A very muddy and cold spin around Durham and Stonebridge area on the Cube E Mtb

 

I did not get out on the bike at the weekend - 

Saturday we had a spin through to Bishop Auckland for the food festival and some shopping and it was cold and wet to say the least! 

Sunday was supposed to be the same so planned to trip over to Team Valley to pick up some new led lighting for my garage and a look around Machine Mart at Lobley Hill as I had a vat free voucher to use! The weather was great and the sun even came out before the rain at tea time onwards. 

Today it was forecast rain from 11am onwards so I was up and out fitting my new mudguards just after 7am. Then I was off down to Durham and did some of my normal loop in reverse before trying to ride through Houghall woods. All the tracks n trails are now over ankle deep in wet sticky mud. I then had a ride over to the Stonebridge and under the viaduct and up the country lane to pick up the old railway line back to Broompark. I then turned off at Baxters Woods and home via the back way around Whitesmocks, New College then The Carrs. I was covered from head to toe in mud by now and feeling rather cold. The ride started off sunny and not too cold but it clouded over and I had two heavy rain showers with the Garmin dropping to 2.3 degrees. Its going to be May next week! Its the first time in over two years since the older Cube e mtb has been out on the trails. No problems what so ever, just goes to show you how good the Bosch system is and some reasonably good quality component's. 

Below are a few snaps from the 21 mile ride with 1400ft of climbing. Enjoy and hopefully more soon - 

Fresh Goods Sunday - Shimano BM-90 Hydraulic Hose Olive and Insert

 

This is the final part to my series of Fresh Goods Sunday's about fitting the Travers rigid carbon fork. The original suspension forks that come on the Trek Procliber all the hydraulic hose was externally fitted down to the caliper. The new forks have an internal hose routing through the fork leg so below is the procedure I followed to allow the existing hose to be passed through the fork leg. I had plenty of spare Shimano pins / barbs but only a few olives. When I was on a break in Scotland I called in past Bspoke Cycles in Peebles to see if he had any olives, no problem what so ever. He sold me the olives without having to buy the pins. Please note that there are two different types of pin / colour so check first as too which one you require. The olives are the same regardless. I required the silver coloured pin for the XT brakes. If you don't have the correct tools and parts for this job I would recommend taking it too a bike shop as it can mount up to alot of money for a filler cup, oil etc but saying that if you shop around you can buy aftermarket kits reasonably cheap which you can use again and again. Have a look on Total Bleed Solutions or Epic Bleed Solutions as an example. From start to finish it took around 15-20 minutes and the brake is working perfectly. 

RRP £2.99 and I paid £1 each for the brass olives only from Bspoke Cycles, Peebles. 

Remove the front brake caliper

Remove the front wheel for better access to back of the fork

Pull the cover cap off the nut on the lever and loosen nut, cut the  hose below old olive and insert

Slide off bolt and rubber cap, then push the hose up through the fork leg. 

Push on the rubber cap, then the new olive then insert new pin. 

Push hose back into lever, slide up bolt and nip the bolt back up 

Slide rubber cap back over nut. Loosen the lever so it sits level. 

Remove the reservoir cap bolt

Screw in bleed cup and fill with mineral oil

Squeeze lever and tape caliper and hose so all the air travels to the top, only takes a few seconds, should not be much air 

Insert bung, remove filler cup, insert screw back into reservoir, reposition lever

Refit caliper and re centre and job done

Fresh Goodies - TTP racing rear bike stand & BTWIN MTB Mudguards

 

I have used this type of rear stand for many years now to wash my bikes and general maintenance such as cleaning and re lubing the drivetrain as you can spin your back wheel. My current one the legs are getting bent and the heavier bikes wobble around when in the stand so I bought this one from Decathlon £17.99. 

Whilst I was in Decathlon I bought another front & rear BTWIN mud guard for the second Cube e mtb as Angus has took the first one I fitted the guards to. They perform well and have had no problems with them this time. Excellent value for money £3.29 each. 

As ever more details will follow in up coming Fresh Goods Sunday.