GT Arrowhead - For Fork Sake + Machining - PG13

gt-arrowhead

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19634913#p19634913]Chunkers1980[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19539466#p19539466]GT-Arrowhead[/url] wrote:

Its being held down under the QR there in that pic, I just lifted it over the QR and its fine.

Except it's now not in all pics, although you have put it on the correct side.

Last time i said i lifted it over, i didnt. I had a look, and under the QR is the natural angle it takes, so i left it. I think its because im using a brake outer which is more flexible than a gear outer?

Just took a pic to show: Im moving it sideways with my little finger, and it is not flicking up above the QR, so that is the natural angle.

I turned the QR around as the lever is a bit more accessible and less in the way on the non drive side.

gt-arrowhead

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19634915#p19634915]Chunkers1980[/url] wrote:

Also, is moving to the Altus shifter an upgrade? Does it feel nicer to use?

Yep it is better as the Deore LX shifter is not working correctly, just posted a question about it in the tech thread. Its only shifting 4 times and doesnt have the pronounced click when shifting. The Altus is actually excellent, works very well, and feels nice. Been using it for 3 years now. I just bought an SLX 9 speed shifter and there isnt a world of difference between the Altus and the SLX, eventhough they are on opposite ends of the Shimano range, and one is 2 years old, and one is brand new.

gt-arrowhead

Its been an awful long time. This thread has been long overdue an update, especially since the bike is yet again completely different to how it was in the previous post from June 2015.

Back in 2015 when i had the bike with the all of my old kit on it, it was still a pretty good bike to ride since everything actually worked etc, so i left it as it was. But around that time i decided to upgrade by brakes and drivetrain on my Chucker, since the Chucker seemed to be the bike that i was riding the most.

My first ride on it turned out to be a complete nightmare, with the Deore brakes being a bastard to get used to (which i soon fixed by advancing the pistons a bit) and my brand new chain snapping, almost making me have a massive crash and leaving me lost and with a very long walk home.

I then thought why not take all of the kit off and put it on Arrowhead? And thats what i did. Only thing that didnt come over was the forks and handlebars. The rest was swapped over.

Right from the get go the bike was absolutely brilliant. The weight difference with the wheels made a monumental change, making the bike feel like a rocket. And the drive train was absolutely flawless, and worked perfectly every time, and the Deore brakes just seemed to work so much better on the Arrowhead, even after i made them feel a bit better before i did the swap.

The brake upgrade is probably the most impressive upgrade ive ever done to a bike. The Deores are absolutely spot on, and have been for the last 2 years i have been using them. Stupid levels of power available to you, but still 100% control over how much you want to use. I think the perfect feeling geometry plays a big part in that. Handles exceptionally well, even on gnarly roots with a full rigid frame and 35-40 PSI in the tyres.

So the bike has been a joy to ride ever since 2015, though it is now not seeing any mountain biking use anymore now that i have moved to a new city for university. Its still the perfect commuter, and have had many good late night rides around quiet streets.

Anything to change for the future? Nope. I mildly warped my dront disc a while back, but havent bothered to change it since ive simply gotten used to it and it feels fine. Ive had my new disc sitting here for many months (exactly same as the one on there currently). Ill probably get round to changing it soon. I also have new pedals since the bearings on mine are on their last legs. Also exactly the same as the ones currently on there, simply because they still seem to be the cheapest Aluminium pedal that is white! Also have wheel bearings that need to go in sooner rather than later.

A chainguide is something ill look in to if anything, since the chain comes off during rough MTBing, and because i had a pretty hefty crash in the middle of an A road when my chain decided to come off when i dropped off the curb and on to the road. The result was scuffing my saddle and a fair bit of damage to to the top side of my brake lever

Plenty of pictures: I think it looks better with the white wheels!

cooldad

That's nice. Welcome back.

How's your mum?

gt-arrowhead

cooldad wrote:

That's nice. Welcome back.

Cheers mate,

cooldad wrote:

My mum takes it up the a***

Yep, so i heard!

rockmonkeysc

cooldad wrote:

That's nice. Welcome back.

How's your mum?

She's got a terrible rash.

gt-arrowhead

A few changes have been made since the previous post:


Ill start with the most obvious one, which is the different fork, which has quite a decent story to go with it...

It started with the ride before where the headset started to feel awful loose, at which point i tightened the top-cap, which stopped the rattling. The next/final ride however the bike started to handle really strangely. It felt exactly like what an over-tightened headset feels like, numb and "snappy" steering. So having a good idea as to what the problem was i cracked on, planning to solve the problem when i got back home.

As time went on, the handling started to get noticeably worse. It was getting worryingly bad. I got off several times, checking if my front or rear wheel was loose, if i had a puncture, bent rim, loose stem, anything. I couldn't find anything and was confused to say the least.

A minute or so before the big moment i couldn't ride with any sort of speed, let alone my normal speed (which is quite fast given that my commutes aren't all that long). Just as i was contemplating not riding anymore i came up behind an old lady ahead of me going slowly, at which point i applied the front brake... and heard the most terrible sound of the steerer snapping in half.

Between the time of snapping and me faceplanting on the road, I had finally solved my handling mystery and made complete sense of the cause of it - 203 discs and shimano brakes + 2 years of braking at full power most of the time. It was a sort of -Twang- "ahh, ofcourse. Fatigue!" -Splat-. To be fair 2+ years of excellent braking is worth the faceplant.

The helmet did fack all, but i was still okay luckily with just minor cuts to my face and hands and a slight bruise on my cheek bone. I hate to think what would have happened if i were riding at normal speed...


A text book fatigue failure...




The fork was then replaced with a 80mm geometry corrected aluminium fork from exotic/carboncycles, though i kind of wish i paid the extra 20 quid for the carbon version. The handling is slightly better with this fork, and it does feel stiffer, and actually looks better too. I also replaced the headset for a cheapo red anodised one which looks great and works great. I have also added a red inner cable and replaced the chain and cassette for the same as before. I also bought a new cheap mech and robbed the jockey wheels from it for my retro Deore derailliuer, as both the wheels pissed off down the road randomly during one ride!

The Schwalbe Kojaks is the other big change I have made. Damn they are excellent tyres. You can literally lean as much as you like and brake as much as you like, they are great. (and they probably didnt help with the fatigue issues on my fork!). I did warp 2 discs almost instantly with these tyres though, so I thought id make myself a little project of facing my discs flat rather than buying new ones...

I stripped an old wheel i had in order to get the hub, which i could modify in a lathe to produce a fixture to which i can attach my discs and face them. I started by clocking the hub in as close as i could get it (0.02mm concentricity in the end), turning off one of the spoke flanges, then producing a uniform surface along the hub that i could grab in the chuck quite nicely. I then flipped the hub around and set it back up as close to concentric as possible. Then I faced the disc mounting surface. This left me with a nice flat surface to mount the disc on to, as well as having less than 0.01mm perpendicularity so that the disc would spin exactly concentric and without wobble.


I then set the tool up and tried to take a 0.07mm cut and err... it didnt work. I think it was for a combination of reasons, mainly being that the disc is too large and has far too many holes in it, which simply pick up on and chip the tool bit. Also, Stainless steel is also a bastard to machine at the best of times anyway.



In hindsight i probably would have reduced the lathe RPM by a lot more, and potentially tried to cut from the inside out instead... Having said that i haven't really tried the disc out yet, it may be flat!


Some more pics of the bike.

cooldad

Enough bikes. How's your mum, apart from old?

gt-arrowhead

cooldad wrote:

Enough bikes. How's your mum, apart from old?

Can't tell which of yours of gailclikopes responses is the most useless

muddytreker

Cooldad
How are posts like "My mum takes it up the arse"
relevent to the OP's thread ?

CitizenLee

muddytreker wrote:

Cooldad
How are posts like "My mum takes it up the ars*"
relevent to the OP's thread ?

It's a long running joke, much like this old thread

cooldad

muddytreker wrote:

Cooldad
How are posts like "My mum takes it up the ars*"
relevent to the OP's thread ?

That was GT Arrowhead's change. He used to be a very naughty boy. Now he's a slightly older very naughty boy.

But before I say any more, I'll need a pic of your mum.

muddytreker

Before she died in a car crash or after ?

cooldad

Before obviously. I'm a scumbucket not a sick bastard.

muddytreker

obviously is not a conclusion I draw to on forums.
Be happy to trade if you have one of you sitting on your
daddys knee.

CitizenLee

cooldad wrote:

Before obviously. I'm a scumbucket not a sick bastard.

Gold

cooldad

muddytreker wrote:

obviously is not a conclusion I draw to on forums.
Be happy to trade if you have one of you sitting on your
daddys knee.

The paedo bear will get you for that.

You can't be Jimmy Savile so tell us, are you Rolf Harris or Gary Glitter?

Myster101

Been away for a while, glad to see nothing's changed

CitizenLee

Myster101 wrote:

Been away for a while, glad to see nothing's changed

Haha, nope! Welcome back to the madness :P

Myster101

CitizenLee wrote:

Myster101 wrote:

Been away for a while, glad to see nothing's changed

Haha, nope! Welcome back to the madness :P

Thanks mate