Upgrades

Just a quickie about some more Stumpy upgrades. As much as I normally love to try and run old parts, they do have a downside. The old Suntour XC rear derailleur was getting pretty tired, the pivots had a lot of play and the springs were losing their juice. The chain and old freewheel were, well, old. The combination was making for some pretty sloppy slow shifting, and it was making the bike less fun to ride. So I pulled the trigger and got a new chain and an IRD 5-speed freewheel, one with ramps and newer style contoured teeth. I also, for the first time ever, bought a new rear derailleur. I went with a 9-speed XT model. I took the bike out this morning and the results were great. The shifts are smooth and fast, and all of the old crazy pulley sounds are gone. So far so good....

There it is. The Xt rear der has no barrel adjuster, and looks like a tennis shoe, but works great. The IRd Defiant 13-32 freewheel is working good so far. It is a little pricey at 50 bucks but no one really makes a better 5 speed freewheel to the best of my knowledge. Cable tip forthcoming.
New tires too. No dirt tests yet, but they are the Kenda Small Block 8 in a 2.1 . They make a 2.3 as well. Side wall graphics are garish and have the kenda website address printed in large letters ( must have missed that on the online pic). Also scored a new brakeset recently and swapped out the old ones that had no built-in way to balence the spring tension; the Tektro Oryxs do.