Should also add that there are hardly any shocks available at the moment due to the corona craziness, that’s also going to slow things down hugely in the next 12 months…..

Hi All

Adrian from Swarf here! Nice to see positive comments on the frame, thank you!

I have been awkwardly shy about launching these properly! I’m dead set on making sure I’m fully ready before launching a frame and the first 10 showed that I wasn’t really ready. I need to produce these efficiently to make a sensible profit and that’s what I’ve been working on, boring production stuff… It’s a long slow road when there is only one person to sort things out and churn through back orders plus custom hardtails!

I’m going to be focusing on the full suspension frames in the future, the 155 and the updated Contour which will be renamed the 130. Both frames have metric shocks, room to fit piggyback shocks and modern geometry. I’ve spent a lot of time developing these bikes and I’m really excited to make them available! It’s not far off now.

Cheers

Adrian

160mm 29er, 143Lbs, 60psi HSC open, LSC 4 clicks from open, 3 tokens

Have to agree with Benpinnik, I’m currently on 63.5 ha 29er and I’ve ridden it with 51 and 42 offsets, no really worrying pull from excessive wheel flop in either set up.

OP What front tyre are you using? I’ve found that a Magic Mary (or others with similar tread pattern) give a weird pulling sensation like you describe.

@dumbbot I’ve just emailed you, I can make you a specific tool for the job, both pulls them out and presses them back in….

Adrian

@roverpig Were the bearings in the droplink stiff with it removed from the frame? If the bearings in the droplink were rough before you removed them, but smooth after removal, this points to the tolerance on the bearing seat being slightly under. Press fits are very tolerance critical and a worn cutter could be enough to make things slightly under, this can make the bearing tighten up. I’d have a chat to Cotic about it, 100hrs doesn’t sound like it fits in with everyone else’s experiences.

A

It needs a service, it should be pretty much silent. Service interval is 100hrs which comes up pretty quickly. If you have the old inline model (hard anodised shaft not black) then when you get it serviced you can have it upgraded to the DBairIL which is the new more reliable version.

Adrian here from Swarf Cycles, I’m in Peebles. Feel free to get in touch swarfcycles@gmail.com

2 mins on google….

https://www.nenutsboltsfasteners.co.uk/product-category/fasteners/metric-fine/socket-capscrews-metric-fine/

Neither have replaceable lenses which for me would rule them out for mountain biking….. Shame, as I like the field jacket. I’m also quite keen to try the prizm low light lens but it’s not available as a lens only and all of the glasses that come with the lens have white frames… Gah!

Just a thought before you pull the lowers off. Has it got too many tokens in it?

Personally I think you need to remove all the tape, give everything a good clean and try again. I never run the rim tape past the valve hole, just let the valve seat up against the rim. I also only ever use one layer of the stans yellow tape and made sure its well sealed around each spoke hole. This has always been a perfect set up for me.

I’d guess that your rim tape has a tiny hole somewhere over a spoke, or a leak path into a spoke hole. These are really hard to spot which is why I reckon start over with fresh tape and a spotless clean rim. The leak appears at the valve hole as it’s the path of least resistance.

Good luck!

Don’t send the rim just yet… You’ve already sent the photos, just ask them more questions, if you don’t get a detailed response I’d be skeptical, in fact if they didn’t immediately ask about tubeless sealant I’d be skeptical. It’s very easy to just slap a few more layers of carbon onto something and proclaim it’s repaired, it’s altogether more difficult to ensure it actually is repaired! One of the reasons I stopped doing anything other than very basic repairs, there are too many unknowns even on a very simple repair to confidently know that the repair will hold. This isn’t a simple repair, and for someone to say they can do it for 100 quid rings alarm bells (with me at least)

If it were me, I’d carry on riding it with careful and frequent inspection, and I’d get another rim on standby for when the inevitable happens! I’m in exactly this situation myself and the damaged wheel has been going strong for over a year..

Cheers

My personal opinion based on the detailed photos is that’s not repairable. From the outside it’s pretty clear to see the rim has a fairly big flat spot. Also it looks like there are two more cracks either side at the ends of the flat spot (to the left 3-4mm from the edge of the orange sticker, to the right pretty much over the spoke) If the damage was only to the outside of the rim it might be worth trying to repair.

The pictures of the inside are more telling, there is a delamination that runs along the corner where the rim bed meets the flange (it shows as a pale line in that corner). It also looks as if the wheel has been set up tubeless? (looks like stans has soaked into the biggest crack) If this is the case any repair plies that are put onto the inside of the rim just won’t bond to the cracked area.. So you”ll have a rim with extra plies of carbon added to the outside and possibly the inside which won’t be bonded to the actual damage, doesn’t sound ideal. The only real way to repair it would be to grind away all of the damaged areas and rebuild it, lots of work in doing that though, without question way more than £100 worth of time. Before getting it repaired I’d be asking the repairer exactly how they are going to approach it, how they are going to deal with the damage being soaked in sealant (if it is) and how they are going to make the inside damage good.

A

Not 35mm but if you wanted to stick to your current stem set up, I’d highly recommend the USE Ultimate Nail bar in aluminium. Beautiful subtle matt black finish, 780mm width and 235g for a 780mm bar… Best of all £55 from CR at the moment. Really pleased with the one I’ve just got my hands on. The page lists them at 10mm rise, this is wrong, they’re 20mm…

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ultimate-use-nail-aluminium-handlebar/rp-prod166471

I’ve had great experiences with the WTB Trail Boss tough. Got me through a week in Spain no troubles on my 29er hardtail and a couple of weeks rock bashing in the Highlands… No flats. Its also nice and fast rolling which helps overcome the extra weight.

I’ve got a new unused spare slider with hanger that’d I’d happily sell you if it’s what you’re after. Cant remember if its bolt through or qr though, have a feeling it might be bolt through but for shimano axle, I’ve probably got an axle kicking about too… drop me an email on swarfcycles@gmail.com if you can’t find anything.

Cheers

Adrian

2015 rev’s here, I’m 60kg and also run 100psi (+3 tokens)… I get full travel easily. This is my experience with all recent rockshox.

Yours don’t sound right, either they have a load of volume reducers in them or there is something wrong. If they don’t compress all the way easily with the air out (worth keeping the valve open as you compress them) then I’d suggest there is something amiss on the damper side. Maybe too much oil in there.

So, try compressing them with the valve open, if they don’t go to the stop easily, It’d be worth getting in touch with whoever you got them from for warranty.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Adrian

This is hopefully not your issue but it’s something I had happen to my Revs and the end result was reduced travel

The smallest seal on the damper shaft failed (it had a nick in it) and this allowed the damping fluid to slowly run through into the lower leg. The lockout will stop working before you get a reduction in travel. I had the fork warrantied by fisher (as the lockout stopped working and it was topping out badly) but they missed the problem and simply topped up the damper. Over the next few weeks to original symptoms returned and as the oil level in the lower leg had built up enough I started to see the reduction in travel.

It’s easy to check for, 1. is the lockout still working? 2, if the lockout has stopped working undo the bolt on the bottom of the lower leg to see how much oil drains out. Should be no more than an eggcup full, any more and you have problems. Also you can take thet top cap off the damper side, and check the oil lever, it should be 82-87mm below the top.

Good luck with it…

Can you get full travel with no air pressure in the fork?

SQ Lab also do nice 12 and 16 degree bars at decent widths

https://www.sq-lab.com/shop/en/handle-bars/

There’s no way in the world that you’ll get anywhere near -2 degrees from offset bushes. If it were possible, you’d also be loosing 2 degrees off the seat angle and a huge amount from the bb height which is not ideal.

The headset will give you the 2 degree change and this will steepen the seat angle very slightly, which won’t hurt. The BB will drop a tiny amount as well.

A

I’ve just had a revelation issue similar to this and found some stuff on google. Mine turned out to be a dodgy seal on the rebound shaft effectively draining the damping oil into the lowers causing the lockout adjuster to stop working but not jam. Whilst hunting I found some stuff relating to your specific issue… have a look here (although I’m not convinced the chipped part would cause the issue, mine was also nicked slightly

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rockshox-revelation-rct3-lockout-problems-help-needed

This thread solved my issue and there is some stuff in here about springs that’s also interesting

http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/3-rides-rock-shox-revelation-lockout-not-working-817103.html

the good news is that the damper comes out easily and you can check for the spring problem or nicked part easily before sending it off.

Cheers

A

http://www.fatcreations.com Ali is a top chap and his work speaks for itself.

swarf look good but carbon .. would want to be confident they’d be tough

@jameso they’re incredibly tough, there’s glass in the layup as well as carbon

View this post on Instagram

Just had a question about how brittle my mudguards are. This is how brittle! Put the sound on for this one #tough #mudguards #dontbescaredofcarbon #itsallinthelayup @tedjamesdesign

A post shared by Adrian Bedford (@swarfcycles) on Mar 4, 2016 at 4:39am PST

It’ll be ideal!

Greg Callaghan won the Irish round of the EWS two years on the trot on a 140mm Cube 29er… Tracey Moesley won pretty much everything she entered on a 140mm Remedy

It won’t be the bike holding things back I guess.. Same for us all!

Hi all, Adrian from Swarf here… Thought I’d add my thoughts, please note this is just my (super cautious) view and I can’t comment for any of the other repair options..

Carbon repairs is a tricky one for me, I turn away repairs if I’m in any way uncomfortable with either the damage, or how it has occurred. In this case being hit by a car which resulted in serious injury would be one I’d immediately turn away, there could be all sorts of hidden issues.

As far as I am aware, there is only one guy doing repairs with ultra sonic scanning kit (Raoul at Luescher Tekinik in Oz). He’s the only guy who can fully understand the extent of the damage. For the rest of the repair guys we can get a fair understanding using various methods, but there is always an element of the unknown. There is also the unknown of the exact layup of the original frame and the materials used… I don’t offer any repair warranty for this exact reason, how can I confidently say if a repair is going to last x years when I don’t fully understand what I’ve actually worked on!

So from a small time bike builder who understands carbon composite frames better than most, I’d definitely turn this repair away. If it were me I’d be looking for a new frame from the insurance…. If it was a car body panel it’d immediately be replaced, and that’s just a cosmetic item, you should expect the same for a frame!

Cheers

A

it is pretty common and its rubbish! Frame misalignment like this will kill the external bushes and internal bushings in the shock. I had a similar issue on an old Commencal meta. If you have the straight through style shock busings, with spacers either side there is a quick fix that will help. Mount the shock without any spacers on one of the shock bushings, in this case go for the rocker end. Gently cycle the suspension and you’ll find that the shock bush will work its way through the shock in the direction of the offset until it reaches the position that gives the best alignment… Just arrange the spacers to accommodate the difference. This reduces the side loading and should make everything last longer…

edit, just seen you have the tophat style bushes… my fix wont be any help unless you order different bushes. In my opinion misalignment like this is cause for a warranty claim, if the frame is within warranty why not try sending it back?

@sillyoldman, apologies I think I got the wrong end of the stick, thought your comment was directed at me!

@mboy, I went with the straight seat tube for no other reason than it works fine with the geometry I wanted… keeping things nice and simple. Bending a 35mm seat tube is not an easy task and requires some fairly hefty kit, which sadly I don’t currently have. I’ve had seat tubes bent elsewhere but the chap decided to move to whistler, can’t understand why!

Offsetting the seat tube is not a problem although I’ve not have to do it as yet.

Cheers Adrian

I’m not entirely sure I understand what you are getting at sillyoldman? Between the wife and I we have 5 bikes, all
Made by myself…… I spent 18 months riding a standard geometry small Spline 29. I tend to spend most of my riding time on my prototype frames to ensure what I do put up for sale is good.

Here we go, this one has 68ha, 74sa and is built around a 100mm fork

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bored-friday-heres-my-new-machine#post-7866393

Hi everyone, it’s Adrian from Swarf here
Just a quick one to clarify a few things. The seat tube on the Spline is straight and runs to the centreline of the bb so the seat angle measurement is real. Also all of my hardtail geometry is quoted at the sagged position, so when static it’ll slacken off a little over 1 degree for a 120mm forked bike. Something to bear in mind when comparing to other geometry.

Obviously you can tune the geometry somewhat if it’s not what you want. Without lengthening the chainstays the seat angle can be slacked off to 74 degrees without issue, any slacker and you start getting tight on clearance between the tyre/seattube/front mech. I’ve built quite a few at with 74 degree seat angle. There’s a thread about one on here, I’ll
Find the link in a sec.

As for the Curve, it proved just too complex for me to produce. I made a total of 7 and called it quits…. I might pick it back up sometime although I’m currently dabbling with a short travel 29er currently which is much simpler and is amazing to ride!

Cheers

Adrian

In the first few mm of the stroke it’ll feel like it sort of falls through a bit of the travel, this is normal and is due to the negative chamber being charged from the positive chamber, it happens when they are at equal pressure.

So, in short answer, if its right at the start of the stroke then yes its normal, if its deeper into the stroke then no, doesn’t sound normal to me..

Cheers

LAS Aerospace sell plain gauge 4130 Cromo by the foot. Wall thickness down to 0.7mm with the most useful sizes being 1.25mm and 0.9mm. If it’s not listed as in stock don’t fret, they’ll have it in within a week or so after you order.

https://www.lasaero.com/site/products/article?id=Z01NFVB05

Cheers

Adrian

Cheers guys

That’s a bit of a pain! I was hoping to be able to quickly swap it back by simply popping the freehub off and sticking to old one back on to change between bikes.

It’ll probably be better for me to get a shimano 11 speed cassette and shifter instead, and that way I can swap whenever I want and the parts are cheaper when stuff wears out.

Cheers

Yes Super glue and Carbon/epoxy are good friends! Get the lowest viscosity CA you can find, Zapp in the pink bottle is the best

Hey all Adrian from Swarf here. Last year there actually were quite a few MTB at the show, more than I was expecting. The show itself is not actually prohibitively expensive, but once you factor in insurance and accommodation it becomes quite pricey. It also takes up a heap of time in preparation. I’ve got a hack bike at the show and there should be plenty of my carbon mudguards dotted about on various builders bikes.

There will be some interesting mountain bikes to look at too don’t worry about that! I don’t think Starling will be the only full suss either………

Looking forward to seeing everything on Friday, see you all there!

There’s heaps of really good technical singletrack in the woods directly south of Minehead, (Avil Ball, Hopcott and Bratton). Its probably 20mins pedal from the town center to the top of the hill Most of the trails are on Strava so get your phone charged up and go exploring! You have chosen a good spot!

@monkeyfudger It’s not possible with a tapered fork to go in through the headtube and into the downtube for dropper routing, I wouldn’t be keen on cutting an entry hole in the down tube…. There is barely space on the 1 1/8th section of steerer at the top to fit the plumbing! In theory with a straight 1 1/8th steerer is is possible, there’s just space where the seat tube and down tube meet to run the brass internal tubing. Would be the ultimate in stealth :D

[67.5 sagged? That seems awful slack. 66 degree static at 120mm]

Well yes I guess it is pretty slack for a wagon wheeler. However I’m used to a 65 degree 130mm travel full suss bike (27.5 wheels) which is probably more like 64 by the time I’m sat on it. I wanted it to feel similar to sit on (chainstay length, reach stack and wheelbase are all pretty close). First impressions are that the 29er seems good at this number, I cant say I ever worry about (either bike) wandering on the climbs or feeling ponderous on tight stuff. I think its something you get used to. I was quite pleased how nice the 29er feels in terms of the fun factor, I was expecting it to be a bit dull but so far I’ve I found it great fun. Looking forward to getting my head back into hardtail mode…… It’s only had a couple of outings so far so early days still.

Front mech is a mistake! Its clattery and even with the roller the chain drops when I backpedal (which I obviously do a lot!) when switching between turns.

A

Not figured out linking pictures on forums but there are loads more pictures of it during the build on my facebook page including some detail on the internal routing.

https://www.facebook.com/SwarfCycles

There are also pictures on my instagram feed, @swarfcycles and I’m also on the twitter (although I just don’t get it!) @swarfcycles again….

Cheers

A