"The Lively Monster Truck"

[weeksy]

Hop Blakes

[millemille]

Hop Blakes

Lolz

[MingtheMerciless]

A couple of Nissan sliding callipers

[millemille]

First customer at the sorting office this morning...



..well, it looks the right size...



...and it feels like it could contain bicycle parts...



...looks promising...



...and there they are...

[millemille]

And now the caliper mount adaptor and shift/dropper lever mount game begins...

[millemille]

Put some concerted effort into finding and curing the source of persistent creaking from the bike. Was convinced it was the motor/frame interface so dropped the motor, cleaned up the contact faces on motor and frame and retightened all fasteners. And fitted a derestrictor at the same time.

Put it all back together, quick test ride. Fuck! Still creaking.

Knew it wasn't the saddle or seatpost as they'd both been replaced. Only thing I could think off that was left was the rear suspension bearings. But it couldn't be them because every 3rd time I wash the bike I disconnect the shock and check the movement of the back end for play and graunching and the like....

...but it was. All bearings comprehensively goosed. Had to destroy several of the spacers and bushes to get the old bearings out. Parts are on order from Focus but not arrived yet.

So, to console myself....



Need a new, dropped, top yoke - which my friendly CNC man will get on with in a week - and a shim for the crown race as the steerer on the boxxers is 1 1/8"and the current Zeb is 1 1/2".

[weeksy]

Bearings are the bane of my life lol

Could be thought getting back in then!

[MingtheMerciless]

Yep, MTB bearings are rubbish, Ebike ones more so. FFS bigger pivots with larger bearings are not going to add too much weigh to an already heavy bike but if it means you can get through a winter without them wearing out the weight would be a price I’d gladly pay.

Every time I ride my bikes I remember Oppenheimer “I am become death, the destroyer of bearings”.

Doesn’t matter what I fit from cheapo to full on ceramic, the LBS despair of me.

[millemille]

Got the back end back together. It's not at all surprising how quickly OEM bearings fail when you look at the pathetic amounts of grease in the bearings from the factory...



...all new bearings were flushed out and then packed to the gunwales with Fuchs Renolit MP3 grease (if it's good enough for rail vehicle axle bearings it's good enough for my bicycle). Back end is now creak free.

And was out on Friday afternoon with some members of my engineering team, who ride mountain bikes, and @Couchy for a gentle spin at Black Rocks....



Bumped into a couple of Focus Sam2 riders while there and we all shared our creaking bike stories, seems a common theme with the bike. I rode over there and back, about 10 miles each way, and "may" have made plenty of us of "Turbo" and the deristrictor that somehow fell into the motor while I had it out to take about 40 minutes to cover the 10 miles (and that's with 1,600 foot of climbing each way).

Started the process of swapping the Zebs over to Boxxers. A crown race adaptor to take the 1 1/8th steerer to 1.5" lets the forks fit in the frame...



The lower headset bearing is disappointingly notchy, given how little use it has since it was fitted, so I'm going to see if I can pop the seal out and give it a good clean out and new grease.

You can see why the cranked top yoke is needed...



Hopefully that'll be done this week. The front hub needs modifying to suit the increase in axle diameter, up from 15mm to 20mm, that comes with the Boxxer Maxle. Luckily it's a piece of piss with Hope hubs and my LBS, Stanley Fearns in Matlock, has a kit in stock.

Had to shorten the cables to suit the Boxxers, as the legs above the lower yoke align perfectly with the cable ports on full lock...



...this is a bit of a pisser as Focus make a big deal out of the fact that the frame is designed, and certified, for triple crown fork use. It is if you use the OEM integrated cable headset/stem but not with standard cable routing.

With the extra length of the front forks I've flipped the rear wheel chip to the low setting to lift the bike and recover some of the head angle lost to the longer forks...



..which means swapping the rear caliper mount and fitting a longer chain and resetting the rear mech and indexing. I've been using a Mxxis Dissector rear tyre recently and while the tread pattern works well on the rocks in the dry I've had no end of problems with it loosing pressure. I've burped it several times and it just randomly lets air out even when not being worked hard. if I wasn't running inserts I'd have had to end several rides early and god knows what shape the rear rim would have been in. I've got a Minion DHR with DD casing to go on and the lesson learnt is ebikes and larger riders have to have DD casings on the back....

[weeksy]

Top write up

[MingtheMerciless]

I don't know what your moaning about, all specialized bearings get, is shown the pot of grease and told to pretend they've been lubricated.

What pressure are you running the Dissector at? Maxxis are very sniffy about you running them at lower pressures than specified. High Roller 2's had a nasty habit of shedding edge knobs but Maxxis were adamant that that was due to users running them below minimum specified pressure (which TBH was true in my case).

[millemille]

I don't know what your moaning about, all specialized bearings get, is shown the pot of grease and told to pretend they've been lubricated.

it's like they're paying for the grease out of their own pocket....

What pressure are you running the Dissector at? Maxxis are very sniffy about you running them at lower pressures than specified. High Roller 2's had a nasty habit of shedding edge knobs but Maxxis were adamant that that was due to users running them below minimum specified pressure (which TBH was true in my case).

Definitely not a case of too low pressure. I pumped it up to 35psi for the road ride over to Black Rocks and had got about 3 miles when suddenly it started leaking, as in I could hear it. Stopped and used my mini pump to get it up as hard as I could and pedalled the remaining 7 miles with no problem. Met up with everyone else and had ridden 50 yards when @Couchy asks "what that noise is?" as it suddenly started venting air again....

[porter_jamie]

are the boxxers boost? if not, then you might be into a new top and bottom yoke...

[millemille]

are the boxxers boost? if not, then you might be into a new top and bottom yoke...

Fear ye not, for once it appears that there is some commonality...





..and it is only the diameter of the axle that is different and for which Hope designed their hubs to be compatible with by dint of swapping the end caps.

It's a beast!

[weeksy]

We've got Boxers on the lads bike.

Beware that the torques are very low on the axle, also very random
3.7 and 6.2 lol

[millemille]

We've got Boxers on the lads bike.

Beware that the torques are very low on the axle, also very random
3.7 and 6.2 lol

Thanks for the heads up

[weeksy]

We've got Boxers on the lads bike.

Beware that the torques are very low on the axle, also very random
3.7 and 6.2 lol

Thanks for the heads up

Apparently 99.9% of people tighten them incorrectly. Check the RS document to confirm

[millemille]

We've got Boxers on the lads bike.

Beware that the torques are very low on the axle, also very random
3.7 and 6.2 lol

Thanks for the heads up

Apparently 99.9% of people tighten them incorrectly. Check the RS document to confirm

It's engraved on the axle, torque and tightening order. But I guess that's not a lot of good once the axles inside the hub....

[weeksy]

That I did not know

[millemille]