October 2nd, 2005
Sing, If You’re Glad to be Jey
Before I start I should have thanked Tim at Sideways in my last post for the care he took last weekend over prepping the Dave Yates for the build.
I went out and rode it today. Jeez I must have been jey! It’s more head down than I remember, and these days I have a gut getting in the way. I genuinely had a skinsuit the first season I raced this.
Anyway, to the ride.
First of all, that missing inner ring. It’s not missing. Well, not until I have to ride Jack Bridge. Talk about direct power transfer, it’s worth a gear or two over the Rocky Mountain Hammer. On hardpack you can hear the rear tyre tearing as you pedal. Later I rode back down a trail I’d ridden up and you could see where the rear tyre had dug in at every pedal stroke. The front is so low that a set of bar-ends to make standing up actually standing up instead of just slightly crouching would help.
On the flat it was a big ring monster. Then I threw it into some twisty stuff, and was pleasantly surprised.
Downhilling is it’s weak point with those low bars. Did I really ride this down NEMBA downhills and wonder why I was so far behind Peaty(!). The fun ended when cracks in the front spider finally gave up the ghost coming down St Mary church steps, which was, erm, interesting. Still, I managed to hacksaw the disc off when I got home and fit the new spider from Hope, so I now have a trustworthy front brake.
What doesn’t work:
Hope mechanical disc brakes. Better than cantilevers, which were the standard back in 1993 when I ordered the bike, but not as good even as V-brakes. Though to be fair the discs could probably do with a good helping of meths to get them squeaky clean. At least they were easy to fit and set-up.
What does:
Thumbshifters. I’ve been getting jaded, what with RapidFire+ and Gripshift X9 twist shifters. A new rear sprocket cluster, new chain, and new cables then a couple minutes getting them spot on paid dividends. They shifted like silk today.
Big SPDs. No problem finding them.
Overall:
11 years old? It wouldn’t be out of place today under an XC race whippet. A pair of short travel, hard sprung, lightweight XC suspension forks may find their way on to it eventually.
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