I have no complaints with the EBC pads.

I agree with the above. If the rim is buckeled it is a spoke tension issue.

Remove tyre and rim tape and check rim for cracks (just to be sure).
Spin wheel if there is significant wobble you will see it.
Refit rim tape and tyre and tube.

Or just refit the tyre as 90% of the time this is what it is.

Steel framed bike an feel “dead” and Alu alloy framed bikes an feel “dead” also. Get the right frame steel or alu and choose the right components and enjoy the ride.

I really like the Orange Evo2 frame for a alloy job, not to sure what the newer versions are like, though. Old marin steel frames feel great as do modern Pipedream framed bikes. The parts are needed though.

I bet the you have to be light to ride it.

Remove all the higgs and the atoms that make up the bike will distintergrate, really they would. With no bike it will weight nothing.

I spend about 10 minute sully degassing the caliper syinge. I do not start untill I get very few bubles forming when creating vacuum. then I start the beeld proceedure. Bleeding this way is noramlly quicker but if there not enough fluid I will use a larger syringe for the lever and over fill the caliper syringe and push more fluid through. This way the lever syringe does end up pulling out of the syringe body.

You have to be able to get vacuum to bleed these brakes.

I find bleeding Avids and PITA which is why I would not recomend them to anyone.Shame most MTB’s come with them now. If you ever get tired of them try some Hope’s or Shimano brakes and enjoy bleeds that take as little as five minutes with nothing more than 1 hose and a small spanner.

Cyclus do that tool but many LBS (the good ones) will have it.

Just check for the normal bike stuff before you buy. I think viewing is essential.

Check for worn drivetrain (cassette, chainrings and chain) as this often cannot be seen from the photo’s, worn bearings e.t.c.

I think you will have a better buy if you get something old and steel and not worry about the weight. Also buy simple, nothing wrong with a an early 80’s steel framed road bike using a 6 speed freewheel at the back. I recently build for a customer a complete road bike for £250 using a mix of good S/H and new parts based around an old Spectrum (custom made) R531 frame. I wanted to keep it when it was finished.

I also bought a omplete Vitus 979 for £275 and stripped it and every part to a £90 Alan frame. O.K more than your budget but for £365 I have a 1981 Alan Compitizone kitted out with period high end Campag parts (mix of record/super record part + a it of triomphe). It really quite high end so £200 can buy something very nice if you are patient.

I have given up on ebay for bikes, few bargins and many sellers are selling “just a bike” and some unfortunatley have many faults. Other’s ask to much for something mediocre. Buy with your eye’s open on ebay as the wrong ebay purhcase can cost you alot more than you think.

Retroike is a good source of road gear. Also try the CTC forum.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=207979 needs a hange of bars and then new levers to make it road freindly. Can be done with S/H for £200 though.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=209899
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=210250 over budget.

These are just two example of what an be had for £200.

You say you bike is heavy but I cannot find a sentene where you have stated your bikes weight.

What does it weigh. Why it feels heavy will be a combination of all components, changing one think will only make a small differene (some bits make a smaller difference than others) changing alot of components an make a bigger difference. Weighing your bike would be a good start start as you have a something to work from.

Saint cranks and a 34T ring with external BB on one bike and my favourite Shimano 300lx cranks with a 36T ring and Shimano Un55 BB.

The latter has a more reliable and cheaper BB. Go for lighter cranks if weight is the issue. Old cheap lowish end shimano cranks last a very long time though. Like those middleburn, I wish my budget strethed that far.

If there is no inner I find a rare earth magnet helps guide the outer through with minium fuss. Can be a fiddle though.

I am some other in the club I ride in use SPD’s on our winter/grubby wheather bikes. I use then all year round as my winter/grubby weather bike is my year round bike.

Ignore “road fashion rules” most roadie’s don’t care anyway neither do the members of the decents clubs. Really if it works for you use it.

I have a pair of road pedals on the nie bike for TT in the dry and I hate walking in them. Last Thursday when getting ready for that evening’s TT I nearly broke my neck with the those bloody shoe’s.

Hard tail or full sus? If it’s hard tail then remove your chain and wrap around the chain ring and large rear sproket (without passing through the deraileur) and bring together and add a whole 1″ then join. If using a master link put one half of the link in first before pulling both ends of your chain together then add an 1″,you may need 2″ if you are using a front tensioner as well (you an always remove an 1″ easily).

If it’s a susser then the proper way is to disconnet the shock and move the rear arm/triangle to the point at which you have maximium chain wrap then size as above.

Or leave the chain as is as it worked before.

I can fit on a 53m frame but I would not want to ride it. I ride a 59cm traditional frame (59x59m) and I am 6ft with a 34″ inside leg. If you are 5ft11 and have a 33″ inside leg then a 56 or 57 m would work well in compact frame. 57cm should work better if your inside leg is 33 1/2″.

Effetive top tube length is important though, however what is more important your total reach which inludes the stem length.

Another build could be the Veloity A23 Novatec A291 SB front hub and Novatec F482 rear hub. I would use Sapim laser front and NDS rear and Sapim Race DS rear (to improve stiffness of the rear wheel). Spoke count will depend on your weight.

Front hub is 82g
Rear is 245g
Rims are 435g each
Sapim Brass nipples are 0.9g each (12mm)
Sapim polyax alloy nipples are 0.2g each (12mm)
Figure each laser spokes is 4.75g each and each Race spoke ~6.25g each.

So the total weight of the wheel for a 24/28H build would be (I hope you are about 75kg or less) ~1510g I like the velocity A23 as rolling resistane with a 23mm tyre is less than the same tyre on a narrower rim. The tyre take on a semi circular profile like a tub would because the rim is so wide.

For a really stiff low spoke ount wheel then use the Kinlin XR270 rim or the Kinlin XR300. Weight makes a (small) difference but the rider makes a bigger differene. It cheaper to lose weight from your tyre/tube choice first. Weight is not everything though. I have a 25lb bike when it is fully kitted out with mudguards, bottles e.t. I see that as good training.

Other than that to go lighter you will have fork out for a stans rim or going with low profile carbon tubs.

For areo rims you really need to start looking at 50mm deep rim and tubs(3:1 depth to width ratio is a good starting point) but only do this if you use the bike for serious TT.

The drop on those bars is enormous and possibly unusably big. I would change the bars ant that will allow yout to reposition the levers to the position you want. Don’t expet money off for that though. £300 sounds fair if everything is in good order.

Lyra would make sense it a fashion thing why downhil riders don’t use it. That’s a poor reason to me. The front wheel causes more turbulane than the rear wheel. This has been shown on road bikes and the same would apply here. I suppose that’s why bladed spokes have been used on downhill wheels, apparantly with sucess.

Rider position and frontal area is the thing that inreases drag, hanging everything else makes a very minor differene. Really it does.

Given the riding position on a downhill rig any adjustment made are not going to change your Cd by much. Look the lengths TT riders go to for speed, many of those solutions are not going to work on a downhill bike.

Rider position is the thing that needs to change and that is the one thing you cannot change enough. I cannot imagine going down hill on TT bars.

If the mud on the trails is too much then you could
1) sod and ride anyway,
2) buy an old steel rigid bike make it single speed put thin mud tyres on and enoy the simpliitity and that fact you an ride through foot deep slurry and not get stuck and still have a bike that works.
3) use a road bike with mudguards, this is my current solution.

Given the weather at moment (as given the poor weather is with for a while and it will sonn be winter) I would get a bike that can take full length frame fitted mudguards and wider tyres. Also go to a shop that will let you spec the bike how you want it without having to buy it complete and then spend more and having more bits than you need.

I do that with the Tifosi’s I sell. In fact they an be ordered by the shop without the bits the customer does not want so the parts the customer want an then be fitted. A much cheaper way of getting a build right for you.

Also consider what tyres you need often new bikes are not equipped with waht you actually need.

You going downhill it does not matter too much.

Running the chain and cassette untill you get slipping is fine for cheaper cassettes. Not for that XTR ot Ti Campag super record cassette they are too expensive

The simple solution is build up a retro rigid with skinny tyres for the mud and keep your wide tyres on your other bike. Either that or just ride whatever you have. I did that for years.

The centre lock disc should not rattle. there are actually two types of locking on that takes a cassette tool and the other take the external BB tool. Shimano centre locks hubs come with both. However the Park tool EXternal BB cup tool does not fit over the axle but the Cyclus ultra torque/powertorque BB tool fits poerfectly. Fortunatley I have both in the shop.

Pipedream sirrus has a sliding dropout. I would go with that buit I do stock Pipedream.

6805 bearings is what you need. It’s pretty easy to do but sometimes the bearings are a bit stuck and not so easy to remove. Being a shop I have the tool for the race face BB’s and bearing extracters in gerneral. This make life alot easier.

Alot of factory wheels are pretty good. The only issue is propriority parts but as the like of Fulcrum rarely go wrong this is not much of an issue.

Some of these cheap light weight hubs like Sokin/novatech e.t.c work but use small bearings which wear out more quickly and can have axle allignment issues sometimes. Lightweight hubs from the likes of Tune are alot better but cost alot more.

The rear going out by a couple of mm is alot. I would get that seen too. If you use Sapim spokes the build will cost less and they are just as good, infact I prefer Sapim Laser over DT revs as they are easiier to build with (you have to do a fair bit of bending of DT revs at the elbow to get them sitting right on a 2 cross or 3 cross build). I would also use a 2.0mm/1.8/2.0mm spoke like the DT comp or Sapim Race on the drive side rear.

Personally I would not go for super light weight for the OP as he/she is not racing/TT. Also all the builds suggested assume he can build them himself/herself. If he can then great but if not those builds will go over budget.

An alternative to the Novatec hubs are the Miche Racing box or Primato. They do weigh 440g for a pair but are well finished, have quiet freehubs and use larger bearings than most hubs front and rear (6001) so they are durable. There is a downside however. The U.K distributor only sells in pairs of the same drilling so I have had to go through Miche and buy of them to get the 24H version and the front and rears individually. Not something an individual can do though. These hubs are also O.K for radial lacing as it does not invaliadte the warranty. The novatec hubs are probably O.K for radial lacing but I do not use them I cannot say for sure.

Velocity A23 rim 28H 2x front (or 24H radial) and 28H 2x or 32H 3x rear on the Miche RG2 (racing box)They also cost £70 for a pir of whjatever drilling you want. Grant some novatec are lighter but other Novatec’s are heavier.

24Hole version of the Miche hub is not normmally avialble in the U.K but I have a couple comming on order.

I think the velocity A23 28H front (or 24H front) with 28H or 32H build with Miche hubs and velocity A23 rims come in between 1600 and 1700g (1009g for a 24F with 28R)with brass nipples but will be reliable and sub £250. Save some more weight with Alu nipples. Use some of the lightweight Novatec hubs and more weight will be saved but at the hub where it matters least.

A note on the Open Pro’s, a good rim but the last one’s I had weighed a whopping 480g!

I always round up so if those numbers are right then. If the rims are heavily offset then rounding down is fine.
F: L289/R293
R: L293/R292

However the differene between the front L/R is larger than the rear L/R. It is normally the other way around. I never used that calculator, I used spokecalc downloaded from sheldon brown’s site. I have always found it spot on if you round up.

Well I am sure pionion would make a gearbox with less speeds if there’s becomes popular. With that gear sp[read it must be aimed at folk who live near proper mountains, not folk like me who live in the flast of east anglia.

I like the idea and one day I will have one.

Taps may work but if it properly cross threaded you may need the Cyclus thread destoyer and tap with which will create a larger thread. Then fit the Cyclus pedal bushes and problem solved. I have all these bits if you want to drop by or any decent LBS should have these tools and bushes.

First of all I would not use a 9 speed chain as they are more expensive than a 8 speed chain or a 1/8″ chain.

The problem you have is chain tension. BB mounted tenioners have sorted this problem more me in past but in the end even that failed as it required regular adjustment to account for chain wear. Also after a few years of regular adjusment (the pulley was right up aginst my bash guard so I could not move that) one the threads in the frame frame failed so I binned that tensioner have have gone tensionerless. I do have to replace the chain a bit more regularly but KMC Z510 chain is pretty cheap so is hardly an issue for me. However that could be a pain for others.

A different tenioner or solutions that Sun have already stated are the one I would start with. It will require a bit of experimentation.

Any light oil according to Mavic.

What is the best pads is so subjective. I perosnlly use EBC or A2Z pads and like them. Becuase I trust them and I know what I am getting I do not buy anything else.

Serval causes toi this

1) The grade of balls used. Shimano use grade 25. I like using that or grade 10. Most balls you buy will be grade 100 or 300. If thewy are weldite ball they will grade 1000 or somthing like that (utter crap).

2) The grease used makes a difference. Weldite grease has never worked well for me.

3) wear or the cones or bearings. It does not take muche. If you have not tried rpelacing the bearings then do that. Replacement cones may also be need if pitting has started but maybe not. Sometimes you can still get them running smooth with slightly worn cones but sometimes you can’t.

I can’t comment on your technique or finesse when adjusting the cups so I will assume thats O.K.

electrical tape is the weight weenie solution. It should work but I have never tried it as I work in a shop so I am never short of rim tape.

I run veloce on my road bike. It is hassle free so that comment about it needing more mainanence is not my experience but it maybe someone elses. Campy veloce shifting is smooth when riding. The shifter is abit ker cluink but you get used to that. You do however get the lovely campag levers which are so easy to use and comfortable.

The power torque BB’s/cranks work just as well as ultra torque. The only thing is you need a spoecial crank puller too to get the L/H crank arm of. The bearing puller tool is aslo campag specific. I have bough the Cyclus tools and they are not cheap. Shimano system is better in this respect but that is the only thing I can find in it favour but I am a biased campophile. You will have to try it and see for yourself as everyones opinions are biased in some way or form.

Also campag have as new triple chainset in veloce if that’s your thing.

this is why I will be fitting wheels for which I carry spokes as I do not want to have a box of miche spokes for just for these wheels.

I would still stick with the ustom build for the OP. One poster sugessted Ambrosio hubs, DT rev, Alu nipples and Mavic Open pro. A fine build and I am doing something similar for a customer soon but I would suggest a couple of changes. Sapim Laser spokes, they are cheaper, just as good and the same guage. Ambriosio exellight rim, just as strong as the open pro (perhaps even more durable) or perhaps the DT Swiss RR465. The Open pro is no near 425g as advertised. Try 470g I need to check this on another set of scales to be absolutley sure but not 425 for sure so is not the light weight rim it is supposed to be. Still a good rim though and builds a fine wheel.

There are so many options but get a wheel appropriate for you weight.