Monthly Archives: March 2010

A test ride into town proved that the Hemlock is ace, however it also proved that the gears were shot, and the rear tyre a fraction too wide. So after a quick shopping session, and an afternoon of fettling, it’s now been tweaked.

The Hemlock now has a new 32t chainring, the almost-new 11-34t cassette from the 69er, and a slightly narrower Bontrager XR4 2.2" tyre to replace the Bontrager Jones ACX 2.35". Whilst I was at it, the 69er got a new 11-32t cassette, the Hemlock had the stem raised 10mm, and all my spare parts lying round the place were bagged up and labelled properly.

I resisted the temptation to buy new bars and stem this morning, as other than moving to a slightly stiffer 31.8mm bar, it wouldn’t have made much difference. After a bit more riding I’ll work out if I need a shorter stem or not, but for the moment the 100mm Thomson and low-rise Easton EA50 bars seem spot on.

A lunchtime trip out to the Bath Ales brewery shop provided a case of Wild Hare and a case of Rare Hare for imbibing over the Easter weekend.

I’d been toying with dipping my toe into the world of full-suspension bikes again, things have progressed a long way since I bought my Craftworks back in 2003. After a few weeks pondering I settled on a Cotic Hemlock, and after a week long wait a new frame arrived today. It’s effectively a replacement for my little-used On-One 456, so most of the bits were transferred straight across.

Cotic Hemlock

As built, it comes in just under 31lbs.

Spec:
Cotic Hemlock frame with short rockers.
RockShox Revelation forks
Hope XC/Mavic F519 wheels with 2.35" Bontrager Jones ACX tyres.
Shimano SLX mechs, SRAM Attack shifters, Hone chainset.
Avid Elixir R brakes
Thomson, Easton, and Charge finishing kit.

Future plans:
It’ll probably get new bars and a slightly shorter stem tomorrow, then at some point in the future some new wheels, probably Hope Hoops, and some longer bolt-through forks to beef up the front end.

Today’s additions.

• Thomson seatpost
• Charge Spoon saddle
• Shimano SLX front and rear mechs
• Jagwire cables
• KMC chain

Next week will be interesting.

I was meant to be fixing a computer this afternoon, so despite the weather decided to ride out along the canal rather than drive. As it was wet I took the mudguard equipped Peregrine rather than the crosser, the downside being that it has 32mm slick tyres which don’t provide a lot of grip on a wet and muddy tow-path, at one point on the way back both tyres slipped sideways and I nearly ended up getting acquainted with the canal itself.

23 miles in the rain, and not enough food makes for a very hard last few miles home.

It’s amazing how different a bike can look with just a fettle of the forks and a change of tyres.

After changing the travel in the Rebas this morning, then fitting new tyres, I decided it was time to take the 69er 3×9 for a spin. I initially headed up along Linear Way to see what’s going on with the Two Tunnels work, the answer is not a lot really. Picking up the usual route I headed up and into the woods, through the Uni, down into Bathampton, then back along the main road. About a mile from home the rear tyre went flat necessitating a repair or walk decision. 20 minutes later I finished the walked back into my road a home for a beer.

I was suffering from lower back ache every time I stepped off the bike, possibly from the Camelbak I was wearing, time to investigate Wingnut bags.

This won’t be of interest to many people, but it’ll be useful to me next time I need to do this.

• Remove front wheel and brake caliper. Protect from any oil which may escape (I wrapped the caliper in a plastic bag).
• Let air out of both chambers, then remove valve cores
• Remove 10mm nut from bottom of left leg. You’ll probably need to start with a spanner before moving to a long 10mm socket as there isn’t much clearance.
• Remove top cap from left leg with 24mm socket.
• Keeping fork compressed (use zip-ties or similar) push the piston rod up from the bottom of the fork. This’ll need freeing with a tap from a hammer, then pushing thorough with a 5mm allen key or similar. Stop when the air piston pops out of the top of the fork.
• Remove or add spacer as appropriate.
• Push air piston back into fork until piston rod appears out of the bottom of the fork.
• Add 10ml fork oil to bottom of fork and replace valve core.
• Replace 10mm nut on piston rod and tighten until snug.
• Add 5ml fork oil to top of fork, replace top cap and valve core.
• Remove any zip-ties etc. used to keep fork compressed.
• Pump air back into forks, 160+/150- psi ish.

My current favourite all-round MTB tyres are the Bontrager Jones ACX in varying flavours, however in their infinite wisdom Bontrager have  stopped making them. This leaves me with something of a conundrum, what should I buy instead for the 69er?

The rear tyre isn’t too much of a problem, I’ll probably get a 2.2" XR4, but what do I get for the front? There isn’t a 29" version of the XR4, so I’m left to pick between the 29-3, 29-4 (which isn’t on the Bontrager website), the FR3 or the last Jones ACX hanging on the wall at the LBS provided they haven’t sold it in the last few days.

Why can’t they make things easy and bring back the ACX?

Update: Decision made, the 29-4 will not available for a while, so it’ll be 2.2" ACX on the front, with a 2.2" XR4 on the rear.

Tonight was the first evening ride with Ian for quite a while. I rode as far as Avoncliff then turned round and headed back home again, a round trip of just under 20 miles. There must be some sort of weird phenomenon alongside the Kennet and Avon canal which messes with shifting. My front mech shifted perfectly on the way into to town, but as soon as we rode up onto the canal towpath it refused to shift back into the big ring and took a good couple of minutes of fiddling to get it to work. After that I just left it in the big ring for the rest of the ride.

The biggest problem tonight was the cold. My winter tights don’t fit properly, but probably wouldn’t have been much better, and despite thick Merino socks, shoes, and toe covers, I still lost feeling in a few toes.

The warm weather can’t come soon enough.