Air pikes for sure – you have much more control over spring rate using the shock pump, you can get it 100% right for your weight, riding style and changing needs for different rides

especially with “dual air” pikes like 454 where you can actually change the balance between positive and negative to fine tune the way the air spring works – something you cannot ever do with a coil spring!

my 454 Air U-Turns feel way better than any 454 coil U-Turns I have ridden

I run Pro II hubs on both bike, 1 is 3 years old, other is 2 years old, both on original bearings and bikes are ridden 3-4 times a week in mud, rain, snow, etc.

can I ask people having problems with Pro II bearings on the rear hub, what bike(s) these have been used on?

we’ve seen this issue with customers running suspension bikes with laterally flexible rear suspension – the Orange 5 with QR rear hub is a specific example we’ve seen a number of times (different customers) in our workshop, these bikes we’re worked on have also had reoccuring problems with uneven brake pad wear, brake drag and binding pistons

we changed one Orange 5 customer’s rear hub to the Hope “screw-in bolt” axle + bolts which certainly stiffened the rear swingarm, and the problem went away both for the hub and rear brake

I run Specialized All Condition Armadillos in 700 x 28c on my Tricross bike

work fine, much quicker than the original CX tires, but with a bigger volume than a pure road racing 23c tire so more comfort and protection for the rims from potholes and kerb edges, and of course the puncture protection of the Armadillo casing

I spent last season riding in mud and snow on regular Specialized Captain 2″ tires

and today rode to work through deep snow on Specialized Control Purgatory (front) and Captain 2.2″ (rear)

no problems to report with grip or control

if you want a reliable 1 x 9 setup you need a chain device, its really that simple ;)

I’d recommend E13’s LG1 device, run these on both my mountain bikes running 1 x 9 setups and have never dropped a chain

if you are buying the fork off a genuine Fox dealer (in other words an aftermarket fork) then yes, it will come fitted with the medium titanium spring, and the soft and firm steel springs in a plastic bag inside the box

if you are buying an OE fork supplied from a “grey source” to a retailer, then no it will not come with any spare springs

I red light jump only for my own safety.

perhaps you need to go to a cycling proficiency class (they are run by local authorities and free to attend) and learn how to ride a bicycle on the highway safely?

seriously, if you need to break the law to “stay safe” on the highway, you need to have a long, hard look at your cycling?

develop your “road craft”, follow the highway code and you won’t have a problem with either the law or other road users..

think of if it this way – if you break the law and are involved in a road traffic accident with a pedestrian, other cyclist or motor vehicle, and you survive the accident, expect to have the full weight of the law thrown at you

I commute over 100 miles a week from NW to S London, and the common “near misses” I have is with law-breaking cyclists jumping lights at junctions and riding at me down one-way roads

the duplication has been a complete f*ck up and there have been lots of people ranting on bike forums about the delays and the fact that a sizeable number of people (including me) were charged for their “pre-order” on Pinkbike

I paid 3 months ago for my HD Blu-Ray copy, have nothing..and no delivery date in site

good job!

I have no time for cyclists breaking the law by jumping red lights, riding through pedestrians on green crossings, cycling up one-way street, etc.

every cyclist that does this (and its a large % in London based on what I experience on my daily commutes) gives the law-abiding cyclists a bad name in the eyes of the public

its the law…don’t complain when you get nicked by the Police

a simple reply for anyone under the illusion that the law does not apply to them when they ride their bike?

grow up…

Hope Pro2 SS hub uses the same replaceable end caps as the normal Pro2, so you just buy the QR end caps and pop them on in place of the bolt-on caps (have one like this on my 29er)

sorry, the ProII SS hub uses a different axle and end caps to the normal QR 10mm hub

the SS axle is “blanked” at the ends instead of having axle stubs for dropouts, and has a much larger diameter threading for the screw-in bolts, the frame dropouts sit on these bolts directly ;)

its basically because the Flow wheelset is aimed at all-mountain riders using 20mm forks like RS Lyric or Fox 36

the lighter Crest wheelset is aimed at trail riders typically using Q/R or QR15 forks like RS Revelations

Hope make adapters so you can always buy whichever wheelset you prefer and just swap the front hub adapter to suit your fork choice

people were riding bicycles off-road in the UK in the late 1800s

in 1896 the Buffalo soldiers in America use specifically adapted bicycles to ride off road from Montana to Yellowstone and back

who invented “mountain biking?” irrelevant…

who “commercialized it”? probably Mike Sinyard of Specialized who took the ideas of the custom bike builders in California and made the first affordable production mountain bike, the Specialized Stumpjumper in 1982

Thomson?

best seatpost ever made

I’ve bent / snapped Easton, Race Face (Diablous), USE, Truvativ, Titec and Kore seatposts and never damaged a Thomson

if you are regularly needing to chance your saddle? buy another Thomson seatpost and have your second saddle setup on that…

I would never use anything but Thomson seatposts and stems, have them on all 3 of my bikes ;)

you can’t get “Hope Hoops” (Hope factory built wheels) with white Flow rims

the only choice is black hubs and black rims, Hope do this to keep their costs down by standardizing their builds

if you can live without white rims, you will save a lot of money buying Hope Hoops, compared to having a local bike shop build a set of white ZTR Flow rims onto Pro II hubs

Specialized Control (2-Bliss) are easily the best for tubeless conversion IMO

grippy (dual compound), seal very easily, light (kevlar bead), tough and affordable (£45 pair)

I run the Captain, Eskar, Clutch SX and Purgatory tires on my all-mountain bike depending on time of year and what kind of riding I’m doing on the bike

and the Fast Trak LK on my 100mm play-bike, which is used for dirt jumping and pump track

all on Stan’s ZTR rims with Roval tape, Stans valve cores and 3 cups of Stan’s Solution (sealent)

never had any issues

I run 1 x 9 on my all-mountain bike, and find it just perfect for going up, along and down ;)

611 Race knee / shin in medium

18″ long from top of knee area to bottom of shin area

my Hope Vision 2?

lamp housing machined in-house by Hope in Yorkshire

everything else(emitter / reflector/ electronics / battery / charger)…made in china

my Light & Motion Stella 200?

all made in china

who cares about fashion?

I ride my 160mm all-mountain on cross country trails, I ride fast up big hills, fast along the singletrack, and very fast down the big hills!

-if its cold, I wear 661 Kyle Strait knee pads, purely to keep my knees warm to prevent damage from the effects of bare knees in the cold air

-if its warm and I am trail riding, I don’t wear them

-if I am doing an uplift day at a DH facility, doing a DH race, or a day in a bike park, I will wear them to protect my knees from crash damage

simple really?

Park CT-5 “mini brute”

actually use one in the workshop every day, and replace the replaceable pin every few months (normally if I bend it braking a heavily corroded or damaged chain), but its excellent value / quality and has survived bike workshop abuse/…

didnt hectiks have some fancy shmancy roller set up that was prone to failure?

not as far as I am aware? what do you mean by a roller set up?

the Hectik is about as simple as it gets…canadian made bike, for abuse by Canadian riders, who ride much more severe terrain in canada that you ever find over here :)

in fact, Devinci are so confident in the quality of their frames (because they make them in their own factory in Quebec, Canada) that they give the owner a true lifetime warranty

its “horst pivot” but not FSR like Specialized, in that the horst pivot location relative to the rear wheel axle (both horizontal and vertical) is very different – with four-bar / horst systems the IC created by this different horst pivot / axle relationship is critical to the characteristic of the bike under pedalling / climbing and braking

I have always found Specialized FSR to have more pedal bob under power than other brands using a 4-bar / horst style setup with a less exaggerated axle-to-horst pivot position

If I look a the 2010 Specialized Enduro with the Fox RP2 shock and compared its climbing to my 2010 Devinci Hectik with the Fox RP23 shock, the Devinci is more “firm” under hard pedalling, the Enduro bobs more, in comparison

mikey – can I ask which shock your friend had on his Hectik?

if it was a 2009 or previous year – the Fox DHX air?

I had a hectik ltd. last year (2009) with Fox DHX 5 air shock and there was a pronounced tendency to squat and bob under pedalling, unless used with pro pedal and even then it compressed under power; it felt mushy and quite unpleasant when accelerating!

after borrowing a 2010 Fox RP23 XV BV shock for my Hectik, I sold my frame off and bought a 2010 Hectik with the new shock and its a night / day difference under power, especially climbing, and also when descending at high speed into berms and big compressions – where the RP shock sits up in its travel with a supported “mid stroke”

if you speak to the guys at Mojo (fox uk) about the DHX Air shock, they’d admit its a “lost product” as the RP series shock does everything better for trail and all mountain bikes, and the DHX Coil or newer RC Coil series is the premium choice for freeride and downhill

as an example, many Mythic Rune owners preferred the DHX Coil shock to the DHX Air shock, despite the virtual pivot suspension!

the only bike I liked the DHX air on was my Mythic Wildcard, which was a faux-bar with very progressive leverage ratio, the shock worked well on that particular suspension frame

my Hectik is sub 29lb with the build seen above, and I spend all my time using it as a trail bike (long climbs, singletrack and long descents)

I certainly have no complaints about its climbing prowess (as an aggressive, flat pedal rider) and only use Pro-Pedal on long fireroad or tarmac climbs to make the back end more “numb”

I’ve had multiple customers test ride my bike at Esher and buy a frame / package on the strength of the climbing prowess on the steep tarmac driveway leading up to the shop

(these are customers with Yeti 575, Orange 5, Commencal Meta 5.5, etc.)

its currently £1600 for the “package” and we sold 2 of these packages today…so there will be more riders popping up on the forums who can answers any questions first hand, rather than my horribly biased opinion ;)

cheers

rob @ esher

something else to consider- what bike / frame is this rear hub being used in?

I have several customers with Orange 5's with quick release axle and they keep having Pro II rear hub and disc rear brake problems due to the back end of the 5 being quite flexible

straight pull for sure

lighter and stiffer (the difference in spoke tension is very noticeable when you have both std. and sp next to each other)

Profile make a bmx style cromoly bar with only 4" of rise (about 1/2 the rise of regular bmx bars) for BMX 24" cruisers – this would work better for your application ;)

this recently came on the southerndownhill forum and one of the reps from Madison (Shimano UK) stated that the Shimano 10 speed road and new Shimano 10 speed Dynasys mtb are not compatible because the 10 speed Dynasys mtb uses a different 'pitch' chain to anything else 10 speed on the market

which also means 9 speed parts like chain devices with jockey wheels will not mesh with 10 speed Dynasys mtb

I charge £20 per brake bleed

if pads needs replacing, its £15 for each pair of pads

avoid the 302 – it only has a rebound damper

the Domain 318 is the fork to get – has an oversized Motion Control damper (as found in Pike, etc.) and its actually a very capable fork

however, if you get a 302 cheap 2nd hand or it comes on a complete bike, you can drop a MoCo damper in there for about £100 which transforms the fork!

I've owned Totems, Lyrics, Domains 318 and Fox 36s and the Domain gives 4/5th of the performance of the Lyric and Totem at 1/2 the price ;)

your best bet is to get in touch with any shop that deals with Extra (Cane Creek UK importer)

try Cane Creek's excellent "headset finder" on their new website, and it will tell you which parts you need ; they sell the top and bottom cups seperately to suit all the different headset standards that have come into being!

We're recently sourced a couple of Cane Creek headsets from Extra, for customers running taper-steerer forks in different standards of taper head tubes and taper forks in 1.5" head tubes

here's mine – Specialized Tricross singlespeed fitted with MTB riser bar, XT V-brake levers and other "upgrades" as original parts wore out

some photos of the new London Hire bikes, made by Devinci Cycles of Quebec, Canada

Hope Hoops – which rim (ZTR Flow?)

Roval (specialized) blue adhesive tape with Stans UST style valves

Stan's Solution : 2 cups per tire

should inflate easily with track pump and work very well long-term

Slightly anoying that the money went to a canadian firm, I'm sure Pashley or Brompton would have jumped at the chance to build 10,000 bikes. Heck, for that big a contract they could have bought the old raleigh works in nottingham and build them there!

Pashley and Brompton did not have the capacity or manufacturing technology (hydroformed aluminium alloy) to undertake this project, and had not manufactured anything similar

Devinci Cycles (Quebec, Canada) have already been involved with the Montreal Bixi scheme, which the London bikes are modelled on, albeit it over 100+ small improvements

the next city for this scheme is Washington, USA, with further cities in the pipeline

This morning Mayor Boris has announced plans to increase the size of the London hire scheme with an additional £81 million of funding (the initial contract awareded to Serco was £140 million, with Devinci subcontracted as the manufacturer) – Barclays sponsored the scheme with £25 million which includes the "bike super high way" scheme (i.e. blue paint on some roads..)

funding shortfall will be made up by rental charges and further sponsorship investment

It's the 'law breaking' bit that gets up people's noses. Esher shore; as well as the cyclists' misdemeanours, how many car drivers did you see breaking traffic regulations (driving whilst on the 'phone, not indicating, speeding, not using mirrors effectively, driving without due care and attention etc) because if you didn't see any of that, then maybe you lack sufficient observational skills needed to be able to ride safely in busy congested areas.

And only 14 sets of lights in 6 miles? What route is that?

14 sets of traffic lights in 6 miles is called smart commuting – finding a back street route to minimize use of main roads – yet even with my "only" 14 sets of lights, I find the majority of cyclists jumping the lights!

yes, there are always bad examples of motorists in London and I am extremely observant of all traffic whilst riding even during my back street commute – however the traffic speeds are relatively low in London, and I ride defensively giving clear indication to motorized road users…which is something MANY cyclists do not do

giving NO hand signals and making sudden turns = wondering why a motorist has nearly run into the back of them?

yes there are motorists using mobile phones, trying to speed in short clear gaps on the roads, but bad motoring does not excuse cyclists from acting like complete pricks and ignoring the rules of the road, or even just using any "common sense"

I have seen plenty of crashes over the years from traffic light jumpers, including attending a fatality which was not pleasent!

something to understand about the highway code – IF you are involved in a serious road traffic accident and have jumped a red light, don't expect the "law" to view your situation with any sympathy especially if you try to bring a civil claim against a motorist

stopping at traffic lights and giving way to pedestrians on crossings does not ruin your commute, just adds a little time – if you are that tight on time, try leaving your house 2-3 minutes earlier!

people need to take responsibility for their actions, and cycling like a prick does not help anyone

I cycle commute 6 miles each direction in London every day (from NW to S) and the attitude / conduct of the majority of cyclists I encounter is f*cking disgraceful and downright dangerous

There are 14 traffic lights on my commute, and at every light 3/4 of the cyclists will jump the red light, some having very near misses with pedestrians and motor vehicles

there is no excuse for jumping red lights or ignoring pedestrian crossings, if you are not safe on the road it because you lack road awareness whilst cycling in heavy traffic, nothing to do with other road users like cars or taxis

the most common "near misses" I currently have (every day) as a law-obeying cyclist is idiot cyclists that will not stop for a red light on their approach and cycle at me, at full speed even though I am going through on a green light, and will then turn round and tell me to "f*ck off" when I comment on their stupidity

police need to start nicking law breaking cyclists with stiff financial penalties and then they might start getting the message into their thick and arrogant heads!

try Freeborn – they are selling Lyric Coil U-Turns for £499

as a bike mechanic, I will always use high quality waterproof grease on an aluminium seatpost inserted on an aluminium or steel frame when servicing bikes in our workshop

depends on the bike?

trail / all-mountain I'd always go for for air springs front and rear

freeride / downhill I'd always go for coil springs front and rear

my current bike (6 x 6 all-mtn) runs 2010 Fox RP23 XV BV on the rear and 2010 Fox 36 Talas RC2 on the front, no complaints with the air suspension

setup right it works very well and I like the super easy adjustments I can make whilst riding (pro-pedal on rear and travel adjust on front)

Juicy 3 brakes come stock with organic brake pads

what pads did you replace the stock pads with?

also, which Avid rotor do you have – G2 or G3?

the G2 could lead to vibration on certain setups, the G3 tends to reduce this characteristic