@renton

The wheels unit is a nice quality piece and the bearings are easily replaced when required.

However, the choice of BB depends on the tolerance of your stumpjumper shell. If within the PF30 tolerance range, wheels will work well. If the frame is slightly oversized try praxxis works. You might need carbon fibre grip paste on the frame shell where the cups seat if your frame is on the far end of the oversized range.

I had 4 different carbon fibre stumpjumper and each had different tolerance on the BB s.

I blew a student loan in the early 90’s on an Arcam CD player and Amp, paired with Mission speakers, custom cable and shot-weighted speaker stands.

Worth every penny, not heard anything like it since. Had it 16 years, sounded perfect, needed the space, sold it for £450 to an enthusiast who arrived in a Triumph.

Great products need great marketing. All the magazines of that time raved about British hi-fi like Arcam.

Shame about Middleburn, but not heard much about them in years and I work in the trade

we do a lot of Dt servicing and the end caps often require aluminium alloy wheel axle clamps in the vice to wiggle them off the axle

Worn / dirty Headset bearings or loose headset

very common cause of creaking on each pedal stroke.

@wobbliscott

The clicking is normally a loose headset allowing the fork to move on the headset bearings on each pedal stroke – frame makes it sound like BB or pedal

Quick check – see if the stem spacers can be turned by hand ;)

Oakley’s here – a number of different pairs.

well worth the premium price. optical quality noticeably better than competitors

excellent customer service if needed.

Fantastic training tool. Surprising depth of data if required. Q factor on later generation Wattbike is better.

Best are the Giant ride right coaching Wattbike developed for powerfit. Massive adjustment range including handlebar width

@pjm

I had 5 stumpjumper 2 with bb30, 3 with pf30. Each had “issues”.

Praxxis on the pf30 creaked until I stopped using grease between BB shell and praxxis BB unit, and used carbon fibre grip paste. Liberally on the frame BB shell, on the nylon sleeve and BB case itself. still use grease where praxxis BB threads together.

S-WORKS power on my Road bike and MTB.

Fantastic saddles…the old cliche ‘game changer’ not wrong.

Setup is not simple, you need an accurate fit and alterations to your existing fit to get the real benefits, be aware it only offers 1 position which may not suit all riders.

I found it allows me an aggressive forward position on the road bike with no soft tissue contact. Takes some conditioning as ischial tuberosities (sit bones) take all load. Increased cadence from legs being free to spin away with incredible pelvic support.

On the MTB I’ve found it best for climbing, on the flat it can feel weird unless you have a champion XC setup pulling your body forward.

MTB and road setups different angle of nose flat relative ground- road -1, MTB +1.

Thinner shorts with minimal padding feel best. Anything with endurance or gel does not allow proper contact for the sit bones and causes instability.

I’ve had loads of saddles including Specialized Toupe, romin, romin Evo, the power is well worth checking out if you like pedalling fast!

I see a lot of new reboxed bikes coming into our workshop from customers purchasing discounted bikes on the internet.

Most bikes come in oversized boxes and should require stem turning/securing and pedals attaching – most come with a assembly manual and often a cheap pedal spanner and multi tool.

Some bikes come in the original box so have been partially dismantled and require a mechanic to reassemble using tools and a torque wrench.

I’ve probably done about 100 this year £40 “safety check”, many are insurance replacement as well as some bikes coming from chain retailers in London.

It’s pretty shocking how many fail a safety check – you can tell it’s been flung together with little care. Some were downright dangerous.

My own experience of buying a super six Evo from Evans was eye opening. The bike was presented to me in a condition that would have been a cytech 1 fail or ‘no thanks’ in a mechanic’s job interview test build.

This was despite a fancy owners pack including a fancy PDI sheet (box ticking exercise) which told me the mechanic had secured the pedals which were not supplied nor fitted! I then asked for the pedals and was told the bike was not supplied with them. I showed them their PDI sheet which seemed to confuse them.

After walking home 3 miles pushing the bike, and getting fobbed off by customer services…no thanks!

@renton

I had 5 stumpjumper frames 2 with bb30, 3 with PF30. Each had press fit BB issues, 1 of the bb30 frame was replaced under warranty due to machining errors in the BB shell

Each PF30 frame had slight variations in the BB bore tolerance. Last frame the bore a little too large, meant using a praxxis BB with fibre grip on the nylon sleeve and BB seats.

Tried greases, anti seize, wheels BB, SRAM BB, different cranks native 30mm and ht2 xt.

Totally depends on the frame itself, and it’s tolerances.

But you can generally get xt or slx running on praxxis conversion BB with some reliability, the bearing benefit from packing with marine grease before use and cheap to replace as needed

The praxxis comes native for bb30 with nylon sleeve for pf30

nylon wear plate on the inside of the front derailleur cage, this is a replaceable item.

setup chain to near contact the nylon plate, or just touching you won’t feel it as its slippy, it will prevent the chain dropping to the inside

i spoke to a machine shop (might have been BETD?) they had an adjustable reamer on a machine tool.

not cheap – charged per hour and no guarantee.

They said never to cut the post off at the seatclamp as you’d assume, but leave it alone for them to cut, or cut with a good couple of inches left as it helped the tool centre

geometry is key

my XTC Advanced 29’er had a somewhat frightening 71.5 HA and short stays

I put a Works Components 1.5 degree headset in there and knocked the HA back to 70 degrees – which also lowered the BBH and steepen the SA slightly

The longer front centre is instantly noticeable and lets you sit in the middle of the bike, and run the fork with less compression as you can use the travel without adverse geometry effects

The stock HA and short stays had you sitting too far forward, running fork with higher compression to provide support, but less grip

Its transformed the bike and unlocked its potential.

2017 XTC have new frames with 69 degree HA ;)

my buddy’s Banshee AMP

my Banshee Rampant

camelbak skyline ;)

Went there for 2.5 weeks of a 4 week BC vacation. In early July we had 2 days of bike park. Then closed 2 days due to storm weather. We quickly learned it’s boring unless spending money. Thankfully the park reopened on day 5

Mountain weather is random

@olibluegoat

I have 350’s in the MTB with the stock ratchet

I have 240’s on the road bike with DT Swiss built giant deep section aero wheels, again the stock ratchet

Never felt any need to change or upgrade

I used hope hubs for years before finding DT.

Found DT Swiss 350 an amazing hub regardless of the good value, slight weight penalty, marginally lower grade bearings, but same ‘guts’ as the 240.

Build the wheels, forget about the hubs, maybe twice a year clean and lube the ratchet drive – takes 5-10 mins with basic tools.

Spares very easy to come by if needed. the special lockring tool not expensive on its own, sockets do the rest

Giant
Specialized
Cannondale

Shimano stainless steel inners

Shimano SP-41 outers

For my Road and mountain bikes

Hull,no doubt.

London’s great for work opportunities and access to riding, although cost of living is higher.

I live in NW1 and can go mountain biking each morning before work. I can go to Queen Elizabeth Olympic park within 25 minutes ride, 15 minutes onto trains to Aston hills, woburn sands, porc, chicksands, Surrey hills, Swinley, etc.

Road riding straight out the door…Surrey within 25 minutes through West London. Easy train access to Herts, Kent and Bucks

Easy European and international flights from Gatwick and Heathrow

Bmx? Olympic bmx track, numerous pump track, bmx track, skatepark, trails in surrey

You won’t need a car, it’s super easy to get around by bike/train

It ain’t bad ;)

My alley was 56cm and too long. I am 5’10” with 32″ inseam and relatively long arms.

Allez cracked and lovely people at Specialized could not replace the frame so upgraded me to Tarmac. Was offered sizes, got a 54cm, much better fit.

However, I can easily ride a 52cm. Try both sizes with an experienced sales person or bike fitting technician

I clean carbon fibre bike frames/wheels with isopropyl alcohol, then treat the appropriate surfaces with a bike specific polish that’s carbon friendly.

If a bike is particularly dirty we’d use our rozone parts washer and then diluted Muc-Off before a wipe with the isopropyl and polishing.

Fibre grip carbon paste(seat post), finish line Teflon grease (press fit BB and headset bearings)and anti seize where appropriate

Giant just launched 20% off Defy alloys to make room for big changes to 2017 range.

RIP Mr Simon Sharp

Awesome work building Hope Technology into a shining example of UK innovation and manufacturing prowess.

I enjoyed building lots of wheels with your hubs, and your lights have let me ride in dark woods.

Defy frame is better quality.

Geometry different between Defy and Allez.

Always get the smaller frame you can be fitted to, allows movement either direction. Bigger frame fit has to be shrunk, can run into reach issues very easily which cannot be resolved without messing up the handling.

Both good bikes… cannot go wrong really?

Porridge with sliced banana, mixed nuts, sultanas, blueberries and raspberries, very small squirt of honey. And black coffee obviously!

It’s normally a joytech or formula made hub and freehub can have subtle differences to the base which means you need the right part.

I ran workshops in 2 concept stores, we’d ring the customer service people at chessington, for members of the public you need to go through a local dealer.

these things work great but more concentration needed in blustery conditions as expected

GC race bike with deep section wheels feels awesome to ride

fancy a deal ? 2016 model is £2,500

@spicer

here’s mine

you can easily upgrade the compression damper and rebound damper for the 32mm TK forks.

I got the Motion Control DNA and Rapid Recovery damper upgrades put into my fork, transforms the ride

@FOG

weigh the wheels (take off the tires/tubes/cassette/rotors).

A lot of good quality production disc road bikes even in the £2K+ range come with +2kg wheels

You can easily zip up the performance with an aftermarket set – could easily lop 300-400 gm off the wheels without spending silly money. Get some decent tires if the bike did not come with some.

Check out which standards your bike dropouts use.

I’d then look at the OE finishing kit, it can hide a surprising amount of weight with thick wall bars, thick wall seat post, heavy saddle

Nice bike, is it “better” than the Giant etc?

probably not, in terms of carbon fibre manufacturing Giant are top dogs, many “brands” like Yeti are design/marketing companies using subcontractors to build their frames.

but of course I’m biased as hell, as I ride an XTC ;)

Vittoria Corsa G+ are excellent in 25c

especially when pared with Latex tubes, makes the most of the tire’s open tubular construction

GP4000II are longer lasting, but not as grippy/lively to ride

@hora

Get the shimano 11spd shifter/hydro lever/caliper kit.

Will work great with your existing rotors with +20mm adapters

@hora

the hydro discs on the Advanced Pro are a big improvement on the mechanicals on the Advanced.

Well worth converting if keeping the bike

Esher shore, how much would this cost? Asked local LBS but they either don’t do it or have a31.6 tool.

I’d expect to pay £20-25 for their time. The more difficult problem is finding someone with the cutting bit in the right diameter for your seat tube

Had hydro discs (shimano RS685) last year

Got a new bike, with caliper brakes (6800 Ultegra). Just feels really quick, simple, very clean.

Even if the weather is poor, the caliper brakes with suitable winter pads and regularly cleaned rims seem fine for road riding?

Still got hydro discs, but just on the MTB

If I was building an all-year commuting road bike (where immediate stopping power is beneficial whilst in heavy traffic) , I’d get an alloy Defy disc and throw some shimano hydro STI and disc brakes on there.