The FOX 34 CTD Fork (2014) Maintenance and Seal Replacement Mission!

Finding or building a cardboard box to ship the ailing Fox 34 fork to Fox so they can charge me $175 for basic service has been low priority, and tougher than clicking on Amazon to send me the elusive Fox 20wt Oil. Turns out the vendor via Amazon is now "Worldwide Cyclery", a rather aggressive/ambitious online bike + YouTube shop I will be mentioning in the next posts.
The fluid arrived in Prime time as promised (note my disclaimer at the bottom of all my pages - click the link I get a spiff) and all I needed was a window, which arrived last night, after dark, in the bike shed.

1. Video 1: Before shed time, I warmed up with a few YouTube clips. The first was an older GMBN one specific to a fork similar to mine. Seals were NOT covered here, but the basic steps and actual hints to the mess are apparent. His fork is way too clean too.
2. Video 2: While actually elbow deep into the destruction of my fork, I managed to pull this older video up, which focused more on the necessary CLEANING necessary - a long wooden dole is highly recommended! I lacked any handy wooden options, and ended up using an old $150 Thompson Carbon flat bar as my rag-plunger. If you want to go that way, pick one up here ;)

I went to Home Depot to grab some Nitrile Gloves, sorta like this "one size fits most" - next time I will go for some sizing options.
I also looked for some isopropyl alcohol in a sprayer, or this elusive "brake cleaner" always mentioned in the Youtubers. I have 70% medical stuff, but I want the good stuff. I shopped Home Depot's WD-40 collection, and reading the hazards online and on the product, chose this rather than the available brake cleaners and degreasers offering acetone, which I know is nasty.


SO an outline of my experiences, with some pics and links to product.

• My old floor mounted Park Tool work stand with the tiny round-tube grab - which stinks for all the modern carbon shapes - was an awesome holder for the fork while working on it.
• I did not have the tool(s) to punch off the airshaft, as in video 1. So I partially screwed the bolts on each chamber, and using the socket as a punch, tapped with my big rubber mallet. No real progress.
• Video 2 was much better, using metal on  the metal and a real hammer and a tap is all it took in the end - after scarring the finish on the bolts from the sockets, of course.
• This is a MESSY business. I bitch about my Stan's Bubble Baths during tubeless installs and bleeding Shimano Brakes/spraying Mineral Oil, but doing shocks is the worst - nasty stuff coming out 2 sides at once. 
• Lots of paper towels, attempts at the degreaser and my 70% medical Isopropyl - the gloves were indispensable, but even with gloves I was touching stuff all over. Clearly I need more practice.
• I had some cloth rags (cut up an old Banana Republic dress shirt) and the aforementioned handlebar to reach into the tubes to clean out the insides as per Video 2.
• Is my fork damaged? The Kashima Coating looks like its been worn a bit thin on the exposed stanchions
• The sweeps were filthy, the seals a little less so, but I might be too late to save the fork(?)
• Installing the new sweeps, after installing the seals, was easy as per the videos.
• Unlike videos 1 or 2 above, the oil dripping from MY FORK was of 2 different colors - yellowish on the damper side, and blue on the air side. I did see the blue "float" oil from the air chamber a few weeks back but only from the top, which I did NOT remove for this service.
• Did someone build or service this backwards at some point? (I thought it was NOS when I purchased)
• OR is something broken?
• REMOVING the seals required a little more force than Video 2 indicates. I also only had a 17mm open-spanner, vs the 19mm, and my fork is a 34 vs a 32 maybe?
• The metal springs popped out first.
• When trying to use pliers, I tore the top of the old seals.
• INSTALLING the new seals was tough too without the magic tool. Black rubber mallet was employed, I hope without too much damage.
  
• The crush washers from the kit worked great. The kit: 
• I soaked my new "sweeps" as per instructed, but I did not clean them in time as I started video 2 part way in.
• After much cleaning of the lowers and the floor and the tools (seriously, just messy), INJECTING the Fox 20wt Oil went smoothly too. I used these syringes, sucking up the remaining oil from the plastic container pictured above used to soak the seals.
• These syringes are ONLY 20ml, my forks required 30cc each side of the fork as per the FOX Bath Oil Volume Chart
• a larger syringe would be smoother, though I worked in 10ml gulps to slurp all the oil from my plastic bin
• again, I had blue "float oil" I presume, dripping out.
• My fork 4 digit code is CL7M, found here: 
• I have a 5cc of the Fox Float oil I purchased for this job. The chart indicates I can take 30cc- I assume this goes into the air chamber ABOVE - which seems HUGE, and expensive to get nearly this much in there
• I might add my 5cc to act as a volume spacer, which got me into this mess in the first place!
• AND after putting it all back together, the best part - the test ride!
• The night ride at 1 am showed lots of oil all over the Kashima - made me nervous, all leaky?
• This am, I zipped on the fender, adjusted brake, and I hit the road and then dirt. No black gook, they did feel the same and nearly bottomed out as per the "fun meter"
  

Replacing Dead Garmin 500 - Wahoo Reflkt + Tickr + iPhone SE. NO NO NO...

I purchased a new-old-stock Wahoo Reflkt off Ebay for about $30, and ordered a $50 Wahoo Tickr heart rate strap from AmazonThe goal is/was to connect the Wahoo parts to my iPhone SE via Bluetooth - I ride with my phone anyway, so why not leverage it all through the phone?

NO NO NO, its too much and too complicated. The Wahoo Reflkt is a bit "old" and of low quality compared to the full Wahoo head-units as well, and the Wahoo app is a bit much too - involving the phone in ride set up is a drag.

When I ordered the Tickr, I had also ordered the Garmin Forerunner 235, and being a watch-guy, I strapped it on and haven't really looked back - see my review here and pick one up if your old Garmin cycling computer dies on you. I am returning the Tickr un-opened, I'll maybe buy one if my Garmin strap dies/goes missing maybe.

I am not quite sure what to do with the REFLKT - maybe it can live on the road bike, but then I'd be riding with iPhone SE, Reflkt, Forerunner 235, HR strap, Speed/Cadence. I did try to see if the Forerunner would sync with the Reflkt, imagining a second screen for the watch might be okay, keep my eyes on the road/etc, but no dice. Involving the phone IS a bigger pain in the butt than I imagined, but is now confirmed.

Hit me up if you want a good deal on a Reflkt!

Replacing My Garmin 500 with a Garmin Forerunner 235 - a Review

Garmin Forerunner 235 vs Garmin 500

As mentioned previously on the blog, my Garmin 500 recently died, after breaking in half, being glued and then filling up with water in Downieville.

Dropping $300+ for a dedicated cycling GPS computer didn't feel right - I am cheap, the mounts all changed anyway and even though it would be cool, I don't need to enumerate my hang-time or "flow". A fan of GMBN, I checked out the watches they are promoting, the newest big flashy Garmin Fenix varieties. I run when I don't ride, and using my 500 with a watch strap was a bit silly. I am a watch guy anyway so maybe this is the way to go -- until I see the $500-800 prices. Wha?

As I read about GPS watches, the reviews and comments from long term users indicated to me the best value right be the Garmin Forerunner 235. Confirming it would sync with my existing Garmin heart-rate strap and speed/cadence on the road bike, I ordered one for under $200 - above now I see its under $195, the deal keeps getting better.
Having the watch for the last 2 or 3 weeks now, I can report its been really good. Its lighter than its size indicates, the built in heart-rate monitor is pretty solid, the display is large and easy for my aging eyes to read, and the integration with my iPhone SE is solid - I get notifications that come through better than on my aging Pebble Steel. I like the wireless synchronization too, a big improvement over the Garmin 500's mini-USB port. The battery life is okay too, but I find myself over-charging it with the alligator-like USB jaws.

My only gripe - where is the temperature? Maybe on the wrist this is not accurate enough to worry about? Looks like there is an add-on, the "Tempe"

 A second more minor gripe is the uncertainty of when its using my heart-rate strap vs the built-in - when my strap is on, I'd prefer it to fail over/use it.

Otherwise, its all good. We will watch the watch's durability and note any issues as we go along - hope its waterproof :)

Fixing Stripped Shimano XT M8000 Crankset Bolts

Anyone else have a problem with Torx-headed bolts? And their XT cranks? I recall 4 or 5 years ago torquing the shiny 30t chainring, maybe with a little cross-threading, thinking "this will be a bitch to
take off someday".


"Someday" was about 3 years later, the desire was to swap out the chainring for a new one due to wear. And it was a bitch and a half. 2 bolts came out with the torx as desired, the other 2 stripped in short order.  I attempted to use the Dremel
  to cut in a notch for a flathead, also failed. Looking
recently at the damage, I might have used a hacksaw too in my rage to cut the bolt.

Anyway, the result was me getting really pissed at the poor design, and bolts in general, so I went and picked up a Raceface Affect  crankset with Cinch and a pretty blue 30t Raceface  chainring. I put the M8000 damaged crank on the shelf and sort of glowered at it for the last year or so. Ongoing loosening issues with the Race Face and its backwards design, and now the need for a 1x solution for M's NS Bike had be looking for resurrection.


SO repair and rethreading the damaged hole(s) became the next approach.
First I bought a big tool and tap set, the best/highest recommended I could muster on Amazon - this one . Its a nice set for being so obviously Chinese and cheap, BUT its missing the M8 x 0.75 threading tool I needed. SO I also had to order one of these too
I used the handle from the first set to hold the plain tool. All tooled up, I had to do a little more drilling, some more tapping (ie screwing the above tool into the damaged hole.

Next problem? I tapped too much, so the threads closest to the hold opening were no longer gripping the existing bolt collection. I took out the spanner to measure 10-11mm bolt, so I would look for something longer.

I ordered some of these original Shimano 11mm Torx bolts,
and finally, THESE 12.4 mm by RaceFace,
which have the awesome property of NOT being Torx, just plain old hex, with little "Race Face" fonts wrapping the head like a tiny hotrod mag tire from a 70's Hotwheel car. Next to each other, they look identical in length but the effective length of the Race Face has them acting a little longer, biting earlier/deeper. Is that even a term, "biting"?

Anyway they seem to be long enough to reach, in one hole even too long (might be time to tap that hole too!) so I am now running 3x Raceface 5mm Hex and +1 original Torx 25.

SO the runway is clear to shop for a 12 speed 30t chainring, 96BCD or Cinch...

NSBike Project, Fox on the Nukeproof, Chainline Boost Rebuild

Constantly falling behind the Blog.

The Rockshox has been rocking the Hightower, its staying on for now.

I did fully install the Fox 34 CTD on the Nukeproof hardtail for a ride - it was okay, but lots of black
gook all over the stanchions. I need to find/build a box to ship these to the service center, not sure
its worth the $175+ unless I *CAN* upgrade the internals.  Need to tighten the cassette.

The 46t on the Hightower has been good, but I find myself holding the lever under power to keep that
46t engaged. The problem is chainline - its a 142mm with a Boost adapter to 148. The disc side has an adapter to to properly reposition the disk 3mm outboard, BUT the cassette has no such compensation. The fix is to get a Boost hub, new spokes, rebuild the rim, etc. IF I bother, do I go 12sp SLX/XT on a wheel rebuild? The bike rode well today, maybe back burner this one until there is a problem.

Problem could be the NSBike - it needs a rear mech. I also will be trying to fix the damaged threads/complete the bolt removal from the 1 x XT M8000, which would also be used for the NSBike. Using a new 11sp would be such a waste...(looking for 12sp justification already).