Have you mixed up the spoke lengths ? (Thinking perhaps you’ve reached for the wrong pile when you’ve laced the other way after rotating the hub…)

Thats what I thought i’d done so I stripped and re-laced it but it was the same.

Your right I shouldn’t let it bother me, it is what it is. I was happy with the build in the end but it did take a lot longer. It’s a good job it’s not my proffesion, i’d starve!

No. If you just look at one side of the wheel, the spokes cross in pairs around the wheel. One spoke out of each pair was a lot slacker than the other spoke. It looked like I had used two different spoke lengths on one side of the wheel. Both sides had the same problem.

Sorry, it’s quite hard to put in to words.

You said that the tyres are easy to get on and off, do I take it that they are used? If they are used and have a kevlar bead they might have stretched which would make it a lot harder to fit.

As above use plenty of washing-up liquid, take the cores out, if you have a co2 inflator try using that and leave and inflated tube in the tyre overnight.

I don’t think it does look stupid

I wasn’t refering to your bike. I meant having loads of spacers, a 25/30 degree stem, then having flat bars. Which is what I would have to do to run flat bars on nearly all production frames. Hence why my hardtails headtube is 165mm.

Buy frames with longer headtubes 😉

You can also use 25/30 degree stems and high rise bars. Azonic World Force bars come in 3″ rise.

I went the custom frame route when I bought a 29er. One of the main reasons was none of the 29er frames had a long enough headtube for me to run flat bars without it looking stupid.

No worries, I was only joking about the breaker bar. I’m good with the spanners.

Cheers for the tip, hopefully you have saved me a bit of head scratching and cursing.

My neighbour is on invalidity benifit, or whatever it is. He’s out everyday swinging a log splitter or collecting timber from the local woods to bring back and saw up before splitting it with his axe, then he wanders down the road to the pub, day in and day out, he also has a gardening round in the summer and does some building work – he’s been investigated twice (once when his Doctor found him doing his neighbours garden!) and been investigated twice this year but he’s still busy claiming away!

I’m not saying that your neighbours not pulling a fast one but things are not always as black and white as they may seem. A friend is on benefits and on his good days he could do the above but you wouldn’t want his problems and in no way could you hold down a job.

Yes it is a titanium frame. I did wonder if the titanium frame might have something to do with it because i’m sure i’ve read that they are prone to creaks.

When I strip and re-grease it i’ll ignore the torque wrench and get the breaker bar out!

Creaks, they drive me nuts. As soon as you cure one another starts!

I’ve checked the chainring bolts. It’s on my hardtail which i’m using for commuting so now i’ve got a bit of time off i’m going to strip and re-build the bike and hope that cures the problem.

I was worried they were like the headsets, but it’s good to know no one else has had the same problem.

Is it just me or do they make the bike feel draggy and slow when you drop them to short travel setting?

I’ve found that as well. Also I find that the fork peforms differently in each travel setting.

36 floats set to 140mm?

A Ctek charger, they are expensive but are designed just for this. I’ve got one for my motorhome so I can charge either the starter or leisure battery without disconnecting them.

Fix the water leak into the car.

I did read something about bikes making lots of different noises which dogs can hear and we can’t. Unless it’s my bike which as soon as I sort out one squeak another seems to appear.

Well,

I forgot what I was going to say, actually. I think I might have some noodles.

That cracked me up, best post on the thread.

do you point your feet down a lot when you ride? mine are mostly flat? Even if you add, maybe an inch onto your inside leg measurement for the sole of your shoe/width of pedal, I can’t see how you’re reaching the pedals comfortably? maybe I’m missing something?

My feet are flat the same as you. ‘Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance’ has a section on the correct way to set up your seat height and fore/aft position, I use this. Length is basically your leg just of straight when the cranks are at full extension. I also check it’s not too high by back pedalling as this seems to show it up easier.

I wear jeans with a 38″ leg, tall people have long legs 😉

EDIT: Should have just said the heel method as TooTall

From the top of the seat to the pedal axle on my mtb is 1040mm (41″).

how much of that post is showing? I would have thought around 14″ (350mm) at full extension – that’d put crank (7″) plus frame plus post plus saddle (1″) at a whopping 40″. Giant doesn’t even start to describe you!

Just shows peoples lack of understanding which is echoed by designers.

bigpole – Whats the 22″ orange 5 like?

I can ride a 19″ frame with a 410mm thomson post (6’6″) but for me it’s the headtube length. I’d agree some of the xl or xxl frames top tubes are a bit to long (for me) but the trouble is getting the bars high enough without stupid amounts of spacers or 30 degree stems. How people ride on-one’s is beyond me, don’t they all have 120mm headtubes?

If they are adjusted correctly sounds like they are worn out.

6’6″

Custom 29er hartail
xxl (20″) kona coiler dee-lux which will be changed to a custom frame when finances allow.

Customs the way to go unless you want high rise bars, 30 degree stems and stacks of stem spacers!

Climb On, it’s expensive but works really well. Just scrap a small bit off and pack it in to the cut or split. The neutrogena stuff is good but climb on is better for splits/cuts. I find it stops them being sore after the first night but takes a couple more days to heal up.

Pearl Izumi WXB 3X1, not used it but the earlier Pearl Izumi gloves i’ve got are very warm. Outdoor winter gloves (for skiing/climbing) are also very warm but very pricey. Anything which is waterproof will also be windproof which will help a lot. You could also buy the gloves bigger than normal and wear a liner, preferably wool.

Foes 4x or xct?

Sapim spokes have a good following, a number of the top wheel builders use them.

Can’t help with the dvd but i’ve starting building my own after reading the wheelpro book. Very good and easy to follow. I couldn’t get on with the ‘plucking’ of spokes to get even spoke tension. I bought a spoke tension meter which for me was a lot easier and built a better wheel.

Try reading the book, a lot of it isn’t about building the wheel which you can skip.

I’m in love, I want. No not the bikes, schrickvr6’s toolbox!

Whats your diet like? Had a similar problem a while back and couldn’t work it out as I thought my diet was good. Turned out to be to much saturated fat. My diet included lots of olive oil which is very high in saturated fat. Had the same problem if I ate to many cisps, pies/pasties etc again all foods high in saturated fat.

Your girlfriend has my sympathies, wake the dead evil!

If you take the OP at his word that he hasn’t crashed/damaged the frame, which I do, the answer for the frame damage is fairly obvious. It’s been damaged in transport to the uk or to you by the courier. You or the guys at 18bikes didn’t notice it so it must have been so slight that it’s hard to tell without a jig. The damage has then become worse with use as swingarms are put under a lot of stress, hence it not showing up straight away.

You can understand Nicolai’s response, they know it has left the workshop straight. A year later it is returned bent with the owner saying it has hardly been used.

I posted a frame a couple of years ago when we had the postal strikes and by the time it had arrived one of the chainstays was snapped clean in half, with no obvious damage to the box. I had made a dropout brace out of 8mm studding and four nuts as well, the good old royal mail! Having done a bit of courier work I can easily see how enough force has been put on the frame to bend it.

I think the repair cost is fair considering the work invovled. Having to pay for it to be returned to germany is out of order unless you would have been returned these costs had Nicolai agreed that it was a warranty issue. Both you and Nicolai have lost out to the courier but you’ll never be able to prove it. I can understand your anger but unfortunately it is just one of those things. You can’t win them all and at the end of the day even with the repair costs you still have a frame under the rrp.

I heard on the radio today that he is worth seven billion! Whatever the outcome he’ll be ok, infact the worse it gets the more money he’s likely to make.

If your not happy get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinion if you feel it’s not right. I broke mine and you could see the bone sticking up through a t-shirt but I was told by the specialist to come back in 6 weeks. After going back to the hospital twice, my doctor and the same specialist for a second time I was finally refered to another hospital. The specialist there took a look, pulled a face and made noises as if he was in pain, asked why it had taken 2 weeks for him to see me and he operated on me that day. He said that if I did it again or anything similar to come straight to his hospital as the first one wasn’t very good!

I had the plate removed 4 months later, which I was glad of because it was uncomfortable. It’s fine now, just a bit of restricted movement.

and got a plate inserted to come round to the most insane pain I’ve ever experienced – way past screaming in agony, won’t someone just shoot me type pain.

Same as, I wasn’t allowed any opiate based pain killers (morphine nearly killed my brother) and there the only ones which are any good according to the nurse. When I woke up I though this isn’t too bad, then the nerve blocker wore off, like having a burning hot knife stuck in you and then left.

Try this forum, i’d be suprised if someone on there couldn’t help.

Oh, so poor design then?

Yeah, I think thats the general opinion. They stood out against the rest ‘back in the day’ but times have moved on and until recently ck hasn’t. They have finally given in and offered it with a split ring as the old design just can’t cope with long travel single crown forks/29er forks.

If your using it with a long travel fork or a 29er fork your more than likely to experience creaking. Try replacing the o-ring as suggested(which should be done yearly) and you need to fit the plastic washer as well. However these are unlikely to stop it once it’s started creaking as I know from experience (29er fork with long headtube). I converted mine to a split ring with a fsa split ring and having the top part machined out which cost me the grand total of nothing. The fsa split ring I had and the machine shop did it for free, this was before the new split ring upgrade from ck which iirc is £50 plus!!! Converting mine cured the problem but I still had to put a little bit more tension on the bearings than I would normally do. If you check out mtbr you’ll see lots of threads on this, it’s quite a common problem.

I bought a 19″ Technika tv from them, I had to return it three times with the same fault. It was a problem with the sound, like a speaker was blown. All three broke within a week but to be fair to tesco they replaced them very quickly and I never had any hassle from them about it. The last time it happened I said i’ll give it one last try and if that one is faulty I want a refund which they were fine with.

I’ve had the tv about 1 1/2 years and alls ok with it. Even with the hassle I had I would buy another tv of the same make from them.

Love the minion’s, I use to run the 2.5 (42a ust) on the front of a nomad sometimes but only for the downhill runs in the lakes. IMO it’s overkill for general trail riding, to heavy and to much drag but never tried the 2.5 single ply 60a. I always run the 2.35’s on the front of my trail bike, I need all the help I can get!

No, they have different internal diameters. Dhx (apart from the new 4’s, I think) are the larger size and vanilla’s are the smaller diameter.

Tried it a number of times but never liked it, my pleasures or should I say sins have always been of the pill and powder variety.

I saw one as well about 6-8 years ago crossing the road as I was driving from taunton to glastonbury. Same as you not quite close enough to make it out for sure but it was the way it moved, nothing like a dog, deer etc. Been a few sightings the south side of bristol as well.

I think I heard that about the wallabys a short while ago, there are areas all over the country where they are wild?

If it’s a tv with freeview built in an aerial and an inverter to run it of the car battery, assuming you’re not on electric hook-up? Any aerial sould do but the better quality or with built in booster the better.

Edit: I type to slow