^ what no beer said. red to go faster, black for its stealth properties. you’re fast and harder for the enemy to get a lock on you and take you down 😉

jedi do you really run a huge difference front and rear?
been tempted to do that but always thought i “shouldn’t” for some reason..

Hope make a 25deg rise stem, try that? works well for me. thomson only 10 or 0 i think.
edit: looks like you’re thomson matching so i guess you won’t want to do that :p
edit2: hi Dave 🙂

yeah being heavy doesn’t make you descend faster (think of the feather vs lead experiment on Moon). acceleration due to gravity is a constant 9.81 ms^2 approx. but being heavy means more kinetic energy (0.5mv^2) which will make braking less effective. heavy wheels might make the bike more stable due to gyroscopic forces (can’t think of formula – that’s above GCSE physics!) though, no other advantages i can think of.. assuming light bike is strong enough.
one thing i thought maybe weight could push the tyres into corners so perhaps more grip is an advantage, but then it’s harder to get round the corner (cornering is also a change in velocity (even if speed is constant), more mass to accelerate) so that probably cancels out any advantage there.

TL:DR more weight is probably a slight disadvantage going down, and a big disadvantage going up, which you and bike makers already knew :p

If the combined weight of you & your bike is heavier than anyone else you ride with then you will go faster downhills. To some degree/at some/given point.

I know this cos I’m loads heavier than my mate (same bike weight or thereabouts) & I go faster than him without pedalling, generally.

Have you tried swapping bikes? My physics is a bit rusty. but shouldn’t all things fall at the same rate on Earth.. air resistance etc aside and being fat should increase resistance. I’m guessing your bike has less rolling resistance or it’s your technique (subtle pumping etc).

well.. stans recommendation gives me 18.8 front and 20.8 psi rear.. so maybe not. maybe it’s for fat americans. now that i have a new track pump i know i run in the high 20s. i do it by feel (both the tyre and the ride) though.
obviously bigger tyres will want lower pressures right? though i’m too tired to explain why right now :/

or Time Xroc/Z
or Flats :p

that plastic nut on the end of the crank spindle – you might be over tightening it. non-drive side usually fails first because it’s less protected from spray etc i think. but preload tightens both sides equally.

btw press fit BBs are a rip off, you can get threaded Deore ones for about a tenner. not that that helps you..

i’ve been using the cheapest i can find and they all work just as well (organic vs organic etc).

these when they were 12.74 for 4 pairs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-WESSEX-BIKING-BRAND-4-PAIRS-AVID-ELIXIR-SINTERED-DISC-BRAKE-PADS-/280774917112?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item415f7d3bf8

or the organics from another seller (about £3 pair) when dry, look through my history or search forum.

there’s always superstar/disco/uberbike etc which aren’t quite as cheap but still beats any OEM/overpriced brand.

haven’t yet had cheap pads (from any UK seller – might not trust some DX job) fail and often cheaper ones like wessex are thicker which is a good deal, as long as they don’t cause you problems, which they probably will with elixirs..

cheers, enjoy the money saved on beer and parts that don’t end up in the bin.

just bought 3rd set of Ergon GE1, haven’t found anything as good. only wish they clamped on the inside (as well or instead) so there wasn’t such a huge clamp on the end of bar where i want to put my hands..

yep, here’s all the problems with Elixirs (?)

1) pad clearance – noise/grit/sensitive to bent rotors
1b) changing pad thickness means changing lever pull drastically (non contact adjustable models)
2) difficult to bleed/need regular bleeding
3) after inverting bike, need to pump a few times to firm up
4) some report long term reliability issues, but most don’t, hard to say how this compares to other brands..

and the good things

1) powerful (one finger lockup for most users if set up right)
2) well modulated (possibly too much modulation/squish for some).
3) reliable within any particular ride – predictable, consistent.
4) quite cheap on sale
5) some report reliability issues, but most don’t, hard to say how this compares to other brands..
6) pad and rotor life seems better than other brands (?)

etc..

hopefully definitive so you can link to this every time this q comes up eh 😉

and i always defend them. they’re great, using the same R set for 3 years now, never changed anything but pads and rotors. do need bleeding about twice a year, maybe more, and you have to learn how to do that right.. but they work so well i wouldn’t want anything else. i ride a lot too btw.
you probably hear a lot of negatives because so many new bikes come with them!

edit: and i also bought a 2nd set for a new bike. open any issue of Dirt, almost every bike in last few years has Elixirs on it..

just a faulty chain, buy another and don’t worry about it. had one SRAM chain break (cracked outer plate), out of probably 20 or so PC951/971… so all the rest wore out before they broke. i stick with SRAM, cheap and don’t rust too bad.

Top Fuel 9
How it looked when i built it 3 years ago

How it looks now

Cat approved changes.

Lucked out with this bike, didn’t know what i was doing when i bought the frame off ebay (first full suss after not riding for years), and now still love the ride, still tweaking it (recently put in angle headset and offset shock bush, helped calm the steering a bit but still lively). haven’t really found anything i prefer..

haha great stuff. i might cheer him as he goes through QECP again this evening.
i find this quite incredible, I have done the SDW a few times very slowly but i don’t normally ride longer than 4 hours, can’t imagine 36 hours… would definitely be asking for that Ass Cream after 6 or so and no longer able to steer a straight line in probably 12.
that extreme long distance stuff is a completely different sport. is he enjoying it or just wanting to stop?

that’s awesome. good support team essential. he runs a lot of sag in his forks. hardtail so his arse must be taking a pounding…

no, but check
http://www.discount-supplements.co.uk/high-5-race-faster-marathon-running-1-pack
14 caffeinated gels in that pack.
these gels are not isotonic (or whatever.. they are thick) so you must drink lots when using them (get the isogels if you prefer, bulkier and cost more though).

there’s a 2.1 for £15 for some reason
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=81360

guy above ordered 6 on basis of this thread?!

How about shampoo or gel or whatever it is?
which leads me nicely on to
SAAB’s slogan in the 70s:

so you can just buy olives + hose and reuse everything else?
i meant to say i was looking at the 5 layer braided hose for the colours (yeah tragic i know) so not sure if this causes fitting problems being thicker or something.

anyone successfully fitted these hoses to Elixirs, and if so which connectors did you use please? (SS, original, something else?) thanks.
my hoses are damaged and not sure which brands work with Elixir.. Clarks stainless hose is cheap at CRC but not sure about their fittings. and Goodridge are £30 per brake, too expensive.

those trees come at him pretty quick.
might sound weird but it’s interesting how smooth his head is.

btw Aplin, nice alpha male acting.. hope you got some vigorous sex out of that later (with the GF, not with the crazy woman).

ghetto inflator is very clever but even a compressor wouldn’t inflate with that big a gap.
hadn’t though seating one bead was making things harder hmmmm.

what’s a ghetto inflator? if you mean using a rim strim, that might work by making rim narrower, but want to use the Stans system as it was intended :p

not using UST thanks, heavy AND expensive!
i think some tyres simply aren’t wide enough to fill a Flow to get the inflation going (This is not the size printed on the tyre, it’s the shape of the carcass so how far beads lie apart). you can seat one side with a tube, but there’s no way to do both that i can see – i was looking for trick to do this, other than band around the tyre which might work in some cases not mine, there isn’t really any way, so you need a different tyre (or narrower rim).
surprised i’d never heard of this problem before!
might just use the Advantage 2.1 60tpi which works, at least that’ll be ok for all conditions…

no i never use UST tyres (shouldn’t have to with Stans right?)
basically the flow is much wider rim than i’m used to, so if the tyre naturally has a narrow bead, you’re pretty much screwed? solution: another tyre. even the same size maxxis can come up different, or maybe Aspen and Advantage use different carcass. Advantage isn’t really what i wanted in this weather..

might order a cheaper 60tpi Aspen and hope that works.. can anyone conform if the 2.1 aspen 60tpi uses a reasonably thick carcass like the Advantage or is it also paper thin and a tubeless disaster like my Exc Aspen?

edit: wire Aspen is 12.59 here, might be worth a punt!
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Maxxis-Aspen-Off-Road-Mountain-Bike-Tyre_40961.htm?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Product_Search&utm_campaign=Froogle02

scary. so how do you stop this, find a tight tyre/rim combo and keep pressure up? pray?

update: Advantage 2.1 60tpi went straight up using a track pump, after seating one bead with inner tube. totally dry, but hot in the sun.
trying to use an Exc Aspen was bad idea anyway, too delicate. time to buy yet another new tyre! :/
at least i know it’s possible i wasn’t just being thick.

alright thanks guys, soapy water and compressor it is then… wondered if there was some technique to getting the tyre into the socket (or touching the rim edge at least) whilst flat!? frustrating catch22 eh.
there’s a huge gap around one bead, no amount of track pumping would do this, at least with compressor i have time to try to push it over.

tyre, rim, pressure?
never happened to me when running ghetto, if i can get the ZTR rims to work i’d expect they’re less likely to do this.

Trek do same thing with older Top Fuel/Fuel Ex. never been a problem for me or anyone afaik, never failed there.

don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. it’s like going commando, for your bike.

something that’s been bugging me for days here.. what does PSA stand for? Prostate-Specific Antigen? closest i can get is Phor Sale Advice.

yes, brown ooze is from bearings rusting. get stainless bearing bb (hope is not only option but a good one). and/or keep greasing.
with the weather next few weeks probably won’t matter what you have 😀

right thanks, will try not to let my cups come loose again. other thing is some have longer threads (like Shimano SAINT?) which i should probably be using … shame Hope don’t make longer driver side cups, can’t understand why not really.

thanks ben, so are there press fit bbs that’ll fit a reamed out old style 68mm shell? or some sort of shim needed?

nearly had this happen, my fault for not checking cause of creaks quickly enough. threads are reduced but still good enough probably because frame is 7075 and cups were 6061 or something softer.

how do you sort out damaged bb frame threads then?

yeah i normally hate medical dramas and reality tv but this is pretty good viewing. always sad at the end though, last week’s was really tough.

put some glitter in ur tyre, and maybe carry some string to poke into the hole next time. cuts are the weakness of tubeless..