Santa Cruz Bronson C Probuild and Preview of XTR M9000

The past two days both held some great knowledge and experience with the mountain bike industry at the shop.  First, a nice progress slideshow of a Santa Cruz build I was nearly able to finish except for final tuning due to the need for new axle end caps for a rear DT Swiss hub on a thru axle Bronson C equipped with 10 speed Shimano XT Dynasys.  It came together especially well with a Fox Float 36 with 180mm of travel.  Other specs included a Cane Creek 40 headset, a tubeless Schwalbe Nobby Nic setup, a Thomson Masterpiece seatpost and Elite X4 stem, a Selle Italia mountain saddle, and Enve bars.  Strong pretty much in all accounts for sweet jump style riding anywhere in this area.  With included block spacers, the fork travel can be lowered down to the rider desired 150mm.  Here it is nearly finished without grips and rear axle end caps.

The new XTR groupset showed up today on a Rocky Mountain frame and we got to spin through it and discuss with the rep the different features and possibilities with the mechanical version as well as the Di2 version coming soon.  The expectations of riders from preview videos and info expos is well met.  For mountain biking, I am very sure Shimano has a groupset for every rider from 3×11 to 1×11 in both mechanical and electronic.  It’s a design update that really will help change the game and bring new levels of performance to the industry.  Here are a few photos of the drivetrain.

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Last but not least, I have discovered some good new information regarding troubleshooting the Stromer electric bike and will update the article and also provide the link here in the next few days.  It streamlines the troubleshooting to either the components or the wires and clarifies a few earlier questions.

– SNC

Neat Road Brake Caliper Installation Tip

I thought I would present a little tech trick in our shop (and probably others) that keeps a road brake caliper from rotating on its anchor bolt when bumped slightly or installing wheels.  One of our guys told everyone about it last year and since then, we have had great success with it.

It is quite simple and makes great sense. Usually there is a small serrated washer or smooth alloy washer placed on the anchor bolt between the caliper and the frame for both correct positioning and the use of a ‘softer’ metal to grip the caliper to the anchor nut from the frame.  See below.

Before you place this washer onto the anchor bolt, apply a small amount of grip assembly paste to the surface at the base of the anchor bolt, as shown below.

Then, install the alloy washer and apply a little more grip assembly paste to the side of the washer facing the frame or fork, shown below.

That will give the brake much more staying power without any ill side effects.  The paste also helps protect carbon frame surface mounting points.  No more will that little bump while moving or transporting your bike knock the caliper out of alignment, which will help performance longevity after tuning and avoid uneven brake pad wear.  Hope this helps your shop or your own bikes as well as it has ours.

*****

One article I am currently working on deserves a little preview while assembling all of the material.  It’s based on reducing weight on your bike for the least and most practical cost.  For instance, we carry Specialized tubes in our shop of both the regular and lightweight turbo pre-talc’d styles.  I knew that the rubber quality is slightly higher in the turbo tubes and that they weighed somewhere below the regular ones.  So I weighed them to see exactly what the weight savings was.  A regular tube weighs out at about 100g.  The lightweight tube costs about two dollars more, yet comes in at only about 70g.  So, for four dollars, you can save 60g on your bike.  This alone doesn’t do much (though the ride quality will improve slightly), but a few tricks like this will add up to a considerable savings.  I know of a lot of much more expensive proportions of dollars/weight savings that might make sense when you have exhausted some of these more ‘stealth’ weight saving options.  More tips like this to come in the article.

– SNC