#242 - Weekend Ride

Saturday morning brought nothing but rain ... and in the

afternoon, more rain. By the time the rain stopped there

was nothing left of Saturday to go trail riding with. Well,

technically, there was some time left but the trails would

be very muddy. 

With that in mind, I didn't really have much choice but

but to go and do ye olde city ride loop. But the rains have

put a damper on my enthusiasm that I didn't even bother

completing the loop. I went to the Sg Flyer/F1 pitlane

and did a u-turn home.  

and the next day, Sunday, I was still feeling lethargic.

I read in one of the threads in MTBR that I will need

to put in 'easy' days as well as 'easy' weeks in my routine

and so I made the quick decision that this week shall be

one of such 'easy' weeks.

I went up RRR, went to T15 and back again and that was

it. On the way back to Zheng Hwa Park from T15, I saw

the posse that I should have been on had I been up to the

task of some vigorous trail riding. Efren, Sugar Rush Rey

and Neil were on their way to do reverse Flowy Trail when

they saw me. Efren and Rey saw my Jamis HT and triumphantly

proclaimed that they have caught me testing my 'new' HT that

I  shall be using for the future Malaysia races that we plan

to go to. I corrected them and told them that that HT

was actually my first ever bike which I just restored.

Now they said that I had waayyy too much bike.

Hehehehe just wait till they see my carbon hardtail ;-)



#241 - Weekend

Giant ATX 880

I saw this chap using this nice, blue Giant ATX 880
in T15. The bike seems to be almost stock. The only
'upgrade' that I saw was this red bash guard on the
bike's crankset.

The bike was sooo different from the high tech bikes
that I normally see in our trails and so I just had to take
some pics and share them in here.

Mushroom for my collection

... I consider myself an XC rider and so I normally
just 'listen' to Absalon :-) (exagerrated actually).
But when a guy like Fabien Barel talks, you better
stop what you are doing and listen attentively.
This guy definitely knows a thing or two about
bike handling ;-)



#240 - Long Weekend

Above are pics taken during the long weekend rides

last weekend ... yup, I rode all three days :-)

... and by the way, see picture below.

Looks interesting, right?

Picture taken from wacycles.blogspot.com



#239 - Raining ...

It's raining outside and I can't go out to ride on the trails

today. Well, I can always go and catch on some sleep.

But then I remembered that rear brake mod I did a couple

of months back.

I put on a 180mm disk on my rear wheel and liked it.

However, what I did was just to screw the calipers

on with some not-quite-long enough screws and used

lots of spacers so that the calipers would clear the top

of the disk. I showed this to a mechanic in Tay Junction

and he was not impressed. He painted a very bleak picture

involving a spoiled frame and a void warranty.

After that I put back the normal 160mm disk and did 

further research. I found out that the front post would also

fit the rear and so I ordered that from CRC together with

 some proper screws long enough to do the job. All these

hardware are from Avid. 

So after getting a headache from sleeping too much,

I went and did the change to 180mm rear disk brakes

from the original 160mm. Result is posted above.

Looks handsome :-) I'll test this tomorrow during our

group ride.

.... after all that, I went and watched this 1960s (?)

Japanese black and white film titled 'HaraKiri'.

Ahhhhhh a nice and slow day for a change .....

#238 - KIP Mart MTB Jamboree 2012



Twas the day before race day ...
pics from our group's FB page

     

Saturday, the day before the 'race' and I struggled

to do ... nothing! I was expecting to suffer tomorrow
and so I made sure I conserved each and every calorie
that I could. I slept early the night before and I
slept 2 hours in the afternoon.

Some of my friends cycled 60km to their hotel in Masai.
From their pictures in FB, it looked like they had fun.
But it also looked like they all have sworn an oath to let
things that 'happened in Masai, stay in Masai'.

... and so, while my other friends were enjoying their
overnight stay in Masai, Deck, Efren and I stayed wide
awake at night partly due to race jitters and partly
because we were scared that we can't wake up in time for
our ride (thanks to Enrico) to the Cause Way.

4AM finally came and so the four of us went to Woodlands,
crossed to JB and waited at Shell for our ride to the
race site. It was there at JB Shell that Roadie Rio
joined us. Also, waiting at JB Shell was an eye opener.
There were sooo many racers from Singapore who made
their 'pit stop' there and it made me wonder if half
of Singapore's mountain bikers will be racing today.

The starting line at around 8:10AM. Race start is 8:30AM.

Hehehe Roadie Rio is missing in this pic. He said he
has learned his lesson and he went to the front.

The race catered to every one. I saw a few kids in the trail.

met some guys from Attitude Bikes

Our journey to the race site was quite smooth. There were

already a lot of people when we showed up and a few of

the eager ones were already staking out their place at

the starting line! We on the other hand were waiting for

our 'Team Captain' Fast Paolo as we don't have our race

numbers yet. Fast Paolo showed up with 15 minutes to spare

and everything was sorted quickly. However, the rest of

our friends haven't showed up yet. I told them to get a

massage and drink a bottle of beer to help them relax so

that they could sleep soundly instead of lying wide awake

on unfamiliar hotel beds but the one bottle of beer must

have turned out into a party ! But finally they showed

while the Malaysian National Anthem was being played.

After the National Anthem, the announcer told all racers

NOT to overtake the pace car (apparently, there were very

eager and fast cyclists who have done that in the past)

and after that announcement, the race was on!



Despair !
pic from Ronald's FB page



Rico on his way to #57th in the race
pic courtesy of An Sun-gard (KiP MOUNTAIN BIKE JAMBOREE 2012)



There was plenty of ice cold water, 100+ and bananas in the CheckPoints
pic courtesy of An Sun-gard (KiP MOUNTAIN BIKE JAMBOREE 2012)



Me!
pic courtesy of An Sun-gard (KiP MOUNTAIN BIKE JAMBOREE 2012)



 Roadie Rio pulled a veteran move on us as he didn't line up

at the end of the peloton. He was somewhere in front. All

of us led by Fast Pao, IronMan Randy, Ryan, Deck, Efren and

Enrico were weaving in and out of the peloton. It was 2km

from the start to the trail head and so the strategy was get

as near to the front as possible before we entered the trails.

When we entered the trail, the peloton was greeted by TWO CARS

going the opposite direction, one at the right of the trail

and the other on the left. There was no choice but to slow down

and it was here that we all got separated. Once we cleared

those cars, we went to a very fast and surprisingly slippery

downhill section (later on our friends said it rained hard the

day before). Braking was tricky because I thought we will be

racing on dry, hardpacked dirt and so my tires were pumped up

quite hard. Whenever I pull my brakes, the rear of my bike

fish-tailed. ... and while I was contemplating how difficult

these conditions will be, I saw one cyclist lying on the middle

of the track. He was unconscious and he had blood on his face.

He was being attended to by another cyclist (NoLights Louie

told me that she later saw the cyclist seating at the side of

the trail, he regained consciousness but he looked dazed).

I hope that guy is ok.

Well, when I saw that accident, I slowed down a bit and told

myself to just complete the race. I don't want to end up with

an accident and judging from my past endo record,

I do need to be careful.

But all caution went out of the window when I saw my
friend Bal's jersey going very fast away from me! I gave

chase but I couldn't catch up with him.

One of my ride buddies, Ronald announced his presence

behind me by showing the front end of his Yeti 575 to

me a few times. Beside me was a rider from Attitude Bikes

(I think) who was on a Specialized Enduro (I think. I'm sure

he wasn't on a Nicolai). It was like this up to the

first checkpoint.

After the first checkpoint, I rode alone for a while and then

I saw Bal's jersey again. I tried to go beside him but the

race route took us into a singletrack... and this singletrack

is really just for one bike at a time. You couldn't go at

the edges because there are trees on both sides of the trail

... and so I had to patiently follow the pace of the leading

guy. Once out of the singletrack, I finally caught up with Bal.

I caught up with him at a hike-a-bike section and the first

thing that we both did after clearing the section was to pee

at the side of the trail LOL.

I rode with Bal up to the seemingly never-ending rollercoaster

road ride. This is the stage where I saw the first walkers.

After the road ride, we turned right into the trail again.

Once I went into the trail I started riding with a guy who

is using my dream frame : Titanium Helix frame by Lysnkey.

I asked him where he got his frame. He told me he got it from

Singapore. I asked if he is from Singapore. He said yes and

whether I am from Singapore also. Hehehehe funny making these

light conversations while racing inside a jungle in Malaysia.

I rode with him for quite some time because it seemed

to me that since he and I were alone and both were from the

same place and it looks like we're on the same pace then

maybe we should 'help' to 'pull' each other.

All this, however, changed when I saw this green jersey in front

of me. The green jersey looked like the jersey worn by my other

friend IronMan Randy! So I said 'Aha! My friends are all very

near now!' and so with renewed strength I tried to get near

Randy ... then I noticed something... This guy seemed to be

struggling ... Is this Randy? Sigh when I finally got to the guy,

it was not my friend. I rode from that point to CheckPoint 4

alone.

From the race blogspot, I know that after checkpoint #4, it should

only be 3Km to the finish. Since it was just 3Km I told myself to

just go all out hehehehe but after 3Km on my Cateye there was still

no finish line (Later on NoLights Louie told me there was a sign

at CP4 that that is the 40Km mark and NOT 42Km)... The thing is

I can feel my right leg starting to cramp ! ... and then I saw it!

We all had to cross a muddy field before we get to the finish line.

I started spinning slowly, trying but miserably failing to make my

bike go on a straigth line.

After what must have been the longest muddy route that I have

cycled on, we went by road again back to Kip Mart. The organizers

were all signalling for us to sloowww down as the race should be

over for us. I went to the finish line (finish queue?) where only

one cyclist can go one at a time. I think I was 5th or 6th on that

line and I saw the first guy was being handed a gold medal. Oh,

Goody! I'll get a gold medal! So I drank the rest of my water

and poured some on my head and got off my bike. I waved to all

my friends who were already there and when it was finally my

turn to be handed a medal ... the organizers gave me a silver one!!!

Huh?! But the front guy was given a gold?! I was given the lunch

voucher and sent on my way to have lunch ... I wanted to ask

'have you really ran out of gold medals?! I just slowed down a bit

because I was gonna cramp, you know? can I exchange the

lunch voucher for a gold medal instead? '

NYAHAHAHAHAHA



Me with IronMan Randy showing the gold medal
he got for coming in #66.
Background is Fast Pao who was #93.



NoLights Louie came in as #3 in the Women's Cat.
Too bad the price money was cancelled by the organizers.

We were wondering how we are going to take this bike home
if ever we won in the lucky draw.

Roadie Rio didn't ride a MountainBike for 6 months and took
#76. Ryan (in red) took #60.

You can get your bike cleaned after the race for just 2RM.

The 2012 version of KIP Mart MTB Jamboree is
my first race/jamboree in Malaysia. Actually, I raced once in
Singapore in 2009 but it was stopped due to rain/lightning.
So I think it wouldn't be wrong if I say this was my
first race.

As a participant all I was expecting was that the trail
should at least be well marked so that I wouldn't get
lost. However, the organizers didn't just post arrow
signs on the trees, they also scattered confetti on the
trails. So when you can't see confettis, most probably
you are lost.

The CheckPoint was also well stocked with ice
cold water, 100+ and bananas. You don't even have to
pick up the nourishment you need. The officials hand
the water bottle to you unopened. You just need to
drink. If you give them your water bottle they refill
it for you while you drink from another container.

There were race officials directing traffic when you
cross a road. You literally really just need to pedal.
The organizers have taken care of everything for the
participants.

Not just that! In the end when my friends approached
the organizers because they had a change of plans
and don't have a return ride to the SG/JB Border,
the organizers brought my friends there in 2 vehicles
and they were refused to accept payment!

I think I will make this race a yearly pilgrimage.
As for my friends ... there are already talks about
a race coming up in May again in Malaysia.

#237 - A Week To Go ...

Mechanic John of MTB Brothers 'caught' me and riding
buddy Tabs yesterday at Zheng Hwa Park. 

A week to go ... before the KIP MTB Jamboree and

I am nursing my second bout of flu in a month. I think

that should already be a good sign that I have overtrained.

So yesterday and last Saturday I didn't have any choice

but to do a sloowww plodding ride in T15.

The rest of my friends sneaked to JB on Saturday to

go and recce the race site. Hehehehe from what I heard

they got hopelessly lost and didn't find the trail. They

did find the 'happening' places near the race site though

*wink *wink. There were a few of them who attended

last year's Jamboree but apparently, the race start site

will be in another KIP Mart site at Masai ...

If you take a look at the map below, it is approximately

opposite Pulau Punggol Barat. Actually, if there is

a ferry there, it would be perfect.

Anyway, at this time some of my friends have already

done their hotel reservations. That's right, hotel !

Our transport arrangements have also been done.

... and since last week, the talk around the office

is that if we will be doing this racing thing even

just once every two months, a nice little carbon

hardtail is beginning to look nice ;-)

#236 - Frog !

Long ago when I pretended to understand Duran Duran's

song lyrics and I was trying to glean some hidden words

of wisdom in Tears for Fears songs ... Tamiya released

the Frog !

... and so the younger version of me saw the Tamiya Frog

in the then hip VirraMall at GreenHills. It was a sight to

behold! I would rather ogle at the Tamiya Frog than watch

an episode of Weird Science ... and you know how hot Kelly

LeBrock was back then! The Tamiya Frog was in a glass

case container much like the glass case container of the

Crown Jewels in the movie Johnny English. I assume

the security was just as tight and there was no bumbling

Mr. Bean to save me with his funny antics should I

decide to approach said glass case within

a ten feet radius LOL.

Anyway! Fast forward to the year 2005 and Duran Duran

is now relegated to the Best of 80s CDs and rumor has it

that the Tears for Fears duo are now out of the nut house.

Tamiya must have been keeping tabs on me and they learned

that I can actually afford the Tamiya Frog now ... and so

they re-released it :-)

Once the re-released Tamiya Frog landed in Singapore,

I went to the hobby shop, purchased the kit and locked

myself in my house for two days.

I assembled the kit with tender loving care ... I applied

all the little tricks I have learned through ten years of

playing RC. When it came to painting the figure ... I didn't

just paint it. I painted it meticulously. I used the paint

normally used for those little WarHammer figures. I even

made the folds of the driver's clothes darker... then I

painted flames in the car body .... arrggghhh this is taking

so long! So I just painted the rest of the body with

whatever paint I had.

Once everything is finished and my batteries were charged,

I took bus 139 and went to the direction of Toa Payoh.

I alighted at SingTel in Thomson Road and walked

towards the sand/soil area under the flyover. I made

a track using lots of plastic cones .... and drove the

Tamiya Frog for hours :-)

When I got home, I took out the radio receiver and

batteries from the Frog ... and then I placed it on it's

own little place on my RC cupboard ...

People my age collect fancy watches and big cars.

Me, I collect little things I couldn't afford when I was

younger. ... and looking at my Tamiya Frog ... I can

say life is sweet .... That is until I saw the Moots YBB

nyahahahaha!



#235 - Reboot

See the dial at the back? It's very good for one-hand fit adjustment.
... and it keeps it's setting

Ignore sweaty model and look at the nice profile of the GUB Mark helmet.

I'm back! ... and no, I didn't quit cycling to go back

to driving remote control cars :) I think I may have

fallen victim to the 'Curse of the Local Bloggers'.

I have been cycling on the same trails over and over

for the past four years. Many times in a trail ride

I slow down to take a picture only to remember that I

should not be where I am (you know those places *wink*)

or that within a split-second I decided that taking that

particular picture is not worth stopping my trail ride.

Now I understand other local bloggers (like Anvil)

when he says that we should all go to neighboring

countries where the trail riding is much more diverse

instead of taking pictures of the same places over and

over again.  

Anyway! That's it for my mini rant. I have been doing

a lot of things so that I could go on for longer rides and

hopefully join even just one of the many jamborees in

Malaysia. One thing that I did was to get this roadie

helmet GUB Mark.

CrestPursuit Owen brought three models of helmets

recently. As I mentioned above, the GUB Mark is the

roadie helmet and the other that caught my eye is an

AM helmet, the Laplace Q3. I don't have a picture of

the Laplace Q3 but everybody will find it familiar

as it resembles another AM helmet made by this

famous company whose name rhymes with BOX

*wink *wink.

I got the GUB Mark roadie helmet as I have been

looking for an airy helmet with adjustments that can

be done using one hand (e.g. by using a dial) ... and

lastly, said helmet must not require that I sell one

of my kidneys. That last requirement basically rules

out the delectable helmet selection offered by Tay

Junction Bukit Timah.

The GUB Mark helmet did not disappoint. Lots of

cooling holes in front and even lots of exhaust ports

at the back. It even has channels that divert airflow

from the front to the back of your head. It also comes

with extra pads. Lastly, the medium size fits my head

(55cm). The fit can be micro-managed using a dial

at the back of the head. The straps plus the dial cradles

your head snugly.

I have had this helmet for two or three weeks now

and I have used it for slow evening climbs at Mt. Faber

and hot twelve noon climbs in Hell Climb at Mandai.

All the holes in this helmet make sure you will be as

cool as the current environment would allow.

What would give you a maniacal grin is the coolness

in your head when you are going downhill in the 

evening at Mt. Faber. Definitely on a different level

that my other helmets (i.e. Fox Flux and Striker).

Ok, now you the question I ask myself at the end

of each review. What would I change about this

helmet? At this price level? Nothing. The helmet

serves my purposes perfectly.

... and as evidence that I am still doing my trail

rides, see pictures below  ... and hopefully

I have other stuff to update you with :-)

Lake at Hell Climb

She's come for the second straight week! Is she back
for good?

Fast riding at T15



#234 - Reviving Doglas

Only thing left of the original bike is the frame

        

Yup, I named my first bike Doglas hehehehe.

Before I started mountain biking, I saw lots of

videos in YouTube where these cyclists pretend

to be Imperial Guards taking out their speeders

for a spin in the forest moon of Endor. When said

Imperial Guard is alone on a ride, almost always

they have a dog with them. A nice, romantic notion

hence I named my first bike Doglas ... as in a dog.

Anyway! After my first endo at the last DH section

of BT loop going to the carpark, I convinced my wife

that having a FS bike will ensure that I will no longer

endo ... that is of course untrue, but that is a story

for another day. Once I got my first FS bike, Doglas

was disassembled so I can transfer all the stuff from

my HT to the FS. ... and so for 3 years this frame

has been hanging on my wall.

Now that I have a surplus of low-end stuff and I

finally knew how to assemble my own bike, I thought

I should go and assemble Doglas again.

The only thing that I don't have tools for is for the

removal of the old headset (with dirty bearings) and

installation of a new one. Mechanic John from Hup

Leong helped me with this. I also bought new shifter

cables and housing which Shimano conveniently

package in a set and which are also available in Hup

Leong for 30$ plus (can't remember the exact amount).

Mechanic John also helped me seat the crown bushing

for the fork that I will use and later when I got home

... surprise, surprise, he installed a rubber stopper for me

on my fork's steerer tube. This rubber stopper will see

to it that when I turn my bike upside down and wash

it at Esso, all the gunk from the steerer tube will not

find it's way inside the star nut and be deposited there.

Thanks mate! ;-)

I have already listed my reference materials from YouTube

for building my bike and so what follows are weight

information that some may find interesting.

            

See the old school bearing above? Heavy isn't it?

See the wonders of modern bike technology? From the 290gr

BB above this pic, the modern day BB is just 91gr. I think the

newer pressfit BBs should be even lighter than this.

I had to weigh this non-series Shimano crankset with the

Shimano M520 pedals attached as I can't get them to budge.

Since the other crankset had the pedals on them when I

weighed them, I had to weigh this with my XT pedals

included. This is a Deore 170mm crankset. The biggest

chainring was changed from 42T to 40T. Remember that

I took out the biggest chainring (40T) from the 3x10 speed

crankset that came with my Reign? Instead of the 40T,

I attached a bashring to that crankset. Thinking that I have

not used the 11T on my cassette yet, I took out the 42T

from the Deore 3x9 speed crankset and attached the

40T that I got from the 3x10speed SLX crankset.

... ok, you might all think that you read somewhere

that we can't mix and match these 3x9 and 3x10 parts.

Note that I have these parts lying around in my house

and don't have to buy them. Basically, if they don't work,

then all that I have spent is the time to do the experiment.

BUT this change did work. I used a normal 3x9 XT FD,

3x9 SLX shifters, Deore crankset with the biggest chainring

changed to the biggest chainring from a SLX 3x10 crank

and it works. But I do notice that shifting from the middle

ring to the biggest ring is a bit 'sluggish' ... but I can live

with that.

This is an 11-28T SLX cassette. I think this is

a DH item?



Above pic is of a Deore 11-34T cassette.

Lots of weight saved here. I will be using my bike

on Mt. Faber Climb nights, ECP spin nights and

maybe cruising in T15. I think I don't need a 34T

or a 32T for that.

I took the bike for a spin today at T15 and ... it

was ok. What struck me though is that the ride

is sooo jarring! Also, almost every downward

direction of the trail gives me vertigo! I have an

On-One Inbred HT and if you want to have 'fun'

while riding an HT, I recommend the On-One

or similar such bike. This Jamis is for remembering

what got me started and how it was during

those days ...

However, your results may vary. I personally

know a guy (let's hide this guy's identity under the alias

of Boom Ravilas ;-) )  who usually uses his Jamis HT

even if he has a Giant Trance. I asked him once why he

likes using his Jamis HT. He told he is much faster

on his Jamis HT than on his Giant Trance !



#233 - Changes to my Reign

Below are the changes I have been doing to my Reign.

The changes that I have done (and still doing) hopefully

makes my Reign easier to handle.

L-R : Thomson Elite Setback 30.9mm cut to 375 mm length
stock Anthem Giant setback seatpost 30.9mm 375mm length
Giant Switch R 30.9 mm 375mm length

SeatPost

I have to be honest. One of the things that made me buy

the Reign 1 is the dropper seatpost. However, I have brought

my Reign to several trails around Singapore and the thing is

I seldom use the dropper seatpost. In fact, I couldn't get

used to the notion that before any steep downhill section,

I have to press the remote and bump my saddle down

with my butt... not to mention the things that I read on

the net about dropper posts failing at the most ill

opportune times. This has even led me to bring a separate

seatpost in my bag. Do you know anyone who has

a spare seatpost in his bag?

Anyway, above are my 3 choices for the seatpost.

Although the Thomson is the lighter choice,

I chose to go with the Giant seatpost that came

with my Anthem. I find the setback style of

Thomson ugly hehehe.

Fulcrum Red Metal 10 with Ashima 160mm
Airotor (claimed weight 85g)

Width of the Fulcrum Red Metal 10 is 19mm

Stock Giant wheelset comprised of DT Swiss E540
rims + Shimano M525 hubs ... not sure what the
spokes are. The brake rotor is by Avid.

The stock wheelset is 22mm in width



Wheelset

This is a very important component. It is always

wise to save weight on anything that spins.

The easier and more expensive way is just to order

a set of ZTR Flows + Hope hubs + DT Swiss spokes.

But having just paid for a whole bike, I don't have

the money for a new set of wheels ... maybe for

my birthday ?! Ahem ahem.

I have 1 set of Fulcrum Metal 10s lying around with

a pair of Ashima Airotors. Looking at the stock wheelset

and my spare wheelset, I thought that the Fulcrums will

be a lot lighter. However, the weight difference is just

a 100grams plus! I then measured the inner width of the

rims and found that the Fulcrums are 19mm and the

stock wheelsets are 22mm ... hmmm I think for this

one, any weight savings will be offset by the effects

of a skinnier rim ... and so in this case I decided to

go with the heavier wheel BUT I changed the

Avid 160mm rotor to Ashima Airotors.

Stock Avid 180mm front rotor

XT 180mm front rotor

Brake Rotors

One day, while loitering around Hup Leong, I saw

these 180mm XT disk brake rotors on offer for 50%

off. I can't remember the exact price but I paid just

20$ odd (23$? 26$? around there).

When I got home, I immediately weighed them. I also

took off the stock Avid 180mm rotors to see their weight.

As you can see, the Avids are lighter ... but since (1) I already

took them off, (2) the XTs are nicer, and (3) it would be a

shame if I don't use them, I attached the XT rotor to my

front wheel. Did I notice any difference in braking? Let's

call a spade a spade ok? No difference!

Don't do this. I can't find a post to post 180mm
adaptor for the rear brakes so I tried this.

This is the change that made a lot of difference!

Since, I now have a 180mm Avid lying around, I decided

to use it on the rear. I searched high and low for an

adaptor for Avid Elixir brakes that will make me

mount a 180mm rotor on the rear of a post mount

frame. I can't find any. I then took some very long

screws and added spacers to it until the brake calipers

clear the rotors. Success! I went to BT and Rooty

Trail, verryy nice (<== said like Borat).

On the way home, I went to Tay Cyles at Bukit Timah

and had a chat with one of the mechanics there. I was

willing to pay Tay Cycle BT price (which is very high)

as long as they can give me a post to post mount for

180mm rear brakes. They don't have any. The mechanic

also told me that it is not a good idea to do what I just did.

He said, yes it will work, then slowly, the screw holes

will loosen and then it will be bye bye screw holes

... and since the screw holes are post mount ... then

bye bye frame.

After that, I quickly went home while consciously using

just the front brakes (hehehe) and after I rested, I quickly

dismantled my 180mm modification. Now I'm back to

using a 160mm Ashima Airotor at the back :(

Left is 11-36 10spd SLX cassette, Right is 11-36 10spd XT cassette

The pic above is just for info. I didn't change my cassette

to XT... which is just as well since the scales say it is just

around 30grams lighter than the SLX cassette that I have.

A low mount FD should be the solution for the chain rub
issue that I was facing. BUT, take a look at the areas pointed
to by the arrows. I think the suspension will hit them when
it compresses ...



Just a little bit of a backgound, the Reign 1 2012 came

with a triple ring SLX crankset. The rings are 40T-32T-24T.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I noticed that I very seldom

use the 40T on the trails since the Reign is heavier than my

usual XC bikes. I took out the 40T and substituted it with

a bash guard. After that, my biggest chainring became 32T.

I cycle to whichever trail I go. If I am alone, I can

take my own sweet time. But when I am with the 'peloton',

it is very difficult to keep up with just 32T as the biggest

chainring. ALSO! If you notice, the smallest chainring

is now 24T. Last time, I used 22T. So now, I have

a lower than usual gear for the road AND a higher than

usual gear for the trails ?! What do I do?

Good thing I have this 2 chainring SLX lying around :)

and so, I took out the new SLX and in went the old

2 chainring SLX in it's place. For those of you who

are wondering, yes, the old SLX is for a 9 speed drivetrain

BUT it will work with a 10 speed front shifter AND

it will also work with a 10speed chain.

The problem now is that when I shift to 22T, the

chain rubs on the lower part of the FD cage.

This is what I was trying to solve with the photo above.

I tried to use a low mount, 9 speed XT FD on the Reign.

but as you can see, although, it is ok to mount, it seems

that there will be problems when the suspension is

compressed. See photo above.

Top left : I had to mount the FD at the lowest point possible
Top right : Now when I shift here ...
Bottom : ... the chain does not rub any more

 In the end, I went back to the original FD. I mounted

it to the lowest possible point and after a few magic

incantations the chain now clears the FD cage when

I'm using the 22T chain ring (see arrow in photo above).

However, note that if you cross chain, say, use 22T in

front with 11T at the back, then for sure you will have

chain rub issues.

... and last but not the least,

we debunk Giant's OverDrive2 standard.

Background again, please read this article from BikeRadar.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Giant seemed to have this

burning desire to be different thus creating a new standard

called Overdrive2 which means the upper part of the steerer

is supposed to be 1 and 1/4 inches while the bottom part

remains as 1 and a half inches. I even bemoaned the fact

that since the steerer is now bigger, the rest of the stems

that I have will no longer work.

Then this morning, Deck popped me in WhatsApp

saying : hey, our fork steerer can accept the normal

sized stems. This text was followed by a picture showing

his fork's steerer being 'pinched' by his digital calipers.

I said he must be dreaming. Wait a while and I will show

him the error of his ways.

I took out the top cap of my fork followed by the

OverDrive2 spacers. I then took a normal sized carbon

spacer and tried to push it onto the steerer of my Reign

fork expecting that the steerer will not go thru the spacer.

But it went thru !!! Huh?!?!

See the pictures below. It seems that the only thing

that is sized 1 and a quarter inches here are the spacers.

The steerer is normal sized!

I immediately ditched the Giant 70mm stem and

replaced it with a Spank Oozy 50mm stem :)

Top spacer is stock Reign. See gap pointed to by the arrow.
Bottom spacer is normal spacer. Note that steerer is supposed
to be 1 inch AND a quarter.

Left is a pic of a normal spacer. Note absence of gap.
Right is spacer from Reign 2012. Note presence of gap.