Current Projects chat and miscellany

grey is my favourite colour*

*i'm aware it isn't a colour

racist

For bikes it's great.. Ask Nuknow..

Rodolfo... the grey square is all I see when your type is so dense. Sorry.

Nice bike BTW.

^Ha! And then to think that I actually removed enters to keep the story compact.. I do have a habit of using to many dots though.. And saying to much.. Cheers though, if you got this far up the sentence.. ;)

@tester, thanks, not so attached to the OG fork, but I'm in Holland.. So postage probably wouldn't make it our while.. Or you would really wanna get rid of it?! ;) What's the deal with getting the OG RockShox back into "usable condition" because, as said, I'm clueless as to fix that.. Any expert opinions on the 'dale? Is it good?

Rock Shox manual is here:
http://www.mtb-kataloge.de/Bikekataloge/PDF/Manuals/mag21.pdf

Depending on how worn they are, you might need new seals and bushings, or you might just need an oil change and some air. If it all moves smoothly without play, you can get them working for only a few euros worth of oil, but the labour charge will kill you. The rest of the bike should be pretty close to any modern aluminium hardtail, the fork is definitely the most old fashioned part. Best bet is to find your local suspension workshop and get a quote for a rebuild, then see if you can just buy a better fork for less. Choice is a bit limited in that short travel with V-brake bosses, but you could take the opportunity to upgrade to a disc brake.

Have you considered going rigid? A Cannondale Pepperoni or Fatty R rigid fork would look nice (Killer V came rigid as stock, at least for some years), but there are other more easily available options.

It all depends on what you plan to use it for, and if it's your first MTB, you probably don't even know that yet. It took me 3 bikes to get to something which suits the kind of MTBing I discovered that matched my skills (none) fitness (a bit) and locale (not very mountainous!)

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considering going rigid..

considering going rigid..

tmi

Running out of cable is what it's doing, I should think. It wouldn't have been designed to pull a derailleur that far across the cassette.

There are some Shimano bar-end shifters that can operate as non-indexed friction shifters for 8/9-speed, I think, so you might find downtube friction levers with enough range.

But friction shifters with a 10-speed cassette is kind of perverse. And quite amusing. :)

friction works well exept the mentioned problems. I like it to, feels good to be able to microadjust.

but I have some DA downtube shifters heading my way as we speak. Wonder if it will help against autoshifting. And I really hope i can fit them in the suntour band on studs I have now. have anyone tried something similar?

How much do you want for the marzocchi forks tester? Might be interested for my cannondale. The adjuster on my shitty manitou's isn't adjusting anything

My Mercian is now sold to a buddy so I put the wheels on this.

I have a DA headset to replace the crummy strong-light one as well as a DA Easton seat-post coming for it but it seems it is lost in the mail system!!!

Also still need to remove the crappy silver spray paint from the forks and the rest of the frame.

Are you wedded to keeping the crappy old Rock Shox fork? I've got a Marzocchi MXC in good nick which will probably cost less than getting the Rock Shox back into usable condition, and it's a better fork. You can then punt out your knackered Rock Shox to somebody who's doing an obsessive period correct restoration and you'll be quids in.

I'm not sure if I recognise that Rock Shox fork, but it looks around the time of the Mag21 or whatever it was called (ie. pre Indy series). They were shite, leaked water in, and needed to be re-built regularly.

I'd try something better as suggested, but watch that the nominal length of the fork is similar to the original; later fork designs with more travel are sometimes nominally longer. That's why Kona sell Project-2 forks in two different lengths for earlier or later bikes (the latter being longer).

I have a Cane Creek dummy on my Yates matching the brake on the left (SCR5 I think it's called). It's sold a dummy not adapted, with a little stump where the lever would be. It's really comfy, but it bloody rattles, as does the brake when you're applying it. I sprayed a load of Spray Mount in the dummy which may make removing it to some new bars difficult. I'm about to find out.

Is that the deep red bike you ride on the track? Would love to see some pics if so

Yep

My solution to rattling SRAM lever:
http://www.lfgss.com/post2355674-49714.html

In the long term, I'd like to do something more elegant by putting a length of wire between the lever (in the normal cable barrel) and the lever body cable stop, but it's going to need some custom parts to allow tensioning. A short length of spoke threaded at both ends and a couple of nipples nearly works, so imagine something like that but with thinner wire and cylindrical nipples with just a screwdriver slot rather than square flats.

Shimano SLR levers (anything post about 1985) have return springs in the lever, so if they are in place and working the levers shouldn't rattle except over really severe bumps which are rattling everything else too.

I had some Shimano R400 levers on my pompino and they must have had crappy return springs as the unused one rattled like mad on anything but the smoothest tarmac. I've got some old Modolo levers on another bike and they have awesome springs - no noise at all from the unused lever.

I was thinking about a bodge to work on a lever without springs and thought about threading a small amount of brake cable through the lever with maybe 2cms sticking out the back, putting a small diameter but long spring on there (like those you get in a biro but tougher), compressing that spring and crimping a brake cable end on to hold the spring in tension. Reckon that might work?

^ I like that idea. I'm switching to S500 levers in a few weeks, I might give it a try.

I was thinking about a bodge to work on a lever without springs and thought about threading a small amount of brake cable through the lever with maybe 2cms sticking out the back, putting a small diameter but long spring on there (like those you get in a biro but tougher), compressing that spring and crimping a brake cable end on to hold the spring in tension. Reckon that might work?

I had identical thoughts (even down to the biro spring), but the work area is a bit cramped and I wanted something which was going to have zero projection from the lever body. There might be a bit more space to work with on Shimano levers.

I suppose a small threaded rod would be ideal but don't know if I've ever seen anything with a small enough diameter.

I suppose a small threaded rod would be ideal but don't know if I've ever seen anything with a small enough diameter.
Saw up a bolt?

Would need to be about 3mm diameter and several centimetres long.....

I suppose a small threaded rod would be ideal but don't know if I've ever seen anything with a small enough diameter.

I would suggest PTFE rod...available in loads of diameters, flexible, can be cut to exact length with scissors, and can be self threaded using whatever it is you intend to thread on the end of it.

About those forks:
it's not this

I need,

but this

right?

Or would the first work, but change riding characteristics?
I found a Marzocchi Bomber 2 fork on our own Marktplaats.. It was/is installed on exactly the same frame, so fit for it probably.. And a bonus is the V-brake ánd disc brake mount, so I can upgrade when I want to.. Just mailed the seller to ask what he wants for it..

I would suggest PTFE rod...available in loads of diameters, flexible, can be cut to exact length with scissors, and can be self threaded using whatever it is you intend to thread on the end of it.

Great shout! Why didn't I think of that....

tmi

you were so coercive!

About those forks:

The frame was made for 50mm travel Rock Shox Mag 21, you should be able to get away with a modern 80mm travel fork, especially if you set it up with a decent amount of sag. There isn't much current product that meets these specs, but a few years back Marzocchi ECC versions and Fox Talas had adjustable travel and V-brake bosses, so you could use one of those 100-120mm travel forks wound down to 70-80mm. Putting a 100mm fork on it risks having it steer like a barge; it will be ridable, but not as much fun as it should be.

I think if it were my bike, I'd put a rigid fork on it with some big tyres and see how things panned out. You can always think about suspension again after you've dome some MTBing and found out what you like doing.