I fitted some Garbaruk components to the gravel bike towards the end of April, mostly to get up the hills on the WRT. It was never quite right, as the chain was skipping on the 50t cog and I couldn't figure out why. During the WRT, I was having issues with the cage getting stuck in a forward position, loosening the chain and causing it to fall off. I ended up doing open heart surgery on the clutch mechanism, on the hill leading up to The Mark of Zoro at Bwlch Nant yr Arian. While that at least allowed me to use the 50 tooth dinner plate, the clutch wasn't working and I was getting horrific chain slap, so bad that the chain would still occasionally fall off the narrow wide front chainring.

I'm off out for a few day over the Jubilee weekend, so I thought I'd better sort it out.



Turns out that it was a problem between keyboard and chair, as per. I thought it was a clutch issue, i.e. it just needed tightened, but it turns out I was wrong. I dismantled the derailleur I knackered last Spring, so I could have a look at the clutch and see why that one was working, but this one wasn't. When I took the bent cage off the old derailleur, I noticed that there was a washer over the cage bolt, I couldn't remember fitting one to the Garbaruk cage. So it turns out that for some reason I hadn't transferred the washer from the old cage, to the new cage. The moment I put the washer in place and screwed it all back together, it started working as expected.

With the clutch now working and the cage moving freely, I hope that's the end of the issues.

Fitted front bar bag with the home made harness with Dr Jon strapdeck and Voile modified straps (well, modified Voile straps). Then cut down some Stans rim strips and using an extra thick ziptie attached to the very top of the drop post tube. Saddlepack wouldn't attach properly so shaved the thickness of the ziptie down and now, 'voile'... Alhamdulillah



Also popped some Chronicles front and rear and some new (eco friendly made from olive stones!) sealant. Doesn't work bery well on the road bike but we'll see... Chronicles are apparently the 'daddy' of BPing tires so will see how they go. Think they're on about 11psi at the mo and did feel nice when going out earlier

Just need to ride the thing now (and maybe bivy it).

Towards the end of our Scottish trip I began to get an intermittent knocking from the drivetrain. It was fine under constant load as when riding uphill on road, but when on the flat there'd be a "clunk" just as my RH pedal stroke left the "dead zone" and I began to apply pressure. After a bit of musing I thought it might be one of the pawl springs broken or playing up.

Get home and look for my spare pawl spring set (we've four bikes with Hope rear hubs so worth keeping a set) but couldn't find them. Then I noticed an old Hope wheel in the greenhouse (where else would you keep old biking kit?), popped the freehub off and voila! A set of four decent condition pawls and springs.

Put the bike in the stand and began stripping things down. It was when I got to taking the bottom bracket off that I found that the driveside cup was loose Doh! Removed everything, cleaned all contact surfaces up and regreased them, cleaned the muck out from the groove in the cup where the top hat cover sits and added grease as a barrier and reassembled, tightly . Took the freehub off, of course the pawls and springs were fine, so it was a matter of regreasing and popping the freehub back on and then replacing the cassette.

Went for a ride today, No clunks!

The two test rides on the Scandal have been beset with chain issues. On the last one, I noticed that I'd twisted at least one of the chain links, so I thought I should sort that out. Looks like it was just the one link, so I chopped that link out of the chain, then put it back together again.

Swapped the WTB Bridgers front to back and vice versa after almost 1500 miles. Hoping to get another 2000 out of them cos I'm a cheapskate. Changed the oil on the Rohloff, put on a slightly larger rear sprocket ( 18T instead of 17T) and greased the lower headset bearing. All in prep for heading off to the Dales tomorrow for a week or two.

Rebuilding this up

Edit / I have no idea why that’s rotated

Pulled the rear hub apart on the Straggler - A hunt thingy of which I knew nothing (on the Hunt site the destructions referred to an older version). Turns out 'pulling apart' is literally what you do - no tools just grab hold of the end caps and pull, likewise the spindle and freewheel. Not a bad design all in all. Like Hopes in that it relies on the stiff axle to keep all in line but much easier to take apart and a proper seal between the freewheel and the hub. The ratchet pawls were actually lubed with oil rather than grease hence it being a bit loud. I put my usual mix of Moly D grease and a squirt of gear oil which should make it a bit quieter.

Bought some goodyear connector ultimate tyres quite a while ago for the gravel bike, but they had a big wobble which I thought was wheels out of true...tried on a different wheel that is definitely straight and both have a manufacturing defect and the tread goes off centre making a huge wobble...going to try and send them back but not holding out much hope of any kind of refund

Further tinkering on the poo brown bike

Not today, but yesterday; I forgot to take a photo... Degreased and cleaned my part worn 11-46 XT cassette, then fitted it to the Scandal, along with a XT rear mech and XT rapid fire pod.
Oh. My. Word!

You barely need to caress the levers before it's slamming you up or down the sprockets. And that dual direction rear lever...
I'm smitten.



Didn't bother cleaning the chain, as it turns out it's well knackered, so I'm going to have to buy a new one.

Firstly swapped the rear caliper which was a bit squeaky. Sound as a pound now but then realised on yesterdays ride that my Dura Ace rear skewer wasn't actually long enough for my 135mm hub (never thought about it until yesterday). Ordered an XTR off fleabay.

Then around the same time my pedals arrived from HT. So no longer am I required to have Alpshit pedals revolving around my feet (thanks to the lovely volunteer who nominated his wifes bike for em to go on). Aware that the HT nylons might be slightly thicker, and always aware that one day I'd need to adjust the eccentric BB, yesterday was the day.

On the route to Bronte the wide HT pedals kept getting more rock strikes trying to ride through the gullys. In the end I stopped on the trail and revolved it so the cranks sit a bit higher. That's all for now but the Prongs arrived so will soon swap em out for the alloy ones currently insitu...

Oh, and in the midst of doing the brakes and pedals I took the chain checker to it. Almost at the 0.75 mark (I always squish it in so can catch it at 0.65 even) so took a trip to Halfords and got a price matched Deore chain at £25.

Took it through some petrol then some isporopyl and dried. Then some Smoove and Maqbools my uncle...

I always thought the best thing to do was not clean a new chain, as the grease/wax on it is a good lubricant??

Nice fork that Prong...

Ridden it. First time in a week
Fooked.....

faustus wrote: ↑Mon Jul 11, 2022 7:28 pm I always thought the best thing to do was not clean a new chain, as the grease/wax on it is a good lubricant??

Nice fork that Prong...

Yes, I used to think that too Fautus but then a few times in summer/dry and a chain swap it seemed to just have clingy dust to it. For some reason I always thought it's Shimanos lube that they preapply but the stickiness of the chain makea you think otherwise.

At the point of sale I discussed with Rob (one of the mechs) and mentioned what I thought (that it seems to need degreasing). He confirmed that the shimano chains are pre-applied heavg grease to save from corrosion whilst sat about for however long...

Let me know if anyone learns otherwise...

Over the last 2 weeks and finished building up the wife's Fat Bike off on Saturday (with some 2nd hand parts) and Escape Goats help

I serviced the rear hub (Hope Fatsno) on my fat bike this morning. I'd had a creaking noise coming from the transmission for a little while and after checking everything and replacing the bottom bracket, the hub was the only thing left. I know some people don't rate Hope hubs but it's so easy to replace the bearings when the time comes that I love them. The bearings have lasted three years of horrendous conditions and being jet washed and although I replaced them the ones that came out probably would have been okay with just a regrease. Test ride this afternoon and I could genuinely feel the difference so it was well worth doing.

yesterday I service.da hire bike on a family ride near Bohinj, Slovenia. (pronounced Ba-hin 'not Bo-hinge', don't know @Verena you never corrected me )

It made a right racket. changing up on double chainset. adj screws or cable tension didn't improve front mech. it turned out rear mech was bashed and a bare hand slight-twist sorted it.
I couldn't do any thing with the brakes being to euro 'wrong' way round for us brits. hence the unscheduled sideways dismount. on a loose gritty track later on. (applied more front than rear brake, school boy error- instant front wheel locked & wash-out ouch. ...) I got off lightly just bloody knees & elbows my daughter shouting 'rider down'.. not' are you OK dad?'

After my puncture on this morning ride, I set about getting the rear tyre back up tubeless. After giving the inside and edges a bit of a clean, I stared on getting the beads set. 120 psi into the home-made inflater, and as I reached down to take the mole grips off, the bottle exploded. Nearly myself...



I think I may buy a proper one, as while I got away without any injury, I don't want that experience again.

On the off chance that no one wants my bar harness, I decided to upgrade it a little. 8L bag instead of the Revelate heavy 14 welded one. Plastic cover from my folder that I've never actually finished reading since 2017(ish). Shaved some more of the Voile blue straps to make it easier to thread through the strapdeck and swapped the Revelate foam spacer for some that came out of a curtain pole pack... I think I preferred the Revelates so might popthem back on after seeing how it all threads through properly...







Also might try and find a bigger plastic sleeve to make it wrap around the lightweight drybag better. Maybe purchase an Ortlieb drybag of some sort too...

Glad your safe Bob.

Years ago (similar looking bottle as yours but maybe I used more Gorilla tape) when I made my bottle I used to always wear safety specs when doing the tubeless stuff.

Might go back to it. Well done getting the tirws inflated

Ouch Boab.

I have an airshot- I'd say partially effective at seating tubeless tyres. I also have a diy plastic bottle that's better at seating tyres, but I max it out at 100psi....

Currently thinking of buying a compressor to take the hard work out.

In other news, I finally finished my 1963 Falcon San Remo Road bike and took it for a ride in the sunshine. I'll try to post some pics as it does look pretty good. Full respray, new decals, 2x5 speed Campagnolo from 1963, rebuilt tub wheels with new spokes, and a lovely old Brooks saddle. My only problem is that it really is too big for me.
That and downtube shifters - I can see why the industry moved away from them as quickly as possible.

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 2:40 am Glad your safe Bob.

Years ago (similar looking bottle as yours but maybe I used more Gorilla tape) when I made my bottle I used to always wear safety specs when doing the tubeless stuff.

I just put tape around the middle, quite a lot too, as I figured the rounded bits would be fine.

slarge wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:49 am Ouch Boab.

I have an airshot- I'd say partially effective at seating tubeless tyres. I also have a diy plastic bottle that's better at seating tyres, but I max it out at 100psi....

Currently thinking of buying a compressor to take the hard work out.

I always planned on buying a Topeak TubiBooster X, but they're quite spendy, especially in comparison to a pop bottle and some duck tape. I have compressor that came with the car, it's fine on the Jumbo Jim fat tyres, but wont inflate any of the gravel tyres I've tried it with.

slarge wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:49 am In other news, I finally finished my 1963 Falcon San Remo Road bike and took it for a ride in the sunshine. I'll try to post some pics as it does look pretty good. Full respray, new decals, 2x5 speed Campagnolo from 1963, rebuilt tub wheels with new spokes, and a lovely old Brooks saddle. My only problem is that it really is too big for me.
That and downtube shifters - I can see why the industry moved away from them as quickly as possible.

Saw the photo on Strava, looks mint!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wVfG2AQC1V5HrjFXA

not sure if that will work though...

Not 'to the bike' but, 'for the bike'. Getting tired of making routes close to work and then having shifts cancelled and realising the route is still too flat/easy(ish). So pulled out the local maps and making a route down into the Peaks but only 40 miles or so... But with a bit of gnarl and maybe some decent HAB too.

Also ordered the right side of that team of maps to get a fuller loop for future...