i bought this bike two months ago covered probably 600k in uk fantasic bike afan, week in scotland then off to morzine done the passport and covered a further 400k there last day the bottom likage bearings give up sloppy with lots of play not a happy chappy anybody else had any problems. not much confidence for long term probably should of got a orange 5 and saved a fortune.

Nice sentence.

You realise that you can just nip the axles back up and take out the slack, just like you can with a headset.

Have a look on the SC Bikes website for instructions, it’s pretty easy really.

You have been using the grease ports. ?

Thats sad. I think i’ll grease the bearings with the supplied grease gun now! I don’t think any particular make of FS bikes are better than others in terms of mud resistance(excluding single pivots like Orange as you mention). Most of it comes down to luck. A lot of bearings on new bikes don’t have enough grease inside them in my experience. Thats why so far I have been careful not to ride in complete filth until I have stripped and rebuilt it. Anyway its a great to ride in fact “awesome” bike and i’m sorry to hear that you have had problems. I think SC will be helpful though. I have done quite a lot of hours on mine now and its still as smooth as new..

I’m out of breath after reading that!

Bearings on new Santa Cruz bikes have a lifetime warranty on them too by the way but I bet anything that they just want a tweak up.

🙂 it makes me out of breath riding it

Oh and just for balance, my Nomad’s bearings lasted over 2 years and even then the lower link bearings were absolutely fine when I removed them so have been kept as spares.

by the way what forks are you running. I have some Lyric coil u turn with 1 1/8 steerer from my old bike. Was thinking of upgrading to 1.5 steerer RC2DH air shock..??£££!!! I never use the U turn and it just ads a bit of weight…

Good to hear Matthew H. It all seems very well built to me..

Radioman, what forks are they and how much?

Hi Andy RT. Re the Lyrics i’m just at thinking stage at the moment so no offer on the table as yet.. I will let you know if things change. I have been considering upgrade to 1.5 steerer but that also means new stem & headset…so probably not worth it just to gain 10mm travel… I may just upgrade the wheels next.

crazy cheap 1.5″ steerered 160mm fork, and pretty light

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/marzocchi-55-rc3-ti-160mm-2010-15-steerer/

(unsub and resub to wiggle newsletter for £5 voucher, go via cashback site and get 4% = £18 back, so fork ends up costing ~£435)