The Cube Stereo 120 Super HPC Race 29 is catching my eye. Apart from the rather convoluted name it looks to be a decent package that ticks all my boxes. The reviews I’ve read suggest it’s biased toward climbing over descending too, which is just what I’m after.

http://www.cube.eu/uk/bikes/fullsuspension/stereo/cube-stereo-120-super-hpc-race-29-black-flashred-2015/

Cheers, I’ll give them a look.

What are peope’s thoughts on the Cube Stereo 120 HPA Race 29?

I’ve just been out to Evans in Glasgow but, to be honest, it was a bit of a fruitless trip. The only bikes they had in stock were either engineless motocrossers with miles of travel or hardtails and the sales assistant’s advice didn’t extend much beyond “Have a look on our website”.

Reading some online reviews, the BMC Speedfox XT is looking promising. The Giant Anthem X 29er isn’t really floating my boat as the componentry spec seems quite low in some areas. The Orange Sector did initially catch my eye but I ruled it out on reading that it is quite heavy and has rather slack frame angles. I like the look of the Whyte 109, but they seem to have dropped the aluminium framed version for 2015.

Does anyone have any experience of either the Kona Hei Hei or GT Helion? I’ve had a couple of Kona hardtails in the past also a GT XCR full sus when they first came out.

I’m completely open to brands; weight and ‘feel’ are my priorities. I have to be able to climb without feeling the suspension is sapping half my pedalling effort or that I’m dragging a dead weight, but it needs enough travel to take a reasonable amount of sting out of bumpy descents and, in truth, compensate to a certain extent for my lack of line choosing skill! I’ve not swung a leg over a bike in at least three years so I’m definitely going to be a bit rusty.

I like the look of the 109.

I don’t really have one. Whatever I get, I’d probably do on monthly instalments and I’d be buying it to keep for a good few years rather than trading up/on every couple of years.

I always replace with EBC Greenstuff when the orginals wear out, whether I’m buying for bike or car. Nice bite, good wear and they don’t seem prone to squealing. Cheaper than Shimano too, which is a nice added bonus.

Phil, I’ve just had a look at your website and the one thing that’s a little unclear is whether somebody can purchase the bike from you at the end of the lease period. If so, what sort of price they would expect to pay (let’s say it’s a £2500 bike for the sake of an example?) and how they would go about paying you for it – would this need to be a lump sum or could it be financed?

Try it and see if it slips or sucks. If it does, buy a new cassette too, if not then it’s fine. Simples.

Maybe fit them and take them out for a ride? Car discs usually develop a bit of surface rust if left for even a day or two, a quick drive has them shiny in no time.

Hope Pro 2s with Hope rotors on one set of wheels, cheapo no-name front hub/cheapo Shimano rear hub with Shimano XT rotors on the other, both seem to slot in and line up just fine.

Hope hubs
Hope headset
XT thumbshifters

Aah, now I see…

Mister P – Member

To match your workstand.

What is that?

organic355 – Member

Black or red to match?

On that particular bike, I’d go red.

tk46hal – Member

Are the hubs made by Hope and are they specific to road/cyclo riding or are they pro 2’s on 700 rims?

organic355 – Member

Just Hope Pro 2 Evos on 700c rims (velocity A23)

Good combo. I’ve got a set of Pro 2s on Mavic Open Pros and I love ’em.

You need some shamelessly vain Hope skewers to set them off though… :P

Do Mojo not offer a retro-fit Kashima coating service on Fox forks when you send them in for service?

If they are coating the existing stanchions rather than replacing the entire CSU (I’ve no idea which of these two is actually the case) then it’s obviously possible.

Ned Overend
Thomas Frischknecht
Dave Wiens
Tinker Juarez
Regina Stiefl
Paula Pezzo

Get used to that music. I’ve been trying, without success, to get Virgin Media to fix our internet for over a year now.

The problem, in short, is that the cable that runs from the on-street box to our flat needs replacing. I’ve been told this by at least four seperate engineers who have visited the flat, run all sorts of tests, replaced every bit of cabling in the flat, the PVR box and the router (three times on that score!).

Each engineer that has turned up has had absolutely no prior briefing whatsoever on the problem, each went away promising to get it sorted ‘soon as’ and each time I’ve had to ring up a week or so later because I’ve heard nothing. The reason four (it could be more) engineers have visited is because every time I ring up, the nice man or lady on the other end of the phone point-blank refuses to take my word on what the previous guy has said (and he’s not left any notes whatosever on the case file) and insist on sending someone else out to assess the problem.

Actually getting to the point of having the problem annotated in writing took over 6 months, during which I had to take several days off work to wait in for engineers who, on more than one occasion, didn’t show up. Since then, Virgin have promised me faithfully time and again that the problem will be sorted very soon. They have made (and quite often, cancelled at the last minute) several appointments, none of which have resulted in anything actually being done. I’ve had people turn up then leave without doing anything because they didn’t know the flat was on the third floor and hadn’t brought ladders, a single bloke turn up then leave without doing anything because on getting out of his van he immediately visually assessed it as being a two man job, a team of men turn up then leave without doing anything because they didn’t know they were supposed to be fitting a new cable and hadn’t got any cable with them… the list goes on.

I’m actually waiting on a promised call back from them (again) today, so far I’ve heard nothing.

Virgin Media is a good system when it works, but God help you if it goes wrong. Their customer service, quite simply, isn’t. As soon as we move house, we’ll be going back to Sky who we were with before (the owner of the building our flat is in won’t allow satellite dishes) and never had a single problem.

No.

You should get a headset properly installed by a shop using a made-for-the-purpose headset press, which will ensure the top and bottom cups are perfectly square in the headtube and parallel to eachother. Not doing so can, theoretically, lead to premature bearing wear.

I will definitely be paying to have the shiny new Hope headset that’s currently sat on my desk at work fitted in this way.

That said, I’ve fitted many, many headsets to many, many bikes with a block of wood and a hammer and never noticed any problems… :?

Broken wallet.

Ringo – Member

Charlie bikemonger sells them, the compass on my gryphon looks spiffing

Piccy please?

Echoing some of the comments above, set them up on their slackest tension at first then slowly begin to increase it as your confidence does likewise.

Good shout on getting them properly aligned too, if in doubt seek advice from a good bike shop, although Google will yield everything you need to know. Misaligned clipless pedals will result in knee problems…

As far as remembering to clip out is concerned, you will inevitably fall off at some point, most likely in when slowing to a stop. Unclipping will though eventually become second nature. I’m so used to clipless pedals that I feel postively insecure on a bike without them. Some people are die-hard flat pedal enthusiasts, I love my SPuDs, horses for courses.

Assuming this isn’t some elaborate hoax… I rather like those. Would the compass not struggle when bolted to a bike made largely of metal though?

Gary_M – Member

But that means you’re not buying your first house untill you’re forty something.

Correct.

wwaswas – Member

ok – but why not just spend the rent money on Mortgage now and have your pension for other things in the future?

Fair question. Because of the transient nature of my job (posted to a completely different town, country or even continent every 2-3 years, the location of which you can express a preference for but are by no means guaranteed to get) it would be very difficult and expensive to sell one property and buy another each time. There is also no guarantee of being able to sell a given property in the notice period the Army gives you, which can be as much as 6 months or as little as a fortnight.

wwaswas – Member

Tricky if you haven’t got your employer funding your accomodation for the 22 years it takes to save up, though.

Not really. I pay £595 pcm for my privately rented, 2 bedroomed, 3rd floor flat. Along with £112 pcm Council tax, approx £70 to British Gas for electricity (the flat has no gas) and approx £40 in water rates.

So no, my employer doesn’t fund my accomodation in any way, shape or form.

FSA Orbit XL II. Best compromise of low cost, decent build/bearing quality, reasonable weight and – if it’s important to you – choice of colours.

Gary_M – Member

And where does the average first time buyer get their £50k deposit from and pay all the assosciated fees?

If he or she is anything like me, by serving 22 years in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. In 7 years from now, I plan to use my lump sum in exactly this manner, my pension to cover my mortgage repayments and – all being well – wages from a new job for income.

Probably nothing different to if you took the cap off, held the lever with a zip tie and gently tapped the caliper, hose and reservoir with an allen key. You’d achieve nothing by leaving it overnight that you couldn’t achieve in five minutes.

TandemJeremy – Member

Yes I would obey the law which simply is that if the landowner or his agent found me on the land and asked me to leave I would do. that is the extent of the sanctions he has.

it would not stop me from using the land again in future so long as I was doing no harm.

So because the punishment (in this case, being asked to leave a piece of land that you have no right to be on) is menial, you would quite happily repeat the crime?

That thinking is akin to some little scroat repeatedly TWOCing cars because, “Well, I is only gunna get a slap on the wrist, innit?”

The fact that you disagree with a law or rule does not give you carte blanche to ignore it.

s13joe – Member

what fustrates me is the “processing” comment on in stock items which takes a phone call for them to “hurry the order up”

Fair comment.

TandemJeremy – Member

Not true.

In some circumstances you have access rights, he is very constrained as to what can be done with the land and also have various obligations

Those circumstances being…? The OP has only mentioned footpaths, not bridleways. Cycling on footpaths is illegal, therefore the right of access is negated.

TandemJeremy – Member

So this land is open to walkers but not cyclists? the cyclist is doing no harm? I would continue to ride it.

And, in doing so, you would be tresspassing.

yunki – Member

but can there not be a difference between owning a plot that is reasonable for homing you and your fam.. and owning a tract of beautiful native woodland..?

No. The key word here is ‘own’.

http://www.dictionary.com

Own

verb (used with object)

3. to have or hold as one’s own; possess: They own several homes.

As I said earlier, if he owns the land, then he can do whatever he likes with it, and grant/deny access to whomever he so wishes. If he decided to deny somebody access because they were wearing blue trousers and it was a Tuesday, he would be quite within his rights to do so. Equally, if he decides to deny access to bike riders because he doesn’t want people riding bikes on his land, or even if he just plain doesn’t like bike riders, that’s his call.

Whether you agree with or approve of what he does with his privately owned land is irrelevant.

As above, nothing wrong with 25.4 bars and stems. I very recently upgraded to 31.8 for no better reason than I needed a new bar and stem at the same time (those that came on my bike were much too high rise for my personal taste) and it made sense to move to 31.8 as they are far more widely available than 25.4 these days.

If the 25.4 kit you have is in serviceable condition, then it will be fine.

nigew – Member

Nick Its not like the woods are next to his house, its not fenced or walled, infact there in a bit of a state, fallen tree’s, crumbling walls etc and said he doesn’t have a problem with other users, not that I ever see any.

Irrelevant, it’s his land. His. Not yours or anybody else’s. If he chooses to refuse you permission to ride your bike on his land then he is perfectly entitled to do so. Similarly, it is of no concern to anybody but himself what state or condition he keeps the land in. If he wanted to deliberately cultivate the UK’s largest concentration of nettles and thistles, turn it into a hedghog sanctuary or a giant croquet lawn, or even tarmac the lot then he is again perfectly entitled to do so. Because it’s his land.

And to all the people trotting out that ridiculous bollocks about all property being theft, I’d be intrigued to see if you maintained that stance if somebody helped themselves to your bike or car, or squatted in your house.

Stick it up for sale on here then, I’m fairly sure you’ll have your arm snapped off.

Just out of interest… what frame, year and size is it?