Ok, re those removal tools like the one in the picture above – this may be a silly question, but does the cylindrical plastic sleeve (fitted inside the BB to stop water & muck getting to the axle) prevent you getting purchase on the back of the cups to drive em out?

Headset press should do most PF BB’s

Ok, but then don’t you need the specific “fittings” to press on exactly the right bit of the cup so you don’t damage the bearings? And what about getting the old ones out?

That Shimano tech doc linked to earlier is for the older brakes where you need to remove the reservoir cover when you do a bleed. Your M675 (and all the other 2012/13 generation Shimanos) are slightly easier as they have a ‘bleed port’ which takes the yellow bleed funnel, and the Shimano instructions are here

It plummeted to it’s death after chasing a rabbit, which had the sense to dive into it’s burrow on the edge of the cliff, daft dog kept going

Similar thing happened to one of ours – ‘cept it was a sheep that led it to the cliff then doubled back – and suddenly for people sitting on the beach below it was raining dogs!

Survived tho’ – two broken legs, cracked ribs, lost a few teeth – was never quite the same tho’, but never chased a sheep again!

LOL, probably right, but it’ll be interesting to find out…

2013 Anthem 29er X3 (XL frame) straight from the shop, with pedals (M520) = 28lbs

When my box of goodies arrives from Germany in a couple of weeks it’ll morph from the current Deore components into a full XT build, and I’ll let you know how much weight it sheds in the process…

One of each of course 😆

I’ve got a 26″ Trance for the tighter technical circuits, and just bought a 2013 Anthem 29er for more open trails and races.

Over here in Oz we got the 2013 Giants a little earlier than you, so I’ve been riding my new Anthem 29er for a couple of weeks now 😀

I picked up a medium cage Saint 9sd shadow r.mech last week and what a revelation.

Yes it’s heaver and chunkier than the XT it replaced but by jebus does it shift with such a positive and reassuring click-clunk

Best thing I have bought in a long while.

Just thought I’d give an alternative perspective on this…

I’ve relegated my Saint M810 to the spares box and put the original SLX RD back on, as I just couldn’t get on with the thing. For ‘positive’ read ‘clunky’, and the thing seemed to be forever out of tune at one end of the cassette or ‘tother. I’m happy again now with the dainty and virtually imperceptible shifts of my SLX. Shame tho’ as the Saint RD got many an admiring glance, and made me look very gnarr!

The nearest thing I can get to a test ride round here is a circuit of the car park, which tells me nothing, as any bike thats not your current one will feel strange A.the first time you ride it, and B. wearing jeans and a pair of trainers and riding on a flat tarmac surface!

So, the bike I bought last week I’d never even sat on – but it was my third Giant in 18 months so I knew what it’d ride like and what size I needed – just one advantage of buying a boring mass brand instaed of a niche product!

Link for non-UK types…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8h109kWIjQ

Thanks…. but dare I say it was a bit of an anti-climax after the buildup…. but thats true of internet pron too…

You’ve no idea how much pent up frustration you’ve caused by describing that to someone on the other side of the world who’s not got the chance to see it!

Linky to a youtube version please….

The granny – no difference.

The big ring on a 2×10 has different ramps/pins and tooth phase to the middle on a triple, as the ‘jump’ between rings is bigger, and those things are needded to aid smooth shifting.

Nobody!

Am I the only one who got suckered in by the hype about direct mount then!

With all the fuss over shadow plus, maybe nobody else has noticed the quiet revolution that is ‘direct mount’, so I’ll try and spread the word…

You know that flimsy extra aluminium link between the derraileur hanger and the main B pivot that Shimano’s shadow RDs have – its called a B2 link. Well, on the 2013 models that is removeable, and the main pivot can be bolted directly to the hanger, making the whole thing lighter, stiffer, and less likely to bend in a crash. But for the RD to remain in the same position the bike manufacturer has to offer a swept back hanger – so whether the direct mount capability is utilised or not is up to thebike manufacturer, not Shimano.

Some niche brands are using it in their 2013 models, but I’ve yet to see one of teh big boys do it. Which is a shame really, cos the RDs are ready, all it needs is a slightly different shaped bit of aluminium hanging off the rear dropout!

Have a look here[/url] for what it looks like in action – scroll down to picture 9 which is a close-up of a new XT RD in direct mount mode. Notice the swept back red hanger? Well, my question is – why haven’t I got that on my new Anthem!

It was for a while, but its back up again. Happens quite often in my experience…

You can, but the SRAM 10 speed links aren’t re-useable, whereas the KMC 10 speed and SRAM 9 speed are.

Hugor, not slagging Wales (my parents lived in Brechfa), but I think you’ll be presently surprised how much the Perth MTB scene has developed in the two years you’ve been away …

Just got back from my regular Sunday morning ride in the Perth hills. It was a blast! As for the weather, it’s currently 21deg dry and sunny – isn’t winter a drag 😉

Great, thanks!

So there’s no such thing as a ten speed freehub versus a nine speed one – I just slide the ten speed cassette off the freehub and fit the nine speed in its place? PS: Only talking MTB here, not road.

XT M785 2×10 is 317 quid at Bike-discount at the moment –
linky

Two reasons…

1. Looks nicer 🙂

2. If you’re into the gnarly stuff it saves your chainring teeth.

By the battered appearance of my bash I’d say its saved me a few times, but if you’re not in the habit of riding over logs & rocks, then no, you don’t really need a bash, and Shimano seem to have come to this conclusion as none of their 2013 doubles fit a bash!

1. You may need shorter chainring bolts unless you put a bash ring in place of the big ring.

2. You should wind in the “HI” screw on your FD mech so you don’t accidentally try and change up into a big ring that’s not there anymore.

3. Once you’re sure you’re not going to put the big ring back on, you may want to shorten the chain a bit.

4. The rest is optional, but if you find you like 2×9 and want to optimise you’re setup, you could think about a double specific FD, medium cage RD, and a bigger ‘middle’ ring so you don’t spin out on downhills.

Smiff: whereabouts did you get new slx from?

I’d like to know too! I’ve seen Bike-components.de have the long cage here but I need the medium for a 2×10 setup I’m building.

Bu@@er! – cancels order for STW stem cap compass…

Go to your nearest toy/model shop and buy a small pot of Humbrol enamel (yep – the stuff your dad used to paint his airfix kits with!), plus some small brushes (zero or double zero size) to go with it. If you can’t find the exact colour, mix two colours and test somewhere it won’t be noticed (like under the bottom bracket) until you get a match. Build it up in 2-3 thin layers.

Get some satin black while you’re about it, as its great for covering scratches on bars/wheel rims/cranks etc.

Of course it won’t look perfect, but you’ll learn to live with it after a while.

I like that Samsung. Better than having an iphone rolling around in a camelback / jersey pocket IMO.

Where can I get an unlocked one?

I can’t be much help on that I’m afraid, cos I’m in Perth Australia and bough mine online from Queensland!

However, I see Amazon UK has them here, so they must be available elsewhere in the UK…

After breaking a couple of phones on the trail, I got me one of these…

Waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, gorilla glass, compass & GPS, a place to attach a clip so it doesn’t fall out of your camelbak, and even a built-in torch!

Edit: Oh, and forgot to mention its a Samsung B2710

Wiggle has them listed here[/url] but showing out of stock until mid-September! If they can’t get them, I guessing Madison won’t have them, so you’ll need to find someone already with stock, or try some of the European shops that have a different distributor…

Oh, no big deal, just been trying to order some Shimano spares for 3 months now and been getting increasingly frustrated with unresponsiveness, confusion, and down right porkies about when they’ll be in stock!

I’m sure others will have had better experiences with them, but I just don’t feel comfortable anymore with there being a recommendation from me in the archives.

Two months ago on this thread I wrote

I’ve always found Slane Cycles useful for small Shimano spares,

Rarely do I retract a recommendation, but based on recent dealings with Slanes I can no longer in good faith recommend them, and in fact my advice is now to avoid.

I now do most of my shopping with bike-components.de. Found the prices unbeatable (literally as they will price match), service prompt and courteous (they actually reply to emails, and usually within 24hrs), and they are willing to get stuff in specially for me if it doesn’t happen to be in their catalogue.

Downsides – most of the info is still in German, so you have to do some educated guesswork, and the shipping is slow.

The Olympics can be an opportunity for a country to ‘re-brand’ itself. Sydney cast Australia as the laid back friendly country, Beijing was the coming out party for the next world superpower, but I’m not sure yet what the U.K. wants to get out of London? Better decide quickly as the opportunity to grasp the wave of optimism and national unity and make something more lasting from it is a fleeting one….

Not Olympics, but a bunch of Ozzies had a similar idea one alcohol infused night back in 2008, and wanted to represent their country at international level just once in their lives in something, anything!

“In 2008 a group of former University of Western Australia Rugby Club players decided to form a team to send to the World Sudoku Championship in Goa, India despite three of the four team members not having played the game before. Dubbed the Numbats, after a small Australian marsupial, the four worked to gain corporate sponsorship for their endeavour. They eventually raised enough money to cover their trip and to provide distinctive uniforms including sporting blazers that closely resembled those worn by Australia’s team at the 1936 Olympic Games. At the championships the team finished last.” (Wikipedia)

Having started on a hardtail and now graduated to FS, I genuinely believe the hardtail was a good bike for me to start on as it was less forgiving and taught me better technique. However, I’m now faster on the FS over the same timed courses, and I put this down to better traction with both wheels on the ground, and an ability to just ride thru the rocky stuff.

I’ve done a lot of camping holidays in the last few years, and I have to say it’s not the kids that keep me awake, it’s the adults who get pi$$ed and party thru the night.

I just take ear plugs now….

Oh, and +1 for the grobags, or just snuggle up in your sleeping bag with the little-un, sleeping with infants was fine for millions of years before modern man decided they needed a separate cot with a mobile above it. There’s nothing more natural than sleeping with your kids – its sleeping with others kids thats to be avoided, as the late Michael jackson found out to his eternal shame!

36/22 front, 11/32 rear, medium cage Saint – no problems!

only real difference is the pad retainer which is slightly more inconvenient than the threaded pin but really not worth bothering about

FOG, you can just buy the XT pad pins and fit them to SLX, as the screw threads are already there.

Part number is Y8JZ98010 and they cost a couple of quid.

And just so we’re clear, all the SLX and XTs old and new alike have lever reach adjustment. What’s extra on the XTs is they also have free-stroke adjustment, which allows you to adjust lever travel to bite point, but as I said above, all the reports I’ve seen say it does bu&&er all.

XTs have a screw-in pin instead of a split pin to secure the pads. XTs have free stroke adjustment on the lever, but from many reports this doesn’t do much. The finish is different. The price is different.

Other than this they are identical, the parts are the same – the give-away to this is that the SLX calipers have the screw thread machined in them for the screw-in pad bolt even though they come with a split pin, and the levers have a blanking plug where the free-stroke adjustment is on the XT.

Sorry aguesty, but any difference in power is in your mind…

Ok here’s the definitive rundown on SRAM 9-speed chains from my exhaustive research and product testing 😉 :-

PC-951: Unplated links, rusts easily in a salty environment like near the coast
PC-971: As above but nickel plated outer links so looks shinier!
PC-991 Standard: Nickel plated inner and outer links, so doesn’t rust, but no lighter or stronger than PC-951/971
PC:991 Crosstep: Nickel plated and has different riveting process which is supposed to be stronger
PC-991 Hollowpin: Nickel plated and has, well… hollow pins, so is lighter

Personally, I use the PC-991 crosstep as I find it gives the best price/performance ratio for my kind of riding. Now run them on all three bikes. I do about 10,000km a year and haven’t had one break yet, but I do replace them at 0.75% stretch.