You have got to love a Canadian Tire sale

Thought I might as well treat myself to a new toy being that it is my day off and all. I have been waiting for one of these to come on sale for a couple months now so it seemed like fate when I checked out the e-flyer and spotted it.
Snuck out this morning before lawn cutting and bicycle riding and picked up a table top drill press. Now she is by no means top-o-the line but it is more than adequate for the small tasks that I have in mind. Also conveniently HSS drill bits were on sale, surely a sign. I have already put them to good use, drilling into my practice Deore rear derailleur to figure out how I am going to go about pushing the pins out of my future X-Ben XTR Shadow derailleur project.
The drill press made very short work of this task and I am confident that I can shortly move on to the XTR.

The new kid

Great success!!

Brothers

Looking forward to moving this project along!

Benny

It's the little things

See, now there is very little in this world that gives me greater pleasure than tweaking my already amazing mountain bike. To my surprise over the past month I have started getting bushing knock in my rear shock at the top bolt mounting point. Now I know this is a somewhat common ailment of dual suspension bikes but I was still surprised seeing as this is my first Fox rear shock that has developed busing play since I started riding them in 2007. I am now on my 4th bike with a Fox rear shock since then so I was actually not expecting it to fail.
However it was a good excuse try out a fun new-er-ish product on the market from the folks at Real World Cycling. They are based out of Arizona I think and appear to have some sort of partnership with Enduro Bearings. They make a nice little kit that replaces your shock bushing(s) with needle bearings.
I installed them right when I got off work this afternoon since I wanted to go riding but the bushing knock was DriViNg mE CraZy!!!! Not that I could actually detect it while riding but I knew it was there. Only took about 10minutes and the new bearings pushed in really easy and it mounted up to the Giant without the need for any spacers or reducers which was nice. As soon as I tightened the bolts back up the play was gone! Zero! no more knocking. Now I've heard that these develop a bit of play over time but it is normal (since you don't want bearings to be super tight) and it levels off and doesn't get any worse. Well after a 2 hour ride there is still zero play but I'll have to ride them for a while before I can decide on a verdict. The way I see it, if they last a full 12 months then they are worth buying. They were around $25 too which is amazing. I swear the suspension now operates a bit smoother but who knows. Certainly got rid of the klunk so I am expecting good things.
I also decided to try out their fork seals since OE seals leave a lot to be desired. They have built their reputation off of the fork seals which are also only around $25 so I thought there's no harm in trying (unless they destroy my $1300 fork, but such is life). They also installed very easily which took about 10minutes. I installed them after my ride so I will post back about them in a couple days once I get some miles on them. I hear they have a short-ish break in period.

The goods :-)

Needle bearings to replace your shock bushings
Fork seals

Fork seals installed

Needle bearings installed

It is only possible to replace the top shock bushing with bearings since there is quite a bit of proprietary hardware used in the lower mount. Lower mount is pretty much impervious to wear anyway so it's not necessary to replace.

Only beef is that the blue fork seals look ugly on my bike. I wish they came in black (or orange ;-D ) Enduro, please give us a choice of colours! Yes I am high maintenance.

I'll do a write up on these products once I get some mileage on them.

-Benoit

Lifestyles of the rich and the famous

Was away most of last week, did you miss me? I was summoned out to Canmore Alberta for National XC Championships. Though I was not racing, oh no, I am far to slow to make that expensive of a trip for a mid pack finish. I was asked to be the mechanic for 3-Rox Racing, a team containing some of the fastest folks in Ontario and also Canada. Had a great time out there and the team did great. Derek (my boy) finished 3rd in the Elite Men's race behind Kabush and Plaxton. Amanda Sin was 2nd behind Pendrel.
My pro-elite mechanic skillz ensured there were no mechanicals and I got an awesome sunglasses tan hanging out in the tech zone all day. Was a perfect day for racing with amazing 360 degree mountain views.
Kyle Douglas and I did a full video lap of the course which can be seen in 3 segments here

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl7kG0Hz7gg&feature=player_embedded

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7zrfi7kRA&feature=player_embedded

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTgX8P-7FsY&feature=player_embedded

Kyle was destroying me on the climbs (if you listen close in the last 15 seconds you can hear me say something to that effect). The one rider that blew by us was Daniel Sessford on a hot lap so I don't feel so bad for getting smoked.
That is about all for now. Back to work at Hardwood and enjoying the hot weather.
Benno

View from the motel

Kyle and I head out on a mountain ride after filming a lap of the course

Catching a mountain goat for dinner.

How-To: Install/Remove New Style Shimano Cranks and Chainrings

In this how-to I am going to de-mystify the whole crank area of a new style Shimano equipped bike (excluding new 970 XTR, that is a whole different story). Being able to remove the cranks helps greatly with servicing the hard to reach areas around the bottom bracket (BB for short). You often need to remove the crank to be able to remove the small and middle chainrings in order to clean or replace them.
Even though I use my own 2 ring setup, most of what is done in this how-to is applicable to a typical Shimano 3 ring crank.

Tools needed for crank removal
-Rubber mallet
-5mm Allen wrench
-Shimano fixing bolt tool.

Step 1:
Inspect the area we are going to be working on. I actually just did a full service on my bike a few days ago but since it decided to rain today my bike collected a bunch of mud in the hard to reach areas of the Anthem X frame. Since I wanted to do this writeup anyway I thought it would be a good excuse to pop the cranks off and get the mud outta there.

Step 2:
Start by using your 5mm to loosen the non-drive-side pinch bolts. You want to alternate back and forth between loosening the bolts a few times so that you are relieving the pressure equally on both sides. Loosen the bolts to relieve all of the clamping force but you don’t have to remove them completely from the crankarm.

Alternate between the two bolts to relieve the pressure evenly

Step 3:
Loosen the plastic fixing bolt using the Shimano fixing bolt tool and turning counter clockwise. It should only be finger tight and easy to remove. If it is stuck then you might have to bust out the Vicegrips to get a firm hold on the Shimano tool to break the plastic bolt loose. Don’t damage the bolt as it is very much needed to reassemble the crank properly.

Step 4:
There is a small plastic shim with a pin sticking out the bottom. The pin slots into a hole on the crank axle as a last resort measure to keep the non-drive-side crank arm on the axle in case everything else comes loose. It pivots up and out of the way as illustrated in the photo. You will not be able to remove the crank without popping this shim up. You won’t be able to remove it completely, just pivot the one side up.

Step 5:
Now the non-drive-side crank arm is ready to be removed from the crank axle. You can wiggle it off or give it a few taps with the rubber mallet. I always make sure my rubber mallet is clean before I use it so that it doesn’t scratch any of my parts.

You can see what the axle looks like with the arm removed. You can also see the hole that the shim pin slotted into and why we had to pop it up. As you can see mine is already clean with fresh grease on the spline because I just did this. Yours might look different i.e. dirty/dry.

Step 6:
Now you can remove the drive side crank. Begin by tapping the end of the axle with the mallet.

Grasp the crank near the chainrings and start to wiggle it out. Pop the chain off the chainring down onto the axle.

Once you have the axle almost completely pulled out of the frame you might have to give the drive-side crank arm a little mallet tap to get it the rest of the way out.

Step 7:
Inspect your mess of a BB area. Don’t panic at this point. It is pretty easy to put this all back together correctly.

Bonus Points –> How-To Remove Chainrings
*No need to remove the chainrings? Skip to Step 14

You will require a few more tools for removing the chainrings and they really depend on your crank. Some have Allen key bolts and some have Torx bolts. Mine are Torx.
Tools needed:
-Allen key or Torx bits
-Chainring nut holding tool


Step 8:
Remove the small ring first.

Step 9:
Remove the big and middle ring. They usually share the same bolt, since mine is a 2 ring setup there is only one more ring to take off instead of 2. This is where you need the nut holder. Seems a shame that such a helpful tool be given such an awful name but hey it’s a dirty job and something has gotta do it. What this tool does is holds the chainring bolt nut so that it doesn’t spin when you try to loosen the chainring bolt. Comes with 2 different ends for 2 different types of nuts.
Now you know what that slot is for on the nut, not just a huge ass flathead screwdriver ;-) Takes some co-ordination to hold the nut tool and Torx wrench at the same time. Make sure to keep your knuckles away from the chainrings cause they are sharp!

Step 10:
Keep all your bits and pieces together in an organised fashion so you don’t forget where they all go and so you don’t lose anything. Clean it all up. Use either a rag or scrub with degreaser and a toothbrush (remember to rinse with water after using degreaser).

Clean :-)

Step 11:
Now you can start to reassemble. Put the big and middle rings back on. There is an orientation arrow on my rings, on Shimano rings there is usually a bump of some kind. You need to line this bump up with the crank arm so that all of the rings work together in harmony. For most big rings there is a pin that prevents the chain from getting jammed between the ring and the crank if the chain were to shift over the top of the big ring. That pin is the alignment indicator, line it up with the crank arm. Again on the middle ring you will see the bump or protrusion of metal or carbon on the inside of the ring. Line that up with the crankarm as well.

Step 12:
Finger tighten the middle/big-ring chainring bolts. Tighten bolts that are across from each other to evenly distribute the load (as illustrated in the 2nd photo). Use a 2 stage torque sequence meaning tighten the bolts to about 5Nm or 4 out of 10 first and then finish it off by tightening them to their final 11Nm or 8 out of 10. Lots of chainring bolts are soft alloy and are quite brittle so err on the side of caution tightening them. Some blue Loctite will reduce the required tightening torque. You may (probably) also need the chainring nut holder to keep the nuts from spinning while tightening.

Tightening pattern

Step 13:
Install the small ring. In the first picture you can see I have lined up the small ring orientation arrow with the crank arm. Torque it down the same as you did the big/middle ring bolts. You can also use blue Loctite here.

Torque it down

*Re-install cranks
Step 14:
Clean up that hard to reach BB area of the frame. I didn’t do a world class job here, I’ll save that for your bikes ;-)

Step 15:
Your cranks are now ready to be installed onto the bike. Using some general purpose bearing grease give the two smooth/shiny parts of the axle a light coating. These areas are what contact the BB so grease will reduce noise and potential wear.

Step 16:
Flip the chain up onto the crank axle and insert the spindle into the BB shell of the bike. You might need to tap with the mallet. Don’t push the spindle in all the way until you move the chain up onto the small ring so it doesn’t get pinched between the crank and bottom bracket potentially damaging it. Once the chain is on the small ring you can push or tap the crank into the frame the rest of the way.

Tap most of the way in but be careful not to pinch the chain between the frame and the crank.

Lift the chain up onto the chainring.

Tap the rest of the way in

Step 17:
On the non-drive side of the bike you will see the other side of the axle protruding. Use some more bearing grease on the spline.
Install the non-drive side crankarm onto the spline and push it on with your hands as far as it will go.
Push that little plastic shim/pin back down into place as well.

Step 18:
Install the plastic fixing bolt. This bolt is and important part of the system. It controls how much load the crank applies to the bottom bracket. Not tight enough and the cranks will have play back and forth. Too tight and the bottom bracket won’t spin freely and you will blow up the bearing pretty quick. Tighten it semi-firmly like you would a headset (once you tighten the pinch bolts a little you can spin the crank and see how it feels).

Step 19:
Tighten the pinch bolts slowly rotating back and forth between the two so that they are tightened equally. Final torque spec is around 12Nm. Be careful not to round out the bolts, it is easy to do. Give them a spin to see if you have the right bearing preload. Please ignore my messy front derailleur cable in the picture ;-)

That’s it you’re done. Admire your handy work and develop a new understanding of why I avoid mud.

The pile of dirt that got cleaned off

That's all for this How-To. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Benno

Biking and bikes vs blogging about biking and bikes

Ok wow I realise it has been forEVER since I have updated on here. Lets just say I am much more passionate about working on bikes and biking than I am passionate about updating my blog so guess what wins my time.
What is new and exciting?? Ok yes I realise there were tornadoes and earthquakes today but what do you expect when you are floating on liquid hot magma hurtling through space at a gajillion miles per hour.
On the more interesting front I have a difficult decision ahead of me. No it is not the Pulsar GTi-R vs R32 Skyling GTS-t debate, that has been settled. Over the next couple of years I am going to be building up a bike. It has been something I have always wanted to do and feel I am ready to start the process. Obviously it is going to be a dually and obviously it is going to be a Giant. I am trying to decide between an Anthem X (100mm travel) and a Trance X (120mm travel). I am starting to lean more heavily towards the Trance X because I feel I can baby it a little bit more than I could an Anthem X. I am still going to keep the Anthem X-Ben but I think I will work away slowly on a Trance X on the side. I will keep you posted but it will be my Guinea pig bike to test out all sorts of fun bits. I will keep the Anthem X for most races and big training rides.
But this is just a thought, not completely decided yet. Again priority number 1 is getting my hands on an SR20DET equipped Nissan as soon as possible :-)

OOoooooooo yeah looking good for 2011
The next X-Ben project has been started.

On a side note, does anybody have a pooched SRAM XO derailleur I can buy? Bent, blown up, whatever, I need a few parts from it for R&D.

Stay thirsty my friends,

Benno