chris661

So I got my grades (AAAB in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology respectively) and now I'm at Sheffied University, studying Physics.

Plenty of green stuff nearby, so of course mountain biking is high on the agenda.

Well, it was.

After the past couple of rides (with a club), my bike is pretty much knackered.

The forks have emptied themselves of oil; I've managed to snap (there's only half of it left) one of the rings on the cassette; the largest chainring (at the front) got badly bent and now the metal is all soft; the bearings around the rear shock are almost gone; the rear wheel has developed some play (probably more dead bearings); the pedal bearings have gone; and the entire drive train is apparently >100% worn.

Happily, the Hope brakes are soldiering on.

The cost to put everything right: over £400, and they're gonna have to send the forks off to be fixed.

I think I might look...

After many months of riding and not cleaning my bike, I cleaned it.

It was considerably lighter after such a treatment, which was great when we (me and the college people) went up to Gisburn Forest for a ride around...

Note the pictures below aren't mine, but show where we went quite well...







and, of course, here's a vid of someone else trying the black run.

hully gully (rollercoaster) gisburn 05-06-10 - YouTube

Some great riding there - if you're reading this, and happen...

Me again, here's some updated pictures of my bike...







I have only one question. Which smart-alec called a brake company "Hope"?!
Surely, DefiStop would be better?

First ride around was good, the fork needs a little fettling on the rebound/travel front (remote lockout is good though), plan to head up to the local woods and set it up there.

Cheers,
Chris

Many years ago, (when I was 11, now 17), I got a bike for my birthday/Christmas combined present, I got a mountain bike. It was good for what it was: V-brakes, 21 gears, front suspension etc.
So, I enjoyed the bike for about a year, then decided the forks weren't great, and that upgrading them would make everything much better. Now, knowing nothing about bike geometry, I fitted some longer forks. Lovely, I could go over all sorts, land jumps and the front wheel always stayed attached to the ground. Being young and adventurous, I started doing drops - onto concrete. Needless to say the wheels that came attached to a £150 bike didn't hold up particularly well.
So, a little re-speccing later, the bike got some new wheels. These were heavy duty jump wheels that are designed for grown men to jump off stuff. A 13 year old would be fine. Due to the different hubs, I also had to fit a new rear cassette, and all the deraileurs and shifters that come with.
Seeing they were disc...

Now then (does that make sense?).

Today, I played a small gig at a college (6th form) talent show. Maybe 100 people or so in the audience.

So, some background... I bought an old, faulty guitar amp off ebay. A resistor (1/2 watt one) had burned, as well as one of the output stage transistors. This had got hot enough to short one of the rails to the speaker output. This killed off the vintage Celestion driver in there. Lovely. Next up, the power supply was under-done. The mains transformer had been replaced before I'd got it (odd screws used to hold it in), and the old 2,200uF caps failed to meet half that value. The rectifier was a small chip, stood on the circuit board.

So, using a spare Eminence driver (modified Alpha 10 - felt dustcap, looser suspension), I fired it up, hoping there was some life in it. Life, there was. Lots of volts DC on the output, with a 100Hz buzz on top of that. Needless to say, I switched it off again.
Replaced...