doug-hamilton profile

Nice video and photo's Ross. It's a beautiful ride and can easily be done as a big day ride if you don't want to take extra gear with you.

Great to read these long term reviews. The normal week or to of testing done by most testers doesn't give any clue to real world reliability. It normal takes at least 6  months or even a year of proper riding to see how well something actually stands up to regular use and abuse. I've been in the bike industry for 30 years, so have seen plenty of poorly made products, and yes companies still make shit products and get away with it unfortunately. The big component makers are the worst offenders cutting corners to make extra money out of unsuspecting customers.

You don't normally see video's of ridding in Bhutan. I've been running guided mountain bike trips there since 2004 and have trips to suit differing levels of abilities. Check it out at www.blackpeaktravel.com

These seats are pretty cool, but the thing everyone needs to remember about is spinal compression on your kids lower back when riding off road. Kids bones are quite soft and injuring their lower back from banging around off road is a reality if you get to carried away. Always keep that in mind as it's easy to let the 'Daddy, faster, faster' egg you on, but may be detrimental to your kids long term health.

The chain ring is all alloy. The cassette has 3 (largest) alloy sprockets and 9 steel.

Great review on the XTR parts. It's excellent stuff. There are a few parts mixes that work very well with the new 12 speed group sets too.

You can run the new XTR or XT levers with Saint calipers. More power than they had before with better modulation.

XT and SLX rear derailleurs work with Sram NX and GX shifters, actually better than the Sram ones. 

Swapping the XD driver body on your DT 240 or 350 rear hub for a Shimano Micro Spline type, means you can run Shimano cassettes and save yourself 50% on the price of a cassette (in NZ anyway) compared to the Sram ones. An XT rear hub is also a viable swap alternative too. Costs the same as a DT driver body. You do have to rebuild the wheel though.

Being a service centre and retailer of high end bikes, e-bikes have now become around 50% of sales. Bike companies can't make them fast enough and at NZ$9000.00 for the average sale are good business and they eat parts, so great for the workshop too. Customers love them and it gets all sorts of people out riding, enjoying life and keeping them happy and healthy. Stop bitching about them, they aren't going away and you just may find yourself owning one in the future.

Try some Vittorias. The Martello in particular. The G+ tread compound and extremely durable casing are rather impressive.

The clamps are exactly the same as the stock ones. They just put an arrow and 'Front' on  them for those that can't work out you can switch them around.

I wouldn't say I'm as giddy as, for bring to your and other readers attention that this post is seen with other branding and in other brand bikes. It's more of calling Bontrager/Trek's bluff for trying to make customers believe they have been doing some good R&D on making a new post, when in fact they haven't. They've just bought an already well established post in the market and put their branding on it, which I believe is a bit miss leading. Yes I know the bike market is full of it, but consumers have the right to know that the extra coin they slap down for a new Bontrager branded post pays for the marketing guy's salary and no real work from Bontrager.