Al's WebLog

Category: Bikes

  • Pivot shimming FTW

    Since I first had the Crafty, the rear end has been, shall we say, lose. Its the most side to side flex of any bike I’ve ever owned, plus, if you pull its a bit more, it clunked. The shock mount bolts would also come lose after a ride or two, even when Loctite was…

  • Shaking that ass

    I’ve been off the Crafty for a couple of months, not ‘cos I didn’t want to ride it but because of had a small coming together with the ground whilst riding my hardtail on a local XC trail. Result, one broken humerus. Nothing funny about that, let me assure you.

  • The Italian Job

    4 days riding in the Italian Maritime Alps. Its a good way to get to know a bike. Its also a good way to remember just how long the Crafty is when it doesn’t fit in your bike box…

  • Aldi “So Crafty” down tube guard

    One thing I’m keen on is avoiding holes in my down tube caused by flyng rocks. On my Nukeproof I forgot to stick an old tyre on the down tube at Afan once and had to pull a rock out of the underside of the bike, after it had flicked up and embedded itself. Lesson…

  • 1st Impressions – riding

    Having spent some time in the shed, its only right and proper that I spend some time out on the trails. So far I’ve been out for 2 local rides and 5 rides up in the Lakes on the Crafty, which gives a good early impression of where things are going and what tweak things might…

  • Quick crank upgrade

    So on the R+ the cranks that come stock are RaceFace AEffect jobs

  • 1st Impressions – physical

    With the bike arrived the first thing to do was strip it down, after hanging it on the scales of course (15.26kg).

  • 1st post… and so it begins

    I’ll not bore you with the details, but having been pondering a new full sus to replace my ‘old’ Nukeproof Mega AM (26″, since you ask) I finally settled on a Mondrakrer Crafty R+. It was everything I was looking for, aside from having the wrong wheel size and being on the steeper side in…

  • Whats it worth for a warranty?

    Two recent warranty issues have had me thinking a little about the backup behind bike things. You kind of take a warranty for granted when you bike a bike or a frame. The manufacturer says that if due to a manufacturing or design issue you break it they’ll replace it. Great. So when I recently…

  • Distillery visiting on the 456

    Given the density of distilleries on Islay (and the closeness of Jura) it seemed silly not to take the bike with me when I was up there last week. I guess you could say its like munro bagging, but with distilleries. All in all it was about 130miles of riding, on road, but the big…