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Woooo it's bright. I reckon Light & Motion's new LED Seca is way brighter than the old HID unit. Compared with the benchmark Lumicycle HID the L&M one just didn't look as bright, it was good but seemed slightly to lack power.

The Seca however actually seems to put the Lumi in the shade a bit, especially at close range (up to 15m or so). At long range, ie when you shine it on the next hill across the valley, the Lumi again seems brighter. When riding there is a big, wide pool of evenly spread light easily sufficient for most riding. I haven't tried it at high speed yet but am optimistic it will be good.

Other advantages include:

• It's probably more robust than an HID bulb
• You can turn it on and off whenever you feel like it
• The heatsink gets hot enough to warm your hands on

This turned up yesterday after my old HID head unit died, I was a bit sceptical at first as none of the LED lights I've seen seem particularly good but a quick garden-lighting test shows this might be a good 'un. The 6 LEDs put out a lot of light, and more importantly it's got a good spread instead of being concentrated in one spot.

Anyway I'll not get too excited until I've actually tried it but it's looking good.

Early September means Eurobike and so after a 1am start I found myself walking in through the front doors of a humongous ex-Zeppelin hangar for the annual showing off of shiny bits. Immediately I realised that I'd forgotten just how big the show is, it's ridiculously massive with more exhibitors than I can count.
The exhibit most people seemed to be flocking to (and the most widely publicised with posters everywhere) was the new Truvative Hammerschidt geared crank. It contains a set of planetary gears which are either engaged reducing your gearing down by 1:1.6, or bypassed giving a straight through 1:1. Weirdly it also contains a freewheel mechanism inside the crank. I haven't figured out why that's necessary yet but I've tried to upload a movie so you can figure it out for yourself, click here and hope it works. You might need a codec or something. Anyway it seemed to work slickly and although I wouldn't describe it as "light" it isn't as much of a solid lump as it looks so form an orderly queue for turning your singlespeeds into 2-speeds, your DH bikes into 18-speeds, or your Rohloffs into 28 internally geared monstrosities (someone's probably already done...[ continue reading >> ]

click for bigger pop-up images

Hope Pro II laced to American Classic MTB 26 tubeless rims £250

Dual ply as the name suggests are super tough, if you've a problem with single ply then these are the tyres you need, but there's a catch - they're heavy and over 1kg a wheel to drag around needs some thought and ideally an uplift. See the post on mid-tyre weights if you're looking to ride the ups as well as downs.
Ardent 2.4 DPC 60a - 1240 - 1170g (4 weighed) average of 1195g
Ardent 2.6 DPC 60a 1290 - 1300g (2 weighed) average of 1295g
Minion Fr 2.35 42a - 1100-1100g (2 weighed) average of 1100g
Minion Fr 2.35 60a - 1080-1190g (2 weighed) average of 1133g
Minion Fr 2.5 42a - 1250-1280 (2 weighed) average of 1265g
Minion Fr 2.5 60a - 1230-1250g (2 weighed) average of 1133g
Minion Fr 2.5 UST 42a - 1210-1300g (2 weighed) average of 1255g
Minion Rr 2.35 42a - 1260g
Minion Rr 2.35 60a - 1100g
Minion Rr 2.5 42a - 1220g
Minion Rr 2.5 60a - to be weighed
Minion Rr 2.5 UST 42a - 1260g
Minion Rr 2.5 UST 60a - to be weighed
High Roller 2.35 42a - 1120-1120g (2 weighed) average of 1120g
High Roller 2.35 60a - 1080-1200g...[ continue reading >> ]

It was supposed to be a 6 week wait but in the end only took about 3 days which left me frantically scraping pennies together to pay for it... behold the Intense 6.6 Slope Style.

I'm not actually intending to ride any Slope Style events on it but it seems like a perfect UK DH machine. 6.6" of travel, a reasonable 9lb weight including coil DHX 5.0 shock and a moderate 66 degree head angle. Plus I've always wanted an Intense since the M1 first appeared but could never afford one (and probably still couldn't). The 74 degree seat angle should feel interesting. Colour's Midnight Blue in case you were wondering.

I'll be building it with the bits off the Kona Chute for the time being which means Magura Wotans, NoTubes Flow rims on Hope Pro II, Titec bits N pieces, and a 1.5-1-1/8 step-down Hope headset. Pics of the finished item when it's finished.

This might seem like the most obscure thing I could ever choose to write about but seeing as I get asked it most days, here goes.
The most important thing to think about is thread diameter. Most spokes have 2.0mm threads, but DT Super Comps and some versions of Revolution and Comp spokes have 1.8mm threads. They are not interchangeable.
Then you have a choice of material. Spoke nipples generally come in either brass or aluminium and which you choose depends on your priority for the wheels you're building. Brass nipples are tough, easy to build (as they will turn easily in the rim and not tend to bind to the spoke) and are easy to true at a later date as they don't corrode onto the spoke very easily. They weigh exactly 1 gram each.
Aluminium nipples on the other hand have a reputation for being weak and easily corroded which can make the wheel hard to true at a later date, but these drawbacks are usually overstated; as long as good quality nipples are lubricated correctly when the wheel is built, and you use a top quality spoke key, they should be OK for several years. On heavily used wheels aluminium...[ continue reading >> ]

Around this time of year the question we get asked most often is probably "how do I convert my cyclocross wheels to tubeless?" and until now it's been hard to give a simple answer as it normally involves guesswork and a bit of fettling to find the right rimstrips.
This year however, NoTubes have released their road tubeless conversion rimstrips to save us all a load of trouble. They are basically the same as their mountain bike rimstrips only longer and thinner, with a longer valve stem to fit deeper section rims. This is how they work:
Fit the rimstrip starting at the valve. Squeeze the thick bit at the base of the valve to get it inside the rim and stretch the rimstrip on. Some Velox tape underneath the rimstrip helps create a tighter, safer fit and makes inflating easier.
 
 
Even up the tension all the way round so there are no narrow spots. When the rimstrip is correctly fitted, it should fit below the bead hook all the way round, like this.
 
 
Fit the tyre. If you're converting a cyclocross tyre, you can use a normal (non-tubeless) tyre with sealant, but if you're converting the rim for road use you must...[ continue reading >> ]