Ask the experts

[Andeh]

Good to hear.
Glad I9 is responding.

Yeah, I'd love to give them the benefit of a doubt. I'm all for on-shore manufacturing, and love a lot of the other aspects of the hubs.

[Huskier]

Frame bearings: universal or manufacturer specific? Is bearing service a job for a hack or a shop?

[toast2266]

Frame bearings: universal or manufacturer specific? Is bearing service a job for a hack or a shop?

Not universal, but there are some common sizes that a lot of manufacturers use. There'll usually be a number on the bearing telling you the size. You can usually get replacements direct from the frame manufacturer, or from a place like Enduro bearings.

Bearing service usually just means replacement. So you're pulling the old bearings out, and pushing new ones in. The method for that varies a little bit depending on the location / situation, but a bearing press is certainly helpful to get things to go in straight. There are assorted extraction tools of varying fanciness. A punch will work a lot of the time for extraction too. With occasional exceptions, it's not a particularly difficult job.

[El Chupacabra]

Blind hole bearing removal is harder, and requires a puller tool. If you can punch the bearing out from behind, it's usually easy enough to install a new one, without special tools - I use a socket and hammer, and freeze the new bearing overnight first, then grease just before installing. Freezing it does seem to help shrink just a tiny bit.

If ordering replacements based on the markings on the bearing, all the markings matter. Bike bearings are usually 2RS, for two rubber seals. You don't want a metal shield bearing (ZZ) on a bike, it won't seal out contaminants adequately. And not a RS, which means only one side has the rubber seal.

[Andeh]

The Alt Alt bearing press kit is shockingly effective and very affordable compared to fancy machined aluminum press sets.
https://www.altalt.ca/bearing-press-tool
It can be used to remove a lot of bearings too, provided there's good access. In some cases you'll need a blind puller, which are size specific for the bearings you use.

For blind pullers, quality does seem to matter. I sucked it up and bought some ones from Wheels Mfg after starting with some cheap ones from the UK that slipped constantly. With a blind puller, you tighten it down, then use a piece of threaded rod or a long punch with a hammer to tap it out from the opposite side.

[jm2e]

I love wrenching, but working on bearings is an investment. Never seemed worth it to me.


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[evdog]

I've had good and bad experiences with bearing replacement. Depends on the frame. Currently both bikes have a few that need replacement and I've been putting it off since creaking seems to have somewhat faded away.

[volklpowdermaniac]

Timely topic, good reads. Pretty much the only bike building and maintenance I don’t feel comfortable with (or at least haven’t undertaken) is bearing pulling/pressing.

That and wheel building, tho wheel building seems more like something I might try to learn

[Andeh]

Really? Bearing removal & pressing is very easy with the right tools. It's just time consuming, especially if you're talking pivot bearings, since you need to first clean the bike, dry it, then break it down, before you even start the replacement process. I've been servicing my own bearings for years, and have never seriously considered wheel building.

The entry tool cost for wheelbuilding is a lot higher (stand $200-380, tension meter $90, dish tool $50), and the actual work required is a lot more complicated than hitting things with a hammer or literally turning wrenches.

[XXX-er]

Really? Bearing removal & pressing is very easy with the right tools. It's just time consuming, especially if you're talking pivot bearings, since you need to first clean the bike, dry it, then break it down, before you even start the replacement process. I've been servicing my own bearings for years, and have never seriously considered wheel building.

The entry tool cost for wheelbuilding is a lot higher (stand $200-380, tension meter $90, dish tool $50), and the actual work required is a lot more complicated than hitting things with a hammer or literally turning wrenches.

This ^^ and one can even make a press out of readi rod and some washers while building a wheel requires some skills

[ticketchecker]

Anybody seen one of these in the wild? https://altanglecycling.com/

[Meconium]

Thinnest grips for adult bars? ESI race are 30mm, figure something around 26mm for the 22.2mm bar is obtainable?

[carlh]

Any gear bag suggestions that have a muddy shoes compartment and will fit a full face? I can go Moto bag but most of those seem huge like 150L+ and I think 80-100L should be about right.

[climberevan]

The entry tool cost for wheelbuilding is a lot higher (stand $200-380, tension meter $90, dish tool $50), and the actual work required is a lot more complicated than hitting things with a hammer or literally turning wrenches.

Don't tell this to all of the wheels I built with a $50 Minoura truing stand, no dish gauge, and only my ears to determine spoke tension--they might just self destruct!

Nothing on a bike is really complicated, even suspension damper work. People shouldn't be so intimidated.

[El Chupacabra]

Any gear bag suggestions that have a muddy shoes compartment and will fit a full face? I can go Moto bag but most of those seem huge like 150L+ and I think 80-100L should be about right.

Ski boot backpack?

[fool]

Glucose transport tops out at ~60g/hr, so if that's all you're looking to do then pure glucose / maltodextrin is fine. Go beyond this and the body can't physically move more glucose across the lining of the gut, so it sits -ferments - and pulls in water. This is where the recommendation for 2 to 300kcal's came from.

If you want to go beyond 60g/hr you need to begin adding fructose into the mix. This came from the work of Asker Jeukendrup (and others) who added some fructose to the mix in a 2:1 ratio. Fructose goes through a seperate transporter, and their seems to be some magic when it's consumed with glucose, because the sum of the whole is higher than the sum of the parts: consuming fructose alone is moderately disastrous. Suddenly the key to transporting more than 90g/hr was found.

More recently, research is supporting that a 1:1 ratio can increase oxidation rates to 120g/hr.

I'm of the opinion that you want to keep your glucose maxed (it's what works best for me) because fructose oxidation is relatively "harder"/ slower than glucose oxidation.

So:

Rate	Ratio	Grams per hour
>60g/hr	100% Glucose	up to 60g
60 to 90g/hr	2:1 Glucose:Fructose	60g Glucose / Up to 30g Fructose
90 to 120g/hr	1:1	60g glucose / 30 to 60g fructose
>120g/hr	???	We don't know what happens here

Fascinating stuff - thanks, Pickels, and DTM. I'll be making a batch of this stuff for next weekend's rides.

[VTskibum]

Ski boot backpack?

I’m going to recycle my kids sized ski boot backpack for my bike uses. Smaller than my adult sized boot backpack would still fit shoes, helmet, gloves, pads easily.


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[XXX-er]

only my ears to determine spoke tension--they might just self destruct!.

hitting the spokes for a tone actualy work way better than it should

[Dee Hubbs]

Thinnest grips for adult bars? ESI race are 30mm, figure something around 26mm for the 22.2mm bar is obtainable?

So you’re looking for a 1.9mm thick grip? ((26.0-22.2)/2)=1.9
Your only option in that realm is road bike bar tape.

[rideit]

hitting the spokes for a tone actualy work way better than it should

Unless the rim is compromised, in which case it will naturally register high or low if it has been trued back to lateral and/or round.

But yes, you can gauge a ballpark tone.

[toast2266]

Thinnest grips for adult bars? ESI race are 30mm, figure something around 26mm for the 22.2mm bar is obtainable?

Look at bmx grips. I don't know if any of them are as thin as 26mm, but some are less than 30mm. Something like the We the people manta grips are 27.5mm. A lot of bmx grips are longer, so you might have to cut then down a bit.

[toast2266]

Don't tell this to all of the wheels I built with a $50 Minoura truing stand, no dish gauge, and only my ears to determine spoke tension--they might just self destruct!

Same.

There's this perception that wheel building is some sort of dark art. It's really not that hard, especially if you have a well built wheel that you can use as a reference. It'll take a couple hours for people that haven't done it before, but it's not complicated.

[rideit]

I have built (or repaired) more than a few wheels out in the back of beyond, using either rim brakes or zip ties as gauges….

[XXX-er]

Unless the rim is compromised, in which case it will naturally register high or low if it has been trued back to lateral and/or round.

But yes, you can gauge a ballpark tone.

well ya but its usually pretty obvious cuz visually the rim is fucked, but i'm talking about an unbent rim with loose spokes

[Lvovsky]

Is 3cm reach difference a lot on mnt bike?

Polygon has exdemo emnt bike but only in XL - reach 510mm. I have their trail bike in L with reach 480.

Stack difference is XL 644 vs L 621