I’ve built a few DT Rims with the Squorx nips\washers, after the initial faff of fitting them I did find the wheels built up a lot easier\nicer once tension was added. The spokes didn’t get as much wind up so didn’t have to stress\bed in the wheel anywhere near as much as normal. After a sensible amount of riding to try and bed them in fully I found the wheels either didn’t need any attention at all, or very minimal. That’s across the board with Road, Gravel and MTB rims in their range.

I’d happily use them every time with the DT rims

These mechs do need to be set up in a specific way compared to older style Shimano.
When in the smaller chainring make sure the stop screw is correctly adjusted and there is adequate cable tension… also new cables\housings will settle in after a few rides and it will be a lot more noticeable on the newer style mechs.

I have found with these mechs that if it isn’t far enough into it’s pivot\stroke the mechs leverage will be fighting against you until it gets far enough into it’s stroke. If it goes from being initially hard work to suddenly moving ok it’s probably one of the above. I have also found on some bikes the mech doesn’t sit far enough away from the chainset to allow you to get it far enough into its stroke via the stop screw or cable tension, especially Band-on style mech rather than Braze on…. or width ways if the BB isn’t 100% central to the seat tube if the factory has cocked up the frame alignment 🙈

I don’t have a clue but my mate from Munich said this…. “you can post this link. Should be fine, we stayed there ourselves the other week. Come late, leave early.”
Parkplatz Bruckenfischer Klosterschäftlarn
https://goo.gl/maps/bYTwbCTdY3mNp9Rr5

All mentioned above…

Pressure needs to be applied to the edge of the outer race when fitting new bearings, overloading the inner race on installation will often give you notchy\damaged bearings. Using a proper bearing press with the correct size adapters is preferred, or use the old bearings as the adapter (or a socket if its a perfect fit).

Another common cause is an undersize shell which will constrict bearings. Sometimes in this case the notchy bearings will feel fine once removed.

I also do wonder if some straight pull hubs are prone to slightly distorted shells, enough to distort bearings if already a tight fit. They typically have higher spoke tensions (which is fine if they are all even) combined with the lack of extra material a hub with a J-Bend flange will have.

If you’re just removing the drive ring to replace bearings then don’t touch it..

I’ve changed bearings on lots of DT Hubs with Drive rings 240\350\Etc and never removed the drive ring. Tolerances are tight, but bearings pass through the drive ring. I would only do it with a bearing press tool so everything stays nice and square. Not the official DT Swiss way so at your own risk, but I’ve never had any issues.

They may well have thrown in a ticked PDI sheet but that doesn’t mean it’s actually been PDI correctly or at all. The issues sound like a bike that hasn’t been checked properly, or has “factory” torque values, which are quite often too low.

As mentioned already, on a Shimano HL2 chainset the main central bolt is just a plastic pre-load bolt. The pinch bolts are what actually hold the arm on the axle. If the arm is correctly installed you could in theory run those cranks with no pre-load bolt at all. I’ve never had a correctly installed Shimano HL2 crank fall off.

If it’s a rear wheel motor ebike the wheelnuts will have a high torque value and some sort of non-turn hooked washers to prevent the axle from trying to counter-rotate to the hub and slip in the frame (like hub gears do). If the wheelnuts aren’t tight enough, or the non turn washers are a poor fit the axle could potentially turn in the dropouts. It might only be a couple of millimetres rotation each way, but over time the back and forth forces from accelerating and braking will loosen the wheel nuts.

As above.

Stick with the Butted DT Comps, I’m 85-90kg and have never broken DT Comps through normal use. Use an appropriately strong rim (like the DT EX series), and make sure it’s wide enough for the tyre. A narrow-rim\wider-tyre combo will cause the tyre to fold over at the right lean angle as the sidewalls wont be supported and will have to much stress on them, it can feel similar to a flexy wheel.

Be mindful not to over tension the spokes to make the wheel stiffer, that’s how hub flanges can snap or rims crack.

Deep scratch, seems an odd place for a typical crack.

Most cracks I’ve found\checked on metal bike frames often have a step in one direction.. lightly run a fine point\blade over the width of the potential crack and often you will notice a directional up\down down\up step in either direction. Personally I’ve found it’s very rare that both sides of a crack are completely level.

If I was using your bike..
Fit the faster rolling tyres you have.
Maybe use a small Camelbak bag just for water.
Quick\easy access frame or bar or stem bag for fuel, repair kit, clothing stashing.
Ergon grips with stubby integrated bar ends or maybe road bar tape on the centre area of the bar just so you have more hand position options.

Did it last year. Didn’t train for it, but had been doing 50-70mile gravel rides every weekend with 70-100miler gravel rides every few weeks.

Done enough 10+ hour offroad rides to know the do’s and dont’s, but didn’t take my own advice 🙈. I got caught up with faster riders at the start and proceeded to dig a deep hole, then spent 7 of 11hours teetering on completely blowing up, it’s the longest pre-bonk wave I’ve ridden in my life 🤣 (but I did finish).

Anyway, some notes that might help…
—Most mechanicals seemed to be punctures on skinny tyres, under 40mm. I ran Teravail Sparwood 650×2.1 with Orange Seal Tubeless on a gravel bike with no issues, good comfort and grip.
—The terrain was surprising, you’re either climbing or descending with next to no flat. I would’ve preferred longer climbs to settle into, and get more recovery on a longer descent. Along with getting too excited pace wise at the start this really caught me out.
—Slower rolling draggier gravel, go by effort not speed. Trying to chase a time goal probably cost me an hour by then having to manage my energy and stopping longer for fuel\recovery.
—Contradictory info on fuel stops meant I carried too much food, just in case.

Basically you’ll be fine, just ride 👍. If you’ve done a 200k Audax it will be similar effort, but harder\longer. Sensible pace and fuelling. Otherwise just enjoy yourself, and there’s always someone to share the suffering with if you’re in a bad patch at any point.

Give Orange Seal a try.. over the years I’ve tried Stans, MucOff, Finishline, Bontrager and ended up with Orange Seal. Compared to other brands it was a lot more effective at sealing all sizes of puncture, lasted longer, and unlike Stans doesn’t separate into water and latex eventually.

Just coming up to 7000miles on my Gravel bike and finally had to stop and fix a puncture for the first time, hit a fist size rock on fast rough descent and snakebite pinched a 3-4mm cut at the bead and tread. It took 2 attempts of stopping and pumping it up and riding and loosing pressure, it then sealed and was still up to pressure at the end of the ride a couple of hours later (and the following morning). Everything else has sealed itself without any drama, thorns and smaller objects seal pretty much straight away once pulled out.

Tyres used: Gravel Kings, Donnelly Xplor MSO, Teravail Cannonball, Teravail Sparwood.
Ditched the Gravel Kings as they were just too draggy on tarmac sections.

Might be a stupid question, did you thoroughly shake\mix the sealant before pouring it in?. Catches a few people out if still new to tubeless.

Good job sniffing out the bullshitters before they find too many victims.

Any genuine dealer will be on the Dealer List of said bike brands website. This could be faked if stealing a real dealers name, but at least it’s something anyone can check easily.

For the same reason the bike industry should be able to sniff these sites out a bit quicker and get them taken down.

I’ve built a number of wheels but there are probably far better wheel builders on here, some thoughts based on past builds…

I’ve had tension loss on my very first couple of builds when I was still learning. Different issues on different builds…. Not enough tension, rogue wrong length spoke (only need one spoke to loosen up and others to follow), not stressing the spokes\wheels enough at the end of the build.

I’ve not had any issues with builds in a long time, I don’t do or use anything unique. But because of my issues with my first couple of builds I always check every spoke is the correct length. Take extra care to stress the spokes near the end of the build. Lube wise I just grease, on both the threads and contact area of the nipple, I’m sure there’s a reason why I should use something else but its worked fine.

Last few builds have required DT Squorx Nipples and Washers, after the initial faff of washers I really liked them as the nipples turned a bit easier when under load, they caused less spoke windup and very minimal stressing required with next to no noises of spokes pinging. Also after a few hundred miles they were still spot on. I did however swap the stock Alloy nips that come with the rims for Brass, not a fan of Alloy nips if I’m honest.

After much faff of trying to resolve foot pain I eventually found I needed volume reducing insoles at the cost of about £5 (after spending a lot more on fancy shoes\insoles).

Might be worth a try for anyone reading this with narrow\slim feet and general foot pain when riding.

Id be surprised if they want more than the Caliper, it’s easier for everyone.

I would say shops generally don’t like adopting problems on things they haven’t sold, it’s time you could be selling or repairing something. On the flipside, a good shop might use it as an opportunity to gain a new customer. It’s worth an ask, but don’t be offended if they say no.

You could also contact the UK Shimano Distributer, they might refer you to a local dealer – http://www.madison.co.uk

I have a Bombtrack Hook EXT Carbon running 650b (knobbly 50mm winter, faster 47mm summer). It was set up 48\32 11-34 originally, the Praxis Works Zayante Carbon cranks decided to fall apart on me so I then went 1×40 11-46. I wasn’t sure initially but like the MTB I preferred the simplicity and didn’t overly miss the extra gearing shortly after. It’s done a few thousand miles on the setup and I’m totally happy with it. It’s done plenty of big offroad rides too, did a mostly offroad 100mile Chilts gravel ride end of last summer which intentionally was supposed to be a hard day of steep climbs and it was fine gearing wise (luckily legs were okay too!). With my setup there’s enough gearing for steepest climbs i can find and about 27-30mph limit before I may as well stop pedalling and just get aero if on a proper descent or tail wind on a super mild downward false flat.

Agree with comments above, providing the road side of riding isn’t a smashfest in a group then it’s perfectly doable. If you want the extremes on gearing on and offroad then a double would be better. Third middle option otherwise is run a chainring suitable for the roadrides and easier\faster offroad and you can always swap to a smaller chainring for big days out or slower winter riding.

If they haven’t been bled in a while then it’s worth doing a full bleed, flushing out all the old fluid with new.

DOT fluid absorbs moisture from the air, which will increase the amount of fluid in the system like it’s been overfilled.

Yes, but it’s luck of the draw for something that old. The dealer might get a goodwill warranty out of Madison the UK distributer if all the stars are aligned (and they are willing to spend the time).

Contact the dealer they were bought from. Be honest, ask nicely and be patient. Worth a try.

If someone gave me that hub with those symptoms and all the bearings and internals seemed okay the next thing I would do is check the bearings are fully pressed into the hub body and freehub. Only needs to be a smidge off.

If you don’t wanna mess around with it too much it’s at least worth asking the seller if they have recently fitted new bearings.

Those levers are BH90, the RS785 calipers are BH59. A BH90 MTB caliper like the Deore M6000 should work fine, all 2 piston calipers are same piston size last I checked.

I have used bh59 road levers with bh59 mtb calipers plenty of times and it works spot on (haven’t needed to try bh90 yet)

I always use proper tubeless rim tape to seal the rim bed. Personally the only reason to use Gorilla tape would be to build up the rim diameter a touch (after the Tubeless tape) if the tyre was struggling to seat due to a rim\tyre tolerance issue (I like to be able to inflate with a track pump).

Your issue is likely the seal on the rim tape, valve, or tyre. The wheel itself isn’t holding the air in if the tape is edge to edge on the rim bed. Unless you mean swapping the whole lot.

A lot of people have gone away from Stans sealant for good reason. It uses Ammonia to stop the latex from going off inside the tyre, over time the ammonia gas will seep out the tyre pores and you will eventually be left with solid latex and grey water.

Sealant wise I’ve had much better success with Orange seal, longevity and sealing punctures.

Doesn’t matter what bike it is, so long as you enjoy riding it. Enjoying mine, for local stuff its more interesting than dragging an Enduro sled around easy trails.

It’s just like The Two Ronnies Class Sketch, some people think they are Cooler and Gnarlier, but they aint compared to the other guy.

-The waiting time depends on when the enquiry was made, it will go into Cannondales replacement que.
-Unless the bike has had a significant crash\impact the old forks should be fine to keep riding on. -There shouldn’t be any cost as the shop should get labour credit.

4 of 4 in my group got in, one of them only got through a few mins ago.

Keep trying.

I’ve done it on my Trek Superfly Carbon a few years ago, we did all the trails over a weekend and it was fine overall. Faster up, but much slower down. The main issue was comfort, specifically seated on the longer sections of rougher surfaces. It’s the bits you just dont notice on a full sus, you just stay seated and cruise through it, whereas I was spending more time out of the saddle. Hill reps wise I would much rather do Whites Level climb if there is a shorter route back down (?), decent amount of effort involved to do it at a good pace and some technical features. It’s tougher and more interesting than the Penhydd climb.

I can’t say I’ve liked everything I’ve ridden and I didnt get on with super wide swept out bars that were a trend for a while. I ended up with the Hook as it felt the best compromise of what I wanted from that type of bike. The ride is definitely more important than any bike, and you can certainly forget the shortcomings of a bike on a really good ride. But if youre spending your own money then theres no point just picking any old bike.

It’s been great on long rides, plenty comfortable (even with an old shoulder injury). Previously I was using a GT Grade Carbon with 30mm G-One Speeds tubeless, which was amazingly capable and comfortable… until I would run out of tyre volume (85kg – about 45psi offroad).

Ive had two different carbon wheelsets on the Hook, both MTB enduro wheelsets and both stiffer than the sort of wheels you’d typically run on this sort of bike. I’d imagine with a 700c road\gravel wheelset and 40mm tyres it should be spot on.

Tyres wise I’ve used Panaracer Gravel King SK 650×48, which were good offorad but too draggy due to lack of ramped tread blocks. I’m currently using Teravail Cannonball 650×47 (Light & Supple version), not very grippy in loose conditions but very fast and comfy (from about 25-40psi depending on the ride). I need to fit something with more tread for the winter, I might add Nanos to the shortlist as they seemed a reasonable compromise last time I tried some.

Yup got one. I’ve done 3000+ miles on it now and i’m still dead happy with it. If i’m riding local or just want to head out the door and decide the route whilst im riding it’s the go to out of all my bikes (road or mtb).

Custom build with Shimano Ultegra 2x then went to 1x (40T and 11-42T). I stuck with 650b despite saying to myself all my bikes in the future would be 700c\29er. With a fat 650b tyre I found I had the volume and grip I wanted for rougher stuff whilst still having nippy handling on twistier offroad sections. Position and handling is fine for road use and offroad it’s even better. It’s fast and confidence inspiring on gravel and bridleways, I’ve beat all my local KOMs I had on my hardtail and gained a number more. It’s been really great for longer rides too, I’ve done quite a few 50-100milers with plenty of offroad and it happily eats through the miles with a good amount of comfort. It’s a bit stiffer than some other options but I like the balance personally, once the tyres are dialled in it feels like a good balance of speed\handling\comfort.

The main long term selling point for me is I enjoy riding it whether or not im riding it flat out, 6hrs deep into a all dayer or just pottering about after work enjoying being out on my bike.

As above, you just need to match the calipers to the hose type (which will be printed on the hose). The twin piston calipers have the same piston size, so the leverage ratio is the same for MTB and Road.

Older model Tiagra levers are BH59, which if you want a dirt cheap option is compatible with BR-MT200 calipers (only £13)

Newer levers are BH90, which is the same as m8000 XT. Or Deore M6000 if you dont want a Banjo fixing.

Check the USB port first. Try a different charger and cable and connect it to a laptop to see if it reads the memory (just to rule out a dodgey USB).

I changed the battery on my ancient Garmin 800 a few weeks back, straightforward for anyone that doesn’t mind basic faffing with electronics.

Find an eBay seller that strips genuine dead units for parts, you should be able to find a complete rear assembly which will make it easier to do the swap…. and if the USB port is buggered that is part of the rear assembly too.

I use a standard cage and a Toe Strap wrapped around the bottle and cage (between the two mounting holes). Only way the bottle is coming out is if the cage and bolts go with it.

Daft question but you visually checked both sides were locked together properly after installing?.

I’ve been using them since they became a thing many years ago. I’ve had one failure which was my error, I was in a rush and the side facing the rear wheel hadn’t gone in properly.

I had the same issue on the same linkage this week, I managed to remove the outer races without extra tools (normal bearing extractor and a hammer), no cutting or heat etc. I’ve used my own technique on lots of bearings that have fallen apart with 100% success.

You basically need to reassemble the bearings with less balls so you can reinsert the inner race (I think it was about 4 or 5 on those bearings). Also, those specific bearings fail because the inner race has a shoulder for the balls on one side and a tiny snap ring on the other, which takes the load when pushing them out!

-Small amount of grease inside outer race to keep balls in place when fitted.
-Install about 4or5 balls together at one side of the race
-Insert inner race and hold it in place (lipped edge nearest the inside of the linkage!)
-Carefully push\rotate the balls around the circumference so they are all equally spaced.
-Drift bearing out as normal

Here is an example of a hub bearing after I used this technique to remove it.

I offered up the 700 x 53mm Bluemels but in the end found the 26 x 53mm guards a much better fit on my 650×47 Gravel Kings.

The most common issue I’ve found is kinks\bends in the inner\outer\ferules (which could happen on new stuff by accident when installing).

On any gear system if there is a kink it will usually straighten out as more tension is added so the gears might be fine at one end of the range and not at the opposite.

You’ve already used penetrating fluid on it?. Ideally laying the arms flat, with the rear side facing up, then building up a lip around the outside diameter of the axle\insert (out of bluetac\silicon sealant or something) so you can let a pool of penetrating fluid sit overnight and hopefully work through the threads.

Appropriately sized socket over the face of the retaining ring, carefully tap back on (smear of grease might help).

Or another way to look at it, you can ride other bikes like a mountain biker.
And TBH it depends on what you class as Mountain Biking anyway. For extreme Gnarists anything less than Redbull Rampage isn’t Mountain Biking, whereas others class Bridleway bashing as Mountain Biking.

Whatever floats your boat, doesn’t matter whatever everyone else thinks\does so long as you’re having fun.

I wouldn’t worry about it, so long as you enjoy MTBing when you do it.

In 2018 I used my road bike, gravel bike(more fun on local trails), and past couple of months a fixed gear.

I used my MTB twice in 2018, 10mile local shakedown loop. Then the week after we rode all the trails at Coed-y-Brenin in a day, 70miles and I didn’t die. I think the Gravel bike with not so nobbly tyres on local trails kept my handling skills in check.

\/ Agreed \/

mikejd
Mountain biking is a state of mind, not a question of miles… Discuss.

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Cycling is whatever you want it to be. If you see it as a state of mind, then you can still be a mountain bike without doing it.

As said above, don’t worry about it, it’s just a starting point/reference. You will get better at measuring the effort for a test, and therefore get better results in later tests even with the same fitness.

Last winter I was happier hitting reliably good average outputs in the races or on hot laps of the different circuits rather than doing the FTP tests. Zwift will automatically take your best 20 min effort from any session, which is a good way of doing it without the fuss of an FTP test.

Which trainer is it and how much do you weigh?