greatwhite

but the nipple appears to be threaded into the rim - saw one in bits the other night.

On the www.chainreactioncycles.com website go to wheels and choose custom MTB wheels. You can build your own custom wheelset with your own choice of hubs' date=' rim and spokes on the web page. The wheels come fully assembled. With Shimano rims you are not stuck with the centre lock option. You can buy centre lock conversions which allow you to bolt rotors to the centre lock conversion. Just make sure the rotors diameter is Shimano compatible. Also browse for this on the www.chainreactioncycles.com website.[/quote'] Thanks BigH - that was what I was planning on doing C/Lock hubs are no problem, I have shimano calipers and discs anyway

Go to www.shimano.com , they have tech docs there to install all shimano parts (with pictures). Just download the appropriate .pdf file and off you go

Easy - so we know whats going in your xmas stocking....

Not familiar with the hub at all, but no hub ever gets 'tightened up' - it should be 'tightened' just tight enough to remove excess play but not any more, because this will put any additional load on the bearings. To add to you miseries, if you made it so tight that is acted like a fixed gear, there is a possibility you have brinnelled the bearing raceway and can expect you new bearings to fail prematurely. My guess you have pressed the new bearing into the (slightly?) wrong position - been there - done that.

Thanks for the input guys. The ZTR olympics have a 77kg limit - I exceed that by quite a bit, so not an option for me. If I come out with reliable wheels in the 1.5kg region that will do me fine. C/Lock is fine for me I was going to take my RT97 (new XTR) rotors off the LX hub wheels I have now and put more basic rotors on those wheels. I fully expected the cartridge bearings to be mentioned. replacability is useful, but if my DA road hubs are anything to go by, then likely I'll never need to concern myself with that - bearing in mind that MTB is predominantly a weekend only thing for me. Not very clued on the tubeless thing - is it the way to go and why? Getting to the R6k mark is getting too steep for a weekend toy

Just been looking on CRC to gauge the price of various MTB hub/rim combos. I have a few questions for the more experienced MTB Riders: Are Chris King/DT etc hubs worth more than double the price of XTR. If I use my DA 7700 road hubs a beanch mark (which I have done many km on and are still going strong and are remarkably smooth) and assume the setup and bearing/raceway quality is the same same, then more money spent on hubs seems to be a waste, given there is negligable weight saving. If you believe the extra price is justified, please explain why and quantify it Also, it appeares you can build up an equally light set of disc brake wheels for significantly less than buying factory wheels, other than the mavic SLRs and XTR M975 rims which have 'milled' sections between the spokes to lighten the rim but retain thickness where the spoke nipple goes, can anyone suggest additional motivation for going for the factory wheels? I was thinking an XTR/Mavic 717 combo would be good - any better suggestions (please motivate)?greatwhite2008-08-08 17:27:27

Hmmmm...... I know I'm going to make myself unpopular yet again with the 'dale fanboys (and they seem to have an unrepresentavily high following on the hub), but while there is little wrong with the 'dales, you pay a fortune for them. I can't comment on their MTBs, but I'll say the CAAD7 Optimo road frame never lived up to the expectations I had - heavy, uncomfortably stiff upfront and lateraly soft in the back. All my current frames are Scott frames, but I'm not going to tell you they are the be all and end all - certainly they are lighter than the 'dales and subjectively they feel better to me, but I can't comment on long term durability. In a nut shell, do some research on the web on a number of manufacturers and see what you get - DON'T listen to the marketing hype the manufacturer tells you - rather see reviews from folks with little to gain from speading BS - perhaps I'm biased because I was a victim of 'spin' from C'Dale with my 'light' 1.36kg (their marketing implied closer to 1.1kg), at that time, range topping frame. Now I wait for the fanatical onslaught of the 'dale fanboys ('Lefty and a few others excluded, because they at least they appear to understand the 'dale product and aren't blindly fanatical)

does it have an OS bar clamp?

see http://www.dura-ace.com/ Mavic tried electronic shifting a few years back with their 'zap' system - not wonderful. Shimano will cetainly mindful not to make the same mistake and will no doubt have carefully test all the parts for reliability. That said, I'm sure there is a weight penalty for this system as well as a price, so I'll give it a miss for the time being

Whackhead usually does things in bad taste

Johan is right about the anodising potentially being a cause of failure, but remember that an anodised bike rim that cracks around the nipple hole is a highly concentrated and rapidly cycling load. Loads on frames are: 1. usually distibuted over a greater area 2. subject to a great deal less fatigue cycles. In a nut shell, paint is a bit better, but most poeple will be hard pressed to ever push a frame to an earlier failure as a result of the anodising - think of it this way: do you think all these manufacturers would put their reputation at risk and possibly expose themselves to legal action?

Just to set the record straight: After I sent a snotty email reply, moaning about response time, I got a reply the next day apologising for the delay, the lady in question had been on leave for 2 weeks (although management should have arranged an alternative solution in that 2 week window). All the other questions were answered at the same time. Big H: I tried chainreaction in the same time frame as I stated in my original post. They don't supply a complete XT group yet, only part and they were about 40pounds more as a result. They did respond and tell me that they are working on a MTB group option, but were trying to sort all the options (crank length, brake types, control lever types etc - the options are actually quite extensive). I have used them before and they have been good. A note to all on chainreation - your 1st delivery will take 2-3 weeks, because they wait for over a week on the SA credit card payments to make sure its not crooked. I know CWC were doing the XT group for R5500 a while back and tried them, but the guy who replied there told me they didn't have in stock and when pushed still wasn't prepred to give me a time when they could get it and a price - his response time was quick in all cases though.

Hi All, Sent an info request for a XT group to Totalcycling.com on the 1st of this months and got a response only today AND they only answered half the question.... very weak customer service in my opinion (in the same time frame I have email chainreaction back and forth a few times re the same thing as well as local suppliers). What experience have others had with foreign suppliers in terms of customer service and response to queries? (Did I just catch totalcyling on a bad day?)

top and bottom left logos can easily be downloaded from rockshox web site

Don't get too mushy about park tool stuff - for the most part they are good, but I've had a product or 2 of theirs over the years that have given up the ghost and I'm not running a bike shop. You have to judge indiviual tools on their merits

Threads of splines?

In a nut shell, if the splines wear down the circumference is reduced, meaning effectively the pitch of the splines is reduced. If you are even 1/4 pitch out across the entire circumfence, the 'teeth' on the inside of the crank arm, whos pitching remains basicly unchanged, won't engage properly with all the splines. - Net result, tightening the nut almost to the point of striping will still not fix the problem of the arm engaging the shaft cleanly

Agreed, replace the bolts as stated above, remove that little filler and then torque up to the top end of the torque range specified on the crank arm (there was a little torque sticker on there when it was new). Use a 1/4" drive torque wrench. PRO (shimano/coolheat) supply one which is quite good. BBB also do nice looking one which is a tad cheaper, but I've never used on so can't comment on how good it is. I wouldn't expect to see excesive wear on the splined steel crank axle tube, but if you do, then I'de suggest you're pretty much out of luck and will have to replace the entire set (hang on to the chain rings though - they cost a bomb) . Or get a set of arms off ebay - they quite often have them where they have stripped for the chainring. Hope this helps

Yes, if it wasn't done up properly when it was first installed

Are you sure that anything is going to get built at Coega? Been hearing that story since 1995. Just went to check our share price and saw this: http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleId=_2333482 So much for Coega. international demand for steel is a big problem - the china men are you huge quantaties

Quote from Max's column: "I've never understood the logic of making people pay more for the same things in order to combat inflation. Surely inflation would go down if people spent less and saved more? " The idea, as I understand it, is to lift the rate high enough to discourage people from borrowing - if the rate was lifted quickly early on less folks would have borrowed and there would be less rate increases later. If anything, now its too little too late. Modern economics debates this though - leading to another Quote: "Flies in the face of analysis Well, it seems I'm in good company. Professor Joubert Botha, former professor of economics at Wits and past president of the Economics Society of South Africa, declared in an open letter to the Reserve Bank this week that the belief that there was a direct relationship between prices and the interest rate "flies in the face of two centuries of economic analysis by the founding fathers of monetary economics". Botha believes external factors are too strong for the Reserve Bank to reduce price levels. But if anything is to be done, it would be through controlling the credit banks can give." Which is partly what the NCA is supposed to acheive. i.e. reduce borrowing What isn't mentioned in this article is outside driving forces which are outside Titos control: 1. The one most people know - The fuel price (although, I agree, the tax can be reduced because they are over recovering hugely on that at the moment) 2. Raw materials cost. e.g. Steel in the spread that I use has gone up 73% since february and I've just had a notification there is another 5%+ increase due for July so over 6 months, that will be 82% (yes 5% on 73% IS 82% before you question the maths). etc etc Investor confidence isn't high either with the likes of Eskom screwing up royally, the crime and gereral lack of service delivery by many government department. So foreign investent isn't as high as some might expect with high interest rates With factors like above how can anyone really expect there not to be huge inflation In a nut shell, like just about everyone, I don't like the rate increases, but I don't think we should be blaming Tito - he's the poor bastard that has to make a crappy decision and pick up the pieces from problems caused by others. (If anything, he and Trevor are two of the top performers in our otherwise underperforming government)