I enjoyed travelling up to Angus last year for the FatBike ride at Glamis. You can read about it Here,
This year is closer for those in the Edinburgh/Lothians area as it`s up at the ace beachriding that can be had at Tentsmuir in Fife. £2 for the forest car park, Demo Fatbikes ( i `m told only kids bikes left now to book),
Friends are also going and as always you meet other folk and the day is a social ride, so ideal for folk with kids or those not too fit but wanna try a bike or have a bit company. The woods and beach have loads of turn offs that lead back to the car park so you can ride as far or long as it suits you. There is usually a Crepe Van parked up also for some tasty food!,
I planned to take the Surly Wednesday and giving it a once over there was a hell of play in the cranks,
The Bottom Bracket (BB) bearings must have gone during the last ride!...
Read the Internet and it`s full of folk saying the SRAM GXP BB bearings being rubbish and failing in no time,
The seals are absolute rubbish, though the X5 crank arms are only a bargin £75 for Fatbike cranks, but i did not realise until after i bought them that Shimano and Hope type BB`s did not work in them, so just had to buy the £20 GXP and see how long they would last... not vey long on the coast it appears!,
Then i read just the other evening while looking for an alternative BB that could fit SRAM cranks that UK company Hope make adaptor spacers to allow their own (and so also the Shimano Hollowtech) BB bearingss to fit SRAM cranks, and the spacers are only £8, bonus!,
I decided to buy a decent BB that i can replace the bearings easily, and have choice of bearing manufacturer so bought the Hope Fatsno BB...
The spacers are to be pushed into either side of the bearing on the non drive side of the BB, i gently pressed them to make sure properly seated using some bushes in the vice...
Copper grease on the frame BB threads and bearing threads before fitting...
I had to fit all 3 supplied spacers for some reason but the cranks mounted up fine...
I took the opportunity to swap out the oval 32t chain ring for a 30t narrow wide as not too keen on the oval rings when riding with flat pedals, i dunno it sometimes feels like my feet are being thrown off the pedals when riding across loose big rocks-like those at Marine Villa here on the coast....
Also added my trump card - an inner bail out 26t ring!, say going up Lammerlaw, NB Law etc?, then switch of the clutch and drop the chain by hand to winch up...
Ideal, and more red on the bike!
More soon...
Fantastic idea on the drive train set up. I was planning on doing this with my Blackborrow DS- Use the Surly OD crank I have, which has two rings, but the back end is set up dingle speed. I just lack a proper Alternator plate with a mech hangar, and then I was going to do a 2 X 11 and "shift manually" up front as necessary. One day, I will get the proper bit to achieve what you have here. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI plan to try do something like athis with an inner smaller 38t ring for my Alfine hub 29+ Pugsley so i can get good road speed aswell as a low rang for climbs!, a small tensioner that wont snag on long grass is required!,
ReplyDeleteI've been 2-by sans front D for some time being i'm not racing. A old short cage road D might suffice for a test of your tensioner theory Bruce.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan, i have one in the garage i will need to give it a go!
ReplyDeleteThanks!