Which one’s would people recommend to carry in a saddle bag?

Small roll of tape or zip ties to get it out of the way. Those both have other uses, whereas any cutter that will do a decent job is a single purpose item and more like a waste of space if you carry it around while riding.

I quite like my pedros cable cutters, but the lack of a crimping function on them is a real annoyance to me, so I’m considering swapping to a set from park.

Probably not?
I can’t say for definite, because that’s a mix of mountain and road groups.

The standard advice is that when mixing and matching between SRAM and shimano, front mechs + shifters will work, rears will not.

That said, I have no idea if mish-mash of road + mountain bits will work. Try looking up the cable pull ratios required and see if they are close, but the most likely answer is that it won’t work at all.

The thread was about forks though.

Definitely pikes. Those vans are about 2400g, and pikes are less than 1900g according to sram. That’s a pound off straight away, and all the usual rockshox reliability and levels of service (hopefully). There’s too many bad reports of people struggling to get spares and repairs on BOS forks.

Air shock (CCBD air?), single front ring, thinner flat pedals, and lighter wheels and tires (tubeless?) are the other places to look at if you want to shed weight from the bike.

Some of these will affect the way it rides more than others, and it depends on how much you are willing to compromise on strength and durability.

Going to do the usual thing and recommend what I own – 100%. I’ve found them to be great, but I suspect that you wouldn’t go wrong with a set of Oakleys. I just like the colours on my 100% racecrafts better.

According to Sheldon Brown crank length probably doesn’t make that much difference. In the grand scheme of things 5mm is a very small change, so I would bee looking for something else in your set up that’s fixed your knee pain.

Ftfy. Dacia sell cars for £6k brand new. Caterham kit car, made from the same raw materials, cost 3 times that. And we’ve been led to believe this is fantastic value for money

Other than a BBB Steerer Tube Extender, crank brothers do directsets (they might have stopped making them now) that have one of the lowest stack heights available. The trouble is that they use ball bearings in a cage, and their reliability is pretty awful like most cb stuff with bearings. As for the extender, I don’t know how much off road radness it would put up with.

You might be better off selling the forks and buying a set with a longer steerer.

The description now says “Mavic XM 819 UST”and “The wheels as you can see from the pictures have been re-stickered with Stans ZTR Crest.”

It looks like the description was changed recently though, but I couldn’t say for sure if this is malicious or just a mix-up. Bit strange to re-sticker your rims with a different brand though.

You’ll need to change the GXP bottom bracket for a hollowtech II one, but that should come with the SLX cranks if you buy them brand new (this assumes your frame has a standard threaded bottom bracket). And the shifter + front mech combination is fine.

Not quite the same, but I’ve heard lots of people running it with 160mm forks and saying it’s an improvement. I reckon slackening off the head-angle but keeping it with a 140mm fork would probably feel great.

My New Year’s Resolution will be 1280 x 1024.

Get with the times, it’s all the the 4K for 2014.

Some should work just fine, presumably ones like revolver which are pure interval training will be ok. Others like angels require changes in cadence as well, as I’m not sure how well you could replicate that on the cross trainer unless you have a way to ramp up its resistance.

Another recommendation for pixelmator here, found it to be definitely worth the money over GIMP. Grab is the built in tool for screen capturing as well, even if that does involve a few more steps than the direct shortcuts. Do yourself a favor and get Alfred, it does so many different functions and you save a lot of time by keeping your hands on the keyboard. Growl for better notifications, and f.lux for not burning your eyes out when it gets dark.

38mm rise renthal fatbars?

Your middle and ring finger share a tendon, so by stretching out your middle finger onto the brake, you compromise on the grip strength that your ring finger is providing on the bars.

The index finger has its own tendon, so the best way to ride is with that finger doing all of the braking, and with levers moved in to maximise leverage.

Like you said, either the BFe or the Stanton 631. Pick whichever one you like the look/price of more.

Isn’t there only one meta AM? Be aware, that’s the 2013 frame, and it’s being replaced by the 2014 meta SX. The other meta frames are either for 29″ wheels, or the short 120mm travel frame.

104 and 64 BCD, so any rings with those dimensions will fit.

Just make sure you buy ramped replacements, there’s loads of 104 BCD rings that are single ring specific.

Yes, but only by a few mm. You’d be much better off getting wider bars or a longer stem.

It’s a little surprising how little sponsorship orange do. Even hope has more riders out there at all kinds of events (Rob Jebb at the 3 peaks?) showing off their components. The only riders I know still showing off orange frames are the cut media people, and possibly Danny Mac to some extent. Even if orange don’t have the money to run a full DH team, they could probably still afford a rider or two at the enduro world series. Especially now that Joe Barnes et. al. have gone to canyon.

Maybe they do sell enough frames entirely from their reputation that they figure it’s not cost effective to sponsor people, who knows.

If they did their job properly when fixing a spoke they should have tensioned it evenly and left it as strong as it was originally. For it to have broken two spokes without any major impacts in such a short space of time suggests that there might be something wrong with the wheel – what make is it?

Then again, it could be that they didn’t true it properly – it’s hard to tell.

It makes sense from a business perspective for them – “freeride” bikes like the patriot have fallen way out of fashion, and it must be hard to sell a downhill bike with zero world cup pedigree. The last time it was successful at that level was nearly a decade ago. It’s probably still a great bike, but most people are going to want what they see on the podium every sunday.

The only solution to sweaty back syndrome is to ride with nothing on your back – ie. panniers on your bike. If you value looking rad and not like another bimbling commuter then a messenger bag is the way to go. £50 isn’t a huge budget for them, try timbuk2 for slightly less expensive but still decent ones.

If you want a brilliant one that will last for life, then look no further than chrome or mission workshop. Made in the US, lifetime guarantee and quality of construction that means they genuinely will last a lifetime.

I’ve got a chrome citizen, and while I sometimes wish I’d gone for the metropolis for the extra space, I still love it and it’s had daily use for three years and still looks brand new. It’s totally waterproof, has one massive space inside and enough other organizational stuff on the outside for me to keep my lock and other bits and pieces separate. It was expensive, but worth every penny and I adore it.

Sanderson Blitz

Why would anyone wanting a to buy a new frame these days buy one without ISCG tabs, dropper capability, and a head tube that can take tapered forks?

As for the OP, buy the Slackline 631. All the future proofing that you want, and it’s the best looking frame by far.

Another vote for saint here. The instant release is only on it and XTR shifters, and it means every shift to a harder gear just fires into place in a fraction of a second. Combine that with long textured paddles and a brilliant positive feel. The best shifter that shimano makes, without a doubt.

I switched from cheap superstar and uberbike pads to proper shimano pads and all of the horrible noise has disappeared completely. The cost savings weren’t worth my vanishing sanity and numerous attempts to fix the problem, none of which ever worked for more than one ride.

44mm is the usual OD for external cups and tapered steerers. What frame is it for?

Tech and race refer to the lever. Tech has all the adjustors and everything. Race is a lighter version where you need allen keys to adjust stuff.

X -> E -> M -> V are the callipers, on a sliding scale of XC -> Downhill.

The number after the letter refers to the number of pistons, 2 on the more regular brakes, 4 for more downhill biased riding.

Evo means it’s the newest model with an updated lever and cam.

Stealth means everything is black. Otherwise you can buy the regular ones in a cornucopia of anodised colourways.

Yes.

Adding colour to rubber messes about with its grippiness, with the general consensus being that completely coloured tyres are absolute cack. Most coloured tyres these days just have stripes that are put on top of the rubber in places that don’t touch the ground.

Try looking at vittoria or schwalbe tyres, they might have something in that colour.

x-lite, whisky parts co, ragley, niner, and eXotic all make carbon forks with a 15mm axel. I have no idea how much they are, or even if all of them are still in production. Trouble is, a lot of them are tapered steerer.

Both the lyriks and the pikes are 35mm stanchions, so I’d imagine that they’re up to just as much abuse. I’ve got a friend who moved from fox 36s with a 20mm axle to the new pikes, and he says they feel exactly as stiff, with much better suspension performance. Go for the pikes, they’ll be more than up for the job.

The superstar one is even cheaper on amazon. I’ve got one and it seems to work pretty well.

Both ritchey and bontrager make 5nm preset ones, which are great if all you want is seatpost and stem bolts to the right value. I’m sure there’s other makes as well.

in 2010

The 35mm stanchions were called 2010, but were available to buy in 2009.

I’m a mere 5′ 8″ and I’ve ridden around on a large and it was only a smidgen too big for me. They have a super steep seat angle, so it feels like a short top tube when you are sitting down, but as soon as you get your weight back it feels like a completely different bike.

I reckon with an inline post and a 50mm stem you could get away with it, but bike fit is obviously a very personal thing, so ymmv.

General consensus is that 2014 RS is better than the Fox stuff, especially the CTD ones. Although I’m not sure how much difference there is between them for short travel forks. If they’re the same price though, I’d get the rockshox – they should be at least as good, and require less maintenance. Win win.

but im sure that dosent matter if ur running a 22 and 34 ring up front as its a rear shifter lol

I’m pretty sure this isn’t a goer, since the zee mech is short cage only, and therefore doesn’t have the capacity for a double up front. Either ditch the double and go 1×10, or you’ll need a medium cage rear mech.

I believe that fox 36s and 34s, lyriks, marzocchi 55s, and x fusion slants and vengences all have a version that can be adjusted internally to 150mm. I’m not sure about the new pikes. For some lighter options there’s a whole bunch of forks; fox 32s, revelations, sektors, marzocchi 44s.

It’s up to you whether you want a slimmer and lighter 150mm chassis, or a lowered burly 160/170mm travel fork.

SLX everything else seems to be just as good, but the XT shifters are far nicer. That said, I’m now running a saint shifter with a zee mech and my god the saint shifter is absolutely magical. If you’re running 1×10 that would be my choice every single time.