Well that puts pay to my idea of being sensible/boring & buying an LX (rather than XT) chainset sometime soonish... those cranks are hideous!

I expect that the old-style cranks will be around for a while yet - at least until September (when this stuff turns up I believe) and probably longer considering "old" XT cranks are still available.

Those brake calipers look like they're two-piece casings rather than the one-piece ones used by XT and XTR. Is that right? Also why do new-style rear mechs not get rubber boots, is the sealing better where the outers enter them?

"Cranks look hideous" ??

They look very similar to the new XT

Must admit I quite like them.

Like Chris says, the calipers look two piece to me

"They look very similar to the new XT"

But without the crucial curves which make the XT look so good :)

Those dual control shifters look sweet. Still prefer rapidfire. I sure i[d get used to them if I had to persevere though.

Hmm. My old skool LX shifters have never been up to much (that and they're a horrible colour) but my black/gold (mmm pimpy) LX rear mech is certainly prettier than that, and it performs wonderfully (if I was being picky, I'd say I prefer it to my XT one).

And the cranks look very cheap. When are Race Face finally goin to bring out a square taper Evolve?

Luke, you're the only man in the whole world who likes the black/gold thing ;-)

Not true, I was in Phil Corleys a week ago and some spotty kid was after an LX rear mech in gold as he had the rest of the limited edition kit (after buying a gold hub that day) and that would finish the set!! The guy serving him, one of the partners and I could hardly keep a straight face!!!

for the last time, gold is NOT pimp... jesus!

I quite like the look of the cranks too ;-)

Mmm..... Black and Gold

Luke, I'm with you. Witness my personal Argon in the current issue of a certain magazine with strong web links. Now with added gold decals and bb bolt.

The cranks look fine to me, except perhaps the black chainrings which will wear down around the teeth and look less nice after a while.

I ride with someone who likes the black/gold LX stuff but personally it's not for me. The black/silver stuff released this year looks quite nice though.

I heard a rumour a while back that Hope were planning to release an organic fluid seal kit for their brakes so they'd be compatible with Shimano's flippy shifters. Can anyone confirm that or is it just pie in the sky stuff? With one groupset a year going to splined hubs and flippy shifters the pressure is on for brake manufacturers to find ways to keep their stuff compatible with Shimano...

...... Or perhaps people will stick with IS hubs and the choice of disks etc. SRAM drive chain and any other brake?

As already said interesting spec choices for the bike manufacturers

Re: Hope

I don;t remember it being that specific, but I certainly heard something about Hope working on ShimaNO lever compatibility. I'm happy with my thumbies though, so it's not a worry here ;-)

Hmm.. post mount and splined rotor attachment. It seem both Hayes and Hope were right about some things well back....

I prefer bolts - the old hope splines were a hassle. post mount makes sense though

If gold/black isn't pimpy, why is the new Mono Mini so cool? Eh?

Anyway- the mech's black, just witha gold arm thing and logo- it's very subtle. And it is better than scumy blue green :).

Simon- that Argon is lovely. I'm just discussing with a friend why a hub gear is so ace, despite being gripshift (the big bit of my argument is the fact that my rear hanger tore off today- singlespeeding a 4bar bike did actually work with no tensioner. I might leave it like that).

Oh- and it only looks good on a black bike. It looks like shite on my orange GT.