Mountain Bikes!

their hq is in Colorado Springs.

 

Ya, that was the first option but he ended up in New Hampshire. I believe he is in COS right now for training.

 

25 miles 4200 feet of elevation gain after work yesterday for a recovery single track ride in the ebike.

 

Well they are a strong company in the bicycle world, so that's cool.

 

Ekraft nailed it. 1up = Pitbull of mountain biking racks.

 

yea i just haven't had time to trial and error yet. will do friday.

and the ones i destroyed were all SRAM X0 cranks. pieces of shit. at least they kept warrantying them until i gave up and just sold em new.

we'll see i guess and go from there. for random creaks, i have in the last 12 years had: cracked frame, broken free hub, dirty chain, cracked pedal, cracked crank, loose pivot, play in a seat rail haha. i think I MIGHT have the ZEB bushing problem too, but we'll see this winter when i service them. gonna try the PUSH compression valving too and see what that do. i'm basically running it full open as is.

 

Damn. That's some bad luck, sucks.

 

all good. its been a fun bike this year. Whistler in particular was pretty hard on it tho. all will be well again, i don't wanna give up any weeks of the fall season though servicing stuff, so it'll have to wait a few months.

 

I shop Trek / Bontrager first because of their 30-day unconditional satisfaction guarantee refund policy. Even on ordered products. I've bought and returned a lot of their stuff, after trying it out.

 

So just in case anyone cares, figured I'd update. Now I did a few things at the same time so not sure what's what, but bike quieted up a bunch. Took out the seat tube, cleaned all that gunk and put a bit of grease. Seat rails in the clamp and clamp bolts too. Took the crank out, looked at it, seems fine. Cleaned all the gunk out from the spacers and arms and on the bearing seals. Re-lubed. Crunchy/clicking that usually I'd associate with a dirty ass chain, all went away.

The one thing that really made me think was... the giant torx nut on the non-drive side. When I put it all back together, I tightened that down to what I felt like was a bunch tighter than it was to get it off. Still made sure the crank didn't bind at all, but I felt like I gorilla paw'd it on more than the shop had previous. When I went to ride yesterday, shifting was WAY crisper than it had been, and previously I'd been having some hang-up/hesitation on shifting sometimes. I was chalking that up to mix-matching brands and maybe they were just finnicky... XTR derailleur, Garbaruk cassette, KMC chain...

But now I'm wondering if the shop didn't preload it JUST ENOUGH that under load/my weight it had some play or flex in the axle which was deflecting the chainring enough to make shifting weird. Can't be sure I guess, but whatever I'll take it. With all the mud and slop and dust here I guess I just have to get in the habit of cleaning the BB/crank area more thoroughly, more often.

Fork is still clicking sometimes, gonna have to get that serviced here in a few months.

 

What fork is it? My bro had a clicking in his lower on a fox 32 step cast and when he sent it in for service they told him it was broken beyond repair and the replacement part (just txt'd to see what part) was stupid expensive. He ended up buying a Pike instead...

So, don't wait to long to get that checked out.

 

I'm considering modifying one for minibike use. Their anti-tilt hitch tightening mechanism is genius, among other things they make!

 

ZEB Ultimate. i've read people talking about some bushing inside going bad. i think it might be enough of a problem that they'll warranty it, but who knows if they will or not given the amount of time i've had it (now a little over a year). either way, i'll get it serviced, and i'll do the PUSH upgraded compression valving while i'm at it. i wanna wait til the weather gets shittier. its not really affecting the ride, just this annoying clicking noise. I've seen people talk about it in Pinkbike comments more than a few times, and this came right up:

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/rockshox-zeb-bushing-play-knock-and-creak.1151187/

 

@Sweatypants My bro replied - he had a crack in the lower fork leg where the damper bolts in, which caused fluid leak and creaking/cracking... the only option to repair is to replace the entire fork lower.

 

Those stepcast forks are...well, they're light.
I guess I shouldn't be honest and talk about how shit they are.
But they're light. And for pure xc use, they at least provide a non-rigid ride over bumpy sections of trail.
Limp noodle with a shit damper, but at least they save a handful of grams.

 

Might have missed it, but if you meant the crank arm fixing bolt that threads into the axle, its only purpose is to preload the bearings before tightening the NDS crank arm bolts, firm finger tight is usually sufficient.

 

On 41mm od bearings like a BB92 frame, I stick with 24mm cranks. I've got a two and a half year old Liv Intrigue in my shop that's got thousands of miles and tons of nasty rides in it. Still on the stock slx BB and spins perfectly smooth, like new. I have a 3 month old Trance Advanced with a 30/28mm stepped spindle crank, BB is noisy and gritty. I picked the seals, flushed, cleaned and greased just to buy some time. (Backordered bearings) Bike is very well cared for also. Seals just aren't up to the job. I'm almost ready to assemble my new Trance 29 frame. It's getting a Shimano BB and Shimano cranks. Inexpensive and reliable. Wheels mfg make a double row 41mm od, 30mm id setup that I haven't tried. Just the bearings cost more than the full crank set and BB I'll use though.

 

I bought this hitch carrier in 2014 and have put a decent number of miles on it over the last 8 years:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1SI03Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I love how quick and easy it is to strap the bikes down, and it's great having the ability to lock the bikes in while traveling. I probably wouldn't leave my bikes on it overnight at a hotel, but if you want to make stops for a couple hours to eat/shop somewhere it's nice.

This one is discontinued, but there seems to be numerous options out there with similar designs.

 

that is what i meant, and well i dunno but not enough preload would mean side play, would mean chainline shifting, or who knows, but it feels good now.

that was why i bought this crank and literally why i was mad/reluctant to look at 30mm bb's or cranks. i had one on my last "daily use" 29er. granted, i wasn't spending on chris king bb's, i was buying the shit ass Race Face or SRAM ones that are like $30, but literally i felt like they wouldn't even last a season with MD conditions. they're total junk and just not up for the abuse. i dunno why bike companies haven't came around to a new shell size for frame building if they're all gonna spec 30mm axle cranks, but its stupid and annoying.