import the frame you wanted, that’s different. Having said which, in our experience, they’ll get anything we ask which Surly have in stock in the US, even air-freight it over if required).

The frame is $2000, at today’s exchange rate that’s £1275. There’d presumably be a shipping cost. Then you need to add £60 duty and £265 VAT to that (plus duty and VAT on the shipping cost). Then probably a fee to the courier for handling the import stuff. So you’re looking at £1600, plus whatever shipping cost and the courier fee. Probably in excess of £1700. It’s not going to cost that much to buy from a UK dealer.

QBP seem like a good honest company, and I expect they certainly would give a damn what their contract with their UK importer says. I’d be disappointed if they sold direct to UK shops (assuming it breaks their agreement with Raleigh, which I’m sure it would do).

Raleigh will, I’m sure, order what we shops want to order. It might take a bit of sorting out, but if there’s significant demand (not just people saying “oooh that’s nice…” but people actually wanting to place orders) then I am confident that we should be able to get hold of what’s required, assuming it’s available in the US. Raleigh/Accell are not stupid, and if people want to buy stuff, they’re not there to stand in anyone’s way.

We’re doing Salsa in 2016. If anyone would like a straightforward answer about availability of any model, please contact us, and we’ll do our best to give you exactly that. Obviously as others have said CTBM can do the same. If there’s demand, I’d imagine we could get hold of any of the range. I’m considering a Cutthroat myself but also tempted by the (more road-oriented) Genesis Datum and something from Kinesis (probably Crosslight 5T) which would be the sensible (alloy) option.

looks like any other monstercross bike

Yes, in a way, but there aren’t many carbon monstercross bikes out there.

Agree with everything said here. Pedals rarely work loose – and then only after lots of use, if the bearings seize, or similar. Certainly if ridden only lightly, checked after six weeks etc, coming loose while riding along – on the balance of probabilities you’d say it was shop error.

If they can’t produce documentation to confirm it was done correctly, you’d think they’d have to accept the blame and cover the cost.

Also cost price on a complete SLX chainset (and as others have said, it’s unlikely to be this level and certainly not any higher if it’s a £1000 RRP bike) is more like half of what you’re being quoted. And given that the shop will be able to keep the bottom bracket, chainrings and left hand crank (assuming stripped thread is in the drive-side crank – if it’s actually in the left hand crank, that’s available as a spare for much less) they’ve got £70 worth of spares they can use/sell right there. So as a gesture of goodwill, if they’re unable to prove conclusively they did their job right, I’d expect them to sort it free of charge. Assuming the facts of the matter are as laid out by the OP, we’d be doing that (and as others have said, would be absolutely mortified and want to make sure we did everything possible to apologise and reassure the customer).

The only situation I’d expect the customer to accept responsibility would be if they had removed and re-fitted the pedals themselves (or if someone else not connected with the shop had done so), or if there had been a substantial length of time or amount of riding (dozens of rides, several months at least) without a competent person checking it over. If that’s the case OP, I think the offer of a reduced-price chainset is a good one (but £140 isn’t reduced, unless it’s at least XT level and even then that’s very nearly RRP including all the bits you won’t need).

Certainly agree that it’s not warranty for either the bike or crank manufacturer, assuming it’s all as the shop and OP are describing, and that threadlock is not the way to go.

I did 100km over the weekend on unsealed road, on a carbon aerobike.

Whereabouts is that photo Bigrich? Looks awesome…

One glaring ommission from there which I assume will be added in the next couple of weeks…

Bikes look great don’t they.

The Transam is awesome, I can confirm…

If you consider it to be warranty, you need to insist that Evans raise it for you with Silverfish.

Ha! Forgot that Richie posts here so you could just wait for him to come along and sort you out…

Silverfish have always been absolutely fine for us with the few Raceface warranty issues we get. Crash damage is not warranty of course, but given that you’re talking about bars which are rated for downhill use, you might get lucky. Of course, if what you’re saying is that you think they’re faulty because they snapped when they shouldn’t have done, that’s a different matter. Sadly I don’t think they do crash replacement.

If you consider it to be warranty, you need to insist that Evans raise it for you with Silverfish.

Pikes. Order them from Germany for a considerable saving

Or, talk to your friendly local Rockshox dealer who will be able to price-match that Germany quote for you and provide all the added value they bring to the party…

I think you’ll find the Scout is amazingly capable for a 125mm bike; and if you ride uphill much you’ll appreciate the fact that it climbs better.

But if you want the absolute best for the rocky/technical descents, sure, the Patrol is the better bike for that specific use.

In general though, I think more people buy the Patrol (or similar bike) and find themselves thinking they should have gone for the Scout (or equivalent), than vice versa. And the Scout is way more capable than many other brands’ “equivalent” bikes.

You can always run 150mm up front on the Scout, as many are.

No release date, no spec, no prices. So a late 2016 one I reckon.

You may be pleasantly surprised… medium frames will be here next month, other sizes in December.

I’m betting 20 credits there’ll be a carbon smuggler and scout too, just further down the line.

I’d say that’s a safe bet if (as we all expect) the carbon Patrol goes down well.

Small Patrols and Scouts readily available from any dealer with 20% off and good deals on build kits too. Feel free to give us a shout if you need any assistance.

Saracen Kili Flyers are available for silly money right now from your friendly local dealer…

Sorry to hear this has happened to you OP.

Have they given any explanation of what’s gone on which means your original accommodation is unavailable? As others have said your contract is with the accommodation provider, not Booking.com, probably.

I hate to say it, but this is one of those situations where the value of a good travel agent and an ATOL-bonded package becomes apparent. You’ll have saved money going direct, of course, but that’s not a lot of help now.

Are there any alternatives which you know of, which would be acceptable to you? Sometimes in these situations it can help to propose a solution to the agent and see if they can make it happen.