greatwhite

Just checked: both 8 and 9 speed shimano use 1.8 thk sprockets, so 8 speed cluster with 9 speed chain shouldn't be a problem. I does concern me that your derailleur wheels needed to be replace so soon. Have you had a crash that your derailleur or hanger are bent?

Yes and no - cleaning the crap out is defininately the 1st step, but assuming there will always be some residual junk, the harder the force on the chain, the more the grinding effect there will be.

be interesting to see how the new 7900 crank stacks up against the others since it is supposedly ligher and stiffer than its predesessor tested here.

Oiltrash: Is this the bike? http://www.bikebay.co.za/Products/ProductProfile.aspx?ProdGuid=5992f62c-a6c5-4b3b-9c44-81eb01235950 just check what the crank length is on the bike, because DA wasn't an original fit on the bike - my guess the bike was bought to take a 10 speed ultegra off and fit a 9 speed DA (mever mind that the second hand DA will outlast the new ultegra stuff easily) turtlek: yep the 9 speed 7700 series was seriouly robust stuff - did 50000km on my group. Changed some chains, a few clusters, 1 big blade at about 45000km..... and some break pads. Everything else just kept on going. If my 10 speed DA lasts that well, I'll be very happy

I did, thanks

I think the CN-HG53 chain is a 9 speed chain - Sora is 8 speed. That might be part of the problem. Is the sound continous?

Any reason why radial spoking is not an option? I intend to use a PRO (shimano) R-50 rim (similar to a Mavic Open Pro in section, but a little heavier) because I have the rim lying around - that should be shallow enough surely

Depends how often you want to replace chainrings and clusters. If you ride hard throwing a chain away after 5000km is a good idea - fairly regular chain changes (which are cheap) will reduce the frequency of replacing chainrings and clusters (which are expensive). You will also find that new chains will jump and generally cause nonsense when fitted to a cluster that has previously been used with a well streched chain, forcing you replace the cluster anyway - so, if in doubt change the chain.

I saw a couple too - stopped (or slowed down at least) and had a chat with them about the bikes they did tell me where they got them too, but it appears I am getting old and my memory is fading :-( I seem to recall they were an american brand - schwinn or the like

BBB or PRO (shimano). BBB is a bit cheaper, but not by a whole pile. both decent (and so they should be for that price for a mickey mouse torque wrench). Also you can get other 1/4" drive units on ebay etc for less, but no idea on quality.

There are a few manufacturers who make 'shimano' style cassettes to fit on campy free hubs and vice versa. Most hub manufacturers make shimano and campy free wheel mechanisms to fit on their hubs - just take one the shimano one off and put a campy one on. Notably hubs made by shimano hubs don't have a campag option, but some hubs made by campag do have an option to use shimano in the form a Fulcrum shimano freewheel mech (Fulcrum is owned by campag and as such use a lot of the same parts - notably incl freewheels)

Shimano relaeased a new dynamo fron hub recently which weighs under 500g and spec level equal to XT/Ultegra. Now a normal front hub is about 150g and a battery can easily weigh 350g too. Also the conveinience of not having to mess around with battery charger before training rides appeals to me and with modern LED systems the Dynamo can provide ample light at low 'drag'/power draw. Anyone had experince with such a system? Can anyone add useful comments.

Gooooo Lefty!!

I did a bit of research a few months back on LED options - all I could find locally at the time were units with 12 or 20 lower power LED in them - the performance of these was poor at best. I did find that in US/Europe/The far East you could get high power single LED units up to 10w (equivelent light output to 70w conventional), but they are expensive and you would have to bring them in yourself. Still the power saving is meainingful when you have a room with 20 down lighters, you can reduce power consumption from 1kw to 200w (1/5th) and still get a 40% light increase! Give it a year or 2 and these will be common place. For a more bike appropriate MR16 (12V) 5w see: http://cgi.ebay.com/1-2-Off-LED-MR16s-5W-12V-w-3-CREE-LEDs-Bright-White_W0QQitemZ290252917635QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290252917635&_trkparms=72%3A1073%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Dual control takes a little while to get used to, but once you've got your head around it, IMO its a better system. I was the same as HR, I thought rapid fire was the way to go when I first used dual control, but once I had adapted, I saw the light. The new XT and XTR are also a step up on their predecessors, because the lever is better positioned too. Go for XTR levers rather its a whole lot lighter and not that much more

MTBKing81: If you decide not to take them, please let your friend know he has a buyer (ME) - thanks

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