Bike Fleet News

Sunday, November 24, 2024

A Joyous Autumn of Dirt

I just finished by 2024 ride goal of 5200 miles today. 2 days of shed rain-

training and a Strada 7:30 today got me over the top

Its been a great fall of riding, especially compared to last years Whistler crash, shoulder surgery and healing. I just started riding again a year ago, in the rain, up in Boggs with the GN gang on my birthday weekend.

Aug 23-25 - Mendicino MTB Trails with KT. Camping, awakened by a bear in the rain, mazing trails on the Pseudo-Cruz, though the rear hub went bad

Old XT Axle transplanted into SLX Hub of Pseudo Cruz

the patient was able to accept the new/old XT axle

innards of a SLX 12 speed hub - the bearings poured out. 2500-3000 miles out of a $75 hub is not bad, really

Sep 2 - Annadel - big work with KT and JC

Sep 8 - Return of the Tandem - BF and I got out the Fandango for the first time since our respective surgeries

Oct 11- Questa Grade/Ridge Trails outside of San Luis Obispo with GN, JC and DS. Pick n Shovel in particular was nice. Also spent time on M's very nice Yamaha in the whoops of Ballinger Canyon, and was left unable to walk for a week afterwards - again.

Questa Grade Trailhead, right off 101 crazy exit required

Sunset at JC's Ranch

On the climb back out after Pick n Shovel at Questa Grade/Ridge Park, San Luis Obispo

"Merricks Baby" at Ballinger - good horse, did not throw me

Oct 26 - Big Chief Trail up in Tahoe with the KT - I made a quick day Trip with JA and his Taco. Trails amazing and built with major love our of rock and duff. Huge pinecones.

Climbing to the top from the Sawtooth Trailhead, Truckee CA

Lunch at the trailhead of OTB, Truckee/ Lake Tahoe 2024

Nov 17 - Coaching with Brian Astell on the Santa Cruz Trails ON MY BIRTHDAY. 6 of the KT crew tuned by a coach, then led by a coach into the big drops in the redwoods at sunset. Nuts. Got skills to work on - light hands on the bars, keep the shoulders forward over the steep stuff, give arms a range of motion in the drops - this last one might have been the cause of the aforementioned Whistler crash.

cake by smarty-pants M, cursing me!?

Old Men Coaching Brian on Pizza n Beer

SO many other rides and memories in between on the road early morning and Sundays in between, hills in the fog and so many lovely sunrises. Thanks to all.

Big bike work here too all along. A V3 Hightower framed popped up on Pinkbike, I bought it, moved over Santa Cremes parts and christened it Darth Santa. Amazing bike, pedaling improvement is impressive, super fast going downhill and I like the glove box. Sold Santa Creme frame for way too little but at least it sold - still sitting on the Intense. Intense the company keeps on releasing new stock for as much as I am trying to get for mine - might need to keep it for spare parts.

Swapped out the Franken-hub with a new XT, reusing spokes and nips if they were solid enough - took 4 hours!

Build out the 2x new/old Carbon rims - put one one Santa for the rear, and the other on the front of the Meta HT. After a Minion DHF blew off the rim due to 40+psi, got a new Minion installed today. New purple grips and pedals here, rim is on the 100mm Chris King in Pink. I debated long and hard about swapping the old rim out of Darth Santa but decided 4 hours was not worth it.

This now means the fleet of 3 MTBs are all riding on hand-built Light-Bicycle carbon rims. I may be done here.

So with the rain and additional threats of cameras on the trails near, it might be a winter of JM/Roberts?

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Shoe Sale, Great Prices

AF had a need for a kid so I got out a lineup - he took a bunch!

Giving stuff away might be the way to lighten the load.

The remainder are the worst, AF is no fool :)

Bike Geometry Comparison

Darth Santa is no joke - its big but thankfully does pedal uphill better than Santa Creme. Mission Accomplished.

But why? And is it really bigger?

The Link:

https://geometrygeeks.bike/compare/santa-cruz-hightower-29er-low-2016-xl,yeti-sb115-2021-xl,santa-cruz-hightower-v3-lo-2022-2023-xl,intense-951-xc-2021-x-large/

At least an inch longer, V3 info a little sparse.

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Busy Weekend in the Shop - Hub Holds, Goodbye Santa Creme, Hello Darth Santa? Santa Grey?, Yet Another Drivetrain and Tandem Stem Swap

Lots of bike fleet maintenance going on

Peak Bike - 40+ miles of dirt and road on the hacked hub - hacked = a forum entry suggested cutting the plastic teeth in the hub and then using Phil's Grease liberally. Just an edge of creak up the steepest hills. and the hub buzz fades in and out, just as the hacker described. The good news is I had the confidence to move onto the Santa Creme swap. Also, we have parts to make moves with:

new XT Hub Arrived - rebuild or return maybe? or hold?
new SLX Hub Arrived - swap out the axle and hub?

Santa Creme to Darth Santa - with Peak healthy enough as a backup, it was time to make moves on the Santa Swap.

The DOT SRAM parts continued to trouble me, so I decided to give them a try and move forward.

The parts are newer than the ones I would move over - lots of Code RS brakes vs XT has all sorts of forum entries, so they may be equivalent enough.
The irony I find is moving the XT derailleur and shifter to an otherwise all SRAM setup - and I actually LIKE the NX 12sp shifter/derailleur on Peak and the Intense.
Are these titanium mounting bolts in oil-slick? They go perfectly with the oil-slick on my Spank stem. The frame is also completely wrapped, this seller had style.

The left-over handlebar bell fit nicely as the brake and dropper mounts share a single mount - pretty clean.

Intense still for Sale BTW
And a 2018 XL Santa Cruz frame

lets order up a bearing kit for this btw

The name is up for grabs - Darth Santa seems too obvious but might be perfect. Santa Grey or Santa Gray a bit tame but I like the flow.
And a sticker, gotta find a TStiers sticker.

Fm166 Drivetrain for M. A text chain late last night indicated M broke his chain riding back to the dorm and that it was somehow stuck in the rear derailleur - could I pick it up and fix it? So yes, of course, I love he is riding and felt bad about not just assuming we would need new parts after the chain had broken first time.

I ordered new parts on Amazon, went to do a road tide, then went to SB to pick up a long cable and housing for Darth Santa
WHILE at Sportsbasement, I asked if they had 10 speed chains - yes, 27$! I had ordered same chain for $35! And Quick Link? $4.50 SRAM vs a 8.99 KMC on Amazon. Cassette? Only a 11-28 or 11-46 so I skipped this. Made my purchases and immediately cancelled my Amazon order for the chain parts.
I picked up M and the bike, and together we made repairs. The rack is a hack on that thing, making it tough to remove wheels and get the anti-theft skewer re-installed. I took the new cassette off Old Blue and put it on the FM166, first new parts on the rig besides seat collar.

We did some careful tuning and test rides. I assume he made it home/dorm safe.

Tandem Stem - sore hands and bottom last ride, B wanted to ride again today. Arg. So I took out the measuring tape and it turns out the cockpit is actually LONGER than my current MTBs. So after today's ride I moved the like 150mm to a 100mm Race Face I had around. Quick test ride indicates this is the right direction. I measured the height from the ground too and its a bit taller, but the higher BB again makes this fine.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Chasing Creaks in the Yeti SB115 Leads to An Obvious Conclusion - Shimano 12sp Hubs

All Mendicino weekend the growing creek ached on my mind, and troubled my soul.

I assumed it was bottom bracket, so finally we got the replacement and after a violent evening of rubber mallets and not quite the proper tools for removal, I got the old SRAM DUB BB out, and new one in.

The bearings in the removed unit were rough, but not actually loose or damaged. Maybe try, but not enough for the creaks I was hearing.

I test rode anyway on the commute to work - besides getting sweaty, I remained creaky.

Its not the BB, or chainring...

I jumped on forums and found I was not alone - everything from seatposts to manufacturing flaws were blamed. I went to Yeti's support site, they sent me to the local dealer who I emailed. I poked my Yeti guru in a work meeting, who navigated the option of parts and presses I might need to deploy. The complex looking links scared me, but I would dig in over the long weekend...

I found I could reproduce the creak statically at 9 and 3 oclock under load, the internet full of testing suggestions applying load and stretching positions for the Yetis. Chain and cassette being brand new, I suspected chainring! I could swap the exact newer unit from the Intense 951 (still for sale) and so I immediately did so when I rode home. Still creeking after the swap, so I swapped back.

On the theme of swapping parts, I FINALLY decided to swap the 12speed wheel from the Intense, AND then...silence.

It was the wheel hub - Shimano 12sp wheel no less, duh! But this was my SLX champion, a replacement for known XT 12sp issues.

Then I recalled the mysterious looseness of the new cassette install, I even took a video of it for Todd's Bike Shop that I need to edit. I might not now, but none the less, lets take a look at the hub after referring to some oldish Youtube videos on the topic.

Off came the newish rotor and newish cassette and then the dustcap, which was way too sticky and did not simply "pop" off as in the nice clean video examples.

See the tiny bearings raining down and out of the freehub? That is not good.

Tiny bearings sprayed out onto the floor. Some chunks too but mostly these tiny round bearings that apparently hold the free-hub together! I was shocked, I expected proper sealed bearings. Lots of rust and dirt, too much washing?

The axle and freehub removed together - they seem to be fused now, usually the freehub should pop right off but not here!

Rather then easily popping off, the freehub was very stuck to the axle. I went well beyond the instructional videos online to rubber mallet and tapping out the entire axle. More shock for me, I see round old school ball bearings hanging out in the SLX hub, cone bearings hiding in there.

This is how Shimano sells a hub for $75 - good old cone bearings inside.

So then I wondered what was inside the XT 12speed hub in my parts bin - note I rejected this good looking hub previously FOR A REASON (ie CREAKING) so I decided to explore and see if the XT guts were compatible with the SLX.

Using my new axle disassembly knowledge I found the XT *also* went with cone bearings, and in fact the WHOLE axle and freehub both fit right into the SLX hub and bearings

I slapped in plenty of grease on those exposed cone bearings - these main bearings seemed okay, maybe a little rough but I used the XT's cones vs moving the SLX (probably a bad idea).

Love Phil's Grease

I put the wheel together, freehub operating and axle spining smooth, I went for a test ride in the dark and... a new creak, or actually an old creak of the XT freehub that promoted it to my parts box in the first place!!!

Shimano 12sp got me again. OR did it? 1077 miles on the SLX hub while on the Yeti, BUT this wheel was also on the Intense for nearly 700 and maybe another 1000 or more on the Santa Cruz. Before this, it MAY have been an XT or I already had decided to build this wheel from the start with SLX because of poor XT performance.

For $75, maybe this hub was an actual success? Moving the wheel between bikes hid the history and long term abuse this RACE WHEEL went through.

So I decided to order an XT replacement, hoping Shimano improved the design by 2024. Worldwide Cyclery had one. Yes, I hope to re-use the spokes and simply move the rim over.

Sleeping and riding and this morning pricing a OneUp today, $219 + $50 freehub, I went to Amazon and ordered another SLX for $79 as well. Yes, I am cheap.

I also ordered Coach Dan's magic salt tablets - a Gu Product. I took 2x of these I had leftover in my bag on yesterday's ride, survived.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Mendocino Trails Report - Up n Down with the KT, with Rain n Bears

Yes, it was amazing. We had hero dirt from the rain, excitement from a bear visit in the rain, cooking and conversation but being the KT, mostly riding up and down big hills quickly.

I rode Peak Bike, worked great but the bottom bracket needs to be replaced. At one point, my crank tried to fall off, fortunately I caught it during lunch. New one is on order.