This might be seen as a slightly weird suggestion, but when I first went 1×9 I just removed the front mech and shifter, and left all 3 chainrings in place on the crank so I could still change manually, say at the bottom or tops of hills. I actually found I never did this, not because it was a pain to do, but rather I never ran out of gears with just sticking in the middle chainring and using the cassette. Might be worth a go to see how you get on with a 1x setup without having to spend anything.

My guesses would be that it’s either the teeth having rounded off the pawls so they don’t engage (and the rounding would accelerate as they started to go, so might be why it quickly stopped working) and/or the leaf springs aren’t as springy as they used to be so aren’t forcing the pawls onto the drive ring as they should. Can you check the springs to see how enthusiastic they are?

What’s the problem with it when it’s built? Does it bind or skip? One of the pawls’ ends look a bit chewed up, unless it’s just the photo.

Ah fair enough that’s not fun, let me know how you get on if you would, please, I reckon I’m going to do the same one of these days.

Ah apologies I misread gilet as jacket for some reason. I’m a 180cm tall bloke with a weight of 60kg so pretty slim build, the jacket is a small and it’s snug, though I can fit a jersey underneath, if any of this helps.

I’ve got an Endura MTR Emergency Shell which is very lightweight and packs down small, and while it’s not women’s specific it’s a tight fit so an XS might be ok.

Cheers for that, that’s the Rock Razor off the list. I’ll just order a pair of Thunder Burts which will be fine for the summer, gives me some time to sort out squeezing a more knobbly tyre in for the winter.

@Njee: Cheers dude.

@mrblobby: He charged £10.80 for 72 spokes, with postage there and back it was still under £20, much better than the £120 it would have been for a new set!

@Reggie: That’ll be fine cheers, it hopefully won’t vary much between the sizes.

@Matt: Ah cheers for the info, I’ve only seen pictures of it so have no real idea. It’s a shame tyre manufacturers don’t quote a height (and also a width which isn’t all over the place).

Final update in case anyone is interested, nice chap in Birmingham cut and rethreaded the spokes and I had them back within a few days, then I had to wait a month for some free time but I have now finally got the wheels done, they built up lovely and the spoke length is spot on, quite chuffed. Cheers for the help peoples.

Quick update, I posted the spokes off today to get them cut as the 12mm nips and washers weren’t quite enough to get things to a proper tension, though the wheel did build up properly and was probably rideable in the short term. So I’m getting them cut by 3mm and I’ll go back to using the 14mm nips and only washers on the high tension sides, should give me enough leeway to get things done. I’ll post back when I hopefully manage to get a wheel built.

Indeed; ah righto thanks for the advice and the offer Ben, the spokes aren’t actually sticking into the rim overly much so I don’t think that’s a problem, but I won’t use the washers if there’s any hint of them not sitting right. I’ve found someone with a Phil Wood machine, they’re happy to cut and thread the lot of them for a tenner which sounded reasonable?
I was thinking that Munkster, I reckon I have as it seemed if I rotated things anymore then spokes would start crossing spokes heads from the same flange, I’m going to have another check tonight though to make sure I’m not going mad, all good practice at lacing wheels.
And I’m sorry Toys 😉

I’ve double checked all the measurements and come up with the same numbers as I found online 🙁 Sorry forgot about my spokes, I’ve got 271/274 on the front and 271/272 for the rear, perhaps a little more out than I thought, thanks for checking. Good idea with the locking nipples but I’ve just checked and that isn’t the case, they really are bottoming out. I’ve got some 12mm nipples on order and am chasing down some washers, if that doesn’t work I’ve found someone with a Phil Wood machine who is up for having a go at lengthening the thread, I’ll report back in a bit. Thanks for the help peoples!

Having just done a bit more research into nipple washers, if anyone happens to have at least 64 spare Sapim HM Polyax nipple washers hanging around and wouldn’t mind me buying them it would be much appreciated, I can only find them as bulk buys online, cheers.

Well I tried building the rear wheel and ran into the same problem, couldn’t get any tension before the spokes bottomed out, rather bemused. I checked the spoke lengths, the rim ERD and hub measurements, as well as the cross pattern when building, and all seemed as it should. I’m not giving up on this set of spokes just yet though, good to know 12mm nipples will be fine, I’ll order a load of those and try them before anything else. Washers under the nipples are an option as well, to be fair from what I’ve read they’ll actually strengthen the rim, I’ll look at getting some of them as well.

If it’s of any use this is the whole build spec:
-Front Wheel:
Rim: 2013 E13 TRS+ Scandium 650b ERD: 560mm
Hub: Superstar Switch Ultra-LITE PCD Left: 58mm PCD Right: 45mm Flange Left: 21mm Flange Right: 38mm Spoke Hole ID: 2.5mm
Spokes: 32x Pillar Aero X-tra 1420 laced 3 cross
Nipples: Pillar PT 734 14mm Alloy
-Rear wheel:
Rim: 2013 E13 TRS+ Scandium 650b ERD: 560mm
Hub: Superstar Superleggera Ti Torq Edition PCD Left: 58mm PCD Right: 58mm Flange Left: 35mm Flange Right: 22mm Spoke Hole ID: 2.5mm
Spokes: 32x Pillar Aero X-tra 1420 laced 3 cross
Nipples: Pillar PT 734 14mm Alloy

Hmm fair enough I’m very much a novice wheelbuilder so maybe I mixed my spokes up when lacing, I only tried the front wheel so I’ll try the rear wheel this time, I’ll report back when I have. I am using 14mm nipples by the way, is there any loss in strength for using 12mm ones? Thanks for the replies peoples.

There’s at least 10mm of unthreaded round before the thread starts so should be plenty by my untrained eye, I have tried building with them and it was impossible, all bottomed out before anything like required tension 🙁 A new set of these spokes would be over a hundred quid as well, not the end of the world but I’d rather avoid.

Looks like a handrail you nooblet 😉

You can also use some appropriate size washers to space out the original bolts so that they’ll still grip the chainring.

I’ve also had basically the same thing as the op, I was looking after someone’s dogs while they were on holiday so unfamiliar house, I was just dozing off on the sofa at 3am when the tv turned on to static in front of me, creeped me the right out. Turned out it was a smart tv, doing an update. Though I was still a bit wary of that particular tv after that 😉

FRM CU3, not cheap but pretty light and plenty tough. Look lovely as well, italian engineering for you 😉

Yep they’re good in my book, bought a set of forks from them, arrived quickly, well packaged and a great price.

You don’t get daughters, husbands or mums in Glasgow? 😉

Righto, a set of Arch Ex rims on Superstar Switch Ultra Lite Front and Tesla EVO Rear with Sapim Race DB spokes and brass nipples is only £335, and well below your weight target. If you fancied saving a smidgen more weight you could upgrade to CX-Rays and Alloy nipples for 80 quid.

What kind of riding is this for? XC, AM, Enduro? Also, what wheel size?

I’ve got a set Endura standard shorts and they’ve been great, very tough, I’d assume the 3/4 would be the same.

@Andy: I’ve just ordered the sprocket from overseas which should be here in a couple of weeks, might take me a little while to get it all sorted but I’ll post back here when it is!

As for getting a 16t sprocket, while that would be great I’ve just been playing about with the cassette and I’m going to have to switch to taking out the 13t sprocket due to the way it’s assembled, so it’s actually going to be 11-15-17-20-23-26-30-34-40. Cheers though for the heads-up.

Cheers for the linky it’s that thread which got me thinking about this, if I’m having problems I’ll look at getting one of those.

Thanks for the responses and info peoples, looks like it’s worth a shot, I’ll check out getting a longer b-screw in case that’s an issue, hadn’t though of that. From the sounds of it the 13-17 jump will be the biggest problem with this, to be fair I have a 36t chainring up front so tend to run more middle of the block. If all goes to pot and it’s just untenable then it’ll be to the classifieds with it 😉

Good point can’t say much against that 😀 The ti cogs are just so pretty as they wear faster than steel ones 😉

@alandavidpetrie79: I’m good cheers got loads already.

In my own biased opinion I’d recommend a set of Formula R1s, light, plenty of power and fit and forget. Though you won’t go wrong with a set of XTRs, Shimano brakes are always great in my experience.

@adsh: I’d reckon you’d save around 300-350g including the chainrings you’d be dropping.

Mine came with one as well, very handy thing, got my light attached to it.

A set of Diadora X Trail Carbon SPD shoes and Crank Bros Candy 3 pedals. Absolutely love them, given me a lot more confidence on the bike knowing my feet aren’t going to go flying off the pedals at a moment’s notice.

It’s the actual GoPro mount which came with my MET Parabellum, I just had to do some adapting and adding of washers to make it fit, cheers! The mount comes apart so it fits into an air vent from above and below and bolts together, I just altered it so that the bolt makes it through to thread into the light as well.

The cable goes through the mount into the helmet, then runs through a central channel between two support pads so the wire never touches my bonce, then goes back out the next vent along, then runs down the back of the helmet to my backpack where the battery is.

That’s a rather lovely looking frame, I like the colour especially.

I’ve just finished adapting my helmet’s GoPro mount so that my new light will fit; I first drilled a hole through the mount pad in line with the bolt which holds the two pieces of the mount together, then found a longer bolt which would go through the whole mount and into the light, and packed it out in places with washers. I then cut a groove in the rear of the mount so that the light cable had somewhere to go, and ran the cable through that then back to the outside of the helmet. Pics paint a thousand words:

And I’ve picked up the last one of those £25 lights, thanks B R.

Sorry ran out of time editing, anyway, my final point: the moral of the story is that if you’re experiencing these symptoms and there isn’t an obvious explanation such as lack of fitness or a viral infection etc. then go have a chat with your GP, have some tests for asthma etc. and also bear in mind that there are other conditions which can have similar effects.

As far as I understand it, the thing with suddenly stopping after exercising hard is that the body immediately tries to get rid of all the lactic acid which has built up, and this obviously needs a lot of oxygen which the respiratory system has trouble supplying. If you warm down gradually, the time over which the lactic acid is processed is increased, which thus puts less strain on your respiratory system.

Another thing is that breathing problems while exercising such as those as described in this thread, which will often be classed as exercised induced asthma, can (I say “can” because it’s a rather varied condition) have very little to do with what is typically known as “asthma”. Asthma sufferers typically have a wheeze and have a feeling of constriction of the lungs, and inhalers etc. will (hopefully) help. But with exercised enduced asthma there may be no wheezing or feeling of constriction, but rather just a feeling of a need for more oxygen. The reasons behind this can be numerous, with conditions such as anaemia or problems with the actual cell process of respiration being the cause, and inhalers can be of little to no help.

@chief: Thanks for the positivity, I’ll be sure to ask for your help when I’m converting my bmx to 29er 😉

Cheers for the extra info people, I didn’t know that Michelin did decent mtb tyres, I thought they were more roadie. And that Geax Mezcal looks nice, could well be worth a go if the Quasi doesn’t work out. Alright when there’s a bit of moisture around you say? That’s the thing I love about my currents X-Kings, the Black Chilli compound means there’s still plenty of grip in the wet.