I don’t rate the Conti Mountain Kings. They grip pretty well (espcially on wet roots) but they have terrible rolling resistance. Constantly well like I’ve got the brakes on.

I had X7 on my Carerra Fury. It work faultlessly on the stand. But as soon I got near a trail it started skipping all over the place. I read somewhere that this was a common problem with X7 and that the solution was to upgrade the shifters and rear mech to X9.

I replaced the whole lot with Shimano SLX and sold the SRAM stuff on ebay. Not had to adjust the gears in over a year now.

Ive got X5 on my old commuter which works well, but it’s 8speed.

Currently on the Hobgoblin. Obviously I will have to move onto the whiskey given the date.

The fork on my 2010 Sirrus was recalled as well. I was very impressed with the service. The fork was replaced in under a week. I just rang Specialized UK, they rang my local shop and a few days later I got a new fork. It wasn’t even the shop I bought the bike.

Seems they have a problem with their carbon manufacturers in Taiwan.

I promptly dropped the fork and scratched whilst fitting it. Slightly annoying.

Still waiting for the rest of the bits before I build and ride mine. While I wait for the postman though I can say I’ve never been this excited about a new bike.

I think the fact that it’s Renyolds 853 tubing adds something. To anyone who likes bikes that means something good. From my 70 year Dad to a 16 year old reading MBUK.

I would agree with all of what Northwind just said! Hence me saying it’s a skilled job. It is very satisfying getting the bolt out yourself…..

Never tried Diesel as a penetrating lube. Does it work as well as Plus Gas?

Absolute Radio 90’s is pretty good for filling in the gaps between the rubbish bits on 6music. It’s right the way down the end of the “dial”. There is also do Absolute 80’s and 00’s

Avid Juicy 3’s and most of the reviews I’ve read on Avid’s have put me right off.
The Juciy 3’s feel ok when they’re working but they constantly need re-adjusting. Easy to bleed and only had to do it once though.

I much prefer the feel of SLX’s. I like an on/off brake rather a squeezy feel.

You want a screw extractor to remove the bolt. The video below shows you how. Personally I would use a hand drill rather than a power drill. I would also use a tap handle rather than an adjustable spanner. Screw Extractors tend to snap if the force isn’t applied directly downwards.

Personally I regard this as skilled job. If you snap the screw extractor in the bolt you will never get it out. It only takes about 10 mins. But it must be done very carefully. A good motor garage should be able to do it.

I thought it was a pretty good match. Has your frame faded with use/sun/age?

Nope, mine is a fraction darker than Revell 30 – I could probably mix a little red in to get a better match. I spent a week touching up all the stone chips on my black Ford Focus. I think I may have some sort of OCD when it comes to repairing paint!

Revell 30 is no where near Cotic orange. Much too bright.

Fortunately I’ve been directed to a local motor factors who “have a special machine that will match the colour”

I wish manufacturers would at the very least sell touch up pens…

My dad spent 20+ years banging on about his Brooks saddle and how amazingly comfy it was. Then he tried my Charge Spoon and ordered one himself 15 mins later. He has finally admitted that he never really found the Brooks comfy.

On the plus side it will sell well on eBay!

-4.75 and -4.5 from what I remember. I got fed up of having to take contact lenses out. Plus in the long run it saved me a fortune

It’s just hitting the civil service.

.

We’ve had it at our lab for at least 6 years. Just as I’ve got my head round it someone in central govt. has decided it all needs to standardised. So now we have to get our heads round a new set of forms :roll:

I find it can be effective for the career minded people. Helps them structure a career path. For the people you are happy doing 9-5 and aren’t bothered about promotion etc. (and there are lots of people like that) then it’s a waste of time in my view.
Unless they are useless, in which case it can be about the only way in the civil service of kicking them out!

Yes, I had my done in Ipswich. I got a BOGOF too – best £500 I have ever spent. Excellent service all round. I had all bar one of the check ups over the following six months in Ipswich. I even had one in Birmingham because I was visiting a friend that weekend.

The only bad thing I found was that the Ipswich waiting room always had Will Young on repeat!
Op done in 2004 and I have no problems what so ever.

Not sure why the OP is getting so much abuse? If they didn’t deliver within the time frame agreed then they should refund the extra cost. After all, you’re only going to pay the extra for next-day delivery if you need it urgently (or you’re really impatient!).

That said, given the snow I wouldn’t have expected the item to be delivered next day. Royal Mail stopped collection my lab because of the back log. Ultimately it’s not really the bike shops fault. However, I still think they should have covered the cost just for good customer service.

These are time estimates from working in a bike shop (well Halfords anyway).

New brake hoses – about an hour
O ring and oil change in forks – about an hour, really depends on what fork and how much you want stripping down.
New inners and outers – 30 mins max
Plus the usual? – checking all the nuts and bolts are tight etc. about 30mins

A spotlessly clean bike is much easier to work on and therefore costs less. If you’re bike is covered in mud then the cost will go up as the mechanic will need to clean everything carefully before reassembly – especially the forks and brakes.

These days I’m in my garage so everything takes a bit longer.

Try uncrewing the high and low stop screws all the way out. If it still won’t go then try adjustig the B-tension screw. Thats the screw on its own that points backwards. You want about 3mm between the top jockey wheel and the big sprocket (you need to push the mech over to the big sprocket.
You have now ruled out adjustment settings. If it still doesn’t work then something is probably bent. Check the hanger first. If that’s OK it’s probably the mech.

Endura baabaa merino for me. My daily commute is 30mins each way. I can go two weeks before they get smelly.

Sounds like you’ve got in a bit of a mess….
This should sort your problems:

I always put a smear of copper grease (anti seize) on all the fixed threads. I.e. stem bolts, brake and shifter clamp bolts, bottle cage bolts. Basically any thread that is going to sit there once it’s tightened. Definitely recommend the seat clamp bolt as it tends to get all the spray and then go rusty. Same goes for QR’s on the wheels. Never had a problem with things coming undone.
If you have a square taper BB axle then don’t grease that, otherwise the cranks fall off.

Superstar nanos for me. By far the best pedal I’ve ever tried. My only regret was getting them in dark green. Really hard to find bling bits in dark green….

Kids need the weight to develop proper leg muscles. Weight reducing at such as an early age will result in concerning developmental defects such as softyism, leg shaving and lycra. Next thing you know your son has turned into Gok Wan. And no one wants that.

Save the money for when they’re older and want really expensive bikes. Lightweight fancy bikes at that age won’t make them love the riding bikes. Lots of encouragement, fun, mud, quality time with Dad and the inevitable big knee plaster will (IMO).

My last bike came with SRAM X7. It worked fine on the stands but as soon as the trail got mildly moist the gears were skipping all over the place. I changed to Shimano SLX and haven’t even had to adjust the gear cables.
I saw an article (bikeradar I think) where they showed Shimano’s mud tanks – they seem to test in a watery mud. Not sure what SRAM do in the way of mud testing – but it didn’t work for me.

Ideally you want 2x15mm cone spanners and 2x 17mm ring spanners for the lock nuts. You can get away with with one cone spanner how two makes the job easy.

After 8 years of using Park Tools cone spanners in the bike shop I’ve bought myself some Pedros cone spanners. They cost the same but the rubber grips don’t slip off.

You will also need a chain whip (cheap one will do) and a cassette lock ring tool. A bench vice makes it easier as you can just clamp the lock ring tool in the vice. If not you just need a big spanner/socket/wrench on the end.

Plenty of videos on you tube on how to do the job itself.

I ran the C2W scheme at work for a while. We used Halfords because the first choice company went bust. You cannot add extra cash to the value of the voucher. When you use the voucher your employer owns the bike. You effectively rent the bike off your employer. Your employer can claim the tax back and is allowed to pass the saving onto you – hence the tax free bike.

If you added cash to the voucher you would part own the bike. Which isn’t allowed under HMRC rules. If you decided you didn’t want the bike at the end of the “rental” period who would buy who out?

Thanks all. For £1.50 I’ll try the Revel paint out first. Tried to get a colour match at Halfords in Lowestoft. However the retards have thrown out their colour matching books. Sigh.

Many thanks. I’ve had a few Cateyes and while they’re good on batteries I always find they fall apart after a while. Hence the need for a new light. I like the look of the Lenzyne so I’ll give that a go.

I don’t think you’ll need to get the BB faced. In 8 years as I bike mechanic I only used the tool twice. That was on a old (badly) hand built frame. Just about any half decent frame these days has the BB threads by machine now and will be at 90 deg to the BB shell.

Resigned to putting the original seal back in and living with a imperceptible leak until I can get a fix or its new brake time.

You will very likely find the leak is worse than before. Any caliper seal tends to get damaged as it is removed.

I’ve got 175 on my MTB and “city” bike and 170 on my Specialized Sirrus. Only thing I’ve concluded is 52T is too big for my twiglet legs.

Que?

The cone’s are a couple of quid! The balls are pennies! In fact you can buy an entire XT rear hub for less than you’d pay for half decent bearings for a pro2!

Where from? I’ve never been able to find a supply at a sensible price. Any links very much appreciated.

I’ve got fed up with cup and cone. Inevitably a cone gets pitted so you decide to replace it. However, the cost of most Shimano cones is not far off the price of a new hub. It doesn’t make sense. Unless you religiously remember to overhaul your hubs every few months you’ll end up with worn cones. Although I’ve never a problem with the cups going on a Shimano hub.

Cartridge for me from now on. Especially as they much easier to replace IMO. Don’t both by the genuine spares. Measure the bearing and then order off from an online bearing shop (or eBay which is often cheaper for the P&P).

Just bought a Cotic Soul off ebay. Impatiently waiting for it to arrive! On the down side my wife found out and hasn’t stopped shouting at me for since Monday.

nasher – Member
Hmmm brands that halfords killed….saracen, kona, airborne, voodoo…and Im sure there are others…

Saracen died because the bikes where junk. Most of the Saracens sold by Halfords were around the £2-300 end. They were constantly coming back in for new wheels and crank arms (Saracen branded parts). Halfords got fed up of the warranty claims and dropped them.
Kona were really difficult to sell. The average customer came in looked at the Kona, looked at the Carrera and then the difference in price. Halfords customers tend to be looking for “value” and not a decent frame to build up on. Plus the Fury had started to get reviews at the same time.
Voodoo used to be next to impossible to sell as they were catalogue only. On the rare occasion a customer wanted one they took forever to order in. Seem to be doing much better now many stores have them in stock.

Anyway back to topic. I suspect Halfords may be using one of the Carrera factories to help with production numbers. The “better than half price” Cav replica is likely to be a lie. Halfords have a few products that are marked up by 100% for the legal minimum of weeks in a few stores and then reduced back to the intended selling price. They use it to stick in the newspapers etc. to draw in customers. It’s probably the thing I hated most while working for Halfords. So dishonest and unnecessary.
I’d be surprised if Halfords stock the expensive models – Halfords struggle to sell over £1k bikes, even in flag ship stores.
I don’t really know much about the Pini’ brand. I’m guessing the UK isn’t a big market for them compared to the continent? Presumably they want the money. And with the economy as it is, can we hold that against them?

I worked at Halfords for eight years up until 2006. As said before the bike servicing labour is charged at a set rate i.e. £5 for a tube change, £10 for gear cable replacement etc. etc. Parts are charged on top. Parts are charged at full RRP. However, they can also charge an hourly rate – it’s £20 per hour when I was there. If you’re doing a lot of jobs on the same bike it’s cheaper for the customer, to just record the time and charge accordingly.

However, there are lots of really disinterested Saturday lads at Halfords. There is no formal training, so you rely on getting someone who is a) interested enough to have taught themselves and b) decent enough to charge you what it really cost.

killwillforchips – if you’re spending that much I really recommend you get the Haynes bike book and teach yourself some basic maintenance. Worst case you mess something up and have to pay the shop to fix it. Fixing bikes is fun! The only difficult job on a modern bike is truing wheels. Everything else is perfectly do-able for a home mechanic.

As others have said it’s really too heavy for racing. Steel is about that ever so slight spring feel (IMO) that you don’t get with alu or carbon. However, that spring means less of your energy going into pushing the bike forwards. Plus you have the extra 900g of weight sapping even more energy. If you want a slight springy and the weight saving then titanium is the (expensive) way.

XC racing is about winning. It’s not about comfort or fun!

Have you checked the cable? The most common cause of sticking lever I’ve seen is a kinked cable inside the shifter. Try pulling the cable out. Cables can occasionally become kinked 1cm from the nipple in SRAM shifters. I’ve never figured out why though. They still shift but but the lever doesn’t return.

The upgraded replacements sound like the next option.

You could dismantle and check the spring on the lever. I’ve never pulled apart an X9 but I have pulled apart a few other SRAM shifters. They all seem to have a v-shaped spring. This can slip out of it’s grove. Bending it back a little and then refitting fixes the problem for a few months. If you do pull it apart I recommend you use good quality screwdrivers and press them fully into the screw heads – they round if you’re not careful. Take the housing apart very slowly – you want to open it so the springs all remain seated. If you open it the wrong way up everything pings off over the kitchen and you’ll spend hours trying to work out how it goes back together!

I did one last year. I ordered a 10spd rear mech when I meant to order a 9spd. I ordered the replacement and returned the wrong one (as opposed to an exchange). Money refunded in less than two weeks from memory.

I’ve been using CRC for 17 years now and never had a problem.

http://s1283.beta.photobucket.com/user/woodlikesbeer/media/DSC00198_zps607c5c36.jpg.html

I ordered a pair of Thule cycle carriers and a field cannon. Raised an eyebrow in the office post room!