Beginners MTB Spin in Ballinastoe 01/02/09

TinyExplosions

Aquinas73 wrote: »

I was in Cycleogical over a year ago and saw it there for €1350 and then bought it new on E-Bay for €700ish. I sold it last April/May for €650 so it didn't really cost me anything. You must have got it in Cycleogical, they're the only suppliers of Kona in Dublin.

If you sold it for 650, that's great news for me... I got it for 700 (reduced from 1400 in Cycleogical's sale), and they're upgrading the brakes to hydraulic for an extra 50 bucks.

Am pretty happy with it. I could possibly have got a better deal online, but I like the reassurance of a LBS cos I know I'll break it at some point! Also, can't argue with half price

Vélo

Yeah I'd be happy with that deal.

I've just thought of a great idea for it.... http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html

TinyExplosions

Aquinas73 wrote: »

Yeah I'd be happy with that deal.

I've just thought of a great idea for it.... http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html

A full sus fixie.... interesting idea....

It does seem a decent starting point, and I can upgrade bits if I need to

Vélo

Jesus you don't even have it 24hrs and you're already looking at upgrades:eek:......I like it!

Karma

Aquinas73 wrote: »

Jesus you don't even have it 24hrs and you're already looking at upgrades:eek:......I like it!

he must of broke something on it already:rolleyes: not even out of the shop...

hope to make it too, will have space for 3/4 depending on my friends coming or not.
will let you know for sure.

TinyExplosions

Karma wrote: »

he must of broke something on it already:rolleyes: not even out of the shop...

I just couldn't be bothered lying to myself anymore -I know I'm going to want to upgrade in the future

Vélo

That's why I went all out when getting the parts together for my MTB. I did hold back on the groupset and got Shimano XT instead of XTR because I read it's more durable. I didn't want to buy another bike and then have to start upgrading. Mind you when I bought the frame it came with a standard seatpost and bought a nice carbon one on E-Bay yesterday....mmmmmm...carbon!:cool:

TinyExplosions

Carbon is always good!

I'm happy with Deore for now, my only question would be the rear shock, but sure I'll find out on Sunday!

Vélo

I'm guessing there'll be a few Fred's on the trails on Sunday or is "Freds" just for roadies?

concussion

Aquinas73 wrote: »

That's why I went all out when getting the parts together for my MTB. I did hold back on the groupset and got Shimano XT instead of XTR because I read it's more durable. I didn't want to buy another bike and then have to start upgrading. Mind you when I bought the frame it came with a standard seatpost and bought a nice carbon one on E-Bay yesterday....mmmmmm...carbon!:cool:

Ffffttt...xtr...don't bother with it - sure it weighs less but at twice the price of xt (which is expensive enough) you really don't want to bring it anywhere it might get hurt....like mountain biking....:eek:

As for durability, I've had an xt rear mech for about 4 years now, never cleaned, never changed the jockey wheels, runs like a dream. Probably classes as LX now its so old!

EDIT -
Wait, thats a lie - like a good boy I changed the jockey wheels when I replaced my chainset 14 months ago - CRC order history comes up trumps again (except for all the order prices down the side :eek:)

blorg

Aquinas73 wrote: »

I'm guessing there'll be a few Fred's on the trails on Sunday or is "Freds" just for roadies?

Well I'll be there

Vélo

It's imperative we all learn this by Sunday. It'll help us blend in.

http://world.std.com/~Jimf/biking/slang.html


I'll be Captain Crash

Morgan

Aquinas73 wrote: »

I'm guessing there'll be a few Fred's on the trails on Sunday or is "Freds" just for roadies?

I believe the correct term is "Goobers".

kenmc

Morgan wrote: »

I believe the correct term is "Goobers".

well it's in the afore mentioned dictionary as fred, so fred it shall become.

TinyExplosions

I'll be the gear masher on the boing-boing wearing the brain sieve

Vélo

Which one of us will do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWvSxhfa4Uc

niceonetom

Aquinas73 wrote: »

Which one of us will do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWvSxhfa4Uc

just when i was beginning to feel left out and think that maybe i should give mountain biking a go someday you post this. that was some scream - so much pain that he couldn't actually form words - and his description of it: "Shattered the helmet and bent my body over so my feet hit my head from backwards" leaves me thinking that the helmet probably didn't really do enough to save its contents, although i will acknowledge the possibility that he was already quite dim in the first place. the type of bike he was riding and the fact that he thinks "a skinny" is a noun would also attest to this.

thanks

Gavin

Pshaw, that guy was an eejit. Sure you fall off a few times but serious damage actually is rare enough. Certainly there should be no serious damage at Balinastoe.

kenmc

concussion

Gavin wrote: »

Pshaw, that guy was an eejit. Sure you fall off a few times but serious damage actually is rare enough. Certainly there should be no serious damage at Balinastoe.

You're truley fecked now! That's like saying 'looks like its not going to rain' or 'one more jump'. You will surely make a blood sacrifice to the trail gods! The good thing is it is an honour to be able to declare the 'first blood' of the cycle. This honour is tempered by the fact that even a tiny bramble scratch must be called, and that's just embarrassing

TinyExplosions

Gavin wrote: »

Pshaw, that guy was an eejit. Sure you fall off a few times but serious damage actually is rare enough. Certainly there should be no serious damage at Balinastoe.

You've seen how I cycle on the road right...

NeilMcEoigheann

Aquinas73 wrote: »

Which one of us will do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWvSxhfa4Uc

or this http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=mqb707uEXDw&feature=related

Gavin

My lift is proving flakey.. Anyone got space for one more ? Jump in on the barrabus bus?

alfalad

Verb/Gavin, I should be able to help you out, the rack claims to be able to take 4 bikes and currently just myself and Blorg. Are you based south side?

Gavin

Great, sounds good ! Yeah I'm in Dundrum.

barrabus

well that was fun. going up on a down hill bike is a pain, but the single track stuff was great.
I can't decide what my weekend cycling highlight was. It was either hammering it up the first part of wicklow gap with blorg, emty and gavin in the mist and rain yesterday or the first single track we did with a board walk today.

blorg

Well done to Lumen who took on the worst of what Ballinastoe had to offer on a cyclocross bike! Crazy! We all made it back more or less in one piece, there was less carnage than I was expecting.

penexpers

blorg wrote: »

Well done to Lumen who took on the worst of what Ballinastoe had to offer on a cyclocross bike! Crazy! We all made it back more or less in one piece, there was less carnage than I was expecting.

Is that blood on Lumen's shin?

TinyExplosions

penexpers wrote: »

Is that blood on Lumen's shin?

Yes, from one of his spills....

Was a great day out, had a few near misses, and one cleat induced moment of embarrassment, but all in all a top day!

Lumen

That was absolutely bloody brilliant.

Came home cacked in mud and blood, but it washed off to reveal barely a scratch.

Can't really remember how many times I crashed, all a bit of a blur. Bent my right shifter, but it bent back fine.

Thanks for the support, particularly the medical attention from Gavin! Great company, lots of fun.

Need to work on my running.

alfalad

Great day me thinks so a big thanks to the guys who knew the trails and brought us round, wouldn't have been near as good without your help!!

Also good idea with the food in Johnny Fox's Tiny. Went down very well!!

Gavin

Bleedin hell Blorg it takes ages to stick the photos in like that. Do you have a script to do it or something? Never again.

http://flickr.com/photos/gavinogorman/sets/72157613234569770/detail/

Muchos gracias to alphalad for the lift and Tiny for pint. Good fun. One tip is to always assume that puddle contains deep muddy pockets

TinyExplosions

alfalad wrote: »

Also good idea with the food in Johnny Fox's Tiny. Went down very well!!

Was Aquinas' idea, not mine I'm afraid, but was a great one!

Gavin wrote: »

Muchos gracias to alphalad for the lift and Tiny for pint. Good fun. One tip is to always assume that puddle contains deep muddy pockets

Agree on the puddle, and no bother for the pint -you deserved one for taking us round

blorg

Some very nice photos there Gavin, particularly the action shots. I stick my photos up on Photobucket which has a generate vBulletin code option, not sure if there is similar for Flickr.

Vélo

Great day, next time I should really sit a bit further back when going down obstacles....I might stay on board then.

Vélo

Is it ok to get a bike washed at a garage with a power hose? I'm thinking it would be ok once you put a bit of oil on it afterwards but correct me if I'm wrong.

penexpers

If you use a power hose, there's a chance that some water will get into the bottom bracket area or the front/rear hubs so it's generally not a good idea.

Gavin

Aquinas73 wrote: »

Is it ok to get a bike washed at a garage with a power hose? I'm thinking it would be ok once you put a bit of oil on it afterwards but correct me if I'm wrong.

You can do it, but you need to use as little power as possible, maybe keeping away from the bike a bit. As Penexpers says, to avoid driving water/dirt into anywhere there are ball bearings. Hubs, bottom bracket, headset. Probably cause trouble on the fork as well if you get stuff in around the stanchions.

An alternative is a Dirt Worker. Fill it with water and plug it into the car. Puts out enough pressure to clean bikes, but not so much to cause trouble. Apparently.



There is also the ghetto solution which is good for cheapos. Only 9 litres compared to the 13 in the dirtworker. I used the whole thing yesterday getting the mud off the bike. It takes 100 strokes of a track pump to re-pressurize, although a cheap electric compressor may save some effort.

Vélo

How about a steamer or would that just takes the decals off also?

kenmc

Yet another option is a garden weed/sprayer thing - usually around 5 or 7 litres I think, get them in any garden centre/diy store.

Gavin

kenmc wrote: »

Yet another option is a garden weed/sprayer thing - usually around 5 or 7 litres I think, get them in any garden centre/diy store.

Actually yeah that's a good one. One of the MAD lads was using one the other day, did the job. I'd be dubious of a steamer.

kenmc

A steamer? Sure you might as well iron the bloody thing then too!

Vélo

I don't know if the sprayer will get off cacked in mud but I think I'll get one for next time I go up. I have a steamer and might try it, the steamer I have has different settings so I'll set it to the minimum. I'll report back later, I have the bike insured for accidental damage anyway:)

Gavin

Aquinas73 wrote: »

I don't know if the sprayer will get off cacked in mud but I think I'll get one for next time I go up. I have a steamer and might try it, the steamer I have has different settings so I'll set it to the minimum. I'll report back later, I have the bike insured for accidental damage anyway:)

Just wait for it to dry a bit and then use a stiff brush, will take most of it off. Steamer might be good on the cassette/drivetrain

peterk19

I wouldnt use a steamer as the hot water may drive the grease from inside bearings

Stephen_C

Great spin yesterday lads, I'll definitely have to work on my fitness for those climbs.

On the washing the bike front, don't use a power hose to clean it. It will remove the the grease and drive the fine silt that is on your bike into the bearings and wreck them.

I find the thumb over the end of the hose technique is the best one for removing most of the major crud. If you want to go really crazy once the bike and remaining muck is dry give the bike a quick once over with a stiff brush and It'll be gleaming. When hosing just pay particular attention to your mechs, once you give them a good clean clean and lube the bike will be fine.
Remember it's a mountain bike its supposed to look a little mucky

concussion

Good to see you all had a great day on the bouncy bikes. Will be moving to the Dublin area in a few weeks so I'd love to go on a spin with you.
As for washing bikes, the easies is a garden hose followed by a quick brush down while its wet - something like Muc-Off is an option aswell. Use a chain cleaner to degrease and re-lube your chain and the jobs done. In fact I usually skip the spraying and only clean my drivetrain-it's only going to get muddy again .
Also, wearing your MTB clothes in the shower really cuts down on the filth that goes through your washing machine .

As my sig on another forum goes - if you don't spend 5 minutes in the shower discovering new injuries...you haven't been mountain-biking

NeilMcEoigheann

in an OTish reply the boards.ie guys should attempt to ride the entire wicklow way its only 132km easy and you get a mountain 100k which counts double
or just do it down as far as glendalough... its nice,. and maybe possible on a cyclocross,

Vélo

Gavin wrote: »

Just wait for it to dry a bit and then use a stiff brush, will take most of it off. Steamer might be good on the cassette/drivetrain

It worked great on the cassette and chain apart from that it was too slow. I ended up using the good aul bucket of water and sponge along with a hose to rinse it off. It's back to normal now:), it justed looked like more of a job than it actually was.

bcmf

NeilMcEoigheann wrote: »

in an OTish reply the boards.ie guys should attempt to ride the entire wicklow way its only 132km easy and you get a mountain 100k which counts double
or just do it down as far as glendalough... its nice,. and maybe possible on a cyclocross,

This I would love to do.