I've built a few as I had some hubs on rims that weren't right for what I wanted, the cost of getting them built on new rims was high. Gota nipple wrench, turned my bike upside down as a jig and refered to a certain webpage. It's good that I can now build/maintain my whole bike, I have ended up fixing a few peoples wheels though but its all good practice and I get the odd bottle of wine out of it.

I bought a prs back in 2003 or 2004, red, white and black strips. It was and still is very comfy compared to other saddles I'd tried. I bought another one, in black, a year or two later for my second bike. They both still perform and are comfy. In the 6 ish years I've had them I've changed the rails on them both as after 4 years the Ti rails bent so I got new Manganese rails through Koobi for not all that much cash.

I wanted to convert my hope bulb rear hub to run a 10mm bolt through DT swiss axle. Could only get a 12mm bolt through kit for a bulb rear and didn't want to spend loads of cash on a new rear wheel. So I fitted the 12mm axle kit to the hub and then for less than £3 I got a 1 metre long piece of 12mm outer diameter, 10mm inner diameter aluminium tubeoff ebay. I cut it to the same internal length of the axle and it works spot on with my DT swiss 10mm through axle. Saved a fortune.

I got some of these:Clicky clicky

They seem to work fine with my thomson X4 stem

I've run them at 30psi before and got snakebite puncture on the front when it slipped out off camber, might try it again on wednesday when I'm next out though.

I'm going to try and arrange a demo through Stif but I was thinking a large frame and short stem rather than a medium with a long stem.

If its just in need of a service you can easily take the slieve off, by unscrewing the top seal bit and undoing the nut at the bottom inside the post, and clean and oil the bushes. Then fully compress the post and make sure it has 70psi pressure using a shox pump. re-build and cycle it up and down a few times. Should work fine then.

I'm after an all metal one, park do look good but what metric size do I need if gauge 15 is the one I was using with my current spoke wrench?

I have some magura durin race forks and with standard 5mm QR I found them to be pretty good tracking with no noticable flex, I fitted some new wheels which use a hadley 9mm bolt through axle, still no flex and no obvious difference. However I fitted a 10mm bolt through axle to the rear of my slightly flexi full suss and it is noticibly stiffer. I guess if your forks feel flexi the 9mm through axle makes a difference so if you find standard QR versions of forks flex then the 20mm or 15mm through axle version of them should be markably stiffer.

Taylors of old bond street avocado shaving cream is very good with a decent bristle shaving brush and some feathers blades you can't go wrong.

Thank you both for your help, medium it is then.

I'd looked at the sizing guide which suggests XL, but I know people with much larger legs so as a result how know idea what size I should go for. Gut feeling says medium.

I never took the bolts out when I was adjusting the EBB so I'm not sure what you can do. But it seems that since you've taken out the bolts the wedge should come appart and allow you to remove the whole unit. Then re-align the wedge nut with the bolt and put the two parts, eccentric bb and wedge, back together. Then grease and replace in the frame.

have a look here: EBB help

Hope this helps a little and you get it back together.

Bleeding instructions Here

Some Fox vanilla's secondhand and as mentioned an air shock will save weight, and from my short experience with romic shocks a decent platform (pro-pedal) style shock will make your bike more suitable for getting up hills than the romic will, but it won't be as plush. Perhaps a Vanilla rear shock with pro-pedal, plush with a decent platform and reasonably cheap.

Weight didn't bother me when I had the one bike. I just wanted parts that worked on it and that it was fun to ride. But since my bike collection grew I started paying a fair bit of attention to weight, trying to make a light weight hardtail, a robust long travel hardtail and a light but sturdy full sus. Making the hardtails was easy but light and strong is difficult and costs. I now pick the bike I use by the trail I'm going to ride. Although I recently sold my robust hardtail as I found the light weight hardtail so much more responsive, springy and just has more zip about it.

When you start looking at weight your wallet will get lighter quicker than your bike.

Not sure if you'd call it north Manchester but Chorley and Buckshaw Village seem like good places. Excellent access to the M6, M61 and M65. Up to the south lakes in next to no time and you can get across to the Yorkshire Dales fast too. Chorley to Salford on the train takes about 30 mins.

You won't be able to sleep tonight just accept it, also you'll be up tomorrow until however late it takes you to complete building it up, so maybe little sleep tomorrow too!

I tried Panaracer Razors 2.3" about this time last year, was woried I'd be on the deck all the time with the low profile grips and fast rolling design. But very very pleased with the grip they offer. Been running them for the last three weeks in Keswick area with no grip losing issues.

25-30g of butter I'd have thought

I was servicing a rear bulb hub in my cellar only a few months back, it had been well abused for years with no cleaning or attention yet the pawls were fine and the bearings were spotless under the plastic seals. I just gave them a light oil and a smiggin of grease on the pawls and the hub functions great, took no time to do either. To my memory there are 3 bearing sets in a bulb, two in the hub body and one in the free hub. I think there are 4 sets in the Pro II, two in the hub and two in the free hub. Assuming they changed all 4 bearing sets at £8 each and for some amazing reason all 4 pawls needed changing that doesn't add up to £85. You might want to remove the free hub and remove some of the excess grease. Or go back to the shop and calmly explain the problem, your displeasure with the price and suggest you'd like to see the knckered pawls and 4 sets of worn out bearings. I'd clean out the hub and put the bike shop on a black list of shops never to use again.

If you are getting muck passing the seals and contaminating the brake fluid or air passing the seals and getting air bubbles in the system so you need a lot of bleeding then a lever and caliper rebuild will replace the seals and make them much more reliable. If you don't find you have these problems then a complete change of fluid will probably be all you need. As already mentioned you should change the oil every two years as it breaks down.
A rebuild giving them new seals and fresh oil can't harm them and the fresh oil and good bleed should give you a better lever feel.

I have some hope mono m4's, 180/160, and mono mini's on my other bike. I 've used avids, formulas and other hope models in the past. The mono M4's and mini's have similar power until you pull them harder and the M4's have more ultimate braking power, more than I really need. Compared to the avids and formula's there is a greater range of applicable power, modulation, before you reach the maximum braking power so they have much less on/off feel and need pulling all the way and reasonably hard if you want to stop fast.
Floating rotors won't make a difference, bigger rotors will make a big difference though. I have braided hoses on some of my brakes, they don't make a noticable difference but look good and flex much better for routing them around the frame. A good bleed, make sure there is plenty of pad and no surface contamination on the pads and rotors, use a good degreaser for brakes if there is. You could try sintered pads if you aren't already using them, and maybe larger rotors.

I don't tend to buy new forks but upgrade old ones. I had some 04 fox float forks, self serviced them every 6 months so in mint condition. But by 2007 the dampening was noticably worse than the new fox forks coming out. So I bought a new RLC dampener cartridge from mojo at a fraction of the price of new forks and hey presto I had the new dampening performance, I only just sold them. I recently got the new 2010 RLC FIT dampener cartride to fit to my 07 float fork chasis and its a marked improvement. I only upgrade when the technology has really advanced, £178 for new fox dampening technology rather than the new price of Float RLC's.

I use Pace RC41 Fighters, 150mm travel, they lock down in travel to lower the front end if needed/wanted when climbing. They seem to work really well with the frame geometry.

I’m not a Man U fan and don’t care if they win or lose. I’d just like to see an open game with numerous goals and some displays of footballing flair and creativity. Unfortunately from going to Old Trafford and watching Man U in european games myself, when they are playing at home, I can’t see that kind of game on the cards. Unless Barca run riot over Man U it is just going to be a long drawn out 0-0 going to penalties. Not a good result for any football fan.

So you see an item that is stated as collection only, this puts a number of people off as they don’t live locally. Another ebayer, not yourself, asks about possible postage and the seller suggests they might consider it but at £20 ish. You email the seller about posting and hear nothing back but still bid, and win the auction, for collection only. After two days of the auction ending you have not paid, and seem to think the seller should stay in all day, probably taking a day off work to do so, in order for your courier to collect the item from them. But in 48 hours they have not arranged for your courier to pick up the item so you are going to give them negative feedback?
Well obviously you are in the right, what is this ebayer playing at stating how the item is to be sold/deliveried and then wanting to stick to it! 🙂
But seriously I think you are going to have to collect in person or be very very nice to the seller if you want them to post it to you, as they have stated collection only.

I’ve got a 100mm fork on my light weight hardtail and can’t say I’ve ever felt I need more travel on it. I ride mostly the North York Moors, the Dales, Peaks, and trail centres in North Wales and North Yorkshire. There is nothing I’ve encountered that needs more than 100mm of travel. My mate rides a hardtail with 80mm forks and is way faster than me, travel is not a substitute for skill. I’ve tried a 5 inch fork on my hardtail over 3 years back when longtravel hardtails were becoming the rage. The idea, I’m assuming, of putting more weight over the front because of the bigger forks to take the weight off the rear so you can go faster did not work better than using your knees properly to soften the rear end for stability and speed when descending, IMHO. I’ve found using a larger air volume tyre offers much more descending comfort than an extra inch on the front. I’d go for a 100mm forked hardtail with a good fork and plenty of tyre clearance, but maybe that’s just me.

I’ll have to have a closer look at the crossmarks, thanks.

Syndicate, do the Razors come up narrow for their stated size do you know? Is the 2.3MX closer to 2.1 and the 2.1XC closer to 1.9? Thanks

I’ve had some 1.95″ cinders in the past, they were pretty good but they only lasted 6 months before being too worn. I prefer the Fire XC pros if I was to go for a more nobbly tyre. But both Cinders and fire XC’s are on the heavier side of what I’m looking for. Something sub 550g really.

When you got the forks did they come with an instruction manual? Inside it tells you the service intervals to maintain your forks in proper working order. I say this incase you got the forks fitted to a new bike already, with no manual. You can download a manual from the fox website. Considering what you say about their usage, and the time interval between servicing, I can’t see fox fixing them under warranty as you need to follow their service advise to maintain the warranty. Servicing a heavily used fork annually is pretty standard for any manufacturer, if not 6 months if very heavy use.

The dampener cartridge has the oil in/out valve at the bottom of the assembly. This is at the bottom of the right leg. For the rebound/compression/lockout to work the dampener needs to be full of oil. When the fork is the right way up the valve sits submerged in the suspension oil that gathers at the bottom of the leg. If you store it upside down the oil gathers by the fork seals and the valve isn’t submerged in oil. It would seem oil can drain from the dampener and is replaced with the air in the fork leg. It then won’t function properly. If you flip the forks the right way up and push the fork as far down as possible and cycle it up and down a few times the dampener with fill with oil and the air will be pushed out. It will then work again. By letting the air out of the spring, or removing the spring if vanillas, it is much easier to push the fork all the way down.

This happens with Pace forks quite a bit if kept upside down for any period of time.

I’m trying to help my other half get into MTB’ing. She has riden the same route with me twice but on the first time she rode my Ti hardtail with my saddle on it, the second time she rode my Aluminium hardtail, with her own big padded ladies saddle and this time padded shorts. During coffee afterwards she commented on how much more comfortable the Ti bike was, and the day after riding the Aluminium hardtail she claimed to be a bit sore when she hadn’t been the day after riding the Ti bike. She has no knowledge as to the different frame materials just riding experience.
Does that make Ti better and Al?

I’ve got some oakley eye patch’s which I’m very impressed with. Lots of eye and face coverage, good optics and mine are prescription lenses yet still give a wrap around curve type lense protection. Although if I got me a labrador and white stick I could pass for a blind man.

Probably Llandegla as the other half is trying to get into MTB’ing, on one of my bikes, and she’s got good general skills but needs practice with gear selection. Llandegla is never going to offer mud, rocks, roots or anything I can think of where she could possibly fall off, so good for building her confidence.

Good coffee at the end and a perv around the bike shop for me. 🙂

Yes but in the real world everybody doesn’t just fess up with the truth, which is why the officials should perform a complete investigation to find the truth and punish as laid down in the sports regulations.

I think DQ’ing Hamilton is somewhat harsh, maybe a time penalty or losing some grid positions in the next GP. But I’d just prefer the officals in F1 to collect all the information and take their time before coming to a decision, hopefully then the right one, rather than making one decision and then changing their minds everyday as they find out more. Makes them look like a bunch of jokers.

Whilst I’m sure they are all decent tyres I was hoping to hear from people with experience to allow them to give comparitive feedback.

As he/she says the wheels don’t come with the bike so they are probably disc wheels from another bike that have just been used to try and make it more appealing to the buyer. But yes the forks appear to be backwards, plus the quality of the photo’s is poor. Ask the seller some questions about the history of the bike, condition, previous set-up and get better photo’s emailed. If they can’t answer then just stay clear of it.