TooManyMatts

Nope haven't got the frame yet.

It was a Scott. This makes me sad, a carbon fix in such a high stress area sounds like a bad idea. Is there a chance that it is a surface crack caused by the flex int he carbon at this point? A friend's carbon bike once had a crack near the seatpost which looked a lot like this one and the manufacturers said it was just the paint and that he shouldn't worry. It looks like I'm stuck with this now. So if I do sand down to find that its just surface damage, then I could just repaint with clear.

Ya its absolute rubbish. I bough a bike a couple years ago that had a "lifetime warranty" only to find that the small print contained a clause that states that the lifetime of a carbon bike is 5 years so after 5 years the warranty didn't apply.

If what looks like paint around that shell is carbon it would have to be one layer of very thin fiber. If that lug is alu, then I'm sure I can get the hairline crack welded. If its carbon is there any way to get something like that fixed?

Oh, so you are sure that isn't an alu lug?

I don't know anyone in aviation... How do you go about getting an x-ray? Is x-ray even possible if I'm right about this being an alu section of the frame? I don't think the warranty applies once it is sold on.

I've attached a pic of a frame like it and pics of the supposed crack. Its a 2007 specialized sworks epic carbon. Looks like its on an aluminium part of the frame judging by the pics. I think it might very well be a paint crack. I'm thinking that I should just sand off the paint around the crack to see if its stuffed.

I just looked at the weather predictions. EISH!!!! thats all I can say folks. http://www.weathersa.co.za/Weather.asp?ProdType=5&fpgid=7day68572 Thats the URL for the SA Weather Service so you can go check it out for yourself. A summary would be that its going to be 19, raining and possibly storming. These predictions are for Underburg so you can expect it to be worse and much colder at Sani Pass. Will people still ride in those conditions? I'm bleek, I have to confess after all the hilly training....

Man I'm so keen for this! Thanks for the info Agteros

Hi What sort of fitness level do you have to have to finish this thing? I am really keen to do this with my girlfriend this year but I'm not sure it's do-able. @ the guys who have made it before, what training did you do for it? Thanks

I don't have a SRAM crank. I was asking because I want to get a new crank and I was worried about the durability of the GXP system. Like Dirt-Rider said, this is a reason to stick with FSA or Raceface if you want an alternative to shimano because they are compatible with Hollowtech II and are therefore rebuilable. It seems like a mission to go buy sleeves and run the risk of the rebuild not working anyway. This may be off topic but why is it cheaper to order full cranks with BB's from crc than to buy just the rings? It seems odd for the replacement parts to be more expensive than a whole new system.

Ah! those sneaky buggers... oh well, it's good business strategy I suppose.

Is a DIY rebuild possible? It works very well with Hollowtech II cranks so why not with SRAM's offering?

Specialized Body Glove technology! Your handlebar is putting pressure on a specific nerve that runs under your ulnar bone. These gloves are designed to relieve that pressure. They work for me and they were well worth the extortionist cost.

Hi I am replacing my drivetrain and I'm getting it all from CRC because it seems much much cheaper. I have a few questions that I hope can be easily answered by some good old experience here on the hub. 1) What do you think of the FSA Moto XC crankset? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=35722 2) Is this crank compatible with Hollowtech 2 BB cups? It seems so but I want to be sure. 3) What are the import duties like when buying off CRC? Is it a percentage of the total cost? I'm going for an XT cluster and chain with this. And its radically cheaper than my LBS. They quoted about R900 for the cluster and CRC wants 800 for both chain and cluster including postage.... I decided to just replace the whole crankest when I saw how cheap they were. Thanks

Ok good. Thats what I wanted to hear. I was looking on CRC because there are some massive saving to be had there and there were so many chain options especially. I have gotten 2000km out of my chain at least so I'm happy with that.

I need to replace the chain and cassette on my MTB. I have an XT cassette and an HG93 chain on at the moment. I was going to replace with the same but thought to ask if thats wise... Whats the best chain/cassette combination out there at a similar level to what I have now? Shot

yeah It looked like a little too much cable in the wrong place (from the bars to the frame). I'll see how it goes on Friday. Thanks guys

Quickdraw may have hit the nail on the head. This problem started recently and it happens that I changed my gear cables recently... Sounds like too much of a coincidence. I'll go have a look.

Its been a long time since anything has been changed - except the cables. Those were done recently.

I'm baffled. My MTB gears are changing all on their own. This happens whilst riding under lots of power and when spinning along. It happens over bumps sections too. All that happens is that the chain hops onto the cog below or above on its own accord. The problem is that when the bike is on the work stand the gears operate perfectly. I'm riding a Scott Genius mc 20 (dual susser)with a mix of LX and XT if that matters. Any suggestions?

I have used Pentosin CHF 7.1 in my XT system before. It was cheap cheap compared to Shimano's liquid gold. I think it was something like R136 a liter. You can get it from BMW dealerships. It worked perfectly and I had no problems with it. After about 6 months my bike was in the LBS and had my brakes bled whilst it was there. The mechanic was shocked and horrified that I had used this "green poison" in my brakes. He insisted that I never use it again because shimano states clearly that nothing but their oil should be used. Well, they would say that... I intend to carry on using my green CHF 7.1 when my brakes need another bleed. Shimano scares people by saying the brake seals will be corroded if any other oil is used. I stand to be corrected here but I think the dire warnings in the shimano manuals are most probably a way to make sure people by their disgustingly expensive mineral oil.

yip. The combination of a cheap tool and previously damaged cups does make a helluva mess.

Scott fell through badly, the frame was not weldable and a new frame was too expensive. The only option was to fix the damn thing. My father designed a kind of brace that sits between and round the existing lugs. It's made of steel. Here is the fix looking at it from the top (bike upside down). The arrow points at the rounded part that fits snugly round the aluminium of the frame. There are 3 screws that bolt through the aluminium to another rounded steel plate on the inside of the frame. The whole brace is glued in with a lot of epoxy. The arrows here show the lugs that sit inside the existing aluminium lugs and take the weight of the rear triangle One last picture from the side. Yes it makes my carbon bike weigh more than an alu bike... but I am really happy with the situation because it cost me nothing and I have my beautiful machine back.

Thanks for all the input. It is a carbon frame. The aluminium insert goes about 30mm into the tube and the carbon overlay comes right down to the lug. SO like Christie said (and for the same reasons given) a simple weld will almost certainly ruin the frame or cause cracks that may end in a helluva crash for me. What I am trying now is to weld a steel support structure together that fits over the lugs. It is both screwed and epoxied to the frame. It looks good so far and you will barely be able to see it when all the bits are back on the bike. I just painted it tonight so I'll let you know how well or if it works. I'm with johannrissik. A spade needs to be called a spade. Why say "lifetime warranty" if you mean four years????!! I think its absolute crap that they are allowed to define what "lifetime" means.