My Rc31’s broke.

Giving the insides a scrub and a wipe with meths definetly helps them to seal. Non UST’s can take a while of pissing sealant all over the garage floor but they are worth it IMHO.

I live on the coast and can see the forests and mountains I ride from my house… I love where I live

My wife was wondering of Sir Elton’s pub singing voice was a product of his botox?

I walked into the room while it was on and was thinking Vic Reeves pub singer…

Needs a proper full chainguide as I’ve had the chain bounce off and/or jam a few times on the gnarly stuff I love riding.

The same set up worked fine on this more pedestrian build.

I’ve not run a big ring for years so don’t miss that, and lack of a granny may limit where I can take this bike ultimately but I’ve not had that problem yet… just add more grunting and gurning.

Two pics for the price of one… do I get a prize?

My input is totaly unqualified because I’ve never done it but one of my friends who has done it twice suggested a hardtail would be perfect for the race… but a struggle to get through the qualifier with.

Edit… but he is one hell of a rider and the LTHT in question was a Chemelion with old Marz 66’s on it so not your average 140mm travel LTHT.

What a rancid little thread this is.

❗

I couldn’t bear the thought of him singing… I hated the bit when he was standing in the background with his mouth like a…

cats arse.

I wonder if these are the same people who go to gym’s and don’t break a sweat?

Each to their own and all that 🙄

I still like these but it’s more of a “semi” than a full “woody” now 😳

Edit… it’s a fork thing… I couldn’t get on with how flexy a 32mm stantioned fork is compared to a 35/36.

Fork/frame stiffness is important too. 32/Rev 140-150mm forks a not great IMHO and a 36/Lyrik/55/Deville makes a bike feel very different in a good way despite the heavier weight. I’d rather the bike was a bit heavier and went where I pointed it than playing noodle-fork-pinball.

To a certain extent a heavier bike can be “hustled” along just fine as long as as you feel the trade off is enough for the Doonhalls. I prefer my Nicolai Helius AM at 35lb to when it was at 31lbs because the coil suspension works better than the air for where I ride and the bigger tyres don’t split when I sneeze near them… I like a DH feeling AM bike on the doonhall bits so I can rag the stormtrooper lines… if your going to mince the DH bits anyway then you have other options… YMMV and IMHO etc etc.

IMHO… the bottom bracket is already too high on the Whyte hardtails so adding a longer fork will make this worse. As Xiphon says, a better 120mm fork (or even a 100mm fork!) could(?) improve the handling (IMHO, YMMV etc etc).

RS Reba Team forks are not a bad fork by any means… what do you dislike about them?

Day of work, a beer at lunch (Brewdog pub?), then some house painting followed by another beer or two.

Post painting beverage of choice this week has mostly been…

“Citra” and “Stella” were better than “Challenger” IMHO.

The whole not sure if 1 x 10 is enough is my exact thought on this purchase being better.

I keep thinking about trying 1×9 on that there Nic up there ^^^, but what puts me off is the weight of it. One very dry day last summer I managed to ride the whole of a local techy hilly loop without using the lowest gears… so it would be possible, but that was a very dry day, I was very on form, and it was a struggle. If I swap out the CCDB and coil forks for my Fox Float option and run my 2.2 tyres from my hardtail instead of the 2.4’s I could get the weight down to 30lb which might make it more do-able(able)… but the whole point of taking that bike is to really be able enjoy the doonhalls for which the big tyres and the coil shocks feel better(ererer).

I have the bits for 1×9 so will maybe try it later this summer, although for the munro bagging rides I’ll still want the Hammerschmidt so perhaps I’ll never get round to it. If you have the parts to try 1×10 first I’d be tempted to give it a bash. I didn’t plan to get a Hammerschmidt but my frame was ordered wrongly so has no front mech cable stop so it’s this or 1×9(10)[11?] 👿 but it’s all good in the end

A few things I’ve posted before about mine.

HammerSchmidt is great after nearly two years of abuse and it now looks pretty beaten up… still on the original bottom bracket which is a novelty for me. I’ve cleaned it inside a few times and I use oil instead of grease as I do with Hope hubs to keep it freewheeling easy; very important in winter up here. I love it, no more front mechs for me on the bikes I ride hard.

The best thing is the instant shifting up and down, so much so that it’s a revelation and hence for any little doonhall bits I find myself using the HS rather than trawling through gears at the back. Going from an HS bike back to a front mech is a disaster… so I ditched the front mech on the hardtail and went 1×9, which is ace on a 25/27lb hardtail… but not so on a 33lb AM bike.
I need my super low “winching” gears for the big mountains where I live so run the 22 with an 11-34 9sp rear. This gives me the same spread as 22/36 front 11-34 rear – which I find perfect.
The one flaw (other than weight) with the HS is the drag in the overdrive… but there is a simple solution to this which is don’t use the overdrive unless you have to. If you look at the gear spread there are only three/four? gears which the overdrive gives you which you don’t already have. So you very rarely “need” to use the overdrive, especially for when your putting effort into the cranks, and it’s only under effort which you notice the “drag”. Getting out of the saddle and “honking” when in the overdrive feels odd and is daft, just use the gears at the back so your not feeling the drag. With the HammerSchmidt I’m spending much more time down in the little sprockets at the back which are gears you usually avoid with a tripple up front due to slack chain and risk of chainsuck/fall-off… but because of the HS this is not an issue as the chain can’t fall off at the front, and the chain is much tighter as you can run a short chain (and a dinky Saint rear mech like me). Because of this change in how I use my gears I find I’m wearing the gears differently, I usually wear out the big three at the back because those are the gears I use most in granny and middle to keep the chain tight.
So… a little change in how you use your gears is required to make the best of the HammerSchmidt. Don’t use the Hammer and use the spread at the back, then come the doonhall… drop the Hammer and give it the beans as usual, but if you stall or hit a techy manouver a quick stab with the left thumb and your in the granny and through, then drop the hammer again and back up to speed… awesome!
Maintenance – I clean mine quite often as I find it does get some crap in it. In the winter I’ve found it best to run it with oil rather than grease due to the grease freezing (I’m up north, and I do the same with my Hope Pro2 hubs which also makes them freewheel better… a good loose spinning freehub is also a good idea with the HS as it limits your chain slapping about). The cable needs to be good and clean as this can cause problems as the spring tension is not huge.
The plastic chainguard thing can be snapped off and it makes no difference – mine is long gone and the chain still won’t fall off. Without the chainguide it’s much easier to clean out the mud which gathers in this area and gets compacted by the chain… just pop the chain over the cranks… mud is never an issue when riding but it does build up in this area.
Still on the original bottom bracket which feels great after two years with me (and my HS was second hand).
So… in summary… if you like your riding techy and fun, and your bike is too heavy or/and where you live too hilly for 1×9 (1×10) then a HammerSchmidt is ace (I hate front mechs for the biking I enjoy).

I guess this all sounds very positive? On the downsides it really is a bit heavy. On a light bike or if you lived somewhere flat I don’t think it would be clever as you would be spending more time in the overdrive which would become an irritation. For me and where I ride I love it.

I’m liking the look of the new XX1 but I really like how I can jump four gears with the Hammerschmidt when I drop the hammer, or single clicking into winch mode… it’s a shame SRAM haven’t continued working with the concept but I guess the weight and cost puts a lot of people off… but compared to a normal set up and a full chain device the weight difference isn’t actually that much, and on the right type of bike it’s a very useful piece of kit.

Do you “pimp your houmous”?

Olive oil, salt, pepper, Blairs Death sauce… yum yum yum.

Cleaning?

If I had time to clean my bikes I’d be riding more.

I hose the bike down if I have to, wait till it’s dry and put more Squirt on, wait till it’s dry and ride it again.

kevj – Member
Not sure if they do the exact one you are after but try these;

Fibre-Lyte

I think those are for one side only… so you would still need the correct “short” other side.

You need to find someone with a broken rear mech the same as you have but with the short cage to build a frankenmech(tm)

I can’t say for sure what can and can’t be done but if you have the bits it can be worth experimenting… says the man who is running an XT medium cage on an SLX mech.

After a few offs and cut ankles at the weekend due to clipped in feet / lack of balls / lack of skill I think I want to try flat pedals easier trails / another sport / persevering for a bit.

😉

Edit. As stated above. Clips or flats… you pays your money and takes your choice.

Who watched my big fat fetish the other night… *shudders*

Nice… I used to use one of these regularly.

A bit of a beast!

I’ve had a couple of shocks done and been happy with the results. Key is to know what you like and dislike about your current shock and then discuss with the tuner of your choice. From my experience TFT don’t push the Push option on you unless they think that it offers more than a standard retune.

I’m a Squirt fan. Make sure you put it on days/hours before the ride though… sticking some on right before the ride gives poor results.

For big days in the hills I sometimes carry a little bottle for after the big river crossings, but I’ve always had to do that anyway (except when I ran a Scottoiler… don’t go there).

Suck, don’t blow.

Cheersmin… I’ll not panic sell then 😀

The only beer (worth drinking) I have in the house is one of these.

Chainline, how freewheeling is your rear hub? I have had an issue in the past when running the hammerschmidt and a huge rear tyre in that because the rear hub had high friction and didn’t freewheel well the chain would flap about below the chainstay and get grabbed by the tyre, sucked into the gap between stay and tyre, making a loud scary buzzy noise.

Just wondering if when freewheeling your chain is dangling loose and hence able to flap around and find the gap… I would have thought the SG would stop that from happeneing but if the freewheel is pretty sticky it might make it bad. Solution for me was to remove all the grease from my Hope Pro2 rear hub pawls and run it with oil instead – as a bonus this also makes it quieter 8)

Not sure how “sticky” brand new CK hubs are as I’ve never owned any.

I’m sure setting up the SG properly will fix it… the pics you posted on the other site look lush

Thinking more about this… what I do like about the HammerSchmidt is that you can dump/grab a load of gears quickly. That will not be so easy when you have to shift across a load of sprockets to achieve the same result… and turn the cranks at the same time.

what problems do people have with front mechs? Mine change as sweetly as the rear mech

*Sigh*

Change fine when not under pressure, when not being bounced off by the terrain, and when not covered in copious amounts of mud and/or snow.

I like to challenge myself by riding stuff that is tricky, I like not having to worry if my chain is still on when stamping down a pedal stroke through the fun stuff, YMMV etc.

SO Messiah, don’t fit it yet, let me test it and give you the feedback.

Cheersmin… hope it’s just a setup issue 🙄

Awesome. Having digested the Pinkbike and Bikeradar stuff I went and did my gearing calcs… and with a 28 front ring this system would give as low gearing as I currently have with the HammerSchmidt, and only lose a couple of big gears… which I can live with. Or stick with a 32 and lose my current granny which I rarely use.

I’d better start saving my pennies as I suspect this is going to cost two times what I think it will, plus new wheels.

Edit. I’ll almost certainly change my mind when i actually see the costs involved 👿 👿 😈

Pinkbike stuff is interesting.

I like the look of this. I hate front mechs which is why I run 1*9 on my hardtail and HammerSchmit*9 on my big bike. I see too little benefit to going 10 speed on either bike but the XX1 could tempt me for the big bike.

I don’t want to hear this lalalalalala 😕

I’ve only read good things about them which is why I bought one.

Hmmm, not good, perhaps I’ll sell mine unused rather than try it?

I’ve done the broom handle and emery cloth trick on a few frames and it works a treat. A scotchbrite pad is also a pretty useful addition, as is a round file if there are any big lumps to take out.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey etc etc.

I don’t regret getting rid of any… I regret not getting rid of some sooner.

Bikes and riding moves on.

15deg at 5am blows bears on motorcycles out of the water

You will struggle to notice 10mm.

But you possibly will notice 20mm 🙄

Be aware that 160mm forks like Lyriks and 36’s (and Deville’s I think) add 20mm to the fork length over a 150mm fork; 10mm for the additional travel and 10mm more for the bigger/beefier crown. This can effect the geometry so it’s worth being sure you really want the bigger fork.

I tried some Revelation forks on my hardtail after hearing good things about them. For the first few months I got on fine with them and was even thinking of trying them on my AM bike… they were pretty good even in the gnar although the flex was a bit disconcerting… but then it rained loads and I found that when push-came-to-shove-came-to-deep-muddy-ruts I was struggling to make the bike go where I wanted it to. I don’t scare easy but that day scared me… the Rev’s were fine on good trails but as soon as I took it to my more usual mud wrestling I wanted/needed a beefier fork… so I sold them on and I’m now running 36’s and 55’s which give me the beefy goodness I desire… which meant changing my hardtail frame to get one to suit the longer fork

I don’t do Talas or travel adjust forks… wind out your forks for the doonhall bit and you’ve just raised your bottom bracket and fubared the handling (IMHO etc)… poor crutch for a bad design… run the correct length fork even if that means running a Fox 36 at 140mm of travel 8)