Ok, I know your all going to say shouldn’t have got an Anthem X, but I was aware of this at the time, just didn’t think it would start happening quite so soon!

My Anthem X is 8 months old, but hasn’t actually been used for at least 6 months of that due to illness.

I’ve been out in the last couple of weeks it really bad conditions, and now when you lift the rear of the bike by the saddle you can feel the smallest amount of play in the rear suspension. Thats all it is at the minute, there is no lateral play ie holding the frame and rear wheel.

So at what point do I start looking at changing the bearings?

Do it now!! or at least take it to your LBS and get them to check

the same thing happend to me on my cannondale, i left it as i was alwasy having problems with the bike – and now i’ve had to repace the seatstays and all the bearings. £140 later i’ll definitly check the bearings as soon as there is any play

its not the bearings, its the shock eye bushing.

i replace them as soon as I notice it.

Any play is too much play…

I guess once you get any slight movement it has a knock on effect elsewhere?

Also with such little use <200 miles is there any come back on warranty etc?

jam bo + 1 – 10 minute job with the right tools, though you might as well service the shock’s air can while you’re at it taking it to a full half hour.

OK numpty question time.

Its a Fox RP2. Is it just a case of taking the shock off and the bushings will pop out and I put new ones in?

Also what do I need to buy?

Ta

Given that Anthems only have one bush, I’d highly recommend replacing the top hat reducers with heavy duty ones from the likes of Tf tuned – it’s certainly help mine last longer

Yeah it’s the shock eye bushing. Give these guys below a call ( BETD ) , order the parts and do it yourself , 1 hour max.
Good luck !

Home

the bushings will pop out

with the correct drift/press….*

*or the magic combination of correct sized sockets, bolts and washers, which is what I use. It’ll be a proper faff the first time you do it.

There’s probably some fitting hardware (top hats) that need taking it too. Sometimes they just pull out, sometimes they need a little bit of gentle pursuading.

You’ll need to buy some new shock bushes – IMO the plymer ones are better than metal, and a bushing removal/installation tool. Mojo, TFTuned etc all sell them and I’m sure you can get the same stuff for a few less pennies if you look around.

If you want to service the air can while you’re at it you can get a kit from the same places to do that – the Fox site has full instructions on how to do that but IME it’s easier to depressurise the shock on the bike then start undoing the air can while it’s in situ – saves mucking about with clamps & vices.

22 M6 spacers, check the amount of movement on the bottom eyelet as if it’s excessive you’ll need to replace the axle that goes though the lower eyelet, you’ll nee to contact your local giant dealer for this.
I can supply the bush kit.

I had this on my anthem and was ready to get bushings replaced.
Took it apart to check what i needed, but shock back in to keep all tidy together until I got the bits.
Tightened up the bolt that goes through the bottom of the shock where there is no bushing

Play went away

Barry – Yep I think I will try that approach first, as in fairness I havent checked the bolt tightness since the bike was new.

Looks like keeping an Anthem going can be quite an expensive past time!

Looks like keeping an Anthem going can be quite an expensive past time!

New bushings are pennies, or £’s for the whole top-hat kit.

Bearings are cheep if you just go to your local bearing supplier and get half decent SKF/FAG bearings, it gets expensive if you leave it too long and wear out stuff like the bolts or frame.

Loco – I’ll try the bolt tightning aproach tonight, and if that doesnt work I think I will give you a bell tomorrow as I think I could do with some fork stuff off you too.

Is this your website? http://locotuning.co.uk/

Hope this doesnt get you or me in trouble for posting it..

Yes, that’s the one, everyone is welcome to post as many links to the site as they like too 😉

Ok, had a look at the bike, and it was actually the bolt thing that attaches through the bottom of the shock. It was VERY loose. Should these things come on done so easily? Anyhow appreciate I should have checked all the bolts sooner with it been a new bike.

Next problem is that on the drive side I cant get an allen key in to the drive side bolt to tighten it. Currently I’ve just tightened the other side whilst holding the drive side.

So I now need to buy an XT crank arm remover tool! Which is the best one? Is the Park one the best vfm?

Ta

I think I got a shimano one for £7, have a google. Park tools will prob be better quality, but I’ll only ever use it 5 times before the standard changes again!

Being stupid! I can just get the Shimano crank arm tool remover thing for £2!

Ah that’s right, mine came on a bottom bracket spanner at that price

you can undo your crank arm with just about anything you can jam in the plastic cap.

my anthem (and a few others I know) do tend to undo themselves on the bolt you describe, making a bit of a wobble: loctite 242.

Yep when the ‘tool’ comes I’ll be using a bit of loctite.

Handy to have the correct tool anyhow as I’ll use it to get the crank arms off for cleaning every so often.

All resolved now (I hope). It was the top bushing that was worn.

However I’m convinced that if the suspension bolts hadn’t worked so loose then the wear wouldn’t have occured.

I think its a bit worrying that suspension bolts can come that loose on a bike with very little use, but I guess I should have checked them all sooner…

FunkyDunc

There have been a fair few threads about Anthems and on one of the others someone posted a picture.I am presuming it is the drive side lower main frame bolt that is comming loose from your description.

If so would it not be possible to take an old L shaped allen key and chop down the short end? We used to do this all the time in my last job as there was alot of fiddly bolts we had to do up with restricted space.

Obviously removing the cranks is a good idea to give everything a good inspection but if you just want to give it a quick tweek to check it is tight then this may work out quicker.

Yep thats probably not a bad idea, for regular checking as I had to take the cranks off to tighten it.

Still dont think it great though as you could potentially do a lot of damage in 1 ride.

If it’s anything like my Trance-X, you can just about slot an allen key through the gap in the chainrings to tighten that bolt up.

+1 what Legend says; Given that Anthems only have one bush, I’d highly recommend replacing the top hat reducers with heavy duty ones from the likes of Tf tuned – it’s certainly help mine last longer

I use mine 12 months of the year and was replacing eyelet bushings regularly due to wearing until I changed to heavy duty from TF – mo probs with play since then. It is just a much better solution.

Mine is on order from TF tuned right now, I’ll probably be working in it later today. It’s got the exact symptoms that are described and swapping the top hat bushes around halved the play so it’s the same thing.

I wondered if I would need to do the top hats too, but all the parts hadnt arrived for when I needed the bike on Saturday morning, so I only did the bushing itself. On my bike this removed all the play. To be honest next time it starts to wear I will do the top hats at the same time.

Fitted the Tf tuned uprated kit. Works brilliantly. All play is now gone.

Had a biatch getting the old bushing out though, hard work with the socket set!