mmmm.

I’m in charge of marketing at a little known US sporting goods company, which means I oversee the product that goes for review and who we advertise with. For anyone to claim total separation of advertising and reviewing is frankly utter bollocks.

If I couldn’t exert some leverage over the magazine who reviews our kit you can be damn sure they’d not get kit to review or adverts placed with them.

Maybe if all the gear was sent for review under plain wrapper with no logos or distinguishing marks on it, magazines could claim this independence, but it isn’t. Reviewers and magazine staff are glad handed, you get ‘trade accommodation’ pricing and a whole host of other benefits from the manufacturers. Hell we’re just about to take 4 magazines out ‘somewhere sunny’ to review and test some of the upcoming season’s kit. If I didn’t think doing this somewhere sunny had a positive effect on the review I wouldn’t do it.

Maybe Singletrack employs a double blind testing regime with reviewers who exist outside of the industry whom cannot be ‘affected’, but i don’t think they do…..

None of which means that any company can ‘buy’ a good review of course, just that there are multiple ways and means of assuring the ‘most favourable’ possible outcome.

Pace, fighters…

Renthal used to make the Pace rc sub 130 bars, and i thought that they used to make their chainrings as well, at least the gold ones.

Bonty Mud x skinnies were good at lunch, might be a bit colder, tonight though, we’ll see.

3 bikes, used the Xc saturday, the Roadie friday and the DH midweek.

The 08’s had issues, you could pop the spokes out of the hub flanges if you landed too heavy or had sloppy spokes, due to them being open ended. and the freehubs are generally regarded as being completely shit. Only two sets of pawls and it uses the same fluro ring at the end of the freehub body/ flange side as the kysirium ES does, ie not built for impact loads.

if you aren’t going to be dropping on them they hold up ok, suitable for all mountain, but not a DH/FR suitable wheel, even though the strengths is way up there and the rims are superb.

The 09’s however, now there’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.. A true heavy duty AM wheelset.

One day PACE will make a freeride DH fork and we can all be happy. I’d kill for a PACE built Totem-esque fork.

I wear the same shoes on my xc and road bikes, and use the same pedals, which are those ridiculous tiny little single sided Ritchey World Cup Micro Pro jobbies. My shoes are the Spesh Sworks MTB shoes, these have exactly the same sole as their road shoes, they just have a co-moulded rubber outer for grip. The last and the carbon sole are the same.

To be honest i prefer having the tread to walk around on during shop breaks and coffee stops on the road rides, my Shimano 120 road shoes were ace, but skiddy as shit on the pavement.

Put a thin layer of clear silicon sealant over all the mesh areas. A wet finger works wonders and you can make a remarkably clean job of it. I did my pearl Izumi’s today. After i bought and tore the zip open on a pair of Endura overshoes. POS.

Difference? well after 3 hours of riding my feet weren’t solid stiff and white cold like they were yesterday, and yesterday was a degree or so warmer.

The mesh bits allow the warm air to get sucked out as you pedal robbing you of that much needed heat.

Crank bros pedals always feel vaguely disconnected to me, i’ve got mallets and have no love for them at all. I got them because they engage easier than SPD;s, but at the cost of that loose vague feeling.

Inconsiderate ****.

too much, get them to mark it as warranty repair and send the receipt under separate cover.

Wharncliffe is ok when it’s bone dry or frozen, anything other than that through the steep tree sections to the right of the rock garden is asking for erosion.

Some of the open path stuff is great all year round, it ain’t technical, and it’s not ‘downhill’ but it’s ridable.

But definitely better to stay off the steep stuff to the far right of the woods unless it’s dry, or frozen.

its fine

stick with Sapim or Dt black and they are fine, others are shit.

xtr right hand shifter today, jejames £58, you lot are mugs and your bike shops are taking the piss.

just thrown an xtr rear, shifter and saint cranks onto the demo 7 and the totems arrive for it next week.

thanks guys.

my enduras are great, though i usually snug them upo to just under my knees, the gripper tension on my ‘huge’ calfs is just too much.

never used a tyre lever in my life.

checks sent emails to see that yes i am a ****.. tro____@BYdot.co.uk numpty..

66rcv 20mm thru axle, they are solid, as stiff as any fork i’ve ridden apart from slighting bushing slop all 08 zokes have

got the spec pedals on my demo, crap seals, junk open ball bearings and you need to pack them oput with grease to stop them spinning so fast you can’t put your feet back on them after a corner.

I have mallets, good fro tracks you know well and don’t intend unclipping on.

But the nc sudpins are great..

I only use crc for stuff they have i stock ands my local lbs doesn’t. I hate the idea of CRC or any large retailer using buying power to squeeze out local shops who offer service as well as kit.

shit, glad i got my xtr cassette and shadow rear on thursday…

just go round yourself, then get a mate to call the filth and tell them he’s seen someone with a gun riding a bike.. they’ll turn up….

NC17’s, sudpin3’s.

could be POFP from the local nicks.

The Elixir’s a re great, especially the ones with lever and contact point adjustment. Used to have juicy carbons, now have elixir CR, better in every way, more adjustability, no squeek, only complaint would be is that dialing the contact point adjustment all the way out makes them wooden, a couple of degrees back from full is fine, but all the way out has poor modulation.

it’s really a none issue, it’s just the only thing bad i can say about them.

No, but i run them on my Demo..

mavic wheelbags and an elastic band..

The elastic band is for scraping your entire bike squeeky clean, takes surprisingly little time to do all the main tubes and forks.

Plenty of guys shooting them down on mtbr.com, issues with them folding on stutter bumps. They do look nice though..

swamp things and mud x are so close apart from sizes it aint worth worrying about, Mud sharks are good too.

It aint just hope all cartridge bearing wheels suffer from this from time to time i’ve had it on CK and mavics

troutie, you got mail.

Simon

They are very much a walk-in shop, their mail order ain’t fantastic, but they will price match anyone…

Did Abbeydale out to Chatsworth and back on the roadie. Was fun coming into the village at 40 plus on the way down.

Sporticus, you’ve never seen a machine builder in use then. They don’t work to anything like those tolerances, particularly on ‘hop’.

Likewise, i’m clueless with electronics, but i’m a sucker for paying over the odds for stuff. ;-)

let me know i’d be willing to front the purchase of components for an ‘in’ on a built unit.

1. you aint tigthening your headset enough, there should be no rock.
2. crap is getting in the gap, do you jetwash?
3. you steerer is too flexy or undersized, fox forks, rock shocks.