Fantastic replies! Sorry for my late reply and gratitude. Been so long since i was on STW that my notifications were off.

I am really going to have to review the proportion of mud to root in the local woods. I get that these naturally connecting terrain elements are opposite in there tyre demands.

I reckon about £200 for the shifters and about £40 for a mech. But I’ll also get a set of brakes and a mech spare from the current set up.

But is there anything I’mmissing with the cassette and freehubs? More incompatibility?

The minion SS is amazing. The side knobs really work. I really loved it up to this point when the trails in my woods have turned into mud rivulets.

What Trumpton said….. why don’t you try a few laps of ‘not trying’. Be really floppy and gentle and see how much small amounts of pump at differing points on the transitions, affect your speed. You can lose a lot of power through isometric tension derived from stress. Your motor skills get hindered by the tightness of your muscles. Pumping is all about well timed compression and release. The timing is the key… you need to relax enough to get to know yourself on the track. You may literally be trying too hard. That said, there are some tracks that suck energy up a lot more than others.

I don’t think Hunt make their own stuff. It’s more a packaging customer service thing. They are great though. Customer service is blinding.

But I’ve heard from a good wheelbuilder that a lot of OEM stuff is just as good.

When you say rims, are you meaning just rims? Going to get them built onto hubs you have?

Yeah don’t worry about the Isla bike standards with tubes…. Tubes are streeeeetchy. We have twins and two Cnocs, with the different tyres (one is the older moddle with fatter tyres). The tubes and replacements have been swapped in and out. Between other brands too, like the Frogg stuff. As long as it’s a 14″ wheel, you’ll get a good fit.

You might struggle getting a road tube that’s for 21-23c to fill up a 29 x 2.3 ;-)

But I think small increments are pretty fair game.

Stanton HQ = The epitomy of a transparent and ethical business. A factory that opens it doors to any interested biker, cutomer, person…. Shows them round, talks bikes, engineering, ethics, economics, family life…. lets you ride a couple of bikes around, makes you a cuppa!! And this is the CEO wwe’re talking about! If anyone is ever feeling a little jaded or in need of some perspective, go and hang out in their HQ for an arvo. Do a bit of volunteering, help them with their website or something… FFS. I mean what kind of mug would choose the Bike industry as a way of making quick money? Competing with Giant and Trek and Evans and CRC and Wiggle??? I’m glad Dan got a moment to respond in person on here. Hashtag UKbikebuildersmatter

@hols2 have you been trawling through my instagram? That is my preferred XC attire.

The weight thing is only really a concern since Lockdown. It’s coz I’ve been playing around trying to find the right bike set up for regular rides from the door.

Switching my new Selcof carbon rigid froks between a Stanton SLackline 27.5 and a Spesh Chisel 29er.

Weight seems important in this build, as I’m tring to gain some sprint accelleration and the rigid forks defo show up the weight on the rear of each bike… much more than when a Sus fork is fitted.

I was in a similar boat until a week ago. Narrowed it down to a Defy Advanced or a Roubaix….

Then the Lockdown in the Soth West kind of stopped being an actual Lockdown and turned into a kind of slow, well spaced out summer garden party. The roads started to fill back up and I realised my renewed love of road cycling, might be a short lived thing. At peak pandemic, I was wandering around Somerset and Gloucestershire on my old Planet X RT80, with free anbandon. Breathing deeply and concentrating on cadence and cornering, rather than who was trying to overtake me ona blind corner at twice the speed limit!!

My eye has since moved toward the Giant Revolt Advanced. Realised that with a wheel upgrade (which I now realise is almost essential on any new bike other than very high end), the Revolt might release a lot more options than either the Roubaix or the Defy. With good wheels and set of road tyres, possibly have very little compromise over a real “Road Bike”. But then accept a lot more rubber than either of the others, allowing long distance rides that can divert from nicest tarmac.

I used an iPhone with the trai forks app the other day. It was great. Just got to get the right mounting device. I reckon an iPhone 4 or some such would be a good size and cheap.

I tried using a few apps for road riding and was just appalled at how over complex it all is. I just like to find routes and follow them with a decent map display.

Strava, komoot, iMap my ride blaaaaah. Ended up with google maps. But can’t upload routes.

Off road with trail forks is soooo much better. There are peoples routes all over the gaff. Easy to follow. In built maps. Great. IMO

@k1100t one thing to note is your top cap bolt… you may need to find a shoter one. I don’t know how your current one is, but this one has a lmited threaded depth for your top cap bolt. It’s because the bung’s own tightening bolt is hollowed out for the top cap one to screw into. I presume this is common across all bungs. But I had to swap my top cap bolt to a shorter one. I just used an old hex headed bolt that was the same thread. It’s a really common size. I guess you could easily cut down your existing bolt also (if it’s too long). Anyhow, you may have already overcome this with your current bung. Good luck

THanks Snotrag. There are three screws… But there is a ring with rounded off teeth too. It looks like a lumpier version of a shimano BB outer. I don’t have any other Sram stuff and my experience is limited to 90% Shimano, with a recent dabble in Raceface Aeffect.

I would upload a picture, but I haven’t worked out how yet.

I bought one from the Bikemonger a week ago… Only one ride in on my new Selcof rigid forks… It defo grips and holds well. But longevity? That’ll have to wait. Super swift mail out service, with a fiendly email interaction all the way. It comes with a shim that I havcen’t had to use. I think it’s in case your fork inner is larger diameter (well I guess that’s obvious isn’t it).
My forks are 1+1/8th steerer,with 1.5 lower. My understanding is that the 1+1/8th top is the same on any 1+1/8th fork. I enquiered on this forum for advice on whether I could use a road bung. Everyone said yes. I was gonna borrow from my road bike until the new one arrived, but it came so quick I didn’t need to.

No surprise Hunt have won some fans, with their attention to market detail, price and speed of shipping. I’ve just bought some 27.5 trail wides. It was a slick experience.

The wheels are going for their first ride this arvo… so only first impressions available.

Due to Lockdown, I’ve had all my bikes stripped or partially stripped down and ready forservicing and part swapping. I really wanted to take the chance to inspect the new wheels and compare to my others. I’ve never really been able to sit and play with a variety of hubs and really feel and compare that bite point and the amount of slack. Learned about engagement degrees/degrees of engagement? and all that maths stuff.

So sitting in my shed, my references are:

Spesh own brand wheels from a Chisel 29er
DT Swiss 1900 spline form a Canyon Spectral
Old Hope pro 2 Hubs (135mm) with DT Swiss rims – Handbuilt LBS sitting on my old Ragley HT
Old Hope road Hubs Mavic rims – Handbuilt LBS on my Road bike

WOW, what a spectrum of quality!

Spesh Hubs are absolutely aweful! Stripped down and looking inside the freehub… they only have 3 pawls!! Meaning the amount of slack/slow pick up, is ridiculous. They also suffer from that impossible sweet spot thing, where I just can’t find a tension between the hub nuts, that allows them to spin and not rattle. I guess the bearings could be replaced, but they’re only 6 months old and hardly abused. Anyway, it feels really Halfords Argos Tescos Amaco :-)

Both sets of Hopes feel amazingly solid. Well built, good free spin, no play… But everyone knows this. They will never break, I might even get to give them to my kids one day, if we’re not all riding some new weird array of new hub widths by then ;-)
The Hope engagement is good, but….. there is actually quite noticable slack. Not immediate pick up. I have read this may be aconscious compramise to do with lifespan? Less pawls… longer life?

The Hunts sits very much at the plush end of the spectrum. It looks good. Simple. Minimal. Obviously no play yet, as they ate new. On the spin, it feels like there is about a million pawls and they’re lubed with silver butter. The hub purrrrs (compared to Hope’s angry rattlesnake) and spins forever. It would seem realistic I guess, to expect a compromise in lifespan. But I have no experience yet. I don’t think anyone can have put a set through the same spectrum of abuse that so many of us have put Hopes through. But I’m a realist, so I expect there to be some sort of compromise.

I must admit, I quite liked the whole prepackaged choice with Hunt. If I’m honest, I’m not sure I’m really knowledgable enough to make the best use of £300-400 worth of options,with the custom builds. And no body is ever truly free of their commercial ties/sponsorship/deals whatever… I actually really enjoyed the simplicity of Hunt’s options.

TBC

THanks hols2. Both for the clarification of the oil types and the water dispesion and the link to the rings.

With your level of technical understanding, I’m not surprised you know nothing of the ‘Shonky Zone’. I on the other hand, have a holiday home there.
:-)

hols2, Which brakes do you run and how do rate their value to their performance?

Well there’s thick piece of Marmite coated toast for ya.

Bin ’em and never look back all the way to several years of extended use.

The big benefit (apart from any ethical/ecological soundness) for me, in regards to fixing stuff, is the iprovement in general bike tuning. I find if I let elements of a bikes ‘System’ become consigned to my ‘unconscious’… I allow myself far more time spent in the ‘shonky zone’. You know that place? Where you’re not quite sure about the difference between low and high speed compression damping and whether your tyres really are 22 psi, because your pump guage actually probably doesn’t read psi very acurately? Whether your mech hanger is slightly bent or your shifter is clogged? So you just kind of deny it and ride with a slight limpness and uncertainty? “Ah bollox, I missed that double again, because I couldn’t stand up on the pedals for fear of slipping, because I can’t tune my rear mech”.

To be fair, there can be benefits. Like getting to the bottom of a black run and realising the ‘Hare & Tortoise’ symbols on my rear shock, were actually relation to the little red dial, not the little red lever. Said lever actually had a lock symbol pointing vaguely at it. So I had just ridden down that trail, not on a slightly faster rebound, but on a locked out ful sus hardtail! Result! In relation to my self esteem anyway.

But mostly, I find solving these issues (like the shimano brake one), really help with my relationship (oneness) with the bike.

If it wasn’t for the incredible improvement in performance, that these new fangled bits n bobs allow, I’d almost be pining for the days of cottered cranks and seperated loose ball bearings ;-) At least I knew once I’d learned how to strip a bike… that was it. I could strip any bike.

I think I’ll try one more session after I use up these O rings (whether they actually do anything or not). I’ll attempt the Square section ones behind the pistons next. If that doesn’t work…. well at least I tried. Then I can look forward to some new Hope stickers for my old Passat’s bumper.

Anyone know where to get those Square O rings?

dc1988, this is the problem. It’s not expensive enough to weigh up a complete upgrade. So we generally just do it. But there may be nothing much wrong with your old stuff. I mean a good bleed and some new pads and a working ‘old’ calliper is way better than a baddly set up, pad worn bit of bling. IMO

I was amazed at the ease of the procedure. I’m fishing now for one of the super experienced STW crew to come to my aid and tell me “left a bit, right a bit… that little grub screw there…”

:-)

I like as much crossover as possible. Having two hard tails and a full sus and a commuter and my Wife’s stuff…. also got two growing kids about to enter the world of proper bikes… By speccing it all with Shimano and the odd bit of Clarkes, means ! big bottle of mineral oil and one bleed kit. And loads of interchangeable parts. Just makes life a little less ‘update/ungrade’ oriented.

But I’d love to be able to keep more of it working for longer. For general trail use, Deore work great for me. It’s only ever been on a wet welsh mountain, descending on my ful sus, that I’ve ever really thought about having a little more bite.

Is it just the Hope road stuff tha uses mineral oil?

Excellent!! And regarding hills… My mrs pulls our 5 year old twins, their bikes, their school stuff and picnics… all around north Bristol, using a Chariot (Thule) trailer and a bike with a Bosch CX motor (the ones they use in the mtbs). North Bristol is England’s answer to San Francisco btw. Not just the hippies, but the hills I mean.

In the UK, we may have speed restrictions on our ebikes, but not torque restrictions.

Nice one scotroutes, that tool looks very useful… Also very straightforward. Nerve Wracking bending a non steel frame though? I mean how much strength does a carbon road frame have in that area where the mech is attached? Or does the hanger always give first? I guess that’s it’s job after all. To give out first, bend or break.

nickjb indexing is less critical than B tension? Or HAnger alignment less critcal? I couldn’t make out which order youwere prioritising?

Scotroutes, as I’m often trying to figure this kind of problem out… can you elaborate? Are they expensive tools? Easy to use? ta

PX headset

Their website is a bit off with descriptions… but I was pointed here. THe tapered version obv.

Are there many non 45 degree headsets around? How easy is it to tell by looking or feeling, if an angle between the race and the lower bearings are off?

Just to be clear… The multi purpose/generic crown race is an aftermarket item sold by PX. It’s not part of the fork or a pre-attached item. It was a PX product that the PX online helpers guided me to, when I was enquiring how I might swap the forks between different bikes, or change between sus and rigid on a single bike. All this being due to me not being sure exactly what set up I prefer yet… From my understanding the most I’d be risking with crown race bodging is the headset anyway?

For now, I’ve ‘split’ a non split crown race and happily slipped it on to the Selcofs. A cursory play around in the shed and it feels smooth.

THanks all, for the reassurance that the bungs are just bungs. I’ve bought one anyway, as I can’t be swapping every other day. But hopefully I’ll get the road one seated in the Selcofs for a try out.

collsroller, that is what I was thinking… the rest just being branding. I’m gonna offer up the road one and see how it feels.

Re routing on the Selcofs, no. It’s got an external routing ting. Dunno what they’re called,but that little bolt on furrow that allows you to ziptie a cable…? There’s no other holes or ports that could accept any internal routing I’m afraid. But in other respects, they don’t look shonky. Just straightforward. If I could work out how this site works, I’d upload some pics. I’ll try later.

They look well made. Very nice ‘matt black’ with a minimal white logo.n IMO a good aesthetic for an aftermarket item. As it should look good on most bikes… unless the rest of your kit is 90s style Uber colour scheme. ;-)

Just remember, as I didn’t, that you need a bung. In the end I went to the bike monger site and bought one for a tenner. Also, if like me, you might want to swap them in and out… either on another bike, or with sus forks on the same frame. I didn’t realise I’d need a crown race… apparently the ideal is to have a crown race specific to the headset. You may be know all this. But I didn’t. PX do have a crown race that says it’s a generic one. So should work, if you’re looking to swap them around.

I was in your position, but had butchered too many high end bikes… Had a Turner 5 Spot and a bunch of U turn pikes and a Kinesis and blah blah… In the end I gave it the Bristol Bike project. They teach disadvantaged people how to mend stuff. Sell it. My kind of charity. So no regrets. But I did turn up with a boot full of stuff that had cost thousands… what felt like last week ;-)

Now, Facebook market place is the hassle free way. It’s a bit tricky as a buyer, as the filters are limited and it suffers from being a little too easy to post on. So people get lazy with pics and description. But as a seller, it’s up to you to put as much important detail as required. With those bikes and specs, I’d suggest a good edit of detail and spec in the title. Then with the description, make sure you use all the text space possible (it expands when a buyer clicks on your pic). Also lots of pics. To help with the furloughed posse, include some layman’s info, as well as nerd info… like “this was a top bike from 10 years ago, now highly appropriate for high end fitness duties. Only selling to keep up with modern bike industry” type thing. There are people looking at bike ads at the moment, who’ve never looked at anything other than an argos catalogue before. But may still be intelligent and capable of realising the bargain available. But there is also a load of well informed bike people, who may want something specific and retro. Retrobike was a big website a while back. When I was in London and the fixie thing was booming. A fascination with old steel… also a big scene for old GT Zaskars and Joe Murray Konas.

That’s great to hear leeroysilk, but in Bristol, the majority are closed. They do click and collect. Some say they will answer service requests via email.

None have replied. Was able to collect a couple of bits I mail ordered. Halfords are rockin hard, but the queues are huge and you’d be giving your bikes to…. Halfords?

Clarks +4 I’ve put them on everything that isn’t a proper mtb. Actually I did use them on my Ragley HT for a while.

I mean, they really are as good as a great disc brake from a few years back.

I would love to keep using Deore, but I’ve been scuppered by the leaking seals sooo many times. I just bought the O ring replacement pack from ebay, to try and repair a few sets of leaking callipers. Because ideally I’d love to stop chucking so much stuff out…

BTW the cutting seems to have worked. The race slid on easy… Seems to like the headset… Obviously I’m still in the shed… not testing the rigid slackline’s descending ability on a trail :-0

Anyhow, It’s lockdown…. I’ve cut it! No LBS around here is gonna help me as a nonkey worker.

But I’m still keen to know the implications of using this crown race with the other bike… and it’s integrated headset.

I mean if cartridge bearings are sealed in theor cartridge… What difference does it make whether they’re angular or not?

WHat was wrong with the tolerances? You’re not talking fork failure due to headset installation I hope? :-)

THanks martinhutch. That’s the bit. I found another thread about cutting them…. making installation easier. I’ll try that.

But from the previous question, does that mean that I can’t use that crown race with the Spesh and it’s integrated headset… whatever that is… I presume an in house Spesh brand part?

I mean look at this…

An FSA headset spec :

1-1/8″ 36/ 45 ACB – Upper
1.5″ 36/ 45 ACB-Lower
For tapered 50mm / 57mm OD headtube
For tapered 1.5″ steerer forks
Forged alloy deeper cup and lower cup
Stack Height 16.9+13.4 = 30.3mm
S.H.I.S. (Standardized Headset Identification System): ZS44/28,6 | EC49/40
Semi-integrated (frame bore 44mm) top
External cup (frame bore 49,6mm)

Here is Stanton’s only Headset related info of the Slackline:

“The frame also features a Reynolds 631 44mm head tube”

So How do I even navigate a headset choice, let alone understand Crown Races???

:-o

OH! I’ve no idea. The Spesh has a fully integrated headset and the Slackline has a brand I can’t see… but a familiar looking external set up.

I’ve just noticed that the slackline headset does have part that sits below the cartridge bearings… but it’s not split? Could this be a non split crown race?
It has a blue rubbery inner part.

Just bought the o rings. I mean £2 odd delivered…. gotta be worth a go.

Thanks Wiskey. That’s very clear now. I’ll give it a go. Neb, again just to be clear are you using Magura levers with shimano calipers? That’s coz they both use mineral oil I presume… I have never used Maguras.

Wiskey, I followed your link to the other thread and the last post seems to be about using Maguras? Are you able to elaborate on what was in that post,or am I missing something?

Lockdown seems to make this repair issue a lot more viable… I have a bout 4 different leaking shimano Deore callipers. But I have no idea whther it’s at the piston or this other joiney place.

Yes I think they are Boost only. Which is fine for me. The Exotics have plenty of choices… when they have stock.

Redishing a wheel, might bring you into that horrible modern territory, where a new thing is cheaper than repairing or modernising an old thing… ie getting a wheel that fits the fork. Unless you’re a capable wheel builder.

But I’m more interested in the effect of subtle changes in Axle to crown heights on geometry.

thisisnotaspoon….. not only the best username, but clearly a gifted cultural commentator and comedian. Thanks I needed that laugh. Beaut.

cynic-al?? Find me a shop that’ll let me do that in the next 3-6 months???

Bristol is closed, for all but drop you bike off for a service, or buy online.