Kit

Right. After lots of kit abuse, lots of disacussion and plenty of comments I think it is time for a definitive list of whats hot and whats not in terms of bike kit manufacturers. So here goes.

NB: Most of this is based on personal experiance, but there is alot taken from popular opinion in the MTB community.

COMPONENT	XC	DJ/4X	ROAD-HYBRID/COMMUTER
Framesets	Carrera	Giant (STP)
Forks	Marzocchi	RockShox	Kinesis Rigid
Front Brakes	Shimano hydraulic	Avid Mechaical	Shimano 'Vee'
Rear Brakes	Shimano hydraulic or 'Vee'	Avid Mechaical or Shimano 'Vee'	Shimano 'Vee'
Stems	Hope	Hope
Hubs	Hope	Hope	Shimano
Rims	Mavic	Mavic
Tyres	Continental	DMR	Continental
Tubes	Nokin	Nokin
Pedals	Shimano	Shimano	Shimano
Cranks	Shimano Deore (HT1 Octalink)	Shimano HT2
Bottom Brackets	Shimano HT1 Octalink	Shimano
Saddles	WTB	SDG
Seat Posts	Thompson	Thompson
Headsets	Chris King or Hope(for internal)	Chris King of FSA(for budget)
Handlebars	Easton	Bikehut!
Grips	personal preference	lock-ons - personal preference
Chains	SRAM	KMC
Cassettes	SRAM	SRAM or On-One(for single-speed)
Front Mechs	Shimano Deore	none - e.thirteen chainguide
Rear Mechs	Shimano LX	Shimano
Shifters	SRAM Trigger	SRAM Trigger