Good bye dude, see you soon!

Yesterday we had another savage XC loop. It was a bit different this time as it was kind of a good bye spin. My good mate and training buddy is travelling back to Ireland and this was the last chance to ride some sweet local trails befor his flight. 

The spin was brilliant: 62 km under 3 hours and 18 minutes with elevation very close to the 1000 m mark. Good speed, good conditions but the most important thing good chat along the way. 

Thanks a lot boss, I'll see you in December. Au revoir, safe home! 

Shimano Alfine chain tensioner on a single speed XC mountain bike // First impressions

I've done a few spins since I got the Shimano Alfine chain tensioner fitted. Done about 90 km and 4,5 hours so I guess it's about time to see my first thoughts. 

Lets have a look at the details here:

• The firts thing that pops in my mind is that the system is super smooth & quiet. Once the chain line is bang on the chain runs real nice. Of course this is how it should be anyway but still, it's lovely!  
• The body of the tensioner is very stiff, there is no flexibility whatsoever.
• The tension of the spring is at another level folks, it keeps the chain über tight!
• Oh, it looks savage! Did I mentioned that? Sure I did!! :) 

I have picked some rough local trails to see how the Alfine performs off-road. The test went well, can't mention a single problem so far. Of course the brutal winter spins are still ahead with all the mud, sleet and snow. But I have a great feeling about this tensoiner and I'm sure it was a good decision to fit the Alfine for single speed mountain biking! 

Fabric cage-less water bottle system

Now, here is something truly special! We are talking about a bottle cage. Is it there? Is it not there? What's happening?! 

It's the revolutionery cage-less bottle from Fabric. The award winning idea that completely rethinks the classic design. And sure, it is there but it does look fairly different compare to normal bottle cages. Lets see the details:

It's a 600 ml BPA free plastic bottle with direct mounted screws and studs. The studs are mounted directly to the bottle bosses and the bottle sits over them. Simple as that. 

The kit contains the bottle itself and 2 sets of mounting kit. This way you can have the studs fitted on both tubes on the frame or just simply have a spare set in case you run only one bottle. 

Extremely light-weight 

Simple as that. No more bottle cages just nice and smooth lines of the frame. I love the idea altogether, finally there's something on the bike market that raised my eyebrows. I'm excited about this cage-less system and I look forward how it will actually perform. Especially in some savage off-road conditions. Let the testing begin! 

Shimano Alfine (CT-S500) chain tensioner

I have been struggling with chain tensoiner problems recently. After a bit of a research I made up my mind and got a new chain tensioner for the single speed beast. I had my eyes on the Shimano Alfine CT-S500 mondel for a while. It looks savage and the spring tension is outstanding for sure. Ah, sure... it's not quite common part on single speed XC bikes but you know me well: I'm not too worried about things like this. :)  

The weight is just over the 200 gramm mark

It's a non-adjustable tensioner with fixed chain line. Runs two pulleys and got kitted out with a mega strong spring to keep the chain nice and tight. Juuuuust what I was after! 

The box contains 3 spacers with the total of 5 mm spacing thickness. They go in between the drop-out and the tensoiner itself. This way there's a slight adjustment to have the chain line bang on. They were handy indeed, I had to use them all to have everything running smooth. 

All set, good to go!

After the short work I had the bike ready to be tried. The tensoiner is on and it looks... well, it looks awesome in my opinion. The Alfine isn't a single speed specific part that's designed for XC machines but I'm sure it'll work well for me! Stay tuned for some first impressions post in the near future! 

The good 'aul horse is back in business

Sometimes the old things are the best in life. You can get coffee machines with all the bells & whistles these days... but I'm tellin' you there's nothing like brew your morning coffee in this old coffee maker that was in my parents kitchen since the 1980's. Absolutely priceless!