I tried riding with the bad chainline and it was absolutely horrible. The chain was super noisy and it change gear when I am back pedaling, so I have to do something about it.

I looked at the tooth profile and it’s definitely not symmetrical so mounting it in reverse is not an option:

So did a bit of thinking and decided to lock a single ring chain ring nut onto a stack bolt. I have ordered some proper chain ring washers but the brake caliper banjo crush washers I have in my toolbox are the right size so I have used them for now:

Perfect chainline now with one washer each side and I am finally happy, just wished I thought of that first:

That potential teeth profile chamfer difference worried me as it makes sense, so I have flipped the chainring back to the correct orientation.

Let’s see if I get another reply from them. If I don’t hear anything by middle of next week, I am going to do some measurement on the tooth profile before trying it again. I am so boring…

The problem is the thread is in the chainring:

That’s why I couldn’t just use a longer bolt. I am thinking the chain is symmetrical so must the profile of the ring, but I could be wrong there.

I have a Tempest from them, very versatile bike. Have a set of wheels for offroad rides and a set for commuting. It’s really comfortable off road with the 42mm gravel king and fast and efficient with the 30mm g one speed. Definitely great value for money.

With the brand in general, I had a very old steel 456 and a 456 carbon with them. Neither had any trouble but moved on ling ago.

However, I have one of their ebikes as well. It’s actually very good but have a problem with the battery. It works with no problems but the warning light’s been on since February without a solution.

They finally asked me to send the battery back for a software update on Friday after numerous attempts to get an update. Hopefully fixed this time and I will be happy with that as well.

Just looked at the pictures again and the seller really did try to hide the SC logo. I thought they would be a selling point as I would have paid extra to have them if I have a SC bike.

I don’t mind though, I am just happy I’m going to have a bargain set of road wheels for the gravel bike.

The hubs are in pretty good cosmetic condition, front are perfect but the bearings felt rough on the rear. I thought I would get away with flushing them out and put in fresh grease but the outer bearing on the freehub disintegrated while I was just checking them. I am surprised I managed to get the outer race out without marking the freehub, one of the pawl springs was also damaged. Kind of expected this though as there was no description on the eBay listing. A new set of bearings / pawl springs are on order, just love how easy Hope hubs are to work with:

Everything other than the bearings have turned up now, didn’t expect them to come this quickly. The temptation is to build them through the night, but I will do the sensible thing this time and do a little bit every night over couple of weeks.

Thanks for that, I know you are good, I did try googling bike brand logos but didn’t see that.

I did think about using my go pro but it’s just too much trouble for the 10 minutes that I spend on the road.

For me, unless it’s something that’s permanently wired into the ebike battery and starts automatically when the bike is switched on, it’s too much bother. I just wish such a product exist. Maybe when more people start using ebikes.

I didn’t think commuting in London was too bad as there are so many of us.

I have never seen any other cyclists on the road round here on my commute so I guess I am an easy target.

@Merak – That is great work and only took 8 hours!

With working every day, only get half an hour every night to do mine, cutting a bit out every night, spray 1 layer a night and maybe 1 – 2 stickers per night ended up taking 2 months and look no where as good as yours.

This is an M03 chassis that I picked up from someone who had it sat on a shelf with a body that doesn’t suit it:

Had it upgraded with full bearing set and a set of Mini CVA shocks that I have sitting around. It is surprisingly fun and handles just like a real Mini so decided to get a Mini body for it. Tamiya has discontinued all the Mini bodies so I had to get one from L & L and a set of decals from RCdecals. The main complaint is the windows stickers were too small, I would have just use masking tape if I had known, also, a lot of the original details were replaced by sticker but here it is:

I bought a set of mini wheels for it but it just looked a bit boring. The white wheels seem to suit it.

Thanks for the advise. I enjoyed the ebike commute so much that I didn’t think about that possibility!

The bike was picked up yesterday and is now back with Planetx.

They even said it’s not going to take long to sort and I will have it back quickly even though they are busy.

Only had a light dusting where I am, but enough to have some fun in the XV-01:

1st pack was the most fun I had for a while. Something wasn’t quite right when I got to my second pack, it was like I had a sticky throttle as in the power don’t kick in till about 1/2 a second in. Maybe the electrics got a bit wet, or maybe the silver can finally on its way out. I suppose it’s not designed to take punishment from 3S batteries.

The aftermath:

Note how the snow at the front melted from the heat of the motor

@Merak

That is really nice. My only complaint would be it’s pre-painted body and it being 4wd.

Why couldn’t Tamiya do it with a M06 with a clear body shell?

Oh wait, a bit of google says you can buy the body unpainted coupled with a modified M06 chassis for off road…

You are giving me ideas, very expensive ideas:

https://www.djm-motorsport.co.uk/mkii_escort_mcrae.html

Yes, I did replaced them all with stainless and yes it was close to £30.

I just cannot stand rusty screws on my car. They are also hex drive which is another reason I went for them.

If you are willing to wait, rcmart does a XV01 titanium screw kit for not much more.

For the roll tap, I just ordered one off amazon and it was fine. The price gone mad since and it’s out of stock now. Anything is fine as long as it’s the right size and type. It’s only going into plastic. Don’t forget to get a decent tap driver for it though.

Another thing I found is the Tamiya screws go rusty very quickly so I ended up with a set of stainless from rc bearings. It’s a pain to change them all out so I would just go stainless straight away to save having to change them out later.

Threadlock I just go for loctite 248 as it’s neat to use.

There are 2 types of glue you need for the tyres. The tyre insert needs to have the 2 ends stuck together. Contact adhesive is good for that. Tyre to rim is just any superglue.

I would also recommend a thicker diff oil as the one that comes with the kit is too thin for the seals and will leak out after couple of runs. My experience minimum is 10k.

There is a good thread on rccrawler forums on the chassis.

The next thing is probably to look at increasing the ride height as the stock setup will only handle very smooth gravel. It does get quite spendy though.

I run my XV on stock silver can and 3s. I originally thought the silver can will blow up in no time and I will think about what brushless and esc to go for once it happens, but I had over 30 packs through it now and it’s still going strong. I am using the hobbywing 1060 esc which is under £20. The motor gets quite hot though so I have a 40mm fan pointing at it. It is plenty fast enough for me at a stupidly low cost.

Does that fit the XV? Want one! 🙂

Problem is I don’t know. The wheelbase and width are right but the xv has the motor right at the front. What I read is if the real car has its engine in the front, it will fit.

The 037 is mid engine though so might not fit. If it doesn’t, think I will have to buy a TT02.

Well, my new project has just turned up. I really like the Lancia Delta body on my XV01. I must say I didn’t like the Subaru Impreza body as much. So to keep with the Lancia theme:

It’s a Killer body Lancia 037 with the rally sticker kit. I also managed to get hold of a rally interior as well.

Still got the Classic Mini body to finish for my M03 before starting that though. At the current rate (1st day off work in the new year today!), I think it will probably be summer by the time I finish it. Still can’t wait though.

Can you actually get a serious(ish) rc car for £50 or so?

I don’t think getting a serious RC car for a 6 year old is a good idea.

A serious RC car will just end up getting crashed or cause an injury. This is what I bought to get my 4 / 9 / 10 year old into RC in a much more controlled way.

Proper pistol grip controller with a dial to reduce the top speed:

It’s so small that you can’t do any damage to the car / yourself:

It has a lipo so runs for about 40 minutes and charges on a USB-C. It comes with 1 pre-painted shell and 2 un-painted ones if you want to get into painting shells:

It’s so simple there’s not much to go wrong. The most annoying thing is having to take it apart to clean out the fluff trapped on a regular basis and it is properly fiddly:

There’s a race track on a mat that you can buy. That’s me racing with my son:

The 2 cars and the mat comes to about £100 on Banggood, so your 6 year old can use the £50 to buy his car and you can buy yours + the track. I ordered on Monday and received on the Saturday which isn’t bad at all.

I do let my 10 year old loose on my bigger stuff occasionally but under very close watch.

Not mine. This one has had the metal tracks and gears upgrade.

That reminds me mine is in my basement, not been touched for a while. Kind of lost interest after the turret up down motor went.

Mine had a high torque motor / gearbox and metal tracks upgrade. I couldn’t stop the tracks from coming off, that is until I bought a proper aftermarket tensioner as I just couldn’t get enough tension on it stock.

It’s loads of fun when it works but mine was unreliable. It was better after the upgrade but something is always wrong with it. I must dig it out and try fixing that turret motor now.

Xv01 I think is a bit trickier to build mainly because it uses machine screws rather than self tappers. You can get away with just ramming them in but it’s nicer and stronger if you tap the holes first. Make sure you get a roll tap as a cutting one will end up taking too much material off. Also need to take care setting the mesh and the belt tension, but nothing else is difficult.

Not had a tt02 before but the XV01 feels more like a real car as the motor is at the front. It’s also a lot more complex with loads you can adjust like oil weight in diff and pretty much fully adjustable suspension geometry.

In terms of the body, it is easy to spray as it is single colour but the decals are tricky as there are just so many of them and the large ones go over quite a few curves and require stretching.

If you are not happy with that, you can get a killer body pre-painted one which I heard good things about. I am sure you can get most of the cost back by selling the original shell on.

It’s been too wet to take out the XV-01. It’s got so many parts it just takes forever to clean after a wet run.

So decided to do a bit of “crawling” in the local stream yesterday. All the electrics claim to be waterproof so thought it would have been fine, but the electrics went a bit mad after about 10 minutes. Turns out it was the receiver that didn’t like it after a bit of diagnosis. The receiver is definitely waterproof so it must have been the connectors shorting.

Looked up on crawler forums and people who do “submarine runs” just put the electrics in a balloon. I’m not going to do a submarine run so just put the receiver in a balloon and generous amount of dielectric grease on all the other connectors:

(Yes, my son is 4 today, I honestly bought the balloons for his birthday, not to waterproof my electrics)

It all went well today after the waterproofing, and wasn’t just me who had fun, even the dog walkers stood by to watch and had a chat:

The only failure was the prop shaft popping off towards the end. I was wondering why it became so difficult to get over obstacles:

@csb

They are the body post for holding the shells on. They really ought to be trimmed, but I keep changing bodies so like to keep them long. A bit like fork steerer. I am an avid frame changer so I am guilty for not cutting steerers on my bikes as well.

Well, after being tempted by that Absima, came across on Facebook someone close by letting go of his brand new M03 chassis for a reasonable price, so snapped it up instead.

I am always curious what a front wheel drive RC car is going to be like. It’s completely standard, didn’t come with any wheels and had a L and L Fiesta rally shell.

I had to buy some wheels as they are so much smaller than a standard 1/10, then I should have enough parts in my spares to get it moving. However, I went a bit mad after reading them up a bit more. Probably something to do with it being my first weekend off since mid August.

-Put the spare super mini CVA (oil filled) shocks on, but the springs are the wrong length so bought a set of springs.
-It came with bushes so went full ball race
-The Fiesta shell wasn’t done very well, so went and bought a classis mini shell (think it suits the chassis a lot better) They are apparently very easy to roll so that Fiesta shell would be a good basher shell.
-Bought a Hobbywing brushed ESC as want to run it on 2S and the ESC in my spare box doesn’t have Lipo cutoff

With these M03 being so simple, I think that’s pretty much all the worth while upgrades bought.

Some of the bits not turned up yet so here it is next to my XV01 Lancia. The ride height is all wrong because of the springs:

What a simple chassis:

And here’s one of my XV-01 in Subaru shell with the right wheels on:

Finished the rolling build of the Absima

That Absima looks incredibly good value. It seems very similar to my Losi Mini 8ight-t, only better. I’m now very tempted as it could be a replacement for the mini 8ight-t once it’s sold.

On the XV-01, I finally had a chance to take it out somewhere else other than the broken bit of tarmac outside my house and it was good. The Lacia Delta shell is now well worn in but the Impreza shell is now ready:

I did buy a set of gold wheels to match the shell but I think the Lancia wheels look pretty decent on it.

I really need to get the second shell painted and fitted, that’s just being done a plain red with no spoiler (the one that came with it will go on the original shell).

I have nearly finished my Impreza shell for the XV01 now. I think the Lacia shell needs to be fully decaled to look nice but then I really enjoyed putting on the decals. The Impreza comes with pre cut decal sheets and I actually missed having to cut out the decals in the Lancia.

Managed to start adding camber and toe, I think I got to the point where it can do with a little bit more power.

It’s still running silver can on 3s. Last time I took it out, the motor got red hot. So added a fan to cool and a temperature gauge to keep an eye out on the temperature.

Turns out all it needed was a bit of ventilation. It never went above 30 degrees even when I was absolutely pushing it.

A bit of an update on the XV-01.

Not really had much chance to take it out as I had about 4 days off work since middle of August. With the limited time that I took it out, realised it needed a waterproof servo / RX and it needed more travel as it kept bottoming out on the chassis.

RX went from a orange to a Spektrum SR215. The servo went from a Futaba S148 to a Spektrum A6180 (twice the power / half the response time and waterproof):

Got the long damper spec suspension mount, GF01 shocks and some anti roll bars.

Before:

After:

I did have to grind a bit of the chassis as the steering linkage rubs the chassis on full droop. The anti roll bars are also an absolute pain to fit.

Manged to get home from work before it got too dark and took it out. The results are really good, no longer bottoming out on the chassis, handle bumps way better and the transition from under to over steering seems more predictable as well.

With more confidence came much higher speeds and managed to clip a rut while sliding resulting in some unintended aerobatics and landing quite a distance away. The scratches add character but not very happy with the snapped spoiler:

Definitely having a lot of fun with this chassis, I think my Mini 8ight T won’t ever get used again so will be selling that.

Well, bought a Impreza shell on back order thinking it will take months to arrive for the XV01. Turned up in 2 days.

Time to get busy again.

Excellent job on the XV-01! It will handle fine on a gravel or dusty surface with the standard motor, tarmac needs a lot more power to get it loose. Or get it out on some damp tarmac, drift city.

3s on silver can is enough to get it loose on dry Tarmac. I think I have the drive belt a bit loose as I can hear it slipping when I’m holding a drift so will need to give it a bit more tension. Not a good idea to drift on dry Tarmac though as the tyres will wear out in no time.

Also thinking about a new shell, really want the 99 Impreza she’ll but don’t think it’s available anymore. So might have to go Audi Quattro.

Never have just the 1 shell my cars.

I finished the XV-01 Lancia last week and here it is:

It’s got the silver can and I tried it with a 7.2NiMH first. It was way too slow as in I struggle to slide it. Put in a 3S Lipo and I think it is quick enough for now. At least I think the suspension, diff etc needs setting up before it can handle any more power.

The handling is in a different league compared to anything I had before. It behaves like an actual 4WD car, as in if you just turn in, it will understeer quite badly but the back end comes out in quite a controlled way when you flick it. Exactly what you need for rally driving. I’m quite looking forward to taking it out properly.

I’ve just ordered myself a Tamiya Unimog 425, really looking forward to getting stuck in over the Xmas hols. My last Tamiya was a second hand dune buggy when I was in my teens.

That’s what I have, I think the stock silver can motor is too quick for it. Even with a slower motor, it’s still too easy to roll. Recommended upgrade would be full bearing (increase run time) and the metal steering linkage as the stock is so sloppy that it’s difficult to drive it in a straight line. It’s not really a crawler, more a rough trail chassis. Would also recommend locking the rear diff (comes with a locking block that you can put in) and putting some diff putty into the front diff to improve off road performance.

While waiting for the remaining hop ups to turn up from Hong Kong for the XV01 build, did the shell. For some reason, soapy water wouldn’t let the decal slide on this particular shell / decal set so I had a difficult time getting the creases / bubbles out, heat gun did help a bit but the larger decals are certainly not perfect. I’m quite happy with it overall and now I’m tempted to get the cockpit. The problem is I did a few silver backing coats and have removed the windows mask. The cockpit would look wrong with that as it needs to be white. An excuse to buy a spare? Anyway:

Also, the hop ups I needed to continue turned up as soon as I started the shell:

I think I’m very close now as it’s the shell that usually takes the longest for me.

That reminds me of my optional micro processing course in Uni.

We were all given a basic processor and an oscilloscope and had to code the game of life in assembly.

Whoever’s game finishes quickest win. That was fun, and was a great learning exercise for writing efficient codes.

On the other hand, it was kind of reflection of real life. Bunch of to be Mechanical Engineers competing. Whoever’s the best will make the world extinct quickest.

Well, the XV01 build is slow as I’m only doing about half an hour a day. It also seems like the only place you can get the hop up parts from is Hong Kong.

The hop up pulleys did turn up after 2 weeks. The standard stock plastic ones are actually OK. It’s the plastic spacers between the pulley and the drive / driven gear that cause the problem. I could have bought just the aluminium spacers but I found getting aluminium spacers that particular size is more expensive then buying the full hop up set:

The next essential hop up I am waiting for are the suspension mounts. I am not happy to go any further without having these turn up. I can definitely see why they are needed once I started the build. The problem apparently is the lower arms pops out of the plastic mounts on a moderate crash which these mounts should prevent. That’s definitely not something that can be fixed in the field as to get the lower arm back in, it’s front and rear gearboxes off which mean having to reset the drive belt tension as well. It’s nearly a month since I ordered these, I was thinking they must be lost, then got a text this morning from Royal Mail saying they are now in the UK so should have these soon. This is as far as I got for now with the chassis:

Did cracked on with the shell while I wait for the mounts though. I think it will take me a while to do the decals.

Made a start with the XV01 Lancia. Built the very nice oil filled diffs:

Then realised the kit comes with machine screws rather than self tapping so all the holes need to be tappeed, not a normal cutting tap but specifically a roll tap.

Then realised it’s too small to fit into my tap wrench.

Finally all here and can continue:

Had a play with the tuning box on the Lancia this morning, made so much of a difference it’s unreal!

I have a Hobbywing / Turnigy sensorless setup in the mini 8ight-t. It’s certainly quick once it gets up to speed but it is horrible at low speed. Doesn’t seem to have any torque at all. Changing settings in the tuning box doesn’t seem to affect that. It’s pretty good once it gets going which is why it’s still in there. Maybe it’s time for me to try a sensored setup.

For the XV01 Lancia build, I think I’m going to start with standard silver can on 7.2 NiMH and see how that goes. Once I get used to it, probably put in a 2S and if that’s not enough, 3S. Brushless does sound more fun but I want to see what I can get out of a silver can first.

Well, the Unimog shell is done. The dent really didn’t matter afterall. In original 425 form (didn’t do a very good job at all back then):

In 406 form, it’s better than when I did the 425 but I didn’t put enough coats of base colour (I thought 4 would be enough) before putting the backing silver. Can see the silver coming through in a few areas but I think it’s OK:

I am now ready to start the XV01 build but only the servo and ESC has turned up:

Everything else is coming from Hong Kong so might be a while before they turn up. The only thing that would stop it from running is the RX. I suppose I can borrow the one from the Unimog to start off with though.

LittleMissHall had a shot of driving it yesterday and she did no too bad at her first shot.

I wish the 2 littleMissYius are as good as her. My 9 year old is OK driving the Unimog away but couldn’t get the idea of it coming back towards her. My 7 year old just driven it straight into the stream and didn’t seem too interested after that. I did have fun finding its way back up the bank under its own power though. My 3 year old son being too young just giving chase. All great fun.

I think I am another couple of weeks away from starting the XV01 build. Bought a cheap Hobbywing brushed ESC and plan to run the stock silver can on the 3S lipos that I have lying around. I heard it’s the cheapest way to get speed out of it and apparently they last OK as long as I am sensible. Aftering reading up on them, I think the only hop ups for now will be the metal suspension mounts, front CVD and the uprated drive belt.

I might want to increase the suspension travel at a later date but I think that will do for now as it is apparently not straight forward to do.

Well, unfortunately, when I opened the Unimog shell package, turn out there is a bit of damage:

Decided get it build up anyway. My thought being it is usable and a shame to put it in the bin. The Ebay seller is opening up a claim with Hermes, if I get a partial refund, great, if not, it’s just another first world problem that doesn’t really matter.

Doesn’t look too bad once painted:

Really taking my time with this one. Now that I am back at work full time and the work starting to snow ball. As I predicted, when I went back to the local hobby shop to get some more paint, I did buy the Lancia Delta. Well, I was going to buy to TT-02 one but they just sold it the day before. They then made me an offer that I can’t refuse on the XV-01 chassis one that they have in (very slightly cheaper than anywhere else online) and this is now in my house:

Not going to make a start till I finish the Unimog shell. Have the paint, already have the electrics ordered and have my mouse hovering over some essential hop-ups. Going at this rate, I don’t think it will be running till Christmas. Still quite excited though.

I’m doing my best to avoid his Lancia, I’d love one of those 🙂

It’s difficult for me, I went into the local model shop the other day to get some paint for the new shell and they have one there. It’s a bit more expensive than online but reasonable enough for me to not worry about the difference.

Trying to avoid the shop now as I know I will probably have bought it the next time I go in. I have been reading up on the chassis as well. Knowing me, by the time I finish building it, it will be brushless, on Lipo and an upgraded drivetrain / suspension to suit.

I have Gravel King SK 43mm x 700c. Loads of clearance as well but have terrible toe overlap.

I had no problem with toe overlap when I had 30mm g ones but I think the improvement in grip and ride quality made up for it.

Well, let my 3 year old had a go at the Unimog the other day who managed to roll it down a steep hill. Resulted in a snapped exhaust snorkel. Tried gluing it but glue doesn’t seem to want to stick to the rubber / plastic like material. Tried super glue / contact adhesive which did not work at all. Now have araldite which just about hold it on, but not well enough to withstand another crash. Only choice is to buy a spare.

It seems like it is really difficult to get hold of any Tamiya spares at the moment, suppliers are quoting 2-3 months lead time.

Well, when I bought it, I couldn’t decide if I wanted the 406:

or 425:

I ended up with a 425 and when I was searching, a 406 shell came up on ebay so I thought why not. It did come all the way from NI and my heart sunk when I saw the box:

Luckily turns out to be OK and now have my work cut out:

Not very good at doing shells but had some practice on a cheap Phatbody shell for my mini 8ight t and learnt a few lessons:

At the moment, quite tempted to sell the mini 8ight t. Although it is ridiculously fast and sunk a whole load of money to make it as reliable as it is now, it just doesn’t have the same sense of occasion as when I take out a Tamiya (where I started about 25 years ago). Saw reluntantjumper’s Lancia Delta and seriously considering buying one to replace the mini 8ight t.

I am only running on trails so the rear suspension hasn’t got stuck yet. I don’t think it is meant to be crawling but it is great for trail running. I might have a go though and see how often it gets stuck which will be a laugh.

The turning circle did annoy me which is why I bought the CV-joints. That allow me to chop the nibs off the front hub carriers to make use of the whole range which I heard it struggles to do without the CV-joints.

Also, the steering upgrade that I bought isn’t very well designed. The bearings don’t work proper if you tighten the bolts properly as it put a thrust load on the bearings and they became stiff. I had to have the bolts slightly too loose and hope the loctite will stop them from getting undone. Time will tell.

Bought an Unimog after reading this thread. The last time I had a Tamiya R/C model was back in the 90s so a bit rusty with the painting skills. Fitted a bearing kit and a slower motor out of the box. Thoroughly enjoyed the build though:

It is surprisingly good but the steering was awful. Also ordered some different rating spring to play around with the shocks. Finally turned up to and have them fitted:

Seriously cannot think of anything else that needs doing to it as it is robust enough out of the box.

Unlike my Mini 8ight-t which needed so much doing to it before it was right and something will still break every couple of runs.