With around 6wks left to our big
Afan wkend, I figured it was time to get down to some serious spannerin' and fettle/overhaul my ride. As the chain was also getting past it's
best, now seemed like a logical time to replace my entire drivetrain. Changing the gear now
should also mean that I'll have some time to iron out any glitches and bed-in all the new bits.
So my ride time last wkend wasn't spent steamin' out on the trails :( but skimmin' flesh off me'knuckles within the cool garage.
Drivetrain replacement's;
were 100% like for like, but not thru the lack of trying ;)- Chainrings (XT) - to overcome my dreaded Cannock induced, wet weather, granny ring climb chain suck. Although it's only a matter of time before it occur elsehwere and in all weathers.
- Cassette (XT) - I did try and order a SRAM X0 (PG_990) cassette which unfortuntely wasn't in stock and I didn't like the number of loose rings on the X9 (PG-980) I received. With their tendancy to chew up alloy freehub carriers.
- Chain (PG-971) - cleaned and then lubed with Chad's recommendation; T9 Boeshield. Hopefully it's better than Finish Line XC which washes off far too easily for my liking.
- Rear Mech (X9) - after checking that the hanger was straight.
- Shifters (X9) - I'd hoped that Chad might have some early 2007 units available, but alas no :rolleyes
- Cables - Jagwire sealed jobbies replaced with a dose Teflon lube added for good measure.
Service items;
- RP3 - I typically clean and regrease the air can every 6 months and this was the first time that I've ever had a grubby'un.
- Freewheel (Chris King) - now using lighter/approved Teflon lube (Tri-Flow), which'll hopefully prevent drag experienced whilst back pedalling with subsequent cassette/chain de-railment.
A test ride had the drive train quieten down after a few miles with the shifters feeling slightly faster and defo lighter with new Teflon lined cables. I'm defo getting the hang of setting up this SRAM gear too, 'cos the cable tension didn't even need a tweak. A quick post ride check highlighted that the rear hub needed a little more pre-load, which was easily nipped up.
Tyres; Pleased with the results thus far, I was spurred on to change my
summer-esque Racing Ralphs boots for my
all mountain Bonty ACX's. But with a twist..:huh...this time I was going to ditch the tubes and go tubeless for the 1st time. So I set about;
- removing the RRalphs - easy, 'cos they're not tubeless
- stripping off the old rim tape
Cracking open a DT conversion kit then required the fitting of;
- double sided tape - fiddly and time consuming
- rim strip - a right wrestin' match with the elastic and rim parting company many times !
- Bonty ACX - down right painful ! - these are absolute buggers to get onto my DT 4.1 rims and not a job I'd been looking forward to.
Seating the bead and pumping up the tyre with a track pump revealed a flaw in my approach...I should have used a new tyre ! This used boot appeared to have it's fair share of cuts and holes that now needed patching. So off the blighter came so that I could apply some tubeless patches. However, once into the Hutchinson repair kit it became clear that only 1-4mm holes needed patches and that some adhesive would suffice on my "bleeders" ! :x So, wrestle the tyre back on I did...eventually and with aching knuckles !
Adding 60ml of Bonty Super Juice was a simple task thru the clever removeable presta valve - which has gotta be easier than leaving a section of the tyre unhooked, as per many DIY kits. Adding 40psi revealed that the adhesive had silenced many of the leaks (phew) and the juice seemed to be taking care of the rest. A few slow turns of the wheel, at different angles, meant checking it again in the morning...where it had lost lots of air ! According to the instructions, this isn't unusual and I'll report back with an update shortly.
Oh gawd, I've still got the rear wheel to convert ! :o I'm not sure that my pinky's can take much more and my tyre levers are also looking "tired" ;-)
I've just been given the run around whilst trying to replace my tired SRAM x9 jockey wheels and thought I'd pass on what I've learnt. The plastic teeth were a little worn but worse still was the contaminated and corroded lower tension bearing which was running fairly ok after being regreased but occassionally it'd still skip 'n' snag. After browsing the web I couldn't decide which replacements I needed and some recommended Tacx wheels were out of stock. While I was in town and passing, I decided to pop into my
lbs *gasp* to place an order. I asked for x9 and a couple of days later
Fisher had sent them some x9/9sl's which looked like they'd do the trick. Trying to fit 'em highlighted that they're not 100% compatible, although at first glance you'd be hard pressed to tell 'em apart.
I needed the x9 2005 onwards jockeys which are on the left below, part#GP615, but they sent me some x9/9sl from 2002/3, part#GP713, those on the right. The problem is that the earlier gears have sealed bearings top and bottom with narrow mounting holes on the top and larger on the lower cog. Querky eh.
What I did manage to do was use the original sandwich plates from the lower/tension jockey wheel (with the busted bearing) and wrap them around either of the new, older spec pulley's. Unfortunately, I've not been able to do anything with the upper/alignment jockey wheel as non of the components were transferrable.
Here's a slightly more details pic to show the differences, although you're now looking at the top flight x0 on the left and my 2005 spec x9 on the right.
I've subsequently found that the distributors website has a handy reference outlining the different part numbers, which'd been mighty useful had I known about it a few days before !
After recently making the transition from the "mainstream" Shimano gear shifts to SRAM I thought that I'd "spread the word" and give you the benefit of my experience.
I'm sure that almost everybody will be familiar with the Shimano amd it's MTB groupset with it's various levels of "competence" from the functional yet basic Deore, LX, XT up to the flag ship XTR. But how many of you know about SRAM ?
Background : Until a recently they were a small company building on it's slightly different take to the Shimano "standard" gear changes with different shifters, cassettes, chains. However, they're recently undergone few years of rapid expansion and are "the" company on a roll and are surely out to rival the bigS. They're moving towards being able to supply their own groupset after acquiring the likes of Avid (brakes) and Truvativ (cranks/stems/bars/seatposts/etc). More recently, they also bought out RockShox (forks, shox's) which is fairly big coo and give's them an edge to Shimano as they don't manufacture forks.
The SRAM gear sets range from X7, X9 to the major bling X0.
A number of basic differences separate SRAM from Shimano in the operation of gear changes.
- SRAM operate on a 1:1 ratio between the shifters and the mechs, whereas Shimano use 2:1 on the rear and 1:1 on the front. This means that a SRAM system is likely to operate for longer without the need for small adjustments and to be less prone to ghost shifts on full suspension steeds.
- SRAM shifter paddles are operated by the thumb only whereas Shimano require both the thumb and forefinger. This was a major selling point for me as having 4 fingers permenantly wrapped around the bars gives a more secure ride over those large boulders. It's also much less strain on the grey cells as only the thumb is in motion.
- The rear mech cable routing on SRAM is direct from the chainstay whereas Shimano need a long loop of cable to enter in the rear. The most obvious advantage of a direct cable run is less drag but an additional benefit is that shrubbery is less likely to get hooked along for a ride !
- SRAM rear mechs use a much firmer spring mechanism over Shimano. Which greatly reduces chain slap (chain hitting the chainstay), chain derailment when jumping and the mech hitting the chainstay. I can also be a pain to then get the back wheel out ! Update: checkout this thread for a video (approx 28Mb) that helps to highlight the differences.
SRAM also produce a Shimano range of compatible shifters called (rather uninspiringly) "2:1 shifters" ! Fortunately, they're more commonly referred to as Rocket or Attack.
Having previously used Shimano Deore and the midrange LX I can confirm that it's all good kit and works very well, with noticable improvements higher up the range. Converting to the SRAM midrange X9 shifters didn't cause any worries and in operation the changes are slightly less slick but feel more positive. Which I find a bonus when you've a set of full fingers gloves on as I always mis-shifted Shimano gears during the winter as their operation is quite light to the touch. Do they change any differently ? Probably but I'll be damned if I can tell. You'd need a dedicated test rig to figure that out and personally I'd prefer just to get out and ride...
Appart from the shifter ratio's all other components are interchangeable between the manufacturer's and my current rig has SRAM X9 shifters, rear mech and chain with a Shimano cassette and front mech. I've found that SRAM chain's tend to last longer but that probably means that the rest of drivetrain wears a little more rapdily.
The general understanding is that the SRAM front mech isn't as slick as Shimano, all Shimano cranks/bb's set the industry standard for light/stiff, that the top flight SRAM X0 rear mech is the bees-knees, that the SRAM X0 shifters are leagues ahead and that the rest of the kit functions on a par.
You chose which you'd like...
As many a Blog has been created that review all thangs MTB, I thought it'd be handy to have a central area where they can all be found, incl'g a handy link on the sidebar. So Blog away Posse and review kit to your hearts content...
Bikes :Components :
Bars :
- FSA XC190 - riser, alloy
- Maxm MX-1 - flat, carbon
- Maxm MX-5 - riser, carbon
Brakes :
- Formula Oro
- Hope C2 - 2 pot, closed
- Hope Mini
- Hope Mono M4 - 4 pot, open
- Magura Louise BAT's, VentiRotors '07
- Shimano Dual Control '05
- Shimano Saint
Cables :
Cassettes :
- Shimano XT
- SRAM PG-990
- SunRace MZ
Cranksets :
Derailleurs : - Shimano XTR (fd)
- SRAM X-Gen (fd)
- Shimano XTR (rd)
- SRAM X0 (rd)
- SRAM X9 (rd)
- SRAM x9 Jockey Wheels '05
Forks :
Grips :
- Enduro Fork Seals Silicone
- Yeti Hardcore
Groupsets :
Pedals : Saddles :
- Fizik Gobi '05
- Koobi
- Specialized BG2
- Specialized Jett - women's
- WTB Shadow
Seatclamps :
Seatposts :
Shifters :
Shoxs :
Skewers :
Stems :
Tyres :
- Bontrager ACX '05 "Tubeless"
- Hutchinson Bulldog
- Hutchinson Spider UST
- Panaracer Cinder
- Panaracer XC Fire
- Schwalbe Nobby Nic's
- Schwalbe Racing Ralph '05
Wheelsets : Accessories :
Armour :
Helmets :
Hydration Packs :
Jackets :
Lights : Locks :
GPS :
Mudguards :
Pumps :
Shoes :
Miscellaneous : Review Websites :I find that the Blogger Archive drop-down is useless unless you know "when" stuff was Blog'd. So with a little help, I'm sure that the links to any new reviews will mysteriously find there way into this handy reference blog. Eventually...
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