Product reviews

A grand title, but on a small scale I started tagging blog posts where I'd mentioned parts or companies I'd bought or used. However, this tag list has grown to silly proportions. So, I figured I'd summarise everything into one post and lose all the older tags from the last year.

Scott Aspect 45. I had to start here, didn't I?! My trusty steed for the past year. We've shared some adventures, Scott and I. And he's accompanied me on a journey of self (re)discovery. It's difficult to review the Scott objectively, because I've only ridden a couple of other bikes, briefly, during this time and they've all been full suss bikes. However, I can say the bike had a very good review in MBUK/BikeRadar. And I can say it's nimble and stable in a downhill, it climbs well and the frame's design is gimmicky and cool. The componentry does what it's designed to. But, you if you do as I've done, and use this bike as a serious entry level off-road bike, you will tire of the componentry and wear things out and you will eventually be in the market for something better. It's worth noting the Suntour XCR forks don't have good off-road longevity. They started off with a tendency to fade badly in the rough with not nearly enough rebound, but now they've become stiff and uncompliant, not sure that they didn't like getting wet but they're rusting up internally, and I think that's mostly from washing the bike! The Scott Ozon and Oxyd tyres that came with the bike are utterly useless. The Rigida Zac 19 rims are sufficient at the front but the rear eventually died under the pummelling (note, I am 16.5 stone). If you want a good all round all terrain bike and you're not going to do trail centres, this bike will serve you well. But if you're serious about the off-road, spend another £2-300 and go for higher spec bikes particularly looking for better forks.

Electron 10W/5W Halogen NiMH lights. You can get these for as little as £47ish which is what makes them worth a punt. I had an issue with the battery not holding its charge, but once I got a replacement it was OK (but only OK). They are good enough to use off road at night provided you don't need a speed session. The published burn times are slightly optimistic, but they're good for a sprint around a technical local loop. They are perfect if you want a set of lights to try out night-time mountain biking. However, if you know you want lights and you're serious about it, buy good ones first as last and make sure you include a helmet light. I think you need to spend a minimum of £150 (Take a look at my comments about AyUp lights).

Chain Reaction Cycles. Anyone who knows anything about mountain biking knows about about CRC. They're cheap and they're quick (especially considering they're in Ireland). I think you have to pay postage for returns,but apart from that you can't fault them. While I'm talking shop (bad pun)!! .... Although Not always as cheap as CRC: Wiggle, BikesYouLike, Woolly Hat Shop, Evans Cycles, HighonBikes and Merlin all give a comparable level of service. JE James are somewhat slower and only deliver to the cardholder's address, which can sometimes be a pain. SkiDrive are the cheapest I could find for bike racks for cars and their after sales service is excellent.

Endura Coolmax socks. Almost the cheapest socks on the market, they are sold in packs of 3. I don't want to pay a fortune for socks, I put my big toes through them in next to no time. These seem a perfectly functional warm weather sock. They are perhaps a touch flimsy as my toe is starting to poke through some of them.

Specialized Trail Shorts. The outer is very hard wearing, but I found them a little restrictive in some movements such as getting on the bike. The liner is dead comfy and keeps you cool. However, you can't get a replacement and it wore out before the outer.

Mountain Life Aqua 6 hydration pack. Starting life as 1.5 l pack with 6l of cargo, I got this in a Mountain Warehouse sale. It's simple, lightweight and did what it said on the tin, though I wouldn't have paid full price for it. It has it's faults, like the bladder leaves a slight taint to the water, which lasted a long time from new. The bite valves tend to drip when not in use. I later upgraded the bladder to 2l which is pretty much it's limit (but that had similar problems too). They use Gelert bladders which are nice and cheap. But compare fully with my thoughts on the Camelbak below.

AtoZ brake pads. Getting a good set of brake pads was a bit of a problem in the early days. I've experimented with the Shimano M05 and M08 pads and AtoZ 620 pads which all appear to fit my calipers BR-M485's. However, Shimano only spec the B01S which wears out in 3 rides. I came to the conclusion that whilst the M05 and M08's give slightly better braking feel they still wear quickly. I've found the AtoZ's cheaper and more hard wearing and they've become my standard. Woolly Hat Shop seem to be the cheapest supplier.

Scott Oxyd and Ozon tyres. Throw them away!!

Maxxis Ignitors single ply kevlar 65a 2.35. Love 'em. I found them a little lacking in traction on climbs, but an excellent all rounder. They roll well too and appear to be puncture and pinch resistant. If you haven't seen it before 2.35's are a little like an over-sized 2.1 in other brands (maybe even 2.2).

Maxxis Downhill Minions (Front and Rear) wire bead dual ply 65a 2.35. Haven't used these yet, but they are masses heavier than the Ignitors and harder to fit. Concerned that I've gone too hardcore.

White Lightening Epic and Wet Ride chain lube. I didn't get on with these, particularly the Epic, I felt them to be far to light and felt that I was returning from rides with a dry chain (lube free).

Shimano PD-M540 SPD pedals. I loved SPDs, once I got used to them. The learning curve was steep and not without some pain. In seriously gnarly stuff I'm wondering if SPDs have contributed in my numerous offs. For that reason I'm giving flatties a go. The Shimano 540's are bomb proof. Mine are getting to the point where they need a rebuild which I shall do at some point, but I got good usage out of them.

Shimano Deore LX driveset. That's a HollowTech II bottom bracket and crank, LX chain, LX Cassette LX front and Rear mechs and LX shifters. Iwas really pleased with this investment. It cost a bit, but it was worth it to replace all my well worn gear and step up to a serious drive-set. Woolly Hat Shop were doing this as a set at the time, which saves messing around with individual purchases. CRC came out marginally cheaper, but didn't have everything in stock. The only gripe I have is that during our wet summer my BB bearings didn't last 5 minutes.

Park Tools Cyclone Chain Cleaner & Chain Brite degreaser. This cleaner makes chain cleaning a doddle. Importantly, it works well, with two brushes designed to get between the teeth and brushes designed to scrub the link plates' outer surfaces. However, it's not the most robust tool and needs to be treated a little gently. Only use Chain Brite in it; I used a solvent in mine and I think it may have caused the plastic to go brittle. The Chain Brite is good stuff and is biodegradable, but it's expensive. I've found you can reuse it as long as you let the dirt settle then carefully decant the clean fluid off to reuse it. You should be able to reuse it 2 or 3 times easily. My only concern is whether putting oil onto a chain which is wet with degreaser is any good. At least with solvent based degreasers they evaporate. The instructions offer you the option of cleaning in detergent. But detergent contains salt and can exacerbate the rusting process. And once again what about oiling a wet chain?

Aldi waterproof breathable cycling jacket. £5 from Aldi - can't go wrong even if it wasn't very breathable and seemed to let a little water in in extreme conditions. It packs down quite small too. It's perfect for emergency summer use.

Aldi cycling socks. Definitely the cheapest socks on the market. They are a longer sock than the Endura ones I have, making them a better sock for cooler weather. They are handed (pardon the pun) with support/cushioning structures built into the sock. I fancy they are more comfortable for it.

Mavic EN 321 Rim. Nice. Reasonably. Strong. Not too pricey. Looks good.

Halo Porkies XL skewers. Functional, do their job fine. Nice smooth action. They may need cutting to length as they are designed for wide drop-outs. The plastic cam seat is starting to wear. The chromed parts which contact the drop-outs are capable of rusting.

WTB Pure V CrMo rail saddle. Comfy on long treks. Lightweight for it's size. The saddle has white embroidered writing on it which is tending to discolour. I find the saddle rather wide on downhill runs; It gets in the way of the inside of my thighs.

TF Tuned shock service and tuning experts. Not cheap but these guys know their stuff and you get a fantastic service for your dosh. They'll courier collect the forks/shock from you on day 1 service it on day 2 and get back in your hands by day 3. Plus they give you back your replaced parts and a report of the service engineers findings/actions. Highly recommended.

Enduro Fork Seals sealed bearing replacement for external bottom bracket cups. This is one I didn't buy but have seen in use. It's a beautifully machined billet aluminium tool to press in and out the bearings in external bottom bracket cups. For my LX cups you remove the Shimano open cartridge bearing and a plastic seal/sleeve which sits inside the inner race and contacts the crank. Then you press in a sealed cartridge bearing with a .5mm narrower inner diameter. These bearings are purported to be 33% stronger than Shimano's. I can attest to their improved longevity over Shimano. There's also an additional seal goes on the crank on the outside of the bearing face. If you're buying stuff from them, they also sell cheap Rock 'n' Roll lubes.

Endura Burner long sleeve jersey. 3 season jersey. Dead comfy, smart looking, my favourite top.

Thule 9503 Ride-On tow-bar mounted bike carrier. Ordered, as mentioned above from SkiDrive, who were excellent. Having used the carrier for a bit it's perfectly functional and reasonably well built, and above all, for me, is cheap. But I have a few gripes. The bike slots are very close together meaning getting more than one bike on without them scratching one another is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. You have to make sure you tighten up the tow-ball clamp properly, or it can move around in corners! The securing straps are webbing with spring loaded toothed clamps, and I've found they work loose and allow the bike to move from side to side rather alarmingly, I stop every now and then and re-tighten. More expensive versions have ratchet style plastic straps. The carrier is flat packed and self assembly, but the instructions are reasonably good. Don't tighten everything up until you have it fully assembled and follow the order on the instructions. I was a bit disappointed in Thule's packaging as the metal parts did scratch one another a little. All that aside it was a good purchase and above all it was cheap and fits my Honda CR-V (with a rear door mounted spare wheel) perfectly. In my case it might even be possible to get 3 bikes on.

AyUp off-road mountain bike lights (mountain bike kit). Superb lights - highly recommended. Go for the MTB kit as it gives you the helmet option. Having one up top increases the lights' versatility hugely. £250 well spent. You need decent lights if you're serious about off-road night riding. And these give you the ability to take a downhill by the scruff of it's neck and with a total of 12 hrs worth of batteries (2x3hr 1x6hr) you can do 24 hr events and the like. You get a nice little kit with some spares and a double charger. The charger has an intelligent circuit to prevent over-charging. The lights are fully waterproof. They use Cree 5 LEDs which have less overheating problems than older LEDs and chuck out a combined 640 lumens. They look cool too. Warning - embarrassingly bright for commuting.

Specialized Eskar 2.3 2Bliss kevlar tyres. Couldn't get on with these, but I was trying to run them with tubes. I'll give them another go some time and play with the pressures.

DMR V8 flat pedals. I didn't actually try these but the ones I bought and returned appeared to have bent axles and the bearings felt gritty, almost dry and perhaps over tightened. Disappointing.

Weldite wet ride chain lube. A very sticky chain lube. Reassuringly sticky. You're supposed to wipe it off after applying, but I found that near impossible, due to it's stickiness. Seems to be still on the chain after a long ride.

Wellgo MG-1 flat pedals. Lightweight magnesium body bush/sealed cartridge bearing pedals. The magnesium body is soft and susceptible to damage. I've ripped one of the pins out already. I'm not 100% sure how good the bush/bearing longevity is, but we'll see.

661 MXE knee/shin pads. Cheap, comfortable and effective. Look the part but could do with being longer; They leave your lower shin exposed.

Camelbak Mayhem hydration pack. Superb bit of kit, very nicely made. There's plenty of stowage and with a 3l bladder it's good for long epics. I think it has 11l of luggage space, there's an MP3 pocket with a weather resistant baffle for earphone wires, it has s keyring holder, there's external storage for pads or a helmet. The bladder is in a separate compartment so you don't get condensation all over everything. Best of all it has all the nice little touches and is a quality manufactured product and is fully adjustable and comfortable. The bite valve doesn't leak as on my cheapie version, the bladder is taste free and has the Camelbak silver ion impregnation to prevent bacterial growth (or something like that!) and the tube is funky colour!! It's worth the extra few quid over my cheapie Mountain Life pack. My only minor gripes are, it feels heavy and the weather resistant MP3 player pocket is rather oversized and gets in the way of the storage in the main compartment.

Pilo derailleur drop-out. Not too badly priced. I ordered a red anodised one (for the magpie in me), but they sent a black one. As it's an Israeli company, I couldn't be bothered to post it back to get a red one. It lacks any of the flourish of the original Scott drop-out; it doesn't have the chamfered or rounded edges; It has a functional design, but it should suit the purpose. You get a discount if you're a forum member of MTBBritain.

Ice Toolz/Lifu Gear Cable Cutter. One of the cheapest I could find. It cuts cleanly and smoothly. Perfect for the occasional user. Can't comment on whether it would last the pace in a workshop. It does compress the outer when you cut it, but you can straighten it easily enough.