Yep, I’ve got a USE plastic shim to fit a gravity dropper into my Blur frame. Its been absolutely fine.

456 Summer Season. I struggled to find any terrain that was remotely fun to ride on it. Just not my cup of tea. Sold within 2 months.

Marin Bolinas Ridge goes down as the worst bike I’ve ever ridden. We’re going back a few years here but it was a lurching horrible steep frame that was probably a bit big for me and it struck the fear of god into me every time I sat on it… even if I was just riding down the road.

Yeah, the car park is super expensive but it is free to ride once you’re there… just don’t go into Quench cycles (bike shop at Bedgebury) and ask for some change for the parking machine… they don’t like it.

Sorry for the slight hijack but this has got me thinking a bit about motion control… That bike rumour article says that compression damping is adjustable by moving the blue compression knob on the top of the stanchion which adjusts the openness of the metal disc on the bottom of the motion control. So you can adjust the amount of oil that can flow through the valve and make compression harder or easier. OK.

It also says that the XX is the same as normal motion control but also has an XLoc remote and doesn’t have compression adjust. Is this because its remote activated and you either have lockout on or off and there is no in between? In which case are all rock shox remote lockout forks therefore a little bit inferior to crown mounted motion control forks because you can’t actually adjust the compression? Its either locked or unlocked?

Sorry that’s a bit rambling but I’m just wanting to try and get this clear in my mind before shelling out for some new forks. Ta!

Stendec +1. Its great stuff.

Theres always Rock Shox Judy Butter too but its a fair bit more expensive.

You’ve not done anything wrong, you’re cassette is just a tad too worn for your new chain. You’ll need a new cassette to get it running smoothly.

I’ve had mixed experiences (as with pretty much every other internet bike shop I’ve used).

My last two orders were for things they had “in stock” on the page but I got an email a day or two after I’d placed the order to say they were actually out of stock and it would be ages before they got more. A bit disappointing.

But in fairness on the bulk of the orders I’ve made with them they’ve been fine, very quick to despatch and good comms. Plus they tend to stock little bits that are difficult to get hold of elsewhere… like chainring bolt spacers sold singly!

Worth checking stocks beforehand though… just in case.

they do have 2 sets of wiper seals (lower and upper)

That sounds weird. Sounds like they might have fitted something like a 32mm rockshox oil seal under the wiper seals or something! Never heard of Fox forks having a second wiper seal in each leg.

They should simply have a wiper seal and a foam ring underneath in each leg.

Any pics?

Yep. Fitted a set of SS sintered pads a couple of weeks ago and after one ride came to check them and the whole brake surface fell away from the backing of one of the pads. Not good. Not using again.

Sorry, yeah, the valve core.

Have you replaced the schrader valve on the top of the U-turn? That can cause a leak if is faulty or worn out. Dead cheap and easy to do. Worth a try anyway.

New pads.

Squirt have started making something for just this purpose! Was on ST Fresh Goods a few weeks back.

See here![/url] (might need to scroll down a bit)

i’m thinking the Token tiramic, anyone else use one?

Used one a while ago. Found it quite a tight fit on x-type cranks but very very smooth once installed. Didn’t take long to get gripey and develop play though. Not great durability.

Are there not any local bike shops that offer to do a basic Fox service for you? There are two reasonably near me who will happily do it and I’m sure they’ll do just as good a job as anywhere else.

The advantage of that is that you don’t have to wait another couple of days for the postman to bring them back. Just pop to the shop!

Do the forks have “gate” adjustment on the top of the rh leg?

I’ve been caught out by that before. Thought I’d buggered the lockout and in fact I’d just set the gate too low and the forks couldn’t be locked out. Just needed to adjust it.

Whats the internal diameter of the seatpost?

Might be a long shot but could you hammer a star nut into it? Then screw a bolt into it, bung that in a vice and give it some welly.

Any torque wrench will do so long as its range is around 2-25Nm.

That will cover pretty much everything (apart from bottom brackets, crank bolts, axle nuts and anything that needs to be properly tight). Generally anything that you need to be careful with you can tighten with a lower range torque wrench.

I found surpisingly cheap ones from people like X-Tools and Ice Toolz that seem good quality. Might be worth a look.

How about a couple of washers & a qr skewer through ctr of axle?

+1. If you look at the park tool TS2 extension kit, its just a couple of curved washers that press into the sides of the bolt thru axle. I would imagine that a qr and a couple of hi hat washers[/url] (available from Drum shops) might do the job????

Which ones support qr and 20mm fronts, and qr, 10mm thru and 12mm rear axles?

AFAIK The Park TS2 is just about the only one that will do 15/20mm bolt thru. You'll need either the bolt thru adaptor kit or the extension kit. I've got the extension kit and it works perfectly on 20mm bolt thru.

Love Mogwai's early stuff. But always find myself surprised whenever they release a new album just how good they still are. Hunted By A Freak is one of the best songs I've heard in the past few years.

Have a listen to Pelican too if you like the more rocky side of post-rock.

I did the same thing with my Paclite Berghaus jacket. Got some TX-Direct wash in stuff from Nikwax and that seems to have done the job.

Ice Toolz Essence Toolkit

BB tools and cassette / chain whip are very good in this kit and you get both a hollowtech 2 tool and an ISIS BB tool.

Allen keys are a bit flimsy and you don't get a cable cutter but then again its cheap as chips.

Nope they shouldn't have foam rings. They only have oil seals and dust seals (more like Marzocchi style who AFAIK don't have foam rings in any of their forks).

Clumber Park is nice for a mild wander. Near Worksop / Sherwood Forest.

Manhattan Portage for me. Had mine for 7 years and its taken daily abuse. Really happy with it.

You are "rolling" the rubber cap on to the top of the reservoir aren't you? If not, you risk trapping air in the top. Hope has got a vid on the site that shows how to do it.

Tried a Bionicon Edison a few weeks ago (had it setup for me properly by the chaps in the shop) everything worked wonderfully and the system, when set up properly, makes a big difference.

Superb downhill in its fully open position and when its in uphill mode it flies uphill like a hardtail. Really innovative stuff. If I had enough money it would be mine!

Park TS-2. Very good heavy duty stand although mine did come out of centre quite easily. Easy job to put it right though.

I tend to go for a little bit of threadlock, just to make sure they stay put.

Bleed them first and see if that solves it.

I had the same problem a little while ago with my Juicy 7s. It started happening after a fair bit of use (and when I'd just installed a new set of pads).

I bled them and the problem was sorted. Dunno quite what was causing it, whether it was air in the line, me not resetting the pistons properly when changing pads or something else, but its not happened since.

Pedros here too. I've had mine for ages and I haven't had a tyre yet they couldn't handle.

Also used by my LBS.

AFAIK I don't think the Kenda tubes have removable cores.

I wanted to do this exact same thing and my standard Kenda presta tubes seemed to be unremovable (they were quite old tubes so not sure if they have removable cores now…).

I bought a couple of Schwalbes instead. I just used pliers to unscrew the core, squirted in the slime, put core back. Worked fine.

Squirt.

Tried it for the first time last year. FAR better than anything I've ever used in the dry and fairs pretty well in the wet too. Never needs degreasing just brush off any dirt that does get on there and relube. No faff, very pleased with it.

Not cheap, but good.

Have a look at
http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_57.html

That Hope video is the best explanation of how Truvativ Cranks and BBs work that I've ever seen. Certainly better than anything SRAM or Truvativ have ever done!

And, unlike most other Shimano freehubs, you'll need a great big 14mm allen key to get your old one off.

I've used Clarks for years.

On my Hayes brakes I found the pad compound quite thick so had a fair bit of rubbing when first installed. On Avid Juicys they are perfect. In both instances the sintered ones last ages.

The best bike specific tools I've come accross are Pedros.

I got a full Park Tool tool kit a while ago, several tools gradually broke or wore out and were replaced with Pedros ones, which have lasted a darn site longer.

I've always found bike shops are your best bet for spoke nipples. Most will probably have loads of spare spoke nipples (almost certainly in brass) knocking around in their workshop.

I think I've paid about £5 for about 50 nipples in the past from my LBS.

I've had mixed experiences. Ordered loads of stuff and generally they are excellent, and always easy to get hold of to talk through things.

Have had a couple of problems with orders being cancelled out of the blue with no option to back order or alternative item offered (both cases they didn't have stock of an item that was "in stock" at time of ordering).