4..5..6..C

No worries at all. I reckon they're a bargain having looked at the cost of chainrings on the CRC website.

Are you going to add a top guide or just see how you go? Superstar do top guides for about £17...not sexy but at least they're sensibly priced.

I want to get a top guard, so I'll check the Superstar one out.

Blackspire also do a BB mounted one for about £30.

I've got one of those Superstar guides on my 1x9. Seems to be working well so far, but I'm not sure you could use it with a bashring. I've got mine as low as possible, and more-or-less centred on the chainline, which means that the chain is just about kissing the sides in the highest and lowest gears. I think that the bashring would mean the guide had to be shimmed further out, resulting in chain rub for quite a few of the lower gears. Certainly that would be the case with how I've positioned mine anyway.

Regards

Ah well, I've just bought one of the BB mountain Superstar guides, so we'll see

There's plenty of adjustment available, so hopefully you'll find the sweet spot

Regards

I have to vouch for this in the flesh. Lovely looking bike. And the Hope hubs can be heard several miles away because of the MAHOOSIVE chain stays!

This was perfectly demonstrated on Sunday (or was it Saturday?) afternoon when I met Ben in the pub. I started freewheeling down the lane towards the pub about 200 yards before I got there. The noise was enough for him to look up and laugh

I reckon you may need to loose the bash guard too, bit it depends on the clearances etc. At least it's not an expensive experiment if it doesn't work. That Hope guide is crazy expensive.

I just had a look for a chain guide for the flash. Because of my BB30 BB and the silly low direct mount bracket I can't use a superstar one. So I bought a Sram mech instead from CRC.

Yep, it was pretty pricey. But I bought a Blackspire one before that which was almost half the price and I managed to crack it along 2 of the bolt holes before I'd even used it thanks to the "super tough" plastic which was used with no metal reinforcements. I hadn't even done the bolts up all that tightly because I was super-aware of the plastic!