Some of you may remember my recent posts regarding the seatpost shim issue with regard to the Cove Hummer Titanium frame and the problems involving stress fractures of the seat tube/top tube/rear stay cluster junction by others on this forum and beyond the stw world.

One of the threads i posted on is here

Well i’ve just managed to speak to richie at silverfish and they did have issues with internal emails so it does pay to contact direct by phone before throwing the toys out the pram in a hissy fit. The result of my conversation with richie/warranty dept is “Yes, I can remove the fitted 60mm shim and replace with a 100mm depth shim and this will not effect my frame warranty as i am not structurally changing the frame to it’s detriment, rather, it will increase the strength of the seat tube cluster and it is apparent that Lynksey in the states are themselves changing the shim design over to a 100mm shim to prevent this issue from happening in the future.

WooHoo…..I am well chuffed, I realise some peeps may say i should’ve bought a different frame to start with but i knew about the initial problem and took a gamble that it was due to the ineffectual seat shim, as apart from this issue the frame is a belter.

Now to contact merlin and either get them to fit the new shim to my replacement Hummer frame (headtube not reamed on original as i received it 3 weeks ago) or it may be better to fit it myself as then i know it’s done right to my anal standards, correct loctite used etc…etc.

Also had a call 10 mins ago from James at Just Riding Along saying my pimpy wheels are now built so i’ll receive them tomorrow, 28h black Hope Pro2,Sapim Black X-Ray spokes/Black Brass Prolock nipples/Stans 28h Black Crest rims (Fast show stylee – It’s Blaaaaack….all Blaaaack) – I may be riding by the weekend!….on my new bike….that i’ve saved every penny for over the past 15months….. living off dried pasta and roadkill……the excitement is too much for my ikle brain to handle….. i’m gonna explode!

Thats good news.Never had a problem with my Hummers they are great.Happy riding.

Update ? Pics ?

Still not riding 🙁 ………not got my replacement frame from merlin, they sent the original back to silverfish for some reason to check out the head tube on the original frame and i’m waiting for a new frame to be sent out to me, i’ll hopefully receive it next week and i’ll be buying and fitting the 100mm seat post shim myself as merlin don’t stock shims.

Everything else i have for the build so it’s a waiting game…unfortunately i’m not a very patient person as i want to get out and ride now.

But it’s not all bad news…..started a new job last week, in a mates bike shop in Castle Douglas – Next Level Bikes so it’s all good, should’a done this 20 odd years ago when i was asked. Spent last week servicing and building up nice bikes such as Lapierre,Nukeproof,Ibis, servicing forks etc..etc then got to go for a wee ride to test them out afterwards whilst drinking coffee and chatting to folk bout bikes – I’m a very happy bunny indeed.

Vocation !

It’s nice to hear you sounding so possitive about getting back into the bikes again mate. 😀

Congrats on your new job too. 8)

Cheers stu!, i’ll be in touch soon – been a strange 4 odd years off the bikes and health wise but the docs have made good progress wi things this year so all good now (fingers crossed), a brill new job – a new bike (or perhaps two…or three by the end of next year – got my eye on the new 2013 Lapierre zesty 914, Hmmmm?), please say a big hello to amanda fae me, give me 6months to get back to some sort of bike fitness and i’m sure you’ll be seeing me soon.

I’ll be back….wi whisky off course 😀

🙁 . I’m not a happy bunny, there’s no more Cove Hummers at Silverfish so merlin have refunded me my money, i thought about the Lynksey Ridgeline but the chain stays can only fit a 2.1″ tyre which seems daft for a 140mm long travel hardtail.

Anything else i should be looking at?, i may just decide to go custom, at least i’ll get what i want.

Stomps off in a big huff………

Stanton Slackline Ti perhaps?

Looks good, but i’ve bought everything for my cove hummer build such as non tapered Talas 2013 140mm ctd/trail adjust fork, 34.9 mm Pauls component chain keeper, 30mm thompson seatpost, none of this stuff would work on the stanton, it does look good though!.

very good news,just what we like to hear

****-it!…..My mood calls for a damn expensive bottle of red followed by a felling sorry for myself hangover tmorn.

what happened to the frame that merlin sent back ?

Somafunk, can you tell me more about the wheels what weight for the pair? Good luck with the new job, great shop was there briefly on Saturday,

I dunno?, suppose i could call silverfish t’morn and get them to ream out the head tube or i could take it to my fathers work and do it myself and fit a new seat post shim at the same time.

It’s a pain in the arse as i bought all the kit for it but now i’m left wi a bunch of components, without their original boxes and no **** frame, i thought about my original choice of a cotic soul but thats tapered steerer and my new 2013 talas which i bought fae tf tuned are normal steerer – Arghhhhhhhh!

I doubt silverfish would sell me the frame if it is deemed a warranty replacement, i’m now in the bike trade so to speak, perhaps they might?, but then again i doubt it very much.

Anyway….i’ll deal wi that issue t’morn….with a red wine hangover – gonna get a bottle of rothschild medoc to sink my sorrows with in the bath, i may decide to drown myself so i’ll now say goodbye…and thanks for all the fish.

What size frame do you need?

forge197 – i was working in there all day sat doing mechanickey stuff on bikes, who’s you?, what bike?, i’m in on thursday,friday,saturday this week and only 3 more days work next week at my other job before i get the flying-**** out’a there not a moment too soon, can’t wait!. Yep, the new job is great – i’m so chuffed to be working there as i’ve hated my other job but in this rural area you have to suck it up and take what’s available, I’ve known Mark for years and the shop has an excellent reputation so it’s all good, and Mark seems pleased that i’m working for him as he knows i’m a good mechanic to the point of being anal about bikes and correct set-up so it’s a weight lifted from his shoulders if he can trust someone i guess.

Fix bikes, ride bikes, drink coffee, ogle girls arses out shop window (sorry!), talk bout bikes all day wi decent folk – what more could anyone possibly want in a job?.

My front wheel weighs 674 grams, rear wheel weighs 796 grams and fitted wi Conti Mountain King 2.4 protection on front and X-King 2.4 on rear, pop in this week and have a look at them if you like, i’ll throw them in the car on thursday.

Right….now to get the wine, there may be a few random, nonsense posts later on t’night as i don’t really drink any more so i’ll apologise in advance for any offence i may cause. In fact i may just hide my bluetooth keyboard now or bork my bt router to avoid any potential mischief.

MountainMutant : I need a 17″, suppose i could buy at full price from another shop but merlin were selling them cheap (£900ish) so that’s why i bought from there, spending another £700 would hurt a great deal as i’ve already been living of dried pasta and roadkill for ages to save up enough £.

On One had a big sale on Van Nicholas Ti earlier in the week

EDIT – http://www.on-one.co.uk/c/q/frames/van_nicholas_frames

You can fit non taper forks in a taper frame?

honourablegeorge : cheers for that link, A month or so ago i was considering brants new-still-to-come 456 evo ti but set my heart n’ head on the Hummer, i’ll have a proper look regarding geometry etc on the Van Nicholas TI once i get my tea into me – could be a possibility at that price.

wwaswas – Yeah i know but i don’t consider it an ideal situation to do so, that’s just my gut reaction so i’m probably way off the mark.

Nae Rothschild Medoc in stock at Tesco’s, Castle Douglas despite there being loads at the weekend (who’s bought it all in that short a time? – why wasn’t i invited to drink it?) so i settled for a bottle of Veuve, dunno quite what i’m celebrating as i don’t have a frame but i do have every other pimpy component to build up a cracking bike so i’m gonna sit in a bath full of radox with the Veuve in a plastic bucket full of ice on the floor and drink it through a length of clear wine making tubing whilst reading the new David Millar Autobiography i bought last week.

Sounds like a splendid way to celebrate a Tuesday night to me, and sod my work t’morn – they’ll get a grumpy 5ft 6″ ball of attitude with a hangover to contend with.

Three of us bowled up around 4pm looked longingly at the ibis and then made sure Mark was still up for curry that night 🙂

I am not in the area now unfortunately was up for a few days used to live in CD and Dumfries so catching up with Mark and riding some trails.

Wheels sounds great might be just what I am looking for need to weigh what is on there and do a comparison is that a weight with or without tyre.

Ahh, that makes perfect sense now, he said he had some mates heading up late sat afternoon, and i left bout 4 ish so thats why i didn’t meet you – apparently mark has been suffering from the “trot’s” the past couple o’ days (I called him earlier today to see if he could get me a hummer frame fae silverfish but nae joy) – what did you do to him in the curry house, feed him a Phall curry or get him drunk? – or both?. Was it the Ibis Mojo SL carbon in orange? – tis’ a very nice looking frame, it’ll be interesting to see how it rides, although i doubt Jock will let me throw it down the hill.

Wheel weight is without tyres but with stans rim tape, they tyres weigh spot on (a bit less actually) manufacturers weight : 640g for 2.4 Mountain King and 620g for X-King so add that to above wheel weights to get an idea plus the 80-100g of stans sealant per tyre, the Mountain King was a pain in the arse to get sealed as the sidewalls pi$$ed sealant through pin-holes for days but the X-King held pressure no bother – the X-KIng was lighter so go figure?, certainly confused me.

might have been the crab starter as on of my mates was a bit trotty on Sunday, yes the orange ibis looks nicely finished framed, wouldn’t mind a ride on one.

Thanks for the wheel info something to think about.

Hic!………burp…..the plastic bucket ice cooler worked a treat with the veuve but i advise against drinking champagne through a 3ft long hose as all you seem to get is fizz, and it also got me rather drunk…. rather quick, and i dropped my David Millar autobiography in the bath….Bummer!.

I away to bed…..gonna be useless at work t’morn, but then again im leaving next wed so why should i care 😀 ..zzzzzzz

Yep….hangover from hell…..I have absolutely no tolerance level for alcohol, this i know from past experience, i still drank though…..stupid….stupid….stupid….stupid…..stupid (repeat till hangover leaves me sometime thursday afternoon).

any use?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-cove-hummer-11

Somafunk,

There is a mint as new 17″ Litespeed version on the bay for £700.

I bought it from Winstanleys and subsequently sold it as new because I thought it was too small for me.

somafunk,

I had the seat post shim issue. i have received a refund and will be hopefully buying a second hand 2010 model tomorrow 🙂 do you know where I can buy the 100mm shims? I called Merlin but they they couldn’t help.

Thanks

I have sent countless emails (a dozen perhaps?) to Cove regarding the outer dia of the seatpost shim but as of yet i have had no reply, I’d like to have the 100mm depth shim to hand so i can fit it right away and to do that i need to know the outside dia of the current shim or the internal dia of the seatpost tube so i can get it ordered beforehand, i’ll fire of another email to Cove and see if i get a reply.

That don’t sound great! wonder if Lynskey could help? I will be looking about too. If I get anywhere I’ll let you know.

I’ve just fired of 5 emails to steve@covebikedotcom so hopefully he’ll notice them and get back to me.

Just heard back from steve @ cove and the seatpost shim external diameter is 1.286″ or 32.66mm , now to find a shim with that spec outer and a 30mm internal dia, or i could shim down to 31.6 internal dia and fit a dropper post, there’s an idea?

Would 30.9 not be more appropriate to give you a stronger shim??? It is still a standard size for dropper posts and if it is a known weak point I’d want as much material there as possible.

Good point rusty mac and i shoulda noted it above, the dropper is an option but i dunno if i need a dropper post, never rode wi one before even though we fit them to just about every full sus we sell in the shop.

Hunting for shims as we speak as that’ll prob determine what i decide to do.

Good work somafunk. I’m on the hunt too! Do you know if the shims are easy to remove?

The shims are bonded in with a form of Loctite so they “should” be relatively easy to remove, i was possibly going to fit a rubber bung into the seatpost as far as the bottom of the shim and apply a freezing spray, the sort of spray you use to shock/unlock seized bolts/nuts etc – that should break the bond as the alloy will/should contract at a greater rate than the Titanium seatpost tubing thus making it possible to remove the shim.

I’m unsure as to whether or not it the seatube inner will need reamed to clean the bonding agent from the inside of the seat tube so i may make sure i have access to a suitable reamer before hand or i’ll contact Ben @ Kinetics to see if he has one and would be willing to do the work as i need to take a custom steel frame up to him to get a new front end built and brazed on – might as well sort out two for the price of one journey so to speak.

Thanks for the info somafunk

No worries, glad to help.

Nae luck so far in finding a suitable shim though…I’ll post on here if i do find one.

Send me an email hankscorpio1976, i’ve found a source for seatpost shims. I’m away to work all day but i’ll reply later t’night.