Mountain Biking

Begbie said:
Yeah, I can imagine. My only experience is of it being around recently(ish) and people moaning about it being no good. Which it isn't of course, it's probably one of the biggest upgrades anyone can do.

Had a coaching day yesterday with a DH/Enduro Pro. So much learnt in such a small space of time! I took about 30% off a trail I'd done a few times before this, without trying at the end of the day. Anyone on the fence about spending the money, do it. Wish I'd done it sooner, and I'll be having a few more in the near future.
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Who'd you do it with mate?
 
Switched to tubeless yesterday after some extra bits arrived which I'd need to keep in the shed anyway for maintenance. The back tyre seated and sealed perfectly and I was able to lock the bead to rim with just the normal floor pump. It's holding air and the muc-off sealant seems to be doing its job after the sealant dance was done.

The fornt tyre however just can't get it to seal the same with the floor pump, feels like it needs a higher gush of air to force the beads to the rim edge. I'm going to redo it, clean it all up and re-tape the rim too just to be sure but after some Googling I have seen examples from people who received a faulty tyre too so it could well be that if all else fails which is somewhat annoying.

I am pumping with the valve core removed btw to allow more air in just for the initial seating of the beads.

I did manage to put the back tyre on the wrong way round but was able to correct it without spilling any sealant which I was impressed with :D

I have ordered a Schwalbe Tububoost to help with the front as it does seem like a useful thing to have in situations like this, so if this doesn't work then it probably confirms a faulty tyre and off to contact Wiggle I go. I might double tape the rim as well with a layer of electrical tape for the extra cushion as have seen this is one method if initial seal isn't playing ball with just 1 run of rim-tape. Also have seen the soapy water pre-sealant fit and pump too so will try a bunch of stuff.
 
I made my own tubeless tyre inflator with a 2lt pop bottle and an old bit of hose and spare valve. Pump the bottle up to 80psi and it seats tyres instantly.

Regards bodging tubeless technically anything other than Mavic UST is a bodge.
 
mrk said:
Switched to tubeless yesterday after some extra bits arrived which I'd need to keep in the shed anyway for maintenance. The back tyre seated and sealed perfectly and I was able to lock the bead to rim with just the normal floor pump. It's holding air and the muc-off sealant seems to be doing its job after the sealant dance was done.

The fornt tyre however just can't get it to seal the same with the floor pump, feels like it needs a higher gush of air to force the beads to the rim edge. I'm going to redo it, clean it all up and re-tape the rim too just to be sure but after some Googling I have seen examples from people who received a faulty tyre too so it could well be that if all else fails which is somewhat annoying.

I am pumping with the valve core removed btw to allow more air in just for the initial seating of the beads.

I did manage to put the back tyre on the wrong way round but was able to correct it without spilling any sealant which I was impressed with :D

I have ordered a Schwalbe Tububoost to help with the front as it does seem like a useful thing to have in situations like this, so if this doesn't work then it probably confirms a faulty tyre and off to contact Wiggle I go. I might double tape the rim as well with a layer of electrical tape for the extra cushion as have seen this is one method if initial seal isn't playing ball with just 1 run of rim-tape. Also have seen the soapy water pre-sealant fit and pump too so will try a bunch of stuff.
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You can always take the rim and tyre to a bike shop, get them to get the tyre sealed, deflate without breaking the seal, then use a syringe to pump in your sealant (core removed), reinflate, swish it round, and you're good to go.
 
My local bike shop is a 20 minute walk away which is fine but they're not open at all hours and I like to tinker in the evenings with stuff like this :D

I've also just seen on youtube someone modified a garden sprayer to be a compressor too and seems to work rather nicely although takes ages to pump the cannister up to decent levels lol.
 
I didn't want to make a new thread when all the knowledge is already in here.

All in I've got about £800 to play for a bike, originally I was looking to gravel/hybrid but the more I think about I'm only ever going to be on road for my commute which is 3.6 miles and half of it is a bridle path anyway. I mainly want it to trail riding in my own time which I don't think a hybrid could really handle anything other than a calm bridleway very well. I've googled and every website as expected recommends something completely different so thought I would ask you guys.

What bike would you be looking at getting for around £800?
 
If mostly trail riding at that budget I'd suggest a hardtail myself.

Bought a Sonder Frontier recently and love it. Not sure what stock is like at the moment but paid £90₩ for mine with a suspension fork. It's available as a rigid for £800
 
I've been trying to find the love for it all again, after selling the downhill bike the other year I've very much found myself in a rut with cycling, with no great desire or motivation to get out on the hardtail. Recently I've been pushing myself to get out and just hit some trails, but found that I just didnt enjoy riding the hardtail solely, I needed a big bike, something with enough travel that can save my hack riding when it gets properly rowdy, something slack something more comfortable. I knew I didnt need a DH bike. After a lot of searching and research I had settled on getting a Commencal Clash, but with lead times way off in September I was at a loss. So last weekend I was having a few beers whilst on comms on the PC, and stumbled upon an advert for a used Clash frame... well you can guess what happened...
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In the process of speccing up parts now with the aim to have it up and running by the end of the month. Cant wait to get it out on the trails.




Indigo said:
If mostly trail riding at that budget I'd suggest a hardtail myself.
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With the use and budget in mind I'd definitely recommend trail HT, you wont find a FS at that price range worth slinging a leg over, unless you look used, but even then its a bit short to be finding anything modern. Its a bit of an awkward price point, as it sits in a bit of a gap between low spec(£500-£700) to mid range (£1000-£1500). But I think at that sort of budget I'd be looking to see if you could find something like a Marin San Quentin 1.
Regardless, your biggest issue is definitely going to be finding stock of anything at the moment, the market is very much dry, with long lead times of any decent popular options.
 
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So I'm in need of some advice!

During today's ride (Bedgebury trails) I was finding that every time I tried to use my small front chainring the chain was falling off. The culprit is as per my pictures, a very bent inner ring. I've no idea how it happened but can only assume I hit a rock at some point. The bike is a 2008 Carrera kraken so I'm under no impression it's cut out for heavy trails, but had hoped it might hold up a little longer than this! It was my dad's bike but he barely used it and has been stored for years. I brought it out about 4 months ago and have been riding mainly XC but in the last fortnight I've done a little trail riding with small jumps (not that I get much air time, but they're fun!).

The advice I'd like is the best thing to do here. Do I:

  1. Replace the front chainring set with one the same item which I think I can get online fairly cheaply.
  2. Buy a new crankset (e.g. SRAM NX) that will work with this frame, with the idea being that I will put it on a new bike if I stick with mtb for a little while longer. I don't want to invest in a new bike too soon to make sure I'm going to stick with it so ideally I'd make this frame last a bit longer!
  3. Something else?
All opinions appreciated!

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Now this is a story all about how my tubeless adventure got flip turned upside down....

I have to say it wasn't a simple and stress free task LOL.

Here's what I bought initially:
- 2x sachets of 140ml Mic-Off sealant
- A pair of Lifeline tubeless valves
- Schwalbe Rocket Ron tyres (29"/2.25")
- Valve core remover tool

I started with the front tyre, removed the old tube-rim tape, cleaned the rim and applied Muc-Off tubeless rim tape making sure it was stretched as I applied it bit by bit then once done, overlapped about 2 inches then closed off the lip with the supplied Muc-Off sticker. I was confident with this job, it looked/felt perfect. Poked a little hole for the valve and stucke it through closing the locking ring after putting the o-ring over the valve.

Put the tyre on and started to pump up the tyre with a floor pump with the core removed just to get the initial seating but it wasn't having any of it. Could hear air leaking out the tyre bead it just wasn't seating right. Figured I'd pour some sealant in around the edges etc just to help create a better seal for the initial bead to seat but again nothing. I then realised I'd put the tyre on the wrong way round so fumed and started that whole thing again but still could not get a seal.

I gave up on the front tyre and thought I'd try the rear. Exact same process (and I also forgot to orientate correctly again :D) but this time round the seating was perfect with the floor pump and I had no issues. Put sealant in via the valve and did the sealant dance holding the tyre. Awesome. At this point as I'd followed the exact same process I suspected maybe the tyre on the front was faulty, so went to order a new one whilst contacting Wiggle about returning this one.

In the meantime I checked online and people on various sites said a air cannister helped them get the initial seating when they went tubeless and that some tyres just don't always work with a floor pump even if one of the two does and so needs a compressed air cannister to shove high pressure air in. At this point I'd already fumed and removed the tyre, made a mess with sealant, ripped off the rim tape only to leave residue all along the rim wall and dried sticky sealant mixture.

I ordered the Schwalbe Tubibooster and also some Muc-Off sealant/rim tape residue remover off Amazon figuring that the stuff must be able to remove its own brand gunk.... WRONG! It was absolutely useless and in the end I elbow greased the gunk to a minimum as best I could and let it dry overnight.

I then ordered new rim tape as during all this faff I managed to use up a 10 metre roll of the stuff.

Arrival of new rim tape and Tubibooster. Amazing I thought and got to work only to find the o-ring of the Lifeline valve was missing.

Another fume later I ordered a pair of Muc-Off tubeless valves which come with some cool aluminium caps which arrived the following day.

Now I started on the front tyre again with all the stuff ready and not lost. Seating was perfect after using the Tubibooster but just as I was about to put the valve core back in I noticed the tyre was on the wrong way round so cue another fume as I'd already put sealant in at this point. Managed to turn the tyre around without spilling any sealant but getting stray sealant all over my fingers and outer rim surfaces and spokes.

So finally on yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I got it all sorted and was ready for the first bike ride with my mate an hour later.

Within 30 mins into the ride in the local valley trails I rode through winding forest tracks and stopped to take some photos only to notice a massive dog poo that some dog walker did not pick up wedged in my brand new rear tyre, spent a few minutes scraping that off on leaves whilst my mate laughed and I assume was recording on his phone so I expect I will be rinsed during the week about it.

I later found out that some of the poo was kicked up to under my saddle and as I went to pick the bike up I grab the saddle so got dog poo on my gloves and later discovered dog poo on my backside as well. Yeah so more fumes were had.

Why me nature/god/universe, why???

On a positive note, the tubeless ride was really nice, it's hard to describe but you can definitely feel there's less rolling weight there it just feels better, certainly not placebo. These tyres too are so grippy. It wasn't too hot today but even still as soon as I went on non dusty surfaces you could hear the tread sticking to the ground and to the touch they were sticky too. Considerably grippier than the Marin tyres. I cannot remember who recommended them but I think I came across them view some customer reviews on chain reaction as an all round on and off road tyre being a jack of all trades. I was running just over 30psi but during the ride let some air out so probably around 30 or a shade below now which feels right.

I have learned a lot in all this, I feel I can convert tubeless much easier after this experience and have sussed a method too so the next time I need to change a tyre I'll be able to do it quicker/better first time.

One question, is there a change interval for the sealant? Does it have to be topped up etc?

Here's a pic of the bike now which I think honestly looks much cooler with these tyres than the ones with the stock tanned sidewalls.

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Compared to how it was when I got it:
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I'm gonna take the rear mudguard off because whilst it helps with keeping spray off the midframe, it's not that great for my seat and backside as I discovered today. I've also ordered a new saddle (Prime TI Endurance) as this one does get uncomfortable after a 2 hour ride of cross country. And new grips as cringe every time I bang the aluminium ends on these RaceFace ones so ordered the blue Half-Nelsons which have plastic capped silicone ends instead.

Other than that there's nothing else I need to do to the bike, it is now perfect for my kind of riding :cool:
 
Once you've done a few, tubeless becomes easy. Some tyres will seat with some frantic pumping with a pump, if they don't an extra layer of tape or 2 normally fos the job to make a tighter seal. I run rimpact inserts on my bikes which makes them easier to seat, but I do use a Beto air tank - inflate that to 120psi and they seat first time, every time!
 
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