Rebuilt 2002 Rock Lobster 853

[idrisrugby]

Re:

I had 2 piston mono minis on front and back and the M4 rear brakes came in a box of bike bits I picked up, rather than leave them there I bled them put news pads and fitted them. I'll be after some M4 for the front soon though

 

[Madmax1993]

Re: Re:

I had 2 piston mono minis on front and back and the M4 rear brakes came in a box of bike bits I picked up, rather than leave them there I bled them put news pads and fitted them. I'll be after some M4 for the front soon though

You could just swap the calipers from front to rear and vice versa to have the M4 on the front on the end of the shorter right hand hose. Four pots are almost always overkill on the rear of a bike. I'm running the hope tech M4 on the front and rear of my Orange Stage 5 29er, but I'm considering buying a pair of matching X2 brakes to create two sets of M4 front, X2 rear brakes to use on my hardtail and the orange.

 

[idrisrugby]

Re:

Yeah that's probably a good shout for next time I service and bleed them.

Your set up sounds lovely, let me know how you get on with them

 

[Madmax1993]

Re:

I've been running the tech Evo M4s for a couple of years now. I had the old IS M4s, and they had sticky pistons and were very difficult to line up on the disk being IS mount. I didn't fancy rebuilding them, so I switched to the Tech Evo ones, with Post mount calipers. They have been excellent on my 2009 Five, then on my Stage Five. I had to set the levers up really far in towards the stem as the lever assembly and lever blade are quite long, but you only need one finger to pull the brake.
There's nothing wrong with using them as a pair, I just feel the four pot is wasted on the back, especially seeing as I have no offset between the front and rear rotor size. I could probably get away with a smaller rear rotor, but I'm just tempted to share the extra four pot power with a second bike. I'm used to having 2x six pot brakes on the front of my motorbike and only one measly 2 pot on the back, so I'm sold on the concept.

 

[idrisrugby]

Re:

Picked up a second hand set on Avid Juicy 7 brakes yesterday for £25, bargain.

They've been bled and cleaned, just waiting for new sintered pads to arrive.

Question, do I put these on the Rock Lobster or stick with the rebuilt Hope's?

I'd need an adapter if I fit the avids though as they are post mount but my Fox forks are IS mount.

 

[idrisrugby]

Re:

Went out with my daughter yesterday for a 9 mile ride and bike rode really well, even the massive incline up to the Castle.

Daughter loves her Merlin Malt, built that up for her 2 years ago after picking it up for £100.

Only thing it's had is a new Charge Spoon seat to match mine and some new Deore disc brakes as the Magura Julie ones on there were rubbish.

 

[idrisrugby]

Re:

I really need to stop spending on this bike now!!

Saw a nice pair of Hope XC hubs laced to Sun Rims on the old Gumtree the other day for a decent price.

Got them home and decided a full strip of the hubs was needed, thus started the issues.....

Didn't realise when I bought them that the rear skewer was stuck tight inside the axle and wouldn't budge at all.

Quick trip to the hardware store for some punches to start me off.

I cut the skewer off at each end where it entered the axle and set to it with the 8mm punch.

An hour later and game on!!

I must say, the strip and rebuild was very straight forward and I found some good guides online to help me out.

Some nice new bearing have gone in too and it's running super smooth.

Put the cassette, tyres and brake discs on and we're up and running.

Really happy with the result and got so much more confidence in the wheels now to chuck it around more with spring quickly approaching.

Watch this space for the next update, it's bound to happen sooner rather than later!!

 

[idrisrugby]

Had a bit of a mare 2 weeks ago.

Been getting a bit of fork judder under braking at low speed, tried headset tightening, brake pad adjusting and rotor change plus tighten, just couldn't get rid of it.

Only solution left was to tighten the lower bolts on the TALAS forks, big mistake as I sheared the bolt right off, forks now dead!!

NEW PROJECT TIME!!

Managed to get a second hand pair on Gumtree of Fox Float RLC with 100mm of travel, better suited to the geometry anyway for a steal.

3 hard days of work including a full strip down, sand and spray with new stickers and dust wiper seals and they're amazing.

Only issue, still got the fork judder, any suggestions?

I've even replaced the headset now and still no better.

 

[PeterPerfect]

Front wheel hub ?

I can't see if you've got a spacer on the top of the stem or just the cap.

Try and remove a red spacer and place a black one on top of the stem and then the cap. I had a similar problem and it solved it.

If that doesn't work, I can only think that the fork crown isn't seated properly.

 

[idrisrugby]

Cheers Peter I'll give that a whirl tomorrow