Bicycle Love

[warning; this posting may be most enjoyed by bike-geeks and gear-heads]

Bicycles are wonderfully resilient machines, particularly high-end mountain-bikes. They bang themselves over all sorts of immovable obstacles without complaint. They feel the brunt of every crash. They often-times suffer a flying rock striking the down-tube with punishing force. We push them to such extreme limits and then demand a little bit more. In return, they simply smile and keep on rolling; usually. Sometimes there are catastrophic failures that terrify. Most of the time, however, parts simply wear out and must be replaced, hopefully before they break on the trail leaving you stranded. Such is the saga with Isabelle, my hearty Moots who has suffered much loving abuse along the trails of North America.

Since Isabelle came into my life nearly three years ago she has seen many parts replaced. She’s gone through two sets of rims, countless tires, a saddle, a rear derailleur, a Lefty cartridge, a couple of chains and cassettes and several sets of brakes pads. After initially building her with a 2×9 SRAM XO & X9 drive-train, I eventually swapped-out the double for a Shimano M770 3×9 crank. It required a new front derailleur and chain. That was a year ago.

Most recently, Isabelle’s drive-train has been showing it’s age. Poor rear shifting since that X9 rear derailleur is loose[same fate as the original] and worn out; sloppy front shifting and on-going chain-suck from the X7 front derailleur. In fact, front shifting has been an issue since day one. She shifters are starting to stick, again, and the chain-rings are already showing wear. The chain probably has a few months left in it. And you know what, generally I’ve been less than impressed with the SRAM components.

The derailleurs have worn out much faster than I have come to expect from Shimano. The feel or quality of each shift has never been as I like it and that rear derailleur bumps all over the place on really rocky sections, causing the chain to very often derail from the big-ring. Having one’s chain dangling around the crank-arm/pedal axle while hurtling down-hill at 50kph can be rather un-nerving. Well, no more. Last week Isabelle got a major over-haul and an entire new drive-train. Yup, the experiment is over; I’m back to Shimano components.

Isabelle is now running a full Shimano XT 3×10 drivetrain, complete with new shifters, derailleurs, chain, cassette, chain-rings and cables. The rear derailleur has a “clutch” system that basically “locks-out” the main pivot, preventing the cage from moving up towards the chain-stay and the eventual chain-drop. The gearing is slightly different, with a 24t small ring[vs 22] and a 36t big cog[vs 34] We also bled both XTR disc brakes; the mineral oil in each line was nearly black!

While we were at it, we also replaced the rim/spokes in the rear wheel, replacing the cracked and bent Mavic TN-719 with a new Bontrager Duster. Oh ya, and I’ve ordered a pair of Enve 29’r all mountain rims laced to DT Swiss S240 hubs.[going to get the rear axle swapped-out for the same 10mm through-axle that I’ve got in the current King hub.] A lot of money, but worth it when you ride this much and put your gear through so much punishment, uh, I mean, love. And boy, do I love riding my bike, particularly when it shifts so well! Oh ya, the front brake…

Because I run a Shimano XTR hydraulic brake on my Cannondale Lefty fork with a 180mm rotor[instead of a 160mm rotor], I need to employ a little aluminum adaptor; because the Lefty hub slides off the axle when the wheel is removed, the brake calliper has to be removed first, otherwise the rotor pulls against the calliper and bends and makes us upset; because the front wheel is removed more often than one might think, the threads in one of the bolt holes in the adaptor have pulled out, leaving my brake to sit crooked, howl when engaged and generally work poorly. Oh ya, and that adaptor, pretty obscure and difficult to source. [Shimano Part#Y8B298210] And, because I was riding my bike the very next day, I needed to figure this out.

Fortunately, a solution was found, albeit, a more expensive option that has now given me more powerful front braking. At Absolute Bikes they had an adaptor, but for a 203mm rotor, not 180mm as was currently installed on Isabelle. So, yup, you guessed it, a new 203mm rotor so I could use the 203mm adaptor. And boy, do I love riding my bike, particularly when it brakes so well!!

So, let’s go over this all. We’ve bled both brakes and replaced the front rotor with a larger model and corresponding adaptor; a complete Shimano XT 3×10 M770 [except cranks, but including BB] drive-train has been installed; the rear wheel has been rebuilt on a Bontrager Duster rim; Enve/DT Swiss wheels are on order; replaced the stock aluminum seat collar with a new Salsa seat-collar[red, of course] since I’ve been having trouble with the seat-post sliding down and figured the threads in the original collar were getting soft. Shawn at Absolute spent nearly 3 hours properly fitting me on Isabelle which did result in a new Specialized Avatar saddle. More about the fitting in an other posting. Any thing else? Oh ya, I did also have to replace the Moots YBB slider as it was badly worn out, well beyond it’s life. They are rated for about 2 seasons of use…I’ve got nearly 3 years on that thing!

Yup, just another day visiting the bike shop. Bicycles and their parts, such a fun addiction.

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