1997 is considered retro on the Retrobike forum

Wasn’t the SAB brand bought up by Planet X. These are probably remaining stock of the defunct SAB operation being sold off so the offer price bears no resemblance to SAB’s original RRP. I’m inclined to think that the discrepancy you have noticed with the 17″ frame is simply an error. Who cares about RRP’s its the price you pay that counts, I have recently bought a wheelset RRP £699 from CRC for £208 and two £599 RRP cranksets for £139 each. Suits me.

Those frames you pointed to are old with v-brake posts but at £50 a punt will be attractive to some people. These are all clearance offers so RRP’s mean nothing.

Yeah 596’s are pretty good. Got mine from Merlin and they weren’t opposite handed

I see what you did there 🙂

Got to be honest, why skimp on unknown quality. Obviously I haven’t tried them so can’t really help. I’ts a bit like people who buy cheap inks for their nice photo printers and wonder why their pictures look crap.

Made from hardened metallic ingredience and bound together with pressure and tempurature.

Long wear pads – used for HD, XC

Doesn’t inspire confidence in me as I don’t do HD racing.

My frame was just tarnished not painted. Just used a tube of Autosol, an infinate supply of rags and 10kg of elbow grease. Its a ’95 Mongoose Amplifier 2 shown here before new decals went on.

Yes how did it go, need to know! What tyres did you use on the pie transportation bike?

Haha many years ago I remember spending hours ‘hacking’ Letraset with a scalpel to get that distressed typeface effect. Lot easier now its just one of thousands of TrueType fonts.

The early ones were weak at the pedal mount especially if pedals were fitted without the pedal washers. They were later improved. There are some people who are capable of breaking anything and let’s face it K-Force Light stuff are lightweight XC/trail orientated components and shouldn’t really be used for jumping off cliffs.

I have several fitted during the last few weeks but have not done much serious biking during the last four weeks. So all I can say at the moment is that they are very light, look beautiful and the wheels go around when I pedal. So not much use there I’m afraid. During the last price drops on these before xmas I got a 27/39 386 Megaexo for £153 and a 29/42 Megaexo for £139. At those prices the cheapest carbon cranks anywhere particularly when many places are still selling them for over £500 (would not have bought them at that price!). My bikes don’t get mega punishing use so should last me fine. Lovely smooth ceramic bearing bottom brackets and smooth as butter changes using XT derailleurs and shifters. There are probably a few people who would say they fall apart when you look at them but I’m happy!

FFS enough of this ‘Troll’ rubbish. The guy bought a couple of bikes and didn’t take some of the crap advice he was given. Get over it. Nice way to treat a newcomer. Good luck with the bikes, now get them dirty!!

Had RC36’s on my old bike for over 12 years and they were well used and worked perfectly with a little regular (yearly) maintenance which was a doddle. From what I remember some of the more complicated ones produced before the demise of Pace forks were more troublesome. I’d still have them if my old bike hadn’t been nicked a year ago.

I thought the Hope mounts were just to interface Hope brake levers to the various shifters. I use them on my M4 Tech Evos and XT shifters and they do work with SLX. The Avid matchmakers only work with SRAM shifters not Shimano AFAIK.

OK I know its only the fork…..

Better off recycled into decent books.

+1 on the Zee, I’ve just fitted a Zee groupset on my hardtail. Its a nice rear mech and works absolutely fine with my 1×10 setup. Yes you will need the 32-36t version for your casette.

***WARNING*** OP TOSSER

My cousin has been told today that he may have 2-3 months to live.

You poor thing – get a grip!

Fox Antifreeze

Dad deserves a better bike than £300. My bike is better than my son’s Neh neh.

I don’t think saddles can be bought by recommendations our asses are all different. I’ve tried many saddles over the last few years until I found a couple that I was comfortable with. Kore Enduro for my light full sus bike, and Charge Pan leather for my hardtail. Happy botty now!

Yes, that Giant from Paul’s is excellent. I got my 2011 Giant Anthem X4 last Feb from Paul’s reduced from £1750 to £1100 and recently spent about £900 on upgrades for it like Hope brakes, Fulcrum wheels and hubs, FSA carbon crankset, full XT and many other nice bits. It’s now way better specced than any £2000 bike you can buy, weighs 23 pounds and rides like a dream. But I guess that route is not for a beginner.

I like Privateer too, I don’t subscribe but pick it up on a reasonably regular basis. I like the not many ads aspect and the lack of silly biased tests of thermal tights, stems, bottle holders etc. It is a magazine you have to read fully rather than scan through picking out bits so may be a bit more challenging for some, but I usually find plenty to interest me. I dont mind full page photographs as I am a photographer and appreciate good photography.

Saying that, I do find Singletrack is my favourite read with a nice variety of articles which why is also my only MTB mag on subscription.

Asda? Cheapskate!

No but seriously Helly Hanson Thermal I use bought ridiculously cheap at a local outdoors centre shop closing down sale. Nice and warm and comfy though….

Marks and Spencer 40 denier

Here’s mine, will do me for this year after much upgrade.

No real racing ambitions, just fun!

The guy wants a full suspension, he wants an fs bike similar to the one he enjoyed riding so much not On-ones, Ragleys or Cotics being recommended by the hardtail fanboys and now he’s being branded as a troll.

Sounds like you need a good all-round FS bike about 100-120mm travel for starters like the Giant Trance posted by Woody2000 above. You don’t necessarily need XT, SLX will do nicely. Look for others around the same price from Specialised, Lapierre, Scott, Norco etc and don’t be drawn into more specialised bikes. A bike with a good frame can be upgraded with fancy bits if you need to in future.

Yes it is hideous, but as it will be on a road bike it’ll be fine.

Extra holidays for teachers, they don’t get much.

My son is network/IT manager at a school in south wales. They opened up on friday because of examinations and volunteers were sought to keep the place open for the exams. Seven Admin employees turned up including my son and one teacher turned up very late. All the affected students made it in including several who walked in six or seven miles. Exams went ok, no thanks to the teachers.

Lovely bike, I’m quite jealous. The only thing for me is the Tundra saddle. Tried it – hated it 👿

I may be mistaken but I seem to remember it was 180mm. It was that and the fact I am heavy made me go for the alloy ones instead. Its on their website somewhere.

Hope direct mount adapters here with XT, excellent positioning. Rip the shifter indicators off – who the hell looks at those anyway

I did see Rebas at On-One there for £249 but they’re for tapered steerer otherwise I might have been tempted again. The Recon golds have alloy steerers and stanchions, the silvers alloy steerer and steel stanchions. Yeah the coils are even heavier.

There was, I got a pair of 100mm recon gold solo six months or so ago from On-one for £169. Brilliant forks for that price and i’ve since removed a spacer for 120mm travel. Not seen any rivalling that since sorry.

Welcome, nice bike, I’m an ‘Anthem’ guy myself. You may have noticed that a lot of the threads and posts on this forum are in code. You may pick it up in time. I haven’t yet. Also the more enthusiastic you are the more sarcasm rains down on you. Starting a dumb or meaningless thread goes down well though. 😉

Could have been worse – an Albatross, though I don’t see many of them in my garden.

There’s a lot more to Creation than Oasis. When’s it on?

I am running 2×9 with an 2×10 FSA K-force Light and Shimano XT rear mech, shifters, cassette and chain all 9 speed – no problems, smooth as butter. Using the limit screws on the front mech to lock out 3rd ring works fine. I don’t think that a 10 speed chain works with 9 speed mech and cassette.

Apart from your pessimistic handling charge (£12-15) you’re about there and seem to have answered your own question.

Was just working through this thread and thinking ‘good grief, no Kleins’ when that post blew it.

Forget steel, aluminium and titanium, carbon is where it at. The living organic bike. You get a bike at age 6 and it grows with you for the rest of your life. You change its style, gears, travel, wheel diameter and colour by manipulating its DNA via a USB5 port using Adobe BikeShop CS19….

…its true I read it in What Mountain Bike!!