help, been unfaithful to HOBBY

I know - I had XT on my previous bike!
At least I've shaved a few grammes of weight off with the XTR.. Mebbe I should start cutting the labels out of my clothes as well..

 

Sodding hell! I'll stick with deraillier and have done with the £30/year service and the odd clean then!!!

As to selling the Naim, nah, sod that - my bike goes fast enough - it's the owner that's unfit (I *need* to start swimming again!).

 

dom,
the bike was just over 2k but considering the bits and quality of finish it's a decent price.
both shimano and sram do 7 or 8 speed hub gears and i believe the shimano is being used by gt in one of thier mtb's so may be tough enough for your use - they are a lot cheaper too.
having ridden the rohloff in anger today for the first time it takes a bit of getting used to - especially as it was also my first time ever riding with clippy pedals. the novelty of just being able to belt down the ratios from say 12 to 4th when confronted with a steep slope and then back up to 13 on the downhill bit after is great - you do have to be a bit careful with loading the pedals when changing though but then this is also true of a conventional setup ime. don;t really notice the weight when riding and overall the thing is lighter than my old bike anyway so it's a moot point. yes it's noisy in some gears sounds alarmingly like a slow motion coffee grinder but aparently this is normal and will 'wear in' after the first 1000 km or so. the grip-shift is also different to what i'm used to and taking time to get used to as well.
the forks are a bit bouncy so i need to play with the adjustments and it's too easy to lift the front end when going up a slope in a low gear. guess i'll either have to stand up or hope playing with the settings sorts that out.
the clipply pedals i got (crank bros mallet c's) are great but there was a great comedy moment outside the pub where i was distracted by chris talking to me and forgot to unclip - timberrrrrrr.... comedy wrenching of the foot and slow motion topple. ahh well got to break my duck.... think i've got the idea now but i'm sure there'll be more falls to come.
cheers


julian.

 

its a beautiful bike in the flesh, and the level of componentry is just awesome.

I think if Rohloff hubs were the norm, and someone invented normal gears/deraileurs etc then they could well be dismissed as ineffective, high-maintenance, and a poor perfomance item in all but the best cycling conditions! I cant believe how awesome the rohloff hub is. Kudos for having the balls to take a punt on it.

I think everybody has their moment ''falling off at the lights" when first getting SPD's. I was so paranoid about it the first time I got clipless, I went for a ride in the middle of nowhere, and did my falling off in private! hehe.

 

First 1000km eh?

I got a new bike in March, its done 13 miles.

Sigh.

 

I've only done about 500 miles in about 5 years on my bike - thats terrible...but it's just too windy where I live....!!

 

mr cat, Id absolutely love it if I still lived near weardale.

You have some of the best mountain biking I've ever done right on your doorstep.

I have a book of rides in weardale/hexham/northumberland at large.

I really really miss mountain biking in the north east. Northumberland is the forgotten country - just as beautiful as the lake district, but without the visitors.

If you want me to fax over any rides, let me know. There is an especially fine ride just outside of hexham. Its stunning up there. The colour of the heather, the wildlife you see - I just love the place.

Where I really miss (really really REALLY miss) is Hamsterly Forest, in Cty Durham. Its a longer trek for you, but you just cant go wrong there - its got it all.

Flat ground should be banned under parliament legislation

 

on a good week i do about 100km - that's if i go for a ride every day and a biggy on saturday. a normal week is probably around 60 or 70km. however thorn give you a 100 day no quibble money back garuantee so if i find i can;t live with the noise or that it's not diminishing over time then i can send it all back for a refund. the nice thing is that they'll swap out parts under the garuantee too - i had the option of some pace forks and they said i could swap from fox to pace and back if i wanted - or they could switch the bars or stem etc.
mr cat,
being rather a wide bloke i suffer more from wind resistance than most - i usually just knock it down a gear or 2 and grind away until i turn a corner or come to a sheltered part. can be frustrating though but jsut think of all those lovely calories you're burning....

 

yeah, I only live about 10 miles from hamsterly...in fact I've cycled there myself...

I do a lot of walking where I live tho...

when I lived up at newcastle, ironically I used to cycle down where I now live - waskerly way, deerness valley, derwnt walk, hexhamshire common etc...in fact, one route (when I lived in jesmond) was to cycle along the coast road to north shields, hop on the ferry to south shields, go down to sunderland, then along the river wear to fatfield, then onto consett and finsih off on the derwent walk and back to newcastle...a nice 65 miles!

I used to hop on a train to hexham, then cycle upto whitley chapel and cycle over the moors to sparty lea and back...beautiful....now I get my kicks from the amazing scenery when I drive home from work...stunning

my house is 5 min (less than 1 mile) from - north pennines, derwent valley and weardale itself...tho I'm classified as being county durham!

 

thats so not fair

those are some of the rides I had in mind.

wish I could live there too!

waskerly way, deerness valley, hexhamshire common, hamsterly .... ! you dont know how lucky you are really.. (or maybe you do lol)

 

I just spent an hour fitting my new disc setup with my newly built front wheel. Only done a short shakedown as got a few things to fiddle (slightly warped rotor - typical of a new disc, got to get the alignment properly sorted and shorten the hose), and still need to properly bed in the pads. Promising so far though.

Hope you're doing good with yours julian. One quick Q.... you've got vertical dropouts so have you got an eccentric bb to get the chain tension? Or a tensioning device?

 

disc brakes are certainly a wake up call compared to my dodgy old v brakes, that said a decent, well set up pair on a straight rim (my old bike qualified for none of these btw) are certainly the best way of stopping in the dry but throw some mud or water at them and wahey....

it's an eccentric bb, a chain tensioner is used by some but kind of defeats the object imho.

chris, i'm hoping that woburn will give us something of what you're looking for maybe chicksands too but it's a bit small.
cheers


julian.

 

I don't know about best way of stopping in the dry... I always preferred the lever feel of my Magura hydraulics (which my new magura disc is identical to in lever feel).

 

I'm ever hopefull

Its local and got a good reputation, so Im up for checking it out.

I doubt it can compare with Hamsterly (below) which is really special, but Im sure its still worth looking at.

 

That is an interesting braking system, not seen that before, i'm very wary of my cantilever brakes now and feel for my next bike (or upgrade on current bike) I want something that "works", so hydrolic could be the way to go (acutally just seen a kit to do this, £120 right, maybe not), since my frame will not take disc brakes, I take it that a hydrolic system can be retro fitted, or does it need specific mounting points.

I was looking at a kit to upgrade my cantilever system to V-brakes (all cables, levers etc) just wondered how much better they would be, have emailed wiggle but as yet no reply.

I mostly use my bike for commuting to work, I had done around 450 miles this year, doubt I'll get much more in this year. but this will give me time to get the bike sorted and back on the road. Riding around Exeter IS like riding off road, Dom would agree with me there, so need a hybrid or MTB for the strength. Was looking at the "Dawes Sonoran" or "Saracen Hytrail" but neither had hydro or disc brakes I guess the rest will be out of my price range.

 

V-brakes are a power improvement over cantis, but I personally have never liked the lever feel of V-brakes.

As of today, my front brake is this monster:

 

those are some nice looking discs there isaac damn big too if the pic isn;t decieving me.
i guess the thing about discs is that they are more delicate than v-brakes i'm a bit ham fisted with them at the moment and find modulation a problem - but one i expect to get used to - v brakes were 'longer travel' and so modulation was easier. power and effectiveness is a no brainer though

lee,
not sure what your budget is but you'll probably find some 2004 bikes with hydraulic discs at bargain prices in the back of the bike mags. most people want the all new 2006 bikes now - you might even get a good 2003 with them for peanuts. or there's always e-bay.

 

Julian - the hope mini monos are known for having very little modulation. If you can get used to it then absolutely anything will feel squishy in comparison.

The Louise FR I have is a 210mm disc, which is the largest MTB disc made (and only offered with the Louise FR and Gustav M brakes). Most fork manufacturers won't warranty their XC forks for anything larger than 185mm, while most DH and slalom forks are warrantied to 203mm. AFAIK only the Magura forks are warrantied for 210mm, although possibly RS Boxxer is also. The modulation on the Louise is so close to identical to the boosted HS22 I had before that I'm very pleased. Perhaps the master piston could do with being 1-2mm bigger, but it'll do.

Lee - ebay is your friend. I got my Louise FR there new and boxed (and the 2005 model) for £43. Wiggle has it for £117 and RRP is £130.

 

I dunno - I don't ride "off road" - I got the front sus MTB because Exeter's roads are full of potholes, and at the speed I ride, they come up too quick to take evasive action! Also, there's a semi-drop curb that I have to cycle up/down to get round the back of my house, so the extra strength of the MTB wheels/forks is (to this paranoid user!) very worthwhile.

I might have to have a little chat with my local bike shop re the Shimano hub though - my derailliers are a pain in the arse! (They are actually OK at the mo - some clicking yesterday must have been dirt in the sprocket)

BTW, I've done 1040 miles on mine since August '03, but I only ride to commute at the mo (and that's down to 3.9 miles a day at the mo). Oh - and I **hate** cycling in the wet, so avoid that like the plague! Maybe with disc brakes though, I'd be less of a wuss!

 

Err, Lee, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought your brakes WERE working, ie, hard enough to lock the back wheel and thus throw you off??? Certainly it could be pads, my v-brakes with those £10 a pop pads stop me pretty damn quick when I need it, even bombing down Thornepark Rise (I don't want to tempt fate here though )