Andymann

Man that's nice......

Coincidently, my Edge 500 has been doing some odd stuff lately too - particularly with the gradients - it bounces between percentages, sometimes right up to 899%......but when you download, it's perfect. And my Forerunner410 has also just packed up - it also just powered down and won't even register that it's being charged. Not having the greatest luck with Garmin!

Hey Nick - great chat on 702 yesterday! Really good work you are doing!

Also got to feel for the poor bloke who had his car broken into. Not content with just taking the usual Mobiles and GPS's, the buggers took the whole damn dashboard apart. Looks like they even took the clocks....

Yup - something went seriously wrong with the route markings - on the "old" Route I used to ride around a 03:10 - 03:15, and when I came in, still waited about 30mins for prize-giving to begin, (and there were many people still out on the route). On Saturday, after 2 punctures, we came in at 3:45, and basically everyone had packed up and gone home - we were stone last. Funny thing is, we were only passed by about 5 people while repairing the second puncture, one of them which was a lady lying in 4th. Anyway, great terrain, but as has been said, route marking really needs to be jacked up a tad....

Was chatting to a mate of mine in Japan - he told me they still exist.... here's a blast from the past... http://kuwahara-bike.com/os1-kbw/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=34:bikes&id=143:ke-01&Itemid=98

Just a quick one - are you riding a dual-suss or hardtail? All the above are excellent tips, but if your fork and rear shock are not set-up correctly in terms of your weight, your bike is going to have some pretty unique handing characteristics all on its own - which might compound your cornering problems - when we raced the Merida 96 we found it was particularly sensitive to rear sag, and only really got to turn properly enough to inspire confidence when the sag was about 5%. If you are on a HT, make sure the fork sag is spot on - too little, and the thing won't corner, meaning you need to use more body weight to get it to turn, and too much, and you will most likely loose the front every time....oh and like Iron said - make sure the pressures in your tyres are spot on. Worth taking an afternoon and going round the same corner a few times but with different tyre pressures, just to get a feel.

Not it it's a PHONAK.......

Ditto - Stem bolts, skewers, BB threads - pretty much anything which you don't want to battle to take out again!

I actually restore old British classic bikes, so unique methods of loosening rusted bolts are well known! My Dad actually was around for a beer that night, and he was quite keen to take a heating torch to my new XT crank-arm. Needless to say he was dispatched back to the lounge pretty sharply!

My guess is that part two is a bush which offers some support to the pedal platform, so that the bending moment on the platform is not all centered on the very small balls in the bearing. But I'm not a pedal expert!

I use an Allen key, and then a 100mm Tube for a bit of leverage - finger tight, and probably about a 5-10degree angle of turn to tighten. I err on the side of too loose mostly. What I think happened here was that my bike had just been to my LBS for it's first service, and they might have noticed the pedals weren't too tight. When this one didn't come off with the usual Allen key and tube method, I went and fetched a longer tube for more leverage, and then the damn thing slipped....

The reason i scrapped the old type XT pedals was because of the clearance between the shaft and the teflon bush. So yup, that does wear - especially because the excuse for a seal/o-ring in the aluminium sleeve which holds the pedal body on the shaft isn't very effective IMO. I'm going to see if I can turn some new bushes. But getting them into the Aluminium sleeve isn't going to be easy....

Set it up on a 4-jaw chuck - it took some time, and you have to grind it, not turn, because the damn thing is so hard. It took a while!

Luckily I have access to a lathe and a bunch of willing Apprentices!

The Allen-Key was a bit more tricky as I had to set it up in a four-jaw chuck, but in the end it worked out fine!

I'm a pretty handy mechanic, so I was suitably embarrassed when I ended up with this problem when stripping my bike a few weeks back to get ready for my trip down to Cape Town - especially since I am religious about using copperslip grease in the threads. I wasn't concentrating, and the allen key slipped, cracking the end of the pedal. Of course there was no way then the pedal was going to come loose, so I had to carefully strip both the pedal and crank and put the pedal shaft in the vice, and turn off the crank-arm. What I then noticed, is that the new XT (and XTR pedals i have found), have a hollow bored into the shaft (saving a whopping 4g - I weighed them!), and the old XT pedal shaft I had as a spare, did not. The old XT pedal shaft also has about a mm more "purchase" on the inside of the hex, so the Allen Key will not slip out as easily as it does on the new XT shaft. (I also noticed the shafts are a slightly different colour - the old XT being more silver than the new yellowish hue of the new XT pedal - I suspect maybe a different heat treatment to allow for the hollowed-out shaft). Anyway to cut a long story short, I had to rebuild the new XT pedal with an old shaft and have subsequently made myself a special type of Allen Key - thought I would post the pics thereof, in case it might save some of you a few headaches!

See replies like this is the reason why even if I wanted to import my own frame I won't - here's a local guy bringing in the frames and who carries stock, supporting local importers and local business. That's got to be worth the extra R2k saved by doing it yourself. We had a very similar issue when I worked for Yamaha SA - guys bringing in either Grey or Parallel imports. One just needs to experience first-hand the harm it does to the local dealerships - I'm sure you local CT guys miss Linex Yamaha....

Well said! - We will most likely be buying 2 BSR 29ers later this year. And not because I can't bring a frame in myself (I also do a lot of work in China and Taiwan), but because Colin has got himself a good business, does indeed support the local cycling (and TRI/DU) community ito sponsorships, and he is much easier to chat to if you have an issue than Mr. Lin and Mr. Chang because a call to CT is much cheaper than a call to Taiwan

No Prob - yup - they are probably right - you might have gained a few grams (WOW) going to SORA, but most likely you will notice a way better shift feel. Worst case you won't even know the difference! Would probably have been a good idea to get them to replace the cable while you're at it - if they are going to have to set the RD anyway, worth doing.

I would get a new RD - it's not worth the hassle trying to fix the spring - there are a two, and if one has gone, chances are the other one isn't that well either....also looks like the older 105 RD, so it's probably nearing the end of its life...

I went through the whole process - got to where they said they would send an "activation email" so that my account is valid. Still waiting, two weeks and 3 emails to the help desk later.... doesn't sound like this is worth the 200 points per workout to me....

oh, and make sure whatever make tyres you get, that they match the size of the ones that you are replacing - they should read the numbers 700 x 23C somewhere on the side. What tyres are on the Merida now?

Not sure about those 'flat spots' he mentions hey - unless someone has been climbing on the brakes and skidding, I find that hard to believe - maybe you need to take some pics and lets see what he's on about. You are probably in for about R250 to R350 per tyre though (if you get them locally) - and if you are not going to race, there are very few bad brands out there - Continental, Bontrager, Maxxis, Kenda - all will be good enough for your type of riding. I know there was a special on a while ago at a few of the PTA shops - R299 for Continental - can't really go wrong with that hey.

From the pics and your description, looks like the torsion spring on the RD Hangar mounting shaft has either unclipped, or broken. If it has unclipped, you should be able to get it back, but if its broken, not sure if you can buy the spring separately for Shimano....