Mountain Biking

I don't know what Giant used on their XTC frames, but I haven't got a single chip on that in the 8 or so years I have owned it. Its almost like an anodized finish.
 
Have any of you guys serviced your own Rockshox forks? Did you buy the expensive Rockshox oil or will the cheaper stuff such as TF2 do the job? £10 for 120ml seems a bit ott!

Also is the suspension grease also needed or will just the oil do the job? Again the RS stuff seems very expensive at £10 for a small tub. Any cheaper alternatives for the grease?

My brothers bike hasn't been touched all over winter and when you press down on the handlebars the shocks move in stages rather than fluently if that makes sense, so i'm thinking the oil has dried up on the foam rings. Plus apparently you are supposed to do a service after 50 hours, so i can do my new bike as well.

Thanks
 
I've done a DIY lower leg service on my Pike forks.

I purchased the kit from TF Tuned, it was pretty straightforward to remove the lowers, inspect/replace the foam rings, fill back up with oil and bolt it all back together.
 
Mark A said:
Have any of you guys serviced your own Rockshox forks? Did you buy the expensive Rockshox oil or will the cheaper stuff such as TF2 do the job? £10 for 120ml seems a bit ott!

Also is the suspension grease also needed or will just the oil do the job? Again the RS stuff seems very expensive at £10 for a small tub. Any cheaper alternatives for the grease?

My brothers bike hasn't been touched all over winter and when you press down on the handlebars the shocks move in stages rather than fluently if that makes sense, so i'm thinking the oil has dried up on the foam rings. Plus apparently you are supposed to do a service after 50 hours, so i can do my new bike as well.

Thanks
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To answer your first question, no you dont have to use the rockshox stuff, as long as the oil you use is the same spec/viscosity, personally i use Valvoline Synpower Fork Oil in the right viscosity for the fork. As for grease... I dunno I use it on all my seals, I've been using leftover tubes of that RSP ultra Slick grease that came with TFTuned refresh kits that i use for seals/O-Rings and such and left over lower leg lube on the foam rings, I tend to do 6 monthly services on my forks and have never had any issues not using the recommended rockshox/fox stuff, not sure where you'd stand warranty wise, probably not favorably though.
 
What tyres would you guys recommend for Glentress at the end of March?

I ride a Canyon Nerve 29er that came with a Continental Mountain King II 2.4" front and Conti X-King 2.4" rear, which I replaced with a Magic Mary/Hans Dampf combo after I got a rear puncture.

I love the grip from the MM/HD setup but I do find that the rolling resistance is higher than the old Coni pairing.

Is there anything in between?
 
steve45 said:
not sure where you'd stand warranty wise, probably not favorably though.
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Thats a good point, i never thought about that, i guess i'll just get the proper stuff as you only use a small amount anyway although I have read that the RS oil is the same as this stuff https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Torco-RF...var=581812467361&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Might get 250ml of that and a tub of genuine Sram butter grease.

Skillmister said:
Result, new forks under warranty :D
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Nice result!
 
Irish_Tom said:
What tyres would you guys recommend for Glentress at the end of March?

I ride a Canyon Nerve 29er that came with a Continental Mountain King II 2.4" front and Conti X-King 2.4" rear, which I replaced with a Magic Mary/Hans Dampf combo after I got a rear puncture.

I love the grip from the MM/HD setup but I do find that the rolling resistance is higher than the old Coni pairing.

Is there anything in between?
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Glentress is my local trail centre so I'm there quite a lot and I've been using MM/HD with absolutely no issues whatsoever in all weather. The rolling resistance is quite high but I can't say I've noticed it on the way down!
 
Superpatsy said:
Glentress is my local trail centre so I'm there quite a lot and I've been using MM/HD with absolutely no issues whatsoever in all weather. The rolling resistance is quite high but I can't say I've noticed it on the way down!
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Ok awesome, thank you — that’s the kind of insight I was looking for. :D
 
What grease is recommended for mountain bikes? Is it worth paying the extra for the super duper teflon ceramic grease or will my never ending tub of Lucas x-tra heavy duty wheel bearing grease be ok? I'm servicing my old hardtail as its had to be relegated to the shed now my expensive full sus bike is in the house. So just want to make sure the bearings are all packed with grease.

The finish line teflon stuff seems expensive at £20 a tub, but if its not just snake oil and actually makes a difference I don't mind paying it as a tub like that will last me years.
 
Mark A said:
What grease is recommended for mountain bikes? Is it worth paying the extra for the super duper teflon ceramic grease or will my never ending tub of Lucas x-tra heavy duty wheel bearing grease be ok? I'm servicing my old hardtail as its had to be relegated to the shed now my expensive full sus bike is in the house. So just want to make sure the bearings are all packed with grease.

The finish line teflon stuff seems expensive at £20 a tub, but if its not just snake oil and actually makes a difference I don't mind paying it as a tub like that will last me years.
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I use this Park tools stuff £5
it seems to work, and its lastest ages, some very thick grease might be a bit overkill - may be slow stuff down too much? dunno :p:confused:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/..._dc|pcrid|161845658788|pkw||pmt||prd|214931UK
 
Thanks, i might just get some of that as I guess you can't really go wrong with Parktools stuff.

Just finished doing a lower leg service on the rockshox reba forks on my hardtail and that was a lot harder than I was anticipating after looking at some videos on Youtube. Mainly due to the Rebas having hollow legs at the bottom, so it was a real pita trying to get the oil in there. Then the foam rings seemed to double in size after soaking with oil :eek:. Not sure if they went back in perfectly, might end up having to buy a new seal set.

Hopefully my brothers Recon forks are a little easier. Definitely need to get a stand at some point as that would have helped immensely.
 
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Needing some advice please, got a cube 27.5 x 2.25 wheels, it's a runabout that I commute with and take on the odd light trail.
I want to go tubeless in the summer, anyone know of a good road wearing but grippy in the wet set of tyres to buy that support tubeless, Maxxis or Schwalbe. Yes, I'm predicting a wet summer :p.

Cheers
 
Demo Day question, how do they tend to work? MBR are doing 2 days on the 7-8th of April at Forest of Dean and have a few bikes I'm interested in, I've signed up for the Saturday. The booking form has nothing around pre-booking bikes at all, so is it just a case of first come first serve if you want to try a specific bike?
 
PinkFloyd said:
Demo Day question, how do they tend to work? MBR are doing 2 days on the 7-8th of April at Forest of Dean and have a few bikes I'm interested in, I've signed up for the Saturday. The booking form has nothing around pre-booking bikes at all, so is it just a case of first come first serve if you want to try a specific bike?
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There are generally a few ways they do it. I took part in a Nukeproof (and meant to do a Santa Cruz one but food poisoning decided otherwise!) where you could take a bike out for a couple of hours in the morning but had to return it by the afternoon as they had a ride out in the afternoon that you had to book a place on. It meant you got longer on the bike and got to take it further afield (Spooky Woods at Glentress from the Peel car park if you're familiar) to get a better feel of it.

I also did a Specialized day at Glentress where it only last for the morning where you got a half an hour spin on a bike but they had 5 or 6 to choose from.
 
PinkFloyd said:
Demo Day question, how do they tend to work? MBR are doing 2 days on the 7-8th of April at Forest of Dean and have a few bikes I'm interested in, I've signed up for the Saturday. The booking form has nothing around pre-booking bikes at all, so is it just a case of first come first serve if you want to try a specific bike?
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I've signed up to the Saturday too.
 
I've also signed on Saturday, I'm pretty sure it's a case of turn up, have a wander round, pick out a bike you want to ride, if it's available then they set you up and off you go!

I've got a couple of Vitus bikes on my list and a Cube if they're there, it's limited to 250 people over the 2 days so hopefully there shouldn't be too long a wait for a specific bike.

 
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