10
« on: June 26, 2023, 01:26:53 PM »
Update as of June 26th 2023:
I've had approximate 48 rides and 500 miles on the ICAN P1 2021 bike so far. Bike has held up pretty well. I've finally have taken it to the bike park here in Southern CA earlier this month! My bike setup is 135mm rear shock travel and 150mm fork travel. It was a good time at the bike park! The flowy trails, the medium berms, the ladder bridges, the jumps, it felt like I was at the Disneyland of Mountain Biking! I definitely want to try and get back up there again. The green and blue trails were fun because the trails would wind around, and there are some techy ladder bridges. The black diamond advanced trails has some medium sized jumps that the bike handled just OK. I felt like I was almost bottoming out in my suspension and the landing felt a slight harsh. On double black expert trails with large jumps (which I did not fully clear, I'm still progressing on jumps. I didn't go as fast as I would want since still I'm still fearful and learning. I would ride up at a moderate speed and jump and either land onto the side of the trail, or would land in the middle of the table top before the sloped landing area). The landing felt real harsh, and in my opinion, I definitely needed more travel than my 135mm rear shock and 150mm fork. I demoed an Intense Tracer 29 (which had 160mm rear travel and 170mm fork travel), it felt so much more plush on the landing and I felt 10x more confident riding the jumps and the features.
Further, a minor item I had with the bike is the rear thru axle. I take out the thru axle every time I clean the bike, or want to service the bike, it's maybe 1-2x/month. One item that came up is that the top head of the thru axle which takes I believe a 8mm hex wrench has started to strip. I ended up stripping it so badly that the thru axle wouldn't turn anymore so I reached out to ICAN and they actually sent me a new thru axle. Which was great! Took about 1-2 weeks to receive it. But I was happy they did that, and luckily it was still under the 2 year warranty.
Moreover, regarding a minor rear thru axle item on the bike I've had trouble with. When I push the rear through axle through the frame, into the hub of the wheel, and then try to fasten into the thread on opposite side of the frame, sometimes the thru axle wouldn't catch on the thread. The thru axle would keep turning, but wouldn't fasten into the frame. It would work sometimes, and sometimes it would not. Eventually it stopped fastening all together. So I removed the derailleur hangar, and wanted to replace the derailleur hangar that ICAN provided with the bike during purchase. I tested the thru axle outside of the bike with that derailleur hangar, and it fastened perfectly.
Now, when I tried removing the flathead derailleur hangar fasteners (there's 2 fasteners needed to mount derailleur hangar to inside of the frame), I remembered I overtightened one of those small fasteners previously from a different time I removed the rear wheel. When I tried unfastening that overtightened screw, it wouldn't turn and I ended up stripping that tiny derailleur hangar screw. I've had trouble the last 3 weeks trying to remove it. I've tried 3 different methods with trying to remove the screw. #1) Using a stripped screw extractor, putting glue onto head of screw first and then hammering the extractor to the head of screw, and then using the drill bit extractor to unfasten. that did not work.
#2) I tried using the stripped screw extractor on the other side of the screw trying to unfasten at the bottom of the screw compared to the top since the bottom of screw is exposed on the outside of the frame. That didn't work. The screw is just too small.
#3) I tried using a wrench/pliers to untighten the nut of that tiny derailleur hanger screw, and that did not work.
It's been frustrating. To this day, the stripped screw is still in the frame.
What I'm about to say right now may not make sense, but I was actually able to remove the derailleur hangar, the nut of that stripped screw, what it does is actually pinch the derailleur hangar into the frame. The other flathead derailleur hangar fastener is the one that actually fastens into the derailleur hangar itself. That screw is fine, and I'm able to remove that one.
So I was able to put new derailleur hangar on the bike, I slid the derailleur hangar into the small space where that stripped screw and nut pinch it, I had to use plastic mallet to force it a little into that small space where it gets pinched, and then was able to fasten the other fastener of the derailleur hangar into the frame and into the derailleur hangar itself.
Further, I'm now still able to ride the bike.
That's all for now.
Thanks!
Crankydad