Wow, hate to be cynical: How does "the fastest quick-release through-axle in the world" compare to Suntour's Q Loc system? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jks8YjSM1E "The return of the Mustache handlebar"? Aren't those currently called "alt" bars, and as people are pointing out, above, haven't others like On One, Radley, and Origin8 been making alt bars for quite some time? Oh, I get the biggest kick out of "Simple is always best," when talking about Hayes brakes. The Crosshair system looks great, but their pad contact adjustment poppet cam has got to be the most complicated turnoff of the decade.

Yeah, just airing it out...

I think the biggest clincher here (no pun intended) is keeping tire beads seated on the rim when run tubeless. Everything you say is good, RC, and wider rims help tires stay on, better, but I still think the key is having some form of bead lock. I'm running Mavic EN521 rims, and they cannot be run tubeless, effectively, because there is no ledge for the tire bead to sit on. That's a major point of the UST format: the interlocking bead aspect. Wider rims are good, but I think rim manufacturers have been failing us in not getting that locking bead aspect down.

The low Q-factor idea seems problematic from the start, if you ask me. Am I the only person who gets crank-rub, where if I move my feet in too far, then my shoes simply rub my cranks?

Gloves: The only mountain bike specific gloves I've used were Fox's Mojave gloves back in the mid 90's. They were cute, but the emphasis was on tactile feel versus durability. Since then, I've used motorcycle specific street gloves (black, thin leather, non-gauntlet, good) and currently am on what I think is unbeatable: the mesh-backed deerskin gloves that you can get from Home Depot or Lowe's. The pair I currently have are the first pair I've tried and are going on four years old. You can throw them in the washing machine, they are incredibly tough, and while the feel is not the greatest it's sufficient. Four years. I've been down on them a good half-dozen times, too (Mojave's, one crash and they were done). Argue that. Tires: WTB was an idiot for discontinuing their old Weirwolf 2.3, which was supposedly very highly rated. This new tire sounds like a total loser, i.e., not worth considering.

ButtonPusher and swearmouth, the Beto gauge that PricePoint carries is double-headed with both a presta and a schrader side.

My Beto gauge is my favorite tool. PricePoint sells them for $12. The only thing that makes the Schwalbe design better is that the head on the Beto is large: this is not a problem for bikes, but it is for car tires. The Beto has a backlight and a spotlight, it has a bleeder button, it has two different modes, and it gives readings in four different scales. My fingers probably can't discern a five psi difference, consistently, but with my Beto gauge, I've been able to accurately get and repeatedly set my pressures down to 23 and even 21 psi. You don't know how low you can actually go unless you have a digital gauge. Unfortunately, the Beto is not rebuildable, and the rubber seal in mine has ripped after 3 years of regular use. Time to buy a new one.

Freya.