Serviced USE Shokpost / Fitted new Charge Scoop saddle

Notes from logbook:
Serviced Shokpost & fitted new Charge Scoop Saddle (£35).

Fitted new springs & elastomers + changed bushes / keys / o-ring on Shokpost.

Yellow spring kit.

USE Shokpost Servicing

Spent most of the time today on the bike servicing the USE Shokpost.  Took it apart, shook out the old springs / elastomers, gave the post tube and 'piston' a good degrease/wash/dry, then added back the new spring + elastomer.

Here's a close up of the 'Shokpost Combo Kit' (consisting of one spring and one elastomer - basically a series of very hard plastic 'blobs' welded together, the yellow thing in the picture!) and the service kit (consisting of two white plastic keys, two green bushes, an o-ring and a white plastic seal):

Servicing the 'piston' (ie the bit that rides on 'top' of the spring / inside the main seatpost 'tube' bit of the shokpost / attaches to the saddle) is a bit of a faff because of the two plastic 'keys' that you have to fit into very narrow grooves, one down each side of the post.  In theory this is a simple and very obvious task to complete, but in reality it's a massive pain in the backside!

The reason for the problem is that the keys are a very very tight fit - too tight a fit you would probably say to be done by hand.  Perhaps if it was done in perfect factory conditions then the keys would be 'just right', but in reality when you're trying to fit the keys by hand, it's all but impossible without either resorting to hammering them in (the instructions do actually say to use a hammer!), or to sanding away the top of the keys slightly so it fits in the grooves easier.

I went for the latter option.  The plastic material the keys are made from actually sands down very easily - it's more like a very dense wax than a plastic, not quite sure what they use to make it but it's very easily sanded down (too easily in fact, if you try it be careful!).  I just used a bit of 2 in 1 emery type paper, very smooth grained sanding paper.

Anyway, after that, the keys fit fine and it was just a matter of fitting the new bushes, inserting the piston section into the tube and re-fitting the bottom cap.  ONLY snag with that / gotcha to be aware of (which if memory serves I hit upon exactly the same way last time!) is that the keys have to be put into the grooves AFTER you've put the top cap on the piston.

Not sure why I'm explaining this because without any photos it's impossible to know wtf I'm on about, you'd only know if you had the thing in your hands and were trying to figure out how to do it!

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the actual servicing of the post or the post dismantled which is a shame.

Charge Scoop Saddle

I'd been deliberating about what saddle to go for for quite some time.  Not quite as long as for the crankset, but still quite a few weeks!

I had considered going with a Brooks B17 or Imperial saddle on the back of various excellent reviews.  I do still slightly wish I'd gone for that option actually because it would have fit in nicely with having sourced as many high quality / nicely engineered / crafted UK parts as possible for the bike.

But in the end I must admit my decision was more of a whim than anything else.  I received a newsletter email from Bike Magic where they had a link to a review of the new Charge Scoop saddle.  On reading the review I was very impressed, and actually looking into it more Charge are actually a UK based company anyway so I still get to have a little slice of UK quality on the bike anyway. ;)

The saddle itself is very streamlined and minimal in it's build, comprising only 3 parts - the rail, the undercarriage and the top (gah can't think how to describe the bit you sit on lol).

The saddle itself has a groove down the centre to ease pressure on your backside (yes, I even did some research into that kind of pressure!), and the overall design of it I would say is halfway between a racing saddle and a 'comfort' saddle - fairly wide but long and sleek towards the nose.

Here's some pictures of it fitted to the bike:

 

Not too much really to say about it, I did have trouble later with the seatpost clamp slipping which is detailed in later posts.  Generally though after 200 miles of riding so far I'm very happy with the saddle and would recommend it for anyone looking for a hybrid performance / comfort saddle.

FINALLY I found this image of the bike taken on the same day.  It's probably the first photo of the bike 'completed' I think - or at least ready to ride at a push:

I did fit the Middleburn crank after taking that ^ shot, but generally I think the bike looks very sleek like that^. :)

More new parts: Shokpost service kit + springs / Hope seatpost clamp / Avid Brake Noodles

More parts again today:

• Hope Seat post clamp (£13.89 from Ebay (Wooly Hat Shop))
• Avid V-Brake Noodle and Overcoat (135 degree / Front) (£3.51 from Wiggle)
• Avid V-Brake Noodle and Overcoat (90 degree / Rear) (£3.49 from CRC)
• USE Combo Spring Kit (medium) (£13.19 from Wiggle)
• USE Shokpost Seat Post Service Kit (£8.36 from Wiggle)

Not too much to say about most of these bits really.  The service kit for the Shokpost is a bit pricey really for what it is but I suppose that's how they make their money and they do last a good 2-3yrs, same with the springs.

The Avid noodles... again not much to say really, except that I'd been using two 90° 'noodles' on my old Marin for years not realizing they weren't quite 'right' - the front noodle needs to be a 'tighter' 135° angle to be properly fitting with the cable run for the front brakes, but hell I didn't notice for years or was aware of it but knew it didn't matter too much.  Anyway, it was time to get new ones anyway so I got one 90° and one 135°.

Hope Seatpost Clamp

I went for this because I'd recently purchased the same item in a different colour for my XC bike and had been impressed at the quality of it.  Then again, well it's a clamp, there's not a lot to it really!  Does look nice in anodized red though. ;)

New parts: USE Shokpost Gator / KMC X9 73 9 speed chain

Got through a couple more bits today:

• KMC x9 73 9 speed chain (£13.99 from CRC)
• USE Shokpost Rubber Gator (£4.03 from CRC)

KMC X9 73 9 speed chain

I've never come across KMC before so these were a bit of a gamble.  The reason I went for them was primarily because they were one of the few manufacturers to do a chain in 116 links.

I needed 116 links because the chainstay on the Surly LHT is longer than most frames to accommodate panniers with plenty of spare foot room.  However the default number of links seems to be 112 links nowadays - SRAM seem to exclusively do 112 links, as do Shimano, although I didn't spend too long looking to be honest.  In the end one of the few companies to do 116 links was KMC, so I just went with it:

The chain itself seems to be pretty heavy duty relatively speaking, with solid pins and fairly thick chain plates (I'm comparing to something like the SRAM PC series which are very lightweight and come with hollow pins at the top end of the series).

I wasn't too bothered about this given that it was a fairly heavy duty bike / tanky bike anyway and would be carrying a lot of load most of the time anyway so a few extra grammes wasn't going to hurt, I thought.

Anyway, turns out I still had to remove 2 links from this new chain anyway so that it would fit properly.  I did the 'usual' measuring up routine of putting the chain around the largest sprockets at the front and back WITHOUT putting it through the rear derailleur and then adjusting it / shortening it so that there was one link 'spare' or 'loose'.

Here's a shot of the chain on the largest sprockets at the maximum possible extension, including the rear derailleur:

So that looks exactly right really, I'd never put the chain/gears in that kind of configuration under normal riding conditions obviously but it's good to know that if it ever did happen by mistake that it can take it.

Here's a shot of it on the smallest sprockets front/rear:

Again, not normally a configuration that will happen in real riding conditions but still it's nice to know the chain isn't falling off on that setting just in case.

All in all, happy enough with that chain setup.

USE Alien XCR Shokpost Gator

Nowt to say about this really, it's a bit of rubber fer gawds sake!:

I decided to refurbish / service the existing USE Shokpost I have and carry on using it.  I actually won the thing in a competition / prize draw from Bike Magic some 8-10 years ago now for submitting a review for Ortlieb panniers.

Wowser, just managed to find details of that review here back in November 2003 - so 10 years ago!:

USE member review winners

Here's a quote from that page:

The October ones first, then. Top prize of a USE Shokpost, baseball hat and Ring-O-Star headset preloading gizmo goes to Tim B (Cotic Soul). Runners-up prizes of hats and Ring-O-Stars go to Andy Allsopp (Kryptonite Kryptoflex cable), Paul Cooper (MET Parachute helmet) and Matthew Smith (Egg Beater pedals).

There are old links to the reviews in the article but unfortunately it seems they're no longer visible / the URLs are out of date. :(

ANYWAY, yes I decided to carry on using that Shokpost since it was around £80 at the time I won it, so a very decent seatpost, and it is highly serviceable (USE do brilliant after sales service / spares)... so I figured I'd give it a good refurbish / service, change the springs / elastomer and get a new gator for it (the old one was split / had perished).

Fitted gear cable / initial gear adjustment

Notes from logbook:
Fitted gear cable front and rear.  Used remaining red gear cable outer (inner cable was included with the gear shifters).

Provisionally adjusted gears, seems to be OK, although the chain might be too short now (because the chain stays on the new frame are longer perhaps?).

Front gear mech cable clamp seemed slightly odd, but think this is just down to the newer design.

For the first time the bike actually 'looks' like a proper bike!

Fitted brake cables

Notes from logbook:
Fitted brake cables.  Had some red outer cable left (Clarks), so used that.  Just enough.
Really need to order new noodles though, currently seem to have 2x90° noodles - one should be 135° (also liners are missing from noodles + ferrules are old/corroded).

Fitted brake levers / gear shifters / Hope Hed Doctor

Notes from log:
Fitted Avid Single Digit brake levers + refurbished v-brakes.
Fitted Shimano XT 9 speed gear levers.
Re-fitted handlebar grips and ends.

Attached forks / fitted Hope Hed Doctor threadless headset clamp.  Really neat bit of kit that once you work out how it 'works'.

Stripped Riser Bars / Refurbished Brake Levers + Gear Shifters + Avid V-Brakes / Re-fitted Shimano Deore Crank temporarily

Notes from log:
Spent most of time stripping old components off the Marin handlebars and washing / cleaning them!

Fitted old Shimano Crank on, mainly so I could use the chainrings to fit / adjust the new Shmano Front Derailleur.  This went OK, no probs, had to fit/use the included seat tube adapter to the mech so it would fit the Surly seat tube.

Re-fitted old Shimano rear mech.