If I buy a bike and fit my own headset does that void the warranty?

Yes, but you would be smart enough to say a qualified mechanic installed it :wink:

I really think that you should be talking to freeborn/haven about this not moaning on a forum. Attempting to damage their business because you don’t agree with their assessment of what has caused your frame to fail is pretty poor form.

Just do this and talk nicely to Freeborn again- It is the only hope you have of getting the frame sorted although I would say they are not obliged to do much for you

That is Iron Horse, not Devinci. Also a much thinner shim.

Kona’s reply is much more as most would expect

I would purchase the correct size seat post for your frame. If you damage the frame w/under sized post & trying to shim it- It will void any warranty on the frame

1) You used a shim
2) Using a shim (especially that thick on 27.2-31.6!!!) generally voids warranties plus the Devinci manual quoted here is reasonably clear on this
3) You have a cracked frame
4) There is no warranty claim

Why prolong this thread? Especially, why try to drag Freeborn down?

Freeborn have a great reputation for trying to do as much for the customer as possible so rather than moan here talk nicely to them. I would expect that the best outcome might be a reduced price front triangle which would still be a decent outcome given the very thick shim you have been using.

Loads of people on here use shims right? Does it void your warranty?

Generally speaking I would expect it to without even looking at the company blurb- It would be much more of a surprise if it was warrantied

Awesome deal! I paid that for a 2011 frame and thought it was a good (relative to other new full sus frames) bargain at the time!

Most (if not all) manufacturers will not warranty when a seatpost shim is used even if it may not be explicitly obviously written (same thing everyone said to you a day or two ago in your only other thread you have contributed to on STW).

Again, if you are still upset or feel this is not made clear then the original shop (even if Freeborn) are the ones to be asking the questions to. Don’t drag Freeborn in to an inflammatory titled thread one day into trying to get a decent explanation/ decent resolution to your problem :wink:

The ebay link seems like quite a lot of money for a second hand alu frame although it does look very nice. Logic should play no part in the desire to buy a new bike/ frame though so don’t worry about justifying it in any way let alone as some kind of mechanism to improving your riding* :D

*So long as no children will go hungry or divorce ensues as a result

Kind of agree with Northwind but would err more towards the opinion that if you can’t ride something on a hardtail then a full sus won’t magically make it rideable.

You can often ride faster on a full sus and save some energy on the longer rides but in terms of actually riding a line I wouldn’t say there is much in it personally. A dropper post may be a practical help, tapered steerers/ different wheel sizes/ etc make naff all difference to a line you might or might not try and ride.

The biggest issue is mental and the commitment required, especially on the steeper stuff you mention… maybe a full sus would give you that confidence even if in reality there is little difference (unless you are doing a rather large drop in to a very rough landing or similar)?

I also personally like short travel full sus or hardtails to feel a bit more “connected” to what is going on rather than let a long travel bike dull a lot of what is happening under the wheels (a generalisation I realise!). That is just personal and I am sure a longer travel bike might be faster on some descents but if don’t like the look of a line then the amount of travel the bike has won’t change that :D

There really is no compensation for skills and technique but perhaps the mental benefits of confidence and having a shiny new bike are worth it :wink: As others have said, a lot of it comes down to experience too- if you ride a certain line at a certain speed once you kind of get a better idea of what is possible and the confidence grows from there

I have the converter Lloyd suggests and it works faultlessly. Not a bodge by any means. I think most 100mm forks can be reduced to 80mm travel with a spacer inside so a secondhand fork and a chepa trip to someone like Loco could be your best bet…

That’s a question to put to the company if it isn’t clear where they state their stance on seatpost shims. Most companies tend to be clear on this.

Any “single” or “short” chainring bolt should be fine. These are normally around 5mm long and have been fine for years on my 960’s. 7-8mm is closer to a “double” chainring bolt and will be too long I would have thought. If you want a blue alu one or a black one then I could pop one in the post to you…

Unfortunately I don’t think many (if any) companies will warranty seat tube damage where a shim has been used. I suspect there is probably quite a variable thickness of shims (poor tolerances) and the seatpost/ seattube contact is less consistent and potentially subject to more bending forces than a seatpost only, even if the shim has a deep insertion. Can’t explain this well but that would be my guess…

Although not strictly what you are asking… :oops:

A nice thick merino sock (Giro) and a neoprene overshoe (Endura) over the regular shoe is perfect for keeping dry and warm. I have had no issues at all with this combination and the total cost is around £30. This includes the coldest weather last winter where mud was freezing in my brake calipers and in the wet we had where most of our local trails were actually flooded!

Not directly much help and sizing is subject to many variables… but I ride a Large Cannondale Scalpel at 5’9”. I do like quite a long top tube though.

The top tube length is the most important factor to determine sizing. Leg inseems and seat tube lengths are pretty much irrelevant. Your upper body/ reach proportions are the things you will find hardest to fit correctly on the wrong size frame.

Without knowing a lot of the required information about you my first instinct would be that the XL should be better for a traitional stretched XC position whereas the Large will give you a more upright position and may well feel too small/ cramped. That said there is only 1.5cm difference in Eff. TT length between L and XL whereas there is a big jump from M to L (2.9cm).

The Large Flash has the same effective top tube length as my Large Scalpel as as I said, this is what I feel most comfortable with at 5’9”. I would be very, very surprised if a Medium were the best bike for you. Large might be the safest option, XL if you knwo you like to be reasonably stretched out.

Do you have a bike you know you feel comfortable on to compare effective top tube lengths and other geometry?

Having had two C&B Seen Chinese lights get me through last winter my input would be that they are pretty good when they work but perhaps not lights to get you through 3 or 4 years of constant use. The connectors are starting to come off and one overheats very quickly so switches to s lower power output to keep cool. Given the price though of the imports you can afford to replace them.

For an alternative “mid” price option look at the Gloworm lights. I have just ordered and X2 v3 after lots of balancing of brightness/ lack of hot spots/ spread/ light weight/ run time/ attachment/ warranty quality/ flexibility on programming light options/ flexibility of changing flood, spot and super spot lenses/ cost and value. I will keep the working Chinese light until it dies then look to upgrade that too…

It will be interesting to see how the pricing on the new Stans Carbon rims comes out. Does anyone have any inside info on these? The cheapest “branded” carbon 26 XC rim I can find is the DT Swiss XRC 300 for £375 each on Evans….

Is that on the “clincher” rim Keavo?

Is tubeless 100% foolproof on these rims with normal tubeless ready tyres (not UST) and some normal tubeless tape?

Is the difference between the “clincher” and “tubeless compatible” rims that the former is more like Stans rims and seals up fine with tape/ sealent whereas the latter is a UST rim bead. The comments on the products page on the Light Bicycle website would suggest so but it isn’t 100% clear…

Very, very, very roughly riding around 70-75% of your maximum heart rate should give good pacing for a 4-5 hour ride.

This has a multitude of problems if you are to get technical and scientific about it but a very, very, very rough, quick, basic calculation might help as a starting point to explore up and down from there for yourself.

Of course hills/ terrain/ wind etc push this up when on a MTB from time to time so my very unscientific approach is to try and ride around 135-145bpm as much as I can and then not go too nuts on the climbs. Whether or not this is the fastest way to pace yourself for a 4-5 hour ride I don’t know- all I know is that I feel much fresher and can push much harder towards the end whereas before with a “follow the group pace” approach I would feel half dead 2/3 to 3/4 in to the ride and crawl home just like everyone else :D

Looks really amazing! I bet it rides even better :)

Soma, is that the square taper version?

The Middleburn RS8 X-type are 612g with arms axle and spider or 548 with arms and axle but no spider. That is closer to XT than XTR with the spider considered.

The square taper rely on a very light BB to even start to compete with X0/ XX1/ FSA K-force/ Hollowgram with the external BB. If the weights you say in the example above are correct then it is actually quite light in the square taper version.

For comparison my FSA with BB (BB30 bearing so cheating slightly), narrow/ wide single ring and Alu bolts is 560g

P.S. Apologies to the OP for getting all geeky on this subject- I have only just been in the market myself so have it all fresh on my mind. What I said earlier still stands though- I think limiting yourself to Alu cranks only will never seem worth while weight wise and FSA SRAM X0)/ XX1 cranks would be the way to go or XTR/ Rotor if you really can’t stand carbon and only have £150

My XTR crank arms were 526g and Sicklines have some weighed at 516g to give some context to the weight above with rings. A light single ring is 35g and Alu bolts 5-10g

XX1 are around 545g with the stock spider and ring and around 505g with a spiderless chainring.

That puts the lightest X0/XX1 single ring configuration at the same weight as the FSA K-Force single ring set up. I went for the FSA as it was cheaper and gave a better chainline on a BB30 frame (spiderless chainrings have a different chainline beween BB30 and GXP versions which I wanted to avoid). Also the FSa give the flexibility for a 2x set up more easily in the future should you wish to go back from 1x

Middleburn RS8 are porky and not worthy of consideration for weight loss. The weight above sounds very optomistic to say the least. They are XT rather than XTR weight but have a certain aesthetic appeal.

I have about a year on the Rotor 3D and was very, very impressed. The attachment is super secure which was one of my main worries moving away from the super reliable XTR before that. They are shaped to give less shoe-crank rub than XTR too and IMO look nicer on the bike. The only reason for swapping was getting a new frame with BB30 and a chainline that did not work well with the Rotor.

My thoughts on this, if it would kill carbon, metal would be dead too. no difference between a FUBAR £150 alloy crank and a FUBAR £150 carbon crank.

My thoughts exactly. The OP cites X0 as one of the more durable carbon cranks but I have seen more pictures of failures at the pedal threads of X0 than any other crank (no doubt the popularity accounts for the large proportion of failures though).

As far as I know X0 and XX1 are the same arms with a different spider and the weight becomes more appealing with a spiderless ring. Still not as light or cheap as the FSA though.

I think trusting a carbon crank is a mental rather than physical issue! To the OP: I don’t think you will ever justify new Alu cranks on the basis of weight loss especially with a £150 budget. Personaly I would make the jump to carbon if weight really is important. Rotor 3D or XTR is the middle ground but won’r save anywhere near as much.

P.S. If anyone wants my Rotor 3D just let me know

Possibly the saddle too high causing the calf area to in effect “over-reach”. You would probably find some knee soreness/ ITB soreness if this was the case though…

Most likely seems the alignment of your (hip, knee and) ankle as you look at the bike front on could do with a bit of closer inspection. Keeping everything in a line is the general recommendation but it isn’t always as simple as that. If your knee does not track straight it might not be bad and equally strengthening the muscles around the knee might not be any help. Tightness in the hip and back could give issues which transfer down to the ankles as could a multitude of other factors.

What pedals? I have found Crank Brothers Eggbeaters to be particularly poor at giving any support which might irritate old niggles.

Generally speaking a cleat position further towards the heel reduces the contributions made by the calf during pedalling which is an extreme option to tests perhaps.

Basically…. it could be any number of things and I doubt anyone here will be able to solve this. Best bet is to see a physio I would say

My 170mm Rotor 3D are 558g

Just switched to FSA K-Force carbon 170mm are 464g

As others have said, why no carbon? The FSA were bought new within your budget.

The FSA with an Absolute Black chainring and Alu bolts are also only 5g heavier than a Cannondale Hollowgram with the lightest most exotic spiderless ring I could find. I would never use a Tune or BOR crank so the Hollowgrams are the lightest Alu I would actually want to use and trust.

Given the FSA Carbon set up was 5g heavier than the lightest Alu and about £800 cheaper it is a no brainer!

& rider

Probably should keep Rach on the 26 DH bike to give the other girls a 1% rather than 0% chance of winning tomorrow :D

I have just put an order in for the Gloworm X2 v3

I saw a thread a while back about these lights and it is great to hear the positives keep coming even after small issues.

Another thank you to Danny for replying super quickly to my annoying questions when considering my options and actually coming back with answers that made sense- sounds stupid but half the time people selling stuff have no idea about the finer point of the stuff they sell.

Can’t wait for my new X2 :)

Whatever you do, make sure you video yourself as you cut them top tube and make sure you laugh manically and end with a proper psycho look straight down the camera… that should entertain CRC and their daft requirement :D

Not too helpful but I sheared the head off a HT2 bolt and the LBS managed to get it out for a few quid. I would much rather not see the bodging that had to go in to getting it out!

Cardiff is generally pretty safe by comparison outside of Splott and Butetown ish areas.

I think the worst I saw in several years in Cardiff would be a drunk old woman falling off her bar stool in Lloyds, the bloke she was with turns round and see her on the floor and punches the next nearest bloke in the face. Both the man and woman get up, they all say sorry and have a drink together. Of course general scuffles and wot not will always happen in the Centre but people seem reasonably well natured in Cardiff (at least in the areas students would tend to frequent) :D

By the way, my first year house (Uni owned as there was no room in halls) in Cardiff was a total shit hole too and student life is hardly about glamour :D FIrst year is such a mess it hardly matters where you are!

Other bad thing living in Newport to go out in Cardiff is last train is 12:30ish. Might be better off keeping going until the 4:30ish train :D Not sure the taxi price Cardiff to Newport…

Basically, I would imagine you will look to move to Cardiff and will probably find your new friends will too :D

Regarding weight you have to bear in mind that the stiffness you get with a Lefty is more like what you get with a double crown DH fork, so comparing a Lefty to a normal single crown XC/Trail fork is not really comparing like for like.

Yes, this is the point I was trying to make. In terms of weight there isn’t much, if anything, to be saved. Is the stiffness worth around £600 to you in my example above… that is the question :?

Newport isn’t all that great :?

But… the riding you have available to you should at least distract you enough for three years.

In addition to the suggestions above I would suggest meeting up with the Cardiff Uni MTB club (other unis always used to be allowed to join) to learn the trails nearest Cardiff and join up with the Castle Bikes group rides out of Caerphilly for some great company and rides anywhere from Castel Coch/ Garth over towards Cwm Carn and everything in between
Castle Bikes[/url]

P.S. After the first year you will probably find most people move to Cardiff anyway

Anyone know the weight savings of the Carbon vs the alloy forks? Is it huge?

I really depends on the model but of the 2013 forks:
Lefty 26, Alloy PBR, 100mm = 1334g
Lefty 26, Carbon XLR, 100mm = 1250g
I think the XLR adds about 50g over the PBR but there is no option to buy a 2013 Carbon PBR- it would have to be an aftermarket upgrade

Older Carbon forks are as light as 1150g and I believe some of the old alloy forks go in to the 15xx/ 16xx g range. You have to add the weight of a steerer in to that too to compare to conventional forks

I wouldn’t buy a Lefty for weight savings (for XC anyway, not sure about the longer travel versions)…comparing my current set up (bought new) to the lightest Lefty (also if bought new) has only minimal weight savings at considerable expense

Magura Durin Race 1353g
American Classic Hub 125g
KCNC Ti QR 18g
= 1496g/ paid new £430

2013 Lefty Carbon XLR 1250g
Leonardi Steerer 125g
KCNC Post to IS adapter & Ti bolts 25g
Tune Cannonball hub and bolt 98g
= 1498g/ cheapest new £1000

An Experimental Prototype or MCFK steerer save 45g for an extra £100 or so, but then so would a Durin SL over the Race. The Cannondale SI stem/ steerer works out about the same weight as the Leonardi Steerer and a 125g stem so not a lighter option either on a Cannondale frame.

Not worth it from a weight point of view but the supposed performance benefits are very, very tempting. Justifying the cost is the tricky bit :?

Tool is only a few quid – just get one?

It does make life a hell of a lot easier at home! No reason to need the tool on the trail as if the chain snaps you will use a new link to rejoin the chain and they snap together far easier than they come apart…

They do tend to be quite stiff when new so I would tend to use pliers/ the tool until the links wear a little and come off more easily by hand

The really useful thing about inflating it with a tube, is that it establishes whether it’s ever going to go on- especially with schwalbe, it might simply be too tight to go onto the beads, their quality has its ups and downs.

Agreed!

In addition to all of the advice above I have found that leaving a tube in the tyre for a few days then doing a short ride or two on the road with the tube in tends to soften up the bead enough for it to pop on nicely without too much effort with a basic track pump (valve core removed, small amount of soapy water on the beads). This is on Stans rims.

No on the basis of not wanting to have it shoved in my face that you can’t turn a donkey in to a racehorse… I prefer to remain delusional and kid myself of my abilities if I were to have a little LA style help :D

Edit: The study organisers are the ones you should be asking these questions to rater than here! You will not take part without giving informed consent so ask the organisers the questions and read the documentation :roll:

A second hand Lefty doesn’t seem to save much over a brand spanking new one from Qwerty. You then have the risk of extra pennies on a service and spares etc. In the EU Leftys seems to be selling for around 1300 Euros new in which case second hand would make sense. Unless you can find a complete bargain second hand the Qwerty option does seem like good (relative) value.

And need to be 10 (or 11) speed width

Very true :?

Someone like Betd/ Goldtec must have made something like this at one time or another