jim-the-saint

What I want to see is Sam on the FW frame with SRAM kitting him out and picking up the bills. One last season of WCDH pushing for a podium top step.

@WRCDH: Yeah you're not wrong. I'm old enough to have ridden proper URT's and semi-URT's (Maverick's & I-Drives). When standing on a proper URT the suspension is having to lift your entire weight each time the shock was compressed. On a non-URT your weight is compressing the shock, on an URT it's stopping it compressing. Semi-URT's are still some of the best techy trail climbing bikes I've ever ridden. They still suffered from stiffening suspension when descending but the worst bit was the steepening of the HA when standing. I think a really short link semi-URT (think Maverick) would make a great gravel frame.

I'm ashamed to admit but I'm a grip fanatic. I've spent a fortune trying pretty much any grip you can think of to find the perfect one for me. Ergon GA2's are my current go-to's for anyone who's interested. I run my hands over the end of the bars so no flanges or raised sections on the ends of any of these grips is a win. I like the Ergon GA2 but they are slippy in the wet or with sweaty hands. The WTB Wavelengths look like they might be better.

Unless Ashley Ball is willing to admit that he is the reason the business went into administration and learn from his mistakes then the metaphorical can has just been kicked down the road. Yes the cycle trade is having a hard time, other business’s are managing to keep there head above water though. In 2015 when Ball purchased Orange the bikes were getting good reviews in the media, they were sponsoring WC Dh’ers and most importantly had a huge dealership network in the UK. The business has been on a steady decline since then. I believe Ball purchased Orange because it was an opportunity for him to take control of his biggest customer and therefore secure business for Bairstows. Without Wade & Noble at the helm though the brand seemed to stop developing/evolving. I might be wrong but I believe Bairstows/Ashley Ball had no experience in bike frame manufacturing until Steve Wade approached them with plans for a swing-arm made out of sheet aluminium. It seems to me that Orange became so committed to folded aluminium sheet construction not necessarily because it was the best thing for Orange but because it was the best thing for Bairstows. You only need to look at the materials and manufacturing techniques Orange had used before Ball bought Orange to see that the brand was not tied to any particular material/technique. I’m pretty sure that just before Orange was sold to Ball either Wade or Noble said that Orange were about 2 years away from being able to manufacture out of carbon in the UK.

@neil-neil-orange-peel: The version you have sounds totally different than the one I tried. I never fitted it but I was told that the version I rode was essentially a tyre casing and tube that was fitted before your tyre.

Asking riders to drill a perfectly good rim to try a product that they might not like is always going to put a lot of people off. I only ever had one ride on a bike with Procore. With regards to stopping pinch punctures, reinforcing the sidewalls to stop tyre squirm and protecting the rim it seemed great. For me the major negative was that unlike Cushcore et al that add damping Procore seemed to reduce it. On a drop to flat landing that properly squished the tyres it felt like the tyres were rebounding with more pressure than was in it. As I said though that was one downhill run so I might be talking out of my ass.

@dotman: Erm, yep I'm aware of the word trouse. Trouse is the anglicised spelling of the Gaelic word triubhas. Trouse/triubhas/trews are all pretty much the same thing, a close fitting breeches. Over time trouse became trouser and the word trouser was eventually used as a general, overarching term for all leg ware. I don't see how this has any bearing on either of our previous points. You're still wrong. The history of the words is still: 1 - Pantaloons are a type of trouser that became popular in Europe and the US about the time of the French Revolution. 2 - Over time pantaloons is abbreviated to pants. Over an even longer period of time the word pants, like trousers, becomes a generic term for leg-wear. 3 - Modern underwear was developed in the US in the 1930's. In 1930's America and Europe pants and trousers are the same thing, these new clothing items (boxers, briefs, y-fronts, etc) are to be worn under your pants, hence the generic term of 'underpants'.

@dotman: Sorry mate but you are using 'pants' as an abbreviation of 'underpants'. The term 'underpants' is derived from 'clothing worn under pants'. The word 'Pants' when used correctly is an abbreviation of 'Pantaloons' which is a type of trouser that was popular in the early nineteenth-century. Pants are a type of trouser, not a type of underwear.

Has anybody ever had an Advent X mech work on a SRAM/Shimano 11 or 12 speed set-up?

Lots of people commenting saying that competition is good. Well I'm sorry capitalist pigs, you're wrong. As a consumer choice is good, competition never is. In a world of choice you can choose which tyres you want to run. You look what's available for your size wheels and make your choice. If you've got 26" wheels though that choice is being removed from you because of competition. 27.5 / 650b shouldn't be a thing on mtb's, it isn't significantly bigger than 26" to justify it being a thing, we'd be better off with 29" and 26" for both performance and practicality reasons. 27.5" though won the competition and has pretty much killed 26". In competition there are winners and losers. It's survival of the fittest, last man standing. By it's very nature competition in business ultimately removes choice. To maintain choice the bike manufacturers need to braver and push back against Shimano and SRAM. Bike manufacturers should dictate that all interfaces need to be free and open to use by anyone, no patents, no licensing. If a brand wants to patent an interface then the bike companies need to be brave and refuse to use it. We don't need XD and MS. By licensing the interface brands are trying to remove consumer choice by locking in a consumer to a particular system. Patents on things like freehub bodies, mech-hangers, etc is about making sure you can't buy from anyone else, killing the competition and removing consumer choice.