Mountain Biking general thread

[Jobbo]

Had a first proper ride yesterday and a longer ride today on my new Orbea. The thing which really makes it compared to my old one is the way it corners and handles generally. When turning tightly on the old one, something about the geometry means it feels like it’s slightly unstable. I don’t find it easy to track stand on it either. The new one is much more intuitive.

I thought the battery wasn’t lasting as long as I’d hoped on my longer ride today; I did 35 miles and had 18% of 750Wh left, which is worse range than my old 625Wh one. I’d assumed the modes on the Kiox were updated from the old Bosch but it turned out when I got home that there are about 10 modes and you can only select 4 to use on the Kiox. I’ve swapped to the old modes rather than Eco+, EMTB, EMTB+ and Turbo - EMTB felt a bit weaker than the old Tour and EMTB+ which is what I used seems to be basically Turbo. So I can actually do about 40 miles in Turbo mode Explains why my average speed was about 30% higher than usual…

[Rich B]

I managed to fuck up badly preparing for Paganella - i’d checked my bike over the week before and been out for a ride at Queen Elizabeth country park. on the saturday before setting out (on the sunday) i gave it another quick clean and noticed i was completely missing a pivot bolt!!!



where and when that went i have no idea, but it’s pretty fucking critical. I tried to get hold of YT (who have recently had issues and semi gone into administration) with no luck, so had no choice but to try and bodge something.

The thread looked like an M14 with a bespoke part where the bearing sits, so i took a wheel nut off the van and tested the size. yep, M14. i have a load of spare wheel nuts for the van, but they all have a collar bit so no good.

i went a bought some VW fox wheel nuts that just had a fixed taper and went at it with my angle grinder. Half an hour later i had something that resembled the bolt i needed and thread locked it in!



It worked great and didn’t come loose (and didn’t contribute to my crash!!)

Just waiting for the real deal replacement bolts to arrive now!

my temp solution is still in place. My YT replacement bolt set delivery turned up - with no bolts in it, instead it had a bearing kit (worth over double, but not what i need). I can’t get hold of YT though.

In the meantime, YT have fully closed - to the point where they are auctioning off all the kit from the guildford shop. Annoyingly, buried in one of the lots (spare parts - currently at £12k) is 9 sets of the bolts i need.

So, there is a chance that these might find their way into the market, but maybe not any time soon.

i need to find someone to make me a decent replacement i think.