gairym wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:50 pm I'll tell you what I did to my bike today.....

.....I blimmin' well rode it!

Admittedly it was around the garden participating with my 6 and 8 year olds on an MTB skills course I've made for them.

Highlights include: the balance beam (1m long, 10cm wide, 10cm off the ground), the seesaw, the tree stump challenge (roll over it successfully), the steep drop of Doom (a gentle little 30cm rocky slope) and other death defying obstacles.

I've created a slightly different course each afternoon with the hope of upping their skills in preparation for real riding again sometime next year

Funnily enough, I was surveying my estates (all 50 sq m of them) earlier and wondering how I could make some nice single track and a few obstacles, in prep for my weekend bivvy ride!

gairym wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:50 pm I'll tell you what I did to my bike today.....

.....I blimmin' well rode it!

Admittedly it was around the garden participating with my 6 and 8 year olds on an MTB skills course I've made for them.

Highlights include: the balance beam (1m long, 10cm wide, 10cm off the ground), the seesaw, the tree stump challenge (roll over it successfully), the steep drop of Doom (a gentle little 30cm rocky slope) and other death defying obstacles.

I've created a slightly different course each afternoon with the hope of upping their skills in preparation for real riding again sometime next year

Great idea, I'm going to build a little ramp with my 3 tomorrow

I fitted some flat bars and Cane Creek Ergo bar-ends to my wee SingleSpeed project. Feels much better now. The bar-ends make a more comfy place when grinding up hills and the flatter bars have me in a very old-school arse-up, head-down position which seems to make sense with this bike.

P1060429 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

In fact, I've decided I like the wide/flat bars and bar-end combo so much that I'm going to remove the Jones bars off my (bikepacking) Pact hardtail next and revert to my previous configuration. The only problem now is trying to source some Ergos, so I might try some of the Ergon grips first.

Made it ready for a long ride tomorrow.

(Super duper) short version (long version deleted as was the short version..)





New rear wheel build. HED Belgium+ to go on thw commuter for commuting managed to widen the footprint with same tyre from 27mm to 31mm ... Ace

Fitted a top tube bag (one of the bolt on ones). I arrived in the post from Keep Pedalling and is lovely

It’s one of the Apidura Race ones and I can fit my phone in properly, unlike my revelate one

Alpinum wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:21 pm Made it ready for a long ride tomorrow.

Rode it a long way and had many enjoyable moments. Also some thrills and in general a day that I'll definately remember.

Built up my old 26" frame to go on the turbo trainer. 700c rear wheel with a trainer tyre, no brake, 1x8. Just need to build a stand to attach to the 20mm axle so I can leave off the front wheel.

Fettled around with the rear brakes to get see if I could fix a rubbing noise having changed the pads a couple of days ago. It’s a real pain in the arse to get the rear wheel in an out so not sure if the gear hanger is slightly bent but gear changes are smooth so not sure what’s up there. Changed the front pads as well since I know I won’t think about it again for ages.

I took the opportunity to check the bottom bracket area, last time out in Wales there was some roughness. It seems that fancy bearings I fitted just before my Dartmoor trip didn’t like being submerged, on popping the seals off I was greeted with a brown sludge, totally shot in 2 trips

I also looked at my under carriage.
Ive been enjoying a bit of clicky/creaky so popped out the bb and copper slipped the threads and offered the sealed bearings some grease which the diddnt seem to want or need.

More Fettling yesterday (Sunday)

Got the soldering iron out and wired up the Dyno hub with some Dyna Snap connectors
Much easier to take the wheel out and will be less issues with the hub connections

Popped on the summer sneakers, removed mudguards as I'm furloughed and won't be commuting, cassette and chain landing today then a local ride!

Laurensdad wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 10:18 am

Popped on the summer sneakers, removed mudguards as I'm furloughed and won't be commuting, cassette and chain landing today then a local ride!

I’ve just done the same thing, removed a pair of Mezcals and fitted a pair of Vittoria terreno’s in 2.25”
I also swapped out the AB oval 28T for a 32T version and adjusted the dropouts to the short position. Quick spin around the block and it’s a lot faster on the road.





I could probably remove the mudguards now..... but I’ve got so used the riding under water it’s hard to imagine being dry.

Oh Terrenos. Quite fancy some of them. Let us know how you you get in if you could

Tore Bud and Lou off the fat bike and bunged on Jumbo Jims as its now spring (for what its worth...) That said I've just re-discovered a very local (like 1 mile from the house)woodland with some nice bits of trail ideally suited the the fat bike so it will get a bit of use.

Fitted a 20 degree rise stem and 44cm Spank Vibrocore flared drop bars to my Kinesis Ti Tripster. The bike has served me very well over the last few years but I bought the new kit to make the fit less road-orientated and more bikepacking-friendly overall. For example, with my previous 42cm road-style bars I'd struggled to accommodate my 20L Apidura handlebar pack and the new setup is definitely much more accommodating in that respect. So far (sitting in my hall while leaning against the wall) it feels good and I'm looking forward to a (shortish, socially responsible, staying local, etc.) test ride in the next few days.

Built a riser for the front wheel

Undid it all. Knocked out the BB which eas suprisingly unnotchy (except a slight scrape) after 8000 miles. Gonna clean it up and auction it shortly and build the other...

FLV wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 9:23 pm Oh Terrenos. Quite fancy some of them. Let us know how you you get in if you could

Well obviously limited mileage so far but seriously fast on the road even compared to mezcals. Now the edge grip, again obviously very limited mileage but good grip on the tow path, I tried to spin out the rear on the limited slop but failed, the edge lugs griped well on some off camber collapsed bank. These lugs however can be slightly disconcerting on the road, the transition from the centre to the edge at bigger lean angles could get you into trouble if over enthusiastic, these are on 31mm internal rims.
I think these will be flyers on dry summer trails.

Before I went to Morocco I hastily threw some Tesa clear tape on the Cutthroat to keep it nice. I've peeled it all off and I'm not sticking some proper copter tape on nicely. Except it's not really looking any better!

Today was new bottom bracket bearings day, again.
Honestly it’s like Reg and punctures, that said the last set lasted a WHOLE two rides enduro angular contact bearings, not cheap. Before you ask they were installed the correct way round and not preloaded excessively, they were submerged repeatedly on my Dartmoor trip then the bike was left for two weeks.

SKF stainless are the latest candidates, on the plus side I’m getting really fast at the replacement. My top tip is to use a Velcro strap to hold the left hand crank in place, MUCH less sweary.

BDS, the angular contact bearings, was it corrosion?
If so,was there water inside the bottom bracket area of the frame,or did the seals appear to have leaked on the external side?
The few failure's I have had,always was caused by water trapped in the bottom bracket area of the frame.
If I submerged the BB on a ride,I got into the habit of removing the chainset (thru axle) or BB assembly and draining the water out and allowing frame to dry . A PITA but probably saves the bearings.

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 12:36 pm Today was new bottom bracket bearings day, again.

All 3 of my bikes are clicky creaky from the BB area after the wet winter months. Very annoying but still spin freely so they can stay there and click away.

(yes, I have taken everything else apart and eliminated.... well on one bike...)

Just what are you doing to them Steve? I've replaced one set of bearing in six years on the Solaris and it goes through thick and thin and only gets a pre & post winter service. I've never popped the seals and added extra grease or even felt the need to. The bearings were actually in a Raceface BB and I just replaced the whole lot with a Hope SS one and it and the bearings have been good for over 14,000km.