check out the ‘hidden’ Italian flag on top of the fork crown – bellissimo!

Bravo for the use of ‘bellissimo’ here, but the pedant in me is wondering what gender the adjective should inherit here. I suspect that ‘bellissima’ might be the better choice, to align with the noun of either the bicycle (la bicicletta) or the flag (la bandiera) .. so the adjective becomes feminine. Or the fork – closest translation I can find is ‘forcella di moto’, although this is motorcycle specific.. but it’s still feminine. Bellissima!

Fascinating stuff, I’m sure you’ll all agree.

Brilliant things, these. First thing I did to mine when I got it was to enlarge the zip tie holes so I could attach it with velcro cable ties instead – taking it on and off is a breeze, although it did have a habit of sliding down the chainstays until I applied a bit of tape to anchor it on each side.

The extender looks very handy.. haven’t come up with a home rolled solution to that yet, must try harder!

Apparently the XT hubs don’t need adaptors for my Hope rotors, according the helpful chap at Life Cycles… so, to XT or to Hope? What about DT spokes.. lighter and stiffer, according to the aforementioned fella.. and 20 quid more than ACI spokes.

Any thoughts?

That’s a good point, ta. I have Hope Mini Mono brakes front and rear.. I assume that the rotors would be perfectly happy bolting onto Hope hubs, not so sure about XT?