Today I did something to my bike thread...

oinkely

yep, looks very like that alright.

cletus

Today I finished the tubeless setup on my eldest fella's mate's bike.

They had started it out in the front garden, but wanted a hand with the tape and getting the tyres to seat

Bluejohn1

New wheels arrived (Elite Edge Gravel). Regret not just putting the new tyres on. Forgot how much of a ball ache gravelkings can be seat on the rim. Air compressor and air shot both struggled, soapy water eventually helped with an air shot.

Cant wait to give them a spin on the weekend.

CantGetNoSleep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123754701#Comment_123754701

I've just received the new Elite Gravel Aero+ yesterday. Made a bit of a mess fitting the tubeless tape so thinking of reordering it before I fit the tires

oinkely

Project upgrade on the everyday bike completed. Claris 8 speed with cable discs to 105 11 speed with hydraulic discs.

Had to take the levers off the bars and elevate them above the bike before bleeding them a second time - now working like a treat. Reused the old bar tape, found a magnet skinny enough for the crank arm cadence sensor, tidied up the cable ties for the brake hoses and added a pair of sexy green issi spd pedals instead of the single sided spd shimano cage ones that were on it.

Can't wait to get out on it but with the kids back to school this week it might be the weekend before it gets a trip.

Also made a little change to the old race bike - alu giant TCR from 2000 with dura ace 9 speed on it. The 53/39 with 11-25 cassette was not enough easy gears so picked up a 7800 105 50/34 crankset and BB to try it out. Realised after i picked it up that it was 165 rather than 172.5 which i currently use. I had a duathlon in Newcastle on Saturday so made the swap for the race. No changes at all other than the BB and chain set, didn't shorten the chain, or move the front derailleur, and all seems to be working perfectly.

So 11 speed cranks with 9 speed everything else.

And the shorter cranks and easier climbing gear were fantastic, found i was holding 105 rpm a lot of the time and despite a tough effort on the bike course i had good legs for the last run too, managing to pass a few people in the 3.5 km.

Bluejohn1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123755031#Comment_123755031

I was lookin at those, but worried about clearance. These Gravelking 43s measure about 45 on both the old Scribe and Elite wheels.

triggermortis

Today I cleaned my winter bike after yesterday's wet outing and hopefully put the 105 cassette back on properly this time! Last time I deep cleaned it I removed the cassette and ever since it hasn't shifted quite right (12 speed di2 105) and today I realized some of the spacers are different sizes. Hopefully that's sorted now as its too wet and miserable to go test it..

_CreeD_

I finished up replacing the tyres on my eMTB (27.5 x 2.6). It came with Schwalbe Smart Sams and I migrated to Vitoria Mezcals as it's mostly used on road - I like MTB geometry and find it the most comfortable. I can definitely feel the improvement in roll resistance and not as a big a factor but they also run quieter, they're also supposed to be much more puncture resistant. That's made all the more important because this whole exercise was the most frustrating and physically painful thing I've ever had to do with a bike. They're Tubeless Ready but shipped with a tube. It took a good 3 hours to remove EACH tyre, leaving me with blistered hands, broken levers and even bent metal tools I had to resort to (and yes the rims are now too scratched to ever be kept as actual Tubeless). I tried heating the tyres, lubricating, standing on them and pulling the rims, using hand C-Clamps etc. It was nuts. I've read stories of other Smart Sam users taking them to LBS to remove and the worst took 3 engineers with C-Clamps to eventually get off. This is just stupid, I've been riding around since I bought this bike back in May thinking I was covered by having some good tyre levers (and a Tyre Glider) alongside a repair kit and spare tube but there is no way I could have taken these off on the road.

For the love of god if you ship TLR then make it actually tubeless so even if there is that much pain involved when you do remove a tyre you should rarely have to do it. Keeping a tube in there means you have that additional removal hassle AND still the greater puncture impact.

I think when I take it in for it's first service in the next month or 2 I'll keep the new Mezcals but get the shop to make it Tubeless with new rims.

cletus

Before

After

Didn't need loads, but more than I could get with the old seatpost

MojoMaker

Deda chrome gear is nice alright, that really suits it.

MojoMaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123818892#Comment_123818892

I've had this. Almost punched myself in the face out of frustration before learning that yes indeed the spacers are slightly different sizes.

CramCycle

Just installed GRX DI2 1X. Well I have to say, for once, you could easily do that with a few beers on board. It was beautifully simple. Only complication was that the 12 speed casette was microspline so I had to order a new freehub. Also, so easy to swap out, beautifully simple.

Kids today have things so easy, I genuinely don't trust I have done it right it was so simple