Daniel J Méssem

How much do builders generally charge per wheel? Think I need to start charging my friends...

Might have to do spokes at the same time...

depends on the paint / clearcoat that they use, maybe they can put on a couple of layers of ceramicoat - its the clearcoat used by most german car makers now days (clear coat hardness tends to differ by country)

strip the frame down DIY?

ok, awesome fun technical riding and you aren't super light, so similar to me, here is what I upgraded (I don't really care about weight) Stem - sent from a long xc stem that came with the bike to a nice short stem, big difference Pedals - went for very grippy flats, crank brothers 5050 2 Wider handlebars with rise, feels much better Lock on grips, must have RIMS - original ones got pretty beaten up, I went for stans flow ex and went tubeless, butted spokes, kept the hubs at 1st Tires - something fat and grippy, went with nobly nics myself, rabid robs are kinda entry level Fork - Got a nice 2nd hand deal on the hub, Rockshox revelation with thru axle (my front wheel would rub on the old fork with QR) Rear shifter - shimano saint Rear derailer - XT with clutch (from slx without clutch) Dropper post - best upgrade ever! Crank and BB - deore one got beaten up, went shimano XT with 29/27.5 specific gearing (30T middle ring) Brakes - came with Avid Elixer 1, changed to XT because I was tired of spending hours beeding the avids Hubs - XT rear, the stock freehub saw its day. Hope on the front for the thru axle. Haven't replaced (yet) - Frame - Cassette - front derailleur (will take this off soon)

what I would do (depends on type of riding, and your weight of course) pedals if you haven't already fork crankset and BB Rear shifter Rims and spokes

Personally, gorilla tape seems to work better than stans, and its cheap enough even if you're not running tubeless 25mm wide, R50 for a roll at builders

many things to take into consideration, I will do a proper calculation sometime, or find one online to review. Here a a few considerations - 26er wheel needs to spin faster for the same ground speed as a 29er - so if the wheels are the same weight, and the weight is distributed similarly in both, there may be no difference in acceleration - 29er still has more mass, so will take more force from the rider to get it going (assuming the same tires and rims) - 29er rims need to be a little beefier to give the same strength as an equivalent 26er Imagine 2 26ers, one with light tires one with heavy tires, this is close to what is happening What would be interesting in the calculations if the actual effect this has on the system as a whole, tires/rims are pretty light compared to rider and bike

maybe post some pics if you can If the rotors are badly scratched they may need replacing, if its not too bad then some very fine sandpaper could work, I have used 1200-1500 grit on rotors with good results The pads may also need to bed in a bit more than normal if the rotors are damaged Another issue may be that the rotors have old pad on them, a good clean and light sand would get rid of this and allow the new pads to cover the rotors in their pad material - have had this issue a few time changing between resin and metal pads

What area?

because of the fins? actually find the finned pads easier to replace, hold em by the fins...

paid R7 for a spoke for the same rim at Solomons, used the spoke wrench on my multitool to fix it - trued it with a toothpick presticked to the fork - a load of the spokes had become loose, so tightened em up (have proper wheel building kit now, so dont hate) replaced the alexrims soon after... have the old spokes lying around at home, pm me if you don't come right

Not hard to do youself if you're comfortable doing it - youtube is full of good stuff (and bad, but pretty easy to see whats bad)

Bleed them a few more times, repeat...

Im running 3x10 with medium cage - did these calculations before buying it. I took note of which combinations I use, I try to keep my chain straight. The calcs I did for myself said that I would be fine with a short cage derailer Something to remember though, if you have rear suspension the derailers will also be taking care of chain length as the distance from BB to rear axle changes - the amount of change depends on the bike - mine moved 2 links from what I remember.

Cant get hold of anyone via email / phone

doesnt look like I can enter

let up know how she rides!

thanks guys - trying to get hold of Charnelle

added stress from a steeper headtube - cant see how?

Anyone?

just do it - can see absolutely no reason not to try it putting a really long fork on a frame thats not designed for it 'may' over stress the headtube - putting a shorter for on will not, and we are only talking 20mm here

Just tried to enter online - but seems online entries have closed Few mates and myself are keen - can we just rock up at 5ish and enter?

If its to try out before buying a new fork then go for it the 2008 model came with a 120mm fork right? Dropping this to 100mm will steepen your head angle a degree or so, not ideal but ridable. BB will also be lowered a little, not sure what is was to start with though.. If you can get hold of the geometry numbers for the frame I can recalculate the geometry based on a 100mm fork if you like. Trend does seem to be to put on longer forks, especially on older frames, this gets you a slacker head and more travel up front, but depends on what riding you want it for I guess

you could ride for 'CNA for Rhinose Day' - just dont forget to put a Rhinose on your bike