bikes

i did mention a few posts ago that complex (and very expensive) modern suspension components like to be loved and cuddled … … and want to have their innards replaced on fairly regular occasions. really. there are maintenance tasks every 50, 100 and 200 hours, and at least once a year. looks like i’ll be…

ok, manly dam is not particularly difficult or tricky. more than anything nat & i like to ride it because most other trails on the northern beaches generally don’t have much flow. plus many trails are simply too much work climbing over rocks and stones, which is not much fun when you have short legs…

first there was a vivid (air), then there was none. then a nice person gave us one (crazy i know) but did tell us it was leaking air – albeit slowly – which meant it needed a service. i popped it on the nomad and immediately felt at home on my bike again, but nat…

on tuesday we had to deliver oma to the airport so she could see her other grandkids again. i think one of them may now need special attention. 🙁 see you again soon oma! so we were alone again but nat happened to have a few days off school and the weather was so nice…

remember i lost my first vivid air? i’m still unsure how a perfectly good shock can suddenly break on the third try to service it … or maybe that’s the answer right there. we come in peace – take us to your leader. anyway, i ended up with a vivid coil instead but it’s fair…

it certainly does. ever since newton copped the apple to the head people have done one of two things: play with it or try to avoid dealing with it. last weekend nat and i sort of did both: it’s called gravity enduro and it is supposed to provide a fair measure of gravity assisted downhill…

dropper seat posts are the bees knees: they hold up your bum when required – i.e. when pedalling – and get the seat out of the way when you need all the room you can get, generally on the downhill bits. i have been pretty happy with the reverb that came standard on my nomad…

once a year thredbo stages the nsw mountain bike interschool championships. it means two days off for those kids brave enough to compete in one or more of five events: flow, downhill, pump, xc relay and xc. nat did get the two days off (actually two and a half) and chose to compete in her…

as i wrote last time i now have a vivid r2c instead of the vivid air i was running with great success for more than a year. it’s easy to change the spring rate on an air shock: attach a pump and add more pressure to increase the rate. that takes a few seconds and…

it appears my beloved vivid air has not survived the scheduled rebuild. let me explain (as far as i can): modern mountain bike suspension components are extremely sophisticated and delicate. to function as well as they should they need to be rebuilt on a regular basis. this means chaining the oil and various o-rings, x-rings,…

it’s ready. finally. we were still waiting for the so called groups, which consists of the derailleur, the trigger, the cassette and the chain (technically the cranks and chainring are also part of it, but we already had those). the box finally landed on our doorstep today. sram knows how to create sexy packaging, definitely…