Tech Q&A: Do Avid brakes come with the hose?

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Tech Q&A: Installing Hayes Stroker Ace Brakes.

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Tech Q&A: DT Swill E2200 Wheelset - Hub sizes?

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Tech Q&A: Damaged Tubeless Valve Stem

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Tech Q&A: Continental Tyres

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Cannondale Prophet joins Your Ride

Hi PureMTBer's

After 4 years of use and abuse my Cannondale Prophet was beginning to show some serious signs of neglect.
The trusty lefty had lost about 40mm of travel. A problem that could not have been solved without a serious rebuild. I judged that it was begigining to get a little too dangerous after one too many trips over the handlebars on trails that should have been a walk in the park. The Hayes Elcamino brakes reminded me of driving a vintage tractor - and were equally as difficult to pull to a stop once a little momentun had been build on two wobbly wheels and
completely bald rear tyre. Like I said this beautiful bike had suffered some serious neglect...

Click here to read the entire article.

If you would like to ask a question or give advice about this project, please add a comment below.

Point of View Racing at the Australian MTB Nationals with Joshua Sek

Good Afternoon Che,

I got back from the lovely city of Adelaide on Monday night after 6days of training, course familiarisation and racing.
It was hot, mid 30’s daily, the location was in eagle quarry which meant no shade and dust...lots of it!

We arrived on the Tuesday, late and on Wednesday I got to head out to the course for my first look. After completing a 2laps with my coach and her assistant it quickly came evident that this course suited me very well as it was full of short pinch climbs that demanded both a large amount of strength but also required constant technical attention through the endless rock gardens. The descents were long and highly technical, and as I quickly found out; few riders were able to navigate down at high speeds, I was a lucky one and after only a short time practicing I had the majority of the course nailed, so to speak.

Thursday brought my first race of the championships, the club team relay, invited only 12hours before by my good friend Mel, I was promptly signed to my clubs only representation team for National Championships. The team consisted of Myself, Melinda Jackson, James Kennedy and Adrian Jackson and being one of the strongest teams out there we were looking good for a podium. Adrian lead out our first lap returning back to transition in 1stplace approximately 2mins up on 2nd place, next out was James Kennedy, one of the older riders on course he sure showed the younger riders a thing or two about racing coming back in first place with the Adelaide team hot on our heels, Melinda Jackson was next out, with only seconds back to Terri ‘Stink’ Rhodes and only short minutes back to the charging Andrew Blair we were all sure we would lose our lead this lap. Standing in transition I looked back towards the final climb trying to make out the oncoming rider, sure enough it was Andrew Blair, however this was no surprise, what really surprised me was Melinda managing to keep Terri at bay (Terri is a part of the Merida National Team) for the whole lap. I was tagged and full of adrenaline I headed out on my first lap, about 1min down from the leader, who currently was Shaun Lewis (Mongoose National Team) and only 1min up from Adelaide’s rider I attacked the first climb in full view of the event village, I managed to gain time on Shaun but I could not shake the Adelaide rider off my wheel and the proceeded to pass me on the next section of fire-trail. I continued my lap seeming to get faster with every minute gone by I ripped through the descents making them feel like I was on rails, as I progressed up the final climb and sprinted through the finish with my team cheering I realised we had just placed 3rd in the National Club Relay Championships, we all were very pleased with this result. After a quick recovery it was down to the beach for some R & R!

Friday brought a relaxing day, headed out to the course for some final technical work to just run over some tricky sections before race day.

Saturday came and with my race scheduled for 2pm I welcomed the relaxing start to a day, outside it was looking to be quiet a hot day in the saddle with temperatures already in the mid 20’s only shortly after 10am. Heading out the course around 12pm to get a full hour on the wind trainer of warm up the anticipation was building and I was sure getting nervous. Come 1:45pm we (all the U/19s) were in the marshal chute awaiting call up. Riding with plate #226 I was placed roughly in the middle and I had to ensure a good start to make places early on. The gun went and the start was intense, elbows were out everywhere and it was one of the roughest starts I’ve ever experienced with elbows going everywhere!
On the first climb I lost places, merely because I knew from previous races that I wasn’t to go out to hard. I sat patiently at my own pace hoping that as the lap progressed I would quickly take wheel to a chase group of about 6riders that had formed about 1min behind the lead pack. Sure enough as I hit the decent and powered on knowing I would make up time I quickly regained a visual with the chase group and as I thought it was only a matter of minutes before I was a part of it. That was when disaster struck, mid way on the final decent after a difficult rock garden my chain snapped. When I went to sprint up a small rise I found myself chainless, without repairs both on me and back in the tech zone. A simple chain failure had ended my XCO race at nationals, after a year of intense training. Cursing my misfortune I begun the slow walk/roll back to finish. It was not what I hoped for. We quickly returned to our accommodation so I could strip the bike down and give it a full check in the hope I would make up for my bad luck in the following days short track.

An early start come Sunday morning for a 1030am short track start time I was already practicing the course by 830am in the hope I could get the track down pat and hope for a strong finish in spite of yesterdays performance. After circling the track for what felt like hours I finally needed to clear it as sport categories were about to begin racing. Watching and making note of passing lines while the sport race continued I was leaving no stone unturned. It was not long before I was standing in the chute awaiting my call up. A slightly smaller category of 30ish riders I was plated second row with #220. I knew I had fresh legs after my misfortune the previous days and had to make sure I got clear of the messy starts that short track were prone to. As the gun fired I quickly found myself clear out on the right and already up around 19th place. The laps ticked on and I was taking riders with a small personal challenge I had set myself; one rider per lap. The minutes ticked past and like the laps, so did the riders. I made my move around the 10min mark and found myself away from a small group who were quickly trying to ride me down. I managed to hang in for almost the whole race but in the dying minutes (13min mark of a 15min +3lap race) I was pulled by the marshal due to the lapping rule (if the leader is going to pass you in your next lap you get pulled from the race to allow a clear run for the leaders)
I was one of the last riders on course so I was happy with my result and ended up with 12th place, under19, for a first year and first time at nationals I was thrilled to say the least!

So after a year of training, a week in Adelaide I came away with a bronze medallion and a lesson learned about carrying a chain breaker on course. I know what I’ll be buying now!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, hope it was enjoyable.
Most importantly thank you for your continued support and help.

Yours Sincerely,
Josh Sek

Ian Richman Joins Your Ride

http://www.puremtb.com.au/articles.php?id=43

Hi there Pure MTB guys,

Being a pure MTBer myself, what better way to pass away the cold Canberra evenings last winter (when it was just a little too hard to get motivated for a night ride) than to pull apart a filthy road bike and turn it into something completely different. That way you can spare your MTBs any pain and embarrassment, while still having fun on/with two wheels.

So, 'my ride' is a Fidusa Record - a custom-made Greek bike that started life as a pretty straight and conventional roadie (as far as hand-made Greek bikes go) with Columbus CroMo frame and relatively subtle blue paintwork. It has since been transformed into a not-so-straight purple, gold and silver blingfest. Lots of fun along the way, discovering all about Italian thread bottom brackets (I thought all BBs were reverse direction - wrong) and screw-on cassettes (Mavic, in this instance) necessitating a screw-on BMX cog rather than single-speed kit. But the Campagnolo drop-outs worked a treat - so I didn't need a tensioner. Nice straight lines. Cool....

... To view the entire article click here.

Click on comments below if you would like to ask Ian questions or advice on his project.

http://www.puremtb.com.au/articles.php?id=38

Click here to take a look at our December news letter:

http://www.puremtb.com.au/articles.php?id=38

The Brake Burner - Coronet Peak, New Zealand

New Zealand’s elite cross-country mountain bike riders Marcus Roy, of Invercargill, and Kashi Leuchs, of Dunedin, traded their lightweight cross-country race bikes for downhill mountain bikes at the weekend and showed that they are as competitive in this code, with Roy setting the second fastest lap (20.03), and Leuchs winning the team’s event with a total of 17 laps. 

This race was never about winning for Roy and Leuchs – the 2009 NZONE The Ultimate Jump Brake Burner fitted into the Team RoadCraft Tour simply because it is such a unique event that focuses on the fun aspect of mountain bike riding. 

“It fitted so well into the whole concept of the RoadCraft tour – it’s about having fun mountain biking; riding great trails with great scenery and on great machinery [bikes]. It also just happened to be a downhill race,” three-time Olympian Leuchs said. 

The event captures the imagination of most mountain bike riders as it comprises 6 hours of chairlift-accessed (Coronet Express), mostly downhill (462m vertical), 5km trail at Coronet Peak that can be ridden and enjoyed by riders of all abilities. Probably more siginificant is that the event attracts top downhill riders and top cross-country riders and puts them head-to-head. 

“It was cool to ride with the downhill guys – I got passed a few times, but when we got to the climbs the cross-country guys could generally pass the downhill guys back quite quickly,” Leuchs said. 

To ensure the fun side of this race was the main priority, Roy and Leuchs signed up on competing teams and each invited a friend to join them. 

Powered by FocusMediaServices +64 21 139 8188 on behalf of Team RoadCraft

Leuchs’ team mate choice of good friend Laurence Mote proved wise as the two rode in relay throughout the 6-hour race to win the teams event by 30 seconds. Riding under the team banner of Moose and Knuckle the pair won with a total of 17 laps, creating much comical debate as to who put in the extra “winning” lap. 

“This event is so special – you’re doing lot of downhill and you’re pumping all the way down and then you get to the bottom and you’re exhausted, but everyone is grinning. It’s a very social event – there are friendly people everywhere. Even out on the track everyone is friendly and nice as they’re passing or getting passed,” Leuchs said. 

Roy enjoyed the chance to ride with some of New Zealand’s top downhillers, but was not surprised to post one of the fastest lap times, only beaten by 0.01 of a second by Andy Reid, of Blenheim. 

“The course was very well suited to a cross-country rider – the downhill wasn’t too technical and the short, sharp climbs played to the advantage of a shorter travel bike. I had a cross-country bike with 100mm of suspension [front and back] and I could lock my suspension out for the climbs – some of the downhill guys were riding with 200mm travel and were riding bikes weighing twice that of mine,” Roy said. 

“Even on the downhills I wasn’t losing that much on the downhill riders and I never got overtaken in a lap,” Roy said. 

Roy asked friend and training partner Andrew Ballantyne, of Invercargill, to join his team, but a crash in a fast section of the trail saw Ballantyne’s left shoulder pop out, rupturing his AC joint and ending his day. 

The next event on the Team RoadCraft calendar is the inaugural Alpine Epic 260km four-day stage race from Mt Somers to Tekapo from February 25 to 28. The 50km Motatapu Icebreaker starting at Glendhu Bay, Wanaka on March 14 and finishing in Arrowtown will conclude the tour.