Recent content by Old C

The Garmin 800 is a good unit, actually more accurate than a smart phone. These GPS devices are not like a tom tom in your car, as they do not know where the single track is. If you download a trail from Strava, it will show you where the previous rider went. Occasionally, when you get to an...

I ride mostly XC, with a little downhill. I find the Ardent Race to be a very predictable tyre with low rolling resistance. On the other hand, I find the MK in 2.4 to be very loose, particularly on gravel or dust in corners, and that is on the rear, on the front they suck away confidence like a...

Having a allow rear triangle may be a bonus. I have had a 2008 Epic Expert since 2009, still goes hard with the brain cranked up to nearly the firmest position. The alloy tends to cope with slides on the seat stays over the granite at Buller better too. Only a small weight and flex sacrifice.

I have a mate with 650mm Ritchey carbon flat bars, that he can't get rid of, 'cause the trend is to go 750+ so that you can smash your knuckles into trees. To be fair, wide bars do improve control on uneven surfaces. You will be able to get a set cheap because of this trend, or buy a whole...

You will find that investing in light stiff wheels will improve the speed of the bike. The challenge here is between weight and durability. Light wheels can be very expensive to buy and replace. I have been lucky enough to buy a bike with carbon wheels, they are great, but I have damaged both...

This could be a message for other event organisers, asking someone to pay $100+ for trails that you can ride every day of the week, and put in only 50% single track so that the race is won by road bike riders, and this is what you get.

Wildside one year gave away a 2XU shirt with logo, bloody nice shirt still, four years later.

If you are ever in Melbourne, DM Cycles in Warrandyte has a Thunderbolt Carbon that you can test ride. I have the Instinct, which is fantastic, and I have it on reliable information that the T-bolt is magnificent, apparently very efficient.

The biggest risk with buying a Chinese copy, is that sometimes they are actually out of the same plant as the brand name, but they come out of the reject bin. Carbon does have a relatively high reject rate, and the brand name producers will have tighter tolerances, the rejects are sold off...

Are you running very low tyre pressure, ie below 20 psi? The amount of wear does suggest old tyres. There is nothing normally wrong with Ikons, I have a few friends of a larger mass that use them successfully, they are a good race tyre, the Ardent Race is better if you want more grip, but the...

Why not go the Shimano 11 speed, same hub body, just need the shifter, deraillur and cassette. I think that it only goes up to 10 - 40 though. The cheaper non-XTR cassette is just around the corner, so replacements would not be so scary.

I have the Trail X9's on a Rocky 29er, they are very quite and very powerful. I know they are not the guides, but they are the pre-cursor to them. They have much better modulation than older XT, which would be similar to you SLX's. Don't know about Zee, or Saint for a comparison though.

Not a tough question, Cressy's is by far more fun and more technical. "Aneurysm" is better than "follow me". Follow me suffers from too many drops to a flat landing, so feels rough. No such problem with Cressy's.

I have the 2014 Instinct, and if you are looking for a capable bike that can be raced, then this is a great option, particularly if you are more interested in the play time than race time. Trav's Diamond would be a great deal of fun on the Instinct, so if you feel that the Element is too racy...

I have been storing two bikes, hanging from the front wheel for seven years, one has RS Reba, the other Fox 34 CTD. Neither leak at all, and run without noticeable performance changes, even if I have not ridden one for weeks. The forks should not leak anything, if they do, then it is overdue for...