its not just the Norcos, it is EVERYTHING i buy, doesn’t seem to matter what it is.. and it doesn’t seem to matter how i ride, 99% of my riding is surrey hills.

beano68, did i here a little “me too” there??

^^ :lol:

@JamesO that thing was awesome and definitely not on the list, so yeah, should have kept that!!

nope!

If anyone wants to buy me a beer next time im on the surrey hills to say thanks for saving you all from the rubbish products that would be ace.. :lol:

I am close to ending my 30 year relationship with mountain bikes i tell you! :lol:

At least i now know that yes it can just be me!

I should offer my fault finding services up to the highest bidder…

@golddigger, you are welcome!

Its not from buying cheap/low quality stuff either. We are talking top end Factory Fox forks, XT, XTR, Exposure lights, Non OEM Pikes, Hope Wheels etc.

Its the cost of this stuff when it just isn’t worth it imo that is whats annoying me. The Mondraker for example, Box fresh £4k retail. Fox Factory forks, X01 etc, near top end stuff and a shed load of money.

Forks rattled from the off. and its a “Common Problem” apparently, as is the crowns failing. you’d think this sort of thing would be ironed out by now? I’ve had 5 sets of forks fail in the last 4 years on the crowns and at least 3 mates who’ve had similar. All we are doing is trail riding..

Also, manufacturers that simply cannot make a pivot point that lasts. They all seem to cut costs on the bearings, the one thing that ties the frames together. Mondraker, Saracen, Norco, Specialized, Kona to name but a few. all of these i’ve seen bearings fail in stupidly short times, from days to a few months.

We spend a fortune on these things and they are marketed as suitable for “X” (i know to take marketing with more than a pinch of salt) when they plainly cannot, in my case at least (and a few mates i should point out)

All i’ll say is thank god for warranties!!

maybe i should buy an Evil, their business model seems to be that the bikes are designed to fail, so with my luck i should get the one that stays together!!

i wonder who has the flip side of my bad luck…?

funnily enough the last 2nd hand bike i bought (an 08 Turner RFX) was utterly faultless and literally never went wrong in the 2 years i owned it…

I swear i could walk into any shop anywhere, and the thing i pick to buy will be the one that is made wrong/broken/defective/etc.

i’m wondering when its going to end…

i am asking myself these very questions… :lol:

be a guinea pig and let everyone else know how you get on….

Definitley worth doing a rockshox lower service if they are OEM, seen far too many sets that are bone dry when OEM sourced. for the sake of 20 minutes work its well worth it.

you’ll generally always get a new one from Fishers as its actually cheaper for them to replace the whole unit compared the time cost of stripping and rebuilding the broken one.

simpsons Skoda are doing some mega deals on the Octavia VRs 230 edition. right in the £200 per month on 0% PCP

link[/url]

highly tempted myself

the newest one is meant to resolve the sagging issue that has just been released.

Mine is starting to sag now after a few months and i have been so careful with it, never lifted by the seat etc. they are just rubbish.

thankfully this year there seems to be a lot of decent alternatives coming out.

1×11 XTR here, ridden for over a year and all through this horrid winter on the sandy surrey hills. i’ve had 2 chains in the last year and its all still working perfectly with minimal wear.
in my experience, wear comes from not using the correct gears and not maintaining properly (i.e properly cleaning and lubing your chain) 1×11 for me has had far better wear than 2x, chains last longer as they are not hauled across huge gaps on the chainrings and the 1x chainrings last far longer than 2/3x

Maybe try taking out one of the axle spacers and see if it spins freely without any side to side play. sounds like its on the right track and your BB is a bit narrower than spec or its been faced a lot.

Oh, and the big allen key will be fine, just crank it down till it bottoms out and you are done

Sounds like your BB shell is less than 73mm…
if its bottoming out on the crank bolt and there is still side to side play, you need to either add more Raceface axle spacers or (after you’ve measured the BB shell) add another spacer to the BB to move the BB shell out, suggest that you do that on the non drive side to avoid messing the chainline.
BB spacers are 2mm, so if you have 2mm of side to side play, start there rather than packing out the axle with the axle spacers. just make sure it still bottoms out with no play rather than not bottoming out with no play. might take a bit of playing around to get the right preload by adding or subtracting the axle spacers from there, but you’ll get there

i ran it the other way, Hope cranks and RF BB, worked fine for 3 months till RF BB failed.
Cross compatibility is definitely there

if you pre-order at that price, surely they have to honour it anyway?

tempted by some myself

i’ve done some road descents off the south downs at 45+mph and they have been utterly fine, nothing alpine though.
Also on the cross bike i’ve done some very steep MTB trails in the surrey hills which (aside from being scary as hell on a cross bike!) were nicely controllable.

they’ve handled mud, rain and heat really well. as i said initially, the only complaint i have is the rattle!

I’ve used the Juin tech R1s for a while, great upgrade, power and feel is tehre if you use the right compressionless cables and housing. price wise i don’t see how they can be beaten. They are as good or better (in my experience) and certainly look better than the TRP cable/hydro brakes and far better than any cable brake.
Only issue i had with mine was a slight rattle from the actuation arm, which can be rectified with very thin shims or re-spacing it if you are bothered (i wasn’t)
They also use easy to get previous generation shimano pads, so loads of options for braking in different conditions there.
Genuinely impressed with them and would thoroughly recommend, especially when taking price into account

used them a lot, Ace tyre, one of the best around in all honesty, but, the 2.4 is HUGE. the 2.25 is a better all round tyre

seriously? people are questioning if its an April fools? lol

Renovo Badash, just needs the ugly frame removed.

fixed.

just be warned with the X1/X2 HT’s, depending on your shoes, you won’t need ANY of the pins. had one of the worst crashes of my life as i installed all of the pins and couldn’t release even when ragdolling down the trail… the pins are totally pointless and once removed the pedals are utterly brilliant.

Also, the cleats are very similar to shimano, i.e STEEL, so are likely to last forever

admittedly my experience of CB is a few years back now, but never ever again. i’ve seen enough newer models knackered to steer well clear. (work in the industry..)

These are my new favourites:

HT T1[/url]

and no, i don’t work for that publication or any other!

haven’t used them for long, but been on the older X1 pedal for a year and LOVE them. the retention is stronger than SPD, with a better warning when you are close to releasing with a lot more float

The new HT’s are pretty good i’m finding, MAvic/Time are ace though, bit vague on the retention/release compared to SPDs and HT tho.
Crank brothers are utter rubbish in most peoples (mine included) experience. i’ve had them fail within 20 minutes of leaving the car park on the first ride, NEVER again, no matter what shiny colour they do them in.
Thoroughly impressed with HT’s though and highly recommended. i believe the trail pedal comes with 2 sets of cleats offering varying degrees of float, either that or you can buy an alternate cleat, not 100% on that.

Always had trouble keeping tyres on my arch ex rims. Now run the wtb frequency i25 and they are ace.

Mine is definitely the rear calliper, the inner pad doesn’t make full contact with the disc. Same has happened to several people i know, all with XT’s.

i’ve swapped out to my brand new spare set of brakes (Formula CR1’s) which depending on what you read will be awesome and last for ever or will kill me in seconds.

I’m on my second set doing this and going to swap the calliper around replacing the front with a spare Saint and putting the “good” front XT on the rear. Will let you know how they go

Question for people, how are you all storing your bikes? My last one died after a trip to wales and putting the bike upside down in a van. The new one has died since i moved house and store the bike by hanging it on the front wheel in the garage.

my gut feeling is that Shimano brakes like to be kept the right way up at all times.

check the disc bolts, seen far too many of those loose over the years…

had to do the same on my new frame, replacing the connectamajig with the normal strain relief and barb allows about 1-1.5″ of extra drop. costs about £8 and is a doddle to change, just requires a bleed of the hose and you are done. just make sure you bleed the hose with the lever on the fastest return speed.

takes about 20 mins all in

this is the part

yeah, won’t fit, you’ll need the bar mount version of the shifter.

mines been fine for nearly a year now..

Look up counter steering for your answer.

had this on a PIKE, it was grease blocking the negative chamber bleed hole.

If they are 2016, send them back as it could be anything from what i mentioned, to metal or plastic swarf, no lube or a knackered damper or airshaft (seen all in Rockshox forks)

Move the BB spacer, fit chainring spacer washers between the chainring and crank spider to move the chainring inwards. you can get 3-4mm movement all in that way.

Never run into to a thread depth issue on the BB.

in all honesty, it should have been set up properly before being handed over to you!