Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

[Ramble]

Thank God my pedals are smoother.

Here's me all dressed up and looking like a prat:

[notatoad]

lol @ your glasses

although riding with big glasses is nice. keep the mud/trees out.

Nice socks.

[Slick13]

Very bad photo of mine, GT XC2 20" frame, already bust the chocolate crank whilst riding some trails, so has a hollowtech2 crankset on it, just looking at sorting out the derailleurs and shifters next.

[RTT]

Went out for an early ride this morning. Got to Swinley Forest, down the very first descent on my route and my bloody chain snapped! Had to ride my bike home like it was a scooter/skateboard Thanks, SRAM!

[Clocked]

Eurgh! I hate that, you didn't rattle your knee or anything did ya? Standard practice is for me to rattle my knee off the handlbars or summit and end up like this

[Tomm]

Originally Posted by Clocked

lol thats what did the holey-ness on the shin... the culprit is below...

Haha, I was expecting to see skin left on the pedal Have a look at some of the shins HERE. My new tactic for preventing shin-digs (on my trials bike) is to run DX pedals with very blunt pins - the DXs are a really nice concave shape and they hold your foot almost without any pins. Terrible in the wet but I'm a fairweather rider

[Jamie]

I just have to look at my pedals and they cut my legs. I seem to mysteriously get a new cut every ride without noticing.

[RTT]

I just bought a Commençal Meta 5.5.1



Fox Float 32 140mm RLs, Fox RP2, SRAM X.9/X.0 gear all round, Raceface cranks, Oro K24s... the works

[Tomm]

Woo, nice one. I have last year's Meta 5.5.3 - the cheapest one (Mind you, it's been upgraded a lot - more of a 5.5.2.5 if you ask me). I love it, so much fun.

I was going to post a picture of mine but now you have the best bike in the thread /me goes off and sulks

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Tomm

Woo, nice one. I have last year's Meta 5.5.3 - the cheapest one (Mind you, it's been upgraded a lot - more of a 5.5.2.5 if you ask me). I love it, so much fun.

I was going to post a picture of mine but now you have the best bike in the thread /me goes off and sulks

I think I might sulk too, I've got to look at it every time we go riding

[Clocked]

Very nice bike you got there... swapsies?

[Xen0phobiak]

Its got no pedals!


*I'll get my coat

My mate had a bike like that, cost him a lil cheaper, and 2 weeks after he bought it, it got knicked...

He now rides a Saracen, and no one seems to knick em.

Brother just bought a Scott Scale 50 2008.



£515 brand new.

[notatoad]

Originally Posted by RTT

Went out for an early ride this morning. Got to Swinley Forest, down the very first descent on my route and my bloody chain snapped! Had to ride my bike home like it was a scooter/skateboard Thanks, SRAM!

don't you ride with a chain tool? i recommend this

nice new bike. how much does it weigh?

[LoopyJuice]

Originally Posted by RTT

Went out for an early ride this morning. Got to Swinley Forest, down the very first descent on my route and my bloody chain snapped! Had to ride my bike home like it was a scooter/skateboard Thanks, SRAM!

Or even a spare chain CRC sell 3 packs of those SRAM chains for a reason a sinch to change in the wilderness with the powerlink connectors, whatever you may think of them...

Originally Posted by supertoad

nice new bike. how much does it weigh?

I'd hazard a guess at around 30lbs for that monster!

[RTT]

I had half of my Topeak Alien tool with me, so couldn't fix it or convert it into a single speed due to where it broke. I'll probably just pack some spare power link connectors from now on.

28.5lbs or there abouts

[Tomm]

Originally Posted by RTT

I had half of my Topeak Alien tool with me, so couldn't fix it or convert it into a single speed due to where it broke. I'll probably just pack some spare power link connectors from now on.

Bear in mind that you will still need a chain splitter to remove the bad / splayed link. In which case you might as well just fix it properly... I don't really rate the Powerlinks anyway, they fall apart too easily, even under no tension.

Someone told me that XTR chains are the daddy - they're made out of something that doesn't rust (no idea what, though). So they last much longer than normal chains, and they don't stretch as much, so wear is reduced on the rest of the drivetrain to boot. I'm not sure if that's true, but I'm testing it now. It's certainly nice to have a permanently silver chain, rather than one that turns brown if I don't look after it... I just need to replace my cranks (which have died anyway) for XT ones and I'll be rocking a full XT/XTR drivetrain

[notatoad]

Originally Posted by tomm

I don't really rate the Powerlinks anyway, they fall apart too easily

huh? i've had as many as 4 powerlinks in my chain, and at least one at all times ever since i started riding 10 years ago, and i've never had one break on me. and i make it my goal to middle-ring all the big hills, so i put a lot of tension on my chain.

as far as xtr chains go, they are nice, they don't rust or break, but they last too long. if you are replacing your chain every six months you can go a few years on a single cassette, but if you keep the same chain for over a year of heavy riding then your cassette gets worn into that chain's pattern and you can never put a new chain on that cassette without massive chainsuck and skipping. i use a sram pc-9 chain with an XT cassette and raceface rings on a replacement cycle of 6 months for a chain and 3yrs for the rings/cassette, and as long as the chain stays properly lubed i don't get any rusting.

[RTT]

Originally Posted by Tomm

Bear in mind that you will still need a chain splitter to remove the bad / splayed link. In which case you might as well just fix it properly... I don't really rate the Powerlinks anyway, they fall apart too easily, even under no tension.

It's cool, I'll replace the whole thing. I do wonder if it gave up because my rockhopper's rear mech is Shimano and the chain I was running was an SRAM 991 - gear changes were not as good with the mixed kit.

The powerlinks are allegedly jut as strong as normal links or very close to it - I know Jamie snapped a chain but I don't know if it was a normal link or a powerlink. I snapped a normal link the other day