I am sure there are braking bumps in the tarmac at the road crossing back to the visitors centre at Cannock :D

Pfftt have you not swopped out your hub cap bolts for titanium yet? :D

I am sure there are braking bumps on some of uphill sections at Cannock. :)

Explain that.

Certainly has them in the most inexplicable of places, middle and exit of berms FFS :)

Good for me.

Ok I am running 3 x FS with Rohloffs with various setups and travel one as a DH bike.
I use the the Rohloff tensioner, single ringle up front, 3/32 chain, bit more weight to the rear but it’s not a problem.
I have run the one hub since 2004 on a variety of bikes and usage includes uplifts and 2 trips to the Alps, minium maintenance which includes a yearly oil change, 1 x set of seals, 1 x sprocket, 2-3 sets of cables.
In a word bombproof and uber reliable the only thing I would change is a TS axel (nut)rather than QR to stiffen the rear end.

Also have 2 x HT with sliding dropouts running an Alfine 8 and 11, the 8 is solid, performs well and stiff with the nutted axel but has a limited gear range.
The 11 seems very sensitive to cable tension even on the HT and have read issues where is was used on an FS bike.

As you can see I like IGH but you can still long grass caught in the chain, sprocket and tensioner, not as big a problem but it does happen :)

However the a pinion 18 frame like the Nicolai Helius Am will be the future.

As per woody74 or maybe look at hiring a bike they seemed to have good range of stuff when we were in Saalbach and Chatel/Morzine.

One the the guys took a Halfords HT the first year we went, lasted three runs, it was almost cartoon like the way it rattled appart beneath him. He hired a Scott Gambler for I think about £30-40 per day.

But of course new bike ftw :)

Hey Neil, good to meet you, best wishes for the new venture and you shouldn’t have but thank you very much for the beers.

ok e-mail sent.

Found them this morning, just before the proper camber bit where everyone is wearing a groove to the right of the trail.

I’me base in Arley Kings or Bewdley depending on the day presently if you want to pick them up.

As per beej – higher temperatures affects performance, from memory the performance drop off ramps up by temperature, bright cold conditions like sunny skiing/boarding situations are the ideal.

Also age affects performance, original plastic transition used to go a nice purple colour after a few years, newer versions are much better, but they don’t tell you these things on the adverts :)

I was always impressed with polarised lenses with the lighter grey tint and a mirror coat for bright hot conditions.

A buddy and I rode 13-14 mile to Wordsly BMX track, raced three heats then rode back home again. :-)

Tried a Q-ring, caused pronounced bobbing on an FS.
May have got better as I adapted but I felt it wasn’t worth the effort or cost of getting all the bikes set up the same.

Changed the cartridge bearing in my Hope front hub after 7-8 years of off road use, abuse and washing just because they started sounded a bit noisy.
Would probably have last a few more years if I had popped the seals and cleaned and re-lubricated them, but it was just as easy to put new bearing in.
I avoid shimano hubs because they use C&C which in my view have no place on modern mid to high end mountain bikes or products :)

May get away with a 2.35 option being light or if you want to pedal uphill.

But for the front 2.5 Minion DHF double ply 42a, for the rear 60a this will get you through most stuff, and take a spare tyre just in case.

Here you go Size-S

However I would recommend the Troy Lee KG5450 (XS available) still good for pedaling but saves shin and calf from pedal strikes, scratchy brambles etc.
Pin gouges never look nice but I would have thought even less so if your a young lady. :-)

Have a good time in the Alps.

Elbow pads on the same site.

Many years ago I was riding down the Llamberis path on my trusty GT RTS (yes it was that long ago) after an aborted attempt on the summit due to bad weather.

Hopping over a water bar a gust of wind lifted the bike up horizontally and sent me flying and bouncing luckily down the trail. After lying there for several minutes to check for potential injuries I finally got to my feet with only a badly scuffed/holed knee and torn waterproof and badly dented spirit.
I found the bike about 30 ft up the trail, limping back up I was amazed I had managed to bounce over/through some very nasty pointy and sharp rock outcrops without more injury.

Was a bit more cautious when I finally got back on the bike and crawled back down, saw nobody else that day on the mountain, could have been there a long time with more debilitating injuries.
Lessons learned –
Thankfully I put a helmet on before starting back down.
I always wear knee pads now, regardless of what I am riding.
Never ride new or potentially risking condition on your own.
Oh and mobile phone were not common back then.

Agree just drop the spacer on top of the stem.

Hey learning is the fun part, your a natural :D

Excellent photos, I can see why this was a bit perplexing.

Womble from the second photo I would have thought that would have been perfect, I use the Hope head doctor system on my setups.

I can only think that the top cap has a second and quite deep shoulder that rests on the top of the steerer tube.

3-5 mm looks good to me, although I would still set it up will the washer on top of the stem, them measure from top of the stem to the bottom of the outer shoulder of the top cap.

Yes your correct, the steerer needs to be 2-3 below the headset, head tube, stem and any spacers stack.
The top cap rests on the stem/spacer washer and the cap bolt fits into the star washer (or other devise) in the steerer tube.
When the bolt is tightened it pull the steerer up or compresses the stem, headset etc down.
If the steerer is longer than the rest of the stack the top cap just bottoms out against the top of the steerer tube so you are unable to take out the play in he headset.
Hopefully that makes sense :-)

You are going about it the correct way.
From what you describe I would have thought 2 x 5 mm would cover it.

A quick fix would be to use one off another bike and place it on top of the stem.
Refit top cap and tighten to the correct load to remove play in the headset without getting any binding.
Tighten stem bolt.
Remove top cap and spacer.
Measure from the top of the stem to the top of the steerer tube.
Add 2-3 mm to this measurement to get the required spacer depth.
Replace the top cap and then you can ride the bike until your new spacers turn up :-)

Arrrrr that’s horrible.

Have you let the air out seem to compress very easily, but conversly seems to have a lot of stiction.

My Talas were making a weird noise at 140mm setting upon compression.
Did some research and found out some of the forks were shipping with low oil levels.
Stripped the lower legs and measured the oil, which was clean but was only about 10-15% of volume recommended.
Rebuilt with correct oil type and levels, seems ok now.

I had a chorus of “who needs spares spokes” from riding buddies, the answer was with a niche hub set up I do.
Broke four spokes on the drive side hammering through a rock garden on a 6″ travel bike because fingers were to tired/sore to brake and just had to ride it out.
Would have screwed up the holiday if I hadn’t had the spares.

Others stuff
If you have a dropper post, take a spare standard one just in case.
Spare tyres and tubes or even a spare set of wheels with a different set of tyres.
Brake pads and bleed kit
A selection of nuts, bolts, chainring bolts etc.
Rear mech.

Some of the group took two bikes over, but we did drive over with vans.

Stoner with the sliding dropouts why aren’t you using the OEM or tandem plate which locates in the slot?
I thought that may be a neater solution.

They look quite long, you need 19 mm from memory for the OEM axel plate.

But if not as per TandemJeremy use OEM 2 axel plate and a dogbone or better still a monkeybone.

Without slidy dropouts or eccentric BB you will need to use a tensioner or magic gear.

You could get some custom slidy dropouts made.

Alfine hubs use torque washers which need about 13-15 mm dropouts but Alfines are not quite as refined as the Rohloff.

Troy Lee, feel quite sturdy but wearable.

Two week s for me……… I need rest days :)

Ensure the bead on the tyre within the rim is located within the deepest part of the rim to ensure you have the most slack when trying to lever over the last bit.
Use warm soapy water around the tyre bead to help the rubber slide onto the shoulder and bead seat.
Use compressor or you may get away with a foot pump to inflate to 50-60 psi for steel beads to seat. Folding beads are a bit of a pig to inflate and seat.
Depending on weather you are using UST or standard tyre you may need to add latex sealant.

Good luck.

Maßrahmen = custom options/build (I think)

Translated mi-tech

I notice the majority of companies on board with the whole concept seem to be German.

Moonglu in Ripon are planning on running a Large demo (and they’re in the first delivery) which would let you judge function.

Thanks again, I will keep an eye out for dates.

Ok that’s a shame, and XL is a fail as I believe I need a medium.
Don’t normally demo bikes but I think in this case I would like to just to see if sizing and function match expectations/cost ratios. :)

Thnaks you for the feedback.

I don’t like their prices much. Basic Hope/Rohloff disc £61! Wiggle list those at £26rrp.

Floating vented rotor £91!

:D The floating vented rotors are exspensive (even 6 bolt versions) which is why I live with the standard version.
The company is pricy but I guess thats down to be being one of the few that stock parts and spares for a range of IGH.

Any thoughts on demo’s for the Helius AM Pinion ? :)

Badly expressed point by me. I don’t get the ‘I’d never have a bike with any form of “Gripshift” even if there were numerous other advantages’ thing.

The Rohloff shifter has a slightly different feel to “Gripshift” and makes sense when you use it, unfortunately very few people get the opportunity to try it out for themselves, due to cost and niche nature of Rohloffs.
I would liken it to flappy gear changer on high end sports cars, they may be awsome but barring a lottery win, stepping into the Clarksons shoes for a day, or having a wealthy budy with a suitable car he can loan me I will never know :)

Talking of trying things out anybody know if there will be a Helius AM Pinion to demo in the UK over the next couple of months.

Reminds me of the person who told me they could never ride a Rohloff as you can’t get floating disc roters for them….

You can get a Hope V2 floating rotor now :)
V2 Rohloff floating rotor[/url][

Never quite got this far when I tried it.

But in theory yes, the canal continues on the other side of the Bromsgrove highway, may have link it up by country lanes though.

I have two first generation Slope Styles and an Uzzi VPP.
This is Slopey the 2nd with a light AM setup.

how were the pads?

They seemed fine, I was still running them six months later, but had to bleed the brakes and change the piston seals :)
As mentioned the sintered required warming up to get them to bite, scared myself a couple of times on runs where I didn’t need to touch them until the first hard braking sections and you pull the lever expecting quick deceleration and it doesn’t happen.

Changed to V2’s for the following year which were bullet proof and performed perfectly in all conditions, ran with the standard pads wich also lasted the whole week. Big rotors ftw.

I would always take a spare set of pads for each end though just for peace of mind.

2 sets in 2.5 months? are you fricking kidding? i must be doing something wrong…

It’s because tom is awsome :)

Sintered lasted me a week in the Alps even with dragging the brakes for the first few days (they do need warming up though to get them to bite) but I did boil the rear brake fluid and cook the rotor.

On the inner cable?

:-) No, the outer and liner, there is a super beefy ferrule on the hub end thats very difficult to re-fit.
The inner cable may be cut from the normal end.

Set up with a straight a cable run as possible,this has been very easy on the HT, I have not tried it on an FS frame but suspension action and longer more convoluted cable runs may make set up more interesting.

If you shorten the cable, cut it from the shifter end as the ferrule on the hub end is not designed to be re-fitted.
Ensure the cut outer and liner cables are cleaned up and not burred or crushed.

Make sure you are accurate with the recommended cable length from the ferrule to the clamp bolt that locates into the hub.

Align the yellow dots on the hub to correctly set up the gear indexing, try it and adjust if required, I have heard some people require the dots to be slightly off alignment to correctly engage all the ratios without any issues.

The cable will need tweeking during initial use.

Ease up on the power when changing, and don’t mash the pedals if it doesn’t quite engage.

Running as 32 x 24 feels a bit spongy in the lower gears at standstill but seem ok spinning up the hills.

Hope this helps :D