brussel

OK JB you said "A properly designed bush will weigh 7 grams more and that's apparently more than the weight-weenies can handle, hence the poor design." give me the design..I am keen to experiment. My thought is to design it with o-ring seals on either side to stop dust ingress. after bragging previously in this thread about how mine are not worn I took my shock apart yesterday to find they are screwed!! the only thing stopping the rattling was the amount of crud in them I have two extra sets of reducers and can turn up more if I need. The bush itself is stuffed. What is the bush made of? it has a reddish colour to it. As per the last question from Jughead, what about alternative materials? Vesconite/acetal/brass

I have the slx and they are great. Teh bearings on the BB are perfect after 6000 km and lots of tough mtb riding and racing...steel middle ring is great - gives good lifespan on the most used ring

still got some if folks want...

bugger I lost my key on table mountain once out climbing...they cost a lot to get replaced

part III Ok so I road up the rode a few times... definitely the chain slipping on the rings and not the cassette. I replaced the big one and viola all solved...so it is FUBAR but does not look that bad? strange but true!brussel2009-09-04 01:38:23

Johann the settings on both derailleurs are perfect shifting is crisp both up and down. Skipping only happens in the big ring when I put major pressure on the system when I am out the saddle. It is also worst in the 17 sprocket for some reason, not at either end of the travel of the derraileur. I have a spare 44 so maybe I should try it. Here is a pic of my current one: brussel2009-09-03 10:03:20

OK part II I replace my cassette, chain and pulleys as they were all pretty shot after 6000km of hard MTB riding. Chainrings are OK except the large one. Riding in the big ring out of the saddle I get chain skipping. It cant be the cassette/chain/derailleur as it is all new and in perfect alignment. Can you get chain slipping on the chainrings?

I have slx cranks and the middle ring is steel composite and it looks as good as new. My small one is in good nick as well. The large one has taken the most abuse. The teeth are quite blunt - but NOT sharkfin shaped. The SLX chainrings (large anyhow) had fairly blunt teeth st the start. I don't want to replace if I don't have to and the shift fine. I was replacing my cassette and chain so I was checking. (my last bike O rode for 6 years with the same rings )brussel2009-09-01 06:38:10

OK so there has been more than enough discussion on chain length and replacing cassettes etc. but when do you replace chainrings? They don't have the skipping issues that a worn cassette will have. So how do I know if I need to replace or not?

where is the play?? I have nearly 6000km on mine and they are perfect, so I am wondering? The bolt has a fair amount of play through the aluminium reducers. But there must be no play between the reducers and the bush (a pressed in insert in the shock itself) So where is it?

I spoke to Karen this morning becuase my one ride has an index of zero. Whilst I did do well I did not win She did not sound that happy at all - but they were going to recalculate the seeding so lets see..

Fanie, how have they calculated the seedings. I thought they were supposed to use only 3 races. I have 4 one of which has a ride index of 0????

Cassie the problem is that to do this for others, the time would cost you as much as a new set of 520's. For myself though I can justify the time brussel2009-08-31 01:13:02

I think with a 1mm o-ring I could easily machine the groove...getting two grooves would be more difficult, but doable I think...5mm apart would be impossible, the new surface is only 5mm wide...so one might have to do! as for the seals, I was amazed that one little flimsy seal was all there was, and there seemed to have been fairly little ingress even with the amount of wear.

Ok Johan let me do that - good idea, should add a bit of friction but at the value of really keeping the crap out. Why don't they do that from the go??

OK so my spd's are not well after saturdays river crossings. The bearings are smooth but a lot of play...hmmmm so I open them up and the plastic sleeve that runs on the axle is worn oversize by more than a millimeter as you can see arrowed in this image. So what to do? a bit of a boer maak 'n plan for an ex-engineer, I am sure we can make this work. Luckily I have some tools on hand. So I bored the worn surface to a good finish and a known dimension. Then I turned up a nylon plug to fit oversized and press fit it into place. I then bored the plug to 14mm to fit the pedal axle and voila!! another couple of thousand km's I hope!!

more than happy to do so except I work in the evening. I have sent them a mail and called so they are quite aware of the frustration. Here is my mail for what it is worth: I am getting really frustrated with PedalPower as are many other riders, and I feel that PedalPower owe us an apology and certainly at least some of our membership money back. I paid my membership fees end June and it is now end August and the seeding and new membership still has not been completed and this is plainly unacceptable. I understand that there are some issues because of the Argus having slow times - but that was in March and there is no way that it takes this many months to sort it out. Secondly there seems to be this desire to get the seeding etc sorted for the road season - what about the mountain bike riders? Do we get discounted fees for second rate service? Many riders are starting waaay back in the field because they are waiting for reseeding that should have been done two months ago. That is 8 races that they should be starting up front but can't because pedal power cannot get this solved. We were told the seeding would be done by the end of this week, it is Friday and still nothing has happened and I am guessing that nothing will. Whilst I understand that Racetec does the seeding, PPA has been slack in communication to their members and have been disorganized that this should become such a fiasco for this long I am saddened and disappointed at what I thought was a well run organization. Please guys get this right or you are going to find a great lack of support for you and your organization.

Pedal Power are really cocking it up this time. There is still no seeding on the site. Their service is shocking. We payed our memberships end June and still nothing has been done and it is end August PEDAL POWER YOU ARE BING A BUNCH OF TOSSERS SORT IT OUT!

velo - yip just up the road

I've just seen Willie with the lease agent in a store with a "to let" sign out front at the Van Riebeeckshof mall near to Welgedacht where Willie stays....seems he may be opening up a new shop soon.

bos, look for an application called autostitch. It is a small freeware app. You give it your pictures and it automatically color corrects and stitches them together. works really well. Here is a shot taken off a climb in Du Toits kloof. about 7 shots stitched together.

Tankwa karoo - miles from nowhere, most awesome ride!!

was a swedish crazy dude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G?ran_Kropp died some years later in a climbing fall.

it was at a bike show, check velonews I think?...it's titanium runabout - niiiiice!

I think it might be a bit shorter over du toits kloof. but you will have to go worcester robertson - there is no other route that I am aware of.