this is a feeling i can’t relate to. new bike parts are like new clothes to me. gotta try them on immediately!
Honestly I’ve been dreading fishing that fucking cable across and down the downtube without any housing, especially in my dark and dusty basement. Just ordered the ports that let me run full housing so this time around should be less of a headache.
Plan is to pull the old housing and leave the cable in place, then run the new housing over the old cable, pull out the old cable and then run the new cable through the new housing that’s already in place. That’s the best way, right?
What bike? If you’re going from cable stops to full housing it really depends on what the stops/ports look like.
But yea, definitely keep the cable in the downtube to guide your new stuff through there.
It’s an Ibis Mojo 3. The two things I don’t like are the interrupted seat tube and the internal cable routing with no internal guides.
Fortunately the cable ports can be swapped out pretty easily and are available for a few bucks so I ordered what I think are the right ones. Then I’ll give it a shot. After a wildly successful dropper installation completed on a lunch break with time to spare, I feel like I can take on the world right now.
You got this. I’m looking at my HD3 right now and I’m pretty sure they follow the same routing. The downtube is the fun one but if you leave the cable in there you’re golden. The rear triangle routing is super easy in comparison, you can use the j-bend of a spoke to help grab the end of the cable and pull it out of its hole.
I had no problem pulling cables through the ports on my Mojo 3. Just used a hook bend wire (little thinner than a spoke).
Well that all went together pretty smoothly. Got new xt shifter, chain, cranks, slx dangler and chainring, sunrace cassette on to replace all the NX bullshit that came with the bike. Have only ridden around the block but holy shit it’s real nice.
Also sized up to a 180 rotor in the back, which is going to be a nice change I think.
I’ve never had 165mm cranks before and I should probably reserve judgment until I’ve actually ridden them but first impression is that I should really be running short cranks on every bike. It feels good right away.
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Should probably get around to trimming the donut holder or at least getting some black spacers…
Lots of reports of at least the XT 12x dangler’s clutch seizing up. 4-6 week warranty process through LBS. Our buddy Ben was riding his sb130 with us yesterday and the dang dangler kept getting stuck forward leaving tons of chain slack. He lost his chain like 9 times in 15 miles.
Do you know if that’s also happening to the slx?
Got out today for a shakedown. Nothing too exciting, but some spinny road climbing and some chill but steep dirt climbing and mellow descending. Everything runs super smoothly and nothing hurts, which is a big change for me.
Does anyone know if there is a reason that a shorter crank would make me feel more comfortable in a more forward saddle position? I raised the saddle a bit and ended up scooting it a little forward and a little higher partway through the ride. That’s always felt like a better weight distribution on the bike but also in the past has made my back hurt. Today, no pain at all and pretty much all I did was pedal for about 18 miles. Felt fucking great.
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No intel if it’s also happening to the SLX stuff. The shop sold a bunch of Yeti’s with the xt 1x12 and a huge number of them came back defective.
Well, I’ll keep an eye out.
Also wanted to share my greatest triumph of doing all of this:
The 8mm bolt holding on the NDS NX crank arm was stuck as hell and I didn’t have a breaker bar handy. After a number of attempts to wrap myself all kinds of ways around the frame to pull across the bike, I resigned myself to installing this with the old crankset on there and taking it to a shop to get the new cranks installed. Which sucks because every shop is backed up like two weeks right now.
Then I actually got around to installing the new shit and the 12-speed Shimano chain did not play nicely with the 11-speed steel SRAM narrow/wide. Lots of noise, definitely some less-than-smooth feelings pedaling it on the stand. It probably would have worked, but it would have been such a fucking unsatisfying stopping point for this project.
Stepped back, was sad about the fact that it wasn’t going to be done, then had a fucking flash of brilliance/remembered how to be wrench.
I put the pedals on, then stuck the 8mm wrench into the bolt 180º from the NDS crankarm, so it was parallel to the DS crankarm. I put the bike on the ground in a high gear, dropped the saddle so I’d have room to fall, put the DS arm parallel to the ground, then stood on the pedal and quickly hopped my left foot up onto the 8mm wrench. My (more or less) full body weight was enough to break that shit free before my foot slid off the wrench.
I felt (and still feel) like a goddamn genius. Like yeah, this is shit I used to be able to figure out literally every day for $12/hr, but whatever. It’s been a while. Still got it. In flashes.
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Another trick is to use some toe straps to strap the left crank to the chain stay. But overall getting that right crank off is the worst…
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My guess is femur angle /hip flexion at the top of the stroke. And ya know, the hip bones connected to the back bone, and all that.
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If your stand is bolted down…
Clamp the arm with the fixed spindle in the work stand.
Put the breaker on the wrench.
Apply ham.
Works 100% of the time with minimal cussing.
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Bought plastic stickers to make my Pike fork less frustrating:
got that instead of bigger endcaps to match with fork mounts on the truck
also got a Paul QR skewer for cheaper than the OEM ones: https://www.bikeparts.com/BPC179063/paul-components-rockshox 15mm-axle-15x110mm-boost-black-
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It’ll definitely be something to keep an eye on, the RD-M9100 / M8100 / M7100 / M6100 / M5100 (XTR all the way down through the updated 12- and 11-speed Deore) all have the same components in the clutch mechanism. Hopefully it’s just a batch of XTs that got mis-assembled rather than a design flaw.
Boy can ride that Rocky Mountain. Also fuck yeah Miranda Miller.
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Shit that looks good.