WOW. Just wow. What a great ride!!

First time out on my spring cleaned/refurbed/new bits/polished 5-Spot. Not been out on the mountain bike since this years Puffer. Noticed something loose in the bottom pivot after the event and one thing lead to another… Needed to replace suspension bits and bobs. While the bike was apart I thought I would polish up the tired looking raw alumninium. A few bits needing replacing. And hey, while I’m at it, those wheels are old! The whole thing to far longer than it should have due to some laziness and some priority stuff around the house taking up free time. Got there in the end though and well worth it!

Cracking night last night so headed out for a quick blast in the Pentlands. A heady cocktail of being in the hills for the first time in 6 months (shame on me), beautiful sunny evening, fast running dry trails and a bike that felt brand new. Amazing. Just amazing. Big, big smile on my face!

Here’s the works list:
New full suspension refurb kit – replaced all suspension pivots and bearings.
Polished the raw aluminium frame – brasso and elbow grease! Not quite a mirror finish and doesn’t stand up to close-up scrutiny, but it looks pretty good. Nice to see the sun sparkling off it last night! Haven’t replaced any stickers on the frame, quite liking the anonymous look so may well keep it that way.
New XTR shifters & cables – cables had fused into the adjuster barrel in the old ones. Only annoyance here is that the replacement ones don’t have the lateral adjust of the old shifters they replaced, so had to play around with lever/shifter placement on the bars.
New chain
New cassette – old one had been on since 2012! Shifting is now an absolute joy. Perfect!
New Hope Enduro wheels
Maxxis High Roller II’s front and back – my first ever tubeless set-up. No loss of pressure so far. Seemed to roll really nicely.
New Hope Tech E3 brakes – first time on Hopes. Coming from XTR Trails. Need to tweak lever position on bar and maybe bite point but seems plenty of power there to stop a big lad.

Middle ring needs replacing as that was slipping like billy-oh and the saddle was creaking. But once sorted, Frank will be back to being absolutely perfect.

Think I will have to head out again tonight!