[yellowdman]

My new ultimate extreme cross country trail bike! Customized 2008 Trek Fuel EX9. Bike: 2008 Trek Fuel EX9 17.5", Fork: 2008 Fox Talas 36 RC2, Headset: Chris King Dread Set, Brakes: 2008 Shimano XT 180mm-F and 170mm-R, Stem: Bontrager Race X Lite 60mm 7 deg. rise, Bars: Stock Bontrager Race Lite 650mm 40mm rise 7deg. sweep O.S., Grips: ODI Ruffian Lockons, Wheels: Bontrager Rhythm Elite 20mm Front Wheel – Q/R Rear Wheel Tubeless, Tires: Maxxis Advantage 2.4 Front and Bontrager Jones XC 2.2 Rear both ran tubeless, Cranks: Stock 2008 Shimano XT, Pedal: Shimano XTR, Chain: Shimano XTR 9spd, Cassette: Shimano XT 11-32, Front Derailleur: Stock 2008 Shimano XT, Rear Derailleur: 2008 Shimano XTR Shadow SGS Cage, Shifters: Shimano XTR, Shock: Stock 2008 Fox Float RP23, Seatpost: Stock Bontrager Race Lite 31.6, Saddle: Selle Italia SLR Ti 135g (really 144g), Bottle Cage: Blackburn Carbon. As is with everything listed here this bike weighs in at 28.8 pounds and it could be made lighter really easy. This bike stock with it’s Fox Talas 32 RL and pedals weighed in at 28 pounds. The Talas 36 I installed is a little over a pound heavier than the stock Talas 32 RL I took off. Not bad! 😃
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[yellowdman]

You might try a lube called King of Lubes. I’ve been using the Extreme lube(blue color) all summer and so far it’s worked like the company claims. It a dry lube and it repels dirt really well. It’s definitely the best lube I have used so far. A good riding buddy turned me onto this stuff and he’s been using it for a couple of years and loves it! It’s hard to find not all shops carry it. If you live in Denver, CO there’s one shop I go to named Bicycle Pedal’R located in Highlands Ranch at University and County Line Rd. that carries the King of Lubes brand. I’ve been in several shops around town and have only found it there but I’ve only been in shops in the Littleton, Lakewood area and I’m sure there are other shops out there that carry it. I’m sure you could order it online too if you did a little search. I tend to lube my chain every 3-4 days of riding(about every 60-100 miles of riding). If you haven’t bought any lube yet you should give this stuff a try. 😃

[yellowdman]

Oh what I meant to say there at the end was that a single speed wasn’t practical for me. It might be for some people but not me. I use my single speed as a in-town commuter. I do have one and I tried it mtn. biking and didn’t care for it all that much. 😃 Oh and I don’t think a single speed is practical for a beginner mtn. biker either. 😃

[yellowdman]

How upright are you when your sitting on your bike and not climbing? If your body position is to upright it’s going to make climbing the steeps hard. It puts more weight on the rear of the bike and your going to want to pull up on the bars way to much when your climbing. You might try a shorter rised stem or a stem with a little more length to get your weight a little more forward or if you have a hi-rise bar you might try a low-rise bar or a flat bar. One other thing, keep your elbows in towards your body, this will help you keep your weight low and forward and will help keep your front wheel down when your climbing steeps. I would try that first before spending any money on parts. Also as much as you want to stand try as hard as you can to stay seated, you’ll be a better technical and smoother rider in the long run. Standing helps in cetain cercumstances like when you need to get up and over something standing will allow you to shift your weight forward to help you pull yourself up and over an obstical but if your standing and mashing the pedals trying to get over something or in a technical section your going to put to much strain on your drivetrain and there’s a good chance your going to bend your cogs in the back or break your chain. Oh and as for single speeds, ya they’re fun and sure you don’t need to shift but they are not that practical for most trail riding. Sure Travis Brown rides one but he doesn’t race on one all the time, why? because not all trails are the same and sometimes you do need lower gears and sure you can gear your single speed to climb but when you get to a flat your going to spin your but off and not go anywhere and vise versa you can gear it to go well on the flats but when you get to a steep or technical section your going to have to get off and walk up. What’s the point? That doesn’t make you a better rider. The more you ride a trail the better you’ll get. If you get to a section and you can’t make it try it again but try and looking at it a different way and try a different line thru the same section you’ll eventually get it. Your friend also gave you a great pointer, if your on a trail you’ve never riddin before and you come up to a section with a blind spot or corner and you don’t know what’s on the other side slow down a little down shift into the middle ring up front and 1st (granny gear) in back, this will allow you to climb most hills and obsticals and if it doesn’t then you’ll know better the second time you ride the trail 😃. Well I hope this helps you a little and I also hope I didn’t make the single speed guys mad but I do live in Colorado and a lot of the trails I ride on are impractical for a single speed. Have fun and keep on biking!!!

[yellowdman]

Ok I think I was the one who said something about parents. Here’s the deal, I know it’s not always the parents fault but in most cases it is. When I grew up I was taught right from wrong and ya I did a lot of things that are considered bad when I was young like jumping off stairs and poaching the city parks at night when their closed so you can find some awesome obsticals to have fun on and many more bad things that I will not get into, yes I knew what I was doing was bad but that’s not I was talking about. I was responding to how these kids were riding on sidewalks and running into PEOPLE, when I did all my fun but bad things I made sure not to hit anyone well unless it was my friends of course, 😆 but my whole point is that kids and everyone should have respect for others and I feel that respect should be something that parents should teach there kids at an early age, also I don’t really care what bikes kids are riding but if you pay attention to the kids that are riding nice bikes you’ll start seeing which one’s have respect and which one’s don’t and the one’s that don’t have any are the one’s the parents went out and bought them a nice bike just so they don’t have to deal with their kids, trust me I’ve been working in the retail business for most of my working career and I see it everyday. So I don’t care if kids go out and do bad things or things they shouldn’t do fund but bad things because it might hurt them but they should make sure they check around them before jumping off a set of stairs and landing on other people (unless it’s their friends 😆 ) and putting them in harms way. Oh ya it’s not just kids too, there’s a bunch of adults 18 and up that still need to be taught some respect too 😃 . SO ALL I’M SAYING IS THAT WE ALL SHOULD HAVE A LITTLE RESPECT!!! 😃 Alright let’s put this behind us and lets all go out and have a great next ride!!!! 😃 😃

[yellowdman]

The only thing you might loose by not running a v-brake lever is adjustability and sometimes the leverage ratio might be a little off which might give you a stretchy modulation feel at the lever but if you say they work real good then there’s probably not any reason for you to run different levers. You’ve got some real good brakes!! 😎 I still run them on my main bike and have no reason to change unless I get a new fork and or bike frame that doesn’t have brake bosses. Disc work great but you don’t get the same feel like you do with v-brakes unless you get the nice pricy ones and I know that disc brakes take a longer time to fade (if your running six inch disc and bombing the downhills like your crazy 😛 ) but unless your bombing the downhills and or your on a heavy bike or both I feel the v-brakes are the way to go. So go out and enjoy the best rim brakes ever made! 😃

[yellowdman]

I like to pick and flick! 😆 Ok seriously…I like to camp and fish, to go motorcycle riding both street and dirt. Snowboarding is the other big thing I do. I’ve been snowboarding and mtn. biking for 17 years and I have no reason to stop either one. There’s more stuff I like to do but these are the things I like to do most. It’s all about having fun! 😃

[yellowdman]

You can take a link or two out of your chain to help tighten it up a little more but if you take out more than one link be careful when your shifting gears, if your in the wrong gears (big&big) your chain could break. Your derraileur springs could be a little worn out so your chain might look and feel tight but it’s not. Your chain could also be stretched out and you might need a new chain. You can also get a chain guide (chain tensioner) that clamps onto the chainstay and pulls the chain up to keep it tight so it doesn’t come off the rings, I use to run one but I can’t remember the brand. Hope this helps ya a little! 😮 As far as your look as you go flying by a car…I would do it too 😃

[yellowdman]

Most of the blame would have to be on the parents side. They don’t spend time with their own kids and to get them out of their hair they buy them what ever they want. When I was growing up in the late 70’s and 80’s it was about BMX bikes now it’s MTN. bikes. I had to work to get my bike where a lot of kids got them because their parents just gave them what they wanted because they were brats and it would get them out of their hair during the summer. If parents would spend a little time with their kids when they are growing up and would teach them about having respect for others, mother nature, and life their kids might grow up with smarts. I know it’s not always about bad parenting but 90% of the time it is. As far as the cheap bikes that are out there it’s fine. Not all of us can afford nice bikes and it’s great manufactors are making cheap bikes but people need to understand you get what you pay for. If my parents would of had money when I was a kid I might of had a GT, Redline, or a Haro but I rode a Huffy prothunder. Most kids that live in Breck have parents with money so they get to ride nicer stuff and this isn’t just in Breck though it’s every where. One thing I use to do was hand out these little cards I got from a park ranger one time that had trail tips and rules on one side and talked about having respect for others and wildlife on the other side and I would hand them out to people I saw on the trail that didn’t know how to yield to other people. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this card but I have seen some other cards out there that told about trail tips and rules. I think I’ll have to make some on my computer and start handing them out again 😆 Alright I think I blabed enough! Remember to have fun and have respect—life will be much happier 😃

[yellowdman]

I know this post has been on here a little while but if your still wondering about your squeaky bike you might try this. Being that they are bushings you need to pull them out and clean them off. Use some good biodegradable degreeser and a rag and clean all the dirt off of them. The problem might be dust getting on the bushing and this creates the noise, that’s why when you lube it it only works until the lube dries up then it starts squealing again. This happens to Mavic freewheel hubs. Mavic uses a bushing instead of a rollerbearing because it saves weight. A lot of people think Mavic hubs suck because they start making noise and they think the hub is going out on them when 95% of the time it’s because the bushing needs to be cleaned off. This is common in dusty riding climents like Utah and Colorado. Most bushings are the self lube type meaning they don’t need to be lubricated like delrin bushings and some bushings have been impregnated with some type of lube like teflon. If these bushing get dirty the dust or dirt creates a coating around the bushing and it starts to squeak. If you have your owners manual you might check it out to see what they say. Some times with certain types of bushings you need to apply a little grease to them. So you might give that a try 😆

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