Blinky lights, in other words flashing red safety lights for the rear of your bicycle, are a must-have item for riding on any route that is shared by motor vehicles. These are basic things that will make you more visible to cars coming up behind and overtaking you. The more the – if a driver is bewildered by the vision of a blinking red spacecraft moving along up ahead, he or she will be more inclined to slow down, and thus hopefully avoid hitting you.

The latest generation of high-powered LED bulbs are a boon to safety lights. Newer models are much brighter and get better battery life than lights of 5 to 10 years ago. Most use commonly-available alkaline batteries; on could also get a set of rechargeable batteries and a charger to be more environmentally-friendly.

Blinky lights are not just for the nighttime – they can be very helpful in making you more visible on those dark and dreary rainy days, too. Even when it's merely cloudy, brightly flashing lights can help you stand out of the road.

The bashguard-chainring combo has become increasingly popular in recent years. It's a great set-up for thrashing down super technical downhill sections, while still having the gears to get back up the other side. Shimano now offers double and bash combos in both its SLX and Deore groups. Both come with 36 teeth and 22 teeth rings, so you won't miss out as much on higher gears as you would if you simply substituted your outer ring for a bash guard.

Sold with a new double-specific front mech you'll have the slickest shifting double and bash combo available.

Here we look at replacing a Shimano triple-ring set-up with a Shimano double and bash clainset and double-specific front mech. Although you can get away with using a mech designed for a triple, double-specific mechs will give the best shift quality, as their geometry is adapted to follow the contour of the smaller rings. If you're using a triple-specific mech you will have to play with the height and limit screw adjustment to get the best shift.

Did Selle Italia reinvented the saddle and seatpost? At first glance the Selle Italia Monorail saddle and seatpost appears to be similar to saddles from SDG's I-Beam design, which does away with a traditional twin rail in favor of a single central beam. This works well for the rigors of more extreme end of mountain biking, where its increased strength helps, but we have found this is at the expense of comfort – I-Beam saddles have a solid central spine making for little flex in the hull.

Selle Italia's central rail design is fixed to the hull much like a standard saddle – two fixing points at the rear, and a single beam, free of the hull, rather than two rails.

The Shimano Di2, let's get that name out of the way first. Di2 stands for Digital Integrated Intelligence, and Shimano's flagship road group-set definitely lives up to its name. Those Shimano tech guys are one smart bunch of people.

In development for more than five years, Shimano's eagerly awaited electronic group-set has been the subject of many conversations on by voice or in forum arguments. But at first glance, its eventual may have disappointed some. The Shimano Di2 is not, as you might have first thought, a wireless, super-duper system that' s clever enough to think itself into the correct gear while you just pedal.

Correction – the Shimano Di2 is super-duper. But initial worries that it looks just like a normal group-set, with its cables in all the same places, are soon allayed. True, it isn't wireless, but electronic wires replace traditional cables and outdo them in performance no end. While cables stretch with use and misfire after being affected by water and dirt, the Shimano Di2' s electronic system gives you super-fast, crisp, clear shifting every time. In fact, changing gear is an absolute pleasure. Even without taking into account the ridiculously satisfying electric buzz that the system emits with each shift, the perfect-every-time changes really do allow you to concentrate more on your riding, while at the same time encouraging you to shift more often.

There are plenty of headlights to choose from and they run the gamut in design and functionality. We think the Sigma Karma Pro at at 5600 Baht hits a beautiful balance between the two. The lightweight but powerful Sigma Karma Pro head unit is about the diameter of a D battery, 38mm long and weighs 70grams. IT has only one small button: click twice quickly to turn on, once more to increase to standard power and then again to the brightest setting. Hold for two seconds to turn off. There no flash setting, since in Germany, Sigma's home country, only emergency vehicles are allowed to have flashing lights.

For handlebar mounting, there is an overlapping click bracket not much bigger than the light itself, that fits on standard or oversized handlebars. The light sits on an adjustable swivel that allows you to turn it left and right independent of the mounting bracket. The rechargeable lithium ion battery is about the size of a cell phone, 20mm thick, and weights 140grams. Its slim mounting bracket straps onto the bike frame. The last bit of hardware – the cable: Sigma gives you a 76cm power cord to supplement the 40cm cord should the situation require. The ends snap together and seal to protect the connection. There's also a special zip tie to hold the cable in place. Assembly is quick and easy, and when not in use the entire system is compact enough to slip into a pack or even a jacket pocket without being awkward of heavy.

Because small problems with your bike are easier to ignore than major malfunctions, they can be your worst enemy. Like that clicking noise in your car that magically disappears when you crank the radio, there are the kinds of things you can let slide for months because, let's face it, as long as you're still able to ride your bike, you'll put up with anything, including embarrassing yourself and annoying your friends. Lucky for you – and the – most little problems have simple solutions.

Slipping Grips

Your grips are twisting, and you're not an stuntman. Oh yeah, you've already tried the hairspray trick to get them to stick, and it didn't work. The solution is to apply a generous amount of supergue inside the grip and on the handlebar, then quickly slide the grip into place and hold for a few seconds. Act fast – superglue sets up quickly – but not so fast that it ends up where it shouldn't. This is a permanent solution, so be ready to cut the grips off with a utility knife when it's time to replace them.

For 2010 RockShox will offer a 170mm travel option on the Lyrik Solo Air, while the Lyrik Coil gets 170mm as standard. Trickle-down technology brings the option of the option of a Mission Control DH damper – originally developed for the 2010 RockShox BoXXer – to all RockShox Lyrik fork platforms.

It comes with independently adjustable high and low speed compression and rebound adjustment, but for riders after an on-the-fly climbing aid, you can still have the option of the Mission Control damper, albeit with revised compression tune, for better bump adsorption.

There's nothing worse than having problems with the AheadSet of your mountain bike, especially when riders find that their AheadSets have come loose resulting in dangerous situations, when the connection between the steerer tube and headtube is gone – and it is remarkable how many people have absolutely no idea how to tighten the AheadSet.

The modern AheadSet concept was supposed to take the complexity out of adjusting headsets. But to this day, many riders are still confused.

If you're tired of being confused, we have the solution. But first you'll need: Find the Allen wrench that fits your stem bolts and the star-fangled nut bolt, it is the Allen bolt on top of your steerer tube. In most cases, these bolts will all be the same size, so you'll only need one Allen wrench. That's it.

It did take a while, but the use of carbon fiber as a material for mountain bike parts and frames is currently almost as common now as it is in the tennis industry where they've been using carbon fiber to make rackets for more than twenty years.

In the past, most component fabricators have stuck with less exotic materials like steel and aluminum when it came to make cranks ans seat-posts and bar ends. But currently it seems like every mountain bike part manufacturer has some carbon fiber offering in their line.

Syncros, a company long renowned for its rugged light aluminum stems and posts, and, for their cranks, rims and other components. They also have several carbon fiber products.

Temping though it is to let your mountain bike shocks, both front and rear, run free during what we call the end of the raining season, those dusty dusty days of mud-free delight still throw up enough particulate matter to shag seals and consequently play havoc with smooth running of your shocks. So, although most forks already come with shock boots, if you don't have any then think about investing in a bit of prevention.

Bike Thailand has yet to see any rear shocks come with socks as standard, though why this is we can't work out; they are just as prone to poop as fork sliders, and usually harder to service, so get them covered for increased longevity and unspoilt play.