Johan Bornman

Directional chains has to do with matching ramps on chainrings. This is a way for component companies to lock you into their brand. It is evil, resist it. Until they manage to make a chainring that only works with its matching chain and nothing else, ignore it. Shifting is good enough as it is. Call me a retro grouch if you like. However, the case Cassie refers to has nothing to do with directional chains and everything with a misunderstanding of how chains wear. Whether you pull it from the left or right, or reverse it or make it work inside out or upside down, matters zero to the chain. It wears in exactly the same place, which is on the stress face of the pin. The instructor has no clue. As for rotating three chains, it does nothing either. Whether you consume one cassette per four successive or four simultaneous chains is the same on your pocket. The latter just requires more admind and storage space. Don't bother.

The one big benefit is that if you overcook the brake, the tyre doesn't burst. The cable friction and stretch on such a long linkage is also irritating but some disc brakes are also cable-actuated, especially on tandems. Other than that, a very good V-brake (Shimano XT with paralellogram links and Koolstop Salmon pads), has no significant advantage for the experienced rider. An inexperienced rider tends to "ride" the brake too much, especially the back brake. Since the back brake does very little on stopping the bike, it overheats. An experienced rider will use the front brake predominantly and then use a technique of braking hard for shorter periods. Tektro brakes in this situation are just about useless. They squeal because they're not stiff enough and, use a poor rubber compound. A better brake will keep the pads parallel throughout its useful traveland have stiff, forged levers. I have no idea where to get the adapter from, I'd imagine one of those overseas tandem specialists. You may also want to search for an Arai drum brake that screws onto that hub. This is the best, in my opinion and Shimano's tandem hub threads are made for that brake. Don't expect significant improvement in stopping with the disc. A rear brake is poor by definition, no matter what type of actuator you use. And if you use a powerful setup, it will simply drag the back wheel. You don't have mmuch traction here to play with. The real benefits will come in peace of mind when you don't have to worry about cooking the back brake.

SRAM derailers come standard with play, lots of it. It appears quite sloppy if compared to Shimano, but that's the way it is.

Tandem hubs are 145mm OLD (Over Locknut Dimensioin). Mountain bikes are 135 and road bikes, 130. Therefore only a tandem hub can be used, unless it is a "lesser" tandem that uses anything other than a 145mm hub. Shimano tandem hubs are excelent and they come with a threaded left hand side. This thread can be used for an after-market drum brake or, an adapter with six holes that takes a standard six-bolt disk.

I think most of us will appreciate the Cage Lock feature and only some, the clutch, at first. However, I think once you're used to the clutch and ride with an older derailler, you'll miss the silence.

That tubbie has had its chips. But it begs the question why you even used your rear brake to perform an emergency stop. Had you developed the proper technique of only using your front brake for such sitations, you would have stopped quicker and saved the tyre.

Thanks to pig-like behaviour of cyclists, the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve will soon be closed to all cyclists. Apparently end-May is the target date. The reason? Three antelope have now died afer ingesting discarded goo packets. Yup, you goo pigs may not know this (probably don't care) but if a ruminant ingests plastic, it dies. Period. A secondary reason is that some cyclists are riding stream-up. And yes, we know other visitors and staff are also guilty, but so are you. A contributing factor is the reason for using the park. Since it is a nature reserve, visitors come with a certain objective. Cyclists visit the park to train and use it as a training ground. My view is that the last two reasons could be tolerated but the last nail in the coffin is the goo packets. Thanks pigs.

Unfortunately you can't. There isn't enough space in the 1 inch had tube. Why do you want to do this? If your fork is kaput and you just happen to have another with a larger steerer lying around, forget about that plan, it is not your lucky day. If you are gatvol of frozen stems, then you can easily convert to threadless 1 inch forks.

There is nothing wrong with that shock per se. A lockout problem is almost always related to a little bit too little oil. That is easily rectified in 45 seconds flat. Turnkey is travel adjust and has nothing to do with lockout. Air pressure has nothing to do with lockout. The Motion Control Damper sits on top of the fork in the right leg. It is the device that has the blue lever/remote lockout mechanism on. It is a valve that is closed when the lever is thrown to the lockout position. Only two things can make the valve malfunction: 1) It's foot is above the oil level and it thus "valves" around in fresh air. Gooi more oil. 2) The blow-off valve, which Rox calls something that escapes me now (I forgot to take my Ginko Baloba this morning), may be in the extreme open position, allowing the shock to pre-maturely override the lockout mechanism. The motion control damper unscrews with a 24mm socket. That is, after you've removed whatever levers are on top of the MCD (it could be a cable sysetm or just a simple lever). Once it is unscrewed, pull it out and watch out for oil dripping out. It has a tight fit complements of a tight-fitting o-ring. Once out, hold it next to the fork in its original level and look inside the fork at the oil level. The bottom 10mm of the MCD should be inside the oil, not above it. Put more oil, replace and go ride. Remember that no lockout mechanism is completely solid. The is always a bit of give somewhere, sometimes by design, sometimes by material limits. If the fork is othewise ok, a faulty lockout is nothing to worry about.

Oops, look like our trust was misplaced.

Been there, got several T-shirts. Very bad service. Those shoes are crap, I've had to return several pairs for various issues. Service is extremely poor. On average, I've had to leave three or four fierce messages before getting any service out of them.

Why?

Those are thrust bearings. Probably for between the frame and shock eye?

You want durability, quality and low cost? Talk about wanting your cake and eat it. Tubbies can be had for about R340-00 a pair, at the low end. They're pretty decent but you cannot remove the valve core to fit the better type of valve extender. As the price goes up, they become lighter - thus thinner and less durable, but with added extras like removable valve cores. However, it sounds to me like you have clinchers and are now considering fitting tubbies on those same wheels? No? Cant be done.

Those are fatigue cracks - metal fatigue. Very common on high-mileage wheels. A rim is in effect, a consumable and it is time for a new rim. You cannot pull a spoke out of a rim by overtightening it, the nipple will strip long before the rim cracks. During a wheelbuild, we perform a stress relieve that forcefully stretches the spoke and I've never had a rim suffer damage from that. Although Alexrims are cheap, there is no agent for them in ZA and finding an exact replacement is neigh impossible. A generic substitute is also difficult, since the rims need to have exactly the same Effective Rim Diameter (ERD) measurement otherwise the spokes will be too long or too short. Those cracks were definitely there before the fall, but the mechanic should have spotted them since they make the wheel very difficult to true. He was careless and clueless.

I don't understand this responsiveness thing. What does it mean? What units are ued to measure it?

I had a brief look, it's not that one. However, I can't find the right one. There are lots of tips in there though, such as identify the source fo the friction first. Remove the damper as described and see if the turn mechanism on top turns freely and snaps back nicely. If not, you have to fix it. The damper's body (the red thing or nowadays black or even metal), has a circumference of 24mm. I made a nylon clamp that holds it in a vice, you may want to hold it with a can-fruit opening strap or similar. Then unscrew the black to from the red damper by turning it clockwise. This is important because it is a left-hand thread. Once the black top is off, you'll notice where the shaft turns in it and you'll notice dirt and burrs. Fix that, replace, fiddle with the spring 'till it is in position and replace it all with a new cable and cable housing.

I once posted extensive instructions here on how to fix the problem. Search for posts under my name, containing Motion Control Damper in the text. There were photos, measurements and all the stuff you need.

You don't say what bike it is. Some Scotts have a non-replaceable hanger. Once you break/bend/distort these, you are in trouble.

Needle bearings in a BB is a very bad idea. Shimano tried it ten years ago with their Dura Ace BBs and it was a big flop. The needles ideally want to run in oil, since they tend to push the grease out without recycling it like balls do. The needle BBs failed very quickly.

It could be that it just burped itself flat or that the sealant worked and sealed the hole but you can't see it from the outside. But I' pretty sure that it hit a rock in the first place. A well-place rock that pinches the cords against the rim easily severs them without leaving any evidence. Farmers have a gadget they use on bulls and rams. It cuts the vas deference inside the scrotum without damaging the scrotum. It's a charming device that looks like a broad front-cutter (as opposed to a side-cutter plier) and they use this to quickly, cheaply and painfully emasculate their livestock. This is exactly the same principle with the tyre.

This issue is common. Tyres rely on a biased ply of thin fibres to keep its carcass in shape. The exact angle of the bias is very important otherwise the tyre will elongate, shorten or get fatter or thinner as you inflate it. These fibres resist all the air pressure in the tyre and if you could remove the rubber, you'd see two hooped-shaped beads supporting a criss-cross of netting. When you puncture a tyre or shakebite it, you break off some of the fibres and the support in that section is then biased to the left or right, pulling it out of line, like a boxer's broken nose. All tyres are equally prone to it but manufacturing faults also creep in. I believe that Maxxiss has the hightest incidence of this defect coming off the factory floor. This is just my personal observation from fitting several brand new Maxxiss tyres with broken noses out the box. However, the majority of the cases can be attributed to damage from rocks or sharp objects or snake-biting.

What a lekker project. Bring me your existing tensioner and the belt and I'll turn you a smooth pulley to replace the toothed pulley. I'll make it from nylon, maybe PET.

A blob of silicone.

Very poor advice this. The symptoms described don't require brake bleeding. Brake bleeding is not the panacea for all brake-related ills. OP - you need to give us much more info on this. If the wheels turn by themselves for 1 1/2 revs after being spun and you find it hard to pedal, you will have to adjust your perceptions of what is hard and what is easy. No binding brake will let the wheel spin that much.