Johan Bornman

Yes they do suck but not for the reasons you have problems with. A bit of soapy water will go a long way to help you make them seat. They work quite well in that way. However, I'm still to come across one that's nice and round. Also, they are prone to delamination. And finally, like all proper UST tyres, they are just too thick and juicy to get them off in the field in an emergency. Especially on some rims, like DT Swiss (can't remember the model that makes this combo really tough).

Yes, it is safe to ride the shock until you can repair it. The damper oil is in a self-contained unit that has nothing to do with lubricating the wiper seal that you can see where the grey damper body goes into the air canister. In fact, damper oil leaking internally will lubricate the seal. The concept of the "rebouont becoming violent" needs some clarification. By "rebound" on a shock we actually mean rebound damping. In other words, the higher you turn up your rebound, the more you damp the rebound action. Rebound is the shooting back of the shock after a compression. With more rebound, the shock will return slower than with less rebound. If the oil has started to leak out, the rebound will be jerky - fast at first where the piston moves in the air cavity created by the oil that leaked out - and then slow, as it enters the remaining oil. Air bubbles in a poorly bled system can be felt as just that. Thus, a shock with absolutely no rebound damping at all (all the oil is gone) will simply bounce like a pogo stick. What it wont do is provide a kick, like some people expect. Such a kick can only come from compression damping. Very few shocks have compression damping. This can only be found on high-end downhill shocks, some Marzocchi marathon and of course, downhill shocks and,I believe, the newest Monarch shocks from Rock Shox. Keep on riding. You may bounce a bit but it cant damage the shock.

Chris, you don't say how many links were measured. I assume 24, that equates to 0.25% wear, which is halfway through the chain's life. Worn chains don't slip. Slip is not an indication of wear. A worn chain will shift and work as you'd expect however, it will eat the other drivetrain components in the process to a point where a new chain won't work with cassette. Chains slip (skate, or ride over the top of the sprocket) from poor wrap - i.e. the jockey is not far enough forward to wrap the chain at least halfway around the sprocket. Chains jump around sideways from incorrect cable adjustment. Throw away that Parktool thing. It is a liar and a cheat.

Dont confuse shocks with forks. Forks are easy. However, I think you were overcharged, unless it included courier costs to CSS and back?

It is a Fox part No: 803-00-142 Your bike shop should get it for you. Don't skrik if you have parts left over after the service. The kit contains parts for various shocks and not all are required for one particular shock. R700-00 is a fair price if nothing went wrong and everything was replaced, including the shaft seals. If you don't come right with the parts, contact me. Finally, there are lots of how-to's on the interweb thingy showing you how to perform an air canister service. Do make sure you fully understand the implications of a "stuck down" shock before you start. It is important to know about this condition since it can kill you if you open a shock that is stuck down. I mean kill, as in dead.

One or two threads here and a couple of phone call to me has highlighted the problem of getting a shock serviced. Some of the problems stem from the vague terminology used by the various shock agents. A shock can be serviced at two levels: 1) Air canister service. This is a very basic procedure that any competent mechanic can do. It is easy and usually involves just removing the air canister on the shock, replacing some rubber parts, pouring in a teaspoon of lubricating oil and screwing it back on. Home mechanics can do this. You should see two things on your invoice if you've had the air canister serviced: Labour and parts. The parts comprise a kit with several rubber parts and seals in and should cost about R200-00 depending on the various shocks. Labour should be minimal. 2) Damper service. This is a complex procedure that requires disassembly of the entire damper unit. In other words, the air canister comes off like in point 1 above, the nitrogen is released from the damper, the damping oil is drained and all seals that lead to the various controls are replaced. The oil is then replaced, air bled out, the compensator chamber is re-charged with comprssed gas and the damper is tested for functionality before the air canister is replaced.Labour here - especially for some difficult shocks like Fox, is considerably more than for a simple level 1 service. The parts bill should be a little bit more, but not much, depending on the shock. On Fox shocks, the damper service is required to repair leaking lockout lever problems. Any oil that leaks out of a lockout lever was drained from the damper. A leaking lockout lever means a faulty damper by default. On Marzocchi, Manitou, Fox, Rox, DT Swiss, X-Fusion (?) and such shocks, the two procedures are very similar. The exception is a Specialized Brain shock. Here a simple air canister service cannot be performed without draining the damper. Hence, the cost of servicing a Spez is much more than servicing any of the others. This in spite of the parts on many of these Spez models being the same as on a Fox. I suggest you question your bike should about what level of service will be performed next time you take your shock in. Generally you can leave the damper until it either stops performing as it should 9that's when the oil has deteriorated and doesn't work like it should) or, it leaks oil from somewhere. Air canister services should be performed routinely. How often? Often enough to learn how to do it yourself. But a rule of thumb is every 60 hours. If your shock is exposed to the back wheel, more often. If it is hidden from throw-up debris by the frame, less often. But don't wait until it shows scratches.

Polar speed sensors flash a very feint little red light for a couple of revolutions after startup. This indicates that it is reacting to the magnet. Go into a dark place and verify this. However, the light only flashes at the beginning of a session. Let it rest first before looking. Secondly, these things often have a Bike A and Bike B setting. In Bike B it wont pick up Bike A's sensor and vice versa Swot up on that feature and try again. The newer Polars won't pick up the older sensors and older Polars wont pick up newer "WIND" sensors. Use the sensor that came in the box.

Aag chill China! Depending on your mood and insecurities, you can take my comments up many ways. Generally I focus on the issue at hand and remain reasonably benign. That was certainly my inention here.

If that were the case our lives would be so much easier. Those of us who live in workshops, in anyway. Headsets are a nightmare deluxe. There are several frame head tube diameters. Then there are internal, external and a little-bit-of-both headsets. Lately the tapered thing added to our woes. Finally, dont forget about the different bearing standards. There is 36/45 degree and 45/45 degree. On top of that, the bearings could be 6 or 7mm high. I forgot to add - Cannondale does its own thing with non-angular contact bearings too. That's a saga on its own. A good headset service kit would comprise a set of angle and width templates, bearings of all types, shims, several types of compression rings and many types of crown races. The best advice I can give is to buy a new headset for the correct frame diameters and, make sure it is a standard headset in that it uses 36/45 degree bearings (45/45s look the same but cost 3 times more) made by TH Industries. Then you future bearing replacement should only cost R50 each instead of say R270-00 for those stupid Richey 45/45 bearings.

If you can wait until next week I can do the job for you. Contact me offline please.

This isn't a DIY job. Although the part that failed is simple, replacing it is not simple since it basically requires a full damper service and bleed. Further, obtaining that O-ring from local industrial sources is impossible. Fox also doesn't sell the kit. Send it to someone who understands the issue at hand.

I'll start witih a comment on Teflon grease. It is a foohfee with no application in cycling at all. Any grease is good enough for any application on a bicycle. In this application just about anything from Vaseline through to olive oil will work. And although copper compound is not a lubricant, it will also work. The reason for this is that the lubricity is only required during the actual installation. Thereafter it serves no purpose. The grease needn't have any special properties, be it longevity or extreme pressure or temperature or whatever.

The issue is not in removing the crank - that's always easy and forms no part of my argument at all. The interruption of perfect fit is also not an issue. Provided no significant contaminants are at the interface, the alu will shape to fit. This of course requires a forced fit, not your hypothetical perfect fit at zero torque. The issue is getting it to ride far enough up the taper to not allow it to lose contact at the trailing end of the taper when the crank is under extreme torque. Visualise what happens when a square taper crank is put to work. The leading edge of the taper sees an increase in pressure and the trailing edge a decrease. Standing on the crank with the left foot forward sees the reverse. Now, if there are residual stresses in the axial direction (not radial, that's stressed by definition) because of too much friction between alu and steel, this will be relieved in the process described at the beginning of this paragraph. This has the effect that the crank rides higher up the taper. It can't go lower, since the bolt restrains it. As soon as it has ridder up higher and achieved equilibrium, the bolt is loose and can fall out without the crank coming loose. With greasing this scenario is largely eliminated. And as I said, parts are greased at the factory and no-one degreases them completely. Therefore most square tapers are greased by default. Only once Shimano introduced its disastrous Octalink system did the significant elasticity at crank/bb interfaces become evident to observant mechanics.

Get him to contact me and I'll put him in touch with the right people.

This debate has raged on forums and before that, Usenet for years. I think the Italians got this one wrong. I have two reasons for saying so: 1) Most parts such as BB axles are supplied with grease on them. To now remove all the grease is no easy task since a simple wipe won't do it. Even a good wipe with a solvent, usuallsy leaves a one or two molecule layer behind. In the world of grease, a single molecule layer is as good as a thick smearing. The interface can't distinguish. Therefore, only a complete and thorough degreasing will give you a clean surface and this is unlikely to happen and thus most Square Taper cranks are installed effectively greased. Another way to see it is that he only scenario that can be gauranteed is a greased taper and therefore we grease. At least with grease we get a consistent installation position on the taper with a given torque applied to the bold. 2) Cranks forced onto square tapers squirm their way up the taper, not down it. If the taper is dry, the crank will have more residual stresses in it to allow it to squirm up than one that is greased. Therefore a dry taper installation has more chance of the crank bolt coming loose during use than one that is greased. You guessed it, my vote is always to grease. However, the debate is moot since ST cranks and even ISIS and Octalink are largely extinct.

The title is pending. Please confirm whether you changed the filter with the last oil change. Only then can I confirm your title.

Always change the housing too. Housing wears away and worn housing contributes to half the friction that causes shifting and braking problems. Changing the cable only is like the schmuck that changes his car's engine oil without putting in a new filter.

I think it has just such an adapter on there. At Eurobike Hope showed a system that accepts an cable entry and converts the exit to hydraulic. This allows you to use hydraulic calipers with a standard cable lever.

I think that is a cyclocross bike? Not? The use of disc brakes on road bikes would call for oversized forks and chain/seatstays. It would also render the use of radial spoking useless. I have to ask why.

Sorry Orbea, I overlooked your post. If you e-mail me I'll put you in touch with the importer.

It is a common place for those bikes to crack. Can't be repaired.

Listen pal, it is quite easy to shoot someone down somewhere from your shelter in anonymity. Post your real name like Gordon did. Further, I deal with this type of thing all the time. Money talks bull***t walks. If the money was already in the bank and you then lost the sale, well then you have something to gripe about - if of course, your money was in before the other person's. I don't even trust a "I'll definitely take it." The only definite is money.

No. If you lock the brakes, you go over the handlebars. If you drag the brakes over distance and time, you heat them up. You can make brakes glow red-hot without doing any sudden stopping. It is a real-world scenario.

That is the best value for money bike on the market. The Trigon is all carbon though. You shouldn't compare the two in the same price class. The price-points are different. There's nothing wrong with alu, don't get me wrong and I think the Anthem has done more for full-susser biking than Karike Keusenkamp has done for Sun City Superbowl.

Your avatar hurts my eyes. To judge the condition of a BB do the following: 1)Remove the chain (you should have a master link on there so it won't be a hassle). 2) Put your ear on the top tube and make sure your jaw is out of the crank and pedal's reach. 3) Spin the crank. A good BB will say shhhhhhhhh. A bad BB will say rrrrrreplace me. The rumble is unmistakeable. Dont try and do this with the chain in place, it will confuse the matter. Don't turn the crank on the pedal, this introduces a secondary bearing into the sound. It has nothing to do with how many revolutions the crank turns.