What you done t' your bike today

[RIP]

Yes that would be annoying... but nope, no frame bag. If I had one I'd just put stuff in it, which wouldn't do at all .

[redefined_cycles]

Yes that would be annoying... but nope, no frame bag. If I had one I'd just put stuff in it, which wouldn't do at all .

Thats actually really clever Reg. I must try it (must sell my framenag... must sell my framebag... must sell my bag... he goes away muttering to himself)... Easy way to drop weight

[RIP]

I'm working towards only requiring a 1L gastank for my BaMs . Still got a bit of work to do yet on this aim...

[BigdummySteve]

Mmm, guess we all dislike ticks - of the bike and insect variety . Spent quite a while recently tracing a bad click down below. Could be pedals, cranks, BB, chainrings, even seatpost. Tried all sorts over a couple of weeks rides, incl diff pedals, crank off etc, almost about to change BB when realised it wasn't loose anyway. Aimlessly took crank off again, cleaned it really well - again - including the tab etc. Dejectedly put it back on.

Click gone!

I had a mystery tic/click appear on a ride, ominously it seemed to be coming from the BB area. Obviously I stopped and checked the cranks, bottom bracket and pedals, all seemed tight with no play, the fact that it appeared suddenly conjured up visions of catastrophic drive train failure. Having failed to find it I gingerly carried on, for a while in silence but of course things don’t fix themselves and it returned louder than ever. I looked down at my drivetrain in dismay only to see the tip of my lace hitting the carbon crank every revolution, tic tic tic tic tic

Numpty......

[ScotRoutes]

Fitted some bling.



Went for a ride

[Mariner]

Finally got an accurate adjustment on my rear Spyke calliper inboard pad. Up until now I just took a guestimate when the rear wheel was out because the long bit of my 3mm Allen key was too long and the short bit too short to work with the wheel in situ. As long as the disc did not show too much distortion left it at that.
Now I needed to adjust for pad wear and lever travel. I was looking online for a short 3mm Allen key when I spotted a hex key set in a socket just like the one I have in my torque wrench set. Tried it and worked a treat, pad is adjusted properly, lever travel back to how I like it and no money spent.

[Piemonster]

Dropper post out, Titanium Post fitted

Carbon bars off, Jones Bars on

Rebas removed, Travers Prongs added (gosh they’re lovely)

Maxxis High Roller off, Maxxis Ardent on

XT pedals off, Flats on

Fitted a steerer top cap mount for the Wahoo as well

[Jurassic]

Removed the fake Loop bars (PX Geoff bars) from my bikepacking bike and fitted a pair of Alpkit Confucious bars in their place. I did quite like the Loops but all my other mountain bikes have riser bars fitted so the Loops always felt weird when I was riding anything approaching technical. Last week I had a quick spin on Shewie's Broken Road which had Confucious bars fitted and they just felt so natural to me but the loop section is still there for supporting a bar bag and the pseudo tri-bar position felt better as well as the loop is narrower than it was on the Geoffs. Another fringe benefit is that I can go back to using my beloved Ergon grips with stubby bar ends again as well.

[redefined_cycles]

Removed the flatties that were on for Helvelyn (alot of walking) and the serious event before that...

Added the lovely pedals from BigDummySteve once more and went from 180 to 120g per pedal in a couple of swift moves...

Removed the SDG saddle, comfy but looks a bit eaten. Added my San Marco Aspide saddle - it's a high quality cpy darling, the taiwan ebayer had told me after I queried why it said Made in Tai and not Italy - and another 150g lost (270g for the SDG to 119g for the San Marco copy)...
Happy days?? Yes, I believe so. Feet might not be happy when they get cold though.

Weighed it on my primitive Salter man sized scales (well after removing another little 19g surplus part) and we have 11.9kg ... Probably inaccurate but who cares. Still feels heavy though...


My Grotty Stan

[Alpinum]

My Bold got some new bits and pieces, but first it needed a good rinse.

Was a bit mucky.
Sunday:


Yesterday:


Now:


Finally 220/203 mm rotors on it. Now the 29" look like 26" wheels.
New pads.
'New' bar.
New pedals.
New crank boots.

Gave the drivetrain, suspension and dropper some love.

Found I could fit a 27.5 x 2.8" tyre in there if I wanted.

Most parts were in a bad state and I actually should have changed them earlier.
And now... shiny bike that feels like new.
After all riding with this bike I hardly ever get to use the saddle, so my contact points are indeed all new.
Will give it a beating for the next four days


Nearly three weeks ago my Moxie got a new stem/bar combo - from here came the 'new' bar for the Bold.
larger rotors.
more powerful calipers and thus bled with the best mineral oil ever.
Tyre insert (before the rear consists of more plugs than actual tyre rubber).
New sealant.




I always love it when - with a few replacements - bikes feel so much better.

[fatbikephil]

What discs are they?

[Alpinum]

What discs are they?

On the Bold, Magura, on the Moxie, Clarks.

[redefined_cycles]

What discs are they?

On the Bold, Magura, on the Moxie, Clarks.

And what's this 'best mineral oil ever' you talk of please??

[Alpinum]

And what's this 'best mineral oil ever' you talk of please??

Was amazed to find the amount of alu debris in the oil when I bled them. Gone is the Shimano oil, welcome Putoline HPX 2.5 wt.

All set and eager to see if I can still smoke the brakes

Makes a wonderful difference on Shimano brakes. I've a few sets which have a shifting bite point. Actually all of them.
Especially when it's cold.
Rebound of the lever is slow too.
I got along with it as I wasn't too bothered but didn't like issue.
The biggest issue is that they become dead at about - 17 °C.
After a recommendation by a mate I got some of the mentioned oil et voilà, gone is the wandering bite point (no change what so ever, despite riding in below freezing). The rebound as fast as with DOT 5.1 brakes, even the lever action has become smoother I think.
I don't know how the viscosity behaves at lower temperatures, but expect the Putoline to work better than the Shimano at temperatures around - 20 °C.

Price is okay too and can be used for other stuff on your bike (if you have a dropper and suspension).

I'm going to bleed all Shimano brakes we have, no matter if it's really neccessary or not. The difference is well worth the little time it takes to bleed them.

[redefined_cycles]

Thanks Gian. Might consider it as I've not yet had to buy any oil for the brakes. Good oil is worth it IMO and in car terms I use the Fuchs XTR 5w30... Much better than the 'top end' rubbish everyone haves you believe is good

[Alpinum]

True Shafiq.

I've been using various oils to lube my chain.
Once found some MucOff wet (on the single track behind Kinlochewe during the inaugural HT430, was a dry year) and found I had to lube the chain every 80 km or so.
Our most local hareware store has MucOff products, so I once bought the dry version. Even more rubbish; after about 50 or 60 km the chain was making noises again...

Various product from Finish Line which I can get from my local bike shop last longer, but make more of a mess.

The there's good lubes from other brands (like Petrus), but I can't get them local.

Not too long ago, I got a 'universal bike oil/lube' from the hardware store, about 1/5 of the price of the other stuff and... it works really well for the chain. I can ride 100 km and more with one application, it makes less of a mess and have now filled it into small, used Finish Line bottles for multiday trips. Win.

[Alpinum]

Now:


Finally 220/203 mm rotors on it. Now the 29" look like 26" wheels.
New pads.
'New' bar.
New pedals.
New crank boots.

Was out for a ride today and hurray! best brake I ever rode. Loads of power, like sub standard loads and no fading whatsoever. Nada.
New bar felt better too.
Pedals have less grip and a smaller platform than the OneUp... I don't feel as planted...
Not sure if they will stay on...

Amazing how little it takes.
Also played a little with the air pressure of the fork and again, amazing how much difference even just 2.5 psi make.

So much for The Princess and the Pea

Edit: 2.5 not 25 psi...

[Boab]

Got the bike out of the shed and gave bits of it a clean, mainly as I was finally going to fit the Topeak VersaCages to the front fork. While I had the bike up on the stand, I had another go at removing the crank arm bolts. After scraping more gunk out of it, I managed to ease it out, so took off the crankset and replaced the bottom bracket, which was absolutely FUBAR.



It took quite a while with a hammer and block of wood to get the crankset to shift. Filthy...



I also removed the rear brake pads, as they were shot. I replaced them with the ones from the front, which are about half worn, and fitted a new set to the front. Then I fitted the VersaCages, loaded up the Decathlon dry bags, tent in one, mat,, pillow and thermals in the other. Last but not least, I switch out the knackered cheapo Keo pedals for my X-Tracks. Time to finally buy some Keo Blades I think...



Now to go and find a ditch and sneak in October's BaM.

[fatbikephil]

.....dismantled an SP dynamo hub....
I noticed on my ride across Galloway last week that the front wheel was making funny noises. Another SP dyno hub failure methinks. I carried on regardless of course but I when I got home I couldn't turn the axle in the hub by hand. No wonder I was feeling tired, it was like riding with your front brake half on!

Anyway the hub is well out of warranty and I can't be bothered sending it back to Taiwan so after a bit of web searching came across a couple of you tube vids about how to take them apart.

First off put a pair of 17mm open ended spanners on the flats on the end caps. The brake side cracked first and uncrewed. (I fouled this bit up see later) Then strip the brake side spokes out.

The you tube vid I found suggested that the hub shell halves were keyed together and need to be unscrewed. They are keyed but just pull apart. I used a set of stillsons on the disk mount protected with a bit of rubber padding. Second foul up - I should have heated them up with a heat gun and tapped the halves apart.

Hmm - first intimation of doom. The bearing was shagged and full of rusty watery gunge but spun fairly freely. There was a lot of damp inside the hub shell..... I stripped out the rest of the spokes as I needed to hold the hub in a vice.

Next up the right side. There is a (single) flat machined on the spindle. I clamped this in the vice and unscrewed the bearing cap with a lot of force. In hindsight for stage 1 I should have heated the right hand side end cap to break the loctite, held the machined flat in the vice gently, put a spanner on the flat of the left hand side end cap, unscrewed the right hand side cap, heated the left hand side, held the axle in the vice and removed this side. (got that?!) Not much damage done, just mangled the end of the axle a bit.


Next up pull off the contact end cap and gently pry the spades and wires away from the plastic housing and remove it. Pick away the sealant gunge and prize off the machined alloy spacer, carefully threading the two wires through the slot as you go. (I used a cone spanner to wiggle this spacer around with the spindle clamped in the vice, then a pair of plastic tyre levers to fully remove it.) The right side hub body then pulls off the armature and spindle. Double hmmm hmmm. The right side bearing seemed OK. The armature however took a lot of effort to turn on the magnet (It's hard to describe how this works and took me a while to figure it out even looking at it) A generous skoosh of WD40 got it moving fairly freely but it looks like water has gotten in and corroded this up. Dismantling this bit looks unfathomable and is probably a bad idea as it all needs to be pressed together precisely. I don't know if this relies on machined diameters on the spindle or if its a case of pressing it on just the right amount. Oh well I'll order a couple of 6200RS bearings, hammer it all back together again and report back....




If your SP hub bearings are shagged its worth doing this and fairly straight forward. In fact in most cases only the left hand side bearing will be knackered as the right hand side one is tucked away behind two shields.

[redefined_cycles]

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the bearings aren't NTN, SKF or FAG (oe were they?)... Enduro or some other tripe maybe?? Similar problems here with my Powertap hub years ago. Kept failing until I finally replaced with top end bearings.... Obviously after that the torque converter (whatever its called) went and it got fleabayed...

[Alpinum]

Did this to it yesterday:



220 mm front, 203 mm rear.
Front looks fairly similar.

This is always an indication that I had poor show loads of fun.

Yes, I know how to brake properly. Thanks for asking.

[fatbikephil]

Did this to it yesterday:



220 mm front, 203 mm rear.
Front looks fairly similar.

This is always an indication that I had poor show loads of fun.

Yes, I know how to brake properly. Thanks for asking.

I hope you lit a cigarette off the glowing disk when you reached the bottom and then casually smoked it

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the bearings aren't NTN, SKF or FAG (oe were they?)... Enduro or some other tripe maybe?? Similar problems here with my Powertap hub years ago. Kept failing until I finally replaced with top end bearings.... Obviously after that the torque converter (whatever its called) went and it got fleabayed...

Branded F&D - seen it before but no idea what they are. To be honest cheap bearings aren't necessarily the problem. Even SKF's tend to be a bit light on grease and its water ingress that kills these bearings not them wearing out.

[Alpinum]

I hope you lit a cigarette off the glowing disk when you reached the bottom and then casually smoked it

I didn't but like the idea
It will not be a cigarette though...

I arrived in Campocologno, would've been a suitable place to casually smoke a cigarette, with its tabaco smuggling history

[Boab]

Replaced the chain, manky...


I might have got away without having to replace the cassette, it is skipping gently under very heavy load, but only on two rings. I'll take it for a spin and then decide if I need to swap the cassette, or if I can live with it.


I also fitted the new Vittoria Terreno Zero 32mm tyres. I didn't have time to set them up tubeless, as I was "in a Zoom meeting" while doing it.

[gairym]

I passed my bikes today whilst in the cave/cellar looking for something else.

Ships in the night...

With lockdown rules being so restrictive here (1hr per day staying within a 1km radius of the house and carrying a completed official form stating who you are, what you're doing, why and when etc...) and my work being so bloody busy right now I've not been on my bike for bloody ages!

Not cool!*

*but better than an even bigger pile of dead bodies