People from Yorkshire. All of them. ****.

I have a set of spesh wheels with stout hubs.. is it impossible to get a freehub then? out of interest..

Not sure I like the idea of helmet cams either. It’s soul destroying watching the results on youtube. Has life really come to this? Every **** filming one another?

So dishonest above!

Lots of people in this thread see a problem. Can’t help it if you are a mechanical nonce.

Some outer covers are better than others. Few items are as exposed as the BB bearing. Hope’s plastic outer isn’t that good. The top hat is better – only one edge (the outer diameter of the disc) is exposed to ingress not two. I’d wager the inner diameter edge is the most vulnerable wrt Hope.

Stuff gets behind it easily. No brainer. Perhaps Hope had their Yorkshire puddings switched off when they thought it was a good idea. Perhaps they were too busy with cleaning out the pigeons and harassing sheep or working out the ker ching ker ching non-austerity on each single replacement bearing.

Pish.

I guess cos he’s annoyed. I’d like to like Superstar, keep waiting for him to manufacture stuff with the CNC machine he bought? Has he yet?

The top hats will fit Hope?

Mike I am on your side. I guess I am just projecting how I feel.

I avoid roads/confrontation these days. Every journey if long enough results in people trying to hurt you IME.

Can I just point out that I never removed the bearing seal. I am talking about the plastic outer seal. Well that and the dreadful seemingly illogical free fit metal to metal fit.

I rarely wash the bike. I clean the necessary mostly i.e. chain etc. Amazed that people keep avoiding the obvious i.e. the fact that the bearing is rather exposed behind that Hope plastic disc. I notice the Shimano top hat cover extends further back so dirt can only get around one edge not two and grips the spindle better. Still, nice to see some people can see the wood for the trees.

To be quite honest I am thinking of selling both my Hope BB’s and fit the Shimano ones that came with the cranks instead or buy XTR BB’s from Rose.

I have noticed the fit between plastic sleeved BB bearings like Shimano and the crank spindle is much tighter. Even on an undamaged crank the fitting between a Hope inner bearing race (or similar i.e. Enduro Hope replacement) and spindle is worrisome. Should it be greased at all? Is metal to metal hardly snug almost free running fit a good idea on the BB/spindle?

I seem to have lost hope in my Hopes.

Can you fit regular bearings in the Hope and use a top hat like Shimano? Probably not.

Sniffle…

Why be calm through all that? Because society has emasculated you? Because you are nice and good and the people you experienced today are not?

I avoid roads these days. Cycling on British roads is shit because there are too many ignorant thickos on the roads. I think the majority of motorists are ok though but the government likes to make things interesting with road pinches, inadequate cycle lane widths and narrow Victorian roads.

I guess well done for keeping your cool. This will now spin in your mind and upset your being for ages. Have a beer, joint, sex, something..

I’d like to think I would have done Kung Fu on them all. I don’t know any Kung Fu.

white with a little basket and some wheel reflectors and a horn.

You know that gorilla in The Mighty Boosh?

He got a bad feeling about this.

Sort of ok with both. Spose white is more in right now, but black always looks good when gleaming.

Always wanted to try the Saint. Not on the hard tail though. Yeah Shimano are very stylish looking, techy. Like the heat sink thing and chrome look..

I’d always go Hope on hubs now. They are British and they have been decent for me for thousands of miles usually heavy cos of backpack. Don’t get me started again on the BB’s though…

So this Tesla is really a DMR? Was always a suprise to me that DMR stuff sought of vanished from CRC.

I busted two spokes in one of those wheels Specialized think should have 15g straight gauge spokes. Tits.

I still have some Juicy 3’s on a bike otherwise decked out with Hope and bling. Also once a silly bargain. Ugly, but just simple and decent/ghetto.

HT2 bottom brackets. Rode it to the shops. One bottom bracket to get to the shops, one to get home.

Boom Boom.

There’s some good kit around, it just disappears too quickly. Just cos I stayed with 9 speed it now feels like I have to really search around to carry a few spares. Madness. I like SRAM X9 shifters and rear mechs, and like their Shimano equivalents, they last forever.

But bottom brackets? Seriously what the ****?

Grumpy? Hardly. There’s an issue with the outboard bearings I have. I cannot be the only person experiencing this crap.

Also amazed at that axle to bearing interface. What kind of lame fit is that anyway? Almost free running anyway. Seems badly engineered IMO.

I now set up tyres for year round, a good knobbly upfront that isn’t too sketchy on road or in mud, something a tad softer.. and something squarer and less frition e.g. a Larsen or similar (Kenda SMB8, Prowler XT/SS, etc) in the rear.. 2.3 knobbly up front, fat 2.25/2.3 and fast XC in the rear.

When I was Johnny X Country I never went bigger than a 1.95. Could never run those now. Far too uncomfortable.

Some of them Intense ones look promising on CRC. Anyone tried them?

helmets are for little girls and boys and those who actually do shit on their bikes. Limited value most other times.

(I aint trolling honest! just hate helmets for 90% of riding most people do)

Can’t beat a set of old Ron Hill’s! Not that I currently own a pair. I have wrecked lots of nice trousers/jeans on the bike. I velcro tape up my drive side leg.

Wish I’d bought more pairs of Shimanho DX shoes though. Aaaagh! Why did they stop making those? They were classy.

I never tried them. Everyone raved about them though. I am a cheapskate and buy in bulk that which is in the sales. Last mega buy I did was a load of Specialized Eskars folding and WTB Stouts and Prowler XT and SS, all for between ten and 19 pounds each. Bargain. Great tyres. Can’t find ’em now though, a shame. Good stuff vanishes which is annoying.

Square tapers used to snap? I rarely saw snappages. Now we just see bearing and crank failure pootling to the shops or going to work.

I don’t even know how much wear on a spindle renders a crank unusable? Even if I buy another SLX at bikedirect.de, cos they are cheaper than all the UK places, it’s still £110 I didn’t need to spend.

It worries me that I have to check behind that disc every week. That’s not tolerable maintenance to me, cos I grew up with square taper, where an XT UN72 unit could be had for £15 and literally go for years with no ingress to the bearing. There was a lot more than a plastic disc leading to the bearings in those units.

So.. grease behind the disc a bad idea?

I’m tempted to rig up some kind of headset lizard skin around the crank arm/bearing interface. Maybe not enough room round drive side though, I’ll try and see what I can come up with.

Back to sq taper snappages and rounding off.. as long as you installed the crank right first time, properly torqued, my experience was that the crank would stay put. I did have experience with a Firex that seemed to keep needing retorquing every few weeks, but I am sure that could have been solved with loctite or superglue on the crank bolt.

I might seem I am knocking Hope about the bearing protection in their BB’s, but it seems to me that things have gone tits up with BB’s over the last few years.

Yeah maybe I should have gone for Chris King, they have a grease port don’t they?

im still angry about that placcy disk.

lol lack of use and damp storage…

nothing to do with the crap sealing… lol

why did shit find it so difficult to get past say a UN72? Mission impossible really. Yet Hope’s plastic disc? Not stopping much is it?

both bikes have avoided rain as much as possible and are kept inside in the warm.

So much piffle in this thread. The plastic disc is a seal. Yes, cartridge bearings have additional seals. However, the majority of bike components requiring bearings do not just rely on that sealing within the cartridge.

Anyway….

I did grease behind the plastic disc as per Hope’s recommendation/video.. but I think I shall leave it dry from now on. I shall now remove my cranks every single week to clean behind the lame plastic seal.

I remember when UN72’s lasted thousands of miles… and could be had for £15… progress is such that now I will have to disassemble my crank killing bottom bracket and give it a little wipe every single week. Ah.. can’t stand in the way of progress!

Clearly nicke is a retard. His is the only mention of the word retard on this page. I said retarded design. Are you a retarded design nicke?

and one more thing.. the issue IS with dirt/water finding it’s way easily past the plastic disc that Hope dares call a seal.

Also, some of you guys claiming yours is still working fine with no need for maintenance.. I’d take a look inside if I was you.. mine felt fine, yet on one side the bearing wasn’t spinning at all… the spindle of the crank instead spun within the race.. I have never seen such a beautifully polished inner race! Beautifully polished and black as coal!

So, some people feel my pain, and some muppets claim I didn’t preload properly or some such.. lol muppets.

I have two bikes with Hope BB’s. I love Hope. British. Great. Not so sure about the sealing on the bottom brackets, but like I said, I haven’t used outboard bearings by anyone else. Are they all shit?

Some of you guys only ride weekends, if that. See I can make assumptions too.

The bike in question never went off road, it did however do best part of 200 miles per month. The bearings lasted 4 months first time, and the latest set – Enduro replacements – lasted about the same. If I was going off road I can now see that it would be necessary to take crank off and clean behind those plastic discs every single ride. Whether to the shops or something more epic. That disc isn’t adequate.

The fact is, that silly plastic disc isn’t much of a seal. I wouldn’t mind if I was just replacing bearings, though it pisses me off to have to keep removing cups from the BB shell, but wiping out my crank as well? What kind of planned obsolescent shit bag nonsense is this?

Yes, preload was fine. Yes, all had been faced. No, I didn’t aim a jet washer inside, no I am not 10. A plastic disc is not an adequate seal. The bearing is vulnerable.

Now I have to spend money I don’t have…

And my enjoyment of cycling after 30 years of being bike mad is beginning to wane.. I don’t want to deal with these life-cycles any more. 9 speed stuff vanishing.. what will it be next? 11 speed? 12? 13? Paying a premium for replacements cos it is now old hat i.e. a couple of years old?

Cycling is **** up. Like Hope’s BB sealing. Like outboard bearing design generally. All a **** up. A **** up where no **** up existed before. Well done cycling industry. Slow hand clap.

I had that. Your first few steps in the morning hurt like needles stabbing into your feet right?

Do you cycle? Are you tall? Push your cleat back so you cycle more mid foot rather than ball..

After months of trouble, I made inserts to push my arches up and I was soon ok. Also avoid flat skateboard type shoes and shoes without arch support in general.

you don’t even know which hayes he’s talking about? so how you can say they’ll be better is beyond me.

My Hayes Stroker Trails have been brilliant.

The fabled protititis lol.

I wouldn’t trust a British urologist. They’ll diagnose pudendal problems as prostititis. They’ll diagnose anything they are unsure about as prostatitis.

Chances are that if your below bits burn and/or tingle following a cycle ride, it’s the pudendal nerve that is affected not the prostate..

I think you should hire some Polish Mafia types and pay them in cheese.

Im hoping Superstar develop into some sort of British manufacturer. I know the guy bought a CNC machine.

Cutaway saddles can and do feel different and do shift bodyweight onto better human structures i.e. they shift the pressure from the vulnerable and delicate perineum to the two sitz bones on the pelvis.

Consider Specialized or WTB or the Selle SMP..

Nose of the saddle should be a tad lower than rear of the seat..

Sitting down a lot can also damage the pudendal nerve, as can squats and leg press machines, and childbirth.

A urologist apparently once said that there are cyclists who are impotent, and ones who soon will be…

If you are going to get a cutaway, consider how wide your pelvis is. Can you feel the bony protrusion beneath each bum cheek? That’s your sitz bone. If you measure the distance you’ll know what size cutaway saddle will work best. Some shops who sell Specialized saddles will have a gel memory cushion that you sit on that retains an impression of the boney part of your arse (the sitz bones) so that you can choose the right size. I like ’em wide, about 165 or so..

Unless your seat tube goes a few inches up your bum hole, you will not have damaged your prostate. Cutaway saddles do not protect the prostate. In fact, they don’t directly protect the genitals either. Cutaway saddles protect the perineum by placing the cyclist more on his or her pelvic bones rather than the perineum. The perineum is the fleshy pad between bum hole and genitals in both men and women. Beneath the perineum lies the pudendal nerve (and associated blood supply) which supplies feeling and control to the genitals and other nearby areas. You wouldn’t be the first cyclist to damage this nerve, some have damaged it so much they needed surgery, though this is fairly rare. However, the fact you are talking about special cushions etc means you may have damaged yours.

I like the Specialized and Selle SMP TRK cutaway saddles.