trumpstinyhands's comments

Good point re. humanizing the workforce, regardless where they are from. There's an assumption that people in Europe and North America working in the bike industry are all passionate about biking (not always true....Hi Mike Theil!), and everyone in Asia for example are working away on production lines and have no interest in the product. We don't tend to know the reality because all we get is 'super ultra mega boost ultimate transmission' marketing. Maybe they are all out shredding, and building loamers / duffers on the weekend? It would be great to have more insight on the people who work in different cultures / countries.

When I ran a friction thumbshifter on a 10sp cassette a few years ago, I drilled a hole in the 'arm' of the derailleur and put the cable through that to increase leverage on the derailleur and lessen the lever throw.

We've got this tool at work. I've also extensively used the 'generic one' from the likes of Princess Auto and seems to be in a lot of shops. I own (but haven't yet used) a 'shitty' $60 one from Amazon.

Honestly, I wish the current store had purchased the shitty $60 one, and spent the remaining money on some nice modular bearing extractors / presses from the likes of RWC or RRP. Sure, the puller feels nice and works, but it's the wrong tool for the job most of the time. But if you have the money for a lot of nice tools, sure buy this AND the modular tools!

On the plus side, I like the fact that the handle is shaped so you can't catch your hand in-between the handle and the part of the puller that it smashes against.... I've done that more than once. And given the pain that doing it once caused, I am officially a complete moron for doing this more than once....

I like the fact that the back of the puller that the weight smashes against doesn't unscrew. The Princess Auto one does, and when it does, the weight deforms and binds against the shaft. You have to open it back up with a round file.

I don't yet yet on the shitty Amazon one, but it actually gets good reviews. The tolerances are so poor compared to the Enduro one, that it can be bent and deformed as much as you like and will still work the same! But as you should always use a heat gun in conjunction with a blind puller unless you like to either sweat or leave bits of bearings stuck in the frame etc, I'm sure with enough heat it'll work OK.

Commuting with a dropper around 2014 was a revelation. No more tip toe action while waiting at traffic lights, or putting a foot on the kerb. I'm a little surprised that these haven't been pushed a little harder by the industry. More useful than having 35 batteries on your bike....

Greetings old chap. Not sure about that last sentence, but with regards to phone calls, yes you have to call Shimano to explain the situation and then they give you are Return Authorization number. IME this takes about 5 minutes as Shimano erred on the side of just sending a new motor rather than fannying about trying to work out the exact motor issue. The pain in the ass is having to call them back to calibrate the new motor to the bike once installed which take a bit more time.

But yes I agree with the take home about being aware of the potential expense with buying these bikes. I wish the industry was more transparent about all these issues.

Anyway, I'm off to walk the lurcher and shoot some peasants / pheasants. Tally ho!

$400 to replace a Shimano motor? Blimey. Please tell me there was $250 of diagnosing time including swapping out all the wiring, charging port etc etc before they figured out what was wrong? It doesn't take 4+ hours to swap one of those out. It's been a while, but IIRC it's six bolts, three electrical connectors that just push on, chainring, cranks and x amount of plastic shit designed to make the assembly look nice.

Funnily enough I just purchased one of those Broped Specific Sram X01 shifters for my new normal MTB. I find quick multiple taps are just as effective as one long throw and can adjust the position of the lower lever so I don't have to bend my thumb 120 degrees back to reach it :D . Even on my AXS equipped bike I do quick taps.

Great article.

Re. tire recycling in Squamish - IIRC the Landfill takes tires and recycles them.

Finding who takes DOT 4 / 5.1 is tiresome. Company A will say that Company B will take it. So you call Company B and they say Company A does.... Sigh....

Yes, I have the PCS 10 at home but prefer the Feedback ones that I've used. IIRC they are also more stable.

Ummmm.....I don't know if I should comment on bike building again but..... :D

Did you pull the seatpost out, carbon prep the top of the seat tube AND grease the bottom of the post? The bottom of the seatpost rubbing against the inside of the seat tube under pedaling loads is a common source of creaking, and easily missed as not obvious. Most people just carbon prep or grease the top of the seat tube. But long travel droppers sit far down the seat tube and you'll see wear marks on the bottom of the post if not greased.

Just a polite suggestion in case this hadn't been done ;)

A few thoughts re. the assembly process. For my sins I've built probably thousands of bikes over the years, and I often see comments regarding how fast the bike can be built. For example I recently built a YT 'something' and another website claimed that they built a YT 'something' in 12 minutes. I built this one properly and it took me over three hours. There was so much wrong with the factory assembly that wouldn't necessarily be spotted by someone eager to build the bike ASAP (I won't bore you with the long list.....). 

Velofix state that it'll take about an hour and charge you $150 for the privilege according to the link above. Will they pull all the linkage pivots to ensure that they are greased properly, threadlocked and torqued to spec to stop seized hardware or creaking after a few rides? Remove the fork and properly grease the headset? Remove the cranks and check that the BB is tightened properly (and at the same time find out that the Sram crank bolt has been tightened to 300Nm at the factory....)? Will the cables / hoses be cut to length and brakes bled as needed? Or is the bike also going to trap rabbits? How about spoke tension....that's often out of whack and can lead to taco'd wheels after a few rides.

Sorry for the ramble, but this sort of stuff always gets missed in the review processes of every publication. Just a blind assumption that the bike is built well from the factory, which can result in headaches and expense for the customer during ownership. A 30 minute build is potentially going to result in hours of extra maintenance time in the future. 

FWIW, I've not worked on a GG. Maybe it's perfect out of the box!

/Grumpy middle aged Service Manager who's tired of fixing everyone's shitty builds :D

Yep, that was the other one that I remember but I don't know when SR become Suntour or what the connection was.

I also have vague recollection of a bike in Mountain Bike Action that had a quick release seat tube!! The whole thing pivoted on the BB. I think the idea was that you move the seat tube forward for climbing / back for descending. This would also angle the saddle in the same way as the Aenomaly. I can't believe it never caught on ha ha.

Ha ha, yeah just after I posted this I started wondering if you could do this on an X-Fusion HiLo type clamp. Might just need to strap an enduro-mallet to the top tube in order to free up the mechanism once the QR is released :D

I'm old / sad enough to remember these:

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/sold-campagnolo-euclid-27-2mm-seatpost-%C2%A352-50-posted.341087/

I think Suntour made one too?

I'm struggling to see the value compared to something like a Trek Slash 8 that is also a bike that can be purchased in a shop. The only real world difference in spec that I can see are Code RS levers compared to Code R and maybe slightly better tires. Gold colored suspension is a hard 'whatever'. The Trek is over $2000 cheaper.