droo

Depends how much you ride. 150 hours and you're done, and that can come up quicker than you think. Worn seals and new seals look the same, except for the grubby foam rings under them, which is one of the reasons foam rings exist.

^ this and a bit of experience with derailleurs and you're good. The only things different from older RDs are the B gap and the fact that chain length is critical. Most people leave the chain a link too long and the shifting sucks as a result. It needs to be as short as it can be while still leaving enough to cycle through travel in the 50 / 52T.

As for the rest: Don't stick zip ties down your fork seals, for the love of Jehovah. If you have to release pressure from lower legs (unlikely unless you've climbed 3000m in a day), do it via the footnut holes. If your foam rings are dirty, replace your wiper seals. Foam rings there to catch the crap that gets in when the seals can't. When they're dirty, the seals are done. Cleaning them with alcohol will swell them and render them useless.

A few things, but I'll start with your main problem - your air spring is stuck down. I'll provide solutions for all forks for when anyone else has this problem. The first thing to try on any fork that self equalises (RS Solo Air, Fox NA2, Ohlins, Marzo 2018+), inflate to max pressure, then extend the fork by pulling up on the crown and down on the wheel or the arch. You should hear a hiss as the air passes through the transfer port from the negative chamber into the positive. If this doesn't work, first let all the air out of the positive chamber, then: On older 32mm RS forks there's a valve at the bottom, both on the dual air and solo air variants. Solo air you have to remove the spring side footnut to get to it. Depress valve, air comes out. Job done. On the older 35mm RS forks, the air spring shaft is shorter than the stanchion tube, so when the air is released from the positive chamber and lowers are off the spring sucks into the stanchion past the seal and it the air escapes. Easy enough. On the newer air springs is where it gets fun. There's no way of letting the air out of the negative spring, so you've just got to take the circlip off and pull. Loud and messy, but because the lower seal head is held in place by the footnut there's no resultant force to make the spring or seal head fly out. As soon as you break the seal between the stanchion and the seal head, the air escapes and you're good. It'll most likely have a whole lot of oil and grease in it as well, so cover the end with a rag before you remove the circlip and dislodge it or you'll be cleaning grease out of your teeth, hair and facial orifices for a few hours afterwards. Warnings: don't look directly down a pressurised tube (it'll be tempting when you're removing the circlip, but don't do it). Don't stand directly in the line of fire when disassembling. Ideally, safety glasses are recommended. And if any of this makes you uncomfortable or you're the type to call your lawyer if it goes pear shaped, take it to a professional.

The thing you're after is the Surly Corner Bar. You'll have to order online though, there's no agent in SA. The other option is to see if Everyday Cycle Supply Co have anything similar.

They never had stock, they'd just have ordered from the Park agents. Same with the weird part I was looking for. They have now updated their page to show out of stock though, so I'll give them another 1/2 a point for effort.

Most bleak to find out Cape Multi is yet another drop shipper who show stuff in stock when it's not. One more off the list then. Although at least to their credit they got back to me pretty quickly.

+1 for WheelsMFG. Bearings and seals all available individually. I've never had an issue with the SRAM ones though, so maybe check your installation and adjustment or you might end up eating bearings in the Wheels one as well.

Distro is out of stock, so unless someone has one on the shelf you're out of luck. OP - Olympic Cycles usually has every bike part or tool known to man in their shop. Give them a shout.

https://www.mtbsouthafrica.co.za/mtb-store/ for online orders, or mail Shawn at the address on the contact page and he'll tell you where your nearest retailer is.

You can agree to disagree, just don't send him to your favourite bike shop... When in doubt, rev it out. Or just turn up the tunes till the squeaking stops.

Pressure washers cause massive havoc, I'll agree. I'd sooner lick my drivetrain clean after every stage than hand my bike in to one of those event bike washes.

You'd be surprised how many okes either cut corners on maintenance before the event, or leave a full rebuild to 3 days before when they're tapering so have no time for a shakedown ride to check that everything's working properly. There's definitely an element of bad luck involved in some of these failures, but there are definitely many that I've seen that could easily be avoided with proper prep and a bit of mechanical sensitivity from the rider.

Have you had a proper suspension techie have a look at it? If it's a damper shaft issue replacing the shock is pretty much all you can do, if it's just a standard issue blown damper you can get it serviced for a fraction of the price of a replacement. Either way, keep up to date with service from this point on. 150 hours or annually. It'll save you a heap of heartache in the long run.

Just measure it, mounting distance (between eyelet and trunnion bolt) x stroke (let all the air out and compress). If it's a Deluxe the size will be printed on the damper body. Why are you replacing it?

Sounds like chainsuck to me. Find a hill where you don't have to watch where you're going, get in to a hardish gear, and watch where the chain comes off the bottom of the chainring. If the chain is flapping around, you need to replace your chainring as well. If it's a used cassette it may be the interface between the two halves of the cassette, they can wear over time.

2 zip ties shouldn't be that hard to find...

^ this. Good rise and sweep numbers, and kill trail buzz. Especially with a rigid fork.

I get trim tape from my panelbeater. Costs a small fortune, but doesn't fall off.

Standard on the older Sparks. A Scott dealer my have spares knocking around, otherwise it's a pivot kit.

We have to do this at least once a month. It's the best way of getting decent leverage and decent stability.

Like the magic smoke in electrical equipment, once it's out it's difficult to get back in.

The joy of squid fishing. As Eldron says, you should be able to ferret out the squid without stripping the lever. Disassembling is easy, getting it back together not so much.

Just keep the gym / pie balance on the right side of the scale and you'll get fit quickly, you're still young. The altitude will suck at first, but it'll help you out when you get back to sea level.

To sell a gravel bike for R 14k, a few corners will have had to be cut, and the BB bearings may well be one of them. You'll most likely find they're a standard size you can buy from a bearing supplier with a plastic insert so you'll just be able to replace the bearings and be on your way. The alternative is to replace the entire BB with either a SRAM or Shimano unit - not sure what interface their cranks use. As for drivetrain noise - same applies, Microshift will never be the same quality as the bigger players, but from what I've seen it's unlikely to let you down. The guys at Rook do their homework properly and provide a very decent product at the price point.