alixta

I'm keen to try the lefty on my on-one frame so maybe that will shed some light on where the problem is.

While the fork was away the XX crank arrived so I fitted that up with a new 10sp chain & XT cassette. The front shifter is a 12+ year old LX, chosen because it was about 30g lighter than the OEM SLX. As it turns out it doesn't have enough return spring to drop the chain under load so it will make way for an XX front soon.

The X0 grip shifters work fine with only 2 rings up front, my love for them is going make going XX rear harder.

I enjoyed the 50km test ride with the 2x9, but truthfully I think I was a bit too miffed at the dodgy steering to notice.

Along with the crank swap & a few other changes the bike is now down to 10.3kg ready to ride, my goal is sub 10kg, but at this stage I'm happy.

(download)

Click here to download:

SRAM_XX_BB30_crank_installed_o.zip (1.21 MB)

That is the narrow Q-156 crank with 26/39 chainrings.

Fits nice & easy, there it about 10mm between the cranksarms & chainstays, and about 8mm between the chainrings & seatstays.

Seems like the crank is made to fit a wider BB shell, lucky I had some appropriate spacers to fill the gap.

I'm going to run 2x9 with an 11-34 XT rear cassette, 10sp chain with X-0 rear / SLX (OEM yik!) front and X-0 grip shifters.

Lowest gearing will be 1.31, slightly taller than 22 front & 30 (second largest) rear.

Highest gearing will be 0.28, slightly shorter than 44 front & 13 (second smallest) rear.

So only miss out on 1 gear at each end of the spectrum but gain a wider range of usable ratios in each front ring.

Looking forward to fitting it all up and enjoying the simplicity of 2 rings up front, narrower Q & a bit of weight saving.

Next step, 1x10 when my legs grow up & the XX rear cassette is less than AU$500.

Ever tried getting a set of genuine Bontrager tubeless rim strips? 

After trying the LBS (in Brisbane), then contacting the Australian Trek/Bont/Fisher importer, then contacting the US HQ it became obvious that it wasn’t going to happen, at least not for the Rhythm Comp wheelset that came on the 2009 Gary Fisher Paragon 29er.

The best advice I could get was to covert it using a bunch of velox tape with Stans rimstrips over the top.  I gave that a go, albeit with only 1 wrap of velox, and it wasn’t too successful. Velox is not the heaviest stuff around but adding another few wrap didn’t seem like the best idea to me.

Plan B. Thinking if my ZTR Arch rims can work just with Stans yellow tape and no rim strip then why can’t these rims work the same? Seems the biggest problem would be the added chance of ‘burping’. Not a deal breaker so gave it a go.

First step, installing the yellow tape. I followed the instructions on Stans site (www.notubes.com), the videos are worth a watch even if aren’t going to install, he’s a character, anyway I digress.

Yellow tape installed, time to try inflating without the notubes goo. Aircompresser hooked up, a bit of tapping top of tyre (tip from Stan) and wooomph, pop, pop, bead seated. Too easy. There was a bit of hissing but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with goo.

Installing the goo is easy, just pop the tyre off enough to put a few scoops in then put tyre back on. Pump up to about 40psi and start shaking as per video instruction. The goo is amazing stuff the hissing goes away just like dunking a hot bit of metal in a bucket of water and it’s all sealed up.

Inflated the tyres back to 40psi and left overnight. Checked about 24hrs later and it had lost a few psi, all good. 

So far the setup has done about 200km without a trouble. No flats (obviously) but most importantly no burping, even running down as low as 18psi (with 52kg rider).

Thanks Stan, no thanks Bontrager (except for the cool wheelset and various carbon bits).

Carbon rigid fork as installed on my KISS 29er, ride reports to follow (one day)