GT Chucker XS1 - Updated 11/07/16 - PG 12

gt-arrowhead

Nah im not one of those people that only buys 1 brand of bikes and thinks they are the best, ill still try other bikes but i dont know what other good frames there are. Obvioulsy GTs are my favourite, but ive always wanted a Zaskar frame, and they are very often hailed as one of the best hardtails ever made, so surely i cant go wrong.

I need to do a bit of homework and see what other frames are good in my price range, which should be around £70-£80. Even higher if i can sell some stuff.

Its whatever comes up and is ideal really, but a Zaskar would be 1st choice for me.

I want to get rid of my Arrowhead soon as i dont ride it anymore. I have my Chucker for offroad and i think my Raleigh is a much better commuter than my Arrowhead.

buddy_club

Hahaha okay then, I reckon you'll find something pretty quickly

gt-arrowhead

Long way to go yet though, im at £6.34 in my account

Lewis A

On a quick ebay search... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gt-Frame-/171 ... 27ddf25195

gt-arrowhead

Cheers Lewis, ive seen that one already. In the description it says its been powedercoated, and its not actually a Zaskar, its just the stickers.

buddy_club

You'll get there at some point, i was at £1.75 on my debit until this saturday!

Lewis A

Ah, sorry, I didn't read the description. Bit more than you want to spend but seem popular http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FROOSD1226/ ... ot_dropout .

gt-arrowhead

I had a look at that, i had a 456 recommended to me too, apparently it would suit my riding style nicely. And that would be a good frame with my 100mm RST fork, since it says "120 max".

Does anyone have any recommendations of good frames i should be looking for? For around the £80 mark?

gt-arrowhead

Yet another change.

Going to try out some BMX tracks near-ish by, so i have changed tyres yet again. The Maxxis tyres are put aside (trying to not call them beavers!), and ive put City Jets on. The BMX track looks like this, so i reckon i have made the right choice with the tyres. I have a fairly long ride there and back, so thats another +1 for having the Schwalbes.



Took the two pads with the least wear and put them in the back, and put a fresh set in the front. Bedded the front ones in, and all is good. Back ones bedded in okay but are a bit weak still.

Well, riding Epping Forest has had some adverse effects on my bike. Each caliper has a very lazy piston, and is causing braking problems, especially with the wear rate. One pad gets munched, and barely anything on the other. I thought it was a one off problem, buts it happened 3 times now, where one pad is worn to the metal and the other is fine.

The rear freehub feels a bit gritty and moves slightly.

Also have broken a few of these pad holder things, i found this one all mangled up. What the hell?



So here it is in chavvy seat down mode.





And with that, my frame saving up money is now 43p . Bollocks.

gt-arrowhead

Just had a freehub failiure on the way to school today. :roll: Took this for today, as the mudguard doesnt fit the Raleigh. Something kept slipping, i didnt think it was the freehub. And the mech folded up at the slightest back pedal. Then suddenly "clunk". No drive.

Looks like im not riding offroad for a while :evil: :evil: :evil:

gt-arrowhead

After my freehub problem, and quite alot of searching about etc, i found out that my freehub is basically a piece of shoot that is only available from America. So im obviously not going to buy another piece of shoot from America.

So i had to whip out the white spirit amongst other bits and bobs and do a good ol` cleaning. The amount of crap that was coming out of my freehub was amazing. I was away for a week on a school trip so i decided to get an old jar, fill it with white spirit and soak the freehub in there while i was away, and my dad gave it a wobble every now and then while i was gone. Got back, and found that the cleaning had removed further crap.

After the bath, i filled it with some car engine oil bit by bit, spinning it around to encourage it to go in. It was spinning quite nicely, so i thought i would bolt it back on and just ride it to see how it goes.

My collection of bits and bobs for the cleaning out and re lubing of the freehub and other bits (hub, cassette etc).
This pic came out really bad. Sorry!


While my bike was dead for a month, i took the fork off and wrapped it in some stickerbomb vinyl. It was very frustrating but managed to get it done to an acceptable quality. Luckily the nature of the design is such that it hides imperfections like minor creases and stuff.

After i had everything sorted out and cleaned, it was time for the best bit. Rebuilding!



Also bought the 300th issue of MBUK magazine to read on the minibus on my 7 hour long journey. Came with a free set of decals and reusable cable ties.



I moved the Maxxis decals from the downtube to the seattube. Im surprised i could reapply them.

And i put the following deacals on.



And here is the finished result:

Fork:




Now has the red Spoon saddle on there now. Couldnt be bothered to take it off the other bike initially.

I wont be using this for XC for a while i think. Ill have a play around with it on BMX tracks and stuff and see how it goes. I want to be confident that the freehub wont just give up on me again. I was riding it around on the road for a good 20 minutes and it felt fine. Its a bit noisy when coasting though. I forgot just how light and nimble this bike was. Wheelies galore too!

Kowalski675

Ever heard the saying "less is more"?...

buddy_club

Obviously not kowalski

gt-arrowhead

Yes. Im assuming you are talking of the new stickers and fork wrap.

And as you can see i dont really go by that saying when it comes to colours and stickers :P

gt-arrowhead

buddy_club wrote:

Obviously not kowalski

+1

Kowalski675

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

Yes. Im assuming you are talking of the new stickers and fork wrap.

And as you can see i dont really go by that saying when it comes to colours and stickers :P

I am indeed, and I'd noticed, in that order.

Lewis A

If you want stickers I see no problem in that, but I don't get adding companies logos when you don't even have any of their parts... Fork came out well though, good job!

gt-arrowhead

Thanks

Yeah i was thinking that too, but at the end of the day its just to add a bit of colour really so i just put them on anyway.

gt-arrowhead

Went for a mostly fireroad and bit of offroad ride today. Also had some monster road hills to climb. Did it on Schwalbe City Jets. Preformed really well. Was a lovely ride. The bike was working well, the freehub cleaning/repair seems to have worked. Nice and silent apart from an over tightened headset clicking occasionally.

Was zippy on the fire roads. Did have a few sideways moments on the offroad bits obviously. 2 wheel slides.

On the massive uphill bit we have, i got to the top first and by a long way. The bike is performing well. Having no problems keeping up with everyone else on bikes that are at least 3 times the cost of mine. Though i am half the age of the other people i ride with.

Not alot of shyte to clean up when i get home too. Win win!

Finally, i can start saving for a new frame now.

gt-arrowhead

Pump track today after school. Been planning to do this for a while now but just never had the time, daylight, or weather. Pedalled like fack back home from school, changed clothes, and straight back out and off to the track.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, and i was pretty good at it straight up. I started getting a bit bored after a while though, not enough adrenalinyness. And i was alone so it was just a case of doing loads of laps. I would have preferred to have more of a run up on the humps. It was not challenging at all. I wanted it to be fast enough for me to literally push the bike to get it to stay on the track. It was more a case of letting the bike do its thing on all the humps apart from the two bigger ones.

My BB is a bit low for this, cant pedal mid - bump. Only problem.

I dont think i will make this a regular thing though. Took me 20 minutes to get there, and 20 minutes back. And i only stayed there for like 20-30 minutes as i got bored after a while. Was a decent ride however. Never done pump tracks before.

I was a bit weary of getting mugged and beaten up. The track is in Walthamstow (shit hole, as is most of North London) and someone thought it was a very good idea to fence the entire track and just leave the one entrance. And the entrance is one of those bloody swinging gate things where its like a really tight chicane sort of thing. Nothing was stopping a gang or whatever from trapping me and mugging me. At least if it wasnt fenced off, i could just ride off at the first sight of a group of dodgy people.

A few photos! My bike looks well weird with the seat down...






#

*AJ*

I can imagine a BMX track being very boring if you are just pedalling around it.........

pesky_jones

Not really meant to pedal on pump tracks..

gt-arrowhead

Pesky Jones wrote:

Not really meant to pedal on pump tracks..

You cant anyway. Pedal Strikes...

pesky_jones

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

Pesky Jones wrote:

Not really meant to pedal on pump tracks..

You cant anyway. Pedal Strikes...

....good?

Kowalski675

Pesky Jones wrote:

Not really meant to pedal on pump tracks..

I think the clue's in the name?

pesky_jones

Kowalski675 wrote:

Pesky Jones wrote:

Not really meant to pedal on pump tracks..

I think the clue's in the name?

Hmm maybe it's not clear enough. Perhaps Nopedaling track

gt-arrowhead

I broke my rule today. Which is: "If its not broken dont fix it". But i was bored...

My gear shifting was feeling very sloppy, very stiff shifter action. Also noticed that i had a bit of slack on the cable and shifting was very inconsistent, having to shift twice to actually change gear once.

So i decided to change cables. The best ones i had were some blue Jagwire ones that hadn't had much use. I held it against the frame and it looked very odd. But i thought id just put them on anyway.

Im amazed at how much dried up mud came out of each and every one of my ferrules. That probably explained the creaking i got when shifting up.

So i gave them a good spray through with some WD40 to get the cables slippery, put it all together and out for a test ride.

Shifting has massively improved. Before the new wires and stuff it literally felt like i had a 1kg weight on the cable every time i tried to shift. Now its almost effortless and its a much smoother shift. I didnt know cleaning cables could make that much of a difference.

New gear cables in blue = excuse for photos.

buddy_club

I'm probably the only one to say this, but I love the colours

gt-arrowhead

buddy_club wrote:

I'm probably the only one to say this, but I love the colours

Cheers

Id go mental with the colours on this if i had the money.

A pair of those red anodized hope floating discs
Red brake hoses
Red narrow wide Raceface chainring
Panaracer Fire XC Pros, purely because they have red on them
White rims with red nipples and white spokes, and a red anodized hub
A red anodized crankset
A new seatpost of some sort as mine is faded
Red anodized pedals
Change every single bolt on the bike to red anodized stainless steel ones.



Oh, and some new red anodized dustcaps, as the anodizing on mine have faded a bit after 3 years.

rgliniany

Make sure you pick up some locking dustcaps!!