Industry-wide, it seems that cranks with 24mm spindles remain the most common, but a good number of new frames come with oversized bottom brackets. Best known for their cold-forged chainrings, Praxis also offers a range of adaptor bottom brackets that allow you to run 24mm spindle Shimano, FSA and RaceFace cranks in BB30 and PF30 frames (it won’t work with SRAM/Truvativ 24mm GXP spindles though).

Finishline Stanchion Fluoro Oil consists of liquid fluoropolymer oil. This DuPont product is said to be so slippery that it will even improve the surface slip on Teflon coated surfaces. While we don’t normally review products within the ‘Dirty Bits’ pages, we did get to try this product and it produced a distinct improvement in a stiction plagued fork that we were using.

All-Mountain Hoops New from e-Thirteen, the TRS wheels fill the gap between lightweight XC gear and the heavy gravity oriented stuff. To provide a solid base, the wheels rely on massive carbon hubs—the 59/77mm flange diameters and huge hub bodies are said to add appreciable stiffness to these wheels. The rear hub features an impressive 60 points of engagement on the freewheel, with a larger than average pawl contact point for slip-free drive.

Low ‘n’ Pro Big wheels have gained massive popularity within XC and marathon circles but you often see some odd looking bike set-ups as a result. All’s generally well if you are close to six-feet tall but shorter riders often struggle to get the bars low enough—this is especially the case with riders with good flexibility who like a low, climbing-oriented position.

Weight Weenie: (Noun) 1. The mass of a frankfurter or similar sausage. 2. Term used to describe an individual who obsesses over the weight of their bicycle.

Prevention is better than the cure, and that’s especially the case when it comes to your backside! The Ozone chamois cream comes from Italian indoor trainer specialist Elite.

Simple ideas are often the best and this handy little accessory from German brand Bionicon appears to be right on the money in that regard. Their C-Guide will fit on just about any bike with chainstays and it only takes a minute to fit. It comes with two attachment options; one lets you cable tie it directly to the chainstay while the other mounts it your gear cable (just in case it is routed under the stay). The nylon guide has a split design, so you don’t even need to break your chain to mount it.

Running a single chainring appears to be the big new thing, but unless you’re plonking down a huge wad of cash on the new SRAM XX1 drivechain, you’ll need some form of guide to keep the chain in place. Carbon construction is another ‘big thing’ and the two trends collide in the cSixx XC guide. As you’d expect, this all-carbon guide is light; the high-direct mount version weighs just 50g including anodised alloy hardware while the clamp-on type comes in at 68g.

More new trails and an ongoing commitment to mountain biking—Mt Buller is shaping up to be our answer to Whistler. A little over one year ago we featured the Mt Buller trails and looked at Stonefly, their newly opened wilderness trail at the time. Climbing 300m up the side of Mt Stirling before dropping back down to Howqua Gap on one of the funnest downhills anywhere, the building of this 11km this trail was a huge undertaking.

The e-Thirteen brand has a strong background in the gravity oriented side of the sport, but of late they’ve bolstered and expanded their ‘XCX’ cross-country range. While XCX products are certainly very trail worthy, don’t be misled by the name—these aren’t racer-oriented weight weenie parts. The XCX hubs are a good example of this; the front weighs 171g while the rear is 309g.

A relatively new model in the Bontrager line-up, the Lithos looks bang-on the money for a modern trail helmet. Weighing between 310g and 350g (depending on the size), it’s well and truly light enough for XC riding. It also sports plenty of large vents which are geared towards providing ventilation at lower speeds.

Fully CNC machined in their UK factory, the Hope XC and DH stems are a not only look great, but they’ll rather handily keep your handlebar and fork connected to each other too! The DH Stem only comes in a 50mm length with zero-degree rise, whilst the XC/AM stem is available in 20mm increments from 50-110mm as well as range of rises.

It’s been a while since planes were chain-driven, but the metal parts on aircraft are subjected to some pretty adverse environmental conditions and you can’t just pull over mid-Atlantic for a quick spot of maintenance. Soon after Boeing Corporation developed T-9 to protect their aircraft, some clever cookies realised it was equally applicable to other moving metal bits, particularly bike chains.

Designed and manufactured in the Czech Republic, Rubena is a relatively new tyre brand to the Australian market. The Scylla is designed as an XC and trail tyre, and certainly looks the goods for mostly dry conditions. The 2.25-inch width is available in both 26-inch and 29-inch diameters in either single compound for durability or dual compound ‘Greyline’ for increased cornering traction.

Hope’s Pro II hubs have been around for quite a few years now and they’ve built a very solid reputation for themselves; the new EVO version takes things one step further with a stronger axle to better integrate with some of the thru-axle standards on the market. All bearings are now stainless steel (two in the front, five in the rear), and the rear hub keeps its reliable and easily serviceable four pawl, 24 tooth ratchet.

pres Velo continue to come out with some nice cycle-centric post-ride gear. Their latest T-shirt design, called ‘Singletrack Mind’, is clearly aimed at mountain bikers, and comes in ever stylish black on white.