Make sure you are turning it the right way

Check again

Check again

Keep crank on the bike if you can It’s got an axle to secure it and an opposing crank / brakes to brace it

Then, bike / crank on side so penetrating oil can penetrate into the threads from the back via gravity

Pedal spanner if it’s got flats, if not a good quality long Allen key

Brake on / foot on other pedal (depending on which crank) and body weight on the spanner – don’t stamp on it’s something will slip

Use a bit of heat if needed

If the crank is off the bike and you want to reuse it clamp the SPANNER in the vice and haul on the crank

K

SKS thermoplastics. I run them on a disc brake MTB with no fittings (using p-clips and some artful bending of the stays) so they can run on pretty much any hardtail.

Do the job perfectly

I quite like that. I had some knock off Mary bars on my commuter and it worked fairly well, but we’re narrow.

Those loom really good. I suspect silly money and heavy though…

Cartwheels – if not, how much are you looking for as is?

simondbarnes
Full Member
I’ve put another 1000km on it and play hasn’t got noticeably worse so can hopefully avoid tinkering with it for a while 🙂

There is some float / backlash in the assembly from new, and the tolerance isn’t great so some seem to float more than others. The LH BB bearing tolerance is particularly poor.

I would watch out though as it appears that too much bearing play could mean the torque assembly is damaged as it could rub/bind.

I am going to experiment with something better than retaining compound to improve the BB bearing tolerance, but need to be careful with the housing as the bearing sits alongside the spline for the torque sensor so I don’t want to foul that.

Approx. 1800 miles and mines developed a fault. Pulsing noise rather than whine when under load.

Stripped it apart and the ceramic torque sensor ring has cracked. Possibly as a result of clumsiness when I stripped it down to change the bearing but could have been a fault from new that’s steadily got worse. It shouldn’t have any impact through it but it could be general shock and vibration.

New sensor ring on order from PSW power for £17 delivered.

Cartwheels – you can buy a whole torque sensor assembly new for about £65, but it may just be the sensor ring as above. AliExpress is your friend

They are both £50 so a chunk cheaper than anything Shimano.

I’m tempted by the velcro just for ease of use (I’ll wear them commuting as we)

Ref adjustment – bit of both

I’ve not tried bone conduction earphones, but I commute with Bluetooth ear buds (cheap skull candy jib ones).

The roads are quiet when I commute. BUT I rarely listen to music on the road, generally only podcasts. I find that spoken word doesn’t isolate you from the road like music can do.

Plus, I’m not sure what I can do if I do hear the car that’s about to clip me anyway…

Great. A downgrade will really help.

It’s funny. I’ve had experience of juicys (shite), codes (really shite) and guides (average).

And then XT (fantastic), SLX (fantastic) and Magura, albeit on a borrowed bike (fantastic).

…which is not too difficult to fix with a lever teardown. But super annoying.

Just shite 🙂

Looks ace. I’ve enquired but I think it’s ~£1500 so unlikely!

Even if it doesn’t, would you feel comfortable with it?

I’d avoid. Find something else.

Was not far off the norm a few years back 😉

I like the look of them. Shame I’m a short arse

I don’t know how different G2’s are to Guides, but my SRAM brake setup system is to…not bother until a good deal on a Shimano or Magura brakeset shows up.

Mine are currently just about OK, although the rear lever doesn’t return properly if it’s a bit warm out…but from fighting with SRAM brakesets in the past I know it’s a lost cause 😁

I like that unicycle…

And I have some 18mm ply spare….

Just need to work out how to bodge a crank onto a wheel 😉

Tracey – that looks great. I miss big rides and I miss riding rocks (nothing like that round my way)

Dusty ride around local woods finding some new trails yesterday morning. Lovely.

rs
Free Member
are gravel inserts a thing?

That’s up there with gravel specific pumps as a marketer’s wet dream

A 29er with fast rolling tyres are super quick on the road surface too so not sure why they have fallen out of fashion.

Fashion

Gravel bikes are the latest ‘thing’ (before that it was plus bikes, before that it was fat bikes). I wait to see what the next niche will be.

I do see the appeal behind them, but their use case over a CX bike or XC bike seems extremely limited.

Why would the RWS be more secure? The bolt up would surely be more secure?

Oh:

Final drive comes off first as the gear puller pushes on the end of axle, then the circlip can come off and the BB assembly comes out of the LH side.

simondbarnes
Full Member
Did you ever get round to changing the bearings on yours @tim ?
Mine are in need of replacing now.

Disassembly is fairly easy, just be careful with the torque sensor assembly. The bolts are a bit cheesy / shallow so take care.

I didn’t do anything with the torque sensor but replaced the LH BB bearing and the sprag clutch.

The BB bearing is really easy as the tolerances are shite so it just floats on the axle and in the shell. I used a fair amount of retaining compound and made a big difference.

If you want to replace the sprag clutch you need to remove the final drive gear. I needed to use a gear puller to remove it, using the spider to pull on.

The sprag clutch needed pressing out on a fly press at work. If you have access to any sort of press or bearing puller it should be fine. I wouldn’t smash it out.

Give me a shout if you need help

These look interesting, but a tad exposed

https://www.gngebike.com/mid-drive-kits

.

Oh and avoid a hub drive. Horrible off road

I’ve been looking at it.

You want torque sensing (cadence isn’t great), so the most obvious solution is a tsdz2. If you have a standard threaded bb you can make it fit but the chain line may not be great, and on a full sus will probably need to get a bit creative as you can use the rear torque arm (I was going to brace off the front and connect it with a battery mount). Very much doable.

On a press fit it’s still possible, but need adaptors and an axle extension kit or use a 100mm fat bike version with various spacers. Again chain line may be bad. I need to measure up mine and see how my tsdz2 squares up.

The cranks are square taper and 175mm, and the q factor is wide. However, they are cheap and it’s not a huge worry. The BB axle, bearings and sealing is really basic and the tolerances aren’t exactly brilliant, but fortunately it’s also very easy to service.

The battery is probably the easier part. You would need to go custom with a custom bag, but worked out that even on a Jeffsy you can fit ~480W battery in (and building a second battery wouldn’t be overly expensive as you only need to build the bare basics). Would also be a very low centre of mass.

I’ve rescued similar corrosion, but that hole gooses the uppers at the very least

Northwind
Full Member
You probably can’t buy them any more as they’re so old but, I have 3 pairs of Altura Mayhems and 3 pairs of Altura Attack waterproofs, they last forever and they work great. I just put a hole in one in a crash and I am distraught

Interesting.

I’ve liked the fit and price of Altura kit in the past, but it just disintegrated in short order. If they have sorted out the durability then…

My sealskins climashield ones are excellent. Dry and warm (unless it’s REALLY cold) hands for 2 winters of commuting.

I’m not sure where the Porsche comparison fits. Nothing about orange bikes is about a relentless pursuit of driving (or riding) perfection. A better comparison is British Leyland.

It’s a 911 comparison.

The engine is in the wrong place, but they have continued to refine it.

Orange is single pivot, but they have continued to refine it.

They also are both expensive 😃

Other than that one, most of the frames from my retrobike phase. Modern geometry, disc brakes and functioning suspension really do ride better than nostalgia. Who would have thought

I’ll go with that. Over lockdown I restored my 1996 Marin. It’s great for what it is, but retro bikes really are rubbish in comparison to modern bikes.

It’s quite funny putting it next to my Jeffsy which fills the same niche, but would have been a DH bike when the Marin was built, but probably climbs just as well even though it’s heavier and is FAR comfier

The Marin is my fire road and nostalgia piece.

Seems reasonable.

You didn’t need to spend 300 on a hub and that meant it was a new build so the warranty won’t cover those costs.

The warranty would be the original replacement parts + associated labour costs.

Trail_rat. Thin alu frame so didn’t really fancy riv nuts…but probably would have been fine.

I’ve since used some loctite and better bolts – but to be fair it never actually moved more than a few mm.

Left a saddle and seatpost on the pavement the road outside my house when packing car…gone

Destroyed a crank and crank tool by forgetting it was a square taper crank and an octalink tool (rushing)

Forgot to depressurise a lower leg of a magura fork with a leaking positive chamber and blew the innards into orbit (seemingly) and my glasses off my head

honourablegeorge
Full Member
Didn’t affect me as such, but I do remember that feeling when my mate took his bike out of his van, with the forks I’d just serviced for him, and I spotted the crown was back to front.

Saw a bloke out on course at Clic24 with a brand new fox fork fitted…backwards.

He told me it was “what the pro’s did”

Obviously! 🤣

Swytch kits appear to be chinese kits with fancy marketing. All that weight on the front must be horrible and they aren’t cheap.

I’ve got a tsdz2 kit with an em3ev battery.

Works absolutely fine on a commuter. 1300miles so far. I’ve changed a bearing but it wasn’t difficult nor expensive.

Mounting the battery solidly is the hardest part. It’s a lot of mass to keep from moving around.

I think youd rattle it to death and kill the frame on any sort of interesting off road

I like em, but they are expensive.

I bought a YT instead. I did fancy a Cotic but that was also very expensive in comparison

I could ride most MTB trails on my CX bike, but not necessarily fast nor fun (aside from the challenge of it).

On open bridleways and fire roads it was fast, so good for covering mileage…although im not sure a good XC bike would have been slower (I had. BFe at the time with 160mm forks).

If I was going the one bike route I’d be tempted by something like a Supercaliber rather than a gravel bike, just for the extra fun off road really

An early ragley (Alu). The geo was horrible. Floppy steering and it felt like I was sat bolt upright.

Early Gary fisher rig. An uncomfortable and unwieldy boat of a bike

I’ll add:

Any good deals on an open face MIPS (or similar concept) technology

Flats generally I’d say, but on my hardtail I used to run spds as I got bounced off the pedals on rocky/rooty terrain, so it’s dependant on the riding.

For general trail and xc I dont think there is any difference though