Stendec Easy Glide for me.

Whatever you use, you don’t need much so a little goes far

One knee or both?

Cleats or flats?

Thumbs definitely better under grips, you only have to catch a little rut and end up wearing your bike.

Try rotating your bars first, best to change only one thing at a time.

If you sit on the bike with a gentle grip on the bars, are there spaces/uneven pressure between your hands and the grips.

If there is a void or pressure point, you need to imagine which way rotating the bars will improve this.

Loosen off your stem clamp to just allow the bars to turn, get comfortable, move bars so the grip fills your hand across the palm. Nip up, double check, tighten clamp.

Reset your controls, take a spin round the block, repeat until you either find a better position or decide you need some new gear.

brakes –
Sounds like first option would be to rotate your bars forward.
what would that do?

Or backwards maybe.

It is just another position adjustment, same with saddle angle and setback.

It is not possible for 9 Degree back sweep flat bar to fit everyone, this is just the general best fit for the average person.

Rotating the bars gives you adjust to suit your hand position relative to shoulder width, arm length, frame and stem size.

Once you have a rise and up sweep involved too, it further increases the eccentricity of the rotation, which gives an even larger range of positions.

Personally I like to have my bars turned more forward than most people, up to you.

Sounds like first option would be to rotate your bars forward.

I still use a Flite for short rides on a older road bike. Everything else has a Spoon or Scoop on it, so works for me.

I like the raised tail as you can alter the pressure points by moving forwards and backwards, easy to buy cheap used saddles in different shapes until you find the right one and then get new.

The Fizik guide works well for different saddle shapes that can then be compared to other brands.

http://www.fizik.com/spineconcept/

They seem to be the same but I would call DMR or Upgrade before pressing the buy button.

The frame specs should give you the actual dimensions of the headtube, both of those links are a bit too vague in my opinion.

Cane Creek has a really good headset finder here> http://www.canecreek.com/headset-fit-finder <which says the CRC headset will fit but seems to only have the high spacer version in stock, if that’s what you want?

As above, go for a shorter cage mech and loose some more links.

If your chainline is far outboard then space it in or try one of the new Blackspire guides, they are very are good. I think the Hope is more of a chain catcher and will probably get chewed up if your chainline is way over. Obviously better for the lifespan of your chain too if you can bring it in a bit.

Blackspire have an ISCG 05 top guide, maybe a bit overpriced though, or the “trail 1X”(?) with beavertail bash guard. Although neither will work with a crank mounted bash.

Blackspire fan here.

Check the small print and then complain to Paypal if you have a valid claim.

Alpkit Stem Cell will take a water bottle and do double duty on other rides too.

No bother.

No better opportunity for a service.

In theory there should be no wear on the cups and races as the moving parts are all within the bearings.

It is good practice to keep items like this together in their sets, and as it’s so easy there’s no reason not to.

Hope races just pull off due to the slot, no messing around with pullers or drifts.

Personally I would not want to go below a 32.

Can I suggest if your knees are a bit tired stick with a 2×9 set up, say 22-36, still gives you the options.
You will probably have to start faffing about with a full chain guide if you go 1×9.

Yes you need a new lower cup and crown race.

Sorry to hear about your shoulder.

No real loss to strip it down and see if there is anything obvious first.

Sounds like something is bent, lever/body/piston, and a complete new lever would be a better bet.

Look at the lower cup from underneath, if you can see an adaptor then you just need to swap the crown race over to your new forks, as described above.

No adaptor then you need a new lower cup and crown race which will be supplied together.

Order the correct cup according to internal diameter of headtube, ideally as measured or taken from frame specifications/common knowledge.

As above:

Is the frame headtube tapered, actually physical wider at one end compared to the other?

Or is it straight and able to fit a taper steerer fork?

So you must have a straight headtube then?

Page 3 of the PDF above shows all the options.

Straight steerer in a tapered headtube will have an adaptor (HS:136) fitted to carry the larger crown race.

Genesis Alpitude, latest version, mostly Reynolds 853 with replaceable hanger, 135mm rear end and 44mm headtube.

Rated at 120 to 160 forks but rides best at 140 in my opinion with either 16.5″ or 18.5″ frames.

Strange seatpost size, specced at 27.2mm but needs a coke can shim to avoid squashing the seat tube.

Always been a Reba fan myself, although I have not ridden a set of SIDs for a long, long time. Not sure if I would notice the difference.
If going further out, then ease of getting spares is worth considering too.

I do prefer the floodgate version and bought some OEM 29er Reba RLT earlier this year as no aftermarket version available. No complaints here.

The floodgate is useful if using a bar bag on some rides and the front end load varies a lot, even daily, without having to tweak air pressure settings.
I’m not sure what options are available for other wheel sizes.

X-fusion with 34mm stanchions as another option?

No pictures from me i’m afraid.

The bracket modification is quite simple, cut off the sticky out bit and make the hole bigger.

The issue is with the special parts required to attach the two together, specifically the round insert with a female thread and the cross dowel to keep it in place.
If you can beg or buy these parts, the rest is simple.

As the B type is much cheaper to produce than the A type, this is one issue that really bothers me. Shimano seems unable to admit any failing, with this and other issues, ten speed road chains anyone?

The bolt hole should have been left in the same place, almost anyone can, or find someone who can, accurately cut off a little piece of metal. And the fixings should have been provided free to anyone on request.
It’s not like those parts are much use for anything else, and just the requirement for the items shows the person is most likely to be a regular customer.

“HELLO COWS”
“Hello Horse”
“Meh sheep”

Sorry but I don’t agree. The animals hear you approaching on a quad bike and are habituated to you and the machine being around them and behaving in a similar manner each time too.

Getting too close on a near silent bike is a different matter, especially if there are a number of riders who react in different ways too.

Otherwise yes, still sounds like grumpy framer BS to me and I’ve had to move a fair few grumpy sleepy cows too.

If you get new then don’t buy the older Shimano rotors with the small six arm spider that are very cheap now, get the five arm spider version.

I’m sure I saw Ice tech discs on sale at one of the big online shops (CRC?) since the latest “freez-arse” version is now more desirable.

Gloves………………………………

What are they good for………………………………….

Absolutely nothing……………………..

Well spotted Bob, has anyone on here made contact?

First posted in December, probably does not still have a hot bike by now.

Gloves………………………………

What are they good for………………………………….

Absolutely nothing……………………..

Pads have to be comfortable otherwise you just won’t wear them.

Technique first, speed later, remember you have a limit, enjoy.

Personally I use EBC pads in SLX brakes and shimano rotors, using Superstar pads were like riding on a crazy donkey.

Have you checked the alignment of the front caliper?

Not all individual cows and breeds of cows behave the same way.

If you see them first, let them know you are coming, same with all animals, including people

Nature should only be stroked gently.

He makes some very good arguments on his links too, although the first one is broken, as is the man.

I have SLX on two bikes and don’t feel the need for any more, one set replaced some Formula The Ones if that makes any difference.

Could these be photos recovered off of an old phone?

Maybe the phone is stolen too?

It does seem like you want the scenario to be bad rather than good.

The only way to find out is to open a discussion with the person in current possession of the bike.

Have you got enough tension on the B screw?
Top jockey wheel might be clashing with the sprockets.

Cross chaining

Maybe the rider tried it, didn’t like it and a relative bargain to be had. And could just not like french words.

More details than a lot of hot bike descriptions so worth making contact, if still for sale ask about frame and fork serial numbers. Depending on response, continue or consider contacting Old Bill.

Superficial – I feel like you might have had something important to say, Neilwheel? Don’t leave me hanging.

Sorry about that, post drink posting, started writing a description, confused myself. Then went on a rant about standards, retro-fit and lack of compatibility, and then round it off by deleting the lot instead of editing.

You can fit A shifters to B levers but without the insert and cross bolt shown in the centre of the diagram above it is a faff.

You need to cut off the hooked spur on the A shifter bracket, so it is in line with the mating face but still has a tab on the top face to engage in the B brake lever.

The hole centres do not match between A and B either, so the the two mating faces do not fully engage and result in a wobbly shifter mount. The fixing bolt hole in the A shifter bracket needs to be slotted so the A shifter mount fits higher on the B lever and is solid when using the levers.

I then made some adaptors by drilling and cutting a thread in some aluminium bar, held in place with a small split pin, for the fixing bolt to attach to.

Hope that makes some kind of sense.

Obviously all this is very time consuming and unless you are desperate for new brakes or can find some of the special fixings going spare then you may want to save some effort and buy the adaptor kit if in stock.

Yes i think this really does suck a big fat one on Shimano’s part. (Rant removed.)

But I think there is now Ispec-C, or maybe it was just a dream.