to the OP, a question..

are you a professionally trained, Cytech 2 / 3 qualified bike mechanic?

if not, with all due respect, its always best taking any problems that arise with your bike (within the warranty period) back to the retailer that sold you the bike, and letting a trained mechanic diagnose and resolve the issue

rather than, taking matters into your own hands by doing bearing replacements at home, potentially damaging your hub (freehub failure?) and having the knock-on effect of rear brake issues

as a professional bike mechanic, I have seen first-hand in 20+ years of work, many issues caused by “home mechanics” or “engineers” ‘having a go’ at repairing their bikes :(

best course of action is to go back to the retailer, be honest about the work you have already done on your bike, explain the issues, and see if you can reach an agreeable resolution :)

JMC was a great guy – he was a team mate of mine when I rode for Hardisty Cycles of Newcastle, before he got his big break getting onto the Specialized Factory Team

we used to go and ride all over the Newcastle area with the University MTB club and his mate Paul Plunkett, and sometimes go to Plunkett’s house to ride his crazy garden setup

JMC was a rarity because he never let his success go to his head, he had time to speak to everyone, was very humble despite his awesome riding talent and ever growing fame in the MTB scene

a very sad day when we got the horrible news about his accident, but he made alot of people happy with his great attitude and friendship, gone but not forgetten :)

davidtaylforth – Member :”I’d ignore the above and add 3 if you have a 68mm BB or 1 if you have a 73mm BB. Put them in whatever order gets you the best chainline, there is no set rule.”

as a professional bike mechanic, I’d advise you to ignore this advice^^

the non-driveside Shimano cup has considerably less thread depth than the driveside cup…

…and adding too many spacers to the non-driveside can leave your cup hanging off a couple of threads

potentially ruining your frame’s bottom bracket shell, and definitely ruining the bottom bracket cup :(

for 68mm its 1 spacer on the non-driveside, and 2 spacers on the driveside

for 73mm its 1 spacer on the driveside, and no spacers on the driveside

pretty sure its actually illegal to take money from your account unless the goods are ready for immediate despatch??

might be worth checking this out (trading standards / distance selling regulations) to avoid it happening again in the future..

“Maybe you should learn to maintain your bike then. Cup and cone is a better more efficient solution, but tooling costs more hence only Campag and shimano still use it. “

BS…all the cheapo “bicycle shaped object” bicycles come with loose ball bearing hubs

nothing expensive, above producing cup and cone bicycle wheel hubs….

riding in “the heath” (hampstead heath, NW London) last year my buddy and I were surprised to see guys wearing neck braces, full face helmets, etc.n on DH bikes, on what we consider ‘slightly steep in place’ XC trails..

needless to say, we overtook everyone of these guys riding our “XC” bikes wearing regular helmets and no armour

fashion??

If you actually read that link you will learn something.

read that information 3 years ago, its somewhat out of date and generalises certain manufacturing information

Cannondale are ALL made in Taiwan, not the USA, as are Rocky Mountain and Santa Cruz (not made by Giant, btw)

Ahhh if I must correct you.

Giant is the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer with factories in Taiwan, China, and Europe. Giant, a Taiwanese company started in 1972, manufacturers their own bikes – including the carbon bikes, which is unique in the industry (i.e., most other brands utilize other manufacturers such as Advanced or Martec).

In addition to making their own bikes, Giant also makes, or has made, bikes for many other prominent brands, including Trek, Specialized, Schwinn, and Bianchi. Giant’s claim to fame is that they have the most sophisticated and efficient manufacturing facilities in the bicycle industry.

I believe they also make bike for Santa Cruz.

These bikes are mass-produced

don’t worry about it..I’ve spent time off-shore in the factories making these bikes

even Giant’s frames are “hand made”, not using robots on some mass production line ;)

Giant have gotten very good at streamlining their production but still employ actual human beings (very skilled ones) to make their frames

robots are not very good at placing tubesets into a jig for tack welding, doing alignment checks and then actually welding the frame

but generally, human hands are involved in manufacturing bicycle frames whether its Giant or smaller outfits like Pacific

I’ve only ever ridden a 29er once which was an Ellsworth Evolve with Stans 29er wheels and Specialized Fast Trak 29 tires

was very surprised how capable it was in the mud at the Forest of Dean, considering the ‘bald’ Fast Trak tires (which I always used on my 26″ for dirt jumping and pump tracks)

would be keen to try another 29er soon??

I am currently riding a Specialized Crosstrail as a commuting bike (700c multi-use hydrid) and once I dump the shitty Suntour pogo-stick fork for a proper air sprung, oil damped fork…

I am going to stick some big volume knobbly cyclocross tires on there and see what its like off-road (its been customised with Thomson / Pro WTB / Shimano SLX / Sram X-9 kit already)

best solution I have ever found (this is being a professional bike wrench at different shops)

1″ backboard mounted on rawl-plugs and screws into your wall

then use nails and screws to accomodate your tools…think logically about which tools you need the most access to when laying out your mountings

here’s the first setup

later setup – painted the Ply black and used silver marker pen to outline all the tools which makes it easier to put them back in place

You are always going to pay a premium for anything handmade because whether you like it or not, you are paying for someones skills and time.

You’re entitled to an opinion but you should at least have something to back it up apart from “it’s not made by a robot” and “the Canyon is nasty”

to correct a common misconception about off-shore bike production, VERY few bicycle frames are manufactured using “robots”, they are actually “hand made” not by english or german workers but by highly-skilled Taiwanese workers who actually get paid a good wage for their work

a skilled welder in Taiwan is typically making US$25,000 a year

many of the quality frames manufactured in Taiwan are made by small, specialist manufacturing plants which are often family-owned and run by business people who have invested huge amounts of money into the latest manufacturing technology and training for their workforce

as an example, I currently ride a Canadian manufactured Split-Pivot suspension frame – everything is manufactured in Canada except for the tubeset which is made in Taiwan as it requires very specialist hydroforming tube manipulation which is not available anywhere in the USA, Canada or Europe

once the tubeset has been manufactured it is shipped back to Quebec, Canada and then mitred and jigged up for welding

this hydroforming is not done for aesthetic reasons, but to put the metal exactly where its needed, and remove it where its not needed – this results in a tough ‘real world resistant’ tubeset with minimal weight compared to regular round tubing or the old Easton RAD style tubesets

Taiwan is where the cutting edge manufacturing is found – unfortunately not in the UK or Germany

Taiwan has factories leading the world in advanced bicycle manufacuring including hydroforming the highest strength and toughest 7XXX series aluminium alloys, cold-forging and cold-form extrusion

China has factories leading the world in advanced bicycle manufacturing including hand-laid carbon composite technology

all these factories are heavily ‘labour intensive’ with ‘hand made’ being the way things are done..not “robots”

I reckon its the advertising budget spent in UK mags that makes the orange 5 ‘so special’. I hear its not rated highly outside the UK mags. Its an old design now and seems over priced to me.

this ^^

MBR magazine test staff were all given a free Orange 5 for the year- make your own conclusions…

personally? never ridden one off-road, ridden plenty in the car park outside our shop after customers had them through our workshops with ongoing rear brake / hub / shock DU issues

feels kinda wobbly in the back end (hence the problems my customers had..) and the brake stiffening is very noticeable if you have spent time on quality FSR / VPP bikes

I know people who have worked at “the factory” that made the Evil Revolt frames – there are currently 300 crooked Revolt frames sitting in boxes in the corner of the factory

they cannot be sold, and cannot be used for warranty purposes as they are f*cked

the problems with the Revolt were two-fold

1. an poorly-designed frame (it wasn’t actually fully designed when the factory was told to build it)

2. quality control problems (the factory is well known for “issues” unless you pay 100% attention to quality control at every stage)…and even then its pot luck

put 1. and 2. together and it was a disaster = the Revolt frame

regarding 1. the “Delta Link” kinematics were done by D.W. but he had no involvement in the ‘physical packaging’ of the Delta Link or other frame components

the short links placed huge stresses on the links, bearings and pivot hardware which was transferred into the mountings on the frame components, causing the premature failures of pivot-related parts and the frameset itself – I was told the links could experience nearly 6-8 tonnes of load at full bottom out

when the design was handed over to the factory, it was seriously flawed; the factory’s in-house design engineer did his best to rectify the issues and told Evil it was unworkable but production deadlines were looming..

shame, because it was a really trick looking frame, and Evil had a fresh marketing approach with some great graphics and team riders

I know of a number of riders who suffered ongoing problems with their Revolts, and one guy who had 3 different frames in a year with the 3rd taking over 6 months to show up – which he promptly sold off cheap

hopefully Evil can get this carbon version right with a decent vendor and redesigned Delta link packaging

yes, the QR15 is noticeably stiffer, especially under heavy braking or more aggressive riding

the fork lowers can also be made slightly lighter – which can been seen with the weight difference between fox’s 32 forks with QR dropouts and 32 forks with QR15 dropouts

We have about 15 of these beauties to dispose of before Thursday 31st March

they have various brand logos on them – DMR, Giant, Banshee, etc.

free of charge as long as you collect (you will need some capacity in your vehicle as they are approx 8 foot x 5 foot x 1 foot thick and heavy density foam)

you can take a single pad if you want, several…or the whole lot!

we are happy to see them go to a good home i.e. volunteer built trails / bike park, FOC sites, private sites, etc.

get in touch with me (Rob) on 01372 476 969!

the pads are being stored at Esher X bike park in Esher, Surrey (KT10 8AN)

commencal were 6XXX series, according to a contact I have who works in Taiwan in the bike factories where these frames were made

7XXX alloys are more expensive to purchase and harder to work, and Commencal did not want to go that route as the frames end up costing more

spend around £400 (or a bike with £400 retail price but in a sale..)

look for:

FULL cromoly steel frame (cheaper bikes have weaker / heavier high tensile frames with often a single cromoly tube i.e. downtube)

cromoly steel fork and cromoly steel handlebars

sealed bearing hubs

sealed bearing bottom bracket and cromoly crankset

I’ve just picked up a Specialized P20 for £350 (brand new) which is very tidy for the money with a Reynolds double-butted frame and fork and all the items listed above including a 9T cassette rear hub, and weighs 25lb which is light for the price

although admittedly I’ve had to replace the stem which would not grip the bars properly when landing airs (I found an Eclat stem at Evans on sale for £30)

and replaced the tires which were lethally slippy in my local concrete skatepark with Odyssey Aitken front and FIT FAF rear

unusually for a £400 bike, its got a 21″ top tube

we’ve lost £10,000 and 6 months of hard work with the bike park closing, so there isn’t any appetite to continue fighting to try and make it work, as the park has already been completely bulldozed flat by the owners (so much for the environment!)

I am leaving Freeborn Bikes once Esher closes, but will continue riding for them and promoting Devinci in the UK

cheers for all the messages of support

rob

here’s my all-mountain bike – 2011 Devinci Dixon Split-Pivot

27.4lb ain’t bad for a 145mm travel suspension bike with Fox 36 forks, big tires, Renthal 750mm DH bars, SRAM X-9 / X-7, Elixir brakes and no stupid carbon sh*t

market is already flooded with cheap quality titanium bolts with cut threads = no thanks, I value my safety!

you gotta pay good money for high quality titanium bolts with rolled threads

its worth doing if you have pimped your bike out already, want some “finishing touches” and don’t like steel bolts which go rusty when allen keys are used on them

I use good quality (sourced from Ducati motorbike dealer) Ti bolts on my disc brake rotors, disc brake caliper mounts, derailleur cable clamps

I use good quality (Pro Bolt) aluminium alloy bolts on low stress mountings like brake lever bar clamps, stem cap bolt, water bottle bosses, gear shifter bar clamps

my Shimano cranks came with aluminium alloy chainring bolts, which have been just fine

I tried running Titanium bolts on my Thomson X4 stem and got horrible creaking / clicking noises and bar flex (despite using ti prep and torque wrench) so quickly switched back to original steel bolts

I had 3 different Swinger 4-way Coil on my 2005 Devinci Ollie

-the 1st one blew the seals, and was replaced under warranty, after 1 week of ownership just before going to Whistler

-the 2nd one unscrewed during my 1st day of riding in Whistler, oil everywhere and I managed to pogo-bounce my way down the popular A-Line trail

thankfully a Manitou service centre in the village replaced it FOC under warranty

-the 3rd one last the holiday, and many months after, and proved a very good shock both in terms of pedalling platform (Devinci Ollie was 8.5″ FSR suspension) and good quality of damping

as long as you get one with good Q.C., it a good shock

recently installed a Renthal Duo stem on one of my mountain bikes, not as complicated to install as you might assume, but requires a more logical approach and ideally the use of a torque wrench!

got an Easton Haven stem on the other mountain bike

both mountain bikes previously had Thomson X4 stems

with wider bars (Renthal 750mm) both the Renthal and Easton stems feel noticeably stiffer when cranking hard on the bars than the Thomson X4

until I moved beyond 720mm bars I did not notice any flexure with the Thomson X4 stems (I’ve owned several)

the Renthal 50mm weighs: 146gm
the Easton 55mm weighs: 136gm
the Thomson 50mm weighs: 178 gm

Renthal is a very tidy bit of kit, and British made, which is a bonus as far I am concerned!

love their hubs, so easy to service and rebuild if / when necessary with all parts available next day, and when you phone you can speak to people who actually make the kit!

the tool kit is cheap and bearings are cheap to replace, and the modular axle system for different frame / fork setups is excellent value

not sure about their brakes..?? hit / miss

don’t like their Q/R skewers and seatclamps, I’ve found Salsa Q/R have better clamping force and long term durability

lights? running Hope Vision 2 and after 5 months the connector failed, no problems though…replaced free of charge within a few days with a note “use silicon on the connector”

to be fair to Hope, my Light & Motion Stella 200 also failed twice in 1 year (switch and battery)

RP2 series blows the DHX Air away for trail and all-mountain riding

I’ve owned the same frame with DHX Air 5 and RP23 XV BV and the RP was leagues ahead in terms of pedalling, stability, ride height and consistency through the small bump, mid stroke and big bump ranges

DHX Air was “mushy” under power and squatted into the mid stroke unless you hit something violent which would wake it up

“valve seal head” has failed

damper fluid has leaked into the lowers, causing a hydraulic lockout

you will notice if you wind the forks out to full travel, you will get some movement, if you wind them down you will not…

time to take them to your nearest Rockshox dealer, if less than 2 years old you are covered under warranty, its a known problem and one I have dealt with many times, more often on Pikes than Lyric though…

“Chain Reaction – the future of mtb’ing in the hands of one company?”

I’ve changed your title to reflect the parent company that owns and operates “Hotlines”

this may give you some idea why there is so much coverage

the “Tesco’s” of the cycling world, for sure ;)

went to FOD last week and forest people felling lots of trees meaning most of the trails were closed (4-5?)

we got to ride / slither down 1 trail, and bits of another trail (corkscrew) the whole place was a muddy bog….

I had a Tricross singlespeed (same chainline spacing as the langster) and ran a Race Face Deus X-Type crankset with single DH chainring (DMR 38T) and Shimano HT2 bottom bracket, it worked just fine!

if the LBS is going to survive in the long term they need to stop trying to compete with the massive on-line retailers (and also fitting parts for free) otherwise they slowly bleed to death and will close their doors

the LBS can add value that the on-line retailer cannot; not perhaps for the experienced riders who spend hours geeking up on the latest parts on the internet and know what they want, have a toolset at home with a workstand and shop on price

but the LBS can support the less experienced riders with good advice and after-sales care, and develop a good business around retailing box brands like Specialized and Trek who will not allow their bikes to be sold on-line, test / demo rides can lead to regular sales

clothing is another profitable avenue for the LBS (its hard to try clothing on, using the internet) if managed properly – to avoid the p*ss takers who try stuff on in the store and then shop on-line, which is just damn rude!

the biggest potential gains for the LBS is to reduce the retail side of the business and expand the servicing and fitment side of the business as workshops can be very profitable, especially for fitting components supplied by customers who have purchased them on-line and either lack the skillset or toolset to do the work themself, or for regular recreational and commuting customers who want to keep their bike running and have no technical knowledge

I lived in Newcastle for 5 years and thoroughly enjoyed all the excellent riding around Chopwell, Prudhoe and the surroundings valleys all accessed from the city centre by bike, by riding out past the Metro Centre to Rowlands Gill and onwards, or North through the Race Course out towards the coast

great bike club at the University who were happy for non-students to come out riding on Wednesday afternoons and Sundays

also found it very easy to take trips by car (with driving friends) to Thrunton, etc.

most shops would charge around £35 labour per wheel (its 45 minutes work) and DT Swiss Comp black spokes (x 32) cost £28.48 and DT brass nipples cost £4.16 for 32

any shops that are doing labour + spokes for £40 are idiots who won’t be in business for long…

never seen the need to jump red lights…you can get into the habit of jumping light and put yourself in a stupid situation where someone might get hurt (either yourself or a pedestrian)

if anything does happen (an accident – for example you run over a pedestrian you did not see) and it turns out you jumped a red light you have no defence…

you save so little time jumping light, its not worth the grief

If I am in rush, I get off my bike, and walk it through the lights, and remount the bike on the other side, perfectly legal and no time wasted…

jumping lights? makes pedestrians and motorists think all cyclists are c*nts when they see cyclists regularly jumping lights

Devinci Hectik

160mm all-mountain bike with proper FSR 4-bar suspension and lifetime warranty on frame, sealed needle-roller bearing on all pivots and full length seatube with steep seat angle to put you above the cranks so climbs well, but with 67 degree HA (160mm fork) for high speed descending with confidence, taper head tube, grease ports, etc.

I use it as a “trail bike” for XC riding, but it also handles up-lift DH trips to Wales and even the odd DH race no problem ;)

speak nicely to the people at Freeborn, frame with Fox RP23 XV BV shock should be around your budget…

I had Shimano cable discs on my Hardrock Pro and those brakes were f*cking terrible, and actually dangerous in wet weather as they would not stop the bike

Avid BB-7 is probably the only cable disc worth bothering with, the BB-5 is much better than Shimano but only has 1 moving piston which means it brakes by bending the rotor against the fixed piston, meaning regular adjustments and a somewhat grabby feel

I run a Crud Catcher on the downtube and a neoprene RapidRacer guard on the fork (between crown and fork brace)

brilliant combination that keeps 95% of the wet and crap from sprayed all over me

never found the nead for a rear mudguard on my mountain bike as I wear a waterproof cycle jacket which seems to keep me from getting wet

Are they just plastic ’cause £16 seems a lot for 2 bits of plastic and a couple of circlips !Cheaper than new hubs i suppose .

the spacers are machined aluminium alloy (made by Hope in UK)

I do the “lowers” service on my Fox 36 every 6-8 weeks and its kept them running sweet and prevented any damage to the stanchions

get some Fox Float fluid (75 weight)for the foam wipers, and any 7-7.5wt fork oil for the lowers

tools? socket set, allen keys, rubber mallet and clean rags and it takes about 10 minutes with practise

Sometimes the two work hand in hand however- for example, I run Pro Vanderham bars on my bike. Pro sponsors Vanderham then he develops a product that is better than anything else.

Vanderham had no direct role in developing that handlebar – its actually a rebadged catalogue bar manufactured by HL Corp (who have their own component brand “Zoom”), same is true of the Atherton bar by Pro ;)

the association is what brings riders to buy these products….

forget the yellow tape – its expensive and does not stick very well

the trick is to use Specialized’s “Roval” blue tape (which they sell for their Traversee all-mtn wheels) its about £7 for a huge roll, much more adhesive than Stan’s yellow tape and also considerably thicker / tougher

we use this with the Stan’s valve units, and 2-3 cups of solution and it works very reliably with minimal degradation of the tape over months of use

for tires? Specialized ‘Control’ (2-bliss = tubeless ready) family of tires work great with the ZTR rims

I’ve personally used the Captain in 2″ and 2.2″, Eskar, Purgatory, Fast Trak LK. Storm XC and Clutch SX with Stans’s on ZTR Flow rims with no burping, tire roll or any installation problems (track pump, goes up first time, every time…)

one of my mates at Uni had an Alpinestars Al-Mega DX with elevated stays which was white with some lurid fluro colours, and huge 1 & 1/4″ stem and fork steerer / headtube

I used to think it made my Marin Pine Mountain quite plain, until his chainstays cracked (bike about 8 months old), and the warranty replacement frame’s chainstays cracked (after a few months)…

most of those frames cracked in the stays, even with quite mild use :(