Specialized Shock Guard

 

 

 

 

This guard is obviously for full-sussers and I think only for Specialized bikes.The idea is to stop stones picked up in tyre tread chipping the piston on your shock ,which if chipped will allow air to escape and stop the shock working properly.This costs a fair bit to fix and loses you your bike for over a week so well worth sourcing one for your trusty steed.

 



Hayes MX 2 Pads

 

Top marks go to "CHAIN REACTION CYCLES"!!!!!

I thought this was worth a mention,last week I needed some replacement pads for my Hayes mx2 disk brakes I sourced said spare from http://chainreactioncycles.co.uk the order went through at approx 2.30pm postage was free and to my utter amazement the package arrived at 8.30 am the very next day. 10/10

 

If only everything in life was this simple!!!!!  


And here they are,they certainly won't look like this for long it takes some serious friction to stop my frame thundering downhill!!!!

 

Mountain Bike Maintenance by Guy Andrews

DON'T PANIC I'm not going all librarian but I was bought 2 books for crimbo.Bicycling magazine's"basic maintenance and repair" revised and updated edition!! and"mountain bike maintenance" by Guy Andrews. Reading is not my strong point so please don't hold your breath for the reviews as you may possibly die waiting!! but I will update when I've stumbled my way through them.

 

 

 

 

Marzocchi MX03 Comp Bomber Forks (100mm Travel)

Well the time has come to upgrade my OE forks on my Marin Northside Trail axc. After numerous rides, from down hill , jumps, cross country and the odd commute. I finally decided the old forks ( Spinner Edge 120mm) were not up to the job. Don't get me wrong the OE fork is good, but as your skills improve the forks limitations are apparent.

The newly purchased forks ( from a friend at work ) proved to be a good choice. The Marzocchi MX03 Bomber forks are short of 20mm of travel compared to the original OE Spinner Edges, but to be very honest the I found it difficult to get even 85mm of travel out of the fork so using all of the supposedly available 120 was very optimistic. However the Bomber forks are built using 32mm stanchions which are anodized gold and look the trick. There is is no horrible slamming action when the fork is quickly compressed and released, this makes jumps smoother and more enjoyable.

Another feature of this fork is the Air compression adjustability using a schrader valve on the top of the fork legs. This again makes for a much smoother action and saves considerable weight over coil aided forks.

Other features included are Standard IS mount for Disc brakes, cable guide.

Overall after a few rides on these forks I have noticeably seen a difference! And look forward to many more smoother more comfortable rides.

 


 

Torch High Beamer Max Front Bike Headlight

 



I have been looking for a set of front lights for my bike to do some night riding for a while and spotted these Torch High Beamer max twin lights on sale through Ebay. I chose these items purely due to them being inexpensive compared to some systems available.

These feature a twin headlight arrangement with three light options, single spot, high beam spot or both. The light emitted is fantastic  and features two 6v 2.4w bulbs which i have upgraded to blue vision bulbs from dotbike.com. These upgraded bulbs offer a blue tint to them which makes them quite unique looking, the light range is approximately 600m.

The system is fully rechargeable using a weighty sealed lead acid 6v-4.5ah battery pack which nestles in my water bottle cage. 

My first impressions with this system were not great. Although the brightness and changeable beam options are good, the mounting bracket supplied is terrible and broke after a few curb jumps. This has been rectified by using a reflector bracket and modifying it to fit the headlamp. This has proved to be a much better option than the one supplied.

One of the 6v bulbs supplied blew on the first ride. I believe this was due to the copious amounts of rain during my bike ride, however the manufacturers state that the headlamp is water resistant but this proved to be not the case.

Negatives aside, I am happy with this purchase and it certainly makes night riding a lot safer.

SRP: £39.99
Battery life approximately 2hrs.