Interesting analysis by Richard Cunningham on PinkBike.

Apparently only one World Cup round in the last 2 years to October 2012 had been won on flats? His argument is that with the slackening of head angles from 66 to 62 degrees over this period allows riders to be more low and centred on the bike, rather than sitting back and driving your mass through the bottom bracket, which improves responsiveness but makes it harder to keep feet on pedals when churning out the watts.

Anyways, read for yourself:

I'm looking to upgrade my wheels. Had anyone tried running different width front and rear wheels? I thought of trying Stan's flow on the front ( internal width 25mm) and the Arch on the rear (internal width 21mm). The reasoning is that the wider front wheel would suit bigger tires, Ardent 2.25 or Hans Dampf 2.35. I plan on running a tire around 2 or 2.1 on the rear, hence a narrower width would be ok. The Arch is also lighter which is a plus. So anyone tried this? Otherwise I might just go with the Arch front and rear. Would the width of the Arch be ok with wide tires?

Anyone ever had any success with Stans Tubless kits and Giant P-XC2 29er rims?
I have been told those rims can be tricky to get to seal..

Which kit did you use?

Thanks

Ken

http://reviews.mtbr.com/sneak-peak-giant-650b-en...

Got talking with the guys from MC Cycles who were doing monthly bike services in our garage (freeby organised by the building manager no less!) and they mentioned Giant are bringing out 650b Anthem and Trance models this year, including carbon