Hard luck mate..

I am in Allestree, and work at a bike shop in Derby, so i will keep looking and see if anything turns up here.

All the best for finding it
Josh…

This is a absolute bargain. You do have to go over £20 for free delivery but you might as well buy 10.
CLICK

Gordymac,

I have had both in the past, and found the Ridley Crossbow, a slightly better ride. The frame was slightly lighter, and it seemed to have more race specific geometry.
Also i thought it looked alot better than the Kinesis. Not that that matters at all though 😉

Loads of people use both bikes up in the NDCXL cross races, and neither of them have a bad thing to say, so i spose the best bet is to try and have a go on them, and see what you prefer.

Another great choice is the Columbus Bikes, if your thinking of building one up. There frames are great, i currently race on them, and there perfect.

Hope that helps
Josh…

njee20

Thanks for that 3 tyre system..
Josh

I seem to remember a while ago in What MTB magazine Schwalbe did a table where they recommended what tyres to run front and back, for different weather conditions.
I have had a quick look, but cant find it anywhere..

Has anybody got it? I found it quite useful at the time..

Pinches,
I have got some Bang & Olufsen ones, like this LINK and they are great. You can probably get some of the same quality for cheaper, but i liked the name…

Anyway, they are about £90 new, but you can get 'fake' versions on ebay for about £50. They are built pretty much the same, but just with an normal quality speaker in them.
I was mostly impressed by the way they fitted, so the 'fake' ones would probs be just as good.

Hope that helps
Cheers
Josh…

Solarider-
How have you got the Red front mech on the full suspension bike to run with a top pull cable?
Have you got one of those 'funny wheel' things at the bottom of the seat tube, so the cable goes down then back up?

If not, can you get Red mechs in top pull? Where did you get it from if you did, as i haven't come across any?

Cheers
Josh…

Bruce,
In the process of building up a S-Works frame to do some of the MTB races next year with you… So this is what i have decided on.

Full FSA K-Force finishing kit.
XTR Groupset
American Classic MTB 26 wheels
Fox F100 RL Forks

Its nowhere near done yet, but looking good so far…

And, I have tried the R7's before, alot lighter than the Sids or Fox's, but something wasn't quite right. Think you can get alot better for the money.

Josh…

Gary_M – Member
gpx cranks are a doddle to remove. Remove crank bold from lh crank, pull off lh crank, slide out crankset – may need a tap with a mallet.

I might be wrong here, but dont the GPX cranks use a self extracting bolt like the SRAM road ones? If so you undo the smaller 8mm allen key and it should pull it out by itself? (could be completely wrong)

Once off, you might have to tap the axle with the mallet, the bit the LH crank arm has just come off.

Cheers
Josh…

GJP,
Cheers for that, kind of what i was thinking.
I will go round the shops this coming week and see what i find out.

Just on the frame sizes as well, the S-Works frames only come in 17.5 then 19 there isn't a middle one.

Cheers
Josh…

Hi,
Just going on what it looks like –
It looks like a square taper crankset, and if you had it standard from new, then i would imagine it has a 39/53. And it has 130BCD arms.
You could either buy a whole new crankset for around £40 (for decent enough quality) or new chain rings and swap them over. (Could end up costing more)

Then pretty much the same as Kaiser said. If you change 1 part of the drive you might as well change them all, other wise it just cancels out. Also by the look of the picture the jockey wheels could do with a replace as well.

Anyway think that's pretty much everything, send me an email as well if you want any help with parts. My addy is in profile.

Hope that helps
Josh…

Coleman,
Whats you email please mate?
I think i cycled past you yesterday along the A6 in Allestree (on the bright orange specialized) so i think we must live fairly close.
My email is in my profile..

Also thanks to everyone who has replied, quite interesting to hear everyone's opinions.

Thanks
Josh..

thevanman,

I have done, thats why i know both the 19 and the 17.5 feel fine.

I am just wanting some advice on which is better for racing, a smaller or larger frame.

Right, not sure if this will work for every router but worth a try.

I have got a Belkin Router, and when i forgot the password a few weeks ago i had to go into the router settings.
To get to those open 'tinternet' and type in 192.168.2.1 into the address bar. And press enter. This should open the settings.
All routers are different but with mine, down the side it said 'security' in there you can set either a WPK or WEP password, and a little button in the bottom corner said show password. This should show you what the password is.

As i said might not work for everyone, but it worked for me first time, so worth a try.

Hope that helps
Josh..

Just thought i would add this in…

I have ordered 8 units in (not from DX), with the option to order as many more as i like, hoping for delivery in the next few days.
They also come with a UK plug and a helmet mount.

I wont be able to do them as low as the US price, but if anyone is interested please email me (in profile). And i will let you know more….

PS – Sorry if this is classed as a 'trade' message, its not meant to…

Cheers
Josh…

leggyblonde –

Not sure, i have never had a fully round one, so haven't really got anything to compare it to.
I think it might make a bit of difference, but who knows….

Dobo,
Yeah they both the the flatend top tubes, which actually makes quite alot of difference when carrying.
And the cables are all underneath the down tube, and then go through a cable guide on the bottom bracket shell. (apart from the rear brake cable with goes onlong one side of the top tube)

Now Which is Best……..
The Cyclo-X is slightly lighter due to the carbon rear end, but there's not much in it. However because of the carbon rear end there is a bar that goes between the seat stays just behind the bottom bracket for re-enforcing. This sacrifices mud clearance, and because the X-Wing doesn't have the bar it is better (in my opinion).
Geometry is exactly the same, and they feel pretty much identical to ride, but for some reason i always go for the Red X-Wing first…

Hope that helps,
Josh…

All the Paul Milnes stuff is great.
I ride the X-Wing and the Cyclo-X and they have been amazing bikes.

Attached a picture (even though its a rubbish one)

They are exactly what they say they are, very light weight and do the job great.
I was thinking about some, so rang them up just to check what was what.
They said that it is because they are 170mm crank lengths they have trouble shifting them, so that is why they are for sale.
BUT if 170mm is right for you, then its a bargain!!!!

Cheers
Josh..

Notts/Derby as well..
Should be lovely, specially looking forward to all the off camber bits, adds abit of fun to the race.

See you there coleman!!!
Hope you all have fun with whatever races you do.

Cheers…

My area is the Sram NDCXL league as well, like coleman above.
If your based near sheffield it isent a million miles away.

They are really good races, seem to be alot bigger and better planed than other cross races is other areas. Very rarely is there a senior race with less than 100 – 120 riders in it.
All depends if you are prepared to travel.

Otherwise look at the website coleman put above, its great for finding pretty much anything.
Good luck finding a race!!!
Josh…

Email Sent
…

Jonb,
Have you got an email address i can contact you on?
Might have some info you are interested in..

Cheers
PS.. Email in profile

Here you go…
Please excuse the Mug Shot of me in the middle –

Nope not normal at all.
My cotic has a 73mm bb, and i had to use 3 spacers. That was with a shimano bottom bracket, but i would of thought Hope ones follow the same principle. You will defo need another spacer in there, if its moving at all.

Hi,
Unfortunately not, the Shimano and SRAM cassettes work fine with each other, i tend to buy Shimano cassette for use with SRAM group sets because they are cheaper.
BUT Campag cassettes wont work, not entirely sure why, i have tried it a few times, and the shifting just goes everywhere, must be a slight difference in the teeth profile, and spacing.
Have you tried looking for a shimano freehub for your wheels, it took me a while but eventually got hold of one for some old Daytona Hubs, and it worked a treat.
Cheers
Josh…

No problem, and yeah it might of been a tiny clue…
Good luck mending it.

Yep, You cant get the sprockets off individually, its a whole new freewheel if they need replacing.

James,

As simondbarnes says, it isn't a cassette, it is a freewheel, there is no freehub on the wheel, it is all one hole unit. When you take it of there is just a screw thread on the wheel, about 1cm deep, that the whole Freewheel screws onto.
And yep, its the TL-FW30 tool

Chris,
Answers to your questions below. To the best of my knowledge.

Q1 – Yes the central HEX bolt. Usually 8mm will tighten the none drive side onto the central axle, therefore tightening the whole lot up.

Q2 – To strip down, bontrager use a self extracting bolt, so you just undo that central 8mm HEX bolt and it will pull itself off. Once off, you can just pull the drive side back through the bottom bracket. (might need to tap it from the none drive side with a rubber mallet to loosen it up). If you want to take the bottom bracket out, they use the same tool as a shimano external bottom bracket (bout £10).

Q3 – Somebody may have to correct me here, but i think Brontager use Giga X Pipe bottom brackets (which i think are the same as Truvativ GXP) ???

Q4 – Something like THIS[/url] should do the job.

Hope i helped

Josh…

Tang,
Not sure on the postage front, all i know is that when i have had things from America they have always used Fedex.. So they must be good.

But with the Tax, i had some carbon wheels shipped earlier this year, the bike shop that sent them was 100% honest on the Invoice and marked them as the retail price, so i paid import duty. But there was a problem with them so they had to send me another pair out, this time they marked them as having value of $30, and put them as a gift so i paid no duty. This was good for me and they arrived safely.
The only problem you may have, is if they go missing, then the can only claim back what was printed on the invoice. In theory though this shouldn't happen..

Hope i helped
Josh….

sunchaser

Unbranded Carbon Frame From China…
Made friends with a guy out there via skype and got it for a super super cheap price..
Seen as you obviously ride road, i am thinking of getting a few more,, building them up and then selling them on. You reckon there is a market for that?

Cheers
Josh..

Just built this up…

What you think?

DeVs – Member
See the nice hope man at an event trade stall or phone hope.

DeVs is right, i needed a few little bits for a disk brake, rang them up and they where really helpful, didn't have to pay anything either.
Always worth a try contacting them directly..

Good Luck

How about mine –