440MTB

Excellent tips! Those little blue o-rings come out when regreasing/cleaning without one even noticing, and the preload collar doesn't need much tightening... I learned that the hard way. Lol I had many strikes on my Merida OneTwenty (140/120) with 175mm M8000 cranks and RaceFace Chester pedals. I currently own a Giant Reign (160/146) with 170mm Descendant cranks and Spank Spoon 110 pedals, and I've had very few strikes, even in the gnarliest of rock gardens we have here in The Tygerberg trails, but they are two very different bikes, and I've progressed with my riding a fair bit too, so know when to put a pedal down and when to keep them up. I'm currently building a Nukeproof Scout for longer, more mellow rides, and I was only able to get a 175mm Lyne AMP Crankset, but I'm not planning on doing too much in terms of "gnar" with it... I crash too much these days, breaking ribs, and smashing shoulders, to care to push myself anymore... taking a break from the "Eduro" life for a while, and then will most likely settle for a 150/140 trail bike over a full enduro rig, if Iever do go dual sus again.

For sure. I never hinted at this being sram's fault. I merely mentioned they are a bit more finicky and if you don't look after them, and set your preload correctly, this is most likely what you're going to do to your aluminium spindle, where Shimano's steel spindle may be more forgiving. My dub spindle on my 2020 Reign is still in amazing condition... many factors that contribute to crankset wear.

Yup! The dub spindle on my stylo carbon crank on my Scott Spark 910 looked almost as bad as this when I took them out for the first time after buying the bike 2nd hand... It was also a pain to get loose, but not as bad as my descendant crankset on my Giant Reign, where I almost gave up. The one in your picture is wild man! 🫣

You know when a 200+mm dropper isn't enough, you got some long legs! 😅 And trust me... those long legs can stomp those pedals. I've battled to keep up many times. 🤣🥲

As someone who has owned a few different cranksets over the years. Dub is by far the biggest pain, if you work on your own bikes. I've also nearly decided to go throw my bike down a cliff face at one stage, due to the absolute nightmare it can be to get the crank bolt loose... ended up using a massive pipe on my park tool 8mm crank/pedal wrench and just going with the notion of "if it breaks, it breaks". I've also seen how easily the dub spindle can wear out if you run with worn BB bearings or don't set the preload correctly (previous owner of bike left me this surprise). Then also the little plastic preload ring is easy to break if you overtighten the tiny 2mm allen bolt (ask me how I know this)... Shimano cranks are a lot nicer to work with in my opinion, and the 24mm steel spindle lasts forever. I was quite lucky to get my hands on a Lyne AMP crankset from Stoke a while back which I am going to use on my new build - like MORNE said, best of both worlds, 24mm spindle, pinch bolts on non-drive side crank arm to fasten and release easily, and a 3 bolt sram style chainring for easy maintenance/replacement. Also, in my opinion, not much difference between 170mm and 165mm, so if you can get 170mm just go with that, you'll be fine.

Thanks man - Just never heard this before (but it's the first time I'm servicing this fork since buying it from my friend). The fork does feel 100% though and feels super plush and smooth after the service and handled everything fine during the initial ride. Maybe another question for yourself (and possibly for @droo) - Does this sound go away usually after a few hours of riding - if so roughly how many? As I'd like to keep an eye/ear on it and rather have the fork checked out if it doesn't go away?

Thanks for the feedback @droo & @thebob Just to be clear here: I'm not saying the shop is wrong with their diagnosis/recommendation, I actually hold them in high regard as a lot of friends I ride with take their bikes and equipment there (as have I for the last few years)... I just wanted to get a 2nd opinion, as I don't want to risk damaging anything. The other thing is, the fork feels 100% when riding... I just imagined the equalizing/settling would've been done after an hour+ of riding features like rock gardens, drops, jumps, gaps, etc. I'll install the fork and go for a longer ride as soon as the weather permits, and see how it goes. Cheers!

Howzit people of the palace... trust you're all well. So I recently had a bit of an issue with my Rockshox Lyrik Ultimate (RC2.1), the CSU had a clacking/creaking noise under heavy front braking/when landing jumps, turned out it was the stanchions. Thankfully my Local Bike shop is able to press out the steerer & Stanchions from the CSU and fix this (done this before on a previous bikes Fox 34 Performance Elite with great results). So long story short, they did the work and also a 50 hour (lower leg service) while the fork was apart, collected the fork and noticed there was a strange squeaky noise coming from the air spring side (left side) of the fork in the first few mm of travel (see video below). Before I installed the fork on my bike, I sent the video to the bike shop, the mechanic that does all the suspension work phoned me and assured me it's only due to the fresh oil and sram butter, it'll settle down. I then went for a quick 1 hour ride at Bloemendal, put the fork through its paces (drops, jumps, gaps, rock gardens, etc). Fork feels 100%, and doesn't have any issues other than this noise in the first few mm of travel (slow or fast compressions, same sound). I noticed after the ride, the sound is still 100% the same, so I ended up taking the fork back to the shop the next day, and the suspension mechanic and owner of the shop both looked at the fork, and said it's normal (oil & sram butter), but I'm not comfortable with this - the fork didn't have this sound before (albeit this is the first service since I bought the fork from a mate), so not sure what to think at this stage... obviously I don't want to risk riding the fork like this and damage it ending up with expensive repairs/damage to the fork. I have also DM'd the vid to @droo on IG, but haven't received a response yet, so thought I'd get your input here as well, before I phone the shop again. Link to video: https://imgur.com/zOTjRpt

That picture is definitely from @thebikegarage - I'm willing to bet money (around R3500) this is a robbery waiting to happen...

Completely forgot about this thread - for those interested... The chaps at Droomers Yamaha were able to sort out the dings nicely - Not perfect, but 98% better than they were when I got the bike. 😎👍 So if I ever sell my bike, the stock rims are at least in an acceptable condition for the next owner, as I'll keep my aftermarket wheelset for my next bike.

Best description of their behaviour to date... 🤣 Adding my 2c: Reply with a "TSEK!" - Proceed to block. 😜

Thanks for the feedback gents... got hold of the owner of the MX place and he said I can drop the rims, they'll try sort them out for me. 👍

Thanks for the reply @BaGearA - I looked at the one ding and it seems if I'm not careful I might actually snap a piece off. I'll see what I can figure out, I'm actually waiting for feedback from the seller, as his dad owns a well known MX & Boat/Jetski place, and he actually said they'll take the rims and fix them for me, but now the son (who sold me the bike), isn't getting back to me on Whatsapp... Will give the shop a phone and ask the to speak to the dad and ask whether they'll still help or not.

Howdy all, hope you're having a lekker Friday! Quick question for you guys: I bought my Giant Reign with a few bad dings on the rear rim & one or two less serious dings on the front rim (AM29 30mm I/D Aluminium rims), but I wasn't too phased by this as I have a set of Lyne AMP HD with Hi-Per Hubs which I'm running. I was wondering if you guys know if dinged rims can be repaired, if so, do you have details of the people who can do so (preferably in Cape Town area)? I'd like to get the rims fixed so I either have an extra set of wheels for building a hardtail or whatever, or get them in a better condition for when I sell the bike again one day. Thanks!

@Nestus - Sounds rough man! Sorry to hear, considering the costs of medical assistance of any sort these days, I can't even imagine what it must cost to go for physical therapy as well. Also, having a 4 year old daughter as well, this is exactly one of the things that has been eating away at my mental wellbeing as well... She wants to play, I literally can't do anything physical with her... couple this with the fact that we still had to go to the West Coast to visit my mother for her birthday (plans made LONG in advance, so couldn't bail - or at least, I felt "okay" enough to still drive through on the same day of my crash), I also didn't fully enjoy myself, we went to the beach the next day, and I couldn't even play with my daughter or even enjoy walking on the beach (the uneven terrain was agonizing). @lechatnoir - Thanks for the wishes, and definitely taking it easy and only getting back on the bike once I'm confident all is well, and even so, not sure if I'm just going to be able to jump back in to jumps and drop-offs, as I don't want to risk damaging anything again if not healed 100% - So will probably do some more mellow rides to ease back into it. @Super Sywurm - I hear you - my colleague also has this motto: "Ride to ride another day". @throttles - Sounds rough man - I suspect it's the same cartilage the doctor referred to with my injury as well, but just lower down where my elbow pressed against the lower ribs... but thankfully, I'm MUCH better and I don't think it was as bad as what yours was - but still in quite a bit of discomfort and pain, but I'll take it easy and will give it ample time to heal up before I risk going crazy on the trails again, perhaps a nice Zone 1/2 longer ride on smoother trails will do the trick... going to suck on a bigger enduro bike with burly tires, but alas, it is what it is, as I only have the one bike at the moment.