My Red Orange- Update 20/4/12 pg 3

angry_bird

So I got bored and thought I'd update this thread a bit, this my Orange G3, had it since Feb '09 for the sum of £700, not too shabby. Think it pleased the dad seeing as I'd pretty much taken over his bike for a couple of years before this... well his bike was nicer than mine so I can hardly be blamed.

Anyway this is how it was to begin with, basically completely standard except the pedals, seeing as I spent all my money on bikes, guitars (and some tennis rackets too), wasn't too concerned about upgrading it at this point, wasn't massively impressed with the forks but they did the job.

Think the weight was around 12.5kg mark.


And now how the bike looked after a year after £250 well spent on some RS Reba teams Big improvement on the toras. Stiffer, more controlled (and around 700g lighter).



Upgraded to a cane creek S8 headset while I was at it because it was going very very cheap.



Fast forward to December 2010/January 2011, and the BB is shot, on top of that while I'd been away at uni I'm fairly sure the brother had been using it as I got back to find the pedals had been changed and the threads in the cranks ruined. Figured I'd swap the chainset out, the cassette was fairly worn too so changed that while I was at it, the bike was coming down to uni with me for a few months and wouldn't see much mud there.

I'd also managed to smash the mech and hanger in an icey crash, the mech got a bit bent (and still is) it doens't shift brilliantly but I got used to it and now I can get the bike into the gear I want it when I want it so I'm not overly bothered. Poplocked the forks, and replaced the saddle too after I broke the old one too.



So here it is: SLX chainset, XT cassette, KMC X9SL chain.





Fast forward to April 2011 and I got paid for lambing, didn't have much to spend any money on so got some wheels, can't remember how much they were exactly,, but somehow they were on offer already and I managed to get Merlin's VIP discount thing applied twice while messing around on the iPhone, somewhere around £220-£230.



Anyway since then I've not really spent much on it, don't need to, I may replace the brakes at some point as the juicy's are dire but like most things you get used to it and manage to work with them. It's showing plenty of wear now and looking well ridden and rightly should.

Here she is being ridden on the new(ish) black at Cannock.


This is becoming repeatedly common sight though so maybe the time really is running out for the brakes...



Photos should all be working now too.

D-Cyph3r

Blood oranges are yummy.

ilovedirt

Kenda small block 8's? Why??

Nice bike though

angry_bird

ilovedirt wrote:

Kenda small block 8's? Why??

Nice bike though

Cheers

I've heard a lot of positive stuff about the small blocks when its dry, i'm not intending to use them in the muddy stuff as i hear the mud clearance is poo,. I have a freind who's used them, and then got another pair, and another pair, and loves them so much hes making me buy him some :roll: so i figured i'm going to give them a go

Dunk_911

when you see the pictures together those forks make it look way better. Good looking bike that.

And the tyres are to be fair the best tyres I have ever used, sometimes small knobs can be very effective...



...Taxi

scottalej

Smart. Forget the gunsmoke Hope idea though. They're blue which will spoil the nice colour coding on your bike. Stick to black, red and silver only. JMHO.

angry_bird

Thanks, I can see your point about it not being colour coded, i'll have to see if i can find some before i purchase any just to see how it looks.

At the moment its between gunsmoke and black. I don't like silver hubs on a bike, and red hubs will look crap, especially the rear when it's next to the red frame.

Surf-Matt

That looks nice.

I've got a Hope 2 Pro hub/Mavic Xc717 rear wheel arriving tomorrow - will let you know what I think - all black though.

the article don

your new forks really suit the bike

ilovedirt

ouchthathurts wrote:

ilovedirt wrote:

Kenda small block 8's? Why??

Nice bike though

Cheers

I've heard a lot of positive stuff about the small blocks when its dry, i'm not intending to use them in the muddy stuff as i hear the mud clearance is poo,. I have a freind who's used them, and then got another pair, and another pair, and loves them so much hes making me buy him some :roll: so i figured i'm going to give them a go

Fair enough, if you can be arsed to swap the tyres over all the time depending on what the weather is doing! I'll just stick to my high rollers pretty much all year :P

anton_spb

I agree with ilovedirt about swapping tires depends on weather conditions. These ignitors are pretty universal tyres. Using the same on my training bike.

Be careful with mavic 717 disc rim - Ive experienced slipping tyre issue with it. Particulary for conti explorer tyre (folding version). Then Ive changed conti to maxxis ignitor (not folding) and it was ok about a year, then starts slipping and break my tubes again. Now Ive processed the rim with sandpaper, put some talc on the tire lips and it goes ok for the meantime.

Btw, whats the weight of your bike? It looks like race ready warrior )

angry_bird

anton_spb wrote:

I agree with ilovedirt about swapping tires depends on weather conditions. These ignitors are pretty universal tyres. Using the same on my training bike.

I agree it can sometimes be a pain swithching the tyres over even when it only takes a couple of minutes but the difference i've noticed with the small blocks is incredible

anton_spb wrote:

Btw, whats the weight of your bike? It looks like race ready warrior

The weight is currently 11.4kg, so not exactly race light, but I've still not got the new wheels, seeing as I keep buying other useless stuff, but they should shave a couple of hundred grams of the old deore + 117's and its almost time for a new bb + cranks, meaning i'll probably shave another 350g or so off the current (powerspline :oops:) setup

Would be nice to get it below 11kg but i'm not too hung up on the weight any more, particularly when most of my money is going towards paying my way through uni

anton_spb

ouchthathurts wrote:

but the difference i've noticed with the small blocks is incredible

hmmm.. I had Maxxis LarsenTT tyres 1.95" on my race bike 4 years ago. If you know that tyre has loads of small knobs, does it mean small blocks btw? ) Sorry, my English is no good so... What can I say on the subject is that tyre doesnt suit to me in the race conditions. Yep, it rolls damn fast, but I didnt have enough control in fast turns and my rear wheel slipped when I dance up to the steep hill. Even in dry conditions... Maybe I didnt have enough technical skills that time as it was my very the first emulative season but still.... Ive replaced those small knobbed tyres with conti explorer supersonic and it made me happy

thomasali

Looks pretty smart, but your saddle looks like its pointing down a fair bit.....

angry_bird

thomasali wrote:

Looks pretty smart, but your saddle looks like its pointing down a fair bit.....

hmm it does doesn't it, i have it a really tiny bit downwards because that's what's comfortable for me but it does look quite extreme there, i think that's more to do with the photo taking, it doesn't look it but the bike is on a slope there, with the left pedal stopping it from rolling away...

angry_bird

Ok so all the money i'd been saving for wheels got spent on other things, among which a week in scotland coming up very shortly. This means that in the next month i should be getting some new wheels if i earn enough, or, i may buy a full suss bike, depending on what mood I'm in when it comes to flashing the cash

But in the meantime i went on superstar and ordered some new grips, which look amazing, sorry about the elastic bands on the right hand grip but i'd just finished bleeding the brakes



I'm also in need of some red valve dust caps because they'll look pretty

The Northern Monkey

needs a saddle with red on it.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=37010


Looks nice though

angry_bird

The Northern Monkey

Now that's just super tarty Wonder how comfy it will be??? Fuck it, i'm ordering one as soon as i find the piece of paper with my paypal password on it, then i should probably learn and burn it :roll:

Shopping list currently is:

That saddle
Hope pro II's with dt comp black db spokes, and either xm719 or xc717 rims
New chainset and drivetrain in general, time to be replaced, would like slx but then i saw this

The Northern Monkey

ouchthathurts
make sure you order the black and red one!!!

wilkij1975

Liking the look of the bike. Also liking the chainset idea. Any idea when they are available? I've not managed to find them yet.

And check out Merlin for the wheels. I got my 719's with red Hope hubs from their sale wheel section. Think they had the choice of 717's too.

stubs

That X9 chainset looks rather gorgeous

angry_bird

Big news that i completely forgot about, I broke my saddle, or Kirroughtree broke my saddle!!!! Consequently the bike has a new saddle, after a little while I remembered this, but i forgot to take photos.

It has another SDG bel air, but this time, it has Ti rails, and it's got a splash of red on it somewhere so looks amazing, pics to follow shortly

booldawg

I've also got a red Orange. Hope do some lovely red anodised parts such as QR wheel skewers, seat clamps etc. I also have a red Charge chopstick seat post on mine.

angry_bird

I had considered some red hope stuff but IMO it would look naff having two different shades of red right next to eachother so I'm going for red and black with the tiniest bits of silver maybe

angry_bird

Update for anyone who doesn't care

Got back from uni last week to discover that in my infinite stupidity (and slightly drunken state) my last minute friday night rush to remove my mtb pedals to take down to uni with me for the road bike has actually resulted in fucked up the thread of the drive side crank. No bother, managed to thread the pedal in after a lot of messing around.

In addition the bb seems to be quite worn.

Cassette is very worn

Chainrings are too

Chain is worn and in several pieces after my hanger snapped on monday at cannock (pushed up an icey bit, slipped and sheared the hanger with my foot in the process), so I had to bodge a single speed. :roll:

So the bike is currently sitting in the shed waiting on royal mail to deliver. :x

SLX chainset
XT cassette
KMC chain
some new gear cables

then hopefully after 4 more days of work, I shall also be treating myself to some new wheels, been faffing about over them long enough I decided I may as well treat myself.

No doubt I'll then recieve several lectures about how I should be saving money and not spending it. :roll:

angry_bird

The bike is finally working properly for the first time in about 3 months.

Anyway while I'm at it here's a picture of the bmx I got given as a birthday/going away/general being awesome present. Nothing special at all but I'm not fussed since the only thing I really know about a bmx is that it's small and bike shaped. I think it cost £5. Nice to know I'm valued.



But that's not important. Finally got the bike back from the shop about 4:30 friday afternoon with the the bb shell finally faced. Anyway spent friday evening faffing about packing the bike away and generally getting in the way by doing bike stuff in the utility room and kitchen.

Bike was in this state on monday, took the cranks off then let the lbs do the bb because I couldn't find a big enough lever for it.



Installed the new bb and cranks, then had to pack the bike away ready for today, still hadn't got the new mech hanger, fortunately managed to get to the post office before we left this morning.

[img]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs796.ash1/168637_485754152650_504117650_6412552_348967_n.jpg[\img] Got to london about 11ish, then did the obligatory faffing around trying to keep the parents anywhere but my flat because it's in a bit of a state. So just spent the past hour or so watching Knight and Day while sorting out the rest of the bikes problems. I'm delighted to say that it's now sorted and working.[/img]





SLX chainset
XT cassette
KMC X9SL chain (it was nearly as cheap as the X9 so figured why not?)
New cables and hanger

Somehow I also managed to spill beer all over the forks and my carpet, so both the bike and my room smell quite nice.

jakeeeeeee

bike looks beaut now !!!! btw where did you get the slx chainset from because i'm thinking about getting one when my powerspline gives up

angry_bird

jakeeeeeee

Merlin, £108 with that 10% off thing they were/are running for baskets over £50

jakeeeeeee

thanks ouchthathurts but i've found it here for £99.99 http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... inset_M660

angry_bird

Bollocks

jakeeeeeee

although its out of stock