Cube that got mentioned before are a good example, smaller company than Giant/Spesh/Trek/GT etc, yet miles better value. How can they do:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=72842

For the price of a Giant XTC with Deore and Recons? The big brands just don’t seem to be worth the sum of their parts anymore, genuinely don’t quite get it.

I haven’t the fluid to top up the reservoir today, but I’ll order some

Yeah, fear not, worst case scenario the air gets back into the cable from the reservoir and you have to leave it over night again.

Can’t comment on the special bleed block thing, on the older ones you could just drop some mineral oil in the top. It’d be a huge shame if they’ve sacked this off, it was one of the big selling points for me.

As soon as you start using syringes and things you stand the chance of introducing new little bubbles and end up haveing to pass a brakes worth of oil through the system.

Unless I’m changing a hose or changing alll the oil, I generally just do the lever to the bars thing. It generally sorts them out in one shot and they don’t need touching for a year or so, when I do the same again.

Aye, but they don’t leave the reservoir unlike when you bleed the brake, so sooner or later they tend to get back into the working fluid. A very effective bodge but still a bodge.

As I said in my original post, if you open the reservoir up in the morning, put a couple of drops of mineral oil in to top them up, the air DOES leave the reservoir. If anything I’d say the opposite, even if I’d bled them via syringes that day, I’d do the bar trick overnight, as it leaves them feeling perfect.

The reservoirs just won’t have been topped up properly from new, turning the bike upside down let this air float into the system.

are these any good

or
a case of buy twice

Reliable, tough and half the price of their competition, buy two sets to save the effort of changing your tyres.

:D

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=496

Superstar have some decent deals. On my second On-One Max front wheel, both have come loose crazy quickly, wouldn’t buy them again. Not much can touch them value wise though.

c. don’t invest in/believe in customer service and so can cut costs there.

I’d actually expect a replacement faster from On-One than a big company to be honest. Were it someone like Specialized the replacement would also be a completely random colour. Don’t like it? Get stuffed!

Does sound like air got in there.

Assuming the new ones work a bit like the old ones, I’d just loosen your brake levers on the bars and make them as level as possible. Zip tie the levers back to the bar, leave it overnight, the air bubbles will gradually float up into the reservoir.

Open the top and put a drop of mineral oil in there in the morning. Should be sorted.

Waht about the rest of the bike?

Bars, Stem, headset, seatpost, saddle, pedals, grips, etcetc

I dunno, lets keep going then, not going to have a hard time getting comparable bits to plastic Giant pedals and 300 gram riser bars for the remaining £240 after the frame :)

Frame

EA30 risers

EA30 seatpost for no other reason than it matches

EA30 stem, there’s cheaper about but I can’t see us hitting the limit

Cane Creek headset

Seatpost Collar

Outer cables x 2 meters?

Inners x 2

£130 left to pick my saddle, grips and pedals of choice. Slightly crazy, no? Basically, you can swap the frame for anything around £300 and match Giant or Specialized for buying power. The Specialized 29ers are event more stupid:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/carve-comp-29er-2012-mountain-bike-ec030141

Must be like a £500 frame, made out of their cheapest aluminium. Forks so low they had to wait for this year for them to even be invented, on a £1000 bike?!

It’s a mass-produced, made-in-Taiwan bike, which Alejandro seemed to be suggesting doesn’t exist. No, it’s not as good as a top line XC racing bike for £6K

No, he said the top ones cost £6k, but much less to make. Clearly you get diminishing returns, like pretty much everything in retail. I don’t think pointing at the top end is the best way to get the point across though, if anything the bottom end seems more broken.

Indeed, but where is the money going? Picking a normal model with no 29er tax:

XTC 1

So we’ve got:

Deore groupset + brakes – £250

Gold Recons – £200

Some cheap wheels (which I bet are better than the Giants) – £90

Expensive Schwalbe Tyres – £50

So we’re up to £590 buying from Merlin. Could easily chuck in a much more expensive 853 Rock Lobster frame, Thomson finishing kit and a Fizik saddle, and I’ve managed to undercut the biggest bike company in the world from one shop in about 10 minutes.

Can’t see why that bike shouldn’t sell for £600 or something, it would have about 3 years ago.

They do though, don’t they?
A quick Google brings up a Giant XTC Composite 29er 1 for £1700.

Midrange X7 gearing, bottom end Fox RL Evo forks, the cheapest brakes Avid make, own brand wheels and finishing kit. That sir, is one fine racing beast there!

The big companies are the only ones taking the mick in my eyes. The fact is, it’s often cheaper to buy all the component parts and make a bike at shop prices is completely nuts.

£200-£500 for a hardtail frame made in limited amounts sounds like a good deal. The fact that On-One for example can undercut massive bike companies like Giant on value for money is completely broken, where is all the buying power going?

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/PBOOWHIPX9/on_one_carbon_whippet_x9_complete_bike

Better groupset across the board, better brakes, lighter wheels, and a decent fork, for £200 less than the biggest bike company in the world?

You can pre-load OpenStreetMap or OpenCycleMap maps onto it.

Using ViewRanger here, you get similar options for switching around different map sources, including both of the above. I actually prefer the OpenCycleMaps to the proper OS maps, very easy to have a glance and see what’s about.

I’ll have to check out Motion X GPS :-)

The frame must be an XL 21″ minimum and fit a 6’6″ 105kg rider.

The new 22″ Five is build like a battleship, the head/downtube connection is absolutely massive. That said, I think most of the cracking complaints were swingarms, seriously can’t see anything on the front end dying. Similar height, 93kg or so rider here.

Those Enduros are a bargain. If they’d appeared on there 6 months ago I’d have bought one of them in a flash, that said, very chuffed with the Five, big maxle rear, tapered front etc.

Is that in the UK specifically?

Asia accounts for 60% of the worlds population, and the average height is 5’5″. The average height in the UK or US, where the frames are built is 5’10”.

Edit: “Could you vertically gifted riders please move over” – apologies, I read that after posting :-)

I am taller than 99% of the people on the planet and as such, bikes aren’t made in my size.

Wow, the odds must be astronomically low then of having a forum with 4-5 people around this height then. Can’t help but feel using world wide stats is rubbish, there’s loads of big bikes around. Some brands are out, but the same applies for shorter riders (doesn’t it MrsToast :P ).

You see lots of 6’2″ish riders agonising over large or extra large, yet add 5 inches and suddenly you need a custom made metal horse to ride around on. Were you 7 foot I could vaguely understand.

I’ve bought plenty of bikes that have been too small, in a similar way I’ve ended up with a bit of a collection of bits and bikes/brands that actually fit. They’re hardly obscure though.

Currently riding a 22″ Orange Five, which is huge, 21″ Scandal 29er and a 61cm Tricross. Specialized bikes I find to be big, the Pitch for example is one of the longest 140mm bikes I’ve ever seen. If the Scandal fits you, an XL Pitch/Enduro would easily, you can get away with running a long seatpost and not ending up in a stupid position.

Edit: Actually, to bring this in line with your list of custom bikes. Turner seem to make fairly short bikes, most brands XL is the same length as their 2XL.

To be honest, I’m pleased people do post the lower prices, or catch people out when the model isn’t what was quoted. In both cases the only person getting shafted is the buyer.

If the selling NEEDS that price, they can wait a while, and try again when the sale has gone.

Clearly no one would go into their LBS and do this. On the flip side would you buy bargains off CRC, use them for a while, then sell them on here for a profit? Knowing full well the buyer could get them cheaper?

it’s the start of the negoation

Fine, surely them posting a lower price is the first step in the negotiation?

http://salsacycles.com/bikes/el_mariachi_ti/%5B/url%5D

?

456 or the Ragley linked above sounds like a safe bet to me. If you desperately want a full sus down the line just swap the frame out, if you hang around here/BR/Pinkbike etc you’ll spot some crazy bargains.

Selling a 456 frame second hand you’d get back about 75% of what you put in, so no huge risk.

I bet the riders in the vid, on the track they’re riding, could make your Halfords bike look awesome fun though to be honest :-)

Doesn’t sounds much more dangerous than a lot of the races along busy roads imo. Depends where you have it.

All the willy waving about riding downhill being a true show of skill seems a bit weak. There’s a thin line between skill and stupid, much like the guy who killed himself going at 50mph in a 30.

I like the full course laps around trail centers and popular loops :) Should make it good fun visiting somewhere new and sticking a score down.

I think it’s probably sorted now, the returns department asked for them back. I’m going to try and swap the bearings at this end instead first, it sounds like the issue the other 2 on here had. I’ve got drifts and things so it was an easy job last time, does anyone know what size they take so I can get some ordered today prior to getting home?

It does just feel like the end caps aren’t quite preloading them properly. Given they were fine when they came, it must be a very small margin for error, hopefully some different brand bearings will sort it.

Don’t mean to sound too negative, lovely wheels aside from that and the Scandal they’re on is absolutely fantastic :)

I don’t mind to be honest, as long as they don’t fall apart during MM or SITs, or get as bad as the OPs. I’ll try and swap the bearings out, the hubs actually look quite precisely made.

Just get a bit sick of everyone sounding shocked via email, about this being:

A) completely normal in all wheels
B) completely abnormal, a one off that no one has ever see before

Just for balance my Planet X wheels (model B) are still fine after 2000+ miles commuting over some horrible roads and I weight 14 stone.

So are my On-One Superlights on Reetard rims after a year of muddy rides :-)

Hi Alastair,

Thank you for your e mail.

All wheels will have a certain amount of “play” in them.

Well that sorts that then I guess. All my other wheels are knackered, the hubs don’t have any play! Really can’t be bothered with this any more, sorting some new bearings and seeing what it does.

Last time I sent my wheels off they sat there for over a week without anyone bothering to clamp them in a frame and wiggle, followed by the promise of some wheel expert coming in, to examine the simple cartridge bearing hubs. The expert came in and didn’t know what was wrong, the issue lay somewhere within the complex workings of the little metal tube and the bearings poked in the end.

I regularly strip and lubricate my bike

It’s much safer with your clothes on.

All the bottom brackets in our house have simultaneously exploded. It could be as a result of winter just ending I’m not sure, I’ve still got one left to sort and I think we’re good again. It’s generally just that and brake pads/bleeding every now and then.

We don’t really fall off or push it enough to break things.

I’d say buy more bikes, you’ll split your riding and comparatively you’ll feel like they’re lasting longer!

I found the Mojo a bit short and steep, haven’t tried the rest. I’d love to try a Pivot though :)

Cheers brant, if it is something as trivial as the stock bearings occationally being a bit dodgy in them. I’m fine just popping these out and replacing myself. They’ve not really been out in any brutal weather though, so they certainly shouldn’t have worn down though.

What more do you expect on a wheelset that costs £130?

This is rubbish too. Had a set of Crossrides last 2 years, some SLX + 717s from Merlin which are still going after 3 years. Bizarrely my On-One Superlight wheels which were £100 with a pair of Nevegals are great too, after riding both MM and SITs on them last year.

Ooh, I’d just mailed them this morning actually for this exact reason, the missus pointed me here. I had a set of the 29er Max wheels, the front developed play within 1 ride so I sent them back. They swapped the wheel, all sounded very puzzled, new set came back good, all was well.

Another week on an the front had it’s normal play back. I thought it must just be as I was using QR, and most people buying them would use the other axle options, so I just ignored it. A month or so on and now the rear has play too.

This is only the Max wheelset I’ve had issues with, I had an old £100 Superlight (2.4kg) wheelset from them before this, and they were fantastic, were it not the weight I’d chuck these and just use them!

Using a completely standard setup, Scandal 29er, Rebas on the front, 14 stone rider, 6’6″. Never had any issue with this sort of thing before, my Hopes normally go about 2 years per set of bearings. It doesn’t seem to be the bearings, it looks like play between the end caps.

I did wonder if there was just a dodgy batch?

some people do have good reason.

Good reason to “hate” a bike brand? All sounds a bit childish to be honest.

Haven’t all the cool kids got offset bearings nowadays anyway?

I heard he removed the reflectors and bell, then swapped the plastic pedals for some metal ones. It was barely a GT Fury by the time he’d finished.

So then Ruscle, great huge list of arbitrary numbers you posted, sadly you neglected to mention that the Hopes you’re suggesting scored lower than any Shimano model on test.

I’d get the Shimanos, had a set of XTs for 4 years now and they’ve been fantastic. The same can’t be said for the Tektro/Avid/Formula we’ve also got in the house. Keeping the Shimanos running completely top notch is such an easy job, no faffing around with syringes and rubber tubes unless you’re doing a full bleed.

I’ve got a Scandal set up very much like chainslapps, fantastic bike :-) I actually commute in on it at the moment as it’s more fun than the Tricross, seems a bit silly.

Mines set at a slightly porky 26lbs in XL with On-One Max wheels, M520 pedals, Rebas, cheap 29er inner tubes, full XT, 2.1″ SB8s, Monkeylite EC70 bars, Bel Air Ti saddle.

All fairly mid range bits, nothing light on there. The swap to the cheaper On-One carbon rigids knocks 2 pounds off too.

Proud mincer here, ran a rigid Scandal 29er with SB8s. When the track was wet there were a few bits that caught loads of people out.

It’s less techy than a trail center, but it also gets much more churned up. I saw FAR more riders coming off than I’d see at a day at a trail center. The downhill bits are pretty rutted and the heavy traffic means you can’t always change lines when you want.

Passed lots of riders with 140-160mm trail bikes and Camelbaks on the uphill sections on the plus side. Not sure why the “mincers” are the guys on smaller bikes, rather than the guys turning up like they’re set for Mega Avalanche.

Yup, and it’s lovely! :-) Similar reach to something like an XL Enduro, bigger than my Meta that it replaced.

Pride mainly comes from getting the furry cretin to sit still rather than from any photographic ability…

EDIT: This is Mrs Toast, not Toasty. Foolish laptop!

Seems to claim to be like a Scandal, but more expensive, and not a huge amount lighter. It’s hard comparing, as the current website says the Scandal is a 2.4kg frame made of steel :roll:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FROOSC29V2/on_one_scandal_29er_swap_out_frame

It’s only half a pound or so difference afaik.

The only thing I’d definitely bite the bullet on is a 21″ Race 29er, and it’s the only thing they don’t seem to be making.

Anyone bought a Dirty Harry? Any opinions? Weight limit/flexy frame?

Cheers

What a carbon Trance X for £700 more? No.

Silly bike that doesn’t fit me even vaguely, that’s a bargain though. Very well picked out kit on it too imo, well except the wire bead Nevegal, gone a bit far with the savings on that one :P

I was watching them for a good while, I remember having a good look at the frame at MM last year. Then they go and stealthily bring out a claimed 1150g frame, for the same price, followed by admitting the Lurcher is a bit of a porker. I’m now caught in the middle and can’t decide.

I might just wait for some reviews first (hoho).

Wait, we have a bike cupboard? Because I’m fairly certain the Meta frame and forks are in the living room…

Bah, whatever. You call it the “living room”, I call it the “bike cupboard”.

In our random bike cupboard there lives..

2003 21″ Stumpy HT frame
2006 21″ Be-One Hornet frame
2008 21″ Commencal Meta 55 frame with RP2
2008 Float RL fork in grey – reduced to 100mm
2008 Float RL fork in black
2007 Suntour X100 forks from a 2007 Avalanche 1.0 (actually not that bad)
2007ish 3×9 Deore shifters and rear mech
2011 On-One Reetard/Superlite 29er wheelset
2009 Specialized Stumpy Elite’s stock wheelset

Quite a few 90mm stems, ~680mm bars, seatposts and saddles.

All the tyres in the world (except the ones I NEED obviously).

6’6″ here, as above I doubt he’ll need 23″.

Specialized do longer bikes, 21″ would probably be big enough. In which way is the bike too small? It’s always been wheelbase/top tube here, having a giant seatpost is fine, but if the wheelbase is too small you end up in a stupid position.

Riding a 22″ Five now, which is huge, really getting on with it, and a 29er Scandal 21″, which also fits very well. 29ers are fantastic, but they’re not a blanket solution in my eyes, the bigger wheels fit me much better but I’ve never found the bike as eager for silliness as 26 trail bikes.

I’ve made numerous mistakes though, my 21″ Meta was always a bit short, had an 21″ Mojo that was too small in all directions, couple of GT bikes that were too small, etc.

Edit: Oh and on the Euro bike note, quite often they have short top tubes. The Cubes for example, crazy good value, a 22″ Stereo has a shorter wheelbase and top tube than a 19″ Stumpy Evo.