With the Holidays behind us it's officially Buyer's Guide season around here and we're working fast-and-furious to produce the most interesting guide you've ever flipped through.

Whether you're in the market for a new bike or not, we've planned plenty of engaging copy to pique your interest in the latest product trends in bicycles, wheels, forks, stems, handlebars and a few other critical categories. But unlike any other bike-related Buyer's Guide that has been produced, ours isn't designed to denigrate your intelligence with features such as: "How to buy your first bike" or "Save your pennies by trying at the bike shop and buying mail order"

Instead, ours is geared toward the kind of reader who has been around bikes long enough to know the basics but is still in search of the latest technology to get riding farther and faster. Look for it on the newsstand at the beginning of March.

Meanwhile, I received quite a few responses to my XTR query last week. Here are three interesting responses (which have been edited for length).

Reader Andrew responds
The Good
-- The chainset/bottom bracket combination is a revelation. Very stiff, very pretty and innovative with improvement in mind (unlike the shifting - see later). The installation and more importantly maintenance are much improved. I used to get sick of having to strip and repack the old XTR bb after every wet ride.

-- The discs are great. Plenty powerful enough for XC and well modulated.

-- Once you get used to it, the finger flipping shifting is actually quite intuitive.

The Bad
-- Those integrated levers are just too flimsy. Not as robust as the old stuff.

-- The shifting action is different, not better.

-- The rear shifting is OK given the drawbacks inherent with rapid rise (namely slow and noisy shifts into bigger rings under pressure), but the front shifting (particularly from middle to large ring) takes too much lever action and is too slow.

-- Most of the so-called “innovation” is not exactly new. Hope has already done the splined disc thing. Bullseye had already done the press-fit bb and chainset thing.

-- Not surprisingly however, nobody has done this method of shifting before - wonder why?

And Mark Roebke, a Semi-pro cross-country racer from Vail, Colorado writes
I've had the new XTR group on my Ti hardtail for about six weeks.

--The disc brakes are awesome. I was impressed with the smooth, modular feel and lack of powerful grabiness that I've noticed with Hayes and on my motocross bike. They work like insanely powerful V-Brakes.

-- I really like the new shifting with a couple of asterisks(*). I took the training wheels (thumb paddles) off right away, so I would have the full XTR experience. It shifts really well and it's cool that you can flick the lever regardless of where your hand is on the grip. I was even able to brake and shift on the downhills.

--Moving the lever 'up' wasn't nearly as weird as I thought it would be.

--The big, huge 'pods' take a little getting used to from a visual standpoint and I was a little disappointed that they were just painted plastic. In all of Shimano's photos they look like they're aluminum or anodized something.

Tech Tuesday: XTR feedback

--My only problem is with the Rapid-Rise rear derailleur. For me, the rear shifts the wrong way. In Fruita I would consistently shift the wrong way when attempting to downshift approaching a hill; subconsciously, I want it to work the other way. I might get used to it, but if I don't I'll switch out the rear derailleur to last year’s XTR.

And finally David from Houston, Texas writes:
Andrew;
As a mechanic and racer, I'm truly disappointed in the new XTR. They managed to mess up each "improvement" by at least one vital flaw. New crank and bottom bracket, lighter, cool finish, wider bearing placement for better efficiency(saw this on the old Magic Motorcycle/CODA cranks, which I still love), then they go and put three different bolt patterns on it, ensuring that you have to buy a new standard in rings.

A refined rear derailleur is only rapid-rise. I was thrilled to hear that they did something different with the shifters until I tried them. I was skeptical after my first go at them, so I gave them another shot, which confirmed my first suspicion. I'd rather dig out my old Grip Shift x-rays(8-speed) than have the new XTR shifters on my bike. On the showroom floor they're ok, but on the trail, bouncing around, they're hell to control properly. Ghost braking as a constant problem, and I've got big hands. I'd hate to see how they work for someone who doesn't wear XL gloves.

All in all, a couple of half-down thumbs, and a rider who'll be hunting down old XTR or XT for the next couple of seasons.

Ouch.

Thanks for your responses, and I'll catch you next week.
Andrew J