2011 Canyon Torque

The Northern Monkey

I ain't getting hope kit... Simplez lol!

sanchez89

ilovedirt wrote:

Mine actually quite quiet, for some reason! Not as quiet as my superstar hubs, but still..

the more grease in the ractchet mechanism the quieter they are

The Northern Monkey

Dusted off the old girl last night and took her for her 1st spin of 2013 as the sun was out... 601 days old today and still looking as fresh as a daisy

Had my shock bushings replaced yesterday (and the offset bushings removed) so no more creaking, but had a bit of a clunk coming from the forks so its time to strip them and give em a good service!





Smashed my fastest time on the final Twrch descent by over a minute too... I'm putting it down to the skills session 2 weeks ago, I've never leaned the bike over so far before

paulneenan76

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Dusted off the old girl last night and took her for her 1st spin of 2013 as the sun was out... 601 days old today and still looking as fresh as a daisy

Had my shock bushings replaced yesterday (and the offset bushings removed) so no more creaking, but had a bit of a clunk coming from the forks so its time to strip them and give em a good service!





Smashed my fastest time on the final Twrch descent by over a minute too... I'm putting it down to the skills session 2 weeks ago, I've never leaned the bike over so far before

Still looking bloody great. And I'm a sucker for gold hubs ;7)

A couple of rides on and the day with Adam has really helped. Having said that, trying to think about what I'm doing and putting things in to practice means I'm a lot more tired when I get home hopefully theyll become unconscious skills

The Northern Monkey

Cheers fella! I should have bought orange hubs though Superstar just didn't have them in stock when I really needed a set!

New saddle arrived today, lots of my bike is Superstar stuff now!

paulneenan76

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Cheers fella! I should have bought orange hubs though Superstar just didn't have them in stock when I really needed a set!

New saddle arrived today, lots of my bike is Superstar stuff now!

Looking good, I was tempted by the saddle before I got the on-one big nose. Superstar is spot on for me - good value, good products, good colours. Birthday next week so hoping they get the gold nano tech pedals back in

The Northern Monkey

Yeah, they're really good value!

Think I'll try a dropper for summer.. I want a KS but I don't have £150 spare at the mo

mrmonkfinger

The Northern Monkey wrote:

New saddle arrived today, lots of my bike is Superstar stuff now!

Bike is looking very tidy. Ask for sponsorship

Skills days are well worth it, it's just impossible to spot your own flaws, but an experienced instructor can do that in minutes, amongst other things.

pesky_jones

Yeah saddle really suits it. Love this bike

junglist_matty

Very nice.... Is it wrong I'm more jealous of the hills than your bike

So much so I'm turning into a roadie and an XC rider rather than "mountain" biker!

The Northern Monkey

You can't beat a good hill!!

Cleaned after a morning session at FOD...


On another note, I'm pissed off about the saddle. In dull light, its a nice brown that matches the bike. But as soon as you get it outside is GREEEEEEN.

So now need another one!

Got some summer tyres on the way too, drying out here in Wales!

mrmonkfinger

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Got some summer tyres on the way too, drying out here in Wales!

get outta town!

what summer treads?

The Northern Monkey

Got some big bettys, turned up yesterday!

Should be good on the rocky/loose stuff on the dry days!

TheNorthernTrain

Noticed you also had trouble with the syntace rear axle. I can't remember if you said or not, but how was it broken? I've got a small amount of play in my rear wheel and I'm absolutely adamant that it's nothing to do with the wheel itself but don't want to go and buy another axle if it does turn out to be the wheel.

*AJ*

Just spent the whole afternoon reading this thread (in between working obviously).

Really nice bike mate, Got to say, having changed from a full on DH bike to something that's more ride-able, I can fully appreciate the build on this!

I'm jealous of how close you are to Cwmcarn too, went there last August and loved it, even if it was extremely wet. We camped so we rode up the hill on the Friday (not fun on the patriot) then did the uplift day on the Saturday. The track was good though and id love to get the Mega up there this year! Glad to see on your last video you did the drop of the road, rather than the chicken run. I bet you kicked yourself once you did it and felt how smooth it is? (I have never done the chicken run it looks more scary than the drop to me, in the wet anyway).

Good choice with the forks too, I've only had a few rides on mine and coming from Boxxers I wasn't sure how good they'd be, but they really aren't bad at all. I changed the spring the other day to an Extra firm one (im 16.5 stone-ish) from the standard medium spring and it feels 300% better! Although I was surprised looking at the weight chart the the medium spring was even working at all.

The Northern Monkey

TheNorthernTrain wrote:

Noticed you also had trouble with the syntace rear axle. I can't remember if you said or not, but how was it broken? I've got a small amount of play in my rear wheel and I'm absolutely adamant that it's nothing to do with the wheel itself but don't want to go and buy another axle if it does turn out to be the wheel.

One side of the axle had cracked and the rubber had perished! Got a DT swiss skewer now, which is qr and much better!

The Northern Monkey

*AJ* wrote:

Just spent the whole afternoon reading this thread (in between working obviously).

Really nice bike mate, Got to say, having changed from a full on DH bike to something that's more ride-able, I can fully appreciate the build on this!

I'm jealous of how close you are to Cwmcarn too, went there last August and loved it, even if it was extremely wet. We camped so we rode up the hill on the Friday (not fun on the patriot) then did the uplift day on the Saturday. The track was good though and id love to get the Mega up there this year! Glad to see on your last video you did the drop of the road, rather than the chicken run. I bet you kicked yourself once you did it and felt how smooth it is? (I have never done the chicken run it looks more scary than the drop to me, in the wet anyway).

Good choice with the forks too, I've only had a few rides on mine and coming from Boxxers I wasn't sure how good they'd be, but they really aren't bad at all. I changed the spring the other day to an Extra firm one (im 16.5 stone-ish) from the standard medium spring and it feels 300% better! Although I was surprised looking at the weight chart the the medium spring was even working at all.

Cheers fella!

Sometimes wish I had a DH bike as this isnt quite as slack as I want, but it'll still pedal really well upwards so its best of both world but master of none lol.. although its def the quickest thing going down that I've owned! Always got the option of an angle set and/or longer forks if I need!
Yeah the forks are bomb proof! I'm 16st and found the extra firm too stiff... got a firm in now.

Feel lucky to be in Wales... 25mins from Cwmcarn, 35mins from Afan and tonnes of natural stuff... then theres brechfa, nant y arian, FOD etc etc etc and the new bike park coming this year.... its the place to be!

The Northern Monkey

What a wicked day today was!! Dry trails, a bit of enthusiasm and good company... pinned all day... loooooved it!
Out with Squarepants, a bit of drizzle on the climbs which kept us cool and then beaming sunshine from the top all the way down!



And the proof is in the pudding... PR's on the last descent at CC by a loooong way lol, top 100's for a few of the sections too which isn't bad considering its only my 2nd time down there since before xmas!



Deffo need some narrower bars now, need to speed up the steering!

Squarepants

The Northern Monkey wrote:

good company...

I'm good company



was the perfect ride, on it all the way round, spot on weather and nice to spins the cranks rather than just pushing up on a DH sesh.

and thanks for driving; yet again

The Northern Monkey

This was a nice photo until squaretosser pointed out I had the front tyre on the wrong way round lol!

Squarepants

you knew this was on it's way..

The Northern Monkey

Wow... been a while since updating this!

Been ringing the changes, now running a 2deg slackset from Works components and a set of narrower set of bars!
Also had my wheel bearings changed for the 1st time, fronts were still fine!

Uplift tomorrow at CC, time to get used to the bike before Bike Park Wales on the 1st Sept!

The Northern Monkey

Changes seem to have worked on today's uplift at Cwmcarn... I know not everyone on a DH bike will use Strava, but I don't care haha. Had been averaging 1:30's on this section, but got left at the start when I forgot to do my helmet strap so pinned it to catch up!

sanchez89

fair play on that time mate. glad to the see the Canyon still performs well after the abuse its had too.

swod1

very nice, been looking at canyon bikes for my next one, really wanting a full suss and canyon seem to offer a great spec and price.

the mucky nutz mud guard looks close to the front tyre, do you have much clearence ?

The Northern Monkey

sanchez89 wrote:

fair play on that time mate. glad to the see the Canyon still performs well after the abuse its had too.

Cheers, yep the old girl is still going strong!

swod1 wrote:

very nice, been looking at canyon bikes for my next one, really wanting a full suss and canyon seem to offer a great spec and price.

the mucky nutz mud guard looks close to the front tyre, do you have much clearence ?

Taa!
With a normal tyre, clearance is fine.... its just the big bettys are, well, bloody big (seriously they're huge!). They make 2.5 Minions look like 2.35s!

The Northern Monkey

Canyon is currently being stripped, had a problem with the headset so have taken the opportunity to give it a good service.
The rear brake is in the shop for a new outer as the one on there has a split in it.

Can't decide if I want to go single ring again, will know when is going back together I think.

- Changing the chainstay pivot bearings as they're fooooked. Want to change the BB pivot bearings but I can't figure out how to remove them yet. They feel ok, but as the bike is apart I'd rather do them too.
- Change the cassette to XT, new chain and maybe a chainring.
- Looking to change the wheels for Hope Pro2 on Stans Flows.
- Ti spring for the rear
- Possibly some new rotors, LBS reckon mine are well worn as my pads need to be too close together
- New jockey wheels
- New cables all round

Looks a bit sorry for itself..

The Northern Monkey

a week and a half to figure out how to get all the bearings out (specifically the BB pivot, that was a bugger.).
Mainly because I've used bodged bearing presses made form nuts and bolts so needed a few trips to B+Q lol.
Pivots are a smooth as butter now though, proper happy!

Just waiting for Tredz to sort my brake out, needed a new cable as it was splitting. They've had it a week and I called today but they're still waiting for effing olives to turn up... wtf!
Headset should hopefully be on its way back next week, but need to chase up.

In the meantime, XT cassette and chain to replace the heavy deore stuff!


Haven't decided on a wheelset but looking like Hope on arches now, however the Spesh will be going on ebay soon if it doesn't sell.

cubedean

This is looking really good (apart from being in pieces), how much lighter is the xt cassette over the deore one?

The Northern Monkey

Cheers!
Probably 120g saving at best? No idea tbh. Bought it as it was cheap and the xt is on a full spider so I should have no issues with an alu freehub on a new set of wheels.