I use oil in mine as I found it tended to be slow to operate with grease and would freeze up in the winter. Using oil makes the Hammerschmidt much more instant, although it means I do service it more regularly but it’s a doddle to do so why not spend the time?

As with my Hope Pro2 rear hubs I use Pedros Synlube as it’s what I have kicking about… if the hub or Hammerschmidt gets damaged by my actions then it’s my problem but the way they are built makes me think they will be fine. I’m not reccomending this… just saying it’s what I do

Messiah, is the welding around the ISCG tabs a bit “agricultural” on your Troof? Mine has the look of something that I’m sure functions well but it looks a bit naff.

Yes, not a thing of great beauty and it looks a funny way to do it with one of the bolt holes set into the down tube, but it is a huge tube and it seems to works fine. I did have to remove the bottom bracket spacer from the drive side and pop it onto the other side to get it all to line up with the E13 LG1+. It’s not something I think about now the bike is built and being ridden… enjoy!

it took you 3 months to fit the chain guide?

Errr, pretty much. I’d only lose the chain roughly once a ride with the other guide so I wasn’t too stressed by it… but I did move house so priorities have been elsewhere.

The buddha’s put weight on too

But he does look happier for it 😆

I really like my Ragley Troof 8)

I’m 6ft and this is the 17″.

A friend had a similar problem last year & his wife’s pilates instructor suggetsed they go & see an osteopath who specialises in infants/children. After just a few sessions the crying stopped & the osteo explained that some babies suffer discomfort as the plates that make up the skull are squashed & pushed around all over the place during birth but can take a while to settle back down again. This can be a painful process. Cranial massage to help everything back can be the answer & seemed like a miracle cure to them.

We did the same but at a Chiropractor. Instant Colic cure in no.1 and we did no.2 as well. Both slept through the night within days of the treatments… poor little toots had been in pain/discomfort when awake and not distracted.

Odd shape of no.1’s head was spotted by the Chiro and wife was diagnosed with a twisted pelvis… which had been “diagnosed” by normal doctors as a back problem which was treated with painkillers and “back re-hab” classes for years. Also informed that birth was never going to be natural because of the twist… all sorted before no.2 who’s head was a normal shape.

Could just be timing or emperors new clothes etc but it seemed to work well at the time.

XTR Trail with a Saint rear mech would be on my drool build.

Proper chainguide fitted 🙂

Mile munching mode

Play mode

I wouldn’t actually change the fork between the two… the Marz feels better than the Fox so it lives on here all the time, and the same with the CCDB recently, it feels better than the Float so it deserves it’s place.

Nicolai Helius AM FTW BTW 😉

It’s the voices in their heads that make them mental at that age 🙄

Cat liked it.

The tour of Iceland was good. My favourite was the very tasty Doppelbock

Pudding was a lost dog 8)

Sweet.

Tour of Iceland tonight.

Ooooh, per-order up now. Tempting, but wife would kill me as we are currently trying to sell a house.

Drank the last of my Tryst Hop Trials Citra, It tasted great but I feel sad now.

Nice!

Out on a trail last year I ended up doing this two miles in…

Introducing the bit of rag I keep in my backpack wrapped around my tools

Took a few goes to get the position and volume right… dimesion of rag has to match tyre ID.

Bodge survived the 35 mile epic intact.

I patched this successfully with old innertube and vulcanising solution when i got home… still going 6 months later… the stitching is a new one on me and I’m impressed. Don’t use superglue as it’s brittle when dry, use a large pach of innertube and vulcanising solution as it allow flex… you might need a couple of layers of old innertube.

Pipe straight up from hot water tank about a meter, then along a few meters and streight up to the bathroom. Looks to be thermo-siphoning. Thanks for the advice, much better than ripping up carpets

I can’t see n how you can have a leak that causes hot water to be at the bathroom tap but not be sloshing around in tons of water

My thoughts too 😕

At last mine has a proper chainguide that “should” stop the chain coming off 🙄

Looks nice and is/was “on trend”… but I agree with this ➡

Haven’t Stanton missed a trick by having a 1 1/8″ head tube and 27.2 mm seat tube ?

Hmmm, never heard of “thermo syphonining”. I moved into the house a few weeks ago and have little idea where all the pipes are. Looks like I’ll be under the floor and in the loft again tonight to try and figure out where they all go… and listening to the walls with a glass as I leave taps running etc etc.

I know a couple of rooms have had sinks removed so there will be some dead ended pipework beyond the bathroom, could this be causing the thermo-syphonining/convection-currents???

Pretty sure the hot water has to go past the kitchen to get to the upstairs bathroom… but I guess there could be two (or more) supplies from the hot water tank into the house… I know from my last house that 100+ year old houses tend to have bizzare pipe arrangements.

I hope it’s not a leak, and as I have said, so far there has been no evidence… and there was nothing in the home report about damp (but I know that home reports a waste of paper… as were most surveys but that’s a fight for another day!).

Any other suggestions?

Currently, keeping my shoes in a bucket of water makes more sense than trying to dry them out.

No; my knuckle is big and my finger is skinny, the ring I had rattled about and bugged the hell out of me. When I lost it we decided not to replace it.

“It’s biking, but not as we know it.”

That the jelly bean jar theory was ABSOLUTELY TRUE 👿

chainreaction are selling either the Ragley Troof or Bagger at a great price atm

Troof frames are currently £175 on CRC… fookin bargain!

You needs to pimp that ride dude!

Then we’re blastin’ off baby!! BOOOOOOOM!!!!

Nice!

Branson did do a bank – the Virgin One Account… mortgage and current account roled into one (now part of RBS). Mine has been beyond excellent for the last 15 years… unfortunatly I had to move it due to a house move and I already miss it.

Clydesdale have been great with the new mortgage but banking with them is an arse due to the person I have to speak to at the branch knowing less about the products they offer than I do… which is scary!

I will consider moving back to the Virgin One Account when I can.

I’m guessing here… but due to this groupset being pretty much focused on those entering super-enduro’s etc SRAM may choose not to release (or even work on) a cheaper version?

Which would be shame as I think it would be good for all sorts of biking… but who knows 😐

When I’m riding flats I miss the support of my carbon soled disco slippers. After about two hours of riding I get sore feet in my 5-10 Impacts despite wearing the same orthotic insoles… but my feet are pretty **** from years of ski boot abuse so YMMV etc.

I like flats and SPD’s; as has been stated above it’s great to be able to use both as each has it’s advantages.

From the update on bike rumour.

UPDATE: It’ll work on all of DT Swiss’ Star Ratchet equipped wheels (most of their high-end stuff) and on SRAM’s Rise 60 wheels. It won’t work on the Rise 40 wheels because they use a different driver body. Lalonde says nothing changed inside the driver body compared to a freehub body, just the outer shape was changed to accommodate the 10T cog. Theoretically, it pops on and off a hub the same way a standard freehub body would (depending on hub model, of course), which means it’s not a stretch that we’ll see it offered as an option on other brands. The design is open for other wheel manufacturers to use without licensing.

Please Hope… do this one little thing for me so I don’t need to buy new wheels

Edit… maybe Hope could adapt this system to the cassette thing they are building and give me people 10-36 10 speed cassettes etc…

wouldn’t a twin ring setup on the front do this? I’ve gone to 26, 36 on my geared bike in a 2×9 (11-32t) setup, and it dos the trick pretty well. Much less hassle than three rings. This isn’t a wind-up – give it a pop.

To answer your question Mr Bent Udder, I worked my way down from three front chainrings to one via two… in my (humble?) experience two chainrings still needs a front mech, and as I stated at the top of my post front mechs are not for me (except on my road bike… which I never use… the road bike that is… and when I did use it I was informed by the club I rode with that using the smaller chainring was a sign of weakness… as soon as you reach for that gear they will attack… that’s cat1 roadies for you 🙄 ).

So, no front mechs for me offroad* (unless I buy a cyclocross bike or take up XC racing again… or things change and I change my mind… oh whatever 😳 😉 ).

* at the moment; I reserve the right to change my mind whenever I choose and generally do whatever I deem appropriate if it so pleases me.

I don’t like front mechs for the way I ride offroad, trouble looking for somewhere to happen IMHO… the more chain guides you add the worse the mud problems become.

For the last year I’ve not had a front mech on any of my bikes, my hardtail is 1×9 and my big bike is Hammerschmidt. I can live with the 1×9 on the hardtail as it’s a light enough build (28lbs) and I use it mostly for the local forest stuff which is short sharp climbs and techy fun descents. I’m not racing or riding the road much so I don’t need a big ring. Nothing I can usually ride has defeated me on it yet but it is more condition dependent; when it’s really muddy I’ll probably fail on a few climbs I might have managed with lower gears.

For the big bike I take to the mountains I need the lower gears due to the weight (33lbs) and the mountains. I don’t take my bike for a walk; if I can ride up something then I will give it my best effort. I like my Hammerschmidt but if I could replace it with a lighter and simpler bit of kit which gives me the same gear range I probably would. I’ve looked at 1×10 with a 28 or 30 tooth up front which would almost give me low enough gears, but I would lose a bit off the top which would be a pain come any road sections. I also like the Hammerschmidt for how I can dump a load of gears swiftly, but that’s a habit I’m sure I can relearn. Prior to this I had a Rohloff equipped big bike; which had it’s own problems and I’m in no hurry to look at gearboxes again.

XX1 is looking good for my big bike; it almost has the range of the Hammerschmidt and I’m willing to lose a gear off either end to simplify. Cost is an issue and I can’t see XX1 being a cheap option, but neither was a Hammerschmidt 🙄

For my hardtail I’d not bother as for where and how I ride it the 1×9 gears on it are perfectly adequate.

Edit – I also have a singlespeed… it has it’s place but it’s not suitable as an every day bike for where and how I ride

I would be getting excited if it didn’t involve spending huge wedge on new wheels and drivetrain.

Anybody want to buy a house?

Previous – Ski Patroller, LBS mechanic, Bin man
Present – Oilfield well design engineer

Much as I like the Covert, and Transition, I wouldn’t buy any company’s first caebon bike. Not for a little while.

Probably made in the same factory and designed by the same experts as more established carbon frames… I wouldn’t let that put you off.

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Start a new niche; hedge your bets by putting one foot in each camp… left foot flattie, right foot SPD… 😆

By the time Hope release it the world will have moved on to XX1 style drivetrains 🙄