Johan Bornman

If the lockout mechanism rotates completely and it still doesn't lock out, your oil level is too low. Find some fork oil somewhere and top it up.

I have some NOS Shimano Dura Ace hubs here which I build up for guys just like you. They're 36-spoke wheels and I use DRC ST-17 rims and Conti yellow tyres. The cassette is optional, it depends on what range and quality you like. I usually have a few of these pre-built for winter requests.

Your assussumption that the bearing will break up and then you sit with a stuck outer ring is possible. However, judging by the condition of those bearings I don't think it will happen. It happens on very vrot bearings with lots of rust. Those will come out easily. Give it a go. Knock carefully but firmly on opposite sides and make sure it doesn't drift out skew. As for the welding trick - yes that works on big bearings but if you've ever tried to arc weld inside a 20mm tube like that of these bearings, you'll know that it is neigh impossible. If we knew who you are and where you are based, I would have said come around, I'll sort it for you.

Hmmmmm. Bring them over and let me have a look. Preferably with the same tyres and tube that you find give you so many punctures. I don't like the paranormal, we have to turn this back to normal.

Don't let this one go. If telling the shop owner that he employes thieves and, the cops won't do anything, apply some dark alley justice yourself. Sitting back and bitching about it gets us nowhere.

It sounds to me you still haven't done a post-mortem on the tubes like some sensible individual suggested. Find the cause of those punctures before hoping new wheels will sort it out.

The left shifter on SLX will be 3X, whilst the Tiagra only 2X. The other side is kerzakely the same as far as the bike sees things. Tiagra is such excellent quality at such a ridiculous price, that it will remain a secret forever.

29er wheels can doe with some extra consideration. Generally built with the same number of spokes as their smaller 26er counterparts and using the same strength components, they are weaker by quite a bit. The span between the spokes is longer, the spokes can flex more due to their added length (about 30mm longer, which equates to about 12%) and the rim material is generally the same. What I mean by this is that a cross section of a 26" rim is exactliy teh same as the equivalent 29" rim. Although it is early days, I do feel that I'm seeing more 29" wheel failures from folding type accidents than I used to see on 26" wheels. That could just be a blib on the radar considering the small, erratic sample I work with but I'm suspiscious. I think heavy okes should consider 36 spokes and not attempt to save to much weight on the wheels. 29" bikes by definition have to weigh more and it is silly to attempt to bring the weight down to that of a 26er.

We can't see from the photo whether the ring is worn or not. I guess not. However, post another photo. This time hold the cranks horizontal and make sure youre focussed on the top or bottom of the ring. A bit like now, but with the cranks horizontal. Rings wear first on the powerstroke edges and it is thus easier to see wear here.

Susan, die beste een is die Park Tool Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair. As jy hom nie in Bloem kan kry nie, kontak my, ek sal jou op die regte spoor sit.

Chains don't age, They elongate as they wear. Therefore "old" is subjective. You need to measure the chain and see if it is still within spec. I think one of the pinned topics contain a document called "Everything You need to Know about Bicycle Chains" or such. That will explain how to measure it etc. In short, if your chain has not yet worn and elongated 0.5%, it will not damage the cassette. If the wear is beyond that, it will damage the cassette and rather quickly too. Take the chain off your wife's bike and use that tomorrow.

Why not ask Cape Cycle Systems? You seem very unsure of yourself and you better get a second opinion before proceeding with such drastic steps.

I'll be extremely surprised if it is the valve core that failed. I've never come across that unless it is a wheel valve with congealed sealant. Valve cores are the most robust element on a bike I can think of.

Nasty piece of work those okes. They operate from 94 Brazos Street, Berario. Jhb.

R620 for the fork, R380 for the shock.

File the bloody thing like the okes told you and stop fussing about it.

Come come, find an old bike, hide the Lycra and ride the Jo'burg Critical Mass ride this Friday Evening. Details of the ride is posted in the separate Critical Mass thread and on that Bookface interweb thingy under Critical Mass Johannesburg (so the geeks tell me). I want to make a separate appeal in case you have not followed the original thread. I recently had the privilege of doing a mini Critical Mass with this crowd and it was great fun. I came on a shiny road bike with skinny tyres and wearing cycling shorts. I was waaaay overdressed and over-equipped. I got gawked at and the first time in 14 years had my bike admired. For this Friday's ride I'm cutting off a jean pant, finding some nice German socks for my sandals and building a lekker mongrel bike with six gears, major bullhorns and a polka dot front wheel that's been looking for a debut occasion for months. These are no ordinary rides. They're like your student years thirty years on. Beer, pizza, wimmen and a town begging to be painted red. The pace is as slow or fast as you want to make it, with two distance options and a chosen end destination so you can end up there at your own time. Don't miss it.

Gaint makes some nice, honest-to-goodness ones for far less than that. Otherwise, if you want a fancier option, go for one of the Cane Creek models. At least then you'll aleays get spare bearings, headset races etc etc.

The set of bearings in a retainer is cheap, but unless your races are in tip-top condition, rather just replace the headset with a modern one that uses STANDARD (36/45) cartridge bearings. Do not buy anytbing with 45/45 bearings since replacements are very expensive.

You are out in the cold my friend. That's not a Fuji but a rebranded Taiwanese hub from Novatec, Joy-Tech or KC-Taiwan. These guys make lots of hubs and some pretty good ones but unfortunately they OEM them for bike companies, effectively disguising them. This means we don't know what they are and cannot even start to find spares. Imports of OEM products like these should be shot if they don't keep spares. If yu are particularly skilled in small mechanical things and want to overhaul the hub, it can be opened. However, you'll have to import or make a tool to remove that race/lockring. Inside you'll find two rows of zilions of tiny bearins and small springs - all rusted and buggered. You get the picture....your entire wheel is toast.

Hmmmm..I must add a new item to my labour charge list: Individually heat nipples one by one, taking care not to burn the rim stickers, light the tyre or boil the sealant - R1500-00 per wheel. The Epic is neither here nor there - the wheel just sees rotation, number of cycles and load. A wheel ridden to Milky Lane by a heavy guy experiences more stress than a 70kg person riding 900kms offroad. Smashed rims cannot be repaired by retruing. If they're smashed, they're smashed and it has nothing to do with wheelbuilding. Lots of people say they ride aggressively. It is meaningless to the wheel - Since strong accelleration hardly raises their tension by 5% and strong braking by just over double that, wheels take aggressive stopping and braking in their stride. Aggression is not a component that any wheelbuilder needs to factor into the design of a wheel. It is just something we endure when the customer gives us a brief. We nod sympathetically and then build standards wheels. Your weight, and the weight limit that's specified by the rim maker also has very little...actually, nothing, to do with spokes going loose. The weight rating of a rim will determine how quickly the rim with fatigue and crack, but exceeding that will not cause the nipples to come loose. I reiterate: There is no reason to build with locktite other than incompetence and/or ignorance.

Don't be lazy. If you leave the cellophone on, it causes a schlopp shlopp shlopp noise on lightweight tyres every time the patch hits the road. It reminds me too much of a similar noise I get when I ride over a chihauhua with my MTB and it gets stuck in the knobblies.

No no no no no no! Never, ever use threadlock compounds on your nipples/spokes. That is just a plaster for poor wheelbuilding. A good wheel's nipples never come undone because there is enough tension in the spokes. It is extremely difficult to do minor repairs in wheels with threadlock and often they simply have to be rebuilt since that's easier and cheaper than struggling against locked nipples. And what's with the torque and torsion loads? It is one and the same thing. There should be no torsional forces inside spokes and nipples. They are in pure tension.

Through axles also have an advantage that most people don't see. Unlike a quick release, a through axle does not preload the bearings like a quick release does. The bearing preload provided by a QR is unpredictable - some people do them up tight, some do them up loose. With a QR, like the one patches showed on the front wheel where the axle ends are bolted to the fork with a pinch arrangement, there is no bearing preload at all. In other words, the way the wheel was assembled is the way it will "see" the installed preload. That advantage is slightly less on 15mm front wheel through axles that use a cammed lever to lock it in place. However, the arrangement of the bearings in a well-designed hub can still overcome this problem. It is impossible to overcome the problem with quick release systems.

Get the Deore hub, unless the XT hub is of the older generation with a steel axle. The new alu axle Shimano hubs are absolute rubbish. That Deore hub is the same as XT circa 1995 or thereabouts and is one of the best hubs MTB hubs Shimano ever made.