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And it prep for a few trips with bikes, bought some ZTTO fork mounts with various QR/through axel adapters (already had QR skewers) and fitted them to some timber so I can bolt them to the van's seat floor rails.
Spent all Saturday in the garage! Firstly my Tripster, after getting splatted by a car, the insurance is taking too long and I need to get commuting on it again, so bought some bars (Merlin: £9.99!) and fork (£200 cheaper on Upgrade's Ebay!) and fitted those. The fork has some bloody ridiculous internal routing, top of the leg to bottom, just to do away with a clip on the back of the fork. Mental. So anyway, that meant gear hose had to be undone from lever and fed through. Went so smoothly brakes don't even need a bleed. Just gotta wrap the bars so I can ride tomorrow.
Then my brother brought his Orbea Rise round so we could fit the Shimano display. That bit was easy.. but I decided the dropper cable was stupidly long and I'd cut it down. Then .. after snipping it... find that you can't refit without removing the motor. But that was after a good hour or so of unsuccessfully trying to fish the cable out of the seat tube where it was wedged pretty tight. Lunchbreak and decided dropping the motor was the only way. Unlike my Moterra SL the motor was piss easy to refit, so that went ok.
We'd fitted the display kinda wonky with the 31.8 clamp cos it didn't appear to have a 35mm option. Bro ordered one off Amazon. He rode home happy. Then I was tidying the workbench and found the 35mm clamp that must've fallen out of the box unnoticed. Doh.
Bit of a job on this weekend with the eeb.
The big job was fitting Hayes Dominion brakes. Made much harder by the headset routing. Made a little easier by the Stem Dock I found on the internet.
It had developed a 'click' of sorts from the motor area, couldn't find the fault in the obvious places so as I was removing it to fit the brakes, I cleaned and lubed the bolts and bushings, made sure the bushings were in snug. That seems to have done the trick.
Also had to adjust the battery cover, took some fiddling about to figure out how. Subsequently found a video after I'd sorted it, which was annoying.
And finally, I put some volume spacers in the rear shock. I found myself blowing through the travel even with everything else setup correctly, the shock feels much more supportive now, it'll take a proper ride to check that it's sorted. I will be going to coil soon, I forgot how much faff air shocks can be.
Not today, but last Monday I took a 2m nose dive off the side of a trail and spangled my faithful old Garmin. It still recorded the rest of the ride, even though a substantial amount of it's innards were left on the bar mount!
Yesterday -
re-tensioned the wheels after noticing a few loosey gooseys packing up after my last ride - Nice to use my new TS2.2 and be able to true 29er wheels with the tire in situ no more fighting with the old 26inch version from the 90s. - Added some fresh sealant to my tires.
Played around with luggage options to try and use what i have to get a parallel mount bed roll (similar to the miss grape trunk or revelate pitchfork) without impacting my front lights view of the road. - Settled on a Wildcat gear lion sideways on my aerobars - with a small dry bag wedged under the front to push down the front of my bedroll away from the light
Bought some Anything cages for the front forks as i realised my current set ups not going to fly on the islands - playing with fire for a wet miserable week with my usual amount of clothes.
Fitted a new bottom bracket to the Taival hardtail after the old one shat it's pants last week.
On the Airdrop, wasn't happy with the rear brake so give that a fresh bleed.
Also, drilled out the star nut and cut the steerer down by around 20mm, purely for aesthetics.
Funnily Enough over the weekend I rebuilt the rear wheel on my Gravel bike, fitted a new (wider) tyre and went for a shakedown ride...
Recently...
New bearings on The Mongrel's main pivot.
Gone back to full Magura on the RocketMAX after the Shiguras kept going spongey - used the one finger levers from a set of MT Trail Sports I had overordered.
But mostly...
I've been off school for the Easter two weeks - spent the second week trying to sort out the garage and make it a vaguely usable workshop space again. One and a half vanfuls of crap/obselete/unwanted bike parts taken to the tip so far, and I'm nearly starting to see some tiny signs that I've actually been doing this. Just off to B&Q on the way home today to pick up some timber to build a ceiling rack for all my spare wheels and tyres which will be some more floor space cleared. Still got the horrible job of rationalising the bike collection and deciding which 3 or 4 need dismantling and putting into storage or given away. that's probably a thread all of it's own though...
I thought it would be a day or two's job to sort completely, but once I started to sort stuff out, etc. it's just expanded exponentially. surely I'm not the only one with a garage that is really just one big messy pile of bike-related stuff with a narrow pathway threading through it?
No, DMR Vaults. My absolute favourite pedal when they're not rattling or grinding. Which is every 14months or so.
I’ve moved my fatbike, again. Firstly to accommodate my saw bench so I could do some ripping and again to accommodate some garden furniture that arrived unexpectedly..
Not today, but last Monday I took a 2m nose dive off the side of a trail and spangled my faithful old Garmin. It still recorded the rest of the ride, even though a substantial amount of it's innards were left on the bar mount!
Is your Garmin recommending 10+ pints as recovery? I need to find that data screen on mine 🤩
@13thfloormonk Yep, I think it's an app or widget on Connect IQ called Beers Earned. Just a bit of a fun way of estimating how many calories you've burned on a ride. That was on the ebike by the way. You should see the beers I earn on my normal bike!!
Well, I've been sat on the shitter for 60% of my life since last Friday, with some grim gastro bug/virus thing, so have felt totally wiped out and not up to any bike tinkering (let alone riding!) since then!
But, finally seemed to be recovering yesterday afternoon, so did a bit of work on my Moxie ...
- removed water bottle from its last ride and popped it in the dishwasher (suspected to be the cause of my incapacitation, although no obvious signs of dog-shit splatter or any other nasties)
- replaced Bonty XR4 2.6/2.4 tyres with 'blue stripe' 2.4 Nobby Nic / 2.35 Rock Razor tyres ready for the dry summer season!
- swapped the SS 20t cog for a 19t to increase the gearing slightly. Adjusted the slidey dropouts to re-tension the chain
- replaced the rear brake pads
- noticed that the 'bit of a rattle' coming from the back of the bike was, in fact, a loose brake rotor with 1 bolt missing and 3 others loose! So, sorted that!
- Blocked out 2 hours from my work diary today so I can get a ride in (it's been over a week!), and start to contribute again to the midweek riding photo thread!
I did notice you were absent from the riding pic threads @hardtailonly
I haven't done it yet, but later I'm going to give the gravel bike a once over as it's sat unloved in the basement since last year. Hopefully it won't need much as it was riding pretty nice the last time I used it.
I've replaced the frame. Just got cable guides to fit and hopefully then done.
I popped a new bottom bracket in my Equilibrium last night as I have an annoying creaky clicky noise when pedalling. It hasn't cured the issue but I had the BB knocking about so it seemed like a no-brainer as a starting point. I have a 105 Di2 groupset to fit when the two cables arrive so I am not delving too deeply just yet.
I popped a new bottom bracket in my Equilibrium last night as I have an annoying creaky clicky noise when pedalling. It hasn't cured the issue but I had the BB knocking about so it seemed like a no-brainer as a starting point. I have a 105 Di2 groupset to fit when the two cables arrive so I am not delving too deeply just yet.
The poor BB, always the first to get the blame...
The poor BB, always the first to get the blame...
Then when you've exhausted all possibilities, it's the bloody saddle rails
I've never earned 10 beers on the Garmin widget...props
Replaced the grippy but draggy Maxxis on my Enduro for some Schwable Hans Dampf - bought solely on their rolling resistance properties, as the bike weights the equivalent of a small moon and I need all the help I can get. Fun fact: This is my first ever pair of Schwable (30+ years of MTB). Noticed the front brake pulls to the bar - it's not like you can't notice that, right?...There's no leaks anywhere on it though, the caliper's dry, the lever's dry...no stain on the floor It's come out somewhere though presumably. Picked up a set of Code RSC for less than £150.00 including front and rear levers and calipers and pads...I guess they're not selling now that Maven exists?
Repaired the dropper post on the Yeti ARC - by repaired, I mean I greased the cable-end mechanism at the bottom of the post, so that it moves now.
I'm not certain that my hobby is riding bikes or maintaining them
Had an annoying rattle on the Stanton the other day - tracked it down to the swingarm/rocker bearings. Fairly easy job to swap - especially compared to the numerous double blind Specialized ones I've had the misery of doing in the past 😡
Actual bike riding has taken a bit of a back seat lately - partly due to another suspected TIA and partly down to workload
The poor BB, always the first to get the blame...
Then when you've exhausted all possibilities, it's the bloody saddle rails
The front mech cable end tapping on the cranks is another classic (on 2x bikes).
Last one that wasn't the BB for me was a tyre plug I hadn't cut short enough tapping on the seatstay on my gravel bike.
Had the saddle, seat post, BB and pedals off for a clean and regrease before I went to check the rear hub and noticed the culprit.
Finished the post trip review on the Bronson. Couple of the pivot bolts needed a re-torque but they weren't properly loose. Replaced a pedal pin that had completely gone but left the thread thankfully, and removed two that had been 'rock-beaten to death" and were just a nub of their previous self. Fun job getting those out but I found the replacement pins in the correct parts bin and labelled. I was very proud of my former organised self 😉
Popped the *ahem* other Santa Cruz off the wall and tweaked brakes, suspension, etc as it's not been ridden since the Bronson turned up end Jan. Now ready for a weekend bluebell run.
One job I've put off is adding tyre sealant to all the shed queens (mainly other family members bikes). Really need to whip the tyres off and do a Stanimal check.
especially compared to the numerous double blind Specialized ones
I have always let a bike shop do those ones at the back of the swing arm. I hand over over the bike and swiftly walk away so I don't ever see how they actually go about getting them out/putting new ones in. Magically replaced via my credit card.
. surely I'm not the only one with a garage that is really just one big messy pile of bike-related stuff with a narrow pathway threading through it?
I have a massive shed and it’s a ****ing tip. Tools scattered around among the random wheels, car engine, gym equipment, lawnmower. I think it accurately represents the state of my brain.
Managed to change a lower headset bearing in the mess this afternoon.
Yesterday, at what I hoped was the end of a long, wet winter (it subsequently hammered down all afternoon) during which I'd ploughed through flooded roads on the Somerset levels with the BB occasionally submerged, I thought I'd pop out the BB cups & EBB insert (Swift) to make sure that they weren't seizing. It was a fairly straight forward & quick job (primarily because nothing had seized).
I now seem to have developed an errant squeak which may or may not be related.
The poor BB, always the first to get the blame..
As I get older I check my knees first and only then do I blame the BB. 🙂
The poor BB, always the first to get the blame..
As I get older I check my knees first and only then do I blame the BB. 🙂
Replace the bad knees and BB with a motor, that's what I did 😀
Rode one of mine this morning and discovered that the dropper is returning slowly or not quite fully. Quite annoying on a couple of tracks where I get battered into needing to sit and pedal hard and there’s no safe space to yank the seat up…
so I have some more maintenance lined up.
surely I'm not the only one with a garage that is really just one big messy pile of bike-related stuff with a narrow pathway threading through it?
i have a workshop in the flat that is like this. more of a hoarders den really
Plus one for that @colournoise I have a large workshop that was purpose built for when I was working in my second “career”. At that time it was always immaculately tidy and when doing suspension work, immaculately clean. Now it has bikes, woodworking machinery, furniture waiting for a good home, my retirement Triumph - neglected after starting above “career”, family history “archives” after my parent’s died a couple of years ago… you get the picture.
I’m going out there in a bit though to assemble and Ride Wrap a fantastic fizzy orange Ridgeback MX16 for my grandson so I will be tidying my wardrobe fitting mess first to make it a pleasurable experience.
Oh yes, as posted above, I’ll be moving my fatbike again!
I’ve been riding a superboost bike using a spacer set on a boost rear wheel. I recently swapped derailleur from Shimano to SRAM and discovered that there isn’t enough swing to reach 12th gear with this set up. This gave me an opportunity to order a proper SB wheel. Wingman on Sydney did me a great deal. That arrived this morning so I was all set to fit it this evening after taking the boys to their coaching session. But half of Reeksy2’s derailleur fell off shortly after he started so instead of getting a walk with Mrs Reeksy I went hunting on the track for the spring (found it) and then walked some tracks with the lad comparing lines.
Got home and swapped out a derailleur from another bike so he can ride tomorrow and fitted my new wheel so I can too.
This shows a Wingman rim next to a Dt EX511. A fair bit chunkier on the edge but the overall wheel weight is ~50g more.
Swapped my Shimano dropper lever for a Hope one, and re-cabled the dropper on my Daughters XC bike as it was seized (hadn't been used for nearly 12 months!).
I've just bled my Guides. Big deal, I hear you say. But on first attempt the caliper syringe just kept drawing air and identified the split bleed port o-ring as the culprit. Ensued a two week journey to identify the o-ring and the SRAM guide calpier service kit that contains it (approx 1% by volume and value of the kit). In the meantime tried to source an individual o-ring from a supplier but potential sizes don't work. So broke into the caliper service kit and job jobbed in 5 minutes.
Now swapping my Pike air shaft back from 140mm to 130mm on the Soul because its just so perfectly balanced at 130mm. Amazing what difference 10mm makes to burly vs balanced geometry.
I bought some mallet DH pedals for £25 off of PB that needed servicing. I ran them as they were for a bit but there were some worrying squeaks from them on the last ride and was half expecting to be riding home with the half pedal in my pocket.
Bought the bushings and bearings from eBay for £10 and fitted them and as good as new.
Also been fiddling with the Lewis LHTs that came on my new bike as the rear brake was so sharp where the slightest squeeze and the rear was locking up. They have lever ratio adjustment so made some changes to that and felt much better on the steeper tracks yesterday, it’s now so much easier to control the braking.
Next job is getting the forks dialled in.
Replaced a broken p clip on for my pannier rack. It broke coming home and had had the pannier bouncing on the cassette.
I thought I'd double up the plips but I need larger ones to go over the top of the ones that fit the frame
While checking the bike over the brakes were rubbing so the caliper got a clean and the pistons got a lube with silicone lube.
Had another go at the hope tech e4. It's refused to work on Saturday after being left unused for a few months. The pistons are all sticky. They have all been cleaned and lubed and ...... Are still sticky.
New pistons and seals bought, time for a rebuild when the parts turn up. At 5,000 miles and 9 years old it seems pretty reasonable.
The road bike has been taken off the turbo, given a damned good wash/degrease/lube and had the turbo tyre replaced with a normal one, all before it goes to the local bike shop for a post-turbo replacement of the cassette/chain/chainring/cables/bottombracket.
It needed to be done though and I could not take it to the workshop in the state it was in after winter.