Thursday, September 20, 2007

Phil Wood Hub and ACS Claws Freewheel


Phil! I'll be putting the fabled Phil hub through some serious abuse starting yesterday! The pacific northwest weather is some of the harshest around for moving parts, like bottom brackets, headsets, suspension and hubs. I ride religously through it all, day and night, so Phil I hope you've brought it, because you are going to need it. Phil replaces an XT hub that my local bike mechanic deemed, "the worst he's ever seen, and totally not rebuildable". Well he stuffed it back together and I got another year out of it.
After coughing up the dough for the Wood, I had to go lightly on the freewheel, so I got an ACS Claws and will see how that goes. After one day at the SeaTac Flow Park and the Buckley Skate Park the combination seems smooth and has no problems. Let's hope so! I like the sound of the ACS Claws, (it has the bmx sound!) but the feel is a bit sloppy, which is about the equivalent to the XT hub. I've been spoiled lately with the DT240 that is on my cross bike, which I've been riding a lot lately. Tonight brings the classic trail ride and with a bit of rain lately the gloves will come off for Phil.
Let's say a bit about the Phil hub, because it is worth some praise. It is nicely built, a work of polished chrome art. The bolt on mechanism is stiff, tight and fits snug as a bug in a rug. The skewer system it replaces didn't have that same solidness. Pete at the Black Diamond Bike Shop said it built up very easily, yes that's right my wheel is Peterbilt!
-Adam
P.S. I'll have a progress report on the Rollenlager, Singlator, Surly Cog, Forte Tensioner and Surly Ring shortly.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Third Try is Charm with Rollenlager


Mr. Mole confirms that the Rollenlager is a nice fit to my Jake the Snake cross bike and we're looking forward to some mud, bumps and barriers. I'll report back on it and the Surly cog at the end of cross season. The Rollenlager install didn't go as planned or without glitches. I found out that the der. hanger spacing is not 100% the same across the board. The Rollenlager really only works if you have spacing that matches theirs. They said they rarely have problems, but my SuperGo Access, and my Redline Skookum have different spacing. That was a bit of a let down, after holding the hardware in my hands and drooling over it's precision craftsmanship and sealed bearings. The support at Rennen was lightning fast, George Costa sent me an after hours email, and was fast with suggestions and follow-up info. I'm expecting this will be the best tensioner of the three I run, but it's dissappointing not to be able to get it to work on my other bikes. Say-Law-Vee.
-Adam