qclabrat

My selfish attempt to get more activity on this forum. Post what you're doing with your MTB. Even a good wash is valid. My only request is to post pics cause it's funner that way.

I'll start. This Orbea Rallon was on it's way out when my older kid asked for a bike to ride with friends. Nothing makes a bike addict dad more happy than those words. "Dad I want to ride a bike..." Currently doing the parts carousel thing to get the bike rolling. It's got some decent X-fusion suspension bits and SRAM Rail 50 wheels for a solid foundation. Going to finish it off with an XO drivetrain and TRP Slate T4 brakes. Should be more than serviceable and the 160mm travel will be nice compared the hardtails they usually ride.

JonathanGennick 

This is a fantastic thread idea. The most recent thing that I did was actually to assemble a bike for a friend's kid. Should I post that?

The most recent repair-like thing that we've done was to throw some oil into the air chamber of a Markhor fork in hopes of improving the progressiveness of the suspension. Here's a photo of us adding in some bath oil while putting the lowers back on. We were obviously having a good time.



Sadly, the added oil in the air chamber didn't seem to help with the progression, or at least it didn't help enough.

Later this week I have a crank arm replacement planned. Stripped the left arm on my hardtail. Found a new left arm to order. New arm is black. Old arm is silver. The black-left and silver-right look should be appropriately bizarre. Both arms are Shimano, but shapes aren't quite the same, so that will add to "the look". LOL. Should all be close enough though and will work fine, but will certainly be a conversation piece when people see it on the trails.

qclabrat

Yes, fixing kiddie bikes are definitely in. I'm not much of fork tuner, but do they make tokens for Manitou forks? On my Pike rebuild later this year I'm probably going to get a new damper.
I also have a mismatched crank arm on a grocery getter. LX on drive side and Saint of the non-drive. If it bothers you, polish the black off or anodize the silver one to black.
Which bike is that fork and crank for? Also kids working on bikes also puts a smile on my face.

JonathanGennick 

To answer that requires another photo. The bike is a custom build around a Cannondale Catalyst frame that we bought from an eBay seller. We built it originally like see it in the photo, ran some Nokian A10 studded tires on it for a few weeks, then swapped to some Pacenti Neo Moto mountain bike tires, and now we are back to the WTB Byways with their brown sidewalls. The fork is now the Manitoun Markhor. I llike the bike better w/the Surly (or is it Salsa?) fork, but the kid wants suspension. The bash guard is gone now, and we are running a Race Face narrow/wide front ring in the color blue.

North Coast Joe

Hurray!! I qualify on the wash basis! The park trails were muddier than I anticipated, so the wash was required. I didn't tear anything up out there, just a couple unavoidable mud pits along the way.

But, I didn't stop there....two new Conti tubes (love those things), regrease the back hub bearings, floss the cassette and clean the chain. Stuff that I always put off.

Pretty sad that I'm posting about routine maintenance.

qclabrat

Pics or it didn't happen...
I'm doing an epic wash tomorrow, just wait...

qclabrat

Looks a lot like a Salsa Cro-moto fork from a block away. Great forks, I have one on a bike I built for the younger with a Soma Juice frame.

JonathanGennick 

Well, you've gone and done it. Couldn't remember for certain, so had to scroll through months of photos to find one showing the front of the bike. The fork is actually a Surly Krampus. The axle to crown happens to work out to what you would expect from a 100 mm travel suspension for a 27.5 wheel. That was a stroke of luck, and the geometry worked out. I actually like the bike better with that rigid fork on it, but the kid loves his suspension.

I was up until 1:30 am this morning tensioning and retruing the rear wheel on that bike. Guess I didn't do a good enough job the first time. Half the spokes were loose, and the other half weren't tight enough . The rims are bent from jumping and such, so getting the wheel tense enough and true enough wasn't so easy for me.