No 26ers

So, my first official ride was this weekend, and it wasn't without incident 

Some racer buddies of mine put on a skills clinic at a local trail.  Skinnies, log piles, jumps.  Considering I have very little skills, I went out to practice.

First up were the log piles, going both up and down hill.  Zero issues with that, and the bike behaved flawlessly.  Next up were the skinnies, which I've always had a problem with.  With some tips, I was able to clear all of them start to finish.

Next were the drops/jumps. I've always had difficulty - not sure if I tense up or what, but they've always given me issues.  The first setup  was only a 6" drop, and I was landing flat every single time.  After 5-6 of those, I moved onto the 12" ramp.  First time, great.  Second time, not so great...  Front tire first...



I did push on though, and when we went out onto the trails I conquered a lot of stuff that I would have skipped - either it was the newfound skills or the extra motivation of a group ride...

Let's just say that I've got another tab open with Amazon looking at shin guards.
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Enough about the loose nut behind the wheel, on to the BIKE!

After the crash, the #$%^^&**( seat post came loose again.  I am cranking on it so hard that it's just a matter of time before it breaks.  I'm looking to you all for guidance.  I have the IP-057, the IP-SP5 seat post from XMIplay, and this clamp - http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NSFOBMM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If that's the incorrect clamp, I'll eat my hat.

Good news / Bad news on the headset.  Good news is the creaking is gone now, after liberal application of grease.  Bad news is I've developed a wobble.  When I took it apart to grease, I did the final cut and put some different spacers in.  It's possible I didn't put it back together correctly or something came loose.  TBH, after the crash

Nice ride...  What are your thoughts on the Crank Brothers wheels?  I gave them some serious consideration when I was building up my 057, but caved and went with a XMIplay carbon rim setup.  Reviews online tend to be polarizing - either everyone loves the Crank Bros setup or hates them.

Sounds exactly like my build, although you went with more carbon than I...  Good luck!

Now have two road rides and 45 miles total on the bike. Only issue that's popped up is a creaking from the headset. I took it apart this evening and didn't find anything amiss - everything was tight. I applied liberal amounts of grease to both the lower bearing and upper - I have the Neco headset and put the grease between the upper copper colored ring and the upper bearing. Anything else I should be looking at? I do have multiple stacks of spacers - 4 below the stem and 3 above, each 0.25".

Another minor nit is that I need to get a longer stem. I bought a short one (70mm?) And probably need a 100mm.

Not a bad idea, but I wonder how it would deal with the pressure and the whole gas vs. liquid thing...

So, if you followed my 29er build, you know I had some issues with it.  Front tire remains tubeless, but the rear I caved and threw a tube in after I got Stan's under the Gorilla tape...

I have a cheapo fatbike (Motobecane Fantom FB4), and wanted to change out the Vee Rubber Missions (holy he**, those are horrible tires) and try and go tubeless with that.  Found a deal on some Origin8 Devist8rs on a  local forum so I picked those up.

First attempt was Gorilla Tape tubeless, with door sill sealing foam.  First thing I noticed was that the Devist8rs are a PAIN to mount - went through 4 plastic levers to get the things on, then gave up and went to the metal ones I have.  After three days of trying to get the beads to seat and multiple times of calming my dog down from all of my swearing, I put the tubes back in.

Second attempt was last week, and tried to go Ghetto tubeless.  Picked up some 24x2.1-2.3 tubes off Amazon and sliced them right down the middle.  Was expecting at least a 1/2" of overlap past the bead seat area and ended up with 1/16", which meant I had to perfectly position them.  Mounted tire, and everything was out of position.  After another few hours of cursing (and dealing with a dog who thought he was in trouble), I threw the tube back in.

Who did I piss off?  Anybody run Devist8rs and have the same mounting issue?

First REAL ride update:

Went on the annual "Worst Day of the Year" ride in Ann Arbor MI this weekend.  Forecast initially started out as 35 degrees F and sunny, but as the date grew closer, started falling.  Morning started out at 27 degrees, and by the time we went off at 1:00 was 23 degrees with a 15mph wind.  Lots of compliments on the bike from friends, including a guy I work with who kills the hills on a 196x Schwinn with 2-speed kick transmission.

Zero issues with the drivetrain this time around, and zero issues with the seatpost, and amounted to a very good ride (all roads, except for a small section that was frozen - Small Block 8's were surprisingly good, almost acting like studded tires).

One thing that I thought of, with regards to the seatpost, was torque falloff.  I did the poly-spray Thursday night, carbon grip and reassembled Friday.  When I tightened the clamp post down, I got it pretty d**n tight.  On Sunday, before loading it up, I did one last check and it felt looser than how I'd left it.  Tightened it up again and rode with no issues.  Wondering if it may be the clamp or the fastener or both.  Will check it out tonight, and try and figure out if I can get a torque wrench on it.