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Is my bike any good?
It depends on what you mean by "good".
There are many definitions of the word "good". Definition 2.3 and 2.4 in the dictionary are a good fit for this situation.
Good
Lexico
2.3 Useful, advantageous, or beneficial in effect.
‘a little sun is good for you’
2.4 Appropriate to a particular purpose.
‘this is a good month for ...
4
You need a 3/8"x26tpi (threads per inch) axle nut. For decades they've all had 15mm wrench flats. (I believe that is something where you can find other examples in very old American, British, and probably other inch country bikes, but that is here nor there.) Bike shops have them.
3/8x24 is usually only for internally geared and coaster brake axles. ...
4
It's the freehub rachet mechanism in the hub that makes a rapid repeated clicking sound when you stop pedaling. The cassette is not involved as it slides on the splined freehub body and has no moving parts. (Older technology freewheels combined the sprockets and rachet mechanism on on unit though.)
Silent or quieter hubs are usually considered an upgrade. ...
4
Yes, QR axles can be replaced at will with solid axles for all standard axle hubs. (Standard axle means a hub that can accept a generic third party axle. Many hubs are not.)
Be mindful that the common toothed type axle nuts are good at tearing up aluminum and carbon frames. Use washers and grease the threads.
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A 9 speed Deore groupset is presumably a 590, 530 or 510 series. Assume you have a 590 series which was made up to 2009 (the Shimano Wikipedia page has a nice table of group series and years), you can pull the Shimano 2009-2010 specifications from this page
Search in the PDF doc for 'RD-M59' and you'll find the RD-M592 model has a max sprocket size of 32 ...
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Instead of rebuilding a new hub to your rim, it will probably be most cost effective to get a new rear wheel with one of the louder freehubs or you could even go for a complete set of wheels so the front & rear wheels have the same spokes & rims.
BUT, Shimano XT hubs are excellent and yes Shimano is noted for making quiet freehubs. I have wheels ...
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As Argenti Apparatus already mentioned, the sound comes from the hub. There are various kinds of springs and ratchets in different hubs. You can use this Youtube playlist with hub sound checks as a guide when selecting your hub. The videos also contain explanation commentary for the features of the sounds.
For example:
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This answer is admittedly not all that different from Nathaniel's and David's, but I'll try to be a bit more specific, and to build off the point Michael made in the comments.
First, bikes are actually quite complex objects. I realize that high-performance bikes can seem very expensive. It may seem absurd to spend $5,000 on a high-end bike. You can ...
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Dunno where I first heard it, but I used to use the phrase, "the best bike is the one you've got," all the time at the shop.
To answer your questions:
Will it hold up?
No - and no bike will if you're riding it. Every bike, regardless of what you spend initially, will require regular maintenance. From my many years as a mechanic I've come to believe that ...
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The main problem that stands out to me is - as strong as Commencal's bikes are - when you slacken the head angle and add more weight to the front end, especially simultaneously, you are putting a ton of stress on your head tube which is likely designed around a specific travel fork. As you could imagine there's already a ton of stress on the head tube as it ...
2
The beauty with friction shift levers is they're compatible with almost every derailleur.
The greatest challenge is to get the rear shifting dialed in with the closely spaced rear cassette cogs on 10, 11 and 12 speed setups. But your Hilltopper was probably sold with 7 or 8 speeds in the back which will work perfectly for friction shifters. If one over or ...
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The bolt center diameter is just the circle around the crank axle axis that the center point of the chainring bolts lie on.
If you have a even number of bolts the diameter is fairly easy to measure. Pick two bolts where a line between them goes through the axle axis. You can make some sort makeshift calipers if the crank arm gets in the way.
If you have an ...
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Yes, but... You will need to use this handy gadget from Wolftooth called a RoadLink. It moves the derailluer a bit further away from the bike to allow clearance for a 42t cog. They sell a similar device called a Goatlink, but that won't work with your derailleur. The RoadLink works with any derailleur using a standard mount and is not Road specific in any ...
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That interpretation is about right, I found some more explanation and a positive review of one here: https://off.road.cc/content/review/pumps-and-co2-inflators/crankbrothers-gem-floor-pump-review-2759. Interesting!
I see a couple of use cases
Two bikes one pump; if you have high volume tyres on one bike and high pressure ones on another, you can just have ...
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Are you riding on Tubeless tyres? If so, the high-volume pump can help to "seat" a tyre to the rim.
Some tubeless-focused track pumps have a reservoir which can be charged with air, and then released in one fast PHSSSSST to "pop" the bead out to the rim and establish a seal.
Note they should not be stored charged, so its not like a portable air tank or ...
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I see a late 2000's MTB of decent quality, or an early 2010s bike of medium quality.
Reasons:
The wheels are 26" and while there's nothing wrong with them, more modern MTBs moved toward larger wheels.
Disk brakes - a low end bike would have still had rim brakes.
Fork stanchions are bare - the lack of covering boots shows the front suspension is ...
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Sometimes this is your friend:
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No, you don't necessarily need to replace your CSU assuming there isn't immediate and noticeable damage to the forks.
This is an old question, but there's a good few views on this, and it might be more helpful to give a more detailed answer. I wouldn't recommend trying to sand the burrs initially (or using a blade), as I've found you can cause the coating ...
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