Will have a look at those – any more?

Maverick ML8? 165mm travel, 6.9lbs, amazing climber, nice angles with a 160mm fork on it and £699 at J E James.

In the Alps this year I rode a mates Carbon Nomad and another’s Alpine 160 and they all raved about the ML8 – I preferred it to both of theirs.

Hotwalk here and worked great from 2 (although quite tall). A friend had an Isla Rothan and that did drop lower. The Hotwalk had very stable geometry (slack angles maybe!) and gave my son massive confidence at speed – good excuse to post this clip again!

A mate of mine has started selling balance bikes which seem pretty good on all accounts (not actually seen one in the flesh yet!).

http://www.striderrider.co.uk

I had an O2 one and they unlocked it for me via their online help service – took 5 mins!

685 and 715

One Day – handed over from the wife and a very easy read!

In a slight edit to my above post, to be fair, the Hope X2s and M4s both must have the same power as they can all lock the wheels and stop me very quickly. The main difference with the XTs is the amount of effort you need to put in for this to happen (as in not a lot!).

In the Alps I suffered slightly from finger pump with my Hopes and sometimes had to change braking fingers. I’m pretty sure that given how little effort the XTs need to give the same stopping ability, this wouldn’t be the case.

First proper test ride tonight and mightily impressed. Crazy amounts of power but with great feel and modulation. One fast DH section and I was playing about with tiny flicks on the levers and the retardation was mental!

Considerably more power than the Hope Tech M4s on my ML8.

Ollie – black. The silver levers look nice but I think the calipers look quite cheap, particularly compared with the lovely CNCed Hopes.

There was a demo bike at Mountain Trax in Wokingham. Looked awesome and I daren’t book a ride on it!

It doesn’t have to be, but I’ve always felt inkjets were a bit slow and the ink can run if it gets wet etc? What model is it?

Useful thread as I have just started playing and am after a starter set.

Continually getting invited to corporate days now so am classing the lessons as business training so I can justify and afternoon a week to practice or have a lesson!

Thanks for the input. As we’re still quite new and small we have an opportunity to change things with minium impact so just wanted to feedback on the norm.

As there clearly isn’t a norm, we’ll stick to the the current system until we have a good reason to change!

Cheers

I bought one pair of each colour – fitted the black ones onto my red and black Epic and plan to put the silver ones on my ML8.

I think the black calipers look better, but prefer the silver levers I think!

Will test them again tomorrow, but very pleased so far!

I’m using mine with Hope floating rotors and mounts – VERY tight on the front with the thick Hope rivets but it just clears.

Still unsure how everone gets their FS XC bikes down to 22lbs! Started trimming my Epic yesterday and despite being pretty high spec, it’s still 26.5lbs and I’d think it must be almost impossible for me to trim 4.5lbs off it and surely the frame can’t weight 4.5lbs more than a Superlight!?

Are my scales a wrong or are most people a little overoptimistic!?

Done! Hoses chopped and swapped easily following the above instructions. Initial thoughts are very positive on a quick lap of the village. Modulation of Hope with the power of Elixirs works for me!

Got mine today with a mug and 2 bags of sweets. I asked for some olives etc so they sent me 2 sets foc.

Just about to tackle the first hose swap and to fit them on my epic. Report back shortly!

Depends on the use.

When my ML8 weighed 28lbs I thought it was great, but I then burled it up a bit with forks and wheels and it’s now 32lbs but rides so much better on anything but long uphills!

My Epic weights 28lbs at present but am certain it will feel better when I change the wheels and get it down to 26lbs!

Same family own Cycle Care in High Wycombe which is always very good, and Stows in Slough also has good service. That’s where I go now.

Fair enough – only ever had to call them once and it was a painful experience!

Love it – started my own business 18 months ago and despite the odd 65 hour week, it still doesn’t feel like work!

I ordered 2 sets of silvers, but just called to change one set to black. Fantastic service and unlike CRC, the person at the end of the phone was very helpful and sorted it out right away.

Think I can guess the shop and possibly the guy who served you. I remember calling in once and watching in amazement at how he spoke to a woman who had brought in her kid to look for a bike.

It was so bad I could almost imagine him as a Little Britain character!

Here’s one I uploaded from my recent Les Arcs trip. Couldn’t be arsed editing and adding music etc so it’s still rather raw!

Can anodised frames be powder coated? Quite fancy getting my Maverick ML8 and Fox 36s done some bileous colour!

Just ordered some too – assume they’ll work Ok with my Hope rotors and adaptors?

Valuable input chaps! Might buy some new XT brakes too as they are v cheap at present and I’d probably get my money back on the Hopes.

Take it out for a second proper ride tonight and get it clogged up with 5lbs of mud!

Thanks MBoy – have always been sceptical about their comfort levels but the mags all seemed to rave about them back in the day.

Think I’ll treat myself to some wheels and tyres first and see how it feels before embarking on anything else.

Mine works perfectly and is circa 3 months old. My mate bought one from CRC and it lost pressure after 2 rides and he was told it would be at least 2 weeks to get it back. He ended up buying a Command Post instead that he seems happy with.

pottsathome – Member

The main Thing you will notice between shimamo and hope brakes is when you pull the brake on with shimamo your bike comes to a stop

PMSL. To be honest, I’ve been really impressed with the Hope brakes – not as much power as the Elixirs I had before but enough to stop whenever I need to and massively more modulation and ‘feel’. Mainly looking at these as a potential weight saving exercise and given the pricing and the demand for used Hope stuff, it’ll probably be a free swap.

The UST tyres were used tubeless on my other bike before it became more of a DH rig, and before the new Schwalbe’s came out that were all tubless ready.

Think I’ll get some Hope Pro2/Stans Crest wheels and run them tubeless with some new Schwalbes to start with and then see what pops up in the classifieds for the other stuff.

Heard mixed things about i-beam saddles and posts – cheap at the moment at CRC for a brand new one and should save half a pound, but possibly at the expensive of some comfort and reliability.

Thanks for the input.

Any ideas how the 2012 XT brakes are for weight?

How would these compare with Hope Tech X2s with regards to power and weight?

It’s a fantastic system – we install quite a bit of it. Very easy to install, setup and use.

Took it into my lbs and the reckoned it was perfectly within tolerance and said it was quite common to have a little oscillation. The axle had freed itself up too.

My pro2 doesn’t oscillate at all – has anyone got a wobble?!

Just had an email back from my LBS, cc’ing Gore who are going to post me some for free.

Can’t complain about that!

Have read they are quite stuff due to the rail design – is that the case?

Thanks

What are people’s thoughts on i-beam seatposts?