lots of shimano uses the same design just improves the materials; that’s why the low end mechs work beautifully, but go yampy faster, and why you can bastardise parts (like putting an XT clutch in an slx mech).

Yes you’re right. But that’s the beauty of the Shimano parts diagrams like the ones I posted above. To know whether it’s exactly the same part in say an XT and SLX mech, or just a similar part that’s lesser quality but still interchangeable, you just have to look at the parts diagram.

In the “interchangeability” column if its marked with an “A” its the exact same identical part. If its marked with a “B” its compatible but “differs in materials, finish, size etc.” You can even go one step further and check the part numbers. If the part numbers are the same, then its identical. A ‘similar’ but inferior part will have a different part number.

And so, by looking at the XT M786 parts diagram below, we find that the clutch mechanism in the XT M786 and SLX M675 are one and the same,as they have an “A” against the corresponding parts, and have identical part numbers:-

End of story, I sincerely hope :roll:

Part no 14 (P-spring) is different innit.

Well I’ll admit they look slightly different in the diagram, but the part numbers are identical between SLX and XT, and the ‘interchangeability’ column says they are “same part”.

You’ve seen the Shimano exploded parts diagrams.

You’ve seen the part numbers are identical.

You’ve seen a picture of each.

If that’s not enough to convince you then I give up…

Yes, they are my mechs, and no I’m not going to dismantle them any further to prove it to you, although I’m tempted, but I’m gonna be riding one or other of them in a couple of hours…

can you take a picture of the actual units in bits please?

Here you go – same pics I posted on the last thread…

SLX:-

XT:-

slx/zee use an elastic band, xt a metal spring. you pays your money…..

Bigrich, that’s the second thread you’ve posted that rubbish on. If the pictures of SLX and XT clutch weren’t enough to convince you last time that they are identical, then maybe the Shimano exploded parts diagrams will be this time?

SLX:-

Please can you point out which part number is this elastic band you speak of?

XT:-

You’ll notice the “interchangeability” column confirms the XT M786 and SLX M675 share exactly the same clutch parts!

The cheaper Shimano rotors aren’t hardened SS, so wear more quickly with sintered pads, hence Shimano label them as “resin only”.

Personal View Vs View of a business.

I think its fair to have a “Business” and a “Personal” log-in.

I think I might need a ‘sober’ and ‘drunk’ log-in :wink:

At risk of coming over all fuddy-duddy, I don’t find 30sec YouTube clips that useful in bike maintenance, partly because my computer is inside and my bike maintenance nearly always done outside.

I prefer a good bike maintenance book, remember those things with pages :wink: , so you can pour over it at your leisure with the bike infront of you, and go straight to the most useful pages by following the oily finger marks :-)

My personal favourites are…

And as for tools, my advice would be to start with one of the sets that most online retailers do – they are incredible value, and although not the highest quality, have most of the specialist tools you’ll need, and you can always add and upgrade as the need arises.

Well I have 230mm sticking out at the moment. And I gather the Lev’s fixed bits take up 55mm, so I have 175mm to play with. Longest they do seems to be a 435mm with 150mm drop, so do I just go for that one?

Yes, that helps thanks. I’m looking at the KS Lev with 150mm drop. I understand it can be ‘stopped’ at any level between zero and 150, so I guess wouldn’t be an issue the saddle being too low?

Does a longer extension post have more wobble/less strength I wonder?

If I could have a home with a garden and view, then Hong Kong, friendly locals, great food and some amazing trails

You mean something like this home with a garden…

And with this view…

I do miss my house in Hong Kong sometimes, but then I remember why I moved to Australia :D

Remember the bearings on a press-fit are inside the BB shell, so if you added the width of the bearing cups to a normal 73mm BB shell you’d get… ta da … 92mm! So, yes, any Shimano HT-II cranks will fit a press-fit BB71 (or BB51 and BB91 for that matter – they’re all the BB92 standard.) Damn – beaten to it…

Can’t comment on the clearance issues on a Five, but am running that crankset and M665/7 FD with 10sp shifter and it works fine.

Just make sure you use the first shift to operate the FD, not the second, which means switching the mode selector on the shifter to 3x – not 2x.

Reason is Shimano 9 and 10 speed front shifters give an 11mm cable pull on the first shift and 7mm on the second. The M665/7 was designed for an 11mm pull, whereas the new 10sp 2xFDs use a 7mm pull. Selecting 2x on the mode switch forces you to use the second shift, which would result in too little travel for the M665/7 to give you a clean shift.

We bought some of our Command posts of ebay from abroad. Got both the girls [125mm drop and 100mm drop] from Australia at less than £100 each posted. these were for new posts

Any chance of a link to where you bought them. I’m in Oz and interested in getting one. Thanks.

PDW has it right – it is ratcheted so only works in one direction. It also has adjustable tension if you don’t like the extra stiffness it adds to gear changes.

In fact the only downside I can see is that because they’ve only been around a while, we don’t really know their reliability, or how long it takes for the clutch to wear and become less effective.

Meanwhile, here’s what it looks like…

I’ll admit to being massively thick here but isn’t chain length also a factor?

Well yes of course you have to size the chain correctly, and the closer you get to the capacity of the cage then the more critical it becomes to get the chain length exactly right.

Suspension travel and design is another important factor (which is why I mentioned what mine was above) because it will cause ‘chain growth’.

Promised to report back on whether my latest build works with a medium cage…

Giant Trance 26″ with 5″ suspension travel, 2×10 SLX drivetrain, 11/36 cassette, 22/36 chainrings (so a 39T difference), M675 SLX shadow+ medium cage RD (which Shimano say has 35T capacity).

Works great – but I’ll admit it’s close, very close… :D

You can never buy the right bit of bike kit for a true fanatic, because half of the pleasure is in choosing, comparing, researching it – not just owning it!

Instead, come at it from a different angle and buy him something bike related, but totally impractical – like the park Tools toilet roll holder above, or a unique piece of bike art. This is the one I wish someone had bought me for my last birthday…

Ok, so here’s my list…

-Nineteen hours of flying with my 6’4″ frame wedged into an economy class seat.
-Arrive Gatwick on a drizzly cold miserable morning to be greeted by immigration staff with an ‘attitude’.
-Crawl across London in the rush hour traffic at 3mph
-…

Nah, sod it, think I’ll just stay where I am thanks :D

My shock is there but their rep was on tour last week.

Well send him back to the bloody shop to clear some of that four week backlog! :D

On the servicing and warranty point, how would SolaSports know unless the home servicing has obviously messed things up? Surely they’re not asking for a dealer serviced handbook before approving warranty jobs? Surely a warranty claim would be assessed on condition and purchase receipt? Pinch of salt should maybe be taken given the situation with the source of the advice.

Agree. But its one reason I use all the proper Fox parts & oils for my home servicing, so if it ever goes back to Fox the right color stuff dribbles out. The other reason being their oil just seems to be better, although twice the price!

Trouble is, its a catch22. If you say you haven’t touched the fork, they can claim the problem is from lack of following prescribed servicing. If you say you’ve done it, that can void the warranty. :roll:

Warranty statements can be interpreted many ways these days, and what it comes down to is whether a company want to create goodwill, versus save a bit of money. Case in point – cracked my Trance frame two weeks ago. Giant warranty frames for life, but the small print also says its void if the bike has been used for racing or has been modified from original condition. Now there’s nothing much original left on that bike except the frame, and LBS know I do a few races, so they had a get out. But no, they did the decent thing and a shiny new frame is on its way to me as I type. That’s good service, and will probably make the difference between me buying a Giant next time, or not. In contrast, I won’t touch Trek again after a bad warranty experience.

Given that you may have a wait on your hands anyway I’d still try taking them apart again to inspect, lift, relube (I’m still using Float Fluid here) and reseat the o-rings.

Yep, may well do that, as you say I might find something obvious, or dislodge a bit of grit, and then I won’t have to replace all the seals …

Guilty.

But at least I’m a ‘serial’ hobbyist rather than a ‘multiple’ one. And the hobbies seem to be getting cheaper as I get older, to the great relief of Mrs. Perth

Let me know if your stuck in Tassie

Oh Tassie :oops: For some reason I thought you were in Perth…

What were you doing in SolaSports? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick again – its late!

Did you use a new crushable washer on the air shaft when you serviced it last? Maybe that might be a potential slow leak source?

Ha! Now that was the subject of a long debate on a thread of mine on Rotorburn.

I complained at the $4 per crush washer shops here wanted to charge, and many replies told me to just use the old ones.

However, I stubbornly refused to cut corners, and eventually found someone willing to sell me a pack of crush washers for a bargain of $2 each (insert smiley for sarcasm here) and so used new crush washers.

Anyway, the air pressure is above the air piston, well away from the crush washers, they just seal the oil in the lowers. Nope it can only be one of – ‘O’ ring in the top cap, the Schrader valve core, or the U-cup seal on the air piston itself. It’s a relatively simple system, and they are the only places for there to be a leak. One of those must be worn/mis-aligned/nicked/got a bit of grit caught in them. Might be something I did during the service, might not… Just gotta get ’em all out and replace to be sure!

Service manager of aforementioned large bike chain said SolaSports were running with a four week backlog at the moment, including warranty work – but I guess it depends how hard you complain as to whether you can get to jump the queue or not :wink:

Unfortunately, said bike shop is no longer allowed by Fox to do any servicing in-house – had to wait three weeks last year as my shock criss-crossed Australia to change a Schrader valve core! 8O

Some Perth shops, I gather, Fox do trust to service in-house. You’re lucky Mike, if yours is one of them. Care to share the name for future reference – if Fox trust them that’s good enough for me…

Your pump is using the missing pressure to fill itself back up when you attatch the pump.. I would have guessed.

As above, it uses up 2-3 psi each time its attached, but not 60psi which is what I lost on the first ride!!

The chamber of the pump holds a heap more than 3psi too.

Well I guess pumps vary. Mine loses 2-3 psi each time. Its easy to check this, just attach and re-attach five or six times in a row and watch the gauge go down each time…

Surely you can’t invalidate your warranty meeting Fox’s servicing intervals yourself?

Just what I asked the service manager at a large Perth chain of bike shops this afternoon, phrased along the lines of – just thinking theoretically, if a mate of mine had serviced his own forks, using the proper Fox parts, and following the service instructions on the Fox service website to the letter, would that invalidate his warranty?

The answer was yes :cry:

Good point about the LBS, will try Wembley tomorrow, also BikeForce Fremantle who also service locally and sell the parts…

Hey Jeronimo.

Unfortunately I don’t think just a lube will do it, as I only serviced it a couple of weeks ago (but shhh, lets keep it between you and me, in case it’s my ham fisted servicing that’s the cause of the air leak, and I’ve now voided the warranty :wink: )

And, no doesn’t seem the usual suspects like Pushys, Moruya, TBSM etc. do the fork air seal kits, and SolaSports (the Fox distributor – bless ’em) won’t sell to us great unwashed public :evil:

Have only found air seal kit in one place – here

But… their shipping costs as much as the kit does, and takes three weeks, so was hoping for somewhere closer (like in Oz) or quicker (like Merlin, CRC etc.) :(

Hilariously photoshopped cleavage in male attention-grab shocker

Photoshopped! You take that back – how dare you cast aspersions on the woman I love…

As I said, you align the small tab on the inside edge of the ring (at approx. five o’clock in your picture) with the crank.

Hey Jeronimo – small world! I’m Mamil on PMBC, so have been dispensing half the advice on those threads :wink:

Issue isn’t how to take the thing apart, but finding somewhere that sells the air seal kit…

does it even matter?

Yes!

Ramps on middle ring face the granny ring, or another way of checking is to make sure the writing/numbers stamped on the big ring face outwards, and on the middle and granny inwards, or towards the bottom bracket.

You know there is also an little tab that should be lined up with the crank?

Unfortunately I’m in Oz, and our local distributor is, and I quote LBS “experiencing delays of four weeks plus on all Fox warranty and repair work”, so even tho’ its probably a warranty job, if I can get the air seals myself, I can see if that’ll fix it…

Rorschach – do you know where I can get Fox air spring seal kits – even Mojo don’t seem to sell them? Thanks.

LoCo – you lurking? Any suggestions….

Snorg tees – pah!

Not a patch on my favourite T-shirt girl…

Don’t mean to get in the way of you guys trade, but thought I should warn you the SLX M665 bash doesn’t fit on a standard three ring crankset without a bit of filing – about 1mm or so off the bash at each of the spiders. It’s not a question of BCD which is the same, but that Shimano made the spider a bit shorter on the M665 so the bash could be thicker and stronger round the crank arm bolts. You’d be better off with the E13 which will fit a standard spider without any modification.

Well I was there at 8am, but no sign of Wildhunter (guess Friday night was a good’un) so I went for a ride at about 8:30. Back at the car park 9:45, again no sign of anyone so went for another ride – realise now Marmoset would have just left for a ride and Aphex wouldn’t have arrived yet. Anyway, passed Marmoset mending his puncture – but not realising it was him carried on, but we finally hooked up in the car park and had a cake and a coffee together and swapped details so we can ride together soon…

How do you know you lost 25psi? Bear in mind that every time you connect the shock pump you will lose a bit of pressure to the pump. So if you keep reconnecting and measuring you will lose more and more air. Could it just be that?

Only lose about 2/3psi with each check on my pump, and anyway this was a case of pump up to 85 before the ride, check straight after, so I definitely lost at least 20psi during the course of a two hour ride.

Check the valve core is tight, or stick em in the bath and look to see where the airs leaking.
Take em off the bike first…
Allthough at six week old I’d check the core and then take back to the shop.

Valve core Ok, top cap Ok, so something else going on… Anyway, doesn’t lose air when not being used – sat in the shed for a week and didn’t lose anything. It’s only when riding it – so putting in water wouldn’t help unfortunately – though nice idea! Actually six months rather than six weeks, but still under warranty. Just if its something simple would prefer to fix myself rather than lose the bike for three weeks, which is how long it took when Fox had to fix my shock last time.