Recent content by bdl

How's it go? "well, that escalated quickly"... :-) Clearly there are more and less well defined reasons for choosing different protective gear. I tossed up for ages on the brace. I'm an engineer, the idea of spending a lot of money on something that doesn't have hard evidence of efficacy is...

My take on the brace is that the pros outweigh the cons, and there's at least a little bit of evidence they can help mitigate some types of catastrophic injuries (neck) though perhaps at the expense of less disastrous ones (collarbone). @Mywifesirrational, I'd be keen to see anything related...

Thanks for the comments. @Mattyp: good point re. instruction; open to recommendations in the Sydney area. @pink poodle: I forgot to mention he has gloves and goggles - the two things he wants to wear. I guess it's handy being able to see where you're going... He also has shin/knee and...

My now 16 yo son's been riding for a couple of years, and was hospitalised - fortunately only briefly - 2 years ago with broken vertebrae from a stack he had when he was riding his hard tail school bike down Mt Keira (NSW)... He now has a decent bike, couple of helmets (Bell 2R and a proper...

Six-ish months later, not a single chain drop on the SRAM crankset. Chalk and cheese compared to the FSA. I also note that Merida have ditched the FSA on the 2016 model in favour of the SRAM.

The thread pitch on my axle is 1.5mm, the "X-12" at CRC is 1.0mm. Turns out 1.5mm is the "E-Thru" standard, CRC are out of stock but lo and behold Cell Bikes have a Shimano axle that ought to work: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/au/en/dt-swiss-rws-e-thru-alloy/rp-prod123930...

Fantastic, thanks 'c'. I measured the frame spacing, and it's indeed spot on 142mm. I'll check the thread pitch just in case (should be 1.0mm I believe), but otherwise looks good! In hindsight, I guess it makes sense that axles are 'sized' according to the frame spacing, not the actual axle...

My son's Merida One-Forty is fitted with DT Swiss RWS 'thru' axles, the rear I believe is 12x157. The release handle has been broken off, and I'm trying to find where I can get a replacement part, or entire axle. The "I believe" part is that we don't have any useful specs from Merida, so we...

(duplicate post)

My son has this bike. He's had a bit of a love-hate relationship with it. Pros: + great price for the component specs + the blue/yellow actually looks pretty nice in person, I think (way better than the usual boring black) Cons: - the FSA chainring is rubbish (chain drops are guaranteed...

Well, for anyone else finding this: SRAM Australia seem to have accepted the US receipt as proof of purchase, no-questions-asked. They insisted we send the shock to them via a local dealer, who simply acted as a postal middleman and charged us $20 for the service. (Unfortunately they then...

G'Day SM, how'd you get on with this SRAM warranty claim? I'm in the same boat - bought a shock from the US, it's failed on the second outing, and I'm trying to talk to SRAM Australia about a warranty claim.

To close this out - we bought a SRAM GX-1400 crankset (+ bottom bracket), and so far it's been great. No chain drops on the 100% SRAM drivetrain so far, which is a huge improvement over the FSA. (sorry about not providing photos - my son had disassembled the FSA crank to check dimensions/etc...

Clutch derailleur: yes, it's a SRAM X01 11s. Seems to be working fine incl. clutch, has been given the all-clear by two LBSs. Chain: the chain was too long out of the shop, with the derailleur actually being just slack at the end of its travel; the #2 LBS pulled a link with a confident "that'll...

My son's Merida One-Forty 7.900 has a 1x11 setup with an FSA Afterburner 386 crank and 'megatooth' chain ring. The bike's only ~3-4 months old, and he's had issues since day one with chain drops, worsening over time as the chain ring wears. Adding a chainguard has helped a little but not solved...