Recent content by zbikeman

Living without a compressor? Welcome to my world. I live in an apartment. Couldn't use a compressor here if I wanted to. So yeah, nice if you have access to one. Some of us don't.

I must be the outlier here. I've gone from tubeless back to tubes. I live in goathead country, so when I got a bike already set up tubeless (Sirrus X 5.0), I thought, great! No more tubes, patching, etc. Got a 1000ml bottle of Stan's original sealant, a couple of syringe fill kits with valve...

Cables still reach despite the added rise and sweep. The idea is to bring the bars back to your body for a more comfortable upright riding position. The riding position as set up with most stock flat bar bikes is too far forward and aggressive for us older folks. We need a more relaxed...

Tried a Bontrager bar first. Didn't have anywhere near the rise and sweep. I think I still have it somewhere. The Ergotec bar turns your bike into a cruiser. It's easier to keep your elbows in while you ride. With flatter bars, the elbows tend to splay out.

@Drozdster, on my Sirrus X 5.0, Vado SL 4.0 and my wife's Vado 4.0, I replaced the stock bars all with the same bar: https://www.tradeinn.com/bikeinn/en/ergotec-trekking-32-mm-45--grip-184-mm-handlebar/137484604/p?tqw=31.8%20mm 32mm rise and 47mm backsweep are much easier on the wrists and...

If it were the chain sticking or not installed correctly, the click wouldn't go away on a stand. Found this on the interwebs (emtbforums). How's the mount pivot? SX and NX mechs all develop play at the mount pivot. Chain tension generally stops the mech wobbling so much when in use so they...

Is there any way you can get the bike on a workstand? Reason I ask - it's quite difficult to localize noises while you're riding. Can't exactly put an ear to the crank to find out what's going on. I recently swapped wheels to a nonmotorized bike I was selling. Got a click on every revolution...

Have you checked the rear hub carefully for signs of fatigue / failure / cracks? I once had an MTB hub - Shimano Deore DX if memory serves - where I kept blowing through spokes in the rear wheel near the hub. I'm a lightweight, so it wasn't excess weight, hucking the bike, jumping off curbs...

@BioWheel, just curious - where did the spokes fail? In the middle, near the hub or near the nipple? My experience is that the location of the failure helps explain what's going on. If you've never had problems with alloy rims but seem to break spokes with carbon rims, keep in mind alloy will...

The proprietary stem is also a dealbreaker for me. What, does Spesh think that we all need the same stem length and extension, and this is the best we can do? Seems like a giant step backwards. Don't build fancy displays into components and then make them proprietary. You lose a significant...

The old chain is hopefully the correct length. If you still have it, lay a new one next to it and remove any links to get to the length of the old one.

Every business seems different with regard to scheduling repair work. I don't know if this is common in the UK, but I've been to at least a couple auto repair shops in the US that didn't schedule any work in advance. If you wanted work done, you simply showed up with your vehicle. Get there...

Most shops have an idea of how far out their service backlog needs to clear (typically days or weeks). It's perfectly OK to ask how far out they're working, as you probably won't get your bike back before then. As far as the shop asking you to bring it in first thing in the morning, in...

After playing drop-the-wedge-in-the-seat-tube with my Sirrus X 5.0 (and now my Vado 4.0 SL) enough times, my workaround is to drop the bike on its side (on an old blanket to prevent scratching) whenever adjusting saddle height or changing saddles. It's virtually impossible to drop the wedge...

My Sirrus X 5.0 has that same wedge seatpost clamp. After dropping the wedge in there numerous times, I found an odd workaround. I turned the bike on its side when adjusting saddle height. Makes the wedge much less likely to fall into the bottom bracket.