Monster post! Frosty trails! Crap Hubs!
Woo yay!
Winter is here, out last night for our normal Tuesday nightride and the trails varied from chocolate slush puppy to rock hard frozen loveliness. A thin layer of frost covered most of the trails in Leicestershire biggest deer related tourist attraction which didn’t effect traction when climbing but as soon as you braked you pretty much guarantee’d locking up your rear wheel – mental fun!
However our favourite singletrack descent through the woods has now got a big tree over it which I can’t see getting moved anytime soon, though I’m sure a line around it will become apparent.
We had a covering of snow overnight and if it looks like it’s going to hang around until tonight I can see me heading out for some snowbound night ride action, but it’ll probably be gone by this evening dammit [12 midday and its gone boo!].
In further “isn’t bike kit crap news”…
I need to service my rear hub, the freehubs making bad bad noises and now the cones need adjusting as there is a bit of play. Luckily I have the exact same hub to use for spares and I have robbed a 10mm allen key from Ian, why do I not have a 10mm one? More to the point why do I continue to punish myself by buying cheap crappy hubs? Since I bought my Marin (now there was a decision based on too much thinking and not enough gut trusting),where my current front wheel originates from, I have got through the following rear wheels:
1x XT Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by my local LBS – cause of death the hub internals died when the free hub body started to ream out the threads it was mounted on, however the I had to keep on adjusting the cones and the build quality was less than stellar.
1x Deore Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by Chain Reaction Cycles, had to adjust the cones a bit but it was fine until I got to Morzine where everything went a bit wrong and I starting breaking spokes. But that could be due to the huge amount of (ab)use on the back of a the Prince Albert (a hardtail for the uninitiated) with Big-ish forks over the summer. Getting a couple of high speed pinch flats probably didn’t help matters either.
1 x Deore Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by a robbing Frenchman in Morzine. The current wheel, still nice and true but the freehub hasn’t been great since day 1 and now the cones need adjusting. It will get the full strip down, swear at it, chase the bearings from under the fridge and put it back together with loads of grease and a healthy freehub.
However I have sworn never to buy a frickin Shimano hub again as they have rubbish seals however getting a cartridge bearing hub for under 75quid seems to be a bit of a task except for the DMR revolvers which are generic Taiwanese jobs. But that’s what I shall be buying next when this one finally dies.
Also note to self when lifting bike over fences to access trails of the cheeky sort hand bike over the fence to your mate with the non computer sensor side facing him otherwise you’ll not get any mileage collected for the rest of the ride. Grrrrrr
In mileage news, I’ll pass the 200 road miles mark the next time I head out on the roadbike which was sort of my aim for the month with just about a week to spare.
Winter is here, out last night for our normal Tuesday nightride and the trails varied from chocolate slush puppy to rock hard frozen loveliness. A thin layer of frost covered most of the trails in Leicestershire biggest deer related tourist attraction which didn’t effect traction when climbing but as soon as you braked you pretty much guarantee’d locking up your rear wheel – mental fun!
However our favourite singletrack descent through the woods has now got a big tree over it which I can’t see getting moved anytime soon, though I’m sure a line around it will become apparent.
We had a covering of snow overnight and if it looks like it’s going to hang around until tonight I can see me heading out for some snowbound night ride action, but it’ll probably be gone by this evening dammit [12 midday and its gone boo!].
In further “isn’t bike kit crap news”…
I need to service my rear hub, the freehubs making bad bad noises and now the cones need adjusting as there is a bit of play. Luckily I have the exact same hub to use for spares and I have robbed a 10mm allen key from Ian, why do I not have a 10mm one? More to the point why do I continue to punish myself by buying cheap crappy hubs? Since I bought my Marin (now there was a decision based on too much thinking and not enough gut trusting),where my current front wheel originates from, I have got through the following rear wheels:
1x XT Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by my local LBS – cause of death the hub internals died when the free hub body started to ream out the threads it was mounted on, however the I had to keep on adjusting the cones and the build quality was less than stellar.
1x Deore Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by Chain Reaction Cycles, had to adjust the cones a bit but it was fine until I got to Morzine where everything went a bit wrong and I starting breaking spokes. But that could be due to the huge amount of (ab)use on the back of a the Prince Albert (a hardtail for the uninitiated) with Big-ish forks over the summer. Getting a couple of high speed pinch flats probably didn’t help matters either.
1 x Deore Hub with Mavic XM321 rim supplied by a robbing Frenchman in Morzine. The current wheel, still nice and true but the freehub hasn’t been great since day 1 and now the cones need adjusting. It will get the full strip down, swear at it, chase the bearings from under the fridge and put it back together with loads of grease and a healthy freehub.
However I have sworn never to buy a frickin Shimano hub again as they have rubbish seals however getting a cartridge bearing hub for under 75quid seems to be a bit of a task except for the DMR revolvers which are generic Taiwanese jobs. But that’s what I shall be buying next when this one finally dies.
Also note to self when lifting bike over fences to access trails of the cheeky sort hand bike over the fence to your mate with the non computer sensor side facing him otherwise you’ll not get any mileage collected for the rest of the ride. Grrrrrr
In mileage news, I’ll pass the 200 road miles mark the next time I head out on the roadbike which was sort of my aim for the month with just about a week to spare.
posted by Dan Lees at 12:27 PM
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