Thought I’d reply here for similar recommendations rather than make a new thread…

Looking for a rack to fit 2-3 bikes (not e-bikes) including a 1305mm wheelbase XL 29. Have a tow bar and roof bars and would consider both options. Any further recommendations to those already mentioned?

I’ve used Chinese 54t ratchets for a few years. No issues.

Silica gel inside a pair of cut-off tights is indeed the answer. Less than £10 for 1kg of silica on eBay. 500g would probably do you if it’s only ever going to be for bike shoes.

Top them up regularly (see Epicbleedsolution’s “5 minute Shimano mini bleed”), and always do all bleed procedures with the free stroke screw unwound then screw it back in after you finish.

My friend who sold me my original SLXs recommended I keep them topped up for improved feel (less lever throw as the pads wear) so I’ve always done it with Shimanos ever since, probably 4-5 mini bleeds in the life of each set pads …and have never experienced the fabled wandering bite point.

escrs, are the 2bliss strips working well for you then? I remember you replying in an old thread when they were suggested and saying you would try them next. I’ve been wondering about the strips for a while, like the idea of them being reusable and not having to cut & patch tape if replacing a nipple, but never think to order them ahead of time.

Please report back about the Specialized 2Bliss Strips escrs.

I had a nightmare retaping my 30mm DT Swiss last night – used normal Gorilla Tape last time but a little too narrow for the rim and it had a slow leak. Clear Gorilla worked well previously (an lighter weight) but didn’t survive more than 4-5 tyre changes. Couldn’t get normal or clear Gorilla Tape to stick last night even after a good cleaning & scrubbing with isopropyl. Ended up putting down a layer of electrical tape then wall-to-wall normal Gorilla Tape (32mm tape) and a tube is in there now to press it down – worked well on my previous Spank rims when nothing else would stick.

I’ve thought about rim strips before but always forget to buy them ahead of time and just use whatever tape I have. If the strips work well they seem a good no-hassle solution and easy to change nipples when needed.

The older Dakine ones that roll on the wide edge are great. Fits my XL Patrol fine with fork compressed. Shock and Cranks removed makes it less of a squeeze. Watch eBay.

All lifts inside the Chamonix valley except for Plan Joran and Vallorcine are still open in the first half of September.

Just pulled it out for a look – failed circlip indeed. I’ll remove the post later and see if I can shake out the circlip. Bought less than two years ago from Chain Reaction so should be a straightforward warranty job.

Not exactly looking forward to going back to an oldschool post in the meantime but at least it’s early season still here!

Cheers.

Original post here, Rik: https://happyride.se/forum/read.php/1/3309316/3309788#msg-3309788.

So PTFE tape on both ends of the air shaft, Scienceofficer?  Never used the stuff myself, how many wraps roughly do you remember, just enough to feel a bit of resistance while threading the bolts?  And looks like a 2mm or 2.5mm drillbit in the original post’s photos?  I just read through a bit of the Lyrik service manual and watched the Luftkappe installation video for good measure.  Removing the piston sounds like the only tricky-ish part, and maybe drilling the hole clean.

Had a look at the original Swedish forum post again, seems more straightforward than I remember.  Hmm, might give this a shot on the next lowers service.

I’d just need some circlip pliers to remove the shaft completely and something to grip the shaft (à la Luftkappe installation instructions)?  I guess sealing the shaft/bolt at the end is the only thing that could really go wrong, in which case you’d know about it straight away as the fork will lose pressure when inflated?

Yes, and sealing the bottom but thread with PTFE.

Any more info besides that Swedish(?) forum post that was going around a while ago?  And what are the chances of an experienced home bike mechanic messing something up while attempting it?  Seems pretty straightforward from what I can gather, but taking a drill to a pretty new Lyrik makes me a bit nervous.

I’ve made the ghetto mod. To my 2014 pike and my 2016 lyrics.

It’s made a difference to both, but more so on the lyric, which starts with a bigger neg. spring anyway.

“Ghetto mod” being drilling the air shaft, Scienceofficer?

Tell him exactly what you think of him in a private message, leave negative feedback, find another bike to buy.

I have just tested the milkIt Booster head with a slightly dented 3 year old 750ml €5 Quechua (Decathlon) Sigg-style bottle and I was not killed by flying shards of metal.  Your mileage may vary.

I carry this bottle on most big rides so thought that the head may prove a useful addition to my backpack, for the sake of 20g.  To be fair I’ve only ever seen one friend need to reseat a tyre on the trail but he did manage it with CO2.  Will I ever use it on the trail?  Probably not, but see “for the sake of 20g” above, and I could say the same thing about a few other things I carry too, plus I fancied it for home and roadtrip use anyway.

I emailed milkIt directly a couple of weeks ago asking if a decent mini pump would inflate the bottle OK on the trail and they replied no problem, but better to use their smaller bottle (600ml) if using a mini pump in order to reach a high enough pressure a bit easier (85-120psi).  I replied to thank them and that I planned to use my existing Sigg-style bottle with the head and received no further reply from them.

I ordered the head from Bike24 after that.  It arrived leaky but was replaced immediately by Bike24 after I sent a video demonstrating the problem.

The replacement head arrived today.  I connected it to the aforementioned bottle and inflated it with a cheap track pump while a heavy towel was wrapped around the bottle & head in case of explosion. When I hit about 140psi the head popped off the bottle just a little at a slight angle with a long slow hiss.  I then unscrewed and reinstalled the head no problem, inflated again to 140psi and it held fine, and tested the inflation on a tube.  The bottom of the bottle is now very slightly bulged outwards but it still stands up on a table OK.

milkIt’s own instructions say to inflate to 160psi.  140psi was getting pretty tough going for my track pump so that’s as high as I would have gone anyway.  I’ll it for real at about 100-120psi when I change tyres in the next few weeks but am not scared of going to 140-160psi if need be.

Leaks at the valve were known issue when the original 28H Oozy 295s rims first came out – see MTBR forums I think.  Reported fixes were to put a rubber o-ring between the rim and the valve lock ring and/or urethane glue around the inside of the valve before tightening it completely (Shoe Goo, Evostik Serious Glue, Seam Grip, etc).  I did both when I first set them up and never had leakage issues in 3 years.

Depends where and how your ride, but be aware that the Purgatory Grid has a significantly lighter and thinner casing than the Butcher Grid and Slaughter Grid, which themselves are a little tougher than a Minion EXO.

Blue IKEA bag.

Fixed the lever now 😊.  Pretty straightforward, just a bit fiddly.

Seating the wee spring to prevent lever rattle is the only vaguely awkward bit.

You’re not kidding.  Just had a trial run removing the blade from my spare old lever and reinstalling it.  Ended up making a little dowel the right size to hold the pieces together while inserting them into the lever body, then used the axle to push out that dowel.

Having done the above I can see how it’ll be no issue to do it on the bike.  Enough for tonight though, that’s a job for the morning.

Thanks.

It surely would be an odd shape, now you point it out. The 2mm refers to the radius of the cross section, no?

Indeed.  2mm section would mean 4mm difference in inner/outer diameter.  So your man at X-Fusion got something wrong.

eBay.  It’ll take some repeated searching but you’ll find them.  Some sellers seem to list by inner diameter, some by outer.

32x30x2mm doesn’t sound right though.  It’ll either be 34x30x2mm, 32x30x1mm or 32x28x2mm.  Recheck with your man to be sure before ordering; he probably looked up the inner or outer diameter and calculated the other diameter wrongly for a 2mm section.

Yep, I’ve been thinking of switching to a much lighter weight emergency tube for anything short of an all-day epic ride too as I don’t think I’ve put a tube in on the trail in 3 years now – plugs normally work and I’d rather limp home on a leaky plug anyway than deal with the mess on the trail especially in bad weather.

So: any recommendations for light-ish, compact-ish, cheap-ish models of tube?

I’m gloveless 90% of the time and classic BMX mushroom style grips are my far my favourite.  ODI Longneck is the benchmark.  Currently DMR Sect which feel just as good.  Tried Sensus once, felt good but shredded quickly.

http://beerbabe.co.uk – custom, cheap, good.

Wipe the hard drive, install the newest OS & newest versions of your programs and start again from scratch, setting up the OS for speed (plenty of guides readily available for this).  Then change to a solid state drive and maximum memory if you’re still not happy with the speed and don’t mind spending some money.

Race Face carbon crank warranty period is 3 years.

“Lifetime” warranty of any product means the lifetime of the product, which I would expect a manufacturer to state as 3-5 years maximum for any cranks but it’s probably their decision on a case by case basis.

MAOIs, 5-HTP and psilocybin.  I urge you do your own research on these compounds and their potential benefits to your situation and decide if you want to try them.

You’ll worry less about what other people think about you once you realise how seldom they do.

Go prepared to be … frustrated by stupid people who despite being told you can only make a decision based on what you’ve heard in the court room will make up elaborate “what if” scenarios.

Quoted for truth.  Two-thirds of the jury I was in genuinely couldn’t understand the concept of “innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt”.  Scary.  If there weren’t so many people trying to worm their way out of this important role then the guy might have gotten a fairer verdict.

Sounds like pistons on one side are sticking a little.

Take the wheel off and pads out and look at how much the left pistons sit vs the right pistons.  Then give the lever a careful squeeze and watch how they move – careful not to squeeze too much which might pop piston(s) out but one solid squeeze should be OK.  If left & right sets sit unevenly and/or one side moves more than the other when the lever is squeezed then you need to free them up.

Simply pumping the lever, pushing pistons back in and repeating is sometimes enough.  You can isolate the front or back pistons by blocking the other ones with a Shimano yellow bleed block.  To isolate a single one you need to use the bleed block on one pair and a plastic tyre lever on one other one – squeeze very carefully when isolating one piston!  Using mineral oil to lubricate is potentially bad for the seals so I use Castol red rubber grease as a lube when they need it.

I do this every other time I change my pads and it makes a big difference.

Curious on opinions on these ones…looks like a good deal?? No need to apologise – all discussion welcome 🙂

Had a Trail Boss as a rear tyre briefly last summer (Tough Fast variety).  Rolled fast, nice tough casing but the side knobs weren’t enough for how I want to ride and the braking was just OK.  Took it off before it was even half-worn, which is a first for me because I’m tight and normally run rear tyres until they’re well and truly done.  Woudn’t dream of putting one on the front.  If you don’t want to lean your bike over a lot in mixed conditions it might work well on the rear but put something chunkier on the front (Maxxis EXO or Schwalbe Snakeskin will be fine if you ride smooth-ish).

I live in “The Alps” as you like to call this 200,000 square km region of the world. 😉

Update: just fixed it.  Pinched a spring from a fork seal, uncoupled it, snipped the end shorter with good cable cutters, rejoined, checked, resnipped, rechecked, job done.  It stretched over the Reverb’s seat clamp no problem with the saddle removed.

The Reverb is still a bit sticky, but since it’s under warranty I think I’ll follow the “if it ain’t completely broke don’t try to fix it” mantra and watch for any deterioration.

You sure you snapped it?

Aha, right you are sir!  Looks like it just popped out, but also stretched a section of it so it’s not repairable.  Fork seal ones look to be pretty much the same though – got an old one here I’ll try to split, cut to length and rejoin.

Also found the name I’m looking for: garter spring.

Thanks y’all.

Magic sponge.

“Really small”?  Blackburn’s Airstik SL is proper small, and what I carry on shorter rides without a backpack (ie. anything not requiring lunch to be carried).  Worked good enough on the handful of times I’ve needed to use it, well worth the trade-off of size vs performance for me, and half the time I’m riding with friends who have a better pump on them on those no-backpack rides anyway.

One of the bigger size Lezyne Alloy Drives lives in my backpack, which I wear about two-thirds of the time.

It’s pretty easy to swap bearings in the Race Face BSA30 BB (6806 bearings).  Just done mine for the second time in 3 years, so about 18 months per set.  I knock them out carefully with a flathead screwdriver and press in with a big bolt and oversized washers – can be done with the BB on or off the bike.

My previous cranksets all used cheap Shimano BBs and those used to die on me in a year while riding less than I do now.

Custom mini front triangle frame bag from beerbabe.co.uk.  Had two made myself for different bikes, nicely made.

Not mentioned yet, all must-watches in my opinion:

King Of Kong (2007) – Retro gaming, very much structured as a sports documentary
Murderball (2005) – Wheelchair rugby
Next Goal Wins (2014) – American Samoa’s football team
The Summit (2012) – Mountaineering
Tickled (2016) – Competitive tickling (yes really, more an investigative journalism film but excellent)

try a ratchet strap around the crown of the tyre to force the beads out into the rim

An old 26″ tube works better in my experience.  Haven’t touched a compressor or homemade bottle inflator since I started using an old tube.

2 weeks of June or first 2 of Sep give you the most options as all lifts should be open

Vallorcine doesn’t open until 30th June this year.  The start of September is best, then July, then a toss-up between late June and all of August (less lifts open vs busiest time).