TL;DR - bought a used MTB, set it up for my son. Took him out on it.
Today’s fettling seems so long ago that it might as well have been last week. But I have given it some critical thought and I can only come up with the outcome that it was, indeed, only this morning. You see reader, a lot has happened since then…
Rewind to a couple of weeks ago. A riding buddy posted up his MTB for sale - recently built, barely ridden, funds needed for another bike. I logged the bike under “hmmm, interesting” but then continued doom-scrolling.
Now it’s Monday just gone. I’m at Swinley Forest bike trails with my 14 yo son, as he increases his interest and capability in MTBing. He’s on an old hardtail of mine - he’s doing OK but sat behind him on my full-sus I can’t help thinking he’d get more out of it on a decent bike.
PING!! Two and two go together and on returning home I enquire if the bike is still available. It is, so we hatch a plan.
Now it’s last night. He has brought the bike in question to our weekly MTB night ride in his van (along with the bike he’s actually planning on riding). After the ride I take a look. It all looks good so money is exchanged and the bike comes home with me (courtesy of the best wife in the world, who drives down to the pub and takes the bike home in her car. I stay at the pub for the traditional post-ride imbibement).
Now we’re up-to date. For, you see, the above prologue means that it can only have been this morning that the fettling took place.
Fettling:
- free off binding front brake (too full of fluid, a small drip is removed and all is well)
- free off binding rear brake (re-centre the caliper)
- dial-in the gears (just needs the B-screw letting out quite a lot)
- set the fork and shock pressures for my son (50 kg wringing wet, so a lot of air needs to come out!).
- tried to tighten the dropper post cable but it is frayed, so I’ll do that another day. Set the seatpost to his height.
And after lunch we’re off to Swinley Forest again, this time he’s on a full-sus and enjoying it all the more (despite the wet, muddy, slippery conditions).
I type this from a hot bath, soothing my body as it recovers from the unaccustomed activity (it’s not the miles or the climbing, but the standing and jumping and carving and other rarely-used techniques).
Both bikes have been cleaned off and await a good lubing once dry.
