Goldtec DH rings are excellent quality and also quite cheap (£19.99)

http://www.mountainbikecomponents.co.uk/items.asp?CategoryID=33&Name=Goldtec+Chainrings

BB is really tall on them both eh?

BB drop on the Sherpa is 50mm (I checked with Stanton), versus 55mm on a Solaris, so not that different.

I think its the high BB (25mm drop vs 70mm on a singular kite)

Just to point out that this is incorrect – the BB drop on the Sherpa is 50mm (I checked with Stanton).

I work in a bike shop. For many items, CRC, Merlin etc are significantly cheaper than I can get stuff at trade from Madison.

In which case why wouldn’t the bike shop just order the required part(s) from CRC or whoever is cheapest?

Weighs about 250g more than an RS Reba, if that matters to you.

Have done quite a few of these 1000+ mass start events and I’ve decided it’s well worth the effort of starting near the front and giving it some serious effort for the first half an hour or so, even if you are planning on taking the rest of it at a leisurely pace.
That way you get ahead of the traffic jams seen in those photos, makes a big difference to the day.

28T seems TINY on front

It would be on a 26″ wheel bike. But not so much on a 29er.

I guess because it would render most of the rest of their range obsolete.

You can use the newest X.7 chainset, CRC have one with cosmetic damage for £80, flog the rings and buy a Direct Mount one and you can go to 26t.

Ah, cool – thanks for the link.

Won’t give up until my body does.

Really like the idea of the guy doing the mega for his 50th birthday – might aim for that myself! (got a fair way to go yet though)

Thanks for the info guys.
Seems like these range extender sprockets are the way to go rather than a smaller chainring.

I was sure more people would be running less than 32T, and I wanted to find out what cranks they were using in that case.
What do you mean by “direct mount” ?
XX1 cranks seem pretty expensive to me…

Anyone else care to share their ratios?

But also, there are builders putting brown envelopes in agents hands for the right stuff.

Friend of mine was an estate agent in London for a while about 10 years ago. He said he had a few builders/developers who he knew who would “reward” him if he showed them potential development properties first. At that time the going rate was apparently £1k cash in his pocket if they ended up buying it.

In my opinion Macbook Air is the way to go. All the power or a “real” computer with the size, weight and convenience of a tablet.

@rollsroyce – what cranks you using with the 28 ?

Strong legs all round!
I wanted to go lower than 32T on my 26er… 😳

Surprised to hear no-one running 28T so far – that was what seemed good to me based on my rough calculations. Anyone?

@peasant – I’d give you £35 posted for them if you don’t get any better offers. Can pay by Paypal straight away if you are interested. My email address is in my profile.

I also like Oury. They seem to be the biggest diameter out there.

How much you want for the trail skins (inc postage) ?

These look like a great alternative to G-Form:

http://www.pinkbike.com/u/mattwragg/blog/dainese-trail-skins-kneepads-review.html

I had a Charge Duster Ti for many years which I did a lot of riding on and it never let me down. Three of my mates had the same frames and no-one ever broke one or heard of anyone who had.
I loved it and only sold it because I wasn’t riding much any more and needed the money for my house renovation.
I fully expect to own another Ti frame some day.

What caused the belt breakages – was it stuff getting trapped under the belt or just during normal use?

Proper winter boots/shoes for flat pedals. All the shoes I’ve tried (shim am, five 10’s and tevas) just have to look at water and they’re sodden. Neoprene sock, thermal properties, made out out of goretex with a five ten type sticky sole please.

Yes!

A lot of the hardware they sell it like that, that’s how they get it so cheap. Nothing wrong with it you’re just saving money on packaging.

If you’re looking for something as light and unobtrusive as the G-Forms then no I don’t think there are any others out there that are similar.
If you want to go for something bigger which offers more protection then there are lots of options:

Knee pad recommendations

This has all the makings of an epic race – can’t wait for this one!

I’m particularly interested to see how the riders tackle that MX-style whoops section at high speed… should be interesting!

Personally I would say anything less than £40k and you’ll be scraping by and not being able to make the best of the opportunities on offer. And even then you can forget pension or other saving…

I’d agree with this.

I’ve tried various ones for my 5 year old and have come up with a combination that really works for him.

For the elbows he’s using Fox PeeWee. These are actually supposed to be a motocross product but they are perfect for everything, they strike a great balance between being protective but also very light and comfy.

For the knees he’s using G-Form pads. These are great for kids as they are so light and unobtrusive, but as mentioned above they are expensive.
Top tip for these is that all the models (elbow/knee/shin) are very similar and can be used for different purposes so shop around. I bought my son the shin pads in medium size which work perfectly as a knee pad for him and were reduced from £45 to £22 at SkateHut.co.uk

Atlaz – did you have any complaints about the 661 Evo D30 ones? I fancy a pair of those myself…

Colours are blue or white. Both with Orange decals.

Are the decals underneath lacquer/clearcoat ?

I hope it doesn’t go under, purely because the world cup videos they put out are pretty much the best thing since sliced bread.

I’m using Rock n Roll Extreme at the moment and I don’t see what’s so great about it. Seems average in all respects to me. I will try something else next.

Do we know what sizes these rings are going to come in yet?

Baby wipes are awesome. You can literally clean anything off with them, and they work out much cheaper than any other types of cleaning wipes.

That BioLogic one looks really good.
I remember someone at my school had a neon pink one of those on his BMX back in the 80s….

Just saw someone has them on eBay cheaper than the Amazon link above (£17.99 inc delivery).
Worth noting that you get enough to do two bikes with, so price is actually quite cheap.

Velo Orange make a nice simple and slightly retro looking polished alloy one.

Available in the UK from here:
http://freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/Accessories.html

Z3M Coupe

Z4M Coupe would be just about within budget I think…

I gotta admit i like that car a lot.

It would seem to be the case that Shell do not have any UK refineries any more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries#United_Kingdom

However, according to various sources online V-Power comes from the Stanlow refinery, which used to belong to Shell but they sold it a few years ago.