That’ll be alright. Turn it back round with a screwdriver and mount it. You might be able to tap the stop down with a punch.
It’ll hang funny when the wheel is out, but that’s all. It should work fine.

How strange.. I just this moment emailed BETD to find out if they’re available yet.. The normal ones, not Ti!

I’ve got some secondhand HT2 XTs on mine. They seem to eat BBs more than the Octalink ones I had before, but are noticeably stiffer.

That’s another thing… If you’re in the big ring, and whack it against something, the chain tends to slide over whatever you hit.

Having said all this, my next bike will be bigger and bouncier, and probably have a double and bash. After all, I think I would hate anything with a high BB. I could probably live with 22/38.

You want to pedal above 30 mph? braver than me. In the big mountains I amon the brakes not pedalling at 30 mph

Men and boys, Jeremy!

bikewhisperer – if yo have a double you can shorten the chain to avoid chain slap

That’s one of the reasons I’ve gone 40 rather than 44 on the double.

The bike that’s got a triple has a 970 xtr chainset.. The rings are decent, so it doesn’t sound like a bag of spanners if you cross chain it a bit, so you can stay in big more often.

Another benefit of a triple (specially if it shifts properly) is that you can jump between middle and big quickly on sections with sharp changes down to up.. Quicker than you can grab a handful of rear gears.

Oh, always give a prime number when asked how many gears your bike has – pointless, but fun.

My road bike has 3!

The 44 ring does have it’s uses.. When you use it downhill the chain has more tension so rattles against the stay less.

I’ve got one bike with a 44/29 FSA chainset that’s Ultra-Guff ™, as the right gear always seems to be cross chained, and the shifting is poo. I’ve got some new 40/29 rings for it that should improve it, but if I was starting from scratch I’d just get a triple.

Most hassles with them were due to having too much fluid in.
If you wind the adjuster tight down so the pads grip the disc tight, then crack open the port on the lever so a little fluid leaks and then do it straight up, they’re good as gold.
I’ll be interested if you don’t have any takers though!

Middleburn do them.

I went there on Sunday afternoon for the first time. Went once round with a mate in the day, had a quick play on the dh, and then went around again with lights once he’d gone home. It was only 6.30, but I was the last to leave.
It’s good fun for training yourself to leave the brakes alone on berms.

blimey! all you had to do was win the cable adjuster on the shifter out a bit.

GPS is rubbish at accurate altitude measurements.. Especially if it’s adding up incremental changes like that. What’s weirder is that if you check the actual route, the start and end alt will still be the same.

And as to route profiles, I find them good to estimate how long is still to go, as they help me remember the map.

People tend to get the wrong end of the stick with wind power.. It’s max rating is much much higher than the average wind so that it runs effectively when it it is really blowing.

That’s just plain stupid.
I do hate those machines, and all the anoraks that own them.

edit.. Bromptons that is.. The Rohloff owners are nice, in an eccentric professorly kind of way.

My bikes never seem to die.. They occasionally undergo binary division, or eventually a complete component part replacement.. Then the old bits sitting in the corner of the garage will reform themselves into a singlespeed in the middle of the night.. Sleep fettling is a tragic disease!

Asda cloth reusable shopping bag in my boot, and another couple of cloth bags for tools and dirty stuff.

Holy shit! $19!!! Yeah. that’ll do the job.

TBH, that’s just blue paint that half does the job.. wind the bolt in and out, and see how much is left on.
Proper drippy threadlock is what you need, especially on the calliper bolts!

Are you doing them one at a time? move the spacer to the side and go at the outside bearing first.. Then the circlip out and the inner one.
If you’ve got a long socket then you can get purchase on the inner ring of the outer bearing and try squeezing it out with a vice.

Fluxes are much better built than hexes. A few months of stuffing the lid into rucksacks at uni saw the retainer break on my old hex. The flux has well outlasted it.
The Flux is rounder and heavier, but has better coverage.
One annoying thing though is the chin strap always works itself loose.

I think rose bikes are still £17 for an XTR. They seem to last long enough, spin well, and are easy to clean and regrease if that’s your thing.

High torque causes the galling. It’s usually a BB thing, so lots of anti sieze there.
Threadlock coats the surfaces so that if corrosion is going to happen, it’ll happen elsewhere.

That’s just a scratch on the ring.
TBH, those mechs are always a bit pants and prone to bending and rattling, and they’re never as good again once you’ve straightened them a couple of times. I’d shell out for a conventional style (bottom swing) SLX or XT one and you’d be sorted.

That front mech is bent. The outer cage has been pushed upwards.. Usually by the chain running up underneath it. The top bit, with the mega 9 sticker should be flat. Also, the pivots should be parallel to the chainrings. It might be twisted back a bit there too.
It’ll take a careful hand to straighten it, but it’s doable.

I’d check the cables going into the positive terminal too, and the heavy wire to the glow plugs and starter.. I chased what I thought was an earth problem round my polo for months, only to find a load of corrosion inside where the 2 +ve feeds came off the terminal.

He does sound like an utter cock bender..

You’ll get what you’re given, and no buts.. You can come and collect, but I’ll pick them out for you..

Ooh, 10 14″ Barbie bikes.. Just what I was after!

Threadlock always. They’re unlikely to gall/sieze at 4Nm.

I’ve ordered SRAM casettes from CRC and had them delivered to my work.. The LBS! Sometimes considerably cheaper than trade plus VAT. It was partially to wind my boss up though!

Conventionals are far far better. The design is simpler, and the spring prevents any pivot slop manifesting itself as a rattle. The shape of the swing means they stay closer to the rings, so shifting granny to middle is far better. And they never ever get clogged.

Beats me why any manufacturer would use a top swing mech for a hardtail. Guess it just leaves more space for writing on the frame..

I got to 14 seconds.

The dogs near you must be eating a LOT of beetroot!

TBH, it is one of the things that makes riding in London tremendous fun!

Not H bars, but I like the On-One Mary bars I’ve got on my singlespeed. With the old style shimano levers you can hook your hands over the lever reservoir for comfy on the hoods style fire-road climbing. When I fitted them I swapped for a 10mm longer stem cause of the sweep back.

They do become a bit twitchy on steep switchbacks, and because they’re comfier and easier, you can relax too much and drop your elbows… Then it can all go a bit wrong if the front wheel snatches sideways on something! Brilliant for climbing though.

Sounds good to me. Buy yourself something nice with the proceeds. Depreciation tax, isn’t it?

+1 for Crank Bros. On my second as I lost the first after 7 years. Worth threadlocking the bolts in. Surprisingly good, considering how pish everything else they make is!

Having spent this last summer in London, I’d say that I was jumping half to most of the red lights..
Sometimes it’s after a good look, slacking off the speed, another good look and go..
Having said that, it includes rolling in front of the line for a head-start, going when the opposing light has gone red (after checking/clocking any car/bike RLJers!), turning left on a red when there’s nobody coming and going when the peds have all cleared the crossing…
There’s plenty of circumstances when it’s not UNsafe to jump a red.. and when it is, then waiting is fine. Its not hard to do a trackstand, or adjust your speed and wait for the peds to finish crossing either.
It may be illegal, but I don’t have pedal reflectors either!

It’ll come good again if you service it.. It’s really easy, and you can leave it on the wheel. Only take the lockring off, slap some thick grease inside, and if it’s got loads of play then take out one of the thin shims. If it’s totally dry, then you’ll have to use a biro or something to stick the bearings back in place with grease. Then spin it as you tighten it down to distribute the grease. You might need to do it a couple of times with a ride inbetween to clear out the crud.

EDIT.. it undoes clockwise!

My singlespeed was hugely different when I went from a 32h gerared wheel with adapters to a 36 hole un-dished wheel. Truckloads stiffer on the climbs.
jockey wheels can have a noticeable effect on the drivetrain if they’re borked. They spin around very quickly, and I’d bet that the drag is not a linear property.

Bit of lateral thinking here… What’s your track pump? I’ve never had problems with my Joe-Blow.

Another, smaller elephant..

Cable adjuster?

You can take the c-clip off the bolt and take it apart to clean it. If you stuff it full of thick grease and get the rust off the bolt/pivot it should stay good for longer.. Hold a rag over it as you un-clip it, as it’ll fly apart into little bits.
It’s a bit of a 3 handed job to put it back together though, as you’ve got to tension the spring past the stop while pushing it all back together.. Bit of a screwdriver through the palm job!

It might be a pressure-washer induced failure..?