First ride of bike.
Discussion
I took the bike out for its first ride yesterday, up the road, round the muddy clifftops and back down the road again.
Overall impressions were a bit dissapointed, I'm used to racing bikes, and find I'm missing the speed/distance covering ability of it, However I never intended to go touring on the MTB, only ever intended to do some downhill and basically just have fun.
The bike itself impressd me, its a lot lighter than my racer, and a lot lighter than a friends orange, was concerned the suspension forks would annoy me, but to be honest you hardly know they are there, all you notice is a slight softening of bumps, none of this huge springiness you see on cheapo halfords bikes.
The atac pedals and lake shoes are great, shame they aren't boots, but overall very impressed with them.
As I was with the SRAM xgen front mech and shimano hollowtech crankset.
The shifters are nice to use and sem compatible with my rather outlandish set up.
I may be shortening the bars, as it feels like I'm trying to steel a bull by its horns at the moment, but again that could be me being used to racers. The gel grips I got from chain reaction are lovely though.
The magura brakes are great, very impressed with them, however got irritated by the graunching noise caused by grit between the rim and pad after going through mud, guess theres no way to stop this.
Problems:
seat post is 0.5mm tho small in dia, so had to make a shim to get it too fit, its nearly right but think the surface of shim and seat post need roughing up. Why would anyone teflon coat a seat post?
When the rear mech and sprockets get seriously clogged with mud they tend to jump a little bit, nothing major, and it could be made worst by my old rear mech/old sprockets, when I upgrade my wheels it will all be going anyway.
Question:
What is the general consensus on mud guards? Is it a faux pas to have them fitted? or a sensible idea? I came back brown yesterday, I could see that losing its initial fun after a few rides!
Overall impressions were a bit dissapointed, I'm used to racing bikes, and find I'm missing the speed/distance covering ability of it, However I never intended to go touring on the MTB, only ever intended to do some downhill and basically just have fun.
The bike itself impressd me, its a lot lighter than my racer, and a lot lighter than a friends orange, was concerned the suspension forks would annoy me, but to be honest you hardly know they are there, all you notice is a slight softening of bumps, none of this huge springiness you see on cheapo halfords bikes.
The atac pedals and lake shoes are great, shame they aren't boots, but overall very impressed with them.
As I was with the SRAM xgen front mech and shimano hollowtech crankset.
The shifters are nice to use and sem compatible with my rather outlandish set up.
I may be shortening the bars, as it feels like I'm trying to steel a bull by its horns at the moment, but again that could be me being used to racers. The gel grips I got from chain reaction are lovely though.
The magura brakes are great, very impressed with them, however got irritated by the graunching noise caused by grit between the rim and pad after going through mud, guess theres no way to stop this.
Problems:
seat post is 0.5mm tho small in dia, so had to make a shim to get it too fit, its nearly right but think the surface of shim and seat post need roughing up. Why would anyone teflon coat a seat post?
When the rear mech and sprockets get seriously clogged with mud they tend to jump a little bit, nothing major, and it could be made worst by my old rear mech/old sprockets, when I upgrade my wheels it will all be going anyway.
Question:
What is the general consensus on mud guards? Is it a faux pas to have them fitted? or a sensible idea? I came back brown yesterday, I could see that losing its initial fun after a few rides!
To give the new bike a shake down have you thought of going to Dalby Forest near Pickering? it is normally £5 to go in but at the moment it is £1 or free to encourage people to buy Christmas trees.
The routes will give you a bit more variety, the blue route is easy and doesn't take long but has challenging bits, the red route is harder and longer but still not more than a couple of hours max.
With regard to mud guards full mud guards would clog up, a crud catcher stops mud going up your back, whilst a front crud catcher which mounts on the downtube stops splatter in the face, or Top Peak do a front mudguard which clips in the bottom of the front fork.
The routes will give you a bit more variety, the blue route is easy and doesn't take long but has challenging bits, the red route is harder and longer but still not more than a couple of hours max.
With regard to mud guards full mud guards would clog up, a crud catcher stops mud going up your back, whilst a front crud catcher which mounts on the downtube stops splatter in the face, or Top Peak do a front mudguard which clips in the bottom of the front fork.
To be honest the bike was built purely to go to Dalby.
Were aiming to get a few of us together over xmas/new year to go up there.
The cliff top run was the shakedown lol, aside from the seat post working on quick drop down mode it all worked pretty well!
Guessing your prob not too far away if you know about Dalby?
Were aiming to get a few of us together over xmas/new year to go up there.
The cliff top run was the shakedown lol, aside from the seat post working on quick drop down mode it all worked pretty well!
Guessing your prob not too far away if you know about Dalby?
wildoliver said:
I took the bike out for its first ride yesterday, up the road, round the muddy clifftops and back down the road again.
Overall impressions were a bit dissapointed, I'm used to racing bikes, and find I'm missing the speed/distance covering ability of it, However I never intended to go touring on the MTB, only ever intended to do some downhill and basically just have fun.
The bike itself impressd me, its a lot lighter than my racer, and a lot lighter than a friends orange, was concerned the suspension forks would annoy me, but to be honest you hardly know they are there, all you notice is a slight softening of bumps, none of this huge springiness you see on cheapo halfords bikes.
The atac pedals and lake shoes are great, shame they aren't boots, but overall very impressed with them.
As I was with the SRAM xgen front mech and shimano hollowtech crankset.
The shifters are nice to use and sem compatible with my rather outlandish set up.
I may be shortening the bars, as it feels like I'm trying to steel a bull by its horns at the moment, but again that could be me being used to racers. The gel grips I got from chain reaction are lovely though.
The magura brakes are great, very impressed with them, however got irritated by the graunching noise caused by grit between the rim and pad after going through mud, guess theres no way to stop this.
Problems:
seat post is 0.5mm tho small in dia, so had to make a shim to get it too fit, its nearly right but think the surface of shim and seat post need roughing up. Why would anyone teflon coat a seat post?
When the rear mech and sprockets get seriously clogged with mud they tend to jump a little bit, nothing major, and it could be made worst by my old rear mech/old sprockets, when I upgrade my wheels it will all be going anyway.
Question:
What is the general consensus on mud guards? Is it a faux pas to have them fitted? or a sensible idea? I came back brown yesterday, I could see that losing its initial fun after a few rides!
Overall impressions were a bit dissapointed, I'm used to racing bikes, and find I'm missing the speed/distance covering ability of it, However I never intended to go touring on the MTB, only ever intended to do some downhill and basically just have fun.
The bike itself impressd me, its a lot lighter than my racer, and a lot lighter than a friends orange, was concerned the suspension forks would annoy me, but to be honest you hardly know they are there, all you notice is a slight softening of bumps, none of this huge springiness you see on cheapo halfords bikes.
The atac pedals and lake shoes are great, shame they aren't boots, but overall very impressed with them.
As I was with the SRAM xgen front mech and shimano hollowtech crankset.
The shifters are nice to use and sem compatible with my rather outlandish set up.
I may be shortening the bars, as it feels like I'm trying to steel a bull by its horns at the moment, but again that could be me being used to racers. The gel grips I got from chain reaction are lovely though.
The magura brakes are great, very impressed with them, however got irritated by the graunching noise caused by grit between the rim and pad after going through mud, guess theres no way to stop this.
Problems:
seat post is 0.5mm tho small in dia, so had to make a shim to get it too fit, its nearly right but think the surface of shim and seat post need roughing up. Why would anyone teflon coat a seat post?
When the rear mech and sprockets get seriously clogged with mud they tend to jump a little bit, nothing major, and it could be made worst by my old rear mech/old sprockets, when I upgrade my wheels it will all be going anyway.
Question:
What is the general consensus on mud guards? Is it a faux pas to have them fitted? or a sensible idea? I came back brown yesterday, I could see that losing its initial fun after a few rides!
Hey Oliver - I came on the hoon a few weeks back, spoke with you for a bit over breakfast.
The suspension forks - you'll quickly get used to it, and realise that even a basic set make a large difference.
The only reason people run full rigid anymore on a Proper off roading mtb is just to be weird and 'out of the box'. Damm hippies.
The bars. If you're used to racers, yes, again, they'll take some getting used to but there wide for a reason. When your clattering over rocks, longer bars give you a greater leverage, making it easier to hold on, also give a more relaxed posture. Are you using riser bars or flats? Bar and stem setup is very critical to bike handling.
The brakes - Maguras are great, I seem to remember you got em quite cheap aswell. Unfortunately the noise is something you cannot get away from with rim brakes. Thats the sound of your rims grinding away
Nice thing about magura's, they use mineral oil, meaning in an emergency you cna bleed em up with all sorts of household fluids, water, cooking oil, etc.
The Seatpost - seatpost sizing/tolerance is very critical, use the wrong one and you can have a continually slipping post, and can bugger your frame up. Proper machined shims are available though for most variations. I use shims on my bikes, no problems. Reason for this is, I can buy expensive seatposts in a nice small size - and swap em between frames easier.
And yes, correct, they are made nice and smooth, polished almost, rather than knurled, roughened up.
A very common problem in bike shops is - "help my seatpost is seized."
This is why the workshops are hidden. So the customer cant see your bench vice/scaffolding bar combo.
Its easier to be rough on something that isnt your own, as im sure you know!
As for dalby, yes I am there very often, i usually combine an early morning razz about the moors with a quick lap of the red, or a mess about on the DH bike at Dalby. Great introduction to mountain biking, well marked trails for all levels.
I am well up for a meet up sometime soon. Im off work now till January, although off to scotland for some 7stanes action on the 29th.
Incidentally I will be up at dalby on Wednesday?
Shall we arrange a PH ride then?
I will bring my DH bike aswell, you can have a skeg round the car park. Then you will want one. Much in the same way i now want a Porsche!
snotrag said:
This is why the workshops are hidden. So the customer cant see your bench vice/scaffolding bar combo.
Its easier to be rough on something that isnt your own, as im sure you know!
spent an afternoon once reaming out an expensive seatpost from a very expensive eddy merckx frame. Edited by BadgerBenji on Tuesday 19th December 10:39
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