whitestone wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2019 2:20 pm SRAM GXP crap

I love it when people speaks reality... second that about sram 'anything to do with cranks and bb interface'... Its what initiated me to purchase an allen tool that had a size 8 allen head

Ridden it

Now the why do I own so many bikes scenario begins as I service the forks

Thankfully its only 7 sets I have to do [three are other members of the family]

Lazarus wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2019 4:07 pm Ridden it

Now the why do I own so many bikes scenario begins as I service the forks

Thankfully its only 7 sets I have to do [three are other members of the family]

so... why exactly do you own 4 bikes?? Talk us all through it please sir...

I have not got four bikes that is just the ones with suspension forks

oh and easy n+1

Managed to source some ti bolts for the Thomson stem Dave kindly sold me... Wasn't a matter of weight but I wasn't too happy with the bolts (3mm bolt heads on some sort of croMo thats seems like the heads will soon be rounded if not csreful... especially at 5 and 4nm torques).

New ti bolts (from uber) came with 4mm heads (and an 8g weight shaving on 6 bolts total ) and look rather lovely...

Oh... and judging from the amount of online stores selling replacement - original part - for it: It's (rounded heads) obviously a regular occurance.

THOMSON... (edited) thanks for being smart and reducing the bolt head size so hardnuts from STW, without a calibrated elbow, dont overdo the stem and crack the under-engineered faceplate!

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Wed Jul 17, 2019 12:13 pm Oh... and judging from the amount of online stores selling replacement - original part - for it: It's (rounded heads) obviously a regular occurance.

THOMSON... Be ashamed !

I've fitted non-thomson bolts to my stem, but mainly because I needed longer bolts for a stem mounted gps bracket. But I think Thomson went to the smaller allen key so the bolt rounds out before the stem is damaged. There were reports of cracked face-plates but I think these were attributed to over-tightening the bolts by people not using a torque wrench. With the new bolts it's not possible to over-tighten them.

sean_iow wrote: ↑Wed Jul 17, 2019 12:51 pm

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Wed Jul 17, 2019 12:13 pm Oh... and judging from the amount of online stores selling replacement - original part - for it: It's (rounded heads) obviously a regular occurance.

THOMSON... Be ashamed !

I've fitted non-thomson bolts to my stem, but mainly because I needed longer bolts for a stem mounted gps bracket. But I think Thomson went to the smaller allen key so the bolt rounds out before the stem is damaged. There were reports of cracked face-plates but I think these were attributed to over-tightening the bolts by people not using a torque wrench. With the new bolts it's not possible to over-tighten them.

Thanks Sean. My original comment having a dig at Thomson now toned down (hopefully its more appropriate and accurate now )

It could equally be that the face-plate isn't strong enough so they reduced the torque needed to strip the hex out of the bolt but I've not managed to crack mine yet, even with bolts with a normal size hex.

It had served me well 'till I very nearly killed it. A friend was able to realign the rear triangle and check for cracks. All good.
So it may return to it's former ...well... it never was grand and the second cheapest bike I ever got, 300.- chf. It came plastered with stickers and I kind of grew fond of how it looks.
Yet the seatpost was stuck.
The mech couldn't move it, so I thought I could take it to work. I'm a researcher in medical devices and have access to fun things...


...like dry ice (solid carbon dioxide at −78.5 °C). Filled the seatpost/tube. Waited. Put more in. Twisted. Nothing.
Took 400 °C to the seattube and twisted. Nothing.

One of the other fun things I've access to is liquid nitrogen at -195.8 °C.

Yep. Poured into the tube. After some crackling noise I was conviced the keen bond had given in. Twisted. Farking nothing.

I also have access to a hacksaw... the post was shortened. Plug into the end and for the grand final I thought I might just dissolve the stupid thing. I made 10 M NaOH (40 %, about as concentrated sodium hydroxide comes), put some more plugs into the frame and poured a suitable amount of it into the tube.


After changing the solution three times, I poured in another and let it rest and react over the weekend. With pliers it took little convincing and a few minor twists and a pull on the residual parts of the post. Et voilà...



Now... what am I going to do with it...

Reminds me of the time I dissolved half a BSA rifle, I was removing the blueing prior to refinishing and put all the parts in the bath and left them overnight. The trigger block and breech block turned out to be ally

Fitted a Passport bottle cage adapter to my Camino then hit the front mech cage with a drift to bend it a bit to make it run quietly across the full range of gears (SRAM road shifters driving a Shimano mtb front mech!!) All good now.

A bit of fettling on the bottom bracket/crankset. The cranks develop a small amount of play after a couple of rides and I'm not sure if it's the bearings in the BB or the splines on the cranks are worn and they are working loose. I've had the bearings out and can't feel any play so it looks like it's the cranks

Alpinum wrote: ↑Thu Jul 18, 2019 6:44 pm After changing the solution three times, I poured in another and let it rest and react over the weekend. With pliers it took little convincing and a few minor twists and a pull on the residual parts of the post. Et voilà...



Now... what am I going to do with it...

Good one. I'm surprised the liquid nitrogen didn't work but I wonder if the seat post simply cant shrink enough to break the corrosion bond. At least we know not to bother trying this method now!

Fitted new Sram XX1 carbon cranks and BB to the Epic last night, and took it for a ride tonight. It does seem to go quite fast.....

Also tried (again) to get the tyres to seal on the CX bike. New gorilla tape and fresh sealant. Still 2 flat tyres this morning. Effing thing

slarge wrote: ↑Thu Jul 18, 2019 10:16 pm Fitted new Sram XX1 carbon cranks and BB to the Epic last night, and took it for a ride tonight. It does seem to go quite fast.....

Also tried (again) to get the tyres to seal on the CX bike. New gorilla tape and fresh sealant. Still 2 flat tyres this morning. Effing thing

Whats the list of parts? I've had all sorts of cx bike tubeless trouble

Not what I’ve done to my bike, but what I’ve done FOR my bike

Managed to get a towbar carrier sorted so i can transport my bike a bit easier

Fitted a mudguard to the single speed, turns out to be quite useful...

Dave, it's Kinesis CX rims, gorilla tape and WTB riddlers. They went up fine last year and stayed up tubeless, then I swapped tyres, now gone back to the Riddlers and they leak through the spoke holes, so it looks like I have split the tape or it's lifted somewhere. Trouble is I have done this 3-4 times now with new tape each time and still having problems. One last go and it'll be sorted......

Sounds like youve been through this before steve.
I found gorilla tape to lift on almost every tyre change.
I got fed up of re applying eventually and bought some stans tape.

Fitted new bright orange flat pedals to the FS to replace the ancient flats that I'd put on there as a temporary measure a year ago - I couldn't get the old pedals off at first and had to use a rubber mallet on the pedal wrench to get it to loosen which is probably not recommended technique.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

I was greeted upon my return from that London with a very non discreet unwrapped parcel which proclaimed loudly to be an obviously expensive bicycle component, obviously this was handed to me accompanied with a severe dose of rolling eyes

Thankfully the price isn't printed on the label
So what do you get for this frankly ridiculous price, well its a remarkable piece of CNC machining, to carve a cassette from a solid lump of forged steel while not the cheapest option does make for some sexy metal and light weight.
But as Nick the Greek said people want a little more range now, previously id gotten 500% from a Rohloff and derailleurs just couldn't deliver.

8 teeth bigger may not sound a lot but....



OK so bang it on




Its mashoosive, yes bigger than the 180mm disk But its let me change the 28t front ring to a 32t Absolute black oval and gain low end and a bit on top..
a quick spin around the block has induced grinning
Obviously due to being a bicycle the engineering was a little more involved than anticipated

Simple, like me



Cant wait to take this off road, It may only be one extra gear but it feels like the compromises of 1x are a distant memory

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 11:06 pm

That "mango and raspberry" colour scheme looks delicious, Steve
Mmmmm...very yummy

Now that is quite blingy.




Changed the discs on the hardtail today as the old ones were getting a bit thin and ridged.

Also got the CX front tyre to seal. Need more gorilla tape for the rear. Might get some reusable tape at some point

slarge wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:10 pm Now that is quite blingy.

Hmmm it does look like a tarts boudoir but it was that or a nasty rainbow finish. The gear range
Is 18.6 to 94.5 inches, perfect got it set up on the microshift barend 12 perfectly indexed gears very happy with the setup.