Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Yep, Sunrace or SRAM NX 12s cassettes fit HG hubs. You might prefer the gear spacing of the Sunrace, SRAM has a big leap between 11/12 iirc.

Pretty good conditions on the ridgeway between tring and Swindon yesterday. Still glad to be on my hardtail though.

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If I put on AXS, I'll have a spare shifter, RD and cable.

Thanks @pascalo and @infovore

Looks like with the addition of a new cassette, there's some life in the old kit.

I enjoyed my old chalk way ride from tring towards swindon so much that I wrote a blog about it.

40 mins by train from zone 1 stations to both the start and end so very suitable for anyone starting in London.

https://calumonwheels.com/2024/05/28/what-i-learned-riding-on-the-old-chalk-way-from-tring-to-pangbourne/

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You just reminded me that I nicked this route over a year ago and promptly forgot about it. I want it bone dry before I ride it though, so I guess I'll have to wait until we're engulfed by the sun first.

This looks great! You've inspired me to give it a bash one weekend.

Honestly I wouldn't put money on it being much better than it gets right now, allowing for a moderately wet summer. Also bear in mind if it does really heat up I think the surfaces might be liable to split open into jagged crevices and become really tricky going in some other regard, so I'd screw my courage to the sticking place and go for it.

enjoy... towards swindon

Lies.

I still think I'd rather crash from hardpack ruts than cover myself in slop for 500k.

The last pic is still a bit moist for my liking.

In other news, sticking on the other set of tyres that came with the Ogre dropped the weight from 13.9kg to 13.1kg and they're still 2" tyres :D

We didn't actually get to Swindon on Sunday. I snapped a pedal off its axle near Pangbourne but that was a direct line back to Paddington that our Swindon tickets were valid for 😁

Pangbourne

Quick pint at the cross keys? I think snapping a pedal is a small price to pay to not have to go to Swindon.

I wish we did tbh, we got our pints back in london and they were a fortune.

Also, what Garmin did you use previosly? I've stuck with the 1000, 1030, 1030 Plus for all my trans-continental adventures and they've got better each iteration. We sold my partners Wahoo and she uses my old 1030 now. Wahoo aren't good enough for what I do and the bigger screen on the Garmins is a winner. I'm saving my pennies for a 1040 Solar next.

Also, speaking of Ride London. I had no idea it was on or where it was so our train looked more like

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It was the 810 and it was quite a while ago. One of my biggest hates was that after a while the USB port became damaged and it wouldn't consistently charge up, and garmin wouldn't do anything about it except give me 20% off a new garmin. I accept that things do wear down over time but they just weren't willing to talk to me more about it so I have been in a bit of a huff with them ever since. But I wouldn't rule them out in future if I can be assured they've cleared up their acts on that front.

I've had the roam since may 2021.

Ah, the 810 was fucked. I returned mine after a number of total lockups and went back to using my 800 (which I still have!).

The stupidly priced bigger units are unfortunately the best. The 1030 Plus has more battery life than the 1030 and that's the biggest reason I'm going to probably get a 1040 Solar and hand my 1030+ to the missus and sell off the 1030.

The best bike for the SDW being the one I had with me

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Was a little anxious, my e-mtb fork and shock haven't been looked at in almost a year. Dropped the bike in at Sprung Suspension last Friday after a ride and collected it this morning. The technician had noted that the components showed almost no wear because the bike had been so well maintained. He could not believe it has been ridden once or twice a week through the past 12 months, especially through this wet mucky winter and spring. It makes my efforts to clean the bike after each ride feel worthwhile.

Also keeping it cleaned and maintained has kept the chain well below .5% wear in the same period.

Turns out Jake the technician at Sprung was involved in the development of the Shokwiz. His view is that it is great to get suspension 75-85% dialled in. He does do suspension consultations for pro riders etc or clients at quite a cost. But it's clear I cant ride in a repeatable fashion well enough to make that final accuracy in setup worthwhile, so I will keep using the shokwiz to give me guidance in my bike set up as it's more than good enough for my level or riding.

the components showed almost no wear because the bike had been so well maintained. He could not believe it has been ridden once or twice a week through the past 12 months

Not riding hard enough, obviously... 😉

Back to how amazing e-bikes are. I went out to Surrey on Sunday, rode the regular bike for 45mins then smashed myself into the floor hard enough to sprain my shoulder and thumb. Ate half a pack of painkillers and a can of beer, then got the eeb out and ended up riding 1000m of ups in 2hrs, until my thumb decided enough was enough. Bloomin excellent things, eebs.

In going to get dropped.

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Not to worry, you'll catch up when their Mavic freehub undoubtedly fails as soon as it gets near anything resembling mud

Keep telling yourself it's good training

Fun ride today apart from one thing- halfway round the bite point of the front brake changed significantly- lever a lot closer to the bar, and the bite point itself became mushy.

Guess who didn’t bring a bleed kit with him?

Odd though, I wonder how the air suddenly got in- all I can think is the pads moved inward and grit in the caliper allowed air past the seal.