Gmbn is crap and doddy looks like one of the double take brothers with that stupid haircut, also ebikes are for tourists, dropper posts and flat pedals are for wimps who can’t ride and uplift and bike parks are for men who wear skinny jeans and are bullied by Thier girlfriends, happy Christmas

You really need to try treks bb90 bottom bracket if you really want some unreliability/ cost, absolute nightmare, I just gave up riding it in any muddy or wet conditions

I’ve been us SPD’s for 25 years now, by the sounds of it these soft soled shoes like the 5 10 are the issue, they aren’t made for real xc riding, buy some proper xc shoes, Shimano do a really good range, any of Thier ME range would be good, do not go for the flat shoe style else you’ll have the same issues

I know the game with this, stop tearing yourself to pieces and just buy a king headset

As an exshop mechanic and ex pro downhill team mechanic, I’ve never, in 20 years, torqued a cassette to what it say’s too, it’s about having a sense of what is tight and what is rite,by the sounds you’ve gone too far…, Take off the cassette and check for scoring on the bearing retainers, perhaps the treads on the locknut are too deep for Dt Swiss hubs? Microspline is a new standard, you’ve got to accept these issues

Buy a bleed kit, run the cable, it’s only a matter of time before you need a bleed kit for maintenance anyway….

I bought a litespeed toccoa 3 years ago to upgrade my old 26er, then found a brand new trek 9.9 SSL frameset for £600 (£2500 retail in 2013) it’s a complete ripper, I’d suggest looking for a frame for the components, there’s some real bargains to be found out there if you have the time to look, the “cycling bargains” app might help as it searches loads of shops, hope you find something as good as my trek, it only weighs 9.2kg! I could make it lighter 🙂

Why not go for a Mavic wheelset? They all come with micro spline now, from the really cheap but good crossrides all the way up to the really expensive wheelset, any Mavic id360 hub will convert to micro spline too, hope this helps

You bought it second hand 5 years ago? Replace it yourself, like a decent customer, upgrade if you are outriding your equipment, job done

I’ve had a edge explore for a year now and I would heavily recommend it, I use mine for navigation only like you plan too, it’s reliable, the screen size bigger than the 830 and 520 so easy to read off-road when it’s bumpy too, can’t fault it at all and for the price it’s a bargain

I use cycle streets, you can download the maps for free too, it’s a little tricky to use at first, but generally good

Ritchey p29er? They retail alot higher but you can find them for roughly £500 if you shop around

This has got to be a contender

With the steel stanchions they are very early z1’s

I was the warranty mechanic for marzocchi UK from 1995-98, I’m still using my z2 superflys I converted to progressive springs, the only set in the world, when you’ve got a huge parts bin to delve into its amazing what you can make, 95% original internals too