My thermal tights always seem a bit too warm on the mountain bike, but I haven’t tried them in anything really cold yet. On the road bike they’re wonderful though. I usually wrap up warmer for road rides given the extra windchill.

Just buy the ones from orange, they’re quality bearings and come with new dustcaps and bolts.

Have you used the new XT brakes already?

I’ve found that with the normal shifter clamp I just can’t get the shifter quite in the right place for my set up. If it’s outboard of the brakes it hits my fingers, and if it’s inboard it’s a little too much of a stretch.

Obviously it depends on you, but I’m definitely going for an i-spec shifter when I upgrade to 10 speed to match up with my XT brakes.

You’re unlikely to get your hands on one now, but maybe the old Nukeproof mega frame? I’m not sure when the new one is coming out but that one might be under £800.

It should be fairly obvious what BB each of them has. If you look down at it and there are external cups with notches on then it’s a “normal” screw in type. If there aren’t any cups and the cranks are pushed almost right up against the shell then it’s a press fit.

As for chain guides, you’d be stuck with a seat tube mounted one if it’s a press fit BB, otherwise you can go for a BB mounted one. In either case, just get an e-thirteen XCX. Best top guide available, definitely worth the extra over the superstar ones.

I think Havoc carbons would be the one’s to go for. I’ve got the aluminium ones and they’re a nice shape and are solid without being too harsh, so I can only imagine the carbon ones being even better. Dirt put them in the 100 this year and last year, so out of all the carbon bars to go for they should be decent.

Honestly though, I think at best a carbon bar is just going to mute the vibrations a touch. For real dampening you’d get more out of something like a set of ESI grips or some soft renthal slip ons.

I thought I saw someone modify an XT i-spec adaptor to fit an slx shifter, but I don’t think it’s possible. You would need to buy a whole new shifter.

The RT76s are a steel brake track and an aluminium spider to save some weight, not layered like the RT86. I’ve not heard anything bad about the icetech ones, but I’ve never had a problem with my 76s either.

It’s 104BCD so you could in theory put a 32t ring on. As for chainline and fitting a guide, I suspect it would be sub-optimal at best.

Shimano RT76 or 86, or a hope floating rotor.

Unfortunately I can’t even help, it just fixed itself after I moved the lever a bit further away from the bar, and it’s all been fine, even surviving a week in the alps with no problems at all.

Why not just throw some stan’s rim tape in there?

If nothing else, the XT shifters are worth the extra over SLX.

Grease the threads if you ever want to get them off again.

My renthal one works great, but I suspect that most dedicated 1x rings will do a good job. All of them will work with any number of gears from about 5 upwards.

Maybe you should actually have your girlfriend try out a couple of different bikes and see what she prefers? She’s going to be riding the bike, not you.

Why bother?
Pros: It’ll look a little bit neater

Cons: Increased risk of frame cracking
It’ll be a massive faff to feed the cable through there

It just doesn’t seem worth it. Why would you even consider it?

It might be a little bit more free moving now, but given that it’s just an seal change it’s probably placebo effect. Nothing wrong with that though, and changing seals is a good thing to do.

Wind the levers out as far as it is still possible to reach. I like mine to bite far away from the bars, and that was the only way I could achieve it with them. Brilliant brakes in every other respect though.

The fluoro yellow will stand out more, but the gore jacket is a much nicer one to actually ride in.

It’s just under twenty miles, but it feels like it goes up and down the hill twice, so you end up riding for quite a long time grinding up dull climbs.

The black is just draggy, and the climb has absolutely no redeeming qualities at all. Deliverance is fun, and there’s a few odd little bits of descent that actually offer a challenge, but it’s mostly just not worth the effort.

Go do the innerleithen red – an actually interesting climb with enough techy bits to keep it challenging, and a descent that rewards you for the climbing effort. Then if you still fancy riding do the red at glentress, far more reward for your effort.

They all rotate, it’s nothing to worry about.

Some kind of stud remover is probably your best option – if you don’t have one then try your local shop. They should be able to get it out without damaging the spacer, then just pick up a new bolt.

I managed to strip the thread from two E13 chainring bolts, and while it could have just been my cack handedness, I found KCNC ones to be much better, as well as not needing a T25. As a quick warning, the renthal chain ring has a sunken section around each bolt hole, that side should face inwards towards the frame when you are fitting it to your cranks.

I bought my KCNC bolts off ebay, look for ones that say single ring.

Weatherspark has more data about the weather than you can shake a stick at, and the option of choosing several different forecast services to give you a more balanced view. It’s really the best, and the fact that it gives a whole host of extra information makes it the one I use most these days

Upload it to imgur, faster and easier than any other photo sharing site, and you don’t need to bother signing up.

Shimano RT76, or RT86 if you’re feeling plush. They just work better than any normal all steel rotor I’ve tried, only squeal a little when wet, stay true, and importantly stay cool. Mine happily managed a trip to the alps without any kind of brake fade or warping. That’s paired with the new XT brakes, so they should be perfect for your purpose.

It’s for bike shops so they can break any chain from a singlespeed to an 11 speed with minimum fuss and maximum ease, and do it time and time again for years. Obviously it’s not for a home mechanic who might need it once or twice a year.

The official shimano line is 34t max sprocket, but the mechanics said that shimano are usually conservative, and they’ve done it with a 36 without any problems.

You probably wrapped it in the wrong direction to the way your hands grip the bar. I’ve never had bar tape come undone.

Coming soon from thomson: bars, quick release seat clamps, dropper seatposts, and cranks. I can’t wait to give them even more money.

Just the sram rings? Perfectly doable, there shouldn’t be any problem at all.

You could look for 661 stuff, they have a ‘youth’ size, but since it’s mostly one size fits all it could be a bit hit or miss. Should be made to the same decent standards as the rest of their kit though.

I use them quite happily, no massive pad failures yet. They seem to be a pretty good all year round choice, with more bite than sintered pads and longer life than organics. I’ve not directly compared them with sintered or organic but they do seem to do what they say on the tin.

Assuming you made sure that the axle to crown of the 650b fork was within your frame’s tolerances, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work. How much of a difference it would make is an entirely debatable matter however.

I think dirt said that lots of enduro riders rate 36s on zestys, best of both worlds with good climbing yet rocking the downhills. Do it. It will be well good.

I totally feel your pain, if it’s brand new then it ought to just work right out of the box. Shoot canyon an email, someone on here will know more about the process, but you should only have to send back the fork, and they ought to cover the shipping. It’s pretty irritating though.

My old formula k24s were light as feather, but never really made enough power for me to be happy with. I changed to the new XTs and they’re much better with the same rotors, but a bit heavier and still mineral oil, so you probably wouldn’t like. If it has be be DOT, then an expensive formula for lightness and decentness, just be prepared to spend a lot if they break, or some hope race evo X2s.

If it’s making crunchy clunky noises, something is very wrong inside of them. If you feel comfortable with it stripping them and looking to see if anything has come loose inside and checking the oil levels is a good idea, but if you aren’t then canyon will probably cover them under warrenty. My 36s were clunking and it turned out to be a split o-ring and a loose talas cartridge. Riding on them is just going to make things worse, and the bill more expensive at the end of the day.