Minirolls Musings

Haku Passes

I’m writing this near the end of January 2022 after an emotionally mountainous couple of months.

Renovation Relocation

Today, the first day of real life after getting engaged, and we were put to the test…

Admiral Rodney’s Pillar

We rose slowly, enjoying the last of the “best room” hotel luxury. We also made the most of the large welsh breakfast which was amazing – all the food had been amazing actually.

It had been a mixed holiday but definitely improved through the week. It was time to head home and while we were feeling tired, we also wanted to go for a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery some more.

The Gap

Today we tackled “The Gap” mountain biking route through the Brecon Beacons. It was definitely type 2 fun* my butt bones have never hurt so bad by the end of the day. But it was all worth it for the long descent after.

Date Night

We had had enough and we left.

I packed up the van with all our stuff and retrieved all my cooking gear from the kitchen (we hadn’t trusted the supplied utensils). Left it in better condition that we found it, and rolled out in search of some holiday for our holiday.

Working In Wales

Now we were established in the wonky welsh house, it was time to do some work. This is the first experimental excursion, for Aimi, where she is “working from home”, away from home.

Bike Park Wales

This is what we are here for, sitting in a sweaty transit grinding up a forest road to the top of a soggy welsh hill listening to Guns N Roses and choosing our next mountain bike route.

Whoop Prep

Covid has pretty much killed off all social groups, including the BTW (Birmingham Tiny Whoopers). We were only loosely a micro drone club to begin with, focussing more on the quirky beer and flabber-gobbing about the world, but we did get some flying in. We even put on an AWESOME race event at (RIP) Kongs Birmingham. This brought me to the fringes of the organised Whoopers who engage on a country wide level to put on events and races.

Bed-Bombs

You know when you are in bed and randomly wake up. You get that sort of confused and upside down feeling before you know what’s going on? Then, as you roll over wondering why, you tense a very specific muscle before the reason becomes self evident. You must pee.

Shagged Shox

After getting my bike back with the bad news my rear shock is knackered, I figured I’d just ride it anyway.

We met up with Stephen at Cannock today for a very wet MTB ride. It was raining consistently so we thought there wouldn’t be many people out, but apparently loads of other people had the same idea as us, so the car park was as busy as ever.

We set off up the climb, starting Follow The Dog from the halfway point. Things were going great and I was really enjoying being back on the bike. It rolled really nicely, changed gears beautifully and was as springy through the bumps as I remember.

About 2 sections from the forest centre, I noticed my pedals striking the ground a little more often than usual. The rear shock must have lost pressure or something – they had told me it was knackered… The bike was sitting a bit lower than it should and so the pedals were hitting more often. No worries, we went over to the bike shop and borrowed a shock pump to top it back up.

But the shock was still at 300psi, where I had set it before starting out today. Turns out, after chatting to a bloke in the queue for the shop, that the air reservoir on the other side of the ports can go into negative pressure if the ports aren’t working correctly. Basically it’s letting air out, but not back in again and so pulls a vacuum. I was measuring the pressure on one side of the ports only and while that was maintaining pressure, the net pressure in the system was significantly lower than what it needed to be. There is no way to access the other side of the ports without specialist tools and a workshop – not something I can do at all, let alone trail-side.

Well… Shit

This is the end of my riding for today – It truly is knackered

I spent the rest of the day waiting in the van for Aimi and Stephen to finish the Monkey trail. I busied myself making tea and eating hot soup while watching all the other bikers race around in the rain and cold. I was happy to be warm and dry, but envious of their fun.

I trawled the internet for a replacement shock. The bike center had quoted me £490 which is an eye watering amount. I found a couple sites selling it for about £350 which is better but then I found a site offering it – brand new – for £180. The only catch is its 6mm shorter travel than my current shock.

This is a very hard dilemma for a penny pincher like me because I know I need a new shock and there will be cost involved. I want to get the best deal possible and while this is a great deal and will save me over £300, its not quite the right bit. There are a few very good instructional youtube videos that say you shouldn’t change the dimensions of your shock. But these guys have to say that because they would be in deep dog doo if someone did it on their recommendation and it damaged their bike.

The only dimension that is different on this shock from mine, is the travel length. Its still the same size physically, but the stroke is 6mm shorter. When installed and operating through the suspension linkage, this may actually be 20-30mm travel at the rear wheel which – while noticeable – is also negligible given I’ve never bottomed out my rear suspension and I’m not a pro rider by any stretch of the imagination. Reducing the travel, is not ideal but it wont damage the bike by letting the frame components come into contact with each other – something that increasing the travel could do – so I’m going in the safe direction.

A few mm of travel is a compromise I can live with so I’ve ordered it. Hopefully it will fit well and work fine – if not, I guess I’ll have to return it and buy the “correct” and more expensive one.

I’ll let you know…