I’d strongly recommend doing the “fork lowers service” as a regular (every 2-3 months) preventative maintenance regime. this is also true of air shocks.

especially for Fox forks which tend to run low oil volumes and quickly degenerate once contaminated or run dry

for anything more technical involving the damper or bushings its probably worth sending the fork (and shock) off to a proper service centre where they will have access to tools, seals and parts you may not

ordered a Titec seatpost from them in an unusual size, some years ago.

it arrived within 10 days and no tax charged

you’ve admitted you got a foreign object stuck in your drivetrain which caused your derailleur to break?

“just riding along” is a term heard everyday in warranty departments across the world, we even call it a “JRA” (I work in the bike industry)

good luck with your warranty claim :)

@nwill1

mid-range Specialized Roubaix, Trek Domane or similar around £2-2.5K

fitted properly (BG Fit session)

quality clothing, shoes, helmet and accessories, maybe a wheel upgrade as the stock wheels are somewhat basic/heavy

will easily chew into the £4K budget

will end up with a much better cycling experience than sp*nking £4K on just a bike (and perhaps making the mistake of buying a ‘race’ bike if they are not racing!)

if the dropout itself has bent, you need a new frame

if you are the original owner, have proof of purchase and have a good relationship with local Specialized dealer, they might be able to sort a new frame out under ‘crash replacement’

won’t be cheap though, probably at least £200

(I used to work at a Specialized Concept Store as workshop manager and have done 100+ crash replacement/warranty jobs)

not a fan at all – very egotistical

just my opinion, though..if it makes the owner happy then why not?

really loved the ‘old’ Konas, especially the early 90’s Explosif – was a lovely XC bike

was lucky enough to then own a couple of KHS Montana including the Pro (True Temper OX Ultra II tubing) and Team Ti (butted titanium) which were both under 22lb with Future Shock MMX fork, Syncros finishing kit and Shimano XTR

shame the “new” Kona hardtails are nothing like the old, when I worked at Evans we kept having to do this, because they were all coming ‘bent out of the box’

warner for the win!

hopefully his ripped groin has recovered from this cheeky stunt I was showing him..although this could also be the source of his swearing the past seasons!

@crankboy

sorry to hear about your collision

this was mine, a few weeks back in NW London, RTC with a white van driver who did not bother “looking” before he pulled off the kerb…

..just as I started overtaking a stationary bus at the bus stop.

of course, said white van driver reversed and made his escape before anyone could stop him fleeing the scene :(

the people who stopped were BMW and Mercedes driver which is a 1st for me, as they are normally the cause of “near misses” on the bike!

@jackthedog

is there a european mechanic working in your LBS?

worth having a chat with the workshop manager or store manager and asking them to look into this

if a bike came into my workshop with euro brake setup, I would re cable the brakes as the bike was presented by the customer

having brakes swapped can be very dangerous in an emergency when reaction overrides thought

years ago in Whistler, Canada my buddy had his Kona Stab rental bike stolen whilst at lunch (it was next to the burger bar when we had our lunch break).

The RCMP found the thief with a fractured skull and the stolen bike at the bottom of a big stair set at the lower village. thief had not realised we had those bikes for 10 days and had switched the brake hoses to UK setup on first day = ouch!

when I worked for Evans all bikes supplied to customers had to meet B6102 Pt.1 for road safety which includes front brake on right, rear brake on left

of course, we would get european or american customers who wanted the reverse, and we’d actually have them sign a waiver before leaving the store with the switched setup, to acknowledge they had asked specifically for the bike to be supplied this way.

@julianwilson

agree with your comments

I’ve been trained by Shimano as a bike mechanic, and had specific training on their disc brakes. the importance of using their specific mineral oil was always stressed

I am not stupid about commercial realities, and soon realized buying DOT and Shock / Fork oil from motorbike suppliers was 1/4 of the price of buying the same rebadged fluids from MTB “brands”. This was confirmed when I actually met a rep from one of the leading oil manufacturers and we got talking, he told me the ‘brands’ his company rebadged oils for.

yet, from talking to many experienced mechanics and industry people, it does appear Shimano have something a little different going on with their mineral oil. its not a stock item from what I can gather?

I am sure many people have had good success using other mineral oils in their Shimano brakes. But as a professional bike mechanic I’d only recommend using Shimano in Shimano brakes, and Magura Blood in Magura brakes.

For DOT brakes I’d just use any good quality DOT of suitable spec.

the reason for this is that DOT is an automotive product and subject to tightly controlled legal specifications, whereas most mineral oils are?? At least with Shimano and Magura you have a controlled specification for their mineral oils.

@fasthaggis

I am glad your commuting bike is working well with the shimano hubs

I use Shimano R500 road wheels on my 700c commuter and have had no issues with them developing play, I adjusted the rear hub once a few weeks after fitment and its been fine since

from my experience, it seems to be an issue once you start abusing the loose ball hubs /wheels in a mountain bike environment?

stumpy 29er is very capable and did not have the baggage I assumed it would

really surprised me when I borrowed one and rode it on my local trails which I normally ride on a 29’er hardtail

@giantx4

its not a case that Shimano hubs are not sealed

they are adequately sealed, and having been trained by Shimano (as a mechanic) I understand why they use loose ball bearing hubs – in the ‘lab’ these have less rolling resistance than ‘sealed, cartridge bearing’ hubs

but the experience in the ‘real world’ might tell you that keeping loose ball bearing hubs in good order in terms of adjustment, is a pain in the ass compared to the simplicity of the sealed cartridge bearing hubs that are common to many aftermarket brands. loads on the axle seem to cause the cones to backup, causing play to develop.

the big advantage of the sealed cartridge bearing hubs is that once the bearing is shot, it can be knocked out and a new bearing pressed into place

a big problem with Shimano is that many of their hubs do not have replaceable bearing races, or that these races are not available in the UK which means the hub is toast once the races are pitted (which happens easily when hub keeps coming loose). this means a wheel rebuild or a new wheel.

as an example, I recently went to a bearing supplier and paid £10 for 2 sealed SKS bearings for my Specialized Stout hub which was 2 years and never looked at, but had started running rough and a little lateral play which was affecting the front disc brake

10 minutes after bringing the bearings into the workshop, and using a Hope tool set to press the new bearings into the hub, it feels as new, and the SKS bearings will probably last considerably longer than the 2 years the cheapo stock sealed bearings lasted

made the mistake of building 2 wheelsets with XT hubs a few years ago

both constantly worked loose on the rear hub on both bikes, no amount of adjustment / spannering would cure this issue (I was a bike mechanic)

I ended up selling both and getting wheels built with Gusset Jury and Hope Pro II hubs (both with sealed cartridge bearings) and no problems to report apart from a bearing change every 2-3 years

shimano mineral oil is not the same as “mineral oil” under other ‘labels, its a specific formulation with tight QC, when you look at how much R&D shimano put into their disc brakes its worth following their advice

its not like owning Avid, Hayes, Formula or Hope and running any random Dot 5.1 you can find?

considering how little you actually need to bleed a brake, its worth buying the genuine shimano oil to make sure 100% your brakes will work in the long term, especially when stressed on long descents

I don’t run shimano brakes or have shares in Shimano in case you are wondering, but would always use shimano oil if I did own their brakes ;)

running 32t front and 11-36t rear

would like sram 11 speed (have ridden it off road on 3 different 29’ers)but funds do not permit…

what is this ‘racing’ you speak of?

ah..its been a while!

@crashtestmonkey

the 7005 alloys allow for a lighter frameset, simply because you need less material for the same strength as 6082 or similiar 6XXX alloys: you can use a thinner wall or smaller tube, which also changes the ride feel

i worked extensively in 6082 (HE30) in the UK making prototype frames, which always ended up heavier than the 7005 frames my factory in Australia was making my production frames from. we could not source 7XXX tubes in the UK otherwise i would have jumped on them..

A big problem with 6082 was the expensive, time consuming and temperature critical T6 heat treatment; compared to 7005 frames which would harden in their packaging whilst ‘on the boat’ following post weld alignment

I used to sell a lot of USA made Zaskars whilst working at one of the UK’s leading GT dealers and we had a large number back cracked due to poor QC during heat treatment

@sharkattack

we’ve had them at the covent garden concept shop for 2 months?

ridden 2 off-road (med and large )for customers flying overseas and wanting ‘dirty bike’ in the box

a very impressive bike, actually preferred it to stumpy evo 29’er which i’ve also dirtied up for customers

spare decals are very nice decoration on workbench!

A1 is 6xxx aluminium, M4 is 7xxx aluminium.

In reality the M4 frame is lighter as the stronger alloy allows thinner walled tubes and smaller diameter tubes which also give a less harsh ride.

@cybicle

I’d love to see motor vehicles removed from city centres, but as it stands we cannot use our feelings about “what should be” as an excuse to ignore cyclists that are breaking the law and putting people in danger.

The area around our shop is all one-way streets, and it only takes 30 seconds more on your bike to take the correct route to get onto Long Acre, rather than short cutting this by riding up a one-way street that has numerous pedestrians laden with shopping coming down the pavements.

The concern the police have about our street is that sooner or later someone will actually get killed, and it will probably be a cyclist having a head-on collision with a motor vehicle, because these cyclists are coming into this street off a left turn that is clearly designated “no left turn” and “no entry” and this corner is blind

You can stand in our shop in the morning when we take deliveries (there is a parking bay across the street) and watch numerous cyclists whizzing the wrong way up this one-way street, at considerable speed

@cybicle

its something that is probably very unreported, unless a serious accident occurs.

in the past 14 months, whilst on foot, I have been hit by 2 cyclists in Camden, one outside the tube station where the lad rode straight through the red light and rode into me as I was crossing on a green pedestrian light, knocking me to the ground bruising my jaw and arm

then several months later on the pavement next to Sainsburys, women on old bike rode straight into me knocking my shopping bags over.

Last week on Friday night near New Oxford Street, as I was making a left turn on my bike (fully lit and indicating with my arm) a women rang straight across the pavement into the road, I rang my bell and shouted and managed to slide to a stop but she still ran straight into me knocking us both over.

I’ve seen numerous pedestrians / cyclists collisions especially junctions like the Strand onto Waterloo Bridge where the cyclists ignore the red stop light after coming off the cycle path across the pavement. I commuted this route every day for 6 years.

So it does happen.

@amedias

I cannot speak for him, but from my observations I think a lot of new cyclists just don’t understand how dangerous riding in heavy traffic can actually be, and how quickly things can go wrong (especially the HGV fatalities where it only takes brief contact with tire to get pulled under vehicle)

The old advise was “assume everyone is out to kill you” which just means keeping your wits about you at all times, and not putting yourself into risky situations where something can quickly go very wrong and perhaps cause serious injury or death

Something experienced commuters in London will tell you (I work in bike shops and hear this a lot) is what a hazard other cyclists have become to them in recent years, with lots of near misses from cyclists RLJ, failing to indicate, undercutting cyclists who are riding defensively in the correct position on the road, suddenly swerving, etc.

I regularly have cyclists trying to ride against me on a one-way street I use every day in Covent Garden, even when there is a motor vehicle just behind me.

The street outside our bike shop in Covent Garden is also one-way and our customers, shop staff and pedestrians have had numerous near misses as well as several accidents as riders plough into them after speeding the wrong-way up this street – if a motor vehicle is coming the cyclist will move onto the pavement (there is no kerb edge) to get around the oncoming vehicle.

Its become such a problem that the local Police Team has undertaken several blitzes ticketing cyclists, and the local authority has adjusted the no-entry signage on the street to reinforce this (not that these cyclists pay any attention..)

this is my Stumpy Expert Carbon 29’er which has been given the “Evo” treatment with 100mm forks, big tires, 750mm Easton bars, 70mm Thomson stem and flat pedals

It started life as a “race bike” and frame is only 1.2kg, but with the changes I made its huge fun to blast around on and feels very fast / lively for trail riding

@karenofnine

I agree with your comments, I have been commuting in London for 15 years and have noticed in the past few years with the massive increase in numbers of cyclists, a very noticeable decrease in the numbers of “safe” cyclists on the roads.

I only commute 3 miles each direction to work at the moment, from NW1 to WC2H.

Even bearing in mind this short distance, every day I see numerous instances of cyclists RLJ, pavement pedalling, cyclists going through pedestrians on a pedestrian crossing and going up the inside of HGV and Buses (often between the vehicle and steel railings).

Only this morning I thought I was about to see a fatality when a lad on a bike (wearing headphones) squeezed up in the inside of a large lorry waiting at red light, even though the lorry was indicating to make a left turn, and was sitting at an angle to make this left turn. I tried shouting to warn him, but was 15 feet behind the lorry and he could not hear me!

Once the lights changed, as the lorry pulled forward the gap quickly narrowed, he swerved, hit the kerb with his tires and fell onto the pavement holding his bike. Thank god there were no railings there.

The junction between Southampton Row and Russell Square (going south towards Covent Garden) is notorious for cyclists RLJ and riding up onto the pavement to get around the light. You can sit on your bike at the stop line and see 6-8 cyclists merrily going through this junction whilst pedestrians are crossing on their green light, whilst all motor vehicle traffic has stopped.

yes I will see bad driving, but the traffic is not moving very fast in Central London (it seems to be heavily gridlocked most of the time)

we have to sort ourselves out in terms of making other cyclists aware of the danger they put themselves and other road users in ( pedestrians, motorbikers and even motorists) as a careless or dangerous cyclist can easily instigate a road traffic collision

@mrblobby @trail_rat

his name was “Mr Dingleberry” and he was not shy of cash – would pull out a fat roll of £50 notes whenever he visited the store

apparently lived somewhere near Epping, after leaving a life behind in “the city”

Last I heard he was buying a Surly cargo bike to haul all of his stuff about as the poor old Hardrock was struggling under all that load.

Last time I actually saw him, he was coasting past the Imax Cinema on the roundabout at Waterloo coming off the bridge probably doing 30mph+ as the plastic bags on his bike had damaged his brake cables meaning…no brakes

TT3D : Closer To The Edge official trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn1YB7fk8eg

more strange vehicles seen on my travels:

homeless man’s bike (hardrock with 10 speed Shimano XT under all that..)

electric madness from US company Hanebrink

australian tourists brought their 2-person recumbant to the UK with them

@bencooper

yeah the manual is an interesting one.

in my current workshop we have comprehensive technical resources (in binders) for SRAM, Shimano mechanical, Shimano Di2 and the brand we sell

its constantly used for reference, and new information is always being added

the recent shift to 11 speed road transmission from Shimano has brought a raft of new information and even tools

who would have known that 11 speed ultegra has a 19-page manual and plastic setup tool just for the front derailleur?

on 29’er

-ran 33T x 11-36T for first year

-replaced with 32T x 11-36T

slightly easier getting up bigger hills in wet, and cadence seems more suitable from the 1T drop in front chainring size, the 33T always seems mismatched with rear?

recently tested new SRAM 11-speed with the huge 42T cassette and 32T front, and was seriously impressed with ability to spin up steep muddy climbs, which is the only situation my 10 speed lets me down.

I’d been working for a good number of years as a mechanic (including suspension servicing, disc brake servicing, full-suspension frame servicing, wheel building, etc.) before ever going nearing Cytech training

it was moving from my last LBS to a big chain-store retailer (Evans) that actually got me onto Cytech training, which was paid for by the company.

Cytech II was fantastic as we had one of the best trainers in the industry working in-house for Evans at their LCW site in Bermondsey

I learned a huge amount of extra detail and information, including much of the theory side I’d never thought much about.

Came away with some solid literature ( a huge binder ) which I have regularly used in the time since for reference and as legal defence (BS6102) for not undertaking dangerous work despite a store manager insisting a job “should be done”.

Working under severe time pressure during the Cytech final exams was also interesting and very revealing, similar to that feeling of panic at the start of a run in a DH race!

Is Cytech essential? No, experience counts for a huge amount.

I have interviewed mechanics with Cytech II I would not employ in my workshops, because they were not competent. I have also interviewed “time served” mechanics with no formal training that I would also not employ because of bad practises and attitude problems.

I’d say a combination of formal training, on job experience and certification is ideal.

From an employers point of view, a Cytech or C&G qualification is something you always look for on a CV, and can be the difference between getting a job interview or not, when we have 10 CVs to go through.

MOST IMPORTANTLY for any mechanic..a willingness to constantly learn, admit when you don’t know something (and ask for help), and be prepared to change your ways of working if new, better ways become evident.

I really enjoy a day when I learn something new (I learnt something crucial about Shimano Di2 setup yesterday, that Shimano’s own training did not cover). I will always admit I don’t know everything, no one can.

Any mechanic who says they know everything is dangerous in my opinion, and often resistance to change.

The more knowledge you can gain, the better you can be.

having spent some years working in the retail bike industry in London, I’d say a “good salary” is actually a living wage! You know, one you can live on.

most of the people I work with are on ‘poverty wages’ which means zero-hour contracts, paid minimum wage and no paid holiday. many end up leaving and going off to work for Tesco, etc.

in some cases I know of personally, the full time staff get minimum wage and a minute hourly supplement of “rolled up holiday pay” (actually illegal for full time staff) rather than any paid holiday

but because they have no money, they cannot engage any legal assistance to fight the company for this blatant law breaking, its been going for several years..one guy has no paid holiday in 2 years despite working 40+ hour weeks

management staff typically paid £16K for assistant manager or workshop manager, and store manager £22-23K, these are for stores in London with multi million turnover!

It can be great fun mixing and matching bikes, this is my Specialized Crosstrail that I’ve rebuilt for commuting with rigid forks, road wheels, road transmission and full length mudguards

It will also happily take a 29’er tire front and rear if I remove the mudguards!

in BMX, us dinousaurs still running a rear brake always used a linear cable because it allowed a proper setup with minimal influence when the bars got spun from a bar spin or tailwhip : hey dinosaur! why are you spinning those bars ;)

never tried this on mechanical discs because I hate mechanical discs, which have slowly infiltrated the road bike world, I would not touch mech discs whether for MTB or Road, but if you have to run them, its probably worth trying some cheap BMX linear cabling and see what happens?

have run tubeless conversion on mountain bikes for the past 7 years on variety of rims including Mavic, Sun and Roval, and a variety of tires including Maxxis, Kenda, Syncros and Specialized Control.

I’ve ridden these setups all over the UK, Europe and Canada on the most extreme terrain with no issues related to setup or failure of the tubeless conversion itself.

can think of only 3 failures during these 7 years, all in the UK involving running over broken glass (broken wine bottle, broken beer bottle and broken pint glass) on the trail which literally cut the tire in 1/2

@doug_basgueMTB

how do you get a pinch flat on tubeless conversion? there is no inner tube to flat?

however, could see this happening on Mavic UST as this relies on the rim/tire integrity to maintain pressure. If the rim or tire bead gets damaged it won’t hold air, hence the popularity of tubeless conversions which are much more tolerant of damage than Mavic UST.

Hell, the UST guys often put some Stan’s sealent into the UST setup to try and minimize any damage leaks.

bad setup is just bad setup. if the setup is good (holds pressure from initial inflation) and you check pressure before riding, you should not have any issues with a tubeless conversion

surely the LBS would just send them to TF / Mojo, etc.?

the only suspension service we offer in our concept store is a fork “lowers service” because its quick and easy, and we charge £25 for the job. I always have a few different sets of fox/RS seals and appropriate suspension oil/ suspension grease in the workshop for these jobs.

We could also do an aircan service, but don’t have any seals for rear shocks (if needed, you never know until you open it up)

anything beyond this, we don’t have the tools / spares so would always send it to a specialist tuning shop

road.cc

cycling weekly

bikeradar

etc..

@beefheart

I’d look at changing your tires if you are having problems locally with road conditions? perhaps something more penetration resistant to stop all those punctures as its a pain in the a**e!

I don’t trust patching road tubes (of course it can, and is done regularly) because of the high pressure its inflated to

would suggest finding some road tubes cheap on a bulk deal