Truvativ Noir XC Team Carbon Chainset

Advantages: Light, nice ride, good brakes
Disadvantages: Chain should have shield,brakes bit squeeky,only availible from halfords

...I brought this as my last bike, a saracen, died on me, it was really in a terrible mess! I brought this for £400 in Halfords, which is a pretty good deal for what you get. The technician was very helpful in there, otherwise I probably would have brought a bike from a Local Bike Store. So, what do you get for your £400 here? Well, a light and strong bike, with hyrdaulics, 24 gears, thick tyres, nice wheels with strong spokes. "GT Triple Triangle Aluminium frame with butted tubes Suntour XCR 100mm travel fork with hydraulic rebound damping and on the fly lock-out Tektro Auriga Comp hydraulic disc brakes 180/160mm rotors Shimano Deore/ Alivio 24 speed gearing Truvativ Isoflow chainset Tioga Factory XC tyres WTB SX24 rims SDG Bel Air saddle GT over size bar and stem" All in all, a good bike for you money. So far, been so good... Read review

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Advantages: Good durability, great for all day rides
Disadvantages: None

...Although to many tyre choice on a bike tends to come down to what the local bike shop have that's cheap, there's a few things beyond that which mountain bikers look at when buying tyres. The first main thing tends to be the use that the tyre's going to get. Shove a slick tyre with no tread on a bike that's going to get used in the mud, and you're going nowhere. Put a mud tyre on and go and ride on a hard surface and you'll be puffing and panting like Ivor the Engine with the flu. The Fire XC Pros fit in somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. As the XC in the name implies, this is a cross country tyre. Cross country riders expect some grip in the mud, but not at the expense of putting so much grip on the tyre that it's hard going all the time. Panaracer seem to have managed that quite well with the Fire XC Pro, although... Read review

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Advantages: Great Value, great suspension, good alround bike
Disadvantages: Slightly weighty, not much else!

...is spot-on - It has got me out of a number of situations where on my old MTB I would have stacked it. Drivetrain has been a little bit hit and miss - in particular the rear mech, but a new rear mech cable has sorted the problem out (one of the teflon coated inners), and the rest of it I can't fault. The one draw back it has is that it is slightly on the heavy side, particularly noticible on long fire-road climbs, but to be honest, for £1000 you expect something that can be improved. I've set about this and have just purchased a new XT rear mech and Cassette - hopefully XT hollowtech II chainset/BB will follow, which will help greatly in this regard, as have the Kenda kevlar tyres - I recomend them too!... Read review

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