Epix - Epic rides and Images

Last night saw my bike get its finishing touches, and it turned out great. A lot of preparing a bike for a long term usage is in the details. Things like cable rub are such a pain to see when you go to sell a bike, that its well worth contacting the rub points in advance. Places on our bikes that were in danger included the down tube, head tube and seat stays, so all those got a full run of contact, and then some small circles were added at other crucial junctions. Hopefully by doing it when the bike was clean and new, the contact will last through washing and riding. Hopefully.

The new XT wheelset has been suprise after suprise. Whist they aren't ultra light, they sure are a respectable weight, and the ball and cone bearings run super smooth. Later down the track, I'll switch to a cartridge bearing wheelset and run some ceramic bearings and that will be an excellent test of how much (if any?) difference there is in the two materials. Straight, taut and true came the wheels from the box, and with snazzy red nipples to boot, they look the business.


One of the new carbon Veloman cages, looking very trick as well. Weighing in at something like 28 or 35 grams, these italian, affordable carbon cages sure do set off the bike, and being quite deep, losing bottles is a thing of the past. We'll see how long they stand up to off road use, but they pass the flex test with flying colours!

The Virtue 1 uses Felt's double butted SuperLight tubing to create a light weight yet stiff front triangle on the Virtue series. Stiffness is paramount on bigger bikes, and usually comes with a weight penalty, but this seems to be very reasonable. I guess we shall see over the course of the year, exactly how well this one rides. On a more aesthetic note, I do like the white...!

Slipping your foot into a little slice of Japan (thanks Mikk) every time, more reliable than the Nissan Mahru heading to the southern ocean come whaling season

White, nice... So thats that. Mine gets a run tonight to sort out any bugs, bed in resin XT pads and stretch the cables in, whilst Jasons' got a gallop last night, so we'll see how that went.