HammerHed

Goodnight - The Magic Numbers

I run 2 x 9 with grip shift and it is much better than 3 x 9, I rode 38k's of the Spruit the other day on my big chain ring. no hassle. Though there are no big climbs there. I do find that where you need a granny gear on a very steep slope I battle a bit, but if I am fit its OK. I always felt that the granny gear on 3 x 9 was a waste, as I would only use it to climb very steep slopes and then only the granny gear not any others on the small chainring. So for me its a no brainer, 2 x 9/10 is the way to go!!

Put lots of k's in your legs, and do lots of power intervals on your indoor trainer. MTB has heavier bike + more rolling resistance than road biking, so you have to train for that by riding your MTB off road for long distances and building more power. 70k MTB rides every weekend, do 70k Saturday and 40k Sunday to start to build up the mileage. Then hit the IDT 3 or 4 times a week for 1 hour warming up for 15-20min in aerobic zone < 75% max hr then doing intervals in 83-87% HR zone, and alternate between the 2. A few weeks of this will get your power up nicely, and you will feel the difference on the trail. A rest week every third week where you drop the volume of training by 15 - 20% and then the next week back to the levels of before the rest week. Works for me. Better still get a power meter and train with that, you can then really gauge your status of fitness and tweak your programme accordingly.

I reset the pressure in both + & - chambers and it seems as if it OK now. Will have to ride to get the right pressure but I guess the 10kg I have picked up in the off season has made my bike sag more than it usually does. Thanks for the oil leaking out tip, there was a little that came out, not enough to spoil the party though. The ride height came back as soon as I released the pressure in the - chamber. And did not suck back again after I had pumped it up again. I guess the - pressure has to do with the amount of damping / rebound you want from what I could feel. Might be wrong though. Thanks for the tips guys.

TX dude, I will try this out tonight, hopefully I can sort it out myself.

Do I replace the oil that comes out?

OK will try that, I see if I hold the wheel and pull the fork out - push the wheel down while holding the handlebars there is a bit of travel there but it gets sucked back up when I let go.

I have a weird scenario my Reba World Cup fork is missing 25mm in length. It should be set at 100mm of travel and was before I had it serviced a while ago. I checked out the spec today and see that the length from the top of the lower crown should be 480mm to the middle of the axle, mine measures around 460mm where is the missing 25mm - 30mm? See attached pic + spec diagram. How can I fix this any ideas? See pic at bottom of proper length for the 100mm fork.

Shock pressure settings are quite personal, and also variable depending on the terrain. A rough course would require softer settings than a smooth course. Likewise a heavier rider requires more pressure in the shocks to keep the shocks from sagging too much under the riders weight. Saggy shocks change the geometry of the bike. Its all relative to these variables, so there cannot be one setting for everything.

Get a cable tie and wrap it around the stanction the smooth part that slides into the bottom of the shock. push the cable tie down so it is touching the bottom of the shock. Now sit on the bike and then get off the bike and look to see how much the shock sagged, the cable tie will be pushed upwhen you sit on the bike and remain where it was pushed to. This movement should be about 20 - 25% of the total movement allowed by the shock. Adjust the amount of air pressure in the fork - & + until you get that amount of sag. Once that is done you will ride nicely on that fork. From my experience I have a Reeba World Cup fork the - & + should be about the same pressure. So its quite fiddly but once you get the setting it will feel good. I hope this helps.

I'll be there too!

Shame! It's very funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ&feature=player_embedded A NYC cyclist who received a fine for straying out of the bike-lane recorded this video of his attempt to ride around town without leaving the bike-lane, instead crashing merrily into any obstacle that he encountered, from taxis to construction equipment.

I'm running XO grip shift on my XX cranks, works perfectly, much better than the triple blade. Although I am still running the XO rear derailleur and cassette.

I rode Maxxis Monorail 2.1 UST in front and Conti Race King 2.2 UST at rear for this years very muddy Sani2C, the Monorail was great the Race king was terrible, rear continually washing out in the slippery stuff. My partner rode Mountain Kings front and back and bad no washout issues at all. The Race king is great for all other conditions but Crap (with a CAPITAL C) in mud.

The elephant in the room here is the nature of the ground that a MTB travels over, sometimes soft sandy tracks sometimes hard pack sometimes rocky trails sometimes gravel district roads. Sandy paths sap much more energy than district gravel roads. Sandy paths on an incline sap even more energy. Too may variables to get anywhere close to an accurate equation. My formula is: MTB = much tougher than road riding by a long way. My Argus uses around 2800kcal of energy my 70km MTB marathon = 3500+ kcal.

Got to say that the sewerage was really poor form. I smelled it going out and it was a lot worse coming back, it was a manhole cover that was spewing huge sewerage up the road a bit. I rode back with all of my club mates and we all smelt very ripe at the finish. I had no change of clothes so drove home in my smelly bib shorts. Man that was grim! I would be surprised if someone did not get sick from that. Sies!!!

I thought Poestalero's salute at the prize giving was a bit in poor taste. After attacking the Maillot Jaune when he was down. He really needs to get a personality, he's such a cycling Geek!

I agree, it sets a poor example. This is a SAMTB sanctioned event, I would complain to SAMTB. They will not overlook it if you complain. Drop them an email.

Press Fit info here: http://bicykel.com/?p=2057 BB info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_bracket S-Works Stumpy 2009: http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=39194 click on Tech Specs tab Else take a pic of your BB and post here

I got an S-Works Epic 2008 and I put the GXP XX cranks Q160 on no problem at all,a straight bolt on using the new BB. From what I understand the newer Specialized frames are Press Fit BB's so you would use the BB30 BB.

I broke my Crank Brothers crank so was forced to replace it, I always felt that my granny gear was a waste a as I only ever used it for those impossibly steep climbs you could basically walk faster on. Did Sani2C this year and basically lost my granny gear anyway the mud did not allow a shift to the granny gear. So I replaced with XX 42/28 running a 34-12 on the back X0 med cage rd and x9 FD with my 9 speed chain. It was a straight bolt on for the XX + BB and a FD tweak and that was it. Shifts beautifully now. I haven't tried to climb anything serious yet but did the Blockhouse a few weeks ago and that tarred steep climb was fine, I do feel that I might go smaller than the 28 in front, maybe 24 if the 120bcd will allow. Any thoughts on replacing the 28 with something smaller would be welcome?

I got a "Pinch Flat" "Snakebite" on my UST setup a few weeks back and no spare tube, had to borrow from my club mates. The tyre was a 4 week old Race King, had to get a new tyre. Big hole near the bead and the rim meant no goo could seal that.

IanJ is 100% correct. I have done this on numerous occasions, Sani2C the latest one, where my partner rode the last 50km on the last day in single speed after his rear derailleur disintegrated into a handful of parts. We just took the derailleur off and shortened the chain to fit the middle rear cassette gear and the middle chainring and locked out his rear suspension. The chain sometimes jumps up but you then just stop and loosen the wheel and drop the chain down again. The secret here is to have a smooth pedalling technique, not huge bursts of power, just smooth full circle pedalling and it stays on the right gear at the back.

@00000008 in the meantime add the GPS co-ords to the following forum thread: thehubsa.co.za > General > Cycling Safety > Pretoria Danger areas Or do we need a new one for Centurian / Irene We can start to gather GPS co-ords for the mapping tool above by putting data here