SS = beards (surely).

Nope. SS = handlebar moustaches! This is 2010 you know..

183mm M4 on an arse-heaven fork?
Wait for it..
Waaait for it…

Snap!

Not tonight as I was listening to other people's while fixing bikes all day.
I was, however, listening to the Magic Roundabout theme while reading your reply just now.

THE nicest noise from a hub is that of an XTR hub when you spin the axle. There's no play, but you can hear the bearings clicking over the top by their weight alone.
I'm sure the noise of my Hope XC is just loud enough to bother people when I'm freewheeling along while stuck behind them.
To my ears pro 2s sound broken though.

Proper bib shorts for the win!
Bin the baggies. They always get too hot and sloppy IMO. I've currently got some demarchi bibs that I use the most

I was a little confused when my stanchions started disappearing.. Then I remembered the sage advice.. Only set the +ve with the -ve completely empty, and then set the -ve.
Lo and behold, the rest of my stanchions re-appeared!

TF tuned will give the 2 best photos a free fork tine

Wow.. that's like, a whole quarter of one end of a fork!

Thanks for a great weekend of nichedom and amusement and a truly awesome course.

[Edit].. I think I've found some strange calling in Singlespeed "riding fast around a course" events now. See you all at SSUK! (And thanks to Charlie for reminding us not to search for SSUK in Google images…)

Longer bolts and washers under the pump mount? Presta locknuts are handy for these situations.

Spend your cash on something useful. It doesn't sound broken to me.

If there's a sleeve in there then replace the bolt and then unscrew it a couple of turns. Give it some love with a mallet to unseat the sleeve and a little wiggling should free it.

yep it should just lift out. might be stiff if it's not been moved for a while.
try levering either end upward with a cloth-wrapped screwdriver.

You won't necessarily need a 1/8 chain. You can get 3/32 singlespeed chains, which are the right width for most sprockets and chainrings. I got an Izumi one off fleabay. I like it coz it's shiny!
I'm not that impressed with the on-one tensioner. It's so floppy on its pivot that it doesn't hang straight and runs noisy.. I had to bend the mech hanger to compensate. I'd shell out for the Surly one if I had to get another.

12 sounds good. I had a 26" slick tyred commuter in Melbourne that was on 44/16, so about the same.

Unlikely you've bent them. Imagine if the IS mount has slightly more material on the rear side of the bolt holes. (They're only a casting so can be really wonky!) That may only be a few degrees out from flat, but over the length of an adapter to the calliper that can add up to a couple of mil. So even if you face it and then pack it out to the original size with washers, it'll still work out different at the end the calliper bolts onto.

[Edit] but still scrape the paint off first.. This is the most likely culprit

Yep, 10.
11 is for formula hubs.

If that's the case then do get the IS mount faced. It should move the whole caboodle out by a mil or so, however you sometimes need to put washers back in to stop the mount being skewed by other parts of the fork..
Or otherwise there is some tolerance on the inside of the spherical washers. You could pull them over to one side as you tighten the bolts. That's a 3 handed job though!

File the bolt ends down? Getting the mount faced is not important with Avids as they have the crazy annoying sperical washers. You could take the paint off behind the mount though.

Have a look in the box.. They should have come with a spare olive and barbed insert

Did you know that a lighter rider will go downhill *faster* than a heavier rider on the same bike, assuming that the bike setup is adjusted accordingly?
Go on.. Ask me how…
Actually, don't.
In the end the lighter rider came third behind the heavier rider and the bloke on the Halfords bike because his full-body spider man suit slipped down over his eyes.
In the real world you could probably collect enough data to exclude factors such as differing suspension design and rider ability to prove that lighter bikes are faster, but what would be the point?
Light bikes are fun. Sometimes a bit sketchy and fearful amongst rocks, but nonetheless fun.

Chicken and Sons for Sapim? Not listed on the Chicken's website, but Sapim do SP spokes and black nipples, in fact I'm pretty sure Hope use Sapim SP spokes

a small stick bent it beyond repair FFS

That's just bad luck. Not really cheese related.
SLX or SRAM 980 are a good strong/light/cheapish compromise though.

Edit.. See.. I resisted the urge to say TDK!

We did the same.. was worth a special trip.
W2 and then Penhydd today, also including the dull and pointless bit! and it was faaast. I'd never been there in the dry, and the Sidewinder is an absolute ripper when it's not a river.

Here's hoping that the Hidden Valley is kept as it is..

oh, and have the frame mounts been faced? if they're very wonky then there's little you can do.

Are they hope floating rotors? Sometimes they have clearance issues and need a little material removing from the calliper.

Fizik ones definitely take some breaking in.. the flexy side and tail bits get a lot softer

I don't see any tyres there. I can just see the word "Corratec" and a pair of XTR cranks floating in mid air.

Good to know! Off to do W2 tomorrow.

The only assumption i'd make is that if it's not chased and faced then it'll die quickly.

-1 for park. Great if you need them on the trail, but crap if you store a previously inflated innertube. They wrinkle up and stop sealing.

Pacific and Airnimal are both very well made, have mostly normal components and run on 24" slicks.

Flush it with some squirty stuff. Often the ratchets become gummed up.

If you push the brake lever over and in at the same time you should see the guts.

Buzzlightyear… Do all the dogs round your way survive on beetroot?

Yup. That's the problem. Alloy nips are fine if they never see a UK winter and road salt. They will still corrode even if lubricated, and lubricating nipples (fnar) is just a wrong thing to do.

I've never tried this, but I'm waiting for someone to give me the chance to experiment.. brass nips on the drive side rear, alloy everywhere else. Not sure how to deal with the corrosion problem though. Graphite maybe?

And yep.. 4 sided spokeys all the way.

32:17 summer or 32:18 winter on the hardtail. My knees hate me grinding so I'm mostly happy on these.
I had a 26" commuter on 1.5" slicks a while back. It was a trafficy run so 44:16 worked out best for acceleration vs. top speed.
39:16 on a 700c which takes me 12 miles to uni and back seems ok. spins out on all the downs but churns along nicely on the flats.

Yup. Bearings die if you don't look after them.
It's piss easy to regrease all of the 540s upwards, and the 520s too but you need a special tool for them.
Just take the pedal off, clamp it loosely in a vice and wind out the axle assembly with a 17mm spanner. After a few turns wipe off the threads to ensure that the dirt doesn't fall into the pedal body.
1/2 fill the body with grease and wind the axle assembly back on while spinning the axle to work the muck out and the grease in.
Do this every few months and they will last until you bend them against a rock.

The plastic reach adjusters tend to seize. A couple of sets I sent off to fishers for a warranty fix for this came back un-bled. Otherwise they're a nice-feely strong brake.

Just MTFU and hit it. Use a soft mallet or a cushion it with a bit of wood. If the axle is corroded tight to the bearing then it'll take the drive side bearing out with it. If nothing moves then drop some penetrating oil in between the axle and bearings both sides and leave it overnight.

It could be missing the spacer that sits inbetween the inner freehub bearing and the hub bearing

hot aluminium after winding off a crank arm.
the hollow rumble of tubeless tyres on dry ground.

and I really truly hate the smell of GT85.