LONG TERM RIDES

Ed’s been paying the price for his lacklustre maintenance efforts

The latest on our team bikes – where we’ve ridden, what we’ve changed and what we’re looking forward to as summer winds down

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always the most proactive when it comes to bike maintenance – and it repeatedly comes back to bite me. Like recently, when I got midway round a big loop of the Welsh Valleys before realising that my brake pads were ground down to the metal and the tyre plug I’d repaired my rear Maxxis Minion DHR II with was pulling out and leaking air. Cue a string of mild expletives and a lot of tyre sealant all over my hands, followed by some horrible rasping noises on the remaining downhills.

My mechanical oversights aside, the Jeffsy has stood up well to everything I’ve thrown at it so far. This includes the DT Swiss M 1900 wheels, which, despite being dinged pretty hard on a stray rock in the Wye Valley (not due to rider error in the slightest, of course!), have stayed tight and true, and the spoke key has remained in my toolbox. With new sintered pads in my SRAM G2 Rs and fresh 200mm rotors bolted to my wheels, the braking is now top-notch again. I think I also need to swap the midweight EXO-casing Maxxis tyres for more resilient Double Down versions. The stock rubber does strike a good balance between weight and toughness, but I’m quite into my rocky descents, where – as my sloppy repair job and dinged wheel indicate –

I feel like a bit more support and reinforcement is needed.

I’ve felt little need to change or upgrade much on the bike over the past nine months, although this issue’s saddle grouptest (p96) has seen me sampling a few different perches. It’s only when you start riding different seats back-to-back that you realise how much better some are than others – or rather, how much some suit you personally more than others, I should say. After a lot of chopping and changing, I’ve come full circle, finding the SDG Bel-Air 3.0 that comes supplied on the Jeffsy Core 3 to be the comfiest of the lot. Good choice, YT! www.yt-industries.com