Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

Is there a twit-anium version for shiny magpie types?

Am definitely up for these in steel or fancy metal

I think I'm going to take half a kg off the bike changing the Michelins to Maxxis, so stainless to Ti bolts isn't high on my list I'm afraid.

I email the uk sram tech centre asking if there’s a re-call or if the bolt could be sent out to me since it’s missing on both my mechs.
This was the reply

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I replied asking if they would advise against me installing a bolt my self and what purpose the bolt served.
No reply to that yet.

I think I’ll probably still stick a bolt in there.

How long ago did you buy your gx axs mech?
If you’ve still got the box, what’s the production date?

Just gonna leave this here...

Let's see if this actually does anything

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changing the Michelins to Maxxis

How come, out of interest?

They wear very fast on hard-pack, dry bike-park. No sharp edges left, and the leading edges are quite rounded.

I think they'd be better for wetter/softer conditions, although the Maxxis are MaxxGrip so they may wear at the same speed, I guess I'll find out.

The eternal compromise of grip vs durability!
My WE's are absolutely fucked, every knob is undercut. Still waiting for a rear tyre to arrive from distro and then I'm interested to see how much more grip I have in comparison - even in the poor condition they're in, they still seem ok

I have the same problem with the softest purple Schwalbe compound. One day riding the uplift on brand new tyres and they are left shredded looking like I’ve had them for months. The second softest orange compound isn’t really any different.

Grip, it turns out, is expensive :(

Get some cheap wire bead Continentals, as they'll last forever

You might not ;-)

The bike I had from 2001 to 2004 had wire bead Contis and I don’t think I changed them once.
Changed times.

Still, you're faster now, right?

right??

fatter*?

Yes, considerably.

Fatter is certainly faster downhill, so I guess you're doing something right

I never bother with a soft rear tyre for holidays (unless there's a race and then I might swap out for two days). Even hard compound rear tyres are trashed after a few days of uplifts in the big mountains IME and soft tyres last a day. Loose is fun anyway!

Yeah, I think in an ideal world I'd have some uplift wheels, maybe Assegai and Dissector on those, and compounds to suit high speed hardpack. Then, of course, it would rain relentlessly whenever I went.

Anyway, tyres mounted up - Assegai has a huge hop in it, but I'm hoping that's the insert playing silly buggers and that it will come into line. If it doesn't I'll send it back - fuck paying £80 for a bendy tyre.

Fatter is certainly faster downhill

High end S-Works lead pipes are in development because of this. Taped to downtube = Faster

unless there's a race

Aye, the Ultrasoft purple Schwalbe compound seems like a race only tyre to me. Doesn't last more than two days hard riding.

Assegai has a huge hop in it

I maybe just had very bad luck, but every Maxxis tyre I've had in the past few years has been warped to some degree.

The tyres on the 295 are nice and straight, but I sent a DHF back due to this same issue.

Any of you gravity bros tried the Vittoria Mazza?

nope