Like several folks have said above – saddles are very subjective. Having said that – I have generally paid the extra and stuck with Specialized BG saddles – they seem to work for me. And/or I’m a poser. My pee pee still seems to work fine, for what that’s worth.

EDIT: Actually, @escher’s post above is far more informative than mine, and said it all better than me

Edit: Posted twice for some reason

What @hot_flat said – there are some slight color differences, but not as “sport specific” as Oakley would have you believe. Go for what you like, and what looks good for you.

At risk of thread hijacking – I’ve found the polarized lenses to be great for riding – especially road, for reducing glare – but have never had a set of Oakley polarized lenses last more than about 18 months before they start “delaminating” – weird crazing across the lens or on edges. Always seems to start just after the one year warranty expires, had about five lenses on two different glasses do this. Anyone else had this issue?

Personally I don’t see any difference between wearing team kit, and wearing your favorite football team’s jersey.

But – since it is in The Rules that you should not (16 & 17), I never do:

The Rules

a load of overpaid blokes kicking a football around,
a load of shaved druggies riding bikes,
a load of overpaid athletes playing tennis.

You forgot:
a load of overpaid guys driving cars really fast.

But I’ll be watching all of the above on TV this weekend – what a great weekend for sports enthusiasts, if not for grumpy internet trolls.

Thanks all – I’ll try swapping out cleats to the Ritchey ones and report back. Thanks!

A couple of points. As @kevin1911 said – fair dues to PX/OO – they come on the forums, and try to assist when their customer service processes break. Every large retailer has issues, not every large retailer actively participates in the online community.

Also re:

Planet x’s entire business model is based around circumventing official channels to get parts as cheaply as possible,

I believe it is safe to say that every large online retailer’s business model is based around circumventing channels. Amazon, iTunes store, etc. At least some blame in general (although, apparently and according to Brant not in this instance) should be given to SRAM and other manufacturers who have yet to offer worldwide warranties. On this forum there are numerous posts from people traveling with their bikes to various locations around the world to ride. The idea of a country-specific warranty in today’s environment is anachronistic; manufacturers should stand behind their products wherever in the world they break. From my own personal experience, Shimano and Giant have provided me warranty support outwith the country I bought their products in; SRAM should step up, and/or make that part of their local distributors’ remit for distribution.

Kenda Smallblock 8 is always the answer to this question

Thanks for comments and suggestions. I’m already on the Google route (hence a lot of the usual car rental companies come up), but was wondering if there was a better way to do this which did not involve purchase. Key issues are a) coming from overseas, and b) this is a short-term deal, so don’t want to hassle with inspection&purchase/insurance/maintenance/final sale/etc.

Will contact a few dealers, and call up the usual car rental agencies for quotes. If any other ideas, much appreciated.

Take pics if you can, and start the warranty process, but then I’d try to run the cage bolt in and out a few times. Or better yet get your friendly local bike shop – who hopefully aren’t annoyed that they lost a frame sale – to tap it. Do those before going through the hassle of sending back. It may just be some epoxy or similar stuck in the threads.

Re being away from urban noise… You guys must ride with some amazingly silent bikes, as on any ride I’ve been on, especially group rides, there is no such thing as solitude on the trail – with several buzzing Hope and Chris King hubs, chain slap, missed shifts, and the odd swearing. So as before – while I don’t have an external speaker, I certainly can’t see how someone else’s Van Halen, or Taylor Swift, or Yanni, or Teletubbies theme song or whatever is going to immediately ruin my ride.

But I recognize I’m in the STW minority on this one. Anyway – use your speakers if you want, I don’t but I won’t chuck you off the bike if you do!

I too like listening to music when riding on my own (albeit with headphones), but the general STW consensus seems to be it’s a major MTB etiquette faux pas. Having said that – many riders here in Asia use small handlebar or top-tube mounted speakers, and it’s never made me or anyone I was with want to resort to violence.

I’ll put in a plug in for our site:

http://www.meet4rides.com/
[/url]

Admittedly a primarily Southeast Asia focus, but starting to get more events from UK and Australia

Just a thought and not sure your plans. I’ve never ridden that section of road but have driven about 98 dozen times, and would not want to ride it under any circumstances. Would you consider hitting the WHW the other direction, down to Bridge of Orchy or further along? You’d be on the train route, under assumption you are using that to return home.

Never owned a Kona but I’ve always loved the names Kona uses; some examples:

Sex
Stab
Stinky
Kikapu
Wo
Big Kahuna
and supposedly the longest bike model name ever: Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apu’A

What do you do with it if the referendum vote this summer is a Yes?

What @fozzybear said – from my experience the worst that will probably happen is you could blow the tire off. Which if happens while you are riding could mean a “you will die” experience. Or at best, leg-hairs covered in latest for the next week or so, and an unhappy spouse. In any case I don’t think you’ll damage the rim (directly via the overpressure), but probably not a good idea.

Something like this, @gofasterstripes ?

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/sustainable-earth/pictures-amsterdam-shipping-container-homes/

In the last couple of months: scorpions, monitor lizards, pythons, malayan coral snakes, and the odd pangolin. The joys of mountain biking in Singapore jungle!

What @gab344 said.

A slight hijack from me – apologies. Whenever the firmware gets upgraded, all my settings (customized screens, etc) get blown away. Anyone know how to retain those settings between firmware updates? Not a regular occurrence, but often enough to be highly annoying.

–Kristan

Kenda Small Block 8 is my answer to any “what tire…” question for XC riders, except “what tire for very sticky/muddy conditions”.

All-

Seems like the tire was low on sealant – based on a quick “shake and listen” of the wheel. Added more, but annoyingly it wouldn’t inflate – I think all the dried/crusty sealant along one part of the bead has separated, and allowing too much air out (based on all the sealant leaking out when I try to inflate). Lesson learned – keep an eye on topping up my sealant more often.

@vincienup – I normally just top-up the sealant occasionally – although per above, probably not often enough. I don’t think you have to “replace” it, although eventually you get big sealant boogers that rattle around in the tire. I usually only replace sealant when they start annoying me, or when changing tires – generally similar timeframes anyway. And yes – as far as I know you have to unseat at least a portion of the tire to get the old sealant out.

Tried that – popped out after one ride. Maybe should try again with different placement/shaping of rubber piece, but wondering if anyone has a proven way to resolve?

I was on “live chat” with them today – quoting about 10 days for manufacturing and delivery for the hookless rims.

Any thoughts on weave/finish?

@brakes: I have genuine Jawbones, and concur – great for MTBing, not great for commuting on the streets – a huge blind spot created by the frame.

@TurnerGuy: I have several sets of vented and non-vented lenses for my Jawbones (see above) – and in Singapore’s humid weather they all fog up, even with vents. I’ve just put it down to maybe I have exceptionally hot and sweaty eyeballs.

@traildog – you only need the rim strip if the rim has spoke holes. Per @zilog “they don’t have any spoke holes in the rim” – that’s fine. I would add that you definitely want to use tubeless-specific tires for road use. I’m a huge fan of road (and off-road) tubeless.

Reminds me of a race I did. There’s a rock garden section that many folks were walking, but I generally ride. My understanding in race situations is a rider always has priority over those walking/pushing. A person was walking it, and so I called out (politely, I will add) “rider coming through”. The other competitor yelled back to me “can’t you just wait?!?!”

:-)

Re lights – I’m not sure if the Lumens Liberator is within your price range, and it isn’t helmet mounted – but I am a HUGE fan of Trouties lights. Done 12 hour races with them, many night rides, no problems. I bought a couple of spare batteries from Smudge as well, and keep them in a frame bag.

It’s not a race[/url]

What above said regarding bad idea, plus you really will die, and I’ll add that proper road tubeless is the shizness – everyone should be doing it. But if puncture resistance is key concern, not sure why the Stans in the inner tube didn’t work for you, as it is generally a good solution for that. You might want try one of the other slime/spooge compounds for tubeless, and see if that works in your tubes?

Loctite!

Just joking. A very thin layer of grease, and ignore all naysayers.

But as folks have said above – will be fun to watch this thread. Aw

I would normally go with the pedals with this description (as with other comments above), especially if you can’t recreate unless you are pedaling. If you are using SPDs or similar, maybe a worn cleat? Also, unlikely but worth a check – make sure chainring bolts are nice and tight.

Have been living and biking in Singapore for over five years now, and around Asia for longer. Lightwieght XC kit is the way to go, but honestly – no matter what you will be hot, sweaty and miserable – especially if you are just arriving from somewhere cool like the UK. As @jambalaya said – there’s a lot of night riding, just to avoid at least the worst of the heat. Plus you get to see some very interesting animals in the jungle at night!

The heat is there, you just have to get used to it, and there is no magic kit solution that will make you comfortable when you are in a jungle at 33 degrees C and nearly 100% humidity. The things you should be wary of are sunscreen (mainly if you are on the road), mosquitos (dengue fever is a big issue in most of SE Asia, and malaria in parts), and hydration.

ironically a big problem for me is when I’m out riding and a heavy rain starts; for the first 20 minutes or so it can be really refreshing, but after that it actually gets quite cold – and I _never_ have anything additional to wear with me…

Hairspray. I think the alcohol in it is what helps, although not sure. In any case, and old shop trick – whenever I get oil on clothes, just shoot some hairspray on it and chuck it in the laundry, usually works.

Right – time to hang my head in shame – PaulB is correct and I was being an idiot. Still can’t find any at Wiggle or CRC, but did find this on Fleabay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SRAM-Truvativ-X-0-X-9-42T-120mm-GXP-Chainring-Mountain-MTB-/140909500616?pt=Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item20cedc58c8

@ratherbeintobago – did you get a resolution to this? I’m in a similar position – needing new chaingrings for my X9, thinking about going (back) to single chainring.

From what I can tell, the BCD for XX1 is different to X9, so chainrings won’t work. Swapping the whole spider over seems to depend on whether your X9 cranks are GXP or press-fit – but maybe I’m wrong and X9 GXP and press-fit are the same?

For the Light Bicycle 29er carbons – are people going for the “cross country mountain biking” or “wider carbon mountain” options? I presume the former?

–Kristan

+1 for Smallblock 8’s for anything other than gloopy mud – they do great in dry. They are what I race on.

I bet that’s one of those extra-heavy, super-absorbent paper towels you have placed on the scales as well!

Have to add my couple of stories – Wheelcraft is absolutely one of the best shops in the world, and having been out of Scotland (and even the UK) for well over a decade now, I still totally miss Big Al.

Story 1: I needed a new set of wheels, asked his advice on hubs. He said “XT and XTR are basically the same quality, but XTR is for posers.” I’m a bit ashamed to say I went for the XTR

Story 2: Had him build me a 26″ wheel with a flip-flop hub (this was years before the current fixie craze, for a city commuter bike for me). He built it, but told me I was an idiot for wanting that wheel, and that I would probably kill myself riding it.