Had an annoying creak this weekend.

Pedally creak.

Swapped pedals, still there.

Stripped and checked all pivots, linkages, still there.

New chain, still there.

New bottom bracket, silence 😊😊😊

Working on those bikes is like painting the Forth Bridge….

Lol tell me about it. With 4 bikes and the sort of riding he does, it’s honestly never ending.

There is of course my personality to take into account which is that bikes are either perfect, or not. Many people would accept the odd creak, a bearing that is 98% or a headset that’s almost spot on. But for me, it has to be 100% or it’s nothing.

I had a beer, music, sunshine, it was a lovely hour spent.

FoD tomorrow on the Privateer/Slayer. Can’t wait.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Csx8Zo4MG10/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

👍

You didn’t get a tow in then 🤔😉

I wasn’t riding with him, I leave him and his mates to it and me and the oldies head to a completely different place in the area, then meet up for war and hero stories later.

Getting towed in though, I wish.
It’s funny but some of it is like a mirror of impossibility to me and a few mates, I gap them on trails and me towing them in simply isn’t happening for them, but then for me, the lad just disappears and I feel somewhat incompetent.

“oh, by the way, the Privateer was creaking yesterday”

Mmmmm ok.

Yup, creaking.

Stem, mmmm bit dirty and when you loosen a bolt that creaks, maybe. Ah damn, no.

Shock mounts, bearings checked, no.

Rear wheel, no

Top shock pivot linkage, no

Chainstay to linkage, no

Main pivot YES! Phew. Of course it has to be the one that means the crank needs to come off. But it’s solved it with just a clean

Is it alright to clamp to the dropper post? Only because I never have, I clamp my FS on the toptube.

I generally do with a cloth, this was only up there for 30s to take pic. Inside of clamp is rubber so should be fine though I’d say.

not so much for the potential to scratch the stanchion, rather they are designed to be compressed rather than having 15kg of bike hanging off them, especially when it’s an angled load.

It’s a PITA to have to use the TT,  it’s not near the C of G so the stand tends to rotate if you work at the rear of the bike. So using the clamp would be a useful result.

I hang the bike from saddle with a dropper all the time. My Slayer has spent since it was bought hanging. Extended of course.

theotherjonv
Full Member
not so much for the potential to scratch the stanchion, rather they are designed to be compressed rather than having 15kg of bike hanging off them, especially when it’s an angled load.

I never used to do it but gradually accepting that it’s fine to do. They’re designed for 100+ kg riders slamming down on them at a fair angle, so should be fine

Mid way through a long riding week.

Weds night was 3 hours of coaching for the lad on the Privateer. Spent some time with Katy trying to dial in his rear shock, the Privateer responds differently due to the kinematics and we’re still not quite there with it. So it looks like we’ll have a TFtuned tech soon to help us.
Today was an uplift day with the Fury at FoD and 12 runs for practice for him.

Whilst that was going on I took the Privateer out for the morning to Shutcastle and Dowies. I really enjoyed the 141 and how it rides. The rear isn’t as plush as the Slayer but it’s more poppy and arguably the longer reach means it’s a bit nicer in some ways. I don’t think I’ll be chopping in the Slayer for one but it was ace.

Tonight we’re back home instead of in a tent, then up early for a Pearce uplift day at Hopton as race practice, from there it’s straight to accommodation before Sat at BPW. Not sure we’ll have much left in us after that.

The lad is really working hard on bike setup, fitness, practice, speed and techniques, hopefully it’ll all pay off

“I liked it, but don’t think I’ll be chopping in the Slayer for one”

Famous last words from Weeksy. LOL.

They’re designed for 100+ kg riders slamming down on them at a fair angle, so should be fine

Yep, that was / is my worry – designed to be slammed down on, not having weight hung off them. But seems like they are OK with it as long as fully extended, shouldn’t be done part extended.

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Yep, that was / is my worry – designed to be slammed down on, not having weight hung off them. But seems like they are OK with it as long as fully extended, shouldn’t be done part extended.

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been doing it for years, no problem yet. That’s even on an un-serviced 2016 Reverb!! Always at full extension though as above

The boys studying their runs together at Hopton.

Bit of a weird day, he came in complaining of brake judder/warble, so I ended up taking both Hope floating rotors off and they’ll be getting the bobbins cleaned and if acceptable will be sold along with 4 sets of V4 pads I have sitting here.

I always find brakes run best using the same make rotors
Been topping our spare brakes up today for our Northern Alps trip just in case.
Still persevering with one set of MT7s but if they don’t get any better power wise they are coming off after the trip and replaced with Saints or Codes

I always find brakes run best using the same make rotors

That’s exactly what it now has, SRAM brakes and rotors 👍

Are they the new CRC Codes you bought

That’s correct yes. He loves them actually. Standard pads. Awesome

Run ours with Race Matrix

Yeah his Privateer has Race Matrix as we swapped them, I thought we’d start today with stock pads as he’s not ridden sice we fitted, but he’s happy so I left as they came. Race Matrix will go in next.

That’s the next thing going in the MT7s they came with Galfer pads fitted which were rubbish. The Magura mechanic in Finale binned them and fitted Magura and gave them a bleed and they weren’t much better. 18 Bikes have got them the best they’ve been but stopping power is no where near as good as the Codes or Saints or the Guide REs

They’re designed for 100+ kg riders slamming down on them at a fair angle, so should be fine

Yep, that was / is my worry – designed to be slammed down on, not having weight hung off them. But seems like they are OK with it as long as fully extended, shouldn’t be done part extended.

Due to seat tube angles, and your riding position not being perfectly straight, there will always be an angled force applied when compressed(ing). As mentioned above, weight shouldn’t be an issue, take the Oneup ~200mm dropper for example, the angled force applied to that from a rider through every day use will be far greater than hanging a bike off it in a fixed position with the post at full extension,

Day 4 today of a long few days.

BPW today. Let’s see what crazy comes as we’ve got loads of us out today.

That’s the next thing going in the MT7s they came with Galfer pads fitted which were rubbish.

I found that race matrix pads in magura mt7 calipers make a huge racket. I’ve been using race matrix pads in all my brakes for years,so naturally went for them when I got some mt7 brakes,but the noise was unbearable. I since swapped back to the magura race pads and they’re silent again

Well I guess now is as good a time as any. Last night I ordered next year’s race bike

https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain-bikes/specialized-demo-expert-full-suspension-mountain-bike-2023-in-dark-navyharvest-gold__48954?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=94523-3002&gclid=CjwKCAjwpuajBhBpEiwA_ZtfhTVQjwrJU9kCq1QBovHsGOmjGIQ8H8FQhIUkUhg8hjd_qRgLSwHQzBoCdNcQAvD_BwE

It’ll be here end of Aug and then primarily used for testing and getting used to it this year. Theory then being we can decide if mullet or full 29 etc

Nice bike. For some reason I though that would be the one you went for.

Must be womens intuition 😉

You’ve ordered a spare too, yeah?

Tonight after more beer.

The blue gt will stay for now as spare if he races on the Demo. But dunno yet

Another day done. BPW yesterday, I’m a bit tired now after 4 days on the road, even though I wasn’t actually riding on Fri.

BPW was dry and dusty, Luke middle of summer dry. Trails were a bit marbley at places but essentially running superbly.

I barely saw the boy as he’s all about sessioning the blacks and I’m a red kind of boy. But we both had lots of fun. Both bikes were perfect, although it seems I fitted an incorrect headset lower bearing in a rush at Rhyd Y Felin so he had a slight bit of play by time we got home. That’s now been changed along with a new idler pulley on the front end.
New grips from DMR went on last night too in preparation for next race.

Got a few bits to do on both bikes today, along with a quick job on the 141. But nothing too complicated.

Lol at quick job, no such thing as a quick job

Yeah deffo today.

We’ve had a few instances of chain drop on the Fury. I thought I’d resolved it but yesterday it happened again.
I spoke to the GT Viris techs at Fort William and they get it too as has the factory GT team a fair bit.
On the new frame they run a second guide between chain ring and top idler. But it’s not a part you can seem to buy.
Anyway, I was testing last night using a One Up guide mounted on the iscg points, which seems to potentially work. But I need to stick the back in the Privateer today. So it’s 2 bolts.
I also fitted a larger idler pulley wheel which may mean it doesn’t actually have clearance to drop anyway

Last job is to clean the Slayer which I didn’t get to do last night.

Bit of music, bit of beer, sunshine, I’ll be more than happy.

Weds night was 3 hours of coaching for the lad on the Privateer. Spent some time with Katy trying to dial in his rear shock, the Privateer responds differently due to the kinematics and we’re still not quite there with it. So it looks like we’ll have a TFtuned tech soon to help us.
Today was an uplift day with the Fury at FoD and 12 runs for practice for him.

Drop the shock out and see how much stiction is in the suspension. Had a 161 which was pretty badly bound up due to the spacers all being 0.1mm undersized, causing the bearings to be pinched. Getting the shock setup was impossible, once I remade the spacers, back end was way better.

Reference the GT dropping chains, wonder if you can fashion guide plates either side of the chainring, like an old mrp chain guide. Other thing to consider is running a longer mech if the chain growth is too much for the short cage ones.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oEZguy]p5pb16513500[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Reference the GT dropping chains, wonder if you can fashion guide plates either side of the chainring, like an old mrp chain guide. Other thing to consider is running a longer mech if the chain growth is too much for the short cage ones.

The new Fury has the guide just by where the shock bolt is in the pic…. i can’t see a pic online currently of the new frame/setup, but i was looking at it Thurs and chatting with GT guy about it. I think i’ll be able to do something this week with the ISCG05 mounted one i’ve ordered.. I did notice we’ve got a 34T chainring on there, standard is 36T, i wonder if that will help too, so i may pick up a 36T. Maybe it gives it a better chainline from the idler to ring ? Mmmm dunno.
Obviously all of this only happens in proper extreme riding, yesterday when he was simulating race runs on Rim Dinger… When doing stuff all day Thurs and Fri it was OK…. It’s also only short-term because it’ll be getting sold later this year of course with the incoming Demo.

Drop the shock out and see how much stiction is in the suspension. Had a 161 which was pretty badly bound up due to the spacers all being 0.1mm undersized, causing the bearings to be pinched. Getting the shock setup was impossible, once I remade the spacers, back end was way better.

Interesting stuff, we’re at Privateer later this month for 4 days, so will chat to them about that as well…

A few pics of the incoming bike… The lad is proper excited (as he rightfully should be of course 😀 )

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oETPq8]94523-30_DEMO-EXPERT-METDKNVY-DKNVY-HRVGLDMET_HERO (1)[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oEYQvc]94523-30_DEMO-EXPERT-METDKNVY-DKNVY-HRVGLDMET_RDSQ[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oEXCVu]94523-30_DEMO-EXPERT-METDKNVY-DKNVY-HRVGLDMET_FDSQ[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Have to say, for a narrow-wide, that Saint in the pic has very short teeth, dunno if the gt is running the same…
Compare to this off my son’s bike, teeth certainly look like they would hold the chain better, actually protrude through the other side!

Works Components btw

Mmmmm interesting….

What i do find weird is that the standard bikes don’t even come with a NW chainring… but we’ve tried that too and dropped it still.

This is a pic of Ethans bike which was ‘spotted’ and put on Pinbike articles, the full unveiling is next week at DH WC so may be some clearer pics then…but if you squint you can see the chainguide about 2 o’clock

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oEZ7LJ]idler[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

But for me to do that, i can only use 1 of the ISCG05 mount points due to rotation/position of the mounts within the EThirteen LG1 setup. The question is, will be be secure enough with just 1… Mmmm dunno.

But maybe we throw on a 36T new NW Ring anyway.

edit. Bought one from Works Components… funnily enough i bought 2 headset bearings from them last night too, i like them, so may as well buy the Ring from them too.

👍