Zwart Cycling

Keep riding with a worn out bottom bracket, what's the worst that can happen?

The axle got scored from the stuck bearing, but that wasn't the end. After a few years the wear caused stress corrosion cracking and before the rider knew it, he had two separated crank-arms.

I recently serviced a Fox 34 from 2017, and upgraded the air spring providing a massive change!

Old fashioned air springs in forks container a small negative air chamber to counteract the preload of the positive chamber, so the forces would be balanced around topout.
Modern air springs contain much larger negative chambers, visible in this picture as the space between the white piston and the aluminium sealhead.
The result of this change is a much more linear spring, a lot closer to the feel of an actual steel coil spring. This will give a smoother feeling over small bumps, and more support when terrain gets rougher.

I had to increase pressure and removed 2 volume spacers from the postive chamber to allow for a similar sag point and bottom out support.

A Classified handbike 650b front-wheel!

For those that do not know, a Classified hub contains an internal 2-speed planetary gearbox, essentially providing an alternative for the old fashioned front derailleur. You can use a wireless electronic shifter to choose between 'normal' and 'light' gearing.

I hadn't worked with Classified hubs before, but luckily they had good documentation on hand.
I used a nice modern 45mm high 650b (27.5") rim that has 23mm internal width. Alpina aero straightpull spokes and Sapim Polyax double square spoke ni***es.

Classified Cycling

It's never easy to choose the components for a wheelset when the customer has no specific wishes.

'it needs to be light/stiff/durable/aerodynamic/comfortable/cheap'... You can't have all of these things at the same time, so you have to make choices.

This gravel wheelset was built with a little of all those attributes. 1427 grams, 39mm deep section carbon rim. Tubeless and hookless 25mm inner width, with durable Alpina Ultralite spokes and Sapim polyax double square ni***es. Should be tough and stiff, but still give a pleasant ride!

I made a thing!

It can be really annoying to check the sag when riding a coil shock on your bike.
So I designed this simple add-on. Printed out of ABS with a simple 10x3mm o-ring, showing how much travel you use. This one is designed around a Fox steel coil of 2.8" travel, other coils might need some tweaking to the dimensions.

If you look well, you can spot a divot in the rod. When the o-ring is at that divot, you achieved 30% sag. The topout location has it too, so you can spot whether you have too much coil preload.

It's been a while since I built a fatbike wheelset!

I had to modify my wheelstand to fit the wide 177mm wide hub, but the result is just lovely!

DT Swiss 350 front hub, Hope Fatsno 177 rear. DT Swiss BR-710 rim.

Yeah this Fox N**e is dead...

The cracked shim you see is the lockout valve, used to cover the oil ports when the lockout was toggled. But if you use it too much, it fatigues and breaks. This is simply a bad design.
The simple design also lacks any highspeed rebound valving, causing it to seriously lack performance on rough terrain.

I found a second hand Rockshox Monarch RT3 to replace it, and serviced + retuned it. Not only is the damping way better, the Debonair air spring will also modernize the way the suspension feels.

Sometimes equipment just fails...

But in this case I wonder why. The rim broke in a way I hadn't seen before. The rest of the rim was showing signs of overtensioning by buckling the aluminium, even though those spokes were all on the non-driveside were they should have lower tension.

But the show must go on, the party must continue! So I laced a new Race Face ARC 30 offset on the lovely Industry9 hub. Seems to be a pretty solid build again.

I opened up a Fox GRIP2 VVC damper yesterday.

I've been riding a '22 Fox 38 performance elite fork for a while now, and the damping never felt great to me. So it was time to service the fork, and update the damper cartridge to the 2024 specs.

A longer and stiffer IFP spring, a different shimstack for the basevalve and midvalve and some Motorex 4wt fluid. I'm really curious how it will feel at speed now, let's plan some fast and techy rides!!

First time lacing Erase Components v2 hubs!

I had a set of high gloss carbon all-road rims in the basement, and used them with these Erase Road hubs in a gorgeous Candy-Apple red that would look at home on a hotrod.

The freehub uses a 36t star ratchet, and is completely machined out of titanium. Erase is a Belgian manufacturer that tries to source it's materials as local as possible.