So a mate bought a Bird AM9 3rd hand for a bargain price yesterday. But it’s been given a hard life and neglected at the same time. Spent 2 hours on it last night trying to get it in better shape and I was only partly successful.
Budget is as low as possible without buying crap.
Brakes – these are the major issue to solve first as the rear is ok ish / front is howling and has no power. They’re 4 pot Zee brakes which should be really powerful – with 203 / 180mm ice tech rotors.
I took it all apart yesterday and couldn’t see any micro leaking around either caliper / back of the pads etc. The rotors look quite worn so going to pickup a new Shimano front and I’ve got a spare 180mm centreline rear. I understand galfer are some of the best pads – but given my suspicion about micro leaking will get some uberbike race matrix pads as they’re cheaper if they get leaked on and ruined.
Ive never bought Shimano rotors for mtb – what’s the lowest 203mm one that will take sintered pads?
Gearing – it currently has a 30t Oneup oval chainring that seems to like throwing the chain off. Chain line seems ok – so the chainring is going. But the Shimano crank on there isn’t one I’ve dealt with before – it says m8000 on the arms and you can see deore on there – but I think the xt has worn off.
They look like a 4 arm Assymetric sort of thing – are there bolts behind it holding the chainring on? If so what’s the spacing – must be uneven? Want to pickup a 28t or 30t replacement – although not sure if this crank will take a 28t?
Cassette is 11-46t I think and my mate needs a lower gear – my thought is get the deore 11 speed rear mech m5100 that will handle an 11-51 cassette – then either pickup the deore or sunrace 11 speed cassette to go with it. Hubs / wheelset is by Token so don’t want to mess about with freehub bodies or expensive cassettes like sram.
