I’m in the market for some XT brakes too so have been looking around for a deal. Most shops are around the £135-£145 mark but Ribble Cycles are selling them for £105! (using promo code: CASH10). I doubt they’ll be the iSpec B ones for that price but i’ll confirm when mine turn up.

On the lookout for a CRC code now to get some ice-tech rotors with the money i’ve saved!

It’s definitely a bearing. Size 6900-2RS with a hollow metal pin/rod that goes through the middle. I’m about to do a full bearing swap on my frame, except those two bearings in the shock shuttle as they seem fine for now.

I bought a full set of 2012 Spicy bearings from Kaetec on ebay – he does single bearings too, as do a lot of others on ebay/internet. Just make sure it’s decent quality.

The bearings are pressed in from each end of the shuttle so i reckon a punch through from the hole in the middle of the opposite bearing to get them out. And then a 6900 open-bore drift (just found that wheels manufacturing do these in loads of sizes for £5.50ish each – so i’ve got all 3 sizes for the different bearings in the spicy and a threaded rod to use them with for under £20 – Much cheaper than getting someone else to do it)

It’s not the grub screw i’m after (it’s the lever screw with the head) but I took a punt on an avid bleed set screw anyway, seeing as the bleed kit fits formula brakes. I haven’t fitted it yet but it seems to be exactly the same bolt. Cheapest I found it was a set of 2 with o-rings for £4 on ebay. Still over priced for what it is but I can just about stomach £2 for a tiny bolt.

Here’s the ebay link if anyone else is in a similar position: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400371076886?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Ah, there’s such thing as a T12? I thought they went up in fives! Obviously the set of torque bits I have isn’t the complete range. That said I haven’t rounded a torx bolt yet. The previous owner managed that feat!

The bike i’m currently working on is a friend’s second hand Spicy which had both pad retaining bolt and bleed port bolt heads rounded on the rear break. Only noticed when he came to bleed it. I’ve removed both for him with some handy bolt extractor tools (well worth the tenner they cost from Maplins!) but now need to replace the whole bleed bolt and o-ring.

Point taken on using quality tools. I do and normally torque everything correctly but for some reason I haven’t always been torquing the pad retaining bolt on my own bike in the past – part of that may be changing the pads out on a trail and only having a multi tool to hand and doing it up extra tight to be on the ‘safe’ side. That said, the bolt heads have disintegrated far quicker than any other bolt that I haven’t tightened with a torque wrench and may have over tightened…

I’ve just gone with More Than. £290 a year for buildings + contents with a £4.5k bike named on the policy. I decided against adding on ‘bicycle cover away from the home’ as it added an extra £250 to the premium – and to be honest the bike is never out of my sight unless it’s at home. Incidentally, changing the bike’s value from £3.5k to £4.5k added about £1 to the premium!

I looked everywhere for the cheapest Oakleys (root beer split jackets) a few months ago and eyebuddy.co.uk came up tops, as long as you’re prepared to put in a bit of work. You can increase the discount by registering (15%), using voucher code ‘freemate5’ in the ‘my account’ section (5%), entering 4 friend’s email addresses (4%) and getting those 4 friends to register (4%). So a total discount of 28% off the already discounted prices.

The 4 friends I used were actually other email addresses and work addresses I have so no need to pester your friend’s to do anything.

If you go through a cash back site (topcashback or quidco, etc) you can get an extra 8% off.

So the root beer split jackets (with polarised lenses) cost me £130 vs rrp of £230

I paid £268 posted from the Bike Outlet in York back in May. Just checked their site and now there’s an ominous ‘Call for Price’ on all their Hope Hoop Wheels. They sting you twice on postage if you buy a front and rear wheel despite them coming as a single parcel but even with the excessive postage costs they were still the cheapest at that time…