GT Arrowhead - For Fork Sake + Machining - PG13
Comments
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All regular MTB frames should be 135mm, so the hub should be 135mm too...no such thing as a 7 speed frame.
For the rear axle bolts, do each nut up a little bit at a time, this helps prevent 1 side from moving like it has done for you, also putting some pressure onto the wheel as you tighten can help. The issue is as the nut rotates and tightens, it wants to 'pull' the axle out of the dropout.
Slime tubes aren't really that good, I found them to be a waste of money when I tried them. Seems you may be better off trying diy tubeless0 -
Ohh, i thought the frame was a slgihtly different width for the number of gears it was supposed to run. I assumed this was a "7 speed frame" because when i got it someone had to bend the frame quite alot to get a wheel with a 6 speed axle on there.
Ill try out what you said next time about tightening it up bit by bit and pushing down on it a bit. I actually did this with my old wheelset where this problem was REALLY bad. But i stopped for this as it didnt move anymore. But its started moving again.
Im not going to do any offroad, the 50k ride im doing is going to be all gonna be around London streets so slime tubes should do the trick for me.
I dont have any sealant or anything else that i need to do tubeless.
Out of interest, what happens if you get your tyre pierced when you are running tubeless?0 -
RockmonkeySC wrote:GT-Arrowhead wrote:Well the bike is old school anyhow. And i wouldnt go as far as to call them "utter shite". They arent really that bad.
They are that bad. Thats why no one uses them any more.
QR is even worse than this purely because i live in London. The amount of thieves are unreal. I have a QR front wheel so i can take that off and lock it all up but i cant exactly take off my rear wheel every time i go out somewhere. I have a rear wheel with an Acera hub which is better but i dont wanna use it because its got a QR and ill probably end up losing it since i use this bike for getting around and not just a ride out and straight back home.0 -
Believe me i would not use slime tubes again they are far worse than normal tubes. With a good tubeless setup a pierce in the tyre just gets sealed by the sealant. In slime tubes, sheep j*zz flies out, covers you and doesn't seal, then refuses to inflate again because the sealant has clogged the valve core.GT-Arrowhead wrote:Im not going to do any offroad, the 50k ride im doing is going to be all gonna be around London streets so slime tubes should do the trick for me.
I dont have any sealant or anything else that i need to do tubeless.
Out of interest, what happens if you get your tyre pierced when you are running tubeless?0 -
Ive read stuff on here where people say "i use slime tyres, i havent had a single puncture in years" so thats what made me consider it. I really dont wanna get a puncture.
My plan was to start with 2 slime tubes and if they fail me ill have 2 spare ones in my bag with me.
So youre saying i should start with 2 normal and buy 2 new normal ones as spare?0 -
Yes. Perhaps they wouldn't have got punctures with normal tubes either?0
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I doubt people dont get a single puncture in years...Im not going to trust my tyres too much since they are pretty thin. Thats why i thought i should have opted to start with slime inners.0
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For the QR in the city thing, run some these:
You should be locking your wheel to your bike anyway when parking up somewhere.0 -
Thats a smart idea! Thanks!
What i usually do is take my front wheel and put it next to my rear wheel and lock the front and rear wheel and the frame all together. And i take my seatpost of and put it in my bag if there is space.0 -
Why not fit a non QR seatclamp? Some of those allen key sewer kits come with a similar thing for your QR seatclamp to convert it0
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I built a massive shopping list for it since i had alot of money saved up. Then i saw the Chucker on eBay and sort of gave up on the Arrowhead LOOOL.
I just bought a tool to remove crank bolts and i bought 4 new red ones since they were dirt cheap.
With the left hand crank arm you gave me, there is some play with the pedal. That silver steel part moves slightly in the crank arm. Is that much of a problem?0 -
That steel part is a threaded insert (standard with hussefelts), see if you can tighten it up a bit otherwise it'll damage the threads0
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It only moves when I try and remove the pedal from the arm. So it should be fine then. I'll tighten it up and just leave it hopefully it stops. I'll spray it with the pedal on and make sure I cover the pedal well.0
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Just thought id show what ive done to the GT since the last post. Its had the two biggest let downs sorted. Now the next thing to get sorted is the rest of the drivetrain.
I have a deore XT rear mech ready to go on and an almost brand new front FD M330 mech also ready to go on. I wont be putting them on just yet since ill be getting a brand new cassette for this.
The bike is also in dire need of a respray as you might be able to tell from the pictures. Wind blew it over the other day and it fell on a pair of rims
Chipped the paint in quite a few places. At least that gives me an excuse to spray it again.
I think ill drop the matt black colour scheme, and i might possibly go for a white with a clear coat, then red decals on that. Still considering it though. Any colour scheme suggestions would be appreciated. (I know im gonna get "go brown cos its shit"
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So the two improvements ive made is:
An as new Shimano Alivio crankset. It really is almost mint condition apart from the rub marks on the drive side. The teeth are all perfect. Ive added the red aluminum chainring bolts. Look much nicer... and are lighter...lol. But i dont have to use that chainring tool BS with these, just 2 allen keys and thats it. Simples! Does sound alot smoother now with these cranks. The Altus ones before were alot heavier and made a bit of noise.
New handlebar and stem. This was really the major drawback of the bike i think. I do prefer it with the straight stem and straight bars, it doesnt look anywhere near as bad as it used to now. I havent noticed much difference in terms of control if im honest. Ive got blue anodised titanium bolts on the stem that i had lying around. They weigh next to nothing! And they look nice The handlebars are Raceface Ride 2012 and the stem is a Zoom one with a bit of custom engineering since Zoom love using the M7 bolts...and i dont have any. Re tapped the stem to take m8 bolts and i salvaged the bolts from my BMX stem
This will see ALOT more offroad use in the coming weeks, cant wait to get it all together for that. Ive got a new headset on the way to fit a fork ive got. Its totally the wrong fork for it IMO but ohwell...im not going extreme.
Here is how it looks right now. A good upgrade id say.
Any suggestions on how to further improve this, and an idea for the frame colour would be much appreciated. I really dont mind people cussing my bike but honestly, it would be very appreciated if people do actually give sensible feedback on this, instead of just "its shit, get rid of it" etc etc. If you want to do that, im sure you all know the place in the CC...viewtopic.php?f=10007&t=12916129
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Those chain ring bolts look shit0
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Whyd you think that?
My new headset is red ano aswell so it will fit in more once thats on.0 -
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No abuse!0 -
Bit of a junker which is kinda cool but you have to paint it.
The paintjob is pretty much ruining it. Painting isn't hard either, patience pays off.
Get it stripped, sanded & chuck on a nice colour.0 -
Did you read this bit...?GT-Arrowhead wrote:
Any suggestions on how to further improve this, and an idea for the frame colour would be much appreciated. I really dont mind people cussing my bike but honestly, it would be very appreciated if people do actually give sensible feedback on this, instead of just "its shoot, get rid of it" etc etc. If you want to do that, im sure you all know the place in the CC...viewtopic.php?f=10007&t=12916129
Your more helpful input would be appreciated
Maybe recommend a colour? 0 -
unquestioned wrote:Bit of a junker which is kinda cool but you have to paint it.
The paintjob is pretty much ruining it. Painting isn't hard either, patience pays off.
Get it stripped, sanded & chuck on a nice colour.
What do you mean by junker?
And i think so too...its chipped all over from when it fell It looked brilliant when i first did it though. Definitely needs a respray.
Would you mind recommending me a colour?
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Ok then, new wheels, forks, drive train, brakes and finishing kit. Job done.
Junker, as in from a junk yard - PoS0 -
GT-Arrowhead wrote:unquestioned wrote:Bit of a junker which is kinda cool but you have to paint it.
The paintjob is pretty much ruining it. Painting isn't hard either, patience pays off.
Get it stripped, sanded & chuck on a nice colour.
What do you mean by junker?
And i think so too...its chipped all over from when it fell It looked brilliant when i first did it though. Definitely needs a respray.
Would you mind recommending me a colour?
Colour is personal, I like black+orange+white or red+black+yellow, such as my new bike.
As for junker, I mean a mismatched bike chucked together with how it looks being a lower priority, such as my old bike (that I need to get rid of)
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Chunkers1980 wrote:Ok then, new wheels, forks, drive train, brakes and finishing kit. Job done.
Junker, as in from a junk yard - PoS
Why do i need new brakes? They work perfectly fine and dont look too bad.
Drivetrain is almost done. just waiting on a new cassette before i fit everything else.
Whats wrong with my wheels and my forks?
By finishing kit do you mean paint + decals?0 -
unquestioned wrote:GT-Arrowhead wrote:unquestioned wrote:Bit of a junker which is kinda cool but you have to paint it.
The paintjob is pretty much ruining it. Painting isn't hard either, patience pays off.
Get it stripped, sanded & chuck on a nice colour.
What do you mean by junker?
And i think so too...its chipped all over from when it fell It looked brilliant when i first did it though. Definitely needs a respray.
Would you mind recommending me a colour?
Colour is personal, I like black+orange+white or red+black+yellow, such as my new bike.
As for junker, I mean a mismatched bike chucked together with how it looks being a lower priority, such as my old bike (that I need to get rid of)
Thats a nice bike. Ill come up with a colour scheme eventually. Contemplating gloss white with clear coat and red decals at the minute.
It literally has been thrown together, your right. But this is high priority, only 16 so cant buy a good bike. This is my main bike and im really really happy with it, has never let me down (unless you count a GT Chucker as a good bike, but its not even complete yet)
Thanks for that 0 -
Your GT is proably a better bike than my £300 Carrera, it's not a bad bike really, weighs about 15kg which is a bit much but it takes abuse without any issues.0
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Hmm...i doubt that its better than your Carrera.
This bike has seen alot of use in my hands alone, and it does take abuse like your Carrera with no problems. It is really light too. It is very near to my dads Marin San Rafael which has an aluminium fork whereas mine has a steel fork. And his wheels are lighter than mine too. Ive shed some weight with the new cranks and handlebar + stem combo so its really not bad at all. I dont know the exact weigh as i dont have scales.
Once i get the drivetrain spot on i think the bike will be pretty much sorted for the time being. I would like to get black wheels on there as i think it will look much nicer. But that polished aluminum does look amazing if you put the effort into polishing them up and rubbing a bit of wire wool on the spokes. Does take an age but looks amazing afterwards. I let my mate ride it around and the shine from the wheels looked really nice.0 -
If it were me I would fit a set of nice light suspension forks to it, so xtr v's or magura rim brakes and get the frame shot blasted and powder coated white. Then I would save up for some super light, super tough wheels. I would also fit charge splashback tyres to it as these look the bollox on older frames. Please do not fit those junk forks ofv your chucker to this frame though mate. If thats what you were thinking0
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I will always be amazed at how much abuse I have seen hurled at this teenager and his bike yet he still remains chipper, friendly and positive.
I like the bike. I would be very surprised if it is 'really light' but it looks ok and you've done it on the cheap, which I always approve of. *dons flameproof suit*0 -
i think you've done a pretty good job of it so far, looks quite tidy, and as long as your happy with it, that's all that mattersGT-Arrowhead wrote: Specialized Hardrock Sport Disc 10- CANYON Nerve AM 6 20110 -
Russyh wrote:If it were me I would fit a set of nice light suspension forks to it, so xtr v's or magura rim brakes and get the frame shot blasted and powder coated white. Then I would save up for some super light, super tough wheels. I would also fit charge splashback tyres to it as these look the bollox on older frames. Please do not fit those junk forks ofv your chucker to this frame though mate. If thats what you were thinking
Believe me, id do all of that if funds allowed
i only have one suspension fork that fits the frame unfortunately... and thats the zoom one from my chucker. Well, i do have one that fits with the help of a headtube reducer but it actually weighs more, and is unbranded. Total shyte.
The zoom one is all aluminum and doesnt weigh much. It will probably only be a tad heavier than the steel rigid thats on there. Ive measured both the steel rigid and the zoom fork from the bottom of the drop out to the bottom of the lower headset cup, and it will raise the front of my bike by at least 5cm, so its not too bad i guess...then again i know nothing about geometry.
Ill be taking the zoom back off when the chucker is starting to get built though, then ill get looking for a decent suspension fork.
You literally read my mind with the splasbacks. Ive had them favourited for quite some time
I think they would look lovely on a white frame.
Thanks for the tips mate.0
