JAMES’S FOCUS JAM 6.9
MONTH 6: More headset headaches as James discovers you can’t just replace the lower bearing
£3,199 / 29in / focus-bikes.com
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Winter has hit South Wales with a vengeance; the trails now a seemingly endless river of mud. Gone are the days you could let the bike sit in its hard-earned filth; blink and your chain will turn to rust, or look away for a second and the result is seized bearings. As such,
I’m an advocate for cleaning the bike before myself when I finish a ride, but sometimes this ‘stitch in time saves nine’ approach just isn’t enough.
So I recently stripped the Jam down to its bare bones, just to make sure everything was working as it should, adding a liberal application of grease to all of the moving parts to prevent any unnecessary wear and tear (especially important in today’s current climate of spares shortages).
I feared the worst, but quickly whipping off the shock and giving the rear end a little pump up and down revealed the linkage bearings to be running silky smooth, with zero graunch. Thankfully Focus’s F.O.L.D linkage design, with its high-mounted shock position, keeps the majority of the bearings out of the firing line and the others have benefitted from the extra slather of grease I gave them when I stripped it down at the start of our relationship. The Shimano threaded Hollowtech bottom bracket was also running smoothly. Even the non-driveside bearing, which is often the one to succumb first, was still spinning smoothly.
But just as I thought I was home and dry, I dropped the fork out to check the headset. As most of you will know by now, Focus has opted for a completely integrated front end which means all cables and hoses run through the dedicated stem and through the middle of the upper headset bearing. It’s a simple enough job to drop the fork out, but getting it all back in perfectly is a different matter. Luckily the top bearing was still running well. The lower was another story – it needs replacing as it refused to spin. Unfortunately, as it’s part of Acros’s ZS56 blocklock headset, you can’t just drop the bearing out and replace that single part, you need to replace the entire lower assembly: bearing, cup and all. Like I said before, I’m all for new tech but this seems wasteful, especially considering other brands such as Trek and Canyon feature steering limiters that don’t inhibit maintenance or add excessively to the cost of replacement parts.
WHY IT’S HERE The new Jam promises to connect you with your inner child
Judge Benji’s taking the The Long Walk to the Cursed Earth to "bring law to the lawless”... just time to pass judgement on some Hunt wheels.
Snapped a spring, fortunately on his car, where that coil of metal does not ride right between your legs. Now testing some armoured underpants.
Brake testing for PB this month, creaking, groaning and squealing down hills all over the South. The brakes have been noisy in the wet too.
The full gamut of winter products reviewed this month waterproof socks and pants and an On One hardtail. Just missing the snorkel.
BENJI HAWORTH
DANNY MILNER
PAUL BURWELL
MICK KIRKMAN